[{"content":"The FIFA World Cup 2026 kicked off on June 11th. And I had a bit of a problem.\nMost of the matches are played in the Americas. That means evening kickoffs in Mexico, the US, and Canada translate to the middle of the night here in Israel. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not staying up until 3 AM to watch group stage matches. But I also don\u0026amp;rsquo;t want to wake up, grab my phone, and spend 20 minutes scrolling through sports apps piecing together what happened.\nSo I built myself a personal sports analyst. One that wakes up before I do, scours the internet for match results, collects detailed statistics, and even makes predictions about who\u0026amp;rsquo;s going to win the whole thing.\nAnd it takes me zero effort every morning.\nThe Setup I\u0026amp;rsquo;m using Amazon Quick\u0026amp;rsquo;s scheduled agents feature. If you\u0026amp;rsquo;re not familiar, it lets you create an AI agent with a specific prompt, give it access to tools (web search, file read/write, etc.), and set it on a schedule. The agent runs autonomously at the time you specify, does its thing, and posts the results to your activity feed.\nMy agent is called wc2026-daily-stats. It runs every day at 9:00 AM Israel time. By the time I\u0026amp;rsquo;m pouring my first coffee, the results are already waiting for me.\nWhat It Actually Does The agent has a three-part workflow:\nPart 1: Collecting Match Stats Every morning, the agent:\nChecks what day it is Searches the web for \u0026amp;ldquo;FIFA World Cup 2026 results\u0026amp;rdquo; from the previous day For each match it finds, it digs deeper. It searches for detailed box score statistics from sports sites It fetches those pages and extracts everything: possession percentages, shots on target, xG (expected goals), goal scorers with timestamps, cards, saves, corners, the works The level of detail is honestly better than what I\u0026amp;rsquo;d get casually browsing a sports app. Here\u0026amp;rsquo;s what a typical match entry looks like in my stats file:\n## Match 4: United States 4-1 Paraguay **Date:** June 13, 2026 | **Group D** | **Venue:** SoFi Stadium,","date":"Jun 23, 2026","href":"/2026/06/wc2026-ai-morning-briefing.html","summary":"I built a scheduled AI agent that wakes up before I do, scrapes match results, collects detailed stats, predicts who will make the final, and posts a summary to my feed. Zero code. 15 minutes to set up.","tags":["ai","automation","tools"],"title":"My AI Sports Analyst: How I Wake Up to World Cup Insights Every Morning"},{"content":"So IFTTT shipped MCP support. That means you can control your automations, list applets, edit triggers, run queries\u0026amp;hellip; all through the Model Context Protocol. In theory, any MCP-capable AI assistant can now talk directly to IFTTT.\nIn practice? Not quite.\nRight now, IFTTT officially supports only Claude and ChatGPT as AI assistant integrations. You go to Settings → Connectors in Claude, or Settings → Connected Apps in ChatGPT, and IFTTT is right there. But if your AI assistant isn\u0026amp;rsquo;t on that short list? You\u0026amp;rsquo;re on your own.\nWhy IFTTT\u0026amp;rsquo;s MCP Server Won\u0026amp;rsquo;t Talk to Your Local AI Here\u0026amp;rsquo;s the situation. My AI assistant (Amazon Quick) speaks MCP via stdio. It launches a local process and communicates over stdin/stdout using JSON-RPC. Simple. Clean. Works great for local tools.\nIFTTT\u0026amp;rsquo;s MCP server lives at https://ifttt.com/mcp and uses Streamable HTTP transport. It expects authenticated HTTP POST requests and responds with either JSON or Server-Sent Events streams.\nTwo completely different transport layers. They don\u0026amp;rsquo;t talk to each other.\nSo what do you do? You build a proxy.\nWell\u0026amp;hellip; \u0026amp;ldquo;you\u0026amp;rdquo; build a proxy. In my case, I described the problem to Amazon Quick (my AI assistant) and it wrote the entire proxy for me. All ~500 lines of it.\nI guided the architecture, debugged alongside it, and steered the fixes when things broke. But the actual code? That was all Quick guiding Kiro. This whole post is really about what happens when you pair an AI coding assistant with a well-defined integration problem.\nWhat the Proxy Does The proxy is a ~500-line Node.js script that sits between them:\n┌────────────┐ stdio ┌───────────┐ HTTPS ┌──────────┐ │ │ JSON-RPC │ │ POST │ │ │ Amazon │ ────────▶ │ MCP │ ──────▶ │ IFTTT │ │ Quick │ │ Proxy │ │ MCP │ │ │ ◀──────── │ (Node) │ ◀────── │ (Remote) │ │ │ JSON-RPC │ │ SSE/JSON│ │ └────────────┘ └─────┬─────┘ └──────────┘ local │ remote ┌──────┴──────┐ │ OAuth 2.1 │ │ PKCE + Auto │ │ Refresh │","date":"Jun 18, 2026","href":"/2026/06/ifttt-mcp-proxy.html","summary":"IFTTT shipped MCP support but only for Claude and ChatGPT. Here\u0026rsquo;s how I built a 500-line Node.js proxy to connect it to any stdio-based MCP client, and the two gotchas that made it interesting.","tags":["ai","tools","coding","automation"],"title":"Bridging IFTTT to Your Local AI Assistant with an MCP Proxy"},{"content":"Last Friday, the U.S. Commerce Department sent a letter to Anthropic. By that evening, Fable 5 and Mythos 5 were gone. Not deprecated. Not throttled. Gone. API calls returned 404s. Live sessions errored out mid-conversation. Production applications that depended on those models simply stopped working.\nThree days after launch. No warning. No migration window.\nAnd honestly? We got lucky this time. Fable 5 was only available for three days. Nobody had time to build real production dependencies on it. Imagine this happening to a model you\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been using for six months. A model your entire product depends on. That\u0026amp;rsquo;s the scenario you should be planning for.\nI would like to ask you something. If your database vendor could be forced to shut down your primary database with a single government letter, would you run it without a failover? Of course not. But that\u0026amp;rsquo;s exactly what most teams are doing with their AI provider.\nThe Ticking Time Bomb Most teams treat their AI provider like electricity. You flick a switch, the light goes on. You don\u0026amp;rsquo;t think about where it comes from, you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t think about what happens when it stops. You just expect it to work. You pick a model, hardcode the API endpoint, build your prompts around its quirks, and ship. It works great. Until it doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t.\nAnd look, I get it. When you\u0026amp;rsquo;re building fast, the last thing you want to think about is \u0026amp;ldquo;what happens when my model disappears.\u0026amp;rdquo; But this week proved that\u0026amp;rsquo;s not a theoretical risk anymore. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s not even about uptime.\nYour model can be pulled for regulatory reasons. For policy changes. For geopolitical drama that has absolutely nothing to do with your application. The Anthropic situation wasn\u0026amp;rsquo;t a bug. It wasn\u0026amp;rsquo;t infrastructure failure. It was a regulatory kill switch. And it affected every single customer worldwide.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;ve written before about the hidden costs of depending too heavily on AI tools without understanding","date":"Jun 16, 2026","href":"/2026/06/ai-single-point-of-failure.html","summary":"Last Friday, a government letter took Anthropic\u0026rsquo;s most advanced models offline worldwide. If your architecture doesn\u0026rsquo;t assume your AI provider will disappear, you\u0026rsquo;re running on hope-driven architecture.","tags":["AI","resilience","architecture","GenAI","opinion"],"title":"Your AI Provider Is a Single Point of Failure"},{"content":"Your Coding Assistant Is Not You I was scrolling through Twitter (I will always call it Twitter\u0026amp;hellip;) the other day and I saw it again. Another developer posting about hitting their rate limit mid-flow. The panic. The frustration. The \u0026amp;ldquo;no no no, not NOW\u0026amp;rdquo; reaction. Then a service outage hits and my WhatsApp groups light up. Slack communities go into meltdown. Everywhere I look, developers are talking about that moment when their AI coding assistant goes silent and they realize they don\u0026amp;rsquo;t know what they are going to do next. Rate limits, outages, degraded performance. Doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t matter what causes it. The reaction is the same.\nThat reaction? It looks a lot like addiction. Maybe not the clinical kind but rather that kind where a tool becomes so embedded in your workflow, that removing it feels impossible. And if you\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been using AI coding tools for any length of time, you\u0026amp;rsquo;ve probably seen it in yourself too.\nThe Numbers Tell a Story Let\u0026amp;rsquo;s start with what\u0026amp;rsquo;s happening at scale. 84-90% of developers are now using AI coding tools. 51% use them daily. Claude Code grew 80x in a single year, far exceeding Anthropic\u0026amp;rsquo;s planned 10x. Cursor went from zero to $2 billion ARR in three years. Uber burned through its entire 2026 AI budget by April because Claude Code spread across 5,000 engineers faster than anyone anticipated. These are not the adoption curves of a \u0026amp;ldquo;nice to have\u0026amp;rdquo; productivity tool. This is deep integration. This is dependency at an organizational level.\nWhen Anthropic doubled usage limits as a \u0026amp;ldquo;holiday gift\u0026amp;rdquo; in December and then restored normal limits in January, developers experienced what felt like a 60% capacity reduction. One developer wrote during an outage: \u0026amp;ldquo;Claude outages hit way harder when you realize you\u0026amp;rsquo;ve outsourced half your brain to it.\u0026amp;rdquo; The allure is real. And it\u0026amp;rsquo;s by design.\nAI Coding Tool Vendors Create the Lock-In Here\u0026amp;rsquo;s what I find","date":"Jun 1, 2026","href":"/2026/05/your-coding-assistant-is-not-you.html","summary":"Developers everywhere are panicking when their AI coding assistant goes silent. The dependency patterns are real and the skill erosion is measurable. But these tools don\u0026rsquo;t define you. Awareness is the starting point for using them correctly.","tags":["AI","coding","addiction","GenAI","LLM","Tools","opinion","Developer"],"title":"Your Coding Assistant Is Not You"},{"content":"I was at an event this morning where someone said something that really resonated with me. \u0026amp;ldquo;The new programming language is English.\u0026amp;rdquo; And you know what? They\u0026amp;rsquo;re right. Jensen Huang said the same thing. Andrej Karpathy has been saying it since 2023. And Marc Andreessen did a whole podcast about it. But while I was sitting there nodding along, something else clicked in my head. Something bigger. Something that I think we\u0026amp;rsquo;re not talking about enough.\nWe talk a lot about the \u0026amp;lsquo;casualties\u0026amp;rsquo; of GenAI. Students who are terrified they won\u0026amp;rsquo;t have jobs waiting for them after university. Junior developers who are finding it brutally hard to land a position in today\u0026amp;rsquo;s market. The whole \u0026amp;ldquo;should I even study Computer Science?\u0026amp;rdquo; existential crisis. These are real, painful, happening-right-now problems.\nBut here is where it gets interesting. I think there\u0026amp;rsquo;s another casualty coming. One that\u0026amp;rsquo;s a few years out maybe, but it dawned on me this week, and I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t shake it. And it\u0026amp;rsquo;s a big one.\nThe personal computer.\nYour agent doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t need a MacBook Pro Let me explain what I mean.\nWe\u0026amp;rsquo;re seeing more and more systems where you provide a prompt to an AI tool and it goes out and does stuff for you. A very good example of this is all these MCP connections, A2A protocols and whatever else it may be, that hook into every system you use and do things on your behalf. They\u0026amp;rsquo;re becoming your personal assistant. Your digital butler. Your \u0026amp;ldquo;I\u0026amp;rsquo;ll handle it\u0026amp;rdquo; person.\nAnd the way we interact with these assistants? Usually through some kind of voice interface or through instant messaging. WhatsApp, Telegram, whatever works for you. And these are the tools which I think, once upon a time, we hoped would be the way we\u0026amp;rsquo;d interact with our computers and phones. Siri. Alexa. Google Assistant. Gemini. God forbid, Cortana. You speak to an entity and that entity does stuff for you.\nBut they were","date":"May 5, 2026","href":"/2026/05/next-genai-casualty.html","summary":"I was at an event this morning where someone said something that really resonated with me. \u0026ldquo;The new programming language is English.\u0026rdquo; And you know what? They\u0026rsquo;re right. Jensen Huang said the same thing. Andrej Karpathy has been saying it since 2023. And Marc Andreessen did a whole podcast about it. But while I was sitting there nodding along, something else clicked in my head. Something bigger. Something that I think we\u0026rsquo;re not talking about enough.","tags":["GenAI","LLM","Agents","Tools"],"title":"The Next Casualty of the GenAI Revolution"},{"content":"I had an interesting conversation with a colleague a few weeks ago. He was looking at his team\u0026amp;rsquo;s metrics, sprint velocity up 40%, PRs merging faster than ever, test coverage sitting pretty at 94%. Everything green. Everything humming.\nAnd then he said something that stuck with me: \u0026amp;ldquo;Why does it feel like everything takes longer to fix?\u0026amp;rdquo;\nThat question was the spark for this post.\nThe Saturday Night Scenario Does the following sound familiar to you?\nIt\u0026amp;rsquo;s a Saturday night. You\u0026amp;rsquo;re finally watching that show everyone\u0026amp;rsquo;s been telling you about. Your phone buzzes. Production is down. The payment service is throwing 500 errors.\nYou open the code. You stare at it. You wrote this\u0026amp;hellip; didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t you? Actually, no. You merged this. Three months ago. Your AI assistant generated it, the tests passed, the PR got approved, and you shipped it.\nAnd now you\u0026amp;rsquo;re sitting there, on your couch, trying to reverse-engineer the thought process of a model that doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t have thoughts.\nYour partner looks over and asks, \u0026amp;ldquo;Everything okay?\u0026amp;rdquo;\nAnd you say, \u0026amp;ldquo;Yeah, I just need to debug code that nobody wrote.\u0026amp;rdquo;\nThat sentence should terrify you. And it\u0026amp;rsquo;s happening in code bases everywhere, right now.\nLet Me Be Clear This is not an anti-AI post. I love AI coding tools. They\u0026amp;rsquo;ve made me faster, they\u0026amp;rsquo;ve made my team faster, and honestly, they\u0026amp;rsquo;ve made me look a hell of a lot smarter than I actually am.\nBut over the past year, I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve started noticing something. The code we\u0026amp;rsquo;re shipping faster\u0026amp;hellip; we\u0026amp;rsquo;re understanding less. The bugs we\u0026amp;rsquo;re creating faster\u0026amp;hellip; we\u0026amp;rsquo;re fixing slower. And the teams that are most productive on paper\u0026amp;hellip; are accumulating a kind of debt that doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t show up in any dashboard.\nI call it invisible technical debt. And I think it\u0026amp;rsquo;s time we make it visible.\nThe Productivity Illusion So let\u0026amp;rsquo;s start with something we can all agree on, AI","date":"Apr 27, 2026","href":"/2026/04/hidden-cost-of-ai.html","summary":"I had an interesting conversation with a colleague a few weeks ago. He was looking at his team\u0026rsquo;s metrics, sprint velocity up 40%, PRs merging faster than ever, test coverage sitting pretty at 94%. Everything green. Everything humming.\nAnd then he said something that stuck with me: \u0026ldquo;Why does it feel like everything takes longer to fix?\u0026rdquo;\nThat question was the spark for this post.\nThe Saturday Night Scenario Does the following sound familiar to you?","tags":["GenAI","LLM","Agents","Tools"],"title":"The Hidden Cost of AI Coding: Technical Debt You Can't See"},{"content":"GenAI is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you\u0026amp;rsquo;re going to get. And just like that box of chocolates, sometimes you get the perfect piece, and sometimes you bite into that bon bon that makes you question your life choices.\nI wish I could claim this analogy as my own brilliant insight, but a quick search revealed it was already used in a 2023 research paper. Great minds think alike, I suppose.\nThe Problem with Non-Determinism Software engineers hate non-deterministic results. When I write code to calculate 1.5 × 1.5, I know I\u0026amp;rsquo;ll get 2.25, every, single, time. But ask an LLM a question? You\u0026amp;rsquo;ll get an answer, but not necessarily the same answer twice. When I\u0026amp;rsquo;m running a critical function or business query, I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t tolerate that kind of uncertainty.\nLLMs are non-deterministic by design. There\u0026amp;rsquo;s a lot of science behind why this happens, and much smarter people than me can explain the technical details.\nBut here\u0026amp;rsquo;s what strikes me as odd: we\u0026amp;rsquo;re essentially taking a highly intelligent entity and telling it to dial down the creativity. We\u0026amp;rsquo;re tying one hand behind its back and asking for a dumbed-down version of what it\u0026amp;rsquo;s capable of.\nToday, we don\u0026amp;rsquo;t fully trust these tools - not like we trust a highly robust and mature programming language.\nOur Current Workarounds I\u0026amp;rsquo;m seeing this tension more frequently, and honestly, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not sure if we\u0026amp;rsquo;re doing the right thing. Is it crucial that the answers I get from an LLM need to be the same each time? In many cases, probably not. The non-deterministic nature is something we can live with. But there are certain use cases where this kind of behavior can be catastrophic and completely unacceptable.\nSo how are we dealing with this today? We structure our ever-growing prompts, provide very specific instructions on what the model can do, what exactly it should return, what exactly it should not return - all to get a predictable result.","date":"Dec 22, 2025","href":"/2025/12/llms-and-bon-bons.html","summary":"GenAI is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you\u0026rsquo;re going to get. And just like that box of chocolates, sometimes you get the perfect piece, and sometimes you bite into that bon bon that makes you question your life choices.\nI wish I could claim this analogy as my own brilliant insight, but a quick search revealed it was already used in a 2023 research paper. Great minds think alike, I suppose.","tags":["GenAI","LLM","Agents","Strands"],"title":"LLMs and bon bons"},{"content":"It is that time of the year again, we are just two weeks away from re:Invent. Every year I write a post) this was last year\u0026amp;rsquo;s) and every year people tell me that it is a very useful resource for many Jewish attendees at the conference.\nThere will be kosher food, for those who have requested requested in advance. They had kosher food at several of the venues last year, but it would be best to confirm where exactly it will be available this year.\nIf you have not done this until now, please send an email to awsreinvent-support@amazon.com and put in the request as soon as possible.\nThere are usually hot and cold drinks throughout the day available at the various venues, sometimes there are fresh fruit and some snacks here and there that have a Kosher certification (OU, OK, Star-K, and many more, depending on what are comfortable with eating).\nRestaurants There are no new restaurants this year, some are no longer operating.\nYou can order online from some of the restaurants below and have them deliver food to you.\nNewest restaurants are on the top\nJudit Mediterranean cuisine (2103 Western Avenue - +1 702-955-6778) Open till 19.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 10 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Italo Pizza (7595 Washington Ave 120 - +1 725-204-3142) Open till 21.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 15 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Arissa (10100 Banburry Cross Dr. - +17022664648) PICK UP/DELIVERIES ONLY / !!! They deliver! Tikva\u0026amp;rsquo;s Grill (2101 South Decatur blvd #10 - +1 702-476-9931) Open till 19.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 15 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Shawarma Paradise (4850 West Flamingo Road - +1 702-780-8338) Open till 23.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 15 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Casa Mia (7365 W. Sahara Ave - +1 702-665-6546) Open till 19.45 Sun-Thur It is about a 15 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Jerusalem Chef\u0026amp;rsquo;s Table/Jerusalem Grill Vegas (4825 W Flamingo Rd. Ste. 10 - +1 702-341-5555) Open","date":"Nov 24, 2025","href":"/2025/11/keeping-kosher-at-reinvent-2025.html","summary":"It is that time of the year again, we are just two weeks away from re:Invent. Every year I write a post) this was last year\u0026rsquo;s) and every year people tell me that it is a very useful resource for many Jewish attendees at the conference.\nThere will be kosher food, for those who have requested requested in advance. They had kosher food at several of the venues last year, but it would be best to confirm where exactly it will be available this year.","tags":["Kosher","re:invent","AWS"],"title":"Keeping Kosher re:Invent 2025"},{"content":"It is that time of the year again, we are just two weeks away from re:Invent. Every year I write a post) this was last year\u0026amp;rsquo;s) and every year people tell me that it is a very useful resource for many Jewish attendees at the conference.\nThere will be kosher food, for those who have requested requested in advance. They had kosher food at several of the venues last year, but it would be best to confirm where exactly it will be available this year.\nIf you have not done this until now, please send an email to awsreinvent-support@amazon.com and put in the request as soon as possible.\nThere are usually hot and cold drinks throughout the day available at the various venues, sometimes there are fresh fruit and some snacks here and there that have a Kosher certification (OU, OK, Star-K, and many more, depending on what are comfortable with eating).\nRestaurants Some things have changed since I was there last year, restaurants have closed, new ones have opened. This is the most up to date information I could find.\nYou can order online from some of the restaurants below and have them deliver food to you.\nNew restaurants are on the top\nJudit Mediterranean cuisine (2103 Western Avenue - +1 747-226-8988) Open till 21.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 10 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Vaskers (4235 S. Fort Apache Rd. #250 - +1 725-214-1434) Open till 22.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 20 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Italo Pizza (7595 Washington Ave #120 - +1 725-204-3142) Open till 21.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 15 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Arissa (10100 Banburry Cross Dr. - +17022664648) PICK UP/DELIVERIES ONLY / !!! They deliver! Tikva\u0026amp;rsquo;s Grill (2101 South Decatur blvd #10 - +1 702-476-9931) Open till 19.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 15 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Shawarma Paradise (4850 West Flamingo Road - +1 702-780-8338) Open till 23.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 10 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Casa Mia (7365","date":"Nov 18, 2024","href":"/2024/11/keeping-kosher-at-reinvent-2024.html","summary":"It is that time of the year again, we are just two weeks away from re:Invent. Every year I write a post) this was last year\u0026rsquo;s) and every year people tell me that it is a very useful resource for many Jewish attendees at the conference.\nThere will be kosher food, for those who have requested requested in advance. They had kosher food at several of the venues last year, but it would be best to confirm where exactly it will be available this year.","tags":["Kosher","re:invent","AWS"],"title":"Keeping Kosher re:Invent 2024"},{"content":"It is that time of the year again, we are one week away from re:Invent. Every year I write a post, this was last year\u0026amp;rsquo;s and every year people tell me that it is a very useful resource for many Jewish attendees at the conference.\nFirst and foremost, there will be kosher food, for those who have requested requested in advance. They had kosher food at several of the venues last year, but it would be best to confirm where exactly it will be avaialble this year.\nIf you have not done this until now, please send an email to awsreinvent-support@amazon.com and put in the request.\nThere are usually hot and cold drinks throughout the day available at the various venues, sometimes there are fresh fruit and some snacks here and there that have a Kosher certification (OU, OK, Star-K, and many more, depending on what are comfortable with eating).\nRestaurants Some things have changed since I was there last year, restaurants have closed, new ones have opened. This is the most up to date information I could find.\nYou can order online from some of the restaurants below and have them deliver to you.\nNew restaurants are on the top\nTikva\u0026amp;rsquo;s Grill (2101 South Decatur blvd #10 - +1 702-476-9931) Open till 19.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 15 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Shawarma Paradise (4850 West Flamingo Road - +1 702-780-8338) Open till 23.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 10 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Casa Mia (7365 W. Sahara Ave - +1 702-665-6546) Open till 19.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 15 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Mother Falafel (6375 South Rainbow Blvd. Ste. 101 - +1 702-331-6048) Open till 01.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 20 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Jerusalem Chef\u0026amp;rsquo;s Table/Jerusalem Grill Vegas (4825 W Flamingo Rd. Ste. 10 - +1 702-341-5555) Open till 23.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 15 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Pita\u0026amp;rsquo;s (5115 Spring Mountain Rd. - +1 702-413-6344). Open till 19.00 Sun-Thur","date":"Nov 19, 2023","href":"/2023/11/keeping-kosher-at-reinvent-2023.html","summary":"It is that time of the year again, we are one week away from re:Invent. Every year I write a post, this was last year\u0026rsquo;s and every year people tell me that it is a very useful resource for many Jewish attendees at the conference.\nFirst and foremost, there will be kosher food, for those who have requested requested in advance. They had kosher food at several of the venues last year, but it would be best to confirm where exactly it will be avaialble this year.","tags":["Kosher","re:invent","AWS"],"title":"Keeping Kosher re:Invent 2023"},{"content":"Last week, my mother passed away. She was 87 when she returned her soul to the creator.\nLosing a parent is hard, all the more so when it comes suddenly. In my mother\u0026amp;rsquo;s case, it was something that we knew was coming, but even more so, I lost my mother over 9 years ago, when she developed full onset Alzheimers.\nHere is my eulogy in her honor from the funeral.\nUnfortunately, what we have fresh in our memories, is the recent period, the last few years. And those were not good years, they were hard years. some of your grandchildren unfortunately almost only remember you as you were in these last years. But there was so much more than that. You were so much more than that, and I want to share some of those memories with you all.\nMany of you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t know my Mom, one of the five Rabinowitz sisters, the last one to survive. Her younger sister Anita Z\u0026amp;quot;L passed away only two weeks ago.\nMy mother was a tennis player (so I am told, because I never actually got to see her play). I only heard stories, and I remember as a child a huge vase full of trophies that she had from competitions she had won.\nBut not only a tennis player. She was a master in the kitchen, an amazing caterer, hosting events (weddings, bar mitzvahs) with 200-300 people. My wife asked me yesterday, what were my favorite foods that I remember she made, I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t really remember a single favorite one, but I do remember her kichel, her chopped herring, her teigelach. Always top notch, of the highest quality and amazing.\nShe was a women who opened her heart and home to everyone. I cannot count the number of people my father used to collect at shul to bring back home for meals over the years. Every Shabbat and Chag we had people at our table, every meal. A welcoming home, an inviting home, and that was all because of you.\nYes, my brothers and I did have two parents, my father Z\u0026amp;quot;L also did so many things, but you were \u0026amp;ldquo;The Parent\u0026amp;rdquo;. You cared for us, made sure we wanted for nothing,","date":"Sep 12, 2023","href":"/2023/09/phyllis-saidel-memory.html","summary":"Last week, my mother passed away. She was 87 when she returned her soul to the creator.\nLosing a parent is hard, all the more so when it comes suddenly. In my mother\u0026rsquo;s case, it was something that we knew was coming, but even more so, I lost my mother over 9 years ago, when she developed full onset Alzheimers.\nHere is my eulogy in her honor from the funeral.","tags":["Personal"],"title":"In loving memory of my mother - Phyllis Saidel ZL"},{"content":"Four years have passed. How time flies, it is unbelievable!\nThree years ago, I wrote about my first year, and now that I just passed my fourth year mark (and also my second year in my role as a Developer Advocate), I will try and combine these two milestones together and sum up my experience and thoughts. Of course I will do this in the typical Amazonian fashion, according to the LP\u0026amp;rsquo;s.\nCustomer Obsession \u0026amp;amp; Earn Trust As an AWS service team developer advocate, we have somewhat of a unique position. We are embedded into the service organization. We work in tandem with the product to find ways to improve the services and solutions we deliver for our customers. And by customers I mean we have different types.\nIt is the internal Amazon teams that use Amazon ECS or AWS Fargate. It is the single developer just starting out. It is the enterprise customer that is spending significant amounts every month and has hundreds or thousands of applications deployed. It is the AWS partner who develops solutions that provide added value to our customers. It is the sales teams that engage with customers every day. Each type of customer has different needs, different problems and different goals, sometimes they directly compete with those of our other customers.\nPart of my job is to work with as many of them as possibles, create the relationships that will earn trust in the long term. All of that for the purpose of bringing honest and candid feedback and insight back into the service team, so we can address these points on our roadmap, based on our priorities.\nWhat I have learned here is that showing up, being present and engaging with them does wonders, earns that trust and creates a win-win situation for everyone.\nOwnership In Amazon, you are the master of your own future. You need to actively find ways to advance your career, find opportunities to grow, find ways to have more impact. That means you can\u0026amp;rsquo;t wait for things to fall into your lap.\nVolunteer for projects,","date":"Jul 19, 2023","href":"/2023/07/4-years-at-aws.html","summary":"Four years have passed. How time flies, it is unbelievable!\nThree years ago, I wrote about my first year, and now that I just passed my fourth year mark (and also my second year in my role as a Developer Advocate), I will try and combine these two milestones together and sum up my experience and thoughts. Of course I will do this in the typical Amazonian fashion, according to the LP\u0026rsquo;s.\nCustomer Obsession \u0026amp; Earn Trust As an AWS service team developer advocate, we have somewhat of a unique position. We are embedded into the service organization. We work in tandem with the product to find ways to improve the services and solutions we deliver for our customers. And by customers I mean we have different types.","tags":["Amazon","Career","AWS"],"title":"4 Years at AWS"},{"content":"Sometimes you just want your application to run, but only for a certain amount of time, there are a number of reasons you might want to do this. It could be that that you do not want to spend too much time or money completing a n operation (letting things run until eternity, firstly would take a hell of a long time, but it could also rack up a good amount spend in your cloud account). You also could have underlying services and dependencies that might time out while waiting for your task to complete, so you set an upper limit on how long your task can run.\nWhen using AWS Lambda, there is a built-in maximum duration for the amount of time your function can run, 15 minutes. This is a limitation, but also in some ways a blessing. It forces you, the application owner/architect, to adhere to a finite limit of time that your application can run, and design your architecture appropriately. There have been many customer conversations that I have been in over the years, where I have said, \u0026amp;ldquo;If you need to run something for longer than 30 minutes, then run it in a container, the easiest would be in ECS\u0026amp;rdquo;. But the other side of this is, there is no way to limit the amount of time a task can run in ECS. Customers have been asking for this for a while and here as well, and recently a colleague of mine, Massimo Referre, posted a solution that will enable you to run your task for a finite amount of time. Here is the blog post - Configuring a timeout for Amazon ECS tasks\nIt is actually quite a clever solution which uses Amazon EventBridge and AWS Step functions. Essentially what you do is you put a specific tag on your task with the timeout duration, and the Step Functions state machine will stop the task after that defined period.\nToday, I would like to propose a different solution to the problem. I do want to state that this is a workaround, and when this becomes available as a full feature in ECS, you should use that. But until then\u0026amp;hellip;\nFirst the Why?? Even though","date":"May 17, 2023","href":"/2023/05/setting-timeout-ecs-task.html","summary":"Sometimes you just want your application to run, but only for a certain amount of time, there are a number of reasons you might want to do this. It could be that that you do not want to spend too much time or money completing a n operation (letting things run until eternity, firstly would take a hell of a long time, but it could also rack up a good amount spend in your cloud account). You also could have underlying services and dependencies that might time out while waiting for your task to complete, so you set an upper limit on how long your task can run.","tags":["Container","ECS","AWS"],"title":"Setting a timeout for an Amazon ECS task"},{"content":"It is that time of the year again, we are two weeks away from re:Invent, and last year I did this it was a very useful resource for many Jewish attendees at the conference.\nLast year we had a Channukah party, which was a great opportunity to meet our Jewish customers, colleagues, and light candles together.\nI am so flabbergasted that this actually happened.\nMore about this later in the week\nHannukah Sameach!!#reInvent https://t.co/dJ5cW1yOsv\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) December 1, 2021 I am glad that this will be an in-person event again this year and I am really looking forward to this event.\nFirst and foremost, there will be kosher food, for those who have requested requested in advance.\nIn order to request kosher food for the event, send an email to awsreinvent-support@amazon.com and put in the request.\nPlease do this before November 18th, so that they can guarantee you receive a meal. Additional information will be sent out about the logistics during the week of November 22nd.\nThere are usually hot and cold drinks throughout the day available at the various venues, sometimes there are fresh fruit and some snacks here and there that have a Kosher certification (OU, OK, Star-K, and many more, depending on what are comfortable with eating).\nRestaurants Some things have changed since I was there last year, restaurants have closed, new ones have opened. This is the most up to date information I could find.\nYou can order online from some of the restaurants below and have them deliver to you.\nNew restaurants are on the top\nMother Falafel (6375 South Rainbow Boulevard, Ste. 101 - +1 702-331-6048). Open till 21.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 20 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Jerusalem Chef\u0026amp;rsquo;s Table/Jerusalem Grill Vegas (4825 W Flamingo Rd Suite 10 - +1 702-341-5555). Open till 23.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 15 minute drive from the Venetian They deliver! Patty Smash Go (3720 W. Tropicana Ave #1 - +1 725-248-5556). Open till 18.00 Sun, Mon, Wed.","date":"Nov 14, 2022","href":"/2022/11/keeping-kosher-at-reinvent-2022.html","summary":"It is that time of the year again, we are two weeks away from re:Invent, and last year I did this it was a very useful resource for many Jewish attendees at the conference.\nLast year we had a Channukah party, which was a great opportunity to meet our Jewish customers, colleagues, and light candles together.\nI am so flabbergasted that this actually happened.\nMore about this later in the week\nHannukah Sameach!!#reInvent https://t.co/dJ5cW1yOsv\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) December 1, 2021 I am glad that this will be an in-person event again this year and I am really looking forward to this event.","tags":["Kosher","re:invent","AWS"],"title":"Keeping Kosher re:Invent 2022"},{"content":"Here is a collection of presentations, podcasts, and interviews that I have given over the years.\n How Amazon Teams Use AI Assistants to Accelerate Development (DEV403) AWS re:Invent Deep Dive ECS Managed Instances - Blue/Green for Resilient Services (CNS416) AWS re:Invent Navigating the Unseen Iceberg Devoxx Poland A Developer's Path Through the Cloud Leaders In Tech Turn existing AWS resources to code using AWS CloudFormation IaC Generator (DEM307) AWS Summit TLV Navigating the Unseen Iceberg WeAreDevelopers World Congress Streamlining DevOps Workflows with Kiro: A Practical Demo DevopsDays Tel Aviv VM's Containers and GenAI Testimonies podcast Improve Developer Productivity by Leveraging GenAI DevopsDays Tel Aviv Revolutionizing Deployment System Initiative Meets Containers DevDays Europe Deep dive into Amazon ECS resilience and availability (SVS409) AWS re:Invent Hybrid deployments at scale with Amazon ECS Anywhere AWS Online Tech Talks Deep dive into Amazon ECS resilience and availability (CON401) AWS re:Invent Service decisions for containerized applications AWS TLV Summit Scaling containers from one user to millions AWS Serverless Innovation Day Creating chaos in containers Berlin Buzzwords Creating chaos in containers Voxxed Days Brussels Creating Chaos in Containers DevDays Europe Scaling containers from one user to millions (CON407) AWS re:Invent AWS Container day Dockercon Increasing velocity with Serverless Containers (Hebrew) Tel Aviv Summit Grow Your Company with AWS Container Services Conf42 Cloud Native Fifth Pillar: Cost Optimization Yalla to the Cloud #77 Fourth Pillar: Performance Efficiency Yalla to the Cloud #76 Third Pillar: Reliability Yalla to the Cloud #75 Second Pillar: Security Yalla to the Cloud #74 First Pillar: Operational Excellence Yalla to the Cloud #73 The importance of being well architected Yalla to the Cloud #72 Effective Security for Modern Applications (Hebrew) AWS Dev Day Security Supercharging your developer experience  AWS Cloud Development Kit (Hebrew)  The mis-use of the Hebrew technical language - The Pitchpuchim Song DevOpsDays TLV When the AWS ELB is just not enough AWS Community Day TLV Devs are from Mars, Ops are from Venus - 3 years later DevOps Israel The Path to Becoming an AUC (Active User Contributor) OpenStack Summit A Tale of Two OpenStack Contributors OpenStack Day Israel The Jenkins Plugin for OpenStack - Simple and Painless CI/CD OpenStack Summit Devs are from Mars, Ops are from Venus Cisco DevOps Conference The Oh!! moment in OpenStack vBrownbag OpenStack Summit vExpert Daily Tuesday VMworld EMEA Engineers Unplugged S6|Ep9: Software Defined Storage  OpenStack Design Guide Panel OpenStack Summit Devs are from Mars, Ops are from Venus DevOpsDays TLV Opening Acts Architecture \u0026 Infrastructure Panel VMworld US vExpert Daily - Monday vBrownBag VMworld US vExpert Daily - Monday vBrownBag VMworld US OpenStack in the Enterprise - Are You Ready? OpenStack IL UCS \u0026 Openstack -- The Integration vBrownBag OpenStack Summit Automating Infrastructure, building a better datacenter VMworld US OpenStack for VMWare Admins OpenStack IL OpenStackIL Podcast Episode 1  VMware vExperts Panel VMworld Copenhagen","date":"Jul 5, 2022","href":"/pages/public-engagements/","summary":"Here is a collection of presentations, podcasts, and interviews that I have given over the years.","tags":null,"title":"Public Engagements"},{"content":"It is that time of the year again, and the last time I did this was three years ago. I did not attend re:Invent in 2019, and last year was 100% virtual, so anyone that wanted to keep kosher, it was pretty simple because everyone was at home.\n#Hanukkah and keynote #reinvent3word pic.twitter.com/RzuwK5m5Um\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) December 15, 2020 I am really happy that we will be able to get back an in-person event again this year. Personally this will be my first trip out of Israel since February 2020, so I am really looking forward to this.\nFirst and foremost, there will be kosher food, for those request it in advance.\nThere was no option to provide that information during the registration process, so I reached out to the event team to ask if there would be an accommodation for those who keep kosher. The answer was yes, there would be.\nIn order to request kosher food for the event, send an email to awsreinvent-support@amazon.com and put in the request.\nPlease do this before November 12th, so that they can guarantee you receive a meal. Additional information will be sent out about the logistics during the week of November 22nd.\nThere are usually hot and cold drinks throughout the day available at the various venues, sometimes there are fresh fruit and some snacks here and there that have a Kosher certification (OU, OK, Star-K, and many more, depending on what are comfortable with eating).\nRestaurants Some things have changed since I was there in 2018, restaurants have closed, new ones have opened.\nThis is the most up to date information I could find.\nYou can order online from some of the restaurants below and have them deliver to you.\nBurnt Offerings (3909 W Sahara Ave, STE10 - 702-848-2876) Open till 22.00 Sun-Thur It is about a 10 minute drive from the Venetian. They deliver! Kosher Chinglish (8704 W Charleston Blvd. Suite 103 - 702-935-2055) Open until 22:00 Sun-Thur It is about a 20 minute drive from the Venetian. They deliver! Ariela’s Pizza","date":"Oct 25, 2021","href":"/2021/10/keeping-kosher-at-reinvent-2021.html","summary":"It is that time of the year again, and the last time I did this was three years ago. I did not attend re:Invent in 2019, and last year was 100% virtual, so anyone that wanted to keep kosher, it was pretty simple because everyone was at home.\n#Hanukkah and keynote #reinvent3word pic.twitter.com/RzuwK5m5Um\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) December 15, 2020 I am really happy that we will be able to get back an in-person event again this year. Personally this will be my first trip out of Israel since February 2020, so I am really looking forward to this.","tags":["Kosher","re:invent","AWS"],"title":"Keeping Kosher re:Invent 2021"},{"content":"I would like to share something really useful that I learned today from a colleague (huge shout out to Boaz Ziniman - a fellow AWS Developer Advocate)\nHave you ever demoed something on your your terminal and while running through the demo - you have on the screen some information that you do not want to actually show the rest of the world?\nFor example you are demoing your AWS setup and you want to show the setup of your ~/.aws/credentials file - but you dont really want to show the real contents of your AWS Access KEY and your AWS Secret Access Key - because this sensitive information you should not be sharing.\nPerhaps you do not want share your AWS Account ID (12 digit number) when demo\u0026amp;rsquo;ing something in your account either.\nSo Boaz introduced me to a feature in iTerm2 - called Triggers.\nA trigger is an action that is performed when text matching some regular expression is received in a terminal session.\nIf you can write a regular expression for something - you can use triggers to hide it from showing up in your console while sharing your screen. Really, it\u0026amp;rsquo;s that simple.\nIn iTerm2 -\u0026amp;gt; Preferences -\u0026amp;gt; Profiles -\u0026amp;gt; Advanced -\u0026amp;gt; Triggers -\u0026amp;gt; Edit\nHere are a few examples and the relevant regex.\nhide your AWS Account ID from appearing in your terminal\n((?\u0026amp;lt;=:)(\\d{12})(?=:)|(?\u0026amp;lt;=\u0026amp;quot;)(\\d{12})(?=\u0026amp;quot;)) hide your AWS Access Key ID\n(A3T[A-Z0-9]|AKIA|AGPA|AIDA|AROA|AIPA|ANPA|ANVA|ASIA)[A-Z0-9]{17} And to hide them from the screen choose the Highlight Text.. action and choose the same color for the Text and the Background\nThis is what it looks like on my terminal\nYou no longer have to modify screenshots, or blur out recordings with software after they have been recorded. It is all built into your terminal.\n","date":"Jul 6, 2021","href":"/2021/07/demo-sensitive-info-terminal.html","summary":"I would like to share something really useful that I learned today from a colleague (huge shout out to Boaz Ziniman - a fellow AWS Developer Advocate)\nHave you ever demoed something on your your terminal and while running through the demo - you have on the screen some information that you do not want to actually show the rest of the world?\nFor example you are demoing your AWS setup and you want to show the setup of your ~/.aws/credentials file - but you dont really want to show the real contents of your AWS Access KEY and your AWS Secret Access Key - because this sensitive information you should not be sharing.","tags":["Amazon","CLI","demo"],"title":"Demo Sensitive Info in your terminal"},{"content":"Today I start a new journey within AWS. I am happy to announce that today is Day-1 (and it is always Day-1 in Amazon - BTW) in a new role as a Senior Enterprise Developer Advocate in the container services team - focusing on ECS.\nIn true Amazonian fashion - this is my first attempt at writing a mini-PRFAQ and there is no better way to start than to write one for my new position.\nEnterprise Developer Advocate ISRAEL, June 7th 2021 – Maish Saidel-Keesing will be starting a new position as an Enterprise Developer Advocate for the ECS Service team. The Product Developer Advocates are on a mission to empower and advocate for builders all around the world so that they can create amazing applications with AWS Container Services and advance their just cause. The Container Services team builds and operates services such as Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Services (EKS) that make it easy for customers to run container-based applications in production and at scale. To get started with Amazon Elastic Container Services, visit: https://aws.amazon.com/ecs.\nBased on research from Gartner, 88% of the enterprises have a cloud first strategy, but on the other hand 86% of the enterprise IT spend on infrastructure, is still directed at on-premises purchases. Enterprise customers and especially traditional enterprise organizations have limitations, history, and legacy processes to maintain and usually will have a substantial amount of on-premises infrastructure that they still need to maintain in parallel while they advance in their journey.\nWerner Vogels, VP \u0026amp;amp; CTO at Amazon.com says, “Many of our AWS customers are solving really hard human problems, in ways that is extremely inspiring for any builder, like me.” We consider all of our customers as builders, but in reality - when we talk about builders, we mostly talk about those customers who create software, those who have software development or engineering background, those who write code.","date":"Jun 7, 2021","href":"/2021/06/new-role-entreloper.html","summary":"Today I start a new journey within AWS. I am happy to announce that today is Day-1 (and it is always Day-1 in Amazon - BTW) in a new role as a Senior Enterprise Developer Advocate in the container services team - focusing on ECS.\nIn true Amazonian fashion - this is my first attempt at writing a mini-PRFAQ and there is no better way to start than to write one for my new position.","tags":["Amazon","Miscellaneous","career"],"title":"Goodbye SA - Hello EntReloper"},{"content":"How do you balance the priorities during your work day? How do you know that you are focusing on the right thing? How do you even actually know what is the right thing? This is something that my team has been focusing on for a while.\nWe all have a finite amount of time - 24 hours in a day, 1440 minutes, 86,400 seconds. And until someone solves that small problem of time travel - I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t think that this going to be any different.\nThis means we have to prioritize, how we spend our time, with whom, and on which activities. I read a book many years back The 7 habits of highly effective people and to be honest - I can say it probably changed my life. I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t think that I have managed to implement or adopt everything in that book, but it did help understand that everyone should live their lives, divide their time and attention to the things that matter to them most. What those things might be - will vary from one person to another, but once you have defined for yourself what they should be - you can align everything you do - and more importantly what you will not do - based on your values and priorities. Priorities matter - and the closer they match your values - the easier it becomes to say what is important and what is not.\nAs a new solutions architect in AWS - one of the things that is drilled into you - is that you have to guard your time as the most precious resource you have - and focus on what is important and brings benefit to your customers.\nWhich is how we come to the topic of this post. How do I best serve my customers interests? How do I split my time between everything I have on my plate?\nMany of us in customer facing roles might think that we need to spend all of our time in front of customers, and in some cases when the hours spent with your customers are billable - then it might make sense. This is not the case when you are a solutions architect in AWS. An SA is not a billable resource, we don\u0026amp;rsquo;t get paid by the number of hours we spend","date":"Jun 1, 2021","href":"/2021/06/50-35-15.html","summary":"How do you balance the priorities during your work day? How do you know that you are focusing on the right thing? How do you even actually know what is the right thing? This is something that my team has been focusing on for a while.\nWe all have a finite amount of time - 24 hours in a day, 1440 minutes, 86,400 seconds. And until someone solves that small problem of time travel - I don\u0026rsquo;t think that this going to be any different.","tags":["Amazon","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Balancing work priorities - the 50-35-15 rule"},{"content":"A few days ago AWS released a very much requested feature \u0026amp;ldquo;ECS exec\u0026amp;rdquo; - which enables you to \u0026amp;ldquo;ssh\u0026amp;rdquo; into one of your containers running in ECS, regardless of if they are running in AWS Fargate or in Amazon EC2.\nI do want to point out that I agree completely with Massimo - opening a remote shell is quite the anti-pattern of using containers in the first place and is not something that you should be doing in production. Everything and anything you need to get out of the container should be stored in a log and sent to an external source - so that you can use that information when the container dies.\nBut sometimes in the development cycle, when you are iterating quickly on your solution - and things are not working as you expected, then getting into the environment is so damn useful, which is why this feature is awesome.\nMy colleague Massimo Re Ferre wrote a very detailed blog post on the feature, how you can use it and what you need to do to get up and running. Give it a read.\nAnother colleague of mine Nathan Peck also published a great blog post about how this is supported at day 1 in Copilot.\nI must confess that I have not really used Copilot up until now - but it is so simple to use - and it will become my goto tool from now on.\nWhat I loved about Nathan\u0026amp;rsquo;s post, is that is so simple to use copilot to interact with a container. Stupid simple.\ncopilot svc exec\nAnd you are in. I love it.\nAnd then I looked at what you need to do to get into a container with the AWS CLI and saw, that it is definitely not 3 words on a command line.\naws ecs execute-command \\ --region $AWS_REGION \\ --cluster ecs-exec-demo-cluster \\ --task ef6260ed8aab49cf926667ab0c52c313 \\ --container nginx \\ --command \u0026amp;#34;/bin/bash\u0026amp;#34; \\ --interactive There has to be an easier way\u0026amp;hellip;.\nIf you read my blog last month - you noticed that I posted a list of AWS aliases, which makes your life a lot easier when using the CLI. And I thought to myself, why not make the command","date":"Mar 17, 2021","href":"/2021/03/ecs-exec-alias.html","summary":"A few days ago AWS released a very much requested feature \u0026ldquo;ECS exec\u0026rdquo; - which enables you to \u0026ldquo;ssh\u0026rdquo; into one of your containers running in ECS, regardless of if they are running in AWS Fargate or in Amazon EC2.\nI do want to point out that I agree completely with Massimo - opening a remote shell is quite the anti-pattern of using containers in the first place and is not something that you should be doing in production. Everything and anything you need to get out of the container should be stored in a log and sent to an external source - so that you can use that information when the container dies.","tags":["Amazon","CLI","AWS"],"title":"AWS CLI Alias - for ECS exec"},{"content":"Today I would like to share with you an AWS CLI feature that is not actually well known and not really well documented.\nI use the AWS cli on a daily basis - pretty much every time I spend time in my terminal.\nThere are commands I use on a regular basis and some of them are repetitive - and also quite long to type out - and I wish that there was a way to alias a command in the AWS cli - it would make my life a lot easier.\nThere is!! Wait - what ???\nI only found this out a few months ago thanks to a tweet that came across my feed from @jsaryer\nI\u0026amp;#39;ve had a few questions about AWS CLI aliases, so here\u0026amp;#39;s the gist of how they work. 1. Create an ~/.aws/cli/alias file 2. Add a [toplevel] section 3. Entries are \u0026amp;quot;my-command = service operation --other-params\u0026amp;quot;\n\u0026amp;mdash; James Saryerwinnie (@jsaryer) August 7, 2020 It turns out that there is an AWS github repo from about 4 years ago - with an example (or two) of how to use an alias in the AWS cli.\nIf you would like to see how the command is built into the aws cli - you can have a look here. Support for aliases was added in this PR - and if you would like to see exactly what is supported - got through the PR.\nEssentially - you create an alias file in ~/.aws/cli/alias and you populate it with the commands and shortcuts that you would like use.\nBased on the information from the PR the alias file is an INI file, where you define the aliases and their values.\nThe ~/.aws/cli/alias file only has support for the [toplevel] section. Any other sections, will be ignored. Aliases defined under the [toplevel] section will only be applied at the service command level. Aliases can be defined using multiple lines for readability Simple alias Let\u0026amp;rsquo;s have a look at a simple alias file. First you put in a declaration at the top of the file and your alias below that.\n[toplevel] whoami = sts get-caller-identity This defines a new alias in your aws cli configuration that when you run:\naws whoami\nIt will automatically translate","date":"Feb 7, 2021","href":"/2021/02/aws-cli-aliases.html","summary":"Today I would like to share with you an AWS CLI feature that is not actually well known and not really well documented.\nI use the AWS cli on a daily basis - pretty much every time I spend time in my terminal.\nThere are commands I use on a regular basis and some of them are repetitive - and also quite long to type out - and I wish that there was a way to alias a command in the AWS cli - it would make my life a lot easier.","tags":["Amazon","CLI","AWS"],"title":"AWS CLI Aliases"},{"content":"This post has nothing to do with technology, so if you follow my blog for that purpose only - feel free click away.\nThis post is based on the original article in hebrew by Rabbi Chaim Navon.\nTonight is the commemoration of Tisha B’av, a horrible day in Jewish history, mostly remembered because it was the day that the first and second Temple were destroyed. It is part of my history. It is part of my nation’s history. Part of my religion\u0026amp;rsquo;s history.\nWe now live in troubled times. Demonstrators in the United States have attacked statues of Columbus, Washington and Teddy Roosevelt and many others. Toppled them, burned them, dismantled them, defaced them, destroyed them. Students at the University of Wisconsin also demanded the removal of a statue of Lincoln from their campus. \u0026amp;ldquo;For him to be at the top of Bascom as a powerful placement on our campus, it\u0026amp;rsquo;s a single-handed symbol of white supremacy.\u0026amp;rdquo;\nIn London, the statue of Churchill, which had been vandalized by rioters, had to be protected with iron partitions. Princeton University has announced that it will remove the name of progressive President Woodrow Wilson from all buildings on campus. Wilson was president of Princeton before he ran for the US presidency. When asked why he left the academic world, he said: I\u0026amp;rsquo;m tired from trying to engage in politics all.\nDo you know what is wrong with the current offensive actually against western history? The rioters and and those calling for these actions, single out unpleasant quotes from these heroes of history, usually quotes or actions against people of color, Muslims or Indians.\nAnd if they said what they said, or did what they did, why shouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t we expunge them from our gallery of heroes?\nThere are two common answers to this question, and neither of them are ideal.\nThe first, that victims of the past should forget history and move on. But as a Jew, I know that the past should never be forgotten. We still fast and mourn the destruction of","date":"Jul 29, 2020","href":"/2020/07/dont-erase-the-past/","summary":"This post has nothing to do with technology, so if you follow my blog for that purpose only - feel free click away.\nThis post is based on the original article in hebrew by Rabbi Chaim Navon.\nTonight is the commemoration of Tisha B’av, a horrible day in Jewish history, mostly remembered because it was the day that the first and second Temple were destroyed. It is part of my history. It is part of my nation’s history. Part of my religion\u0026rsquo;s history.","tags":["miscellaneous","history"],"title":"Don't erase the past, change the future!"},{"content":"Today is my one year anniversary at AWS as a Senior Solutions Architect. I started exactly 1 year ago.\nHow time flies\u0026amp;hellip; this is re-post of a twitter thread (and in true Amazon fashion based on the Leadership principles)\n1/ Today is my one year anniversary at @awscloud as a Senior Solutions Architect. I started exactly 1 year ago.\nHow time flies... a thread (and in true Amazon fashion based on the Leadership principles)\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) July 15, 2020 I have never worked at a company like this. When people told me that Amazon was different, I knew that they were right, but I did not really grasp how much.\nOver the course of the past year I have learned a lot of new things about myself, gained independence to take projects to a whole new level and grow personally and professionally.\nCustomer Obsession \u0026amp;amp; Earn Trust Amazon has a peculiar culture, we are different. Some companies say that have values and live by them, but that is not always the case. Amazonians live by them, all day, every day.\nEvery meeting, every decision, every discussion we have at work these principles to guide us. It takes some getting used to, but that is what makes us who we are.\nWhen Amazon talks about Customer Obsession - we mean it. We go out of our way to understand our customers, I mean really get to know them, how they work, what their challenges are, what are their goals.\nBy doing this we achieve one of the most important things that we are looking for. Earning our customers trust. That is what differentiates Amazon from others.\nOwnership \u0026amp;amp; Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit Amazon is in it for the long game, it is even one of the Leadership Principles. Ownership. We act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just your own team. We never say “that’s not my job.\u0026amp;quot;\nHow does that manifest itself in the day to day? Well it means that people actively look for tasks and challenges outside their regular day work.\nPeople don\u0026amp;rsquo;t shirk off","date":"Jul 15, 2020","href":"/2020/07/a-year-at-aws.html","summary":"Today is my one year anniversary at AWS as a Senior Solutions Architect. I started exactly 1 year ago.\nHow time flies\u0026hellip; this is re-post of a twitter thread (and in true Amazon fashion based on the Leadership principles)\n1/ Today is my one year anniversary at @awscloud as a Senior Solutions Architect. I started exactly 1 year ago.\nHow time flies... a thread (and in true Amazon fashion based on the Leadership principles)","tags":["Amazon","Career","AWS"],"title":"A Year at AWS"},{"content":"Good evening to you all.\nI would like to introduce you to a new release of the AWS Community Visio stencils.\nWhat has changed? A lot actually. Jerry Hargrove has continued to release awesome diagrams, and I decided that it makes a lot more sense to follow his suite and produce a Visio stencil based on each of his works of art.\nSo that now means that I will be releasing a stencil, per each diagram. I know that there will probably be some duplication between the stencils - but for the sake of providing a full set of icons for your benefit, this is the path I will follow.\nBumping to version 2.0 Because this is a revamp and a major change in the deliverable - it warrants a new version number.\nRelease Notes - v2.0 Version 2.0 can be downloaded here - https://maishsk.com/blog/aws-visio-stencils/aws-visio-v2.0.zip\nUpdated Visio stencils API Gateway (based on https://www.awsgeek.com/AWS-Modern-App-Series/Amazon-API-Gateway/ from 2020-03-10) 20 stand alone icons A full Visio version of the entire diagram AWS Products (based on https://www.awsgeek.com/AWS-Icons/ from 2019-07-26) 48 stand alone icons A full Visio version of the entire diagram AWS Regions (based on https://www.awsgeek.com/AWS-Regions/ from 2020-04-28) 23 stand alone icons A full Visio version of the entire diagram New regions for South Africa and Italy AWS Lambda (based on a previous version of https://www.awsgeek.com/AWS-Modern-App-Series/AWS-Lambda/) 47 stand alone icons A full Visio version of the entire diagram Amazon EFS (based on https://www.awsgeek.com/Amazon-EFS/ from 2020-04-01) 34 stand alone icons A full Visio version of the entire diagram AWS Ground Station (based on https://www.awsgeek.com/AWS-Ground-Station/ from 2019-05-30) 35 stand alone icons A full Visio version of the entire diagram Amazon Neptune (based on https://www.awsgeek.com/Amazon-Neptune/ from 2018-12-21) 34 stand alone icons A full Visio version of the entire diagram Amazon Personalize (based on","date":"May 7, 2020","href":"/2020/05/aws-visio-v2.0/","summary":"Good evening to you all.\nI would like to introduce you to a new release of the AWS Community Visio stencils.\nWhat has changed? A lot actually. Jerry Hargrove has continued to release awesome diagrams, and I decided that it makes a lot more sense to follow his suite and produce a Visio stencil based on each of his works of art.\nSo that now means that I will be releasing a stencil, per each diagram. I know that there will probably be some duplication between the stencils - but for the sake of providing a full set of icons for your benefit, this is the path I will follow.","tags":null,"title":"A New AWS Community Visio Stencil Release (v2.0)"},{"content":"AWS The AWS Community Visio Stencils - v1.0 (November, 2018) The Community AWS Visio Stencils - v2.0 (May 2020) VMware The Unofficial VMware Visio Stencils - v4 (April 2013) The stencils are free to use for your benefit.\nIt would be nice if you could drop me a thank you note if these have been useful to you, either by pinging me on Twitter (@maishsk) or through the Contact page.\n","date":"May 7, 2020","href":"/pages/visio/","summary":"AWS The AWS Community Visio Stencils - v1.0 (November, 2018) The Community AWS Visio Stencils - v2.0 (May 2020) VMware The Unofficial VMware Visio Stencils - v4 (April 2013) The stencils are free to use for your benefit.\nIt would be nice if you could drop me a thank you note if these have been useful to you, either by pinging me on Twitter (@maishsk) or through the Contact page.","tags":null,"title":"Visio Stencils"},{"content":"There are a number of ways to publish content for a blog, and many people who have moved to static HTML platforms like hugo use a similar flow.\nIn my Blog Migration Series, I went through how the migration process. This post will be about how I actually publish my content, and the flow that I have found that works for me.\nMy tools The tools that I use are:\nvscode is my code editor of choice. I use a number of extensions (a.k.a plugins to help me during my work.) vscode-markdown vscode-markdownlint Markdown Preview Enhanced A private github repository to store all my content (I will explain why this github repo is private shortly) AWS S3 for the \u0026amp;ldquo;webhosting\u0026amp;rdquo; of my content AWS CodeBuild for the build engine to generate the content AWS Lambda for a scheduled task (more on this later) AWS SNS for notifications by email The workflow A picture is worth a thousand words.\nThe first stage of course is to write the actual content.\nWhen I am happy with the post, and ready to publish it - I commit the code to git.\nAs I mentioned before the git repository where the blog posts - are stored are on github and I also mentioned that the repository is private - that means I am the only one who can actually see the code.\nThe reason for this decision, is because there are some blog posts I have published in the past, and will probably do so in the future - that are covered under NDA - and that NDA has an expiration date. If I were to commit the text to a public repository - then that information would be out there in the public domain. I would be breaking the confidence of the party that has entrusted me with this private information (something of course that I would never do). Therefore - I chose to keep my markdown source content private and closed to the world.\nI have a webhook enabled on the repository that will notify AWS CodeBuild, when new code is pushed.\nThis is what it looks like from the CodeBuild side.\nThe configuration of the buildspec works with a container -","date":"May 3, 2020","href":"/2020/05/blog-publishing-process/","summary":"There are a number of ways to publish content for a blog, and many people who have moved to static HTML platforms like hugo use a similar flow.\nIn my Blog Migration Series, I went through how the migration process. This post will be about how I actually publish my content, and the flow that I have found that works for me.\nMy tools The tools that I use are:\nvscode is my code editor of choice. I use a number of extensions (a.k.a plugins to help me during my work.) vscode-markdown vscode-markdownlint Markdown Preview Enhanced A private github repository to store all my content (I will explain why this github repo is private shortly) AWS S3 for the \u0026ldquo;webhosting\u0026rdquo; of my content AWS CodeBuild for the build engine to generate the content AWS Lambda for a scheduled task (more on this later) AWS SNS for notifications by email The workflow A picture is worth a thousand words.","tags":["blog","automation","CodePipeline","Lambda","hugo"],"title":"Blog Publishing Process"},{"content":"This is part of a series of posts about how I completed the migration of my blog from Blogger to a self-hosted solution based on AWS S3.\nPart 1 - Decide on where to host the new blog and which platform I would use Part 2 - Export all the content out of Blogger and new blog design Part 3 - Import all the content into the new blog Part 4 - Fix up all the content issues Part 5 - Redirect all old content to the new site (This post) Post URLs When generating the blog post URL\u0026amp;rsquo;s for my relocated blog they did not necessarily match the URL\u0026amp;rsquo;s that existed in the past\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s take an example\nThe old URL\nhttps://technodrone.blogspot.com/2019/02/goodbye-docker-and-thanks-for-all-fish.html\nAnd the new URL that was auto-generated by Hugo.\nhttps://blog.technodrone.cloud/2019/02/goodbye-docker-and-thanks-for-all-fish/\nAs you can see they are not the same.\nThe annoying thing about this is that there is no real mechanism within Blogger to redirect posts - unless you are interested in redirecting a URL within the same site itself. This was not useful, or helpful.\nThe Blogger template itself is mostly HTML and some javascript.\nSo the two options were:\nRedirect each and every single post to the newly created URL Create a global redirect from the site to redirect to a new FQDN, and maintain the post URL\u0026amp;rsquo;s The first option became really ugly, really fast\nI would have to insert a code snippet such as the one below to redirect a post:\n\u0026amp;lt;b:if cond=\u0026amp;#39;data:blog.url == \u0026amp;amp;quot;https://technodrone.blogspot.com/2019/02/goodbye-docker-and-thanks-for-all-fish.html\u0026amp;amp;quot;\u0026amp;#39;\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;link href=\u0026amp;#39;https://blog.technodrone.cloud/2019/02/goodbye-docker-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish/\u0026amp;#39; rel=\u0026amp;#39;canonical\u0026amp;#39;/\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;meta content=\u0026amp;#39;0;url=https://blog.technodrone.cloud/2019/02/goodbye-docker-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish/\u0026amp;#39; http-equiv=\u0026amp;#39;refresh\u0026amp;#39;/\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;/b:if\u0026amp;gt; That meant adding in another ~3,500 lines into the template for redirection of the blog posts","date":"Apr 6, 2020","href":"/2020/04/migrating-the-blog-part-5.html","summary":"This is part of a series of posts about how I completed the migration of my blog from Blogger to a self-hosted solution based on AWS S3.\nPart 1 - Decide on where to host the new blog and which platform I would use Part 2 - Export all the content out of Blogger and new blog design Part 3 - Import all the content into the new blog Part 4 - Fix up all the content issues Part 5 - Redirect all old content to the new site (This post) Post URLs When generating the blog post URL\u0026rsquo;s for my relocated blog they did not necessarily match the URL\u0026rsquo;s that existed in the past","tags":["blog","hugo","migration"],"title":"Migrating the Blog Part - 5"},{"content":"This is part of a series of posts about how I completed the migration of my blog from Blogger to a self-hosted solution based on AWS S3.\nPart 1 - Decide on where to host the new blog and which platform I would use Part 2 - Export all the content out of Blogger and new blog design Part 3 - Import all the content into the new blog Part 4 - Fix up all the content issues (This post) Part 5 - Redirect all old content to the new site Welcome to the most tedious part of my migration.\nI am going to use the same blog post that I showed in the example in Part 2.\nHere is the the beginning of the markdown code that was generated from the conversion process\n--- title: \u0026amp;#39;The case of the my SSL cert – RTFM!!!!!\u0026amp;#39; date: 2009-12-26T17:00:00.000+02:00 draft: false tags : [Management, Administration, MJTV, VMware, Troubleshooting, vCenter] --- It took me a while to understand why this was not working - it could be because I hate - actually loath -having to dig through logs because of Java and Tomcat issues, but I only have my self to blame for this one. I am currently installing a new [vCenter](http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-server/) for my Production Environment (this is part of my [MJTV series](http://technodrone.blogspot.com/search/label/MJTV) that I currently going through the process). The last time we installed - we were just starting out with [VMware](http://www.vmware.com/) – and there have been a decent amount of problems that we have encountered because of lack of experience and knowledge. Therefore a new vCenter (not from scratch but that is another post entirely). Fast forwarding a couple of years - the technology has evolved - and I have gained more knowledge. So one of the things that were never implemented correctly was an SSL Certificate for vCenter. I wanted to do this right so I started out on what and how this should be done. Firstly – this is the official VMware [reference document](http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsp_4_vcserver_certificates.pdf).","date":"Apr 6, 2020","href":"/2020/04/migrating-the-blog-part-4.html","summary":"This is part of a series of posts about how I completed the migration of my blog from Blogger to a self-hosted solution based on AWS S3.\nPart 1 - Decide on where to host the new blog and which platform I would use Part 2 - Export all the content out of Blogger and new blog design Part 3 - Import all the content into the new blog Part 4 - Fix up all the content issues (This post) Part 5 - Redirect all old content to the new site Welcome to the most tedious part of my migration.","tags":["blog","hugo","migration"],"title":"Migrating the Blog Part - 4"},{"content":"This is part of a series of posts about how I completed the migration of my blog from Blogger to a self-hosted solution based on AWS S3.\nPart 1 - Decide on where to host the new blog and which platform I would use Part 2 - Export all the content out of Blogger and new blog design Part 3 - Import all the content into the new blog (This post) Part 4 - Fix up all the content issues Part 5 - Redirect all old content to the new site So if you remember from Part #2, the result of the export - was an XML file - with all my content in it.\nThe tool that I settled on was blog2md - after trying the first two tools that were provided by the Hugo community - this one was the tool that suited my needs the best.\nHere are the steps I went through to install the package\nInstall nodejs on my Mac (you can follow the instructions the platform of your choice Clone blog2md to my working directory\ngit clone https://github.com/palaniraja/blog2md.git cd to the relevant directory Install all the required dependencies. npm install copy the xml export of my blog to the current directory For example\nmv ../04/blog-08-16-2019.xml . Run blog2md to convert the content\nnode index.js b blog-08-16-2019.xml blog What this command did was the following.\nCreated a folder under the current working directory named blog. Went through the whole xml file, post by post, and converted the files to Mardown format and placed all the files in the blog folder. If the post had comments then it will create another Markdown file with the same name as the post - and append the -comments to it - an example you can see below. Some Caveats There are a few things that I would like to point out - that bit me in the butt and I had to work around.\nThe conversion tools do not like draft blog posts - I did not have the time or the energy to dive into the code to find out why - so what I did to solve this was I removed the draft posts I had in Blogger - which solved the issue. If you had your whole life story and auto-biography","date":"Apr 6, 2020","href":"/2020/04/migrating-the-blog-part-3.html","summary":"This is part of a series of posts about how I completed the migration of my blog from Blogger to a self-hosted solution based on AWS S3.\nPart 1 - Decide on where to host the new blog and which platform I would use Part 2 - Export all the content out of Blogger and new blog design Part 3 - Import all the content into the new blog (This post) Part 4 - Fix up all the content issues Part 5 - Redirect all old content to the new site So if you remember from Part #2, the result of the export - was an XML file - with all my content in it.","tags":["blog","hugo","migration"],"title":"Migrating the Blog Part - 3"},{"content":"This is part of a series of posts about how I completed the migration of my blog from Blogger to a self-hosted solution based on AWS S3.\nPart 1 - Decide on where to host the new blog and which platform I would use Part 2 - Export all the content out of Blogger and new blog design (This post) Part 3 - Import all the content into the new blog Part 4 - Fix up all the content issues Part 5 - Redirect all old content to the new site Export content The folks at Hugo have a set of tools that allow you to migrate your content out of your old platform which made my job a lot easier\nHere is the process to export all your content from the Blogger format - into Markdown format - which is something you can use with Hugo\nIn your Blogger control panel go to Settings -\u0026amp;gt; Other\nBack up Content\nAnd then Save to your Computer\nThis will give you an large xml file that contains all the content from your blog. This includes the blog posts, the comments - the whole shebang.\nMy blog contained about 700 posts that I had accumulated over the years - so the file was quite large it was something like 7MB.\nWhat does a blog post look like inside this file (not that it is really important - but just to give you an idea)\n\u0026amp;lt;title type=\u0026amp;#39;text\u0026amp;#39;\u0026amp;gt;The case of the my SSL cert – RTFM!!!!!\u0026amp;lt;/title\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;content type=\u0026amp;#39;html\u0026amp;#39;\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;amp;lt;p\u0026amp;amp;gt;It took me a while to understand why this was not working - it could be because I hate - actually loath -having to dig through logs because of Java and Tomcat issues, but I only have my self to blame for this one.\u0026amp;amp;lt;/p\u0026amp;amp;gt; \u0026amp;amp;lt;p\u0026amp;amp;gt;I am currently installing a new \u0026amp;amp;lt;a href=\u0026amp;#34;http:/ /www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-server/\u0026amp;#34; target=\u0026amp;#34;_blank\u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;amp;gt;vCenter\u0026amp;amp;lt;/a\u0026amp;amp;gt; for my Production Environment (this is part of my \u0026amp;amp;lt;a href=\u0026amp;#34;http:// technodrone.blogspot.com/search/label/MJTV\u0026amp;#34; target=\u0026amp;#34;_blank\u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;amp;gt;MJTV series\u0026amp;amp;lt;/ a\u0026amp;amp;gt; that I currently going through the process). The","date":"Apr 6, 2020","href":"/2020/04/migrating-the-blog-part-2.html","summary":"This is part of a series of posts about how I completed the migration of my blog from Blogger to a self-hosted solution based on AWS S3.\nPart 1 - Decide on where to host the new blog and which platform I would use Part 2 - Export all the content out of Blogger and new blog design (This post) Part 3 - Import all the content into the new blog Part 4 - Fix up all the content issues Part 5 - Redirect all old content to the new site Export content The folks at Hugo have a set of tools that allow you to migrate your content out of your old platform which made my job a lot easier","tags":["blog","hugo","migration"],"title":"Migrating the Blog Part - 2"},{"content":"This is part of a series of posts about how I completed the migration of my blog from Blogger to a self-hosted solution based on AWS S3.\nPart 1 - Decide on where to host the new blog and which platform I would use (This post) Part 2 - Export all the content out of Blogger and new blog design Part 3 - Import all the content into the new blog Part 4 - Fix up all the content issues Part 5 - Redirect all old content to the new site Let me first explain why I wanted to move off of Blogger.\nWhen I started out - I was a Windows guy - through and through, and at the time there was a great solution and client that I (and everyone else) used as my de-facto tool for blogging - and that was Windows Live Writer. About 4 years ago Microsoft decided to retire the product. That left a large number of us in limbo - because to be honest the web UI of Blogger sucks - and no-one really wanted to use it.\nSo some nice people came along and created OpenLiveWriter, which lessened the blow - but at that time - I started to work with a Mac - and eventually the project kind suffered from a number of issues and eventually kind of died out.\nThis left me with using the Web interface that was not the best (to say the least). But I slogged it out, and continued with the platform for a good while longer.\nMy daily activities had morphed over time and I have become more familiar and more comfortable with using git and the developer workflow, which is writing in my IDE of choice (VScode a cross platform tool and is of course completely free).\nI finally decided on Hugo, which is a successor to Jekyll. Hugo is a static content generator, which allows me to write the content in Markdown and then Hugo generates HTML for this site.\nThe last part of the puzzle was where to host the content of the site. There were two options, the first was to use Github Pages - but I wanted to have control and ownership of my content - and not rely on a third party provider. I know that Github is a company that we can","date":"Apr 6, 2020","href":"/2020/04/migrating-the-blog-part-1.html","summary":"This is part of a series of posts about how I completed the migration of my blog from Blogger to a self-hosted solution based on AWS S3.\nPart 1 - Decide on where to host the new blog and which platform I would use (This post) Part 2 - Export all the content out of Blogger and new blog design Part 3 - Import all the content into the new blog Part 4 - Fix up all the content issues Part 5 - Redirect all old content to the new site Let me first explain why I wanted to move off of Blogger.","tags":["blog","hugo","migration"],"title":"Migrating the Blog Part - 1"},{"content":"It has been a journey, one that took a long time. A journey that took much longer than I had hoped, but now it is time to document how I migrated everything from my previous blog over to its new home.\nThis is going to be a series of smaller posts - I have found that breaking these steps into smaller steps is easier to consume, and understand and easier for me to explain.\nThis first post - is going to go over the high level of the steps that I needed to implement, so that I could move the blog and each subsequent post will go into more detail for that specific step.\nThe blog was originally hosted on Blogger - for a number of a number of reasons - mostly historical. Basically I started somewhere - and never found a good enough reason to change the platform. It served me well, it was free. It did have its limitations, but I learned how to live with them, get around them and I was fine with that. You can find some more detail about that in Part - 1.\nI decided to go with a different domain name, one that was more aligned with my current work, and my focus (until now - I was using a shared subdomain FQDN - that Google provided by default).\nThese are the stages that I laid out for myself that needed to allow me to complete in order for to migrate the blog to a new home.\nGet a new domain name, find somewhere to host the blog and decide on which platform I would use instead of Blogger. Export all the content out of Blogger - so that I could import into the new site. Implement a new blog design. Import all the content into the new site. Fix up content issues. Here I had a great amount of technical debt that I wanted to remove. My images were historically hosted in multiple locations (my domain, or other free services). I wanted to consolidate all of the content into a single location - under my ownership and my control. Code from my blog posts - were located in a number of places (github, Blogger). The format was not standard, and I wanted to improve this point as well.","date":"Apr 6, 2020","href":"/2020/04/migrating-the-blog-part-0.html","summary":"It has been a journey, one that took a long time. A journey that took much longer than I had hoped, but now it is time to document how I migrated everything from my previous blog over to its new home.\nThis is going to be a series of smaller posts - I have found that breaking these steps into smaller steps is easier to consume, and understand and easier for me to explain.","tags":["blog","hugo","migration"],"title":"Migrating the Blog Part - 0"},{"content":"I wanted to write this post a long time ago - but refrained from doing so for a number of reasons.\nSince this topic came across my path a few days ago, and the discussion is continuing, it finally gave me the incentive to push the publish button - because I think this is a really touchy, emotional and controversial topic - and I think that my thoughts can add to the discussion.\nBackground Where did this all start? I think the first time this came across my radar was when Seth Vargo pulled a Chef module from Github.\nThank you for bringing this to my attention. It helped me do the right thing and pull my code from the Chef ecosystem.\n\u0026amp;mdash; Seth Vargo (@sethvargo) September 20, 2019 Take a few minutes to read more about the whole saga here.\nGreat. You are back. Now onto the real crux of the discussion.\nLaying Foundations There are a few things I would like to state up front (and yes some of them contradict each other):\nSeth had every right to do what did. I salute him for adhering to his principles. Chef has every right to sell their product to whomever they wish. They are a commercial company. People have strong beliefs and opinions, on both sides. I do not condone either one of the sides of the argument. Each of us are entitled to our opinions, and we are not always going to agree with each other, most of the time actually - we won\u0026amp;rsquo;t! Should our ethics be part of Open Source? The crux of the question above is actually a no brainer, if you would ask me this question - the answer that I would give from my gut would be, \u0026amp;ldquo;Of course it should! The same way that my beliefs drive my my daily decisions and actions - there is no reason why it should not drive the sharing of software\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nBut as always, life is not that simple.\nI am going to send you off to read another article for a few minutes Should open source be ethical?\nGreat, you are back.\nFor those of you who are not members and don\u0026amp;rsquo;t want to sign up for the article I am going to quote some of it","date":"Mar 10, 2020","href":"/2020/03/thoughts-on-ethics-and-open-source/","summary":"I wanted to write this post a long time ago - but refrained from doing so for a number of reasons.\nSince this topic came across my path a few days ago, and the discussion is continuing, it finally gave me the incentive to push the publish button - because I think this is a really touchy, emotional and controversial topic - and I think that my thoughts can add to the discussion.","tags":null,"title":"Thoughts on Ethics and Open Source"},{"content":"Sometimes there comes a time where you have to admit that a decision you made in the past, was not optimal, was not ideal. Realizing that you made the mistake, is the path to a better way, the path to fixing the problem.\nToday, I confess. I made a mistake, and it has something to do with my post AMI has #3Syllables. A.M.I.\nBefore all the ah-mee huggers break out the champagne\u0026amp;hellip;\nNo!! AMI definitely has three syllables. Anyone that thinks otherwise is daft\u0026amp;hellip;. And for the love of all things holy - it is time for you to see the light.\nThe mistake I made was that that when I decided to embark on this crusade, I hastily registered the domain name ami-has-3-syllables.online. And why did I choose that domain name? Because it was cheap.\nAt the time I registered the domain with OVH for the exorbitant amount of €0.85. It was a worthy cause, and I didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t mind shelling out that outrageous amount for the cause.\nOne of the Leadership Principals in Amazon is Frugality. You might think that it means to be a cheapskate - but no. It means - don\u0026amp;rsquo;t spend money on things that are not necessary.\nFrugality\nAccomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense.\nUntil\u0026amp;hellip;. I received the renewal notice for the domain, and holy crap..\nTo renew the domain was €35.66 + VAT (which also has #3syllables - by the way\u0026amp;hellip;)\nPer year!!\nI concede. I am as sure as hell not going to cough up that amount of money on a yearly basis.\nI made the mistake of looking for the short win - and not looking ahead for the long term benefit - which by the way is another one of Amazon\u0026amp;rsquo;s Leadership Principles.\nOwnership\nLeaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say “that’s not my job.\u0026amp;quot;\nI hereby give you all notice. The","date":"Feb 12, 2020","href":"/2020/02/admitting-you-made-a-mistake/","summary":"Sometimes there comes a time where you have to admit that a decision you made in the past, was not optimal, was not ideal. Realizing that you made the mistake, is the path to a better way, the path to fixing the problem.\nToday, I confess. I made a mistake, and it has something to do with my post AMI has #3Syllables. A.M.I.\nBefore all the ah-mee huggers break out the champagne\u0026hellip;","tags":["Crusade","3syllables","AMI","AWS"],"title":"Admitting You Made a Mistake #AMI #3syllables"},{"content":"I finished The Unicorn Project a few weeks ago, and I had some thoughts that I wanted to share with you.\nIn the words of the author Gene Kim\n\u0026amp;ldquo;My goal in writing The Unicorn Project was to explore and reveal the necessary but invisible structures required to make developers (and all engineers) productive, and reveal the devastating effects of technical debt and complexity. I hope this book can create common ground for technology and business leaders to leave the past behind, and co-create a better future together.\u0026amp;rdquo; \u0026amp;ndash;Gene Kim, November 2019\nAll in all the book is a good and easy read, I finished it in a single afternoon and I found it quite familiar to my own personal experiences. I am not going to divulge any spoilers. I do think that the Phoenix Project for me was more of an eye opener, because it was really the first book that I had read that had actually put into words what I had felt and what I had gone through. The story here was pretty much what I see day in and day out at companies I have worked for, and with customers I work with.\nI do want to dive a bit deeper into one item in the book.\nThe concept of a group of people that make a change. In the book there is a group of similar-minded people who meet in secret, who are fed up with the current on-goings in the company and want to make a change.\nThis completely reminded me of the TV series The Blacklist and the Cabal\nThe Cabal was a shadow government that existed, ran things in the background and wanted to run things in the background.\nThey met in secret (in the book they all met after hours, outside work at a bar) They actively recruited like-minded people from within the current organization They had no faith in the current organization and were actively looking to replace it The Unicorn Project is essentially about a Cabal, that managed to turn things around for a failing company, just because the company was not able to do it on its own using conventional methods.\nI have seen this so many","date":"Feb 9, 2020","href":"/2020/02/the-unicorn-project-book-review-the-cabal/","summary":"I finished The Unicorn Project a few weeks ago, and I had some thoughts that I wanted to share with you.\nIn the words of the author Gene Kim\n\u0026ldquo;My goal in writing The Unicorn Project was to explore and reveal the necessary but invisible structures required to make developers (and all engineers) productive, and reveal the devastating effects of technical debt and complexity. I hope this book can create common ground for technology and business leaders to leave the past behind, and co-create a better future together.\u0026rdquo; \u0026ndash;Gene Kim, November 2019","tags":["DevOps","book","review"],"title":"The Unicorn Project Book Review - The Cabal"},{"content":"This was the spark for this post..\nI have one in my bag - and I plan on finishing it today, I don\u0026amp;#39;t really have this problem.\nBut on the other hand - I only read 3-4 books a year\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) January 19, 2020 Some of you may ask - how is it that you find time to actually read a book?\nTime is one of the most precious things that we all guard, the thing that we always say that we never have enough of, and we wish that we had more of, so how is that I can spend it reading and even reading long enough to finish a book?\nSo I have a secret, and I will share it with you all now.\nI almost never read a book during the week, it will always be on the weekend.\nBut - isn\u0026amp;rsquo;t that the time you spend with your family? Yes it is - but is also the time I spend and invest in myself.\nI do have to dive a bit deeper into this though.\nTime is something finite, there are only 86400 seconds or 1440 minutes or 24 hours in a day. There is nothing that we can do to change that - but what we can do - is change how we spend that time and what we focus with the time available to us.\nYou cannot spend all the hours in your day, each and every day awake, it is not possible. You need to sleep, you need to eat, you need to take care of hygiene etc, etc. Own your time during the day, and not let your other things monopolize your time.\nTime management is and has always been (and probably will continue to be till the day I die) my biggest challenge. Where and how do I divide my time between, myself, family, work, self improvement, helping others, religion, faith etc. etc. There is no one good way to do this, and this is something that I continously struggle with on a regular basis and try to improve and find the correct balance.\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s go back to the book reading.\nI wrote a post a good couple of years back VMworld - from a Religious Jewish Orthodox Perspective - and sometimes it happens that I spend Shabbat overseas, not near a Jewish community, in a hotel room.","date":"Jan 27, 2020","href":"/2020/01/where-do-i-find-time-to-read-books/","summary":"This was the spark for this post..\nI have one in my bag - and I plan on finishing it today, I don\u0026#39;t really have this problem.\nBut on the other hand - I only read 3-4 books a year\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) January 19, 2020 Some of you may ask - how is it that you find time to actually read a book?\nTime is one of the most precious things that we all guard, the thing that we always say that we never have enough of, and we wish that we had more of, so how is that I can spend it reading and even reading long enough to finish a book?","tags":null,"title":"Where Do I Find Time to Read Books?"},{"content":"On this page you can find a list of publications I have authored, articles in which I have been quoted or in which I contributed content.\n2017 Benchmarking Instances: The Balance Between Cost and Performance (September 20th, 2017 - CloudCheckr) Choosing the Right Provisioning Tool: Terraform vs. AWS CloudFormation (September 18th, 2017 - StratoScale) OpenStack Alternatives (August 2, 2017 - StratoScale) Hybrid Cloud Monitoring (July 24th, 2017) The Cost-Aware Cloud Architect (July 24, 2017 - CloudChecker) What is Hyperconverged Infrastructure? Three Cloud Experts Answer (July 17, 2017 - StratoScale) The Financial Impact of Moving from VMware to Amazon (May 8, 2017 - StratoScale) From VMware to AWS: Popular Strategies for Migrating Applications (April 19, 2017 - StratoScale) Changing Your Mindset from VMware to AWS (April 12, 2017 - StratoScale) Using Your Infrastructure Better: How To Go Agile While Staying on Premises (April 11, 2017 - StratoScale) The Modern Enterprise CIO as Broker, Innovation Force (March 2017 - StratoScale) CIO\u0026amp;rsquo;s Guide to Competing in a Real-Time, Always-On WorldIs Your Data Center Team Ready for What’s Next? (March 2017 - StratoScale) VPC for Dummies (February 24th, 2017 - StratoScale) Bootstrapping Your OpenStack Data Center with Terraform (February 17th, 2017 - StratoScale) Getting Started With AWS Lambda: A Practical Guide (February 7th, 2017 - StratoScale) Getting Started with AWS Lambda: 4 Use Cases (January 19, 2017 - StratoScale) How to Automate the Export of AWS EC2 to Your OpenStack Cloud (January 18, 2017 - StratoScale) [Step-by-Step Guide] How to Export Your EC2 Instances to Your OpenStack Cloud (January 5, 2017 - StratoScale) 2016 Backup and Recovery in the Cloud: The Application Level (December 20, 2016 - StratoScale) Backup and Recovery in AWS (November 28, 2016 - StratoScale) Implementing Horizontal and Vertical Scalability in Cloud Computing (November 16, 2016 - StratoScale) Synchronizing Data Between AWS and OpenStack","date":"Jan 2, 2020","href":"/pages/in-the-press/","summary":"On this page you can find a list of publications I have authored, articles in which I have been quoted or in which I contributed content.\n2017 Benchmarking Instances: The Balance Between Cost and Performance (September 20th, 2017 - CloudCheckr) Choosing the Right Provisioning Tool: Terraform vs. AWS CloudFormation (September 18th, 2017 - StratoScale) OpenStack Alternatives (August 2, 2017 - StratoScale) Hybrid Cloud Monitoring (July 24th, 2017) The Cost-Aware Cloud Architect (July 24, 2017 - CloudChecker) What is Hyperconverged Infrastructure? Three Cloud Experts Answer (July 17, 2017 - StratoScale) The Financial Impact of Moving from VMware to Amazon (May 8, 2017 - StratoScale) From VMware to AWS: Popular Strategies for Migrating Applications (April 19, 2017 - StratoScale) Changing Your Mindset from VMware to AWS (April 12, 2017 - StratoScale) Using Your Infrastructure Better: How To Go Agile While Staying on Premises (April 11, 2017 - StratoScale) The Modern Enterprise CIO as Broker, Innovation Force (March 2017 - StratoScale) CIO\u0026rsquo;s Guide to Competing in a Real-Time, Always-On WorldIs Your Data Center Team Ready for What’s Next? (March 2017 - StratoScale) VPC for Dummies (February 24th, 2017 - StratoScale) Bootstrapping Your OpenStack Data Center with Terraform (February 17th, 2017 - StratoScale) Getting Started With AWS Lambda: A Practical Guide (February 7th, 2017 - StratoScale) Getting Started with AWS Lambda: 4 Use Cases (January 19, 2017 - StratoScale) How to Automate the Export of AWS EC2 to Your OpenStack Cloud (January 18, 2017 - StratoScale) [Step-by-Step Guide] How to Export Your EC2 Instances to Your OpenStack Cloud (January 5, 2017 - StratoScale) 2016 Backup and Recovery in the Cloud: The Application Level (December 20, 2016 - StratoScale) Backup and Recovery in AWS (November 28, 2016 - StratoScale) Implementing Horizontal and Vertical Scalability in Cloud Computing (November 16, 2016 - StratoScale) Synchronizing Data Between AWS and OpenStack (October 20, 2016 - StratoScale) Recognizing Active User Contributors to OpenStack (October 12, 2016 - Opensource.com) Sizing Your Cloud – Comparing AWS Instances to their OpenStack On-Premises Counterparts (StratoScale - October 3, 2016) Hypervisors in Cloud Computing – What’s Out There? (StratoScale - September 28, 2016) Best Practices for OpenStack Heat Templates (StratoScale - September 13, 2016) Cloud-init: What is it and Why it’s Important to Your Cloud Environment (StratoScale - August 31, 2016) Separation of Critical Resources in OpenStack. Tenants? Aggregates? Availability Zones? (StratoScale - August 15th, 2016) Creating a Highly Available Load Balancer in OpenStack (instead of LBaaS) (StratoScale - August 3, 2016) Load Balancing in OpenStack without LBaaS (StratoScale - July 12, 2016) Interpreting Your Slack Data With the ELK Stack (Logz.io - May 19, 2016) OpenStack Monitoring – Liberty with Sensu, Part 2 (StratoScale - April 27, 2016) OpenStack Monitoring – Liberty with Sensu, Part 1 (StratoScale - March 31, 2016) Tutorial: How to Use Terraform to Deploy OpenStack Workloads (Stratoscale - March 9, 2016) - also on OpenStack SuperUser How to Install the ELK Stack on OpenStack (Logz.io February 23, 2016) OpenStack Certification – The Where, the How and Why? (Stratoscale - February 3, 2016) 2015 Experts weigh in: VMworld 2015 predictions (Techtarget - August 25, 2015) Integrating OpenStack into your Jenkins workflow (Opensource.com - May 12, 2015) What to know when shopping for virtualization systems management tools (Techtarget - April 29, 2015) Tread carefully: Private cloud challenges abound (Techtarget - February 26, 2015) 2014 Server virtualization trends and predictions for 2015 (Techtarget - December 17, 2014) The Best Business IT Blogs Of 2014 {INFOGRAPHIC}(Exigent, August 14, 2014) Expectations high for a VMware converged infrastructure product (Techtarget, July 25, 2014) The OpenStack Architecture Design Book (Openstack, July, 2014) Why is the public cloud winning over in-house IT? (Techtarget - June 25, 2014) Converged infrastructure brings management ease but technical limits (Techtarget - April 20, 2014) Top 100 Cloud Professionals to Follow on G+ (GetVOIP - April 23, 2014) Better IOPS in a flash: Why now is the time to start using SSD storage (Techtarget - Feb. 21, 2014) Who’s Who in Virtual Networking (WANSPEAK - Feb. 12, 2014) 2013 Server virtualization trends to expect in 2014 (Techtarget - Dec. 14, 2013) Tackling virtual server security and compliance challenges (Techtarget - Nov. 5, 2013) Chosen as one of the 50 Must-Read IT Blogs 2013 (Biztech - Sep. 12, 2013) VMware VSAN: Intriguing But A Ways Off (Network Computing - Sep. 9, 2013) Will open source hypervisors ever be popular among enterprises? (Techtarget - Sep. 5, 2013) Chosen as one of the Top 100 Cloud Computing Experts On Twitter (Huffington Post - August 14, 2013) Expert predictions for what to expect at VMworld 2013 (Techtarget July 26, 2013) VMware\u0026rsquo;s free vCenter Certificate Automation Tool simplifies updates (Techtarget - June 24, 2013) VMware\u0026rsquo;s vCenter Certificate Automation Tool is too little, too late (TechTarget - May 02, 2013) How do you know if your business needs to build a private cloud? (TechTarget - Apr. 29, 2013) VMware to compete against AWS with vCloud Hybrid Cloud Service (TechTarget - Mar. 13, 2013) It\u0026rsquo;s a growing trend, but are multiple hypervisors the right answer? (TechTarget - Feb. 25, 2013) Experts weigh in on CTO Herrod\u0026rsquo;s departure, future of VMware (TechTarget - Jan. 21, 2013) 2012 Server virtualization trends and predictions to watch for in 2013 (TechTarget - Dec. 21, 2012) VMware issues SSO patch, new SSL documentation (TechTarget Oct. 29, 2012) Examining the value of a virtualization certification (TechTarget - Oct. 24, 2012) vSphere 5.1 Single Sign-On problems dog VMware shops (TechTarget - Oct. 16, 2012) Was it smart for VMware to undo vSphere pricing changes and kill vRAM? (TechTarget - Sep. 25, 2012) VMworld 2012 expert predictions (TechTarget - Aug. 16, 2012) What are your biggest virtualization challenges? (TechTarget - Jun. 26, 2012) VMware vs. Microsoft: Ferocious pricing war from the user perspective (TechTarget - Jun. 22, 2012) VMware vs. Microsoft: Cloud management is the new battlefield (TechTarget - Jun. 19, 2012) Are Hyper-V savings worth the cost of a VMware rip and replace? (TechTarget - Jun. 19, 2012) Server virtualization predictions for 2012 (TechTarget - May. 30, 2012) What’s in your virtualization home lab? (TechTarget - Apr. 2012) Devising in-house workarounds to solve virtualization problems (TechTarget - Feb. 2012) VMware shops expect vCenter high availability improvements, federation (TechTarget - Jan. 18, 2012) 2011 VMware vSphere 5 upgrades on hold until next year (TechTarget - Dec. 02, 2011) Quest takes aim at VMware with VKernel acquisition (TechTarget - Nov. 17, 2011) What’s your most terrifying virtualization management story? (TechTarget - Oct. 2011) Users to VMware: Stick to your knitting (TechTarget - Sep. 13, 2011) What are you looking forward to at VMworld 2011? (TechTarget - Aug. 2011) Plug-ins breathe new life into VMware vCenter Orchestrator (TechTarget - Jun. 22, 2011) VMware acquisitions: Moving beyond virtualization (TechTarget - Jun. 2011) VMware users eye changes to Update Manager (TechTarget - Apr. 21, 2011) Software licensing models need to get with the times (TechTarget - Apr. 2011) vCloud Director no shoo-in for VMware Lab Manager shops (TechTarget - Feb. 23, 2011) Is the virtualization hypervisor a commodity? (TechTarget - Feb 2011) VMware users vexed by quiet changes in PowerCLI 4.1 (TechTarget - Jan. 06, 2011) 2010 VMware shops grapple with VM stall (TechTarget - Dec. 14, 2010) VMware virtualization management plans mystify users (TechTarget - Dec. 14, 2010) ","tags":null,"title":"In the Press"},{"content":"It is time for a change. When I first started to publish on my blog almost 12 years ago - I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be where I am in my career, become who I have become am as a person, the knowledge I have accumulated and what I have managed to accomplish.\nIt is time for a change, and that includes:\nA new domain name A new way of publishing content A new start I have decided to retire my old blog, which means I will no longer be publishing new content there, and I will be moving my activities here.\nI have put in a decent amount of time to clean up the old blog, standardize everything and create redirects for all the content on the old blog - so I hope there will be no disturbance in service.\nIf there is any content that you think is missing - please let me know either through the contact form, or on Twitter - @maishsk\n","date":"Jan 2, 2020","href":"/2020/01/welcome-to-blog-2.0/","summary":"It is time for a change. When I first started to publish on my blog almost 12 years ago - I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be where I am in my career, become who I have become am as a person, the knowledge I have accumulated and what I have managed to accomplish.\nIt is time for a change, and that includes:\nA new domain name A new way of publishing content A new start I have decided to retire my old blog, which means I will no longer be publishing new content there, and I will be moving my activities here.","tags":["blog","new"],"title":"Welcome to Blog 2.0"},{"content":"Disclaimer I am not a lawyer, I maintain and update this blog in my spare time and as such I will try and word this in a way that is simple to understand, both for me as a content creator, and also for you as reader of this blog.\nAll information is provided from the best of my knowledge, my insight on the wonderful world of technology and the opinions expressed on this blog are my own.\nThey are the not the opinions of my employer, they are NOT the official stance, thoughts, recommendations, or advice of my employer, cannot (and should not) be considered as such.\nAny actions that you take as a result from the information and content published here, are provided as is, without any guarantee and should be tested or validated to work for you, in your specific use case. I am not responsible for you taking something from the internet, running it without sufficient testing and causing damage.\nAdvertisements I do not create sponsored content. Never have, never will. This is my blog, my voice, my thoughts and my opinion. It is something I value dearly and I will not jeopardize my integrity for a few bucks.\nI am not looking for sponsorship on the blog. Thanks.\nFeedback I have decided to disable comments on the site, 99.99% of the comments I receive are spam anyways, it is a waste of my time.\nIf you have thoughts, commentary, remarks, want to disagree, argue or have anything you would like tell me, please feel free to reach out or contact me on Twitter.\n","date":"Jun 26, 2019","href":"/pages/disclaimer/","summary":"Disclaimer I am not a lawyer, I maintain and update this blog in my spare time and as such I will try and word this in a way that is simple to understand, both for me as a content creator, and also for you as reader of this blog.\nAll information is provided from the best of my knowledge, my insight on the wonderful world of technology and the opinions expressed on this blog are my own.","tags":null,"title":"Disclaimer and Ground Rules"},{"content":"Hi, my name is Maish Saidel-Keesing and welcome to my new piece of real estate on the web.\nThis is v2 of my blogging journey. I used to blog at Technodrone, and decided in 2019 to move my content here.\nI am currently a Senior Enterprise Developer Advocate for Amazon Web Services and have been working in the technology space for over 20 years.\nAutomation is the way things should be done - so I am constantly looking for ways to make my life easier wherever I can.\nMy latest project is The Cloudwalkabout - a book about my journey through the world of AWS.\nI also co-authored the VMware vSphere Design book and the OpenStack Architecture Design Guide and participated in the technical review of a number of publications.\nI am the married to the most wonderful woman, the love of my life, and have 3 amazing and beautiful daughters.\nYou can always get hold of me through the Contact Page or on Twitter.\n","date":"Jun 20, 2019","href":"/pages/about-me/","summary":"Hi, my name is Maish Saidel-Keesing and welcome to my new piece of real estate on the web.\nThis is v2 of my blogging journey. I used to blog at Technodrone, and decided in 2019 to move my content here.\nI am currently a Senior Enterprise Developer Advocate for Amazon Web Services and have been working in the technology space for over 20 years.\nAutomation is the way things should be done - so I am constantly looking for ways to make my life easier wherever I can.","tags":["about","me"],"title":"About Me"},{"content":" Name Email Address Message ","date":"Jun 20, 2019","href":"/pages/contact/","summary":" Name Email Address Message ","tags":null,"title":"Contact Me"},{"content":" Simon Sinek has a great talk - about how great leaders inspire great action. I learned something really important from this talk even through it is almost 10 years old.\nBy explaining things in the wrong way - we miss the opportunity to make a great impact, to change the world.\nWe usually start with the What. Then the How.. And only at the end - we get into the Why\u0026amp;hellip; It should be the other be the reverse.\nFollowing Simon\u0026amp;rsquo;s advice I will start with the why..\nWhy? I firmly believe that the future is the public cloud. I believe that we can accomplish so much more, so much faster, when we leave heavy lifting for others. This allows all of us to focus on providing the actual value to our customers without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure.\nI know that I have a huge amount still to learn, but I also have a huge amount of knowledge, experience and insight that I can share with others. I have been doing this for many years, and see this not only as a way to put bread on the table, but also a way to make a real change in the world.\nI want other people to benefit from what I have to give.\nHow? I work with teams on how to start their journey to the cloud, how to make use of the technologies available to them. This includes, writing code, continuously learning (myself included), gaining more knowledge, and ultimately sharing that knowledge with others. I have built pipelines, migrated workloads into the cloud, failed miserably in some cases, continuously improved and iterated to get better the whole time.\nWorking on a regular basis with customers to help them on their journey, through their challenges along the way, celebrate their success stories with them, experience the pain and anguish with their failures / disasters - but above all - to be an advisor for my clients - with their best interests in mind.\nWhat? The change I have decided to embark on (and the challenge I have decided to accept) is moving my skills and energy in a direction where I","date":"Jun 12, 2019","href":"/2019/06/starting-new-journey-aws.html","summary":" Simon Sinek has a great talk - about how great leaders inspire great action. I learned something really important from this talk even through it is almost 10 years old.\nBy explaining things in the wrong way - we miss the opportunity to make a great impact, to change the world.","tags":["Amazon","Career","Announcement","AWS"],"title":"Starting a new Journey AWS"},{"content":"I dabble in AWS every now and again :) and a new book just came out - so obviously I wanted to go through it and give it a read.\nMastering AWS Cost Optimization: Real-world technical and operational cost-saving best practices\n(Eli Mansoor and Yair Green)\nSo first some disclosure - I have met with Eli a few times throughout my career - we had some business discussions during his Rackspace days. Eli Reached out to me and asked me to read the book and post a review.\nI received a free paperback copy.\nI finished the book in two days, (it was chag and I had a lot of time to read). It quite clear that a lot of knowledge and detail went into the writing of the book. Eli and Yair took a methodological approach throughout the book. They focused on three main aspects of your AWS cost (with a strong emphasis on Compute and Storage, but also Networking).\nThey used a methodology which they name KAO (Knowledge, Architecture, Operation) which in my honest opinion provided a logical and clear flow for the book and made it an easy read. They go into detail on how each of the services are used - sometimes in really great detail. There are a number of examples in the book used to explain how things exactly work. The last section of the book is focused on Operations with different suggestions and recommendations on how to adjust you current practices, to become more \u0026amp;ldquo;cost aware/optimized\u0026amp;rdquo;. I for one would have preferred that this section would have been more of the focus of the entire book - but that could just be me. There are a great number of gems in this section - that has something new for everyone (me included!!) As I said, this was an easy read, well structured and very informative. Eli and Yair have done a great job, diving deep on a topic that is important to us all (but has no real good source of information - besides experience) - but have also left enough space to expand on this book and to provide a more detailed deep dive and focus on more specific subjects in","date":"Jun 10, 2019","href":"/2019/06/book-review-mastering-aws-cost.html","summary":"I dabble in AWS every now and again :) and a new book just came out - so obviously I wanted to go through it and give it a read.\nMastering AWS Cost Optimization: Real-world technical and operational cost-saving best practices\n(Eli Mansoor and Yair Green)\nSo first some disclosure - I have met with Eli a few times throughout my career - we had some business discussions during his Rackspace days. Eli Reached out to me and asked me to read the book and post a review.","tags":["Amazon","Book","review"],"title":"Book Review: Mastering AWS Cost Optimization"},{"content":"AWS has 26, (yes) I counted them, different products with exactly 3 letters in them (or derivatives of) - lets go through them one at a time.