Adding VMware ESX hosts in Virtual Machine Manager (Part 1)
Posted by mrjohn on Nov 15, 2008
As we have previously described, SCVMM integrates a centralized administration system of various virtualizors, including VMware ESX.
In this post, we’ll see just how to manage VMware ESX from SCVMM.
To do this, we need to have VMware Virtual Center in addition to VMware ESX.
The first step is to add Virtual Center to SCVMM.
To do this, we will use the Add VMware VirtualCenter Server option.
Once this step is complete, we will see the Virtual Center datacenter in our SCVMM as if it were a Host Group.
In this case, it is called Lab and it appears as Lab Datacenter.
Now we will add VMware ESX.
New update for VMware ESX Server
Posted by mrjohn on Nov 14, 2008
The developers of VMware have released a new update for the ESX Server that eliminates three vulnerabilities from the past versions.
Among the vulnerabilities corrected is an error in the SNMPv3 application, an error that we have known about since the middle of the year. It blocks the authentication function, allowing attackers to access the server.
The update also eliminates a vulnerability related to buffer overflow in the libtiff graphics library, which allows attackers to insert arbitrary code and run it through TIFF files.
The update also removes a bug in the libxml2 library that kills the application.
You can find more detailed information about the changes to the new version on the official VMware website. You can also find links to updates for the different versions.
VMware ESX 3.5 Update 3 - Now available
Posted by mrjohn on Nov 12, 2008
The ISO of ESX 3.5 Update 3 is already available to download. I am sure that with this version, VMware made sure not to make the same mistakes again.
Among the new features are:
An increased limit from 8 to 20 vCPUs per core. While it may be of interest for some VDI environments with very low consumption, I think it’s very risky to have that many virtual machines per server.
VMDK Recovery Tool: Allows us to recover vmdks or VMFS volumes that were accidentally deleted;
Support for IBM SVC in both MRU and FIXED modes;
Support for new hardware, and
Support for Solaris 10U5, Ubuntu 8.04.1 and RHEL 4.7.
Release Notes:
http://www.vmware.com/support/vi3/doc/vi3_esx35u3_rel_notes.html
VMware ESX: Alarm configuration for VMware VI3 (ESX)
Posted by VMbloggie on Nov 11, 2008
A feature that VMware VI3 offers and that is definitely worth the ten minutes it takes to configure are the alarms. VMware VI3 gives us the opportunity to receive alarms (via a script) or be notified (by mail, SNMP) for changes in certain parameters of our VM.
The alarms indicate the status of objects, which can be: folders, datacenters, clusters, resource pools, and hosts and VMs. In fact, on the left side of the VMware Virtual Center, you can see these objects and their hierarchy.
VMware ESX 4.0 FT - Fault Tolerant - Sneak Peek
Posted by VMbloggie on Nov 7, 2008
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VMware innovations in operation continuity will be glowing in VMware ESX 4.0. In addition to the current high availability of VMware ESX Server, the software will inherit a function of fault tolerance. Today, VMware High Availability (HA) provides rapid restart of virtual machines in their last known state on a different ESX server, in case the physical server hosting them face a failure.
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With VMware FT (Fault Tolerance), the system provides synchronous replication of protected VMs on two different servers. The application continues to function without interruption on the secondary server if the primary server comes to fail. For additional security measure, this cloned VM is automatically replicated to a third server, as the first server is not repaired, to maintain the availability of the VM if the second server also came to the same
VMware News: Features of the new VMware ESX 4.0
Posted by mrjohn on Nov 4, 2008
VMware is already testing the beta version of the new ESX 4.0. Among the features offered are:
- 64-bit Kernel and COS: Although Virtual Machine Monitor already does, VMware carries its products completely in 64 bits;
- Virtual Center clusters: We are not referring to MSCS support for Virtual Center, but about the distributed management of the virtualized infrastructure across multiple ESXs;
- Profile management of ESX servers;
- Cross-platform virtual networking: Virtual switches may be defined in the entire infrastructure rather than in each switch, as was the case until now. Networking settings can be applied to the ENTIRE virtual infrastructure.
- SMP support for as much as 8 vCPU;
- VM fault tolerance for multiple hosts—last year’s famous Continuous Availability solution; Check out more details of FT & A video of it at VMbloggie article at:
VMware ESX 4.0 FT - Fault Tolerant - Sneak Peek
Hyper-V Virtual networks: A look at High Level
Posted by virtualized1970 on Oct 3, 2008
One of the worst documented area in Virtualization, most confusing, and most troubling to Virtualization newbies is networking in a Virtualized environment. Although network settings in a virtualized environment is quite simple it requires a good understanding of few concepts and terms discussed into this post.
While virtualization architectures and how the virtualization stack makes use of the network resources of the host & host teaming are different in Virtual Server and Hyper-V, the concepts are similar for Virtual Networks.
Hyper-V Live Migration vs. Quick Migration
Posted by virtualized1970 on Sep 29, 2008
As we find out more about Windows Server Virtualization, it is only natural to start having doubts about its features. One of the most famous is Live/Quick Migration.
I would therefore like to spend some time clarifying everything I can about this subject.
