Eric Sloof

This video <- HD version - will show you how to create a stateless VMware vSphere Hypervisor formally known as ESXi and how to boot it trough PXE-iSCSI. Yesterday evening I finally succeeded in booting an ESXi 4.1 host with PXE and iSCSI. After firing the tweet, I’ve received a lot of responses asking me how I did it. In the video I’ll show you how to build your own staging server and the deployment of an ESXi 4.1 host. I’m not really a Linux guy so I had to create a Windows distribution server. In my search I’ve discovered a great little piece of software called CCBoot. This windows application enables a diskless boot of an OS with PXE and iSCSI. Diskless boot makes it possible for ESXi server to be operated without a local disk. The 'diskless' server is connected to a VMDK file over the network and boots up the hypervisor from the remotely located VMDK file which was created in VMware WorkStation. CCBoot is the convergence of the rapidly emerging iSCSI protocol with gPXE diskless boot technology. Remote boot over iSCSI, or CCBoot, pushes the iSCSI technology even further, opening the door to the exciting possibility of the diskless computer.

Here are the steps to set it up

The first thing to do is create a VMDK file with ESXi 4,1 in it, I’ve used VMware Workstation 7.1.
When ESXi 4.1 is installed we’re going to set-up the distribution server, go to http://ccboot.com and download CCBoot v1.9 Build 20100128 (5 users free version). When you’ve installed it, create an entry for you ESXi 4.1 host and you’re ready to run.

VMware Auto Deploy supports automatic PXE boot and customization of large numbers of ESXi systems. Auto Deploy allows rapid deployment and configuration of a large number of ESXi hosts. After a DHCP server has been set up, Auto Deploy PXE boots machines that are turned on with an ESXi image. Auto Deploy then customizes the ESXi systems using host profiles and other information stored on the managing vCenter Server system. You can set up the environment to use different images and different host profiles for different hosts.

System Requirements

• ESX/ESXi system to install the virtual appliance on. This system must be able to connect to the vCenter Server system on which you want to create and store the host profiles.
• Static IP address to assign to the VMware Auto Deploy appliance during startup.
• vCenter Server system to manage the auto‐deployed ESX/ESXi systems and to store the host profiles.
• MAC address or asset tag of each ESXi system you want to PXE boot.
• DNS Server that maps IP addresses to host names. (Optional)

Quickstart instructions

1. Deploy the OVA file on an ESX/ESXi server. The autodeploy VM should have a NIC connected to the management network.
2. Boot the new VM.
3. Go to the VM's console and answer any questions.
4. If the management network has no DHCP server, login as vi-admin and run 'sudo deploy-cmd dhcpconfig'. Otherwise, consult the manual for setting up the DHCP server.
5. Network boot the machine to be used as an ESXi server. It should contact autodeploy and start booting ESXi.

Version: 1.0 | File size: 1.18GB | Date uploaded: 08/12/2010

The VCAP-DCD is directed toward IT Architects and Consulting Architects who are capable of designing VMware solutions in a multi-site, large enterprise environment.  They have a deep understanding both of VMware core components and their relation to storage and networking, and also of datacenter design methodologies. They also possess knowledge of applications and physical infrastructure, as well as their relationship to the virtual infrastructure.

VCAP-DCD Exam Blueprint

This blueprint is intended to provide information about the objectives covered by this exam, related resources, and recommended courses.  The material contained within this blueprint is not intended to guarantee that a passing score will be achieved on the exam.  VMware recommends that a candidate thoroughly understands the objectives indicated in this guide and utilizes the resources and courses recommended in this guide where needed to gain that understanding.

AnywhereUSB products are network-attached USB hubs that connect USB peripheral devices to a PC over a Local Area Network. The AnywhereUSB TS model also adds four RS-232 serial ports, enabling the mixing of USB and serial ports over the same network connection. Relocating the host PC to a remote location translates to smaller workstations, enabling deployment without a local PC in kiosks, ATMs, restaurant kitchens, manufacturing lines or any hostile or non-secure area where having a local PC is not practical.

New 19'' Rack model

VMware ESX Server Using AnywhereUSB to Connect USB Devices

In this white paper, VMware shows some of the great new performance features for vCenter Server that come with vSphere 4.1, hardware sizing guidelines and software requirements, performance best practices with performance tuning, monitoring, and troubleshooting tips, performance monitoring tools, and case studies to demonstrate the performance improvements made in vSphere 4.1. Some highlights of the performance best practices for vCenter Server 4.1 include:

• Make sure you size your system properly according to the inventory size.
• The number of network hops between vCenter Server and the ESX host affects operational latency. The ESX host should reside as few network hops away from the vCenter Server as possible.
• Effective resource planning and monitoring is necessary when using HA, FT, DRS, and DPM.
• Monitor Web Services and make sure the max heap size for Java virtual machine is set correctly according to Inventory size.
• For the vCenter Server database, separate database files for data and for logs onto drives backed by different physical disks, and make sure statistics collection times are set conservatively so that they will not overload the system.
• Be aware that the number of clients connected to vCenter Server affects its performance.
• Use performance monitoring tools to ensure the health of your system and to troubleshoot problems that arise. Performance charts give you a graphical view of statistics for your system.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vsp_41_perf_VC_Best_Practices.pdf