\nA-C-M AWS Certificate Manager - Is not pronounced ac-em (also not hack-em) D-M-S Database Migration Service - Is not pronounced dems nor dee-miss (and also not dimms) E-B-S Elastic Block Store - Is not pronounced ebbs (and we are not being washed back out to sea), nor ee-bzz (people might be allergic to bees) E-C-2 (Well it should actually be E-C-C - but EC2 sounds so much sexier) Elastic Compute Cloud - Is not pronounced ek-2 (or even eck - otherwise people might get confused with \u0026amp;ldquo;what the heck2\u0026amp;rdquo;) E-C-R - Elastic Container Registry - Is not pronounced Ecker-R (sounds too much like pecker) E-C-S - Elastic Container Service - Is not pronounced eh-ckes neither ee-cees nor Ex (People would be wary to use a product named Amazon X - they might think that AWS is taking after Google with their Alphabet) E-F-S - Elastic File System - Is not pronounced ef-s neither ee-fees nor eefs E-K-S - Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes - pronouncing this x-kay (ECS-K) would sound too much like Xray (another AWS product). Also see above about E-C-S E-M-R Elastic MapReduce - We don\u0026amp;rsquo;t call it ee-mer - nor emmer (otherwise all the Dutch people might think that this is an S3 look-alike) F-S-X - I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t find what this stands for - except for FSx :) - not ef-sex (that is not politically correct..) I-A-M - Identity and Access Managment - no-one uses I-AM - (Dr. Suess would be happy with I-AM-SAM - SAM-I-AM) I-O-T - Internet Of Things - Not eye-ot (people might think there are more than 7 dwarfs in the service - eye-o, eye-o it\u0026amp;rsquo;s off to work we go..) K-M-S Key Management Service - Is not pronounced kems - nor kee-mes (keemes - the new AWS meme-as-a-service product is probably not a good idea either) L-E-X - this is actually the product name - Amazon Lex - even though the French might have enjoyed it if it was actually","date":"May 27, 2019","href":"/2019/05/not-real-scientific-proof-that-ami-has.html","summary":"AWS has 26, (yes) I counted them, different products with exactly 3 letters in them (or derivatives of) - lets go through them one at a time.\nA-C-M AWS Certificate Manager - Is not pronounced ac-em (also not hack-em) D-M-S Database Migration Service - Is not pronounced dems nor dee-miss (and also not dimms) E-B-S Elastic Block Store - Is not pronounced ebbs (and we are not being washed back out to sea), nor ee-bzz (people might be allergic to bees) E-C-2 (Well it should actually be E-C-C - but EC2 sounds so much sexier) Elastic Compute Cloud - Is not pronounced ek-2 (or even eck - otherwise people might get confused with \u0026ldquo;what the heck2\u0026rdquo;) E-C-R - Elastic Container Registry - Is not pronounced Ecker-R (sounds too much like pecker) E-C-S - Elastic Container Service - Is not pronounced eh-ckes neither ee-cees nor Ex (People would be wary to use a product named Amazon X - they might think that AWS is taking after Google with their Alphabet) E-F-S - Elastic File System - Is not pronounced ef-s neither ee-fees nor eefs E-K-S - Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes - pronouncing this x-kay (ECS-K) would sound too much like Xray (another AWS product). Also see above about E-C-S E-M-R Elastic MapReduce - We don\u0026rsquo;t call it ee-mer - nor emmer (otherwise all the Dutch people might think that this is an S3 look-alike) F-S-X - I can\u0026rsquo;t find what this stands for - except for FSx :) - not ef-sex (that is not politically correct..) I-A-M - Identity and Access Managment - no-one uses I-AM - (Dr. Suess would be happy with I-AM-SAM - SAM-I-AM) I-O-T - Internet Of Things - Not eye-ot (people might think there are more than 7 dwarfs in the service - eye-o, eye-o it\u0026rsquo;s off to work we go..) K-M-S Key Management Service - Is not pronounced kems - nor kee-mes (keemes - the new AWS meme-as-a-service product is probably not a good idea either) L-E-X - this is actually the product name - Amazon Lex - even though the French might have enjoyed it if it was actually Le\u0026rsquo;X (but then again people don\u0026rsquo;t like having their Ex in the spotlight) M-S-K - Managed Streaming for Kafka - Is not pronounced musk (Elon might not like it), em-sek (could be too fast for us to use). And of course AWS had to name a product after me. P-H-D - Personal Health Dashboard - Is not pronounced pee-hud and phud - would get them in trouble with spreading Fear Uncertainty and Doubt R-A-M - Resource Access Manager - Not (a battering) ram (nor the the ancient Indian king Raam) R-D-S - Relational Database Service - Is not pronounced ar-dis, nor ar-dees (and definitely not the new time machine service - tardis) S3 - Simple Storage Service - This is a 3 letter product - S-S-S (S3 is so much sexier) - Not sss (people might think there are snakes) - here I conceded - ess-ess-ess brings up really bad vibes S-E-S - Simple Email Service - Is not pronounced Sess nor sees (otherwise us customers might think this is a new tax in eu-west-1 or ap-south-1) S-N-S - Simple Notification Service - Is not pronounced S-ness, neither sneeze nor Sans (and not nessie either - she is still somewhere in the Loch) S-Q-S - Simple Queue Service - Is not pronounced see-ques - nor squeeze S-S-O - Single Sign On - Is not pronounced sa-so neither ses-o nor se-so (just because I say so) S-W-F - Simple Workflow Service - Is not pronounced see-wiff - nor Swiff V-P-C - Virtual Private Cloud - Is not pronounced vee-pic, neither ve-peec nor veep-see W-A-F - Web Application Firewall - I concede - this one is #1syllable - there I said it! BUT IT IS NOT #2syllables !! Except for three exceptions (S3, LEX and WAF) - all the three letter products in AWS - are all pronounced with three syllables!!!!","tags":["3syllables","Rant","Miscellaneous","AMI","AWS"],"title":"(Not) Real Scientific Proof that AMI has 3syllables"},{"content":"Now that I have got your attention with a catchy title - let me share with some of my thoughts regarding how AWS shines and how much your experience as a customer matters.\nDeploying instances in the cloud is something that is relatively fast - at least when it comes to the deployment of a Linux instance.\nWindows Operating Systems - is a whole different story.\nHave you ever thought why it takes such a long amount of time to deploy a Windows instance in the cloud? There are a number of reasons why this takes so much longer.\nLet me count the ways:\nRunning Windows in the cloud - is a dumb idea - so you deserve it!! (just kidding :) ) Seriously though - Windows images are big - absolutely massive compared to a Linux image - we are talking 30 times larger (on the best of days) so copying these large images to the hypervisor nodes takes time. They are slow to start.. Windows is not a thin operating system - so it takes time. With all the above said - it seems that AWS has created a really interesting mechanism with which they can reduce the amount of time it takes for an instance to start. Yes they say it can take anything up to 4 minutes for you to be able to remotely connect to the instance - but if you think about it - that is really a very short amount of time.\nI started to look into the start time of Windows (for a whole different reason) and found something really interesting.\nThis is not documented anywhere - and I doubt I will receive any confirmation from AWS on the points in this post - but I am pretty confident that is the way this works.\nIt seems that there is a standby pool of Windows instances that are just waiting in the background to be allocated to a customer - based on customer demand.\nLet that sink in for second, this means there is a powered-off Windows instance - somewhere in the AZ waiting for you.\nWhen you request a new Windows EC2 instance, an instance is taken from the pool and allocated to you. This is some of the magic sauce that AWS does in the","date":"Mar 18, 2019","href":"/2019/03/the-aws-ec2-windows-secret-sauce.html","summary":"Now that I have got your attention with a catchy title - let me share with some of my thoughts regarding how AWS shines and how much your experience as a customer matters.\nDeploying instances in the cloud is something that is relatively fast - at least when it comes to the deployment of a Linux instance.\nWindows Operating Systems - is a whole different story.\nHave you ever thought why it takes such a long amount of time to deploy a Windows instance in the cloud? There are a number of reasons why this takes so much longer.","tags":["Analysis","Amazon","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"The AWS EC2 Windows Secret Sauce"},{"content":"Many of us working with any cloud provider know that you should never ever commit access keys to a public github repo. Some really bad things can happen if you do.\nAWS (and I assume all the cloud providers have their equivalent) publish their own best practices about how you should manage access keys.\nOne of the items mentioned there - is never to commit your credentials into your source code!!\nLet me show you a real case that happened last week. (of course all identifiable information has been redacted - except for the specific Access key that was used - and of course it has been disabled)\nSomeone committed an access key to a public github repository. Here is the commit message commit xxxxxxxx26ff48a83d1154xxxxxxxxxxxxa802 Author: SomePerson \u0026amp;lt;someone@some_email.com\u0026amp;gt;\nDate: Mon Mar 4 10:31:04 2019 +0200\n\u0026amp;mdash; (All events will be counted from this point) \u0026amp;mdash; 55 seconds later - I received an email from AWS (T+55s)\nFrom: \u0026amp;ldquo;Amazon Web Services, Inc.\u0026amp;rdquo; no-reply-aws@amazon.com\nTo: john@doe.com\nSubject: Action Required: Your AWS account xxxxxxxxxxxx is compromised Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2019 08:31:59 +0000\n1 second later (T+56s) AWS had already opened a support ticket about incident\nJust over 1 minute later (T+2:02m) someone tried to use the key - but since the IAM role attached to the user (and its exposed key) did not have the permissions required - the attempt failed!!\n(This is why you should make sure you only give the minimum required permissions for a specific task and not the kitchen sink..)\nHere is the access attempt that was logged in Cloudtrail\n{ \u0026amp;#34;eventVersion\u0026amp;#34;: \u0026amp;#34;1.05\u0026amp;#34;, \u0026amp;#34;userIdentity\u0026amp;#34;: { \u0026amp;#34;type\u0026amp;#34;: \u0026amp;#34;IAMUser\u0026amp;#34;, \u0026amp;#34;principalId\u0026amp;#34;: \u0026amp;#34;xxxxxxxxxxxxx7NSXUYG\u0026amp;#34;, \u0026amp;#34;arn\u0026amp;#34;: \u0026amp;#34;arn:aws:iam::xxxxxxxxxxxx:user/some_username\u0026amp;#34;, \u0026amp;#34;accountId\u0026amp;#34;: \u0026amp;#34;xxxxxxxxxxxx\u0026amp;#34;, \u0026amp;#34;accessKeyId\u0026amp;#34;: \u0026amp;#34;AKIAJTMN5LKN3KSNDOPA\u0026amp;#34;, \u0026amp;#34;userName\u0026amp;#34;: \u0026amp;#34;some_username\u0026amp;#34; }, \u0026amp;#34;eventTime\u0026amp;#34;:","date":"Mar 11, 2019","href":"/2019/03/the-anatomy-of-aws-key-leak-to-public.html","summary":"Many of us working with any cloud provider know that you should never ever commit access keys to a public github repo. Some really bad things can happen if you do.\nAWS (and I assume all the cloud providers have their equivalent) publish their own best practices about how you should manage access keys.\nOne of the items mentioned there - is never to commit your credentials into your source code!!","tags":["Security","Developer","git","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"The Anatomy of an AWS Key Leak to a Public Code Repository"},{"content":"I have a decent commute every day back and forth to work and I have come to enjoy listening to a number of podcasts throughout the week.\nI will try and keep the list up to date - here\nAs of today - this is my current list of podcasts\nGrumpy Old Geeks Two old farts (like me) that bitch about tech, and how ridiculous we have all become - Link\nAWS Podcast A weekly show about what is happening in the world of AWS - Link\nThe Cloud Pod A podcast about what is going on the cloud - Link\nScreaming in the Cloud Conversations about the cloud with people - Link\nPodCTL Podcast about Kubernetes - with a RedHat focus - Link\nThe Cloudcast Podcast about all things Cloud - Link\nCloudtalk (Hebrew) Hebrew Podcast about the world of cloud - Link\nThe Tony Robbins Podcast Inspirational talk with Tony Robbins - Link\nDatanauts (Packet Pushers) Podcast about tech, cloud and all things nice - Link\nRural Emergency Medicine Podcast A Podcast about emergency medicine - Link\nSpeaking in Tech Podcast about things happening in the tech world - Link\nThe Secure Developer Security focused Podcast - Link\nThe Full Stack Journey Interviews with people that have made a change in their technical career - Link\nTo Be Continuous DevOps focused podcast - Link\nThe Microsoft Cloud Show A Microsoft focused cloud podcast - Link\nEmergency Medicine Cases A podcast about emergency medicine - Link\nTechtalk A podcast in Hebrew about the cloud and tech - Link\n","date":"Mar 6, 2019","href":"/2019/03/my-awesome-podcasts-list.html","summary":"I have a decent commute every day back and forth to work and I have come to enjoy listening to a number of podcasts throughout the week.\nI will try and keep the list up to date - here\nAs of today - this is my current list of podcasts\nGrumpy Old Geeks Two old farts (like me) that bitch about tech, and how ridiculous we have all become - Link\nAWS Podcast A weekly show about what is happening in the world of AWS - Link","tags":["Podcast","Miscellaneous","DevOps","Cloud","Personal"],"title":"My awesome-podcasts List"},{"content":" Just to make this clear\n(before someone get\u0026amp;rsquo;s the wrong idea\u0026amp;hellip;)\nThis 100% fun. Humor.\nNot religion. Not a mission.\nJust having some fun at the expense of AWS..\nIf you follow me on Twitter (and if you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t - your loss..) then you will know that I am one of many that are on a crusade.\nA crusade to right a wrong.\nA wrong that some who work in a company called Amazon Web Services (a.k.a. AWS) have tried to indoctrinate the world with a lie, something that is just plain wrong.\nAnd the crusade about I speak - is the religious debate about how you pronounce AMI\n(Amazon Machine Image)\nYou will find many references to this over the past few years:\nTwitter Thread Last Year in AWS Last week in AWS - Issue #35 Another Twitter thread And another And yet another Abby Fuller\u0026amp;rsquo;s post This recording A number that rhymes with pee. Definitely *not* a number that rhymes with poo\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) February 21, 2019 And of course the one and only Corey Quinn\nI decided that I cannot idly stand by and let this injustice continue.\nI took a step. I took a stand (and I started with a donation of 2 Euro for the domain name)\nhttps://ami-has-3-syllables.online\nAnd in my ramblings back and forth with Corey - he enlightened me to the following fact\n(which is so unbelievably true)\nI managed to release the perfect AWS product (on a budget of $2 - really proud of myself)\nPeople have no idea how to use it It has a stupid name that you cannot remember The graphics suck\u0026amp;hellip; (sorry I have not done HTML/CSS in - I do not know how long) No TLS So in the spirit of this perfect release - I thought about how this would work with a real AWS product launch, and therefore I will iterate over time to improve the product.\nHere is the plan (in the reverse order from above)..\nImplement TLS ( I actually could do that today - but I am going leave like this for the launch in the spirit of a new product)\nEdit - Implemented 05 March, 2019 Fix up the graphics\n(Here I am","date":"Mar 4, 2019","href":"/2019/03/ami-has-3-syllables-ami-aws.html","summary":" Just to make this clear\n(before someone get\u0026rsquo;s the wrong idea\u0026hellip;)\nThis 100% fun. Humor.\nNot religion. Not a mission.\nJust having some fun at the expense of AWS..\nIf you follow me on Twitter (and if you don\u0026rsquo;t - your loss..) then you will know that I am one of many that are on a crusade.\nA crusade to right a wrong.\nA wrong that some who work in a company called Amazon Web Services (a.k.a. AWS) have tried to indoctrinate the world with a lie, something that is just plain wrong.","tags":["Crusade","3syllables","AMI","AWS"],"title":"AMI has #3Syllables. A.M.I. AWS"},{"content":"Back in July 2018, I started to write a blog post about the upcoming death of Docker as a company (and also perhaps as a technology) but I never got round to completing and publishing the post. It is time to actually get that post out.\nOK .. Time to share my thoughts on the soon to be death of #docker\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) July 17, 2018 So here you go\u0026amp;hellip;.\nOf course Docker is still here, and of course everyone is still using Docker and will continue to do so the near and foreseeable future (how far that foreseeable future is - is yet to be determined). The reason I chose this title for the blogpost is because, in my humble opinion the days for Docker as a company are numbered and maybe also a technology as well. If would indulge me with a few minutes of your time - I will share with you the basis for my thoughts.\nA number of years ago - Docker was the company that changed the world - and we can safely say - is still changing the world today. Containers and the technology behind containers has been around for many years, long before the word docker was even thought of, even turned into a verb (“Dockerize all the things”), but Docker was the company that enabled the masses to consume the technology of containers, in a easy and simple fashion. Most technology companies (or at least companies that consider themselves to be a modern tech company) will be using Docker or containers as part of their product or their pipeline - because it makes so much sense and brings so much benefit to whole process.\nOver the past 12-24 months, people are coming to the realization that docker has run its course and as a technology is not going to be able to provide additional value to what they have today - and have decided to start to look elsewhere for that extra edge.\nKubernetes has won the container orchestration war, I don’t think that anyone can deny that fact. Docker itself has adopted Kubernetes. There will always be niche players that have specific use cases","date":"Feb 25, 2019","href":"/2019/02/goodbye-docker-and-thanks-for-all-fish.html","summary":"Back in July 2018, I started to write a blog post about the upcoming death of Docker as a company (and also perhaps as a technology) but I never got round to completing and publishing the post. It is time to actually get that post out.\nOK .. Time to share my thoughts on the soon to be death of #docker\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) July 17, 2018 So here you go\u0026hellip;.\nOf course Docker is still here, and of course everyone is still using Docker and will continue to do so the near and foreseeable future (how far that foreseeable future is - is yet to be determined). The reason I chose this title for the blogpost is because, in my humble opinion the days for Docker as a company are numbered and maybe also a technology as well. If would indulge me with a few minutes of your time - I will share with you the basis for my thoughts.","tags":["docker","Kubernetes","Miscellaneous","Cloud"],"title":"Goodbye Docker and Thanks for all the Fish"},{"content":"I have come across this a number of times of the past couple of months. Environments that were born in the datacenter, have grown in the datacenter - in short people who are used to certain (shall we say - ‘legacy’) deployments, and they they are in the midst of an attempt to mirror the same architecture when moving to the cloud.\nI remember in my old days that our server farm had a separate network segment (sometimes even more than one) when I was using physical servers, (while I write this - I actually think it has been about 4 years since I actually touched a physical server, or plugged a cable/disk/device into a physical server) for our Domain controllers, Applications servers, and users had their own network segments that were dedicated only to laptops and desktops.\nIn the physical/on-prem world - this made sense - at the time - because what usually happened was the dedicated networking team that managed your infrastructure used access lists on the physical network switches to control which networks could go where.\nFast forward to the cloud.\nThere are people which equate VPC’s with Networks (even though it makes more sense to equate subnets to networks - but that is besides the point) - and think that segregating different kinds of workloads into multiple VPC’s will give you better security.\nLet me give you a real scenario that I was presented with not too long ago (details of course have been changed to protect the innocent … )\nA three tier application. Database, Application and a frontend. And the requirement that was laid down from the security team was that each of the layers must reside in the their own VPC. Think about that for a minute. Three VPC’s that would be peered to ensure connectivity between them (because of course the 2/3 layers needed to communicate with each other - Database - application and application to frontend). When I asked what was the reason for separating the three different layers in that way, the answer was, “Security. If for","date":"Feb 22, 2019","href":"/2019/02/separate-vpcs-can-do-more-harm-than-good.html","summary":"I have come across this a number of times of the past couple of months. Environments that were born in the datacenter, have grown in the datacenter - in short people who are used to certain (shall we say - ‘legacy’) deployments, and they they are in the midst of an attempt to mirror the same architecture when moving to the cloud.\nI remember in my old days that our server farm had a separate network segment (sometimes even more than one) when I was using physical servers, (while I write this - I actually think it has been about 4 years since I actually touched a physical server, or plugged a cable/disk/device into a physical server) for our Domain controllers, Applications servers, and users had their own network segments that were dedicated only to laptops and desktops.","tags":["legacy","Network","Security","culture","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"Separate VPC's can do More Harm Than Good"},{"content":" I am currently on vacation in Rome (my first time) and during this trip I came to a number of realizations that I would like to share with you.\nI went to the Colosseum today - and I have to say I was in awe. The structure is magnificent (even if the remains are only part of of the original structure in all its glory). As I progressed throughout the day - I came to the following realizations.\n(.. and of course how they tie into our tech world today)\nAcquire vs. Train Throughout ancient history - all the great empires (or what were once considered as such) were barbarians. They left legacies that remain to this day - but none of them were earned honestly. Most of the great wonders of the worlds - from the pyramids to the Colosseum to the great wall of China - these were all built with slave labor. The Romans conquered the world, enslaved almost every country they touched - used them to build an empire. I think it is safe to say this how the world used to work. Today, this would not be acceptable. Slavery and taking advantage of the other is not correct. The knowledge was there, the brains were there, but they needed working hands get the shit done. That is why people outsource development resources to places where labor is cheap (India for example) but leave the brains at home and only let the \u0026amp;lsquo;workers\u0026amp;rsquo; churn out the hard stuff. There are several problems with this - and we are seeing this today in many walks of life. Some companies understand that even though the labor is cheaper, the quality and speed with which the work they wished to complete - is not what they expect. In the olden days would be able to terrorize your slaves into working to their deaths to provide what you want. This happened in ancient Egypt, in ancient Rome, pretty much everywhere. But that does not and cannot happen today. So we do one of two things. Instead of working the people to their death we provide incentives to produce more, be it higher salaries, better conditions, bonuses","date":"Jan 30, 2019","href":"/2019/01/empires-are-not-built-in-a-day.html","summary":" I am currently on vacation in Rome (my first time) and during this trip I came to a number of realizations that I would like to share with you.\nI went to the Colosseum today - and I have to say I was in awe. The structure is magnificent (even if the remains are only part of of the original structure in all its glory). As I progressed throughout the day - I came to the following realizations.","tags":["Miscellaneous","Religion","Technology"],"title":"Empires are not built in a day (but they also do not last forever) "},{"content":"I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t always do these kind of posts but 2018 was a substantial year for me that warrants a short summary.\nI released the AWS Powershell Container - gauging by the number of pulls - I guess that is was not that useful.. :)\nI completed my 5th AWS Certification. The post was also translated into Hebrew as well.\nI presented a session at the DevOps Israel conference\nI left Cisco (NDS) after 13 years and started a new position at CyberArk.\nI became a lot more involved in the Israel Cloud community (for example Encounters in the Cloud - Interview).\nI went to re:Invent again this year - and it my posts Keeping Kosher at re:Invent 2018 and How I Get the Most Out of #AWS re:Invent 2018 (Hebrew version) were very useful not only to me - but from what I heard - to others as well.\nI was a guest on the Datanauts podcast - Datanauts 143: Getting To Day 2 Cloud. I found out - that this episode was the most popular episode of the year 2018 on the show. Respect!\nI presented an Ignite (in Hebrew) at DevOpsDaysTLV\nI also presented a session at the AWS Community Tel Aviv 2018\nAnd last but not least - I released the AWS Visio Stencils\nAll in all - it was a good year.\nOne thing that I neglected (badly!!), was my writing the rest of The Cloud Walkabout - which is something that I will make the most effort to rectify this year.\nLooking forward to 2019\u0026amp;hellip; Upward and onward!!\n","date":"Jan 11, 2019","href":"/2019/01/the-year-2018-in-review.html","summary":"I don\u0026rsquo;t always do these kind of posts but 2018 was a substantial year for me that warrants a short summary.\nI released the AWS Powershell Container - gauging by the number of pulls - I guess that is was not that useful.. :)\nI completed my 5th AWS Certification. The post was also translated into Hebrew as well.\nI presented a session at the DevOps Israel conference\nI left Cisco (NDS) after 13 years and started a new position at CyberArk.","tags":[2018,"reflection","Miscellaneous","Cloud"],"title":"The Year 2018 in review"},{"content":"There was a lot to absorb during the jam packed week in Las Vegas but there were a number of things that I was truly surprised about during the conference..\nIt was clear that AWS is going after the Enterprise market and are accommodating the on-prem / legacy / old-school way of thinking. This is the first re:Invent that you could really feel the change.\nHere are a few of them:\nNext was containers or the lack of containers actually. There were no significant container announcements. ECS and EKS - were not mentioned once during the keynote. No new functionality, no new features. For the product that was probably the most demanded release that everyone wanted last year at re:Invent - this year - it was crickets all the way down. I was thinking that AWS was saving some glory and glitters for the Kubecon conference the week after - but all that really came out of there was the Containers Roadmap (which is actually amazing - because AWS never disclose what their roadmap is - at least not publicly. I suppose it is expected of them as their keeping up the image of Opensource contribution and championship).\nAnd the last shocker was the fact that inbound traffic to S3 is now going to cost you money.. Wait, What? You are now charged for uploads to S3????\nWell that is not entirely true. Traditionally - you do not pay for incoming traffic into S3 - it says that black on white. So no you are not charged for direct uploads to S3. But if you do it through another service that acts as a proxy to S3 - then that\u0026amp;rsquo;s different.\nStorage Gateway was one such a service.\nHere you are allowed 100GB for free each month and capped at a maximum of $125 / month. For a company that transfers hundreds and thousands of TB a month - the $125 is chump change which essentially makes it pretty much free.\nAnd then came AWS Transfer for SFTP and the change that no-one really noticed.\nWhoa!! Not only are you being charged for 4x the amount of any other service, you are not capped at a maximum monthly","date":"Jan 4, 2019","href":"/2019/01/i-was-not-expecting-this-at-reinvent.html","summary":"There was a lot to absorb during the jam packed week in Las Vegas but there were a number of things that I was truly surprised about during the conference..\nIt was clear that AWS is going after the Enterprise market and are accommodating the on-prem / legacy / old-school way of thinking. This is the first re:Invent that you could really feel the change.\nHere are a few of them:","tags":["conference","Storage","Miscellaneous","S3","re:Invent","AWS"],"title":"I was not expecting this at re:Invent"},{"content":"So after leaking (or not really leaking) from some of the sessions from re:Invent it seems that AWS have finally released the Client VPN\nAWS Client VPN is a managed client-based VPN service that enables you to securely access your AWS resources and resources in your on-premises network. With Client VPN, you can access your resources from any location using an OpenVPN-based VPN client.\nSo instead of you having to provision a EC2 instance on your own and configure your own OpenVPN server - you can use this service\nBut pricing is outrageous\u0026amp;hellip;\n$0.05 per AWS Client VPN connection hour\n$0.10 per AWS Client VPN endpoint association hour\nAssuming I would like to bring up a EC2 instance that would handle a 5 VPN connections and I leave the server running 24/7 for a month users connect for approximately 8 hours a day - 5 days a week\nLEaving this service provisioned for the entire month would cost\n0.10 * 750(hours in a month) = $75\n0.05 * 5(people) * 8(hours) * 5 (days) * 4 (weeks) = $40\nTotal cost for one month - $115\nIf I were to roll my own on EC2\nUsing a t3.small instance (2vCPU/2GB ram) should be more than sufficient.\n0.02 * 750 (hours in a month) = $15\nOK - it is not comparing apples to apples - not by a long shot\nClient VPN offers the following features:\nSecure — It provides a secure TLS connection from any location using the OpenVPN client.\nManaged service — It is an AWS managed service, so it removes the operational burden of deploying and managing a third-party remote access VPN solution.\nHighly available and elastic — It automatically scales to the number of users connecting to your AWS resources and on-premises resources.\nAuthentication — It supports client authentication using Active Directory and certificate-based authentication.\nGranular control — It enables you to implement custom security controls by defining network-based access rules. These rules can be configured at the granularity of Active Directory groups. You can also implement access control using","date":"Dec 19, 2018","href":"/2018/12/aws-client-vpn.html","summary":"So after leaking (or not really leaking) from some of the sessions from re:Invent it seems that AWS have finally released the Client VPN\nAWS Client VPN is a managed client-based VPN service that enables you to securely access your AWS resources and resources in your on-premises network. With Client VPN, you can access your resources from any location using an OpenVPN-based VPN client.\nSo instead of you having to provision a EC2 instance on your own and configure your own OpenVPN server - you can use this service","tags":["VPN","Miscellaneous","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"AWS Client VPN"},{"content":"I called it - to me it was obvious that this was going to happen. The signs were all there. This was the direction that the market has been pushing for, and AWS has a reputation of giving the customers what they ask for.\nThe last announcement that was Andy Jassey made on the keynote on Wednesday - was AWS Outposts.\nHere was the announcement. Usually Jeff Barr (or as of late - someone else on the Technical Evangelist team) have a detailed blog post - on a new product that was just announced.\nFor AWS Outposts - nada… The only thing that is out there - is the announcement - and a “TBD” product page - https://aws.amazon.com/outposts/\nOnce the announcement was made - VMware went all out with as much information as they could describing the VMware variant of AWS outposts https://cloud.vmware.com/community/2018/11/28/vmware-cloud-aws-outposts-cloud-managed-sddc-data-center/\nBlog posts, interviews, sessions you name it they went all in - for a very good reason - if you ask me. This expands their VMware Cloud on AWS in a substantial way.\nAnd who was missing from this announcement ? AWS.\nTo me this is puzzling. The one sided coverage of something that is supposed to be a joint venture, means that either - this was a pure publicity announcement - and the product has not yet been finalized - or AWS dropped the ball on this one - big time!!\nSo what do we know about a this product? It will come in two flavors:\nVMware Cloud on AWS Outposts allows you to use the same VMware control plane and APIs you use to run your infrastructure\nA native variant of AWS Outposts allows you to use the same exact APIs and control plane you use to run in the AWS cloud, but on-premises. The AWS native variant of AWS Outposts allows you to use the same exact APIs and control plane you use in the AWS cloud, but on-premises. You will be able to run Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) on Outposts. At launch or in the months after, we plan to add services","date":"Dec 10, 2018","href":"/2018/12/aws-outposts-told-you-so.html","summary":"I called it - to me it was obvious that this was going to happen. The signs were all there. This was the direction that the market has been pushing for, and AWS has a reputation of giving the customers what they ask for.\nThe last announcement that was Andy Jassey made on the keynote on Wednesday - was AWS Outposts.\nHere was the announcement. Usually Jeff Barr (or as of late - someone else on the Technical Evangelist team) have a detailed blog post - on a new product that was just announced.","tags":["Outposts","re:Invent","VMware","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"AWS Outposts - told you so.."},{"content":"I am now on a plane on my way back home, on a really long flight from SFO to TLV (13.5 hours) so now is a good time to re-cap and reflect on what happened last week at re:Invent.\nI think that this will be a set of posts - because there are a number of topics that I would like to address - and some of them deserve their own dedicated insight.\nThe first and foremost post I would like to go into - is the overall impression about of the conference.\nAWS made a significant number of changes as compared to last years event. And overall - I found the event to be amazing!!\nIf you ask me - last year’s event was not user friendly, for a number of reasons.\nTracks were located in a single venue. That meant going between topics was not really possible. Transport - the shuttles had a route - along a number of of the venues. The shuttles took a great deal of time. Lines in the sessions were bad - they were really bad - people were lining up for hours before, without any real indication if they were going to get into a session. The mobile app - was pretty much useless - and was not at all helpful. The amount of repeats were not enough, and overflow sessions were also scarce. This year AWS fixed all of the above.\nTracks were not restricted to a single venue, you could get ML, serverless, Storage and networking - were not only in one venue - but in multiple venues, that meant you did not need to bounce around between the venues. The shuttles were point to point. No more round trips. This was brililant to save time - but on the other hand - there were a number of times where there were 3-5 people on a shuttle at times, not really an efficient way to spend money - it was kind not elastic in any way - and not well utilized from a cost perspective. The mobile app - was much better, still slow as hell - but there was more functionality. Such as when will the sessions be repeated, what sessions have open seats right now, how much time it will take to get from one venue to the other - in","date":"Dec 5, 2018","href":"/2018/12/my-overall-impression-of-reinvent-2018_5.html","summary":"I am now on a plane on my way back home, on a really long flight from SFO to TLV (13.5 hours) so now is a good time to re-cap and reflect on what happened last week at re:Invent.\nI think that this will be a set of posts - because there are a number of topics that I would like to address - and some of them deserve their own dedicated insight.","tags":["re:Invent","AWS"],"title":"My overall impression of re:Invent 2018 reInvent aws"},{"content":"I am not an expert, and I only went to re:Invent for the first time last year, but I have been to a quite a number of conferences over the years.\nSo here come my thoughts about making the most of the crazy week in Vegas.\nThe (regular) sessions Contrary to what you might think, going to sessions where you have a speaker (or speakers) up on stage going through a slide deck, or a panel of speakers talking about a subject - is where you should be, is not a good use of your time.\nThere are currently 2358 sessions and activities listed on the portal (a good portion of them are repeats - but hell that is a lot of content)\nAlmost all of the sessions (I will get back this in a few minutes) are recorded and therefore can be consumed after the event - in the car, on the bus or train - or even in the air during your travels.\nHere is a podcast feed (https://aws-reinvent-audio.s3-website.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/2017/2017.html) for all 2017 sessions for your listening pleasure.\nThat is why you can spend your time better elsewhere.\nThe Builder / Chalk Talk / Workshop sessions Here is where I would spend my time. The cost of re:Invent (if you paid the full price) is $1,800 for 4.5 days (Friday is a short day). These are the sessions that will not be recorded and where I will probably get the most benefit\n(and here are some of my interests). The value I receive is from doing things that I learn from, not by being a passive listener, but by actively participating in a discussion or an activity.\nChalk talks This is similar to getting a design session and time with an AWS expert in their field and diving deep into a specific subject. Most of the sessions are level 300/400 - which meant they are advanced and highly technical. The rooms are small - usually no more than 50-100 people and the participants there are usually people that are looking for a very specific answers about the journey they have embarked on - or are about to.\nARC210-R - SaaS Jumpstart: A Primer for Launching Your SaaS","date":"Nov 12, 2018","href":"/2018/11/how-i-get-most-out-of-aws-reinvent-2018.html","summary":"I am not an expert, and I only went to re:Invent for the first time last year, but I have been to a quite a number of conferences over the years.\nSo here come my thoughts about making the most of the crazy week in Vegas.\nThe (regular) sessions Contrary to what you might think, going to sessions where you have a speaker (or speakers) up on stage going through a slide deck, or a panel of speakers talking about a subject - is where you should be, is not a good use of your time.","tags":["conference","Miscellaneous","re:Invent","AWS"],"title":"How I Get the Most Out of AWS re:Invent 2018"},{"content":"Most vendors that perceive themselves as a market leader will have a major annual event (some will even have multiple events in different geographical locations).\nHere are few of these major events that come to mind:\nAWS (re:invent) VMware (VMworld) Cisco (Cisco Live!) Microsoft (Ignite) Google (Cloud Next) And every year we come around to the registration and scheduling of sessions to these events, and they almost always suck\u0026amp;hellip; (I am going to use re:invent as the victim here - but I am sure that the experience is probably the same with most conferences) The Mobile App sucks. The registration process is annoying. When sessions open for scheduling - the site crashes. Scheduling sucks. The lines are horrible. Transport sucks. Food sucks. There are more than enough things that one could find wrong with the way things go at a conference - and I am not diminishing the problems one little bit.\nI would like us all to view it in a different perspective.\nThe companies that hold these events - are tech companies. They are great at selling technology, great at creating some amazing technology. An of course they also have people that are in charge of events and marketing - but it is not their core business. I do not underestimate the impact a good event can have on your product - or how a bad event can damage a company\u0026amp;rsquo;s brand - that is why companies like these spend many millions of dollars on events like this. But again that is not what they are trying to sell, they are not trying to sell an event. They are not event planners, this is something we seem to forget from time to time especially when things are not optimal (another polite way of saying that they suck).\nThey outsource the events to an external company.\nThe signs, the transport, the advertising, the venue, website, the on-site services, scanners, the food - and yes - even the mobile app. All of these do not belong to any one of these companies they are all provided as part of the service that another","date":"Nov 8, 2018","href":"/2018/11/events-as-service-eaas.html","summary":"Most vendors that perceive themselves as a market leader will have a major annual event (some will even have multiple events in different geographical locations).\nHere are few of these major events that come to mind:\nAWS (re:invent) VMware (VMworld) Cisco (Cisco Live!) Microsoft (Ignite) Google (Cloud Next) And every year we come around to the registration and scheduling of sessions to these events, and they almost always suck\u0026hellip; (I am going to use re:invent as the victim here - but I am sure that the experience is probably the same with most conferences) ","tags":["Rant","Miscellaneous","re:Invent","AWS"],"title":"Events as a Service (EaaS)"},{"content":"It seems like only yesterday, but it was actually almost 10 years ago when I gave something awesome to the VMware community - the first version of the VMware stencils.\nThe reason I did this was because at the time - there was no decent set of VMware stencils out there - so I took the initiative and created a set. And I subsequently set out to update them over the years.\nI have a small confession. The VMware Visio stencils have been the biggest driver of traffic to my blog over the years. Even till this day - I have a minimum of 5000 monthly views (and this on a post that is more than 5 years old).\nAnd I already hear you say - there is already a number of architectural Visio icon sets available - and even an official one from AWS - you can find them here. (I assume that the graphics are going to be updated just before / after re:Invent - with the new design that they have released a few weeks ago, in the meantime - only the current one is available)\nThere are other tools that have online graphics as well. LucidChart, Cacoo, Creately, draw.io, Cloudcraft (the only vendor who has original graphics - the rest are all the standard AWS icons). If you are following some of the AWS community work - will probably have heard of Jerry Hargrove (better know as @awsgeek). He actually works at Lucidchart and is famous for his unbelievable sketch notes on AWS and their products. Not only are they beautiful, clear and sometimes even really funny, they are also very informative and extremely useful.\nJerry was also recently awarded the honor of AWS community Hero.\nI mean really - these are a real work of art!!\nSo without further ado I present to you version 1.0 of the AWS Community Visio Stencils.\nJerry was kind enough to allow me to use his graphics and provide the AWS community with a set of graphics - that (in my opinion) are not only more appealing to the eye - but are just plain fun!!\n40 icons of AWS services.\nAPI Gateway AppStream Athena Cloudfront CloudTrail CloudWatch Code","date":"Nov 5, 2018","href":"/2018/11/the-aws-visio-stencils.html","summary":"It seems like only yesterday, but it was actually almost 10 years ago when I gave something awesome to the VMware community - the first version of the VMware stencils.\nThe reason I did this was because at the time - there was no decent set of VMware stencils out there - so I took the initiative and created a set. And I subsequently set out to update them over the years.\nI have a small confession. The VMware Visio stencils have been the biggest driver of traffic to my blog over the years. Even till this day - I have a minimum of 5000 monthly views (and this on a post that is more than 5 years old).","tags":["Stencil","Visio","AWS","Communities"],"title":"The AWS Community Visio Stencils"},{"content":"So we are a little more than a month away from the yearly ascent to all things AWS - re:Invent 2018.\nLast year one of my most useful posts was the Kosher perspective on the event Keeping Kosher at re:Invent 2017.\nSo this year - nothing much has changed - there is still no kosher food.. #boo\n(This is not last years graphic but taken from the current site)\nSo again - no Kosher food throughout the day.\nLast year, I went on Sunday to one of the Kosher supermarkets, and did some shopping. Every morning I made myself lunch for every day. Better than standing in lines or going out looking for food.\nHot and cold drinks throughout the day are available at the various venues, sometimes there are fresh fruit - and some snacks here and there that have a Kosher certification (OU, OK, Star-K, and many more - depending on what are comfortable with eating)\nThe Supermarkets were great and they had a wonderful selection of Kosher food\nSmith\u0026amp;rsquo;s Food and Drug Store (2211 N. Rampart Blvd.) 25 Minute drive from the Venetian Albertson\u0026amp;rsquo;s Market (2550 S. Fort Apache). 25 Minute drive from the Venetian. There is The Jewish Visitor\u0026amp;rsquo;s Guide to Las Vegas guide (downloadable here) which has accurate information as of June 2018.\nHere is a list of the Kosher restaurants as of today (please check the sites for up to date information before you go)\nAce of Steaks (5825 W Sahara Ave Unit M. - +1 702-899-4223). Open till 23.00 Sun.-Thurs.\nIt is about a 17 minute drive from the Venetian\nAnise Tapas and Grill (3100 S Durango Dr. - +1 702-586-4088). Open till 22.00 Sun-.Thurs.\nIt is about a 20 minute drive from the Venetian\nLast year a group of us sat down for a late dinner - the restaurant was empty - but the food was good\nKing Solomon’s Table (4561 W Flamingo Rd. - +1 725-244-4034). Open till 22.00 Sun.-Thurs.\nIt is about a 10 minute drive from the Venetian\nHaifa Restaurant (900 E Karen Ave # H102 - +1 702-940-8000). Open till 21.00 Sun.-Thurs.\nIt is about a 11 minute drive from the","date":"Oct 22, 2018","href":"/2018/10/keeping-kosher-at-reinvent-2018.html","summary":"So we are a little more than a month away from the yearly ascent to all things AWS - re:Invent 2018.\nLast year one of my most useful posts was the Kosher perspective on the event Keeping Kosher at re:Invent 2017.\nSo this year - nothing much has changed - there is still no kosher food.. #boo\n(This is not last years graphic but taken from the current site)","tags":["Kosher","re:Invent","AWS"],"title":"Keeping Kosher at re:Invent 2018"},{"content":"re:Invent is coming - and the frenzy of releases that will build up to the event is just around the corner.\nI have always had in the back of my mind that all the products announced at re:Invent are great for the press releases and the small digs at other vendors, but sometimes it takes a while until we actually get what was announced on stage in front of ~20,000 people and the rest of the world.\nAnd I went out to look for some data. It is obvious that not everything that we heard about on stage was baked and ready for production use.\nHere are some examples from last years re:Invent\nre:Invent 2017 EKS (188 days) https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-elastic-container-service-for-kubernetes/\nhttps://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-eks-now-generally-available/ (June 5, 2018)\nBare Metal (170 days) https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-amazon-ec2-bare-metal-instances-with-direct-access-to-hardware/\nhttps://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2018/05/announcing-general-availability-of-amazon-ec2-bare-metal-instances/ (May 17, 2018)\nServerless App repo (83 days) https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-serverless-app-repo/\nhttps://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/now-available-aws-serverless-application-repository/ (Feb 21, 2018)\nNeptune (183 days) https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2017/11/amazon-neptune-fast-reliable-graph-database-built-for-the-cloud/\nhttps://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-neptune-generally-available/ (May 30, 2018)\nAurora Multi-master (Still not released) https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2017/11/sign-up-for-the-preview-of-amazon-aurora-multi-master/\nYet to be released (Oct 14, 2018)\nAurora Serverless (254 days) https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/in-the-works-amazon-aurora-serverless/\nhttps://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aurora-serverless-ga/ (Aug 9, 2018)\nIOT 1-click (169 days) https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2017/11/aws-iot-one-click-now-in-preview/\nhttps://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2018/05/aws-iot-1-click-generally-available/","date":"Oct 15, 2018","href":"/2018/10/how-long-until-you-get-new-shiny-toys.html","summary":"re:Invent is coming - and the frenzy of releases that will build up to the event is just around the corner.\nI have always had in the back of my mind that all the products announced at re:Invent are great for the press releases and the small digs at other vendors, but sometimes it takes a while until we actually get what was announced on stage in front of ~20,000 people and the rest of the world.","tags":["Amazon","re:Invent","Announcement","AWS"],"title":"How Long Until you Get the New Shiny Toys from re:Invent?"},{"content":"A customer came to me with a request. They do not want to use a NAT gateway from their VPC to access the AWS API\u0026amp;rsquo;s. They had a number of security concerns regarding the use of a NAT gateway (no control, logs, auditing - but that is a for a different post) and they asked for a solution.\nThe AWS API\u0026amp;rsquo;s that they needed access to were:\nS3 KMS SSM Cloudwatch Cloudformation Last year at re:Invent AWS announced the option to create VPC Interface endpoints using PrivateLink and have steadily been adding more endpoints over the past year.\nWith the use of these endpoints you can actually have a VPC with instances that will not have any internet access (at least not through AWS) and still be able to interact with all the AWS API\u0026amp;rsquo;s.\nThis is technically possible - and can easily be automated, but I wanted to look at the cost perspective.\nThe VPC in us-east-1 has 2 Availability Zones (you should always have at minimum 2).\nThat would mean deploying 2 NAT gateways in your VPC (Pricing)\nI am going to assume that you have the same amount of data going through both options - so I will not factor this into the price.\nUsually you have 730 hours in a month.\nEach NAT gateway will cost you 0.045*730 = ~$33.\nTotal for 2 NAT Gateways would be $66 per month (not including traffic).\nWhat does this look like for Interface Endpoints? (Pricing)\nEach Endpoint will need to be deployed in both AZ\u0026amp;rsquo;s in pairs.\nEach Interace Endpoint will cost 0.017302 = ~15\nTotal for all the endpoints above (4 Interface Endpoints - KMS, SSM, CloudWatch and Cloudformation) would be $60 per month.\nThe S3 endpoint is a Gateway endpoint - and therefore does not cost you any extra.\nAs you can see - it is not that much cheaper.\nTake into account the following scenario - you need API access to 15 out of the 21 possible interface Endpoints\nThis would run you the steep amount of $225 per month - which is a lot more than just a NAT Gateway.\nDesign decisions always have tradeoffs - sometimes you prefer","date":"Oct 8, 2018","href":"/2018/10/aws-privatelink-vs-nat-gateway-from.html","summary":"A customer came to me with a request. They do not want to use a NAT gateway from their VPC to access the AWS API\u0026rsquo;s. They had a number of security concerns regarding the use of a NAT gateway (no control, logs, auditing - but that is a for a different post) and they asked for a solution.\nThe AWS API\u0026rsquo;s that they needed access to were:\nS3 KMS SSM Cloudwatch Cloudformation Last year at re:Invent AWS announced the option to create VPC Interface endpoints using PrivateLink and have steadily been adding more endpoints over the past year.","tags":["Design","Architecture","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"#AWS PrivateLink vs. NAT Gateway from a Pricing Perspective"},{"content":"I have come across two separate discussions this past week where it became clear that some people have no idea what DevOps is.\nThe first one was an Israeli company here in Israel - https://devopsexperts.co.il/. Here is the proposed syllabus:\nThey are offering this course - for a fee (of course), selling the hope that if someone would graduate the course - then they would be able to get a position as an DevOps engineer.\nSomeone asked on a channel - \u0026amp;ldquo;Was this course worthwhile?\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nI would like to share with you my answer.\nI do not want to take away anyone\u0026amp;rsquo;s livelihood but there is no such a thing a \u0026amp;ldquo;teaching/learning\u0026amp;rdquo; DevOps. There is no single course that can encompass all the capabilities that one would need to become a successful DevOps professional. Above and beyond that - in each and every organization - the term DevOps will mean something completely different.\nThere are a number of basic topics that one can learn - and with them build up a strong foundation of skills in order help your specific company. If I would evaluate a potential candidate - and their education was based mainly on this course - I would not hire such a candidate.\nThe demand for talented professionals is high , everyone wants DevOps engineers - and there are not many people that have enough experience or the know how. Of course with a demand - people identify an opportunity to make money.\nLooking at syllabus - it has so many flaws. The course was 45 hours (which means about 1 work week)\nScripting - what language are they going to teach you? Python? But who says that the company you might work for - could be using something completely different. Version Control - so this is basically git. Linux fundamentals - basic Linux course Provisioning Resources - with what? Terraform? Ansible? something else? Build Automation - Building a pipeline - with which tools? Continuous Monitoring - is that even a concept? Working with containers - docker run, docker build, docker","date":"Oct 2, 2018","href":"/2018/10/bastardizing-devops.html","summary":"I have come across two separate discussions this past week where it became clear that some people have no idea what DevOps is.\nThe first one was an Israeli company here in Israel - https://devopsexperts.co.il/. Here is the proposed syllabus:\nThey are offering this course - for a fee (of course), selling the hope that if someone would graduate the course - then they would be able to get a position as an DevOps engineer.","tags":["Rant","culture","DevOps"],"title":"Bastardizing DevOps"},{"content":"This is Part 5 in the Replacing the AWS ELB series.\nReplacing the AWS ELB - The Problem Replacing the AWS ELB - The Challenges Replacing the AWS ELB - The Design Replacing the AWS ELB - The Network Deep Dive Replacing the AWS ELB - Automation (this post) Replacing the AWS ELB - Final Thoughts It goes without saying that anything that I have described in the previous posts can be accomplished - it is just a really tedious work to go through all the stages when you are doing this manually.\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s have a look at the stages\nCreate an IAM role with a specific policy that will allow you to execute commands from within the EC2 instances Create a security group that will allow the traffic to flow between and to your haproxy instances Deploy 2 EC2 instances - one in each availability zone Install the haproxy and keepalived on each of the instances Configure the correct scripts on each of the nodes (one for master and the other for slave) and setup the correct script for transferring ownership on each instance. If you were to to all of this manually then this could probably take you a good 2-3 hours to set up a highly-available haproxy pair. And how long does it take to setup an AWS ELB? Less than 2 minutes? This of course is not viable - especially since it should be something that is automated and something that is easy to use.\nThis one will be a long post - so please bare with me - because I would like to explain in detail how this exactly works.\nFirst and foremost - all the code for this post can be found here on GitHub - https://github.com/maishsk/replace-aws-elb (please feel free to contribute/raise issues/questions)\n(Ansible was my tool of choice - because that is what I am currently working with - but this can also be done in any tool that you prefer).\nThe Ansible playbook is relatively simple\n--- - name: Launch haproxy EC2 instances hosts: localhost connection: local gather_facts: True vars: component_name: \u0026amp;#34;{{ component_name }}\u0026amp;#34; stack_name: \u0026amp;#34;{{","date":"Sep 27, 2018","href":"/2018/08/replacing-aws-elb-automation.html","summary":"This is Part 5 in the Replacing the AWS ELB series.\nReplacing the AWS ELB - The Problem Replacing the AWS ELB - The Challenges Replacing the AWS ELB - The Design Replacing the AWS ELB - The Network Deep Dive Replacing the AWS ELB - Automation (this post) Replacing the AWS ELB - Final Thoughts It goes without saying that anything that I have described in the previous posts can be accomplished - it is just a really tedious work to go through all the stages when you are doing this manually.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s have a look at the stages","tags":[" haproxy","Automation"," ELB"," loadbalancer","Architecture","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"Replacing the AWS ELB - Automation"},{"content":"This is the last part in the Replacing the AWS ELB series.\nReplacing the AWS ELB - The Problem Replacing the AWS ELB - The Challenges Replacing the AWS ELB - The Design Replacing the AWS ELB - The Network Deep Dive Replacing the AWS ELB - Automation Replacing the AWS ELB - Final Thoughts (this post) If you haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t already read the previous posts in the series - please take the time to go through them.\nSo here are some additional thoughts and ideas about the whole journey.\nFirst and foremost - none of this would have been possible without group effort of the team that worked on this.\nUdi, Mark, and Mike - thank you all for your input, help and hard work that went into this.\nWas it all worth it? Yes, yes and hell yes!! The cost of having to refactor applications to work with the way that the AWS ELB works - was not financially viable and would take far to long . There was no way we could make our delivery dates and have all the applications modify the way they worked.\nSo not only was it worth it - it was a necessity, without this - the project was a non-starter.\nWhat was the hardest part of the solution? Definitely the automation. We had the solution white-boarded out after a an hour or two, brought up a PoC within another hour or two.\nAs I said somewhere else in the post - if this was a one-off then it would not have been worth while - but we needed about 10 pairs of haproxy instances in each deployment - and there were 10- 15 deployments - so manual was not going to work here. There was a learning curve that we needed to get over and that took some time.\nThis can\u0026amp;rsquo;t be all you were doing with haproxy.. Of course not.. The configurations in the examples are really basic and simple. The actual haproxy.cfg was a lot more complicated and was generated on the fly using Consul and consul-template. This allows for some very interesting and wonderful things that can be accomplished. The instances were what could be considered as pets, because they were hardly","date":"Sep 27, 2018","href":"/2018/09/replacing-aws-elb-final-thoughts.html","summary":"This is the last part in the Replacing the AWS ELB series.\nReplacing the AWS ELB - The Problem Replacing the AWS ELB - The Challenges Replacing the AWS ELB - The Design Replacing the AWS ELB - The Network Deep Dive Replacing the AWS ELB - Automation Replacing the AWS ELB - Final Thoughts (this post) If you haven\u0026rsquo;t already read the previous posts in the series - please take the time to go through them.","tags":[" haproxy","Automation"," ELB"," loadbalancer","Architecture","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"Replacing the AWS ELB - Final Thoughts"},{"content":"This is Part 3 in the Replacing the AWS ELB series.\nReplacing the AWS ELB - The Problem Replacing the AWS ELB - The Challenges Replacing the AWS ELB - The Design (this post) Replacing the AWS ELB - The Network Deep Dive Replacing the AWS ELB - Automation Replacing the AWS ELB - Final Thoughts So how do you go about using an IP address in a VPC and allow it to jump between availability zones?\nThe solution to this problem was mentioned briefly in a slide in a re:invent session - which for the life of me I could not find (when I do I will post the link).\nThe idea is to create an \u0026amp;ldquo;overlay\u0026amp;rdquo; network within the VPC - which allows you to manage IP addresses even though they don\u0026amp;rsquo;t really exist in the VPC.\nA simple diagram of such a solution would look something like this:\nEach instance would be configured with an additional virtual interface - with an IP address that was not part of the CIDR block of the VPC - that way it would not be a problem to move it from one subnet to another.\nIf the IP address does not actually exist inside the VPC - how do you get traffic to go to it?\nThat is actually a simple one to solve - by creating a specific route on each of the subnets - that routes traffic to a specific ENI (yes it is possible).\nThe process would be something like this:\nAn instance will try to access the virtual IP - it will go to the Route table on the Subnet and and because of the specific entry - it will be routed to a specific instance.\nThe last piece of the puzzle is how do you get the route to jump from one instance to the other instance of haproxy, this would be the initial state.\nhaproxya fails or the AZ goes down\nhaproxyb recognizes this failure\nAnd then makes a call to the AWS API to move the route to a different ENI located on haproxyb\nIn the next post - we will go into a bit more detail on how the network is actually built and how the failover works.\n","date":"Sep 2, 2018","href":"/2018/09/replacing-aws-elb-design.html","summary":"This is Part 3 in the Replacing the AWS ELB series.\nReplacing the AWS ELB - The Problem Replacing the AWS ELB - The Challenges Replacing the AWS ELB - The Design (this post) Replacing the AWS ELB - The Network Deep Dive Replacing the AWS ELB - Automation Replacing the AWS ELB - Final Thoughts So how do you go about using an IP address in a VPC and allow it to jump between availability zones?","tags":[" haproxy","Automation"," ELB"," loadbalancer","Architecture","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"Replacing the AWS ELB - The Design"},{"content":"This is Part 2 in the Replacing the AWS ELB series.\nReplacing the AWS ELB - The Problem Replacing the AWS ELB - The Challenges(this post) Replacing the AWS ELB - The Design Replacing the AWS ELB - The Network Deep Dive Replacing the AWS ELB - Automation Replacing the AWS ELB - Final Thoughts Now that you know the history from the previous post - I would like to dive into the challenges that I faced during the design process and how they were solved.\nHigh Availability One of the critical requirements was \u0026amp;ldquo;Must not be a single point of failure\u0026amp;rdquo; - which means whatever solution that we went with - must have some kind of High availability.\nDeploying a highly available haproxy cluster (well it is a master/slave deployment - it cannot really scale) is not the that hard of a task to accomplish.\nHere is a simple diagram to explain what is going on.\nTwo instances, each one has the haproxy software installed - and they each have their own IP address.\nA virtual IP is configured for the cluster and and with keepalived we maintain the state between the two instances. Each of them is configured with a priority (to determine which one of them is the master/slave) and there is a heartbeat between them vrrp is used to maintain a virtual a virtual router (or interface between them). If the master goes down - then the slave will take over. When the master comes back up - then the slave will relinquish control back to the master.\nThis works - flawlessly.\nBoth haproxy\u0026amp;rsquo;s have the same configuration - so if something falls over - then the second instance can (almost) instantly start serving traffic.\nProblem #1 - VRRP VRRP uses multicast - https://serverfault.com/questions/842357/keepalived-sends-both-unicast-and-multicast-vrrp-advertisements - but that was relatively simple to overcome - you can configure keepalived to use unicast - so that was one problem solved.\nProblem #2 - Additional IP address In order for this solution to work - we need an additional IP address -","date":"Aug 29, 2018","href":"/2018/08/replacing-aws-elb-challenges.html","summary":"This is Part 2 in the Replacing the AWS ELB series.\nReplacing the AWS ELB - The Problem Replacing the AWS ELB - The Challenges(this post) Replacing the AWS ELB - The Design Replacing the AWS ELB - The Network Deep Dive Replacing the AWS ELB - Automation Replacing the AWS ELB - Final Thoughts Now that you know the history from the previous post - I would like to dive into the challenges that I faced during the design process and how they were solved.","tags":[" haproxy","Automation"," ELB","Architecture","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"Replacing the AWS ELB - The Challenges"},{"content":"This is Part 4 in the Replacing the AWS ELB series.\nReplacing the AWS ELB - The Problem Replacing the AWS ELB - The Challenges Replacing the AWS ELB - The Design Replacing the AWS ELB - The Network Deep Dive (this post) Replacing the AWS ELB - Automation Replacing the AWS ELB - Final Thoughts Why does this whole thing with the network actually work? Networking in AWS is not that complicated - (sometimes it can be - but it is usually pretty simple) so why do you need to add in an additional IP address into the loop - and one that is not even really part of he VPC?\nTo answer that question - we need to understand the basic construct of the route table in an AWS VPC. Think of the route table as a road sign - which tells you where you should go .\nMaybe not such a clear sign after all\n(Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nnecapa)\nHere is what a standard route table (RT) would look like\nThe first line says that all traffic that is part of your VPC - stays local - i.e. it is routed in your VPC, and the second line says that all other traffic that does not belong in the VPC - will be sent another device (in this case a NAT Gateway).\nYou are the master of your RT - which means you can route traffic destined for any address you would like - to any destination you would like. Of course - you cannot have duplicate entries in the RT or you will receive an error.\nAnd you cannot have a smaller subset the traffic routed to a different location - if a larger route already exists.\nBut otherwise you can really do what you would like.\nSo defining a additional interface on an instance is something that is straight forward.\nFor example on a Centos/RHEL instance you create a new file in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/\nDEVICE=\u0026amp;#34;eth0:1\u0026amp;#34; BOOTPROTO=\u0026amp;#34;none\u0026amp;#34; MTU=\u0026amp;#34;1500\u0026amp;#34; ONBOOT=\u0026amp;#34;yes\u0026amp;#34; TYPE=\u0026amp;#34;Ethernet\u0026amp;#34; NETMASK=255.255.255.0 IPADDR=172.16.1.100 USERCTL=no This will create a second interface on your instance.\nNow of course the only entity in the subnet that knows","date":"Aug 29, 2018","href":"/2018/08/replacing-aws-elb-network-deep-dive.html","summary":"This is Part 4 in the Replacing the AWS ELB series.\nReplacing the AWS ELB - The Problem Replacing the AWS ELB - The Challenges Replacing the AWS ELB - The Design Replacing the AWS ELB - The Network Deep Dive (this post) Replacing the AWS ELB - Automation Replacing the AWS ELB - Final Thoughts Why does this whole thing with the network actually work? Networking in AWS is not that complicated - (sometimes it can be - but it is usually pretty simple) so why do you need to add in an additional IP address into the loop - and one that is not even really part of he VPC?","tags":[" haproxy","Automation"," ELB"," loadbalancer","Architecture","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"Replacing the AWS ELB - The Network Deep Dive"},{"content":"This topic has been long overdue.\nThis will be a series of posts on how you can replace the AWS ELB’s inside your VPC’s with a self managed load balancing solution. This will be too long for a single blog post so I decided it was best to split it up into parts.\nReplacing the AWS ELB - The Problem (this post) Replacing the AWS ELB - The Challenges Replacing the AWS ELB - The Design Replacing the AWS ELB - The Network Deep Dive Replacing the AWS ELB - Automation Replacing the AWS ELB - Final Thoughts Let me start at the beginning.\nThe product I was working with had a significant number of components that were communicating with each other. A long while back the product had decided to front all communication between components with a load balancer - for a good number of reasons such as:\nscaling high availability smart routing Here is a basic view of what the communication between component1 to component2 would like (and just to clarify - there were just over 50 components that were in this solution - not just one or two)\nSimple load balancing example - something that you can see anywhere. The load balancers - were HAproxy.\nThere was some additional logic going on inside the traffic between the components which was based on HTTP headers which allowed us to route some to certain instances and versions of the application (you can think of it as blue/green or canary routing\nA simple visualization of this would look something like this.\nThe team had already deployed this product and now it was time to move over to AWS.\nThe first part of the discovery was to identify how we could accomplish as much as possible of the solution while using the services that were provided by AWS - instead of deploying our own. one of the items for discussion that came was of course the Load balancers we were using - and if they could be replaced with AWS ELB\u0026amp;rsquo;s.\nHere were the list of requirements (and the current solution that was used met all the requirements):\nMust be able to serve as a","date":"Aug 29, 2018","href":"/2018/08/replacing-aws-elb-problem.html","summary":"This topic has been long overdue.\nThis will be a series of posts on how you can replace the AWS ELB’s inside your VPC’s with a self managed load balancing solution. This will be too long for a single blog post so I decided it was best to split it up into parts.\nReplacing the AWS ELB - The Problem (this post) Replacing the AWS ELB - The Challenges Replacing the AWS ELB - The Design Replacing the AWS ELB - The Network Deep Dive Replacing the AWS ELB - Automation Replacing the AWS ELB - Final Thoughts Let me start at the beginning.","tags":[" haproxy","ELB","loadbalancer","Architecture","Automation","Cloud","AWS"],"title":"Replacing the AWS ELB - The Problem"},{"content":"I think that aws-vault is a really nice tool. It prevents you from saving your AWS credentials in plain text on your machines (which is always a good thing)\nSince I started using it – I found a number of difficulties along the way.\naws-vault does not support aarch64 #261\nTo solve this - I created my own binary - aws-vault on a Chromebook\naws-vault only supports storing credentials when using a fully blown GUI. Here is a really good walkthrough how to get this working https://www.tastycidr.net/using-aws-vault-with-linux/\naws-vault login will give you a URL with which you can paste into a browser and it will log you in automatically to the AWS console. My pet peeve with this was that it always brings you to the default console page.\nSo I was thinking – why would I not be able to open up the specific console that I would like to access – such as S3 or EC2 – I mean come on … these are just different URLs that need to be opened in the same way.\nNow if I was a go developer – I would happily have contributed this back to the original project – but I am not. I am not really a developer at all. I can play with code – I can also create stuff – but I would not dare call myself someone who can write an application.\nSo I wrote a small wrapper script to provide this functionality.\nSay hello to aws-vault-url – an easier way to open a direct conosle for a specific product.\n(This is in no way a robust tool – and if you would like to contribute and improve it – please feel free to submit a PR)\nUpdate – 22/08/2018\nSo I did some thinking about this – and came to the conclusion that it makes no sense to maintain a separate tool – so I decided to take the leap and push myself to go into the code it self – so I sat for an hour or two last night, and extended the current functionality of aws-vault to accommodate this.\nHere is the PR - https://github.com/99designs/aws-vault/pull/278.\nOnce this is merged – I suggest that you move over to the complete tool.\n","date":"Aug 21, 2018","href":"/2018/08/scratching-itch-with-aws-vault-url.html","summary":"I think that aws-vault is a really nice tool. It prevents you from saving your AWS credentials in plain text on your machines (which is always a good thing)\nSince I started using it – I found a number of difficulties along the way.\naws-vault does not support aarch64 #261\nTo solve this - I created my own binary - aws-vault on a Chromebook\naws-vault only supports storing credentials when using a fully blown GUI. Here is a really good walkthrough how to get this working https://www.tastycidr.net/using-aws-vault-with-linux/","tags":["Automation","Tools","Management","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"Scratching an itch with aws-vault-url"},{"content":" We all started off as babies, and I am sure that not many of you remember that one of the first toys you played with (and if you do not remember - then I am sure those of you with kids have probably done the same with your children) was a plastic container with different shapes on the lid and blocks that were made of different shapes.\nA triangle would only go into the triangle, a circle in the circle, a block in the block and so on.\nThis is a basic skill that teaches us that no matter how hard we try, there are some things that just do not work. Things can only work in a certain way (of course coordination, patience and whole lot of other educational things).\nIt is a skill that we acquire, it takes time, patience, everyone gets there in the end.\nAnd why am I blogging about this – you may ask?\nThis analogy came up a few days ago in a discussion of a way to provide a highly available database in the cloud.\nAnd it got me thinking….\nThere are certain things that are not meant to be deployed in a cloud environment because they were never meant to be there in the first place. The application needed an Oracle database and it was supposed to be deployed in a cloud environment.\nWhat is the default way to deploy Oracle in highly available configuration? Oracle RAC. There are a number of basic requirements (simplified) you need for Oracle RAC.\nShared disk between the nodes.\nThat will not work in a cloud environment.\nSo we can try using dNFS – as the shared storage for the nodes – that might work..\nBut then you have to make an NFS mount available to the nodes – in the cloud.\nSo let’s deploy an NFS node as part of the solution.\nBut then we have to make that NFS node highly available. Multicast between the nodes - that also does not work well in the cloud.\nSo maybe create a networking environment in the cloud that will support multicast?\nDeploy a router appliance in the cloud.\nNow connect all the instances in the cloud into the router.\nBut the router poses as a single point of","date":"Aug 19, 2018","href":"/2015/03/a-triangle-is-not-circle.html","summary":" We all started off as babies, and I am sure that not many of you remember that one of the first toys you played with (and if you do not remember - then I am sure those of you with kids have probably done the same with your children) was a plastic container with different shapes on the lid and blocks that were made of different shapes.","tags":["Design","Architecture","Miscellaneous","Cloud"],"title":"A Triangle is Not a Circle \u0026 Some Things Don’t Fit in the Cloud"},{"content":"I have a jumpbox that I use to access resources in the cloud – and I use it at work, only during work hours and only on workdays.\nThere are usually 720 work hours in the month or 744 in months that have 31 days. Assuming that I want to run the instance for 12 hours a day and for 5 days a week. In order to calculate how many hours exactly – we will need an example.\nThe month of August, 2018\nThe work week in Israel is Sunday-Thursday (yeah – I know – we are special…).\nAugust would have 22 work days. Total number of hours in August (31*24 = 744). 220 working hours in the month (22 working days multiplied by 10 hours per day).\nThe math is simple 220/744 – I only need the instance for 30% of the month – so why would I pay for all of it?\n744 hours * $0.0464 (for a t2.medium instance in us-east-2) = $34.5216 and if I was to only pay for the hours that I was actually using the instance that would be 220 * $0.0464 = $10.208. A third of the cost. Simple math.\nSo there are multiple ways to do this – as a Lambda script, Cloud custodian – each of these work – very well and will work brilliantly at scale. For me it was a single machine and honestly I could not be bothered to set up all the requirements to get everything working.\nSimple solution – use cron. I don’t pay for resource usage by hour in my corporate network (If someone does – then you have my sympathies..) so I set up a simple cron job to do this.\nTo start up the instance:\n0 8 * * 0,1,2,3,4 start-jumpbox\nAnd to stop the instance at night\n0 18 * * 0,1,2,3,4 stop-jumpbox\nAnd what is the start/stop-jumpbox comand you might ask – really simple aws cli command\naws ec2 start-instances –region \u0026amp;lt;__REGION__\u0026amp;gt; --instance-ids \u0026amp;lt;__INSTANCE_ID__\u0026amp;gt;\naws ec2 stop-instances –region \u0026amp;lt;__REGION__\u0026amp;gt; --instance-ids \u0026amp;lt;__INSTANCE_ID__\u0026amp;gt;\nOf course in the background the correct credentials and access keys are set up on my linux box – not going to go into how to that here – AWS has enough documentation on that.\nThe last thing","date":"Aug 15, 2018","href":"/2018/08/saving-few-shekels-on-your-aws-bill.html","summary":"I have a jumpbox that I use to access resources in the cloud – and I use it at work, only during work hours and only on workdays.\nThere are usually 720 work hours in the month or 744 in months that have 31 days. Assuming that I want to run the instance for 12 hours a day and for 5 days a week. In order to calculate how many hours exactly – we will need an example.","tags":["Scripting","Administration","AWS","Cloud","Cost"],"title":"Saving a Few Shekels on your AWS bill"},{"content":"I have moved almost exclusively to a Chromebook for my day-to-day work\n(a whole other set of blog posts - on the journey and outcome are planned), and I was missing one of the tools in belt and that was aws-vault.\nIf you look at the releases you will see that there is no binary available for arm.\nI opened up an issue on the repository - and the answer that I got was - that it is not likely to have any binary released for ARM in the near future, I should go and compile it for myself.\nI did, here are the steps.\n## Install go sudo apt-get install -y golang-go ## Setup environment variables for go mkdir ~/go-dir export GOPATH=\u0026amp;#34;$HOME/go-dir/\u0026amp;#34; #compile directly from github go get -u github.com/99designs/aws-vault Hope it is useful for someone in the future.\n","date":"Jul 23, 2018","href":"/2018/07/aws-vault-on-chromebook.html","summary":"I have moved almost exclusively to a Chromebook for my day-to-day work\n(a whole other set of blog posts - on the journey and outcome are planned), and I was missing one of the tools in belt and that was aws-vault.\nIf you look at the releases you will see that there is no binary available for arm.\nI opened up an issue on the repository - and the answer that I got was - that it is not likely to have any binary released for ARM in the near future, I should go and compile it for myself.","tags":["chromebook","AWS"],"title":"aws-vault on a Chromebook"},{"content":"A few days ago at the AWS Summit in New York there was an announcement which in my honest opinion went very noticeably under the radar and i don\u0026amp;rsquo;t think many people understand exactly what it means.\nThe announcement i\u0026amp;rsquo;m talking about is this one EC2 Compute Instances for Snowball Edge .\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s dig into the announcement. There are new instance types released the sbe1 family which can been on AWS Snowball Edge device which essentially a computer with a lot of disks inside.\nThe Snowball is a service that AWS provides to enable you to upload large amounts of data from your datacenter up to S3. Since its inception it is actually a very interesting concept and to me it has always been as a one off way enticing you to bring more of your workloads and your data in a much easier way to AWS.\nI also posted this on Twitter\nI am absolutely gobsmacked about the announcement of EC2 compute for snowball edge. This changes everything #aws\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) July 17, 2018 Since its inception AWS has always beaten the drum and pushed the message that everything will run in the cloud - and only there. That was the premise they build a large part of their business model upon. You don\u0026amp;rsquo;t need to run anything on-premises because everything that you would ever want or ever need is available on the cloud, consume as a service, through an API.\nDuring the course of my career a number a number of times the question came up asking, \u0026amp;ldquo;Does AWS deploy on-prem?\u0026amp;rdquo; Of course the answer was always \u0026amp;ldquo;No, never gonna happen.\u0026amp;rdquo;\nMost environments out there are datacenter snowflakes, built differently, none of them look the same, have the same capabilities, features or functionality. They are unique and integrating a system into different datacenters is not easy. Adapting to so many different snoflakes is really hard job, and something we have been trying to solve for many years - trying to build layers of abstraction, automation and standards","date":"Jul 19, 2018","href":"/2018/07/the-aws-world-shook-and-nobody-noticed.html","summary":"A few days ago at the AWS Summit in New York there was an announcement which in my honest opinion went very noticeably under the radar and i don\u0026rsquo;t think many people understand exactly what it means.\nThe announcement i\u0026rsquo;m talking about is this one EC2 Compute Instances for Snowball Edge .\nLet\u0026rsquo;s dig into the announcement. There are new instance types released the sbe1 family which can been on AWS Snowball Edge device which essentially a computer with a lot of disks inside.","tags":["Amazon","Miscellaneous","Announcement","AWS","Cloud","Summit"],"title":"The AWS World Shook and Nobody Noticed"},{"content":"In a group discussion last week – I heard a story (I could not find the origin – if you know where it comes from – please let me know) – which I would like to share with you.\nJohn was floating out in the ocean, on his back, with his shades, just enjoying the sun, the quiet, the time to himself, not a care in the world.\nWhen all of a sudden he got bumped on the head (not hard enough to cause any serious damage) with a small rowing boat.\nJohn was pissed…. All sorts of thoughts running through his head.\nWho gave the driver their license? Why are they not more careful? I could have been killed? Why are they sailing out here – this is not even a place for boats. And with all that anger and emotion he pulled himself over the side of the boat, ready to give the owner/driver one hell of a mouthful.\nWhen he pulls himself over the side, he sees an empty boat. No–one there, no-one to scream at.\nAnd at that moment all the anger and rage that was building up inside – slowly went away.\nWe encounter things every day – many of them we think are directly aimed at us – deliberately or not – but we immediately become all defensive, build up a bias against the other and are ready to go ballistic. Until we understand that there is no-one to direct all this emotion and energy at.\nAnd then we understand that sometimes thing just happen, things beyond our control and we cannot or should not put our fate into some else’s hands.\nThat was the original story – which I really can relate to.\n(Source: Flickr – Steenaire)\nBut before I heard the last part of the story – my mind took this to a totally different place – which is (of course) architecture related.\nJohn was enjoying a great day in the sun – and all of a sudden he got hit in the head by a boat.\nWhere did that boat come from?\nNo-one knows.. I assume the owner had tied it up properly on the dock.\nMaybe the rope was cut. Maybe someone stole it and dumped it when they were done. Maybe there was a storm that set the boat loose. Or maybe there","date":"Jul 5, 2018","href":"/2018/07/getting-hit-by-boat-defensive-design.html","summary":"In a group discussion last week – I heard a story (I could not find the origin – if you know where it comes from – please let me know) – which I would like to share with you.\nJohn was floating out in the ocean, on his back, with his shades, just enjoying the sun, the quiet, the time to himself, not a care in the world.\nWhen all of a sudden he got bumped on the head (not hard enough to cause any serious damage) with a small rowing boat.","tags":["Design","Architecture","culture","Learning"],"title":"Getting Hit by a Boat - Defensive Design"},{"content":"This is a translation of an interview I gave to IsraelClouds (a meet the architect session).\nHello, my name is Maish Saidel-Keesing. I am a Cloud and DevOps architect at CyberArk in Petach Tikva. I have over 19 years experience in the compute industry. In the past I was a system administrator, managing Active Directory, Exchange and Windows servers. I have a lot of past experience with VMware systems - I wrote the first version of VMware vSphere Design and I have extensive knowledge of OpenStack (where I also participated in the OpenStack Architecture Design Guide). In recent years I have been working in the public cloud area (AWS and Azure) and I am also in the process of writing another book called “The Cloud Walkabout”, which was written following my experience with AWS.\nWhat was the catalyst that made you interested in cloud computing?\nMy interest in technology has been ingrained in me since I was a child. I am always interested in trying new things all the time, and the cloud was for me a tool that enabled me as an IT infrastructure professional to push the organization to run faster and bring value to the entire company. The pace at which the company wanted to run with the standard (\u0026amp;ldquo;old fashioned\u0026amp;rdquo;) tools was not fast enough and we headed toward the cloud (private and public) to help us meet our goals.\nWhat difficulties did you encounter when you wanted to learn about cloud computing?\nFirst of all organizational buy-in. At first I encountered difficulties when I tried to explain to upper management why the cloud is important to the organization, it was not obvious and required a lot of persuasion and date to back up the statements.\nSecond, the level of local education(courses, lecturers) was not very high at the time, which required a lot of hours of self-study and practical experience to learn one topic or another. I have never done a frontal course here in Israel - only self-study at my own pace, including 5 AWS certifications and additional","date":"Jul 3, 2018","href":"/2018/07/encounters-in-cloud-interview.html","summary":"This is a translation of an interview I gave to IsraelClouds (a meet the architect session).\nHello, my name is Maish Saidel-Keesing. I am a Cloud and DevOps architect at CyberArk in Petach Tikva. I have over 19 years experience in the compute industry. In the past I was a system administrator, managing Active Directory, Exchange and Windows servers. I have a lot of past experience with VMware systems - I wrote the first version of VMware vSphere Design and I have extensive knowledge of OpenStack (where I also participated in the OpenStack Architecture Design Guide). In recent years I have been working in the public cloud area (AWS and Azure) and I am also in the process of writing another book called “The Cloud Walkabout”, which was written following my experience with AWS.","tags":["interview","bio","Miscellaneous","profile"],"title":"Encounters in the Cloud - Interview"},{"content":"Whenever someone asks me what tools do you use to provision your infrastructure within AWS - the answer is it can be done with a variety of tools - but people usually use one of the following three\nCloudFormation Terraform Ansible The next question that comes up of course - is which one is easier/better to use? The answer of course (as always..) is - \u0026amp;ldquo;It Depends\u0026amp;rdquo;. There are really good reasons to use each and everyone of the tools. This could be ease of use, support, extensibility, flexibility, community support (or lack thereof).\nI have worked with all three tools, and each of them have their ups and their downs. There are periods that I prefer Ansible, other days that Terraform and sometimes CloudFormation is the only way to get things done.\nI wanted to compare all three in a set of scenarios - from the really simple to moderate - to complicated. Firstly - to see how this can be accomplished in each of the tools,evaluating complexity, time to completion and anything else that came up along the way.\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s start by diving straight into the first example.\nI want to create a VPC. A plain simple VPC, nothing else. No Network, no NAT gateways, routes, subnets, as simple as can be. Essentially this is a simple AWS API call which would be:\naws ec2 create-vpc --cidr-block 192.168.90.0/24 (The code for all of these scenarios is located here - https://github.com/maishsk/automation-standoff/tree/master/simple)\nFirst lets have a look at CloudFormation\nDescription: This template deploys a VPC. Parameters: EnvironmentName: Description: An environment name that will be prefixed to resource names Type: String Default: \u0026amp;#34;testvpc\u0026amp;#34; VpcCIDR: Description: Please enter the IP range (CIDR notation) for this VPC Type: String Default: 192.168.90.0/24 Resources: VPC: Type: AWS::EC2::VPC Properties: CidrBlock: !Ref VpcCIDR EnableDnsSupport: true Tags: - Key: Name Value: \u0026amp;#34;testvpc\u0026amp;#34; Outputs: VPC: Description: A reference to the created VPC Value: !Ref VPC Looks","date":"Jun 27, 2018","href":"/2018/06/comparing-cloudformation-terraform-and.html","summary":"Whenever someone asks me what tools do you use to provision your infrastructure within AWS - the answer is it can be done with a variety of tools - but people usually use one of the following three\nCloudFormation Terraform Ansible The next question that comes up of course - is which one is easier/better to use? The answer of course (as always..) is - \u0026ldquo;It Depends\u0026rdquo;. There are really good reasons to use each and everyone of the tools. This could be ease of use, support, extensibility, flexibility, community support (or lack thereof).","tags":["Scripting","Ansible","AWS","Cloud","Performance","Terraform"],"title":"Comparing CloudFormation, Terraform and Ansible - Simple example"},{"content":"The feedback I received from the first comparison was great – thank you all.\nObviously the example I used was not really something that you would use in the real world – because no-one actually creates a only a VPC – and does not create anything inside it, that is pretty futile.\nSo let’s go to the next example.\nThe scenario is to create a VPC, with a public presences and a private presence. This will be deployed across two availability zones. Public subnets should be able to route to the internet through an Internet Gateway, private subnets should be able to access the internet through a NAT Gateway.\nThis is slightly more complicated than just creating a simple VPC with a one-liner\naws ec2 create-vpc --cidr-block 192.168.90.0/24\nSo to summarize - the end state I expect to have is:\n1x VPC (192.168.90.0/24) 4x Subnets 2x Public 192.168.90.0/26 (AZ1) 192.168.90.64/26 (AZ2) 2x Private 192.168.90.128/26 (AZ1) 192.168.90.192/26 (AZ2) 1x Internet Gateway 2x NAT Gateway (I really could do with one – but since the subnets and resources are supposed to be deployed in more than a single AZ – there will be two – and here I minimize the risk impact of loss of service if a single AZ fails) 1x Public Route Table 2x Private Route Table (1 for each AZ) And all of these should have simple tags to identify them.\n(The code for all of these scenarios is located here\nFirst lets have a look at CloudFormation\nDescription: This template deploys a VPC, with a pair of public and private subnets spread across two Availability Zones. It deploys an Internet Gateway, with a default route on the public subnets. It deploys a pair of NAT Gateways (one in each AZ), and default routes for them in the private subnets. The Availability zone information is hard-coded (on purpose) Parameters: EnvironmentName: Description: An environment name that will be prefixed to resource names Type: String Default: \u0026amp;#34;testvpc\u0026amp;#34; VpcCIDR: Description: Please enter the IP range (CIDR notation) for this VPC Type:","date":"Jun 27, 2018","href":"/2018/07/comparing-cloudformation-terraform-and.html","summary":"The feedback I received from the first comparison was great – thank you all.\nObviously the example I used was not really something that you would use in the real world – because no-one actually creates a only a VPC – and does not create anything inside it, that is pretty futile.\nSo let’s go to the next example.\nThe scenario is to create a VPC, with a public presences and a private presence. This will be deployed across two availability zones. Public subnets should be able to route to the internet through an Internet Gateway, private subnets should be able to access the internet through a NAT Gateway.","tags":["Scripting","Ansible","AWS","Cloud","Performance","Terraform"],"title":"Comparing CloudFormation, Terraform and Ansible Part #2"},{"content":"Microsft is currently in negotiations to acquire. Github. Github.com. Github, it\u0026amp;rsquo;s the place where we all store our code, all our open source code.\nI was actually quite shocked. There is this article. The first thing that I was surprised by was that Microsoft has bean negotiations with Github for quite some time. If they do buy Github then it could possibly change the world of open source. Almost everybody I know stores their code on Github. There are a few other places where you can store your code, for example, bitbucket, but the main code depository in the world is definitely Github.\nIf this acquisition actually goes through - I was trying to understand what would this actually mean? Microsoft would now have acess to every single line of code - which if you come to think of it - it actually quite a frightening thought. Bloody scary!! All the insights into the code, everything, the options are pretty much endless. Yes of course there will be terms, stating what exactly they can do with all this data, what data they will have access to and what they will keep private. We are wary of big brother and our privacy - but entrusting all our code to a potential competitor?\nMicrosoft has traditionally been percieved as the arch-villian of opensource. But that has changed. Microsoft has become one of the biggest open source contributors in the world, largely because of the visual studio code but they also contribute a good number of other opensource projects. There is a culture change within Microsoft, where the direction has become opensource first, and if you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t do open source and you have to justify why this is not the case. I was personally was exposed to this transformation for a few days where I spent at the Microsoft mothership a couple of weeks ago. I participated in a number of briefings from several leading architects, project managers and product managers within the company and was actually pleasantly that they are becoming an open source company","date":"Jun 4, 2018","href":"/2018/06/microsoft-to-acquire-github.html","summary":"Microsft is currently in negotiations to acquire. Github. Github.com. Github, it\u0026rsquo;s the place where we all store our code, all our open source code.\nI was actually quite shocked. There is this article. The first thing that I was surprised by was that Microsoft has bean negotiations with Github for quite some time. If they do buy Github then it could possibly change the world of open source. Almost everybody I know stores their code on Github. There are a few other places where you can store your code, for example, bitbucket, but the main code depository in the world is definitely Github.","tags":["Microsoft","opinion","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Microsoft to acquire Github??"},{"content":"As a true technologist – I am not a favor of analyst reports and in some circles Gartner is a dirty word – but since most of the industry swears by Gartner – I went over the report.\nHere are my highlights…(emphasis is mine – not from the source\nMost customers have a multicloud strategy. Most customers choose a primary strategic cloud IaaS provider, and some will choose a secondary strategic provider as well. They may also use other providers on a tactical basis for narrow use cases. While it is relatively straightforward to move VM images from one cloud to another, cloud IaaS is not a commodity. \u0026amp;lt;- No shit Sherlock! Each and every cloud wants you using their services and ditching the competition which is why there will never be a standard across clouds.\nCustomers choose to adopt multiple providers in order to have a broader array of solutions to choose from. Relatively few customers use multicloud architectures (where a single application or workload runs on multiple cloud providers), as these architectures are complex and difficult to implement. \u0026amp;lt;- Damn straight! Managing multiple cloud IaaS providers is challenging. \u0026amp;lt;- Really?????\nMany organizations are facing the challenge of creating standardized policies and procedures, repeatable processes, governance, and cost optimization across multiple cloud providers. \u0026amp;ldquo;Single pane of glass\u0026amp;rdquo; management, seamless movement across infrastructure platforms and \u0026amp;ldquo;cloudbursting\u0026amp;rdquo; are unlikely to become reality, even between providers using the same underlying CIF or with use of portable application container technology. \u0026amp;lt;- This is an interesting one … Everyone in the Kubernetes community will probably not agree – because that is exactly what so many organizations are hoping that Kubernetes will give them, their holy grail of Cloud Agnostic..\nNote that the claim that an ecosystem is \u0026amp;ldquo;open\u0026amp;rdquo; has nothing to do with actual portability. Due to the high degree of differentiation between","date":"May 29, 2018","href":"/2018/05/my-commentary-on-gartners-cloud-mq-2018.html","summary":"As a true technologist – I am not a favor of analyst reports and in some circles Gartner is a dirty word – but since most of the industry swears by Gartner – I went over the report.\nHere are my highlights…(emphasis is mine – not from the source\nMost customers have a multicloud strategy. Most customers choose a primary strategic cloud IaaS provider, and some will choose a secondary strategic provider as well. They may also use other providers on a tactical basis for narrow use cases. While it is relatively straightforward to move VM images from one cloud to another, cloud IaaS is not a commodity. \u0026lt;- No shit Sherlock! Each and every cloud wants you using their services and ditching the competition which is why there will never be a standard across clouds.","tags":["opinion","Miscellaneous","Cloud"],"title":"My commentary on Gartner’s Cloud MQ - 2018"},{"content":"I am sure you are all familiar with those select few in your company who supposedly have super powers or hidden technological gifts.\nYes, I mean those co-workers who know exactly how to fix the most esoteric issues that no one has come across, ever. Perhaps you share a cubicle with the guy who’s able to conceive of breakthroughs time after time after time. Or maybe you were hired the same month as the woman who can code like no one has coded before, and it’s like reading poetry — smooth, with meaning, and plays on your most inner emotions. Or you’re the manager who hired the weird dude that sits in the basement, who can be woken up at 2:43 am on a Sunday morning after partying endless hours the night before, and still be able to drone off the precise sequence of events that you need in order to prevent your production NoSQL database from exploding … because someone forgot to run maintenance.\nContinue reading the rest of the article\n","date":"Apr 30, 2018","href":"/2018/04/to-be-10x-engineer-or-not-to-be.html","summary":"I am sure you are all familiar with those select few in your company who supposedly have super powers or hidden technological gifts.\nYes, I mean those co-workers who know exactly how to fix the most esoteric issues that no one has come across, ever. Perhaps you share a cubicle with the guy who’s able to conceive of breakthroughs time after time after time. Or maybe you were hired the same month as the woman who can code like no one has coded before, and it’s like reading poetry — smooth, with meaning, and plays on your most inner emotions. Or you’re the manager who hired the weird dude that sits in the basement, who can be woken up at 2:43 am on a Sunday morning after partying endless hours the night before, and still be able to drone off the precise sequence of events that you need in order to prevent your production NoSQL database from exploding … because someone forgot to run maintenance.","tags":["Miscellaneous","culture","Career","Performance"],"title":"To Be a 10x Engineer, or Not to Be"},{"content":"The cat is out of the bag. The beginning of a new journey\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) March 20, 2018 A bit of history After 13 years at Cisco - I have decided to challenge myself and embark on a new adventure.\nI first would like to express my gratitude to those who have helped me grow over the years.\nStarting out 13 years I was part of the helpdesk at a company called NDS (who was acquired by Cisco about 5 years ago), Supporting users over the phone, servicing desktops and laptops.\nFrom there I moved to the systems group and managing Active Directory and assumed additional responsibilities. Over the years I architected and deployed one of the largest VMware deployments in Israel, and continued to grow with the technologies within the company, grow professionally to where I am today.\nThe people I have had the honor to work with over the years, are the greatest resource I will take with me for the future and the one I will miss the most. The crazy projects we pulled off, the outrageous ones that sometimes did not - these are things that I will always cherish.\nFrom every experience over the years, I have learned something new, and it has allowed me to grow. For that I am eternally thankful.\nWhy am I leaving Cisco? 13 years is a long time to stay at one company and it is time for a change, time for bigger challenge. Cisco has allowed me to grow immensely, pivot to new technologies over the years and play with stuff day in and day out. Leaving was a hard decision, because change is a scary thing, scary for me, scary for anyone. I know the people, I know the company, I know the ropes.\nIn spite of all this - I needed a change, an opportunity to explore new technologies, new areas of interest\nHello CyberArk! Starting from Monday, April 16th, I will be assume the position of DevOps \u0026amp;amp; Cloud Architect at CyberArk. I am really excited to start this new journey.\nCyberArk is the only security company laser-focused on striking down targeted cyber threats, those","date":"Apr 9, 2018","href":"/2018/04/time-for-new-chapter-hello-cyberark.html","summary":"The cat is out of the bag. The beginning of a new journey\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) March 20, 2018 A bit of history After 13 years at Cisco - I have decided to challenge myself and embark on a new adventure.\nI first would like to express my gratitude to those who have helped me grow over the years.\nStarting out 13 years I was part of the helpdesk at a company called NDS (who was acquired by Cisco about 5 years ago), Supporting users over the phone, servicing desktops and laptops.","tags":["CyberArk","Career","Announcement","Cisco"],"title":"Time for a New Chapter - Hello CyberArk!"},{"content":"Today I completed my 5th AWS Certification. Something which I had hoped to complete before the end of 2017, but life got in the way.\nI started working dabbling with AWS a while ago - signed up for a free account at way back in the end of 2014 and started to play with it, but not too much.\nIt was not until the beginning of 2017 that I really went in full force. When I declared my goals for Q1 2017 one of them was to work on AWS. I am happy to say that I have accomplished this goal - this is what I do all day, every day.\nSo during the past year I decided to also pursue the AWS certification track, mostly to prove to myself that I could, but also to learn more about AWS, Their products and solutions\nHere is my journey.\nSolutions Architect - Associate This was the first one I did. It took me almost six months since starting to use AWS to feel comfortable with my knowledge to go for the exam.\nI used the A Cloud Guru course - which was great for this certification, Just the right amount of content - of course you need to know what you were doing in AWS (at least a little bit). Iwent over the lessons, did the quizzes, took the practice exam on the AWS certification site (and failed). I read the whitepapers (yes – all of the suggested whitepapers). I read the FAQ\u0026amp;rsquo;s for SNS, SQS, S3, EC2. Whatever I did not feel comfortable with – I went over in the actual AWS console – and learned how to use it.\nTrying to remember all the options is not realistic – but you will be able to eliminate the really stupid options that are in the test.\nTaking a test on a new technology is always scary - this was as well.\n80 minutes. 60 questions.\nYep .. Certified #AWS pic.twitter.com/T8tKrmCPWt\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) June 5, 2017 Read the questions properly – even if you are not sure – there are some really obvious answers that blatantly incorrect – so that will help you eliminate the noise from the question.\nThis is an entry level exam - which expects you to understand that","date":"Jan 30, 2018","href":"/2018/01/5-aws-certifications-in-237-days.html","summary":"Today I completed my 5th AWS Certification. Something which I had hoped to complete before the end of 2017, but life got in the way.\nI started working dabbling with AWS a while ago - signed up for a free account at way back in the end of 2014 and started to play with it, but not too much.\nIt was not until the beginning of 2017 that I really went in full force. When I declared my goals for Q1 2017 one of them was to work on AWS. I am happy to say that I have accomplished this goal - this is what I do all day, every day.","tags":["Developer","Architecture","DevOps","Professional","Certification","AWS","Associate","SysOps"],"title":"5 AWS Certifications in 237 days"},{"content":"Does the following sound familiar to you?\nThe industry latches on to a new technology and everyone falls under its spell, a spell that makes them think this latest technology will solve any and all of the problems we have suffered from in the past.\nThe Evolution of Illusion I experienced this phenomenon when our IT department first discovered blades. It would solve all our problems, everyone said, cabling, cooling, power, and real estate. And, at first, that seemed true; that is until it brought with it a whole new set of problems, such as insufficient bandwidth, network contention, and congestion.\nThen came virtualization and VMware. Better utilization! Faster time to delivery! Consolidation! But… we soon was revealed a whole new set of problems, like insufficient disk throughput, greater blast radius when a single server goes down, not to mention VM sprawl and increased licensing costs.\nRead the rest of the blog at the source..\n","date":"Jan 27, 2018","href":"/2018/01/kubernetes-is-not-silver-bullet.html","summary":"Does the following sound familiar to you?\nThe industry latches on to a new technology and everyone falls under its spell, a spell that makes them think this latest technology will solve any and all of the problems we have suffered from in the past.\nThe Evolution of Illusion I experienced this phenomenon when our IT department first discovered blades. It would solve all our problems, everyone said, cabling, cooling, power, and real estate. And, at first, that seemed true; that is until it brought with it a whole new set of problems, such as insufficient bandwidth, network contention, and congestion.","tags":["Kubernetes","containers","Miscellaneous","Cloud"],"title":"Kubernetes Is Not the Silver Bullet"},{"content":"I cannot believe it is over 3 years since I created the openstack-git-env container. At the time I was really frustrated at how hard it was to get started with setting up an environment to start contributing to OpenStack.\nWell I have now moved on - focused primarily on AWS - and I have a good amount of PowerShell experience under my belt - but since I moved off a Windows laptop 3 years ago - I hardly use PowerShell anymore. Which is a shame.\nLuckily Microsoft have released a version of PowerShell that will work on Mac and Linux - so I can start getting back on the horse.\nI looked at the instructions for setting up PowerShell command for AWS - which led me to the AWS documentation page. But the missing link there - is how do you install PowerShell on your Mac/Linux machine - there is no documentation there. This is complicated ands error prone.\nSo I was thinking - there must be a container already available for PowerShell - it can’t be that everyone goes through the hoops of installing everything locally.\nAnd lo and behold - there is one - https://hub.docker.com/r/microsoft/powershell/\nSo I built on top of this - the AWS PowerShell container.\nAll you need to do is set an alias on you machine, add a script that will launch the container - and Bob’s your uncle - you are ready to go.\nAll the information is located on the repository.\nPlease let me know if you think this is useful - and if there are any improvements your would like to see.\nThe code is on Github - feel free to contribute or raise any issues when/if you find them.\n","date":"Jan 25, 2018","href":"/2018/01/the-aws-powershell-docker-container.html","summary":"I cannot believe it is over 3 years since I created the openstack-git-env container. At the time I was really frustrated at how hard it was to get started with setting up an environment to start contributing to OpenStack.\nWell I have now moved on - focused primarily on AWS - and I have a good amount of PowerShell experience under my belt - but since I moved off a Windows laptop 3 years ago - I hardly use PowerShell anymore. Which is a shame.","tags":["Tools","docker","Powershell","AWS"],"title":"The AWS PowerShell Docker Container"},{"content":"Some people say that once you write a book - you never stop at only one. I think I tend to agree. There is something about creating something from nothing, and even more so for me - I enjoy sharing the knowledge I have accumulated with the rest of the world. I think I have always been this way. This blog would not exist if that was not the case.\nI would like to introduce you all to my latest project.\nMy focus has changed - a number of times over the years, first from Microsoft, then to VMware, on to OpenStack and now my day to day job has me focused exclusively on AWS.\nThe book is currently in production - and I expect to have a new chapter available on a monthly schedule.\nPlease take a few minutes to read my previous post - Self Publishing my New Book #AWS and understand how Leanpub works.\nEven more so - I am asking you to choose how much you pay for it. There is a minimum price - but you can choose how much you think this book is worth to you. Yes - It might sound a bit crazy - but I have faith in you my readers, that this book will be of a huge benefit to all that read it and you should decide how much would like to pay.\nCurrently I am only publishing a digital version - when the book is complete - there will probably be a print version as well - we will see what the future holds..\nThe book is available for pre-purchase today - and this includes the first 3 chapters that are available today (if you would like a sample for free - it is available as well).\nPlease visit https://cloudwalkabout.com today for your copy.\nThe most important thing for me is feedback. I would like to hear from you what think about the book, are there parts that you think need improvement, are there things that are missing, or whatever you feel like sharing.\nFeel free to reach out me either on Twitter, through this blog or on the book page.\n","date":"Nov 23, 2017","href":"/2017/11/the-cloud-walkabout-aws/","summary":"Some people say that once you write a book - you never stop at only one. I think I tend to agree. There is something about creating something from nothing, and even more so for me - I enjoy sharing the knowledge I have accumulated with the rest of the world. I think I have always been this way. This blog would not exist if that was not the case.","tags":["cloudwalkabout","Book","author","Announcement","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"The Cloud Walkabout AWS"},{"content":"I hardly mix my professional and personal life here on this blog. I will every now and again throw in some thoughts and feelings from my personal beliefs into my blog posts, when appropriate.\nThe last time I did a Jewish perspective on a technical conference was VMworld 2014 in San Francisco - VMworld - from a Religious Jewish Orthodox Perspective. It was really interesting to see the comments in the blog post and also the feedback I received on Twitter - which lead me to realization that people are completely unaware of the challenges others face because of the their religious beliefs and faith, and explaining these in a public forum - goes a really long way to help them understand\nI was quite surprised that when I reached out the re:Invent team to ask about Kosher food at the event - the answer was that there was none. When I was at VMworld in Vegas (a good number of years ago) there was kosher food as one of the options (I don’t really understand why this was not a possibility at this event). It was actually quite amazing to see some of the looks from the people when I walked past all the lines straight to the “special meals” section without having to wait in line, and more than once.\nSometimes eating Kosher does have its perks.\nBack to re:Invent (from the FAQ)\nBasically - that means no kosher food throughout the day, which kind of sucks. The good thing about food in the US is that a good portion of the larger product manufacturers already are certified kosher - the most common being the OU. So I assume that some snacks and most of the drinks will not a problem.\nSo that means for me - bringing my own lunch. Dinner will be in one of the Kosher restaurants in the surrounding neighborhoods. I have never eaten at any of these so I cannot vouch for the quality of their food or their service.\nThere is also a Coffee Bean \u0026amp;amp; Tea Leaf at the Venetian / Palazzo that might have a few kosher items during the day, personally I would not bet on it being a good option for","date":"Nov 22, 2017","href":"/2017/11/keeping-kosher-at-reinvent-2017.html","summary":"I hardly mix my professional and personal life here on this blog. I will every now and again throw in some thoughts and feelings from my personal beliefs into my blog posts, when appropriate.