vStorage VMFS Version Notes

In a prior post, I mentioned that vStorage VMFS is one of my favorite elements of a VMware-based virtualization solution. With vSphere, the good news is that no action is required on the part of an administrator in the upgrade path. For fibre channel and iSCSI storage systems, here are some notes on VMFS versions that you can consider in your upgrade and deployment scenarios. And for the NFS camp out there, I'll get to you guys another day!

Posted by Rick Vanover on 06/01/20093 comments

vSphere DRS Cluster Limits Introduced with vSphere

Recently, I wrote how certain vSphere configurations will introduce limits to consolidation ratios on HA-enabled clusters. With that information, I thought it a good idea to share another piece of information from the Configuration Maximums document for vSphere.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 05/28/20094 comments

vSphere CLI Quick Look: Storage

Now that VMware has released vSphere, I'm giving a long, hard look at using ESXi as the de facto hypervisor. ESX has been good to me, but going forward I think ESXi is the better choice. This is mainly so that managed (with vSphere licensing for features) and unmanaged systems would be the same bare-metal hypervisor.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 05/28/20093 comments

Rockstar Consolidation At Risk?

For any virtualization solution, it is imperative to design solutions for your needs within the guidelines of the products utilized. With the recent vSphere release, we can now go into some of the fine-point details that go into how we will consider the new platform. Last week the Configuration Maximums document went online at the VMware Web site. Here is the VMware Infrastructure 3 Configuration Maximums document if you want to compare between the major releases.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 05/26/20091 comments

Everyday Virtualization Shifts Into Sixth Gear

2009 has been a wild ride in the virtualization world so far. Last week's vSphere release, Citrix XenServer 5.5 beta and Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V going into release candidate status all make for a busy landscape. I haven't event touched the partner products and management space.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 05/26/20094 comments

Stone Cold Clones

In the course of any server virtualization project, there will undoubtedly be a conversion that just won't seem to work correctly. While there are many ways to go about troubleshooting a system for a P2V or V2V conversion, one strategy is to perform the cold clone. A cold clone is actually the cleanest way to convert a system, as it is in a zero-transaction state. Most conversion tools are crash-consistent for Windows systems.

While the consistent part of that quantification is good, the crash part is not. A cold clone conversion moves to a virtual machine very cleanly by booting into a special environment to perform a conversion. This approach works well for super sensitive systems which may include proprietary databases or high file share traffic that would be out of sync when brought up crash-consistent.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 05/21/20091 comments

Competition Coming for Virtual Switches

Fresh from the recent Citrix Synergy event, there are mounting mumblings that Citrix will provide a virtual switch for the XenServer and KVM hypervisor platforms. Citrix may be circling around an open source virtual switch, which, like the XenServer hypervisor, has its roots in open source that eventually evolves into a revenue generating product.

Chris Wolf, Virtualization Review's Virtual Advisor columnist, mentions the possibility of a Citrix-backed virtual switch on his personal blog. Wolf is dead-on about why a virtual switch is important, and that the competitive landscape may give Cisco a run for the money.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 05/19/20094 comments

Expanded OS Support With vSphere

Posted by Rick Vanover on 05/14/20090 comments

Virtual Appliance Grazing

One of my favorites is the VKernel SearchMyVM appliance, which is the quickest way to do query-based searches on VMware VI3 installations. I use a smattering of others, and play with a bunch more. But getting into the appliance space got me thinking a bit about the management side of appliances.

The free products are interesting and worth investigating. There are also plenty of evaluation appliances available, so don’t get too attached if you don’t have the funds to use it legitimately or become dependent on a product you can’t procure.

Where I get concerned about appliances -- especially the free ones -- is the practical issues associated with using them. A virtual appliance contains some operating system configured by the publisher of the appliance. Usually they're Linux-based for licensing reasons, and most provide a root password. Should these passwords be changed? Do you know exactly what these devices do on the network or to systems they connect to? Simply because they are quick and easy to download doesn't mean you can skip your infrastructure management and policy homework.

I don’t want to bash virtual appliances; I am a big fan of them. But I do want to issue a few warnings for virtual appliances.

• If you are not using the appliance, turn it off. Most virtual environments are too expensive to be running idle VMs.
• Determine if the appliance is really needed or provides some benefit you think is worth its resources.
• Refine the security. Get the password(s) where you need them up front, and find and fix problems before you get too far along with the appliance.
  

Maybe a rant; maybe I’m on to something. What is your opinion on virtual appliances? Do they fall out of policy in your environment? Share your comments below.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 05/12/20092 comments

Decision Time: ESX vs ESXi

Posted by Rick Vanover on 05/06/20097 comments

Application Virtualization Galore

Posted by Rick Vanover on 05/05/20093 comments

What We Can Learn From the Big Boys

Posted by Rick Vanover on 04/30/20090 comments