For external partners/clients to send emails to a particular distribution list, you must make sure that you do not require all senders to be authenticated. Here is an error of what might happen if authentication is enabled under the mailflow restrictions options:

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:

colo.alerts@mycompany.com
Your message can't be delivered because delivery to this address is restricted.

Diagnostic information for administrators:
Generating server: mycompany.com
colo.alerts@mycompany.com
#550 5.7.1 RESOLVER.RST.AuthRequired; authentication required ##rfc822;colo.alerts@mycompany.com

Here is a screenshot of the options and walk through:

• Open Exchange Management Console
  Under the Recipient Configuration, click on the Distribution Group
  All the distribution groups in your forest should populate in the console.
• Select the distribution group you would like to edit and double click OR right click and select properties
• Select the Mail Flow Settings Tab
• Double click the "Message Delivery Restrictions" option or select it and click on Properties button
• Make sure that the "Require that all senders are authenticated" option is UNCHECKED
• Click OK button and then Apply or OK button to close the distribution group properties options.
• Test by sending email from an external email address!

Exchange 2010 Distribution Group Properties

If you have any questions or comments or need further help with the above issue, drop by our forums and share. Thanks.

Related posts:

1. Microsoft Exchange 2010 on VMware – Availability and Recovery Options
2. Virtualizing Exchange Server 2010 with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper V Best Practices
3. A reference architecture for virtualized Exchange 2010

The old dell servers, the Poweredge SC440 with Intel 3060 are great for most of the virtual labs and give you the ability to test most of the features found in VMware ESXi/vSphere but I ran into problems when the CPU would not support some of the advance features (HA, FT, etc.). The reason for going for these servers was simple, I already had one in my home network and buying another one would be cheaper and cost effective solution, hence the lab on budget. I did not bother checking if it supported FT/HA or clustering. There were limitations on the amount of RAM the servers supported so that also did not allow more than 5-6 VMs to work efficiently. You could power on as many VMs as possible but its another thing to work with them...

I decided to upgrade and go with Dell Poweredge 1950 Gen III servers. Here are the specs for the two servers:

• Dual E5450 3.0 GHz
• 4x 300GB 10k SAS
• 32GB RAM, server 2 with 16GB RAM
• ESXi loaded on internal USB Flash Drive
• Dual Quadport Intel ET2 Gigabit network Adapters

The price was the main factor which made me go for those specs and servers. Both servers, as configured, with quad port NICs were less than $2,000. I really wanted to buy the R610 or HP Prolinant DL360 G7 but they were just too expensive. The vNEST is running VMware vSphere 5.0. With these servers, I can power on 10, 15, 20 VMs each and the servers hardly notice. I have multiple exchange deployments running, SQL 2008 R2, Ubuntu, vCenter, multiple Active Directory labs in addition to what I use for home computers, a couple of ESXi 4.1 servers in VMs to simulate vSphere 4 setup and VDI in a box with a few windows 7 virtual machines.

I've worked with these servers at the data center, office but in home setup, they could be very noisy. And since they are rack mountable, make sure you get rack which supports servers more than 32" inches in length. I decided to place the lab in my garage, here is picture from the early stages:

There is plenty of room to get in the back and sit if you want to mess with the cables, etc. As of now, both servers are in the rack with the same networking with Cisco 3750G switches. I took out Cisco ASA 5505 and deployed a Cisco 1841 router as ASA had limit on number of VLANs which can be routed. The vNest uses the NAS I had in the older lab, the Thecus N7700PRO for datastores and iSCSI Storage. I haven't had any issues with the NAS yet. If you work with a NAS/SAN vendor, we are interested in doing reviews for your units. Please contact us.

For power, I am using two UPS units (just one is rack mounted as seen above, other is desktop version), and a powerstrip in the back of the rack.

For rack,  I went with the Tripp Lite 12U Rack Enclosure Server Cabinet 33-Inch Deep with Doors and Sides from Amazon (price has gone up significantly from the time I ordered for around $460), new, delivered at my home, FREE!!! It is an excellent rack, the doors on the side really help me reach inside of the rack without having to move it around.

