As I alluded to yesterday, I am changing roles here at VMware. I am thrilled to have been chosen to fill a brand new role of Social Media Specialist.

I’ll be the eyes & ears for VMware in the social networking world, assisting where I can in getting the information you need in your hands. It’s less of a technical role (I will not be working your tech support cases online!), but if I know of a self-help resource for you, I’ll send you the link.

If you’re a Twitterer, follow me: @vmwarecares

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VMware Cares

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As I wrap up my stint on the Knowledge Base Team at VMware (I’ll tell you what I’m up to next in another post) I came across a handy index, or table of contents for the whole knowledgebase, available on one page!

Click here to see the KB Index.

Sure makes it easy to search!

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Index of Knowledge Base Articles

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This is not official or even verified, but I have heard recently that the vm-support script for ESX 4.0 hosts doesn’t behave quite the same as what we’ve become accustomed to in the past.

In some cases, the information that would normally be in the /tmp directory of the untarred vm-support output will instead be located in:

/usr/lib/vmware/hostd/docroot/downloads

From what I’ve heard, this does not happen in all instances, and /tmp will be populated with the files that we have learned to expect from the ESX 3 family.

There is one more odd-ball to this mystery, where it is suggested that running vm-support from the COS vs from vSphere Client will result in different behavior, again, I have not verified this. It may or may not be related to where the script run is triggered, or instead by other circumstances unrelated to how the script was called.

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ESX 4 vm-support script

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An issue has been reported in the field regarding delays and slow performance when using the View Client if HTTP 1.1 has not been enabled in Internet Explorer.

This may be seen when:

1. Connecting to the View Connection Server
2. Logging in and performing authentication
3. Connecting to the virtual desktop

The following KB has been created to address the issue:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1011655

The View 3.1 Release Notes will also be updated to include this information.

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VMware View Client requires HTTP 1.1 to be enabled in Internet Explorer

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A new bunch of patches for ESX 3.5 and 3.0.x were posted this week from VMware. If you’re still in the old Virtual Infrastructure 3 world, you might want to look in to the latest patches as they contain security and critical updates.

Patch Download and Installation

See the VMware Update Manager Administration Guide for instructions on using Update Manager to download and install patches to automatically update ESX Server 3.5 hosts.

To update ESX Server 3.5 hosts when not using Update Manager, download the most recent patch bundle from http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/vi3_patches_35.html and install the bundle using esxupdate from the command line of the host. For more information, see the ESX Server 3 Patch Management Guide.

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A couple of ahem… hiccups have popped up for some users of VMotion after upgrading to vSphere.

The Knowledge base team has been ultra-fast in responding to these, and two new KBs have appeared:

VMotion stops working after upgrading to vSphere 4.0 (1011294)

and

VMotion stops working after upgrading to vSphere 4 with a Licensing server is not configured error (1011296)

If you notice any issues with VMotion with vSphere, be sure to check those two articles out.

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Today’s the day you’ve all been waiting for, the release of our brand new product, vSphere 4.

If you already have a VMware account as a customer or partner you can download vSphere (ESX 4, ESXi 4, vCenter Server 4, and all of the add ons) here.

For everyone else:

Get guided evaluation of VMware vSphere with access to product demos and evaluation guides.

Try it free for 60 days

Equally important is the update documentation section.

We’ve created easy self-service answers to our customers’ most common questions to reduce SR volume.

• Over 250 vSphere KB articles are available online.
• vSphere Upgrade Center answers questions on upgrading from VI3 to vSphere 4.
• The Licensing Wizard is online and ready to address common licensing issues.
• The vSphere Support Center points customers to key documentation, getting-started guides, webcasts and KB articles.

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I got such positive feedback from my series on resolution paths that many more (all of them) have now been published on the official VMware website. I had a little to do with this as I work on the Knowledge base team (and actually wrote the post on the KB blog).

As a reminder, Resolution Paths are collections of modular steps that can be used to solve tech support issues. Check them out.  These are very good and cover many common issues with VMware products.

The VMware Knowledgebase blog post about resolution paths can be found at Resolution Paths Published.

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When you get around to installing vSphere,  if on a 64-bit Windows host in x86 compatibility mode, a 32-bit DSN is required for the database connection.

