Posts tagged vmware
VCP5-DT Exam Experience
Dec 8th
In July of 2011, I took and passed the VCA-DT exam based on View 4.x; however, I figured it was time to go ahead and update to the VCP-DT on View 5.x. I found a 25% off exam coupon on Twitter around Thanksgiving time, so I went ahead and scheduled it using that (I’ve seen these floating around frequently and it usually states for the VCP specifically but also applies to VCP-Desktop and VCP-Cloud, from my experience).
Due to Holidays and travel plans, my study time was a little cramped but was able to put together some notes based on the blue print and study some great resources that others in the community have put together. The following are the resources I used:
- VMware Community Member jkpk’s VCP5-DT Notes – Security Guide, Administration Guide, Installation Guide, and Architecture Planning Guide
- SpeakVirtual’s VCP5-DT Blueprint Study Guide
- My personal VCP5-DT Exam Notes
- Official VMware View 5.1 Architecture Planning Guide
- Official VMware View 5.1 Installation Guide
- Official VMware View 5.1 Administration Guide
- Official VMware View 5.1 Security Guide
As far as my experience, I arrived at the testing center early, but myself and others (who were taking things like TSA exams, Microsoft exams, and Cosmetology exams) weren’t able to begin until an hour or so later due to the proctor arriving late. I thought the test was challenging but passed with a pretty good score so in the end it all worked out. I was able to finish with about 45 minutes left of the total 90 minutes allowed. I hope the aforementioned documents prove helpful, and I wish the best of luck to all others in their efforts to obtain this certification!
vSphere Data Protection 5.1 Impressions
Sep 27th
With the release of vSphere 5.1, VMware has retired VMware Data Recovery (VDR) and replaced it with vSphere Data Protection (VDP). From my experience, there were not a lot of fans of the old VMware Data Recovery product, so this is a welcomed change. I decided to give it a spin, and see how it stacks up and what quirks there are in the first release.
Installation
The virtual appliance comes in three options that correspond to the size of the storage available to store backups: .5TB, 1TB, and 2TB. This sizing is a drawback as there is no way to increase the capacity of the appliance’s attached storage after installation other than adding another appliance.
The appliance can only backup to the attached VMDK, and it cannot backup directly to CIFS, etc. Of course, the CIFS space could be presented as an NFS share to the ESXi host(s) and then the VMDK stored on top, but this is rather kludgy.
Each vCenter can support up to 10 VDP appliances and up to 100 VMs per appliance (1000 total). It’s worth noting that this is the supported limit and not a hard limitation; VMware has not done testing beyond the aforementioned number and will not support more. vCenter 5.1 and the Web Client are required, but will work with ESX >=4.0 hosts.
There are some interesting aspects of the configuration:
- Password requirements: It requires an exactly nine character (no less, no more) password.
- DNS: Both forward AND reverse lookups must work.
Usage
Management is done through the vSphere Web Client, and is not possible through the classic Windows client. The interface is rather straight to the point with not a lot of flare or advanced features.
Deduplication is built-in, but only works within each appliance; for example, data backed up on appliance[n] will not be deduped against data on appliance[n+1].
When creating backup jobs, there is no built-in way to exclude certain VMDKs: it is all or nothing. Six concurrent backups can occur at a time. There is also no way to tell the job not to quiesce the guest, etc.
Only one backup per virtual machine can run each day, as there is no granularity for multiple backups per day. This may be a problem for some.
File-level recovery requires logging in to the appliance from the guest VM that needs the file restored. Individual files cannot be restored from the appliance in the same manner a full virtual machine can be restored. Compared to other products, this is a very different way to restore individuals files, and is rather inconvenient especially for Linux guests that don’t have a GUI. There is no way to restore from the command-line currently.
Overall
The actual functionality of VDP is solid on a great base with EMC Avamar’s engine, and it’s a good product despite the aforementioned. It is limited in what it can do in this release, lacking many simple features that are available in other products (selecting only certain VMDKs, multiple backups scheduled per day, better file level recovery, more granular options on jobs,etc). It is also missing the advanced functionality in other products (running from backup, catalogue of files, etc). It’s likely a great fit for many SMB environments that just need no-frills VM backups, but until it matures in certain areas it is probably best to stick with Veeam, PHD Virtual, or others for more advanced needs.
