Eric Sloof

VMware vCloud Director 1.5 (vCloud Director) gives enterprise organizations the ability to build secure private clouds that dramatically increase datacenter efficiency and business agility. Coupled with VMware vSphere (vSphere), vCloud Director delivers cloud computing for existing datacenters by pooling vSphere virtual resources and delivering them to users as catalog-based services. vCloud Director helps build agile infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud environments that greatly accelerate the time to market for applications and increase the responsiveness of IT organizations.

Resiliency is a key aspect of any infrastructure—it is even more important in infrastructure-as-a-service solutions. This case study was developed to provide additional insight and information as to how to increase availability and recoverability of a vCloud Director–based infrastructure using VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) as well as common disaster recovery methodologies and tools. SRM facilitates fast and reliable recovery and enables you to meet your recovery time objectives (RTOs) by automating the failover process of your vCloud Director management environment.

Technical Paper - VMware vCloud Director Infrastructure Resiliency Case Study

The virtual machines in a vApp can connect to vApp networks (isolated or routed) and organization networks (direct or fenced). You can add networks of different types to a vApp to address multiple networking scenarios. Select the Networking tab in a vApp and select the Show networking details check box to view a list of the networks that are available to the vApp. Virtual machines in the vApp can connect to these networks. If you want to connect a virtual machine to a different network, you must first add it to the vApp.

A vApp can include vApp networks and organization networks. A vApp network can be isolated by selecting None in the Connection drop-down menu. An isolated vApp network is totally contained within the vApp. You can also route a vApp network to an organization network to provide connectivity to virtual machines outside of the vApp. For routed vApp networks, you can configure network services, such as a firewall and static routing.

There's also a possibility to connect a vApp directly to an organization network. If you have multiple vApps that contain identical virtual machines connected to the same organization network and you want to start the vApps at the same time, you can fence the vApp. This allows you to power on the virtual machines without conflict, by isolating their MAC and IP addresses.

It's also possible configure certain vApp networks to provide firewall services. Enable the firewall on a vApp network to enforce firewall rules on incoming traffic, outgoing traffic, or both. When you enable the firewall, you can specify a default firewall action to deny all incoming and outgoing traffic or to allow all incoming and outgoing traffic. You can also add specific firewall rules to allow or deny traffic that matches the rules to pass through the firewall. These rules take precedence over the default firewall action.

Eric Siebert over at vsphere-land has managed to calculate all the votes and has put together the Top Blog 2012 results. NTPRO.NL has ended up at the third place in the Top VMware Bloggers 2012. My website was also chosen as number one at "Best Videos used in a Blog" and I'm the most "Favorite Independent Blogger" :-) Congratulations go out to all the other bloggers and I want to thank everyone for casting their vote. I promise the keep up the good work.



In this vChat episode (#25) of vChat Eric, David, Simon and special guest John Troyer (VMware) announce the Top 25 Virtualization Blog awards.

You will learn about the latest new technical features and benefits of the just released
Nexus 1000V v1.5. Also check out this video Video - Cisco Nexus 1000V v1.5 Installation.

The Cisco Nexus 1000V is compatible with any upstream physical access layer switch that is Ethernet standard compliant, including the Catalyst 6500 series switch, Cisco Nexus switches, and switches from other network vendors. The Cisco Nexus 1000V is compatible with any server hardware listed in the VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). Cisco and VMware jointly designed APIs that produced the Cisco Nexus 1000V. The Cisco Nexus 1000V is a distributed virtual switch solution that is fully integrated within the VMware virtual infrastructure, including VMware vCenter for the virtualization administrator. This solution offloads the configuration of the virtual switch and port groups to the network administrator to enforce a consistent data center network policy. In this release Java applications are introduced for VSM and VEM installation.

For the Virtual Supervisor Module (VSM)—The control plane of the switch and a virtual machine that runs Cisco NX-OS, just download the Nexus1000v.4.2.1.SV1.5.1.zip file and enter the following command from a Windows, Linux, or Mac command prompt:

java -jar zip_file_location/Nexus1000v.4.2.1.SV1.5.1/VSM/Installer_App/Nexus1000V-install.jar VSM

For the Virtual Ethernet Module (VEM)—A virtual line card embedded in each VMware vSphere (ESX) host. The VEM is partly inside the kernel of the hypervisor and partly in a user-world process, called the VEM Agent. Enter the following command from a Windows, Linux, or Mac command prompt:

java -jar zip_file_location/Nexus1000v.4.2.1.SV1.5.1/VSM/Installer_App/Nexus1000V-install.jar VEM

Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches - Configuration Guides

Cisco Virtual Security Gateway for Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches Data Sheet

Scripted installation is an efficient way to provision multiple ESXi host. This video explains how to use a kickstart file to install or upgrade ESXi. Both Shift-O invocation and PXE boot are supported.

VMware's Andy Cary who works as a Senior Technical Trainer in EMEA has  received a lot of e-mails recently about what the options are for people to secure their VCP5.0. The table in the diagram below shows the 4 different options for attaining your VCP 5.0 exam. Andy thinks there's confusion with the text in printed orange, this text is only valid until the 29th February. So at the 1st March all the orange options will have disappeared from the diagram.

Here's Andy's explanation regarding the four different layers for achieving a VCP5.0

Option 1 - Just Starting with VMware or VCP 2

Another way of saying this is there is no upgrade path from VCP2 to VCP5 and the student hasn’t attend any vSphere 4.0 or 5.0 classes. So in this case the student must attend a vSphere 5.0 qualifying class =  vSphere 5 Install Configure and Manage or vSphere 5 Fasttrack and take the VCP5.0 – no deadline for when they have to take the exam

Option 2 - Currently a VCP3

So now if a student is a VCP3 they can take the VCP5.0 exam if:-

1. Attend the vSphere 5.0 What’s New class and take the VCP 5.0 exam by the 29th February – they won’t be able to take the exam after 29th February if this the only training they have attended.

2. Attend vSphere 5 Install Configure and Manage or vSphere 5 Fasttrack and take the VCP5.0 exam – there is no deadline for when they have to take the VCP5.0 exam

Option 3 - Currently a VCP4.0

Go take the VCP5.0 exam by 29th February. If a student in this situation wants to become a VCP5.0 after the 29th Feb they have to attend a vSphere 5.0 What’s New class.

Option 4 - No VCP Certification but have completed one of the VCP4 qualifying classes

In this example a student has attend let’s say the vSphere 4.x ICM class but they haven’t passed any VCP exams.

1. A student will be allowed to take the VCP4.0 exam and then VCP5.0 exam to get the VCP5.0 BUT they must pass the VCP5.0 exam by the 29th February

2. A student will also be allowed to take their VCP5.0 exam (without taking VCP4.0) if they have attend the vSphere 5.0 What’s New class – again no deadline for taking the VCP5.0 exam

So if student in this situation passes their VCP4 exam today, they must pass their VCP5.0 exam by the end of February. If they don’t pass by 29th Feb they are effectively at Option 3 and they have to attend vSphere 5.0 What’s New class