Storage Protocol Comparison - A vSphere Perspective

Interesting blog by Chogan ( VMware vSphere Blog) comparing Storage Protocols without really talking about the performance side but looking at it from vSphere perspective.

Things like:

• Implementation Options
• Load Balancing
• Resilience
• Ease of configuration

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/02/storage-protocol-comparison-a-vsphere-perspective.html

VCAP5-DCD Study Group

Although VCAP 5 Exam Blueprints series haven't been released.

Alastair Cooke has hosted  APAC series of the ProfessionalVMware.com BrownBags

Two sessions have been conducted;

2 February – Overview, Design methodology and Business Requirements
http://professionalvmware.com/2012/02/apac-brownbag-follow-up-vcap-dcd-study-group/

9 February – Storage Design
http://professionalvmware.com/2012/02/apac-brownbag-vcap-dcd-storage-follow-up/

 
You can register for the sessions on GoToMeeting at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/505624097

SRM 5 in a Box

SRM 5 in a Box

 VMware Site Recovery Manager 5 & NetApp Simulator 8.

Had to do some testing with SRM and decided to build a lab. So I documented the process.

The document has the following section.

1    Introduction   
2    LAB Setup   
3    LAB Environment   
4    LAB Build steps   
Step 1 – Setting up Workstation   
Step 2 – Build Domain Controller (DC01)   
Step 3 – Build vCenter Servers (VC01 and VC02)   
Step 4 – Build ESXi Host (ESX01 & ESX02)   
Step 5 – Add ESX to vCenter   
Step 6 – NetApp Simulator   
Step 7 – OnCommand System Manager 2.0R1   
Step 8 – Create an iSCSI LUN and add to ESXi   
Step 9 – Install SRM   
Step 11 – Configure SRM (Sites and Array Managers)   
Step 12 – Configure SRM (Protection Groups)   
Step 13 – Configure SRM (Recovery Plan)   
Step 14 – Configure SRM (Run Test)

1     Introduction

This document came to being with the requirement to be familiar with SRM 5. As you can’t substitute hands on time and the only time I can get is “Lab time”, I decided to see what was out there in terms of Lab setups and what I’ll need to set my LAB up.

First port of call was Google! The most popular result was a document titled “SRM in a Box” by  Tomas ten Dam  (http://tendam.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/srm-in-a-box-final-release-the-complete-setup/) hence the title of this document. I would like to thank Tomas for his great work on the his document.

The information in this document are the steps I used to build a LAB where I could test SRM 5 and NetApp Simulator and not real world SRM architecture. It is only for testing and educational purposes.

2     LAB Setup

Hardware

What I used.

The Physical Host PC:

·         AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Processor 3.2 GHz

·         16 GB RAM DDR3

·         VMware Workstation 8.x.

·         Windows 7 Pro  64 Bit

·         120 Gig Corsair Force GT SSD

Software

What I used.

·         Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter

·         SQL ManagementStudio x64

·         The Netapp simulator 8.1

·         VMware vCenter (VMware-VIMSetup-all-5.0.0-456005)

·         VMware SRM 5.0.0  474459

·         The Netapp SRA 2.0

·         OnCommand System Manger 2.0R1

·         A ESXi 5 Build 469512

·         Putty

3     LAB Environment

We’ll go through setting up lab environment. The LAB will be divided into two sites consisting of 1 ESXi 5 host, 1 vCenter Server and a NetApp Simulator for Storage. There will be also 1 DC/Management Server managing both sites as shown in diagram below.

From a network perspective we are going to use a flat network (NAT on VM) for ease of setup and troubleshooting. I used 192.168.44.x range.

 The complete document can be found here.

Top 25 Free Tools for VMware vSphere presented by David Davis and Kendrick Coleman

The guys have uploaded a video.

Top 25 Free Tools for VMware vSphere presented by David Davis and Kendrick Coleman

Below are links to some of free tools available.  Some sites have multiple tools.

