1. Dump a specific disk via the VCB Proxy monolithic(1 big chunk):
   Open a cmd and goto your VCB installation path
   “vcbexport.exe -M 1 -d test01.vmdk -s TestVM/TestVM.vmdk”
2. Any swapping going on or more info on memory usage in general:
   Open a putty sesion to your ESX box
   “watch -n 1 cat /proc/vmware/sched/mem”
3. Reinitialize the VirtualCenter Database:
   Stop the service
   Start vpxd.exe with the option “-b”
   CAUTION, this will wipe out the entire database, this is a last resort!

Anyway, over the next couple weeks, as I also wrote yesterday, their will be less activity on this blog. I will probably be very busy reading up, meeting people, filling in forms etc.

open ESX console ,via putty and type the following
vm-support -x
result: all the VMID’s also known as World ID’s,

And if you’re colleagues hardly ever clean up their snapshots:

find /vmfs/volumes -iname “*delta.vmdk”
result: every delta file gets listed, including the unregistered and/or orphaned snapshots ones!


Get-VIServer -Server 192.168.1.1 -User admin -Password admin

$Report = @()

get-vm | % {
$vm = Get-View $_.ID
$ReportRow = "" | Select-Object VMName, Hostname, OS, IPAddress, VMState, TotalCPU, TotalMemory, MemoryUsage, TotalNics, ToolsStatus, ToolsVersion, MemoryLimit, MemoryReservation
$ReportRow.VMName = $vm.Name
$ReportRow.HostName = $vm.guest.hostname
$ReportRow.OS = $vm.guest.guestFullName
$ReportRow.IPAddress = $vm.guest.ipAddress
$ReportRow.VMState = $vm.summary.runtime.powerState
$ReportRow.TotalCPU = $vm.summary.config.numcpu
$ReportRow.TotalMemory = $vm.summary.config.memorysizemb
$ReportRow.MemoryUsage = $vm.summary.quickStats.guestMemoryUsage
$ReportRow.TotalNics = $vm.summary.config.numEthernetCards
$ReportRow.ToolsStatus = $vm.guest.toolsstatus
$ReportRow.ToolsVersion = $vm.config.tools.toolsversion
$ReportRow.MemoryLimit = $vm.resourceconfig.memoryallocation.limit
$ReportRow.MemoryReservation = $vm.resourceconfig.memoryallocation.reservation
$Report += $ReportRow
}
$Report | Export-CSV c:\export.csv


Especially changing the amount of active nics in a team can be useful, and enabling vmotion via the vimsh command. This changed since ESX 3.5. Setting IP-Hash was also a nice one to figure out


# Regional Settings
keyboard us
lang en_US
langsupport --default en_US
timezone Europe/Amsterdam

# Installatition settings
skipx
mouse none
firewall --disabled
# Unencrypted root password:
rootpw --iscrypted
reboot
install

# Driver disks

# Load drivers

# Bootloader options
bootloader --location=mbr --driveorder=sda

# Authentication
auth --enableshadow --enablemd5

# Partitioning
clearpart --all --drives=sda --initlabel
part /boot --fstype ext3 --size=250 --ondisk sda --asprimary
part / --fstype ext3 --size=6144 --ondisk sda --asprimary
part /var/log --fstype ext3 --size=2048 --ondisk sda
part swap --size=1600 --ondisk sda --asprimary
part /tmp --fstype ext3 --size=1024 --ondisk sda
part None --fstype vmkcore --size=110 --ondisk sda
part None --fstype vmfs3 --size=1 --grow --ondisk sda

# Network Configurations # VARIABEL
network --device eth0 --bootproto static --ip 10.40.254.201 --netmask 255.255.254.0 --nameserver 10.40.1.251 --hostname esx01.yellow-bricks.local --addvmportgroup=0

# VMWare License options
vmaccepteula
vmlicense --mode=server --server=27000@vc01.yellow-bricks.local --edition=esxfull --features=backup,vsmp

%vmlicense_text

%packages
@base

%post

cat > /tmp/esxcfg.sh <

#!/bin/sh

# enable SSH root-access
mv /etc/ssh/sshd_config /etc/ssh/sshd_config.old
/bin/sed -e "s/PermitRootLogin no/PermitRootLogin yes/g" /etc/ssh/sshd_config.old > /etc/ssh/sshd_config
/etc/init.d/sshd restart