I hope to use this lab for next few years to write tutorials and test out new virtualization software technologies. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post in Virtualization.net's Forums.

Related posts:

1. Building Home Virtualization Lab on a Budget
2. Pella SmartSync to Integrate With Cloud-Based Home Management System
3. Budget iSCSI NAS/SAN option for your Home Lab

Fast Forward to January 2012 and Vmware announced deadline for VCP4 and that you must RETAKE training course in order to take the VCP5 exam. That was UNACCEPTABLE. Frankly, in my opinion, Vmware announced the date prematurely but it doesn't matter now that I've cleared both exams. So, I made it a mission to go through the official documents for VCP4 and read the Mastering vSphere 4 book by Scott Lowe, again! I gave the exam early February but failed... I guess, I missed a couple of questions as score was close. I went back to studying and gave the test again and this time I was successful. That was such a confidence booster that I scheduled the VCP5 exam 8 days after the VCP4 and I am glad I passed it the first time. I guess taking a beating and failing an exam a couple of times makes you good at stuff you are suppose to know for the exam?

Tips for passing

• Study the Official VMware Manuals documents
  Now that VCP4 is gone, VCP5 documentation is much better and organized (it could be better though) so just go through each one of those a couple of times and there is no way you can fail (provided that you remember important details from those documents).
• Pay attention to the "Note: or bullets" in the official documents. That stuff is important. I like to write stuff down on paper if I feel its important, helps me remember otherwise its hard to recall.
• I have a great virtualization lab at home and I used it every step of the way! I retired my existing lab servers and got a couple of great Dell PowerEdge 1950 IIIs. I will write more about that later this week or next. In addition to home lab, I work with this stuff at work as well so that is always helpful with some real world scenarios but every environment has its own real world as compared to the real world that Vmware imagines in the exam.
• I bought the Mastering vSphere 4 and Mastering vSphere 5 books by Scott Lowe. GREAT Books. Go through them at least ONCE ( i read the version 4 twice and 5 just once). Scott provides a lot of ideas and information so even if you fail (hope not) you still get away with great info and ideas.
• Another book which I thought was very useful but extremely technical was the VMware vSphere 4.1 HA and DRS Technical deepdive by Duncan Epping and Frank Denneman - Its a good book if you feel like knowing how HA and DRS work from a very technical point of view. I have and read that as well, just once though.
• I used Simon Long's notes/practice exam as well as Forbes Guthrie's notes on vsphere 4 and vsphere 5. Thanks guys!
• I am not a big fan of video based training, it doesn't help me but if you are then David Davis/TrainSignal make some good training videos on Vmware vSphere products. I must have watched whatever they have available for free thats about it.
• The Vmware mock exam is helpful for some but I think its a joke. If you want to spend hour or so thats okay but I wouldn't waste too much time on it. The mock exam doesn't have questions as close to the real exam as possible, the answer explanation are poor or non existent.. its just poor over all.
• READ each question on the exam a couple of times before answering it. It becomes must clearer. If there is time, try to break it up in parts...

That is it from me. I am glad to be VCP4 and VCP5 and wish you good luck if you plan on taking your exam soon. If you have any tips, questions or comments, please share with me or post in our Virtualization Community Forums.

Related posts:

1. VMware VCP410 Exam Promotion code
2. VMware Virtualization Training and VCP Exam
3. Train Signal Releases VMware vSphere Troubleshooting Training

Installation Completed
The Wizard was interrupted before Vmware vCenter Server could be Completely installed.

Please Refer to the log files vim-vcs-msi.log under the c:\users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\2\ or its subfolders. Please try again after you have resolved the problems.

And the vim-vcs-msi.log displays a lot of information, including this:

VM_StartTomcatImmediate returned actual error code 1603

You can try deleting the temporary install folder under the Temp directory but what fixed the issue for me was that the username and password which vCenter services were using to start was the LOCAL account rather than the domain account. So, in your windows server, open Administrative Tools > Services and go to:

• VMware VirtualCenter Server
• VMware VirtualCenter Management Webservices

Hit the LOG ON tab for each service mentioned above and change the username that its using to a proper domain account. After making the changes, you should be able to start the vCenter 5 services and connect to it using the vSphere client.