More Details
- VMware KB: VMware Data Protection (VDP) FAQ
- VMware KB: Required ports for vSphere Data Protection 5.1
- VMware vSphere Blog: Setting the record straight on VMware vSphere Data Protection
- Document: vSphere Data Protection 5.1 Release Notes
- Document: vSphere Data Protection 5.1 Administration Guide
Failed to connect to VMware Lookup Service – SSL Certificate Verification Failed
Sep 23rd
Ran into the following error when working on the home lab: Failed to connect to VMware Lookup Service https://vcenter01.eeg3.lab:7444/lookupservice/sdk – SSL certificate verification failed.
It turns out this was caused by the SSL certificate still matching the original hostname, which the web client does not seem to like. Re-generating the SSL certificate is pretty simple, though:
- Log in the VCSA itself via https://<vcsa-name>:5480
- Navigate to the ‘Admin’ tab
- Turn ‘Certificate regeneration enabled‘ to ‘yes‘ by using the ‘Toggle certificate setting‘ button
- Reboot the vCenter Server Appliance
During reboot, the following message should appear on the VM console: Regenerating the self-signed certificates.
Logging in through the Web Client should now work again. After the certificate was regenerated, I went back into the VCSA appliance and un-toggled the regeneration.
After doing the previous, I noticed regenerating the certificates can cause some oddities with other applications that depend on SSO, such as vSphere Data Protection:
A reboot of the VDP appliance appears to be all that is needed to resolve the sync issue.
Documenting Environment Settings with PowerCLI
Aug 12th
Below are some PowerCLI snippets I have used to quickly gather information on an environment, as well as to help document settings. The following were grabbed from PowerCLI gurus such as LucD and Alan Renouf, and I have tried to cite the author’s work with each snippet (Note: I was unable to find where I grabbed some of these, but please shoot me an email if I accidentally didn’t cite the source).
These all exports into CSV format to allow easy merging into a document. I tend to include the code to grab the information within the overview document to allow the data to be easily updated on a periodic basis by anyone with PowerCLI installed, as well.
Cluster and Host Hardware Overview
Get-VMHost | Select Parent,Name,Manufacturer,Mode,Version,MemoryTotalMB,Model,NumCpu | Export-Csv “PathHere”
Datastore Capacity and Usage (Credit: LucD.info)
$DS = @()
Get-Cluster | ForEach-Object {
$Cluster = $_
$Cluster | Get-VMHost | ForEach-Object {
$VMHost = $_
$VMHost | Get-DataStore | Where-Object { $_.Name -notlike "local*"} | ForEach-Object {
$out = "" | Select-Object Cluster, DSName, FreespaceGB, CapacityGB, PercentFree
$out.Cluster = $Cluster.Name
$out.DSName = $_.Name
$out.FreespaceGB = $($_.FreespaceMB / 1024).tostring("F02")
$out.CapacityGB = $($_.CapacityMB / 1024).tostring("F02")
$out.PercentFree = (($_.FreespaceMB) / ($_.CapacityMB) * 100).tostring("F02")
$DS += $out
}
}
}
$DS | Sort-Object Cluster, DSName –Unique | Export-Csv “PathHere”
List of iSCSI Targets by Host (Credit: LucD.info)
Get-VMHost | Get-View | %{
$esx = $_
$esx.Config.StorageDevice.HostBusAdapter | where {$_.GetType().Name -eq "HostInternetScsiHba"} | %{
$hba = $_
$_.ConfiguredSendTarget | `
Select @{N="ESX Name";E={$esx.Name}},
@{N="HBA Device";E={$hba.Device}},
@{N="IScsi Name";E={$hba.IScsiName}},
@{N="IScsi Target";E={$_.Address}}
}
} | Export-Csv "PathHere" -NoTypeInformation –UseCulture
Service Console Details by Host (Credit: Virtu-al.net)
Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostNetwork | Select Hostname, ConsoleGateway, DNSAddress -ExpandProperty ConsoleNic | Select Hostname, PortGroupName, IP, SubnetMask, ConsoleGateway, Devicename | Export-Csv “PathHere”
VMKernel Details by Host
Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostNetwork | Select Hostname, VMkernelGateway -ExpandProperty VirtualNic | Select Hostname, PortGroupName, IP, SubnetMask, VMkernelGateway, Devicename | Export-Csv "PathHere"
Port Group Details by Host
Get-VMHost | ForEach-Object -Process {
Tee-Object -InputObject $_ -Variable Temp | Get-VirtualPortGroup |
Select @{N="VMHost";E={$Temp.Name}},Name,VirtualSwitch,VirtualSwitchName,VLanId
} | Export-Csv "PathHere”
vSwitch Details by Host (Credit: Virtu-al.net)
$NetworkInfo = @()
Foreach ($VMHost in (Get-View -ViewType HostSystem | Where {$_.Runtime.ConnectionState -ne "disconnected"})){
Write $VMHost.Name
$NetworkSystem = Get-View $VMHost.ConfigManager.NetworkSystem
Foreach ($PG in $NetworkSystem.NetworkInfo.PortGroup){
$Details = "" | Select VMHost, vSwitch, PortGroup, ActiveNics, StandbyNics
$Details.VMHost = $VMHost.Name
$Details.Portgroup = $PG.Spec.Name
If ((($PG.ComputedPolicy.NicTeaming.NicOrder.ActiveNic | Select -ExpandProperty $ActiveNic).Length) -gt 1){
$Details.ActiveNics = [string]::join(';',($PG.ComputedPolicy.NicTeaming.NicOrder.ActiveNic | Select -ExpandProperty $ActiveNic))
}
Else {
$Details.ActiveNics = ($PG.ComputedPolicy.NicTeaming.NicOrder.ActiveNic | Select -ExpandProperty $ActiveNic)
}
If ((($PG.ComputedPolicy.NicTeaming.NicOrder.StandbyNic | Select -ExpandProperty $StandbyNic).Length) -gt 1){
$Details.StandbyNics = [string]::join(';',($PG.ComputedPolicy.NicTeaming.NicOrder.StandbyNic | Select -ExpandProperty $StandbyNic))
}
Else{
$Details.StandbyNics = ($PG.ComputedPolicy.NicTeaming.NicOrder.StandbyNic | Select -ExpandProperty $StandbyNic)
}
Foreach ($VS in $NetworkSystem.NetworkInfo.vSwitch){
If ($VS.Name -eq $PG.Spec.vSwitchName){
$Details.vSwitch = $VS.Name
}
}
$NetworkInfo += $Details
}
}
$NetworkInfo | Sort VMHost, VSwitch, PortGroup | Export-Csv "PathHere" –NoTypeInformation
Another great tool that should be in every Admin’s tool-belt is RVTools, which leverages PowerCLI to generate a great deal of information. All of the data generated through RVTools can also be exported to CSV and merged into the documentation.
PHD Virtual Backup for VMware – Review
Jun 24th
There are a lot of good virtual backup products out there, and in the past I have used many different flavors. I had not had a chance to work with PHD Virtual Backup personally yet, so I made it a goal of mine to give it a try. On several of the forums I frequent, I have heard great things about the product. One individual of note switched from another large player to PHD Virtual simply due to their great support in comparison to others, and another switched due to the scalability.
I’m going to try to skip too much of generic install, backup setup, restore setup, and other details since PHDVB offers videos and documents that detail these processes much better than I could. Instead, I hope to highlight some of the neat features and methodologies used.
Installation
The suite is packaged in an OVF template and runs on a customized Ubuntu build. Unlike others that require a Windows server, there is no need to pay extra for OS licensing. Since everything is self-contained, it is also one less OS install you have to manage. It also uses a PostgreSQL database, so no dependencies to MSSQL or MSSQL Express, which is a plus. This is very similar to the path VMware is taking with the vCenter Server Appliance.
To start out, you will need to install the console on your workstation, which adds the plugin to your vSphere Client.
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Next up is the Virtual Backup Appliance, which is the engine of the product. Rolling out a Virtual Backup Appliance is as easy as deploying the OVF, configuring hypervisor credentials, and adding storage. It’s an extremely quick and easy process. Once finished, if you view the console for the new VBA, it will be a classic text-based interface that you will rarely need to touch again directly, as configuration is done through the vSphere Client PHDVB Console.