\nThe last time I did a Jewish perspective on a technical conference was VMworld 2014 in San Francisco - VMworld - from a Religious Jewish Orthodox Perspective. It was really interesting to see the comments in the blog post and also the feedback I received on Twitter - which lead me to realization that people are completely unaware of the challenges others face because of the their religious beliefs and faith, and explaining these in a public forum - goes a really long way to help them understand","tags":["Kosher","re:Invent","AWS"],"title":"Keeping Kosher at re:Invent 2017"},{"content":"If you have been following the hints that I have been dropping on Twitter - you may have noticed that I am about to go public with a new book.\nA sneak peak… #AWS #real #soon pic.twitter.com/2lwuf47q7A\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) November 16, 2017 Before I actually go live with the announcement - I would like to prepare you all for how this is going to work - because it could be slightly different from the conventional book launch you might be used to.\nI have decided to use Leanpub.\nWhy did I choose to go with self publishing and not with a traditional publisher? The main reason behind this is not money, of course royalties are a nice little surprise every now and again - but having co-authored more than one book - I can say with no doubt - we do not do it for the money - definitely not the money,\nThe main reason - is because of flexibility. I have the option to decide the content - and I am the sole owner of what I want to have in the book. I do not have an ‘overlord’ looking out over my shoulder saying that this is not good, not long enough - or the words are not clear. I decide what goes in, how it goes in and when.\nThis has it’s up-sides and of course its drawbacks - but that is a topic for a future post.\nWhy Leanpub? After reading Jeff Geerlin’s book (Ansible for DevOps) and his posts on using Leanpub - I decided to try it out for myself, and I found…\nI love the workflow, git commits, working with Markdown - simple smooth and it just works. I did not want to wait for the whole book to be complete - because I think that what I have now will be highly useful - and there is no reason to wait until the end for the information to get out there. So how does this work? I am currently actively writing the book and if you so choose - you can purchase the book before it is finished. You choose the price that you are willing to pay (there is a minimum charge). All updates to the book are free. Currently (until the book is complete) - there will only be a","date":"Nov 20, 2017","href":"/2017/11/self-publishing-my-new-book.html","summary":"If you have been following the hints that I have been dropping on Twitter - you may have noticed that I am about to go public with a new book.\nA sneak peak… #AWS #real #soon pic.twitter.com/2lwuf47q7A\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) November 16, 2017 Before I actually go live with the announcement - I would like to prepare you all for how this is going to work - because it could be slightly different from the conventional book launch you might be used to.","tags":["Leanpub","Book","author","AWS"],"title":"Self Publishing my New Book AWS"},{"content":"I am no IT conference novice. I’ve attended several VMworld events over the years (last year, together with over 25,000 other IT professionals). But even though I’ve been in this business for quite a while — since the days when cloud was known as “virtualization” — I haven’t been to re:Invent before.\nThis year, I knew it was time.\nOver the years, as virtualization evolved into cloud, my skills and knowledge evolved, from hardware to VMware to cloud (with VMware) and then open-source cloud (with OpenStack), then containers, Docker, and now, most recently, the major public cloud providers. My day job the past year has been focused solely around complex deployments in AWS. How could I miss re:invent 2017?\nRead more..\n","date":"Oct 27, 2017","href":"/2017/10/ive-got-plan-for-reinvent-2017-do-you.html","summary":"I am no IT conference novice. I’ve attended several VMworld events over the years (last year, together with over 25,000 other IT professionals). But even though I’ve been in this business for quite a while — since the days when cloud was known as “virtualization” — I haven’t been to re:Invent before.\nThis year, I knew it was time.\nOver the years, as virtualization evolved into cloud, my skills and knowledge evolved, from hardware to VMware to cloud (with VMware) and then open-source cloud (with OpenStack), then containers, Docker, and now, most recently, the major public cloud providers. My day job the past year has been focused solely around complex deployments in AWS. How could I miss re:invent 2017?","tags":["AWS","Cloud"],"title":"I’ve Got a Plan for re:Invent 2017. Do You?"},{"content":"The past few weeks have been a bumpy ride for the folks at Google - and before hand Uber was the center of a pretty big scandal.\nThe gender-diversity thing is really getting out of hand. People are different. Men\u0026amp;amp;women are different. Not better or worse. Live with it.\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) August 8, 2017 TLDR; What was portrayed in the Google letter was completely wrong - but also completely right as well!!\nAll should be treated in an equal and respectful way. There is a Mitzvah (a good deed) mentioned in the Book of Vayikra (Leviticus) Chapter 19, verse 18, which says - \u0026amp;ldquo;Love your neighbor - like you love yourself\u0026amp;rdquo;. This has been a cornerstone of Judaism from the beginning - where we are committed to treating others in a fair way - the same we treat ourselves. Do not cause harm unto others - the same way you would not want others to harm you. Looking down upon others - just because they are different than you - is completely wrong. Excluding others from an equal opportunity because they are different than you - is completely wrong.\nI do not care care if you are Jewish, Christian or Muslim\n(forgive me if I have left out other religions - I just go with what I am familiar here in Israel).\nI do not care if you are white, black, brown, yellow, or green.\nI do not care if you are American, Israeli, Jordanian, Chinese or Cuban.\nI do not care if you are Romulan, Klingon, Elf, Dwarf or Hobbit.\nI do not care if you are male, female, gay, lesbian, transgender or bi-sexual.\nWhat I value are your capabilities and if you are the right fit for the position at hand.\nThat is the way the world should be, but unfortunately that is not the case today. There are minorities in the world that are consistently discriminated against - based upon religion, sexual preference, skin color and other reasons. This has been the way the world behaves from the early days of the human race. Countless numbers of wars have been waged over time - because of these","date":"Aug 22, 2017","href":"/2017/08/pay-parity-gender-diversity-and-all.html","summary":"The past few weeks have been a bumpy ride for the folks at Google - and before hand Uber was the center of a pretty big scandal.\nThe gender-diversity thing is really getting out of hand. People are different. Men\u0026amp;women are different. Not better or worse. Live with it.\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) August 8, 2017 TLDR; What was portrayed in the Google letter was completely wrong - but also completely right as well!!","tags":["Miscellaneous"],"title":"Pay Parity, Gender Diversity and All Things Equal"},{"content":"\u0026amp;lt;RANT /ON\u0026amp;gt;\nI was rubbed the wrong way today - listening to a podcast.\nThis is a podcast that I hold in high regard, the hosts are people I have had multiple conversations with over the years and they are well renowned and public speakers.\nThis is a problem with society as a whole so I will not name the podcast as to not single them out - but I will use them as an example.\nThe podcast was about a certain configuration management product and what they are doing in the cloud space.\nThe total running time of the podcast 32:00\nI collected some metrics from the episode.\nHost spoke 09:08 (9 minutes and eight seconds).\nDuring that time the host used the word “Like” 36 times and the word “y’know” 36 times\nGuest spoke 22:52 (22 minutes and 52 seconds)\nDuring that time the guest used the word “Like” 64 times and the word “y’know” 153 times\nAssuming that for occurrence it takes approximately 1 second - that totals to 489 seconds of worthless content of the episode (15% of the duration of the episode was wasted these words)\nI grew up in South Africa so I am accustomed to the Queens English - and therefore use the Oxford dictionary as my source of truth.\nThis is the Oxford Dictionary definition of _like (_and I would like to emphasize this entry)\nADVERB\n1 informal Used in speech as a meaningless filler or to signify the speaker\u0026amp;rsquo;s uncertainty about an expression just used.\n‘there was this funny smell—sort of dusty like’\n2 informal Used to convey a person\u0026amp;rsquo;s reported attitude or feelings in the form of direct speech (whether or not representing an actual quotation)\n‘so she comes into the room and she\u0026amp;rsquo;s like ‘Where is everybody?’’\n3 (like as/to) archaic In the manner of.\n‘like as a ship with dreadful storm long tossed’\nThis is the Oxford Dictionary definition of you know\nPHRASE\ninformal\n1 Used to indicate that what is being referred to is known to or understood by the listener.\n‘when in Rome, you know’\n1.1 Used as a filler in conversation.\n‘oh well, you know,","date":"Aug 1, 2017","href":"/2017/08/public-speaking-like-yknow.html","summary":"\u0026lt;RANT /ON\u0026gt;\nI was rubbed the wrong way today - listening to a podcast.\nThis is a podcast that I hold in high regard, the hosts are people I have had multiple conversations with over the years and they are well renowned and public speakers.\nThis is a problem with society as a whole so I will not name the podcast as to not single them out - but I will use them as an example.","tags":["Speaker","Miscellaneous","culture"],"title":"Public Speaking - Like.. Y’know"},{"content":"This past week - I have been working a lot with an account team to provide an RFP for a potential customer, and it is quite clear that sometimes the sales teams do not understand what an As-A-Service solution means, and even more so - from the potential customers list of requirements that was part of the RFP - they have absolutely no idea either.\nA colleague of mine came up a great way of explaining what aaS is and how to explain to your potential customers.\nYou buy a car - for arguments sake - let’s say it a Lexus LS.\nWhen you buy the car - you know what you are getting. You get:\n4 wheels You know the dimensions of the wheels 235/50R18 You know what the tire pressure needs to be. A V8 Engine It goes from 0-50 mph in 5.4 seconds The maximum speed of 130 mph Your car can hold 22.2 gallons of fuel. You are presented with a manual of how you should operate the car, how to take care of your car - and what you can do with your car, how many people can sit in it, when it should be serviced.\nAnd that is your car.\nOnce it is yours - then you can abide by the terms of the usage - and if there is anything wrong with your car - then you will take to the garage to be fixed - it is under warranty, and if you have used it in accordance to the instructions - and something went wrong, then it will be fixed.\nDepending on the terms agreed upon during the purchase - you could be guaranteed a replacement car during the time it is in the shop, you might be entitled to a free taxi ride to work and back , maybe even a chauffer that will drive you wherever you want to go - it all depends on the terms that were agreed upon at the time of purchase and what the car vendor agreed to provide.\nBut because the car is yours - you can choose to not adhere to the instructions provided by Lexus, and you can choose to modify your car.\nYou can:\nUse rocket fuel to make the car go a lot faster maybe 250 mph (or blow up - who knows) You can change the tires - to a bigger / better / more durable ones You","date":"Jul 26, 2017","href":"/2017/07/buying-car-or-understanding-aas-concept.html","summary":"This past week - I have been working a lot with an account team to provide an RFP for a potential customer, and it is quite clear that sometimes the sales teams do not understand what an As-A-Service solution means, and even more so - from the potential customers list of requirements that was part of the RFP - they have absolutely no idea either.\nA colleague of mine came up a great way of explaining what aaS is and how to explain to your potential customers.","tags":["Miscellaneous","service","Cloud"],"title":"Buying a Car or Understanding the aaS Concept"},{"content":"I have been working on a project for a while that includes the deployment of a large number of moving parts that are in a significant state of flux. Drops every two weeks, new features added all the time, and, of course, with a system this size there is a great amount of complexity involved. Complexity in the Continuous Integration stage, complexity with the end-to-end testing, and, definitely, complexity with the Continuous Deployment.\nA good part of the intricacies comes from the fact the development team wants to assure that the deployment will be cloud-agnostic. But before I go into if this would be a good or a bad thing, let me first explain what this means, and offer a few examples.\nIt is no secret that almost no OpenStack cloud is identical to another. The network setup could be different (provider networks vs. private networks). Some clouds have Swift installed by default, while others do not. There are nuances and differences between an on-premises OpenStack deployment and using an OpenStack cloud provider, such as RackSpace. APIs are different, versions are different. This makes things very difficult for people writing software to interact with the cloud to address a fully cloud agnostic solution. APIs, authentication mechanisms, and the way you can access resources will change from one cloud to another.\nRead the rest of the article here\n","date":"Jul 25, 2017","href":"/2017/07/cloud-agnostic-friend-or-foe.html","summary":"I have been working on a project for a while that includes the deployment of a large number of moving parts that are in a significant state of flux. Drops every two weeks, new features added all the time, and, of course, with a system this size there is a great amount of complexity involved. Complexity in the Continuous Integration stage, complexity with the end-to-end testing, and, definitely, complexity with the Continuous Deployment.","tags":["Automation","OpenStack","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"Cloud-Agnostic: Friend or Foe?"},{"content":"Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) appears to have been confusing people ever since 2012, when the term was first coined by Steve Chambers and Forrester Research. While computing experts agree on the basics of HCI as a system of IT that’s intended to bring a more powerful virtualized infrastructure to big enterprise, there is still a lot of disagreement as to what defines and delineates HCI.\nBy the standard definition, in HCI the elements of computing, SAN, and networking are virtualized and all the networking and storage tasks are implemented virtually using software rather than physically in hardware. But since “hyperconverged infrastructure” originated in marketing lingo rather than in purely technical terminology, its meaning isn’t quite so defined. Divergence of opinion about what constitutes HCI shows that even experts are uncertain about the role and importance of the approach.\nHow are we to understand what HCI is and the role it’s likely to play in enterprise IT? We decided to go straight to the top to get a clear answer for you. We asked three experts with long-term experience in data center and enterprise IT how they define hyperconverged infrastructure, and this is what they told us.\nRead the rest of the article at the source.\n","date":"Jul 17, 2017","href":"/2017/07/what-is-hyperconverged-infrastructure.html","summary":"Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) appears to have been confusing people ever since 2012, when the term was first coined by Steve Chambers and Forrester Research. While computing experts agree on the basics of HCI as a system of IT that’s intended to bring a more powerful virtualized infrastructure to big enterprise, there is still a lot of disagreement as to what defines and delineates HCI.\nBy the standard definition, in HCI the elements of computing, SAN, and networking are virtualized and all the networking and storage tasks are implemented virtually using software rather than physically in hardware. But since “hyperconverged infrastructure” originated in marketing lingo rather than in purely technical terminology, its meaning isn’t quite so defined. Divergence of opinion about what constitutes HCI shows that even experts are uncertain about the role and importance of the approach.","tags":["Miscellaneous","Cloud"],"title":"What is Hyperconverged Infrastructure? Three Cloud Experts Answer"},{"content":"There comes a time in one’s life where you ask yourself, “Is this it? Is this all I am doing? Is this all I want to do?”\nThere are people who love their job, I do. I get to deal with technology all day, every day and at all hours of the day. I learn new things - all the time. I solve problems and sometimes I even amaze myself (and others) at what we accomplish and how we actually manage to do what others said could not be done.\nI have a blog, which has exceeded more that I ever thought was possible\nI have my name of two different books, I have presented at international conferences. I have done things that again I never thought would happen these past 10 years - but yet they have - and I have enjoyed every moment of it.\nBut about 6 months ago I came to a realization that as much as I love what I do, as much as I am grateful for my wonderful family and the time that I can spend with them, that I needed something else - something that was not technology, something that was not family, just something else.\nI posted a while back - this on Twitter\nToday I start something which Iis completely not technology related and totally out of my comfort zone, which actually terrifies me....\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) November 23, 2016 Approximately six month ago I enrolled in an “Emergency Medical Technicians and Ambulance Drivers” course through Magen David Adom here in Israel. I saw an ad in my local community newsletter that they were looking for additional ambulance drivers to volunteer. I decided to give it a chance\nAs a side note. A bit about the emergency medicine here in Israel.\nUnfortunately I happen to live in a country that is no stranger to terror attacks, bombings, and other kinds of ‘unwanted’ activity that happens almost on a daily basis. My home town - is also no stranger to any and all of the above. A big part of this huge medical ‘enterprise’ relies on volunteers and donations, last year alone an astounding amount of 1,500,000 hours were filled by","date":"Jun 20, 2017","href":"/2017/06/giving-just-for-sake-of-giving.html","summary":"There comes a time in one’s life where you ask yourself, “Is this it? Is this all I am doing? Is this all I want to do?”\nThere are people who love their job, I do. I get to deal with technology all day, every day and at all hours of the day. I learn new things - all the time. I solve problems and sometimes I even amaze myself (and others) at what we accomplish and how we actually manage to do what others said could not be done.","tags":["MDA","Miscellaneous","Communities"],"title":"Giving - Just for the Sake of Giving"},{"content":"As you might have noticed, weeks 15 and 16 are missing – life just got in the way – my apologies. Life does go on and so do I (and no – I am not going to post 9 things this week – to make up for it), so here are three thing that I learned this week.\nThere is a great analogy of the On Pioneers, Settlers and Towns Planners Or Understanding My Personal Brand – from Matt Brender (now Broberg). I came across another great analogy of how your AWS VPC is built the same as a town - [AWS VPC Core Concepts in an Analogy and Guide](https://AWS VPC Core Concepts in an Analogy and Guide).\nAn excellent read on - What is DevOps?\nAs you might (or might not) know an AWS instance can assume a role assigned to it – and access the AWS API - as long as you have 3 things.\naws_access_key_id aws_secret_access_key default region\nThe first two - are provided by the role - but the third is something you need to provide to the instance. Here is how you can extract this information from the API.\nNext week in Memorial and Independence day in Israel. Have a great week!!\n","date":"Apr 28, 2017","href":"/2017/04/3-things-i-learned-week-17.html","summary":"As you might have noticed, weeks 15 and 16 are missing – life just got in the way – my apologies. Life does go on and so do I (and no – I am not going to post 9 things this week – to make up for it), so here are three thing that I learned this week.\nThere is a great analogy of the On Pioneers, Settlers and Towns Planners Or Understanding My Personal Brand – from Matt Brender (now Broberg). I came across another great analogy of how your AWS VPC is built the same as a town - [AWS VPC Core Concepts in an Analogy and Guide](https://AWS VPC Core Concepts in an Analogy and Guide).","tags":["3 things","Learning"],"title":"3 Things I Learned - Week 17"},{"content":"I spent most of the half the week in Texas, and the other getting ready for Pesach. Here are 3 things that I learned this week.\nJFK was assassinated in 1963, and to this day – there are so many unanswered questions. It was interesting to see that two Jewish Orthodox Scholars (Weiss and Ashkenazi) played such an important part in uncovering the fact that there was a 4th shot from the grassy knoll.\nAWS now have a host based rules that you can use to apply to different target groups in their ELB. Read more details here - New – Host-Based Routing Support for AWS Application Load Balancers.\nIf you are having problems with your root partition of your Linux instance not automatically resizing to the full size larger than the original image (such as this) – then this tool will do the trick for you.\nPesach is here next week! Chag Sameach to you all !!\n","date":"Apr 7, 2017","href":"/2017/04/3-things-i-learned-week-14.html","summary":"I spent most of the half the week in Texas, and the other getting ready for Pesach. Here are 3 things that I learned this week.\nJFK was assassinated in 1963, and to this day – there are so many unanswered questions. It was interesting to see that two Jewish Orthodox Scholars (Weiss and Ashkenazi) played such an important part in uncovering the fact that there was a 4th shot from the grassy knoll.","tags":["3 things","Learning"],"title":"3 Things I Learned - Week 14"},{"content":"I have spent most of the week here in Texas at an internal DevOps conference. As things go with these kind of events – the most interesting parts are always those where you speak to others – outside of the informal sessions.\nHere are 3 things I learned this week.\nOur youth is amazing. My daughter was one of sixty 11th and 12th graders that presented the summary of here thesis that she has been doing in researching remodeling of neurons, neuro-transmitters, and the mushroom-body.\nThe reason I say why youth is amazing – is because each of the presenters there – had completed if not as – but a more complicated research project.\nAnd yes I was an extremely proud father – watching her present at her first scientific conference.\nLists are awesome. I just found a whole new world of awesome-lists. Have a look at the topic on github.com. I have to be careful to make sure that this does not become a time sink.\nAWS has a new resource tagging API. Looking further down the road with my journey to AWS – this is going to be very important and useful.\nCatch you all next week!\n","date":"Apr 1, 2017","href":"/2017/04/3-things-i-learned-week-13.html","summary":"I have spent most of the week here in Texas at an internal DevOps conference. As things go with these kind of events – the most interesting parts are always those where you speak to others – outside of the informal sessions.\nHere are 3 things I learned this week.\nOur youth is amazing. My daughter was one of sixty 11th and 12th graders that presented the summary of here thesis that she has been doing in researching remodeling of neurons, neuro-transmitters, and the mushroom-body.","tags":["3 things","Learning"],"title":"3 Things I Learned - Week 13"},{"content":"I am a bit late with this post – life has really gotten mad as I get ready for a trip to the US next week.\nHere are 3 things I learned this week.\nHere is a great read on how taking control of AWS costs – can save you a huge amount of money -The million dollar engineering problem\nHere is a nice AWS solution based on Lambda to monitor if you are coming close to a resource limit on your AWS account (something that happened many times this week)\nDid you know that you can build a global transit network on AWS?\nI think it is pretty obvious what I have been doing most of the past week – isn’t it?\n","date":"Mar 24, 2017","href":"/2017/03/3-things-i-learned-week-12.html","summary":"I am a bit late with this post – life has really gotten mad as I get ready for a trip to the US next week.\nHere are 3 things I learned this week.\nHere is a great read on how taking control of AWS costs – can save you a huge amount of money -The million dollar engineering problem\nHere is a nice AWS solution based on Lambda to monitor if you are coming close to a resource limit on your AWS account (something that happened many times this week)","tags":["3 things","Learning","AWS"],"title":"3 Things I Learned - Week 12"},{"content":"Crazy week – but one of the best I have had. I work with an amazing team of people – who have accomplished the almost impossible.\nBeside working weird and wild hours, here are 3 things that I learned this week.\nFrom dotCloud to Docker is a relaly good read about how docker started out a few years ago. It is hard to believe that is has evolved into what it has today.\nIt seems that Gitlab is not going to be leaving the cloud after all.. Running your infrastructure is so much more that nut, bolts and how much money you pay to a provider at the end of the day. Gitlab was publicly discussing why they wanted to get off the cloud – and how they would do it, and this post explains that maybe you do need people that understand the underlying infra (all of it!!) if you choose to go the route of managing it all yourself.\nReally good read!\nDid you know that many hit songs are comprise of 4 basic chords?\nAwesome!!\nCatch you all next week!\n","date":"Mar 17, 2017","href":"/2017/03/3-things-i-learned-week-11.html","summary":"Crazy week – but one of the best I have had. I work with an amazing team of people – who have accomplished the almost impossible.\nBeside working weird and wild hours, here are 3 things that I learned this week.\nFrom dotCloud to Docker is a relaly good read about how docker started out a few years ago. It is hard to believe that is has evolved into what it has today.","tags":["3 things","Learning"],"title":"3 Things I Learned - Week 11"},{"content":"Well – another week has gone by – and winter is practically over here in Israel. Learning never stops and here are 3 things that caught my eye this week.\nThis is a great set of posts about how Evernote moved their whole infrastructure to Google Cloud. Part 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.\ndocker-aws is a nifty little container – with all the tools you will need to interact with AWS. A huge thumbs up from me on this one!\nIt seems that I was the only one who really missed that Github have changed their TOS.\nWas I the only one who missed that @github changed their TOS?#WTF?\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) March 7, 2017 Here are two different takes on the subject.\nWhat I would ask my lawyers about the new Github TOS and Rational thoughts on the GitHub ToS change.\nPurim is here – catch you all next week!\n","date":"Mar 10, 2017","href":"/2017/03/3-things-i-learned-week-9_10.html","summary":"Well – another week has gone by – and winter is practically over here in Israel. Learning never stops and here are 3 things that caught my eye this week.\nThis is a great set of posts about how Evernote moved their whole infrastructure to Google Cloud. Part 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.\ndocker-aws is a nifty little container – with all the tools you will need to interact with AWS. A huge thumbs up from me on this one!","tags":["3 things","Learning"],"title":"3 Things I Learned - Week 10"},{"content":"Honestly this week has not been my best – far too much going on at work – after work and yet there are always new things that I learn.\nI tried to upgrade my Raspberry Pi to an updated version – it did not go well. But all is not lost, after installing Minibian which is perfect for my needs – I was well on my way again with less RAM and resources in use.\nAmazon US-east-1 melted down this week, and took down a substantial number of dependent sites and businesses that rely on their services. US-east-1 is the oldest and biggest region that AWS has in use today. I was personally affected as well – as we have an ongoing project in that region.\nTo continue the point above. There is so much to actually say – but this will lead to a whole new blog post. Two short point on the message that was posted last night.\na. Human’s are the weakest link – there is no doubt about it.\nb. There are parts of AWS that have not been started in Years ! I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t know if I should be happy about that – or really really scared!\nHave a great weekend and never stop learning!\n","date":"Mar 3, 2017","href":"/2017/03/3-things-i-learned-week-9.html","summary":"Honestly this week has not been my best – far too much going on at work – after work and yet there are always new things that I learn.\nI tried to upgrade my Raspberry Pi to an updated version – it did not go well. But all is not lost, after installing Minibian which is perfect for my needs – I was well on my way again with less RAM and resources in use.","tags":["3 things","Learning","AWS"],"title":"3 Things I Learned - Week 9"},{"content":"All in all this has been a good week – some ups, some downs – but knowledge is a never ending journey.\nHere are some of the things I learned about over the last few days.\nRandy Bias wrote a very interesting point about how risky it can be to ‘check’ your into a CI/CD pipeline. Continuous Delusion at the Infrastructure Layer is a good read at understanding thta not everything belongs in the pipeline – you should consider how big your blast radius is.\nI am currently doing a Ambulance drivers course (that is the subject for a whole different post) but I never knew that there three different kinds of Hepatitis – where Hepatitis C – is the worst – and there is no cure known today.\nI did not even know that there were such large numbers Nine quintillion (9,223,372,036,854,775,808). Announcing the first SHA1 collision discovered this week by Google. I know that this is really nerdy – but still a good read.\n","date":"Feb 24, 2017","href":"/2017/02/3-things-i-learned-week-8.html","summary":"All in all this has been a good week – some ups, some downs – but knowledge is a never ending journey.\nHere are some of the things I learned about over the last few days.\nRandy Bias wrote a very interesting point about how risky it can be to ‘check’ your into a CI/CD pipeline. Continuous Delusion at the Infrastructure Layer is a good read at understanding thta not everything belongs in the pipeline – you should consider how big your blast radius is.","tags":["3 things","Learning"],"title":"3 Things I Learned - Week 8"},{"content":"A week where our Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu went to visit President Trump in the U.S. will always be an interesting one – no matter how you look at it.\nHere are some things that enriched my knowledge this week.\nOne of the things that someone told me regarding AWS and IAM roles attached to a instance – was that you only have a single chance of assigning a role, and once you do it, that’s it – no going back.\nSo it seems that this is not the case. Attach an AWS IAM Role to an Existing Amazon EC2 Instance by Using the AWS CLI will show you the light and how to change a role after an instance has been provisioned.\nS3 is a great webserver – specifically if all you need to do is serve files. One such a repository that fits the bill perfectly – is a yum repo. There are hundreds of ways to do this, but this is the only one that I could find that would allow you to create a yum repo with multiple versions (with minor differences between them) – without having to duplicate the packages for each and every version.\nNever underestimate the powers of Social Networking. And of course – there are just some people who are just willing to sit down and have a conversation about technology. One such person is Kelsey Hightower. Thank you!\nThank you for your time. Always great to get insight from someone like you https://t.co/LbKyl6Samj\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) February 16, 2017 ","date":"Feb 17, 2017","href":"/2017/02/3-things-i-learned-week-7.html","summary":"A week where our Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu went to visit President Trump in the U.S. will always be an interesting one – no matter how you look at it.\nHere are some things that enriched my knowledge this week.\nOne of the things that someone told me regarding AWS and IAM roles attached to a instance – was that you only have a single chance of assigning a role, and once you do it, that’s it – no going back.\nSo it seems that this is not the case. Attach an AWS IAM Role to an Existing Amazon EC2 Instance by Using the AWS CLI will show you the light and how to change a role after an instance has been provisioned.","tags":["3 things","Learning"],"title":"3 Things I Learned - Week 7"},{"content":"Where has the time gone by? This past week – I was up to my neck in architectural discussions and meetings for a big upcoming project on AWS.\nNevertheless - here are three things I learned this week.\nMany a time I want to look at a file and what better way to do that than with less . But then comes that moment where you want to actually edit the because you see a mistake. So instead of exiting the file and then opening it up again in vi – try this.\nEdit a File When You Are Viewing It Using more / less Command Pager\nI did some digging into NTP this week. How to secure NTP, the different Stratum levels, and how to read the weird output from ntpq –p. These articles were very helpful.\nHow to debug ntp issues?\nReal Life NTP\nI use Cisco Spark daily as my main medium for communication at work. I love it.\nHere is a useful list of Keyboard shortcuts – that will save you some throughout your day.\nCatch you all next week!!\n","date":"Feb 10, 2017","href":"/2017/02/3-things-i-learned-week-6.html","summary":"Where has the time gone by? This past week – I was up to my neck in architectural discussions and meetings for a big upcoming project on AWS.\nNevertheless - here are three things I learned this week.\nMany a time I want to look at a file and what better way to do that than with less . But then comes that moment where you want to actually edit the because you see a mistake. So instead of exiting the file and then opening it up again in vi – try this.","tags":["3 things","Learning"],"title":"3 Things I Learned - Week 6"},{"content":"Two days ago I decided to submit my candidacy for one of the two spots up for election (for the first time!) on the OpenStack User committee.\nI am pasting my proposal verbatim (original email link here)…\nGood evening to you all.\nAs others have so kindly stepped up - I would also like to self-nominate myself for as candidate for the User committee.\nI have been involved in the OpenStack community since the Icehouse release.\nFrom day 1, I felt that the user community was not completely accepted as a part of the OpenStack community and that there was a clear and broad disconnect between the two parts of OpenStack.\nInstead of going all the way back - and stepping through time to explain who I am and what I have done - I have chosen a few significant points along the way - of where I think I made an impact - sometimes small - but also sometimes a lot bigger.\nThe OpenStack Architecture Design Guide [1]. This was my first Opensource project and it was an honor to participate and help the community to produce such a valuable resource.\nRunning for the TC for the first time [2]. I was not elected.\nRunning for the TC for the second time [3]. Again I was not elected.\n(There has never been a member of the User community elected to a TC seat - AFAIK)\nIn my original candidacy [2] proposal - I mentioned the inclusion of others.\nWhich is why I so proud of the achievement of the definition of the AUC from the last cycle and the workgroup [3] that Shamail Tahir and I co-chaired\n(Needless to say that a huge amount of the credit goes also to all the other members of the WG that were involved!!) in making this happen.\nOver the years I think I have tried to make difference (perhaps not always in the right way) - maybe the developer community was not ready for such a drastic change - and I still think that they are not.\nNow is a time for change.\nI think that the User Committee and these upcoming election (which are the first ever) are a critical time for all of us that are part of the","date":"Feb 9, 2017","href":"/2017/02/i-am-running-for-openstack-user.html","summary":"Two days ago I decided to submit my candidacy for one of the two spots up for election (for the first time!) on the OpenStack User committee.\nI am pasting my proposal verbatim (original email link here)…\nGood evening to you all.\nAs others have so kindly stepped up - I would also like to self-nominate myself for as candidate for the User committee.\nI have been involved in the OpenStack community since the Icehouse release.","tags":["AUC","OpenStack","elections"],"title":"I am Running for the OpenStack User Committee"},{"content":"January has come and gone – and of course this week is no different than the last – always something new.\nExposing everything to the outside world is never a good idea, but there are times where you have to leave something open in order to manage everything else in the remote location. That is where a bastion host comes in.\nHow to Record SSH Sessions Established Through a Bastion Host – is a really interesting way of monitoring what is happening on this node – and how to create an audit trail.\nGitlab had a meltdown this week. Two lessons I learned from this mess.\nmake sure you have proper backups. Backups are not worth anything – unless they have been validated The AWS Spot marketplace is a fascinating concept, something that I am not yet comfortable using – but will be happy to learn more about\nTill next week!!\n","date":"Feb 3, 2017","href":"/2017/02/3-things-i-learned-week-5.html","summary":"January has come and gone – and of course this week is no different than the last – always something new.\nExposing everything to the outside world is never a good idea, but there are times where you have to leave something open in order to manage everything else in the remote location. That is where a bastion host comes in.\nHow to Record SSH Sessions Established Through a Bastion Host – is a really interesting way of monitoring what is happening on this node – and how to create an audit trail.","tags":["3 things","Learning"],"title":"3 Things I Learned - Week 5"},{"content":"Another week has gone by.\nChildren have a totally different outlook on life. At a family meal this week we were talking about life insurance – why it is needed – and how that money can help the family that is left behind in a financial way.\nMy 11 year daughter asked – what would we do with all of her money – if something would actually happen to her (heaven forbid). The numbers that the adults were talking about were in the 7 digit figures and the amount she was talking about was her life savings – somewhere around $500.\nI learned a very important lesson from this conversation. The amount she has was just as important and worth just as much to her as the amounts we talking about.\nPeople cherish what they have – no matter how much it is worth – worth is only in the eyes of the beholder.\nIt\u0026amp;#39;s really frustrating that all the idempotent infrastructure tools have a religious aversion to if.. then.. else.. constructs #ansible\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) January 23, 2017 Sometimes you just want to have a simple bloody if… then… else…\nBashing my head against the wall for a number of hours finally brought me to this ternary. This is the closest I option I could find for my quest.\nIRC – Do you remember that thing from the 1990’s – Well it is alive and kicking – being used heavily – by a large number of Opensource communities. The Ansible community uses IRC as well – which is where I found out about the point above.\nMy thanks go out to all those community members (regardless of the community they belong to) who are willing to answer the same silly questions from newbies – with such patience.\n","date":"Jan 27, 2017","href":"/2017/01/3-things-i-learned-week-4.html","summary":"Another week has gone by.\nChildren have a totally different outlook on life. At a family meal this week we were talking about life insurance – why it is needed – and how that money can help the family that is left behind in a financial way.\nMy 11 year daughter asked – what would we do with all of her money – if something would actually happen to her (heaven forbid). The numbers that the adults were talking about were in the 7 digit figures and the amount she was talking about was her life savings – somewhere around $500.","tags":["3 things","Learning"],"title":"3 Things I learned - Week 4"},{"content":"This week has been a busy one. So here goes…\nNetflix is big.. Really big. Their monthly bill is 100’s of MB in size, it contains over 800 million lines of information. Netflix has a dedicated Hadoop cluster – whose only purpose is to load their bill (I find that hilarious!)\nSeriously though – this presentation from AWS re:Invent 2016 is a treasure trove of information – and well worth spending less than an hour on.\nSynchronizing two completely different git repos is not that difficult – but when they are hosted on two completely different providers (github.com and bitbucket.org) then it not simple.\ngitwatch helped me solve that issue.\nWriting an ‘artificial intelligence’ is not a simple task – and people don’t like interacting with robots – they prefer of course to interact with humans. I guess that my preference for interacting with a bot would be to not even know that it is a bot – it should be as human as possible – its name, its behavior and its responses.\nSo giving your Bot a name might not be the best idea\nTill Next Week!\n","date":"Jan 20, 2017","href":"/2017/01/3-things-i-learned-week-3.html","summary":"This week has been a busy one. So here goes…\nNetflix is big.. Really big. Their monthly bill is 100’s of MB in size, it contains over 800 million lines of information. Netflix has a dedicated Hadoop cluster – whose only purpose is to load their bill (I find that hilarious!)\nSeriously though – this presentation from AWS re:Invent 2016 is a treasure trove of information – and well worth spending less than an hour on.","tags":["3 things","Learning"],"title":"3 Things I Learned - Week 3"},{"content":"I was thinking of putting up a post about what I want to achieve in 2017 – but I think that I would really be kidding myself – trying to set expectations for the next 12 months.\nMaking plans for the next 12 months are always great – it is good to have a vision of what you want to do in the long run, but as we all know, in our field things are so dynamic – and especially when working Agile – which is per sprint (between 2-3 week periods), making plans for the 12 months – is something that is not that realistic and will change over time.\nThe reasons for this vary – for me personally (and will probably change on a person-to-person basis) and include:\nTechnology changes Business priority changes. Role changes So for me this was I want to accomplish in the next 3 months (and hopefully I will be able to hold myself accountable)\nAnsible - I need to get more acquainted with Ansible – using it for day to day work as much as possible AWS - Start using AWS as my default cloud platform for all my work in the cloud. This is dues to a work priority change (so expect a number of posts on AWS as well) Kubernetes - Again a work priority call – but since the whole world is moving in the container direction, I would like to stay ahead of the curve. Read at least one book - It will probably be technical in nature. I find it invaluable to actually take the time to disconnect and concentrate on doing some in depth reading on a specific subject – instead of just going over a blog article (or four) on a subject. Blog regularly - Something that I have neglected this past year for a multitude of reasons. I will try and keep up my 3 Things I Learned series on a regular basis I am mainly putting this up here – to keep myself honest.\n","date":"Jan 16, 2017","href":"/2017/01/my-goals-for-2017-q1.html","summary":"I was thinking of putting up a post about what I want to achieve in 2017 – but I think that I would really be kidding myself – trying to set expectations for the next 12 months.\nMaking plans for the next 12 months are always great – it is good to have a vision of what you want to do in the long run, but as we all know, in our field things are so dynamic – and especially when working Agile – which is per sprint (between 2-3 week periods), making plans for the 12 months – is something that is not that realistic and will change over time.","tags":["Goals","Miscellaneous",2017],"title":"My Goals for 2017 - Q1"},{"content":"We are constantly learning, evolving and improving (well at least I hope we are).\nPersonally I learn new things each and every day, not all of them are technology related, but still – I am pleased to say that knowledge is really infinite and we should actually never stop.\nI am going to try and post a short note with three (it will sometimes be hard) things that I learned about this week. They will not be lengthy topics – just a byte size sentence with a link or two on the subject.\nStarting from today – I hope to make this a weekly occurrence.\nThe Mandella Effect. Are we actually living in a parallel universe – some of these 20 Examples Of The Mandela Effect That\u0026amp;rsquo;ll Make You Believe You\u0026amp;rsquo;re In A Parallel Universe. The one that really blew me away was “No, I am your father”\nHow do you find the TTL on a specific DNS record? – Sometimes you really need to know how long you (or your customers) are going to have stare at the wrong content – until their clients perform a refresh.\nEven if you run for a seat on the OpenStack Individual Member Director Elections – you should not be spamming all of the community each and every day to remind them to vote for you.\nBy the way – if you have not voted yet – then you should.\nTill next week!!\n","date":"Jan 13, 2017","href":"/2017/01/3-things-i-learned-week-2.html","summary":"We are constantly learning, evolving and improving (well at least I hope we are).\nPersonally I learn new things each and every day, not all of them are technology related, but still – I am pleased to say that knowledge is really infinite and we should actually never stop.\nI am going to try and post a short note with three (it will sometimes be hard) things that I learned about this week. They will not be lengthy topics – just a byte size sentence with a link or two on the subject.","tags":["3 things","Learning"],"title":"3 Things I Learned - Week 2"},{"content":"I am on my way to the summit – cutting it fine, as I will only be arriving after the keynotes have started on Day 1. That is part of my life being a religious orthodox Jew.\nJust a few hours ago, I finished the festival of Sukkot, a festival where we ‘leave’ our homes for 8 days and move to a temporary house. Well not really leave the house – but we eat all our meals in the Sukkah for the whole festival.\nIt symbolizes the fact that we have faith in G-d and remember that life is was not so easy and that we left slavery in Egypt many years ago to become a free nation.\nGoing back to the title of the post.\nThe main reason I am going to this summit is because I am co-presenting a session on the work\nShamail Tahir and myself have been leading with the Active User Contributor (AUC) working group over the past few months.\nIf you are interested in more details about the work – I will not rehash the post that has already been published - Recognizing active user contributors to OpenStack.\nPlease take a minute or three to read it over.\nGreat!! You are back.\nI think that we are at a time where OpenStack is about to change, and for the better. Traditionally Operators and Users have been neglected left out of many of the decisions made in the projects, something which I have vocally opposed many a time (you can find most of my posts here) especially this one - We Are All OpenStack! Are We Really????.\nA number of things have happened recently – and will continue to evolve over the next few months – which will enable Users and Operators to actually have a voice (at least that is my true hope and belief).\nProper representation, real recognition, and hopefully some more influence in directions and perhaps also priorities.\nIf you are going to be at the summit, make sure you join Shamail and myself presenting the work that was done over the past few months.\nI hope that one day we will be able to look back on the past and reflect on a time once past, and understand that we are all now one","date":"Oct 25, 2016","href":"/2016/10/pre-openstack-summit-post.html","summary":"I am on my way to the summit – cutting it fine, as I will only be arriving after the keynotes have started on Day 1. That is part of my life being a religious orthodox Jew.\nJust a few hours ago, I finished the festival of Sukkot, a festival where we ‘leave’ our homes for 8 days and move to a temporary house. Well not really leave the house – but we eat all our meals in the Sukkah for the whole festival.","tags":["OpenStack","Operations","Summit"],"title":"Pre-OpenStack Summit Post"},{"content":"The world shook a few days ago, with the announcement of a partnership between VMware and AWS.\nThere are a number of posts that have been released, by a number of bloggers and analysts, about what this actually means but I would like to highlight 3 of them, and also insights from the Joint announcement and my thoughts on the matter as whole.\nVMware and Amazon Web Services Announce Strategic Partnership (Charu Chaubal) VMware Cloud on AWS – A Closer Look (Frank Denneman) In the Works – VMware Cloud on AWS (Jeff Barr) So first some history, VMware has always perceived AWS as a competitor. It is no secret that VMware over the years (https://gigaom.com/2013/03/01/vmware-stick-with-us-because-amazon-will-kill-us-all/) have warned their customers about going to AWS. Some of the claims included (but not only):\nWhy this is bad thing. One way ticket – vendor lock-in Enterprise workloads are not suitable The list goes on. VMware even has (or had) specific playbooks and marketing decks that were used to explain to their customers why vCloud (or vCloud Air) was a much better choice that AWS.\nSo first facts.\nThe Announcement An integrated hybrid cloud service.\nTo me that means that I can move my workloads from my on-premises Private Cloud to a Public Cloud Provider – and in this case it would be AWS.\nOne thing that should be made clear off the bat.\nThe offering that was announced – is not a hybrid solution. What VMware is offering is the option to place your workloads either in your on-premises Private Cloud or in another Private Cloud which is located in a 3rd party Datacenter – in this case – AWS. VMware are trying to position and sell as something that it is not.\nYou are not making use AWS as a cloud provider – all you are doing is using them as a 3rd party bare metal provider.\nJointly Architected Solution\nYes there was some work needed on both sides. But honestly – I think the work was almost completely on the part of VMWare, and hardly any investment on the part of AWS. Let","date":"Oct 16, 2016","href":"/2016/10/vmware-on-aws-my-thoughts.html","summary":"The world shook a few days ago, with the announcement of a partnership between VMware and AWS.\nThere are a number of posts that have been released, by a number of bloggers and analysts, about what this actually means but I would like to highlight 3 of them, and also insights from the Joint announcement and my thoughts on the matter as whole.\nVMware and Amazon Web Services Announce Strategic Partnership (Charu Chaubal) VMware Cloud on AWS – A Closer Look (Frank Denneman) In the Works – VMware Cloud on AWS (Jeff Barr) So first some history, VMware has always perceived AWS as a competitor. It is no secret that VMware over the years (https://gigaom.com/2013/03/01/vmware-stick-with-us-because-amazon-will-kill-us-all/) have warned their customers about going to AWS. Some of the claims included (but not only):","tags":["Amazon","VMware","Announcement","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"VMware on AWS - My Thoughts"},{"content":"So if I am already on a roll with saying thank you, I wanted to share wiith you all a post I wrote on LinkedIn a month ago (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/saying-thank-you-maish-saidel-keesing)\nReposting it here in it’s entirety.\nTwo small words, but they make so much of a difference.\nWe take things for granted - every single day.\nLife Breathing Our kids Our family Electricity Email All of these are things that we interact with every day, and only when they do not work, things go wrong, or are no longer there - do we wonder.\nHow can this be? Something so basic, so simple - it should be there.\nIt should work.\nBut nothing is there forever.\nWhen was the last time you said thank you to your e-mail Admin - for making sure that you can check your email on your phone, at home, when you walk in the door every morning to work, anywhere and everywhere.\nDid you say thank you to the utility company that makes sure your gas, water and electricity are working each and every day?\nThere are so many people that work their ass off to make this happen, come rain or shine, snow, hail or thunderstorm. Every day, every hour of the day.\nI would like to share with you a short letter I wrote to a food company that supplies Kosher food, on a flight I was on last week.\nI received an answer back a week later (and am publishing with their permission)\nI cannot describe what a great feeling it gave me to receive this answer back.\nSay thank you.\nSay thank you to the doorman that opens the door for you.\nSay thank you to those who clean your office every day.\nSay thank you those who serve you a drink in the plane.\nSay thank you.\nYou never know how much those two small words will make a difference - for you and for all those around you.\nHave a great weekend everyone!\n","date":"Oct 14, 2016","href":"/2016/10/saying-thank-you.html","summary":"So if I am already on a roll with saying thank you, I wanted to share wiith you all a post I wrote on LinkedIn a month ago (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/saying-thank-you-maish-saidel-keesing)\nReposting it here in it’s entirety.\nTwo small words, but they make so much of a difference.\nWe take things for granted - every single day.\nLife Breathing Our kids Our family Electricity Email All of these are things that we interact with every day, and only when they do not work, things go wrong, or are no longer there - do we wonder.","tags":["Miscellaneous"],"title":"Saying Thank You!"},{"content":"Writing a blog is mostly fun, but it comes with a cost not only of time and effort but also some cold hard cash (or actually everything is paid today with a credit and it all just numbers on a spreadsheet..) be it for Webhosting, Domain registration – well you all know the drill.\nSo it is time to thank two new Sponsors of this blog.\nsolarwinds – who have many products for the IT / Network / DB / VMware Admin and some of them are even free.\nThe second sponsor that I would like welcome is:\nNakivo – a vendor that have a backup solution for your workloads running in VMware or in AWS.\nFor any other potential parties who would like sponsor my blog, please feel free to sign up here.\n","date":"Oct 13, 2016","href":"/2016/10/a-small-note-to-thank-two-new-sponsors.html","summary":"Writing a blog is mostly fun, but it comes with a cost not only of time and effort but also some cold hard cash (or actually everything is paid today with a credit and it all just numbers on a spreadsheet..) be it for Webhosting, Domain registration – well you all know the drill.\nSo it is time to thank two new Sponsors of this blog.\nsolarwinds – who have many products for the IT / Network / DB / VMware Admin and some of them are even free.","tags":["sponsor","Miscellaneous"],"title":"A Small Note to Thank two New Sponsors"},{"content":"A short while back I participated in an internal event. A number of priority customers of our internal cloud service were invited for a feedback session, to voice their thoughts, listen to roadmap sessions and just to get to know each other.\nThere was one comment made there by one of the participants that has been on my mind since then, and it was something along the lines of:\n\u0026amp;ldquo;I have been using AWS longer than I have been using our internal cloud service – that is more than 5 years. Ever since I have started, I have only contacted AWS support once – when I managed to somehow corrupt my two-factor authentication token. I have never received a marketing call, never been invited to such a feedback forum. There has never been a need.\nOn the other hand, on our internal services, I am flagged as a priority customer, have weekly, bi-monthly, monthly feedback sessions, capacity planning sessions and escalation paths.”\nThis got me thinking, and I completely agree.\nA service where I can say that I use and rely on is something that just plain and simply works.\nLet me give you an example. How would you feel if you would have to have a direct line into your electricity company to escalate when your lights did not come on when you flicked the switch, when you had to meet with them to discuss how many appliances you were planning to use this month, if you were planning on baking cakes for a party this week, and therefore you would be needing more electrical resources this month – so the electrical company should be ready for your surge in power consumption. Is that a company that you would say you can trust?\nProbably not.\nYou would like the lights to go on every time you flick the switch, and not have worry about leaving the air conditioner on the whole day because it is really hot that day. All I would need know is that I will pay more that day or month – because I use more of the service your offered.\nWhen we try to build a service – we should be doing it in such a way","date":"Oct 9, 2016","href":"/2016/10/i-dont-want-to-talk-to-my-cloud-provider.html","summary":"A short while back I participated in an internal event. A number of priority customers of our internal cloud service were invited for a feedback session, to voice their thoughts, listen to roadmap sessions and just to get to know each other.\nThere was one comment made there by one of the participants that has been on my mind since then, and it was something along the lines of:\n\u0026ldquo;I have been using AWS longer than I have been using our internal cloud service – that is more than 5 years. Ever since I have started, I have only contacted AWS support once – when I managed to somehow corrupt my two-factor authentication token. I have never received a marketing call, never been invited to such a feedback forum. There has never been a need.","tags":["Miscellaneous","service","Cloud"],"title":"I Don’t Want to Talk to my Cloud Provider"},{"content":"I assume that it has been apparent that I have not been active on my blog. Not for a while at least.\nThe last time I actually wrote something here was just under 6 months ago.\nI do enjoy information, I love consuming information – but about 6 months ago I lost my will to write here on my own blog. It is a shame – because I thoroughly enjoy this as my own place in the world, my place where I could vent, where I could provide insight, a place I could call my own.\nIt could very well be that this was due to the loss of a parent (well actually both – because dementia and Alzheimer’s does not leave very much of my only living parent, that raised me most of my life) – but I dropped off of the radar. I considerably reduced my social media involvement as well.\nEveryone is entitled to their reasons, I have my own. I have contributed elsewhere – just not under my own name.\nI do appreciate your patience – and now I am finally back in a place where I feel I am ready and will start to share my feelings, thoughts, tips and what-nots.\nI do want to point out one thing. This used to be a very VMware centric blog.\nUsed to – I do not think that it has been that way for more than a year.\nI hardly use VMware products anymore – definitely not on a day-to-day basis.\nSo – there will be some changes, in content – in focus, in presentation.\nIt does feel good to be back – so sit back and enjoy the ride.\n","date":"Sep 20, 2016","href":"/2016/09/losing-will-to-share.html","summary":"I assume that it has been apparent that I have not been active on my blog. Not for a while at least.\nThe last time I actually wrote something here was just under 6 months ago.\nI do enjoy information, I love consuming information – but about 6 months ago I lost my will to write here on my own blog. It is a shame – because I thoroughly enjoy this as my own place in the world, my place where I could vent, where I could provide insight, a place I could call my own.","tags":["Blogger","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Losing the Will to Share"},{"content":"A while back I blogged about native virtualization on a Mac, and today I am pleased to host Clarence Chio with a guest post about a very interesting use case for using Veertu.\nClarence is a Security Research Engineer at Shape Security, working on the system that tackles malicious bot intrusion from the angle of big data analysis. Clarence has presented independent research on Machine Learning and Security at Information Security conferences in several countries, and is also the organizer of the “Data Mining for Cyber Security” meetup group in the SF Bay Area.\nAnd without further ado\u0026amp;hellip;\nMalware testing is a common task in a security professional’s workflow. For the uninitiated, malware testing involves examining the behavior and capabilities of malicious software by executing it in a controlled but realistic environment.\nWhy do malware testing? On one level, you will be able to observe the malware’s actions close up, and understand how a piece of malware can impact (or has impacted) your systems. On a deeper level, you can dive into the actual code and use disassembly tools to perform binary analysis. Doing this can help you understand exactly what the malware is doing, and in some cases even find ways to neutralize the threat.\nWindows malware often latch themselves onto the system by making changes to the Windows registry and/or filesystem. Malware that make network calls often also “phone home” to a Command and Control (C\u0026amp;amp;C) host to exfiltrate information or receive further instruction on what to do after infection. By performing malware testing, all of what the malicious applications do will no longer be a mystery. You have a chance to peek through the fences and understand how attackers think.\nHow to do malware testing? Malware testing is typically done in Virtual Machine (VM) lab environments. In this post, I will walk you through a series of steps that you can follow to set up your own Windows 7 malware testing lab on your Mac OS X machine using","date":"May 20, 2016","href":"/2016/05/sandboxed-malware-testing-with-veertu.html","summary":"A while back I blogged about native virtualization on a Mac, and today I am pleased to host Clarence Chio with a guest post about a very interesting use case for using Veertu.\nClarence is a Security Research Engineer at Shape Security, working on the system that tackles malicious bot intrusion from the angle of big data analysis. Clarence has presented independent research on Machine Learning and Security at Information Security conferences in several countries, and is also the organizer of the “Data Mining for Cyber Security” meetup group in the SF Bay Area.","tags":["guest","Virtualization","Mac","Veertu"],"title":"Sandboxed Malware Testing with Veertu"},{"content":"Background OpenStack has a vast community, globally distributed, spanning multiple time zones and all sorts and kinds. The community has a culture - a charter, a way of doing things. It is something that you have to learn how to get used to - because the lay of the land is not always as straight forward as you would expect, not what you are accustomed to, and sometimes it might see downright weird. But as the saying goes, \u0026amp;ldquo;When in Rome, do as the Romans\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nA thread on the OpenStack mailing list as of late week (actually two of them) caught my eye, and attention - so much that I feel the need to write this post.\nEver since I have started to get involved with OpenStack, I have noticed that there is a very obvious divide between the Developers (those who write and contribute code to OpenStack) and the User community (this is split into two parts - those who actually consume OpenStack - the end users, and those who deploy and maintain OpenStack - the operators). But before the thread - let me explain current situation in OpenStack for those who might not be acquainted with the way things work.\nAnyone who wants can sign up as an OpenStack foundation member. All you need to do is to sign up on the site, fill in a form, accept an agreement - and you are a full fledged OpenStack foundation member.\nThe \u0026amp;lsquo;benefits\u0026amp;rsquo; that come with this are not many - and the obligations are not that demanding either.\n2.2 Individual Members.\n(a) Individual Members must be natural persons. Individual Members may be any natural person who has an interest in the purpose of the Foundation and may be employed by Platinum Members or Gold Members.\n(b) The application, admission, withdrawal and termination of persons as Individual Members are set forth in the membership policy attached as Appendix 1 (“Individual Member Policy”).\nAs an foundation member - you can run as a candidate for the Individual Member Director elections and of course you can vote in the above elections. You","date":"Mar 24, 2016","href":"/2016/03/we-are-all-openstack-are-we-really.html","summary":"Background OpenStack has a vast community, globally distributed, spanning multiple time zones and all sorts and kinds. The community has a culture - a charter, a way of doing things. It is something that you have to learn how to get used to - because the lay of the land is not always as straight forward as you would expect, not what you are accustomed to, and sometimes it might see downright weird. But as the saying goes, \u0026ldquo;When in Rome, do as the Romans\u0026rdquo;.","tags":["OpenStack","Rant","Miscellaneous"],"title":"We Are All OpenStack! Are We Really????"},{"content":"I participated a week or two ago in the DevOpsJRS meetup in Cisco Jerusalem. Our guest speaker was Avishai Ish-Shalom. I always enjoy Avishai\u0026amp;rsquo;s talks, he is a great speaker, a down to earth guy, and I have had the opportunity and pleasure to work with him several times in the past.\nOne of the slides that he posted included the following: There is no such a thing as root cause, only contributing factors /via @nukemberg #DevOpsJRS\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) January 14, 2016 I am currently involved in an Scrum product team, where we (try and) do retrospectives after each sprint.\nFor those of you who are not familiar with the Agile methodologies, a short overview and my view on the process.\nMaking long term plans is quite difficult, and sometimes even impossible in our ever changing world. Things are moving so fast, at such a pace, ever changing. Scrum groups work in sprints. A sprint is a short burst of work, which can be defined by the team, but usually we are talking about 1-2 week bursts.\nThe team plans the work for each sprint and concentrates only those tasks at hand for that specific sprint. They produce in small increments but continously produce something that adds value.\nAfter the sprint there is a retrospective. The team looks at what went well, what was bad, and how to improve. There is a huge amount of trust needed within in the team in order for this to be productive, and one of the things that are very important is that these are conducted in a blameless manner.\nThe point of such an exercise is to learn and to improve and not to point fingers.\nBack to the root cause. In my previous IT positions whenever there was an outage, we did a root cause analysis to see what caused the problem. We always wanted to pinpoint that one thing that caused the problem.\nI completely agree with what Avishai said. There is no such a thing as a Root cause, there are only contributing factors. But this seems to be completely against what you might know and","date":"Feb 1, 2016","href":"/2016/02/there-is-no-root-cause-only.html","summary":"I participated a week or two ago in the DevOpsJRS meetup in Cisco Jerusalem. Our guest speaker was Avishai Ish-Shalom. I always enjoy Avishai\u0026rsquo;s talks, he is a great speaker, a down to earth guy, and I have had the opportunity and pleasure to work with him several times in the past.\nOne of the slides that he posted included the following: There is no such a thing as root cause, only contributing factors /via @nukemberg #DevOpsJRS","tags":["Agile","Miscellaneous","DevOps"],"title":"There is no Root Cause, Only Contributing Factors"},{"content":"I was contacted today by Izik Eidus, an old acquaintance from Ravello which I was really impressed with their technology and introduced them in this post.\nI assume that not many of you know that Apple released native hypervisor functionality with their OSX Yosemite release, their Hypervisor.framework.\nWhat this does is it allows you to run a VM natively on OSX, without the need for client hypervisor (such as VMware Fusion or VirtualBox).\nTwo of the main brains behind the Ravello hypervisor have now released a Native Mac OSX virtualization tool.\nSay hello to Veertu.\nIt is light (20MB), supports Windows and Linux Operating Systems, has extensive useability features such as copy/paste between guest and VM, full-screen, and shared folders.\nIt is the only virtualization tool that is actually available in the Apple store – becuase it does not make any changes to the kernel.\nIt was really very simple. I downloaded the tool and started it up.\nYou are presented with 2 choices, create your own VM’s from ISO’s (which is a paid feature) or deploy from Veertu’s servers which has several Linux flavors.\nI chose Centos 7 Minimal.\nWhat happens is that the client downloads the appropriate ISO image that you can install the relevant OS.\n(I think that the wording above could be improved because it is not actually downloading a VM, rather an ISO image)\nOnce downloaded you can change the various settings of the VM.\nFor example CPU, RAM, Disk, Network etc.\nPower it on – and your VM goes through the installation process. (this is how I realized that the client is not downloading a full VM – rather the installation ISO)\nHere is the Management interface.\nAnd after the Centos 7 installation is complete.\nAnd here you have a VM running natively on my Mac.\nNow the software is not perfect. And there are things that need to be improved, such as:\nEach time you create a VM, it downloads the ISO again, which seems a waste of bandwidth to me (it will be changed in a future version) The download was","date":"Jan 5, 2016","href":"/2016/01/native-mac-osx-virtualization-with.html","summary":"I was contacted today by Izik Eidus, an old acquaintance from Ravello which I was really impressed with their technology and introduced them in this post.\nI assume that not many of you know that Apple released native hypervisor functionality with their OSX Yosemite release, their Hypervisor.framework.\nWhat this does is it allows you to run a VM natively on OSX, without the need for client hypervisor (such as VMware Fusion or VirtualBox).\nTwo of the main brains behind the Ravello hypervisor have now released a Native Mac OSX virtualization tool.","tags":["Hypervisor","Ravello","Virtualization","Veertu"],"title":"Native Mac OSX virtualization - with Veertu"},{"content":"A short while back I tweeted the following:\nHas hell frozen over? There is actual talk about prioritizing stability over landing new features. Times are a changin\u0026amp;#39; #OpenStack\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) November 5, 2015 This was a result of me reading the minutes of the OpenStack Technical committee from November 3rd, 2015 (full log is here)\nWhat pleasantly surprises me is that this might finally becoming a viable option.\nLet me first go into the background of my trail of thoughts.\nI really enjoy working with OpenStack, but I also really hate working with OpenStack. A good old love/hate relationship.\nThere are amazing things about this community, the way we work, and the software we produce (just to name two).\nOn the other hand there are really bad things about this community, namely – the way we work, and the software we produce.\nOne might say that is an oxymoron (I am not calling anyone stupid though). But yes it is true. The OpenStack community produces amazing things – or at least that is until someone (let’s call them an Operator) tries to actually use this in a production environment, and then they find out until it is completely and totally, not ready, in any way for production use.\nSo this Operator tries to raise his concerns, why this is not useable, these are valid concerns and maybe these should be fixed. But unfortunately they have no way of actually getting this done, because – the feedback loop is completely broken. Operators have no way of getting that information back in. The community has no interest in opening up a new conduit into the developer community – because they are fixated on working in a specific way.\nI must stress and honestly say, that this was the case up until approximately a year ago. Since then the OpenStack community has embarked on a number of initiatives that are making this a much easier process, and we are actually seeing some change (see the title of this post).\nFor me the question actually is – what sparked","date":"Nov 16, 2015","href":"/2015/11/is-openstack-leopard-changing-its-spots.html","summary":"A short while back I tweeted the following:\nHas hell frozen over? There is actual talk about prioritizing stability over landing new features. Times are a changin\u0026#39; #OpenStack\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) November 5, 2015 This was a result of me reading the minutes of the OpenStack Technical committee from November 3rd, 2015 (full log is here)\nWhat pleasantly surprises me is that this might finally becoming a viable option.","tags":["OpenStack","DevOps","Operations","Communities"],"title":"Is the OpenStack Leopard Changing its Spots?"},{"content":"This is second post in the The Three Pillars of DevOps series\nPart 1 – The Three Pillars of DevOps\nPart 2 – Pillar #1 - Developers\nPart 3 – Pillar #2 - Operations Engineers\nPart 4 – Pillar #3 - Management\nIn this post we will dive in to the second pillar – Operations Engineers.\nBeing part of the Pillar Allow everyone to consume your infrastructure Infrastructure is there to be used. You are there to allow your business to create revenue, as much as possible, and in as short a time as possible.\nThey will need resources in order to do that. You have probably been working with cloud and virtualization – long before they have, and have a decent amount of expertise and infrastructure already in place.\nIn order to allow development teams to do their work, they will need resources, for a number of solutions, be it Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery – or just plain old sandboxes for development purposes.\nHelp them use what you have, help them build their own if they need it.\nBecome a trusted broker for your development teams Developers need your help. They have deadlines and problems that they are dealing with and will have a very difficult time learning all you know in a short time.\nExplain to them what the benefits are of using different kinds of infrastructure, when they should go to the cloud, and when they should stay in house. What are the security implications of choosing a cloud solution, what they need to be aware of. They are also on a journey and need to adapt to this new world.\nMake it as easy as possible Again, infrastructure is there to be used. The same way that you take for granted that when you flip the light switch in your room you expect the lights to go on, that is what developers and the organization expect to happen when they need to turn on a server.\nOf course we all know that when you flip on a switch – there are so many things that happen, so much infrastructure is needed, from wiring to circuit boards, to light fixtures, to metering, to","date":"Sep 27, 2015","href":"/2015/08/pillar-2-operations-engineers.html","summary":"This is second post in the The Three Pillars of DevOps series\nPart 1 – The Three Pillars of DevOps\nPart 2 – Pillar #1 - Developers\nPart 3 – Pillar #2 - Operations Engineers\nPart 4 – Pillar #3 - Management\nIn this post we will dive in to the second pillar – Operations Engineers.\nBeing part of the Pillar Allow everyone to consume your infrastructure Infrastructure is there to be used. You are there to allow your business to create revenue, as much as possible, and in as short a time as possible.","tags":["3 pillars","culture","DevOps"],"title":"Pillar 2 - Operations Engineers"},{"content":"This is third post in the The Three Pillars of DevOps series\nPart 1 – The Three Pillars of DevOps\nPart 2 – Pillar #1 - Developers\nPart 3 – Pillar #2 - Operations Engineers\nPart 4 – Pillar #3 - Management\nIn this post we will dive in to the third pillar – Management.\nBeing part of the Pillar DevOps is a cultural change Most people do not like change. Personally, I do not have an easy time adapting to change, it makes me nervous, uncertain, unsure. Different people take to change in different ways. Adoption of a DevOps way of working is not a small thing.\nBoundaries are no longer clear.\nWho is in charge of what?\nWhy do we have to take care of this?\nI have no idea of what this means.\nWith any big change you should understand what this will do to your organization. See where you will have problems. Where people will need help. Expect that things are going to change. Over time.\nSupport both of the other pillars on the journey In continuation on the previous point. Help your developers with education. They are no longer responsible for a small part, but rather the big picture.\nHelp your Operations Engineers with the world of code, again training, courses, books, seminars, pair programming there are a more than a number of ways.\nBring in someone to help and coach your teams throughout the journey, going from waterfall to Agile is a huge change, even more so such a culture change. Help them in the beginning, through the ups and downs, and how they can continuously improve themselves and the way they work.\nHave patience This is going to take time. Quite a lot of time. Give the teams the leeway to adapt and learn along the jurney. Let them learn from their mistakes, pave their own path. Your productivity will probably go down in the short term, which also mean that the bottom line might drop as well.\nBe prepared for this. Remember, if you are in it for the short term, the quick win, then this is the wrong reason. And it will most probably fail. Almost definitely. Your are","date":"Sep 27, 2015","href":"/2015/08/pillar-3-management.html","summary":"This is third post in the The Three Pillars of DevOps series\nPart 1 – The Three Pillars of DevOps\nPart 2 – Pillar #1 - Developers\nPart 3 – Pillar #2 - Operations Engineers\nPart 4 – Pillar #3 - Management\nIn this post we will dive in to the third pillar – Management.\nBeing part of the Pillar DevOps is a cultural change Most people do not like change. Personally, I do not have an easy time adapting to change, it makes me nervous, uncertain, unsure. Different people take to change in different ways. Adoption of a DevOps way of working is not a small thing.","tags":["3 pillars","culture","DevOps"],"title":"Pillar 3 - Management"},{"content":"Since this has been totally unavailable up until now (except for a select few), it is great to see that it now available for public download\nAs has been said a number of times before (here and here), it was not possible to get hold of NSX unless you had specifically been given access.\nThere were a number of reasons for this – some I agree with, some I do not.\nBut it seems that as of the 6.2 release it is now possible to actually download NSX and try it out for 60 days.\nHere’s how I went about it.\nFirst I tried the VMware site\nBut that led me to more or less a dead end. It took me to the same HOL environment where you could try it out.\nSo how do you get access to the bits?\nI came across this when ‘cruising’ through the My VMware portal.\nFull disclosure here – I have not purchased NSX, I have note engaged with PSO, I work for Cisco who is probably seen as NSX’s biggest and worst ‘enemy’. I do have access to (AFAIK) Enterprise plus and some vCloud suite license in the portal – as a result of previous purchases and management of a decent sized VMware environment. This is not part of a vExpert freebie.\nIn the portal I searched for NSX\nAnd lo-and behold – instead of the usual greyed out download box, I got this.\nDocumentation can be found here.\nAnd just to confirm – NSX can operate in evaluation mode for 60 days (from the documentation)\nPersonally – I see this as a welcome change by VMware – allowing access to the product to try it out before having to dish out $$$ to look at the product and the capabilities.\nSo thank you VMware.\nAnd if this actually does stay this way – it remains to see how VIAdmins will react to the product and see how suitable it is (or is not) for their environment.\nAgain – your mileage may vary – depending on your portal access.\n","date":"Sep 8, 2015","href":"/2015/09/nsx-62-is-available-for-download.html","summary":"Since this has been totally unavailable up until now (except for a select few), it is great to see that it now available for public download\nAs has been said a number of times before (here and here), it was not possible to get hold of NSX unless you had specifically been given access.\nThere were a number of reasons for this – some I agree with, some I do not.","tags":["VMware","NSX"],"title":"NSX 6.2 is Available for Download!! (Evaluation)"},{"content":"This is second post in the The Three Pillars of DevOps series\nPart 1 – The Three Pillars of DevOps\nPart 2 – Pillar #1 - Developers\nPart 3 – Pillar #2 - Operations Engineers\nPart 4 – Pillar #3 - Management\nIn this post we will dive in to the first pillar – Developers.\nI apologize in advance – but I will be using a number of stereotypes in this series – on purpose. I will probably exaggerate – also on purpose – but this is in order to get a point across.\nI do have the utmost respect for all people in all three pillars – and I promise you, I will dump on each and every single one of the pillars (hopefully equally).\nWhenever I hear someone say developers – the first thing that comes to mind is the famous Steve Ballmer dance.\nBut these people are not as crazy as Steve on stage.\nThey are probably the people that work with you side by side. They create the things you use – daily.\nFor example – I can guarantee you that no Operations Engineer or management director was the one who wrote the applications and the functionality built into something that each and every one of us use every single day.\nBe it your:\nWeb browser Mail Client Facebook application Phone All of these things need to be written in code. And I have the utmost respect for people who have the capability to create something from scratch and build it into something like the examples above.\nBeing part of the Pillar Understand what you know how to do best (and learn what you don’t) I do not know everything, I don’t think anyone can, and if they say they do – then don’t believe them. You know how to write code, you know how create an interface and I could go on with examples all day. But there are also things you don’t understand, such as Operating system security, firewalls, resource usage, network traffic, databases – and again I can go on and on and on\u0026amp;hellip;\nThere are people who have been doing this – just as long as you have been writing code – so use them, consult with them – learn from them.\nBuild with the","date":"Aug 27, 2015","href":"/2015/08/pillar-1-developers.html","summary":"This is second post in the The Three Pillars of DevOps series\nPart 1 – The Three Pillars of DevOps\nPart 2 – Pillar #1 - Developers\nPart 3 – Pillar #2 - Operations Engineers\nPart 4 – Pillar #3 - Management\nIn this post we will dive in to the first pillar – Developers.\nI apologize in advance – but I will be using a number of stereotypes in this series – on purpose. I will probably exaggerate – also on purpose – but this is in order to get a point across.\nI do have the utmost respect for all people in all three pillars – and I promise you, I will dump on each and every single one of the pillars (hopefully equally).","tags":["3 pillars","culture","DevOps"],"title":"Pillar 1 - Developers"},{"content":"I apologize for plagiarizing the holy concept of The Three Pillars, but I do think that a foundation needs to be laid down for a healthy DevOps culture to thrive and even survive. And I would like to share with you some of my thought on this.\nTo be true to the agile methodology it would only be appropriate that instead of talking about pillars I prefer to talk about personas.\nThese three personas are:\nDevelopers Operations Engineers Management If I was going to have to lay it out in a graphical form – I guess it would be something like this.\nIn order for a healthy DevOps culture ALL three of these need to exist – and work in sync.\nIn the upcoming posts – I will go through each of these pillars and how they should play a part\n(but also more importantly – how they should not) in this highly abused and misused term…\nFollow the rest of this series here:\nPart 1 – The Three Pillars of DevOps\nPart 2 – Pillar #1 - Developers\nPart 3 – Pillar #2 - Operations Engineers\nPart 4 – Pillar #3 - Management\n","date":"Aug 27, 2015","href":"/2015/08/the-three-pillars-of-devops.html","summary":"I apologize for plagiarizing the holy concept of The Three Pillars, but I do think that a foundation needs to be laid down for a healthy DevOps culture to thrive and even survive. And I would like to share with you some of my thought on this.\nTo be true to the agile methodology it would only be appropriate that instead of talking about pillars I prefer to talk about personas.\nThese three personas are:","tags":["3 pillars","culture","DevOps"],"title":"The Three Pillars of DevOps"},{"content":"My new post on some PowerShell Profile tricks for VMware has been published on the\nPetri IT knowledgebase.\nAs an IT pro, we rely on scripts to manage our VMware environment, which helps us be more efficient throughout our work day. In this article, I’d like to share some PowerShell profile tricks that are specific to VMware. These are tricks that I use on a daily basis, which I think you’ll find helpful .. ..\nRead the full post …\n","date":"Aug 26, 2015","href":"/2015/08/powershell-profile-tricks-for-better.html","summary":"My new post on some PowerShell Profile tricks for VMware has been published on the\nPetri IT knowledgebase.\nAs an IT pro, we rely on scripts to manage our VMware environment, which helps us be more efficient throughout our work day. In this article, I’d like to share some PowerShell profile tricks that are specific to VMware. These are tricks that I use on a daily basis, which I think you’ll find helpful .. ..","tags":["Petri","Scripting","Powershell","VMware"],"title":"PowerShell Profile Tricks for Better VMware Management"},{"content":"I love diving into numbers – especially when it has something to do with technology conferences.\nBut before I do that I would to bring to your attention my two sessions that I have submitted for the upcoming summit (Shameless Plug.. )\nMe Tarzan, you Jane (or Operators are not Developers)\nWelcoming Operators to the OpenStack Jungle.\nA year ago I set out on a journey on trying to help the OpenStack developer community understand the other (and sometimes not well understood) side of the OpenStack community, its users.\nUsers is a subjective term, depending on who you ask - it could mean the end user using an API or a GUI to deploy a new instance but it also includes those who operate the cloud, maintain it and sweat blood an tears to just allow the end-user to do what he wants.\nThere is distinct separation today between the two entities - but the good part is that they are slowly coming together.\nThis talk will describe how you an Operator can make a difference - be it small or large - in OpenStack.\nThe topics we will go over here are:\nInitiatives User Committee WTE ISV Monitoring \u0026amp;amp; Logging Large Deployments \u0026amp;hellip; and many more\u0026amp;hellip;. Operator specific activities:\nOps Tags IRC Heaven forbid - committing code Expect some interesting stories, some horror stories but we are all aiming for the same thing.\nThe pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.\nOpenStack - High Availability (as a Service) - Fact? Fiction (or maybe something in between)?\nInstalling an OpenStack cloud used to be a complex task. We have evolved over time and made this a lot easier and more palatable for operators. Operating an OpenStack cloud on the other hand is whole different ball game..\nOperators want stable systems and resilient systems, and if the infrastructure services can scale that would only be an added benefit.\nBut today, OpenStack as a result of its culture, and its history, is a collection of parts, pieces and solutions using multiple different technologies, and architectures.\nOne of","date":"Jul 29, 2015","href":"/2015/07/openstack-summit-voting-by-numbers.html","summary":"I love diving into numbers – especially when it has something to do with technology conferences.\nBut before I do that I would to bring to your attention my two sessions that I have submitted for the upcoming summit (Shameless Plug.. )\nMe Tarzan, you Jane (or Operators are not Developers)\nWelcoming Operators to the OpenStack Jungle.\nA year ago I set out on a journey on trying to help the OpenStack developer community understand the other (and sometimes not well understood) side of the OpenStack community, its users.","tags":["OpenStack","voting","Tokyo","CFP","Summit"],"title":"OpenStack Summit Voting - By the Numbers"},{"content":"This was a big piece of news last week. There are some that even are suggesting (but not really) that the Google stock jumped drastically as a result of this announcement, I personally find that just a good joke (and some wishful thinking).\nA snippet from the Google post:\nAs we look to the future of computing in the enterprise, we see two important trends emerging.\nThe first is a move towards the hybrid cloud. Few enterprises can move their entire infrastructure to the public cloud. For most, hybrid deployments will be the norm and OpenStack is emerging as a standard for the on-premises component of these deployments.\nFor me this is a gauntlet thrown directly in the face of AWS.\nAmazon has always pushed that everything should and can run in the public cloud. They have never believed in the hybrid cloud model. It was all AWS or nothing. I have never agreed with this statement, and still don’t.\nThere will always be things that need to run in house – for a number of possible reasons:\nsecurity regulation the nature of the workload politics AWS has tried over the years to provide adaptations/solutions and tools to ease the journey into the private cloud – such as VPC or Direct Connect to enable you to extend your datacenter to the public cloud – but still have it feel as if it was in-house. But that is not hybrid.\nI think that this is a great move on Google’s part and their ‘bear-hug’ of OpenStack.\nIt will be interesting to see what this collaboration brings into the OpenStack world.\n","date":"Jul 20, 2015","href":"/2015/07/hybrid-vs-public-google-joins-openstack.html","summary":"This was a big piece of news last week. There are some that even are suggesting (but not really) that the Google stock jumped drastically as a result of this announcement, I personally find that just a good joke (and some wishful thinking).\nA snippet from the Google post:\nAs we look to the future of computing in the enterprise, we see two important trends emerging.\nThe first is a move towards the hybrid cloud. Few enterprises can move their entire infrastructure to the public cloud. For most, hybrid deployments will be the norm and OpenStack is emerging as a standard for the on-premises component of these deployments.","tags":["OpenStack","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Hybrid vs. Public - Google Joins OpenStack"},{"content":"Even though we still do not know what the next release of OpenStack will yet be called (due to some community naming issues) – this is still an event I am very much looking forward to.\nRegistration is open for the event.\nEarly bird tickets are $600 (until August 31st, 2015)\n","date":"Jul 13, 2015","href":"/2015/07/registration-is-open-for-openstack.html","summary":"Even though we still do not know what the next release of OpenStack will yet be called (due to some community naming issues) – this is still an event I am very much looking forward to.\nRegistration is open for the event.\nEarly bird tickets are $600 (until August 31st, 2015)","tags":["OpenStack","Tokyo","Summit"],"title":"Registration is Open for the OpenStack Tokyo Summit"},{"content":"A question was just posted to the OpenStack mailing list – and this is not the first time I have seen this request.\nCan openstack conference video files be downloaded?\nA while back I wrote a post about how you can download all the vBrownBag sessions from the past OpenStack summit.\nSame thing applies here, with a slight syntax change.\nYou can use the same tool – youtube-dl (just the version has changed since that post – and therefore some of the syntax is different as well).\nDownload youtube-dl and make the file executable\ncurl https://yt-dl.org/downloads/2015.06.25/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl The videos are available on the OpenStack Youtube channel.\nWhat you are looking for is all the videos that were uploaded from the Summit, that would mean between May 18th, 2015 and May 30th, 2015.\nThe command to do that would be\nyoutube-dl -ci -f best --dateafter 20150518 --datebefore 20150529 https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenStackFoundation/videos\nThe options I have used are:\n-c - Force resume of partially downloaded files. By default, youtube-dl will resume downloads if possible. -i - Continue on download errors, for example to skip unavailable videos in a playlist.\n-f best - Download the best quality video available.\n--dateafter - Start after date\n--datebefore– Up until date specified\nBe advised.. This will take a while – and will use up a decent amount of disk space.\nHappy downloading !!\n","date":"Jun 28, 2015","href":"/2015/06/downloading-all-sessions-from-openstack.html","summary":"A question was just posted to the OpenStack mailing list – and this is not the first time I have seen this request.\nCan openstack conference video files be downloaded?\nA while back I wrote a post about how you can download all the vBrownBag sessions from the past OpenStack summit.\nSame thing applies here, with a slight syntax change.\nYou can use the same tool – youtube-dl (just the version has changed since that post – and therefore some of the syntax is different as well).","tags":["OpenStack","Vancouver","Summit"],"title":"Downloading all sessions from the OpenStack Summit"},{"content":"I have been home for just over a week from my trip to Vancouver for the OpenStack Kilo Summit (or Liberty Design Summit – take your pick).\nIt was a whirlwind of week, jam packed with sessions, conversations, meetings, presentations and community events.\nThere were a number of insights that I took with me and I would like to share with you in this post, and also in some upcoming posts in the future.\n1. OPs is a real thing There was a dedicated OPs track at the summit. Before we go into what actually happened there – I would like to clarify what I mean as OPs and if this is any different to the perception of how it is defined by the OpenStack community.\nFor me an operator is primarily the person that has to actually maintain the cloud infrastructure. This could be a number of things:\nCreate packages for installing OpenStack Actually installing OpenStack Making sure that OpenStack keeps up and running Monitors the infrastructure Upgrades the infrastructure There are also end-users, and these are the people that actually use OpenStack:\nProvision instances Deploy applications on top of those instances Create tenants/users/projects For the OpenStack Community – sometimes these two groups are one and the same, and in my honest opinion they definitely are not – and should not be treated as such. It is taking time, but I think that the community is starting to understand that there are two distinct groups here, which have very different sets of needs, and should be catered to quite differently\nThere was a significant amount of discussion of how Operators can get more involved, and honestly I must say that the situation has improved – drastically – in comparison to the situation 12 months ago.\nThere are a number of working groups, the Win The Enterprise WG, the Product WG, the Monitoring and Logging WG, all of these have been meeting over the last year to try and hash out ways of getting more involved.\nOne of the interesting discussions that came out as a result (well perhaps","date":"Jun 1, 2015","href":"/2015/06/the-openstack-summit-kilo-summit-recap.html","summary":"I have been home for just over a week from my trip to Vancouver for the OpenStack Kilo Summit (or Liberty Design Summit – take your pick).\nIt was a whirlwind of week, jam packed with sessions, conversations, meetings, presentations and community events.\nThere were a number of insights that I took with me and I would like to share with you in this post, and also in some upcoming posts in the future.","tags":["OpenStack","Operations","Vancouver","Summit"],"title":"The OpenStack Summit Kilo Summit - Recap"},{"content":"This is a re-post of my interview with Jason Baker of opensource.com\nContinuous integration and continuous delivery are changing the way software developers create and deploy software. For many developers, Jenkins is the go-to tool for making CI/CD happen. But how easy is it to integrate Jenkins with your OpenStack cloud platform?\nMeet Maish Saidel-Keesing. Maish is a platform architect for Cisco in Israel focused on making OpenStack serve as a platform upon which video services can be deployed. He works to integrate a number of complementary solutions with the default out-of-the-box OpenStack project and to adapt Cisco\u0026amp;rsquo;s projects to have a viable cloud deployment model.\nAt OpenStack Summit in Vancouver next week, Maish is giving a talk called: The Jenkins Plugin for OpenStack: Simple and Painless CI/CD. I caught up with Maish to learn a little more about his talk, continous integration, and where OpenStack is headed.\nInterview Without giving too much away, what can attendees expect to learn from your talk?\nThe attendees will learn about the journey that we went through 6-12 months ago, when we looked at using OpenStack as our compute resource for the CI/CD pipeline for several of our products. I\u0026amp;rsquo;ll cover the challenges we faced, why other solutions were not suitable, and how we overcame these challenges with a Jenkins plugin that we developed for our purposes, which we are open sourcing to the community at the summit.\nWhat affects has CI/CD had on the development of software in recent years? I think that CI/CD has allowed software developers to provide a better product for their customers. In allowing them to continuously deploy and test their software, they can provide better code. In addition, it has brought the developers closer to the actual deployments in the field. In the past, there was a clear disconnect between the people writing the software and those who deployed and supported it at the customer.\nHow can a developer integrate OpenStack into","date":"May 17, 2015","href":"/2015/05/integrating-openstack-into-your-jenkins.html","summary":"This is a re-post of my interview with Jason Baker of opensource.com\nContinuous integration and continuous delivery are changing the way software developers create and deploy software. For many developers, Jenkins is the go-to tool for making CI/CD happen. But how easy is it to integrate Jenkins with your OpenStack cloud platform?\nMeet Maish Saidel-Keesing. Maish is a platform architect for Cisco in Israel focused on making OpenStack serve as a platform upon which video services can be deployed. He works to integrate a number of complementary solutions with the default out-of-the-box OpenStack project and to adapt Cisco\u0026rsquo;s projects to have a viable cloud deployment model.","tags":["Speaker","OpenStack","Vancouver","Summit"],"title":"Integrating OpenStack into your Jenkins workflow"},{"content":"At all technology conference I always like to go on to Floor / Marketplace / Solutions Exchange – where vendors try to get your attention and market their product.\nGoing over the list of vendors from Summit site, the list below are some of the less know companies (at least to me) that caught my eye and I would like to go over during the summit and see what they have to say.\nThe blurb I posted is something that I found on each of the respective sites, and does not necessarily provide a comprehensive overview of what each company offers\nStackato\nStackato allows agile enterprises to develop and deploy software solutions faster than ever before and manage them more effectively. Stackato provides development teams with built-in languages, frameworks and services on one single cloud application platform, while providing enterprise-level security and world-class support.\nAkanda\nAkanda is the only open source network virtualization solution built by OpenStack operators for real OpenStack clouds. Akanda eliminates the need for complex SDN controllers, overlays and multiple plugins for cloud networking by providing a simple integrated networking stack (routing, firewall, load balancing) for connecting and securing multi-tenant OpenStack environments.\nAppcito\nAppcito Cloud Application Front-End™ (CAFE) is an easy-to-deploy, unified and cloud-native service that enables cloud application teams to innovate faster and improve user experiences with their applications.\nAppformix\nOperators and developers can use AppFormix’s versatile software to remove and prevent resource contention among applications from the infrastructure without being invasive to applications. The real-time, state driven control provided by AppFormix’s intuitive dashboard allows efficient management of all I/O resources. For deeper control and customization, access to API driven controls are also easily accessible. Plan infrastructure intelligently and remove the guess work involved in managing finite server","date":"May 13, 2015","href":"/2015/05/some-vendors-i-will-visit-at-openstack.html","summary":"At all technology conference I always like to go on to Floor / Marketplace / Solutions Exchange – where vendors try to get your attention and market their product.\nGoing over the list of vendors from Summit site, the list below are some of the less know companies (at least to me) that caught my eye and I would like to go over during the summit and see what they have to say.","tags":["OpenStack","Vancouver","Summit"],"title":"Some Vendors I Will Visit at the OpenStack Summit"},{"content":"The OpenStack community is converging on Vancouver next week for the bi-annual summit for all things OpenStack.\nI am glad to be joining the event and I would like to share with you a short outline of what public events and activities I will participating in.\nMonday May 18th, 13:30 – OSpod with Niki Akosta and Jeff Dickey Monday May 18th, 15:00 - vBrownbag Presentation, “The Oh..!! moment in OpenStack” Tuesday May 19th, 17:30 - The Jenkins Plugin for OpenStack: Simple and Painless CI/CD Wednesday May 20th, 09:00 – OpenStack and Beyond Podcast The rest of my time will be spread out over the Cross-Project workshops, the Ops sessions, other sessions and activities.\nI am really looking forward to this event and please feel free to come and say hello.\n","date":"May 11, 2015","href":"/2015/05/get-ready-for-openstack-summit.html","summary":"The OpenStack community is converging on Vancouver next week for the bi-annual summit for all things OpenStack.\nI am glad to be joining the event and I would like to share with you a short outline of what public events and activities I will participating in.\nMonday May 18th, 13:30 – OSpod with Niki Akosta and Jeff Dickey Monday May 18th, 15:00 - vBrownbag Presentation, “The Oh..!! moment in OpenStack” Tuesday May 19th, 17:30 - The Jenkins Plugin for OpenStack: Simple and Painless CI/CD Wednesday May 20th, 09:00 – OpenStack and Beyond Podcast The rest of my time will be spread out over the Cross-Project workshops, the Ops sessions, other sessions and activities.","tags":["Speaker","Podcast","OpenStack","presentation","Summit"],"title":"Get Ready for the OpenStack Summit"},{"content":"As of late I have been thinking long and hard about if I can in some way contribute in a more efficient way into the OpenStack community.\nAlmost all of my focus today is on OpenStack, on its architecture and how to deploy certain solutions on top such an infrastructure.\nWhat is the Technical Committee?\nIt is a group of 13 elected people by the OpenStack ATC’s (Active Technical contributors – a.k.a the people that are actively contributing code to the projects over the last year). There are seven spots up for election for this term, in addition to the six TC members that were chosen 6 months ago for a term of one year.\nThe TC’s Mission is defined as follows:\nThe Technical Committee (“TC”) is tasked with providing the technical leadership for OpenStack as a whole (all official projects, as defined below). It enforces OpenStack ideals (Openness, Transparency, Commonality, Integration, Quality\u0026amp;hellip;), decides on issues affecting multiple projects, forms an ultimate appeals board for technical decisions, and generally has technical oversight over all of OpenStack.\nOn Thursday I decided to take the plunge. Here is the email where I announced my candidacy.\nThis is not a paid job, if anything it more of a “second” part-time job – a voluntary part-time job. There are meetings, email discussions on a regular basis.\nThere are a number of reasons that I am running for a spot on the TC.\nDiversity In my post The OpenStack Elections - Another Look, I noted that operators were not chosen to for the board. This is something that I think is lacking in the OpenStack community today. The influence that the people who are actually using and deploying the software is minimal if at all. The influence they have is mostly after the fact (at best) and not much of an input of what they would like to have put into the product.\nI am hoping to bring in a new perspective to the TC, to help them understand the needs of those who actually deploy the software and have to deal with it day in and","date":"Apr 27, 2015","href":"/2015/04/why-i-decided-to-run-for-openstack.html","summary":"As of late I have been thinking long and hard about if I can in some way contribute in a more efficient way into the OpenStack community.\nAlmost all of my focus today is on OpenStack, on its architecture and how to deploy certain solutions on top such an infrastructure.\nWhat is the Technical Committee?\nIt is a group of 13 elected people by the OpenStack ATC’s (Active Technical contributors – a.k.a the people that are actively contributing code to the projects over the last year). There are seven spots up for election for this term, in addition to the six TC members that were chosen 6 months ago for a term of one year.","tags":["OpenStack","Miscellaneous","Communities"],"title":"Why I Decided to Run for the OpenStack Technical Committee"},{"content":"I would like to bring to your attention that the voting for the sessions for the upcoming OpenStack Israel Summit on June 15th, 2015 is now open.\nMake your voice heard and participate in setting the agenda for the event!\nYou can find more information and the presentation that I gave last year in this post Recap - Openstack Israel 2014 #OpenStackIL and for your convenience I have embedded the recording below.\n","date":"Apr 20, 2015","href":"/2015/04/openstack-israel-cfp-voting-is-open.html","summary":"I would like to bring to your attention that the voting for the sessions for the upcoming OpenStack Israel Summit on June 15th, 2015 is now open.\nMake your voice heard and participate in setting the agenda for the event!\nYou can find more information and the presentation that I gave last year in this post Recap - Openstack Israel 2014 #OpenStackIL and for your convenience I have embedded the recording below.","tags":["Speaker","OpenStack","presentation","Cloud","Summit"],"title":"OpenStack Israel CFP Voting is Open"},{"content":"It is funny where one gets the idea for a blog post from. I was sitting in a restaurant last month in San Jose, one of the only two kosher ones in the area, and I ordered the chef’s special.\nSo it was grilled salmon, mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables. It was tasty, the flavors blended very well. Which got me thinking.\nWhat made the chef choose that combination? Why those three? Obviously he had tested different combinations. Pasta, rice, noodles, different kinds of vegetables, different spices. But he chose that combination. Tried and tested.\nIf I had the to choose what I would have wanted with that dish, it probably would have been rice, not potatoes.\nSo what does this have to do with trusted solution? But before that – a bit about what I think a trusted solution is.\nA trusted solution can be something like a vBlock, a solution that has been validated, Hardware which is tested for a certain workload, guaranteed to provide the proper performance and to work.\nIt could be the VMware HCL, where Q\u0026amp;amp;A has been done to test if things work and work properly. It could be a validated design from one of the vendors – a Cisco CVD, a Flexpod or another solution.\nOn the other hand I could also have asked for a mix and match on the menu, what I preferred, what I know that I like, I have tried before.\nThat I could compare to a home built solution, or perhaps a whitebox that is not on the HCL or a slightly different vendor. Will it work – probably – but it something that is probably unique to your liking.\nThere are advantages to both options, both can serve you well, both are tasty.\n(The things that pop into your mind..)\nWhat do you prefer? What do you think suits your business better? The Chef’s special or your own personal favorite mix and match? And why?\nPlease feel free to leave your comments and thoughts below.\n","date":"Apr 6, 2015","href":"/2015/04/the-chefs-special-and-trusted-solutions.html","summary":"It is funny where one gets the idea for a blog post from. I was sitting in a restaurant last month in San Jose, one of the only two kosher ones in the area, and I ordered the chef’s special.\nSo it was grilled salmon, mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables. It was tasty, the flavors blended very well. Which got me thinking.\nWhat made the chef choose that combination? Why those three? Obviously he had tested different combinations. Pasta, rice, noodles, different kinds of vegetables, different spices. But he chose that combination. Tried and tested.","tags":["Virtualization","Management","Miscellaneous","Cloud"],"title":"The Chef’s Special and Trusted Solutions"},{"content":"I usually have a Linux VM that I use to perform some of my remote management tasks, such a OpenStack CLI commands.\nBut since I now have a Mac (and yes I am in enjoying it!!) I thought why not do it natively on my Mac. The official documentation on installing clients is on the OpenStack site.\nThis is how I got it done.\nFirstly install pip\neasy_install pip\nNow to install the clients (keystone, glance, heat, nova, neutron, cinder, swift and the new OpenStack client)\npip install python-keystoneclient python-novaclient python-heatclient python-swiftclient python-neutronclient python-cinderclient python-glanceclient python-openstackclient\nFirst problem – was no permissions\nYes you do need sudo for some things…\nsudo –H pip install python-keystoneclient python-novaclient python-heatclient python-swiftclient python-neutronclient python-cinderclient python-glanceclient python-openstackclient\nSuccess!\nOr so I thought…\nGoogle led me here - https://github.com/major/supernova/issues/55\nsudo –H pip uninstall six\nAnd then\nsudo –H easy_install six\nAnd all was good\nQuick and Simple!! Hope this is useful!\n","date":"Mar 26, 2015","href":"/2015/03/installing-openstack-cli-clients-on-mac.html","summary":"I usually have a Linux VM that I use to perform some of my remote management tasks, such a OpenStack CLI commands.\nBut since I now have a Mac (and yes I am in enjoying it!!) I thought why not do it natively on my Mac. The official documentation on installing clients is on the OpenStack site.\nThis is how I got it done.\nFirstly install pip\neasy_install pip\nNow to install the clients (keystone, glance, heat, nova, neutron, cinder, swift and the new OpenStack client)","tags":["OpenStack","Mac","Administration"],"title":"Installing OpenStack CLI clients on Mac OSX"},{"content":"Hey… Is that even possible? It seems that it is not – at least that is what I heard this week over Twitter.\nThe documentation also says the same thing.\nWhen trying to put in a vCenter as the target for deployment it will throw an error.\nI actually find this really silly and a really weird move on behalf of VMware. Why limit this to connecting directly to an ESXi host?\nAlso I am quite intrigued to know what is the benefit of using such a tool for deployment. I do understand that VMware wanted to provide a generic tool that could be used on any platform to deploy a vCenter Server. If you look at the ISO that is provided for download – you will see a folder structure there for all platforms in the vcsa-cli-installer\nBut this got me thinking. The VCSA is appliance after all – which means it is probably an OVF – like most of VMware’s appliances.\nDisclaimer – This is probably not supported – definitely not endorsed by VMware – so use it at your own risk!\nI went and did some detective work. The ISO is about 3GB in size which means that it actually has to be appliance is probably there somewhere. It was not hard to find.\nIn the VCSA folder you will find a file vmware-vcsa which is almost 2GB in size.\nIt is obvious that the file is not an OVF – but probably an OVA – because of its size.\nSo for my test I copied the vmware-vcsa file and added the .OVA extension to the file\nI then proceeded to deploy this appliance as I would any virtual appliance. I even went so far as to use the vSphere Client!\nI was skeptical to see if there was actually anything extra that was put into the installer – because we all know that it most of the customization is provided within the OVF itself. I checked to see if the same functionality is available from both the new installer and a regular vSphere client deployment. The feature parity seems to be equal at least – with some addiitonal functionality that is available only when deploying as a virtual appliance.\nSuch as Inventory Location\nChoice of","date":"Mar 19, 2015","href":"/2015/03/deploying-vcsa-60-appliance-directly.html","summary":"Hey… Is that even possible? It seems that it is not – at least that is what I heard this week over Twitter.\nThe documentation also says the same thing.\nWhen trying to put in a vCenter as the target for deployment it will throw an error.\nI actually find this really silly and a really weird move on behalf of VMware. Why limit this to connecting directly to an ESXi host?","tags":["Appliances","Administration","VMware","vCenter",6],"title":"Deploying the VCSA 6.0 Appliance directly into vCenter"},{"content":"This is the second half of my thoughts on the vSphere 6.0 release notes. Part 1 can be found here\nDisclaimer:\nThese are my own thought and ramblings. I think they should be questions you should be asking VMware, your TAM and the support people. These are not the only items in the Release Notes - just those that got my attention. Your mileage may differ and there may be other things that are of importance in the original document.\nTakeaways:\nAnother NFS 4.1 caveat. Makes me think that as with all new technologies – maybe we should wait until it is more stable and not jump into it feet first. Takeaways:\nSame As Above It seems this is an all or nothing so no mixing between NFS versions – because this will cause problems. Takeaways:\nSame As Above Takeaways:\nThis is not really an error – but by design. It seems that people will have learn how to interact with vVOLs – as opposed to the way they are used to working.\nQuestions:\nWhy is the default thick? If there are certain Storage solutions that do not support thick – then why not make the default thin? Questions:\nIf it might fail – why even give the option? Will it always fail? Ad if not –is there a common denominator that causes the failure? Takeaways:\nDell and QLogic specific. Learn the implications if this is relevant to your environment.\nTakeaways:\nIt is always good to wait a while until the worms come out of the cracks.\nQuestions:\nDoes Emulex have a solution?\nQuestions:\nIf the features does not work – why enable it? Is it possible to automate this? If so how? Takeaways:\nAnother whopper. If you suffer an APD (which can happen) and you are using Flash Cache. the I/O acceleration will not work properly until the VM undergoes a power cycle to re-enable functionality.\nQuestions:\nIs it possible to create some kind of report to find which machines can / have been affected? If a full power off/on required – or is a restart of the VM sufficient? Takeaways:\nThis is strange – because the storage policy is based on the disk","date":"Mar 14, 2015","href":"/2015/03/vsphere-60-release-notes-part-2.html","summary":"This is the second half of my thoughts on the vSphere 6.0 release notes. Part 1 can be found here\nDisclaimer:\nThese are my own thought and ramblings. I think they should be questions you should be asking VMware, your TAM and the support people. These are not the only items in the Release Notes - just those that got my attention. Your mileage may differ and there may be other things that are of importance in the original document.","tags":["vSphere","VMware","vCenter",6],"title":"vSphere 6.0 Release Notes - Part 2"},{"content":"I make the time whenever a product is released to go over the release notes – because there are always tidbits of information there that you should know about and usually it will save you time in the long run – understanding what you are getting into and staying out of trouble.\nI have traditionally done this for vSphere 5.1, 5.1.0a and 5.5.\nSo as always, the first things I do when a new version is released is:\nDownload the bits - of everything.. Download the documentation Go over the Release Notes There is of course a KB article that states a number of caveats as well - Important Information before upgrading to vSphere 6.0 (2110293)\nSo here are my takeaways and some questions regarding the 6.0 Release from yesterday (and forgive the humoristic remarks – because live like a box of chocolate – so you should have some fun – if you can)\nDisclaimer:\nThese are my own thought and ramblings. I think they should be questions you should be asking VMware, your TAM and the support people. These are not the only items in the Release Notes - just those that got my attention. Your mileage may differ and there may be other things that are of importance to in the original document.\nTakeaways:\nIf you are a Cisco customer and using the 1000V – then I would test this very well, contact VMware and Cisco support and clarify what exactly this means for me as the end user.\nQuestions:\nDoes this broaden the rift between Cisco (ACI) and VMware (NSX)?\nTakeaways:\nIt took me a while to understand this. So a remote Oracle DB is not supported for the appliance – but will be supported for the Windows version.\nSo it seems that VMware is all in for a integrated database for vCenter – I just hope that until vSphere 7.0 they get all the supporting tools and availability right.\nSpell Checking always helps…\nTakeaways:\nIt seems it is an all or nothing here. Of course it is a very good idea to backup up the database before making any changes to vCenter.\nQuestions:\nExactly how am I supposed to backup the","date":"Mar 13, 2015","href":"/2015/03/vsphere-60-is-here-read-release-notes.html","summary":"I make the time whenever a product is released to go over the release notes – because there are always tidbits of information there that you should know about and usually it will save you time in the long run – understanding what you are getting into and staying out of trouble.\nI have traditionally done this for vSphere 5.1, 5.1.0a and 5.5.\nSo as always, the first things I do when a new version is released is:","tags":["vSphere","VMware","vCenter",6],"title":"vSphere 6.0 is here. Read the Release Notes!!"},{"content":"My previous post vCenter is Still a Single Point of Failure caused a decent amount of discussion on Twitter and comments on the blog. I am actually glad about that because it raised a point that I think has been neglected for quite some time – and is finally being addressed.\nToday I learned that the Availability Guide was recently updated – and there were a number of changes (the original version is no longer available – but are we all lucky that I have screenshots). The biggest one was a whole new section was added on the paper about clustering vCenter Services.\nFirstly I would like to commend VMware on putting this out. Let’s go in and see what was added.\n\u0026amp;lt;sarcasm\u0026amp;gt;\n“vCenter can be a single point of failure” – I wonder where I have heard that before?\nIt is good to see that vCenter is now considered to be a critical component.\nI wonder why VMware changed their tune as compared to the previous version? (below)\nSo what would such an architecture look like? This is described in the following diagram\nYou will need to setup a WSFC which will require a shared disk between the VM’s (RDM only is supported) and the document goes into some detail about how this should be set up. There are a large number of moving parts including DFS, How to perform upgrades, registry settings, certificates you name it. You will also need to protect the SQL / Oracle Database as well – this is not in the scope of this document.\nYou can see that a decent amount of work has gone into documenting the process. It is also apparent that this will be the same method used to provide the same availability features for vSphere 6.0 when it is released.\nBut one small caveat. I am sure you are not the only one who has gotten the feeling that VMware have been pushing us all towards the appliance – for a number of reasons, good and bad.\nSo where is the clustering solution for the vCenter Appliance? All of this is Windows Server vCenter only!\nThe only mention of such a solution is a tweet from my good","date":"Mar 10, 2015","href":"/2015/03/vcenter-is-still-single-point-of.html","summary":"My previous post vCenter is Still a Single Point of Failure caused a decent amount of discussion on Twitter and comments on the blog. I am actually glad about that because it raised a point that I think has been neglected for quite some time – and is finally being addressed.\nToday I learned that the Availability Guide was recently updated – and there were a number of changes (the original version is no longer available – but are we all lucky that I have screenshots). The biggest one was a whole new section was added on the paper about clustering vCenter Services.","tags":["Design","Management","Architecture","Administration","vCenter","Heartbeat"],"title":"vCenter is Still a Single Point of Failure - An Update"},{"content":"Last week I got into a very interesting Twitter conversation regarding whether FT is a solution worth using and why.\nThe short version of this post – in my honest opinion the answer is a definite NO! but I cannot leave you with that kind of a statement without explaining in detail why. So here goes.\nA quick quote from VMware’s site as to what Fault Tolerance is useful for\nWhen Fault tolerance first came out – it was hot item – albeit the use case was very limited. and this was for a number of reasons but mainly these 2.\nA FT protected VM was only limited to a single vCPU A 10Gb connection was recommended (perhaps required – I cannot remember) to assure the replication traffic. VMware has always sold FT as an additional level of protection for virtual machines that must have the highest availability, something that cannot afford downtime due to hardware failure. It never has and perhaps never will protect you in the case of an application failure, that is where VMware are trying to go with AppHA, but are still not there yet (as I said in the this post a while back).\nWhat kind of applications is FT suited for? If you would ask that question – most people would answer that these are older applications – Line of Business (LOB) applications that were never built with any kind of clustering solution. To adapt or create a clustering solution for these applications would be probably impossible – and if possible would come with a very price ticket.\nLet me draw out a typical scenario of how such a dilemma might come into place.\nCompany XYZ has an application that was written by a software company approximately 15-20 years ago. At the time that was the best of breed, your company paid a substantial amount of money for customizations and enhancements – because there was nothing better at the time. But since then the software company has either gone out of business – or the product has been retired and is no longer supported, even if you wanted to pay for that support.\nAnd yes","date":"Mar 2, 2015","href":"/2015/03/is-smp-fault-tolerance-even-useful.html","summary":"Last week I got into a very interesting Twitter conversation regarding whether FT is a solution worth using and why.\nThe short version of this post – in my honest opinion the answer is a definite NO! but I cannot leave you with that kind of a statement without explaining in detail why. So here goes.\nA quick quote from VMware’s site as to what Fault Tolerance is useful for","tags":["vSphere","VMware",6],"title":"Is SMP Fault Tolerance Even Useful?"},{"content":"VMware announced last week the launch of VIO and there are a number of things that I think people are missing and should be pointed out.\nThe information I have taken is from the Datasheet and publicly available information.\nNetworking A great part of the the functionality and flexibility that people use is the option for flexible networking, i.e. creating private networks, routers for example.\nThat is great – all the functionality is there – with NSX. But how many people are actually using NSX today? How many people have deployed NSX? In a previous article I went through the reasons why this will not be an easy path. So how does that work with what I currently have in my datacenter?\nI think it is safe to assume that this will be deployed in an environment with a Distributed virtual switch – we are talking about environments that are using Enterprise Plus after all (and VMware is giving this away for free to everyone with the Ent+ licenses).\nSo how does OpenStack work with a DvSwitch today?\nWell I am sorry to surprise you – but it does not. It only works with nova-network (which is supposed to be deprecated – so caveat emptor). VMware themselves have said that most customers that are using OpenStack and VMware are using NSX (and that they don’t really have much experience with nova-network).\nEdited February 11th, 2015\nAccording to a twitter conversations with @hui_kenneth and @danwendlandt last night – VIO GA will support the dvSwitch, only that information is currently not public and is only available to the Beta users. The functionality still will not bet the same as that of NSX.\n{{ tweet 565257277029244931 }}\nSo it boils down to this. The only way to really use OpenStack with vSphere today – in any kind of semi-normal way, is to do it with NSX. Any demo you have seen – Hands-on Labs, presentations all use NSX. And it always something that already exists in the environment you are working with, that is the assumption.\nSo VMware is giving this away for free (unless","date":"Feb 10, 2015","href":"/2015/02/vmware-integrated-openstack-cost.html","summary":"VMware announced last week the launch of VIO and there are a number of things that I think people are missing and should be pointed out.\nThe information I have taken is from the Datasheet and publicly available information.\nNetworking A great part of the the functionality and flexibility that people use is the option for flexible networking, i.e. creating private networks, routers for example.\nThat is great – all the functionality is there – with NSX. But how many people are actually using NSX today? How many people have deployed NSX? In a previous article I went through the reasons why this will not be an easy path. So how does that work with what I currently have in my datacenter?","tags":["Management","OpenStack","Administration","VMware"],"title":"VMware Integrated OpenStack - Cost Analysis"},{"content":"The Board of directors and the bylaws were approved. Summary posts can be found here (2015 Individual Director Election results) and here (Bylaws amendments approved).\nIndividual Directors Tim Bell Russell Bryant Alex Freedland Rob Hirschfeld Vishvananda Ishaya Kavit Munshi Egle Sigler Monty Taylor The voting numbers can be found here.\nCongratulations to all the new and re-elected board members. Well deserved!\nI have a few things I would like to add about the data that was presented – and my thoughts.\n1. Tim Bell Tim received the highest number of votes. CERN is a huge OpenStack user and was showcased at the summit in Paris. He is one of only 3 the board members that are not officially affiliated with a vendor directly involved in OpenStack. I see this as a big vote of confidence by the members of the foundation – that are interested in seeing more representation from non-affiliated members. Something I personally would like to see as well.\n2. Participation Numbers Only just over 16% of the members voted in the election. That to me seems to be very low. and I would like to address the OpenStack community to ask why this is so? This is actually something the Board and Foundation should also be actively looking into as well (perhaps they already are).\nIs it because people are not interested in participating? Is it because the importance of the process was not made clear enough? People did not find the candidates suitable? More people actually voted for the amendment changes that in the election itself – which I find quite strange. They were already on the page and did not bother to vote for any of the candidates.\n3. Operators were not chosen Neither Jesse Proudman and Randy Bias were voted in – both seemed to me that they were very vocal in their campaign as to why they wanted to get on the board – and that was to bring a change into the way OpenStack is currently “run”. I do personally think this is pity – because I would have liked to see more representation from","date":"Jan 21, 2015","href":"/2015/01/the-openstack-elections-another-look.html","summary":"The Board of directors and the bylaws were approved. Summary posts can be found here (2015 Individual Director Election results) and here (Bylaws amendments approved).\nIndividual Directors Tim Bell Russell Bryant Alex Freedland Rob Hirschfeld Vishvananda Ishaya Kavit Munshi Egle Sigler Monty Taylor The voting numbers can be found here.\nCongratulations to all the new and re-elected board members. Well deserved!\nI have a few things I would like to add about the data that was presented – and my thoughts.","tags":["OpenStack","Miscellaneous","Communities"],"title":"The OpenStack Elections - Another Look"},{"content":"Well I am happy to say that the election is underway and I have already voted.\nKenneth Hui had an interesting post about how OpenStack Is A Social Contract and how people in the OpenStack community should be rushing to vote.\nI had a few thoughts about the change of quorum that is proposed.\nCurrent bylaws: A majority of the Individual Members voting (but only if at least 25% of the Individual Members vote at an annual or special meeting). This 25% threshold was selected rather arbitrarily at the time the bylaws were drafted and did not anticipate the number of Individual Members which have joined the Foundation. The 2014 election for Individual Directors had participation of less than 15% of the Individual Members. Revised bylaws: A majority of the Individual Members voting (but only if at least 10% of the Individual Members vote at an annual or special meeting). Elections are never easy, but it is the only way to get the opinion of the public and your constituents. OpenStack as a community is no different.\nI have seen a growing number of posts or tweets about requesting people to cast their vote. There is a concern in the air (at least that is my personal feeling) that a quorum will not be met. This will have a number of implications on the changes in the bylaws, which could be a problematic for the future growth of the community. I am not going to go into the subject of, if I am in favor of the changes or not – we are all entitled to our own opinions.\nAccepting results if only a minimum of 10% of the members of the community participate.\n(I would like to clarify – that results of a vote are valid – even if the number of participants are low).\nAccording to Stefano Maffulli’s post – the people who can vote are those who are “active members of the OpenStack Foundation”. The number of people who vote for the TC elections – is going down. The bylaws define “active members” is defined as a member who has participated in one of the last two board elections.\nThe number of","date":"Jan 15, 2015","href":"/2015/01/the-openstack-foundation-2015.html","summary":"Well I am happy to say that the election is underway and I have already voted.\nKenneth Hui had an interesting post about how OpenStack Is A Social Contract and how people in the OpenStack community should be rushing to vote.\nI had a few thoughts about the change of quorum that is proposed.\nCurrent bylaws: A majority of the Individual Members voting (but only if at least 25% of the Individual Members vote at an annual or special meeting). This 25% threshold was selected rather arbitrarily at the time the bylaws were drafted and did not anticipate the number of Individual Members which have joined the Foundation. The 2014 election for Individual Directors had participation of less than 15% of the Individual Members. Revised bylaws: A majority of the Individual Members voting (but only if at least 10% of the Individual Members vote at an annual or special meeting). Elections are never easy, but it is the only way to get the opinion of the public and your constituents. OpenStack as a community is no different.","tags":["OpenStack","Miscellaneous"],"title":"The OpenStack Foundation – 2015 Individual Director Election"},{"content":"I would like to share with you the recording of the presentation I gave at DevOpsDays Israel – more information about the presentation can be found here.\nIt was interesting to hear the feedback from people – especially the developers, on how they do not know the other side of things. I think it was educational – and useful for all those who attended.\nPresentation at DevOpsDays Tel Aviv 2014\nThe full presentation is embedded below as well\n","date":"Jan 12, 2015","href":"/2015/01/recording-of-devopsdays-tlv-2014.html","summary":"I would like to share with you the recording of the presentation I gave at DevOpsDays Israel – more information about the presentation can be found here.\nIt was interesting to hear the feedback from people – especially the developers, on how they do not know the other side of things. I think it was educational – and useful for all those who attended.\nPresentation at DevOpsDays Tel Aviv 2014\nThe full presentation is embedded below as well","tags":["Orchestration","Speaker","DevOpsDays","DevOps","presentation"],"title":"Recording of DevOpsDays TLV 2014 Presentation"},{"content":"60 Blog posts in a 2014 – sometimes I don’t understand how that happens. Is that a lot? A little?\nI have always said that I do not blog for the sake of blogging, but to share information and my thoughts. It is good to see that people find this useful – and do take an interest in what I have to say.\nThe 5 posts that received the highest number of visitors in the past year were:\nThe Quickest Way to Get Started with Docker VSAN - The Unspoken Truth vCenter is Still a Single Point of Failure Nova-Docker on Juno Introducing VIRL Personal Edition What did I blog about? I calculated this with the tags I attached to each of the posts:\nOpenStack (30) VMware (19) Cloud (12) DevOps (7) VMworld (6) Automation, Administration, Architecture, Design and Docker (5) (Ok I lied – that was more than 5 topics)\nIf you would like more of a graphic presentation – here you go.\nFor me it has is interesting to see that my focus has changed, and not VMware centric any more. I guess that is an expected thing – with my current role and also that I have a more overall solution in mind during my daily work – which is so much more than virtualization.\nI hit a Milestone – on December 03, 2014 where I surpassed over 2,000,000 Pageviews on my blog.\nIt took me 5 years to achieve my first million, the second was achieved in only two years. I have been blogging for 7 years now, it always good to share my thoughts, my insights, and sometimes my rants. I hope you all benefit, and will continue to make use of the articles I write.\nHere is looking to a great 2015, filled with opportunities, community and exciting things ahead.\nAnd how did 2014 turn out for you? Please feel free to leave your comments and thoughts below.\nCatch you on all the flip side!\n","date":"Dec 31, 2014","href":"/2014/12/how-did-2014-turn-out-for-you.html","summary":"60 Blog posts in a 2014 – sometimes I don’t understand how that happens. Is that a lot? A little?\nI have always said that I do not blog for the sake of blogging, but to share information and my thoughts. It is good to see that people find this useful – and do take an interest in what I have to say.\nThe 5 posts that received the highest number of visitors in the past year were:","tags":["Blogger","Miscellaneous"],"title":"How Did 2014 Turn Out For You?"},{"content":"A few days ago VMware (Mike Brown, Anil Kapur and Justin King are the authors) announced the updated document for the vCenter Server 5.5 Availability guide.\nI would like to make clear a few things from the start.\nThis is not a VMware bashing post. (Even it might be perceived as such) I hold all three of the authors in very high regard. Here goes.\nWhen reading this document I was hoping to hear something new, something refreshing, something that VMware customers have been asking and verbally complaining about for a very long time.\nAlas – this is not the case.\nvCenter is a single point of failure. There I have said it. I have said it before, I will continue to say it in the future until this if fixed.\nIn the following article I will be taking statements directly from the text, providing my thoughts as I go along.\nGreat start – This document will discuss the requirements… After re-reading that statement – I understood what VMware did. VMware has not provided us with a method of providing HA for vCenter – but rather – have explained what they think should be defined as High Availability be for your vCenter server.\nThe authors then go into explaining all about MTBF and MTTR – they did a great job. I will not go into the details here – you should read the document\nSLA’s are extremely important – and for and every environment – an SLA is something different – yours may differ from your neighbor, so it is important to understand what you need to achieve.\nThey then go into describing the tests that were run in order to measure the amount of time it would take for a vCenter server to recover. Fair enough.\nHere is where it starts to get interesting. Let us look at this in a picture.\nBottom line is – that once a vCenter server has gone down – it will take a little over 5 minutes until it is fully functional.\nThis part of the document states that having vSphere HA – and having vCenter running as a virtual machine actually provides some level of protection.\nA dedicated management","date":"Dec 11, 2014","href":"/2014/12/vcenter-is-still-single-point-of-failure.html","summary":"A few days ago VMware (Mike Brown, Anil Kapur and Justin King are the authors) announced the updated document for the vCenter Server 5.5 Availability guide.\nI would like to make clear a few things from the start.\nThis is not a VMware bashing post. (Even it might be perceived as such) I hold all three of the authors in very high regard. Here goes.\nWhen reading this document I was hoping to hear something new, something refreshing, something that VMware customers have been asking and verbally complaining about for a very long time.","tags":["Design","Management","Architecture","Administration","VMware","vCenter","Heartbeat"],"title":"vCenter is Still a Single Point of Failure"},{"content":"OpenStack is a living product – and because it is community driven - changes are being proposed almost constantly.\nSo how do you keep up with all of these proposed changes? And even more so why would you?\nThe answer to the second question is because if you are interested in the projects then you should be following what is going on. In addition there could be cases where you see that the proposed blueprint could break something that you currently use or is in directly contradiction to what you are trying to do – and you should leave your feedback.\nOpenStack wants you to leave your feedback – so please do!\nAbout the first question - the answer is here – https://specs.openstack.org. This is an aggregate of the new blueprints (specs) for each of the projects as they are approved.\nI use RSS feeds available for the blueprints which helps me keep up to date as soon as a new blueprint is added.\nI have compiled an OPML file with all the current projects that you can add to your favorite RSS reader.\nYou can download it in the link below.\nI hope this will be as useful to you as it is to me.\nAs always, comments, suggestions and thoughts are always welcome.\n","date":"Dec 8, 2014","href":"/2014/12/keeping-up-to-date-with-openstack.html","summary":"OpenStack is a living product – and because it is community driven - changes are being proposed almost constantly.\nSo how do you keep up with all of these proposed changes? And even more so why would you?\nThe answer to the second question is because if you are interested in the projects then you should be following what is going on. In addition there could be cases where you see that the proposed blueprint could break something that you currently use or is in directly contradiction to what you are trying to do – and you should leave your feedback.","tags":["OpenStack","Architecture","Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"Keeping up to date with OpenStack Blueprints"},{"content":"In my previous post I showed you how to get your OpenStack git environment up and running by using a container.\nIn this post we will go through the steps needed to actually contribute code. This will not be a detailed tutorial on how to use git and gerrit, and its functionality, but rather a simple step by step tutorial on how to get your code submitted for review in OpenStack.\nFirst we start up the container.\nSince playing around with real OpenStack code is not a good idea when you are just learning – there is a sandbox repository where you can perform all your tests.\nhttps://github.com/openstack-dev/sandbox\nFirst things first we need to clone the repository so that we have a local copy of the files\ngit clone https://github.com/openstack-dev/sandbox\nWhat this does is, you copy all the files in the repository to a folder of the same name under your current working directory. Depending on the size of the repo – this could take seconds or minutes.\nEnter the directory and look at the files.\n{{ highlight zsh }} cd sandbox\nls –la {{ /highlight }}\nYou will see the files are the same as the those on the repository on the web.\nWith the exception of one file the .git folder which is not visible on the github repository. This link will give you some more explanation as to what is in the folder.\nNow make sure you have the latest code from Github.\n{{ highlight zsh }} git checkout master git pull origin master {{ /highlight }}\nCreate a branch to do your work in that you\u0026amp;rsquo;ll do commits from.\ngit checkout -b MYFIRST-CONTRIBUTION\nNow we get to the changes.\nI am going to create folder named maish with two files inside, like the structure shown below\nHere I just created empty files – but it could be correcting someone else’s code or adding new code, the process is the same.\nOnce you have completed your work you will need to add all the changes and push them back up to the original branch.\nAdd all the files and changes by running\ngit add .\nNext, you commit your changes with a","date":"Dec 2, 2014","href":"/2014/12/landing-your-first-openstack.html","summary":"In my previous post I showed you how to get your OpenStack git environment up and running by using a container.\nIn this post we will go through the steps needed to actually contribute code. This will not be a detailed tutorial on how to use git and gerrit, and its functionality, but rather a simple step by step tutorial on how to get your code submitted for review in OpenStack.\nFirst we start up the container.","tags":["Automation","OpenStack","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Landing your first OpenStack Contribution"},{"content":"This is an internal Cisco tool which is so useful – that I am really pleased that it is finally available for public consumption.\nVIRL Stands for Virtual Internet Routing Lab\nWhat Is VIRL? VIRL is comprehensive network design and simulation platform. VIRL includes a powerful graphical user interface for network design and simulation control, a configuration engine that can build complete Cisco configuration at the push of a button, Cisco virtual machines running same network operating systems as used in Cisco’s physical routers and switches, all running on top of OpenStack. How Does VIRL Work? VIRL uses the Linux KVM hypervisor and OpenStack as its virtual machine control layer, with a powerful API enabling the creation and operation of VMs in a simulated network topology. Users design their network using the VM Maestro design and control interface, with network elements such as virtual routers, switches and servers. The design is translated into a set of virtual machines running real Cisco network operating systems.\nWhat Does VIRL Offer? Design, learn and test with virtual machine running real Cisco network operating systems – IOS, IOS XE, IOS XR and NX-OS as well as virtual machine running 3rd party operating systems. Build highly-accurate models of real-world or future networks, study the behaviour and configuration of routing protocols, break and fix your network and understand how to troubleshoot with a powerful integrated platform.\nThe original information can be found here\nCisco VIRL Personal Edition annual subscription license provides a scalable, extensible network design and simulation environment for several Cisco Network Operating Systems for students. This includes IOSv, IOS XRv, NX-OSv, CSR1000v as well as third party images such as Ubuntu Linux.\nEducational pricing is available for this product for college students, parents buying for a college student, or teachers, homeschool teachers and staff of all grade levels – limited to one purchase.\nVIRL","date":"Dec 1, 2014","href":"/2014/12/introducing-virl-personal-edition.html","summary":"This is an internal Cisco tool which is so useful – that I am really pleased that it is finally available for public consumption.\nVIRL Stands for Virtual Internet Routing Lab\nWhat Is VIRL? VIRL is comprehensive network design and simulation platform. VIRL includes a powerful graphical user interface for network design and simulation control, a configuration engine that can build complete Cisco configuration at the push of a button, Cisco virtual machines running same network operating systems as used in Cisco’s physical routers and switches, all running on top of OpenStack. ","tags":["Automation","Tools","OpenStack","Miscellaneous","Cisco"],"title":"Introducing VIRL Personal Edition"},{"content":"One of the most daunting and complicated things people find when trying to provide feedback and suggestions to the OpenStack community, projects and code – is the nuts and bolts of actually getting this done.\nThere are a number of tutorials around. The official kind - HowTo for FirstTimers, Documentation HowTo, Gerrit Workflow.\nScott Lowe also posted a good tutorial on Setting up the Tools for Contributing to OpenStack Documentation. But the process itself is still clunky, complicated and for someone who has never used git or gerrit before – highly intimidating.\nThat is why I embarked on providing a really simple way of starting to contribute to the OpenStack code. I was planning on writing a step-by-step on how exactly this should be done – but Scott’s post was more than enough – so need to repeat what has already been said.\nDespite that there are still some missing pieces in there which I would like to fill in here in this post.\nBefore we get started there are a few requirements/bits of information that you must have, and some things that you need to do before hand - in order for this process to work.\nThey are as follows:\nA launchpad account An Openstack Foundation account. (Use the same email address for both step 1 and step 2). A signed Contributor License Agreement (CLA). A gerrit http password. Somewhere to run Docker (I wrote a post about this - The Quickest Way to Get Started with Docker) Let me walk you through each of the steps.\n1. A Launchpad Account Sign up for a launchpad account – https://www.launchpad.net\nRegister for a new account – you will need to provide some information of course\nYou will need to of course verify your email address. Go to your inbox and click on that link in the email you have received and validate your address\n2. Join the OpenStack Foundation Sign up for an Openstack Foundation account – https://www.openstack.org/join\nAnd fill in the details\nRemember – use the same email address you used to sign up for the launchpad account.\n3.","date":"Nov 27, 2014","href":"/2014/11/start-contributing-to-openstack-easy.html","summary":"One of the most daunting and complicated things people find when trying to provide feedback and suggestions to the OpenStack community, projects and code – is the nuts and bolts of actually getting this done.\nThere are a number of tutorials around. The official kind - HowTo for FirstTimers, Documentation HowTo, Gerrit Workflow.\nScott Lowe also posted a good tutorial on Setting up the Tools for Contributing to OpenStack Documentation. But the process itself is still clunky, complicated and for someone who has never used git or gerrit before – highly intimidating.","tags":["Automation","docker","OpenStack","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Start Contributing to OpenStack - The Easy Way docker"},{"content":"I love IFTTT – it is a simple way to automate things.\nIf This Then That. If something happens – then do something else. I am already using a number of IFTTT recipes to help me in automating my daily life.\nI do not use Wordpress – Blogger suits my needs very well, It has its upsides and downsides.\nWhen I publish a blog post – I like to update my social networks with the announcement. At the moment this is manual process. And I had enough.\nI went to my friend IFTTT to help me out.\nA new recipe that finds a new tweet by me.\nand then push it to buffer\nTwo major issues here. One I only want to push certain tweets – not everything.\nThat could be solved by changing the trigger to a tweet by me with a hashtag\nBut my biggest problem was that I have not control of when the tweet should be scheduled something which I can do with the buffer interface as you can see below.\nZapier to the rescue.\nThe basic account is free for 5 zaps (recipes in IFTTT language) and 100 tasks per month.\nMy first tweet is always done manually after I publish the post. The format is always as follows:\nNew Blog Post | \u0026amp;lt;Blog_post_title\u0026amp;gt; – So the logic behind my automation was as follows\nIt will look for a text – and also check if this is already a retweet of my previous post – otherwise I will get an endless loop. Then schedule it for a specific time.\nZapier does not enable me to do multiple actions – which is OK – so I created another 2 zaps for the additional times I wanted to schedule the tweets.\nThis is what the zap looks like\nHope this is useful.\nJust a small note as to why I re-tweet multiple times. because of time zone differences and exposure – that is all.\n","date":"Nov 24, 2014","href":"/2014/11/automating-blog-retweets.html","summary":"I love IFTTT – it is a simple way to automate things.\nIf This Then That. If something happens – then do something else. I am already using a number of IFTTT recipes to help me in automating my daily life.\nI do not use Wordpress – Blogger suits my needs very well, It has its upsides and downsides.\nWhen I publish a blog post – I like to update my social networks with the announcement. At the moment this is manual process. And I had enough.","tags":["Automation","Blogger","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Automating Blog Retweets"},{"content":"Today I gave a presentation – actually two – but they were very different.\nHow many of you have heard about Ignite?\nIgnite is the name for a particular type of event that is held throughout the world—organized by volunteers—at which participants speak about their ideas and personal or professional passions according to a specific format. The event holds the motto, “Enlighten us, but make it quick!” Anyone can throw an Ignite event. The presentations are meant to \u0026amp;ldquo;ignite\u0026amp;rdquo; the audience on a subject, whereby awareness, thought, and action are generated on the subjects presented.\nIgnite is a presentation format that is shorter than the Pecha Kucha format, a presentation style in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each, but longer than lightning talks, which are short presentations from five to 10 minutes in length. At an Ignite event, each speaker has a time limit of five minutes, and must use 20 slides with each slide advancing automatically after 15 seconds. This forces speakers to maintain a rapid pace. At a just-comprehensible clip of 160 words a minute, Ignite speakers can utter about 40 words per slide, making a total of 800 words for the complete talk.\nPersonally, I think this is one of the hardest methodologies to present.\nYou only have 15 seconds per slide – that means you need to get your point across in a very short time. Precise, and concise. The clock waits for no man\nVisual slides are advised, it helps you get your point across. And bullet points should be kept to a minimum.\nI thoroughly enjoyed doing this presentation. It took only five minutes – but preparation on the ideas, the delivery and content took over 2 hours.\nA great challenge and something that I would totally do again.\nBelow is the presentation (specifically in PPT format – since all the animations and timing are built into the presentation).\n","date":"Nov 23, 2014","href":"/2014/11/presenting-ignite-way.html","summary":"Today I gave a presentation – actually two – but they were very different.\nHow many of you have heard about Ignite?\nIgnite is the name for a particular type of event that is held throughout the world—organized by volunteers—at which participants speak about their ideas and personal or professional passions according to a specific format. The event holds the motto, “Enlighten us, but make it quick!” Anyone can throw an Ignite event. The presentations are meant to \u0026ldquo;ignite\u0026rdquo; the audience on a subject, whereby awareness, thought, and action are generated on the subjects presented.","tags":["Speaker","ignite","social","presentation"],"title":"Presenting - the Ignite way"},{"content":"I will be delivering a talk at the upcoming DevOpsDays Tel Aviv which will be on this coming Sunday and Monday.\nDevOps is one of my personal interests, especially educating of the other side of the table, the developers, as I do not see myself as one but rather an Operations kind of guy.\nI will also be delivering an Ignite session about Using Social Media As a Tool in Your Daily Work.\nI will be presenting with John Willis, Michael Ducy, Aviran Mordo, Sagy Rozman, Nir Cohen, Orit Yaron, Dror Bereznitsky, Eyal Edri and Oded Ramraz.\nThe full schedule is here.\nIf you cannot join in person - the event is being streamed live and of course the presentations and recordings will be available after event as well. v Hope to see you next week – it will sure be interesting.\n","date":"Nov 20, 2014","href":"/2014/11/devs-are-from-mars-ops-are-from-venus.html","summary":"I will be delivering a talk at the upcoming DevOpsDays Tel Aviv which will be on this coming Sunday and Monday.\nDevOps is one of my personal interests, especially educating of the other side of the table, the developers, as I do not see myself as one but rather an Operations kind of guy.\nI will also be delivering an Ignite session about Using Social Media As a Tool in Your Daily Work.","tags":["Speaker","DevOpsDays","DevOps"],"title":"Devs are from Mars, Ops are from Venus"},{"content":"I participated on Monday in the Ops Summit: How to get involved in Kilo, and as these sessions are not recorded I wanted to convey the messages that were conveyed at the session.\nBut first, the Ops Summit is a mini 2-day set of sessions that were introduced at the previous summit to get the feedback of the people actually using OpenStack and their problems and issues that they are encountering. A great and formidable initiative on the part of the Foundation – still it is one that I think should be done before you start developing code, but that is only my humble opinion.\nThere were a lot of the PTL’s and TC members there, showing that they are serious and listening to the community – not the developer community, but rather the Operators.\nI raised the following question in the session.\nBeing an operator – a guy that uses, deploys, manages, troubleshoots and supports OpenStack. I do not have developer experience, I do not have a team of developers at my disposal.\nHow would you (“Openstack”) want us to contribute?\nThe feedback was that they would like hear the problems we are having, submit the user stories, the issues, the pain points back to the developer community. This can be done by submitting bugs, by asking the questions on https://ask.openstack.org/ or on the IRC channels.\nTell your stories, publish what you have achieved, and even post the problem that you encountered, and answer your own question if you solved it. The https://ask.openstack.org/ receives a lot of Google traffic so it makes things easier for others to find.\nAnother item that was raised was that the TC would like to see more Operator feedback on the specs that are being added for each cycle. There is a new portal where all the proposed blueprints are being published – in a nice and collated fashion.\nThey are organized per project and will point you to blueprint in question. They ask that you leave your feedback. I actually find this to be misleading. Where do I leave feedback? On that page? On","date":"Nov 5, 2014","href":"/2014/11/how-operators-can-get-involved-in-kilo.html","summary":"I participated on Monday in the Ops Summit: How to get involved in Kilo, and as these sessions are not recorded I wanted to convey the messages that were conveyed at the session.\nBut first, the Ops Summit is a mini 2-day set of sessions that were introduced at the previous summit to get the feedback of the people actually using OpenStack and their problems and issues that they are encountering. A great and formidable initiative on the part of the Foundation – still it is one that I think should be done before you start developing code, but that is only my humble opinion.","tags":["OpenStack","DevOps","Summit"],"title":"How Operators Can Get Involved in Kilo OpenStackSummit"},{"content":"I am currently writing this post from the plane on the way to the summit in Paris. For those of you who are living under a rock, or were completely unaware, this is the biannual \u0026amp;ldquo;pilgrimage\u0026amp;rdquo; of all thing OpenStack. This coincides with the Juno release that was went GA less than 3 weeks ago.\nThis is only my second summit, I have but I am really looking forward to bumping into some familiar faces, and making new acquaintances.\nIt is not the first time I have said this, but I think that OpenStack is at a crucial impasse, at a time where some hard decisions have to be made, before it reaches a point of no return.\nA new Technical Committee was elected recently, and already there are rumblings as to what should be the criteria for those who can voter, why is the the participation so low and is this a trend that we were going to have to get used to. To all those above, I do not have a clear answer, although I would like to add one thought.\nThe technical committee is elected by the ATC\u0026amp;rsquo;s (Active Technical Contributors). That is the way it should be, those who are actively putting in their time, their code into the projects, should be the one\u0026amp;rsquo;s who decide who they want as their representative. I think this was the first time where all candidates were presented with a set of questions which tried to show their point of view of how things should be going forward.\nPersonally, I have met one or two of them, with others exchanged an email or two, an IRC chat or two, and others I know of them just from what I read on the mailing lists.\nI think there is one very important thing that is missing, and hopefully, something that will change going forward. All of the candidates, they come from the technical contribution side. They know their stuff, they know the community, but I am not sure I can say that they have large deployment experience, they have not experienced 1st hand, in the flesh, the problems, the challenges, the frustrations that those who are","date":"Nov 2, 2014","href":"/2014/11/on-my-way-to-openstack-summit.html","summary":"I am currently writing this post from the plane on the way to the summit in Paris. For those of you who are living under a rock, or were completely unaware, this is the biannual \u0026ldquo;pilgrimage\u0026rdquo; of all thing OpenStack. This coincides with the Juno release that was went GA less than 3 weeks ago.\nThis is only my second summit, I have but I am really looking forward to bumping into some familiar faces, and making new acquaintances.","tags":["OpenStack","DevOps","Summit"],"title":"Putting Some Ops in the Dev - OpenStack Summit"},{"content":"Containers are hot. It is the latest buzzword. Unfortunately buzzwords are not always the right way to go, but I have been wanting to use containers as a first class citizen on OpenStack for a while.\nIn Icehouse, Heat has support for containers but only in the sense that you can launch an instance and then launch a container within that instance (Scott Lowe – has a good walkthrough for this – it is a great read).\nFirst a bit of history.\nThe Docker driver is a hypervisor driver for Openstack Nova Compute. It was introduced with the Havana release, but lives out-of-tree for Icehouse and Juno. Being out-of-tree has allowed the driver to reach maturity and feature-parity faster than would be possible should it have remained in-tree. It is expected the driver will return to mainline Nova in the Kilo release.\nThe Docker driver was removed from Nova – due to CI issues and migrated to Stackforge for the Icehouse release.\nFrom the announcement for Juno\nMany operational updates were also made this cycle including improvements for rescue mode that users requested as well as allowing per-network setting on nova-network code. Key drivers were added such as bare metal as a service (Ironic) and Docker support through StackForge.\nI set out to try it out. This is my environment:\nFedora 20 (x64) All in one RDO installation of OpenStack (2014.2) First things first was to get OpenStack up and running (that I am not going to go into how that is done in this post).\nThe stages are as follows:\nInstall Docker on the compute node Install required packages to install nova-docker driver Config file changes Dockerize all the things!! Install Docker on the compute Node Following the documentation (do so for your Linux distribution)\nyum -y remove docker yum -y install docker-io Then start the docker services and set them to run at startup\nsystemctl start docker systemctl enable docker Now to test that Docker is working correctly without OpenStack\ndocker run -i -t ubuntu /bin/bash If all is good","date":"Oct 28, 2014","href":"/2014/10/nova-docker-on-juno.html","summary":"Containers are hot. It is the latest buzzword. Unfortunately buzzwords are not always the right way to go, but I have been wanting to use containers as a first class citizen on OpenStack for a while.\nIn Icehouse, Heat has support for containers but only in the sense that you can launch an instance and then launch a container within that instance (Scott Lowe – has a good walkthrough for this – it is a great read).","tags":["docker","OpenStack","Juno","Cloud"],"title":"Nova-Docker on Juno"},{"content":"I am here sitting here at the blogger table on Day-0 (Partner Day) of VMworld in Barcelona, and it is time to close some technical debt (well not really technical but it would be better to call it blogging debt).\nIf there is one thing that VMware have been doing a great job over the years is abstracting resources, and by that I mean making it easier and easier for end users to use the underlying resources in your infrastructure.\nLet’s start with the basic VM concept. Instead of buying a network card, a disk, a CPU etc. that process is abstracted with a GUI (or an API if you that is your thing) which makes adding any of the the above resources a snap.\nNetworking next. Portgroups – abstract the underlying physical network which makes as easy as one-two-three to connect a VM to a network port and hey-presto – you have a pingable IP.\nVirtual desktops (is it the year of the virtual desktop yet?). Abstraction of a pool of resources behind a portal that allows you to get a desktop with a click of a mouse button.\nI will dare to say that up until now this have been targeted at making the lives of the end users as easy as possible.\nLet me say that again.\n“..up until now this have been targeted at making the lives of the end users as easy as possible\u0026amp;hellip;”\nBut what about those poor people that have put all that infrastructure in place? Those poor admins.\nInstalling ESXi Hosts Configuring Networking Storage Templates etc… etc… Over the years we have developed tools, written our own code, our own scripts to deploy the infrastructure as fast as possible, and in as much of a standard way as possible.\nOf course VMware has given us some tools over the years to alleviate these pan points. It started with kickstart scripted installs, Host Profiles, AutoDeploy. Over the years it has evolved, but there has never really been a proper focus on the administrators who have been installing, maintaining and upgrading the infrastructure.\nOf course there were different levels of abstraction","date":"Oct 13, 2014","href":"/2014/10/it-is-all-about-resource-abstraction.html","summary":"I am here sitting here at the blogger table on Day-0 (Partner Day) of VMworld in Barcelona, and it is time to close some technical debt (well not really technical but it would be better to call it blogging debt).\nIf there is one thing that VMware have been doing a great job over the years is abstracting resources, and by that I mean making it easier and easier for end users to use the underlying resources in your infrastructure.","tags":["VMworld","Architecture","VMware"],"title":"It is All About Resource Abstraction VMworld"},{"content":"I am sure you have all been reading the numerous amount of posts recapping VMworld and their experiences. My RSS feed has been overflowing and it has taken a while to get through it all. This will not be my only VMworld post, but one with which I would like give you all my personal perspective of how I went through VMworld, but not from a technical perspective, but from a personal one just before we start with VMworld 2014 Europe.\nForgive me if this has nothing to do with technology, virtualization or cloud, but as you are all aware, religion is a substantial part of my life, and as a result this has an effect on practically everything I do, including attending technical conferences.\nTravel Shabbat – or as you might know it as the Sabbath. Shabbat is typically from sunset on Friday afternoon until when 3 stars are visible in the night sky on Saturday evening. During that period – for me this is a day of rest. I will not go into every single detail of what the laws are but basically this means:\nno travelling not by car, not by bicycle no public transport not by boat, plane, train, air balloon or space ship for that matter There are even certain restrictions on how far you can actually walk on Shabbat.\nBecause of these restrictions, my travel to and from a remote location has to be either before Shabbat or after Shabbat finishes. In the case of VMworld, my travel to San Francisco could not commence before Saturday night, and therefore I would arrive on Sunday morning.\nThe same with travel back, if a conference finishes late in the week and if there is any chance of my flight back not arriving back in time for me to get home before Shabbat, then I will delay my flights until the following Sunday.\nI do my research and see if there is a Jewish community in the city I am visiting, and if there is a synagogue close to the location I will be staying, if not – I will probably move to another hotel towards the weekend closer to the Jewish community.\nFood Kosher dietary laws","date":"Sep 30, 2014","href":"/2014/09/vmworld-from-religious-jewish-orthodox.html","summary":"I am sure you have all been reading the numerous amount of posts recapping VMworld and their experiences. My RSS feed has been overflowing and it has taken a while to get through it all. This will not be my only VMworld post, but one with which I would like give you all my personal perspective of how I went through VMworld, but not from a technical perspective, but from a personal one just before we start with VMworld 2014 Europe.","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous"],"title":"VMworld - from a Religious Jewish Orthodox Perspective"},{"content":"Last week I attended the AWS Tech Summit in Tel Aviv.\nThe Conference is growing. 500 attendees 2 years ago, 1000 last year, 1500 attendees this year. There was an impressive Solutions Expo, with a quite a number of companies.\nI enjoyed the Keynote given by Dr. Werner Vogels (VP \u0026amp;amp; CTO). He is great and passionate speaker.\nThere was one thing that I found quite enlightening and one of the key takeaways for me from the conference. During the keynote Avi Kochva the CIO of Bank Hapoalim (one of the 3 major banks in Israel) who got up on stage and described how they are using AWS today.\nHe described the 3 points that the bank uses to determine when they can use a public cloud provider:\nUsing the Cloud has better value, and it provides a better solution than what they are using in house Using the cloud is a a cheaper solution Since the CIO is criminally liable if information from the bank is compromised, therefore the security provided for the data in the cloud cannot be less that what they currently have. He then mentioned publicly that the bank has no core banking data or information in the cloud. Yes they are dabbling in other stuff like providing a site – I assume on AWS – that will allow access to completely anonymized data for developing mobile apps, but I am not sure that much else is there.\nThis was one of my key takeaways from the conference\nBank Hapoalim has no core banking data or information in the cloud #AWSSummitTLV #AWSSummit \u0026amp;lt;- that is an important takeaway!\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) September 17, 2014 Evidently they do not feel that AWS is as secure as their datacenters today. Food for thought.\nThere a number of sessions on optimizing your workloads in AWS that I attended, and besides the pointers that were given in the sessions I came to the realization that there are so many different features you can use in AWS that it actually can make your head spin. And almost always there is a way to save money – but it not the most trivial","date":"Sep 23, 2014","href":"/2014/09/aws-summit-tel-aviv-2014.html","summary":"Last week I attended the AWS Tech Summit in Tel Aviv.\nThe Conference is growing. 500 attendees 2 years ago, 1000 last year, 1500 attendees this year. There was an impressive Solutions Expo, with a quite a number of companies.\nI enjoyed the Keynote given by Dr. Werner Vogels (VP \u0026amp; CTO). He is great and passionate speaker.\nThere was one thing that I found quite enlightening and one of the key takeaways for me from the conference. During the keynote Avi Kochva the CIO of Bank Hapoalim (one of the 3 major banks in Israel) who got up on stage and described how they are using AWS today.","tags":["Miscellaneous","AWS","Cloud","Summit"],"title":"AWS Summit Tel Aviv 2014"},{"content":"I would like to add one or two more points points to my previous post - An Open Letter to the OpenStack Foundation.\nI used Ceilometer as an example, and only as an example. I am more than sure that there are perfectly valid reasons to have chosen MongoDB instead of MySQL. I have no doubt. But doing so this still introduces more complexity.\nPaul Richards left a comment – and because of his example – I think this just made thoughts even clearer.\n\u0026amp;ldquo;The point is to use the right tool for the job. Don\u0026amp;rsquo;t use pliers when you need to use a wrench\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nI completely agree with that. I “stole” his example and used it to further emphasize my point.\nOf course every tool has to fit the right job, but to steal your analogy (forgive me), each group thinks that their tool is the right one. And over time - instead of walking around with only a pliers and a wrench you now need a big toolbox with a hammer, a saw, 15 different screwdriver bits, a cutters, duct tape, wire, a wrench, a pliers and so on and so on.\nTo continue the analogy - I would have like to see the TC either change the bolt - whether now or in the future - that it will become acceptable for both tasks with one tool. Or alternatively create a tool that can be used both as a wrench and as a pliers.\nThat is the job of the TC. But I personally feel that since the work being done on the overall architecture, a holistic OpenStack Product architecture, is lacking - here is where the biggest potential failure could occur.\nI already see it breaking apart - with different HA models, different scaling models for the different components. And it is only going to get worse.\nMy toolbox becometh heavy.\n","date":"Sep 22, 2014","href":"/2014/09/my-toolbox-is-becoming-heavy.html","summary":"I would like to add one or two more points points to my previous post - An Open Letter to the OpenStack Foundation.\nI used Ceilometer as an example, and only as an example. I am more than sure that there are perfectly valid reasons to have chosen MongoDB instead of MySQL. I have no doubt. But doing so this still introduces more complexity.\nPaul Richards left a comment – and because of his example – I think this just made thoughts even clearer.","tags":["OpenStack","Miscellaneous","Cloud","Communities"],"title":"My Toolbox is Becoming Heavy"},{"content":"I have recently started to regularly follow the mailing lists and the conversations are quite interesting.\nIt is quite evident that that OpenStack is starting to go through growing pains. It was quite evident as well from OpenStack Silicon Valley 2014 that was held yesterday.\nOpenStack has grown from a minimal amount – where most of the developers knew each other personally, knew each others phone numbers, a good personal community – the way it should be. But as all good things, like all successful thing, it grows. This is what OpenStack looks like today.\nCurrent OpenStack programs are listed below:\nOpenStack Compute (code-name Nova) - integrated project since Austin release OpenStack Networking (code-name Neutron) - integrated project since Folsom release OpenStack Object Storage (code-name Swift) - integrated project since Austin release OpenStack Block Storage (code-name Cinder) - integrated project since Folsom release OpenStack Identity (code-name Keystone) - integrated project since Essex release OpenStack Image Service (code-name Glance) - integrated project since Bexar release OpenStack Dashboard (code-name Horizon) - integrated project since Essex release OpenStack Telemetry (code-name Ceilometer) - integrated project since the Havana release OpenStack Orchestration (code-name Heat) - integrated project since the Havana release OpenStack Database (code-name Trove) - integrated project since the Icehouse release New capabilities under development for Juno and beyond:\nBare Metal (Ironic) Queue Service (Marconi) Data Processing (Sahara) These are the core components. I do not think that I am exaggerating if I was to say that there are at least another 30 projects or Github repositories either on the OpenStack repo or the Stackforge repo, and a good portion of them are actively being developed.\nIdeally each and every project should be independent from the other. This of course has its upside but also problems as well.\nLet’s take an example.\nMost of the core","date":"Sep 17, 2014","href":"/2014/09/an-open-letter-to-openstack-foundation.html","summary":"I have recently started to regularly follow the mailing lists and the conversations are quite interesting.\nIt is quite evident that that OpenStack is starting to go through growing pains. It was quite evident as well from OpenStack Silicon Valley 2014 that was held yesterday.\nOpenStack has grown from a minimal amount – where most of the developers knew each other personally, knew each others phone numbers, a good personal community – the way it should be. But as all good things, like all successful thing, it grows. This is what OpenStack looks like today.","tags":["OpenStack","Miscellaneous","Cloud","Communities"],"title":"An Open Letter to the OpenStack Foundation"},{"content":"The event was organized by the VMUnderground crew.\nThe idea here was to have an activity – community driven – to give people who were interested in something to do on the day before VMworld – Sunday. Yes you could mess around and go sightseeing – all of that is fun – but most of us are techies at heart – and we need our tech fix, so unless you were part of Partner Day or TAM day, there was not much you could do today. So many of you turned up at the City View at Metreon where there were 6 sessions you could choose from, all with panelists.\nI volunteered to act as a panelist on the Architecture and Design – the panelists were\nMatt Liebowitz (@mattliebowitz) moderator Melissa Palmer (@vmiss33) Phoummala Schmitt (@exchangegoddess) Mike Preston (@mwpreston) John Arrasjid (@vcdx001) And little old me - @maishsk So of course there was an incentive for people to come – because they wanted to get in on the best party WUPaaS (Warm Up party as a Service) a tradition over many a VMworld. If you ask anyone they will say that this is most probably one of the best evening events throughout the week, again I think because it is community driven. Yes there are sponsors, quite a number of them actually, but the event is not driven by any single vendor. And of course – it is for the community. Cost is minimal (yes you have to pay to get in) but I personally do not mind spending those $10 to support the wonderful people of our community\n(I am thankful that the majority of the costs are covered by the sponsors – so we can continue to enjoy this event)\nWe were the third and last session on the roster, so I assume that the crowd had warmed up with asking questions and interacting with the previous panels, so they were not shy.\nQuestion were asked, it was a great flowing discussion and as always I learned a lot (and I hope the audience did as well).\nEmbedded below is the session recording and the full playlist of all the sessions can be found here.\nMore VMworld posts to follow.\n","date":"Sep 5, 2014","href":"/2014/09/vmunderground-opening-acts.html","summary":"The event was organized by the VMUnderground crew.\nThe idea here was to have an activity – community driven – to give people who were interested in something to do on the day before VMworld – Sunday. Yes you could mess around and go sightseeing – all of that is fun – but most of us are techies at heart – and we need our tech fix, so unless you were part of Partner Day or TAM day, there was not much you could do today. So many of you turned up at the City View at Metreon where there were 6 sessions you could choose from, all with panelists.","tags":["VMworld","Blogger",2014],"title":"VMunderground Opening Acts"},{"content":"VMworld is almost upon us. I am personally looking forward mostly to the social networking part and of course also delivering my first VMworld presentation (NET3160-SPO).\nI wrote a summary post last year VMworld 2013 has Come and Gone where I described my experience from last year.\nToday I would like to touch on a slightly sensitive topic – because it is a two edged sword (so bear with me please).\nVMworld is the place where everyone comes to – it is the VMware show of the year, attendance grows each and every year and sometimes it makes me wonder if something new –0 something that has not yet been done before – will happen at this years show. Any and every vendor that is connected with VMware in some way will probably be there.\nHave you ever noticed how many people change companies after VMworld? It is not something that I have performed a scientific study on – I do not have exact numbers.\nIt dawned on me – after a few conversations in the hang space last year - that several people were there to look how to advance their career. Some of them had specifically set up meetings during the show in order to interview candidates or to apply for a position.\nAnd that is quite natural. I think that many of the vendors at the show are looking to recruit talent, talent that they have the option to meet in person, get to know them and see if they are a “match made in heaven”.\nI will not be naming any names (of companies or individuals), but I distinctly remember at least two vendors that had recruiting agents at their booths, on the Solutions Exchange floor.\nOne individual (who asked to remain anonymous) answered my question.\nQ: Do you know of any other people who changed companies as a result of attending VMworld?\nA: Not specifically because of VMworld. I think the changes were already underway, or people were already thinking about it before VMworld. It just happens that a lot of key people end up being at VMworld. So I think it\u0026amp;rsquo;s more a result of everyone being together","date":"Aug 12, 2014","href":"/2014/08/the-often-overlooked-side-of-vmworld.html","summary":"VMworld is almost upon us. I am personally looking forward mostly to the social networking part and of course also delivering my first VMworld presentation (NET3160-SPO).\nI wrote a summary post last year VMworld 2013 has Come and Gone where I described my experience from last year.\nToday I would like to touch on a slightly sensitive topic – because it is a two edged sword (so bear with me please).","tags":["VMworld","Blogger","VMware","Career",2014],"title":"The Often Overlooked Side of VMworld"},{"content":"There has been a lively thread on the openstack-dev mailing list these past few days, largely to do with GBP. I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t want to go into the intricacies of what exactly sparked the discussion but rather to discuss one of the by products that came out of it.\nOpenStack is now 4, and on its ninth cycle of development. There has been a huge amount of innovation that has gone into the product and I think that the community is now coming to a stage where these growing pains are starting to show.\nI think it is part of human nature to like the next shiny thing. We are always looking for the next best thing.\nLet me give you a classic example. What was wrong with the iPhone 4? Of course there will be those that say the new iPhone 6 that will be released in the not too distant future, is better, faster, more powerful, looks nicer etc. etc.\nBut if you look at it from another perspective, is is just a nice and shiny new toy, that basically does the same as your old phone.\nDid you really need to get a new one, probably not. Is it nice to have a new one, I would definitely say so.\nBut have those annoying things from your old phone ever been fixed? Does your battery last longer or shorter with you new phone? Are there annoying bugs that have been around forever and have never been fixed?\nHere is another example. There has been a cosmetic, but annoying bug in the vSphere client since forever. I am sure you all have come a cross it. When provisioning a new VM the first window focus will always jump to the location field instead of staying in the first field which is the VM name. Annoying as hell! But since this bug has been around, VMware have developed the dvSwitch, SIOC, NIOC, VSAN, vCloud, VCHS and more and more. But that bug has never been fixed.\nI see this again as a question of innovation (and the next bright and shiny thing) or fix up those annoying bugs. Of course innovation will always trump the mundane work of maintenance. I have done it myself, more than once, focused","date":"Aug 11, 2014","href":"/2014/08/to-innovate-or-to-stabilize-that-is.html","summary":"There has been a lively thread on the openstack-dev mailing list these past few days, largely to do with GBP. I don\u0026rsquo;t want to go into the intricacies of what exactly sparked the discussion but rather to discuss one of the by products that came out of it.\nOpenStack is now 4, and on its ninth cycle of development. There has been a huge amount of innovation that has gone into the product and I think that the community is now coming to a stage where these growing pains are starting to show.","tags":["OpenStack","DevOps"],"title":"To Innovate or to Stabilize - That is the Question!"},{"content":"In the OpenStack Design Summit I asked the authors the same 5 questions in order to get their thoughts and feelings on OpenStack, the community and the future.\nHow many years have you been working with OpenStack? What is your favorite thing about OpenStack? What is that you dislike about OpenStack? If there was only one thing you could change/improve in OpenStack - what would it be? Where do you think Openstack will be 3 years time? Here are their responses.\nBeth Cohen, Cloud Technology Strategist – Verizon\n3 years. It is a strong community of companies and people who want to build the best cloud platform in the world. It is a bunch of petty developers snipping at each other from their little fiefdoms. Better integration of the parts. Everywhere! Sean Winn, Cloud Services Network Engineer – CloudScaling\n2 years. I love that OpenStack is an open-source, community-developed system which, when leveraged properly within an organization, can have tremendous impact on every aspect of how that company does business. The effects of OpenStack on business operational efficiency and agility are incredible to me. Lack of cohesiveness between projects is one of the biggest problems that I see facing OpenStack. Features are sometimes developed without consideration of other OpenStack projects implementations of same or similar features. More cooperative efforts between projects to develop features with parity. The most widely deployed data center and cloud solution. Kenneth Hui, Business Development Manager, Cloud Solutions – EMC\n2 years. The collaborative nature of the community. Lack of focus in terms of development. Too many people chasing the newest shiny thing. Better product management. Leading private cloud platform. Nick Chase, Technical Marketing Manager - Mirantis\n2 years. The \u0026amp;ldquo;open\u0026amp;rdquo; nature of OpenStack means that anybody can get involved, and anybody can make it do what they need it to, if they are willing to put in the work. The possibilities are endless,","date":"Aug 8, 2014","href":"/2014/08/the-openstack-architecture-design-book.html","summary":"In the OpenStack Design Summit I asked the authors the same 5 questions in order to get their thoughts and feelings on OpenStack, the community and the future.\nHow many years have you been working with OpenStack? What is your favorite thing about OpenStack? What is that you dislike about OpenStack? If there was only one thing you could change/improve in OpenStack - what would it be? Where do you think Openstack will be 3 years time? Here are their responses.","tags":["Design","Book","OpenStack","Cloud"],"title":"The OpenStack Architecture Design Book Authors Speak"},{"content":"We are down to the wire – last two days to vote for the sessions you would like see at the upcoming OpenStack Summit in Paris.\nThere are a large number of categories that you can choose from as you can see below:\nYou will need an account to cast your vote.\nIt is quite interesting to see that some of the sessions are targeted at how you can migrate your workloads away from VMware and onto OpenStack, something that I think people will be looking into a lot more in the near future.\nI also have a few sessions that you can cast your vote – if you so choose..\nOpenStack Design Guide Panel In July, 2014 The OpenStack Foundation brought twelve members of the OpenStack community together at VMware HQ in Palo Alto, California to produce the OpenStack Design Guide in just 5 days. This panel brings many of these authors together for an open discussion about how to architecture an OpenStack cloud.\nBring your real-world questions and be prepared to talk OpenStack architecture with a panel of experts from across multiple disciplines and companies. We\u0026amp;rsquo;ll be drawing on real architecture and design problems taken from real-world experiences working with, and developing solutions, built on OpenStack. Following a brief introduction, panelists are ready to field questions from both the moderator and audience members and provide ongoing discussion the design process for architecting cloud solutions based on OpenStack.\nCisco\u0026amp;rsquo;s Media Solutions journey to the cloud with OpenStack This session will go over how the Video Service provider group has added focus to deployment of its platform to support OpenStack. How this has evolved over the past year, the challenges that came up along the way and how these challenges were addressed - and solved.\nMoving from a VMware Centric Architect to an OpenStack Architect I have been designing VMware clouds and architectures for the past 4 years, and have now moved my focus to OpenStack. The change was not a simple one. There are terminology","date":"Aug 6, 2014","href":"/2014/08/openstack-paris-summit-session-voting.html","summary":"We are down to the wire – last two days to vote for the sessions you would like see at the upcoming OpenStack Summit in Paris.\nThere are a large number of categories that you can choose from as you can see below:\nYou will need an account to cast your vote.\nIt is quite interesting to see that some of the sessions are targeted at how you can migrate your workloads away from VMware and onto OpenStack, something that I think people will be looking into a lot more in the near future.","tags":["Speaker","OpenStack","voting","Summit"],"title":"OpenStack Paris Summit Session Voting"},{"content":"Over 6 weeks ago I posted that I was going to embark on a journey, another book journey, and this time it was an OpenStack one.\nGo ahead and read the post OpenStack Design Guide Book Sprint.\nI have been wanting to write this for a while – but so much has been happening – that I just have not yet got around it until now.\nI first would like you all to visit these two posts:\nFive Days + Twelve Writers + One Book Sprint = One Excellent Book on OpenStack Architecture – Nick Chase The OpenStack Architecture Design Guide Book Sprint – Kevin Jackson As were the others, I was also skeptical about if such a process was even possible – but it was and I find it was actually a great success.\nEveryone I have spoken to since the sprint was surprised that you actually can write a book in 5 days, it just shows that with a group of dedicated, task driven individuals – that have a deadline, and a common goal, it is possible.\nSo how did it actually work?\nVMware (thanks to Scott Lowe) was kind enough to host us for these five days.\nIt was the first time I had actually been to the VMware campus – so this also was a first for me.\nThe diversity of the people involved was – I think – a good mix. There were Networking people, Openstack people, Architects, Storage Architects, Writers, Infrastructure Administrators, Project managers, a bit of everything. Each of us had input from a different aspect into the content that was going to go into the book and how it would be written.\nThe first day was mostly dedicated to the book structure, what the content should be about – who the audience should be, layout and such.\nA good amount of brainstorming, discussions – getting to actually know each other – because not everyone was acquainted with everyone else.\nThe graph on the picture above is actually better explained here\nEach of the vertical lines is a day. As you can see the concept of what actually goes into the book is mainly done on Day 1 and a bit on Day 2. On Day 1 you also start creating the","date":"Aug 4, 2014","href":"/2014/08/the-openstack-architecture-design-guide.html","summary":"Over 6 weeks ago I posted that I was going to embark on a journey, another book journey, and this time it was an OpenStack one.\nGo ahead and read the post OpenStack Design Guide Book Sprint.\nI have been wanting to write this for a while – but so much has been happening – that I just have not yet got around it until now.\nI first would like you all to visit these two posts:","tags":["Design","Book","OpenStack","Architecture"],"title":"The OpenStack Architecture Design Guide Story"},{"content":"Yep, that is 21 days. I do not think there is any need to introduce VMworld to the readers of my blog.\nI would like to share with you some (and by no means a comprehensive list) of the activities I will be partaking in during VMworld.\nOpening Acts 2014 — Panel Agenda - Sunday August 24th I will be a panelist in the Architecture \u0026amp;amp; Infrastructure Panel.\nOpening Acts will be a series of group/panel discussions over the course of a few hours on Sunday afternoon. Whiteboards will be present, but no slides or PowerPoint.\nIt is an honor to give back something to the VMunderground crew!\nvBrownbag – vExpert Daily Live Podcast – with Michael Letschin I be on the live podcast on Monday and Wednesday morning at 10:30. This will be a live discussion about the announcements of the day, the vibe and what is happening at the show.\nAnd last but not least my speaker debut at VMworld…\nAutomating Host, Guest and Application Deployment in the Software Defined Datacenter with Cisco - NET3160-SPO Automation is an essential component of the Software Defined Datacenter, without an automation solution this is destined for failure. We want to automate it all, from the deployment of the hardware, the hypervisor, the operating systems, and the application. This session will go through a customer story inside Cisco where an automation solution was implemented using PowerUCS, PowerCLI, Razor and Puppet to ensure a successful deployment from end to end. The session is technical, will provide a detailed architecture and methodology used in this customer, and how the solution reduced the deployment time from a number of days to a matter of hours.\nYou can expect a deep dive session here on Wednesday afternoon at 14:00-15:00. I will be one of only 4 Cisco sessions at the show with demos and some awesome integration between a great number of technologies.\nI can’t wait!\n","date":"Aug 4, 2014","href":"/2014/08/vmworld-is-3-weeks-away.html","summary":"Yep, that is 21 days. I do not think there is any need to introduce VMworld to the readers of my blog.\nI would like to share with you some (and by no means a comprehensive list) of the activities I will be partaking in during VMworld.\nOpening Acts 2014 — Panel Agenda - Sunday August 24th I will be a panelist in the Architecture \u0026amp; Infrastructure Panel.\nOpening Acts will be a series of group/panel discussions over the course of a few hours on Sunday afternoon. Whiteboards will be present, but no slides or PowerPoint.","tags":["Speaker","VMworld",2014,"Cisco"],"title":"VMworld is 3 Weeks Away"},{"content":"You all know what VMCI stands for – don’t you? Well if you ever looked at VMware solutions – then you would recognize it - VMCI Overview.\nThe Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI) is an infrastructure that provides fast and efficient communication between a virtual machine and the host operating system and between two or more virtual machines on the same host. The VMCI SDK facilitates development of applications that use the VMCI infrastructure. Without VMCI, virtual machines communicate with the host using the network layer. Using the network layer adds overhead to the communication. With VMCI communication overhead is minimal and different tasks that require that communication can be optimized. An internal network can transmit an average of slightly over 2Gbit/s using vmxnet3, VMCI can go up to nearly 10Gbit/s with 128k sized Queue pairs.\nIn my 10 years (I think it has been 10) of using VMware products – I personally have never seen any public implementation of VMCI, even though it is in theory an interesting concept.\nIt seems though that VMware are looking to re-brand the acronym into something else, which is connected with something that a number of rumors have been flying around about a converged infrastructure offering to be announced by VMware.\nThe rumors started a while back and the whole story became apparent in these articles.\nProject Mystic\u0026amp;rsquo;s Potential Competitors To VMware: Bring It On\nSo, Mystic Joe Tucci: Is a hyper-converged tool in EMC\u0026amp;rsquo;s future?\nVMware Teaser Gets Tweeted: \u0026amp;lsquo;Marvin\u0026amp;rsquo; Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Appliance\nVMware to offer converged compute and storage hardware\nWhat is VMware’s Mystic Marvin Project?\nPure Speculation Post: Some more Marvin Speculation\nSpotted Marvin on VMware campus during a break this morning \u0026amp;quot;first hyperconverged infrastructure appliance \u0026amp;quot; pic.twitter.com/1iIPocjREX\n\u0026amp;mdash; Fletcher Cocquyt (@Cocquyt) June 7, 2014 I was going over the Content catalog for VMworld and noticed","date":"Jul 28, 2014","href":"/2014/07/vmci-revisited-aka-project-marvin.html","summary":"You all know what VMCI stands for – don’t you? Well if you ever looked at VMware solutions – then you would recognize it - VMCI Overview.\nThe Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI) is an infrastructure that provides fast and efficient communication between a virtual machine and the host operating system and between two or more virtual machines on the same host. The VMCI SDK facilitates development of applications that use the VMCI infrastructure. Without VMCI, virtual machines communicate with the host using the network layer. Using the network layer adds overhead to the communication. With VMCI communication overhead is minimal and different tasks that require that communication can be optimized. An internal network can transmit an average of slightly over 2Gbit/s using vmxnet3, VMCI can go up to nearly 10Gbit/s with 128k sized Queue pairs.","tags":["Marvin","VMworld","VMCI","Announcement"],"title":"VMCI – revisited (a.k.a. Project Marvin)"},{"content":"This one has been sitting in the drafts for a while.\nWhat pushed me to publish and finish this post was an article posted by Brian Gracely,\nWill Paris be the last OpenStack Summit?\nThe Openstack Summit is actually two separate tracks – one for users, and a second for developers. It is just by “chance” (not really) that they are held at the same location – at the same time – because they are catered for two very different audiences.\nThis is very apparent – even in the logo for the summits.\nIt is even confusing sometimes in regards to what the name of the summit is? Will this be the Juno summit (if you ask an Operator/User – yes it will) or is it the Kilo summit (Developers with give you a thumbs up here).\nHow the event works?\n5 days. the first 3 are the Main conference, and the last 4 is the Design Summit.\nAnd of course from the mouth of babes..\nThe Design Summit sessions are collaborative working sessions where the community of OpenStack developers come together twice annually to discuss the requirements for the next software release and connect with other community members. It is not a classic track with speakers and presentations. (The Design Summit is not the right place to get started or learn the basics of OpenStack.)\nSteve Ballmer – you remember him? He loved his developers…\nDevelopers, Developers, Developers\nThe OpenStack Foundation treats the OpenStack Developers – differently. They are the people who create the product. Therefore they receive special treatment.\nAnd by special treatment I mean:\nThe Design Summit is called a Summit, the rest of it is called the Main Conference\n(see above)\nA completely different part of the conference only for developers – this includes:\nSeparate rooms Separate schedule Separate website for schedule Separate submission process and voting for Design sessions Constant refreshments and treats (M\u0026amp;amp;M’s and Snicker bars galore, drinks, fruit)\nBrainstorming area outside the discussion rooms\nMultiple power outlets in every single","date":"Jul 22, 2014","href":"/2014/07/openstack-summit-its-all-about.html","summary":"This one has been sitting in the drafts for a while.\nWhat pushed me to publish and finish this post was an article posted by Brian Gracely,\nWill Paris be the last OpenStack Summit?\nThe Openstack Summit is actually two separate tracks – one for users, and a second for developers. It is just by “chance” (not really) that they are held at the same location – at the same time – because they are catered for two very different audiences.","tags":["OpenStack","Summit"],"title":"OpenStack Summit - It’s all about the Developers"},{"content":"Embedded below you can find the recording of my session\n\u0026amp;ldquo;OpenStack in the Enterprise - Are you Ready?\u0026amp;rdquo;\nYou are welcome to go over the blog post I wrote about the event.\nThe full playlist of all the sessions can be viewed here\nI have already submitted a few sessions for the upcoming summit in Paris.\n","date":"Jul 21, 2014","href":"/2014/07/recording-of-my-presentation-at.html","summary":"Embedded below you can find the recording of my session\n\u0026ldquo;OpenStack in the Enterprise - Are you Ready?\u0026rdquo;\nYou are welcome to go over the blog post I wrote about the event.\nThe full playlist of all the sessions can be viewed here\nI have already submitted a few sessions for the upcoming summit in Paris.","tags":["misc","Speaker","OpenStack","Miscellaneous","Summit"],"title":"Recording of my Presentation at OpenStack Israel 2014"},{"content":"This is an excerpt of a post published elsewhere. A link to the original is at the bottom of this excerpt\nContainers are not a new concept – there are several implementations that have been around for quite a number of years, be it Solaris Containers, Linux-V-Server, OpenVZ, or LXC.\nSo why has this become a hot topic, something that has many people turning their head and looking at it once more. Well that is quite simple. This is due to a huge amount of interest in Docker.\nRead full article …\n","date":"Jul 17, 2014","href":"/2014/07/the-return-of-container.html","summary":"This is an excerpt of a post published elsewhere. A link to the original is at the bottom of this excerpt\nContainers are not a new concept – there are several implementations that have been around for quite a number of years, be it Solaris Containers, Linux-V-Server, OpenVZ, or LXC.\nSo why has this become a hot topic, something that has many people turning their head and looking at it once more. Well that is quite simple. This is due to a huge amount of interest in Docker.","tags":["docker","Virtualization","CiscoSP360"],"title":"The Return of the Container"},{"content":" Have a look at this infographic\nMazel Tov #OpenStack!\n","date":"Jul 11, 2014","href":"/2014/07/happy-fourth-birthday-openstack.html","summary":" Have a look at this infographic\nMazel Tov #OpenStack!","tags":["OpenStack","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Happy Fourth Birthday OpenStack"},{"content":"I cannot take credit for this one - I heard it last week at a very interesting talk by Adrian Cockroft at the Speed and Scale Meetup last week in Herzeliya.\nThe analogy was a very simple one, but very much to the point, and I feel that it was a great way on how we should be looking at security in the cloud.\nM\u0026amp;amp;M\u0026amp;rsquo;s are the one thing that me kids always ask me to bring back for them when I go to the States, especially the ones without the peanuts.\nWhat is great about M\u0026amp;amp;M\u0026amp;rsquo;s? They have a hard shell, that protects the great soft chocolate inside. The shell is not unbreakable, but hard enough to protect the great stuff on the inside.\nBut once the shell is broken, you have nothing but chocolate.\nA Snickers bar on the other hand, has a nice soft chocolate on the outside, but inside there are many crunchy nuts, each of them are hard and do not need the chocolate to protect them, because they are hard enough to look after themselves.\nOK, enough about chocolate, what the heck does this have with cloud and security?\nTraditionally, we are used to having a perimeter devices that protect everything behind them, and within the perimeter we are good to go, there is an elevated level of trust, just like the hard shell of an M\u0026amp;amp;M and the soft chocolate inside.\nI do not think this will suffice in a cloud environment. I don’t think you should either. Each of the above methodologies have their advantages but they have disadvantages as well.\nIn the cloud, you do have the option using a perimeter devices, creating VPC\u0026amp;rsquo;s with most of the providers today.\nI think that we should treat our cloud environment like a Snickers bar. The outside is always soft, vulnerable, untrustworthy. You will not know what instances/vm’s are running on the same host as you are. Do they have access to the network subnet you are using? So what protects us? Only ourselves, the hard nuts.\nEach and every cloud instance should assume that the environment it lives in is hostile. It will be","date":"Jul 7, 2014","href":"/2014/07/m-snickers-and-security-in-cloud.html","summary":"I cannot take credit for this one - I heard it last week at a very interesting talk by Adrian Cockroft at the Speed and Scale Meetup last week in Herzeliya.\nThe analogy was a very simple one, but very much to the point, and I feel that it was a great way on how we should be looking at security in the cloud.","tags":["Security","Cloud"],"title":"M\u0026M's, Snickers and Security in the Cloud"},{"content":"This is a re-post of my article, originally published on The Ravello Blog.\nLast month I attended the OpenStack Cloud Summit in Atlanta. It was a very interesting experience. I learned a lot of things from the people there, from the organization, and how the OpenStack cloud community works.\nWithout a doubt, the people who are writing the code are extremely talented. They are doing unbelievable work writing things that make something out of nothing – with just a few lines of code transform your whole system into a cloud that allows you do a huge number of things. It is absolutely amazing.\nNot just for developers Unfortunately, they don’t always understand that clouds have not really been used or built only for developers to write the code or for users to consume the cloud resources. There is a need to recognize the existence of a third party in the equation – the people who operate and manage the cloud, including the infrastructure. As a result, there are issues that have not yet been addressed but need to be considered and integrated into the system.\nAn operator is not a developer, and a developer is not an operator. No matter how much people talk about DevOps, there is still some kind of disconnect between the two groups. I could see a huge difference between the two groups at the conference. I had expected to see a more integrated community and was surprised by the extent of the divide.\nEnterprises are definitely looking to OpenStack for the purpose of deploying cloud infrastructure in their organizations. There are a number of very large providers that are looking to deploy OpenStack as a service that they will resell to customers. The majority of those looking to OpenStack are looking to use it to deploy their own internal clouds.\nObstacles to adoption There are a number of obstacles that are slowing down the adoption of OpenStack cloud.\nThe upgrade process and migration process between versions is problematic, and any kind of change to the infrastructure affects","date":"Jun 18, 2014","href":"/2014/06/back-from-openstack-cloud-summit.html","summary":"This is a re-post of my article, originally published on The Ravello Blog.\nLast month I attended the OpenStack Cloud Summit in Atlanta. It was a very interesting experience. I learned a lot of things from the people there, from the organization, and how the OpenStack cloud community works.\nWithout a doubt, the people who are writing the code are extremely talented. They are doing unbelievable work writing things that make something out of nothing – with just a few lines of code transform your whole system into a cloud that allows you do a huge number of things. It is absolutely amazing.","tags":["Ravello","OpenStack","Atlanta","Summit"],"title":"Back from the OpenStack Cloud Summit"},{"content":"It is said that once you get a bug in you – it is hard to get rid of it. I have been asked (and I have accepted) to participate in a book sprint commissioned by the OpenStack Foundation.\nWhat is a book sprint you may ask? I am sure this will explain it better than I can – but in short…\nA Book Sprint brings together a group to produce a book in 3-5 days. There is no pre-production and the group is guided by a facilitator from zero to published book. The books produced are high quality content and are made available immediately at the end of the sprint via print-on-demand services and e-book formats.\nA full book in 5 days? Is that even possible? Well, yes it is. There are a group of Subject Matter Experts coming together in the week of July 7th in Palo Alto (VMware are being so kind as to host us), where we sit and bash out a Design Guide/Book that will be used as the unofficial “bible” for OpenStack Architects wherever they may be.\nHere is some more information about the two previous book sprints that were completed for the Openstack project.\nOpenStack Security Guide: One Week, 38,000 Words, A Lot Of Security\nOpenStack Operations Guide: One Week, One Book\nThe participants of this project will include:\nAnthony Veiga – Comcast Alex Settle – Rackspace Beth Cohen – Verizon Kevin Jackson – Rackspace Kenneth Hui - EMC Nicholas Chase – Mirantis Scott Lowe - VMware Sean Collins – Comcast Sean Winn – Cloudscaling Steve Gordon – Redhat Vinny Valdez – Redhat Anne Gentle – Rackspace Adam Hyde – BookSprints And yours truly….\nThere is good participation from all parts of the globe and the OpenStack community – a diverse crowd – with different skills, experience and backgrounds.\nI am really looking forward to this project – meeting such a group of interesting people, working on a new book project, but most of all – contributing back to the community – because that is what it is all about!\nYou can follow us all with the #openstackdesign hashtag for more information about this","date":"Jun 16, 2014","href":"/2014/06/openstack-design-guide-book-sprint.html","summary":"It is said that once you get a bug in you – it is hard to get rid of it. I have been asked (and I have accepted) to participate in a book sprint commissioned by the OpenStack Foundation.\nWhat is a book sprint you may ask? I am sure this will explain it better than I can – but in short…\nA Book Sprint brings together a group to produce a book in 3-5 days. There is no pre-production and the group is guided by a facilitator from zero to published book. The books produced are high quality content and are made available immediately at the end of the sprint via print-on-demand services and e-book formats.","tags":["Design","Book","OpenStack"],"title":"OpenStack Design Guide Book Sprint"},{"content":"This is a re-post of my article, originally published on The Ravello Blog\n.\nIn talking about functionality and how a product works, people don’t always address the question of allowing interfaces into their software. As a product evolves and grows, the more important the implementation of programmatic interfaces becomes. APIs need to take the place of users sitting at keyboards to better facilitate access to interfaces, especially for large products.\nNot everything can or should be done manually. For example, you don’t want to manually power on/off a thousand machines from your keyboard/mouse – it would take too long. When an environment exceeds a certain scale, you need to find a more efficient way to do things. For this reason, when a product is designed and built, you want it to include programmable interfaces that allow people to access interfaces in a programmatic way.\nAlmost all the cloud providers understand this and have been including such APIs from Day 1. This is true of VMware, Azure, Google, or even Amazon Cloud, with its very rich API, which can be used for almost everything, through API calls or Java components, and so on.\nDifferent APIs for Different Products But you have different APIs for different products; this is both good and bad. It is good for the vendors, in that it locks you into their products. Migration from one API/vendor to another is problematic. At the same time, the API makes it easier for the end users to handle what would otherwise be labor-intensive tasks in a more efficient, automated fashion. You can do this automatically with a program or a script, or with some kind of automation tool.\nVendors are beginning to be receptive to the idea of allowing their Cloud APIs to be open to the external community, and even external vendors. For example, Cisco UCS manager API is an interface that allows you to interact with underlying hardware so that anything you can do with the GUI, you can do through the API as well.\nYou can use APIs to","date":"Jun 10, 2014","href":"/2014/06/cloud-apis-and-programmatic-interfaces.html","summary":"This is a re-post of my article, originally published on The Ravello Blog\n.\nIn talking about functionality and how a product works, people don’t always address the question of allowing interfaces into their software. As a product evolves and grows, the more important the implementation of programmatic interfaces becomes. APIs need to take the place of users sitting at keyboards to better facilitate access to interfaces, especially for large products.","tags":["Ravello","Miscellaneous","Cloud"],"title":"Cloud APIs and Programmatic Interfaces"},{"content":" It was a great event. They were expecting 300+ people at the event, and almost 500 people were there - it was really full - but not crowded.\nSlide Decks from the whole day can be found here.\nThe slides from my session are embedded below, and I would like to add a few words to expand on the content.\nOpenStack is an amazing community - very different from the VMware one I am so acquainted with - and yet very similar in many ways.\nBut I will iterate what I said in my session. If you are looking for a 1 to 1 comparison between your current virtual Infrastructure - and for arguments sake - let\u0026amp;rsquo;s say it a VMware one - you will not find a compatible solution or even an easy migration from one product to the other.\nOpenStack is a cloud platform, it can be deployed on-premises (did you notice I did not fall into the semantics trap there) but it is a cloud platform. That means that will be a part of your current application infrastructure that will not run well on OpenStack - due to the nature of these applications - they were never designed for the cloud. They rely heavily on a sound and robust infrastructure below - which is something you cannot assume (or maybe should not assume) to have with OpenStack.\nA few nuggets from the day - and quotes that I think are worth sharing.\nBelieve me it works, I tested it yesterday :) #openstackIL\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) June 2, 2014 The best advice so far at #openstackil from @markmc_ -JFDI (just fecking do it, in Irish)\n\u0026amp;mdash; Uri Cohen (@uri1803) June 2, 2014 The Gi(f)t that keeps on Giving #git #OpenStackIL some words of wisdom from @markmc_\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) June 2, 2014 Amazing panoramic picture by @erezcarmel at #OpenStack #Israel with @openstackil pic.twitter.com/DQDTe2juLE\n\u0026amp;mdash; Sharone Revah Zitzman 💙🇮🇱 (@shar1z) June 2, 2014 Today @OpenStackIL .. ~500 attendees ..every year it is growing just like the #cloud #OpenStack\n\u0026amp;mdash; Ofir Nachmani (@OfirNachmani) June 2, 2014 Thanks to","date":"Jun 9, 2014","href":"/2014/06/recap-openstack-israel-2014-openstackil.html","summary":" It was a great event. They were expecting 300+ people at the event, and almost 500 people were there - it was really full - but not crowded.\nSlide Decks from the whole day can be found here.\nThe slides from my session are embedded below, and I would like to add a few words to expand on the content.\nOpenStack is an amazing community - very different from the VMware one I am so acquainted with - and yet very similar in many ways.","tags":["SlideDeck","OpenStack","Miscellaneous","Cloud","Summit","Communities"],"title":"Recap - Openstack Israel 2014 OpenStackIL"},{"content":"I would like to invite you all to join me at the OpenStack Israel Conference that will take place next week on Monday - June 2nd, 2014.\nThere is a stellar (their words – not mine) lineup of speakers – with a number of guests from across the globe.\nI highly enjoyed my experience at the last conference where I presented a session on\nOpenStack for VMware Admins.\nI will also be presenting at this event as well. It is a great honor.\nOpenStack in the Enterprise - Are you ready? OpenStack is becoming more popular - that is obvious - but are you ready to have it host your Tier-1 applications?\nIn this session we will discuss what needs to be done in order to provide a stable management plane for the OpenStack - what progress has been made over the years and where we still need to go.\nThere are a number of solutions out there today from a number of vendors, with a lot of high level information of how to accomplish this. Unfortunately there is no one standard and this session will attempt to be your HA guide to OpenStack Nirvana.\nWe will also discuss some of the pain points that might inhibit your adoption of OpenStack into your Enterprise.\nSome of the keynote speakers will include (full agenda here)\nJonathan Bryce – Executive Director, OpenStack Foundation Mark Shuttleworth – Founder, Ubuntu Mark McLoughlin – Office of the CTO, Redhat There are several other sessions by prominent figures in the OpenStack community as well.\nMonty Taylor – Distinguished Technologist and OpenStack Thought Leader, HP Nati Shalom – CTO \u0026amp;amp; Founder, GigaSpaces Mark Mcclain – Principal Architect, Yahoo Thierry Carrez - Chair of the Technical Committee and Release Manager, OpenStack. And for the first time, this year there are also some technical workshops that attendees will be able get some hands-on time with technology.\nI am looking forward to this event, and will be sure to share my experience after the event – and of course the slide deck and recording when they are made available.\nIf you are","date":"May 28, 2014","href":"/2014/05/openstack-israel-2014-openstackil.html","summary":"I would like to invite you all to join me at the OpenStack Israel Conference that will take place next week on Monday - June 2nd, 2014.\nThere is a stellar (their words – not mine) lineup of speakers – with a number of guests from across the globe.\nI highly enjoyed my experience at the last conference where I presented a session on\nOpenStack for VMware Admins.\nI will also be presenting at this event as well. It is a great honor.","tags":["OpenStack","Summit"],"title":"OpenStack Israel 2014 OpenStackIL"},{"content":" Containers are not only those things are used for shipping stuff around – or storing the things you will never use or you don’t want to spoil – they are also used (and if you ask me – might even replace virtual machines in the not to distant future) as a platform to run applications / services / stacks.\nDocker is one that is getting a large amount of focus lately\nDocker is an open-source engine that automates the deployment of any application as a lightweight, portable, self-sufficient container that will run virtually anywhere.\nDocker containers can encapsulate any payload, and will run consistently on and between virtually any server. The same container that a developer builds and tests on a laptop will run at scale, in production*, on VMs, bare-metal servers, OpenStack clusters, public instances, or combinations of the above.\nCommon use cases for Docker include:\nAutomating the packaging and deployment of applications Creation of lightweight, private PAAS environments Automated testing and continuous integration/deployment Deploying and scaling web apps, databases and backend services (Source – Docker)\nA quick introduction presentation to docker is embedded below\nDocker introduction from Docker\nI wanted to share with you a quick and easy way to start looking at docker and what you can do with it. And the most basic part of it is installing and configuring docker.\nIf you are just looking to play with it – you could install a VM with Ubuntu or and go through the motions of installation on your platform of choice.\nBut I would like to get you up and running as fast as can be.\nEnter boot2docker\nBoot2docker demo\nboot2docker is a lightweight Linux distribution based on Tiny Core Linux made specifically to run Docker containers. It runs completely from RAM, weighs ~24MB and boots in ~5s.\nAnd to make it even easier Mitchell Hashimoto (the author of Vagrant) has created a vagrant box so you start it up in even less time.\nI can understand why this is going to take off – and","date":"May 27, 2014","href":"/2014/05/the-quickest-way-to-get-started-with.html","summary":" Containers are not only those things are used for shipping stuff around – or storing the things you will never use or you don’t want to spoil – they are also used (and if you ask me – might even replace virtual machines in the not to distant future) as a platform to run applications / services / stacks.\nDocker is one that is getting a large amount of focus lately","tags":["docker","Virtualization","OpenStack","Miscellaneous","vagrant"],"title":"The Quickest Way to Get Started with Docker"},{"content":"There is only one thing I can say about the vBrownbag crew and their work\nThey are AMAZING!!!! The crew on site was Jeremiah Dooley, Josh Atwell, Alastair Cooke and Eric Wright, Damian Karlson.\nHere is their summary post - #vBrownBag was at OpenStack Summit Atlanta\nThe setup was super professional, the stream quality was amazing – kudos to the event team that provided super bandwidth!\nThe location was perfect and the sessions were great.\nYou can find the full playlist of all the sessions here\nThe session I presented is embedded below, and will give some insight into what I am currently working on – and where we are headed with OpenStack\nOf course automation is a great thing – so Just to leave you with a quick way to download all of the presentations for your offline viewing – I used youtube-dl.\nyoutube-dl is a small command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter (2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+), and it is not platform specific. It should work in your Unix box, in Windows or in Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.\nSo simple\nyoutube-dl -cit --max-quality FORMAT https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2rC-8e38bUUDMikhKMpAT1KhDljl08wZ\n","date":"May 25, 2014","href":"/2014/05/vbrownbag-at-openstack-summit.html","summary":"There is only one thing I can say about the vBrownbag crew and their work\nThey are AMAZING!!!! The crew on site was Jeremiah Dooley, Josh Atwell, Alastair Cooke and Eric Wright, Damian Karlson.\nHere is their summary post - #vBrownBag was at OpenStack Summit Atlanta\nThe setup was super professional, the stream quality was amazing – kudos to the event team that provided super bandwidth!\nThe location was perfect and the sessions were great.\nYou can find the full playlist of all the sessions here","tags":["OpenStack","Atlanta","Summit","UCS"],"title":"vBrownbag at the OpenStack Summit"},{"content":"Well the OpenStack conference has come and passed, and I promised that i would share some of my thoughts, so lets start with the first two. I plan to make these as short as possible.\n(Let me first say that i have only ever been to an international VMworld conference, both in the US and in Europe, so my comparisons are based against those experience).\nAttendees This was a smaller conference, in numbers of course, i am not sure about the size of the venue, although i do assume it is smaller than the Moscone Center in San Francisco. I did hear though,a number of comments,of how this has grown immensely over the years, and the record attendance this year was ~4800 attendees. The cost of the conference of course is much cheaper than that of VMworld, and i really do no it want to go into the logistics and financial parts here.\nOpenStack as a company(if can even really call it that) is relatively tiny, i would assume less than 100 people, compared to VMware that is now in the range of 10,000-15,000 employees, that means it is leaner, and Les fat associated with it.\nIf my memory serves me correctly, all ATC\u0026amp;rsquo;s (Active Technical Contributors) received a full discount and the conference pass, and i gather presenters receive the same.\nThere is a travel support program, where a potential attendee can request subsidy from the foundation for their costs, if they are not able to attend due to lack of funds. I think this a great initiative, and show how much the community means hear, and how the foundation do try their best to make the extra effort to allow those who really would like to attend,but cannot due to financial issues. It was pointed out in the keynote, and i would also like to state that VMware contributed to the budget for this fund this year, so my hat goes off to them.\nI was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a large number of female participants – and as opposed to a VMworld conference they have major technical skills, something that I do miss at a","date":"May 21, 2014","href":"/2014/05/openstack-summit-attendees-and-sessions.html","summary":"Well the OpenStack conference has come and passed, and I promised that i would share some of my thoughts, so lets start with the first two. I plan to make these as short as possible.\n(Let me first say that i have only ever been to an international VMworld conference, both in the US and in Europe, so my comparisons are based against those experience).\nAttendees This was a smaller conference, in numbers of course, i am not sure about the size of the venue, although i do assume it is smaller than the Moscone Center in San Francisco. I did hear though,a number of comments,of how this has grown immensely over the years, and the record attendance this year was ~4800 attendees. The cost of the conference of course is much cheaper than that of VMworld, and i really do no it want to go into the logistics and financial parts here.\nOpenStack as a company(if can even really call it that) is relatively tiny, i would assume less than 100 people, compared to VMware that is now in the range of 10,000-15,000 employees, that means it is leaner, and Les fat associated with it.","tags":["OpenStack","Summit"],"title":"OpenStack Summit – Attendees and Sessions"},{"content":"Friday, the Georgia World Congress Center – and there is still a buzz all around. The official OpenStack User summit is over – and the only ones who left are the developers and operators – and we will be here the whole day until 18.00.\nThis week has been an amazing experience – and I have learned a lot about OpenStack, Open Source and how a community behaves.\nI will sharing over the next couple of days some of my thoughts about the conference.\nThe Good. The Bad. The Ugly. (Ugly there wasn’t – well actually that is not true)\nI had a great week. Met a lot of new people, a whole different crowd of people.\nThere was one thing in common that I continually noticed, and it amazed me. These are people who devote their time – their energy, their expertise and their knowledge for a greater good.\nAnd this is meaning of an open source community.\nThey do not work for Openstack – they work for practically every company you know – vendors, customers, Service Providers – and they do not get paid to create a product. They are passionate about what they do! Developers are not Operations people – definitely not – more on that in a future post. I will be heading back home on Sunday – in the meantime I would like to thank the organizers of the conference on a job extremely well done. It was very well organized – there are some improvements I would (and I already provided that feedback) implement for future events. Something I would definitely do again – and hope to do so in the future.\n","date":"May 16, 2014","href":"/2014/05/openstack-summit-some-thoughts.html","summary":"Friday, the Georgia World Congress Center – and there is still a buzz all around. The official OpenStack User summit is over – and the only ones who left are the developers and operators – and we will be here the whole day until 18.00.\nThis week has been an amazing experience – and I have learned a lot about OpenStack, Open Source and how a community behaves.\nI will sharing over the next couple of days some of my thoughts about the conference.","tags":["OpenStack","Summit"],"title":"OpenStack Summit - Some Thoughts"},{"content":"One topic of discussion that surfaced during the summit today was an article published on the WSJ yesterday Red Hat Plays Hardball on OpenStack Software – and shortly thereafter Barb Darrow published this one - Is Red Hat the new Oracle?\nHere is a relevant piece from the WSJ article:\nIn its quest to sell OpenStack, Red Hat has chosen not to provide support to its commercial Linux customers if they use rival versions of OpenStack, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The company\u0026amp;rsquo;s support, which includes providing bug fixes and helping customers if they run into technical problems, is a key reason people use Red Hat rather than free versions of Linux.\nAnd another from the Gigaom article:\nWhat we didn’t necessarily know until the Wall Street Journal (registration required) reported it Tuesday night is that Red Hat — which makes its money selling support and maintenance for its open-source products – would refuse to support of users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux who also run non-Red Hat versions of OpenStack.\nAnd then people threw a fit.\nEven some of Red Hat\u0026amp;rsquo;s largest partners say its actions contradict the spirit of the open-source community. In contrast to proprietary software, open-source programs can be modified by users, and typically interconnect with competing programs.\n\u0026amp;ldquo;Red Hat has taken the art form of closed open-source to a new level,\u0026amp;rdquo; said Martin Fink, HP\u0026amp;rsquo;s head of its cloud business. HP sells and supports Red Hat\u0026amp;rsquo;s Linux software, but it also competes with Red Hat in the OpenStack and cloud-software market.\n\u0026amp;mdash;\nWow, this is a sad day for open source and Red Hat. Red Hat has lost their way.\nHistorically, Red Hat was committed to supporting RHEL as a guest OS with the caveat that a problem believed to be caused by the host OS (hypervisor) would need to be reproduced in isolation or on Red Hat’s own stack.\nWas the wording correct? Will Redhat not support anything if I am running anything but RHOS?\nI","date":"May 15, 2014","href":"/2014/05/redhat-is-in-dog-box-but-should-they-be.html","summary":"One topic of discussion that surfaced during the summit today was an article published on the WSJ yesterday Red Hat Plays Hardball on OpenStack Software – and shortly thereafter Barb Darrow published this one - Is Red Hat the new Oracle?\nHere is a relevant piece from the WSJ article:\nIn its quest to sell OpenStack, Red Hat has chosen not to provide support to its commercial Linux customers if they use rival versions of OpenStack, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The company\u0026rsquo;s support, which includes providing bug fixes and helping customers if they run into technical problems, is a key reason people use Red Hat rather than free versions of Linux.","tags":["OpenStack","Redhat","Summit"],"title":"Redhat is in the Dog Box - But Should They Be?"},{"content":"I am finally on my way to the OpenStack Summit in Atlanta. (Full schedule online)\nThere might be some confusion about if this is the Icehouse Summit or the Juno summit – well I think it is safe to say that it is a bit of both. Icehouse is the current version of OpenStack – and the Operational track at the summit will be covering this version. The design track will be covering the next version – and that Will be Juno. I know it is confusing – especially for a newcomer like me – this will be my first (and hopefully the first of many to come) OpenStack Summit.