Eric Sloof

I’m prepping my Virtualization EcoShell presentation which I’ll deliver at the Belgium VMware Usergroup Meeting and discovered a great new feature. It’s adding your own actions as new items. Just click “Add new item” in the actions menu on the right side of the Virtualization EcoShell. This enables you to specify a script performing the Action. When you click an Action, objects currently selected in the grid are piped into the script. I created a little Jing demo showing how to add Carter’s CPU-Ready script. Continue reading "Adding actions to the Virtualization EcoShell" »

On Monday, June 8th Xtravirt will launch a global capacity planning service. This service will combine the knowledge/expertise from Xtravirt and the technology from Lanamark to make it easier for enterprises world-wide to get started with desktop and server virtualization.

“Capacity planning is an essential component for any organisation wishing to adopt virtualisation; whether it be desktop replacement or a server consolidation exercise,” states Paul Davey, CTO of Xtravirt. “We have kept the whole process as simple as possible,” continues Paul. “Collected data, consisting of performance metrics, are securely uploaded to the Xtravirt VReady Portal, where they are analyzed to produce a summary VReady Assessment Report. This can be subsequently extended and we can quickly produce a comprehensive analysis, including full what-if scenarios, solution optimization and licensing calculations. If a client wishes to use a particular brand of server, or server SKU, they can let us know and we can feed it into the design.”

Trilead VM Explorer is a management tool that eases management, backup and disaster recovery tasks in your VMware ESX Server environment. You get maximum flexibility: backups can be stored to ESX, Windows, Linux and FreeBSD based storage platforms or directly to a SAN. Their newest edition even has support for the ESX 3i & ESX 4i server. Continue reading "The newest edition of Trilead VM Explorer even..." »

Kodiak version 0.0.4 release notes:

This version contains the following bug fixes:

SSL/TLS issues when connecting to VirtualCenter servers and using the SSL bypass.
This issue was composed of 3 separate cases: * Servers with self-signed certificates caused Kodiak to terminate the connection. Fixed. * Servers with an CommonName mismatch caused Kodiak to terminate the connection. Fixed. * Servers that would demand a client certficiate would terminate the connection when the TLS/SSL handshake was incomplete (i.e. lacking a certificate).

These 3 issues have been fixed, and their respective overrides may be accessed by using the SSL preferences panel.

Kodiak exits on hitting the "Q" key on linux when attempting to login. The "Cmd+q/Alt+Q" rapid menu handler has been temporarily removed while we troubleshoot this. When connected to more than one server, Kodiak's maps overlap and become cluttered/difficult to manage. This has been fixed...Maps will now automatically move themselves to make space for new connections.

Just tested, anyone else gets an Error #2032?

At July 6th (week 28) I will deliver one of the first VMware vSphere Install, Configure and Manage courses. There are still some seats left, so I’ll be very glad if you can join me at this hands-on training course which explores installation, configuration, and management of VMware vSphere. Upon completion of this course, you can take the examination to become a VCP4. The course is based on ESXi 4.0, ESX 4.0, and vCenter Server 4.0.

You can use this link to register, please refer to action code “esloof” and you’ll get a discount of €100,00.

http://www.globalknowledge.nl/Default.aspx?page=461&coursecode=VSICM

This morning I replayed the June 2009 PowerCLI Webinar. Carters Shanklin’s WebEx session is awesome, he demoed a well written series of PowerShell scripts. With one of his scripts you’re able to collect the %RDY time statistics for all your Virtual Machines. The most common cause of high ready time is trying to get too much work out of too little hardware. Often this condition is observable when ready time is high and total host CPU utilization is also very high. The only fix for this is to back off the load on the system. VMs should be migrated off or processor resources should be increased. I combined Carter’s script with a new feature in PowerShell 2.0, the Out-GridView which displays the ready time  information in a real cool Data Grid.

Get-VM

| Select Name, @{ N="Summation"; E={($_ | Get-Stat -stat cpu.ready.summation -maxsamples 1 -intervalmins 5 | select -first 1).Value} } | Sort -property Summation -Descending | Out-GridView

Building your own VMware ESXi Server in under an hour with parts you may have lying under your bed. Extreme sports cameras and mounts and mounts can be expensive. Why not build your own for about 5 bucks. And light video editing that's both easy and free? Avidemux may be the answer.

The call for papers submissions are currently being reviewed. Some people are reporting (on Twitter), that their session is approved. Everyone else will be notified via email of the status of their submission by June 3, 2009.

TA2650 "Take PowerShell and the VI Toolkit to the Next Level"  @LucD22 and @halr9000
TA2259 "Ask the Experts - Virtualization Design"  @rick_vmwaretips, @depping and @scott_lowe
TA2262 "vSphere Enterprise Stability - It’s all in the Design"  @rick_vmwaretips
VM3040 "High performance VI Operations Checklist"  @stevie_chambers
VM3041 "Integrating Virtualization with Capacity Management"  @stevie_chambers
VM2648 "Managing Compliance in Virtual Environments" @daveshackleford
VM3743 "Automating Continuous Software Integration Testing for SaaS on VMware" @mcowger

And of course @shandor and @cshanklin are one of the lucky ones. I think Carter's session will have to do something with the vSpehere PowerCLI. I didn’t hear anything about my submission thought. I will keep a close watch on my inbox.

Continue reading "VMworld 2009 Call for Papers" »

Sample code for VMware vSphere SDKs and APIs. Find and download the latest VMware Community sample code. You can find sample code by languages including Java, Perl & C#. Sample code is also available by product including VMware vSphere, VMware Virtual Center and VMware ESX.

Sample code submitted by the Community for the Community:

lucd: Guest Provisioning System in vSphere PowerCLI

alanrenouf: Report into MS Word in vSphere PowerCLI

esloof: Dynamic Resource Pool Calculator in vSphere PowerCLI

tzamora: VMware Infrastructure Power Documeter in vSphere PowerCLI

stumpr: FindDatacenterByHostname in vSphere SDK for Perl

With the launch of vSphere™ 4, a new certification will be available. The VMware Certified Professional on vSphere™ 4 beta exam will be available June 29th, 2009. Candidates eligible for the beta exam will automatically be contacted by VMware. These candidates must be VCP3 certified and beta product users. The VCP on vSphere 4 (VCP4) exam will be available publicly on August 1st, 2009.

The blueprint of this new exam is available here: VCP4 Exam Blueprint