First of all, Quick and Live Migration are not the same thing. They are not synonymous or interchangeable terms. Quick Migration is completely different from Live Migration.
The WSV RTM will have Quick Migration available right away while Live Migration (which is the equivalent of VMware VMotion) will be ready in an update a few months after WSV RTM.
Hyper-V: Questions and Answers
Posted by mrjohn on Sep 28, 2008
Drivers and Synthetic Hardware
What is Synthetic Hardware?
How can I tell if the hardware in my virtual machine is emulated or synthetic?
An easy way is to look at the hardware administration console: emulated hardware appears with the name of the hardware manufacturer, while synthetic hardware appears with names like “Microsoft VMBus”.
Virtual networks
How do I set up virtual networks?
Backing up your virtual machine
Posted by mrjohn on Sep 26, 2008
When you’re making a recovery plan and back-up of your virtual environment, you should take into consideration the various factors that may interfere with your back-up such as: the state of the virtual machine at the time you made the back-up (system state, shut down, running) and the type of storage you use for these back-ups.
The integration of the support service with the Volume Shadow Copy service of Hyper-V allows you to make a back-up of both the virtual machine as well as the Hyper-V configuration. There are two basic methods you can use for this type of back-up:
1. Make a back-up copy from inside of the operating system of a virtual machine. This method is useful when you need to save data from a storage device that is not supported by Hyper-V VSS.
Videos on the new version of Hyper V and Hyper V Server
Posted by mrjohn on Sep 25, 2008
It seems as though virtualization never ceases to be in the news. Today, I have some videos on the new version of Windows 2008 Hyper V, which will be available with the launch of Windows Server 2008 R2, whose latest feature (and criticism) is changing cluster nodes without losing power. Also called “Live Migration”, this is a significant improvement of “Quick Migration”, which directed the virtual machine to the live node but restarted it. It’s quite interesting to see how an end user sees no interruption in service during the movement of virtual machines between nodes when using Live Migration which is going to be the replacement for quick migration. Check out the Video below to see Live migration in action & check out Hyper-V Live migration vs Quick migration post to find out more about the difference between them .
VirtualCenter for VM ware Server Real Value
Posted by virtualizedfuture on Sep 23, 2008
I have been reading all over the place about virtualization products. A lot of posts discuss VM ware VI3 & many others discuss Xen or HyperV, but I don’t see many talk about virtualcenter. As I have been using VM ware VI3 & vm ware Virtual server for a while now I can tell you virtualcenter is the most distinguished part of their offering. What struck me the most that vm ware started offering VirtualCenter for their free vm ware virtual server which seems a lot of people are ignoring and not even aware of. In this article I will talk about how useful is it to obtain virtualcenter for VMware server.
VMware makes a big mistake
Posted by mrjohn on Sep 19, 2008
It often happens that the top of the class makes a big mistake. Invariably, the ones at the bottom of the class giggle and make fun of the misfortunes of others. The problem with the recent blunder by VMware is that no one is laughing. The world’s virtualization leader, whose hypervisor represents nearly 95% of the market, has effectively “forgotten” to take out a part of the code from VMware ESX Server 3.5 Update 2, which disables the product that was passed August 12. This time bomb, apparently inserted during the beta phase of the product, was not removed. As a result, thousands of servers that upgraded to the latest version of the software began to malfunction at midnight. The main problem: an inability to start new VMs on the affected servers. In the physical world, this equates to a huge amount of servers persistently refusing to start. Nothing really serious, just a catastrophic problem on the level of a datacenter… The only consolation is that VMs that have already been started will continue to operate normally until they are restarted.
VMware Virtual Machine 6.0 Full
Posted by mrjohn on Sep 14, 2008
VMware Server has been free for a while. Go to the VMware website, download it, and install it on your Ubuntu.
Follow these instructions to install it on your x86 PC.
1. Download the VMware Server from here.
2. Download the latest patch from here.
3. Update everything to ensure that the installation goes smoothly:
a) sudo apt-get update
b) sudo apt-get upgrade
c) sudo apt-get install libx11-6 libx11-dev libxtst6 xlibs-dev xinetd wget
d) apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential
e) sudo apt-get install gcc binutils-doc cpp-doc make manpages-dev autoconf automake1.9 libtool flex bison gdb gcc-doc
4. Now decompress the VMware and patch files:
a) tar xvzf VMware-server-1.0.3-44356.tar.gz
b) tar xvzf vmware-any-any-update113.tar.gz
How to solve installation problems of VMware Server on Ubuntu
Posted by mrjohn on Sep 12, 2008
The other day, Andres asked Josep Ros a question about Ubuntu and VMware. Since Josep Ros know absolutely nothing about Ubuntu, they asked Albert Mas for help. As the wise man says, knowing everything is not as important as knowing the phone number of someone who does.
“Hello Josep,
I am having trouble with VMware and Ubuntu and am not able to solve the problem myself. I was able to fix some errors but have come across one that I have no idea how to fix. Can you help me? Thanks in advance.
-Andres Lamelas”
This is what Albert Mas suggested, and it worked: