vSphere - 9

The vmClient is a lightweight tool which enables you to control the power of your virtual machines, it’s also capable of presenting the MKS console of your virtual machines. Before you can use the vmClient, you have to install the vSphere client on the same system. After starting the vmClient, you can logon to your vCenter server or individual ESX4 or ESX4i host. A list with available virtual machines will be presented after choosing the Virtual Machines menu item, you can also easily identify the power state of the virtual machines. Grey is powered off, green is powered on, yellow is suspended and red indicates that the virtual machine has an alarm. When you’re working in an RDP session there’s a menu item which can generate a Ctrl-Alt-Del in the guest OS instead of pressing Ctrl-Alt-Ins. The vmClient can run without borders in borderless mode. The menu bar has an option to search for virtual machines, just type in the first characters of your virtual machine name and the list will be filtered. 

The number of virtual machines can be too high to fit in the “Virtual Machine” menu item so I’ve added an extra option to disable this menu and use the search menu instead. The option to customize the user interface of the vmClient can be done by changing a few registry settings. You’re able to show or hide menu items using this hive.

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\NTPRO.NL\vmClient

You can also pre-select a default virtual machine in this hive. There are two recorded demo sessions available, one which show a walkthrough and a second which shows how to convert the vmClient into a VDI client. The trail version is limited to a maximum number of 50 virtual machines and shows a splash screen with my picture in it. The registered version can be bought online and has no virtual machine limit, you can also get rid of the splash screen. :-) The Buy Now link is available in the help menu. If you have any ideas or suggestions on improving the vmClient or you’ve found a bug, you know where to reach me. Have fun with it.

How to convert the vmClient into a VDI client

A general walkthrough

The vmClient 4.0 can be downloaded from this location: http://vmclient.nl/

TrainSignal has released a new VMware video training product, the VMware vSphere Pro Series Training Volume I. This course is taught by three vExperts VCPs and it covers three distinct hot-topics in virtualization.

VMware View & ThinApp, VMware's Desktop & Application Virtualization solutions, authored by David Davis.

VMware PowerCLI, VMware's implementation of Microsoft PowerShell, used to manage your vSphere infrastructure from the command-line, authored by Hal Rottenberg.

Cisco Nexus 1000V, the 3rd party add-in distributed virtual switch for vSphere, authored by Rick Scherer.

Here’s What You Get When You Order VMware vSphere Pro Series Training Vol. 1:

20 Videos (10 hrs: 39mins: 50secs) will be provided in High-Quality AVI and WMV format. In other words, you get perfect quality and replication of your instructors’ screens. An easy-to-use table of contents allows you to navigate to key areas you wish to focus on.

20 iPod video files to watch Train Signal on the go! A popular request amongst our students who wish to study while they commute (i.e. train, plane, bus). These 320x240 M4V files are compressed versions of the original course, and play on any iPod that supports video. Also great for reviewing and refreshing your mind "on the job."

20 MP3 audio files to listen to Train Signal anytime, anywhere. Some of our students have requested this option. Now, you can listen in the car or while working out. Our MP3 files can be burnt to a CD or copied to a portable device.

Instructor Notes - These PDF documents, which can be printed out, contain the slides used by the instructors throughout the videos. These documents allow the user a quick easy reference to the instructors’ notes on the slides, and provides a place to make additional notes.

Yes I know, don’t ignore alarms ;-) , when your VMFS fills up, one or more virtual machines will be labelled Pending and don’t run any further. You’ll also receive the following error.

msg.hbacommon.outofspace:There is no more space for virtual disk WXP-01.vmdk. You may be able to continue this session by freeing disk space on the relevant partition, and try clicking Retry. Otherwise, click Abort to terminate this session.

If virtual machines are deployed on to a datastore that has very little available disk space, the parent configuration may report that it is in an inconsistent state and does not show the configuration details. You must free up disk space.

You can find a Resolution in Knowledge base article 1007299.

To free up disk space:

• Access the datastore where the virtual machines have been deployed and free up some disk space.
• Click Retry, the virtual machine should resume normal operation.

This is a demonstration of RecoverPoint performing automated failover with VMware Site Recovery Manager. (Recorded by https://www.youtube.com/user/RecoverPoint)

In a previous article I’ve described how to add SSD storage to your ESX server. I’ve also written an article about creating linked clones with the Virtulization Ecoshell. Now I’m going to combine those two techniques and use VMware’s Desktop Reference Architecture Workload Simulator (RAWC is available for VMware Partners only) to generate some real load in the Windows XP virtual machines.