The above fix worked for my lab environment which maybe different from yours. Please backup your vcenter database, etc. before making any changes or upgrading. If you have any questions or comments be sure to post them in our Virtualization Support Forums!

Related posts:

1. VMware vConverter: A fatal error occurred Message
2. Using the VMware vCenter Database Pre-Upgrade Checker
3. Poll: VMware vCenter Database Requirements and Issues

Note: Jumbo Frames on software iSCSI for ESX 3.x is an experimental feature and is not a fully supported configuration. Jumbo Frames are fully supported in ESX/ESXi 4.x and ESXi 5.0.

Ensure that you read this important information about Jumbo Frames before working with them:

• ESX/ESXi supports a maximum MTU size of 9000. Note: Some switch configurations for Jumbo Frames need to have an MTU set more than 9000. For more information, see Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Software Configuration Guide.
• Any packet larger than 1500 MTU is a Jumbo Frame. ESX/ESXi supports frames up to 9Kb (9000 Bytes).
• Jumbo Frames are limited to data networking only (virtual machines and the vMotion network).
• It is possible to configure Jumbo Frames for an iSCSI network. It is not a fully supported configuration in ESX 3.5, but it is supported in ESX/ESXi 4.x and ESXi 5.0.
• You can enable Jumbo Frames for each vSwitch or VMkernel interface through the command line interface on your ESX host.
• To allow ESX host to send larger frames out onto the physical network, the network must support Jumbo Frames end to end.
• Ensure that your NIC or LOM supports Jumbo Frames.
• For experimental support of Jumbo Frames in ESX 3.5, these NICs are supported:
• Intel (82546, 82571)
• Broadcom (5708, 5706, 5709, 57710, 57711)
• Netxen (NXB-10GXxR, NXB-10GCX4)
• Neterion (Xframe, Xframe II, Xframe E)
• For ESX/ESXi 4.x and ESXi 5.0, contact your NIC hardware vendor regarding support for Jumbo Frames.
• You cannot use Jumbo Frames on a Broadcom card that is configured as a hardware initiator performing iSCSI offload functions. You can either use Jumbo Frames or iSCSI Offload and you cannot use both together with the Broadcom adapters.

Creating a Jumbo Frames-enabled vSwitch

To create a Jumbo Frames-enabled vSwitch:

1. Log in directly to the ESX host console.
2. To set the MTU size for the vSwitch:
1. Run this command for ESX 3.5 and ESX/ESXi 4.x:esxcfg-vswitch -m MTU vSwitch#

    

2. Run this command for ESXi 5.0:esxcli network vswitch standard set -m MTU -v vSwitch#

   Note: This command sets the MTU for all uplinks on that vSwitch. Set the MTU size to the largest MTU size among all the virtual network adapters connected to the vSwitch.

3. To display a list of vSwitches on the host, and to check that the configuration of the vSwitch is correct:
• Run this command for ESX 3.5 and ESX/ESXi 4.x:esxcfg-vswitch -l

   

• Run this command for ESXi 5.0:esxcli network vswitch standard list

Creating a Jumbo Frames-enabled VMkernel interface

To create a Jumbo Frames-enabled VMkernel interface:

1. Log in directly to the ESX host console.
2. To create a VMkernel connection with Jumbo Frames support, run this command to create the port group on an existing switch:esxcfg-vswitch -A vmkernel_port_group_name vSwitch#

   Note:If you plan to have a vSwitch which just contains the iSCSI port group you can specify the MTU for the vSwitch to be 9000 and not specify the MTU when creating the vmkernel port in the next step.

   esxcfg-vswitch -m 9000 vSwitch#

    

3. To create a VMkernel connection with Jumbo Frame support:
• Run this command for ESX 3.5 and ESX/ESXi 4.x:esxcfg-vmknic -a -i ip_address -n netmask -m MTU portgroup_name

  Note:If the vmnic port is already created, use the command for ESX/ESXi 4.1 only:

  esxcfg-vmknic -m 9000 portgroup_name

   

• Run this command for ESXi 5.0:esxcli network ip interface set -m 9000 -i vmk_interface

   

4. To display a list of VMkernel interfaces, and to check that the configuration of the Jumbo Frame‐enabled interface is correct:
• Run this command for ESX 3.5 and ESX/ESXi 4.x:esxcfg-vmknic -l

   

• Run this command for ESXi 5.0:esxcli network ip interface list

Related posts:

1. How to Upgrade from ESX/ESXi 4.1 to ESX/ESXi 4.1 Update 1
2. VMware vSphere ESXi Migration Flowchart
3. Installing Drivers for Additional NICs in VMware ESXi Server

When datastore housing the VM runs out of diskspace, you will not be able to create new VMs, power on existing VMs, and may notice performance issues with the VMs that are running.

Here is how to fix the error and successfully vMotion the VM:

Turning OFF or reducing the memory size on VM will reduce the amount of space required for memory swap file and that will free up disk space on the datastore (housing other VMs).

Using VMware converter to copy the VM to another host or datastore, the new VM will not have a snapshot.

For Future or NEW VMs, you also have an option to store the swap files with the VM or another datastore on non-replicated LUN. In vCenter, click on a HOST, go to CONFIGURATION tab and then "Swap file location" then click on EDIT for list of options.

In order to avoid dealing with .vswp file (allocating extra space for those files), you may make reservation for the virtual machine that is equal to amount of RAM assigned to it. For example, if you have a VM with 4GB RAM assigned, you can edit the VM settings > Resource tab to get to the reservation settings for memory, CPU of a VM.

I hope above helps you avoid future out of space or missing snapshot errors. If you have questions or comments or another virtualization support issue, please post in our discussion forums.

Related posts:

1. Unable to connect to MKS: Virtual machine config file does not exist
2. Invalid configuration for device 4 Error When Cloning or vMotion a Virtual Machine
3. Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 5.0

I experienced this error in my lab over the weekend and removing the VM from the vDS portgroup fixed the issue. According to VMware, the cause of this issue is that during the clone procedure, a vDS port requires a reservation. This issue occurs if the reservation expires too quickly.

Here is step by step how to (applies to vSphere 4.0/4.1, may also work for 5.0):

1. Launch the vSphere Client
2. RIGHT click on the VM which is producing this error and click on EDIT SETTINGS.
3. Under the Hardware tab, check the settings for all the Network Adapter devices.
4. Click on Network Adapter 1 and then change the Network Connection-Network Label from vDS portgroup to Standard vSwitch.
5. Perform the vMotion or clone again
6. After the task in #5 completes, add the VM back to the vDS portgroup.

You should be all done. One thing worth mentioning here is that when you start the vmotion/clone process on a VM, vsphere client does give you an 'warning' under the compatibility:

Network interface 'Network Adapter 1' uses newtork 'Distributed Virtual Switch (uuid), which is not accessible.

But for some reason still allows the user to click "next" only to fail later in the task.

If you have any questions, comments or support issues, be sure to join us in our Virtualization Forum and register in order to ask any queries.

Related posts:

1. Maximizing Virtual Machine Scalability with iSCSI Storage
2. VMware vConverter: A fatal error occurred Message
3. Mapped direct-access LUN that is not accessible error

A fatal error occurred. The reason for this might be a Network connection failure. The wizard will close now.
Please check your network connection and try again.

The error itself doesn't tell you anything useful other than the fact that its from vConverter but RESTARTING services below will fix your problem:

• VMware vCenter Converter Integrated Server
• VMware vCenter Converter Integrated Worker

Related posts:

1. vSphere Client: Call “Service Instance Retrieve Content” for object “Service Instance”
2. Poll: VMware vCenter Database Requirements and Issues
3. ManageEngine Applications Manager Deepens VMware Monitoring

View Aliases

Connect to your vSphere ESXi or vCenter server using the "connect-viserver" cmdlet.

