This week Simon, David & I talk about upgrading existing ESX hosts to ESXi hosts, HP’s new Microsoerver and the new applications for the iPad that we shown at VMworld.
Category: News
Sep 10 2010
Upcoming Denver Super VMUG, mark your calendars you don’t want to miss this one
Unfortunately the official announcement from VMware will not go out until late next week so I wanted to get the word out so you can plan on attending. This will be Denver’s largest VMUG ever, unlike previous VMUG’s were we had to close registration at around 250 due to facility size limitations this one will remain open. The event will be held at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds in Golden, CO at their Exhibition hall, we have all 3 rooms and it can hold almost 1,000 people. The date is Tuesday September 28th beginning at 10:00am and going to 3:30pm, doors open at 9:30am.
We will be having 8 presenters over the course of the day including Rob Randall from VMware who is one of their security gurus, well known blogger and author Scott Lowe who is a vSpecialist for EMC and Doug Hazelman from Veeam who is their Senior Director of Product Strategy. In addition we will be introducing social media into the VMUG with a presentation from Erika Napoletano, a social media specialist on how and why to use social media services like Twitter for business use. We’ll also have additional sessions from some great vendors including HyTrust, Xsigo, Compellent and Catbird. Lunch will be provided by Brothers BBQ and we will have some great door prizes to give away at the end.
So mark your calendars, you don’t want to miss this one, the official sign-up will go out next week, check back on VMware’s website then. Here’s the tentative agenda:
- 10:00am General Session – What’s New at VMware (coffee/soft drinks will be available)
- 10:30am General Session – Security of ESX and Virtual Systems (VMware – Rob Randall)
- 11:15am Social Media presentation – How and Why to use social media for business (Erika Napoletano, http://redheadwriting.com)
- 11:30am Lunch/Networking with Vendors (Brothers BBQ)
- 12:30pm General Session – Veeam – Doug Hazelman
- 1:15pm General session – EMC – Scott Lowe
- 2:00pm Main/Breakout room (HyTrust/Xsigo)
- 2:40pm Main/Breakout room (Catbird/Compellent)
- 3:20pm Closing & Door prize giveaways
Sep 09 2010
HP’s new itty-bitty Microserver, the little server that couldn’t
HP just released a new low-cost server which they have dubbed the “Microserver” due to its small size. The server doesn’t seem to belong their ML line of servers and seems to be a standalone server with a name instead of a model which is more geared towards consumers and small businesses. Here are the basic specifications of the server:
- AMD Athlon II NEO N36L 1.3 Ghz dual-core processor
- 1GB (1x1GB) Standard/8GB Maximum DDR3 Unbuffered ECC memory (only 2 DIMM slots)
- Embedded AMD SATA controller with RAID 0/1, Embedded AMD eSATA controller
- HP 160GB 3G SATA Non-Hot Plug 7,200rpm 3.5″ ETY Hard Drive (total of LFF 4 drive bays)
- Embedded HP NC107i PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter
- HP 200w Non-Hot Plug, Non-Redundant Power Supply
- 2 expansion slots Slot – 1 PCIe Gen 2×16, 1 PCIe Gen 2×1
- (7) USB 2.0 ports: 4 front , 2 rear, 1 internal
The list price for this base configuration is $329 but to use this server as a vSphere host you are going to have to upgrade it. There in lies the first problem, only 2 memory slots, the server comes with only a single 1GB DIMM populating the one slot, to get to 4GB of memory you would have to remove it and 2 – 2GB DIMMs, the cost for this is $160. Having only 4GB of RAM in a virtual host is just not enough so to get the server to its maximum supported 8GB capacity you would have to add 2 – 4GB DIMMs, the cost for this is $700 due to the extremely high cost of denser RAM. Now you’re up to over $1,000 for this server as each 4GB DIMM costs more than the server itself. The next problem is the CPU, the AMD Athlon NEO 1.3 Ghz processor is pretty weak to be used for a virtualization. The AMD NEO processor family was designed for ultrathin notebooks and has a very small form factor and low power consumption. As a result while it is a dual-core CPU, 64-bit and includes the AMD-V feature which is required by vSphere the performance is just not going to be good enough for a virtual host running many VMs. There is also the question of if you could even use it with vSphere which may not include the driver for whatever storage controller is being used. HP’s website does not give the model # of it so its pretty much a mystery right now. The embedded NIC is the NC107i which is the same one used in other servers like the ML110 G6 which is supported by vSphere. One would guess they would use the same storage controller as the ML110 G6 which is the B110i which is also supported by vSphere and if thats the case you could at least install and run vSphere on it.