I did run into an odd issue where the filesystem on the appliance required a manual fsck. This required me to log into the console directly and run the command, but it was well documented on their knowledge base: PHDVBA contains a file system with errors, check forced.
The last piece to install is the PHDVB Exporter. This is a Windows application, which can reside on your BackupExec server for example, which takes the backups stored by the PHDVBA and converts them into OVF format for backup to tape. This is probably my favorite feature of the product, and will be discussed in greater detail later.
General Usage
This is an area where I think the other major players should learn from. As noted above, PHD Virtual Backup includes a plugin for the vSphere Client that allows the Administrator to manage backups directly within the client, instead of having to RDP to a Windows Server then open up a legacy console then manage everything from within there. Instead, if I need to work on backups then I can do it from the vSphere Client which I always have open anyway. This becomes truly awesome when you need to launch a one-off backup prior to a change or whatnot. It’s such a pain to create a one-off in other products that I tend to use snapshots more than I probably should.
The console itself, instead of a pane inside vCenter, launches a window on top of the vSphere Client from which you can manage some of the more granular items, such as Configuration and Licensing, as well as gain more control of the backup/restore/replicate functions.
Backup Jobs
Backup jobs are a straight-forward process in setting up, and backups work as expected in regards to speed, deduplication, scheduling, stability, etc. You can select which appliance performs the backups to increase efficiency, as well. The additional, special options for a backup job are:
- Verify backup: None/New blocks only/All blocks
- Backup Powered off virtual machines
- Set backups as archived (won’t be deleted via retention policy)
- Quiesce the VM before backing up (Windows only)
- Use Changed Block Tracking
Pretty standard stuff, and it works well. The only oddity I noticed is in regards to the backup retention policy, which is managed on a per-appliance basis instead of a per-job basis. This means if you want a different retention period for a special job, you need a different appliance to do it.
You can select three different options for Storage Type: Attached Virtual Disk, NFS, and CIFS. The neat one here is ‘Attached Virtual Disk’, where it allows you to add a VMDK to the appliance and use it as a backup repository. This is a neat way to utilize the local storage in your hosts, if you so choose; however, performance may be better storing the backups elsewhere. If there ever comes a time the VMDK needs expansion, it is as easy as expanding the disk and then rebooting the appliance; it will expand the actual partition automatically. They have released a white-paper on Storage Best Practices for PHD Virtual Backup that is worth checking out.
Restore Jobs
There are two recovery options: file-level and VM-level. The VM-level jobs are launched via the ‘Jobs’ tab of the Console, and file-level are launched via the ‘File Recovery’ tab. VM-level restores work as expected and restore directly; however, the file-level restores operate in a more unique manner. To restore individual files, an iSCSI target is created on the backup appliance and is then optionally automatically mounted onto the desktop kicking off the restore job. This is a pretty nifty way to access files, and works really well. With Windows, it’s more or less seamless and you will see a disk added that can be browsed to via Windows Explorer.
With Linux guests, it’s a little trickier. Since Windows doesn’t have built-in support for Linux filesystems, external tools are required. The PHDVB User Guide recommends to use either explore2fs or ext2explore (now renamed Ext2Read). Explore2fs claims support for ext2/ext3/LVM2, but has a new beta version called Virtual Volumes which adds support for ReiserFS. Ext2Read claims support for ext2/ext3/ext4/LVM. In the next release, the need for these tools will no longer be required as they’re implementing the ability to mount the backup to the VBA which can then be presented out using CIFS.
Exporter
As I mentioned earlier, this feature is the bee’s knees. The only downside is that it is not managed via the vSphere Client plugin, so it has to be on a Windows server and has a separate console. To start off, the option to share the backup folder via CIFS needs to be enabled on the VBA under the Connectors tab; it’s also worth mentioning, you can enable regular CIFS access inside the same tab in order to view your backups directly as well, but they will not be in OVF format. Once this is enabled, the Exporter Console on the backup server is used to create a job, which is then either stored in a Windows Scheduled Task or manually ran via the command line:
Once the job completes, you will find an OVF inside your specified Staging Location, along with a .txt file stating the VM name, time of backup, and source location. This OVF can be deployed via the typical ‘File -> Deploy OVF Template’ inside the vSphere Client without any requirement on the backup software. This feature will really shine if you have a large outage that also affects your backup infrastructure, whereas with other backup software you will need to reinstall their software.