# Upsize console memory
mv -f /etc/vmware/esx.conf /etc/vmware/esx.conf.old
/bin/sed -e ’s/boot\/memSize = \”272\”/boot\/memSize = \”800\”/g’ /etc/vmware/esx.conf.old >> /etc/vmware/esx.conf
mv -f /boot/grub/grub.conf /tmp/grub.conf.bak
/bin/sed -e ’s/uppermem 277504/uppermem 818176/g’ -e ’s/mem=272M/mem=800M/g’ /tmp/grub.conf.bak >> /boot/grub/grub.conf

# DNS and Gateway
mv /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf.old
echo “search yellow-bricks.local” >> /etc/resolv.conf
echo “nameserver 10.40.1.251″ >> /etc/resolv.conf
echo “nameserver 10.40.1.252″ >> /etc/resolv.conf
echo “GATEWAY=10.40.254.1″ >> /etc/sysconfig/network

# set uselunreset enabled and devicereset disabled
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /Disk/UseDeviceReset
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-advcfg -s 1 /Disk/UseLunReset

# set queuedepth for qlogic adapter
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-module -s ql2xmaxqdepth=64 qla2300_707_vmw.o
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-boot -b

# add extrra nic to vSwitch0
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic3 vSwitch0

# Create a vswitch with 2 nics, a vlan and ip-hash
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch1
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -A “Server vlan 10″ vSwitch1
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic1 vSwitch1
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic4 vSwitch1

# Create a vswitch with 2 nics, a vlan
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch2
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -A VMotion vSwitch2
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic2 vSwitch2
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic5 vSwitch2
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vmknic -a VMotion -i 10.40.199.201 -n 255.255.255.0
sleep 3

# refresh nic settings with vimsh
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/net/refresh”
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “internalsvc/refresh_network”

# Active and standby setup and maxActive from 1 to 2
mv /etc/vmware/esx.conf /tmp/esx.conf.bak
/bin/sed -e ’s/net\/vswitch\/child\[0001\]\/teamPolicy\/maxActive = \”1\”/net\/vswitch\/child\[0001\]\/teamPolicy\/maxActive = \”2\”/g’ /tmp/esx.conf.bak >> /etc/vmware/esx.conf

/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/net/portgroup_set –nicorderpolicy-active=vmnic2 –nicorderpolicy-standby=vmnic5 vSwitch2 VMotion”
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/net/portgroup_set –nicorderpolicy-active=vmnic0 –nicorderpolicy-standby=vmnic3 vSwitch0 ‘Service Console’”

/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/net/refresh”
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “internalsvc/refresh_network”

# Activiate IP Hash and 2 actieve nics on vSwitch1
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -U vmnic1 vSwitch1
sleep 3
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -U vmnic4 vSwitch1
sleep 3
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic1 vSwitch1
sleep 3
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic4 vSwitch1
sleep 5
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/net/refresh”
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “internalsvc/refresh_network”

/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/net/vswitch_setpolicy –nicteaming-policy=loadbalance_ip vSwitch1″

# VLAN ID portgroups
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -p “Server vlan 10″ -v 10 vSwitch1
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -p VMotion -v 199 vSwitch2
sleep 5
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/net/refresh”
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “internalsvc/refresh_network”

# fill up Host file
rm -rf /etc/hosts
echo “# Do not remove the following line, or various programs” >> echo /etc/hosts
echo “# that require network functionality will fail.” >> /etc/hosts
echo “127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost” >> /etc/hosts
echo “10.40.254.201 esx01.yellow-bricks-nhn.local esx01″ >> /etc/hosts
echo “10.40.254.202 esx02.yellow-bricks.local esx02″ >> /etc/hosts
echo “10.40.254.200 vc01.yellow-bricks.local vc01″ >> /etc/hosts

# enable and configure ntp
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-firewall –enableService ntpClient
mv /etc/ntp.conf /etc/ntp.conf.old
mv /etc/ntp/step-tickers /etc/ntp/step-tickers.old
echo “restrict 127.0.0.1″ >> /etc/ntp.conf
echo “restrict default kod nomodify notrap” >> /etc/ntp.conf
echo “server 10.40.254.11″ >> /etc/ntp.conf
echo “server 10.40.254.12″ >> /etc/ntp.conf
echo “driftfile /var/lib/ntp/drift” >> /etc/ntp.conf
echo “10.40.254.11″ >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers
echo “10.40.254.12″ >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers
/sbin/chkconfig –level 345 ntpd on
/etc/init.d/ntpd restart
/sbin/hwclock –systohc

# Enable VMotion
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_set vmk0″

/etc/init.d/mgmt-vmware restart

EOF1

/bin/chmod 755 /tmp/esxcfg.sh
cp /etc/rc.d/rc.local /etc/rc.d/rc.local.bak
cat >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local < cd /tmp
/tmp/esxcfg.sh
mv -f /etc/rc.d/rc.local.bak /etc/rc.d/rc.local
EOF

Another thing that people don’t know is the way “delete all” works, but I’ve already outlined that a while ago in a blog.

