Eric Sloof

I’ve captured some video shots at the Las Vegas VMworld 2011 registration desk en some highlights of the vExpert meeting.

VMware has filed an intresting IETF internet draft.This document describes Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network (VXLAN), which is used to address the need for overlay networks within virtualized data centers accommodating multiple tenants. The scheme and the related protocols can be used in cloud service provider and enterprise data center networks.

VXLAN: A Framework for Overlaying Virtualized Layer 2 Networks over Layer 3 Networks.

http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-mahalingam-dutt-dcops-vxlan-00

 

I’m very excited about this year’s VMworld conference to be held in Las Vegas at the 29th of August 2011. Not only because it’s the first time I’m attending as a speaker but also because I’ll try to capture all the excitement in and around the Las Vegas Venetian hotel with my new HD Video Camera.  I’ve created a short teaser trailer. The cool thing about this trailer is that the voice over is done by Jeroen van Inkel. He’s a famous Dutch DJ who created this jingle for me when I was the host at my own weekly radio show called the Twilightzone years ago. Hope you enjoy it and see ya in Las Vegas.

After days of waiting it’s finally here. The GA version of vSphere 5.0. It’s available for download at this link “Download VMware Sphere 5 ESXi”. Here’s the direct download link to vCenter 5. Visit the vSphere 5.0 Documentation Center to learn more about the product.

ESXi and vCenter Server 5.0 Documentation
vSphere 5 Command Line Documentation
vSphere Update Manager 5.0 Documentation
vCenter Orchestrator 4.2 Documentation
VMware Data Recovery 2.0 Documentation
vSphere API/SDK Documentation
vSphere 5 Additional Resources
PDF and E-book Product Documentation

I’m about to kick of the first VMware vSphere 5 What’s New training for a full class.  If you’re interested in attending this training there are more slots available here. I can assure you it’s two days of awesomeness. This hands-on training course explores new features in VMware vCenter Server 5.0 and VMware ESXi 5.0. Topics include VMware vSphere 5 installation and how to upgrade from vSphere 4.x to vSphere 5.0. vSphere 5.0 is the first version of vSphere to include only the ESXi hypervisor.

After this course, you should be able to do the following:

 - List and describe key enhancements in vSphere 5.0.
 - Upgrade a VMware deployment from vSphere 4.1 to vSphere 5.0.
 - Use the vSphere Web Client to manage a version 8 virtual machine.
 - Upgrade and manage a VMware vSphere VMFS-5 datastore.
 - Understand and configure profile-driven storage.
 - Create a datastore cluster and configure Storage DRS.
 - Monitor VMware vSphere High Availability.
 - Use the Linux-based VMware vCenter Server™ Appliance.
 - Use Image Builder to modify and export an image profile.
 - Use VMware vSphere Auto Deploy to install a stateless ESXi host.
 - List and describe key networking enhancements, including the VMware ESXi firewall and new features in distributed virtual switches.

If you don’t have that much experience there’s also a 5 days vSphere 5.0 Install Configure and Manage training course available. I’ve also recorded a lot of video tutorials while vSphere 5 was still in beta. Here’s a list with all my vSphere 5 articles and videos. Have fun with it!

vSphere 5 Video - Direct Console User Interface Access through SSH
Video - vSphere 5 User Defined Network Resource Pools
Video - Enabling NetFlow on vSphere 5 Distributed Switches
Video - How to setup a vSphere 5 Port Mirror
Video - vSphere Storage Appliance - How does it work?
Video - What's New in VMware vCloud Director 1.5
Video - What's New in vSphere 5 and vCenter Heartbeat 6.4
Video - What's New in VMware vShield 5.0 - Trust Your Cloud
vSphere 5 Video - ESXi Firewall Configuration
vSphere 5 Video - iSCSI User Interface support
vSphere 5 Video – The vSphere Web Client
What's New in VMware vSphere 5 - Technical Whitepapers
vSphere 5 Video - Storage DRS
What's New in VMware vCloud Director 1.5
vSphere 5 – New Training Courses: What's New [V5.0] and VCP5
vSphere 5 video - Migrating from ESX 4.1 to ESXi 5.0
What's New in VMware vShield 5
vSphere 5 Video - EFI the Extensible Firmware Interface
vSphere 5 What's New - Profile Driven Storage
vSphere 5 What's New - High Availability (HA)
vSphere 5 What's New - Image Builder and Auto Deploy
vSphere 5 What's New - Storage Appliance (VSA)
vSphere 5 What's New - Storage DRS
New Book - VMware vSphere 5.0 Clustering Technical Deepdive (video)
What's New in VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5

This video will show you an new vSphere 5 feature which enables you to get access to the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) through SSH instead of the ESXi physical console. Only users that are assigned the Administrator role can log in to the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI). To allow access to the direct console, add the user to the local administrators group. Enabling or disabling lockdown mode affects which types of users are authorized to access host services, but it does not affect the availability of those services. In other words, if the ESXi Shell, SSH, or Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) services are enabled, they will continue to run whether or not the host is in lockdown mode.