Once connected, issue the follow cmdlet to get list of all of the configured aliases:

• [vSphere PowerCLI] C:\> get-alias

You can also use "gal" (alias for get-alias) cmdlet to get list of aliases.

• [vSphere PowerCLI] C:\> gal

Create Aliases

In this example, we will create two aliases for existing cmdlets: get-vm and get-host

• [vSphere PowerCLI] C:\> New-Item Alias:gvm -Value Get-VM
• [vSphere PowerCLI] C:\> gvm

• [vSphere PowerCLI] C:\> New-Item Alias:gvh -value Get-VMHost
• [vSphere PowerCLI] C:\> gvh

Export and Import Aliases

When you configure aliases in PowerShell, they are only available for that particular session and are deleted once the session ends. You may export aliases using the export cmdlet or edit your PowerShell profile script file to add your additions. To see location of your profile, issue $profile at the command prompt:

• [vSphere PowerCLI] C:\> $profile

C:\Users\YourUsername\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

Use the Export-Alias cmdlet to export aliases into the PowerShell script file above:

• [vSphere PowerCLI] C:\> export-alias
  cmdlet Export-Alias at command pipeline position 1
  Supply values for the following parameters:
  Path: C:\Users\YourUsername\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1
• [vSphere PowerCLI] C:\>

You can also edit the "Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1" file directly, add your aliases and import using the import-alias cmdlet

• [vSphere PowerCLI] C:\> import-alias

The process is similar to export-alias cmdlet, you may encounter errors for aliases which were already imported when you started the PowerShell/PowerCLI session.

You can learn more about PowerCLI, at Vmware's PowerCLI documentation page.

I hope this helps you manage your VMware vsphere environment better and saves you time. Please keep in mind that above cmdlets may or may not work in your environment, so always test in non-production environment first as I am not responsible for your mistakes.

Discuss this and other virtualization management ideas, techniques in our virtualization forum.

Related posts:

1. How to use VMware PowerCLI to get All VM Mac Addresses?
2. Interview with Dimitar Hristov – VMware vSphere PowerCLI Engineering Team
3. The upcoming revolution of PowerCLI with VMware

I was trying to track down a VM and did not want to go through 100 VMs just to find out what MAC address its NICs had. I knew the IP address this particular mac address was mapped to and found that out using "show arp" command on cisco router:
#show arp

Protocol	Address	Age(min)	Hardware Address	Type	Interface
Internet	192.168.1.207	8	0050.56b8.65a1	ARPA	GigabitEthernet0/0

Once I knew the MAC address was in fact a VM (0050.56xx.xxxx mac addresses are used by VMware for its virtual NICs), I opened up Windows Powershell and executed this command (you will need PowerCLI installed and loaded):

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-VM | `
>> Select-Object -Property Name,@{N="MacAdresses";E={$_.NetworkAdapters | ForEach-Object {$_.MacAddress}}},VMHost
>>

Name	MacAddresses	VMHost
myTestVM	{00:50:56:b8:65:a1, 00:50:56:86:00:0b}	192.168.1.222

Both (from cisco router ARP and VMware PowerCLI) show same MAC address mapped to myTestVM on host 192.168.1.222. Now you can safely disable that NIC or change IP address on it (in case of duplicate IP issues, etc.)

On older version of powerCLI, you may get this warning message:
WARNING: 'NetworkAdapters' property is obsolete. Use 'Get-NetworkAdapter' cmdlet instead.

So, be sure to change the command if necessary. Your setup and deployment maybe different from mine so make sure you are aware of the risks and I take no responsibility for your wrong doing.

If you have any questions on this or other tutorials, post in our Virtualization Forum.

Related posts:

1. The upcoming revolution of PowerCLI with VMware
2. Interview with Dimitar Hristov – VMware vSphere PowerCLI Engineering Team
3. How to Upgrade from ESX/ESXi 4.1 to ESX/ESXi 4.1 Update 1