When you’ve got for instance a 10 levels deep nested snapshot tree with a very large last snapshot it would almost be impossible to press delete all because it will take up a lot of disk space. It would consume a lot of time doing a “delete” for every snapshot, and still it would always take up additional diskspace.

Another way to remove the snapshot is just by cloning the VM to another Datastore. This way you don’t need the extra disk space on the same datastore, and it might be a good moment to consider re-loadbalancing your lun’s again. But for some weird reason this doesn’t always commit your snapshot. VMware just posted a nice KB article on how do the same using the vmkfstools command.

If a clone through the VMware Infrastructure 3 client did not commit the snapshots; you can try to export the disk with vmkfstools to recreate the virtual machine:

1. Run the following command to create a directory for the new disk:

[root@bs-tse-d06 RHEL5]# mkdir /vmfs/volumes/openfiler-iscsi/new_RHEL5

2. Run the following command to point vmkfstools at the last snapshot file:

[root@bs-tse-d06 RHEL5]# vmkfstools -i RHEL5-000001.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/openfiler
iscsi/new_RHEL5/new_RHEL5.vmdk

Destination disk format: VMFS thick
Cloning disk ‘RHEL5-000001.vmdk’…
Clone: 3% done
[root@bs-tse-d06 RHEL5]#

3. Recreate the machine. Select Use an existing virtual disk.

1. Disable the pre-logon screensaver:
   Open Regedit
   HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop
   Change the value of “ScreenSaveActive” to 0.
2. Disable updates of the last access time attribute for your NTFS filesystem, especially for i/o intensive vm’s this is a real boost:
   Open CMD
   fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1
3. Disable all visual effects:
   Properties on your desktop
   Appearance -> Effects
   Disable all options.
4. Disable mouse pointer shadow:
   Control Panel -> Mouse
   Click on the tab “pointers” and switch “enable pointer shadow” off.

So if you’ve got an addition, please post it and I’ll keep updating this blog post!

A couple of outtakes:

I’ve been working with 10 joint VMware/EMC customers this week in NY, NJ and Houston (phew!), and was in Australia the week before last where there were 2 more. Out of those 12, 4 asked me questions about the applicability of “stretching” their ESX clusters across geographic distances - that’s 33%, and absolutely above the “man, I should write a blog on the topic” threshold.

So, what are we talking about?

A stretched cluster is the practice of having ESX member servers in a cluster that are geographically separated. The reason this is generally done is to provide the ability to dynamically move workloads from one datacenter to another. Often, the customer is also considering it for disaster recovery purposes (”I’ll just VMotion in case of a disaster”). Can this be done - ABSOLUTELY - but not considered lightly.

read more…

I guess it was inevitable, but it’s still depressing. Traveling around the world means I read a LOT of magazines - there’s that 15 minutes of airplane ascent and decent where my usual toys (PSP, iPod, DS) are verboten. Some stuff (like the Economist) I read to expand my horizons, some stuff (like Maximum PC) I read as the nerd equivalent of Maxim (completely vacuous brain mush).

I couldn’t resist the headline of this month’s Windows IT Pro: “Virtualization Wars: Hyper-V vs. ESX Server ”

read more…

I am so not into protocol and transport wars - BUT that still doesn’t change the fact that the future is Ethernet-connected. So, then what about protocol? iSCSI, NFS, or FCoE? Well - NFS will continue to do well - it works well, there’s nothing wrong with it - and it will always have the strengths that it has in the VMware context (so easy to create massive datastores that span ESX clusters or even sites). iSCSI will continue to grow wildly (it is the fastest growing in the market at large, and in EMC’s portfolio) and is (IMHO - I’m still in love) the future of the block storage market en masse. BUT, I’m starting to come around on FCoE.

read more…

To reduce latency, ensure that the sum of active commands from all virtual machines does not consistently exceed the LUN queue depth. Either increase the queue depth as shown in the VMware Infrastructure 3 Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide (the maximum recommended queue depth is 64) or move the virtual disks of some virtual machines to a different VMFS volume. You can find the guide at
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_san_cfg.pdf.
Also make sure to set the Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding parameter to the same value as the queue depth. If this parameter is given a higher value than the queue depth, it is still capped at the queue depth. However, if this parameter is given a lower value than the queue depth, only that many outstanding commands are issued from the ESX kernel to the LUN from all virtual machines. The Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding setting has no effect when there is only one virtual machine issuing I/O to the LUN.