\nSo what is in store for us all? Well I will try and not compare my experience to that of VMworld – but this will only be a natural thing because VMworld is the only big conference I have really been at.\nThis will be a smaller event – and if you ask me that is a good thing – having 20,000 at a conference – is a lot of people – sometimes too much, so I am looking forward to the smaller environment.\nI have never been to Atlanta before – so that will also be a first – there are a number of attractions close to the Conference Center, Georgia Aquarium, CNN Center, World of Coke.\nFor those of you who are interested in getting a Kosher meal in Atlanta – these are the restaurants that I have found – and will visiting to get some “suitable” nutrition – anyone interested in joining me is more than welcome.\nChai Peking Pita Palace Feugo Mundo I am also looking forward in seeing some familiar faces – people that I have got to know over the years and have met in person usually at VMworld events over the years – or on other occasions. I am also looking forward to meeting a whole new crowd of people – those who I have come to know through correspondence or through Twitter – and this will actually be the first face-to-face.\nI think this will be a different environment, a different atmosphere, a different vibe, and a welcome change. We all need change in our daily lives – otherwise things get quite boring.\nI will try to attend a","date":"May 11, 2014","href":"/2014/05/icehousejuno-openstack-summit-2014.html","summary":"I am finally on my way to the OpenStack Summit in Atlanta. (Full schedule online)\nThere might be some confusion about if this is the Icehouse Summit or the Juno summit – well I think it is safe to say that it is a bit of both. Icehouse is the current version of OpenStack – and the Operational track at the summit will be covering this version. The design track will be covering the next version – and that Will be Juno. I know it is confusing – especially for a newcomer like me – this will be my first (and hopefully the first of many to come) OpenStack Summit.","tags":["OpenStack","Atlanta","Summit"],"title":"Icehouse/Juno OpenStack Summit 2014"},{"content":"I just finished watching the opening ceremony of the Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG\u0026amp;rsquo;vurah(Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day) were both our President and Prime Minister addressed the dwindling number of Holocaust survivors that are still alive today.\nI do not write about politics on this on this blog and I do not do religion either. But every now and again there is something that is close to my heart that I do feel I need to share. Sometimes there are things that make my blood boil that I cannot keep quiet about, so please forgive me.\nLess than 10 days ago this made the headlines.\nPosters demand Ukraine Jews \u0026amp;lsquo;pay new tax or leave\u0026amp;rsquo;\nI do not care if it was a hoax.\nI do not care if it was propaganda.\nI do not care if it was used as a tool to defame one side of the other in the conflict currently in the Ukraine.\nI do care that this reminds me of a dark time in the world’s history where 6,000,000 (that is 6 million) Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust.\nMy answer to things like this are in the pictures below.\nAnd I would like to explain to you all what it is that you see in these pictures.\nThose are two of my daughters, and they are playing hopscotch. This was taken in Netanya, Israel - 10 days ago.\nIn the background you can see a train car, actually it is a cattle car, a real cattle car that was used in Germany to transport Jews to their death (and this car was brought here to Israel by family survivors as a monument), to the concentration camps, where many of my wife’s family were killed during the Holocaust.\nI find it only fitting that such a historical monument is now in Israel, and is being used to teach the young generation about what happened more than 70 years ago. The plan was to exterminate the Jewish race, and today my answer is, 4 generations later, my children play with such monuments in the background, with a the Israeli flag flying right beside it, in their own country – where do not have to fear.\nTo end my thought I would like to","date":"Apr 27, 2014","href":"/2014/04/a-day-of-remembrance-holocaust-day.html","summary":"I just finished watching the opening ceremony of the Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG\u0026rsquo;vurah(Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day) were both our President and Prime Minister addressed the dwindling number of Holocaust survivors that are still alive today.\nI do not write about politics on this on this blog and I do not do religion either. But every now and again there is something that is close to my heart that I do feel I need to share. Sometimes there are things that make my blood boil that I cannot keep quiet about, so please forgive me.","tags":["Miscellaneous"],"title":"A Day of Remembrance - Holocaust Day"},{"content":"This is a re-post of my article, originally published on The Ravello Blog.\nThe advent of the cloud has brought with it major changes in the size and nature of networks. These changes pose new challenges for network management. Software-defined networks (SDN) have the potential for helping network managers cope with their ever increasing workloads.\nIn the public cloud, the network could be very different from what it is in the datacenter. By enabling the automation of network configuration, Software-Defined Networks make it possible to manage network interfaces in the same way as software.\nSDN presents the network administrator with the option of handing some or all aspects of network provisioning and management to a third party. The configuration of the network, which includes things such as host names, IP address and firewall rules, is an essential part of an application’s configuration. The configuration can be performed on-demand through the same interface or using an API.\nThis approach is particularly relevant for large-scale enterprise deployments, where large workloads necessitate automatic on-the-fly configuration, and sometimes even multiple replicas of identical networks, maintaining complete segregation.\nThe SDN Market The main players in today’s SDN market are Cisco and VMware. With the acquisition of NSX, VMware is currently promoting its SDN offering as the next step in the evolution of virtualization. NSX lays down an “overlay” network on top of your existing network with the aim of saving time on configuration, improving performances, and lower costs. Cisco, on the other hand, offers a solution that combines SDN and infrastructure. It enables you to define and enforce policies through application-centric infrastructure.\nUnfortunately, SDN implementation is not easy – it is not compatible with default networks, and requires a lot of work on infrastructure.\nProspects for SDN Adoption Despite the optimism of SDN proponents, it is likely to take time","date":"Apr 7, 2014","href":"/2014/04/software-defined-networks-sdn-and-cloud.html","summary":"This is a re-post of my article, originally published on The Ravello Blog.\nThe advent of the cloud has brought with it major changes in the size and nature of networks. These changes pose new challenges for network management. Software-defined networks (SDN) have the potential for helping network managers cope with their ever increasing workloads.\nIn the public cloud, the network could be very different from what it is in the datacenter. By enabling the automation of network configuration, Software-Defined Networks make it possible to manage network interfaces in the same way as software.","tags":["SDN","Blogger","VMware","NSX","Cisco","ACI"],"title":"Software-Defined Networks (SDN) and the Cloud"},{"content":"This is a re-post of my article, originally published on The Ravello Blog.\nOver the last year, as enterprise awareness of the cloud has increased, more and more enterprises outsource their workload deployments to the cloud, in most cases to a single cloud provider or vendor. But the market is rapidly changing with more and more options becoming available from a variety of public IaaS providers, including Amazon, HP, IBM, RackSpace as well as private offerings such as Openstack and VMware.\nThe new deployment options make it possible to mix and match platforms and cloud providers, as well as to set up hybrid clouds where you keep some of your resources in your on-premises datacenter or private cloud while migrating parts of your workload to one or more public clouds. In this post I will elaborate more about the challenges, as well as the benefits of a multi-cloud environment.\nChallenges of multi-cloud deployment Complexity – The biggest challenge of multi-cloud is its inherent complexity – different technologies, different interfaces, different services, and different terminology. There is currently no standardization of terminology, instance sizes, or methodologies across cloud vendors. Interoperability – or lack thereof – between different cloud vendors. This necessitates using workarounds or APIs to make the application set up work on different platforms and clouds. Specialized tools, such as Ravello, can be used to achieve seamless deployment on different external cloud providers. Management overhead – Multi-cloud requires a higher level of expertise in determining what to move to the cloud, where, when and why. This brings with it an increase in overall management overhead, including investments in VPN connections and monitoring. The implementation of different platforms requires expertise in a more diverse range of subjects. And of course, as with any public cloud solution, the issues of compliance, security, and availability must always be taken into","date":"Mar 19, 2014","href":"/2014/03/the-multi-cloud-future-challenges-and.html","summary":"This is a re-post of my article, originally published on The Ravello Blog.\nOver the last year, as enterprise awareness of the cloud has increased, more and more enterprises outsource their workload deployments to the cloud, in most cases to a single cloud provider or vendor. But the market is rapidly changing with more and more options becoming available from a variety of public IaaS providers, including Amazon, HP, IBM, RackSpace as well as private offerings such as Openstack and VMware.","tags":["Management","Blogger","OpenStack","Administration","VMware","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"The Multi-Cloud Future: Challenges and Benefits"},{"content":"Last week VMware released the long awaited VSAN including the even more popular licensing information.\nToday I would like to discuss what I see as one of the points that I have yet seen to be discussed regarding VSAN – and in my eyes the most problematic.\nunspoken truth\nAn unspoken truth is something in life we all know to be true but to speak it is taboo.\nBefore I go in what this unspoken truth is of which I am talking about, I would like to congratulate the VSAN team on a job well done!! VSAN is something we have been waiting for – for a long time – and I voiced my comments before on the launch and its lack of licensing info – but that is now water under the bridge.\nVSAN is a scale out storage solution – up to 32 nodes – which is a great thing. I am not going to go into the whole debate of - “Is this cheaper/better/faster/more reliable than a traditional SAN/All Flash Array?” – there are others who have already started to prepare VSAN calculators, price comparisons etc..\nVSAN is about flexibility – going from a configuration catered to high performance all the way to that catered to the needs of large storage capacity.\nHere are the current VSAN Ready nodes (as of today’s date) on the VMware HCL.\nThe Unspoken Truth VSAN is not suitable for deployment on Blade servers.\nThere are no VSAN Ready nodes that are Blades – only Rack mounts or Tower servers (who actually still deploys Towers in their datacenter anymore???) The number of disks that you can add to most blades is – yep two – that means one SSD and one Large SAS/SATA drive. Not enough for a decent VSAN node We have now come to the conclusion that the flexibility is there – but just not for blades – which to me means, that if I would like to deploy a VSAN cluster – it will have to be on rack mounts.\nWhat are the implications of such a decision?\nLarger Datacenter footprint. That means more power cables, more electricity, more cooling. Converged networking – is possible – but will usually require a minimum of 3","date":"Mar 17, 2014","href":"/2014/03/vsan-unspoken-truth.html","summary":"Last week VMware released the long awaited VSAN including the even more popular licensing information.\nToday I would like to discuss what I see as one of the points that I have yet seen to be discussed regarding VSAN – and in my eyes the most problematic.\nunspoken truth\nAn unspoken truth is something in life we all know to be true but to speak it is taboo.\nBefore I go in what this unspoken truth is of which I am talking about, I would like to congratulate the VSAN team on a job well done!! VSAN is something we have been waiting for – for a long time – and I voiced my comments before on the launch and its lack of licensing info – but that is now water under the bridge.","tags":["Storage",5.5,"VMware","VSAN"],"title":"VSAN - The Unspoken Truth"},{"content":"I am not a marketing genius – I don’t pretend to be – and honestly don’t think that is my line of work. I am just a customer.\nWhen you announce a product – the message should (IMHO) contain the following:\nWhat the product/offering is. The features / benefits – including technical documentation. Availability date. Cost. VMware did this at VMworld – announcing the availability of NSX. And it included 2/4 above points.\nUntil today – approximately 5 months after “GA” – no-one outside of VMware has seen:\nAny technical documentation\nPricing\nToday VMware did it again. They announced VSAN – including a date (estimated – Week of March 10). The technical documentation is out there – at least for those who were on the Beta program – which was open practically to whoever wanted to join. And yet – there was one important thing missing.\nPricing It seems I am not the only one with this feeling – but if you are trying to sell me something – I would like to get the full picture when you announce it and not wait for the sequel to get all the information.\nHere’s looking forward to the week of March 10th – for the rest of the info.\n(This is not to say that the technology and product has no benefit – I am just a bit peeved about the way VMware has been “launching” their products as of late – and specifically those which are supposed to the complete game-changers, the products that are to lead the evolution and revolution of the SDDC/SDDE)\nWhat do you think?\n(p.s. – If you look really hard – you can already find the licensing costs on several places on the great WWW)\n","date":"Mar 6, 2014","href":"/2014/03/how-to-launch-product.html","summary":"I am not a marketing genius – I don’t pretend to be – and honestly don’t think that is my line of work. I am just a customer.\nWhen you announce a product – the message should (IMHO) contain the following:\nWhat the product/offering is. The features / benefits – including technical documentation. Availability date. Cost. VMware did this at VMworld – announcing the availability of NSX. And it included 2/4 above points.\nUntil today – approximately 5 months after “GA” – no-one outside of VMware has seen:","tags":["Storage","Miscellaneous","VMware","VSAN"],"title":"How to Launch a Product"},{"content":"Last year I asked you Please do not vote for Me! and I still stand by every single word I said in that post last year – nothing has changed.\nI would like to re-iterate who I think you should be be voting for and why:\nTry not to make this into a popularity contest.\nJudge the bloggers on their content.\nJudge the bloggers on their writing skills.\nJudge the bloggers on their passion.\nJudge the bloggers on who they are – not just because they work for company A, B or C.\nThis year I would even like to take this one step further (and perhaps I might be making a mistake here – but this is the what I feel is right).\nLet’s look for a moment at the current top 25 bloggers and where they have been ranked over the past 4 years.\n11 of these bloggers have been ranked in the top 25 for past 4 years.\n7 of the current top 25 are VCDX’s (which is an amazing accomplishment in its own right)\nTo all of those on this list - I salute you. I really do! You guys are doing an amazing job, creating content that is up to date, interesting, and informative, is an extremely difficult job. And of course I would say that the overwhelming majority of the people on the entire list of bloggers do not do this for a living – this is a side project, something they enjoy doing – a passion. All of the hard work and investment is well recognized.\nEach of the bloggers in the top 25, are leaders in their field, they are speakers at events, guests on podcasts, authors, well recognized in the industry, and have worked extremely hard to achieve what they have accomplished.\nIt is time to freshen the ranks, accept new blood, and rejuvenate the community.\n“How would like to do that?” - I might hear you ask – well actually quite simple.\nI would like to see more new and upcoming bloggers enter the top 25. In 2013 there were 6 bloggers who came into the top 25 from either having no rank the year before, or a rank below 25. In 2012 there were a lot less.\nIt looks like we are on the right track.\nThat is why I will not","date":"Feb 25, 2014","href":"/2014/02/lets-do-it-differently-voting-time-again.html","summary":"Last year I asked you Please do not vote for Me! and I still stand by every single word I said in that post last year – nothing has changed.\nI would like to re-iterate who I think you should be be voting for and why:\nTry not to make this into a popularity contest.\nJudge the bloggers on their content.\nJudge the bloggers on their writing skills.\nJudge the bloggers on their passion.\nJudge the bloggers on who they are – not just because they work for company A, B or C.","tags":["Virtualization","Blogger","voting"],"title":"Let’s Do It Differently - Voting Time. Again…."},{"content":"I have submitted three different sessions for the upcoming Openstack Summit in Atlanta. This is the first time I have submitted content for an OpenStack Summit, and I am looking forward to attend the event.\nI think the content of these sessions will be highly beneficial to all those who attend, and if you would like to hear some more about these topics at the Summit in May, I would appreciate your vote for one (or more) of the sessions.\nVoting closes on Sunday, March 2nd, at 22:00 UTC. You will need an OpenStack Community member account in order to vote.\nHere are the three sessions I have proposed.\nDeploying Redhat Openstack on UCS - Proposed Deployment Architecture Deploying a robust OpenStack environment is critical in architectural design. If the foundation of your datacenter is not robust, redundant and scalable - you could encounter difficulties down the road.\nIn this session I will present a deployment architecture for OpenStack using Redhat OpenStack.\nThe topics covered in this session will include:\nWhat are the benefits gained by deploying on UCS? Why Control nodes should be deployed as virtual machines. When should you deploy a OpenStack Role on bare metal only. How the deployment with RHOS simplifies the process? (Foreman) Scaling the architecture. Takeaway\nIt is best to plan your deployment upfront and dedicate proper consideration to how your datacenter will look like in the future. The complications of issues arising when your infrastructure grows could be averted by proper planning and design.\nUCS and Openstack - The Integration Cloud is about abstraction of resources - compute, storage, and network, and when consuming resources in the public cloud - you, the customer don\u0026amp;rsquo;t really care about the physical resources.\nBut as an cloud administrator - that is a whole different story, especially when it is about your private cloud.\nAt Cisco we have been working on integrating the physical with the virtual - taking your operations to a whole new level.","date":"Feb 21, 2014","href":"/2014/02/openstack-session-voting.html","summary":"I have submitted three different sessions for the upcoming Openstack Summit in Atlanta. This is the first time I have submitted content for an OpenStack Summit, and I am looking forward to attend the event.\nI think the content of these sessions will be highly beneficial to all those who attend, and if you would like to hear some more about these topics at the Summit in May, I would appreciate your vote for one (or more) of the sessions.","tags":["Speaker","OpenStack","CFP","Summit"],"title":"OpenStack Session Voting"},{"content":"This is a re-post of my article, originally published on The Ravello Blog.\nWithout a doubt, the traditional role of IT is changing. Traditionally IT were the ones to make the decisions about all kinds of things, they ruled. Today the end user is now king – and is placing all kinds of demands on IT. Users want mobility, they want their applications to work on all of their devices and not just in the office. In most enterprises, IT is trying to adapt to the evolving needs of the organization as quickly as possible.\nThe emergence of DevOps culture and its introduction into the enterprise presents a challenge for seasoned IT people. Traditionally developers were responsible for writing the code and IT were the ones who made sure it worked on the necessary platforms. The work was done by different types of people who worked separately and implemented entirely different methodologies and workflows. For example, ITIL for IT services, and Agile for development. With a disconnect of sorts between the two teams.\nOpen the lines of communication DevOps blurs the traditional boundaries between developers and IT. DevOps brings together development and operations to achieve a common goal. To succeed it is important that developers and Operations learn to communicate. Simple initiatives, such as including representative from the other team in key meetings, can go a long way to establishing better communications and collaboration. It is important that everyone involved understand and appreciate the roles of their counterparts, how they work, and their concerns.\nChange the mindset DevOps is not just a way of working, it is a state of mind, a culture. The greatest obstacle to the adoption of a DevOps culture can be the existing organizational culture. There is often fear that with collaboration will come a loss of control, or diminished responsibility.\nSuccessful DevOps means a change in mindset – all parties involved need to share responsibility for the success or the failure of the","date":"Feb 17, 2014","href":"/2014/02/the-first-step-toward-devops-bridging.html","summary":"This is a re-post of my article, originally published on The Ravello Blog.\nWithout a doubt, the traditional role of IT is changing. Traditionally IT were the ones to make the decisions about all kinds of things, they ruled. Today the end user is now king – and is placing all kinds of demands on IT. Users want mobility, they want their applications to work on all of their devices and not just in the office. In most enterprises, IT is trying to adapt to the evolving needs of the organization as quickly as possible.","tags":["Ravello","Miscellaneous","DevOps"],"title":"The First Step toward DevOps – Bridging the Gaps"},{"content":"I usually do not mix religion and technology together but there are places where they do have something in common.\nThe Torah refers to four sons: One wise, one wicked, one simple and one who does not know how to ask a question.\nWhat does the wise son say? \u0026amp;ldquo;What are the testimonials, statutes and laws Hashem our G-d commanded you?\u0026amp;rdquo; You should tell him about the laws of Pesach, that one may eat no dessert after eating the Pesach offering.\nWhat does the wicked son say? \u0026amp;ldquo;What does this drudgery mean to you?\u0026amp;rdquo; To you and not to him. Since he excludes himself from the community, he has denied a basic principle of Judaism. You should blunt his teeth by saying to him: \u0026amp;ldquo;It is for the sake of this that Hashem did for me when I left Egypt. For me and not for him. If he was there he would not have been redeemed.\u0026amp;rdquo;\nWhat does the simple son say? \u0026amp;ldquo;What\u0026amp;rsquo;s this?\u0026amp;rdquo; You should say to him \u0026amp;ldquo;With a strong hand Hashem took me out of Egypt, from the house of servitude.\u0026amp;rdquo;\nAnd the one who does not know how to ask, you start for him, as the Torah says: \u0026amp;ldquo;And you should tell your son on that day, saying \u0026amp;lsquo;It is for the sake of this that Hashem did for me when I left Egypt.\u0026amp;rsquo;\u0026amp;rdquo;\n(Passover Haggadah)\nToday I would like to talk about the wicked son and how this relates to DevOps.\nThe inspiration came from the t-shirt that was given out at the DevOpsDays Israel event last year.\nI don’t expect you to understand the Hebrew – luckily most of the English translation is below.\nWhat is the problem that DevOps culture is trying to solve? The complete disconnection between the Development organizations and the Operations organizations in trying to deliver a product. In a previous post of mine The Difference between Dev + Ops I went into the differences between the two cultures, why they don’t care about the same things and what the challenges are – to help them along their way to a utopian world.\nWhat does the Wicked Son say?","date":"Feb 11, 2014","href":"/2014/02/devops-and-fours-sons.html","summary":"I usually do not mix religion and technology together but there are places where they do have something in common.\nThe Torah refers to four sons: One wise, one wicked, one simple and one who does not know how to ask a question.\nWhat does the wise son say? \u0026ldquo;What are the testimonials, statutes and laws Hashem our G-d commanded you?\u0026rdquo; You should tell him about the laws of Pesach, that one may eat no dessert after eating the Pesach offering.","tags":["Management","Miscellaneous","DevOps"],"title":"DevOps and the Fours Sons"},{"content":"From the official blurb..\nCisco UCS vCenter Plug-in is an extension for the vSphere Web Client v5.1 or higher. It enables virtualization administrators to view, manage and monitor various aspects of Cisco UCS physical infrastructure. The result is a single pane of glass for Virtual Center users to get both physical and virtual infrastructure information for a given hypervisor.\nThe packages can be downloaded from here.\nThe Cisco UCS Plug-in can be divided into 2 major components, ucs-vcplugin service and ucs-vcplugin UI. ucs-vcplugin services use UCS Java SDK to interact with UCS domains over XML API interface and the ucs-vcplugin UI is the flex based extension to the web client, which communicates with the ucs-vcplugin services to populate the UI.\nYou will need to download 2 files (the plugin actually does not need to be downloaded – and can be automatically downloaded during the plugin registration)\nIn the RegisterVCPlugin-092.zip file you will find an executable - RegisterVcPlugin_092.exe. Run the executable.\nYou will need to provide some information. If you have already downloaded the ucs-vcplugin-0.9.2.zip file and have made it available to through a web server locally (like I did), then you can provide your own URL.\nYou should use an https:// url and not http – otherwise you will need to make a configuration change in your vSphere Web client configuration on the vCenter server.\nAfter pressing submit and a minute later (if all the information was correct) you should see the following:\nAfter logging into your vSphere Web Client (and remember this is a web client plugin only) you should see something similar to this.\nTo manage the Fabric Interconnect’s, register the UCS with the correct information\nYou can now see a new addition to your Web client\nThe plugin will automatically recognize your ESXi hosts.\nAnd here you can find a plethora of information.\nThe profile applied, which blade this is (Chassis 3, Blade 8)\nYou can open a KVM directly to the Blade\nYou see the","date":"Feb 3, 2014","href":"/2014/02/ucs-manager-plugin-092-beta-for-vmware.html","summary":"From the official blurb..\nCisco UCS vCenter Plug-in is an extension for the vSphere Web Client v5.1 or higher. It enables virtualization administrators to view, manage and monitor various aspects of Cisco UCS physical infrastructure. The result is a single pane of glass for Virtual Center users to get both physical and virtual infrastructure information for a given hypervisor.\nThe packages can be downloaded from here.\nThe Cisco UCS Plug-in can be divided into 2 major components, ucs-vcplugin service and ucs-vcplugin UI. ucs-vcplugin services use UCS Java SDK to interact with UCS domains over XML API interface and the ucs-vcplugin UI is the flex based extension to the web client, which communicates with the ucs-vcplugin services to populate the UI.","tags":["Administration","VMware","vCenter","UCS"],"title":"UCS Manager Plugin 0.9.2 (beta) for VMware vCenter"},{"content":"Kendrick Coleman wrote a post today titled SDN on the Horizon, get ready – where amongst other things he stated:\nIf I were a betting man (and I am, considering I am avid horse racing fan), VMware\u0026amp;rsquo;s NSX is going to get a pretty good stronghold on its existing customer base. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s VMware for Pete\u0026amp;rsquo;s sake. If it has the brand and the label, then a majority of customers are going to buy into it for their needs because having that single vendor relationship makes sense.\nThis sparked a interesting change of opinions and discussion on Twitter.\n[View the story \u0026amp;ldquo;SDN on the Horizon, get ready\u0026amp;rdquo; on Storify]\nI would to elaborate on the 4 points I mentioned in my tweet.\n@scott_lowe @KendrickColeman @complex not to mention price, complexity, and of course maturity\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) January 29, 2014 1. Silos In most enterprise environments today – there is a separate network team, perhaps a separate storage team, and a separate server team. They work together on a daily basis – and probably get along very well with each other – they need to for their day-to-day functions.\nBut.. they each have their own area of responsibility. Storage admins will not have administrative access to the network switches or VMware environment, Network admins will not have administrative access to the storage array or the Vmware environment and the Server admins will be able to configure the storage arrays or the network switches. These are the separation of duties that many organizations need to have due to regulatory compliance requirements. From a security perspective these are sometimes essential.\nVirtualization Admins today have to request storage resources from the storage team – and network ports, subnets and sometimes even IP addresses from the network team in order to make their virtual environment operational. Of course some of this can be offloaded – i.e. allocating subnets and IP addresses to the server team up front, and the same goes for","date":"Jan 30, 2014","href":"/2014/01/sdn-adoption-is-not-as-easy-as-you.html","summary":"Kendrick Coleman wrote a post today titled SDN on the Horizon, get ready – where amongst other things he stated:\nIf I were a betting man (and I am, considering I am avid horse racing fan), VMware\u0026rsquo;s NSX is going to get a pretty good stronghold on its existing customer base. It\u0026rsquo;s VMware for Pete\u0026rsquo;s sake. If it has the brand and the label, then a majority of customers are going to buy into it for their needs because having that single vendor relationship makes sense.","tags":["SDN","Miscellaneous","NSX","ACI"],"title":"SDN Adoption Is Not As Easy As You Think–Take 2"},{"content":"I have stated before (here), vCenter Orchestrator was the least utilized and least understood product in the VMware product suites, which is a shame – because the capabilities in Orchestrator are pretty much endless.\nI started to do some number crunching and the results are quite interesting (although obvious).\nLet us have a look at the number of threads in the PowerCLI community vs. the Orchestrator community over the past 4 years\nYou can see of course that Orchestrator is far behind and that PowerCLI is the most popular over the years.\nLet’s have a look at a different perspective – by the total number of threads per year\nAgain PowerCLI seems to be the most popular.\nHow about how many posts were there in each of the communities on average per month?\nObvious results again.\nSome of my analysis on the data above.\nThe number of threads that people posted in the forums does not necessarily correlate to the number of people who actually use the product – but I think it is safe to assume that the number would represent the actual use in the field. vCenter Orchestrator 4.0 was released in February 2008. The number of people who used it in the following 3 years was minimal – and an in my opinion that is because the documentation was horrible. There was no definitive guides, not enough information and and not enough VMware people pushing the product. That changed in March 2012 – and why was that – well I think because of the Automating vSphere: With VMware vCenter Orchestrator book by Cody Bunch. This was the first decent piece of literature that allowed people to try the product. If we would compare the ratio of amount of questions asked every month between the PowerCLI and Orchestrator communities from 2010 to 2014 you would see that it would be (approximately) 10:1 in 2010 and 4 years later it is now 2:1. That is a great leap – and if you ask me this gap will get smaller and smaller. I think the reason is – we have evolved, matured. 4 years ago most of the people who were","date":"Jan 26, 2014","href":"/2014/01/vcenter-orchestrator-finally-gaining.html","summary":"I have stated before (here), vCenter Orchestrator was the least utilized and least understood product in the VMware product suites, which is a shame – because the capabilities in Orchestrator are pretty much endless.\nI started to do some number crunching and the results are quite interesting (although obvious).\nLet us have a look at the number of threads in the PowerCLI community vs. the Orchestrator community over the past 4 years","tags":["Automation","Orchestrator","Miscellaneous","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"vCenter Orchestrator - Finally Gaining Traction"},{"content":" Historically, VMware – the pioneer in virtualization – has always been a software/solutions vendor. They were never in the business of selling hardware, they left that to the hardware vendors. With the advent of the cloud, VMware established partnerships with third-party service providers, who have developed cloud-based solutions on top of VMware’s vCloud product. In this way they have continued to be leaders and have advanced cloud technology, without providing a cloud service of their own.\nApproximately a year ago, rumors began to emerge that VMware would come out with a public cloud offering. Considering the billion-dollar market already enjoyed by Amazon, Rackspace and others, this wasn’t a total surprise.\nVMware’s vCloud hybrid service About six months ago, VMware announced vCloud Hybrid Service. What is this new hybrid cloud service? In essence it is a vCloud environment that lets you deploy applications onto their public cloud and also allows you to connect seamlessly between the two VMware environments. The actual environments are owned and operated by VMware themselves, but the datacenter belongs to a third party.\nVMware has already deployed the service in a number of datacenters in the United States and announced the beginning of Beta operations in the UK, although expansion can be expected in the future. VMware’s entry into the public cloud market has been a source of contention for its partners, concerned about retaining their own market share. VMware partners, however, can continue to offer added benefits, in the form of contract conditions and additional functionality.\nHow does vCloud compare with pure cloud offerings? Amazon is the clear leader in the public cloud market. It is the most experienced, with the largest customer base. Amazon cloud offers unique features and services, such as the DBaaS or EBS, that are not available from other providers. Different providers offer various services, including load balancing and scalability.\nThe cloud is","date":"Jan 23, 2014","href":"/2014/01/vmware-and-public-cloud-frenemies.html","summary":" Historically, VMware – the pioneer in virtualization – has always been a software/solutions vendor. They were never in the business of selling hardware, they left that to the hardware vendors. With the advent of the cloud, VMware established partnerships with third-party service providers, who have developed cloud-based solutions on top of VMware’s vCloud product. In this way they have continued to be leaders and have advanced cloud technology, without providing a cloud service of their own.","tags":["Ravello","Management","Blogger","Administration","VMware","Cloud"],"title":"VMware and the Public Cloud – Frenemies"},{"content":"This is a re-post of my article, originally published on The Ravello Blog.\nThe cloud has brought a change in how we view and manage virtualization, especially for enterprises that need to deploy their sophisticated enterprise workloads around the world. Traditionally, the preferred method was to copy and deploy a virtual machine over a WAN. This can be a difficult and time-consuming process, especially for large VMs and complex IT environments. In recent years, deployment to the cloud has rapidly increased in popularity owing in part to its relative costs and ease of implementation.\nAs you contemplate the potential for moving to the cloud, inevitably one of the first decisions you will need to make is if you should build your VM from scratch or import it based on a set of templates.\nSome Background Although there is a natural tendency to assume that it would be easier to import an existing VM using one of the migration tools delivered by the cloud provider, this is not always the case.\nI first encountered the use of templates for VMs around six years ago, when I became aware of VMware’s Clone or Deploy from Template option, which creates a copy of your virtual machine while leaving the original machine untouched. This approach provides a really easy way to duplicate VMs. However, if you need to deploy your VM on different platforms, which is usually what your developers are looking for, multiple templates will be needed, one for each platform. Ideally, you would try to create a template based on the lowest common denominators, and then add the applications on top of the resulting VMs as needed with your Configuration Management tool of choice. This works pretty well for deploying VMs, but will not be the same as your physical builds. You would still need to have a separate template for physical builds.\nCreate your Golden Image Sometimes, it might be easier to just create the VM from scratch. For example, the process of installing a new virtual machine on Amazon,","date":"Jan 22, 2014","href":"/2014/01/adopting-cloud-importing-vs-building.html","summary":"This is a re-post of my article, originally published on The Ravello Blog.\nThe cloud has brought a change in how we view and manage virtualization, especially for enterprises that need to deploy their sophisticated enterprise workloads around the world. Traditionally, the preferred method was to copy and deploy a virtual machine over a WAN. This can be a difficult and time-consuming process, especially for large VMs and complex IT environments. In recent years, deployment to the cloud has rapidly increased in popularity owing in part to its relative costs and ease of implementation.","tags":["Ravello","Management","Blogger","Administration","VMware","Cloud"],"title":"Adopting the Cloud? Importing vs. Building Your Enterprise VMs"},{"content":"Yesterday I read an article titled Martin Casado on VMware\u0026amp;rsquo;s 2014 Roadmap, the Competition, and SDN and the part on which I would like elaborate is the following\nOn the tactical level, meanwhile, Casado said that VMware\u0026amp;rsquo;s biggest market hurdle isn\u0026amp;rsquo;t any particular competitor or technology,\nbut rather \u0026amp;ldquo;the traditional way of doing things\u0026amp;rdquo; in IT. \u0026amp;ldquo;Inertia in IT is surprisingly strong,\u0026amp;rdquo; he said. To overcome it, VMware and their ilk must convince enterprises that if they adopt network virtualization, it will not simply be just as secure as the traditional model, but even more secure; not just as easy to manage, but in fact easier.\n\u0026amp;ldquo;We need to convince people that flying is safer than driving,\u0026amp;rdquo; he said.\nThis sparked a conversation on Twitter Of course IT is the biggest obstacle to adopting SDN.\nIt was the same when server virtualization started out. Remember this slide?\nIt took 5 years (yep 5 long years) for virtualization to become default platform on which we deploy workloads, and this is of course is growing…\nWhy did it take five years? well there is a number of reasons for that and to name a few, product maturity, trust and of course \u0026amp;ldquo;the traditional way of doing things\u0026amp;rdquo; in IT. You have to learn to trust the technology, understand it, build a proper ecosystem around it - and educate, educate, educate!!\nSo VMware - with NSX and Cisco with ACI are in for a long haul. SDN is the natural and logical evolution in the ever growing and changing technology landscape.\nDo you really think that Network Admins are ready to give up control of the network to their Virtual team?\nJust give them a range of IP\u0026amp;rsquo;s and let them do what they want?\nWhat about firewalls?\nWho will ensure that what they do does not affect the rest of the network?\nIt will take time, I sincerely hope it does not take the same 5 years. Until that new evolution occurs, organizations change and the technology becomes well adopted and trusted,","date":"Jan 16, 2014","href":"/2014/01/sdn-adoption-is-not-as-easy-as-you-think.html","summary":"Yesterday I read an article titled Martin Casado on VMware\u0026rsquo;s 2014 Roadmap, the Competition, and SDN and the part on which I would like elaborate is the following\nOn the tactical level, meanwhile, Casado said that VMware\u0026rsquo;s biggest market hurdle isn\u0026rsquo;t any particular competitor or technology,\nbut rather \u0026ldquo;the traditional way of doing things\u0026rdquo; in IT. \u0026ldquo;Inertia in IT is surprisingly strong,\u0026rdquo; he said. To overcome it, VMware and their ilk must convince enterprises that if they adopt network virtualization, it will not simply be just as secure as the traditional model, but even more secure; not just as easy to manage, but in fact easier.","tags":["SDN","OpenStack","Miscellaneous","NSX","ACI"],"title":"SDN Adoption Is Not As Easy As You Think"},{"content":"This one has been simmering for a while, so lets see where this rolls.\nDevOps (a portmanteau of development and operations) is a software development method that stresses communication, collaboration and integration between software developers and information technology (IT) professionals. DevOps is a response to the interdependence of software development and IT operations. It aims to help an organization rapidly produce software products and services.\nSource Wikipedia\nDevops is hot topic today, I keep on hearing around me - \u0026amp;ldquo;In order to grow we need to change to a DevOps mindset\u0026amp;rdquo; or, \u0026amp;ldquo;We have to start doing DevOps..\u0026amp;rdquo; Firstly, about those statements, I find them quite amusing because just by saying these things will not cause any change in the way things are done, and from these kind of comments - it is quite apparent that the source does not really comprehend.\nI have all the respect for Developers, some of my best friends are developers, and I even dabble every now and again in writing code myself. So if there are any developers reading this, please do not take offence this is going to be exaggerated - it is based on my observations - but it is to prove a point.\nDevelopers write code. That is what they do - and do it very well. Give them a problem and say can you write code that will make ObjectA do X,Y,Z - and provide functionality A,B and C - with the appropriate API\u0026amp;rsquo;s that can be exposed through REST - they will say, \u0026amp;ldquo;No Problem, just give use the requirements of what you want it to do, and we will conjure up the code that will make it happen.\u0026amp;rdquo; Sometimes I am in complete awe of actually can be accomplished.\nMost developers do just that. They are not aware of the infrastructure underneath, They have some idea about DNS, DHCP, authentication, Security, firewalls, these are all basic terms that they should know about and will probably have some knowledge of - but if you were to ask them how one of these things actually","date":"Jan 15, 2014","href":"/2014/01/the-difference-between-dev-ops.html","summary":"This one has been simmering for a while, so lets see where this rolls.\nDevOps (a portmanteau of development and operations) is a software development method that stresses communication, collaboration and integration between software developers and information technology (IT) professionals. DevOps is a response to the interdependence of software development and IT operations. It aims to help an organization rapidly produce software products and services.\nSource Wikipedia\nDevops is hot topic today, I keep on hearing around me - \u0026ldquo;In order to grow we need to change to a DevOps mindset\u0026rdquo; or, \u0026ldquo;We have to start doing DevOps..\u0026rdquo; Firstly, about those statements, I find them quite amusing because just by saying these things will not cause any change in the way things are done, and from these kind of comments - it is quite apparent that the source does not really comprehend.","tags":["Management","Miscellaneous","DevOps","Administration"],"title":"The Difference between Dev + Ops"},{"content":"This is a re-post of my article, originally published on The Ravello Blog.\nCloud adoption is on the fast track, companies of all size are seeking ways to adopt cloud while eliminating the traditional IT project risks. The largest enterprises in the world view the private cloud as one of the most appealing ways to start, while utilizing the already made investment of their on-premises resources. CIOs and IT leaders that are thinking about creating their own cloud need to make sure to consider the current viable options and prepare a plan for the future that will suit their specific enterprise grade IT requirements. It is definitely not a decision to be taken lightly. In this post I will provide you with some guidelines and tools to help support you on your new journey.\nWhat is a private cloud and why would you want one? In my humble opinion, a private cloud is a way to facilitate IT resources provisioning, regardless of the infrastructure, to empower the organization’s internal users. It removes the traditional IT hassles while maintaining the business’ policy yet providing the end developer or business user great agility. Moreover, the private cloud creates better control of your resources. For example, it adds values in terms of the cost analysis, driving better efficiency hence enhancing IT management. A significant advantage of the private cloud over the public cloud, lies in its ability to enforce corporate security policies and meet traditional compliance and regulation rules.\nCloud Adoption is a Strategic Move Before you go any further, you need determine whether or not your enterprise high level management is committed to making the move to the cloud, and whether or not the necessary resources will be made available. This will be a key element in the success of your project. It is important that you reach out to the invested parties in the company, not just the folks in IT. Try and identify the pain points and strategies for remedying them. Bottom up adoption","date":"Jan 6, 2014","href":"/2014/01/private-cloud-getting-started-guide-for.html","summary":"This is a re-post of my article, originally published on The Ravello Blog.\nCloud adoption is on the fast track, companies of all size are seeking ways to adopt cloud while eliminating the traditional IT project risks. The largest enterprises in the world view the private cloud as one of the most appealing ways to start, while utilizing the already made investment of their on-premises resources. CIOs and IT leaders that are thinking about creating their own cloud need to make sure to consider the current viable options and prepare a plan for the future that will suit their specific enterprise grade IT requirements. It is definitely not a decision to be taken lightly. In this post I will provide you with some guidelines and tools to help support you on your new journey.","tags":["Ravello","Blogger","VMware","RackSpace","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"Private Cloud – Getting Started Guide for the CIO"},{"content":"As of late I have been putting some thought into how the underlying infrastructure that is needed for running and OpenStack environment and the lack of built-in high availability solutions to provide a robust (and yes I might even go as far as saying - an \u0026amp;ldquo;Enterprise-Ready\u0026amp;rdquo;) solution.\nFirst let\u0026amp;rsquo;s go over what are the components/services that run in Openstack - the easiest would be to quote the OpenStack documentation.\nTo simplify this I am not going to go into each and every single service that needs to be redundant but rather to go at a slightly higher level (not that much) and propose that the the following architecture could be a possible solution.\nI will not go into the exact steps needed to provide the clustering mechanism for each component, I think there are more than enough resources that have done an amazing job already ( I will say though that it is not straight forward, and multiple technologies and solutions are required for the components).\nIntroduction to OpenStack High Availability Practical Lessons from Building a Highly Available Openstack Private Cloud High Availability Update Openstack HA @Paypal (Just as a side note - it would be a great idea to write out an article as to what operations will not be possible/what will not be available, if one of the above services/components are down)\nIf we were to use the basic model above - we would need at minimum 6 servers/instances/VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s - and to simplify for the sake of the article - the amount of resources allocated to each of these VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s are not really the issue.\nWhat has been occupying me lately - is where do you should these workloads be placed? The workloads do not warrant their own physical hardware (in my humble opinion) - because they could easily run as virtual machines. This could you bring you to a solution such as the following (and by no means is this the correct/optimal way)\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s see how we can answer that $1,000,000 question.\nObviously you cannot run them","date":"Jan 2, 2014","href":"/2014/01/some-thoughts-about-openstack-high.html","summary":"As of late I have been putting some thought into how the underlying infrastructure that is needed for running and OpenStack environment and the lack of built-in high availability solutions to provide a robust (and yes I might even go as far as saying - an \u0026ldquo;Enterprise-Ready\u0026rdquo;) solution.\nFirst let\u0026rsquo;s go over what are the components/services that run in Openstack - the easiest would be to quote the OpenStack documentation.","tags":["Design","OpenStack","Architecture"],"title":"Some Thoughts About Openstack High Availability"},{"content":"This is part #6 of the Razor series. In the last post we looked at what lies within the installer. In this post we will go more into detail of how exactly the installation process works. Fort his post we will run through the deployment of an ESXi host.\nInstalling Razor - Yes the New Version.. Razor - DHCP and TFTP Installing the Razor client and creating a repository Installers, Policies and Tags Razor - What Lies Within the installer? Installing ESXi with Razor Since there has been some time from the last part of this series I will recap what you should have in your environment.\nWe have a repository named ESXi_5_1 for our ESXi installation.\nWe have a policy named ESXi51 defined that will deploy ESXi to the node.\nAnd we have a tag (which is what the policy above uses) named Test_tag used to classify the node.\n(this is the minimum that will allow us to install ESXi - 2vCPU\u0026amp;rsquo;s and 4GB RAM)\nWe then power on a node. It boots up, receives an IP from the Razor server and then continues to boot to the microkernel.\nIn the meantime on our Razor server we see that a new node node3 has been recognized.\nrazor nodes\nLooking at the details for that node - we will initially only see the following information:\nmac address uuid log location razor nodes node3\nLooking at the log for the node:\nrazor nodes node3 log\nWhen the node is matched against a policy - it will reboot. This can be seen in two places.\nLooking at the node information again - here you will there is far more information about the hardware. This is because the microkernel has now reported back to Razor with all the information. razor nodes node3\nYou can see that the node was matched against a policy.\nThe tag was also correctly recognized.\nLooking at the log you will see additional entries. The 3rd entry shows that the node is now bound to the ESXi_5_1 policy. The 4th entry reports that the node has now rebooted - as a result of the policy. razor nodes node3 log\nBack to the node. We now see the node connecting to","date":"Dec 26, 2013","href":"/2013/12/installing-esxi-with-razor.html","summary":"This is part #6 of the Razor series. In the last post we looked at what lies within the installer. In this post we will go more into detail of how exactly the installation process works. Fort his post we will run through the deployment of an ESXi host.\nInstalling Razor - Yes the New Version.. Razor - DHCP and TFTP Installing the Razor client and creating a repository Installers, Policies and Tags Razor - What Lies Within the installer? Installing ESXi with Razor Since there has been some time from the last part of this series I will recap what you should have in your environment.","tags":["Automation","Orchestration","Razor"],"title":"Installing ESXi with Razor"},{"content":"A few weeks ago - I gave a session about how to deploy a full environment starting from a bare rack to a fully functioning environment with deployed applications.\nFirstly about the VMUG event. I was fortunate enough to be invited by the VMUG organization to present at this years VMUG. I would like to extend my thanks to the VMUG organization for their hospitality and the effort they made to help feel at home (including kosher food)\nThere were approximately 400-500 people at the Event, the location was very nice and the the organization of the event was very well done.\nThe lineup of speakers, sponsors and vendors was very impressive, the local VMUG leaders and VMUG organization did an outstanding job.\nCommunity was a big part of the event, just the way it should be.\nI got to chat a bit with Joe Baguley, the VMware CTO, EMEA - about competition, \u0026amp;ldquo;co-opetition\u0026amp;rdquo; and what will happen in the future. We can never be prophets, but even if only half of what we talked about does actually come to be, then amazing things will happen.\nI highly enjoyed the keynotes, both from Joe Baguley, and Greg Ferro - who surprised me with the amount of information he knows about ducks, and agriculture. They are both outstanding speakers.\nBack to the session. Firstly I would like to thank the brave souls that attended my session. There were not many of you, because the slot I got was the same as three other VMware speaker sessions, one by Massimo Referre, the other by Cormac Hogan, and the last was a panel with Mike Laverick and Joe Baguley.\nIt not uncommon that one has to stand up an environment - of 8-50 hosts and 50-250 virtual machines. But is not quite common that you have to do this - when you have no existing infrastructure at all. This was the case I was presenting. Standing an infrastructure from complete zero to a fully deployed virtual VMware environment - in the most automated fashion possible.\nThere are a lot considerations that you have to take into account, for","date":"Dec 16, 2013","href":"/2013/12/0-day-deployment-my-presentation-at.html","summary":"A few weeks ago - I gave a session about how to deploy a full environment starting from a bare rack to a fully functioning environment with deployed applications.\nFirstly about the VMUG event. I was fortunate enough to be invited by the VMUG organization to present at this years VMUG. I would like to extend my thanks to the VMUG organization for their hospitality and the effort they made to help feel at home (including kosher food)","tags":["Orchestration","Speaker","VMUG","Architecture"],"title":"0-Day Deployment - My Presentation at the UKVMUG"},{"content":"This week at the OpenStack Israel conference there was a impressive turnout of approximately 400 people. It was a vibrant day, lots of interesting people from all over the world, and great sessions. I even got to have lunch with Scott Herold!\nHere are some of the moments from day\nHeard at #OpenStackIL: \u0026amp;quot;AWS is a great demo environment before deploying production on OpenStack\u0026amp;quot;. This.\n\u0026amp;mdash; hastexo (@hastexo) December 9, 2013 @ohadlevy @OpenStackIL @redhat still not mature enough.. why #openstack progress and maturity level disappoints me every year cc @natishalom\n\u0026amp;mdash; Ofir Nachmani (@OfirNachmani) December 9, 2013 I delivered a session \u0026amp;ldquo;OpenStack for VMware Admins\u0026amp;rdquo; going over the differences, similarities and some gotchas from those who are used to VMware environments, and are looking at OpenStack\nAnd we\u0026amp;#39;re back with three stellar tracks @maishsk from @cisco on #openstack for #vmware admins #openstackil pic.twitter.com/Uv5cfDiK6V\n\u0026amp;mdash; Cloud Native/OSS 👉🏽 luma.com/AWS-DevOps-2026 (@CloudNativeIL) December 9, 2013 I think that the Israeli team did a great job, in attracting the talent to come to the conference. I was happy that I could present and am looking forward to seeing the recordings when they come online.\nMy session is available online\n","date":"Dec 12, 2013","href":"/2013/12/openstack-israel-2013-openstackil.html","summary":"This week at the OpenStack Israel conference there was a impressive turnout of approximately 400 people. It was a vibrant day, lots of interesting people from all over the world, and great sessions. I even got to have lunch with Scott Herold!\nHere are some of the moments from day\nHeard at #OpenStackIL: \u0026quot;AWS is a great demo environment before deploying production on OpenStack\u0026quot;. This.\n\u0026mdash; hastexo (@hastexo) December 9, 2013 @ohadlevy @OpenStackIL @redhat still not mature enough.. why #openstack progress and maturity level disappoints me every year cc @natishalom","tags":["Speaker","SlideDeck","OpenStack","VMware"],"title":"OpenStack Israel 2013 OpenStackIL"},{"content":"This is part #5 of the Razor series. In the last post we looked at Policies, Tags and touched slightly on Installers. In this post we will go more into detail into what exactly the installer does.\nInstalling Razor - Yes the New Version.. Razor - DHCP and TFTP Installing the Razor client and creating a repository Installers, Policies and Tags Razor - What Lies Within the installer? Installing ESXi with Razor The installers are located in the /opt/razor-server/installers directory. In this directory you will find a yaml file and folder - both with the same name.\nDuring this post - we will go through 2 separate installers, the Redhat one and the ESXi installer. The yaml file contains the following\nThe contents are quite self-explanatory, os_version, label, description and lastly the boot_sequence. The boot_sequence is the set of instructions that will be passed to the microkernel, the first time (1:) - boot to the installer (boot_install), and on the other boots (default:), boot to the local disk (boot_local) and bypass the microkernel.\nThe folder contains the following files (remember the os_version - therefore all the files are under the 6 subfolder).\nThese files are the steps that will be executed, and as we saw in the redhat.yaml file the first boot will go to a boot_install.erb\nThis file holds the correct boot parameters for booting into the installation - including the contents of the kernel_args template which we will see shortly. There is also information echoed out to the screen such as the Installer Label, the node\u0026amp;rsquo;s url, and the repository\u0026amp;rsquo;s url.\nThe kernel_args - has the pointer to the kickstart.erb file and the instruction to boot from the network device.\nThe kickstart.erb file is mostly a standard kickstart file - with a few variables.\nurl=\u0026amp;lt;%= repo_url %\u0026amp;gt; - will be translated to the url for the repository. rootpw \u0026amp;lt;%= node.root_password %\u0026amp;gt; - will be the password that you defined when you created the policy network --hostname \u0026amp;lt;%=","date":"Nov 28, 2013","href":"/2013/11/razor-what-lies-within-installer.html","summary":"This is part #5 of the Razor series. In the last post we looked at Policies, Tags and touched slightly on Installers. In this post we will go more into detail into what exactly the installer does.\nInstalling Razor - Yes the New Version.. Razor - DHCP and TFTP Installing the Razor client and creating a repository Installers, Policies and Tags Razor - What Lies Within the installer? Installing ESXi with Razor The installers are located in the /opt/razor-server/installers directory. In this directory you will find a yaml file and folder - both with the same name.","tags":["Automation","Orchestration","Razor"],"title":"Razor - What Lies Within the installer?"},{"content":"This is part 4 of a series of posts on the new version of razor-server\nInstalling Razor - Yes the New Version.. Razor - DHCP and TFTP Installing the Razor client and creating a repository Installers, Policies and Tags Razor - What Lies Within the installer? Installing ESXi with Razor We are almost ready to deploy our first node but in order for that to happen - we will need the following.\nInstaller - the set of commands that will be run to deploy the OS Broker - the next step for the installation of the node - usually the orchestration software Policy - this will contain the repository name, the installer name Hostname pattern - the naming policy for your deployed nodes Password - the root password for the deployed node Count - the maximum number of times you would like this policy to be applied Tags - How to identify the node - based on the hardware reported. In the previous post we created a single repository - ESXi_5_1. The details of the repository are below. razor repos \u0026amp;quot;ESXi_5_1\u0026amp;quot;\nCreate a broker. In our case - this will be the noop broker - which means that nothing will happen after the node has been provisioned.\nrazor create-broker --name=noop --broker-type=noop razor brokers Create a tag.\nBefore we go into how the tags are created - I would like to explain in a bit more detail, what the tags are used for.\nThe microkernel\u0026amp;rsquo;s main purpose is to scan the hardware of the node, and report that inventory back to the Razor server. With that information we can create categories/profiles/flavors of nodes - and deploy a operating to that node.\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s take an example. You have a UCS Chassis. You want to deploy ESXi on the Blades that have 128GB of RAM, but on the UCS blades that have 64GB of RAM you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t want ESXi, but rather RHEL6. You also have an HP Chassis with 16 blades, and there you want to deploy ESXi on all the servers.\nIf we were to verbally describe the tags they would be as follows.\nTag Rule UCS_ESXi Physical server + Manufacturer","date":"Nov 26, 2013","href":"/2013/11/razor-installers-policies-and-tags.html","summary":"This is part 4 of a series of posts on the new version of razor-server\nInstalling Razor - Yes the New Version.. Razor - DHCP and TFTP Installing the Razor client and creating a repository Installers, Policies and Tags Razor - What Lies Within the installer? Installing ESXi with Razor We are almost ready to deploy our first node but in order for that to happen - we will need the following.","tags":["Automation","Orchestration","Razor"],"title":"Razor - Installers, Policies and Tags"},{"content":"This is part three in the Razor Series. In part #2 we saw how to configure DHCP ad TFTP and as I mentioned in a previous post, the client is now a separate component.\nInstalling Razor - Yes the New Version.. Razor - DHCP and TFTP Installing the Razor client and creating a repository Installers, Policies and Tags Razor - What Lies Within the installer? Installing ESXi with Razor Here is how you would go about installing the razor-client which will allow you to interact with the server.\nI installed it in my $HOME folder\nFirst we will clone the code from Github.\ngit clone https://github.com/puppetlabs/razor-client\nChange directory to the razor-client folder and install the required gems\ncd razor-client bundle install Next create an alias that will include the url to the razor server (substitute the correct IP address / Hostname of course), and you should add this to your profile if you want the command to be available each time you login.\nalias razor=\u0026amp;quot;$PWD/bin/razor -u https://127.0.0.1:8080/api\u0026amp;quot;\nAs you can see it is possible to install the client on the same machine as the server. If you are doing this then then you will not need the url - because it defaults to https://localhost:8080/api\nAnd if you run the razor command you should see the following output\nAt the moment there is nothing there so looking at the repos/brokers/policies/nodes/tags will not give you much - yet…\nFirst some terminology.\nNodes - Nodes are the clients that connect into the system. Brokers - Brokers are responsible for handing a node off to a config management system, like Puppet or Chef. Tags - A tag consists of a unique name and a rule. The rule is a characteristic present on the the node Repos - A repository where the installation files of an Operating System reside Policies - This is a defined set of steps that tie all the other bits and pieces in Razor together, and are what gets ultimately applied to a node. Installers - This will be the set of actions needed to deploy the","date":"Nov 18, 2013","href":"/2013/11/installing-razor-client-and-creating.html","summary":"This is part three in the Razor Series. In part #2 we saw how to configure DHCP ad TFTP and as I mentioned in a previous post, the client is now a separate component.\nInstalling Razor - Yes the New Version.. Razor - DHCP and TFTP Installing the Razor client and creating a repository Installers, Policies and Tags Razor - What Lies Within the installer? Installing ESXi with Razor Here is how you would go about installing the razor-client which will allow you to interact with the server.\nI installed it in my $HOME folder","tags":["Automation","Orchestration","Razor"],"title":"Installing the Razor-Client and Creating a Repository"},{"content":"This is part 2 of a series of posts on the new version of razor-server\nInstalling Razor - Yes the New Version.. Razor - DHCP and TFTP Installing the Razor client and creating a repository Installers, Policies and Tags Razor - What Lies Within the installer? Installing ESXi with Razor In the previous part we installed the razor-server component.\nBut what use is razor without TFTP and DHCP servers that will allow you to boot your machines and install their OS? Because the architecture is modular, this can be done on different machines, or in this case - a single VM.\nHere is my layout of my environment.\nMy razor server has two NICs - one for access to the outside world and the other to provision my nodes. The reason I did it this way was because I do not control the allocation of IP addresses outside of my network and here I needed full control.\nInstall dnsmasq\napt-get install dnsmasq -y\nThe configuration files of dnsmasq needs to modified.\nThe first 3 lines take care of the iPXE boot. Enable the TFTP Server. Root directory where the boot files will be located. Set a DHCP range (this should be customized according to your environment). To add this basic configuration to the dnsmasq server you can use the following:\ncat \u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;gt; /etc/dnsmasq.conf \u0026amp;lt;\u0026amp;lt; __DNSMASQ_CONF__ # This works for dnsmasq 2.45 # iPXE sets option 175, mark it for network IPXEBOOT dhcp-match=IPXEBOOT,175 dhcp-boot=net:IPXEBOOT,bootstrap.ipxe dhcp-boot=undionly.kpxe # TFTP setup enable-tftp tftp-root=/var/lib/tftpboot dhcp-range=192.168.1.50,192.168.1.150,12h __DNSMASQ_CONF__ The directory we defined above is not present by default - so it must be created, and then restart the dnsmasq service to start with the correct settings\nmkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot service dnsmasq restart Get the iPXE boot firmware and put it in the tftpboot directory..\ncd /tmp curl -L -O [https://boot.ipxe.org/undionly.kpxe](https://boot.ipxe.org/undionly.kpxe) mv undionly.kpxe /var/lib/tftpboot/ Create the razor iPXE","date":"Nov 18, 2013","href":"/2013/11/razor-dhcp-and-tftp.html","summary":"This is part 2 of a series of posts on the new version of razor-server\nInstalling Razor - Yes the New Version.. Razor - DHCP and TFTP Installing the Razor client and creating a repository Installers, Policies and Tags Razor - What Lies Within the installer? Installing ESXi with Razor In the previous part we installed the razor-server component.\nBut what use is razor without TFTP and DHCP servers that will allow you to boot your machines and install their OS? Because the architecture is modular, this can be done on different machines, or in this case - a single VM.","tags":["Automation","Orchestration","Razor"],"title":"Razor - DHCP and TFTP"},{"content":"This is part 1 of a series of posts on the new version of razor-server\nInstalling Razor - Yes the New Version.. Razor - DHCP and TFTP Installing the Razor client and creating a repository Installers, Policies and Tags Razor - What Lies Within the installer? Installing ESXi with Razor I assume that some of you are familiar with Razor - the provisioning system that was open sourced by EMC and written partially by Nick Weaver - his post about razor is here.\nJonas Rosland (@virtualswede) created a great walkthrough on how to deploy a provisioning server, and get yourself up and running.\nIn July 2013, the team decided on a new direction and a complete re-write of the product.\nDoes that change anything? Yes! The instructions in the walkthroughs above do not work any more - since the core functionality has changed - substantially. This now a fully owned PuppetLabs project.\nWhen you run.. puppet module install puppetlabs-razor, that means you will get the new version of razor - not the previous version, and the steps above will not work. This first part will explain how to install the razor server.\nMost of the information in this post is also available on the Installation Wiki\nFirst the pre-requisites and caveats:\nThis was done on a freshly installed Ubuntu 12.04 VM. (The commands should This is the way I got it to work, it does not necessarily mean that this is the optimal way. I preferred to use the method of installing from Source and not the prepackaged modules (for a number of reasons). First we will install the necessary packages.\napt-get update apt-get install postgresql libarchive-dev curl git openjdk-7-jre-headless -y Postgres is the database that is used, curl is not installed by default, git will be used for the source installation, libarchive is used to unpack the ISO images and we will need the JDK for some of the of the Ruby pieces\nNext we will prepare the database. Change the the following file /etc/postgresql/9.1/main/pg_hba.conf and add modify the file as","date":"Nov 13, 2013","href":"/2013/11/installing-razor-yes-new-version.html","summary":"This is part 1 of a series of posts on the new version of razor-server\nInstalling Razor - Yes the New Version.. Razor - DHCP and TFTP Installing the Razor client and creating a repository Installers, Policies and Tags Razor - What Lies Within the installer? Installing ESXi with Razor I assume that some of you are familiar with Razor - the provisioning system that was open sourced by EMC and written partially by Nick Weaver - his post about razor is here.","tags":["Automation","Orchestration","Razor"],"title":"Installing Razor - Yes the New Version.."},{"content":"I would like to ask your assistance in voting for one of the sessions I proposed for the upcoming OpenStack Israel conference next month.\nYou can cast your vote here - https://www.openstack-israel.org/#!call4paper/cf4g\nThe three sessions I submitted are:\nRapid deployment of Openstack with Cisco Openstack Installer In this session I will demonstrate the Cisco A Rapid Devops approach to the deployment of Openstack\nUsing an Open source tools, such as Puppet, Cobbler to rapidly get your Openstack deployment up and running in no time\nOpenstack for vSphere Admins During this session we will go into how each of the parts of Openstack correlate to the infrastructure pieces in your vSphere environment, and how you can make use of your current vSphere environment with Openstack.\nWe will also deal with the limitations and caveats that need to be addressed with the current Grizzly version and its vSphere integration\nDoes it make sense to deploy vSphere under Openstack? This session will go over the pros and cons of deploying Openstack on top of vSphere.\nSome of the topics will include\nDoes it make sense? Aren\u0026amp;rsquo;t they the same solution? What considerations should you take into account if you go down this path? Your vote would be highly appreciated!!\nThanks in advance!\n","date":"Nov 6, 2013","href":"/2013/11/openstack-israel-sessions-cast-your-vote.html","summary":"I would like to ask your assistance in voting for one of the sessions I proposed for the upcoming OpenStack Israel conference next month.\nYou can cast your vote here - https://www.openstack-israel.org/#!call4paper/cf4g\nThe three sessions I submitted are:\nRapid deployment of Openstack with Cisco Openstack Installer In this session I will demonstrate the Cisco A Rapid Devops approach to the deployment of Openstack\nUsing an Open source tools, such as Puppet, Cobbler to rapidly get your Openstack deployment up and running in no time","tags":["Automation","Virtualization","OpenStack","DevOps","VMware","Cloud"],"title":"OpenStack Israel Sessions - Cast your Vote!"},{"content":"This thread was brought to my attention - https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2246189\nAfter updating Java to Update 45 - you can no longer login to UCSM (UCS Manager)\nYou may see one of two errors:\nLogin Error: java.io.IOException: Invalid Http response** Login Error: java.io.IOException: Server returned HTTP response code: 400 for URL:** [https://x.x.x.x:443/nuova](https://x.x.x.x:443/nuova) Cisco Bug ID: CSCuj84421\nThis is due to a change introduced in Java\nThe solution posted is to rollback to Update 25. Rolling back to Update 40 also works.\n","date":"Oct 24, 2013","href":"/2013/10/ucsm-login-problems-with-java-7-update.html","summary":"This thread was brought to my attention - https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2246189\nAfter updating Java to Update 45 - you can no longer login to UCSM (UCS Manager)\nYou may see one of two errors:\nLogin Error: java.io.IOException: Invalid Http response** Login Error: java.io.IOException: Server returned HTTP response code: 400 for URL:** [https://x.x.x.x:443/nuova](https://x.x.x.x:443/nuova) Cisco Bug ID: CSCuj84421\nThis is due to a change introduced in Java\nThe solution posted is to rollback to Update 25. Rolling back to Update 40 also works.","tags":["Java","Miscellaneous","UCS"],"title":"UCSM login problems with the Java 7 Update 45"},{"content":"Another light bulb moment. (I love it when that happens)\n#lightbulb moment. VMware is now positioning VDPA as a direct competitor to @veeam -\u0026amp;gt; Turf war? Again? #vmworld\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) October 16, 2013 VMware announced GA of NSX yesterday. It is no secret that VMware is now in direct competition with Cisco with their NSX offering.\n(As a side note - this is the strangest GA of a product I have seen. There are no download bits. No documentation. no Pricing or ordering options besides a nice \u0026amp;ldquo;Contact Sales\u0026amp;rdquo; button on the NSX page. I have been hearing vibes on Twitter that this will be a VMware PS only deliverable and not something that you will be able to install yourself, but I have still not heard any definite confirmation on this)\nI am not going to go into the merits of either of the different solutions, but it is obvious here that VMware is going after a share of the market - and that share belongs to one of their closest partners.\nSo what else was announced?\nLog Insight 1.5 TP3, VCOPs 5.8 and vSphere Data Protection Advanced 5.5\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s take them one at a time.\nLog Insight Splunk is a log aggregator - and one of the best that I know out there. They are a VMware TAP and have developed a number of solutions for their products that are in use today with a number of VMware customers.\nSo what does Splunk do? (A picture is better than a thousand words).\nAnd Log Insight?\nAgain - a number of similarities between the products - and of course there are differences and merits for each of them on their own.\nVCOPs Here we have a number of partners, Veeam, Dell (Foglight), Solarwinds. Again all partners that have developed products over the years (or bought companies that developed products) that will monitor your virtual infrastructure for you.\nOf course you have SRM which is a direct competitor to Veeam Backup and Replication and also Zerto.\nAnd last but not least..\nVDPA Here VMware is now providing a \u0026amp;ldquo;better\u0026amp;rdquo; version of","date":"Oct 16, 2013","href":"/2013/10/is-vmware-starting-turf-war-with-its.html","summary":"Another light bulb moment. (I love it when that happens)\n#lightbulb moment. VMware is now positioning VDPA as a direct competitor to @veeam -\u0026gt; Turf war? Again? #vmworld\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) October 16, 2013 VMware announced GA of NSX yesterday. It is no secret that VMware is now in direct competition with Cisco with their NSX offering.\n(As a side note - this is the strangest GA of a product I have seen. There are no download bits. No documentation. no Pricing or ordering options besides a nice \u0026ldquo;Contact Sales\u0026rdquo; button on the NSX page. I have been hearing vibes on Twitter that this will be a VMware PS only deliverable and not something that you will be able to install yourself, but I have still not heard any definite confirmation on this)","tags":[5.5,"Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Is VMware Starting a Turf War With Its Partners?"},{"content":"With last week\u0026amp;rsquo;s release - there was also an updated version on PowerCLI that was released as well.\nVMware vSphere PowerCLI 5.5 Release 1 Release Notes\nI noticed something quite strange (personally I have not yet hit this bug - but I am sure it must have happened to someone)\nThat sounds like fun \u0026amp;hellip; :)\nSo I put a question up on the the PowerCLI community.\nWhat exactly does this mean?\nWill it run the first 2?\nLast 2?\nEven lines?\nOdd lines?\nJust choose which some random lines?\nI received the answer from Dimitar and thought that it would be worthwhile to share it with you all.\nWhat this means is that it will either run the whole script or just the first line. We haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t been able to work out exactly what causes this, but we believe it has something to do with the way we escape special symbols and redirect the output in the script before sending it to the guest OS.\nThis is not a new issue for this release, but we decided to add it to the release notes. There are a couple of workarounds for this\nmake the script single line save the script in a .bat file, upload it to the guest using Copy-VMGuestFile and execute the file using Invoke-VMScript. Something you might want to remember\u0026amp;hellip;\n","date":"Oct 1, 2013","href":"/2013/10/interesting-tidbit-in-powercli-release.html","summary":"With last week\u0026rsquo;s release - there was also an updated version on PowerCLI that was released as well.\nVMware vSphere PowerCLI 5.5 Release 1 Release Notes\nI noticed something quite strange (personally I have not yet hit this bug - but I am sure it must have happened to someone)\nThat sounds like fun \u0026hellip; :)\nSo I put a question up on the the PowerCLI community.\nWhat exactly does this mean?\nWill it run the first 2?\nLast 2?\nEven lines?\nOdd lines?\nJust choose which some random lines?","tags":["Scripting","Powershell",5.5,"PowerCLI"],"title":"Interesting Tidbit in PowerCLI Release Notes"},{"content":"I will not be live blogging the sessions - but will embed the Twitter conversation below - and will add some thoughts about the sessions later on.\nTweets about \u0026amp;ldquo;#devopsdays TLV\u0026amp;rdquo;\n","date":"Sep 30, 2013","href":"/2013/09/devopsdays-tlv-2013.html","summary":"I will not be live blogging the sessions - but will embed the Twitter conversation below - and will add some thoughts about the sessions later on.\nTweets about \u0026ldquo;#devopsdays TLV\u0026rdquo;","tags":["Miscellaneous","DevOps"],"title":"DevopsDays TLV 2013"},{"content":"VMware has released two new Flings.\nvSphere Replication Capacity Planning Appliance The vSphere Replication Capacity Planning Appliance allows administrators to model the network impact of a virtual machine replication without producing actual replication traffic. The appliance provides command-line tools to configure replication for any VM in a vSphere Virtual Center. The replication is established in preview mode and thus requires no storage space. Networking traffic, required for the replication, is measured and displayed in an easy-to-understand graphical format that allows you to estimate the network bandwidth required.\nA command-line interface for configuring replication within the same or a remote Virtual Center or ESX host A web page presenting traffic graphics for each replication Does not write the actual replicated data and thus does not require any storage This is a separate virtual appliance that you will need to deploy\nThe second Fling is related to Cluster performance\nvCenter Cluster Performance Tool\nvCenter Cluster Performance Tool is a Powershell script that uses vSphere PowerCLI to obtain performance data for a cluster by aggregating information from individual hosts.\nYou have the following options to specify in the script.\nAn “interval” of 20s or 300s. The default is 20s, and corresponds to real time statistics. 300s corresponds to the 5 min interval statistics. **A stats query flag to obtain the list of counter IDs available on the vCenter Server. You can then pass the desired counter ID from that list to obtain Performance metrics for the cluster.\n** Gathers all data of the specified interval type that is available on each host in the specified cluster Easy and a quick way of obtaining performance data for a vCenter cluster Data is saved in a CSV file, which can then easily be fed into any charting software A chart, in PNG format, is also generated for visualization vCenter 5.0 and above is needed for both.\nFlings Our engineers work on tons of","date":"Sep 29, 2013","href":"/2013/09/cluster-performance-replication.html","summary":"VMware has released two new Flings.\nvSphere Replication Capacity Planning Appliance The vSphere Replication Capacity Planning Appliance allows administrators to model the network impact of a virtual machine replication without producing actual replication traffic. The appliance provides command-line tools to configure replication for any VM in a vSphere Virtual Center. The replication is established in preview mode and thus requires no storage space. Networking traffic, required for the replication, is measured and displayed in an easy-to-understand graphical format that allows you to estimate the network bandwidth required.","tags":["Fling","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Cluster Performance \u0026 Replication Capacity Planning Flings"},{"content":"My previous post on the 5.1 Release notes was quite popular as well as the 5.1.0a post as well…\nSo as always, the first things I do when a new version is released is:\nDownload the bits - of everything.. Download the documentation Go over the Release Notes So here are my takeaways and some questions regarding the 5.5 Release from yesterday.\nDisclaimer: These are my own thought and ramblings. I think they should be questions you should be asking VMware, your TAM and the support people. These are not the only items in the Release Notes - just those that got my attention. Your mileage may differ and there may be other things that are of importance to in the original document.\nTakeaways:\nI am finding less and less of a reason to use Linked Mode - seeing that you can register multiple vCenter Servers under the same SSO, even though - of course you cannot (and never could) mix vCenter versions for linked mode. Also (as far as I know) linked mode will only work with the Windows version of vCenter. Takeaways:\nNo change from 5.1 Takeaways:\nSeems that MAC OS is getting all the love in this release - but Linux not so much. Takeaways:\nThis could become an issue. VMware is pushing (quite hard I might say) that the appliance is ready for prime time - the amount of resources it can manage is much higher, but there are still fundamental issues with the \u0026amp;ldquo;all-in-one\u0026amp;rdquo; appliance.\nOne of them is stated above. Questions:\nEmbedded databases are all fine and dandy - but where are the tools to manage them? Bringing in a new database - without the tools to manage it is not something your DBA will be happy with. There is no migration path out of a Virtual appliance with the embedded Postgres How do you backup and restore a vCenter Virtual appliance and it\u0026amp;rsquo;s database? Takeaways:\nWell done. Whoever thought of making this the default database in the first place needs to be taken out and publicly pelted with rotten tomatoes.. Takeaways:\nThat means that when you upgrade your","date":"Sep 23, 2013","href":"/2013/09/read-vsphere-55-release-notes.html","summary":"My previous post on the 5.1 Release notes was quite popular as well as the 5.1.0a post as well…\nSo as always, the first things I do when a new version is released is:\nDownload the bits - of everything.. Download the documentation Go over the Release Notes So here are my takeaways and some questions regarding the 5.5 Release from yesterday.\nDisclaimer: These are my own thought and ramblings. I think they should be questions you should be asking VMware, your TAM and the support people. These are not the only items in the Release Notes - just those that got my attention. Your mileage may differ and there may be other things that are of importance to in the original document.","tags":["vSphere",5.5,"Administration","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"Read the vSphere 5.5 Release Notes!!"},{"content":"vSphere App HA has undergone a decent overhaul - with a substantial increase in the use cases. But we are not there yet.\nNot so long ago I wrote a post about the missing piece in the VMware HA puzzle. And I would like to continue the discussion about how this new release completes (or does not yet complete) the puzzle.\nSo before we get into what it exactly does and what has changed - here are at least three articles that have already posted information about App HA.\nAn introduction to VMware App HA (Marcel van den Berg) vSphere 5.5 Application HA, Advanced App Monitoring explained (Marco Broeken) What’s New in vCloud Suite 5.5: vSphere App HA (Julian Wood) First some disclosure. Most of this information is taken from the Beta documentation. That means that there could (or could not) be some changes when the product goes GA.\nvSphere App HA lets you define high availability for the applications that are running on the virtual\nmachines in your environment. vSphere App HA performs following functions.\nProvides application level visibility and control. Displays application availability in the vSphere Web Client and performs remediation if the service is unavailable.Uses remediation actions defined by the user such as restart service or reset virtual machine, and attempts to restart the application inside the virtual machine. If an application restart fails, resets the virtual machine. Here is what the architecture looks like.\nFirst the dry details and limitations.\nvSphere App HA - will be another separate virtual appliance that you have to run in your environment. With the minimum requirements of 2vCPU\u0026amp;rsquo;s, 4GB RAM, 20GB disk, 1Gbps Network.\nIt works only with the Web Client - so the traditional vSphere client is not supported (which is expected)\nThe services supported by vSphere App HA are:\nMSSQL 2005, 2008, 2008R2, 2012 Tomcat 6.0, 7.0 TC Server Runtime 6.0, 7.0 IIS 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 Apache HTTP Server 1.3, 2.0, 2.2. You can only install one vFabric Hyperic server on","date":"Sep 13, 2013","href":"/2013/09/vsphere-app-ha-closer-but-not-yet.html","summary":"vSphere App HA has undergone a decent overhaul - with a substantial increase in the use cases. But we are not there yet.\nNot so long ago I wrote a post about the missing piece in the VMware HA puzzle. And I would like to continue the discussion about how this new release completes (or does not yet complete) the puzzle.\nSo before we get into what it exactly does and what has changed - here are at least three articles that have already posted information about App HA.","tags":["Hyperic","vFabric","vSphere",5.5,"VMware"],"title":"vSphere App HA - Closer... But Not Yet"},{"content":"VMworld has come and gone. A whirlwind of a week.\nI only was in the US for 4 days, and in transit for another two, and it was worth every single second and cent.\nFirst thank you\u0026amp;rsquo;s.\nI would like to thank Corey Romero, and John Troyer for the blogger pass to VMworld.\nI would like to thank Amy Lewis for her assistance in getting me to VMworld as part of the Social Media effort for Cisco.\nNow to the show and my highlights and thoughts.\nThe People Social networking is a major part of the conference. I met more than one person who told me that they did not even sign up for the sessions. They came to meet customers, speak with vendors, and use the power of social networking that is in full force.\nThe blogger lounge was a great place to be. As I said in my Ultimate Bloggers Guide to VMworld post I did not go into the General Session Hall, I sat at the blogger tables.\nI do think that the location of the blogger lounge this year was just as good as last year\u0026amp;rsquo;s with one major exception. There was not single video screen that could be seen from the blogger\u0026amp;rsquo;s tables. Something that I do not understand how no-one noticed when they planned the layout of the Hangspace. I hope that it is something that will be corrected for next year.\nThe atmosphere at the show provides you with an energy, it is hard to define. I feel it brings out the best in me, making me want to continue what I do, contribute ever more to the community, because you see how vibrant and great this community really is.\nThe Location I know that there are people do not like San Francisco, I personally will never get used to the number of homeless people roaming the street (not that I have anything against them - just not something I am used to seeing where I come from). I find the location great. Not overcrowded, and for me the option of getting outside and getting a fresh breath of air and some sunshine a few times a day, beats Las Vegas every time!\nThe food halls were set up much better this time","date":"Sep 3, 2013","href":"/2013/09/vmworld-2014.html","summary":"VMworld has come and gone. A whirlwind of a week.\nI only was in the US for 4 days, and in transit for another two, and it was worth every single second and cent.\nFirst thank you\u0026rsquo;s.\nI would like to thank Corey Romero, and John Troyer for the blogger pass to VMworld.\nI would like to thank Amy Lewis for her assistance in getting me to VMworld as part of the Social Media effort for Cisco.","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"VMworld 2013 has Come and Gone"},{"content":"There are a number of posts out there on the WWW with great guides on how to make the most of your time at VMworld, two of them are mentioned here below:\nThe Ultimate Guide to attending #VMworld 2013 – AND ON A BUDGET! Where to hang out, eat during VMworld 2013 – San Francisco These are great resources.\nI would like to share with you, some advice of how I would make good use of my time, AS A BLOGGER, while at VMworld.\nThis year I will be part of the Cisco Social Media effort at the conference.\nGet Social with Cisco at VMworld 2013 (Your Ticket to Community Activity)\nWhy would attending VMworld be any different than for a regular attendee?\nFor a number of reasons.\nAs a blogger, this is the Virtualization conference of the year, and being there not only provides a huge amount of energy for you and your blog but also a huge amount of material for you to write about. You have your view, that most of the attendees do not, sometimes positive, other times not so. Your interests will be different from those of the regular customer, the regular attendee. You are at an advantage, because being part of the media (albeit not the traditional kind), people want to talk to you, hear your opinion, and get your feedback. It is important to them. It was stated perfectly in the song Class of 99..\nLadies and Gentlemen of the class of \u0026amp;lsquo;99 \u0026amp;lsquo;13\nIf I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.\nThe long term benefits of sunscreen attending VMworld have been proved by scientists\nwhereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering\nexperience\u0026amp;hellip;\nI will dispense this advice now.\nDon\u0026amp;rsquo;t attend too many sessions Why? I thought that was the reason that we were coming to VMworld, wasn\u0026amp;rsquo;t it? Well Yes and No. All the sessions are recorded, and are available afterwards for your offline viewing.\nThe only exception to this rule (IMHO) are the group discussions (the sessions that are marked as GDxxx). The reason being here is","date":"Aug 20, 2013","href":"/2013/08/the-ultimate-blogger-guide-to-vmworld.html","summary":"There are a number of posts out there on the WWW with great guides on how to make the most of your time at VMworld, two of them are mentioned here below:\nThe Ultimate Guide to attending #VMworld 2013 – AND ON A BUDGET! Where to hang out, eat during VMworld 2013 – San Francisco These are great resources.\nI would like to share with you, some advice of how I would make good use of my time, AS A BLOGGER, while at VMworld.","tags":["VMworld","Blogger"],"title":"The Ultimate Blogger's Guide to VMworld 2013"},{"content":"I just found out that I was included on the Huffington Post\u0026amp;rsquo;s Top 100 Cloud Computing Experts on Twitter.\nI was surprised (to say the least) to be included in a list with a number of familiar faces on Twitter:\nRandy Bias, @randybias Stephen Foskett, @SFoskett Reuven Cohen, @rUv Hoff, @beaker Ben Kepes, @benkepes Alessandro Perilli, @a_perilli Duncan Epping, @DuncanYB Dave McCrory, @mccrory Stuart Miniman, @stu John Mark Troyer, @jtroyer Brian Gracely, @bgracely Ed Saipetch, @edsai Vanessa Alvarez, @vanessaAlvarez1 Cody Bunch, @cody_bunch Chris Wolf, @cswolf Vaughn Stewart, @vStewed Chris M Evans, @chrismevans Aaron Delp, @aarondelp The full Twitter list can be found here.\nI am humbled to be included in such a list with an amazing group of people! There are so many other worthy people that should have been on this list.\n","date":"Aug 15, 2013","href":"/2013/08/top-100-cloud-computing-experts-on.html","summary":"I just found out that I was included on the Huffington Post\u0026rsquo;s Top 100 Cloud Computing Experts on Twitter.\nI was surprised (to say the least) to be included in a list with a number of familiar faces on Twitter:\nRandy Bias, @randybias Stephen Foskett, @SFoskett Reuven Cohen, @rUv Hoff, @beaker Ben Kepes, @benkepes Alessandro Perilli, @a_perilli Duncan Epping, @DuncanYB Dave McCrory, @mccrory Stuart Miniman, @stu John Mark Troyer, @jtroyer Brian Gracely, @bgracely Ed Saipetch, @edsai Vanessa Alvarez, @vanessaAlvarez1 Cody Bunch, @cody_bunch Chris Wolf, @cswolf Vaughn Stewart, @vStewed Chris M Evans, @chrismevans Aaron Delp, @aarondelp The full Twitter list can be found here.","tags":["Miscellaneous","Twitter","Cloud"],"title":"Top 100 Cloud Computing Experts On Twitter"},{"content":"About two weeks ago I spent a very interesting hour with Shimon Hason (Co-Founder \u0026amp;amp; CEO), Phil Neray (VP of Marketing) and Tomer Levy (Co-founder).\nIntigua? Where have you perhaps heard that name before?\nIntigua won the Best of VMworld 2012 in the New Technology category.\nSo what is Intigua? The blurb from their website says…\nIntigua was founded in 2010. Currently they have an R\u0026amp;amp;D facility in Herzliya, Israel and their headquarters are located in Boston (and not in Palo Alto).\nThey secured $8.6 million funding in January 2013. They revealed their product at VMworld last year, and that is where I first met them.\n(The following is my summary and understanding of the solution they provide)\nWhat is this management stack that they speak about?\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s take a look at the typical enterprise environment. Your virtual machines could possibly (and probably) have the following agents installed\nAnti-virus Agent IPS/IDS Agent Backup Agent Monitoring Agent Software Management (LanDesk/Altiris for example) VMware tools Configuration Management There could be more, there probably are (here is a list of currently supported applications).\nThere also could be less, your mileage will vary according to your environment.\nThere is a great chance that each of the above agents come from a different vendor, and therefore that will require a separate management application to manage all your agents. And of course this will require a separate GUI that you will login for each and every application.\nThere is a very big chance that each and every of these are managed by different teams, different people, and there is a chance that none of the teams has insight or knowledge of what the other applications are doing.\nVirtualization separated the operating system from the underlying hardware - through the use of a hypervisor.\nVMware can encapsulate applications (ThinApp) and allow you to separate the application from the underlying OS and have it essentially run in a bubble. This of","date":"Aug 12, 2013","href":"/2013/08/virtualizing-management-layer-with.html","summary":"About two weeks ago I spent a very interesting hour with Shimon Hason (Co-Founder \u0026amp; CEO), Phil Neray (VP of Marketing) and Tomer Levy (Co-founder).\nIntigua? Where have you perhaps heard that name before?\nIntigua won the Best of VMworld 2012 in the New Technology category.\nSo what is Intigua? The blurb from their website says…\nIntigua was founded in 2010. Currently they have an R\u0026amp;D facility in Herzliya, Israel and their headquarters are located in Boston (and not in Palo Alto).","tags":["Virtualization","Management","Miscellaneous","Administration","Cloud"],"title":"Virtualizing the Management Layer with Intigua"},{"content":"I posted a tweet tonight.\nLove it that you access the DCUI from a putty session pic.twitter.com/ODZuFaYMmL\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) August 8, 2013 I needed to restart the management agent on a ESXi host (it would not reconnect to vCenter)\nRestarting the Management agents on an ESXi or ESX host (1003490) is the correct KB for information on how to do it.\nIf you are at the console - you go in through the DCUI.\nThere is a not well known fact that you can also invoke the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) from a remote SSH session as well.\nAccessing Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) from an SSH session(2039638)\nVery simple, just type dcui from the shell prompt. When you are done, Ctrl+C.\nBefore..\nAfter\nJust have to read the KB\u0026amp;rsquo;s…\n","date":"Aug 8, 2013","href":"/2013/08/access-dcui-from-remote-ssh-session.html","summary":"I posted a tweet tonight.\nLove it that you access the DCUI from a putty session pic.twitter.com/ODZuFaYMmL\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) August 8, 2013 I needed to restart the management agent on a ESXi host (it would not reconnect to vCenter)\nRestarting the Management agents on an ESXi or ESX host (1003490) is the correct KB for information on how to do it.\nIf you are at the console - you go in through the DCUI.","tags":["Management","vSphere","ESXi","VMware","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Access the DCUI from a Remote SSH Session"},{"content":"There are a number of limitations with the current GUI when deploying a new instance in Rackspace (such as no option to attach a keypair to the deployed instance) - therefore I suggest you use the API.\nOne of the easiest methods I have found is using the nova client Installing python-novaclient on Windows\nInstalling python-novaclient on Linux and Mac OS\nExport the correct variables List the available flavors (sizes) List the available images (templates) (Output was truncated)\nDeploy a new instance To deploy a new instance with 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 40GB disk from the RHEL 6.4 template run the following command (must all be on one line!!)\nnova boot --image 16e6c0ae-f881-4180-95b0-3450fe3f8e96 --key-name mykey --flavor 3 --no-service-net --no-public --nic net-id=0XXXX6b2-af20-4d31-8a1a-41abfa3b52ce mytest1\nTo break it down..\nnova boot --image a524978e-e9b5-4069-927e-1334e982b8d9 - deploy instance from template\n--key-name mykey - use my set of keys\n--flavor 3 - instance size\n--no-service-net - do not connect to Rackspace network\n--no-public - do not connect to Public Internet -nic net-id=0XXXX6b2-af20-4d31-8a1a-41abfa3b52ce - connect to Internal_network\nmytest1 - instance name\nMore RackSpace articles are planned\n","date":"Jul 29, 2013","href":"/2013/07/deploying-instance-with-novaclient-in.html","summary":"There are a number of limitations with the current GUI when deploying a new instance in Rackspace (such as no option to attach a keypair to the deployed instance) - therefore I suggest you use the API.\nOne of the easiest methods I have found is using the nova client Installing python-novaclient on Windows\nInstalling python-novaclient on Linux and Mac OS\nExport the correct variables List the available flavors (sizes) ","tags":["OpenStack","RackSpace"],"title":"Deploying an Instance with novaclient in Rackspace"},{"content":"I was just watching a discussion on DevOps, Automation and Continuous integration and heard the following,\n\u0026amp;ldquo;Chef is a tool for doing infrastructure automation - config management, application deployment - all of that stuff\u0026amp;rdquo; (Adam Jacob - CPO, Opscode)\nTwo things that I would like discuss regarding that quote.\nWhat is Infrastructure? In my current role at Cisco - we have been discussing to great length platform - and what that platform actually is.\nHave a look at the following diagram.\nWhere does the platform fit? What would you call the infrastructure? What is platform?\nIf you are a typical virtualization guy you most probably would focus on the bottom part of the diagram. You would say that is the basis of any infrastructure - without the compute, storage, network and perhaps some of other parts (hypervisor or OS could actually float up or down between the two halves) - but without those things - you cannot build anything on top.\nIf you were to ask a typical developer - then they would say it is all in the top half - because without having the java framework, the application foundations - then the end product (what you are selling to the customer) would not work, you cannot develop applications unless you have the infrastructure underneath.\nIt all depends on your perspective.\nAt the moment - the top half of the diagram - developers are making great use of abstraction of the underlying layer. They go to AWS, Openstack, VMware and access an API.\nDevelopers do not care about the underlying layer - they will place an call to an API to provision a VM - the whole underlying framework is abstracted.\nThat is why there is such massive use of Cloud for this kind of work. For a developer - just give them a VM and plop it down somewhere - what they really need is an IP and network connectivity to do their work.\nBut for the IT guys they are very worried about providing everything and piecing it al together to bring up that API and expose to the end user. That is not","date":"Jul 22, 2013","href":"/2013/07/is-devops-answer-to-everything.html","summary":"I was just watching a discussion on DevOps, Automation and Continuous integration and heard the following,\n\u0026ldquo;Chef is a tool for doing infrastructure automation - config management, application deployment - all of that stuff\u0026rdquo; (Adam Jacob - CPO, Opscode)\nTwo things that I would like discuss regarding that quote.\nWhat is Infrastructure? In my current role at Cisco - we have been discussing to great length platform - and what that platform actually is.","tags":["Automation","Puppet","Management","Architecture","DevOps","Administration","VMware","AWS"],"title":"Is DevOps The Answer to Everything?"},{"content":"I would like to thank Darren Woollard for taking the time to create and send over my new vEXPERT and iVirtualise sticker (even if it is spelled wrong :) )\nThanks!!\nIf you are a vEXPERT - go on over and add your quote to his blog here - https://vexpert.me/sticker\n","date":"Jul 22, 2013","href":"/2013/07/thanks-to-dawoo-for-vexpert-swag.html","summary":"I would like to thank Darren Woollard for taking the time to create and send over my new vEXPERT and iVirtualise sticker (even if it is spelled wrong :) )\nThanks!!\nIf you are a vEXPERT - go on over and add your quote to his blog here - https://vexpert.me/sticker","tags":["Miscellaneous","vExpert"],"title":"Thanks to @dawoo for the vEXPERT Swag"},{"content":"Unless you live in a very specific part of the world - the chance that you will see snow (I mean the real fluffy stuff - not the artificial muck that people make) is really, really slim. But many of deal with snowflakes each and every single day - and we do not even know it.\nSo where are all these snowflakes? (in July??)\nThey don\u0026amp;rsquo;t see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don\u0026amp;rsquo;t know they\u0026amp;rsquo;re dead snowflakes. How often do you see them? All the time. They\u0026amp;rsquo;re everywhere. (I love this quote)\nSo before I start I suggest that you read this excellent post by @Martinfowler - SnowflakeServer \u0026amp;hellip;\n\u0026amp;hellip; Great!! You are back.\nOur datacenter is full of snowflakes. These snowflakes are our own doing. At least this was the case a few year a go when there were manual build processes. Enterprises realized quite soon that this was not a healthy situation and looked for a way to standardize builds.\nFirst we started with Norton Ghost images. Then came kickstart scripts for the Linux Servers, and RIS (and thereafter Windows Deployment Services) for the Windows boxes.\nThere was fiddling with drivers each time a new hardware model came out, a new NIC was introduced, a new HBA etc. etc.. it was a challenge none the less but a pretty automated process.\nBut for most (I can definitely speak for myself) once the OS was delivered - the application was usually not part of the build. Patches were installed up to a certain point - but then again, there was an build process for IBM hardware one for HP and another for Vendor X/Y/Z.\nSo yes we have a multitude of servers which are - yes you guessed it - snowflakes. It will be difficult to say that your servers are the same, they are built the same and they will never stay the same. I am not saying that they all should be - but it slowly but surely becomes a nightmare.\nBut hey… Wait !!! Virtualization solved this for me didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t it? I mean that was the whole idea of having templates wasn\u0026amp;rsquo;t it? A","date":"Jul 18, 2013","href":"/2013/07/snowflakes-in-july.html","summary":"Unless you live in a very specific part of the world - the chance that you will see snow (I mean the real fluffy stuff - not the artificial muck that people make) is really, really slim. But many of deal with snowflakes each and every single day - and we do not even know it.\nSo where are all these snowflakes? (in July??)\nThey don\u0026rsquo;t see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don\u0026rsquo;t know they\u0026rsquo;re dead snowflakes. How often do you see them? All the time. They\u0026rsquo;re everywhere. (I love this quote)","tags":["Automation","Puppet","Orchestrator","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Snowflakes in July?"},{"content":"VMware vSphere Big Data Extensions 1.0 Beta - Release Notes\nVMware is proud to announce the VMware vSphere Big Data Extensions v1.0 beta. This product is designed to work with vSphere and leverages the VMware contributions to the Serengeti Project.\nBig Data Extensions gives customers an easy to use management tool to provision, manage, and monitor enterprise Hadoop clusters on vSphere through the vCenter user interface.\nWhat\u0026amp;rsquo;s New in vSphere Big Data Extensions vSphere Big Data Extensions is a virtualization platform that enables provisioning and lifecycle management of Hadoop on VMware vSphere. This release provides the following features and enhancements.\nBig Data Extensions Graphical User Interface.\nYou can perform the following tasks with the Big Data Extensions graphical user interface.\nCreate, scale-out, and delete clusters. Manage vSphere resources for use by Hadoop clusters. Manage and monitor Hadoop clusters. Control Hadoop resource usage. Support for all Major Hadoop Distributions.\nAutomatic Elasticity.\nAdjust the Compute and Memory Resources of Running Hadoop Clusters.\nDisk Failure Recovery.\nCreate a Hadoop Virtual Machine with a Custom Linux CentOS Operating System Configuration.\nSupport for vSphere Standard Edition When Using the Technology Preview.\nvSphere Big Data Extensions Administrator\u0026amp;rsquo;s and User\u0026amp;rsquo;s Guide\nvSphere Big Data Extensions Command-line Interface Guide\nI am sure this will be of use to those who are already using Project Serengeti\n","date":"Jun 26, 2013","href":"/2013/06/vsphere-big-data-extensions-v10-beta.html","summary":"VMware vSphere Big Data Extensions 1.0 Beta - Release Notes\nVMware is proud to announce the VMware vSphere Big Data Extensions v1.0 beta. This product is designed to work with vSphere and leverages the VMware contributions to the Serengeti Project.\nBig Data Extensions gives customers an easy to use management tool to provision, manage, and monitor enterprise Hadoop clusters on vSphere through the vCenter user interface.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s New in vSphere Big Data Extensions vSphere Big Data Extensions is a virtualization platform that enables provisioning and lifecycle management of Hadoop on VMware vSphere. This release provides the following features and enhancements.","tags":["Beta","VMware","Announcement","Cloud"],"title":"vSphere Big Data Extensions v1.0 Beta"},{"content":"That was the call I got today.\n\u0026amp;ldquo;All I did was add a VMkernel interface and my host lost connection to vCenter\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nOn went my troubleshooting hat.\nFirst the environment (simplified)\nThe physical interfaces on which the VMkernel interfaces reside were trunked with multiple VLANs. In this case VLAN(4) and VLAN(49).\nvmk0 was used for ESXi management - with a default gateway of x.x.4.254\nWhen the user added vmk1 - the host would become disconnected, he removed vmk1 - the host reconnected to the vCenter.\nWhile the host was disconnected, we tried to ping the vmk0 interface - replies were fine.\nWhile the host was disconnected - we tried to connect to the host directly with SSH and the vSphere client - both worked.\nWhile the host was disconnected - we tried to ping the vCenter server with its IP - there was no response.\nWhile the host was disconnected - we tried to ping the external network - replies were fine.\nWe then looked at the settings on vmk1 - and I noticed that the user had not set the VLAN49 tag on the VMkernel interface. Obviously this was not set correctly, and by adding VLAN(49) to vmk1 - everything worked correctly. The Host reconnected to vCenter.\nSo the problem was solved - VLAN(49) was missing on vmk1.\nI was puzzled and tried to understand why this misconfiguration would cause the host to disconnect from the vCenter - then I realized why, and therefore the reason for this post.\nWhen configuring a VMkernel interface, a new entry is added to the routing table. There will only be one default gateway - and that will the one defined on the Management interface. The additional VMkernel interfaces will not have a gateway defined.\nThis was the printout of the esxcfg-route -l from the Host.\nJust to explain the output in plain English.\nAnything on Network x.x.4.0 on that subnet will go out through vmk0.\nAnything on Network x.x.6.0 on that subnet will go out through vmk2.\nAnything on Network x.x.49.0 on that subnet will go out through vmk1.\nEverything that","date":"Jun 19, 2013","href":"/2013/06/all-i-did-was-add-vmkernel-interface.html","summary":"That was the call I got today.\n\u0026ldquo;All I did was add a VMkernel interface and my host lost connection to vCenter\u0026rdquo;.\nOn went my troubleshooting hat.\nFirst the environment (simplified)\nThe physical interfaces on which the VMkernel interfaces reside were trunked with multiple VLANs. In this case VLAN(4) and VLAN(49).\nvmk0 was used for ESXi management - with a default gateway of x.x.4.254\nWhen the user added vmk1 - the host would become disconnected, he removed vmk1 - the host reconnected to the vCenter.","tags":["ESXi","VMware","Troubleshooting"],"title":"All I Did Was Add a VMkernel Interface (Routing)"},{"content":"Today I got a reminder of a post I have been meaning to write about security best practices and VMware Virtual Appliances.\nA question was raised on the VMTN community VCSA - what is the default \u0026amp;ldquo;upgrade\u0026amp;rdquo; user for?\nThat is a very legitimate question!! Giving a user all rights with no password can become an issue. But in this case since it is used (most probably) for the purpose of the upgrade of the VCSA from version to version - then it might OK (or not… ).\nWhich leads straight into the next subject - what users (and what are their rights) exist on the vCenter Server Appliance?\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s have a quick look at what users there are on the VCSA (screenshot is all the local users on my VCSA that are both not locked or disabled)\nSo firstly let me say that is a hell of a lot of users in the server that in essence is one of (if not the most) important part of your Virtual infrastructure.\nYou might say (and rightfully so) that even if the users are defined - that does not mean that they can actually log into the system - for that they would need some kind of shell access. So I checked which users actually have shell access. That would be users who do not have /bin/false or /sbin/nologin in their profile. This is what I got\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s concentrate on some of the users in the list.\nlp - Access to printer hardware; enables the user to manage print jobs.\nftp - FTP user\nman - Used for man\ngames - Access to some game software\nnews - Used for news application\nuucp - Serial and USB devices such as modems, handhelds, RS-232/serial ports.\nFor someone that values security - all our Linux boxes are hardened (as they should be), so the first thing we do is run the following:\nuserdel shutdown userdel halt userdel reboot userdel games userdel news userdel gopher userdel ftp** (Just to clarify - I do not advise running any of the above commands on your vCenter Server without proper testing and approval from VMware and doing so might void your support.\nBe warned!!)\nIf you were","date":"Jun 17, 2013","href":"/2013/06/security-in-vmware-virtual-appliances.html","summary":"Today I got a reminder of a post I have been meaning to write about security best practices and VMware Virtual Appliances.\nA question was raised on the VMTN community VCSA - what is the default \u0026ldquo;upgrade\u0026rdquo; user for?\nThat is a very legitimate question!! Giving a user all rights with no password can become an issue. But in this case since it is used (most probably) for the purpose of the upgrade of the VCSA from version to version - then it might OK (or not… ).","tags":["Security","Appliances","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"Security in VMware Virtual Appliances"},{"content":"Forgive the catchy title…\nWell this morning I thought that I had missed something (which I usually don\u0026amp;rsquo;t) - and that Paul Strong was appointed as the new CTO succeeding Stephen Herrod.\nWhat made me come to that conclusion you might ask - it was this article.\nPerforming a reality check on Twitter is easy\nForgive the ignorance but when did Paul Strong become the new CTO?\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) June 13, 2013 And it seemed I was not the only one.\nI have heard from within VMware that Paul Strong was not appointed as the new CTO (he is the CTO for Global Field- but not THE CTO), so I do not know where The Register got their information from.\nWhich now brings me to another and more important question. How long can VMware go on without filling Stephen\u0026amp;rsquo;s shoes? Stephen left his position as the CTO on January 15th, 2013.\nShortly thereafter (related or not I do not know - I am not a financial buff) the VMW stock took a beating, dropping almost 20 points, today the stock it still at around the same level (after some ups and downs).\nStephen was (and still is) highly respected for his leadership qualities, his vision and his part in bringing VMware to the place they are today. I do not think there were many who were not shocked about the announcement - it was not something that many predicted. The community - especially the active virtual community hold him in high regard.\nSo the obvious question is what is taking so long to replace him? I do say that his replacement will have to live up to high expectations, from the shareholders, from the community and also from the customers. His spot is not an easy one to fill. I personally do not know enough about the \u0026amp;ldquo;visionaries\u0026amp;rdquo; within VMware who can replace him, or perhaps it will be someone from within the \u0026amp;ldquo;mothership\u0026amp;rdquo; (gotta love speculation).\nI do think that VMware have to fill this void - the sooner the better. It has been 5 months. It is not good for business, it is not good for","date":"Jun 13, 2013","href":"/2013/06/yo-ho-ho-vmware-needs-cto.html","summary":"Forgive the catchy title…\nWell this morning I thought that I had missed something (which I usually don\u0026rsquo;t) - and that Paul Strong was appointed as the new CTO succeeding Stephen Herrod.\nWhat made me come to that conclusion you might ask - it was this article.\nPerforming a reality check on Twitter is easy\nForgive the ignorance but when did Paul Strong become the new CTO?\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) June 13, 2013 And it seemed I was not the only one.","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Yo Ho Ho - VMware Needs a CTO…"},{"content":"Here is a short summary with links on today\u0026amp;rsquo;s announcements from the Red Hat summit in Boston.\nRed Hat Launches Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.2\nRed Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.2 brings a vast array of new features, including:\nFully supported Storage Live Migration, allowing virtual machine images to be moved from[ one storage domain to another without disrupting service\nSupport for the latest industry-standard processors from Intel and AMD, including Intel Haswell series and AMD Opteron G5 processors\nEnhancements in storage management, networking management, fencing and power management, Spice console enhancements, logging and monitoring, and more.\nNew Third-Party Plug-ins\nRed Hat is already collaborating with several industry leaders to integrate their solutions with Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization via the new plug-in, including high availability and disaster recovery solutions from NetApp (with a VSC), Symantec (HA), and Insight Control from HP\nRed Hat Shows OpenStack Ecosystem Strength; Launches Red Hat OpenStack Certification, Unveils Red Hat Certified Solution Marketplace As part of today’s announcement, IBM joins Cisco and Intel as Alliance Partners in the Red Hat OpenStack Cloud Infrastructure Partner Network.\nRed Hat OpenStack Certification Program\nRed Hat Certified Solution Marketplace\nRed Hat and Mirantis Partner Across Products and Services to Accelerate Adoption of Red Hat OpenStack Mirantis, and Red Hat today announced that the two companies will collaborate to optimize Mirantis’ Fuel tools for deployment of Red Hat OpenStack, and deliver OpenStack implementation and integration services to joint customers.\nRed Hat Announces OpenStack-powered Product Offerings to Deliver on Open Hybrid Cloud Vision New solutions include extension to Red Hat Enterprise Linux product family and new offering to enable customers on their journey from datacenter virtualization to Infrastructure-as-a-Service. Red Hat today announced two new product offerings","date":"Jun 12, 2013","href":"/2013/06/announcements-from-red-hat-summit.html","summary":"Here is a short summary with links on today\u0026rsquo;s announcements from the Red Hat summit in Boston.\nRed Hat Launches Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.2\nRed Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.2 brings a vast array of new features, including:\nFully supported Storage Live Migration, allowing virtual machine images to be moved from[ one storage domain to another without disrupting service\nSupport for the latest industry-standard processors from Intel and AMD, including Intel Haswell series and AMD Opteron G5 processors","tags":["Virtualization","Miscellaneous","Redhat","Cloud"],"title":"Announcements from Red Hat summit"},{"content":"Hello World….\nvCenter Log Insight (Release Notes) - The first public release of the new Log Management and Analytics product.\nVMware vCenter Log Insight is the new solution of VMware for log management and analytics for dynamic hybrid cloud environments. It delivers superior technology for automated log management through log analytics, aggregation, and search to extend the leadership of VMware in analytics to log data.\nLog Insight can analyze vast amounts of unstructured machine generated data and enable interactive, real-time search and analytics through an easy to use interface providing superb time to value. It analyzes log data of all types and from all devices, enabling deep, enterprise-wide visibility. With a focus on integrated cloud operations management, and an analytics driven approach, Log Insight provides the operational intelligence needed to proactively enable service levels and operational efficiency in dynamic hybrid cloud environments.\nThink of it as something similar to Splunk but different - it is specifically vSphere Centric (at least at the moment), built by VMware people (as a result of the Log Insight acquisition from August 2012) and it integrates with vCOPs (which is a great plus)\nThere is recommended sizing document\nLicensing VMware vCenter Log Insight is available for purchase as a standalone product. It has a simple pricing model, with one flat rate for any server, virtual machine or vSphere host from which you collect logs.\nVMware vCenter Log Insight is licensed on a per operating system instance (OSI) basis, which is defined as any server, virtual or physical, with an IP address that generates logs, including network devices and storage arrays.\nWith Log Insight, you can analyze an unlimited amount of log data per OSI. The advantage of this is a simple and predictable pricing model that is based on the size of the infrastructure; it does not force you to buy additional licenses to cover the worst-case scenario and pay more for increased","date":"Jun 11, 2013","href":"/2013/06/vcenter-log-insight-now-available.html","summary":"Hello World….\nvCenter Log Insight (Release Notes) - The first public release of the new Log Management and Analytics product.\nVMware vCenter Log Insight is the new solution of VMware for log management and analytics for dynamic hybrid cloud environments. It delivers superior technology for automated log management through log analytics, aggregation, and search to extend the leadership of VMware in analytics to log data.\nLog Insight can analyze vast amounts of unstructured machine generated data and enable interactive, real-time search and analytics through an easy to use interface providing superb time to value. It analyzes log data of all types and from all devices, enabling deep, enterprise-wide visibility. With a focus on integrated cloud operations management, and an analytics driven approach, Log Insight provides the operational intelligence needed to proactively enable service levels and operational efficiency in dynamic hybrid cloud environments.","tags":["Management","Operations","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"vCenter Log Insight Now Available"},{"content":"Last week, the 581 people that were awarded the vExpert title for the year 2013. It is large list of people who are active in the community, that share knowledge, that lead VMUG\u0026amp;rsquo;s and all other kinds of evangelizing for VMware and the community in general.\nAs we all know there are a number of \u0026amp;ldquo;perks\u0026amp;rdquo; that come with being a vExpert, but mostly it is an honor.\nAn honor to be part of an amazing group of people\nAn honor to serve the community\nAn honor that people acknowledge your contributions\nI have traditionally created a Twitter list of the vExperts each year, and this in not different.\nI actually created two of them due to the fact that Twitter limited the number of members of a single list to 500 members (and of course they changed it on Thursday - after the lists were populated)\nSo there will be only a single vExpert 2013 list which you can find here.\nThank you for the honor and here is looking forward to a wonderful and exciting year..\n","date":"Jun 4, 2013","href":"/2013/06/vexpert-2013.html","summary":"Last week, the 581 people that were awarded the vExpert title for the year 2013. It is large list of people who are active in the community, that share knowledge, that lead VMUG\u0026rsquo;s and all other kinds of evangelizing for VMware and the community in general.\nAs we all know there are a number of \u0026ldquo;perks\u0026rdquo; that come with being a vExpert, but mostly it is an honor.\nAn honor to be part of an amazing group of people","tags":["Miscellaneous","vExpert"],"title":"vExpert 2013"},{"content":"This was not widely announced, so I guess that many of you do not know that since the upgrade that was performed on the VMware Community Forums (VMTN) there is now support for mobile devices\n(such as Android and iPhone/iPad).\nThis is what it looks like through a regular tablet browser (Android with Chrome in my case). With a tablet this is pretty much ok, but from a phone the forums are pretty much unusable.\nHere is a quick how-to on how you go about allowing mobile devices access to your account.\nFrom a web browser - go to the preferences on your VMware Communities account.\nAnd choose the new Mobile Tab\nGive your device a name and Get Activation Code\nYou will presented with a QR code that you can scan and an activation code number.\nScan the code which will take you to https://vmware.jive-mobile.com where you will already have the activation code in the link.\nNow with the new interface.. Click on the login button.\nClick on Register.\nAnd now you will be logged with your credentials, with access to your recent activity on the forums.\nI think this is great improvement and makes the forums a lot easier to use on the go.\nI would like to give a big shout out to Corey Romero (@vCommunityGuy) the Community Manager, for all the great work and planning that was put into the upgrade, and all the great day-to-day work he does for the community.\nThanks Corey!!\n","date":"May 24, 2013","href":"/2013/05/vmtn-communities-now-supports-mobile.html","summary":"This was not widely announced, so I guess that many of you do not know that since the upgrade that was performed on the VMware Community Forums (VMTN) there is now support for mobile devices\n(such as Android and iPhone/iPad).\nThis is what it looks like through a regular tablet browser (Android with Chrome in my case). With a tablet this is pretty much ok, but from a phone the forums are pretty much unusable.","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware","VMTN","Communities"],"title":"VMTN Communities - Now Supports Mobile Devices"},{"content":"VMware have just released a new public beta for VMware Workstation\nThe VMware Workstation team is providing public access to the VMware Workstation Technology Preview to gather feedback from users on a wide range of hardware and software configurations. The VMware Workstation Technology Preview includes changes to the core virtualization engine and new capabilities we are exploring.\nWhat\u0026amp;rsquo;s New - Read the full release notes\nVMware Hardware Version 10 - This Technology Preview introduces hardware Version 10. Hardware versions introduce new virtual hardware functionality and new features while enabling VMware to run legacy operating systems in our virtual machines. 16 vCPUs - In this Technology Preview VMware Workstation is shipping Hardware Version 10 and has enabled our users to create and run virtual machines with up to 16 virtual CPUs. Please let us know how this performs running your workloads. We have run CPU benchmarks, encryption/decryption and encoding/decoding programs to characterize the performance, but we are interested in what results you get running other applications.\nSSD Passthrough - Windows 8 is capable of detecting when it is being run from a solid state drive (SSD) and optimizes itself for this hardware. In this Technology Preview, Workstation can detect when the Virtual Machine Disk file is being stored on an SSD drive and pass this information to the guest operating system to enable Windows 8 to make the same optimizations when it is running in a virtual machine.\nExpiring Virtual Machines - VMware has enhanced the capabilities of Restricted Virtual Machines to include the ability to expire the virtual machine on a certain date at midnight UTC time (for now). The intent of this feature is to enable customers to create virtual machines to be shared with employees, students, customers, contractors etc. that will run until the date that that you set. New Converter - This Workstation Technology Preview includes a preview of the next version of","date":"May 21, 2013","href":"/2013/05/vmware-workstation-fusion-technology.html","summary":"VMware have just released a new public beta for VMware Workstation\nThe VMware Workstation team is providing public access to the VMware Workstation Technology Preview to gather feedback from users on a wide range of hardware and software configurations. The VMware Workstation Technology Preview includes changes to the core virtualization engine and new capabilities we are exploring.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s New - Read the full release notes\nVMware Hardware Version 10 - This Technology Preview introduces hardware Version 10. Hardware versions introduce new virtual hardware functionality and new features while enabling VMware to run legacy operating systems in our virtual machines. ","tags":["Workstation","Beta","Fusion","VMware"],"title":"VMware Workstation \u0026 Fusion Technology Preview 2013"},{"content":"I had my mailbox migrated to a new domain today. One of the side effects of this was that for silly reason, a large number of my meetings now had a prefix of Copy: added to the subject of the meeting.\nWhich annoyed the hell out of me.\nNow I could go ahead and remove all the extra information one by one - but that is tedious annoying and against my automation principles.\nSo starting with this post Retrieve all-day appointments in Outlook with PowerShell and this one as well Create Outlook Appointments from PowerShell, I have managed to change all the outlook appointments that have the extra text in the subject line with the following lines of code\n$olApp = New-Object -COM Outlook.Application $namespace = $olApp.GetNamespace(\u0026amp;#34;MAPI\u0026amp;#34;) $fldCalendar = $namespace.GetDefaultFolder(9) $items = $fldCalendar.Items $copies = $items | ? {$_.Subject -like \u0026amp;#34;Copy:*\u0026amp;#34; } $copies | % { $newsubject = ($_.Subject).Trim(\u0026amp;#34;Copy: \u0026amp;#34;) $_.Subject = $newsubject $_.Save() } Before\nAfter\nGotta Love PowerShell!!\n","date":"May 20, 2013","href":"/2013/05/change-outlook-meetings-en-masse.html","summary":"I had my mailbox migrated to a new domain today. One of the side effects of this was that for silly reason, a large number of my meetings now had a prefix of Copy: added to the subject of the meeting.\nWhich annoyed the hell out of me.\nNow I could go ahead and remove all the extra information one by one - but that is tedious annoying and against my automation principles.","tags":["Automation","Scripting","Powershell"],"title":"Change Outlook Meetings En Masse"},{"content":"Many bloggers have their sites hosted somewhere. Personally I find it very convenient having my blog hosted under Google\u0026amp;rsquo;s Blogger service. Since I am having issue with my provider and mentioned it on Twitter, several people asked if I found a good new host, if I would not mind sharing the details with them.\nI assume that none of you know that I used to run a private webhosting service as a side gig for a decent number of years, and I think that some of the knowledge I have accumulated over the year could be of great use in choosing the right Webhost for your blog.\nFirst let\u0026amp;rsquo;s dive into what kind of services a webhost will usually provide.\nShared Hosting Shared hosting means that you are get a certain amount of space on a shared server (it could be a physical server, or a virtual machine somewhere) where you can do a number of things. these usually are (but are not limited to)\nCreate web pages Install Software - usually web interfaces to software like Wordpress, Forum software (phpBB). Softaculous is one such example. Configure email accounts Look at Web statistics FTP accounts Create MySQL databases Create Sub-domains or add-on domains if your account allows those features All of these options are accessible through a control panel which is web based. If you like to administer your environment through a shell command and the host allows it (it will usually be a jailed shell - which is limited) then you can.\nPros This is usually the cheapest option. Shared hosting goes for around anything from $2-$10 per month. You do not need to manage anything regarding the operating system - your provider will take care of this. Cons The noisy neighbor - usually you are sharing the same server with a number of other people - sometimes an excessive amount of people it can go up into the hundreds… If one of them causes problems on the server then you all suffer. You are usually quite limited in your resources, how many databases you can create, email accounts, disk","date":"May 20, 2013","href":"/2013/05/choosing-webhost-for-your-blog.html","summary":"Many bloggers have their sites hosted somewhere. Personally I find it very convenient having my blog hosted under Google\u0026rsquo;s Blogger service. Since I am having issue with my provider and mentioned it on Twitter, several people asked if I found a good new host, if I would not mind sharing the details with them.\nI assume that none of you know that I used to run a private webhosting service as a side gig for a decent number of years, and I think that some of the knowledge I have accumulated over the year could be of great use in choosing the right Webhost for your blog.","tags":["Hosting","Blogger","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Choosing a Webhost for Your Blog"},{"content":"Once upon a time… Nah… This is not a fairy tale so lets do it differently.\nWhat is the maximum size of a virtual disk that vSphere 5.1 supports? If you have no idea, then probably you have not passed your VCP (because they ask those silly kind of questions) but you can use Eric Siebert\u0026amp;rsquo;s page VMware configuration maximums from 1.0 to 5.1 if you need a reminder.. 2TB\nAnd how much does Hyper-V support? Much more.. 64TB.\nAnd GCE? Well they have whopping 10TB persistent disk!\nHow many hosts in a does a single vCenter support? **1,000\n**And how many hosts per cluster? 32\nAnd Powered on VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s? 10,000\nAnd how many simultaneous vMotions?\nBut Hyper-V supports 64 nodes in a cluster and 8,000 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s (if they are powered on or not I do not know..) and so many simultaneous Live Migrations..\n(These numbers are valid for current versions, but I am sure that in future releases they will go up higher)\nWho \u0026amp;hellip; #@##@ Cares?????? (and therefore the reason for this post…)\nIt doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t really matter who has supports a bigger disk.\nIt does not matter if you can run 10,000 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s or 8,000..\nIt is wonderful that you can store 10TB of data on a single persistent disk on GCE. (Heaven forbid that you actually have to replicate that amount of data somewhere else, back it up or even worse have to restore it!!)\nAnd why not - because in approximately 80% of the deployments in the world (most probably more) - you will never get anywhere close to those numbers. You really won\u0026amp;rsquo;t!\nSo what is important then? And what should you really look for?\nI would say is the solution which is suitable for you. Don\u0026amp;rsquo;t base your decisions on one parameter out of several hundred that most of you will never come across anyway.\nYes there are the certain edge cases that the sheer scale of some environments will exceed one maximum or the other. But I can assure you that when you hit 32 nodes in a single cluster I promise you, the fact that Hyper-V can support 64 is the last reason","date":"May 17, 2013","href":"/2013/05/why-single-feature-doesn-matter.html","summary":"Once upon a time… Nah… This is not a fairy tale so lets do it differently.\nWhat is the maximum size of a virtual disk that vSphere 5.1 supports? If you have no idea, then probably you have not passed your VCP (because they ask those silly kind of questions) but you can use Eric Siebert\u0026rsquo;s page VMware configuration maximums from 1.0 to 5.1 if you need a reminder.. 2TB\nAnd how much does Hyper-V support? Much more.. 64TB.","tags":["Miscellaneous","Scale","Administration"],"title":"Why a Single Feature Doesn't Matter?"},{"content":"This is just a note to point you to an article that was recently published about my thoughts on the newly released\nvCenter Certificate Automation Tool 1.0.\nThe full post can be found on TechTarget below\nI for one am looking forward to see vCert Manager released.\n","date":"May 9, 2013","href":"/2013/05/my-take-on-vcenter-certificate.html","summary":"This is just a note to point you to an article that was recently published about my thoughts on the newly released\nvCenter Certificate Automation Tool 1.0.\nThe full post can be found on TechTarget below\nI for one am looking forward to see vCert Manager released.","tags":["Certificates","Miscellaneous","SSL"],"title":"My Take on the vCenter Certificate Automation Tool"},{"content":"Jason Boche posted a great article vSphere 5.1 Update 1 Update Sequence and there he pointed to an excellent KB article released by VMware - Update sequence for vSphere 5.1 Update 1 and its compatible VMware products (2037630) I would like to add some of my thoughts about the mass release of products that happened last week.\nFirst look at the screenshot below.\nThe first thing that I noticed - the number of products that are intertwined - is becoming larger and larger. 14 at the moment in this document.\nI am extremely grateful to VMware for many things but two specific things in this context.\nThey have provided a detailed document stating the order that you should perform the upgrade. They have released all of the versions at the same time - now the chance of having one component in my infrastructure that will not work with the new versions - is less likely to occur. But on the other hand…\nIf I want to update your environment then you are in for a long .. ride.\nAny enterprise that is using some or all of these components will not be able to perform the upgrade in a day, probably not a week, and maybe it will take them months. A while back in my post Release Cycles and Why We Are Chasing Our Tails? I wrote about the effects of having rapid release cycles and why this will make things even more complicated. I agree that most of the components can be replaced with minimal or no substantial downtime to the end user, but there will always be edge cases of course.\nIt is now May 2013, and if we can assume that VMware will release a new version of their products sometime around VMworld (which is what they historically do), then it seems that your organization will have to go through this process, again, sometime in Q4 of 2013.\nThe question then arises - is it worthwhile to do this now, and then again start the whole process again in another 4 months?\nIf you are to upgrade the whole stack (or at least part of it - and please make a note that VMware does recommend that you","date":"May 7, 2013","href":"/2013/05/upgrading-to-vmware-latest-release-of.html","summary":"Jason Boche posted a great article vSphere 5.1 Update 1 Update Sequence and there he pointed to an excellent KB article released by VMware - Update sequence for vSphere 5.1 Update 1 and its compatible VMware products (2037630) I would like to add some of my thoughts about the mass release of products that happened last week.\nFirst look at the screenshot below.\nThe first thing that I noticed - the number of products that are intertwined - is becoming larger and larger. 14 at the moment in this document.","tags":["vCloud","Management","VMware","vCenter","Upgrade"],"title":"Upgrading to VMware's Latest Release of …"},{"content":"So the onslaught of \u0026amp;ldquo;vote for my sessions\u0026amp;rdquo; has begun.\nI like numbers and the interesting information that can be interpreted from those numbers.\nVMworld Call for Papers Voting is no exception.\nSo let\u0026amp;rsquo;s start.\nBut before that, I would like to stress something. These numbers are what I have extracted from what is publicly available - it could be that the numbers presented below do not make up a full picture (they probably don\u0026amp;rsquo;t) - because there are sessions that could already have been accepted and we know nothing about it.\nMy thoughts only…\nThe number of sessions currently up for public voting - 954. Last year there were 1222 - that is a drop of 28%.\nMy thoughts - either there were less submissions this year, or VMware weeded out more stuff before the voting started this year, or there are many other sessions that have content relating to upcoming features that they were not publicized in the voting process. In any event - it is still impossible to go through a list of ~1000 sessions.\nVendors To which company do the potential speakers belong? (and here I took only the Diamond sponsors)\nMy thoughts - very much expected - although I would have expected that Cisco would have put in more sessions (let the conspiracy theories begin..)\nTracks The number of sessions in each sub-track of the Infrastructure track are as follows\nMy thoughts - Cloud and EUC will continue to be a major part of the conference this year and is every year\u0026amp;hellip;\nSome other interesting little tidbits.. **My thoughts - Automation has become a major concern as environments are growing bigger and more complex - you can see that from the numbers above.\nOrchestrator - is at least on par if not starting to overtake PowerCLI as the preferred tool for automating - that is why there are so many sessions.\nPuppet is still the tool of choice for most VMware professionals - strange though that Chef did not even submit anything - is this the direction for the future - maybe??\nAnd of","date":"Apr 24, 2013","href":"/2013/04/by-numbers-vmworld-2013-session-voting.html","summary":"So the onslaught of \u0026ldquo;vote for my sessions\u0026rdquo; has begun.\nI like numbers and the interesting information that can be interpreted from those numbers.\nVMworld Call for Papers Voting is no exception.\nSo let\u0026rsquo;s start.\nBut before that, I would like to stress something. These numbers are what I have extracted from what is publicly available - it could be that the numbers presented below do not make up a full picture (they probably don\u0026rsquo;t) - because there are sessions that could already have been accepted and we know nothing about it.\nMy thoughts only…","tags":["VMworld","voting","VMware"],"title":"By the Numbers - VMworld 2013 Session Voting"},{"content":" I mentioned last week on The Unofficial VMware Visio Stencils post that it is by far the most popular post on my blog.\nWe all have a most popular post - one that usually stand out amongst the rest.\nI started thinking - why not compile a list of each of our most popular blog posts. It does not necessarily have to be Virtualization related, I think it should - but you can decide.\nSo this is how it will work.\nIf you are interested, and would like to add it to the list below…\nPlease leave a comment below [or send me a message on Twitter or contact me at\nmaishsk (at) gmail (dot) com] with the following :\nName:\nYour Twitter Name:\nPost URL:\nScreenshot of the number of all-time Pageviews for your post:\nNo number is too great or small - let me have it! Be it 100/1,000\u0026amp;hellip; /1,000,000 - It does not matter.\nThis is by no means a competition, just an opportunity to showcase your finest and shiniest piece of work. I will add the entries below (in the order they are received)\nName\nTwitter\nPost URL\nAll-time Number of PageViews\nMaish Saidel-Keesing\n@maishsk\nThe Unofficial VMware Visio Stencils\nLuca Dell’Oca\n@dellock6\nAbout Me\nWilliam Lam\n@lamw\nHow to Enable Support for Nested 64bit \u0026amp;amp; Hyper-V VMs in vSphere 5\nAther Beg\n@AtherBeg\nHTC Peep issue resolved: “The account was forbidden to access the Twitter server”\nPhillip Jones\n@P2Vme\nVMware vSphere 5.1 Known Issues : Updated 9/17/2012\nWill you accept the challenge?\n","date":"Apr 12, 2013","href":"/2013/04/what-is-your-most-popular-post.html","summary":" I mentioned last week on The Unofficial VMware Visio Stencils post that it is by far the most popular post on my blog.\nWe all have a most popular post - one that usually stand out amongst the rest.\nI started thinking - why not compile a list of each of our most popular blog posts. It does not necessarily have to be Virtualization related, I think it should - but you can decide.","tags":["Blogger","Miscellaneous"],"title":"What Is Your Most Popular Post?"},{"content":"The VMware Visio Stencils I have created are by far the most popular post on my blog. Over the past few years I have posted a three versions over the years since they were released.\nI decided last week that it was time to create a dedicated page that would hold the most up to date version and not to have them spread out all across my blog.\nTherefore from now all the old versions will now redirect to this page.\nWhy \u0026amp;ldquo;The Unofficial VMware Visio Stencils\u0026amp;rdquo;?\nThat is because they are not prepared by VMware, but by me. On each occasion I have taken the icons and diagrams that VMware release every now and again and turn them into something that a large number of people have asked for, but VMware have yet to be able to supply, a re-usable Visio stencil that can be used in diagrams.\nFirst the legal part:\nThis document was created using the official VMware icon and diagram library. Copyright © 2012 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents.\nVMware does not endorse or make any representations about third party information included in this document, nor does the inclusion of any VMware icon or diagram in this document imply such an endorsement.\nToday (April 8th, 2013) I am also releasing the final and last part of the v3 version of the Stencils.\nTo make it more user friendly and easier to find what you would like, you can find below a graphical inventory of what is in each of the parts of this version (v3).\nPart 1 Box Shots Icons 2D Icons Shapes and Assets Build your Own Part 2 VMware Concepts Additional Icons Part 3 Product Groupings Part 3 includes the following products:\nOrchestrator (x2) CapacityIQ Chargeback Appspeed Site Recovery Manager (x3) Studio vCloud Director VMware Server View (x6) ThinApp (x2) vCloud Director (x2) Today August 24th, 2014 the first day of VMworld US, I am","date":"Apr 8, 2013","href":"/2013/04/vmware-visio.html","summary":"The VMware Visio Stencils I have created are by far the most popular post on my blog. Over the past few years I have posted a three versions over the years since they were released.\nI decided last week that it was time to create a dedicated page that would hold the most up to date version and not to have them spread out all across my blog.\nTherefore from now all the old versions will now redirect to this page.","tags":["Stencil","Visio","VMware"],"title":"The Unofficial VMware Visio Stencils"},{"content":" Times they are A-changin\u0026amp;rsquo;, Bob Dylan\u0026amp;rsquo;s song from 1963 was written at the time to make a change. On Friday I caught wind of a story which I think should actually be an eye opener for us all.\nThe story I am talking about is the one about Adria Richards and her tweet at Pycon.\nAmanda Blum posted a long but good post Adria Richards, PyCon, and How We All Lost with her take on the whole thing.\nTo make a long story short. Adria heard a sexist remark while at a conference from to guys sitting behind her. She snapped a photo and posted it to Twitter. And all hell broke loose.\nOne of the men was fired, her company was attacked and she was fired.\nFirstly I do have my own opinion about how society has evolved over the years and how morals have continuously deteriorated generation by generation. But that is not what I want to talk about. Who was wrong here? Well both sides were.\nWho was more wrong - doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t matter.\nAmy Lewis wrote a post a while back - Don’t Call Me, Maybe? (Go ahead and read it, I will wait) about how people are using social media more and more, instead of actually interacting with each other - and by interaction - I mean talking with someone on the phone or even better, face to face.\nPeople do not talk any more. And it is a shame.\nTechnology has enabled us to do a great number of things, an unbelievable amount of things.\nIn my post Where Does it All Come From? I touched on how things have evolved in the way use technology. I have the option to reach out with my keyboard and contact someone on the other side of the world and get an answer almost instantaneously. Once upon a time we had to send a letter - wait for 3 weeks for it to arrive, and wait for another 3 weeks until we received a reply. Technology is a wonderful thing.\nBut it has its downsides as well.\nHow many of you are using your phone/iPad and looking at Facebook / Twitter while you are sitting on the couch, watching television? Or talking to your spouse/family/parents? Or your","date":"Mar 25, 2013","href":"/2013/03/why-can-we-just-talk-to-each-other.html","summary":" Times they are A-changin\u0026rsquo;, Bob Dylan\u0026rsquo;s song from 1963 was written at the time to make a change. On Friday I caught wind of a story which I think should actually be an eye opener for us all.\nThe story I am talking about is the one about Adria Richards and her tweet at Pycon.\nAmanda Blum posted a long but good post Adria Richards, PyCon, and How We All Lost with her take on the whole thing.","tags":["Miscellaneous"],"title":"Why Can't We Just Talk to Each Other?"},{"content":"The VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager 1.1 Public Beta is now open. Actually it was already open on March 11th, but it seems it has not yet been publicly announced.\nDownload Link | Release Notes\nWhat is VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager 1.1 VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager is a component that enables support for heterogeneous hypervisors in VMware vCenter Server. It provides the following benefits to your virtual environment:\nAn integrated platform for managing VMware and third-party hypervisors from a single interface. A hypervisor choice for the different business units in your organization to accommodate their specific needs. No single hypervisor vendor lock-in. When you add a third-party host to vCenter Server, all virtual machines that exist on the host are discovered automatically, and are added to the third-party hosts inventory.\nThe previous Beta (version 1.0) was released in November 2012.\nSo what\u0026amp;rsquo;s new in this release?\nThe VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager 1.1 is a minor release which introduces the following new capabilities:\nMigration of virtual machines from Hyper-V to ESX or ESXi hosts. Support for the latest Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor (as well as earlier Hyper-V versions). Increased scalability with regards to an increased number of supported third-party hosts to 50 (from 20 in vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager 1.0). Ability to provide custom certificates for the vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager server from the installer wizard. Multiple objects selection in the UI of the vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager plug-in and a number of other usability improvements. vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager server and client-side bug fixes. It also add support for Hyper-V Server 2012\n","date":"Mar 19, 2013","href":"/2013/03/vcenter-multi-hypervisor-manager-11-beta.html","summary":"The VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager 1.1 Public Beta is now open. Actually it was already open on March 11th, but it seems it has not yet been publicly announced.\nDownload Link | Release Notes\nWhat is VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager 1.1 VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager is a component that enables support for heterogeneous hypervisors in VMware vCenter Server. It provides the following benefits to your virtual environment:\nAn integrated platform for managing VMware and third-party hypervisors from a single interface. A hypervisor choice for the different business units in your organization to accommodate their specific needs. No single hypervisor vendor lock-in. When you add a third-party host to vCenter Server, all virtual machines that exist on the host are discovered automatically, and are added to the third-party hosts inventory.","tags":["Management","Beta","Hyper-V","Administration","VMware"],"title":"vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager 1.1 Beta"},{"content":"Yesterday was a busy day, lots of announcements I would like to put down my thoughts on the fact the VMware will now get into the Public Cloud market in direct competition with Amazon.\nWe saw this coming - it started with the vCloud Service that VMware announced about 6 months ago - an open Beta - that actually was not free. In my blog post vCloud Service - I Asked Myself - Why? I explained why I think they started the service.\nThe Public Cloud market was too big for VMware to pass up. Every second, the sound of pennies/dollars dropping into Amazon\u0026amp;rsquo;s pockets - is a big temptation. I guess that VMware are looking to grow, looking for new sources of income - and there are two major areas were this can come from.\nThe first is from the mobile market. VMware have already got a very big foot in the door with their Horizon Suite of products, again they are most probably the market leader in this emerging market. I guess that there main market and that is the hypervisor will continue to bring in business - but will not be their main source of income - as it has been for several years.\nThe second is the Public Cloud. VMware have been there pretty much since the beginning - you could even say the leader in the market - but not really. There is really only one real Public Cloud company - and that is Amazon. Azure also have their Public Cloud - HP, Rackspace as well. But the most feature rich, the most innovative, the most advanced is AWS - without a doubt.\nVMware\u0026amp;rsquo;s strategy was to enable their partners to compete and build their own Public Clouds, but as I said in the post above - it was not on par with what AWS has to offer. Really not the same.\nSo what does this mean for the End User?\nChoice. People now have more of a choice where they can spin up a workload - Amazon will no longer be the only significant player in the market. This could start a price war between the two companies - actually already has - AWS has been gradually reducing their prices over the past","date":"Mar 14, 2013","href":"/2013/03/vcloud-hybrid-vs-aws-battle-begins.html","summary":"Yesterday was a busy day, lots of announcements I would like to put down my thoughts on the fact the VMware will now get into the Public Cloud market in direct competition with Amazon.\nWe saw this coming - it started with the vCloud Service that VMware announced about 6 months ago - an open Beta - that actually was not free. In my blog post vCloud Service - I Asked Myself - Why? I explained why I think they started the service.","tags":["vCloud","Amazon","VMware","AWS","Cloud"],"title":"vCloud Hybrid vs. AWS - The Battle Begins"},{"content":"A while back Duncan Epping wrote a wonderful post VMotion, the story and confessions about how people remembered the when they witnessed vMotion for the first time and asked people to add their experiences. I of course remember mine vividly - and also remember that when I first saw vMotion I knew that this would change the way we used computers in the future.\nA few weeks ago - I got that feeling again - but this time not with vMotion but rather with a product that I saw for the first time from Ravello Systems.\nSome background about the company and its founders\n\u0026amp;ldquo;Ravello was founded in 2011 with the sole purpose of changing the way companies, large and small consume the public cloud. Ravello is brought to you by the team that introduced the KVM hypervisor (now the standard virtualization technology in Linux)\nRami Tamir (Co-Founder, CEO) – was VP of engineering at Red Hat. He joined Red Hat through the acquisition of Qumranet where he was the co-founder and president.\nBenny Schnaider (Co-Founder, President and Chairman of the Board) was VP of business development for Red Hat. He joined Red Hat through the acquisition of Qumranet where he was co-founder and CEO.\nNavin R. Thadani (SVP, Products) – ran the virtualization (KVM/ RHEV) business line for Red Hat. He joined Red Hat through the acquisition of Qumranet in 2008 which he led as the VP of products.\nRavello Systems is the first company to tackle the problem head-on from an infrastructure perspective. It’s very much like what VMware did back in the early 2000s to the enterprise data center.”\n“The leadership team behind Ravello has a track record of developing innovative technologies in the virtualization infrastructure space and backing it up with solid execution,” said Adam Fisher, partner, Bessemer Venture Partners. “Their previous virtualization initiative, KVM has been a tremendous success in the market with record breaking virtualization performance and scalability. This time around, HVX is another","date":"Mar 13, 2013","href":"/2013/03/ravello-systems-and-bit-of-deja-vu.html","summary":"A while back Duncan Epping wrote a wonderful post VMotion, the story and confessions about how people remembered the when they witnessed vMotion for the first time and asked people to add their experiences. I of course remember mine vividly - and also remember that when I first saw vMotion I knew that this would change the way we used computers in the future.\nA few weeks ago - I got that feeling again - but this time not with vMotion but rather with a product that I saw for the first time from Ravello Systems.","tags":["Virtualization","Orchestrator","Architecture","Miscellaneous","Administration","Cloud"],"title":"Ravello Systems - and A Bit of Deja Vu"},{"content":"First and foremost I would like to express my public gratitude and thanks to legendary Ulli Hankeln, the Master of Converter and VMDK/VMFS disk dissection/recovery for sticking with this and bugging VMware to make the proper changes to this product.\nAfter being in a private Beta for a while - it is now open to the public\nFrom the Release Notes\nWhat\u0026amp;rsquo;s New The VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 5.1 Beta includes the following new functionality:\nSupport for virtual machine hardware version 9 Guest operating system support for Microsoft Windows 8 and Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Guest operating system support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Support for virtual and physical machine sources with GUID Partition Table (GPT) disks Support for virtual and physical machine sources with Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Support for EXT4 file system Converter Standalone 5.1 Beta is known to have the following issues: You cannot upgrade an existing installation of Converter Standalone to Converter Standalone 5.1 Beta. Before you install Converter Standalone 5.1 Beta, uninstall any earlier versions of Converter Standalone and delete any remaining Converter Standalone server database files from your system. You cannot convert physical SLES 9 sources, if the root directory is located on an LVM disk. You need to convert the LVM disk to a basic disk. Virtual machines cloned from RHEL6 and SLES 11 sources have no network connectivity. After the conversion is complete, you need to reconfigure the network settings on the destination virtual machine manually. Virtual machines cloned from SLES 11 SP1 sources boot in console mode. After the conversion is complete, you need to recreate the xorg.conf file. You can download the product here\nNow if only they would bring back the cold clone CD (wishful thinking..)\n","date":"Mar 13, 2013","href":"/2013/03/vmware-vcenter-converter-standalone-51.html","summary":"First and foremost I would like to express my public gratitude and thanks to legendary Ulli Hankeln, the Master of Converter and VMDK/VMFS disk dissection/recovery for sticking with this and bugging VMware to make the proper changes to this product.\nAfter being in a private Beta for a while - it is now open to the public\nFrom the Release Notes\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s New The VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 5.1 Beta includes the following new functionality:","tags":["Management","Miscellaneous","VMware","Converter"],"title":"VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 5.1 Beta"},{"content":"So you are all the winners, for participating, for voicing your opinions and making your vote count!\nToday Eric Siebert posted the results for the top 2013 VMware and Virtualization Blogs.\nI asked you Not to vote for me but it seems that did not work.\nThe full results and podcast can be found here.\nIn short.\nI was ranked at No. 41 in the total count 7th in the Scripting blog category 8th in the Independent blogger category. I would like to thank you again all for you support!\nSome of my own analysis on the results.\nThere is only one independent in the top 10 - Eric Sloof Only eight of the top 25 do not work for a vendor. (EMC, VMware, HP, Dell, VCE, NetApp) 7 out of the top 10 bloggers work for VMware, 1 for EMC and one for HP. There are 4 new bloggers in the top 25. There is 1 new blogger in the top 10. The biggest drop in the list was from 18 to 229 (211 spots) The biggest climb in the list was from 149 to 38 (111 spots) The vBrownbag crew is doing an amazing job - and people appreciate it. The favorite storage blogger - does not even work for a storage vendor, he works for VMware. The top scripting blogger\u0026amp;rsquo;s preferred scripting language is not PowerCLI - it is Perl. Congratulations to all the other bloggers on their achievements this year. It is a great list.\nThank you Eric Siebert for a job well done!!\nYou can follow all the bloggers on Twitter in the following updated lists:\nTop 25 VMware/Virtualization Bloggers\nTop 50 VMware/Virtualization Bloggers\nTop Independent Bloggers\nFavorite Scripting Bloggers\nFavorite Storage Bloggers\n","date":"Mar 11, 2013","href":"/2013/03/and-winner-is-you.html","summary":"So you are all the winners, for participating, for voicing your opinions and making your vote count!\nToday Eric Siebert posted the results for the top 2013 VMware and Virtualization Blogs.\nI asked you Not to vote for me but it seems that did not work.\nThe full results and podcast can be found here.\nIn short.\nI was ranked at No. 41 in the total count 7th in the Scripting blog category 8th in the Independent blogger category. I would like to thank you again all for you support!","tags":["Virtualization","Blogger","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"And the Winner is…. You!"},{"content":"At VMworld 2012, at the vExpert briefing - we were introduced to an upcoming social idea that VMware were working on - Cloud Cred.\nToday I received an email from the VMUG organization (screenshot below)\nCurrently the site is not yet available (according to the mail above - it will be on March 11th) - as you can see from the screenshot below.\nSo what is Cloud Cred - I will leave this to VMware to explain..\nAn Overview and Demo is also available here.\nIf I remember correctly the whole idea was not received very well at the briefing.\nMaking the whole thing into a \u0026amp;ldquo;game\u0026amp;rdquo; where you are receiving points, and can get \u0026amp;ldquo;stuff\u0026amp;rdquo; for getting the highest scores and even \u0026amp;ldquo;win\u0026amp;rdquo; the grand prize of a trip for 2 to VMworld Barcelona - seems to diminish a good amount of what all the VMware evangelists, bloggers, vExperts do. We are not doing it for the points or trinkets, but because we believe in what we do.\nI think the commoditization of the blogging and evangelizing - will only reduce its value. Time will tell.\nWhat do you think?\nPS. Thanks to Jake Robinson who pointed out that VMware just also launched their Cloud Credits program, which is not the same as the above. Cloud Credits and Cloud Credibility close but not the same.\n","date":"Mar 9, 2013","href":"/2013/03/vmware-cloud-cred-program.html","summary":"At VMworld 2012, at the vExpert briefing - we were introduced to an upcoming social idea that VMware were working on - Cloud Cred.\nToday I received an email from the VMUG organization (screenshot below)\nCurrently the site is not yet available (according to the mail above - it will be on March 11th) - as you can see from the screenshot below.\nSo what is Cloud Cred - I will leave this to VMware to explain..","tags":["Blogger","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"VMware Cloud Cred Program"},{"content":"It is around that time of the year again, when VMware puts out the announcement that the Call for Papers for VMworld 2013 and will be open, and then people will start to submit their sessions to get their hour of glory at the biggest virtualization show of the year.\nVMworld will be in San Francisco between August 26-29, 2013 in the Moscone Center.\nLast year there were 1222 separate sessions up for voting - yes I counted them. VMware started with public voting for VMworld sessions 3 years ago with VMworld 2010\nBefore that there was only a committee that decided which speakers would have the honor of presenting a session at VMworld.\nThis post actually is the continuation of a dinner conversation I had with Mike Laverick, Edward Haletky, Gabrie van Zanten, Harold Simon and Larry Orloff and Michael Webster on the last day of VMworld 2012 in San Francisco.\nHere are my thoughts.\nVMware has the right to decide what content it would like to have in its flagship conference, it only happens once a year and of course the show is not only there for the benefit of the attendees. There are sponsorships, partners that need to be taken care of - and I am sure there are a huge number of things I am not mentioning that have to be taken into account as well when deciding on content.\nIn the end there is a finite amount of sessions that can be offered. There are all sorts of considerations that will come into account, whether a session will take place (at least this is the way I would do it):\nPartner commitment - I assume that VMware guarantee a number of sessions to its main partners, that would be a courtesy. Sponsorship commitment - again I would assume that would part of the agreement with the bigger sponsors. New technologies - VMware will definitely want sessions out there for the new announcements and features that will be coming out during that period. Hot speakers - there are several speakers who are very good, they present almost every year, and their sessions are packed.","date":"Mar 6, 2013","href":"/2013/03/vmworld-cfp-voting-needs-to-be-more.html","summary":"It is around that time of the year again, when VMware puts out the announcement that the Call for Papers for VMworld 2013 and will be open, and then people will start to submit their sessions to get their hour of glory at the biggest virtualization show of the year.\nVMworld will be in San Francisco between August 26-29, 2013 in the Moscone Center.\nLast year there were 1222 separate sessions up for voting - yes I counted them. VMware started with public voting for VMworld sessions 3 years ago with VMworld 2010","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous"],"title":"VMworld CFP Voting - Needs to be More Transparent"},{"content":"You have been tasked with a task, it could be a long term project, a one-off thing. These usually involve identification of number of tasks and stages that need to be executed in order to complete the whole task.\nOne such an example that I would like to discuss today is the completion of a complex scripting task.\nOne script I have been nurturing is a deployment script for Oracle RAC on VMware. It actually has grown to be over 700 lines of code (perhaps one day I will be able to make it public).\nI was asked not so long a go, “How do you manage to write such a long script? How or where do you even start?”. The answer to that question is the reason for this post.\nI really love working in PowerShell and PowerCLI – that is no secret. I do dabble in other scripting languages as well but Powershell is still my favorite.\nScripting can be used in different ways.\nOne time quick and dirty tasks. You pop out a line of code which gets the specific information you want, and perhaps you will save it (you should) – just in case you need to do it again. These are also referred to as one-liners. Functions – here you think a little more, I want to create a piece of code that can be used on a regular basis – make it re-usable and write it to be robust, mean and lean. A process or a workflow. Now I know some of you will say that Powershell/PowerCLI is not really the ultimate tool to use for running complex tasks with multiple scenarios and use cases – and I must say I agree. On the other hand – vCenter Orchestrator has a steep learning curve. Using a tool that you already know and are familiar with will make it easier. Easier to write, optimize, troubleshoot, and document. No matter which tool you use the methodology will be the same. This is how I do it – and perhaps this can help you too.\nEnvision the process from a high level perspective Layout the steps you need to perform in order to get there For each step – detail what exactly needs to happen Write the code you need to get it","date":"Feb 28, 2013","href":"/2013/02/how-to-deal-with-complex-project.html","summary":"You have been tasked with a task, it could be a long term project, a one-off thing. These usually involve identification of number of tasks and stages that need to be executed in order to complete the whole task.\nOne such an example that I would like to discuss today is the completion of a complex scripting task.\nOne script I have been nurturing is a deployment script for Oracle RAC on VMware. It actually has grown to be over 700 lines of code (perhaps one day I will be able to make it public).","tags":["Design","Scripting","Miscellaneous","PowerCLI"],"title":"How To Deal With a Complex Project"},{"content":"A few weeks ago I discovered leak in one of my kitchen faucets. At the time I managed to fix it - but it was evident, it would not hold for long, so I needed to get new ones. The previous ones had served me well for a good 10 years.\nI do not know about you - but things like kitchen faucets in Israel are not cheap - they can go from anything from $100 - $600 (Yes I know this outrageously overpriced - but that is what they cost).\nI went to a couple of stores and looked around, asked about the products.\nWhere they were made (almost all the answers were China) What guarantee came with the product, service etc. What could go wrong with them (usually rubber washers) The material it was made of (the mechanism is either ceramic or brass - body can be plastic, brass or zinc) Now that I had all my detailed information - I weighed my options, do I want to get it here from a local store or perhaps should I go directly to the supplier.\nSince the manufacturers are all from China - I started to look around to see if it would be possible to get it directly from there.\nTo cut a long story short. I found the manufacturer and purchased directly from them including the shipping through DHL it came to 25% of the original price. I had the product within a week.\nSo we have gone through my faucet saga (but I hear you saying, Why the heck are you blogging about this????\u0026amp;quot;)\nThis brought me to think about how people talk about changing hypervisors, or adding another hypervisor into their environment.\nYou go to your current software provider (VMware for example) and you want to replace/renew something - it costs you $$,$$$.\nSo you go around the market and ask about the products:\nWhat are their features (HA, vMotion, DRS etc… ) What support do I get the products (24x7 phone support for example, local support personnel in my country) What could go wrong (where do I start……. ????) Stability, market share, price Cloud options According to your window shopping spree you will come to your","date":"Feb 26, 2013","href":"/2013/02/i-just-bought-some-kitchen.html","summary":"A few weeks ago I discovered leak in one of my kitchen faucets. At the time I managed to fix it - but it was evident, it would not hold for long, so I needed to get new ones. The previous ones had served me well for a good 10 years.\nI do not know about you - but things like kitchen faucets in Israel are not cheap - they can go from anything from $100 - $600 (Yes I know this outrageously overpriced - but that is what they cost).","tags":["Design","vSphere","Miscellaneous"],"title":"I Just Bought Some Kitchen Faucets/Hypervisors"},{"content":"So how long does it take you to install vCenter, not using the VCSA, but the Windows package? How many manual steps does it require you to perform? Have you actually ever counted? It is quite a lot.\nWhen automating - Manual intervention is the mother of all evil.\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) February 21, 2013 I was presented with the following requirements for a project:\nWe need to install vCenter as part of a deliverable for a customer The Installation should standard and repeatable. The database will be on an external Oracle VM. The process should be automated. The whole process must be logged to a file. So you might ask – why would you do this for a one time thing – I agree – you really wouldn’t. But in my case since this was to be used to deliver a solution to a substantial number of customers – then repeasting a manual installation each time was completely out of the question.\nGoing back to vCenter 5.0 it was actually pretty simple. Well not really simple but there are less moving parts, you run one script – pass the correct parameters, and hey presto you have a vCenter installed.\nIn vCenter 5.1, VMware made life a lot more complicated. When you install vCenter – you actually install 3 separate packages (and they have to be in the following order):\nSingle Sign On Inventory Service vCenter Server You can then also install the Web client – but this is not mandatory – but it is advised – this will be the last version of the Windows vSphere Client – you had better start getting used to the Web Client – so actually there are 4 packages.\nVMware has separated this into two methods one of which is called the – Simple Install – which will install the whole thing for you in one shot – but your options of customization here are limited. Everything is installed with the defaults – all with embedded SQL databases – but not really what I would call production ready. That means you will need to install them separately.\nBefore I start I would like to point to two","date":"Feb 21, 2013","href":"/2013/02/vcenter-automated-install.html","summary":"So how long does it take you to install vCenter, not using the VCSA, but the Windows package? How many manual steps does it require you to perform? Have you actually ever counted? It is quite a lot.\nWhen automating - Manual intervention is the mother of all evil.\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) February 21, 2013 I was presented with the following requirements for a project:\nWe need to install vCenter as part of a deliverable for a customer The Installation should standard and repeatable. The database will be on an external Oracle VM. The process should be automated. The whole process must be logged to a file. So you might ask – why would you do this for a one time thing – I agree – you really wouldn’t. But in my case since this was to be used to deliver a solution to a substantial number of customers – then repeasting a manual installation each time was completely out of the question.","tags":["Automation","Powershell","vCenter"],"title":"vCenter Automated Install"},{"content":"Wait… there is no way to do that – is there?\nToday I would like to address a point that is perhaps pretty obvious but not really well known, and that is the lack of a migration path out of the vCenter Server Appliance installed with an embedded database.\nTo understand the issue – let us first understand the process if you were to use a vCenter Server installed on a Windows Server machine.\nWhen you want to try out vCenter, you will install the software on a Windows Server, usually with the embedded SQL EXPRESS database that is provided with the software. VMware stress (and rightfully so) that this should not be used for a production environment and this will only be will be suitable only for 5 hosts and 50 VM’s. But since you only want to try out the software – that should not be an issue.\nFast forward a few months (or weeks or perhaps even days because we know that you will want to have this in production as soon as possible) and you see that this will provide great benefit to you and your company – and now you want to move it into production. This will of course require you to move the database out of the embedded SQL Express instance and put it into a proper SQL Server.\nThe process is pretty straight forward and has been documented a number of times. VMware even has a KB explaining how this should be done.\nOnce complete you now have the same VMware environment that you started out with and have been using, including the permissions, the folder structure the statistics and all.\nSo how would we go about doing the same with the VCSA?\nYou install the vCenter Server Virtual Appliance and follow the steps including the using the embedded vPostgres database. Again this is not for production use and VMware sizes such a deployment for not more than 5 Hosts and 50 VM’s.\nFast forward again…\nYou now want to move into production – which means the database will have to be migrated to one that will be able to accommodate growth. Supported databases (for the current version 5.1a)","date":"Feb 20, 2013","href":"/2013/02/migration-path-for-vcsa-from-vpostgres.html","summary":"Wait… there is no way to do that – is there?\nToday I would like to address a point that is perhaps pretty obvious but not really well known, and that is the lack of a migration path out of the vCenter Server Appliance installed with an embedded database.\nTo understand the issue – let us first understand the process if you were to use a vCenter Server installed on a Windows Server machine.","tags":["Appliances","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"Migration Path for the VCSA from vPostgres to.. ??"},{"content":"\nReally – I mean it!!\nThe Twitterverse exploded this morning with @ericsiebert’s announcement:\nVoting now open for the 2013 top VMware \u0026amp;amp; virtualization blogs (Read his post – with detailed instructions)\nShortly thereafter started the flood of posts announcing the vote. Over 20 in the last past 12 hours.\n“Vote for me …. “ “This is what I did ….” “This is who I voted for… and why… “\nWAH!!!!!\nSelf promotion is a good thing – to an extent.\nI have my opinions about the whole process, I have voiced them before publicly on Twitter and also on my blog as well. Here is a post I wrote about this last year - ‘Tis the Season to be Voting …..\nWhat I said there I will stress it again and in bold this time\nTry not to make this into a popularity contest.\nJudge the bloggers on their content.\nJudge the bloggers on their writing skills.\nJudge the bloggers on their passion.\nJudge the bloggers on who they are – not just because they work in company A, B or C.\nDuring the last year or so I have seen people start blogging or try and “arrange” for themselves positions within the community (becoming a VMTN moderator as a springboard to become a vExpert is such an example) for all the wrong reasons.\nTo put it in the words of others – who have said it better than me.\nThanks to Rynardt Spies, Christian Mohn and Ricky El-Qasem for sparking this post.\nVote for whoever you want – but do it for the right reasons!!\nOne more thing – thank you Eric for all the hard work you put into this!!\n","date":"Feb 20, 2013","href":"/2013/02/please-do-not-vote-for-me.html","summary":"\nReally – I mean it!!\nThe Twitterverse exploded this morning with @ericsiebert’s announcement:\nVoting now open for the 2013 top VMware \u0026amp; virtualization blogs (Read his post – with detailed instructions)\nShortly thereafter started the flood of posts announcing the vote. Over 20 in the last past 12 hours.\n“Vote for me …. “ “This is what I did ….” “This is who I voted for… and why… “\nWAH!!!!!","tags":["voting","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Please do not vote for Me!"},{"content":"Can you name the features that are only available in vSphere Enterprise Plus edition?\nIf you need a reminder you can get the information here\nStorage I/O Control Network I/O Control Distributed vSwitch Host Profiles Auto Deploy Storage DRS Profile Driven Storage Single Root I/O Virtualization A while back I asked for your feedback in this poll\nI have to say that I totally agree with the results, and I was not at all surprised by them either\nIf I were to rank the top 3 features of Enterprise Plus Edition they would be (in order):\ndvSwitch Storage DRS NIOC/SIOC I am not saying that the other features are not important – but these would be my top 3. In my humble opinion I think that these are the 3 features that are most used by the enterprise market (or whoever purchases Enterprise Plus licenses).\nSo let’s get back to the tile of this post. Take a look at this Twitter conversation.\nEvery single word in this thread is absolute gold.\nHost Profiles. They allow you to create a \u0026amp;ldquo;template\u0026amp;rdquo; for your ESXi hosts and with the click of a button, or the Enter key (it should be scripted of course) you can set the configuration of your ESXi host – practically down to the last bit. All your hosts will be the same and of course you can have different templates for different purposes.\nBut why does this have to be a feature only available in the top-tier editions?\nAs you can see in the poll above – people do not prioritize this as a highly useful feature, that does not mean they do not use it (although that could possibly be deducted from the poll – that would not be accurate).\nFrom my perspective. I do not use Host Profiles – for the following reasons.\nMy ESXi builds are all exactly the same. I have them down to a fine art, usually a custom kickstart script which configures exactly what I need. The post-configuration is then done with Powershell. How long did it take me to perfect it? Well .. a while – but now that it there – a deployment is 100% accurate – 100% of the","date":"Feb 14, 2013","href":"/2013/02/host-profiles-should-become-standard.html","summary":"Can you name the features that are only available in vSphere Enterprise Plus edition?\nIf you need a reminder you can get the information here\nStorage I/O Control Network I/O Control Distributed vSwitch Host Profiles Auto Deploy Storage DRS Profile Driven Storage Single Root I/O Virtualization A while back I asked for your feedback in this poll\nI have to say that I totally agree with the results, and I was not at all surprised by them either","tags":["Automation","Management","vSphere","Licensing"],"title":"Host Profiles Should Become a Standard Feature"},{"content":"I would like to thank Zerto and extend them a warm welcome for sponsoring my blog.\nBelow is a (very) short video explaining what they do\nZerto Hypervisor-Based Replication from Zerto on Vimeo.\nI first heard about Zerto from their presentation at Tech Field Day 6.\nZerto is an Israeli Company based out of Herzliya. I first met one of the co-founders Oded Kedem while sitting down for lunch at VMworld 2011 in Las Vegas. I have also had a number of talks with their VP of Marketing \u0026amp;amp; Products Gil Levonai and with their Online Marketing Director Fara Hain over the past few years.\nDisclaimer\nI was not asked to write about or recommend Zerto’s products. This post is to express my gratitude to Zerto for becoming a paying sponsor (amongst others) that help to cover the costs of my blog.\nI did receive a bloggers t-shirt from Zerto at VMworld ;)\n","date":"Feb 6, 2013","href":"/2013/02/welcome-to-our-new-sponsor-zerto.html","summary":"I would like to thank Zerto and extend them a warm welcome for sponsoring my blog.\nBelow is a (very) short video explaining what they do\nZerto Hypervisor-Based Replication from Zerto on Vimeo.\nI first heard about Zerto from their presentation at Tech Field Day 6.\nZerto is an Israeli Company based out of Herzliya. I first met one of the co-founders Oded Kedem while sitting down for lunch at VMworld 2011 in Las Vegas. I have also had a number of talks with their VP of Marketing \u0026amp; Products Gil Levonai and with their Online Marketing Director Fara Hain over the past few years.","tags":["sponsor","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Welcome to Our New Sponsor - Zerto"},{"content":"Amazon announced a few days ago the availability of EC2 for In-Memory Computing - The High Memory Cluster Eight Extra Large Instance, here are the specs:\nTwo Intel E5-2670 processors running at 2.6 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost and NUMA support. 244 GiB of RAM. Two 120 GB SSD for instance storage. 10 Gigabit networking with support for Cluster Placement Groups. HVM virtualization only. Support for EBS-backed AMIs only. Pricing starts at $3.50 per hour for Linux instances and $3.831 for Windows instances, both in US East (Northern Virginia). One year and three year Reserved Instances and Spot Instances are also available.\nHigh-Memory Cluster On-Demand Instances\nEight Extra Large $3.500 per Hour\nHigh-Memory Cluster Reserved Instances\nEight Extra Large $2474 - $1.54 per Hour (1 year) - $3846 - $1.225 per Hour (3 years)\nThis looks pretty much like a typical High-End server I would buy for a high-performance application – or an ESXi Host.\nLet us take those numbers for a minute and translate them to something that we actually can use.\nOn Demand – $3.5 x 24 (hours) x 365 (days per year) = $30,660\nReserved – $2,474 + $1.54 x 24 (hours) x 365 (days per year) = $15,964.40 (1 year)\nReserved – $3,846 + $1.225 x 24 (hours) x 365 (days per year) x 3 (years) = $36,039 (3 years)\nFirstly – it is obvious that the Reserved instances are so much cheaper than their On-Demand counterparts – so proper planning can save a whole lot of money on AWS. I assume the serious AWS users will use Reserved instances.\n(of course this does not take into account everything else like IP addresses, IN/OUT data transfer, monitoring, etc.)\nI checked what a similar hardware spec would cost for BYOS (Buy Your Own Server)\nThe price was $23,814 – this was list price - including 3 years 24x7x4 on-site support. (No Enterprise actually pays list price – and a 30% discount would be more than reasonable (if not more) – which would bring the price to $16,670).\nAnd to be completely fair convert this into per hour:","date":"Feb 3, 2013","href":"/2013/02/the-99c-computer-vs-byos.html","summary":"Amazon announced a few days ago the availability of EC2 for In-Memory Computing - The High Memory Cluster Eight Extra Large Instance, here are the specs:\nTwo Intel E5-2670 processors running at 2.6 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost and NUMA support. 244 GiB of RAM. Two 120 GB SSD for instance storage. 10 Gigabit networking with support for Cluster Placement Groups. HVM virtualization only. Support for EBS-backed AMIs only. Pricing starts at $3.50 per hour for Linux instances and $3.831 for Windows instances, both in US East (Northern Virginia). One year and three year Reserved Instances and Spot Instances are also available.","tags":["Server","Management","Miscellaneous","Administration","Cloud"],"title":"The 99c/Hour Computer vs. Buy Your Own Server (BYOS)"},{"content":" Today I attended the DevOpsCon 2013 in Hertzliya, Israel. As you can see from the agenda there was an abundance of great sessions and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.\nThis was not like most of the one-day seminars I usually go to – it was focused 100% on DevOps – and virtualization was just a (very small) by-product – seeing that it was only the underlying infrastructure.\nThe speakers were very good (almost all of them), the content was very interesting and very though provoking. The food was fine, venue was pretty much ok (albeit a bit crowded).\nI had a really good time, it was great to see the interactions on Twitter and the feedback that was given during the sessions (even though I expected a lot more – it seems that Israel is not that big on Twitter).\nI will be going into depth with my thoughts on some of the sessions in future blog posts but here are 8 little gems (of many) that came out of the day.\nMicrosoft are hosting the day. As soon as they understood that most people are Linux guys, the AC is arctic. Penguin is frozen #devopscon Interesting question - how does DevOps deal with Database changes? #devopscon\nThere was no concrete answer! He\u0026amp;rsquo;s got Linux emulation on his Windows desktop, used to push code to his Linux VMs running on Azure #Aabomination #devopscon It is sooo obvious from this demo that Microsoft is so not in the #devops game #devopscon Culture is one of the biggest challenges #devopscon There are only two log levels:\na. Too much bullshit\nb. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m f***\u0026amp;lsquo;ing blind!! #devopscon Human driven auto-scaling - is not realy the right way to do it #devopscon There is no such a thing as hard-coded dynamic IP\u0026amp;rsquo;s #devopscon I really appreciate the feedback!\n@maishsk no thank YOU for the tweeting \u0026amp;amp; sharing, you helped make it awesome. PLUS we thoroughly enjoyed your sense of humor :-) #devopscon\n\u0026amp;mdash; DevOpsDaysTLV 👉 Next Up luma.com/AWS-DevOps-2026 (@DevOpsDaysTLV) January 28, 2013 I would like to leave you with comment from Ben Kepes","date":"Jan 28, 2013","href":"/2013/01/devopscon-2013.html","summary":" Today I attended the DevOpsCon 2013 in Hertzliya, Israel. As you can see from the agenda there was an abundance of great sessions and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.\nThis was not like most of the one-day seminars I usually go to – it was focused 100% on DevOps – and virtualization was just a (very small) by-product – seeing that it was only the underlying infrastructure.\nThe speakers were very good (almost all of them), the content was very interesting and very though provoking. The food was fine, venue was pretty much ok (albeit a bit crowded).","tags":["Automation","Miscellaneous","DevOps","Administration","Cloud"],"title":"DevOpsCon 2013"},{"content":"I encountered this last week and was not find any reference to my specific problem – so I am documenting it here.\nI was trying to remove the Cisco Nexus 1000V VEM from the ESXi hosts in my lab.\nThis was the error I was getting.\nThis is what I had from the esxupdate.log file\n2013-01-24T08:35:32Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: DEBUG: Starting to live remove VIBs: Cisco_bootbank_cisco-vem-v147-esx_4.2.1.1.5.2b.0-3.1.1 2013-01-24T08:35:32Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: INFO: Live removing cisco-vem-v147-esx-4.2.1.1.5.2b.0-3.1.1 2013-01-24T08:35:32Z esxupdate: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = \u0026amp;#39;[\u0026amp;#39;/sbin/chkconfig\u0026amp;#39;, \u0026amp;#39;-B\u0026amp;#39;, \u0026amp;#39;/etc/chkconfig.db\u0026amp;#39;, \u0026amp;#39;-D\u0026amp;#39;, \u0026amp;#39;/etc/init.d\u0026amp;#39;, \u0026amp;#39;-i\u0026amp;#39;, \u0026amp;#39;-o\u0026amp;#39;]\u0026amp;#39;, outfile = \u0026amp;#39;None\u0026amp;#39;, returnoutput = \u0026amp;#39;True\u0026amp;#39;, timeout = \u0026amp;#39;0.0\u0026amp;#39;. 2013-01-24T08:35:32Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: DEBUG: Running [[\u0026amp;#39;/etc/init.d/n1k-vem\u0026amp;#39;, \u0026amp;#39;stop\u0026amp;#39;, \u0026amp;#39;remove\u0026amp;#39;]]... 2013-01-24T08:35:32Z esxupdate: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = \u0026amp;#39;[\u0026amp;#39;/etc/init.d/n1k-vem\u0026amp;#39;, \u0026amp;#39;stop\u0026amp;#39;, \u0026amp;#39;remove\u0026amp;#39;]\u0026amp;#39;, outfile = \u0026amp;#39;None\u0026amp;#39;, returnoutput = \u0026amp;#39;True\u0026amp;#39;, timeout = \u0026amp;#39;0.0\u0026amp;#39;. 2013-01-24T08:35:33Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: DEBUG: output: svsStop, remove svsStopRemove stopDpa Stopping Cisco Nexus 1000V VEM stopDpa Unload N1k switch modules Warning: /dev/char/vmkdriver/stun not found Unload of N1k modules done. 2013-01-24T08:35:33Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: DEBUG: Starting to run etc/vmware/shutdown/shutdown.d/\\* 2013-01-24T08:35:33Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: DEBUG: Trying to unmount payload [cisco-vem-v147-] of VIB Cisco_bootbank_cisco-vem-v147-esx_4.2.1.1.5.2b.0-3.1.1 2013-01-24T08:35:33Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: DEBUG: Unmounting cisco_ve.v00... 2013-01-24T08:35:33Z esxupdate: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = \u0026amp;#39;rm /tardisks/cisco_ve.v00\u0026amp;#39;, outfile = \u0026amp;#39;None\u0026amp;#39;, returnoutput =","date":"Jan 28, 2013","href":"/2013/01/error-removing-nexus-1000v-vem.html","summary":"I encountered this last week and was not find any reference to my specific problem – so I am documenting it here.\nI was trying to remove the Cisco Nexus 1000V VEM from the ESXi hosts in my lab.\nThis was the error I was getting.\nThis is what I had from the esxupdate.log file\n2013-01-24T08:35:32Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: DEBUG: Starting to live remove VIBs: Cisco_bootbank_cisco-vem-v147-esx_4.2.1.1.5.2b.0-3.1.1 2013-01-24T08:35:32Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: INFO: Live removing cisco-vem-v147-esx-4.2.1.1.5.2b.0-3.1.1 2013-01-24T08:35:32Z esxupdate: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = \u0026#39;[\u0026#39;/sbin/chkconfig\u0026#39;, \u0026#39;-B\u0026#39;, \u0026#39;/etc/chkconfig.db\u0026#39;, \u0026#39;-D\u0026#39;, \u0026#39;/etc/init.d\u0026#39;, \u0026#39;-i\u0026#39;, \u0026#39;-o\u0026#39;]\u0026#39;, outfile = \u0026#39;None\u0026#39;, returnoutput = \u0026#39;True\u0026#39;, timeout = \u0026#39;0.0\u0026#39;. 2013-01-24T08:35:32Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: DEBUG: Running [[\u0026#39;/etc/init.d/n1k-vem\u0026#39;, \u0026#39;stop\u0026#39;, \u0026#39;remove\u0026#39;]]... 2013-01-24T08:35:32Z esxupdate: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = \u0026#39;[\u0026#39;/etc/init.d/n1k-vem\u0026#39;, \u0026#39;stop\u0026#39;, \u0026#39;remove\u0026#39;]\u0026#39;, outfile = \u0026#39;None\u0026#39;, returnoutput = \u0026#39;True\u0026#39;, timeout = \u0026#39;0.0\u0026#39;. 2013-01-24T08:35:33Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: DEBUG: output: svsStop, remove svsStopRemove stopDpa Stopping Cisco Nexus 1000V VEM stopDpa Unload N1k switch modules Warning: /dev/char/vmkdriver/stun not found Unload of N1k modules done. 2013-01-24T08:35:33Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: DEBUG: Starting to run etc/vmware/shutdown/shutdown.d/\\* 2013-01-24T08:35:33Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: DEBUG: Trying to unmount payload [cisco-vem-v147-] of VIB Cisco_bootbank_cisco-vem-v147-esx_4.2.1.1.5.2b.0-3.1.1 2013-01-24T08:35:33Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: DEBUG: Unmounting cisco_ve.v00... 2013-01-24T08:35:33Z esxupdate: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = \u0026#39;rm /tardisks/cisco_ve.v00\u0026#39;, outfile = \u0026#39;None\u0026#39;, returnoutput = \u0026#39;True\u0026#39;, timeout = \u0026#39;0.0\u0026#39;.**_2013-01-24T08:35:33Z esxupdate: LiveImageInstaller: DEBUG: output: rm: can\u0026#39;t remove \u0026#39;/tardisks/cisco_ve.v00\u0026#39;: Device or resource busy_** \u0026lt;…truncated..\u0026gt; 2013-01-24T08:35:33Z esxupdate: root: ERROR: InstallationError: ([], \u0026#34;Error in running rm /tardisks/cisco_ve.v00:\\nReturn code: 1\\nOutput: rm: can\u0026#39;t remove \u0026#39;/tardisks/cisco_ve.v00\u0026#39;: Device or resource busy\\n\\nIt is not safe to continue. Please reboot the host immediately to discard the unfinished update.\u0026#34;) I looked for some help on the web and came across this - Problems with uninstalling Nexus 1000v VEM VIB – and here it said perhaps the vem was still running.","tags":["Network","Administration","Troubleshooting",5.1],"title":"Error Removing Nexus 1000V VEM"},{"content":"SSH Equivalence is one of the pre-requisites needed for an Oracle RAC installation.\nThere are a number of posts on how to do this like here or here, and Oracle even have been so kind as to provide a script that will do this for you (even though it is not 100% automated.\nThe process is relatively simple (when you break it down piece by piece)\nCreate the .ssh directory under the users /home folder for VM1 and VM2 Create an RSA key on VM1 and VM2 Copy the contents of ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub from VM1 and VM2 into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on both VM1 and VM2 You should then be able to connect to each host (and also the localhost as well) without a password prompt. Repeat the process on both VM’s with the oracle user But this process requires a decent amount of manual interaction from the user at the following stages:\nCopying the files between VM1 \u0026amp;lt;-\u0026amp;gt; VM2 First connection prompts to add the hosts key to the ~/.ssh/known_hosts file Manual interaction is the mother of all headaches when you want to automate something. As I have posted before here and here I am in the middle of automating a Oracle RAC deployment on VMware. This is an additional part of the solution.\nI had to come up with a method to do this without any user interaction, and here is how I went about the process. I broke down the whole process – stage by stage.\nRe-create the ssh_host_rsa_key – the reason for this being – that since these VM’s are deployed from the same template – the ssh_host_rsa_key is identical – and this caused problems for my script (this actually could be useful in some cases – but not here). Create the ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub key for the root user on each host – without prompts. In order to prevent the popup when connecting to another VM for the first time I needed to get the keys from ssh_host_rsa_key.pub into the .ssh/known_hosts before I connected to the VM for the first time. Add the public key from each VM into the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file. Get this information from VM1 to VM2 and and","date":"Jan 24, 2013","href":"/2013/01/set-sshkeys.html","summary":"SSH Equivalence is one of the pre-requisites needed for an Oracle RAC installation.\nThere are a number of posts on how to do this like here or here, and Oracle even have been so kind as to provide a script that will do this for you (even though it is not 100% automated.\nThe process is relatively simple (when you break it down piece by piece)\nCreate the .ssh directory under the users /home folder for VM1 and VM2 Create an RSA key on VM1 and VM2 Copy the contents of ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub from VM1 and VM2 into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on both VM1 and VM2 You should then be able to connect to each host (and also the localhost as well) without a password prompt. Repeat the process on both VM’s with the oracle user But this process requires a decent amount of manual interaction from the user at the following stages:","tags":["Automation","Design","Management","Scripting","Powershell","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"Configuring SSH Equivalence for Oracle RAC"},{"content":"First let me start off this by saying – the way this is effects you will differ entirely on your organizational procedures and security requirements.\nWe all love templates – don’t we? I mean they are the best! You configure your VM to your liking, OS patches, company policy settings etc.. etc.. and every new VM that you deploy – will have the exact same baseline.\nStandardization… conformity… in the enterprise – all great.\nExcept.. a short while a go I found out something which is not exactly the best security practice (to put it mildly)\nIn vSphere you can create a Guest Customization specification and deploy your VM.\nFor Linux you can enter in some information, but not much\n(Today I found out – that you also can run a custom script to configure the VM Configure a Script to Generate Computer Names and IP Addresses During Guest Operating System Customization in the vSphere Client )\nBut let’s get back on track.\nSo you have deployed a VM from a template – it now has an IP – and what is the first thing you would most probably do? SSH into the VM – because you now want to start doing the real work (amazing how we take the deployment of an OS for granted these days).\nSo if this is the first time you are connecting you will most probably get something like this:\nWhich to explain in simple terms is saying, “Hey – I don’t know this server – here are its details and RSA key. Do you still want to connect?”\nAnd you would usually say – yes and enter your password – and all is fine and dandy.\nWhat this does is add an entry to the .ssh/known_hosts file\nBut not only did I deploy one VM from this template – I deployed 2. So let’s repeat the process again.\nSo where is the problem? If you look carefully – you will see that key fingerprint on vm1 is the same as on vm2\n30:d6:df:54:ca:26:b2:a4:df:65:e5:33:9f:21:df:55 30:d6:df:54:ca:26:b2:a4:df:65:e5:33:9f:21:df:55 Identical.\nAnd if we would now look into the known_hosts file then you would see this:\nAll exactly the same (each host created","date":"Jan 23, 2013","href":"/2013/01/the-ssh-key-problem-with-cloned-linux.html","summary":"First let me start off this by saying – the way this is effects you will differ entirely on your organizational procedures and security requirements.\nWe all love templates – don’t we? I mean they are the best! You configure your VM to your liking, OS patches, company policy settings etc.. etc.. and every new VM that you deploy – will have the exact same baseline.\nStandardization… conformity… in the enterprise – all great.","tags":["Design","Linux","Security","vSphere","Administration"],"title":"The SSH Key Problem With Cloned Linux VM’s"},{"content":"No… Not Dollars, Shekels and not even IRR (of which 1 miliion is worth ~US$40).\nToday I passed 1,000,000 Pageviews on my blog.\nI never for the life of me expected this would happen. It started on November 27, 2007 – just over 5 years ago, with this post Welcome to the blog\nA year later – and 16 posts down the line I had whopper of 6 subscribers.\nToday – and about ~500 posts later ..\nA lot has happened over these past 5 years – for me personally and in the technology world.\nThank you all for the support, the interest and I hope to continue to provide interesting content and insight into virtualization, cloud and automation as I have up until now.\nWho knows what the next years will be like??\n","date":"Jan 22, 2013","href":"/2013/01/a-major-milestone-my-first-million.html","summary":"No… Not Dollars, Shekels and not even IRR (of which 1 miliion is worth ~US$40).\nToday I passed 1,000,000 Pageviews on my blog.\nI never for the life of me expected this would happen. It started on November 27, 2007 – just over 5 years ago, with this post Welcome to the blog\nA year later – and 16 posts down the line I had whopper of 6 subscribers.","tags":["Miscellaneous"],"title":"A Major Milestone – My First Million!!"},{"content":"I brought this up on Twitter a while ago.\nWhat network path will the transfer take when using Copy-DatastoreItem - does anyone know?\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) January 8, 2013 I studied the traffic flow – and would like to share it with you here, but first here is the architecture of the testbed – which will help explain in more detail\nWell the environment is pretty simple. One vCenter server, four ESXi Servers – each with a local datastore and a shared datastore among the 4 hosts. My laptop is the one that was running the Copy-DatastoreItem cmdlet.\nCopy-DatastoreItem has the following parameters\nItem - Specify the datastore item you want to copy. You can use a string to provide a relative path to the item in the current provider location. Destination - Specify the destination where you want to copy the datastore item. The PowerCLI syntax:\nCopy-DatastoreItem -Item $ISOPath -Destination $Destination\nThe first case was copying to a local datastore on ESX3 (x.x.x.173)\nSo I fired off the command and the ISO started to copy.\nBut how does the file get from my laptop to the ESX3? From my laptop directly to the host? Some other way?\nIn order to check this I chose a file that was reasonably large (~3.0 GB) so I could see the network activity. I opened up the Resource Monitor and sorted the columns to see the network traffic and saw the following.\nThe network traffic was going from my laptop directly to the vCenter Server – using Powershell of course.\nNext – from the vCenter – is had to get to the host of course.. – but how?\nHere is the Resource monitor from the vCenter Server\nOn the top right what you see is that the vpxd.exe (vCenter server process) is the one that has the highest amount of network traffic.\nIn the bottom window you can see on the first line that it is sending out traffic to ESX3 (.173) over port 902 and on the second line it is receiving traffic from my laptop (.187) over port 443. This makes perfect sense.\nPowerCLI is communicating with the","date":"Jan 21, 2013","href":"/2013/01/copy-datastoreitem-understanding.html","summary":"I brought this up on Twitter a while ago.\nWhat network path will the transfer take when using Copy-DatastoreItem - does anyone know?\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) January 8, 2013 I studied the traffic flow – and would like to share it with you here, but first here is the architecture of the testbed – which will help explain in more detail\nWell the environment is pretty simple. One vCenter server, four ESXi Servers – each with a local datastore and a shared datastore among the 4 hosts. My laptop is the one that was running the Copy-DatastoreItem cmdlet.","tags":["Management","Administration","Troubleshooting","PowerCLI"],"title":"Copy-DatastoreItem - Understanding the Traffic Flow"},{"content":"Building on Jonathan Medd’s excellent idea of Using PowerShell to access the vExpert.me URL Shortener, I decided to improve it a bit more.\nHere is the completed script.\n\u0026amp;lt;# .SYNOPSIS Will create a new vExpert.me URL .DESCRIPTION Using the Invoke-Rest Cmdlet to invoke a creation of a new vExpert.me URL .PARAMETER URL URL that should be shortened. .PARAMETER Custom The custom URL that should be used. .EXAMPLE PS C:\\\u0026amp;gt; New-vExpertURL -URL \u0026amp;#39;https://www.google.com\u0026amp;#39; This example shows how to call the New-vExpertURL function with with the URL parameter and generate a random URL. .EXAMPLE PS C:\\\u0026amp;gt; New-vExpertURL -URL \u0026amp;#39;https://www.google.com\u0026amp;#39; -Custom this_is_my_link This will create a custome URL of https://vexpert.me/this_is_my_link pointing to https://www.google.com .INPUTS System.String .OUTPUTS System.String .NOTES For more information about advanced functions, call Get-Help with any of the topics in the links listed below. #\u0026amp;gt; function New-vExpertURL { [CmdletBinding()] param( [Parameter(Position=0, Mandatory=$true)] [System.String]$URL, [Parameter(Position=1)] [System.String]$Custom ) begin { if (!$($Custom) ) { $baseurl_2 = \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;amp;action=shorturl\u0026amp;amp;format=json\u0026amp;amp;url=\u0026amp;#34; } else { $baseurl_2 = \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;amp;action=shorturl\u0026amp;amp;keyword=\u0026amp;#34; + $Custom + \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;amp;format=json\u0026amp;amp;url=\u0026amp;#34; } $baseurl_1 = \u0026amp;#34;https://vexpert.me/yourls-api.php?signature=\u0026amp;#34; $secret = \u0026amp;#34;xxxxxxxxx\u0026amp;#34; } process { $invokeurl = $baseurl_1 + $secret + $baseurl_2 + $URL $vExpertme = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $invokeurl $vExpertme.shorturl | clip Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;The shortenend URL is now in your clipboard\u0026amp;#34; -ForegroundColor Green } end { } } It is quite self explanatory. You will need to enter your personal secret code in Line 47.\nSo I added 4 things\nThis is now a function – and it accepts parameters. One of the parameters is CustomURL which will allow you to enter your custom text if you please. The output will provide the URL and a success message. The URL","date":"Jan 17, 2013","href":"/2013/01/another-powershell-vexpertme-url.html","summary":"Building on Jonathan Medd’s excellent idea of Using PowerShell to access the vExpert.me URL Shortener, I decided to improve it a bit more.\nHere is the completed script.\n\u0026lt;# .SYNOPSIS Will create a new vExpert.me URL .DESCRIPTION Using the Invoke-Rest Cmdlet to invoke a creation of a new vExpert.me URL .PARAMETER URL URL that should be shortened. .PARAMETER Custom The custom URL that should be used. .EXAMPLE PS C:\\\u0026gt; New-vExpertURL -URL \u0026#39;https://www.google.com\u0026#39; This example shows how to call the New-vExpertURL function with with the URL parameter and generate a random URL. .EXAMPLE PS C:\\\u0026gt; New-vExpertURL -URL \u0026#39;https://www.google.com\u0026#39; -Custom this_is_my_link This will create a custome URL of https://vexpert.me/this_is_my_link pointing to https://www.google.com .INPUTS System.String .OUTPUTS System.String .NOTES For more information about advanced functions, call Get-Help with any of the topics in the links listed below. #\u0026gt; function New-vExpertURL { [CmdletBinding()] param( [Parameter(Position=0, Mandatory=$true)] [System.String]$URL, [Parameter(Position=1)] [System.String]$Custom ) begin { if (!$($Custom) ) { $baseurl_2 = \u0026#34;\u0026amp;action=shorturl\u0026amp;format=json\u0026amp;url=\u0026#34; } else { $baseurl_2 = \u0026#34;\u0026amp;action=shorturl\u0026amp;keyword=\u0026#34; + $Custom + \u0026#34;\u0026amp;format=json\u0026amp;url=\u0026#34; } $baseurl_1 = \u0026#34;https://vexpert.me/yourls-api.php?signature=\u0026#34; $secret = \u0026#34;xxxxxxxxx\u0026#34; } process { $invokeurl = $baseurl_1 + $secret + $baseurl_2 + $URL $vExpertme = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $invokeurl $vExpertme.shorturl | clip Write-Host \u0026#34;The shortenend URL is now in your clipboard\u0026#34; -ForegroundColor Green } end { } } It is quite self explanatory. You will need to enter your personal secret code in Line 47.\nSo I added 4 things","tags":["Scripting","Powershell","vExpert"],"title":"Another PowerShell vExpert.me URL Shortner"},{"content":"I am pretty sure that this one escaped under the radar – because it was not well advertised.\nRed Hat released on December 4th, 2012 their latest Beta of RHEL 6.4 – release notes can be found here.\nSo what has changed?\nVMware PV Drivers The VMware para-virtualized drivers have been updated to provide a seamless out-of-the-box experience when running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4 in VMware ESX. The Anaconda installer has also been updated to list the drivers during the installation process. The following drivers have been updated:\na network driver (vmxnet3)\na storage driver (vmw_pvscsi)\na memory ballooning driver (vmware_balloon)\na mouse driver (vmmouse_drv)\na video driver (vmware_drv)\nThe other interesting tidbit was this:\nSupport for VMDK-based Storage Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4 adds support for clusters utilizing VMware\u0026amp;rsquo;s VMDK (Virtual Machine Disk) disk image technology with the multi-writer option. This allows you, for example, to use VMDK-based storage with the multi-writer option for clustered file systems such as GFS2.\nUp until now – according to this RedHat KB (Virtualization Support for High Availability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6) – the only way you could install a RedHat cluster on VMware was by using either an RDM (Physical/Virtual compatibility mode), a Raw Disk or in-guest iSCSI disks.\nWith this release it now changes – you can use a regular VMDK which means regular VMFS.\nI think that the time is right for VMware put up a page for RHEL clustering support – similar to the one they have for Microsoft Clustering. There is no such page existing today.\nJust as a side note for Red Hat 5.9 – neither of these features were added.\n","date":"Jan 15, 2013","href":"/2013/01/red-hat-64-clustering-changes.html","summary":"I am pretty sure that this one escaped under the radar – because it was not well advertised.\nRed Hat released on December 4th, 2012 their latest Beta of RHEL 6.4 – release notes can be found here.\nSo what has changed?\nVMware PV Drivers The VMware para-virtualized drivers have been updated to provide a seamless out-of-the-box experience when running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4 in VMware ESX. The Anaconda installer has also been updated to list the drivers during the installation process. The following drivers have been updated:","tags":["Storage","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","Cluster"],"title":"Red Hat 6.4 Clustering Changes"},{"content":"Just a heads up. According to the Release Notes PowerCLI is not supported\nDoes this mean that it will not work – No of course not! From what I have tested it works almost flawlessly – but there are some quirks…\nFor example - Set-NetworkAdapter returning \u0026amp;lsquo;Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object\u0026amp;rsquo; and Error with Move-VM: Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object.\nAnd as Luc put it, “Well, you can\u0026amp;rsquo;t file a bug for something that is not supported, now can you “\nUpdate – February 12th, 2013\nVMware have now released an updated version – see the announcement here - PowerCLI 5.1 Release 2 Now Available\nThis will actually render this blog post obsolete – but I am happy VMware have addressed this issue.\n","date":"Jan 3, 2013","href":"/2013/01/powercli-does-not-officially-support.html","summary":"Just a heads up. According to the Release Notes PowerCLI is not supported\nDoes this mean that it will not work – No of course not! From what I have tested it works almost flawlessly – but there are some quirks…\nFor example - Set-NetworkAdapter returning \u0026lsquo;Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object\u0026rsquo; and Error with Move-VM: Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object.","tags":["Scripting","Powershell","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"PowerCLI Does not officially support Powershell v3"},{"content":"Luc Dekens wrote a great post a while back Will Invoke-VMScript work? about the prerequisites needed in order to get Invoke-VMscript to work. Stop for a minute and go and read his post.\nGlad to have back.\nAs part of an Oracle RAC provisioning script that I am working on – one of the first things I wanted to do was to configure the network settings for my two nodes – with parameters taken from a config file.\nOf course if the VM does not have an IP address yet then you cannot configure it through the network, so here is where Invoke-VMscript comes into play.\nA few things first off the bat. My configuration was working also with the 32-bit engine but also with the 64-bit engine as well. The rest of the prerequisites were all there.\nSo here is what was happening. In the script I had stored the HostCredentials and the Guestcredentials each in a variable. When it came time power on the VM’s,The script would wait for the VMware tools to start running in the guest before executing the command and then run my script inside the guest OS – but the command would fail with this message.\nInvoke-VMScript : 02/01/2013 15:17:07 Invoke-VMScript Error occured while executing script on guest OS in VM \u0026amp;#39;testdbCA1b\u0026amp;#39;. Could not locate \u0026amp;#34;Powershell\u0026amp;#34; script interpreter in any of the expected locations. Probably you do not have enough permissions to execute command within guest. At line:5 char:1 + Invoke-VMScript -ScriptText $bb -vm $dbvm2 -HostCredential $hostcreds -GuestCred ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : ResourceUnavailable: (testdbCA1b:VirtualMachineImpl) [Invoke-VMScript], VimException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Client20_VmGuestServiceImpl_RunScriptCore_ExeLookupFailed,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.InvokeVmScript Now this was really weird – because this was completely not true. To make it even more baffling – when trying to run the commands manually – not as part of the script – it would","date":"Jan 2, 2013","href":"/2013/01/invoke-vmscript-failed-and-how-i-was.html","summary":"Luc Dekens wrote a great post a while back Will Invoke-VMScript work? about the prerequisites needed in order to get Invoke-VMscript to work. Stop for a minute and go and read his post.\nGlad to have back.\nAs part of an Oracle RAC provisioning script that I am working on – one of the first things I wanted to do was to configure the network settings for my two nodes – with parameters taken from a config file.","tags":["Scripting","Powershell","VMware","Troubleshooting","PowerCLI"],"title":"Invoke-VMScript Failed - and how I was Baffled."},{"content":"Hey\u0026amp;hellip; - that is not possible – I hear you say – well in principle you are right. Up until today…\nBy mistake of course – I found that there was a change made to the 5.1 release of PowerCLI – but this change has not been documented anywhere – which I think is a shame. This post is the only public reference I know of.\nUp until the 5.1 release you could not create an EagerZeroedThick hard disk with PowerCLI. Let’s look at the 5.0 documentation for PowerCLI.\nAs you can see above the options are Thin or Thick and if you go to look at the\nVirtualDiskStorageFormat – Enum you will see the that there is no EagerZeroedThick option.\nThe PowerCLI changelog has a new Cmdlet Move-Harddisk – which as you can see allows you to migrate a VMDK from one location to another – and if you also noticed..\nYep, EagerZeroedThick is one of the options as you can see above. The VirtualDiskStorageFormat – Enum was not updated though.\nSo I used this today as part of a bigger automation process to prepare some VM’s for Oracle RAC (which I will post about in the not too distant future)\nget-vm $vm1 | New-HardDisk -DiskType flat -CapacityGB 2 -StorageFormat EagerZeroedThick -Datastore $dbds |New-ScsiController -Type ParaVirtual -BusSharingMode NoSharing Which is so much easier than… (taken from Luc Deken’s post)\n$vmName = \u0026amp;lt;vm-name\u0026amp;gt; $vCenter = \u0026amp;lt;vCenter-name\u0026amp;gt; $esxAccount = \u0026amp;lt;ESX-account\u0026amp;gt; $esxPasswd = \u0026amp;lt;ESX-password\u0026amp;gt; function Set-EagerZeroThick{ param($vcName, $vmName, $hdName) # Find ESX host for VM $vcHost = Connect-VIServer -Server $vcName -Credential (Get-Credential -Credential \u0026amp;#34;vCenter account\u0026amp;#34;) $vmImpl = Get-VM $vmName if($vmImpl.PowerState -ne \u0026amp;#34;PoweredOff\u0026amp;#34;){ Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;Guest must be powered off to use this script !\u0026amp;#34; -ForegroundColor red return $false } $vm = $vmImpl | Get-View $esxName = (Get-View $vm.Runtime.Host).Name # Find datastore path $dev = $vm.Config.Hardware.Device | where {$\\_.DeviceInfo.Label -eq $hdName}","date":"Dec 27, 2012","href":"/2012/12/creating-eagerzeroedthick-disk-with.html","summary":"Hey\u0026hellip; - that is not possible – I hear you say – well in principle you are right. Up until today…\nBy mistake of course – I found that there was a change made to the 5.1 release of PowerCLI – but this change has not been documented anywhere – which I think is a shame. This post is the only public reference I know of.\nUp until the 5.1 release you could not create an EagerZeroedThick hard disk with PowerCLI. Let’s look at the 5.0 documentation for PowerCLI.","tags":["Scripting","Powershell","VMware",5.1,"PowerCLI"],"title":"Creating an EagerZeroedThick disk with PowerCLI"},{"content":"This question is something that I have come across in a number of ways and variations over the past few months and on some occasions I have actually been asked the following:\nAre you a cloud architect? Can you build me an cloud environment like Amazon? Can you explain to me over lunch how to build a cloud? Granted, the last one made me laugh, but the rest of them are pretty valid.\nA while back there was a great demand for the professional that could build a solid and sound virtual infrastructure. Don’t get me wrong – the demand is still there – very much so, but since then a new and more sophisticated skill is being asked for.. - ”Build me a cloud..”\nSo before we can answer the first and most important question – I think it would be fair to ask what is a cloud? And the simple answer to that is – wait .. there is not simple answer to that. It will depend on who you ask. Let’s see how the big cloud players define cloud.\nVMware Cloud computing empowers IT through flexible, automated infrastructures, new on-demand service models and new levels of IT efficiency. All this allows IT to shift resources from maintaining existing systems to invest in building innovative services that drive new revenue, improve operations and advance business goals. (Source)\nNIST NIST defines five essential characteristics, three service models and four deployment models. The essential characteristics form the core of the definition. The required characteristics for any solution to be called a true “cloud” solution include:\nOn-demand self-service Broad network access Resource pooling Rapid elasticity Measured service NIST also defines three service models, or what are sometimes called architecture layers:\nInfrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Software as a Service (SaaS) Platform as a Service (PaaS) Finally, it defines four deployment models:\nPrivate Cloud Community Cloud Public Cloud Hybrid Cloud (Source) Microsoft Cloud Computing is really about delivering IT as a Service, the idea of managing","date":"Dec 16, 2012","href":"/2012/12/do-you-have-what-it-takes-to-be-cloud.html","summary":"This question is something that I have come across in a number of ways and variations over the past few months and on some occasions I have actually been asked the following:\nAre you a cloud architect? Can you build me an cloud environment like Amazon? Can you explain to me over lunch how to build a cloud? Granted, the last one made me laugh, but the rest of them are pretty valid.","tags":["Design","Management","Architecture","Cloud"],"title":"Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Cloud Architect?"},{"content":"Yes I said the “v”- word again. That “dirty” term that was abolished at VMworld 2012 this year.\n(forgive the cynicism)\nTo my surprise – it is still haunting me – and I suppose soon us all.\nA week ago I received my first vCloud Enterprise Suite license.\nHappy as can be, I added it into my vCenter Server and then I realized something which was strange..\nI checked the API as well.\nThe license itself definitely has a vRAM entitlement embedded into it – of 96GB per CPU\n.\nI reached out to John Troyer who got back to me almost immediately (thanks John!!) with an answer. This is still listed in the license – and was not ripped out in time for the 5.1 release – and can safely be ignored. I received the same answer as well from Mike Laverick I opened an SR for clarification – and am waiting on an official answer – I assume this will be the same as I received above.\nAt the moment KB 2032903 - Managing licenses on ESXi hosts using the vSphere Web Client states the more or less same thing.\nI just do not understand if this property is a feature embedded within the license itself (and if so then it should be easy to remove – and so it should have been!), or is this property expected within the API – and if removed will break something.\nI will update with my findings.\nUpdate 29-11-2012\nI received an answer (as expected) from VMware customer support that there is no vRAM limit on ESXi licenses anymore. This seems to have been a problem with the generation process of the vCloud Suite licenses which should now be fixed. The entitlement can be safely ignored.\n","date":"Nov 27, 2012","href":"/2012/11/vcloud-suite-licenses-and-novram.html","summary":"Yes I said the “v”- word again. That “dirty” term that was abolished at VMworld 2012 this year.\n(forgive the cynicism)\nTo my surprise – it is still haunting me – and I suppose soon us all.\nA week ago I received my first vCloud Enterprise Suite license.\nHappy as can be, I added it into my vCenter Server and then I realized something which was strange..","tags":["vCloud","Management","ESXi","Miscellaneous","VMware","Licensing"],"title":"vCloud Suite Licenses and (NO)vRAM"},{"content":"As you can deduct from the title of this post – yes I passed. I scored a 345 today (passing mark was 300).\nI wanted to share with you my feelings and thoughts about the exam that I sat today.\nNot all Pearson VUE exam centers are equal. Some are more strict than others – luckily today the one I went to today was not on the extreme side as opposed to the one where I sat the VCAP-DCA). This does not say that the rules were not adhered to, but it was a bit more relaxed.\nThe time limit on the exam is 225 minutes – and just to make sure you understand the math,\nthat is 3 hours and 45 minutes. Those of use that live in non-English speaking countries (like me) get an additional 30 minutes – and that is 4 hours and 15 minutes.\nLet me start by saying – sitting and doing an exam for 4:15 is not humane. Really not. It reminds me of the blog post I did on Beta Exams.\nDuring the exam you cannot:\neat drink go to the bathroom (if you do you loose precious time) chew gum blow your nose get up from your chair to walk around smoke (if that is your poison) etc..etc.. Concentrating for 4 hours straight is hard, concentrating on a screen for 4 hours is even harder. For those of us that have a long attention span, this is not a simple task, and even more so for those with attention deficits. I personally do not understand why it has to be has to 100 questions. I can remember at least 3 different cases where questions repeated themselves with small nuances between the versions. I am sure that the quantity of questions can be reduced to make the exam more “candidate-friendly” without losing out on the actual content being tested.\nI will not go into the detail about the format – there are many posts around with that info.\nI will emphasize though – as was pointed out on Forbes’ post – you CANNOT go back to a previous question. That means that you have to complete each question – or make a decision to give up on that question in order to continue. That means you have to watch your time VERY","date":"Nov 21, 2012","href":"/2012/11/vcap5-dcd-mission-accomplished.html","summary":"As you can deduct from the title of this post – yes I passed. I scored a 345 today (passing mark was 300).\nI wanted to share with you my feelings and thoughts about the exam that I sat today.\nNot all Pearson VUE exam centers are equal. Some are more strict than others – luckily today the one I went to today was not on the extreme side as opposed to the one where I sat the VCAP-DCA). This does not say that the rules were not adhered to, but it was a bit more relaxed.","tags":["Design","VCDX","VMware","Certification","VCAP"],"title":"VCAP5-DCD - Mission Accomplished"},{"content":"I came across an issue today – trying to deploy a Ubuntu Precise VM from a template and applying a customization setting to the VM – with default DHCP configuration.\nThese are the errors I was getting\nSo first up the second error message is wrong – because the log file should not be but rather /var/log/vmware-inc/toolsDeployPkg.log\nGoing into the log file on the VM I saw the following.\nless /var/log/vmware-imc/toolsDeployPkg.log ERROR: Fatal error occurred during customization !! Customization halted. ERROR: Error : Could not create file /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf! at /tmp/.vmware/linux/deploy/scripts/Utils.pm line 475. INFO: Return code is 252. Customization process returned with error. Deployment result = 252 Setting generic error status in vmx. Transitioning from state INPROGRESS to state ERRORED. ENTER STATE ERRORED EXIT STATE INPROGRESS Setting deploy error: Deployment failed. The forked off process returned error code. Deployment failed. The forked off process returned error code. Wait before set enable-nics stats in vmx. Trying to connect network interfaces, attempt 1 Got VMX response \u0026amp;#39;queryNicsSupported\u0026amp;#39; Got VMX response \u0026amp;#39;disconnected\u0026amp;#39; Got VMX response \u0026amp;#39;connected\u0026amp;#39; The network interfaces are connected on 1 second Launching cleanup. Command to exec : /bin/rm sizeof ProcessInternal is 32 Returning, pending output Returning, pending output Process exited normally after 0 seconds, returned 0 No more output No more output Customization command output: Deploy error: Deployment failed. The forked off process returned error code. Package deploy failed in DeployPkg\\_DeployPackageFromFile ## Closing log A quick look on Google brought me to this article (in Spanish) describing a similar problem – but with a Debian VM.\nThe problem is that the VMware customization script is trying to access a path which does not exist.\n/etc/dhcp3\nSolution is to change the template from which you are deploying and create a soft-link to avoid the error.\nln -s /etc/dhcp","date":"Nov 11, 2012","href":"/2012/11/guest-customization-on-ubuntu-1204-fails.html","summary":"I came across an issue today – trying to deploy a Ubuntu Precise VM from a template and applying a customization setting to the VM – with default DHCP configuration.\nThese are the errors I was getting\nSo first up the second error message is wrong – because the log file should not be but rather /var/log/vmware-inc/toolsDeployPkg.log\nGoing into the log file on the VM I saw the following.","tags":["Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"Guest Customization on Ubuntu 12.04 Fails"},{"content":"Have you ever wondered what VMware Knowledge base article Number one is? Where it all started? Genesis is the beginning of the bible… KB number 1 was the beginning of a plethora of knowledge that has changed how we consume technology today.\nAs of the time of writing this blog post the lastest KB is 2035036.\nSo far back does it go? I decided to check. Powershell of course helped me out here.\nThe first public KB article that you can access today is …..\nKB 22 - Extremely Slow Power on when Using IDE Virtual Disks.\nAnd as you can it was last updated on January 25th, 2011 – Product: VMware Workstation 3.x\nSo how old is this actually? Wikipedia to the rescue.\nHistory ladies and gentlemen. This KB is probably about 11 years old.\nFreaky how today is actually November 1st, 2012, exactly 11 years after Workstation 3.0 was released.\nVMware has come a long way since then – changed, evolved. It would be interesting to hear what it was like way back then.\nPersonally – I am intrigued in hearing what KB 1 is.\nIf you have any insight into how it was back then – please feel free to add it to the comments below.\n","date":"Nov 1, 2012","href":"/2012/11/what-is-vmware-kb-number-1.html","summary":"Have you ever wondered what VMware Knowledge base article Number one is? Where it all started? Genesis is the beginning of the bible… KB number 1 was the beginning of a plethora of knowledge that has changed how we consume technology today.