VMware publishes a list of all server hardware that is supported with vSphere which includes servers, I/O adapters and storage and SAN devices. This list is continually updated and is most commonly referred to as the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL), VMware changed the name for it a while back to the VMware Compatibility Guide as it is now referred to. The guide used to be published as PDF files only that you could read through to see if your hardware was listed but is now available as an online interactive webpage that is searchable and filterable as well. The guide lists hardware that is supported by vSphere but if hardware is not listed it does not mean it will not work with vSphere. In many cases the hardware will still work but because it is not listed VMware may not provide you support if you have problems with it. Servers and storage devices are two areas that are very common where they work with vSphere despite not being listed in the guide. I/O devices like network adapters and storage controllers though are less likely to work if they are not listed because they rely on drivers loaded in the VMkernel to work properly. If the driver is not one of the limited ones load in the VMkernel than your device is not going to work.
I don’t go through the guide that often as I assume the new mainstream hardware from large vendors like HP will always work and be supported. However last week that assumption bit me. We had just received some new hardware from HP which included a DL385 G6 server and an MSA G2 iSCSI storage array. I wanted to use hardware iSCSI initiators with TCP/IP Offload Engines (TOE) due to high CPU and I/O demands of the applications running on that server so I initially ordered HP’s only TOE card that was available which was the NC380T, however after we placed the order we were informed that the card was no longer available and was replaced by the newer NC382T. After receiving everything and assembling it and loading ESX on it I found that the NC382T was not listed under Storage Adapters in the vSphere Client as TOE cards should be as they are not treated as network adapters in vSphere. Only my SATA adapter, P410 smart array controller for local storage, Fibre Channel adapters and iSCSI software iniator were showing up under Storage Adapters.
The NC382T was showing up under Network Adapters instead and could not be used as a hardware initiator.
So this new TOE card from HP that we bought to use as a hardware initiator could not be used for that purpose. After discovering this I checked VMware’s hardware guide to see what HP iSCSI adapters were listed. Much to my surprise there was only one HP model listed and after looking up that adapter on HP’s website I found that it was for blade systems only and was therefore no use to my server.
Now HP OEM’s many of their storage adapters as many of them are made by QLogic and Emulex. Most of the other vendors listed in the guide for iSCSI adapters had many QLogic adapters re-branded under their name but not HP.
After confirming with HP that the blade adapter was the only one that they OEM’d I was forced to get the QLogic branded adapter instead. The card that seemed to be the most popular was the QLE4062C adapter, so now we have one of those on order and may end up just using the NC382T as a regular NIC instead.
So the moral of this story is always check the Compatibility Guide especially when ordering a I/O adapters so you don’t end up with hardware that you can’t use with vSphere. If you want to know more about the guide such as how hardware gets added/removed from it and VMware’s support policy check out this blog post that I did a while ago on it.
Veeam approached me recently and asked if I was interested in writing a white paper for them to coincide with their launch of latest version of Veeam Backup & Recovery (4.0). The timeframe for writing it was short but I accepted it because I was interested in learning more about the vStorage APIs and also Veeam Backup & Recovery. While doing research for it I did learn a lot about the new vStorage APIs that I had not known before. Typically unless you’re a vendor or developer you don’t deal much with APIs, but I’m the curious type though and like to dig deep and find out how things work. There are many important new features in the vStorage APIs and other storage-related APIs in vSphere that are real game-changers for vendors if they choose to take advantage of them. Even if you’re not a developer you should know a bit about them so you have a better understanding of how things work in vSphere.
I learned two additional things while writing the white paper for Veeam, the first is their new 4.0 version of Veeam Backup & Recovery is the first of the many disk to disk backup applications to take full advantage of the new APIs in vSphere, the second is that there are some pretty smart folks at Veeam that are very passionate about their products. I’d like to thank Doug Hazelman & Anton Gostev for answering my many questions about how things work behind the scenes with their product. So go checkout the white paper and more importantly Veeam’s new 4.0 version which I’ll guarantee you’ll be impressed by. Also look for an upcoming tip on searchdatabackup.com that I did that compares how disk to disk backup vendors are using the vStorage APIs and where they are at with their product releases.
VMware just released a new 21 page white paper entitled VMware vSphere 4: The CPU Scheduler in VMware ESX 4 that is all about how the mysterious CPU scheduler functions. This is a highly recommended read and the scheduler is one of the most important components of the hypervisor and therefore you should understand how it functions. The white paper details how the scheduler works, changes made to it in ESX 4, verifies the effectiveness of CPU resource controls including Shares/Reservations/Limits, compares different co-scheduling algorithms and evaluates the performance impact of CPU scheduler changes in ESX 4. Be sure and go check it out.
With VI3 you could run on either 32-bit or 64-bit server hardware but vSphere requires 64-bit hardware because the VMkernel and Service Console are now 64-bit. I did a tip a while ago for searchvmware.com that talks about this in detail and shows how you can test your hardware to see if the CPU supports 64-bit and has some of the other CPU features that vSphere needs for certain features. To briefly summarize that tip:
- Long mode is required to be able to install vSphere, it will not install without it.
- To be able to run 64-bit VM’s on vSphere either the AMD-V or Intel-VT feature is required. Without it you can still run vSphere but are limited to using 32-bit VM’s.
- For the Fault Tolerance feature to work you need specific processors that support Lockstep technology, you can read this KB article to find out which ones have this feature.
Here are some links to various information that can help you better understand all this:
vSphere is now available! Get it while’s it hot (or until their ftp servers collapse from the overload). Be sure and check out my huge collection of vSphere links so you can get the information you need to implement it.
- Get licenses here
- Download it here
- Read documentation here
- Or get it all here
vSphere officially goes on sale on Thursday May 21st according to the information that VMware has published, but will it actually be available on that date for customers to download? Nobody knows for sure (except VMware and they’re not saying) but if I had to bet I would say that it will also be available on May 21st. Why? Several reasons:
- The first reason is why would you sell something if you can’t deliver it, it’s not like VMware to take pre-orders for a product. If they are taking orders for vSphere, customers are going to want the product and they should have it available.
- The second reason is that vSphere is already GA as stated and shown at the April 21st launch event, that means it’s done, no more changes, it’s a final build. Since it’s GA already it’s ready to use, it’s not like VMware has to burn DVD’s and package the product, they simply need to post it to their website for customers to download.
- The third reason is that Cisco announced the Nexus 1000V will be available in early June, they wouldn’t release it unless vSphere was GA, after all why sell something that nobody can use yet.
- Finally VMware had all their SE’s down in San Francisco at the beginning of May, presumably to learn about vSphere. There is nothing preventing them from releasing it, they have had a month since the announcement to prep for the release so they can do things like updating their website, documentation, licensing portal and more. Time to pull the trigger and release the product.
So I guess we’ll find out on Thursday if it’s available or not. If it’s not released then I’ll be surprised and and would expect it shortly afterwards. Everyone is really looking forward to this release so bring it on VMware!
Just came across this great 21 page white paper on vSphere enhancements and the differences compared to VI3. It’s written by Steve Kaplan and Steve Jones from INX, if I had seen this last week it would definitely be on my vSphere Top 10 list.
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