I love everything else about the server, especially its micro form factor case, I’m OK with only 2 expansion slots as you could easily add 2 dual port NICs to it for a total of 5 which would be sufficient for a vSphere host. The one downside it both slots are PCIe which require only PCIe cards which are double that of PCI/PCI-X cards, a dual-port PCIe Intel NIC goes for about $130. While its a neat little server with a small form factor that would be great for home labs I just can’t see using it for virtualization running ESX or ESXi. However I can see it being used as a nice little storage server, you could fill the four drive bays with 1TB drives for less than $300 and install OpenFiler on it and have yourself a nice little storage server to use with vSphere. But to use it for a virtual host just isn’t practical or affordable, I really wish HP would make a whole line of these servers and over more options and expandability. The server does have the TPM security chip slot like other HP servers and also a special slot for a out of band management board called the Microserver Remote Access card (purchased separately) which are enterprise class features. If they would only give this server 2 more DIMM slots and provide more CPU choices this server would be perfect for a small virtualization home lab or business. This server seems geared towards running non-virtualized lightweight applications on it which doesn’t make sense when everyone is going virtual these days.
So if you’re looking for an affordable vSphere home lab or small business server I’d have to recommend you look at the ML110 G6 server instead. The list cost is not that much more, it starts at $469 and it comes with more DIMM slots (4), more PCI slots (4) and more CPU options such as the Intel Core i3-530 (dual core), Intel Xeon X3430 (quad core) and the Intel Xeon X3440 (quad core w/HT). Also be aware that the Microserver does not come with a DVD drive standard which is an additional $49 option, the ML110 G6 does include a DVD drive. The ML110 G6 is a great little server, it’s taller than the Microserver but just as quiet and has low power consumption. I have two of them at home and they are perfect for a vSphere lab, with 4 DIMM slots you can use affordable 2GB DIMMs and get a total of 8GB of memory. In addition the X3440 CPU has hyperthreading which gives you 8 cores to use with a vSphere host. The HP Microserver is a cool concept and reminds me of the Shuttle servers but the small size comes at a cost with HP’s version and it just isn’t a great candidate to use as a vSphere host.
Links
Sep 09 2010
vChat – Episode 6 – LIVE From VMworld 2010 in San Francisco
While attending VMworld we had the opportunity to record a VMworld edition of our weekly vChat podcast in the blogger lounge using Silicon Angle’s great video recording setup. So check out Simon Seagrave, David Davis & myself recording vChat on Thursday morning in the Cube. Thanks to John Furrier for scheduling us in and helping us out with this.
Sep 09 2010
Webcast on upgrading to vSphere
I recently did a webcast for searchvmware.com on upgrading to vSphere that covers everything you need to know when upgrading from VI3 to vSphere. Below is the abstract of it along with the links for the webcast with slides/audio and the podcast audio only.
Webcast: Upgrading to vSphere: What you need to know
http://www.bitpipe.com/detail/RES/1282585373_290.html
Podcast: Upgrading to vSphere: What you need to know
http://www.bitpipe.com/detail/RES/1282585786_96.html
ABSTRACT:
If you have an existing VMware Infrastructure 3 environment, upgrading to vSphere — also known as ESX and ESXi 4 — will probably be on the agenda at some point if it hasn’t already. But before jumping into an upgrade of this caliber there are many considerations and requirements that you should be aware of, including hardware, software and database requirements, third-party software compatibility considerations and compatibility with other VMware products. Then, you’ll need to devise an upgrade plan for your existing environment. Upgrading to vSphere is fairly straightforward, but there are many gotchas that can make it more difficult than necessary. To avoid surprises during the upgrade you should properly prepare and know all the steps involved in your upgrade so that it is trouble-free. In this webcast we will cover considerations and steps for upgrading your existing virtual environment to vSphere.
Compatibility & requirement considerations:
* Hardware requirements
* Software & database requirements
* Third-party product compatibility
* VMware product compatibility
Planning an upgrade:
* Upgrade phases
* Upgrade methods
Performing an upgrade:
* Rolling back to a previous version
* Pre-upgrade checklist
* Upgrading vCenter Server
* Upgrading ESX and ESXi hosts
* Upgrading virtual machines
Aug 26 2010
VMworld 2010 – The Links
As usual I have my huge link mega-rama for VMworld this year with just about every useful link about VMworld that is available all nicely categorized. It will be continually growing as new links from bloggers and other sources are published so be and sure and check back often. Click the button on the top right in the sidebar to get to them or go click on this link.
Aug 26 2010
My new book Maximum vSphere is out!
My new book Maximum vSphere has been released and will be shipping Monday, the VMworld book store will also have 100’s of copies if you want to pick it up there. Simon Seagrave from Techhead wrote two chapters in the book and John Troyer from VMware wrote my foreword again. One of the brightest guys I know, Ken Cline was one of the tech editors of the book and offered lots of great advice throughout the book. Vaughn Stewart & Greg Schulz tech reviewed my chapter on Storage as well. Both Simon & I are doing a book signing at the VMworld book store on Wednesday at 10:15am so come on out, say hi and if you have a copy of my book we’ll sign it for you. It’s also available as an eBook on all the major formats including Safari Online, Kindle and Nook.