\nAs of the time of writing this blog post the lastest KB is 2035036.\nSo far back does it go? I decided to check. Powershell of course helped me out here.\nThe first public KB article that you can access today is …..\nKB 22 - Extremely Slow Power on when Using IDE Virtual Disks.","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"What is VMware KB Number 1?"},{"content":"Less than a month – that is all it took for VMware to release an update to vSphere 5.1.0.\nA good thing? A bad thing – that I will leave for another post – in this one I will go over the release notes once more as I did last month in my post Read the vSphere 5.1 Release Notes!!\nHere are my takeaways from the 5.1.0a Release Notes\nTakeaways:\nThis has changed since the last release notes. It was not there before. This will introduce additional overhead to the upgrade process Questions:\nWhat changed since a month ago? What is the reason for this recommendation to to do it step by step? Takeaways:\nThis was also not there a month ago – same point as above above the overhead with people with non-English locales. Questions:\nWhat is the difference between performing from the command-line – than through the GUI. From what I see – there are no extra parameters being passed to the MSI package – so why the recommendation? Takeaways:\nIt is good to see that VMware have fixed some problems with the installation process before. Questions:\nWas the release rushed out – so that these issues were not addressed before hand? Why are the majority of these directly related to SSO? (more on that as well in another post) Takeaways:\nThis is a new issue. Questions:\nI appreciate that VMware says that I have to enable short names on the volumes…. but wouldn’t it have been more productive in explaining how to do that? Takeaways:\nThis is a new issue. Don’t use a Domain account for SSO installation. Again introduces overhead in the upgrade/installation. Questions:\nWhat is Single Sign On 1.0 – is this the version that was released with 5.1? Have we not had enough of multiple versions of products causing complete and utter confusion? Takeaways:\nThis is a new issue. Don’t use wonky characters in your passwords. Questions:\nI wonder which poor sod has a 32 character password? Takeaways:\nThis is a new issue. You might need to reboot your vCenter Questions:\nWould it not have been easier to force the reboot","date":"Oct 29, 2012","href":"/2012/10/going-over-vsphere-510a-release-notes.html","summary":"Less than a month – that is all it took for VMware to release an update to vSphere 5.1.0.\nA good thing? A bad thing – that I will leave for another post – in this one I will go over the release notes once more as I did last month in my post Read the vSphere 5.1 Release Notes!!\nHere are my takeaways from the 5.1.0a Release Notes\nTakeaways:\nThis has changed since the last release notes. It was not there before. This will introduce additional overhead to the upgrade process Questions:","tags":["vSphere","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Going over the vSphere 5.1.0a Release Notes"},{"content":"As you should have heard by now vCloud Suite will be available as a free – well almost free.\nAccording to the VMware vCloud Suite Upgrade Promotion you have until December 15, 2012 at 11:59pm Pacific Time (PT) if you have purchased vSphere Enterprise or vSphere Enterprise Plus as of August 27th, 2012 and you have an active Support and Subscription agreement to upgrade to vCloud Standard Edition\nSo for the Enterprise Plus customers this is a no-brainer … or is it???\nWhat many people do not understand is that from a CAPEX perspective you come out on top. But OPEX is where you will feel the hit - with your renewal of your support. Brian Knudston started to address this in his article.\nFrom the Support FAQ\nQ. Is Subscription and Support (SnS) required?\nA. For the “$0 upgrade” from vSphere Enterprise Plus to vCloud Suite Standard, the existing SnS contract will persist and no additional SnS is required at time of purchase and the new SnS rate will be charged at the next renewal When the upgrade is selected, the same level of support must be chosen for the upgrade that covered the original vSphere Enterprise Plus license. For example, if the vSphere Enterprise Plus was covered by VMware Basic Support, then the upgrade to vCloud Suite Standard must also have VMware Basic Support.\nLet’s put this into numbers for a minute. I have taken the list prices from the VMware site.\n(Of course not many people pay list price so your exact number will differ)\nTake the following example. My infrastructure has 50 vSphere Hosts (Dual socket) with Enterprise Plus edition. My SnS expires on December 31, 2012.\n$874 x 100 = $87,400 to renew my Support and Subscription for one year.\nI decided to take VMware up on their generous offer and upgrade all my Enterprise Plus hosts to vCloud Standard for a huge amount of 0$.\nSweet deal!! I now have vCloud Director which I can deploy in my Enterprise – and it did not cost me anything.\nAlong comes January 1st, 2013 and I have to pay for my SnS renewal.","date":"Oct 24, 2012","href":"/2012/10/vcloud-suite-upgrade-there-is-no-free.html","summary":"As you should have heard by now vCloud Suite will be available as a free – well almost free.\nAccording to the VMware vCloud Suite Upgrade Promotion you have until December 15, 2012 at 11:59pm Pacific Time (PT) if you have purchased vSphere Enterprise or vSphere Enterprise Plus as of August 27th, 2012 and you have an active Support and Subscription agreement to upgrade to vCloud Standard Edition\nSo for the Enterprise Plus customers this is a no-brainer … or is it???","tags":["vCloud","Management","VMware","Licensing"],"title":"vCloud Suite Upgrade – There is No Free Lunch"},{"content":"I was trying to install the Ruby vSphere Console (RVC) today on my Ubuntu machine running\nPrecise Pangolin. I used William Lam’s post as a baseline for the installation – but since there are several differences with Ubuntu – I will post the steps here.\nDo not install Ruby from apt-get it will not work If you have already installed it the remove it\nsudo apt-get --purge remove ruby-rvm sudo curl -L get.rvm.io | bash -s stable sudo source /etc/profile sudo bash -s stable \u0026amp;lt; \u0026amp;lt;(curl -s https://raw.github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm/master/binscripts/rvm-installer ) source /etc/profile.d/rvm.sh gedit ~/.bashrc and add the following line to the end [[ -s \u0026amp;quot;$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm\u0026amp;quot; ]] \u0026amp;amp;\u0026amp;amp; source \u0026amp;quot;$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm\u0026amp;quot; source ~/.bashrc rvm install 1.9.3-p327 --with-openssl-dir=$rvm_path/usr gem install rvc gem install ffi Steps were taken from a mixture of these three sources\nhttps://29a.ch/2011/10/28/rvm-on-ubuntu-11-10 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9056008/installed-ruby-1-9-3-with-rvm-but-command-line-doesnt-show-ruby-v/9056395#9056395 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8410885/how-do-i-install-ruby-with-libyaml-on-ubuntu-11-10 I now have RVC working and am looking forward to using it more.\n","date":"Oct 22, 2012","href":"/2012/10/installing-rvc-on-ubuntu-1204.html","summary":"I was trying to install the Ruby vSphere Console (RVC) today on my Ubuntu machine running\nPrecise Pangolin. I used William Lam’s post as a baseline for the installation – but since there are several differences with Ubuntu – I will post the steps here.\nDo not install Ruby from apt-get it will not work If you have already installed it the remove it\nsudo apt-get --purge remove ruby-rvm sudo curl -L get.rvm.io | bash -s stable sudo source /etc/profile sudo bash -s stable \u0026lt; \u0026lt;(curl -s https://raw.github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm/master/binscripts/rvm-installer ) source /etc/profile.d/rvm.sh gedit ~/.bashrc and add the following line to the end [[ -s \u0026quot;$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm\u0026quot; ]] \u0026amp;\u0026amp; source \u0026quot;$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm\u0026quot; source ~/.bashrc rvm install 1.9.3-p327 --with-openssl-dir=$rvm_path/usr gem install rvc gem install ffi Steps were taken from a mixture of these three sources","tags":["Automation","Management","VMware","RVC"],"title":"Installing RVC on Ubuntu 12.04"},{"content":"For those of you who follow the PlanetV12N aggregation feed of anything and everything that is virtualization – you might have noticed that the feed has been stale for over 10 days.\nThe reason being.. – well I do not really know – it usually is a problem with one of the feeds in the list – which causes the whole process to commit harakiri. It is extremely annoying. I know. I miss my daily fix of virtualization news. I really missed it during VMworld in Europe last week.\nSo here was the chain of events (through my twitter stream) that led me to create my own list of all the blogs that are currently in the feed.\nIs the planet v12n feed broken again ? /cc @jtroyer\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) October 3, 2012 Is PlanetV12N busted again? /cc @jtroyer\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) October 8, 2012 I find it difficult to follow the blog posts coming out of #VMworld - while Planet V12N is not working...\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) October 9, 2012 Me thinks I am going to have to create my own Planet V12N feed ...\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) October 15, 2012 The lack of having updates from PlanetV12N is really annoying. Eric Siebert has a feed of the top 50 blogs here - https://feeds.feedburner.com/PlanetVsphere-land – but as I stated tonight on Twitter:\n@ericsiebert @wygtya @Josh_Atwell The problem with the Top 50 - is that it is missing the other 207 on the feed..\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) October 16, 2012 So I collected all the links on the PlanetV12N page – and have made a temporary aggregate feed that you all can follow, until John Troyer can get this mess fixed up.\nI think I got all of the blogs that were listed on the site (there were 314). I stripped out the Youtube channel links and all of those that were not working. This leaves 257 blogs that you can now get in one feed.\nJust to make things clear once more.\nThis is not the definitive list This is temporary – until Planet V12N is fixed I will not add / remove","date":"Oct 16, 2012","href":"/2012/10/tempplanetv12n-my-daily-virtualization.html","summary":"For those of you who follow the PlanetV12N aggregation feed of anything and everything that is virtualization – you might have noticed that the feed has been stale for over 10 days.\nThe reason being.. – well I do not really know – it usually is a problem with one of the feeds in the list – which causes the whole process to commit harakiri. It is extremely annoying. I know. I miss my daily fix of virtualization news. I really missed it during VMworld in Europe last week.\nSo here was the chain of events (through my twitter stream) that led me to create my own list of all the blogs that are currently in the feed.","tags":["Blogger","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"TempPlanetV12N - My Daily Virtualization News Replacement"},{"content":"I am currently preparing a deployment package architecture for a full vSphere environment and one of the requests was to include PowerCLI in the installation script.\nI was surprised that I could not find anything already mentioned on how to do this on Google.\nSo here is the syntax:\n# Install PowerCLI Set-executionPolicy RemoteSigned -Confirm:$false -force Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;Installing PowerCLI\u0026amp;#34; $myargs = $myargs = \u0026amp;#39;/q /s /w /L1033 /v\u0026amp;#34; /qn \u0026amp;#39; $exe = \u0026amp;#34;C:\\installs\\VMware-PowerCLI-5.1.0-793510.exe\u0026amp;#34; Start-process $exe $myargs –Wait Add-PSSnapin -Name VMware.VimAutomation.Core Line 2:** Set the execution policy to RemoteSigned\nLine 4-5: Prepare the installation syntax\nLine 7: Add the PowerCLI Snapin\nEasy as that!\n","date":"Oct 16, 2012","href":"/2012/10/using-powershell-to-install-powercli.html","summary":"I am currently preparing a deployment package architecture for a full vSphere environment and one of the requests was to include PowerCLI in the installation script.\nI was surprised that I could not find anything already mentioned on how to do this on Google.\nSo here is the syntax:\n# Install PowerCLI Set-executionPolicy RemoteSigned -Confirm:$false -force Write-Host \u0026#34;Installing PowerCLI\u0026#34; $myargs = $myargs = \u0026#39;/q /s /w /L1033 /v\u0026#34; /qn \u0026#39; $exe = \u0026#34;C:\\installs\\VMware-PowerCLI-5.1.0-793510.exe\u0026#34; Start-process $exe $myargs –Wait Add-PSSnapin -Name VMware.VimAutomation.Core Line 2:** Set the execution policy to RemoteSigned","tags":["Scripting","Powershell","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"Using Powershell to install PowerCLI"},{"content":"The Web Client will be VMware’s direction going forward. It was stressed more than once. There was even a slide from one the sessions to state that 5.1 will be the last windows based client – as I blogged about before here.\nIf you stop for a moment to think about this it makes sense. VMware is looking to remove any kid of dependency on the Microsoft operating system. We have seen it with move to a direct of a center appliance and now with the new client. I am sure this will be a glorious day for all the Admins who have a Mac and up until now relied on a Windows VM running in Fusion to manage there vSphere environments. Gone now are those days.\nOnyx - remember the fling that VMware have to allow you \u0026amp;ldquo;peak\u0026amp;rdquo; into the API? This has proven to be a invaluable tool more than once, not only for me but for anyone who is trying to programmatically perform some kind of operation be it PowerCLI or now more popular – vOrchestrator.\nA multitude of posts can be found about the subject – here are just a small few:\nONYX - Go forth and PowerCLI\u0026amp;rsquo;ze! Taking the new Onyx 2.0 for a spin How to create Powershell Scripts Using VMware Onyx VMware Onyx Using Onyx to speed-up Workflow development But new with the web client this will not be possible (at least not at the moment) until VMware releases an update or some other tool to provide this functionality. Which does become problematic, because there is no way to find the API calls that are now going through the new client. And since a sizeable amount of functionality is no longer available in the Windows client – it will not be so simple to find the correct calls.\nI can say that this update is coming - Luc Dekens actually raised this question in session GD26 with William Lam, and they are aware of this problem. When it will be released - I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t know.\nThis does just show me that this is a perfect example of how things can become complicated, the larger and more intertwined a solution becomes. Who would have thought","date":"Oct 7, 2012","href":"/2012/10/you-cant-use-onyx-with-web-client.html","summary":"The Web Client will be VMware’s direction going forward. It was stressed more than once. There was even a slide from one the sessions to state that 5.1 will be the last windows based client – as I blogged about before here.\nIf you stop for a moment to think about this it makes sense. VMware is looking to remove any kid of dependency on the Microsoft operating system. We have seen it with move to a direct of a center appliance and now with the new client. I am sure this will be a glorious day for all the Admins who have a Mac and up until now relied on a Windows VM running in Fusion to manage there vSphere environments. Gone now are those days.","tags":["Automation","Tools","Orchestrator","PowerCLI"],"title":"You Can’t Use Onyx with the Web Client"},{"content":"There are a great number of differences between the two, and it is obvious that the vSphere Web client is where the future lies – VMware made it clear at VMworld that 5.1 will be the last release of the vSphere Client\nPicture (c) by Marco Broeken.\nBut unfortunately there are things that have / will fall between the cracks – and functionality we are used to – is no longer available.\nOne such an example – controlling the current sessions connected to vCenter.\nvSphere Client vSphere Web Client Just so that you know how to find it – because it is not where you would expect it.\nvSphere Client vSphere Web Client Click on your vCenter –\u0026amp;gt; Manage –\u0026amp;gt; Sessions Tab\nI expect we will see a number of these coming up in the near future.\nBut if you ask me – the change from the Windows Client to the vSphere Web Client is a great thing and something we all get used to – so you might as well start now.\nMessage of the day by the way can be found here in the Web Client:\n(in case you want to broadcast something to your users)\n","date":"Sep 19, 2012","href":"/2012/09/vsphere-web-client-vs-vsphere-client.html","summary":"There are a great number of differences between the two, and it is obvious that the vSphere Web client is where the future lies – VMware made it clear at VMworld that 5.1 will be the last release of the vSphere Client\nPicture (c) by Marco Broeken.\nBut unfortunately there are things that have / will fall between the cracks – and functionality we are used to – is no longer available.","tags":["vSphere","VMware"],"title":"vSphere Web Client vs. vSphere Client - Sessions"},{"content":"I have asked for this…. Begged for …… Ok not begged, but I did ask nicely.. a number of times, a great number of times!!!!\nOne of the slight drawbacks of working in vESXi is that you could not configure a virtual 10Gb Ethernet card. Why would you? Because you can of course but also because if you wanted to see what would happen in a lab before implementing 10Gb Ethernet in your Production environment– the only way to do it was with a physical server and a physical NIC. This would have been ideal for testing the implementation of NIOC for example.\nAnd why was this – because the only Virtual Network Adapter type that worked up until now was E1000. VMXNET3 would not work. As you are aware – VMXNET3 presents itself as a 10Gb adapter to to Guest Operating Systems.\nUntil ESXi 5.1.\nI noticed this in the release notes.\nWhat was that VMXNET3 in a VM running ESX?\nSo I tried it out and lo and behold…..\nLadies and Gents… I present to you a vESXi with 10Gb Ethernet adapter.\nAnd how do I know that it is 10Gb? I looked in the console.\nBesides the fact that vESXi is not supported – as noted above – this could cause your vESXi host to crash.\nYou have been warned…!!\nBut it is cool!!!!!\n","date":"Sep 12, 2012","href":"/2012/09/vEsxi-with-10gb-ethernet-using-VMXNET3.html","summary":"I have asked for this…. Begged for …… Ok not begged, but I did ask nicely.. a number of times, a great number of times!!!!\nOne of the slight drawbacks of working in vESXi is that you could not configure a virtual 10Gb Ethernet card. Why would you? Because you can of course but also because if you wanted to see what would happen in a lab before implementing 10Gb Ethernet in your Production environment– the only way to do it was with a physical server and a physical NIC. This would have been ideal for testing the implementation of NIOC for example.","tags":["ESXi","notsupported","VMware",5.1],"title":"vESXi with 10Gb Ethernet Using VMXNET3 - Yes You Can!!"},{"content":"The first thing I always do when a new version is released is go over the Release notes. There are always interesting things that come out of a document like this.\nvSphere 5.1 is no different.\nHere are my takeaways (and some questions as well) as a result of going over the Release Notes\nTakeaways:\nFor vSphere 5.1 you have no change. But before the next version you should be prepared to retire these old Operating Systems. If for some ridiculous reason reason you still have a Windows NT VM in your environment – then get rid of it. Microsoft does not support it – has not for a while – and VMware will not either Questions:\nWhy is Windows 2000 not on that list? Ubuntu Support LifeCycle – is a lot shorter than other operating systems – that is what LTS is for! Takeaways:\nIf you have more than 1 vCenter in your environment and you are using Linked mode you will need to sever the link until they are all upgraded Questions:\nWasn’t SSO supposed to remove the need for linked Mode? If so – why is it still in use? Takeaways:\nIf you did have access to the Beta Program – it is time to rebuild. An upgrade from a Beta/RC has never been (and probably will never be) supported. Takeaways:\nThis has been said more than once – the traditional vSphere Client is history. Get used to the new client, get comfortable with it Questions:\nCheck that your vCenter Plugins are compatible with the Web Client, if not sit on your vendors head to make it so. What are VMware doing to assure that 100% of the features that are available in the vSphere Client will be available in the Web client as well. Today that is not the case.\nMore on that in another post. Takeaways:\nSame thing I said about Windows NT above… Takeaways:\nHave you heard of these commands before? Tried them? Do you know what they do? How they work?\nSSO is a new component. VMware would like you to believe it is just clickedy, click click – but this is a complex and perhaps one of the least publicly documented component of the release. People","date":"Sep 11, 2012","href":"/2012/09/read-vsphere-51-release-notes.html","summary":"The first thing I always do when a new version is released is go over the Release notes. There are always interesting things that come out of a document like this.\nvSphere 5.1 is no different.\nHere are my takeaways (and some questions as well) as a result of going over the Release Notes\nTakeaways:\nFor vSphere 5.1 you have no change. But before the next version you should be prepared to retire these old Operating Systems. If for some ridiculous reason reason you still have a Windows NT VM in your environment – then get rid of it. Microsoft does not support it – has not for a while – and VMware will not either Questions:","tags":["vSphere","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Read the vSphere 5.1 Release Notes!!"},{"content":"vSphere 5.1 will most probably be released by the end of September 10th (that is 2 minutes from now in my timezone).\nOf course nothing is 100% certain but I will explain on what this assumption is based.\nFrom this Press release From the VMware Unveils Industry’s Most Comprehensive Cloud Infrastructure and Management Solution press release\nSeptember 11, 9-11. This is a sensitive date for especially for Americans. I doubt that anyone, let alone VMware, would go all out with the release multiple new versions of their software on this day. I assume it will be before that.\nvCAT 3.0 release end of day September 10, 2012\nvSphere 5.0 is available for download from here – but 5.1 is not – yet…\nSo instead of pushing F5 the whole day I wrote a very simple Powershell script to do it for me.\nThe basic function was taken from this post Using PowerShell to Query Web Site Information\nThen the rest was easy.\nGet the page. Parse the HTML and see if it still contains the Unable to Complete Your Request text.\nIf it does – that means the 5.1 site has not gone live. Sleep for 5 minutes, and check again.\nIf the text is no longer there – then probably the 5.1 bits are available. In that case – do something (like send me an email)\nfunction Get-WebPage { \u0026amp;lt;# .SYNOPSIS Downloads web page from site. .DESCRIPTION Downloads web page from site and displays source code or displays total bytes of webpage downloaded .PARAMETER Url URL of the website to test access to. .PARAMETER UseDefaultCredentials Use the currently authenticated user\u0026amp;#39;s credentials .PARAMETER Proxy Used to connect via a proxy .PARAMETER Credential Provide alternate credentials .PARAMETER ShowSize Displays the size of the downloaded page in bytes .NOTES Name: Get-WebPage Author: Boe Prox DateCreated: 08Feb2011 .EXAMPLE Get-WebPage -url \u0026amp;#34;https://www.bing.com\u0026amp;#34; Description ------------ Returns information about Bing.Com to include StatusCode and type of web server being used to host the site. #\u0026amp;gt; [cmdletbinding(","date":"Sep 10, 2012","href":"/2012/09/a-powershell-script-to-notify-you-on.html","summary":"vSphere 5.1 will most probably be released by the end of September 10th (that is 2 minutes from now in my timezone).\nOf course nothing is 100% certain but I will explain on what this assumption is based.\nFrom this Press release From the VMware Unveils Industry’s Most Comprehensive Cloud Infrastructure and Management Solution press release\nSeptember 11, 9-11. This is a sensitive date for especially for Americans. I doubt that anyone, let alone VMware, would go all out with the release multiple new versions of their software on this day. I assume it will be before that.","tags":["vSphere","Scripting","Powershell","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"A Powershell Script to notify you on the vSphere 5.1 Release"},{"content":"A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum Solutions Exchange floor (forgive me for the corny humor…)\nIn previous years the Solutions Exchange floor usually opened with a the Hall Crawl which was at the end of the first day (i.e. Monday). This year it opened on Sunday afternoon and was open until the end of Wednesday.\nI have not been able to find out what the rationale was behind this, and it depends on who you ask this was either a good / a bad thing.\nThe Good People at the show on Sunday – could already get on the floor to speak to Vendors. The mad rush for giveaways for SWAG was not on Thursday afternoon – which means the vendors closed up shop early – and they could make it home back in time for the end of the week. Sessions on Thursday – actually had people in them. I have never seen so many people in sessions on the last day of the show – they had nowhere else to go.. It was quiet – you could hear yourself. It was less crowded – because people had already gone back home. The Bad Vendors had to arrive before Sunday to set everything up – I guess that some of them were already there on Saturday or Friday. I did not count the hours – to see if they had more or less show floor hours than previous years. If there were less hours then it was not good for the vendors. It was less crowded – that means people did not stay for the last day. As a participant, to get full use of the session floor – you needed to be there on Sunday. It would be interested in hearing why this change was made, and what the attendees, VMware and the vendors think about it.\nPlease feel free to add your comments below.\nI appreciated the quiet on Thursday and happy to see so many people – even at the last scheduled sessions on Thursday.\n","date":"Sep 10, 2012","href":"/2012/09/solutions-exchange-did-you-miss-last-day.html","summary":"A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum Solutions Exchange floor (forgive me for the corny humor…)\nIn previous years the Solutions Exchange floor usually opened with a the Hall Crawl which was at the end of the first day (i.e. Monday). This year it opened on Sunday afternoon and was open until the end of Wednesday.\nI have not been able to find out what the rationale was behind this, and it depends on who you ask this was either a good / a bad thing.","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Solutions Exchange - Did You Miss the Last Day?"},{"content":"One of the things I continuously heard from a decent number of people during VMworld is that they are constantly running after the technology.\nI actually put out a question on Twitter with the following poll:\nHow many of you are still running ESXi 4.X in your environment?\nThe results were actually a confirmation of what I heard at the show. Over 70% of those who replied said they were running the previous version. In fact there were a few who actually said they still had customers or knew customers who were still running on 3.X!! (heaven forbid)\nThe obvious question that might come out of this is why? Why are people still running on older versions? Why not upgrade to the latest and greatest? The incentive is so compelling, the new features that are added with each new version are so enticing - it should actually be hard to resist! And it is!\nI guess that is what any software vendor would like. Use the new version, we have fixed up the bugs. We have listened to our customers, improved based upon the client\u0026amp;rsquo;s feedback, added the latest and greatest\nSo\u0026amp;hellip;.. if the customers want it, the vendors want it, the. Why is it not happening? Well here is what I would like to raise in this post. I do not actually think that is what the customers want. Well not exactly true - we do want the latest and greatest, but\u0026amp;hellip; (and here it comes..) not so often. What do I mean? VMware has been on a release cycle of a newer version once a year - a it usually happens around the time of VMworld. Granted it is not a major version release every year, but every other year (ESXi release dates)\nESX 3.0.0 GA 2006-06-16 27701 ESX 3.5.0 GA 2008-02-20 64607 ESX 4.0 GA 2009-05-21 164009 ESX 4.1 GA 2010-07-13 260247 ESXi 5.0 GA 2011-08-24 469512 And ESXi 5.1 GA is expected within the next week or so. Looking back at the table above, the past 4 versions have been released 12-14 months apart.\nI am sure that not everyone is the same as me but let me explain how a release would be deployed","date":"Sep 4, 2012","href":"/2012/09/release-cycles-and-why-we-are-chasing.html","summary":"One of the things I continuously heard from a decent number of people during VMworld is that they are constantly running after the technology.\nI actually put out a question on Twitter with the following poll:\nHow many of you are still running ESXi 4.X in your environment?\nThe results were actually a confirmation of what I heard at the show. Over 70% of those who replied said they were running the previous version. In fact there were a few who actually said they still had customers or knew customers who were still running on 3.X!! (heaven forbid)","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"Release Cycles and Why We Are Chasing Our Tails?"},{"content":"I am currently on my flight back from San Francisco to New York and then on the way back to Tel Aviv, so now is a great time to start writing about my experiences and what happened during the show.\nI promised myself that I would not do a blow-by-blow account of what I went through during the show, but more of a insight on some of the things that I think are worth mentioning and I experienced during the past week.\nThere was actually far to much information and blog post going out during the show - which led me to the conclusion that any information that would be posted during the show would probably be lost within the overload coming out of VMworld. I was not the only one by the way\u0026amp;hellip;\nMy upcoming posts will be about these topics and the insights and knowledge I gained from the show.\nKeep an eye out and stay tuned\u0026amp;hellip;\n","date":"Sep 2, 2012","href":"/2012/09/vmworld-us-2012-recap.html","summary":"I am currently on my flight back from San Francisco to New York and then on the way back to Tel Aviv, so now is a great time to start writing about my experiences and what happened during the show.\nI promised myself that I would not do a blow-by-blow account of what I went through during the show, but more of a insight on some of the things that I think are worth mentioning and I experienced during the past week.","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"VMworld US 2012 - A Recap"},{"content":"I will try and get a live blog update for the First General session\nStarted with a Disclaimer – which was strange for a keynote.\nStomp kicked off the keynote beating on VMworld 2012 with drumpads in each of the letters\nRick Jackson (Chief Marketing Officer) took the stage to welcome over 20,000 participants of VMworld with another 10,000 online. He promised that a number of announcements that will come out of the conference this week. Rick continued with the upcoming sessions expected during the conference. There will be a best on-stage demo contest between the partners tomorrow, which will happen tomorrow with interactive feedback from the audience. A nice shout out for VMUG with a large presence of the green t-shirts.\nHe now is welcoming Paul Maritz onto the stage.\nPaul Maritz reminded us that in 2008 25% of the workloads were virtualized today – it is at 60%. He thanked all the VCP’s that have implemented the technology today 25,000 in 2008 and now at 125,000. In 2008 cloud was an idea today it is a reality. He continued with the Drivers of change were processes have been moved from manual and labor intensive work to automated, paperless and optimized workflows. Paul continued about how the workplace is changing to an environment where people want to consume information everywhere on whatever device they want and he thinks that this will have a huge impact on the workforce in the next 4 years. For this to happen IT will have to transition to Tomorrow’s IT.\nThis can be done in 3 categories. In the infrastructure from physical to virtual. On top of that the applications and data are changing to accommodate scale. The last part is the access – on how the users are moving from a PC dominated world to a multi-device world.\nPaul now introduced Pat Gelsinger and formally handed over the scepter.\nPat Gelsinger took the stage and thanked Paul for his work and Paul received a standing ovation from the crowd. Pat started to explain what he sees what his role will be in the","date":"Aug 27, 2012","href":"/2012/08/live-blogging-general-session.html","summary":"I will try and get a live blog update for the First General session\nStarted with a Disclaimer – which was strange for a keynote.\nStomp kicked off the keynote beating on VMworld 2012 with drumpads in each of the letters\nRick Jackson (Chief Marketing Officer) took the stage to welcome over 20,000 participants of VMworld with another 10,000 online. He promised that a number of announcements that will come out of the conference this week. Rick continued with the upcoming sessions expected during the conference. There will be a best on-stage demo contest between the partners tomorrow, which will happen tomorrow with interactive feedback from the audience. A nice shout out for VMUG with a large presence of the green t-shirts.","tags":["VMworld","General Session"],"title":"Live Blogging the General Session"},{"content":" One of those lightbulb moments (Ding!!) With everything going on during this week – could you actually cram something else in?\nWell evidently yes.\nThe vExpert Roundtables idea was born. This post explains it some more.\nTotally voluntary, totally not planned\nthe idea was born 2 weeks before VMworld. So I do not know if it will be successful – or if it will work, but I do think it does have potential.\nI do want to thank all the vExperts that volunteered to put in some time to “lead” the roundtables. I do think it will be beneficial to all those who participate. I mean how often do you have the opportunity to sit with some of the top people in the field and bounce some questions back and forth?\nHope to see you there!!\n","date":"Aug 25, 2012","href":"/2012/08/T-2-to-VMworld.html","summary":" One of those lightbulb moments (Ding!!) With everything going on during this week – could you actually cram something else in?\nWell evidently yes.\nThe vExpert Roundtables idea was born. This post explains it some more.\nTotally voluntary, totally not planned\nthe idea was born 2 weeks before VMworld. So I do not know if it will be successful – or if it will work, but I do think it does have potential.","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"Countdown to VMworld T-2 - vExpert Roundtables"},{"content":" The people. I might have mentioned this in a previous post, there are a lot of people at VMworld. Most of them are tech people – like you and I. Some more technical than others – but hey we cannot all be the same. Coming from a country that only has a population of about 7 million I am never used to the sheer size of things in conferences like this. Feeding 20,000 people in the span of an hour and a half – is no small thing. So I am constantly amazed.\nThere is an adrenalin somewhere, maybe they inject it into the air (joking..) but if you ask me it is an intense experience that stays with you long after the conference is over.\nSeeing people left, right and center all around that you only hear about on blogs, or see on live broadcasts – and then having the option to sit down with them, and all the more so – you get to realize that they are just people like you – friendly, nice and down to earth.\nI don’t go VMworld to work\nI have several commitments but those are my own choice. Perhaps those who actually do work the whole week (and as a result – months before and after the show) might feel different.\nI always come back home with a huge feeling of satisfaction, it gives me the energy to continue what I do, and to go even further.\nI hope some of this atmosphere rubs off on you as well.\nDon’t be afraid to say hi and have a great time!\n","date":"Aug 24, 2012","href":"/2012/08/T-3-to-VMworld.html","summary":" The people. I might have mentioned this in a previous post, there are a lot of people at VMworld. Most of them are tech people – like you and I. Some more technical than others – but hey we cannot all be the same. Coming from a country that only has a population of about 7 million I am never used to the sheer size of things in conferences like this. Feeding 20,000 people in the span of an hour and a half – is no small thing. So I am constantly amazed.","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"Countdown to VMworld T-3 - Atmosphere"},{"content":"There were over 1000 submissions for sessions for VMworld 2012 – but of course not all were accepted. So the idea of the Lightning Tech Talks in the community lounge. There is a packed BrownBag schedule every single day starting with a vExpert hour every single morning between 10.00 and 11.00.\nI will be presenting a session on vCenter Orchestrator and the reason for actually trying to get a lab into the Session catalog. What the reasoning behind the workflows was and how Orchestrator alleviated the problems that are common in each and every datacenter.\nBesides – all of this will be streamed live on the VMworld Live Video channel and you can follow the conversation on Twitter with #vBrownBag\nWatch live streaming video from vmwarecommunitytv at livestream.com\n","date":"Aug 23, 2012","href":"/2012/08/T-4-to-VMworld.html","summary":"There were over 1000 submissions for sessions for VMworld 2012 – but of course not all were accepted. So the idea of the Lightning Tech Talks in the community lounge. There is a packed BrownBag schedule every single day starting with a vExpert hour every single morning between 10.00 and 11.00.\nI will be presenting a session on vCenter Orchestrator and the reason for actually trying to get a lab into the Session catalog. What the reasoning behind the workflows was and how Orchestrator alleviated the problems that are common in each and every datacenter.\nBesides – all of this will be streamed live on the VMworld Live Video channel and you can follow the conversation on Twitter with #vBrownBag","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"Countdown to VMworld T-4 - vBrownbags/Tech Talks"},{"content":" The Solutions floor. 256 different vendors, some well known and some less known – but everyone has something to show – that is in some way connected to virtualizations.\nThere are giveaways, iPads, SWAG Booth babes, and technology all around. Some of the booths I would like to see what they are all about and the solutions they provide - and they are – but not only:\nhttps://www.maginatics.com/\nhttps://www.asigra.com/\nhttps://www.urbancode.com/\nhttps://www.plexxi.com/\nhttps://www.panzura.com/\nhttps://www.scalecomputing.com/\nhttps://www.intigua.com/\nhttps://www.cloupia.com/en/\nhttps://www.embrane.com/products\nhttps://www.gridironsystems.com/\nThis is always the chance to see companies that you usually would not have the opportunity – and get to speak to their top notch people.0\n","date":"Aug 22, 2012","href":"/2012/08/T-5-to-VMworld.html","summary":" The Solutions floor. 256 different vendors, some well known and some less known – but everyone has something to show – that is in some way connected to virtualizations.\nThere are giveaways, iPads, SWAG Booth babes, and technology all around. Some of the booths I would like to see what they are all about and the solutions they provide - and they are – but not only:","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"Countdown to VMworld T-5 - Solutions Exchange"},{"content":"Personally this is not really a big one for me – but I guess that for the rest of the world probably it is – that why they always go out of their way to find a star – this it is Bon Jovi – to perform during the party.\nFood is usually there a plenty – I don’t eat it – and the drinks are a flowing. It is fun, its different, and people have a great time.\nBut not only the VMworld party – almost every single vendor (or major vendor) will have a bash – and wine and dine you. The one that I would like to point out is the VMundergound WuPaaS (that is Warm Up Party As A Service).\nTheron Conrey, Sean Clark and Brian Knudtson all do a great job every year to bring VMworld to a start with this party.\nAll proceeds go to charity and it is generally a blast.\n","date":"Aug 21, 2012","href":"/2012/08/T-6-to-VMworld.html","summary":"Personally this is not really a big one for me – but I guess that for the rest of the world probably it is – that why they always go out of their way to find a star – this it is Bon Jovi – to perform during the party.\nFood is usually there a plenty – I don’t eat it – and the drinks are a flowing. It is fun, its different, and people have a great time.\nBut not only the VMworld party – almost every single vendor (or major vendor) will have a bash – and wine and dine you. The one that I would like to point out is the VMundergound WuPaaS (that is Warm Up Party As A Service).","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"Countdown to VMworld T-6 - Parties"},{"content":"Being a blogger has its perks, being a vExpert has it perks as well. We have exposure – but I promise you that is not why we do it.\nMost of us do not blog for a living – we all have our regular 9-5 jobs (and then some) and we write these articles on our own spare time.\nVMware recognize the value of the blogosphere and one of the biggest social community programs around. the blogger lounge is a place for us to come and recharge, to meet, to put our thoughts, pictures and experiences onto paper (well not real paper but you know what I mean).\nThe lounge will almost always have a blogger or a vExpert there during the whole show – and of course the famous John Troyer and Alex Maier who are the vExpert patron and look after us very nicely.\n","date":"Aug 20, 2012","href":"/2012/08/T-7-to-VMworld.html","summary":"Being a blogger has its perks, being a vExpert has it perks as well. We have exposure – but I promise you that is not why we do it.\nMost of us do not blog for a living – we all have our regular 9-5 jobs (and then some) and we write these articles on our own spare time.\nVMware recognize the value of the blogosphere and one of the biggest social community programs around. the blogger lounge is a place for us to come and recharge, to meet, to put our thoughts, pictures and experiences onto paper (well not real paper but you know what I mean).","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"Countdown to VMworld T-7 - Blogger Lounge"},{"content":"36 different Labs to choose from. My post from last years labs.\nThe amount of VM’s created and destroyed over the week, will be more than you will probably ever create in a lifetime. And all of it sitting in the Cloud. VMware really eat their own dog food a,d have created a great experience.\nThere are some innovations this year including BYOD labs, and some lightning labs that will be short and sweet.\nSome of the labs I would like to take this year are:\nHOL-APP-01 - Manage Your Cloud Applications with VMware vFabric Application Director HOL-APP-02 - Deploy Applications in a Platform as a Service (PaaS) World with Cloud Foundry HOL-APP-03 - Enable Database as a Service (DBaaS) in Your Cloud with VMware vFabric Data Director HOL-APP-05 - Scale Your Applications with VMware vFabric HOL-INF-03 - Automate Your vSphere Deployment with Auto Deploy HOL-INF-09 - Deliver Your IT Services in the Cloud HOL-OPS-03 - Build an IT Cost Model with the VMware IT Business Managment Suite HOL-OPS-04 - DynamicOps by VMware - Rapidly Deliver Private and Hybrid Clouds Across Multi-Vendor Environments HOL-OPS-07 - VMware vCenter Orchestrator - \u0026amp;ldquo;The Undiscovered Country\u0026amp;rdquo; HOL-PRT-01 - Automate IP Address Assignment and DNS Registration with Infoblox I gather I will not make it to all of them – but I hope they will be made available to the general public after the show.\n","date":"Aug 19, 2012","href":"/2012/08/T-8-to-VMworld.html","summary":"36 different Labs to choose from. My post from last years labs.\nThe amount of VM’s created and destroyed over the week, will be more than you will probably ever create in a lifetime. And all of it sitting in the Cloud. VMware really eat their own dog food a,d have created a great experience.\nThere are some innovations this year including BYOD labs, and some lightning labs that will be short and sweet.","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"Countdown to VMworld T-8 - Hands on Labs"},{"content":"Have you seen the Schedule Builder? The amount of sessions is astounding!!Unfortunately there were approximately another 700-800 sessions that did not make the cut this year with the Call for Papers – but that is another story..\nAlmost everything and anything you can think of regarding VMware and virtualization will be covered. 437 Sessions on:\nApplications End-User Computing Infrastructure Operations Partner Track Technology Exchange for Alliance Partner IT Transformation Cloud Security Networking Applications Storage And more and more… All presented by the the Crème de la crème.\nI think this is the most worthwhile training experience you will have this year, more beneficial than any 5 day training course.\n","date":"Aug 18, 2012","href":"/2012/08/T-9-to-VMworld.html","summary":"Have you seen the Schedule Builder? The amount of sessions is astounding!!Unfortunately there were approximately another 700-800 sessions that did not make the cut this year with the Call for Papers – but that is another story..\nAlmost everything and anything you can think of regarding VMware and virtualization will be covered. 437 Sessions on:\nApplications End-User Computing Infrastructure Operations Partner Track Technology Exchange for Alliance Partner IT Transformation Cloud Security Networking Applications Storage ","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"Countdown to VMworld T-9 - Sessions"},{"content":"It is almost here, 10 days until VMware’s biggest event of the year, the biggest virtualization event of the year.\nThe number of reasons to be at this event are countless, so I decided to create a daily post counting down (in no particular order) to the event, each day with a great reason to be at VMworld - and here is number one.\nReason #1 – Social Networking Imagine, 20,000 people – geeks just like us, interested in the same silly things, that have their hearts miss a beat when they see a script creating 100 VM’s with a single command. That is the essence of VMworld.\nI do admit that these are not the only people there, also press, vendors, analysts, they are all there but the majority are geeks just like you and me.\nI interact with a great number of people on Twitter, email, Instant messaging throughout the day (mostly Twitter though). But this is an exchange of 140 characters back and forth – mostly a sporadic – albeit almost immediate conversation. The saying goes “A picture is worth a thousand words” and I would go further and say, “Meeting face-to-face is better than a a thousand email threads or video conferences”.\nWith the majority of the activity situated in the U.S. I do not get to come across very often, it is a damn long flight I must tell you.\nThe shaking of someone’s hand, having a beer (or diet coke) together, the informal conversations with the people that I have made connections over the past few years – is priceless. It builds connections that last throughout the year(s) and are beneficial to us all.\n","date":"Aug 17, 2012","href":"/2012/08/T-10-to-VMworld.html","summary":"It is almost here, 10 days until VMware’s biggest event of the year, the biggest virtualization event of the year.\nThe number of reasons to be at this event are countless, so I decided to create a daily post counting down (in no particular order) to the event, each day with a great reason to be at VMworld - and here is number one.\nReason #1 – Social Networking Imagine, 20,000 people – geeks just like us, interested in the same silly things, that have their hearts miss a beat when they see a script creating 100 VM’s with a single command. That is the essence of VMworld.\nI do admit that these are not the only people there, also press, vendors, analysts, they are all there but the majority are geeks just like you and me.","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"Countdown to VMworld T-10 - Social Networking"},{"content":"Just a small and silly thing I came across today.\nI almost ran out space on my hard drive today. You could say – then go and get a bigger one – well that is true but I needed the space fast and found that I had a number of old VM’s on my laptop that I thought I had deleted – but it turned out I did not.\nWhen you right-click on a VM that is not in focus you will be presented with the following menu:\nYou would think that if you click remove – then it would remove the VM – but no… and you are presented with a popup telling you that.\nBut there is no option to delete the VM. So where is it? If you select the actual VM and then right-click – you will be presented with a different menu\nSo that is how you delete a VM (and its files!!) from Workstation.\n","date":"Aug 16, 2012","href":"/2012/08/deleting-vm-in-vmware-workstation.html","summary":"Just a small and silly thing I came across today.\nI almost ran out space on my hard drive today. You could say – then go and get a bigger one – well that is true but I needed the space fast and found that I had a number of old VM’s on my laptop that I thought I had deleted – but it turned out I did not.\nWhen you right-click on a VM that is not in focus you will be presented with the following menu:","tags":["Workstation","VMware"],"title":"Deleting a VM in VMware workstation"},{"content":"VMware announced today that it is now offering a new service called vCloud Service.\nA few people asked me today – why? What does this mean? vCloud is already offered by a large number of partners all over the world – so what is the (if any) added value that me – the customer gets from this and also where is the benefit here for VMware?\nvCloud Service is after all being run by one of VMware’s partners after all.\nSo why?\nAfter thinking a bit about this – here is where I see added value (both for the customer and VMware).\nVMware has a large vCloud Ecosystem in over 28 countries around the world.\nSo let’s take a look into this ecosystem for a moment.\nThe majority of the providers do not offer a try-before-you-buy option. The reason being… actually I am not sure why not. Perhaps it is not financially viable to for them to provide such a service, perhaps these partners assume that someone who wants to sign up for their service – will have already done their homework in advance so no trial is needed.\nBut even those who do have a “test-drive” option available – it still is not a simple process (just by the way – out of the 145 vendors stated on the post above – only 18 are ones that you can “test-drive” – world-wide!)\nCarenza, Bitbrains, Cyso, Earthlink, iland, NTT comunications, Onyx, Proserve, Qube, Skyscape, Techgate, Zitcom – I checked all of these providers and none of them have the option to sign up quickly with a short process, everything is done manually. Leave you details – and we will get back to you – in 24/48 hours or up till 7 days. Some of these providers will not even allow individuals to test out services only registered companies.\nHave you ever tried to sign up with amazon for AWS? Why is it that AWS is the most widely used Public cloud vendor in the world? Well…\nYou have a 100% free tier – for 1 year (new customers) Sign up is instantaneous – all that is verified is your phone number – 100% automated for any Joe Shmoe… The sign-up and setup process is a","date":"Aug 15, 2012","href":"/2012/08/vcloud-service-i-asked-myself-why.html","summary":"VMware announced today that it is now offering a new service called vCloud Service.\nA few people asked me today – why? What does this mean? vCloud is already offered by a large number of partners all over the world – so what is the (if any) added value that me – the customer gets from this and also where is the benefit here for VMware?\nvCloud Service is after all being run by one of VMware’s partners after all.","tags":["vCloud","VMware","Cloud"],"title":"vCloud Service - I Asked Myself - Why?"},{"content":"I wanted to share this tip – since it is not so obvious and after doing it myself the hard way – I found a much easier way to find the right sessions for VMworld which will most probably save you a lot of time and headaches\nIf you go into the Schedule Builder – after you have already logged (as I said in my earlier post) you will be presented with this screen.\nTrying to find which sessions you would like is not easy. You can apply a filter on the top or on the left:\nType Day Track Technical Level Area of Interest But it is still not an easy way to organize your schedule.\nHere is the way I found – much easier IMHO\nOn the left you have the Site Menu\nFrom the drop down click on Schedule\nThis will present you with your schedule so far (if you have not yet added any sessions of course it will be blank)\nClick on Edit Schedule\nThis will open a layover windows with your schedule and all the sessions on that day.\nAlready organized\nHovering over the sessions on the left will bring up the timeslot for the session on your schedule on the right.\nSo much easier this way. You can see the conflicts, adding the session in will notify you that it will remove the previous ones, also if there is an overlap in the times.\nShould be the default way to build the schedule - if you ask me.\nI Hope I saved you some time..\n","date":"Jul 19, 2012","href":"/2012/07/the-easier-way-to-use-vmworld-schedule.html","summary":"I wanted to share this tip – since it is not so obvious and after doing it myself the hard way – I found a much easier way to find the right sessions for VMworld which will most probably save you a lot of time and headaches\nIf you go into the Schedule Builder – after you have already logged (as I said in my earlier post) you will be presented with this screen.","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"The Easier way to Use the VMworld Schedule Builder"},{"content":"No official announcement yet – but you can get in.\nGot to the VMworld site and login with you account.\nOnce logged – open the link to the Schedule builder which should allow you to then choose your sessions.\nYou cannot book a time slot twice (and this is not my real schedule..)\nI would have so wished that VMware would have made the option to filter by day – it would make life so much easier.\nI retract that – this has already been fixed!!\nRemember the sessions are limited – and you have to register to get in.\n","date":"Jul 19, 2012","href":"/2012/07/vmworld-schedule-builder-is-live.html","summary":"No official announcement yet – but you can get in.\nGot to the VMworld site and login with you account.\nOnce logged – open the link to the Schedule builder which should allow you to then choose your sessions.\nYou cannot book a time slot twice (and this is not my real schedule..)\nI would have so wished that VMware would have made the option to filter by day – it would make life so much easier.","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"VMworld Schedule Builder is Live!!"},{"content":"I had an interesting conversation with a colleague of mine last week. We were talking about goals and targets.\nLet me first start with a question. Do you know what your company\u0026amp;rsquo;s goals are for the year 2012? Can you name them?\nI am not talking about general goals like keep doing what we are doing, continue our sales. Honestly ask yourself - are you fully aware of the company\u0026amp;rsquo;s goals??\nWho sets the goals? Usually upper management or your BOD, not you the guy that works in IT or you the consultant. So why would you care? If you have no control of the companies goals then why should you care? You come in and do your job - keep things running. That is what you are paid to do and what you care about.\nWell that is not the correct attitude and therefore this post.\nYour goals should always be aligned with the business goals. It does not matter if you are a manager, a developer, a support professional, a sales genius or a janitor - it does not matter.\nEach department in the company should have their goals as well. It is important though these goals are aligned with the business goals. The reason being of course is if they are then you stay relevant. You work with the business to achieve its goals. You help the business. You stay focused on what is important and not what you might think is important.\nLet us take an very simple example.\nCompany 123 has defined the following goals for the year 2012:\nIncrease sales in US by 10% Develop 2 new technologies Improve support for Project X So how could IT align their goals for the year with those of the business? In this case:\nImprove remote connectivity for the road-warriors so they can improve Sales. Provide the underlying infrastructure to R\u0026amp;amp;D teams for the new technologies Provide IT expertise and assistance to Customer Operations for supporting Project X As you can see each of the goals above are in direct correlation to the business goals. This can help IT focus on what is important - and stay relevant.\nWhen a","date":"Jul 10, 2012","href":"/2012/07/aligning-business-goals-with-your-own.html","summary":"I had an interesting conversation with a colleague of mine last week. We were talking about goals and targets.\nLet me first start with a question. Do you know what your company\u0026rsquo;s goals are for the year 2012? Can you name them?\nI am not talking about general goals like keep doing what we are doing, continue our sales. Honestly ask yourself - are you fully aware of the company\u0026rsquo;s goals??","tags":["Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"Aligning the Business Goals With Your Own"},{"content":"As of late I have seen multiple mentions of vSEL – and always by VMware employees.\nSo what is this vSEL that they are talking about?\nGoogle led me to some answers. Hany Michael (now a VMware employee) – has a comment from Mike Dipetrillo on his post\nVMware also has an internal environment called vSEL that runs nearly all of the products in a nested environment. vSEL (the virtual SE Lab) let’s our tech resources in the field deploy and learn our applications as well as do demos and training with customers and partners. This “cloud” services over 1,200 tech people today inside of VMware.\nFrom the VMworld Blog: The VMworld 2011 Demo Cloud\nThe best resource to learn about vSEL will be the session given by Ford Donald at VMworld 2011:\nVirtual SE Lab (vSEL) Building the VMware Hybrid Cloud CIM 1436\nThis session is not public – unless you were at VMworld and have access to the sessions (but it will not be long until VMware allow public access to all of last year’s content). It is an interesting session and gives a lot more detail about the environment.\nUpdate: The sessions were released - so you the link now points to the VMworldTV channel.\nUnfortunately the I see that the session 2350 Evolving VMware vSEL: The Journey to OneCloud - Ford Donald is not listed on the catalog – so I am not sure it will be at VMworld – it would have been interesting to hear.\nThe VMware vSEL portal - https://vsel.vmware.com/\n(Disclaimer – all the information here is openly accessible on the internet. I have never actually had access to this portal – and this of course is a VMware internal-only resource. I am sure that if possible – a VMware employee will be able to provide more details on exactly what the full feature set contains).\n","date":"Jul 10, 2012","href":"/2012/07/what-is-this-vsel-thing-anyway.html","summary":"As of late I have seen multiple mentions of vSEL – and always by VMware employees.\nSo what is this vSEL that they are talking about?\nGoogle led me to some answers. Hany Michael (now a VMware employee) – has a comment from Mike Dipetrillo on his post\nVMware also has an internal environment called vSEL that runs nearly all of the products in a nested environment. vSEL (the virtual SE Lab) let’s our tech resources in the field deploy and learn our applications as well as do demos and training with customers and partners. This “cloud” services over 1,200 tech people today inside of VMware.","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"What is this vSEL thing anyway?"},{"content":"Oh….. how I have searched for this… For hours… really. And to just come across this by chance today. Duh!\nSearch for a customized bundle for HP hardware and it is very easy to find.\nTry the same search for IBM – no…….\nMy frustration has been expressed on Twitter a number of times – because this is not the way it should be.\nIs there a way to create a an offline VIB from a vendor customized ISO #bah #IBM\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) June 7, 2012 I would like to thank Darryl Miles for his post IBM’s customized ESXi 5.0 FAQ’s – and just by chance – I see that he had another post about the VIB’s IBM VIBs for VMware ESXi 4.1U2 and 5.0 – which I had never noticed before.\nThank You!! Thank You!! Thank You!!\n1. Package Contents* This is a VMware ESXi patch for IBM IMM CIM providers. The following CIM providers are included:\n\u0026amp;gt; fupb 5.01-7.170 \u0026amp;gt; concretejob 500-2ACE12AUS \u0026amp;gt; filetrans 500-2ACE12AUS \u0026amp;gt; fwupdate 500-2ACE12AUS \u0026amp;gt; hwckvm 500-ESXI01ACN \u0026amp;gt; immpassthru 500-2ACE12AUS \u0026amp;gt; pciinfo 500-PRIVATE \u0026amp;gt; soibms 500-ESXI01ACN \u0026amp;gt; ilfu 500-1.01.20120504 \u0026amp;gt; brcmfwup 500-1.00.20120507 \u0026amp;gt; 2. Hardware Support The bundle can be applied to the following servers:**\nhttps://www-03.ibm.com/systems/info/x86servers/serverproven/compat/us/\n3. OS Support The bundle can be applied on the following OS platforms:**\nVMware ESXi 5.0u1 build 623860\n4. Additional Notes This IBM bundle only includes the providers created by IBM. ilfu/brmfup have no added value without LSI and Broadcom providers installed. After the bundle is installed on ESXi system, IBM ToolsCenter UpdateXpress System Packs Installer can be used to upgrade ESXi system, or to update firmware of IMM, uEFI, pDSA and FPGA. IBM ToolsCenter Dynamic System Analysis can be used to get information of IBM IMM and other hardware devices.\nThe links he provided there did not really work for me – IBM’s search engine did not find what I wanted. Here are the [correct","date":"Jul 4, 2012","href":"/2012/07/ibm-esxi-customized-offline-bundle.html","summary":"Oh….. how I have searched for this… For hours… really. And to just come across this by chance today. Duh!\nSearch for a customized bundle for HP hardware and it is very easy to find.\nTry the same search for IBM – no…….\nMy frustration has been expressed on Twitter a number of times – because this is not the way it should be.\nIs there a way to create a an offline VIB from a vendor customized ISO #bah #IBM","tags":["Management","ESXi","ibm","Administration","Upgrade"],"title":"IBM ESXi Customized Offline Bundle"},{"content":"VMware are looking to move everything to a virtual appliance model. That is pretty obvious. And of course the most central component is your vCenter,\nI wrote a post a while back about Should You Patch the vCenter Server Virtual Appliance? but since then I am finding more and more issues with the VCVA (vCenter Virtual Appliance) and differences in functionality between the Windows and Linux Versions of Virtual Center.\nLets Start. (Items are marked with my opinion of their impact Green, Yellow, Red)\nPatches (Red) – see the above post.\nvCenter Orchestrator (Green - another VM to manage) – is bundled with the Windows version – but requires a separate VM in addition to the VCVA.\nvSphere Update Manager (Green - another VM to manage) – not bundled with the VCVA – requires a separate Windows VM – and is usually installed on the vCenter (Windows) itself.\nManagement of the bundled DB2 database on the VCVA (Yellow)\nDoes anyone know how to manage the database?\nHow many DBA’s do you know that know how to deal with DB2?\nHow do you back it up?\nHow do you restore it?\nHow do you troubleshoot it?\nCompare the number of KB articles that are on the VMware Knowledge base relating to DB2 to those relating to Oracle or SQL.\nEither DB2 just works – or it is so new in VMware – that no-one knows how to use it properly yet.\nMigration path away from a VCVA (Yellow) with a bundled DB is non-existent. At least with the bundled SQL database – there is a way to move over to a fully licensed SQL instance when your environment grows. What happens if I start out with the embedded DB2 and want to move over to a production database after that – be it Oracle or SQL – is there a migration path? I do not think so. So that means a complete re-install.\nCLI interface on the vCenter Server (Yellow). This is useful – very useful. Be it vCLI or PowerCLI – both of these can be used to run scripts on the vCenter itself. Where does this become useful? If you would like to perform an action with the trigger of an","date":"Jul 3, 2012","href":"/2012/07/things-i-dont-like-about-vcenter.html","summary":"VMware are looking to move everything to a virtual appliance model. That is pretty obvious. And of course the most central component is your vCenter,\nI wrote a post a while back about Should You Patch the vCenter Server Virtual Appliance? but since then I am finding more and more issues with the VCVA (vCenter Virtual Appliance) and differences in functionality between the Windows and Linux Versions of Virtual Center.\nLets Start. (Items are marked with my opinion of their impact Green, Yellow, Red)","tags":["Appliances","Administration","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"Things I Don’t Like About the vCenter Virtual Appliance"},{"content":"I cannot remember the number of times I have been saved by VMware High Availability. To protect an application in my datacenter from hardware failure has never been easier. Just put your VM in a VMware HA cluster and Bam! you are done. It is that easy.\nAnd for your more critical VM’s here you have Fault Tolerance. Granted today that will only help you for your low hanging fruit VM’s that have 1 vCPU – but that will most probably change in an upcoming version.\nBut what is still missing? I feel that piece is clustering at the application level.\nLet me explain what I mean.\nVM HA monitoring – will only restart your VM in the case of a loss of the Heartbeat with VMware Tools on your VM – but it can do nothing else but restart your VM. This covers the case where your VM has Blue-Screened – or has panicked. HA will pick up on this and restart the VM for you.\nNext is Symantec ApplicationHA. They go a step further – utilizing the vCenter API they will monitor a specific process inside the VM – and if that process is not running (and there is even built in for certain applications already) – it can issue a command to the Guest OS to restart the service X number of times and if that does not help – it will restart the VM. This is a step forward – but this is still not where I want to get to. (Just to clarify – this is not a free product and is priced on a per VM basis)\nTake the following scenario where we will see that neither of the solutions above help me.\nI have a SQL database – which I need to make highly available. None of the solutions above will help me out in the case that SQL decided to go “Belly Up”. Say for some reason – my sqlserver.exe process decided to go on a trip and stopped working, because someone did something really, really bad to the Master database or there was a bug in the software.\nSo my OS is up and running – so VM HA monitoring will not help here and will not even kick in at – from its perspective – the VM is fine. VMware Tools are running and","date":"Jul 2, 2012","href":"/2012/07/completing-missing-piece-in-vmware-ha.html","summary":"I cannot remember the number of times I have been saved by VMware High Availability. To protect an application in my datacenter from hardware failure has never been easier. Just put your VM in a VMware HA cluster and Bam! you are done. It is that easy.\nAnd for your more critical VM’s here you have Fault Tolerance. Granted today that will only help you for your low hanging fruit VM’s that have 1 vCPU – but that will most probably change in an upcoming version.","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","VMware","Cluster"],"title":"Completing the Missing Piece in the VMware HA Puzzle"},{"content":"Someone asked me this question this week – how do I see the history of my commands in the the ESXi shell?\nThere is no history command on an ESXi host..\nSo how do you go about getting the history of the shell commands?\nWilliam Lam posted an answer today on the VMware Communities.\nThe command history is located in /var/log/shell.log\nOf course also there is a KB stating this information as well - KB2004201\n","date":"Jun 25, 2012","href":"/2012/06/esxi-shell-history.html","summary":"Someone asked me this question this week – how do I see the history of my commands in the the ESXi shell?\nThere is no history command on an ESXi host..\nSo how do you go about getting the history of the shell commands?\nWilliam Lam posted an answer today on the VMware Communities.\nThe command history is located in /var/log/shell.log\nOf course also there is a KB stating this information as well - KB2004201","tags":["Management","vSphere","ESXi","VMware"],"title":"ESXi Shell history"},{"content":"This is Part 4 of a series of posts explaining how to configure OpenIndiana as NAS storage device. The series is made up of the following parts:\nBackground information about OpenIndiana and OS installation Network configuration and Setting up storage Presenting storage to your Hosts with iSCSI and/or NFS Performance testing Today we will go into the performance I was able to get out of the OpenIndiana appliance that I have installed.\nBut first a small bit of detail around the hardware setup this is actually running on.\nThis a lab – therefore the setup is not optimal.\nI am using an HP DC7800 PC for an ESXi imagehost. The PC can hold 4 SATA devices and up to 8GB of RAM. I also have 2 hard disks in the Host – 1 Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5\u0026amp;quot; where I have ESX installed and use as a local storage, and also 1 Intel® Solid-State Drive 520 Series – 180GB. And on this drive I have installed OpenIndiana.\nThe setup was identical to the walkthrough from the previous stages, with some exceptions.\nThe VM has 10 VMDK’s attached to it – each 15GB in size and they are all connected to a separate SCSI adapter (SCSI1).\nI then created a RAIDZ1 volume of all of these disks and presented this as both NFS and iSCSI storage.\nroot@nas1:~# zpool list -v NAME SIZE ALLOC FREE EXPANDSZ CAP DEDUP HEALTH ALTROOT disk1 146G 66.1G 79.9G - 45% 1.00x ONLINE - raidz1 146G 66.1G 79.9G - c4t0d0 - - - - c4t1d0 - - - - c4t2d0 - - - - c4t3d0 - - - - c4t4d0 - - - - c4t5d0 - - - - c4t6d0 - - - - c4t8d0 - - - - c4t9d0 - - - - c4t10d0 - - - - root@nas1:~# zfs list NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT disk1 103G 25.1G 51.9K /disk1 disk1/iscsi_1 103G 69.4G 58.8G - disk1/nfs_1 317M 25.1G 317M /disk1/nfs_1 rpool 6.30G 5.45G 45.5K /rpool rpool/ROOT 3.20G 5.45G 31K legacy rpool/ROOT/openindiana 10.6M 5.45G 1.95G / rpool/ROOT/openindiana-1 816M 5.45G 1.87G / rpool/ROOT/openindiana-2 2.39G 5.45G 1.96G / rpool/dump 1.50G 5.45G 1.50G - OpenIndiana has 3 NICs (eth0-2)","date":"Jun 19, 2012","href":"/2012/06/openindiana-installation-walkthrough.html","summary":"This is Part 4 of a series of posts explaining how to configure OpenIndiana as NAS storage device. The series is made up of the following parts:\nBackground information about OpenIndiana and OS installation Network configuration and Setting up storage Presenting storage to your Hosts with iSCSI and/or NFS Performance testing Today we will go into the performance I was able to get out of the OpenIndiana appliance that I have installed.","tags":["Storage","VMware","OpenIndiana"],"title":"OpenIndiana Installation walkthrough - Part 4"},{"content":"So if you have not heard by now Veeam have released the 6.1 version of Veeam Backup \u0026amp;amp; Replication.\nHere are some of the new features\nVeeamZIP Version 6.1 includes a new capability for performing ad-hoc backups. In many\nways, it functions like a zip utility for VMs. For this reason, it’s called VeeamZIPTM.\nUse VeeamZIP whenever you need to:\nBackup a VM on-the-fly (for example, before making changes to it). Instead\nof running the regular backup job (which typically contains multiple VMs\nand a specified number of restore points) or creating a new backup job, simply\nVeeamZIP the VM.\nArchive a VM (for example, before decommissioning it). VeeamZIP is a powerful\nweapon in the fight against VM sprawl. You no longer need to keep unused\nVMs just in case someone comes around later asking for them. Instead,\nVeeamZIP and then delete unused VMs. It’s a great way to reclaim expensive\nproduction storage.\nCopy a VM (to your test lab, training center, to give to a client, etc.). To install\nthe VM in a new location, simply restore it from the backup using Veeam\nBackup \u0026amp;amp; Replication or Veeam BackupTM Free Edition (see next section).\nUnlike copying, cloning or exporting a VM:\nYou can VeeamZIP a VM without pausing or powering it off.\nVeeamZIP compresses and deduplicates the data to minimize file size.\nVMs are fully encapsulated, and all configuration settings are correctly restored.\nThin provisioned disks are maintained as thin throughout the backup and restore process.\nYou can extract guest files from the backup.\nVeeam Backup Free Edition Version 6.1 introduces a new free mode. The free mode, called Veeam Backup Free Edition, provides\na subset of the functionality in the full (paid) editions of Veeam Backup \u0026amp;amp; Replication, including VM\nand file recovery. So if you ever need to perform a restore but don’t have access to a Veeam backup\nserver, you can simply download and install Veeam Backup Free Edition. You don’t need a license key,\nand you can recover VMs, VM files and guest","date":"Jun 4, 2012","href":"/2012/06/something-awesome-from-veeam.html","summary":"So if you have not heard by now Veeam have released the 6.1 version of Veeam Backup \u0026amp; Replication.\nHere are some of the new features\nVeeamZIP Version 6.1 includes a new capability for performing ad-hoc backups. In many\nways, it functions like a zip utility for VMs. For this reason, it’s called VeeamZIPTM.\nUse VeeamZIP whenever you need to:\nBackup a VM on-the-fly (for example, before making changes to it). Instead\nof running the regular backup job (which typically contains multiple VMs\nand a specified number of restore points) or creating a new backup job, simply\nVeeamZIP the VM.","tags":["vSphere","Hyper-V","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Something Awesome from Veeam"},{"content":"1222 sessions – That is a lot. How do you wade through that amount?\nThat is what the filter is there for. So you can filter out the sessions on several criteria – but to do everyone justice – I decided to do this meticulously – and go track by track and note which sessions I chose and why.\nThe criteria for my choices were:\nDoes the topic interest me? Have I heard the presenter before? Is the presenter also a well known figure? I went track by track to choose my picks for the sessions I would like to see at VMworld 2012\nI have a session up for voting as well – so please feel free to add it the list below.\nIt is long list – and I hope it will be useful to you. You can find the spreadsheet here\nJust to clarify.. I was not asked to promote any sessions – these are my choices. They are based on my areas of interest – and should not be taken as an endorsement for one session over the other.\nI hope you find it useful!\n","date":"May 30, 2012","href":"/2012/05/which-sessions-i-voted-for-vmworld-2012.html","summary":"1222 sessions – That is a lot. How do you wade through that amount?\nThat is what the filter is there for. So you can filter out the sessions on several criteria – but to do everyone justice – I decided to do this meticulously – and go track by track and note which sessions I chose and why.\nThe criteria for my choices were:\nDoes the topic interest me? Have I heard the presenter before? Is the presenter also a well known figure? I went track by track to choose my picks for the sessions I would like to see at VMworld 2012","tags":["VMworld","voting","VMware"],"title":"Which sessions I voted for - VMworld 2012"},{"content":"The voting for VMworld Call for Papers is now Open.\nCody Bunch and myself have submitted a session – based on the customer stories behind the\nvExpert HoL that we are designing for the upcoming VMworld.\nIf you would like to see the story behind the lab – we would appreciate your Thumbs Up for the session.\n1996 Managing Your Day-to-Day Administrative Tasks with vCenter Orchestrator\nThere are 1222 different sessions that you can vote for – so wading through them all – can be tiresome.\nI will be posting my choices in a future post.\n","date":"May 29, 2012","href":"/2012/05/vmworld-call-for-papers-voting-is-live.html","summary":"The voting for VMworld Call for Papers is now Open.\nCody Bunch and myself have submitted a session – based on the customer stories behind the\nvExpert HoL that we are designing for the upcoming VMworld.\nIf you would like to see the story behind the lab – we would appreciate your Thumbs Up for the session.\n1996 Managing Your Day-to-Day Administrative Tasks with vCenter Orchestrator","tags":["Lab","VMworld","VMware","vExpert"],"title":"VMworld Call for Papers Voting is Live"},{"content":"Yes we vExperts are a crazy bunch, really we are. Not only do we blog about virtualization, read virtualization, breathe virtualization and immerse ourselves in technology but most of all we enjoy what we do.\nApproximately three weeks ago, a post was made on the vExpert community forum with a offer - but I would call it a challenge. As you all know Call for Papers for VMworld 2012 is slowly coming to an end (deadline is May 18th). There will be a large number of submissions (last year there were ~1000) so the chances of getting a session accepted are not that high, but it was still worth a shot. What was this challenge you ask? The vExperts were given the opportunity to submit a proposal for a HoL that would used for VMworld and perhaps at other events as well.\nThe timeline was crazy. The expected number of hours to be put into the preparations was insane, but still there were more than 10 different submissions of which two were chosen.\nWhy do we do this? It is all about giving back to others, helping others to experiment with technology and educating ourselves and others as well so we can all benefit.\nI have always felt that vOrchestrator has not been given the attention it deserves. Automation is and will be the key to bigger and larger environments and PowerCLI is and has been the rising star over the last couple of years. I love it as I am sure many others do as well.\nThe theme of our HoL is “Conducting your Environment with vOrchestrator”, and if you have not yet guessed it will focus entirely around vOrchestrator.\nI have prepared a story board that is scenario-based with real day-to-day use cases that you would encounter in most organizations.\nOf course this lab would not be complete without having the man who wrote the book, Mr. vOrchestrator himself, Cody Bunch on board and involved, and I was thrilled that he accepted the challenge. Without his deep involvement this lab would never have gotten of the ground so thank you Cody.\nSo here goes, time to prepare a","date":"May 21, 2012","href":"/2012/05/vexpert-hands-on-lab.html","summary":"Yes we vExperts are a crazy bunch, really we are. Not only do we blog about virtualization, read virtualization, breathe virtualization and immerse ourselves in technology but most of all we enjoy what we do.\nApproximately three weeks ago, a post was made on the vExpert community forum with a offer - but I would call it a challenge. As you all know Call for Papers for VMworld 2012 is slowly coming to an end (deadline is May 18th). There will be a large number of submissions (last year there were ~1000) so the chances of getting a session accepted are not that high, but it was still worth a shot. ","tags":["Lab","VMworld","VMware","vExpert"],"title":"vExpert Hands on Lab"},{"content":"This is Part 3 of a series of posts explaining how to configure OpenIndiana as NAS storage device. The series is made up of the following parts:\nBackground information about OpenIndiana and OS installation Network configuration and Setting up storage Presenting storage to your Hosts with iSCSI and/or NFS Performance testing At the end of Part 2 we had the network set up, VMware Tools installed, additional disk space added to the VM, and a zpool created.\nWhat we will go through in this part is:\nConfiguring NFS and iSCSI services Creating a Volume for iSCSI Create an NFS folder Create a LUN and share it with an iSCSI Export NFS Volume and set export parameters Mount NFS and iSCSI storage So first we need to turn on the iSCSI and NFS services. NFS is just to start a service, iSCSI has a bit more to it.\nsvcadm enable -r iscsi/target:default svcadm enable network/nfs/status Now we create the target with\nitadm create-target\nYou can check the status with\nitadm list-target\nCreate the volume and the NFS folder (I will create a small 2GB Volume) and then query for status\nzfs create -V 2G disk1/iscsi_1 zfs create disk1/nfs_1 zfs list\nHere you can see disk1 is 5GB (USED+AVAIL), disk1/iscsi_1 is 2GB is size (thin provisioned) and the disk1/nfs_1 has 3GB space left in total\nNow we create the iSCSI LUN with\nsbdadm create-lu /dev/zvol/rdsk/disk1/iscsi_1\nand add it to the masking of the iSCSI initiator with the GUID that was just created\nstmfadm add-view 600144f0ccf40a0000004fb114700002\nJust to check that all is set correctly list the LUNs\nstmfadm list-lu\nList the masking\nstmfadm list-view -l 600144F0CCF40A0000004FB114700002\nOne last thin left to do is to set the NFS export permissions with the following (you will need either the FQDN of the host or the correct IP for the export permissions)\nzfs set sharenfs=on disk1/nfs_1 zfs set sharenfs=root=msaidelk-esx.maishsk.local disk1/nfs_1 zfs get mountpoint,sharenfs disk1/nfs_1 And that is it – the storage configuration is complete.\nNow","date":"May 15, 2012","href":"/2012/05/openindiana-installation-walkthrough_15.html","summary":"This is Part 3 of a series of posts explaining how to configure OpenIndiana as NAS storage device. The series is made up of the following parts:\nBackground information about OpenIndiana and OS installation Network configuration and Setting up storage Presenting storage to your Hosts with iSCSI and/or NFS Performance testing At the end of Part 2 we had the network set up, VMware Tools installed, additional disk space added to the VM, and a zpool created.\nWhat we will go through in this part is:","tags":["Storage","VMware","OpenIndiana"],"title":"OpenIndiana Installation walkthrough - Part 3"},{"content":"This is Part 1 of a series of posts explaining how to configure OpenIndiana as NAS storage device. The series is made up of the following parts:\nBackground information about OpenIndiana and OS installation Network configuration and Setting up storage Presenting storage to your Hosts with iSCSI and/or NFS Performance testing I have enjoyed using Nexenta Community Edition for a while – really I have. It is a great product, but there have always been a few annoying things that I could not get around.\nVMXNET3 support High CPU Usage I have seen a number of posts from several sources on the benefits of ZFS and what it can do for your storage access. So I decided to try out OpenIndiana. Nexenta is moving over to Illumian.\nFrom the What is Page:\nQ: What\u0026amp;rsquo;s the relation to the Nexenta Core Platform (NCP)? Is this still a \u0026amp;ldquo;Debian user-space on top of an OpenSolaris kernel\u0026amp;rdquo;?A: No, this is not Debian. Nexenta hopes that most former NCP users will find illumian to be even more useful than NCP was. There were many limitations on how much Debian familiarity could be maintained in NCP. Our experience with NCP taught us that what we really need is a useful collection of externally maintained packages, in versions that all work together. It hurt more than it helped to try to keep that set of versions in \u0026amp;ldquo;lock step\u0026amp;rdquo; with particular Debian versions. It turned out to be much more practical to instead keep \u0026amp;ldquo;in step\u0026amp;rdquo; (version wise) with that set of packages maintained in the illumos-userland gate.\nQ: What\u0026amp;rsquo;s the relation to the NexentaStor product?\nA: NexentaStor is a commercial binary distribution built on top of the community-developed illumos and illumian projects.\nFrom what I understand – I could very well be completely wrong – OpenIndiana is very similar to Illumos (which in turn is very similar to Opensolaris).\nWhat do you get with OpenIndiana?\nZFS – the last word in filesystems Zones – a Lightweight Virtualization Technology SMF – the","date":"May 14, 2012","href":"/2012/05/openindiana-installation-walkthrough.html","summary":"This is Part 1 of a series of posts explaining how to configure OpenIndiana as NAS storage device. The series is made up of the following parts:\nBackground information about OpenIndiana and OS installation Network configuration and Setting up storage Presenting storage to your Hosts with iSCSI and/or NFS Performance testing I have enjoyed using Nexenta Community Edition for a while – really I have. It is a great product, but there have always been a few annoying things that I could not get around.","tags":["Storage","VMware","OpenIndiana"],"title":"OpenIndiana Installation walkthrough - Part 1"},{"content":"This is Part 2 of a series of posts explaining how to configure OpenIndiana as NAS storage device. The series is made up of the following parts:\nBackground information about OpenIndiana and OS installation Network configuration and Setting up storage Presenting storage to your Hosts with iSCSI and/or NFS Performance testing We ended Part 1 with a newly installed OS and a login screen. Now it is time to configure and start to use the OS.\nI found the configuration a good learning process. I do not call myself a Linux Expert, but I do know my way around most Linux Distributions, but OpenSolaris – is not one that I have ever played with – so there was a steep learning curve involved until I found the information I needed, and collected here in this post.\nSo.. What are we going to do in this part?\nInstall VMware Tools (so we that the VMXNET3 adapter will be recognized) Configure networking Allow SSH to OpenIndiana Add virtual storage to OpenIndiana and create a ZPool Login to the OS with the user you created in the precious part and then su – to root user.\nFirst things first – is install VMware Tools – otherwise we cannot configure the network. From the vSphere console mount the VMware Tools ISO in the guest. Extract the tarball and install Vmware Tools with\ntar zxvf /media/VMware\\ Tools/vmware-solaris-tools.tar.gz\nand then\n./vmware-tools-distrib/vmware-install.pl --default\nHere is where I hit my first snag. The tools would not configure properly – I was presented with a error like the one below\nThe solution that I found to solve this was to create the file that it was complaining about\ntouch /usr/lib/vmware-tools/configurator/XFree86-3/XF86_VMware\nAfter that VMware Tools installation and configuration went smoothly.\nA reboot is now needed. The commands in OpenIndiana are quite different from any other linux distribution. To check which network card(s) are installed in the system use the dladm command (in my VM there are two).\nAs you can see the NICs have strange names.","date":"May 14, 2012","href":"/2012/05/openindiana-installation-walkthrough_14.html","summary":"This is Part 2 of a series of posts explaining how to configure OpenIndiana as NAS storage device. The series is made up of the following parts:\nBackground information about OpenIndiana and OS installation Network configuration and Setting up storage Presenting storage to your Hosts with iSCSI and/or NFS Performance testing We ended Part 1 with a newly installed OS and a login screen. Now it is time to configure and start to use the OS.","tags":["Storage","VMware","OpenIndiana"],"title":"OpenIndiana Installation walkthrough - Part 2"},{"content":"I actually do not understand why I have not put this in a blog post before, but it is about time - because I used it again today.\nSometime you need to store a credential for a number of purposes, be it a scheduled script - or just not having to enter credentials each and every time you would like to connect to a Host or your vCenter.\nPowerCLI has it\u0026amp;rsquo;s own credential store with the New-VICredentialStoreItem and Get-VICredentialStoreItem cmdlets.\nPersonally - I do not like using this Cmdlet and have another method that I prefer using -System.Management.Automation.PSCredential.\nFirst get the credential and store it in a file.\n(Get-Credential).Password | ConvertFrom-SecureString | Out-File -FilePath C:\\users\\msaidelk\\Documents\\scripts\\maish.cred\nThis will give you a string\nGet-Content C:\\users\\msaidelk\\Documents\\scripts\\maish.cred 01000000d08c9ddf0115d1118c7a00c04fc297eb01000000b215c3e1ee044b4286513bf7017abc8f0000000002000000000003660000c000000010000000d6533af1a8d6da153c0bf43713400cb30000000004800000a0000000100000008217a9ea26e47eba311ce8272156a7a2180000004c7047e3ca25bc540078e9dad60b0aff8ba48f37709534a614000000e582d7d6522c111d7101849 a27f8a9c034eb4ab6 To construct the credential again do this:\n$vicred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PsCredential \u0026amp;#34;root\u0026amp;#34;, (Get-Content \u0026amp;#34;C:\\Users\\msaidelk\\Documents\\scripts\\maish.cred\u0026amp;#34; | ConvertTo-SecureString) The object accepts two parameters: UserName, Password. They both have to be there and of course the username has to match the the credential that was originally entered for this to work\nOne other important point that I should point out is that when you import the credential – it has to be done with the same user that stored it in the file in the first place otherwise it will fail - like I tried below with a different user:\nPS C:\\Users\\testa\u0026amp;gt; $vicred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PsCredential \u0026amp;#34;root\u0026amp;#34;, (Get-Content \u0026amp;#34;C:\\temp\\maish.cred\u0026amp;#34; | ConvertTo-SecureString)","date":"May 13, 2012","href":"/2012/05/creating-and-storing-powershell.html","summary":"I actually do not understand why I have not put this in a blog post before, but it is about time - because I used it again today.\nSometime you need to store a credential for a number of purposes, be it a scheduled script - or just not having to enter credentials each and every time you would like to connect to a Host or your vCenter.\nPowerCLI has it\u0026rsquo;s own credential store with the New-VICredentialStoreItem and Get-VICredentialStoreItem cmdlets.","tags":["Management","Scripting","Powershell","Administration","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"Creating and Storing PowerShell Credentials"},{"content":"Just got this from Twitter.\nRegistration for VMworld US is Now Open https://t.co/NSofq9kFFri May 11 06:57:19 via Twitterrific Bas Vinken\nRegistration is now Open\nConvince your Boss\nHotels and Travel\nGo! Go!! Go!!!\n","date":"May 11, 2012","href":"/2012/05/vmworld-2012-usregistration-is-now-open.html","summary":"Just got this from Twitter.\nRegistration for VMworld US is Now Open https://t.co/NSofq9kFFri May 11 06:57:19 via Twitterrific Bas Vinken\nRegistration is now Open\nConvince your Boss\nHotels and Travel\nGo! Go!! Go!!!","tags":["VMworld","VMware"],"title":"VMworld 2012 US–Registration is now open!"},{"content":"I had some time this past week to read Automating vSphere: With VMware vCenter Orchestrator by Cody Bunch.\nI stand by my views that vCenter Orchestrator is one of those uncovered gems that unfortunately not enough VMware professionals know how to use and do not make enough use of the product and the vast number of options and functionality available with the product (I must confess, I am just guilty as everyone else here).\nOrchestrator has been a free product bundled with vCenter ever since the vCenter 4.0 (vCenter Orchestrator 4.0 | 15 April 2009 | Build 4240) and was installed by default with vCenter.\nOne of my biggest complaints about the product in its earlier version was that the documentation sucked! Really!! There was barely enough info about how to install Orchestrator correctly.\nThe documentation has improved immensely over the years and Orchestrator is finally being recognized for the useful tool it actually is. What I was still missing was a clear and concise how-to, down-to-earth explanation on Orchestrator and here is where I think Cody has done an extremely good job with this book.\nI really liked the real-life scenarios and use-cases that Cody demonstrated. These scenarios are common to most environments and show how certain “annoying” tasks can be simplified in such a way that not only will your boss be amazed – but you will also have the time on your hands to do more important things (like creating even better workflows).\nI would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about vCenter Orchestrator.\n","date":"Apr 16, 2012","href":"/2012/04/automating-vsphere-with-vmware-vcenter.html","summary":"I had some time this past week to read Automating vSphere: With VMware vCenter Orchestrator by Cody Bunch.\nI stand by my views that vCenter Orchestrator is one of those uncovered gems that unfortunately not enough VMware professionals know how to use and do not make enough use of the product and the vast number of options and functionality available with the product (I must confess, I am just guilty as everyone else here).","tags":["Book","Orchestrator","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"Automating vSphere With VMware vCenter Orchestrator"},{"content":"With vCenter 5 came the release of the the vCenter Server Virtual Appliance. This move was applauded by many due to the fact that VMware made the first step in the direction of removing their dependency on Microsoft’s Windows OS and finally making the move to a Linux based platform.\nIf you would ask me (and this is my personal opinion – not based on concrete info) the days of a Windows based vCenter server are numbered, if not in the next version – then the one after that – there will only be a Linux Virtual appliance. It makes complete sense.\nBut here is where I find lies an issue – which could become quite a serious problem.\nVMware have announced that they will no longer be using Update Manager for patching the Guest OS – which I think is quite logical. VMware should concentrate on what they do best – and that is the virtualization stack. Shavlik, WSUS, Landesk (just to name a few) do a pretty good job for providing patches to guest operating systems and their underlying applications.\nBut what about the vCenter Server appliance? Who should be the one to patch that?\nI put in a Support Request yesterday with with the following question\nPatch Update for vCenter virtual appliance\nThe virtual appliance is installed on top of OpenSuse 11 SP1. Since it was released almost 2 years ago and since then there have been a number of bug fixes and security patches released.\nWho is the responsible to apply these patches? VMware? Me the customer? If you when will these patches be released? If it is me the customer is there a list of approved patches by VMware that will assure I will not break anything?\nIn addition when will an updated version of the appliance be released so that it matches the one released for Windows?\nThe answered I received today – was what I expected.\nAs a follow up from our phone conversation - with regards to your question of patching the Guest OS of the vCenter Appliance - we would advise to not patch the guest OS directly. However VMware would recommend to","date":"Apr 16, 2012","href":"/2012/04/should-you-patch-vcenter-server-virtual.html","summary":"With vCenter 5 came the release of the the vCenter Server Virtual Appliance. This move was applauded by many due to the fact that VMware made the first step in the direction of removing their dependency on Microsoft’s Windows OS and finally making the move to a Linux based platform.\nIf you would ask me (and this is my personal opinion – not based on concrete info) the days of a Windows based vCenter server are numbered, if not in the next version – then the one after that – there will only be a Linux Virtual appliance. It makes complete sense.","tags":["Security","Appliances","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"Should You Patch the vCenter Server Virtual Appliance?"},{"content":"I am proud to announce that I have been awarded the VMware vExpert award for the year 2012.\nThe current list has been posted here.\nIt is nice to receive such an honor but I would rather like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to a few people in appreciation of this honor.\nAlex Maier – for being the driving force behind the vExpert Program, for managing the VMware communities and for putting up with our nagging when we have no-one else to complain to. You are an asset to our community and your hard work is highly appreciated!! (even if we do not say it often and loudly enough) John Troyer – The Godfather of the vExpert program! Thank you John for all that you do for us, VMware is lucky to have a driving force such as yourself who is so passionate about what you do and we as a community are lucky to have you.\nOh yes, and please keep those cool SWAG trinkets and access to cool stuff coming!! :) All those who were awarded the vExpert 2012 award. Thank you!! It is an honor to be amongst such a great group of people. I look forward to meeting those of you who I have not yet had the honor to meet, and working together on exciting opportunities over the next year. To all those who did not get their vExpert renewed this year. I still hold you all in the highest esteem, and do expect and hope that you will continue to contribute to the community. As in the past years – I have started a Twitter list of 2012 vExperts and will continue to update it.\nCongratulations to all the vExperts of 2012!!\n","date":"Apr 15, 2012","href":"/2012/04/vexpert-2012thank-you.html","summary":"I am proud to announce that I have been awarded the VMware vExpert award for the year 2012.\nThe current list has been posted here.\nIt is nice to receive such an honor but I would rather like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to a few people in appreciation of this honor.\nAlex Maier – for being the driving force behind the vExpert Program, for managing the VMware communities and for putting up with our nagging when we have no-one else to complain to. You are an asset to our community and your hard work is highly appreciated!! (even if we do not say it often and loudly enough) John Troyer – The Godfather of the vExpert program! Thank you John for all that you do for us, VMware is lucky to have a driving force such as yourself who is so passionate about what you do and we as a community are lucky to have you.\nOh yes, and please keep those cool SWAG trinkets and access to cool stuff coming!! :) All those who were awarded the vExpert 2012 award. Thank you!! It is an honor to be amongst such a great group of people. I look forward to meeting those of you who I have not yet had the honor to meet, and working together on exciting opportunities over the next year. To all those who did not get their vExpert renewed this year. I still hold you all in the highest esteem, and do expect and hope that you will continue to contribute to the community. As in the past years – I have started a Twitter list of 2012 vExperts and will continue to update it.","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware","vExpert"],"title":"vExpert 2012–Thank You!"},{"content":"Have you ever asked yourself that question?\nA customer of mine a small number of VM’s on one host that were continuously crashing. He would power them up and within less than 5 minutes – they would get powered off.\nIn this case – the host had a swap partition configured not with the default setting but rather as a separate shared datastore.\nSo what happened?\nThe swap_12 datastore was not accessible (the reason – is not relevant at the moment), and then they powered on a number of machines.\nGoing to the vCenter event logs showed this:\nNotice that the error message is not that descriptive. Inside the guest OS there was no additional clues to the cause for the power off of the VM\nBut if you look closely you will see the last line mentions this -\nVMware ESX internal monitor error *** vmk: vcpu-0:Unable to read swapped out pgNum(Ox27dca) from swap slot(Oxl000fb8a) for VM(1717757)\nWhich of course leads to the direction of the VMware Swap file not being available.\n","date":"Apr 12, 2012","href":"/2012/04/what-happens-when-no-swap-volume-is.html","summary":"Have you ever asked yourself that question?\nA customer of mine a small number of VM’s on one host that were continuously crashing. He would power them up and within less than 5 minutes – they would get powered off.\nIn this case – the host had a swap partition configured not with the default setting but rather as a separate shared datastore.\nSo what happened?\nThe swap_12 datastore was not accessible (the reason – is not relevant at the moment), and then they powered on a number of machines.","tags":["vSphere","ESXi","Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting"],"title":"What Happens When No Swap Volume is Available?"},{"content":"Of course the title of this post was blatantly borrowed from the Scorpions (I do love the song)\nFor the past 5 years I have designed, implemented and supported our corporate IT infrastructure. We have grown (sometimes too fast) and have established a solid and sound foundation for the ever-evolving market and business needs.\nThe time has come for a new adventure and change of focus.\nStarting Mid-April I will be moving to a new position of Platform architect in NDS.\nPart of my responsibilities will be the architectural design of our products (with a strong emphasis on the virtualization aspect). I will focus on what I am good at – designing the best solution for the customer and take a step back from the support aspect.\nSo what can you expect to change? Well one thing is for sure. I will continue blogging (so that won’t be it), I will continue to share with you my views, my thoughts and my ideas.\nOne thing that will change is – I will be now looking at other solutions and not working day-to-day with only VMware. Which if you ask me is actually a good thing. I have said this more than once – the days of VMware being the one and only player in the market are soon to be over. Some will choose Hyper-V or KVM over vSphere for a number of reasons – be they justified or not – it does not matter.\nI will try to continue to be as technical as possible (because that is my passion) but you can expect some other aspects to creep their way in here as well. Elasticity, Cloud, Automation will be my daily bread and butter.\nSo bear with me – it will be a good ride!!\n","date":"Mar 29, 2012","href":"/2012/03/winds-of-change.html","summary":"Of course the title of this post was blatantly borrowed from the Scorpions (I do love the song)\nFor the past 5 years I have designed, implemented and supported our corporate IT infrastructure. We have grown (sometimes too fast) and have established a solid and sound foundation for the ever-evolving market and business needs.","tags":["bio","Miscellaneous"],"title":"The Wind of Change"},{"content":"I ran into a case of a datastore that ran out disk space (why that happened is a whole different story – don’t go there\u0026amp;hellip; really\u0026amp;hellip;) but because of a whole strange chain of event this caused a number of VM’s to become corrupted.\nSo how did they become corrupt? There were a number of VM’s that were in the middle of committing a snapshot and there was no space on the volume. The VM’s became corrupt. I could not power them on, I couldn’t do anything with them. The only thing I could do was to restore them from backup - and that is what I did. (There were a number of other VM’s on this datastore as well – but they froze and were waiting for a prompt)\nI was asked – how many VM’s were affected by this and which VM’s – and what I did want to share with you is - how I found the list of machines to restore.\nFirst step was to get all the events that happened between 22.00-24.00\n$a = Get-VIEvent -Start (Get-Date).Addhours(-14) -Finish (Get-Date).Addhours(-12) -MaxSamples 10000 [12:00:07 PM] ~\u0026amp;gt; (Get-Date).Addhours(-14) Wednesday, March 21, 2012 22:00:13 PM [12:00:13 PM] ~\u0026amp;gt; (Get-Date).Addhours(-12) Thursday, March 22, 2012 00:00:19 AM I then looked for the events that happened on a machine that I knew had been affected\n$a | ? {$_.ObjectName -like \u0026amp;#34;MACHINE1*\u0026amp;#34;} EventTypeId : **com.vmware.vc.VmDiskFailedToConsolidateEvent** Severity : Message : Arguments : ObjectId : vm-1346 ObjectType : VirtualMachine ObjectName : MACHINE1 Fault : Key : 29721794 ChainId : 29716968 CreatedTime : 21/03/2012 22:56:59 PM UserName : NDR-IL\\vi3admin Datacenter : VMware.Vim.DatacenterEventArgument ComputeResource : VMware.Vim.ComputeResourceEventArgument Host : VMware.Vim.HostEventArgument Vm : VMware.Vim.VmEventArgument Ds : Net : Dvs : FullFormattedMessage : event.com.vmware.vc.VmDiskFailedToConsolidateEvent.fullFormat (com.vmware.vc.VmDiskFailedToConsolidateEvent) ChangeTag : DynamicType : DynamicProperty : One of the events was the one above. Now that we have found an","date":"Mar 22, 2012","href":"/2012/03/quick-and-dirty-powercli-to-repair-disk.html","summary":"I ran into a case of a datastore that ran out disk space (why that happened is a whole different story – don’t go there\u0026hellip; really\u0026hellip;) but because of a whole strange chain of event this caused a number of VM’s to become corrupted.\nSo how did they become corrupt? There were a number of VM’s that were in the middle of committing a snapshot and there was no space on the volume. The VM’s became corrupt. I could not power them on, I couldn’t do anything with them. The only thing I could do was to restore them from backup - and that is what I did. (There were a number of other VM’s on this datastore as well – but they froze and were waiting for a prompt)","tags":["Scripting","Powershell","VMware","Troubleshooting","PowerCLI"],"title":"Quick and Dirty PowerCLI to Repair a Disk Space Problem"},{"content":"When writing scripts (I am a fan of PowerCLI of course) there is many a time when I need to get something out of the vSphere SDK so I can dig in and get the details that I am looking for.\nOf course you could always go out to the internet and look for what you would like.\nBut sometimes I do my coding when in transit (don’t worry I am not driving) - and have no internet connection - so I like to have the SDK with me on my laptop.\nI downloaded the SDK Package from here.\nI extracted the package to C:\\Program Files\\VMware\\SDK\nThe following function opens the SDK locally - and if not will try and open the correct web page.\n#============================================================== # NAME: Open-SDK # AUTHOR: Maish Saidel-Keesing # DATE : 20/03/2012 # COMMENT: Will open the vSphere SDK from the local disk or from the Internet # SOURCE: https://bit.ly/GEb6mk #============================================================== function Open-SDK () { param () PROCESS { $test = Test-Path -Path \u0026amp;#34;C:\\Program Files\\VMware\\SDK\\vSphereManagementSDKReadme.html\u0026amp;#34; if ($test -eq \u0026amp;#34;$true\u0026amp;#34;) { Invoke-Item \u0026amp;#34;C:\\Program Files\\VMware\\SDK\\vSphereManagementSDKReadme.html\u0026amp;#34; } elseif { Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow\u0026amp;#34;You do not have the vSphere SDK installed on your System! Trying to open a web page\u0026amp;#34; start https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.wssdk.apiref.doc_50/right-pane.html } else { Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red\u0026amp;#34;You do not have the vSphere SDK installed on your System and no access to the internet!\u0026amp;#34;; break } } } ##Entry point to script Open-SDK Just one of the few nice tools to make your life easier.\n","date":"Mar 20, 2012","href":"/2012/03/open-sdkopening-vsphere-management-sdk.html","summary":"When writing scripts (I am a fan of PowerCLI of course) there is many a time when I need to get something out of the vSphere SDK so I can dig in and get the details that I am looking for.\nOf course you could always go out to the internet and look for what you would like.\nBut sometimes I do my coding when in transit (don’t worry I am not driving) - and have no internet connection - so I like to have the SDK with me on my laptop.","tags":["vSphere","Scripting","Powershell","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"Open-SDK–Opening the vSphere Management SDK"},{"content":"In some testing I was doing with VM HA monitoring – and I would highly recommend Duncan’s post for some more information on the subject - I needed to crash a VM to test the functionality.\nSo in essence what does it do?\nWhen enabling this feature – VMware HA monitors the guest itself for Operating system failure and if recognized – it reboots the VM (according to the defined threshold)\nSo how do you crash a Windows VM? And how do you crash a Linux VM?\nWindows This Microsoft KB gives you the answers\nMethods to generate a manual memory dump file There are several methods to generate a manual kernel or complete memory dump file. These methods include using the NMI, keyboard (PS2/USB), remote kernel, or NotMyFault.exe tools.\nHow to generate a manual memory dump by using the NotMyFault tool If you can log on while the problem is occurring, you can use the Microsoft SysInternals NotMyFault tool. To do this, follow these steps:\nDownload the NotMyFault tool from the following Microsoft Web site:\nhttps://download.sysinternals.com/Files/Notmyfault.zip\nClick Start, locate and right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.\nAt the command line, type NotMyfault.exe /crash, and then press ENTER.\nNote This will generate a memory dump file and a \u0026amp;ldquo;Stop D1\u0026amp;rdquo; error.\nHow to generate a manual memory dump file by using the keyboard If you are using a PS/2 keyboard, you have to create the\nCrashOnCtrlScroll\nregistry entry. For more information about how to generate a memory dump file by using the keyboard, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:\n244139 Windows feature lets you generate a memory dump file by using the keyboard\nIf you are using a USB keyboard, this feature is not supported in Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 1 until you install hotfix KB 971284. For more information about using the hotfix, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:\n971284 A hotfix is","date":"Mar 19, 2012","href":"/2012/03/cause-linux-kernel-panic-or-windows.html","summary":"In some testing I was doing with VM HA monitoring – and I would highly recommend Duncan’s post for some more information on the subject - I needed to crash a VM to test the functionality.\nSo in essence what does it do?\nWhen enabling this feature – VMware HA monitors the guest itself for Operating system failure and if recognized – it reboots the VM (according to the defined threshold)","tags":["Linux","Windows","Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Cause a Linux Kernel Panic or a Windows BSOD"},{"content":"Thanks to Christopher Wells for the heads up\n#NetApp Virtual Storage Console (VSC) 4.0 for #VMware vCenter... Now available for download! http://t.co/JUW75aqv (NOW account required)\n\u0026amp;mdash; Christopher Wells (@vsamurai_com) March 16, 2012 So What’s New?\nVirtual Storage Console 4.0 for VMware vSphere includes enhancements to all four capabilities.\nThe Monitoring and Host Configuration capability adds support for the following:\nData ONTAP® for Cluster-Mode Management of consolidated storage controller credentials\nThese credentials apply to the Monitoring and Host Configuration capability, the Provisioning and Cloning capability, and the Optimization and Migration capability. Scanning for and flagging indirect paths used to access data for Cluster-Mode based NFS exports, and providing a list of potential direct data paths _The NFS VAAI Plugin\n_This is a software library that integrates with Virtual Disk Libraries and allows VMware software to execute certain primitives on NetApp storage controllers. The Provisioning and Cloning capability enables you to perform the following tasks:\nProvision and manage NFS and VMFS datastores on storage systems running Data ONTAP for Cluster-Mode Use the Monitoring and Host Configuration capability to add and remove storage systems A new capability, Optimization and Migration, enables you to perform the following tasks:\nReview the alignment status of virtual machines Perform online alignment of virtual machines by migrating them into optimized VMFS datastores Migrate a group of virtual machines into new or existing datastores The Backup and Recovery capability enables you to perform the following task:\nBack up and restore a virtual machine even if a VMware consistency snapshot fails Access to this tool requires a NOW account and of course a valid license.\n","date":"Mar 16, 2012","href":"/2012/03/netapp-virtual-storage-console-40.html","summary":"Thanks to Christopher Wells for the heads up\n#NetApp Virtual Storage Console (VSC) 4.0 for #VMware vCenter... Now available for download! http://t.co/JUW75aqv (NOW account required)\n\u0026mdash; Christopher Wells (@vsamurai_com) March 16, 2012 So What’s New?\nVirtual Storage Console 4.0 for VMware vSphere includes enhancements to all four capabilities.\nThe Monitoring and Host Configuration capability adds support for the following:\nData ONTAP® for Cluster-Mode Management of consolidated storage controller credentials\nThese credentials apply to the Monitoring and Host Configuration capability, the Provisioning and Cloning capability, and the Optimization and Migration capability. Scanning for and flagging indirect paths used to access data for Cluster-Mode based NFS exports, and providing a list of potential direct data paths _The NFS VAAI Plugin\n_This is a software library that integrates with Virtual Disk Libraries and allows VMware software to execute certain primitives on NetApp storage controllers. The Provisioning and Cloning capability enables you to perform the following tasks:","tags":["Tools","vSphere","Storage","Administration","Troubleshooting"],"title":"NetApp Virtual Storage Console 4.0 Released"},{"content":"Last night I tweeted a poll asking this question.\nThe choices that people left are more or less what I was expecting but I still think that this warrants a post explaining my thoughts – and also to get yours.\nVirtualization is a godsend!! We are finally able to decouple the operating system from specific hardware. For as long as I can remember this was emphasized (by myself – I admit as well) as one of the many benefits for using virtual machines. You no longer have to rely on specific hardware.\nSo there are a large number of benefits – but what people sometimes overlook is that this decoupling also has a downside to it – and that is related to the poll above.\nBut before that, another side to this post. What about the migration of old physical machines to VM’s? Consolidation? Does that sound familiar? Well it probably will. I cannot count the number of times I have seen on Twitter people tweeting about converting physical servers into VM’s – I myself have done this quite a number of times.\nSo what are the reasons that we would convert physical servers to VM’s. Well if you are reading this blog – then you probably don’t need me to answer that question. But I would like to dwell on one specific reason.\nOld (ancient/dying/no support/no spare parts) hardware.\nYou have an application running on a old server – which is being used by some part of the company – and it is critical to their day-to-day operations (isn’t everything????) But the hardware is old, perhaps failing, not reliable anymore. And moving this application to new hardware will require a re-install of the software. But alas the company that sold you the software 10 years ago, has since then evaporated.. I am sure this sounds familiar.\nSo why is this problematic? You, the VIAdmin saved the day – and averted a large risk – and now have this ancient application running on a VM (until eternity) – the department that owns the application – can breathe easier.