VMware vCenter Update Manager Performance and Best Practices

VMware vCenter Update Manager delivers the most full‐featured and robust patch management product for vSphere 4.1. This white paper displays test data and recommends various performance tips to help your Update Manager deployments run as efficiently as possible.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vsp_41_perf_UpdateManager_Best-Practices.pdf

vSphere 4.1 introduces a load-based teaming (LBT) policy that ensures vDS dvUplink capacity is optimized. LBT avoids the situation of other teaming policies in which some of the dvUplinks in a DV Port Group’s team were idle while others were completely saturated just because the teaming policy used is statically determined. LBT reshuffles port binding dynamically based on load and dvUplinks usage to make an efficient use of the bandwidth available. LBT only moves ports to dvUplinks configured for the corresponding DV Port Group’s team. Note that LBT does not use shares or limits to make its judgment while rebinding ports from one dvUplink to another. LBT is not the default teaming policy in a DV Port Group so it is up to the user to configure it as the active policy.
LBT will only move a flow when the mean send or receive utilization on an uplink exceeds 75 percent of capacity over a 30-second period. LBT will not move flows more often than every 30 seconds. This video will show Load-Based Teaming (LBT) in action.

This new book written by Charles A. Windom and Hemant Gaidhani just got published last week and it's available at Amazon. Hemant Gaidhani says: Looks good and worth all the efforts. Click 'Look Inside' @ Amazon to get sneak preview.

Working with VMware vSphere 4, this book shows you how to virtualize Microsoft applications that require high CPU and high I/O and/or are critical applications for business operations—“Tier 1”applications. With authors who are not only insiders at VMware but who also have developed best practices for multi-tier applications for VMware environments, this book will guide you step-by-step in virtualizing the latest versions of Exchange Server, SQL Server, SharePoint Server, Active Directory, Windows Server, Internet Information Server, and Remote Desktop Services. The authors cover critical topics: reasons why to virtualize the application, considerations to be made when virtualizing the application, setting up a Proof-of-Concept of the application, storage, high availability, and monitoring. Material is organized such that readers can choose which chapters to read, depending on which applications they are considering to virtualize.

In this video I’ll show you how you use the VI Client user interface to deploy the CapacityIQ appliance. VMware distributes the appliance as a .zip file that includes an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) file. After the import the CapacityIQ OVF file, I’ll also show you how to configure the virtual appliance.

This is a maintenance release that adds support for vSphere 4.1. Only customers using vSphere 4.1 are encouraged to upgrade to this release; there are no additional enhancements in this version.

This release does not support virtual machine-based licensing for CapacityIQ. CapacityIQ will provide this type of licensing support in an upcoming release.

CapacityIQ 1.0.4 supports 200 hosts, 2000 powered on virtual machines, and a total of 3000 virtual machines. These scalability limits exist even though the limits of vCenter Server 4.1 are 1000 hosts, 10000 powered on virtual machines, and 15000 registered virtual machines.

In this (HD) video I’ll show you a new vSphere 4.1 feature regarding configuring USB Device Pass-through from an ESX/ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine. You can configure a virtual machine to use USB devices that are connected to an ESX/ESXi host where the virtual machine is running. The connection is maintained even if you migrate the virtual machine using vMotion.

When you attach a USB device to a physical host, the device is available only to virtual machines that run on that host. The device cannot connect to virtual machines that run on another host in the datacenter. A USB device is available to only one virtual machine at a time. When a device is connected to a powered-on virtual machine, it is not available to connect to other virtual machines that run on the host. When you remove the active connection of a USB device from a virtual machine, it becomes available to connect to other virtual machines that run on the host. host.

When you migrate a virtual machine with attached USB devices away from the host to which the devices are connected, the devices remain connected to the virtual machine. However, if you suspend or power off the virtual machine, the USB devices are disconnected and cannot reconnect when the virtual machineis resumed. The device connections can be restored only if you move the virtual machine back to the host to which the devices are attached.

The ESXGuide Website is now owned by the newly founded Company VMVision GmbH. Manfred Meier over at VMVision reports:

After a long time taking a deep dive into development of my new Virtual Infrastructure Management solution, I finally have a Beta Version ready which I will distribute to a limited number of users. The Beta Version has been tested and used in a production environment for some month. Please be aware, the registration for the Beta download will only be available for a limited period!  Registration is requiered to access the download section.

If you like to give it a try you can download it from http://www.vmvision.com

• VMVision Manager Integrates multiple vCenter Server and ESX Hosts
There's support for the integration of multiple vCenter Servers and ESX Hosts. This allows a fast integration of an existing VMware Infrastructure environment.
• Recieving Tasks and Events
VMVision Manager receives all tasks end events from all integrated vCenters and ESX Hosts. With this solution, you can keep track of all modifications and system states.

With the Single-Sign-On solution you get fast access to all entities (vCenter, ESX Hosts, Virtual Machines) is simplified. Access with the SSH protocol and Terminals allows an easy management of the ESX Hosts.