If a DSN has been set up through Start > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC) the vSphere installer won’t be able to use this DSN.

The 64-bit ODBC Administrator tool can be invoked from Control Panel to manage user DSNs and system DSNs that are used by 64-bit processes, but for 32-bit datasources, the 32-bit ODBC Administrator tool is used for Windows on Windows 64 (WOW64) processes.

To set up a 32-bit DSN launch the 32-bit version of the Data Source Administrator. It is located at:

 
%systemdrive%\Windows\SysWoW64\Odbcad32.exe

The vSphere installer will then be able to detect the DSN and continue the installation.

Please see Microsoft KB article http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/942976/en-us for more information.

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The new Knowledgebase blog has just posted a table of brand new (or recently updated) timekeeping articles for VMware products.  A nice one-stop shop for all the time related KB articles. Worth a visit.

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All about Time in VMware

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Just a quick post-

Multiple symptoms, one solution>>

Symptoms:
1. Unable to ssh into your ESX host
2. Unable to login to the ESX console
3. ESX shows not responding in VirtualCenter
4. HA error (but esx host responding)
5. Unable to VMotion (but esx host responding)

Check ps output and if you see

# ps -ef
root 6232 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z Sep24 0:00 [cimservera <defunct>]
root 6377 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z Sep24 0:00 [cimservera <defunct>]
root 6496 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z Sep24 0:00 [cimservera <defunct>]

Solution:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1007887

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VMware just announced the release of the VMware View Open Client to open source. See http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/view_open_client.html

Frank Bernard, director of U.S. operations, Chip PC commented:

“Customers of all sizes and in all verticals have realized the benefits of deploying thin clients and virtualization,” said Joe Makoid, president, Devon IT. “The new VMware View Open Client takes desktop virtualization to a new level, enabling more of Devon’s customers to benefit from lower total cost of ownership, increased security and a wider range of our thin client devices to choose from.”

A few points to note:

• This is not intended for direct end-user customers and is not supported by VMware Support.
• Support will be provided through the VMware View Open Client community.
• The reason for this release to the open source community is to provide an easy method for VMware partners (Wyse, Sun, etc.) to create compatible thin clients for certification with VMware View.
• Please check the VMware HCL for supported thin clients:  http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=base&deviceCategory=vdm

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I have a breaking news announcement!

A while back I made a post asking all of you for direct feedback on, or comments to, the VMware Knowledgebase Team, of which I am a member at VMware.

First, be assured that I have taken every single comment and forwarded it onto my management, who are very interested in this type of interaction.  So much so, that I have gotten the go-ahead to create a brand new official VMware blog, called VMware Knowledgebase Blog here. Bookmark this page now and watch for our welcome message soon.  (That’s how fresh this news is, we don’t have a welcome message yet!)

The whole Knowledgebase Team looks forward to getting our word out there and hearing what you have to say.

See you there!!

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There’s a new problem a few customers have reported whereby-

• ESX disconnects randomly from VirtualCenter
• ESX disconnects when performing VI Client tasks from VirtualCenter.
• Tasks randomly timeout after a long idle time
• “An error occurred communicating to the remote host” pops up.

This only refers to Update 3. This issue seem to be affecting customers with firewalls using state-ful inspection, such as a Juniper ISG 2000, Software Revision 6.1.0R3.

The problem occurs because of SOAP timeouts, and this behavior did not exist in VC 2.0.x or 2.5 GA, as they used a different mechanism to communicate with ESX.

A knowledgebase article is in the works, but Engineering is still actively investigating this problem. One work-around that I have seen mentioned (not verified to work!) is as follows:

• Create a dummy VM on each host (e.g. 16 MB RAM, no disk, no network).
• Set CPU affinity to the last core to prevent VMotion.
• Create a new Scheduled Task that performs:
  • Change power state: Power-on dummy VM. Every hour, on the hour.
• Create another Scheduled Task that performs:
  • Change power state: Power-off dummy VM. Every hour, 30 minutes after the hour.

Like I said, Engineering is aware of this issue and actively investigating it.

