July 2011 archive

Jul 08 2011

Installing and configuring VMware ESXi

VMware announced that ESXi will be the exclusive hypervisor of vSphere 5. As such, we will likely see a greater adoption of VMware’s smaller hypervisor.

ESXi can be either embedded on a server (boot from flash) or installed on existing servers, using the Installable version. The free version of ESXi, the VMware vSphere Hypervisor, includes support for virtual symmetric multiprocessing (vSMP) and thin provisioning. No additional features are included, which means the free version of ESXi cannot be managed by vCenter Server, because it does not include a vCenter Server agent. To gain additional features and a vCenter Server agent, you need to upgrade your ESXi license.

The ESXi installation uses about 5 GB of space. Any remaining space on the drive is automatically formatted as a Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) partition. The hypervisor needs roughly 32 MB; the additional space is used for VMware Tools as well as swap and core dump partitions.

If you already have existing licenses for ESX, you can also choose to deploy ESXi in place of ESX on a server. Simply download ESXi installable. Install it and then license it with vCenter Server, as you would a traditional ESX server. Follow the steps below to install and configure ESXi.

Read the full article at searchvmware.com…

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Jul 08 2011

CapacityIQ: Installing VMware’s capacity planning tool

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ is a capacity planning tool that adds much-needed reporting features to vCenter Server. While the installation process is pretty straightforward, some subtle configuration choices can optimize CapacityIQ deployment.

CapacityIQ seamlessly integrates with vCenter Server, and it offers detailed infrastructure metrics, such as CPU, memory and disk I/O. This capacity planning tool offers information so VMware administrators can plan for future capacity, control VM sprawl and streamline resource usage.

The installation and configuration requires you to download the appliance and set up the storage and networking. When linking CapacityIQ to vCenter Server, you’ll designate which hosts and virtual machines should be analyzed by adjusting vCenter Server permissions.

Read the full article at searchvmware.com…

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Jul 08 2011

Top five lessons learned from a virtualization veteran

I’ve been involved with virtualization for almost six years now, and I’m still learning new things about the technology — and the community around it — every day.

The major benefits of virtualization are well known to even the most novice users, but some of its gotchas and drawbacks only become apparent through years of experience. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned during my years working with virtualization:

100% virtualization: Not always a good thing
Being 100% virtualized may give you bragging rights, but it’s not always practical. I learned this one the hard way during a data center power outage.

Leaving some core infrastructure components, such as DNS, DHCP and Active Directory, on physical servers can get you up and running more quickly in the event of a major problem. Virtual hosts are typically dependent on other infrastructure components, and if those components are not available, it can prevent your hosts from starting properly.

Being 96% virtualized is good enough. I like having the safety net of part of my critical infrastructure running on physical servers.

Read the full article at searchvmware.com…

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Jul 07 2011

Register for VMware’s special event on 7/12 or else…

… Mr. T will come whoop your butt.

mr-t-712

Seriously though, if you’re involved in virtualization in any way, VMware’s special event on 7/12 is one you really can’t afford to miss. VMware is being vague on what the event is about but you should be able to put two and three together and come up with five. The reason VMware is being purposely vague is because their lawyers told to them be (yeah it sucks being a public company sometimes). But just because you came up with five doesn’t tell the whole story, you’re probably expecting to hear about something related to five but their is much more to it than that. VMware will be making more announcements than you will be expecting and you definitely want to hear what they have to say.

I am one of four bloggers invited to attend the event live, it is not being held in Palo Alto like the vSphere announcement was but instead in San Francisco much like an Apple event. The event starts at 9:00am PST and will go for until about 12:00 PST, below is the schedule for everything:

  • 9:00-9:45 Paul and Steve present – live online streaming
  • 10:00-12:00 three tracks of deep dive breakout sessions
  • 10:00-12:00 live Q&A with VMware cloud and virtualization experts

After the event David Davis & I are going to try and get some Q&A time with Steve Herrod and record a live vChat, so if you have any questions for him send them to us. So register now, seriously you don’t want to miss this one, their are some exciting times ahead for VMware!

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