Final Thoughts
I think it’s worth mentioning that replication is also included, and I have heard good things about it; however, due to my lab size I did not have a chance to give that a test. Finally, in closing, I think PHD Virtual Backup for VMware is a very neat product. My personal highlights that I recommend to check out if you give it a trial in your lab or business are:
- Ubuntu-based Appliance
- No requirement for MSSQL
- Ability to use Attached Virtual Disks for backup storage
- vSphere Client Plugin Interface
- Ease of file-level recovery via iSCSI target
- PHD Exporter transforming backups to OVF format
While there are neat highlights in other products as well, PHD Virtual Backup provides some really unique, handy methods of doing things, and is definitely a product to consider when designing your backup architecture.
vSphere Storage Appliance Offline Demo
Jun 3rd
I haven’t used the vSphere Storage Appliance in a production environment yet, since it still has a bit of room for maturity both from a technical standpoint (not able to expand beyond three nodes, etc) and from a pricing standpoint (low end iSCSI arrays are at a close price point); however, I recently found out about the vSphere Storage Appliance Offline Demo, while I had a chance to read and review Brian Atkinson’s VCP5 Study Guide book.
The demo goes through the process of setting up the VSA, putting nodes in maintenance mode, testing resiliency, etc. in a semi-interactive manner; the interface is basically a guided walk-through that appears as a vSphere client interface. If you haven’t used the product yet, it’s a neat way to get familiar with it. The publicity of this guide seems to be limited to the post on the community forums, so I imagine a lot of people haven’t had a chance to use it yet.
Carolina VMware Users Summit 2012 Recap: I Won a Helicopter
May 15th
The 5th annual Carolina VMware Users Summit was today in the Charlotte Convention Center, and the event was great as always. The speakers list featured a cast of VMware experts like Jason Nash, Scott Lowe, Alan Renouf, and more.
The keynote was “Two perspectives: The Past and Future of VMware Storage” by Satyam Vaghani. Satyam was one of the first 100 employees of VMware and played an important role in VMware’s storage architecture which he shared much of the history on from discussing how they dealt with clustering, SCSI reservations, etc. He has recently moved on from VMware to a new CTO position with another company, but he closed the keynote on where VMware is likely headed in regards to storage. He noted that it is likely VMware will work with storage array providers to allow the hypervisor to interface directly with the storage instead of needing VMFS allowing VMware’s storage architecture to come full circle. It was an interesting topic and a great kickoff to the event.
I was able to catch the following sessions:
- vSphere Distributed Switch – Technical Deep Dive by Jason Nash
- PowerCLI 201 by Alan Renouf
- Network Architectures for VXLAN: Enabling Stateful vMotion with Existing Network Addressing by Arista Networks
- vSphere and Network-Attached Storage Design Considerations by Scott Lowe
- vCloud Director PowerCLI by Alan Renouf
- Hands-on Labs provided by Varrow
The sessions were all outstanding from both a technical material standpoint, but the speakers were also excellent speakers that were able to really keep the audience engaged and interested. The hands-on labs from Varrow were implemented through View virtual desktops, and the systems were stable and speedy (which can be tough by the end of the day to maintain in these environments). I chose the EMC VNX lab, which went through iSCSI setup on the VNX platform with vSphere 5.x.
Of course, such as with all of these events, there was plenty of vendor swag, and I was lucky enough to win a helicopter from EMC:
Next year I’m hoping for a life-size version. 
A big thanks goes out to all of the speakers, vendors, and organizers for setting up this event.
This Month on the VMTN Forums – 4/12
May 2nd
Interesting Q&A’s from April:
- Question: How can SRM/vSphere Replication’s network utilization be throttled?
- Answer: There is no built-in method. The best solution is to use Network I/O Control, which requires Enterprise Plus licensing.