Desktop RAWC runs on a Windows XP guest operating system (memory 1 GB) and is executed on each desktop virtual machine (VM). Each target desktop VM is equipped to run a RAWC workload that simulates typical user behaviour, running an application set commonly used across a broad array of desktop environments. The workload has a set of randomly executed functions that perform operations on a variety of applications.

I’ve created 20 linked clones which are all stored on the Intel X25-M Postville SSD 80GB drive. During the execution of the workload, multiple applications are opened at the same time and windows are minimized and maximized as the workload progresses, randomly switching between each application. Individual application operations in my test environment that are randomly performed include:

• Microsoft Word – Open, minimize, maximize, close, insert text, save modifications
• Microsoft Word (Random) – Open, minimize, maximize, close, write random words/numbers, save modifications
• Microsoft Excel – Open, minimize, maximize, close, write random numbers, insert/delete columns/rows, copy/paste formulas, save modifications
• Microsoft PowerPoint – Open, minimize, maximize, close, conduct a slide show presentation
• Internet Explorer – Open, minimize, maximize, close, browse page
• Windows Media Player – Open, close, view a video
• Java – Compile a java project comprised of several hundred files using the JDK to create a software engineering type of workload
• Adobe Acrobat Reader – Open, minimize, maximize, close, browse pages in PDF document
• 7-Zip – Open, close, compress a large file

What I wanted to know is how the VMFS on SSD storage would perform under the stress of hosting 20 active XP desktops, writing in their own snapshot and reading from one shared VMDK. I’ve installed HD Tune Pro into one of the virtual desktops and waited for the “Windows Downloading Updates” to kick in, let’s take a look at the maximum read. Seems to perform pretty well.

VMware education services will release the Skills for Operators training course around mid February.  This hands-on training course explores configuration and management of VMware vSphere virtual machines. Upon completion of this course, you should have the skills necessary to work effectively with VMware virtual machines. The course is based on VMware ESX 4.0 and VMware vCenter Server 4.0.

Objectives

•  Create, deploy, and manage virtual machines
•  Use vCenter Server to monitor virtual machine resource usage
•  Use VMware vCenter Update Manager to apply patches to virtual machines
•  Use VMware vMotion™ and Storage vMotion to migrate virtual machines
•  Troubleshoot problems with virtual machine configuration

http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrreg/courses.cfm?ui=www&a=one&id_subject=18670

esxplot is a GUI application that lets you explore the data collected by esxtop in batch mode. The program takes a single command line argument which is the esxtop batch mode output file. You can also simply start esxplot without any arguments, and enter a dataset file via the File attribute of the menu bar. Esxplot loads the data in this file and presents the metrics as a hierarchical tree where the values are selectable in the left panel. In the right panel, a graph is plotted (value over time) of the selected metric, in this way, you can "browse" the contents of these somewhat unwieldy files.

http://vpivot.com/2010/01/13/esxplot-1-0-released/

This video shows you how slashujh is able how to enable SSH on a ESXi 4 Host without going into the Console.

VMware's Education Services has launched two new vSphere beta courses:

VMware vSphere: Design Workshop

This course explores a design methodology, criteria, and approach for designing a VMware vSphere™ 4 virtual datacenter architecture consisting of VMware ESX™/ESXi 4 and VMware vCenter™ Server 4. This course, by discussing the benefits and risks of available design alternatives, provides information which supports making sound design decisions.  This course also provides an opportunity to practice your design skills by working with peers on a design project.

VMware vSphere: Manage for Performance

This hands-on training course explores the management of performance in a VMware® vSphere™ environment.  It provides the knowledge and skills necessary to make fundamental design decisions that enhance performance and to meet performance goals in an already-deployed vSphere installation.  The course is based on ESX 4.0, ESXi 4.0, and vCenter Server 4.0.

I often speak to people who prefer a virtual machine protected by VMware HA for hosting their vCenter Server instead of using vCenter Server Heartbeat but vCenter Server Heartbeat offers some real great benefits compared to VMware HA. VMware HA only works with virtual machines and protects the operating system and hardware. HA also needs shared storage. vCenter Server Heartbeat is able to clone, synchronize and do real-time replication. vCenter Server Heartbeat works with either virtual machines or physical machines and protects the operating system, the hardware, and the application. You don’t need shared storage but redundant storage. I’ve created a little demo movie showing the vCenter Server Heartbeat console and a real fast switchover to the secondary server.

http://screencast.com/t/MzJjM2E1

http://screencast.com/t/MWJkZjA4MG