Configure Lockdown Mode

To increase the security of your ESXi hosts, you can put them in lockdown mode. When you enable lockdown mode, no users other than vpxuser have authentication permissions, nor can they perform operations against the host directly. Lockdown mode forces all operations to be performed through vCenter Server.

When a host is in lockdown mode, you cannot run vSphere CLI commands from an administration server,vfrom a script, or from vMA against the host. External software or management tools might not be able to retrieve or modify information from the ESXi host.



The root user is still authorized to log in to the direct console user interface when lockdown mode is enabled. Enabling or disabling lockdown mode affects which types of users are authorized to access host services, but it does not affect the availability of those services. In other words, if the ESXi Shell, SSH, or Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) services are enabled, they will continue to run whether or not the host is in lockdown mode.

VMware has released the mock exam for VCP on vSphere 5. The VCP5 mock exam consist of 30 questions and is available here. The official VCP5 exam can be scheduled at the end of this month. Check your local VUE test centre for available dates.

The official VMworld 2011 mobile app is a show program, breakout session schedule builder and Solutions Exchange guide for attendees of the VMworld conference. With the Mobile App, you can:

-View sessions by day and track
-Schedule Breakout Sessions
-View Hands-on Labs
-Browse exhibitor listings by name
-Find your way around the expo
-Create a personal agenda containing the Breakout Sessions you pre-registered for
-Follow the event’s Twitter stream

Carry the entire VMworld event in the palm of your hand, with the freshest information possible!

iTunes VMworld 2011 mobile app 
VMworld 2011 Andriod app

There is going to be something new and exciting at this year’s VMworld 2011 in Las Vegas. If you want to join the game of the century and watch 3 teams battle for virtualization superiority then sign up for “The VMware ESXi Quiz Show”. Hurry to the schedule builder and sign-up for session VSP1956 Monday from 13:00 to 14:00 before it’s full.

Duncan Epping over at Yellow-Bricks just announced the teams, in the first round The Ranging vBulls will battle the vPredators. The surviving team will take it up against the vRaminators. This is the ultimate final round between the vExperts and the VMware employees. The show is hosted by the one and only John Troyer. Duncan Epping and Eric Sloof will be the judges.

vSphere High Availability greatly simplifes virtual machine provisioning, resource allocation, load balancing and  migration while also providing an easy-to-use, cost-efective high-availability and failover solution for applications running in virtual machines. Using VMware vSphere 5.0 and VMware HA helps eliminate single points of failure in the deployment of business-critical applications in virtual machines. It also enables you to maintain other inherent virtualization benefts such as higher system utilization; closer alignment of IT resources with business goals and priorities; and more streamlined, simplifed and automated administration of larger infrastructure installations and systems.

Download VSphere HA 5 Best Practices Guide

Ernst Cozijnsen over at Capgemini has found a way to install ESXi 4.1 unattended to SD-CARD / USB. Here are his findings: For a few weeks it was bugging me heavily that the ESXi 4.1 installer didn’t want to install to the internal SD-Card of our newly bought systems. Together with Max Daneri (creator of the PXE Manager) http://labs.vmware.com/flings/pxe-manager we searched for a possible cause because the debug installer was telling us “well I can’t install because somebody said I’m not allowed”.

With this in the back of my mind the urge to solve it grew by the minute and it almost became an obsession to find a working solution. A few days ago we cracked it! And it works like a charm.

In a nutshell:

- USB targets are not supported by default (we fixed this by disabling the check for it)
- The minimal target size should be 5.1GB (we scaled it down to 3.7GB so SD-Cards are supported)
- The SCRATH partition of 4GB (also scaled that one down to 2 GB)
- VMFS grow partition (VMFS of USB?? Neah….. isn’t going to fly so we removed it completely)

Replace you ienviron.vgz with this file (http://www.screencast.com/t/pusv1KGq3) and happy installing. If your to curious and want to know the exact modification: Unpack the file and search/grep on “ernst” in /usr/lib/vmware/weasel/* and /usr/lib/vmware/weasel/scripted/

If  you are using the “PXE manager”, modify the “kickstart” part so that you don’t use Local or Remote but instead use device driver.  As device driver you enter usb-storage. Oh…. just one more thing:  VMware support urged me to say that this hack is not supported by VMware! So this is a non-supported but very welcome hack. :-)