- Question: Is it possible to change swap file location for a running VM?
- Answer: Yes, this process is described in KB 2003956.
- Question: Can’t activate OEM XP Install after P2V
- Answer: P2V is successful, but cannot activate. This is due to OEM licensing, which is bound to particular hardware. Switch to a Volume Licensing Key or try contacting Microsoft.
- Question: How to properly use Storage vMotion with VMware View Virtual Desktops
- Answer: For Manual Pools (non-Linked Clones), Storage vMotion will work fine. For Linked Clones, rebalance the VMs to the new datastores.
- Question: Does adding more vCPUs do permanent damage?
- Answer: No, this only causes problems with older versions of Windows that had specific HALs for SMP/non-SMP. If there is a problem, the VM can be reverted back to the previous vCPU count.
- Question: Should re-assigning desktops move the profile in VMware View?
- Answer: Re-assigning users to new desktops does not move the profile. To get that experience, one could detach the persistent disk then recreate a desktop from it.
Defragmentation vs. Virtual Disks
Apr 25th
The question of whether to defragment virtual guests popped up on the VMware Communities forums again, and I remember debating this with a colleague a few months ago. If you do a Google search, you’ll find differing opinions (usually ones that are pro-defrag tend to be older documents), so whether to do it can be confusing. I wanted to clarify why virtual machines should not be defragmented courtesy of the sources listed below:
- Thin Provisioning: Performing a defrag will cause significant growth to your thin provisioned disk. Imagine an administrator that performs defrags using a tool on a scheduled basis. The growth has the potential to be catastrophic to your datastores. Your thin provisioned datastore at 75% is now completely full.
- Changed Block Tracking: Most backup utilities, such as Veeam Backup & Replication, use CBT in order to minimize the amount of data that needs to be backed up. A defrag will lead to lots of changed blocks by design, and will cause your backups to sky-rocket in size.
- Snapshots: Defragmentation will also lead to any VMs that have snapshots to grow in size. Of course, snapshots are not backup and they should be cleared out regularly, but this is still a negative.
- Linked Clones: If utilizing Linked Clones, for example in your VMware View VDI environment, you’re again going to run into the linked clone disks growing unnecessarily. It would be better to defragment the parent disk that your replicas are based on instead of each desktop created from them.
- Unnecessary Disk I/O: Defragmentation is going to cause a lot of disk I/O on your SAN. Theoretically, you could try to carefully time your defrag cycle for off-hours to avoid this.
- No Observable Benefit: VMware’s own internal tests show no noticeable improvements after defragging virtual machines on SAN/NAS devices.
- Storage Auto-tiering/SAN Block Handling: With a large amount of vendors now utilizing SAN-based auto-tiering (Equallogic, Compellent, Nimble, etc.), the hotspots on your VM have likely been moved to a higher tier. After a defragmentation, auto-tiering will have to relearn, which depending on the vendor can take awhile. Moreover, the defragmentation tool is unaware of how the SAN is handling the disk layout, and defragmenting a volume on a storage pool is not recommended regardless of whether it is in VMware or not.
- Solid-State Drives: SSD drives are becoming increasingly common. There is no reason to defragment when using this type of storage as there is no disk head movement involved.
- Some Vendors Specifically Advise Against it: NetApp states, “VMs stored on NetApp storage arrays should not use disk defragmentation utilities because the WAFL file system is designed to optimally place and access data at a level below the guest operating system (GOS) file system. If a software vendor advises you to run disk defragmentation utilities inside of a VM, contact the NetApp Global Support Center before initiating this activity.“
For those trying to optimize, disk partition alignment will provide much better gains.
Sources:
VMware vExpert 2012
Apr 20th
I am very honored to be selected as a VMware vExpert this year. This is a great program to encourage contributions within the community, and I’m thankful to be selected. Congratulations to all others that made it: Full vExpert List.
The VMware vExpert Award is given to individuals who have significantly contributed to the community of VMware users over the past year. vExperts are book authors, bloggers, VMUG leaders, tool builders, and other IT professionals who share their knowledge and passion with others. These vExperts have gone above and beyond their day jobs to share their technical expertise and communicate the value of VMware and virtualization to their colleagues and community.