Youtube
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vWnb6BMj9U4

Trainsignal
http://www.trainsignal.com/blog/videos/free-vsphere-tools-webinar

Kendrick Coleman
http://www.kendrickcoleman.com/index.php?/Tech-Blog/a-list-of-free-vmware-vsphere-tools.html


1. http://read.virtualizeplanet.com/?p=381
2. http://labs.vmware.com/flings/vcma
3. http://labs.vmware.com/flings/boomerang
4. http://labs.vmware.com/flings/vgc
5. http://labs.vmware.com/flings/cloudcleaner
6. http://labs.vmware.com/flings/onyx
7. http://labs.vmware.com/flings/xvp
8. http://www.veeam.com/esxi-monitoring-free.html?ad=menu Veeam Monitor
9. http://www.robware.net/ RVtools
10. http://www.vmturbo.com/products/community-edition/
11. http://xtravirt.com/valarm-free-desktop-tool-for-monitoring-vcenter-alarms
12. http://xtravirt.com/vsphere-client-rdp-plug-in
13. http://xangati.com/try-it-free/
14. http://www.vkernel.com/products/free-vm-assessment-tools
15. http://powergui.org/index.jspa
16. http://www.quest.com/powergui-freeware/
17. http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/p/vghetto-script-repository.html
18. http://nickapedia.com/2011/11/03/straighten-up-with-a-new-uber-tool-presenting-uberalign/
19. http://www.run-virtual.com/?page_id=38
20. http://www.thinware.net/Products/vBackup/tabid/202/Default.aspx

VMware vMotion in VMware vSphere 5: Architecture, Performance & Best Practices (VSP2122)

For people who couldnt get to VMworld here a good session that has been uploaded.

VMware vMotion in VMware vSphere 5: Architecture, Performance & Best Practices (VSP2122)

Outline

• Architecture
• Enhancements in vSphere 5
• Testing Metholodogy
• Perfrormance and test Results
• Best Practice
• Conclusions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=uQR-gM0lEd8

Troubleshooting ESX virtual machine performance issues

VMware have created a KB that has a list of other KB's that help in troubleshooting virtual environments.

Tuning ESX/ESXi for better storage performance by modifying the maximum I/O block size

Balloon driver retains hold on memory causing virtual machine guest operating system performance issues
ESX has performance issues due to IRQ sharing
Enabling IOAT and Jumbo frames
Troubleshooting network performance issues
Analyzing SCSI Reservation conflicts on VMware Infrastructure 3.x and vSphere 4.x
Determining if multiple virtual CPUs are causing performance issues
Slow performance caused by misconfigured local storage or SAN array
Slow performance caused by out of date firmware on a RAID controller or HBA
Testing virtual machine storage I/O performance
[Internal] ESX and EMC storage performance tips
iSCSI and Jumbo Frames configuration on ESX 3.x, ESX 4.x and ESXi 5.x
Using esxtop to identify storage performance issues
Configuring Jumbo Frames on a vNetwork Distributed Switch
Verifying correct storage settings on ESX 4.x and ESXi 4.x
Network I/O Resource Management in vSphere 4.1 with vDS
Impact of virtual machine memory and CPU resource limits
Checking your firmware and BIOS levels to ensure compatibility with ESX/ESXi
Enabling Jumbo Frames for VMkernel ports in a virtual distributed switch
Changing the Queue Depth for QLogic and Emulex HBAs
High co-stop (%CSTP) values seen during virtual machine snapshot activities

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2001003

VDS Best Practices -cont

Continuing  from VMware Networking blog. The final two parts are up.

• Blade Server Deployments
• Operational best practices

Part 5 - Blade Server Deployments

• Blade Server with Two 10 Gigabit Ethernet network adapters
• Design Option 1 – Static Configuration
• Design Option 2 – Dynamic Configuration with NIOC and LBT
• Blade Server with Hardware assisted Logical network adapters (HP-Flex10 like deployment)

http://blogs.vmware.com/networking/2011/12/vds-best-practices-blade-server-deployments.html

Part 6 - Operational best practices

• Command Line Interface
• vCenter API
• Virtual Network Monitoring and Troubleshooting
• Conclusion

 http://blogs.vmware.com/networking/2011/12/vds-best-practices-operational-aspects.html