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Here’s a post in which you can help VMware. As you may know I am currently working in the Knowledge Management team at VMware. We are responsible for all content in kb.vmware.com We are constantly looking for ways to improve the value and usability of the knowledgebase for customers. Being searchable in Google is one thing already being worked on.

I’d like to ask each of you, “How can VMware best improve its Knowledgbase?”

Drop a comment in the box below.  I’ll make sure all good ideas are presented to the team for discussion.

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I have heard that we are getting a few calls into support on this one, so I am rushing this new Knowledgebase article ( http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1007755 to be publicly available. It’s not quite out yet, so here’s the scoop.

• Deployed VM’s base disk will point to the original template’s vmdk if Edit Virtual Hardware is used to modify it.

• A cloned VM’s base disk will point to the original VM’s vmdk if Edit Virtual Hardware is used to modify it.

The problem is caused by a bug in hostd. When reconfiguring of the vmdk happens, hostd sets the vmdk path in the vmx to the backing disk in the config specification.

VMware is aware of the problem and expects a future release to address it. The current recommendation is to not use this (currently experimental) feature.

In the case that you already used the feature:

1. After deploying the VM, review the VM properties, specifically the virtual disk location.

2. Change the virtual disk settings manually to point to the correct file by right-clicking the VM and selecting Edit Settings…

3. In the Hardware tab, select Hard Disk 1

4. Verify the Disk File box points to the intended vmdk file.  If it does not remove the Hard Disk.

5. Click Add… and use the Hardware Wizard to select the correct vmdk file.

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Continuing my Resolution Path series, here is another download for you all, this time in the Fault area of VI3. Download the zipfile here and keep it handy for the next time you run into any fault related issues.

What is a “fault” problem?  Good question.  It’s more of an internal term used at VMware for how they align their support teams.  Fault cases include such things as Purple Screens of Death (PSOD), Linux faults on the console OS, Hung ESX Servers, and internal errors and panics.

Again, down the left column in yellow are common problems we get calls on. To the right of each problem are steps one would take to resolve the problem. I have included hyperlinks to help get you to the answers fast.

Feel free to share!

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Common Fault issues in VMware Infrastructure

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Another blog (Musings of Rodos) points out that information is getting harder and harder to present to make available on the web in anything resembling a unified manner.  He cites VMTN, VMware.com, VMworld community, VMware whitepapers, VIOPS, Documentation sets, and lastly, the project I am part of, the VMware Knowledgebase.

Part of the problem is that different operating units inside VMware have responsibilities for different silos of information. And we all want to push that information out to the public.  Makes sense, as the public has proven to be very thirsty for this information.

What I’ve found as an employee of VMware is that:

1. There is no in-house knowledge of search engine optimization. I have touched on this here.
2. There is no unified organization or even inventory, of the information we have.

Wouldn’t it be great if everything folded into one interface, with a structure so simple it looked like Google designed it? I don’t know, maybe this is impossible or too costly to implement but I think we have to try.

At least more of us are starting to talk about it.

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VMware web sprawl

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VMware Virtualcenter roles and permissions are one of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of Virtual Infrastructure 3.  We constantly receive calls into tech support asking how-to assign the appropriate rights to users and their virtual machines, clusters, etc.

A new article I saw on VIOPS today that helps one understand some of the basic premises of permissions and roles. Sometimes a good overview like this one, written from thirty-thousand feet, helps one solidify VMware’s security model in one’s mind. The article is broken down into major sections:

1. Concepts
2. Definitions
3. Datastores and Networks have no direct privileges
4. Definitions
5. VMs inherit privileges from two sources
6. Clusters and Hosts implicitly are resource pool
7. Privileges Needed to Create a Virtual Machine
8. Privileges Needed for various Inventory Manipulations

Anything to help understand VMware’s roles and permissions is a good thing. Read VI3 Roles and Permissions

Concepts behind this are explained in the paper Management VirtualCenter Roles and Permissions.

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Understanding VMware Roles and Permissions

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Continuing my Resolution Path series, here is another download for you all, this time in the Licensing area of VI3. Download the zipfile here and keep it handy for the next time you run into any license related issues.

Down the left side in yellow are common problems we get calls on. To the right of each problem are the steps you would take to resolve the problem. I have included hyperlinks to help get you to the answers fast.

Feel free to share with all!

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