\nBut is this a good thing? Look at the results again\nI","date":"Mar 14, 2012","href":"/2012/03/dont-let-your-datacenter-turn-into.html","summary":"Last night I tweeted a poll asking this question.\nThe choices that people left are more or less what I was expecting but I still think that this warrants a post explaining my thoughts – and also to get yours.\nVirtualization is a godsend!! We are finally able to decouple the operating system from specific hardware. For as long as I can remember this was emphasized (by myself – I admit as well) as one of the many benefits for using virtual machines. You no longer have to rely on specific hardware.","tags":["Microsoft","Virtualization","Management","Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"Don’t Let your Datacenter Turn into a Datayard"},{"content":"As part of a build process for an ESXi server – on of the stages are to upload a valid SSL certificate to the ESXi server.\nWhen copying the certificate over to the host with pcsp for some reason they file is always malformed when going over. If you do a cat rui.crt you will see no issue, but if you do a vi rui.crt then you will see that each and every line has a ^M at the end of it – this is because the file is a dos format file.\nI finally found a to remove them – and it was not easy to find.\nBoth tr and dos2unix are not available on ESXi\nsed \u0026amp;#39;s/\u0026amp;#39;\u0026amp;#34;$(printf \u0026amp;#39;\\\\015\u0026amp;#39;)\u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#39;$// s/\u0026amp;#39;\u0026amp;#34;$(printf \u0026amp;#39;\\\\032\u0026amp;#39;)\u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#39;$//\u0026amp;#39; rui.crt \u0026amp;gt; rui.new That produces a clean file.\nPhew – now I can rest easy…\nUpdate:\nThanks to the comment received from JR below it is even easier\nsed \u0026amp;#39;s/.$//\u0026amp;#39; \u0026amp;lt; rui.crt \u0026amp;gt; rui.new ","date":"Mar 6, 2012","href":"/2012/03/removing-m-characters-from-files-in.html","summary":"As part of a build process for an ESXi server – on of the stages are to upload a valid SSL certificate to the ESXi server.\nWhen copying the certificate over to the host with pcsp for some reason they file is always malformed when going over. If you do a cat rui.crt you will see no issue, but if you do a vi rui.crt then you will see that each and every line has a ^M at the end of it – this is because the file is a dos format file.","tags":["ESXi","Scripting","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Removing ^M Characters from Files in ESXi"},{"content":"In continuation to William Lam’s post on how you can Automating VMware Tools Upgrade Policy and thanks to a comment left on the post – I wanted to perform the same functionality in PowerCLI.\nI present to you the Set-UpdateToolsPolicy Function\nFunction Set-UpdateToolsPolicy { \u0026amp;lt;# .SYNOPSIS A function to change the update policy one or more VM\u0026amp;#39;s .DESCRIPTION This script will change the VMware Tools Update policy on one or many virtual machines .PARAMETER VM The name of one or more virtual machines, this can be passed from the pipeline .PARAMETER Policy The policy setting - has to be be either manual (do not try and upgrade tools on each boot cycle) or upgradeAtPowerCycle (tools will be checked for upgrade at each power cycle) .EXAMPLE PS C:\\\u0026amp;gt; Get-VM foo | Set-UpdateToolsPolicy -Policy manual .EXAMPLE PS C:\\\u0026amp;gt; Set-UpdateToolsPolicy -VM foo -Policy upgradeAtPowerCycle .NOTES Author: Maish Saidel-Keesing .LINK https://blog.technodrone.cloud/2012/03/set-updatetoolspolicyfor-your-vms.html #\u0026amp;gt; [CmdletBinding()] Param( [Parameter(Position=0,Mandatory=$True,ValueFromPipeline=$True)] [String] $VM, [ValidateSet(\u0026amp;#34;manual\u0026amp;#34;,\u0026amp;#34;upgradeAtPowerCycle\u0026amp;#34;)] [String] $Policy ) begin { $config = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec $config.Tools = New-Object VMware.Vim.ToolsConfigInfo $config.Tools.ToolsUpgradePolicy = $Policy }\tProcess { foreach ($vmobject in (Get-VM $VM)) { $vmobject.ExtensionData.ReconfigVM($config) } } } Line 31: Using [ValidateSet(\u0026amp;ldquo;manual\u0026amp;rdquo;,\u0026amp;ldquo;upgradeAtPowerCycle\u0026amp;rdquo;)] as part of the definition of the parameter means that is can only be one of these two options – this is much easier than doing a switch on the variable.\nLine 36-40: This part is the same for all of the VM’s that will be processed – that is why it is part of the processed at the beginning of the script.\nI would also like to thank Damian Karlson for his post on this subject which was helpful.\nThe reason why I wrote this small function .. - well that is","date":"Mar 5, 2012","href":"/2012/03/set-updatetoolspolicyfor-your-vms.html","summary":"In continuation to William Lam’s post on how you can Automating VMware Tools Upgrade Policy and thanks to a comment left on the post – I wanted to perform the same functionality in PowerCLI.\nI present to you the Set-UpdateToolsPolicy Function\nFunction Set-UpdateToolsPolicy { \u0026lt;# .SYNOPSIS A function to change the update policy one or more VM\u0026#39;s .DESCRIPTION This script will change the VMware Tools Update policy on one or many virtual machines .PARAMETER VM The name of one or more virtual machines, this can be passed from the pipeline .PARAMETER Policy The policy setting - has to be be either manual (do not try and upgrade tools on each boot cycle) or upgradeAtPowerCycle (tools will be checked for upgrade at each power cycle) .EXAMPLE PS C:\\\u0026gt; Get-VM foo | Set-UpdateToolsPolicy -Policy manual .EXAMPLE PS C:\\\u0026gt; Set-UpdateToolsPolicy -VM foo -Policy upgradeAtPowerCycle .NOTES Author: Maish Saidel-Keesing .LINK https://blog.technodrone.cloud/2012/03/set-updatetoolspolicyfor-your-vms.html #\u0026gt; [CmdletBinding()] Param( [Parameter(Position=0,Mandatory=$True,ValueFromPipeline=$True)] [String] $VM, [ValidateSet(\u0026#34;manual\u0026#34;,\u0026#34;upgradeAtPowerCycle\u0026#34;)] [String] $Policy ) begin { $config = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec $config.Tools = New-Object VMware.Vim.ToolsConfigInfo $config.Tools.ToolsUpgradePolicy = $Policy }\tProcess { foreach ($vmobject in (Get-VM $VM)) { $vmobject.ExtensionData.ReconfigVM($config) } } } Line 31: Using [ValidateSet(\u0026ldquo;manual\u0026rdquo;,\u0026ldquo;upgradeAtPowerCycle\u0026rdquo;)] as part of the definition of the parameter means that is can only be one of these two options – this is much easier than doing a switch on the variable.","tags":["Management","Scripting","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"Set-UpdateToolsPolicy–For your VM’s"},{"content":"VMware is offering 50 Free Licenses of VMware Horizon Application Manager 1.5 on certain purchases of VMware SKU’s.\nFAQ Q. What is the current offer?\nA. During this promotion, eligible orders will receive 50 user licenses of VMware Horizon Application Manager 1.5 and one (1) year of Basic Support and Subscription (SnS) no additional charge. Eligible orders must include a qualifying VMware vSphere 5 product SKU.\nQ. What is the timeframe for this promotion?\nA. This promotion is valid for eligible purchases made between February 23, 2012 and June 15, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (PT). Redemptions must be made by August 31, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (PT).\nQ. What is the benefit of VMware Horizon Application Manager 1.5?\nA. VMware Horizon Application Manager provides a cross-platform solution that manages, secures, and delivers SaaS, Web and Windows applications to end users. A policy-driven enterprise catalog centralizes application management, while a secure workspace provides a simple way to connect end-users to applications.\nHorizon Application Manager simplifies, manages and connects your organization to the Cloud through:\nLower operating expenses by unifying your applications into an enterprise app catalog for fast, secure access to users Higher quality of control with enterprise-scale and user-centric policy-driven management Increased productivity of users with simple, secure access to all your applications Q. Is there a detailed SKU list posted for eligible products that must be purchased on the order to take advantage of this promotion?\nA. Yes. Please refer to the list of eligible SKUs.\nQ. What if I buy through a channel partner, will my order be eligible?\nA. This promotion is available to all end-user customers who place an order containing an eligible vSphere 5 SKU from a VMware authorized reselling partner, from the VMware website or directly from VMware, including true-up orders. This promotion is not available on any orders received by VMware from","date":"Feb 27, 2012","href":"/2012/02/50-free-licenses-vmware-horizon-app.html","summary":"VMware is offering 50 Free Licenses of VMware Horizon Application Manager 1.5 on certain purchases of VMware SKU’s.\nFAQ Q. What is the current offer?\nA. During this promotion, eligible orders will receive 50 user licenses of VMware Horizon Application Manager 1.5 and one (1) year of Basic Support and Subscription (SnS) no additional charge. Eligible orders must include a qualifying VMware vSphere 5 product SKU.\nQ. What is the timeframe for this promotion?\nA. This promotion is valid for eligible purchases made between February 23, 2012 and June 15, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (PT). Redemptions must be made by August 31, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (PT).","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","Licensing"],"title":"50 Free licenses of VMware Horizon App Manager"},{"content":"Eric Siebert has posted the results from the Top Blog 2012 survey.\nI would like to thank you one and all for casting your vote. I am very please with the results that were published and wish to congratulate each and every one of the 187 bloggers on the list for doing an amazing job and especially those who made it into the top 25 spots.\nI was ranked #45 in the overall listing. I was surprised to see that my blog was voted #7 in the Scripting category – there are several who are far more worthy than I to have received such a ranking.\nIn the independent blogger category I was ranked #11 – which again is an honor.\nThank you all once more and here is looking to a great 2012!!\nMy Top 25 Blogger twitter list has been updated. A few new lists have been added as well:\nFavorite Storage Blogs\nFavorite Scripting Blogs\nFavorite VDI Blogs\nFavorite Cloud Blogs\nFavorite Storage Blogs\nFavorite Independent Bloggers\n","date":"Feb 27, 2012","href":"/2012/02/top-blogs-results-thank-you-all-for.html","summary":"Eric Siebert has posted the results from the Top Blog 2012 survey.\nI would like to thank you one and all for casting your vote. I am very please with the results that were published and wish to congratulate each and every one of the 187 bloggers on the list for doing an amazing job and especially those who made it into the top 25 spots.\nI was ranked #45 in the overall listing. I was surprised to see that my blog was voted #7 in the Scripting category – there are several who are far more worthy than I to have received such a ranking.","tags":["Blogger","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Top Blogs Results - Thank You All for Your Vote"},{"content":"We all know that you get CDP information in a number of ways (also PowerCLI), KB 1007069 provides a number of ways to do it.\nBut how would you go about setting CDP on the vSwitch?\nThat can be done on the host itself in a number of ways:\nesxcfg-vswitch –B both vSwitch0\nbut also with esxcli\nesxcli network switch standard set –c both –v vSwitch0\nThat got me thinking…. esxcli… where had I used that before – of course Netstat for ESXi.\nSo why not try and do the same here?\nThe quick and dirty way (I will update later with a proper function)\n$esxcli = Get-EsxCli -VMHost $myhost $esxcli.network.vswitch.standard.set(\u0026amp;#34;both\u0026amp;#34;,\u0026amp;#34;1500\u0026amp;#34;,\u0026amp;#34;vSwitch0\u0026amp;#34;) Why all 3 Parameters and where did they come from?\n$esxcli.network.vswitch.standard | gm\nThe set method is described as follows:\nName MemberType Definition set CodeMethod boolean set(string cdpstatus, long mtu, string vswitchname) And where do get the values that are valid for “cdpstatus” ? esxcli of course\n# esxcli network vswitch standard set Error: Missing required parameter -v|--vswitch-name Usage: esxcli network vswitch standard set [cmd options] Description: set This command sets the MTU size and CDP status of a given virtual switch. Cmd options: -c|--cdp-status=\u0026amp;lt;str\u0026amp;gt; The CDP status of the given virtual switch. It can be \u0026amp;#39;down\u0026amp;#39;, \u0026amp;#39;listen\u0026amp;#39;, \u0026amp;#39;advertise\u0026amp;#39; or \u0026amp;#39;both\u0026amp;#39; -m|--mtu=\u0026amp;lt;long\u0026amp;gt; The MTU size of the given virtual switch. -v|--vswitch-name=\u0026amp;lt;str\u0026amp;gt; The name of virtual switch to apply the configurations. (required) Update: March 06, 2012\nI promised to update with a proper function on how to do this, and here it is:\nFunction Set-VirtualSwitchCDP { \u0026amp;lt;# .SYNOPSIS Set the CDP setting on a Standard Virtual Switch. .DESCRIPTION Using the Get-Esxcli cmdlet you can changed the CDP Settings on virtual switch on an ESX host. .NOTES Author: Maish Saidel-Keesing .PARAMETER VMHost ESX server to perform the function. .PARAMETER MTU The MTU settings of the vSwitch, default is","date":"Feb 23, 2012","href":"/2012/02/how-to-set-cdp-on-vswitchthe-powercli.html","summary":"We all know that you get CDP information in a number of ways (also PowerCLI), KB 1007069 provides a number of ways to do it.\nBut how would you go about setting CDP on the vSwitch?\nThat can be done on the host itself in a number of ways:\nesxcfg-vswitch –B both vSwitch0\nbut also with esxcli\nesxcli network switch standard set –c both –v vSwitch0\nThat got me thinking…. esxcli… where had I used that before – of course Netstat for ESXi.","tags":["Management","ESXi","Scripting","esxcli","Administration","PowerCLI"],"title":"How to Set CDP on a vSwitch–the PowerCLI Way"},{"content":"Thank you William Lam @lamw!!!!!!!\nDue to William\u0026amp;rsquo;s How to Run Windows 8 on vSphere 5 (for reals) post I can now try out\nWindows 8 Developer Preview on my ESX boxes.\nThis was resolved in patch ESXi500-201112001 - it just seems that no-one told us until now.. It would be very interesting to hear what actually changed in this patch.\nRunning on Workstation was not a good option for me. My lab is on ESX boxes.\nBut now I am happy - and I can start to finally get to know the new OS.\n","date":"Feb 9, 2012","href":"/2012/02/windows-8-developer-preview-on-esxi5.html","summary":"Thank you William Lam @lamw!!!!!!!\nDue to William\u0026rsquo;s How to Run Windows 8 on vSphere 5 (for reals) post I can now try out\nWindows 8 Developer Preview on my ESX boxes.\nThis was resolved in patch ESXi500-201112001 - it just seems that no-one told us until now.. It would be very interesting to hear what actually changed in this patch.\nRunning on Workstation was not a good option for me. My lab is on ESX boxes.","tags":["Server","vSphere","ESXi","Windows","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Windows 8 Developer Preview on ESXi5"},{"content":"This one has been sitting with me for a while. It would be nice to hear your comments on this.\nThe dvSwitch (Distributed Virtual Switch) – oh how it has changed our lives…\nDo you all remember the days when you had to manually add the all the portgroups and network settings to a new host? We use scripts, we use mega-kickstart deployment scripts, gui applications. Let us not forget that it is still the case for all those who do not have and Enterprise Plus vSphere license. You do have to pay some extra for the “premium features”, and if you ask me – it not really a premium feature but more of a necessity.\nBut since I have gotten used to a dvSwitch – those things are all in the past. Network configuration of a host – is really as simple as adding click click click (yes…. I know…. you could also automate it as well….), and I do not have to worry about configuration issues any more. This vmnic is used for vMotion, this one for FT, this for NFS/iSCSI – it is all so simple.\nI think it is time that we asked for the next stage. It is time for a revolution!!\nMaybe we should call it dvFabric?\nLet me explain what I would like to see.\nToday when you set up a host you have to setup your NFS/iSCSI/SAN connection more or less manually. Before you say – hey what about Host Profiles – yes you could do that with host profiles – but the way that I see this is – Host Pofiles comes as a band-aid to this issue – not solution to the problem. By applying a profile to a host – you are are running a process that runs a set of actions to set a configuration. You could so the same with a set of scripts (PowerCLI or Perl) but this is packaged very well in vCenter and easy to use.\nSo how do I envision this dvFabric? Essentially the same as a dvSwitch. A logical entity to which I attach my network cards (for iSCSI/NFS) or my HBA’s (for FcoE or FC). I define which uplink goes to which storage, what the multi-pathing policy is for this uplink, how many ports should be used, what is the failover","date":"Feb 8, 2012","href":"/2012/02/my-wish-for-dvfabric-dvswitch-for.html","summary":"This one has been sitting with me for a while. It would be nice to hear your comments on this.\nThe dvSwitch (Distributed Virtual Switch) – oh how it has changed our lives…\nDo you all remember the days when you had to manually add the all the portgroups and network settings to a new host? We use scripts, we use mega-kickstart deployment scripts, gui applications. Let us not forget that it is still the case for all those who do not have and Enterprise Plus vSphere license. You do have to pay some extra for the “premium features”, and if you ask me – it not really a premium feature but more of a necessity.","tags":["Virtualization","dvfabric","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"My Wish for dvFabric – a dvSwitch for Storage"},{"content":"It seems like only yesterday when the last survey was conducted, and I was actually not going to write this post – because I hate “me too” posts.\nSo let us try and do this slightly differently.\nOn my No. 32 - Thank you all so much! post I stated some observations – which I hope you will consider this year, when you choose which blogs you wish to rank in the top 10.\nTry not to make this into a popularity contest.\nJudge the bloggers on their content.\nJudge the bloggers on their writing skills.\nJudge the bloggers on their passion.\nJudge the bloggers on who they are – not just because they work in company A, B or C.\nIt is great that there are some changes in this year’s survey:\nBloggers for certain categories: Storage blog\nCloud Computing blog\nEnd User Computing (VDI) blog\nNews \u0026amp;amp; Information website\nFavorite Scripting blog\nFavorite Podcast\nOfficial VMware blog\nBest Videos used in a blog\nFavorite New Blog (less than a year old)\nFavorite Independent blogger\nIf you find that my blog or my writing deserves your vote or it fits any of the above mentioned categories,\nI would be most thankful.\nGood luck to all the bloggers!!\nAs always – once the results are published you can follow the Top 25 Bloggers on Twitter.\n","date":"Jan 24, 2012","href":"/2012/01/tis-season-to-be-voting.html","summary":"It seems like only yesterday when the last survey was conducted, and I was actually not going to write this post – because I hate “me too” posts.\nSo let us try and do this slightly differently.\nOn my No. 32 - Thank you all so much! post I stated some observations – which I hope you will consider this year, when you choose which blogs you wish to rank in the top 10.","tags":["Virtualization","Contest","Blogger","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"‘Tis the Season to be Voting ... "},{"content":"Personally I think this is one of the most useful Fling\u0026amp;rsquo;s I have come across.\nFor those of you who do not know what a fling is…\nA fling is a short-term thing, not a serious relationship but a fun one. Likewise, the tools that are offered here are intended to be played with and explored.\nFour days ago the InventorySnapshot Fling was updated to version 1.1\nFrom the release notes:\nUpdates in Version 1.1\nThese release notes are intended to supplement and super-cede the documentation in this fling.This release introduces three new features.\n1. Template restoration. We have added snapshot and restore of VM templates. In other words, if you have templates in your hierarchy, when you snapshot and then restore the inventory, the templates should be re-registered properly. Prior to this release, we did not archive template information.\n2. Command-line snapshot. You can now initiate InventorySnapshot from the command line using cmdLineSnapshot.bat or cmdLineSnapshot.sh. This will snapshot the inventory from the command line, but it will use dummy passwords for the ESX hosts. In order to edit the passwords for the ESX hosts, you will need to use the readFromSnapshot.bat (or readFromSnapshot.sh) UI. When you click on this script, a UI will come up that will ask you to specify the directory where the snapshot has been stored. You type in the name of the directory and click on \u0026amp;lsquo;Read from snapshot directory.\u0026amp;rsquo; The UI will then load the snapshot, allowing you to modify host passwords, etc. You can also use the \u0026amp;lsquo;Browse for snapshot directory\u0026amp;rsquo; to find the snapshot directory using the file browser.\n3. Non-unique folder names. In the past, we required all entities (folders, VMs, RPs, etc.) to have unique names. We have now relaxed this restriction for VM and host folders. You can now have the following hierarchy:\nRoot\n|\n-\u0026amp;gt;Production A Folder\n| |\n| \u0026amp;ndash;\u0026amp;gt;Production Folder\n| |\n| \u0026amp;ndash;\u0026amp;gt;Host A1\n|\n-\u0026amp;gt;Production B Folder\n|\n\u0026amp;ndash;\u0026amp;gt;Production","date":"Jan 23, 2012","href":"/2012/01/inventorysnapshot-fling-updated.html","summary":"Personally I think this is one of the most useful Fling\u0026rsquo;s I have come across.\nFor those of you who do not know what a fling is…\nA fling is a short-term thing, not a serious relationship but a fun one. Likewise, the tools that are offered here are intended to be played with and explored.\nFour days ago the InventorySnapshot Fling was updated to version 1.1\nFrom the release notes:\nUpdates in Version 1.1","tags":["Tools","Management","vSphere","Administration","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"InventorySnapshot Fling Updated"},{"content":"Of course this is not a GA product (yet). Hyper-V 3.0 is not GA (yet). So this is all theoretical and in the future.\nMicrosoft is about to starting to push their Private Cloud offering.\nThe first thing I always look at is what are the components involved.\nFrom the Download Microsoft Private Cloud Evaluation Software page :\nSystem Center 2012 App Controller provides a common self-service experience across private and public clouds that can help you empower application owners to easily build, configure, deploy, and manage new services.\nSystem Requirements \u0026amp;raquo; System Center 2012 Configuration Manager provides comprehensive configuration management for the Microsoft platform that can help you empower users with the devices and applications they need to be productive while maintaining corporate compliance and control.\nSystem Requirements \u0026amp;raquo; System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager provides unified data protection for Windows servers and clients that can help you deliver scalable, manageable, and cost-effective protection and restore scenarios from disk, tape, and off premise.\nSystem Requirements \u0026amp;raquo; System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection, built on System Center Configuration Manager, provides industry-leading threat detection of malware and exploits as part of a unified infrastructure for managing client security and compliance that can help you simplify and improve endpoint protection.\nSystem Requirements \u0026amp;raquo; System Center 2012 Operations Manager provides deep application diagnostics and infrastructure monitoring that can help you ensure the predictable performance and availability of vital applications and offers a comprehensive view of your datacenter, private, and public clouds.\nSystem Requirements \u0026amp;raquo; System Center 2012 Orchestrator provides orchestration, integration, and automation of IT processes through the creation of runbooks that can help you to define and standardize best practices and improve operational efficiency.\nSystem","date":"Jan 19, 2012","href":"/2012/01/system-center-2012-resources-say-how.html","summary":"Of course this is not a GA product (yet). Hyper-V 3.0 is not GA (yet). So this is all theoretical and in the future.\nMicrosoft is about to starting to push their Private Cloud offering.\nThe first thing I always look at is what are the components involved.\nFrom the Download Microsoft Private Cloud Evaluation Software page :\nSystem Center 2012 App Controller provides a common self-service experience across private and public clouds that can help you empower application owners to easily build, configure, deploy, and manage new services.\nSystem Requirements \u0026raquo; System Center 2012 Configuration Manager provides comprehensive configuration management for the Microsoft platform that can help you empower users with the devices and applications they need to be productive while maintaining corporate compliance and control.\nSystem Requirements \u0026raquo; System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager provides unified data protection for Windows servers and clients that can help you deliver scalable, manageable, and cost-effective protection and restore scenarios from disk, tape, and off premise.\nSystem Requirements \u0026raquo; System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection, built on System Center Configuration Manager, provides industry-leading threat detection of malware and exploits as part of a unified infrastructure for managing client security and compliance that can help you simplify and improve endpoint protection.\nSystem Requirements \u0026raquo; System Center 2012 Operations Manager provides deep application diagnostics and infrastructure monitoring that can help you ensure the predictable performance and availability of vital applications and offers a comprehensive view of your datacenter, private, and public clouds.\nSystem Requirements \u0026raquo; System Center 2012 Orchestrator provides orchestration, integration, and automation of IT processes through the creation of runbooks that can help you to define and standardize best practices and improve operational efficiency.\nSystem Requirements \u0026raquo; System Center 2012 Service Manager provides flexible self-service experiences and standardized datacenter processes that can help you integrate people, workflows, and knowledge across enterprise infrastructure and applications.\nSystem Requirements \u0026raquo; System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager provides virtual machine management and services deployment with support for multi-hypervisor environments that can help you deliver a flexible and cost effective private cloud environment.\nSystem Requirements \u0026raquo; Man - that is a lot of components.","tags":["Microsoft","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","Cloud"],"title":"System Center 2012 Resources – Say How Much?"},{"content":"I was tasked with testing the throughput of the vMotion network between two hosts - to see how much of the throughput was / could be used. Now I remembered that there was an application that someone had wrote to simulate vMotions between hosts - so I put the question out to Twitter\nWhere was that script that ran a continuous vmotion for tests with #PowerCLI ?\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) January 15, 2012 The answers I got from @joerglew and @boukeg pointed me to VMJuggler written by Richard Garsthagen But this was an MSI file and had to be installed as an application - so I said to myself - there has to be another way to do this.\nSo I wrote a small PowerCLI VMjuggler (the name and credits go all to Richard)\nThe basic functionality in the MSI was:\nChoose source Host Choose Destination Host Choose VM Display counter of the number of vMotions that have taken place ########################################################################### # # NAME: VMjuggler.ps1 # # AUTHOR: Maish Saidel-Keesing # # COMMENT: Based on the exe file from https://www.run-virtual.com/?dl_id=8 # This will move a vm between two hosts an endless loop until the script is stopped # It will display a counter of how many vmotions have been performed. # VERSION HISTORY: # 1.0 15/01/2012 - Initial release # ########################################################################### $hostA = Read-Host \u0026amp;#34;Please enter the name of Host A\u0026amp;#34; $hostB = Read-Host \u0026amp;#34;Please enter the name of Host B\u0026amp;#34; $vmname = Read-Host \u0026amp;#34;Please enter the name of VM\u0026amp;#34; $x = 0 While ($true) { Move-VM -VM $vmname -Destination $HostA | Out-Null $hostA,$hostB =$hostB,$hostA $x++ $x } Annotations:\nLines 15-17 - Accept input to populate variables\nLines 19-21 - In an endless loop move the VM between hosts\nLine 22 - I would like to thank Shay Levy for explaining to me how to switch the variables. The destination for the migration is always $hostA but each time the VM moves hosts - the destination must also","date":"Jan 17, 2012","href":"/2012/01/vmjugglerthe-powercli-version.html","summary":"I was tasked with testing the throughput of the vMotion network between two hosts - to see how much of the throughput was / could be used. Now I remembered that there was an application that someone had wrote to simulate vMotions between hosts - so I put the question out to Twitter\nWhere was that script that ran a continuous vmotion for tests with #PowerCLI ?\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) January 15, 2012 The answers I got from @joerglew and @boukeg pointed me to VMJuggler written by Richard Garsthagen ","tags":["VMotion","Scripting","Powershell","Administration","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"VMjuggler–the PowerCLI version"},{"content":"I came a cross a case this week that I thought would be worthwhile sharing.\nA client needed to install the vCLI on a Linux machine, and this machine was behind a firewall that was blocking access to the internet.\nThe process was supposed to be very simple. Download the Tarball, copy it to the machine, untar and then install. But during the install this message popped up:\nDo you accept? (yes/no) yes\nThank you.\nping: unknown host www.vmware.com\n_Network is unavailable, please configure the network first otherwise please\n__install the following modules manually for use by vSphere CLI:\n__Archive::Zip 1.20 or newer\n__Compress::Zlib 2.005 or newer\n__Compress::Raw::Zlib 2.017 or newer\n__version 0.78 or newer\n__IO::Compress::Base 2.005 or newer\n__IO::Compress::Zlib::Constants 2.005 or newer\n__Class::MethodMaker 2.10 or newer\n__HTML::Parser 3.60 or newer\n__UUID 0.03 or newer\n__Data::Dump 1.15 or newer\n__SOAP::Lite 0.710.08 or newer\n__URI 1.37 or newer\n__LWP 5.805 or newer\n__LWP::Protocol::https 5.805 or newer\n__VMware::VIRuntime 0.9 or newer\n_WSMan::StubOps 0.1 or newer\nOk I get it – the installation wanted access to the web that would download those modules. Due to my predicament with no internet on this machine – I downloaded the all the Perl modules on another machine and copied them over.\nAnd by the way the easiest way to download the modules is by using CPAN, but in this case - they had to be downloaded and installed manually – which by the way this is the process:\nDownload the Module Unpack the tarball cd \u0026amp;lt;package\\_name\u0026amp;gt; perl Makefile.PL make make test make install But even after installing the dependencies – vCLI still would not install – either it would ask for a proxy – or throw a message simlar to the one below.\n_SOAP::Lite 0.710.08 or newer\n__LWP 5.805 or newer\n__LWP::Protocol::https 5.805 or newer\n__VMware::VIRuntime 0.9 or newer\n_WSMan::StubOps 0.1 or newer\nThanks to William Lam – he pointed me to a workaround that allows for the installation to continue","date":"Dec 29, 2011","href":"/2011/12/internet-access-is-needed-to-install.html","summary":"I came a cross a case this week that I thought would be worthwhile sharing.\nA client needed to install the vCLI on a Linux machine, and this machine was behind a firewall that was blocking access to the internet.\nThe process was supposed to be very simple. Download the Tarball, copy it to the machine, untar and then install. But during the install this message popped up:\nDo you accept? (yes/no) yes","tags":["Linux","Administration","Troubleshooting","vCLI"],"title":"Internet Access is needed to Install vCLI 5.0"},{"content":"I spent a week in meetings with our global IT group in the UK last month. It is always good to see the people face to face that you interact with on a regular basis and build those personal connections. It makes working together a lot easier and more productive.\nDuring our time there, we had an outdoor activity at Mercedes Benz World. But first I have a confessions to make.\nI have never driven a Mercedes Benz – because of the amount of taxes that we pay here in Israel on cars – a Mercedes is way too expensive – well all cars are expensive.. but a Mercedes even more so. So driving one was a great experience.\nMercedes Benz World was built on old race track – which was in turn converted into a airstrip during WWII and now is being partially used as a track again.\nSo we got to drive a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG - Man what a car!! The sheer power of this machine is unbelievable. Going from 0-100 km/h in under 4 seconds – it feels like you are taking off in an airplane. What also amazed me was the fact that it could also go from 100km/h –\u0026amp;gt; 0 in less than 2. This car can stop on a dime. We tried the skid tracks – and with all the safety features – and also with the safety features turned off as well. It was a lot of fun.\nThe second part was an off track course that we ran through with a …….. At one point we crossed a obstacle and the car was balancing on 2 wheels – yes only two – the front right and the back left and it bounced from one side of the obstacle to the other. Scary as hell but utterly amazing.\nYou are probably wondering by now – why is he writing about all this? What does this have to do with virtualization an modern IT? Well I had a light bulb moment.\nTraditional IT is changing. We are faced with challenges that we have never faced before. Our users are used to having things at their fingertips. They need resources – they go to a cloud provider and order something on their credit card – circumventing IT completely. People want their corporate email on their","date":"Dec 21, 2011","href":"/2011/12/mercedes-benz-and-byod.html","summary":"I spent a week in meetings with our global IT group in the UK last month. It is always good to see the people face to face that you interact with on a regular basis and build those personal connections. It makes working together a lot easier and more productive.\nDuring our time there, we had an outdoor activity at Mercedes Benz World. But first I have a confessions to make.","tags":["Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"Mercedes Benz and BYOD"},{"content":"vKernel announced the release of version 4.5 of their vOperations Suite today.\nWhat’s New:\nNew Automation Features - vOPS\u0026amp;rsquo; automation capabilities are enhanced with auto-deletion of abandoned VM images, auto-merging of unused snapshots, an additional automated remediation for performance issues and auto-calculation of future resource requirements. Automation Controls - vOPS 4.5 also adds the ability to more finally control some automation processes. For example, VMs can be grouped, and then these groups set with minimum and maximum resource amounts that automated right-sizing will respect. vSphere 5 New Feature Support - vOPS 4 introduced compatability to vSphere 5. vOPS 4.5 takes this integration further with support for storage DRS and storage clusters, new HA methods and inclusion of data provided by the VASA storage interface. vKernel will try to provide “trusted automation” – and with vOPS 4.5, data center staff will be able to automatically\nDelete abandoned VMDK Files Merge VM snapshots Solve VM performance issues Power-off Zombie VMs Resize vCPU and VM memory resources based on vOPS’ recommendations Update management dashboards in real-time in external systems Calculate CPU, memory and storage requirements at any point in the future Each one of these automation features will help avoid the need to hire in additional administrators as environments grow. For example, a VM administrator can manually delete approximately 60 abandoned VM images in one hour. With automated deletion of abandoned VM images, an unlimited amount of files can be deleted in seconds.\nOther features available in vOPS 4.5 include:\nApplication type tags to denote which application is running inside a virtual machine Storage DRS and storage cluster support (available in VMware vSphere 5) Access to VMware VASA interface storage statistics available in vSphere 5 Capacity planning calculation adjustments for vSphere 5 HA methods Improved support and visibility into Raw Device Mapping (RDM)","date":"Dec 19, 2011","href":"/2011/12/vkernel-vops-45-launched.html","summary":"vKernel announced the release of version 4.5 of their vOperations Suite today.\nWhat’s New:\nNew Automation Features - vOPS\u0026rsquo; automation capabilities are enhanced with auto-deletion of abandoned VM images, auto-merging of unused snapshots, an additional automated remediation for performance issues and auto-calculation of future resource requirements. Automation Controls - vOPS 4.5 also adds the ability to more finally control some automation processes. For example, VMs can be grouped, and then these groups set with minimum and maximum resource amounts that automated right-sizing will respect. vSphere 5 New Feature Support - vOPS 4 introduced compatability to vSphere 5. vOPS 4.5 takes this integration further with support for storage DRS and storage clusters, new HA methods and inclusion of data provided by the VASA storage interface. vKernel will try to provide “trusted automation” – and with vOPS 4.5, data center staff will be able to automatically","tags":["Tools","Management","Hyper-V","vKernel","VMware"],"title":"vKernel vOPS 4.5 Launched"},{"content":"This is the excerpt of a message I received yesterday.(the highlights and graphics are my own)\nDear Maish,\nWe want to provide you with an important update about the VMware® vCenter AppSpeed™ product. As customers continue to expand the use of virtualization and cloud resources, we are focusing on delivering management solutions that can support the flexibility that enterprises require. As a result of this focus, we have decided not to produce additional releases of vCenter AppSpeed. vCenter AppSpeed will be end of availability for new license purchases as of January 3, 2012, however it will continue to be supported through September 15, 2012, in line with our General Support Policy.\nAs part of VMware continued investment in our customers\u0026amp;rsquo; journey to cloud computing, we have developed a more comprehensive application performance management solution, VMware® vFabric™ Application Performance Manager (APM). As a customer of vCenter AppSpeed, we would like to offer you a special opportunity to leverage the comprehensive capabilities of vFabric APM. Customers who are active on a Support and Subscription (SnS) plan from December 1, 2011 until the vFabric APM entitlement becomes available in early January 2012 may exchange their related licenses of vCenter AppSpeed and upgrade to vFabric APM at no additional license cost. This upgrade will take place on a one-to-one basis. Future purchases of SnS for vFabric APM will have a higher list price than SnS for AppSpeed because APM provides significantly more application performance management functionality and has a higher license cost than VMware vCenter AppSpeed, however, SnS costs will not rise prior to customer’s next SnS term. Learn more about VMware vFabric APM.\nAppSpeed was a technology the VMware acquired back in 2008 from a B-hive Networks.\nThe product as you see from the mail above, is to be retired and incorporated into the bigger suite of VMware vFabric Product family.\n","date":"Dec 9, 2011","href":"/2011/12/vmware-appspeed-to-be-retired.html","summary":"This is the excerpt of a message I received yesterday.(the highlights and graphics are my own)\nDear Maish,\nWe want to provide you with an important update about the VMware® vCenter AppSpeed™ product. As customers continue to expand the use of virtualization and cloud resources, we are focusing on delivering management solutions that can support the flexibility that enterprises require. As a result of this focus, we have decided not to produce additional releases of vCenter AppSpeed. vCenter AppSpeed will be end of availability for new license purchases as of January 3, 2012, however it will continue to be supported through September 15, 2012, in line with our General Support Policy.","tags":["vFabric","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"VMware AppSpeed to be Retired"},{"content":"Has it ever happened that you need to restart a vCenter service? I guess that you have been there before. Once upon a time I wrote a post that mentioned that there are not enough tools available today for us to troubleshoot the vCenter service which usually ends in a restart of the vCenter service.\nWhen you want to stop the vCenter service you will notice that there are several services that depend on the vpxd service so they also need to be stopped. Windows will prompt you for this, of course.\nBut Windows will not start these services again automatically when you start the vCenter service.\nFor vCenter 4.x - it is the VMware VirtualCenter Management Webservices (vctomcat) service\nThat was actually easy to get.\nGet-Service -ComputerName vcenter.maishsk.local -Name vpxd | select -ExpandProperty DependentServices | ft -AutoSize\nvCenter 5.x there are two additional services.\nSo that means when you restart a vCenter 5.0 Service then you have to restart another 3 services as well.\nPowerShell again to the rescue - and the Restart-vCenterServices function\nFunction Restart-vCenterServices { $services= @() $services += (Get-Service -Name vpxd).Name ## Add the dependencies to the variable. (Get-Service -Name vpxd).DependentServices | ForEach-Object { $services += $_.Name } ## First put the services in the correct order and then stop them $services | Sort-Object | ForEach-Object { Write-Host Stopping $_ ## -Force was used because the services have dependencies - even though they are stopped Get-Service $_ | Stop-Service -Force sleep 5 } sleep 5 ## We need to start the services in reverse order $services | Sort-Object -Descending | ForEach-Object { Write-Host Starting $_ Get-Service $_ | Start-Service sleep 5 } } This function was written so that it would work for both versions of vCenter.\nHope you enjoyed the ride…\n","date":"Dec 6, 2011","href":"/2011/12/restarting-vcenter-services-with.html","summary":"Has it ever happened that you need to restart a vCenter service? I guess that you have been there before. Once upon a time I wrote a post that mentioned that there are not enough tools available today for us to troubleshoot the vCenter service which usually ends in a restart of the vCenter service.\nWhen you want to stop the vCenter service you will notice that there are several services that depend on the vpxd service so they also need to be stopped. Windows will prompt you for this, of course.","tags":["Management","Powershell","Administration","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"Restarting vCenter Services - with PowerShell"},{"content":"Where would you go to hear more or find out about a new product or a new company? The Web? Blogs? the company’s website? Probably all of the above are true. But sometimes that information is\njust\u0026amp;hellip; not\u0026amp;hellip; enough\u0026amp;hellip;\nI would like to share with you a resource that I find is of great value to me, and not well known (if you ask me).\nI was looking to find out some more about Nutanix. They have a different look on the way you should virtualize your datacenter. Combine your storage and compute in one piece of hardware – provide a large amount of performance in one box, make it highly available and scalable – you have an Enterprise solution. I must admit – I am over-simplifying this a bit (a lot actually) but I encourage you to investigate this product more on your own.\nI went to their site to try and find our more about them. There are some whitepapers, some nice short videos, and resources, but I could not find the in-depth information that I was looking for.\nHow exactly does the product work? What is inside – what is the business strategy? So of course I could contact their sales department – and they would get back to me – then give me a sales pitch, and then back and forward until I would finally get in touch with someone technical that could answer my questions.\nIn comes TechfieldDay.\nStephen Foskett from GestaltIT has an amazing program where he brings together emerging companies some with new technologies (other established companies as well) and independent bloggers, to a two-day event full of presentations and discussions. These are highly beneficial both to the presenting companies and to the bloggers themselves. I had the privelege of participating in TechfieldDay #5 last year.\nI remembered that Nutanix presented at a recently at Techfielday #8. Here is the link to the 2 hour presentation they gave.\nI just sent an email to Stephen to thank him. I learned more about the company and their product from the two hour presentation that he recorded and","date":"Nov 28, 2011","href":"/2011/11/all-of-us-can-benefit-from-techfieldday.html","summary":"Where would you go to hear more or find out about a new product or a new company? The Web? Blogs? the company’s website? Probably all of the above are true. But sometimes that information is\njust\u0026hellip; not\u0026hellip; enough\u0026hellip;\nI would like to share with you a resource that I find is of great value to me, and not well known (if you ask me).\nI was looking to find out some more about Nutanix. They have a different look on the way you should virtualize your datacenter. Combine your storage and compute in one piece of hardware – provide a large amount of performance in one box, make it highly available and scalable – you have an Enterprise solution. I must admit – I am over-simplifying this a bit (a lot actually) but I encourage you to investigate this product more on your own.","tags":["TechFieldDay","Miscellaneous"],"title":"All of Us Can Benefit From TechFieldDay"},{"content":"I was doing some installations yesterday – and I wanted to add a second NIC to a vSwitch on a set of newly installed servers. Of course there were 10 of them, and I did not want to do this manually.\nEasiest way to do it (besides installing them with a script correctly in the first place) was with PowerCLI.\nFrom the Set-VirtualSwitch help:\n-------------- Example 3 -------------- C:\\PS\u0026amp;gt;Get-VMHost *.128 | Get-VirtualSwitch | Select-Object -First 1 | Set-VirtualSwitch -Nic vmnic5 Add a physical network adapter named \u0026amp;#39;vmnic5\u0026amp;#39; to the first switch of the host. Note that the \u0026amp;#39;vmnic5\u0026amp;#39; adapter must not be assigned to other virtual switches. What I understand from that – you add an additional NIC to the vSwitch – it leaves the current assignment alone, it just adds another.\nAnd this is how I started out.\nSo I set out to add vmnic1 to the vSwitch\nGet-VirtualSwitch -Name vSwitch0 | Set-VirtualSwitch -Nic vmnic1\nThe command completed successfully – but look what happened:\nNow this is weird part. In the DCUI – I had no NIC’s selected for the management network.\nThe case I had yesterday was that the transition on the switches was not fast enough – and I lost connection to the host. ILO was needed to fix it.\nBut back to this morning. I tried this on a workstation vESX and it produced to different results.\nAfter running this command I was presented in the DCUI with the screen shot above but strangely enough I still had connection to the host.\nESXi Shell showed this:\nWhich was weird if you ask me.\nI restarted the management Network through the DCUI and still had the same screen as before but I had now lost connection to the network\nI then added vmnic0 back into the vSwitch through the DCUI\nI got my connection back..\nBut strangely enough in the vSphere client I saw this.\nWhich struck me as strange. I had this in the ESXi Shell\nAnd now I finally understood what was happening.. The uplink was added to vSwitch0 – but not to the management network Portgroup, which","date":"Nov 24, 2011","href":"/2011/11/set-virtualswitch-and-misunderstanding.html","summary":"I was doing some installations yesterday – and I wanted to add a second NIC to a vSwitch on a set of newly installed servers. Of course there were 10 of them, and I did not want to do this manually.\nEasiest way to do it (besides installing them with a script correctly in the first place) was with PowerCLI.\nFrom the Set-VirtualSwitch help:\n-------------- Example 3 -------------- C:\\PS\u0026gt;Get-VMHost *.128 | Get-VirtualSwitch | Select-Object -First 1 | Set-VirtualSwitch -Nic vmnic5 Add a physical network adapter named \u0026#39;vmnic5\u0026#39; to the first switch of the host. Note that the \u0026#39;vmnic5\u0026#39; adapter must not be assigned to other virtual switches. What I understand from that – you add an additional NIC to the vSwitch – it leaves the current assignment alone, it just adds another.","tags":["Management","vSphere","Administration","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"Set-VirtualSwitch and a Misunderstanding"},{"content":"That was an utter surprise to me. Seriously.\nI don’t actually know really, what to think about this though. Quest and VKernel are direct competitors.\nQuest acquired Vizioncore back in January 2008. It took 2 years until they discontinued the brand completely. So these words are something that still will need to be proven:\nVKernel, a leading provider of capacity management products for virtualized data centers and cloud environments, will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary of Quest.\nI find it hard to understand – why Quest would continue the product – vFoglight and VKernel are more or less the same, so to keep on development of two parallel products – does not make much business sense to me.\nIt seems the market is becoming more aggressive, and only the strong will survive.\nThis will be an interesting one to see how this rides out. And also to see if we will see any other acquisitions from other similar companies as well.\n","date":"Nov 17, 2011","href":"/2011/11/that-was-utter-surprise-to-me.html","summary":"That was an utter surprise to me. Seriously.\nI don’t actually know really, what to think about this though. Quest and VKernel are direct competitors.\nQuest acquired Vizioncore back in January 2008. It took 2 years until they discontinued the brand completely. So these words are something that still will need to be proven:\nVKernel, a leading provider of capacity management products for virtualized data centers and cloud environments, will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary of Quest.","tags":["Management","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Quest to Acquire VKernel – Say What?"},{"content":"I would like to give a shout out and a warm welcome to Embotics for joining on as a new sponsor for the blog.\nWhat does Embotics do?\nEmbotics provides easy-to-use, virtualization management and private cloud automation solutions with the fastest time-to-value in the industry\nWelcome aboard.\n","date":"Nov 15, 2011","href":"/2011/11/i-would-like-to-give-shout-out-and-warm.html","summary":"I would like to give a shout out and a warm welcome to Embotics for joining on as a new sponsor for the blog.\nWhat does Embotics do?\nEmbotics provides easy-to-use, virtualization management and private cloud automation solutions with the fastest time-to-value in the industry\nWelcome aboard.","tags":["Miscellaneous"],"title":"Welcome to Our New Sponsor – Embotics"},{"content":"I wanted to share with you another small example of how there are many ways to do things in PowerCLI. I wrote a post a while back about How to Speed Up Your PowerCLI Queries and there I came to the conclusion that not always is using Get-View faster.\nI came across a case that a customer had a snapshot that was taken (never mind the reason) on all the VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s and this snapshot is removed with a script thereafter.\nThey wanted to track the number of commitments left to complete.\nSo one way was\n$a = get-vm | Get-Snapshot -Name \u0026amp;#34;Thursday Backup\u0026amp;#34; Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#34; Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;$(Get-Date -Format hh:mm) - There are still $($a.count) Snapshots left\u0026amp;#34; Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#34; and that to complete this gave this result\n[12:17:42 PM] ~\u0026amp;gt; measure-command {$a = get-vm | Get-Snapshot –Name \u0026amp;#34;Thursday Backup\u0026amp;#34; ; Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#34;; Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;$(Get-Date -Format HH:mm) - There are still $($a.count) Snapshots left\u0026amp;#34;; Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#34;} 12:21 - There are still x Snapshots left Days : 0 Hours : 0 Minutes : 3 Seconds : 41 Milliseconds : 410 Ticks : 2214108194 TotalDays : 0.00256262522453704 TotalHours : 0.0615030053888889 TotalMinutes : 3.69018032333333 TotalSeconds : 221.4108194 TotalMilliseconds : 221410.8194 But there is a quicker way to do this.\nFunction Get-Snapsleft { $a = Get-View -ViewType Virtualmachine -Property Snapshot | % { $_.Snapshot | % { $($_.RootSnapshotList) } } $b = $a | ? {$_.Name -eq \u0026amp;#34;Thursday Backup\u0026amp;#34; } Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#34; Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;$(Get-Date -Format HH:mm) - There are still $($b.count) Snapshots left\u0026amp;#34; Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#34; $a=$b=$null } And how long did this take?\n[12:21:57 PM] ~\u0026amp;gt; Measure-Command {Get-Snapsleft} 12:26 - There are still x Snapshots left Days : 0 Hours : 0 Minutes : 0 Seconds : 2 Milliseconds : 359 Ticks : 23590940 TotalDays : 2.73043287037037E-05 TotalHours : 0.000655303888888889 TotalMinutes : 0.0393182333333333 TotalSeconds : 2.359094 TotalMilliseconds : 2359.094 That is one heck","date":"Nov 10, 2011","href":"/2011/11/many-ways-to-skin-cat-or-write-script.html","summary":"I wanted to share with you another small example of how there are many ways to do things in PowerCLI. I wrote a post a while back about How to Speed Up Your PowerCLI Queries and there I came to the conclusion that not always is using Get-View faster.\nI came across a case that a customer had a snapshot that was taken (never mind the reason) on all the VM\u0026rsquo;s and this snapshot is removed with a script thereafter.","tags":["vSphere","Scripting","Powershell","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"Many ways to skin a cat (or write a script)"},{"content":"I came across this one today, and am putting it here to document it ofr my own benefit. I needed a physical machine with one NIC to be able to have two different IP addresses on two different VLAN’s.\nOn Windows I am not sure if that is possible by default.\nSo how would you do it on Redhat Linux (taken from Howto: Configure Linux Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN))\nThis is the scenario. One network card with an IP of 192.168.10.1 (VLAN 10). I needed another interface on the same physical NIC with an IP address of 192.168.20.x (VLAN 20).\nFirst you copy the network configuration\ncp /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0.10\nMy original file looked like this:\nDEVICE=eth0 ONBOOT=yes BOOTPROTO=none NETMASK=255.255.255.0 IPADDR=192.168.10.1 USERCTL=no PEERDNS=yes TYPE=Ethernet IPV6INIT=no I needed to add in the VLAN info and change the device name (add VLAN=yes)\nDEVICE=eth0.10 ONBOOT=yes VLAN=yes BOOTPROTO=none NETMASK=255.255.255.0 IPADDR=192.168.10.1 USERCTL=no PEERDNS=yes TYPE=Ethernet IPV6INIT=no I then copied the file again to my second interface\ncp /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0.10 /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0.20\nand changed the IP address and device name\nDEVICE=eth0.20 ONBOOT=yes VLAN=yes BOOTPROTO=none NETMASK=255.255.255.0 IPADDR=192.168.20.1 USERCTL=no PEERDNS=yes TYPE=Ethernet IPV6INIT=no I then removed the original IP address information from /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0\nDEVICE=eth0 ONBOOT=yes BOOTPROTO=none USERCTL=no PEERDNS=yes TYPE=Ethernet IPV6INIT=no And restart the network service\nservice network restart\nOf course the configuration has to be done as well on the switch side as well to allow the trunk of both VLAN’s\nSwitch#(config)interface Gi3/41 Switch#(config-if)no switchport mode access Switch#(config-if)switchport mode trunk Switch#(config-if)switchport trunk allowed vlan 10,20 ","date":"Oct 10, 2011","href":"/2011/10/enabling-vlan-tagging-on-redhat-linux.html","summary":"I came across this one today, and am putting it here to document it ofr my own benefit. I needed a physical machine with one NIC to be able to have two different IP addresses on two different VLAN’s.\nOn Windows I am not sure if that is possible by default.\nSo how would you do it on Redhat Linux (taken from Howto: Configure Linux Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN))\nThis is the scenario. One network card with an IP of 192.168.10.1 (VLAN 10). I needed another interface on the same physical NIC with an IP address of 192.168.20.x (VLAN 20).","tags":["Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"Enabling VLAN tagging on Redhat Linux"},{"content":"This is something we have been asking for years and it was only available up until now in VMware View. We can finally connect a USB device to a VM running on ESXi. No additional licensing required!!!!!\nFrom the What\u0026amp;rsquo;s New in vSphere 5.0\nCould it be that simple? Well actually yes it is.\nThis is my host (in this case the free vSphere Hypervisor)\nHere you have a VM Virtual Hardware version 8 (I was not able to test with Version 7 so if you would like to try and add a comment here - that would be great!!)\nAdd a USB Controller to the VM\nYou can choose either USB 2.0 or USB 3.0\nAnd here is the VM Configuration after the addition.\nAfter adding the USB controller to the VM, these parameters are added to the VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s configuration (.vmx) file.\nAfter the machine has come up it now has a USB controller in its device manager.\nIn the vSphere Client I can now attach USB devices that are connected to the my computer to the VM running on this ESX host.\nWhen I connect the USB device to the VM I get this warning - which is similar to the one you get when doing the same with Workstation\nOnce connected to the VM - it shows up in the Device manager and in this case also as a local drive.\nAnd of course the details are updated in the .vmx itself\nThis opens up a whole new world of connecting peripheral devices to the VM. I do wonder though what it will mean to all of the companies that have created solutions that were able to solve these issues until now with a USB-over-IP solution. (Digi)\nIt would be interesting to hear what kind of use you could make of this new feature in your environment. Feel free to drop a comment below.\n","date":"Sep 18, 2011","href":"/2011/09/connecting-usb-device-to-esxi-50-vm.html","summary":"This is something we have been asking for years and it was only available up until now in VMware View. We can finally connect a USB device to a VM running on ESXi. No additional licensing required!!!!!\nFrom the What\u0026rsquo;s New in vSphere 5.0\nCould it be that simple? Well actually yes it is.\nThis is my host (in this case the free vSphere Hypervisor)\nHere you have a VM Virtual Hardware version 8 (I was not able to test with Version 7 so if you would like to try and add a comment here - that would be great!!)","tags":["Management","vSphere","ESXi","vSphere Hypervisor","VMware"],"title":"Connecting a USB device to an ESXi 5.0 VM"},{"content":"The title of the post is actually misleading - on purpose - because there is no netstat for ESXi. The reason that I bring this up today is because of a Twitter conversation from today regarding SSH access and VMkernel interfaces. I was looking to see which ports were open and what interfaces were listening.\nBut that is a different post.\nWhat is netstat? according to Wikipedia:\nnetstat (network statistics) is a command-line tool that displays network connections (both incoming and outgoing), routing tables, and a number of network interface statistics. It is available on Unix, Unix-like, and Windows NT-based operating systems.\nWhy would you use it? For one thing for example, to check if a host has an open connection on a certain port, if it is listening on a certain port - for troubleshooting purposes would be the proper answer.\nSo how do you get that information on ESXi?\nTrying netstat on an ESXi host does not work - because that command is not there - see the screenshot below.\nWell that is not good - if the command is not in the busybox console then how would you go about getting that information? Well of course the clever people at VMware have already thought about this and have exposed all this information through esxcli. William Lam wrote a great set of posts on esxcli\nesxcli Part1 - What is esxcli? esxcli Part2 - Automating esxcli using vMA esxcli Part3 - Automating esxcli using PowerShell This is how you would go about getting the information from esxcli. (Be aware the command differ according to the different versions - 4.x is not the same as 5.x)\nesxcli network ip connection list\nThat is fine and dandy - but to get that info you need to either:\nhave access to the DCUI (and have it enabled of course)\nor access remotely with SSH (and also have it enabled of course) But what if you do not want to enable neither of the above - that means you have to do it remotelyand for that you have two options, vCLI or PowerCLI.\nThe vCLI way esxcli --server esx1.maishsk.local","date":"Sep 13, 2011","href":"/2011/09/netstat-for-esxi.html","summary":"The title of the post is actually misleading - on purpose - because there is no netstat for ESXi. The reason that I bring this up today is because of a Twitter conversation from today regarding SSH access and VMkernel interfaces. I was looking to see which ports were open and what interfaces were listening.\nBut that is a different post.\nWhat is netstat? according to Wikipedia:\nnetstat (network statistics) is a command-line tool that displays network connections (both incoming and outgoing), routing tables, and a number of network interface statistics. It is available on Unix, Unix-like, and Windows NT-based operating systems.","tags":["ESXi","Scripting","esxcli","Administration","vCLI","PowerCLI"],"title":"netstat for ESXi"},{"content":"I received an email today\nSeptember 7, 2011\nDear VMware Beta Candidate\nCongratulations! You have passed the new VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 5 (VCP5)\ncertification exam. Thank you for your participation in the beta exam. Your input and participation were invaluable to this process.\nWe will be adding this certification to your transcript within the next three weeks. You will receive an email notification with additional instructions once your education transcript has been updated. Physical certificates will be sent after your shipping address has been confirmed. Please contact certification@vmware.com if you do not receive your notification. Please include your Candidate ID from your exam score report.\nThank you for participating in the VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 5 (VCP5) beta exam and congratulations once again on becoming one of the first VCP5s!\nI think this is the last time I will take a Beta exam. It is a lengthy and not trivial process.\nLet me run you through the flow of a Beta Exam.\nBeta is announced. Hope you know someone - that will get you in on the Beta of that product. Play with the product on your lab. Close enough to GA of the product - depending on the case a beta Exam will be come available. Pray there is an available slot in the tight timeframe that the beta is open - usually 7-10 days. Book the Exam - almost always it costs money (less than a regular exam) Look over the blueprint - and rely on your experience and knowledge of the product, because there is no-one who can help you out here. You are on your own. And this is the worst - sit for about 4 hours - going over 100-200 questions, some of them are so whacky - some are intentionally wrong and some plain stupid. This is the worst part of the whole process. Sitting for that amount of time is not an tedious and exhausting experience. And then wait - 6-8 weeks after that - to see if you passed or not. Usually people that have taken the live exam after launch get their","date":"Sep 8, 2011","href":"/2011/09/vcp-5-beta-exam-pass-but-it-aint-easy.html","summary":"I received an email today\nSeptember 7, 2011\nDear VMware Beta Candidate\nCongratulations! You have passed the new VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 5 (VCP5)\ncertification exam. Thank you for your participation in the beta exam. Your input and participation were invaluable to this process.\nWe will be adding this certification to your transcript within the next three weeks. You will receive an email notification with additional instructions once your education transcript has been updated. Physical certificates will be sent after your shipping address has been confirmed. Please contact certification@vmware.com if you do not receive your notification. Please include your Candidate ID from your exam score report.","tags":["Beta","VCP","VMware","Certification"],"title":"VCP 5 Beta Exam - a Pass - but it aint easy"},{"content":"As always the VMworld labs are always a hit. Everyone wants to try out the new technology, see the new stuff, and get a hands on feeling with the latest and greatest. To add to my HoL post from VMworld, the Fast Pass was gone within a very short time, so my apologies about that one.\nBorrowing from Duncan Epping\u0026amp;rsquo;s post VMworld Labs 2011.\nThe labs were (as they always are) impressive, two monitors at each seat, with a thin client. A great user experience, albeit a bit sluggish at times. The aquarium was nice touch and a good visual aid as to what was was being deployed during the show. By the way - the racing car dashboard from last year - beats the pants off the aquarium. Just sayin..\nOne of the sessions I attended was LAS4000 VMworld Labs Hardware Architecture. Here I learned several things some I found surprising, and others not. The not first.\nThe entire infrastructure was running in the cloud. Why was this not surprising - because - Cloud is what VMware is selling, it is their vision. It is what they are betting their chips on. So they have to (and rightfully should) present solutions using this technology.\nI was surprised to hear..\nThe entire Lab Environment was running on NFS. Not FC, not FCoE, only NFS. That is change from previous years. If my memory serves e well, last year is was mostly FC and a small amount of NFS storage.\nEMC was not the only player for the underlying spindles. Nexenta (a much smaller company) was used to power a good amount of the storage used for the labs. I was originally led to believe that it was only Nexenta storage, but that turned out to not be entirely accurate.\nA few closing comments regarding the organization.\nExtending the labs to provide options to test also the partner integration is a great addition - just it should be kept to a minimum (like it was).\nWaiting in line for 45 minutes to get a lab seat is not good. Not for those who want to take the labs. That time spent in line is wasted - it could have been spent on","date":"Sep 7, 2011","href":"/2011/09/vmworld-labs-addendum.html","summary":"As always the VMworld labs are always a hit. Everyone wants to try out the new technology, see the new stuff, and get a hands on feeling with the latest and greatest. To add to my HoL post from VMworld, the Fast Pass was gone within a very short time, so my apologies about that one.\nBorrowing from Duncan Epping\u0026rsquo;s post VMworld Labs 2011.\nThe labs were (as they always are) impressive, two monitors at each seat, with a thin client. A great user experience, albeit a bit sluggish at times. The aquarium was nice touch and a good visual aid as to what was was being deployed during the show. By the way - the racing car dashboard from last year - beats the pants off the aquarium. Just sayin..","tags":["Lab","VMworld","VMware"],"title":"VMworld Labs - Addendum"},{"content":"As always they are brilliant!! The lines are long - at some time during the days it calms down but it is well worth the wait\nI took one lab yesterday HOL24 with the Horizon App Manager. It looks like a really great product.\nSome info from yesterdays VMware mail.Take note of the last sentence.\nHands-on Labs\nEven though the Solutions Exchange closes tonight at 5:30pm, you can stop by and take a Lab until 10:00pm – or- stop by tomorrow morning at 7:00am.\nSo far 4,900 labs have been with 54,000 VMs deployed, and any attendee who has completed more than 4 labs can now get a Fast Pass which will get you to the front of the line.\n","date":"Aug 31, 2011","href":"/2011/08/vmware-hol-hands-on-labs.html","summary":"As always they are brilliant!! The lines are long - at some time during the days it calms down but it is well worth the wait\nI took one lab yesterday HOL24 with the Horizon App Manager. It looks like a really great product.\nSome info from yesterdays VMware mail.Take note of the last sentence.\nHands-on Labs\nEven though the Solutions Exchange closes tonight at 5:30pm, you can stop by and take a Lab until 10:00pm – or- stop by tomorrow morning at 7:00am.","tags":["Lab","VMworld","VMware"],"title":"VMworld HoL (Hands on Labs)"},{"content":"This is going to be fun!! Why you may ask?\nbecause it has never been done before it is a great idea more than 400 people have already registered for this session. This was Duncan Epping\u0026amp;rsquo;s brainchild.Bring a group of vExpert\u0026amp;rsquo;s together - and make an entertaining session out of it all. VMworld is all about knowledge, well ok also about technology a bit, and beer a bit as well, but what good is knowledge if you cannot share it with others?\nThere will be 3 Teams.\nvExpert Team – The Raging vBulls Chad “Warrior-Monk” Sakac Jason “vTerminator” Boche Maish “vBeliever” Saidel-Keesing Eric “Link Master” Siebert vExpert Team – vPredators Vaughn “Sgt NFS” Stewart Tom “VDI Warrior” Howarth Mike “Axel” Foley Scott “VMGuru” Herold VMware Team – vRaminators Frank “distributed” Denneman John “VCDX 001″ Arrasjid Kit “VC Ops” Colbert Massimo “Hybrid Cloud” Re Ferre I like all the \u0026amp;ldquo;nicknames\u0026amp;rdquo; we all have attached to the our names (and I will not tell you what the original name Duncan thought of for me [movie star])\nThe vPredators will compete against the Raging vBiulls - and the winner of that round will go up against the vRaminators.\nIt is going to be a blast, buzzers and all all, John Troyer, Duncan Epping, and a special mystery judge will be present as well.\nIf you have not already signed up - do so!!\n","date":"Aug 29, 2011","href":"/2011/08/esxi-quiz-show-vsp1956.html","summary":"This is going to be fun!! Why you may ask?\nbecause it has never been done before it is a great idea more than 400 people have already registered for this session. This was Duncan Epping\u0026rsquo;s brainchild.Bring a group of vExpert\u0026rsquo;s together - and make an entertaining session out of it all. VMworld is all about knowledge, well ok also about technology a bit, and beer a bit as well, but what good is knowledge if you cannot share it with others?","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous"],"title":"The ESXi Quiz Show - VSP1956"},{"content":"So my day started off not so well. Irene - you must have heard about that gal somewhere, that small little storm that was blowing up on the East coast? Seriously though, I hope that it does not cause too much damage and everyone stays safe and healthy.\nMy original itinerary was to fly at 00:05 on Saturday night from TLV to JFK, a stop-over of 2.5 hours and from there to Las Vegas.\nI was notified that the flight to JFK had been cancelled. Bah!!! I started to look at the alternatives that were available from Delta, and on their site they said that nothing was available un till Tuesday. An then I felt really bad. I have been looking forward to coming to this event for almost a year, and because of a higher power - despite all my planning and work - this would not happen.\nI would like here to publicly commend the staff from Ivy Worldwide (they are partially sponsoring my trip) who went above and beyond to get me another flight. Within an hour - they had Delta on the phone. and had me booked on an alternate route to the US.\nThis meant that I was going to arrive in Las Vegas 5 hours later - but hey - that\u0026amp;rsquo;s life. I flew from TLV to Amsterdam, short stop-over, from Amsterdam to Minneapolis, another short stop-over, and then from there to Las Vegas. A long trip, not enough sleep, but what we won\u0026amp;rsquo;t do to make our dreams come true.\nI am currently writing this in the middle of the second leg of the journey, and still have another 7 hours of travel, but I am looking forward to arriving later in the day, Joining for the rest of the vExpert program update and maybe getting some sleep somewhere in the next week :)\nThat was day 0. I am almost there!!\n","date":"Aug 28, 2011","href":"/2011/08/vmworld-2011-day-0.html","summary":"So my day started off not so well. Irene - you must have heard about that gal somewhere, that small little storm that was blowing up on the East coast? Seriously though, I hope that it does not cause too much damage and everyone stays safe and healthy.\nMy original itinerary was to fly at 00:05 on Saturday night from TLV to JFK, a stop-over of 2.5 hours and from there to Las Vegas.","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous"],"title":"VMworld 2011 Day 0"},{"content":"This is a repost of the original blog posted on the VMworld site\nTake VMworld with You on the Go The Mobile Web App\niOS Application for the App Store\nMake sure you have VMworld with you while at the conference with the official VMworld 2011 mobile application. It is a show program, breakout session schedule builder and Solutions Exchange guide for attendees of the VMworld conference. The application is synced to email stations throughout the event and is compatible with iPhone, BlackBerry, and all other smartphones.\nWith the mobile application, you can:\nView sessions by day and track Schedule Breakout Sessions View Hands-on Labs Browse exhibitor listings by name Find your way around the expo Create a personal agenda containing the Breakout Sessions you pre-registered for Complete session surveys Follow the event’s Twitter stream Receive the latest conference news Visit www.vmworld.com/mobile on your phone to download and install the official VMworld mobile application.\n","date":"Aug 26, 2011","href":"/2011/08/vmworld-2011-mobile-apps.html","summary":"This is a repost of the original blog posted on the VMworld site\nTake VMworld with You on the Go The Mobile Web App\niOS Application for the App Store\nMake sure you have VMworld with you while at the conference with the official VMworld 2011 mobile application. It is a show program, breakout session schedule builder and Solutions Exchange guide for attendees of the VMworld conference. The application is synced to email stations throughout the event and is compatible with iPhone, BlackBerry, and all other smartphones.","tags":["VMworld","VMware"],"title":"VMworld 2011 Mobile Apps"},{"content":" The Program Guide is now available.\nGet it here\n(No breadcrumbs that I could find regarding what will be happening next year.. Sorry!)\n","date":"Aug 26, 2011","href":"/2011/08/vmworld-2011-us-program-guide.html","summary":" The Program Guide is now available.\nGet it here\n(No breadcrumbs that I could find regarding what will be happening next year.. Sorry!)","tags":["VMworld","VMware"],"title":"VMworld 2011 US Program Guide"},{"content":"This will be the 3rd and final post for the Bloggers Reality Contest that I am participating in before VMworld 2011.\nThe topic we will be dealing with today is converged networking.\nWhy is it necessary? A few years ago, when I was starting out with virtualization, I started out with rack mount servers. From the start I knew that I would be using Network attached storage - and that the minimum amount of network cards I would need for my for these ESX servers was 6 1Gb NICs, two for management and vMotion, two for network traffic for the virtual machines and two more for iSCSI / NFS. It became apparent very quickly that this does not scale, for a number of reasons.\nThe connection of each ESX host to two redundant switches, become a cumbersome process, which takes up a considerable amount of time both of the Networking team and the Server Team as well. Connecting the ports to the correct switches, making sure that the VLANs are set for each network port and so on. It became evident that using 6 ports for each ESX server would leave no free ports for the rest of the servers in that rack. Each patch panel has 16 ports by default. 2 ESX servers per rack - eat up almost all of the ports immediately, which means either running more that 16/24 ports to each rack, or limiting myself to how many ESX servers I can install in each rack. In short, this is not an easy process So how would you solve this? That is where 10Gb Ethernet comes in. Instead of running those six 1Gb NICs I mentioned above - run two 10Gb NICs - that will give you all the throughput you had before, and then some, of course redundancy included.\nUnfortunately though, this does solve all of your problems. What happens if you also need connectivity to a Fiber channel array? That means more cables coming out of your servers - more port being used (be they ethernet or SAN fabric).\nAnd all of the above of course is relevant also for the Storage stack as well.\nWhat are the solutions out there? If someone were to ask","date":"Aug 24, 2011","href":"/2011/08/i-want-more-bandwidth-but-kiss-brc2k11.html","summary":"This will be the 3rd and final post for the Bloggers Reality Contest that I am participating in before VMworld 2011.\nThe topic we will be dealing with today is converged networking.\nWhy is it necessary? A few years ago, when I was starting out with virtualization, I started out with rack mount servers. From the start I knew that I would be using Network attached storage - and that the minimum amount of network cards I would need for my for these ESX servers was 6 1Gb NICs, two for management and vMotion, two for network traffic for the virtual machines and two more for iSCSI / NFS. It became apparent very quickly that this does not scale, for a number of reasons.","tags":["Contest","VMworld","Blogger","Miscellaneous"],"title":"I Want More Bandwidth - but KISS - BRC2K11"},{"content":"As an addition to Luc Deken\u0026amp;rsquo;s and Jonathan Medd\u0026amp;rsquo;s great VIProperty Module, I wanted to add one property that I found useful.\nEver wanted to know how many vMotions have been made in your clusters?\nUsing the GUI is fine, but not for more than one cluster. You can see the option on the summary tab of your cluster\nAnd of course the PowerCLI way.\nNew-VIProperty -Name NumberVmotions -ObjectType Cluster -Value { param($cluster) $cluster.ExtensionData.Summary.NumVmotions } -force And now you have a new parameter called NumVMotions (and yes that the way VMware defined the property)\n[18:11:39 PM] ~\u0026amp;gt; Get-Cluster RD | select Name, NumberOfHosts, NumCPU, NumberOfVMs, NumberVmotions Name : RD NumberOfHosts : 6 NumCPU : 52 NumberOfVMs : 384 NumberVmotions : 2170 And for all your clusters..\nGet-Cluster | select Name, NumberVmotions | ft -AutoSize Great Module!!!!\n","date":"Aug 18, 2011","href":"/2011/08/how-many-vmotions-powercli-way.html","summary":"As an addition to Luc Deken\u0026rsquo;s and Jonathan Medd\u0026rsquo;s great VIProperty Module, I wanted to add one property that I found useful.\nEver wanted to know how many vMotions have been made in your clusters?\nUsing the GUI is fine, but not for more than one cluster. You can see the option on the summary tab of your cluster\nAnd of course the PowerCLI way.\nNew-VIProperty -Name NumberVmotions -ObjectType Cluster -Value { param($cluster) $cluster.ExtensionData.Summary.NumVmotions } -force And now you have a new parameter called NumVMotions (and yes that the way VMware defined the property)","tags":["Scripting","Powershell","PowerCLI"],"title":"How many vMotions?? - The PowerCLI Way"},{"content":"On Wednesday night I participated on session 2 of the Blogger Reality Contest. From the rankings that were published on Wednesday - I am actually not doing so well (so your continued and strengthened support would be appreciated) - but hey this is not about the competition - it is all about the participation. It is great to interact with a whole new set of people, and I am sure that the relationships built during these three weeks will last. But let\u0026amp;rsquo;s get back to the technology part of it.\nWednesday\u0026amp;rsquo;s topic was Converged Systems. I will not bother you all again with the converged part, we covered that all last week, and the three topics covered were:\nHP VirtualSystem HP CloudSystem HP AppSystems The one I would like to cover here in more detail is HP CloudSystem. A while back I wrote a post about The Datacenter - in a Few Years From Now where I presented this graphic below.\nThe relevant part I think is the one here below\nAnd what does this have to with cloud though? The way I see cloud vision is having your pool of resources from which you can provision your applications and vApps to your end users. At the moment this is limited to a cloud for each Hypervisor. I cannot have a VMware vCloud that has Hypervisors that are not ESX. I cannot have a Microsoft Cloud with Hypervisors that are not Hyper-V and so on.. Yes, there are some products that will allow you to manage the multiple clouds under one \u0026amp;ldquo;umbrella\u0026amp;rdquo; and place the VM in your Hyper-V cluster or ESX Cluster or RHV Cluster according to different criteria. But today they still need to be separate clusters. Utilizing such an idea will make my infrastructure completely vendor agnostic - and I (the customer) could pick and choose whichever hypervisor suits me.\nVMware has their cloud product - vCloud Director. Microsoft has their Private Cloud, Redhat has their CloudForms, Citrix has their Project Olympus. The purpose of this post is, not to get into who has the best cloud offering, nor who has","date":"Aug 14, 2011","href":"/2011/08/orchestration-will-rule-them-all.html","summary":"On Wednesday night I participated on session 2 of the Blogger Reality Contest. From the rankings that were published on Wednesday - I am actually not doing so well (so your continued and strengthened support would be appreciated) - but hey this is not about the competition - it is all about the participation. It is great to interact with a whole new set of people, and I am sure that the relationships built during these three weeks will last. But let\u0026rsquo;s get back to the technology part of it.","tags":["Virtualization","Contest","Management","Blogger","Hyper-V","Miscellaneous","Administration","Cloud"],"title":"Orchestration Will Rule Them All BRC2K11"},{"content":"Last year I posted a list of all of the sessions available for VMworld Copenhagen (there is an improvement this year with the session builder - but it still leaves a lot of space for improvement), and here is one for VMworld 2011 US.\nClick on the image below to get an Excel spreadsheet of all the sessions (updated as of yesterday). Easy to filter on time, Speaker, Track, Session Type etc.\nYou still need to actually register for a session to participate.\nLess than 3 weeks and counting\u0026amp;hellip;\n","date":"Aug 8, 2011","href":"/2011/08/list-of-sessions-for-vmworld-2011-us.html","summary":"Last year I posted a list of all of the sessions available for VMworld Copenhagen (there is an improvement this year with the session builder - but it still leaves a lot of space for improvement), and here is one for VMworld 2011 US.\nClick on the image below to get an Excel spreadsheet of all the sessions (updated as of yesterday). Easy to filter on time, Speaker, Track, Session Type etc.","tags":["VMworld","VMware"],"title":"List of sessions for VMworld 2011 US"},{"content":"So here it comes, Blogger Reality Contest - Session #1. We all participated in a briefing of HP\u0026amp;rsquo;s Converged Storage Solutions\nBut before even starting about what we learned, I asked myself what is converged storage? Well it seems that it is actually an HP term - because on Google there is not very much else besides answers that pertain to HP (small mention there of a another company - Nimble).\nOK - so that did not help much. So so what is Converged Storage then? Storage we all know - is that small little thing that all of our data is kept - you know what I mean? Those 3.5\u0026amp;quot; Floppies? And converged well I actually went and looked that one up on the www.\nOut of all of the definitions, I think that either the 1st or the 3rd is most appropriate for what we are discussing here. Actually a bit of both.\nI do not consider myself a storage expert - not by a long shot. But what I can say, is that during my day-to-day work I deal with storage - A LOT - and have had experience with a several vendors, be it IBM, HP, NetApp, EMC, Nexenta and some others as well.\nSo how do I perceive how HP envisions Converged Storage?\nNot everyone starts up buying a small NAS device and then when the business grows and expands you need to start looking out at proper storage. So in here come the bigger vendors. But ideally - what I would like from an IT point of view would be getting a Storage array that can grow as my company grows. And if that could actually be done with the least amount of downtime when I need to expand then that is great. And here is what HP are proposing to offer.\nStart off small. Get what you need out of your array, make use of its maximum potential. But when you grow you will want an easy upgrade or an easy path for expansion. Allow me to expand as much as I want. In the beginning I started by fixing computers in my garage and I will grow to be the next VMware / Google / Amazon / Microsoft. I will need a storage platform that will grow with me and my business.\nAnd","date":"Aug 4, 2011","href":"/2011/08/hp-and-minority-report-also-converged.html","summary":"So here it comes, Blogger Reality Contest - Session #1. We all participated in a briefing of HP\u0026rsquo;s Converged Storage Solutions\nBut before even starting about what we learned, I asked myself what is converged storage? Well it seems that it is actually an HP term - because on Google there is not very much else besides answers that pertain to HP (small mention there of a another company - Nimble).\nOK - so that did not help much. So so what is Converged Storage then? Storage we all know - is that small little thing that all of our data is kept - you know what I mean? Those 3.5\u0026quot; Floppies? And converged well I actually went and looked that one up on the www.","tags":["Reality","Contest","VMworld","Blogger","Storage","Administration"],"title":"HP and Minority Report (also Converged Storage)"},{"content":"The first rumor of this was mentioned here by Gabrie van Zanten\nThe original levels were as follows:\nAs I mentioned on a previous post of mine vSphere 5 Licensing is (some kind of) per-VM licensing - VMware took a huge amount of flack from this. People were very verbal - very blunt and on the competition\u0026amp;rsquo;s side very, very pleased. The thread below has been extremely busy since the announcement, reminds me of the good old days..\nThe first sign of the change was with the announcement Update on VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP) - where the mention of a maximum cap of allocated vRAM (reserved) to be counted - in this case 24GB\nThen came along Gabrie\u0026amp;rsquo;s post and another from Derek Seaman\nAnd these are the new entitlements\nIn my previous post on Licensing I explained where this would really hit people hard.\nSo how does this change help the Essentials customers with a the raise from 24 -\u0026amp;gt; 32GB Ram per Socket?\nIn essence - not that much. The extra addition of 16GB of RAM will not help those who have already gone beyond the 64GB ram. But to tell you honestly - if you are already packing your server with amounts of RAM above that - then you should not be using the Essentials bundles - from a business perspective, the amount of VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s (or the kind of critical VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s - i.e. High resource VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s) on such high capacity servers, should have much stronger features backing them which are only possible to get in the Enterprise and up editions.\nAnd what about high density servers? well here there is a different story. Those with such big servers will usually purchase the high-end licenses. And in this case the potential damage caused by the previous levels has been alleviated. Most 2 socket ESX hosts I know are under 192 GB of RAM - so they should be ok. and the same with 4 socket servers - under 384 GB RAM.\nI would like to stress on more time - these levels are not installed RAM but currently, powered on VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s allocated RAM\nOne more loud complaint","date":"Aug 3, 2011","href":"/2011/08/vsphere-5-0-vram-entitlements-are-to-be.html","summary":"The first rumor of this was mentioned here by Gabrie van Zanten\nThe original levels were as follows:\nAs I mentioned on a previous post of mine vSphere 5 Licensing is (some kind of) per-VM licensing - VMware took a huge amount of flack from this. People were very verbal - very blunt and on the competition\u0026rsquo;s side very, very pleased. The thread below has been extremely busy since the announcement, reminds me of the good old days..","tags":["VMworld","vSphere","vSphere Hypervisor","Administration","VMware","Licensing"],"title":"vSphere 5. 0 vRAM Entitlements are to be changed"},{"content":"Who uses vCenter Converter? Well I do.\nSo I have some bad news for you. It looks like the built-in converter plugin which was part of vCenter 4.x will be no more.\nThis is screen shot from the Beta\nThis I used for performing the import of VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s into the my Virtual Infrastructure right from the vSphere client as in the screenshot below.\nBut this is all going away.\nI will still use the Standalone version (5.0 is in Public Beta) but this feature will be missed (at least by me).\n","date":"Aug 1, 2011","href":"/2011/08/vmware-vcenter-converter-to-be-retired.html","summary":"Who uses vCenter Converter? Well I do.\nSo I have some bad news for you. It looks like the built-in converter plugin which was part of vCenter 4.x will be no more.\nThis is screen shot from the Beta\nThis I used for performing the import of VM\u0026rsquo;s into the my Virtual Infrastructure right from the vSphere client as in the screenshot below.","tags":["Administration","VMware","vCenter","Converter"],"title":"VMware vCenter Converter to be Retired"},{"content":"Last week I blogged about how I was going to get to VMworld, and all of this is due to the fact that I am participating in a Blogger Reality Contest.\nOur first session will be this Tuesday Session 1: Converged Storage\nAfter this session I will post an article on my thoughts on the solution presented.\nAnd this is where I will need your help. 60% of the points allocated to each contestant will be counted by reactions from my Twitter and blog followers. Since that I have a large number of people following me - hence the request for your assistance. The other 40% of the score will be given by the judges themselves.\nThe scoring mechanism is actually quite simple and is based on the reaction of those who read the article. On each article there will be a poll similar to this one below. Feel free to try out the test form\nll you will have to do is put in your vote (and if you really think my post sucked the big one - then feel free to put your No vote.)\nThe more people that vote, the higher the score - up to a maximum of 60/100 so…\nKeep your browsers tuned and come on and join the ride…\n","date":"Jul 31, 2011","href":"/2011/07/blogger-reality-show-starts-on-tuesday.html","summary":"Last week I blogged about how I was going to get to VMworld, and all of this is due to the fact that I am participating in a Blogger Reality Contest.\nOur first session will be this Tuesday Session 1: Converged Storage\nAfter this session I will post an article on my thoughts on the solution presented.\nAnd this is where I will need your help. 60% of the points allocated to each contestant will be counted by reactions from my Twitter and blog followers. Since that I have a large number of people following me - hence the request for your assistance. The other 40% of the score will be given by the judges themselves.","tags":["Reality","VMworld","Blogger","Show","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Blogger Reality Show - Starts on Tuesday"},{"content":"Today is a special day.\nNot for me, but for someone that not only I think has done such a great service to the VMware community - but so many other agree as well.\nAnd that is you John Troyer!\nInstead of a present we all decided to say thank you - in a way that we all do best, through our blogs.\nI wish you many happy returns, lots of good times in the future and may the upcoming years be as great a ride as these past few years have turned out to be.\nMazel Tov and Happy Birthday!!\nHappy Birthday John!\n","date":"Jul 24, 2011","href":"/2011/07/special-happy-birthday-to-john-troyer.html","summary":"Today is a special day.\nNot for me, but for someone that not only I think has done such a great service to the VMware community - but so many other agree as well.\nAnd that is you John Troyer!\nInstead of a present we all decided to say thank you - in a way that we all do best, through our blogs.\nI wish you many happy returns, lots of good times in the future and may the upcoming years be as great a ride as these past few years have turned out to be.","tags":["Miscellaneous"],"title":"A Special Happy Birthday to John Troyer vTHNX"},{"content":"First let me say - Yes!!!!!!!!\nAfter a back and forth - and some uncertainty - I can finally say that I am going to be at VMworld next month. Copenhagen was out of the question for me this year because it falls smack bang in the middle of the Jewish Holiday of Sukkot.\nSo how did this all come about? It all started with small item I saw on Twitter\n[Blog] C\u0026amp;rsquo;mon Down..A sweet Bloggers Reality Show contest I\u0026amp;rsquo;m hosting for VMworld 2K11. Sign up today https://bit.ly/quVZMBMon Jul 11 16:15:34 via TweetDeck Thomas Jones Niketown588\nThomas Jones put together a small bloggers contest - a reality show of some sorts. Now I sure hope that I will not need to jump off any buildings - nor have a camera strapped to my head the whole time in Vegas - it is actually a lot more conservative and simple than that. Out of the number of bloggers that applied there were 8 chosen (in no particular order)\nMatthew Norwood (https://www.insearchoftech.com/)\nMichael Letschin (https://thesolutionsarchitect.com/)\nLuigi Danakos (www.nerdblurt.com)\nMatthew Brender (https://itechthereforeiam.com/)\nPhillip Sellers (www.tech.philipsellers.com)\nDavid Hurst (https://thesuperdave.com/)\nand yours truly..\nOver the course of the next few weeks we will all undergo some training sessions - on different topics related to Networking, Storage and Cloud. After each of these sessions we will all post a blog about what we have learned. This can be a written blog or a video blog - I think I will be sticking to text - due to the fact that I suck at video - and I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t think you want to see my ugly mug on your screen anyway.\nAbout how this will work - I will describe in another post next week.\nBesides the amazing fact that I will now be able to come to VMworld in Las Vegas, I see this as a great opportunity to get to know a whole new crowd of people. Not all of the above listed are virtualization bloggers - and most of them I had not even heard of before this contest. I have met and spent some time with","date":"Jul 22, 2011","href":"/2011/07/so-i-am-coming-to-vmworld-on-with-show.html","summary":"First let me say - Yes!!!!!!!!\nAfter a back and forth - and some uncertainty - I can finally say that I am going to be at VMworld next month. Copenhagen was out of the question for me this year because it falls smack bang in the middle of the Jewish Holiday of Sukkot.\nSo how did this all come about? It all started with small item I saw on Twitter\n[Blog] C\u0026rsquo;mon Down..A sweet Bloggers Reality Show contest I\u0026rsquo;m hosting for VMworld 2K11. Sign up today https://bit.ly/quVZMBMon Jul 11 16:15:34 via TweetDeck Thomas Jones Niketown588","tags":["Contest","VMworld","Miscellaneous"],"title":"So I am coming to VMworld - On with the Show!"},{"content":"A while ago VMware released their VMware Zimbra for Android (VZA).\nThe developers Chitong Chung and Ben Kolin described the fling as follows:\nVMware Zimbra for Android (VZA) is a native Android collaboration application that allows you to access your email, calendar, contacts, tasks and files from any Android device, specifically smartphones and tablets. VZA supports any Microsoft ActiveSync compliant email server and also supports the VMware Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS). With ZCS as the backend, VZA offers several additional ZCS-only features such as Briefcase, Saved Searches, etc. that are not available in any of the Android email applications in the market today. VZA was tested with Microsoft Exchange 2003, 2007 and 2010 and Zimbra Collaboration Suite 6.x and 7.x. It supports Android 2.x and 3.x. Check out the video to get an overview of some of the features but more than anything else, download and give it a spin. We welcome your feedback.\nI decided to actually try and connect this to a Google account. A short while ago I configured my first iPhone to connect to Gmail. The configuration there was struck me at the time as quite strange at the time. Here is the official Google how-to. They suggest that you configure the Google account as an Exchange ActiveSync account.\nThe VZA connects ActiveSync Compliant email servers.. Hmmm..\nIt also connects to Gmail. Here\u0026amp;rsquo;s How.\nChoose Manual Setup\nIn the Server Address field, enter m.google.com.\nLeave the Domain field blank.\nIn the Email Address field, enter your full Google Account email address.\nEnter your full Google Account email address as the User Name.\nEnter your Google Account password as the Password.\nCheck both boxes regarding the SSL certificates.\nAnd here you go.\nOf course there is no GAL - but both Calendar and Contacts Sync. Calendar is both ways, Contacts I am not sure.\n","date":"Jul 18, 2011","href":"/2011/07/using-vmware-zimbra-fling-with-gmail.html","summary":"A while ago VMware released their VMware Zimbra for Android (VZA).\nThe developers Chitong Chung and Ben Kolin described the fling as follows:\nVMware Zimbra for Android (VZA) is a native Android collaboration application that allows you to access your email, calendar, contacts, tasks and files from any Android device, specifically smartphones and tablets. VZA supports any Microsoft ActiveSync compliant email server and also supports the VMware Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS). With ZCS as the backend, VZA offers several additional ZCS-only features such as Briefcase, Saved Searches, etc. that are not available in any of the Android email applications in the market today. VZA was tested with Microsoft Exchange 2003, 2007 and 2010 and Zimbra Collaboration Suite 6.x and 7.x. It supports Android 2.x and 3.x. Check out the video to get an overview of some of the features but more than anything else, download and give it a spin. We welcome your feedback.","tags":["Zimbra","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Using VMware Zimbra Fling - with Gmail"},{"content":"After a rocky two days on the blogosphere, the forums, Twitter, and practically everywhere else, I would like to add in my 2 cents. My apologies if this turns out to be a long post.\nFirstly let me say - the release announcements made on Tuesday - are amazing!! The amount of new features, improvements, the scalability - are amazing. Congratulations on the great work and all the new additional features.\nBut all of this has been overshadowed by Licensing. Twitter, this thread, numerous amounts of articles on the blogosphere (more than 30% of the articles published on Planet V12N in the last two days) - with examples of how this is good or how this is bad, Power CLI scripts here and here which will help you check what your current status is and how this will effect you.\nThe official Whitepaper is available here.\nThere are two parts to this - and unfortunately almost everyone is only focusing on the first - but they are missing out on the second.\nThese are:\nLicense entitlement when I upgrade. Adapting to a new licensing scheme - which is more aligned to a per-vm model. I would actually like to start with the second, and then get to the first.\nYesterday it dawned on me. VMware has (intentionally or not) moved to a per VM pricing model when licensing your ESX hypervisor. This started a while back with some vCloud, CapacityIQ and a number of other products as well.\nLet me explain in more detail what I mean. vRAM Entitlements are defined per License Level. You get a license to power on X number of virtual machines with allocated memory as per the limits below:\nEssentials - 24GB per socket (max 144GB) Standard - 24GB per socket (no max) Enterprise - 32GB per socket Enterprise Plus - 48GB per socket Let me explain with an theoretical example. I have a cluster with 3 dual 6-core servers with 96GB RAM in each server. License level is Enterprise Plus.\nThat comes out to 48GB * 2(sockets) * 4(hosts) = 288GB vRAM Entitlement\nMy environment is standardized. I have 2 types of","date":"Jul 14, 2011","href":"/2011/07/vsphere-5-licensing-is-some-kind-of-per.html","summary":"After a rocky two days on the blogosphere, the forums, Twitter, and practically everywhere else, I would like to add in my 2 cents. My apologies if this turns out to be a long post.\nFirstly let me say - the release announcements made on Tuesday - are amazing!! The amount of new features, improvements, the scalability - are amazing. Congratulations on the great work and all the new additional features.","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","Licensing"],"title":"vSphere 5 Licensing is (some kind of) per-VM licensing"},{"content":"I finally got to play around with the NetApp Operations Manager last week. The two options for the management I had, was to install on a package on a Windows/Linux machine that I use or to use the web console.\nBut the Linux package was only an RPM package.\nBut my I use Ubuntu Linux - and I am not going to change the Linux flavor just for the console.\nThe NetApp Communities - which said this was not possible (ahem perhaps better to say supported).\nGoogle took me to another post which explained how to do How to Install NetApp DFM on Ubuntu. But this was for the product itself, not the management console.\nSo I tried the procedure anyway.\nsudo alien nmconsole-setup-3-0-2-linux.rpm sudo dpkg -i nmconsole\\_3.0.2-4202\\_all.deb nmconsole\\_3.0.2 And hey presto.\nSupported? No! Works? YES! (still no crashes yet..)\n","date":"Jul 10, 2011","href":"/2011/07/netapp-dfm-console-on-ubuntu.html","summary":"I finally got to play around with the NetApp Operations Manager last week. The two options for the management I had, was to install on a package on a Windows/Linux machine that I use or to use the web console.\nBut the Linux package was only an RPM package.\nBut my I use Ubuntu Linux - and I am not going to change the Linux flavor just for the console.","tags":["Management","Administration"],"title":"NetApp DFM Console on Ubuntu"},{"content":"Today I came across a strange issue with permissions and the lack of ability to change permissions on a VM.\nSomeone had by mistake given the explicit Role VirtualMachineUser to the Built-in Group Users. Don\u0026amp;rsquo;t ask how.\nWhat did this cause?\nEvery single user in the domain now had access to the machine - which was not a good thing. No-one could change the permissions for this VM! Here is what a screenshot looked like when logging in as a Full Admin. I could not change the permissions.\nIt took me a while to understand why this addition caused these two issues.\nWhat is the Users group? Microsoft\u0026amp;rsquo;s definition:\nThe Users group is the most secure, because the default permissions allotted to this group do not allow members to modify operating system settings or other users\u0026amp;rsquo; data.\nWho are the members of the Users group on the vCenter Server? All the Domain Users and Authenticated Users\nWhich means - that no matter who logs on to the server from the domain or locally - they would not be able to change the permissions on the VM. Because they are always - no matter what, part of Authenticated Users.\nThe reason that this happens is explained very well with some good examples in the\nvSphere Basic System Administration Guide\nThe last line is what is important:\nIf a permission is defined for the user on that object, the user\u0026amp;rsquo;s permission takes precedence over all group permissions.\nSo here we had a the Administrators who had full permission at the root (propagated), and another group (which all users are members of) that had a lesser permission defined at a specific level. So here the second permission was applied.\nNow I was not planning on removing Authenticated Users from the default Users group - especially not from a production server.\nSo the only other way that was possible to solve this was to change the role add allow the additional rights to change permissions\nAnd after I had given the correct rights I could now remove the permissions that were","date":"Jul 10, 2011","href":"/2011/07/strange-vcenter-permissions-issue.html","summary":"Today I came across a strange issue with permissions and the lack of ability to change permissions on a VM.\nSomeone had by mistake given the explicit Role VirtualMachineUser to the Built-in Group Users. Don\u0026rsquo;t ask how.\nWhat did this cause?\nEvery single user in the domain now had access to the machine - which was not a good thing. No-one could change the permissions for this VM! Here is what a screenshot looked like when logging in as a Full Admin. I could not change the permissions.","tags":["Management","Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"Strange vCenter Permissions Issue"},{"content":"I was extremely happy to receive a nice email from John Troyer on Friday morning with the following text:\nDear Maish Saidel-Keesing,\nWe\u0026amp;rsquo;re pleased to designate you as a vExpert 2011 as recognition of your contributions to the VMware, virtualization, and cloud computing communities. You’ve done work above and beyond, and we’re delighted to communicate more closely, to share resources, and to offer other opportunities for greater interaction throughout the year as we continue to grow knowledge and success in the community of IT professionals. Welcome to the vExpert 2011 Program!\n\u0026amp;hellip; As always I am humbled to be in the in the company of such an amazing group of people for the second year in a row. I can say that the program this past year has been amazing!!\nI am looking forward to continuing with all the new ideas that John (and VMware) have in store for the next year.\nCongratulations to all the new vExperts!\nI would like to bring your attention to 3 of the lists of vExperts\nMy vExpert 2011 Twitter List (if you are not on it please feel free to contact me)\nArnim van Lieshout\u0026amp;rsquo;s List\nEric Sloof\u0026amp;rsquo;s LinkedIn vExpert group (by approval only)\n","date":"Jul 3, 2011","href":"/2011/07/vexpert-2011.html","summary":"I was extremely happy to receive a nice email from John Troyer on Friday morning with the following text:\nDear Maish Saidel-Keesing,\nWe\u0026rsquo;re pleased to designate you as a vExpert 2011 as recognition of your contributions to the VMware, virtualization, and cloud computing communities. You’ve done work above and beyond, and we’re delighted to communicate more closely, to share resources, and to offer other opportunities for greater interaction throughout the year as we continue to grow knowledge and success in the community of IT professionals. Welcome to the vExpert 2011 Program!","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware","vExpert"],"title":"vExpert 2011"},{"content":"***** Disclaimer ***** This is not recommended by VMware and I am also pretty sure it is not supported either, so if you make this change then do so at your own risk.\nThe vCenter Orchestrator Installation and Configuration Guide states the following for Hardware requirements.\nA few pages later this statement is also made.\nI actually find this quite strange because Orchestrator is installed by default on each and every instance of vCenter Server. You are able to install this separately from the following location from the vCenter package.\nIt can be removed from the vCenter after the default installation, if you would like.\nBut when you are using a lab, just to put up another VM to run Orchestrator is a waste of resources. But one of the problems is you will run into is memory.\nRunning a vCenter server can demand a lot or resources. as per the ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide Minimum Requirements:\nMedium Size:\nAnd all of this if you are not running the database server locally on the vCenter Server.\nBut what happens when you start up vCenter Orchestrator?\nHere is a screenshot of my vCenter Server (Database is located on a separate server) before I started Orchestrator, utilizing just under 50% of the RAM.\nStarting Orchestrator brought the RAM up to ~75%\nBut what I found worrisome was actually the amount of committed KB\nWhere did this come from - well that was actually pretty simple. The command that started the Orchestrator process was as below Those numbers looked pretty similar. But what is Xms and Xmx - Google led me here.\n-Xms\ninitial java heap size\n-Xmx\nmaximum java heap size\nFor Orchestrator these were defined as 2048m (2GB) for each.\nAs per Enterprise Java Applications on VMware - Best Practices Guide, sizing the right amount of RAM for a VM with Java Applications VM Memory (needed) = guest OS memory + JVM Memory,\nJVM Memory = JVM Max Heap (-Xmx value) + Perm Gen (-XX:MaxPermSize) + NumberOfConcurrentThreads * (-Xss)\nIn vOrchestrator\u0026amp;rsquo;s case :\nVM","date":"Jun 26, 2011","href":"/2011/06/reducing-amount-of-ram-for-vcenter.html","summary":"***** Disclaimer ***** This is not recommended by VMware and I am also pretty sure it is not supported either, so if you make this change then do so at your own risk.\nThe vCenter Orchestrator Installation and Configuration Guide states the following for Hardware requirements.\nA few pages later this statement is also made.\nI actually find this quite strange because Orchestrator is installed by default on each and every instance of vCenter Server. You are able to install this separately from the following location from the vCenter package.","tags":["vSphere","Administration","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"Reducing the amount of RAM for vCenter Orchestrator"},{"content":"There are several environments (at least in the beginning) that their initial infrastructure was not designed with virtualization in mind. When they started out - virtualization was something that you were asked to fit into the existing infrastructure - adapt your current processes and procedures, to this new emerging technology.\nSo most things worked, some didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t and we all learned during this time what the pitfalls were, how things have to change. But the essence here is - the infrastructure was not designed from the ground-up, with virtualization in mind. Some added a new storage array - to deal with the IO demand. Some upgraded to the 10Gb Networks to deal with the network load. Some added 3rd party tools to deal with backup / reporting / security or compliance.\nSome datacenters are built from patches on top of patches on top of patches.\nAnd eventually this will bite you in the butt, BIG TIME!!\nThis is why it essential to regroup - look at things from a different perspective and look with a different set of mind.- this provides the possibility to provide a better solution in the long term.\nI gathered several members of our IT department and started a \u0026amp;ldquo;think-tank\u0026amp;rdquo;. This group includes people from our storage, network, helpdesk and infrastructure group. The main purpose being, to invoke thought and discussion:\nIf we were to start fresh - how would we envision the infrastructure? If we could wish and get whatever we want - what would our environment look like?\nI would like to share with you our journey (we are at the beginning) - because I think it would be beneficial for anyone to take a step back - and to look at the environment from a different view.\nSeveral prerequisites for these discussions for the first stage were established:\nWe start with a completely clean slate. No vendor lock-in, for anything. $$$$ - are irrelevant - it can be as cheap / expensive as we want. Once we have what the vision we would like to go with - then we adapt and fit","date":"Jun 21, 2011","href":"/2011/06/what-if-you-start-over-and-build-it.html","summary":"There are several environments (at least in the beginning) that their initial infrastructure was not designed with virtualization in mind. When they started out - virtualization was something that you were asked to fit into the existing infrastructure - adapt your current processes and procedures, to this new emerging technology.\nSo most things worked, some didn\u0026rsquo;t and we all learned during this time what the pitfalls were, how things have to change. But the essence here is - the infrastructure was not designed from the ground-up, with virtualization in mind. Some added a new storage array - to deal with the IO demand. Some upgraded to the 10Gb Networks to deal with the network load. Some added 3rd party tools to deal with backup / reporting / security or compliance.","tags":["Virtualization","Management","Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"What if you Start Over and Build it Again??"},{"content":"Today I received an email with something that I found very moving - and I was also able to project onto the subject of virtualization. Here is the original text (slightly altered).\nThe Scope of Gratitude\n_Someone I know described a self-improvement group in which he participated. In order to improve their sense of gratitude, everyone in the group was to select one thing that they do frequently - and then think for 10 minutes about its ramifications.\nMy friend drank one cup of coffee every morning, and he chose this cup of coffee as his subject. He felt it would be easier to work on the assignment if he wrote his thoughts on paper. To his surprise, the 10 minutes quickly turned into 35. He wrote about how the coffee beans grew in Brazil. Someone planted the trees and took care of them until the coffee reached maturity. Then workers picked the beans from the trees. The beans were roasted and ground, and packed for shipping. He described all the work involved in the shipping industry which allowed the coffee to reach the United States. This alone required hundreds of people. Finally, the coffee arrived at the port in Haifa from where it was taken to his grocery story in Jerusalem.\nHe wrote about the gas range that boiled the water, and the match he used. (And how much easier it is to use a match rather than have to rub two sticks together!) He wrote about how the gas reached his home and what was necessary to build his stove. He wrote about the water kettle that whistled to let him know that the water had boiled. The milk he added required the work of many people from the time it left the cow until it reached his coffee cup.\nAt the end of 35 minutes, he saw he had not even begun to write about the actual cup, saucer, or teaspoon nor the table he placed it on, or the chair he sat on!!\nThrough this exercise, he became aware of so many things he\u0026amp;rsquo;d been taking for granted._\nWould you like to have a similar experience? Try it today: Pick something that you enjoy","date":"Jun 15, 2011","href":"/2011/06/where-does-it-all-come-from.html","summary":"Today I received an email with something that I found very moving - and I was also able to project onto the subject of virtualization. Here is the original text (slightly altered).\nThe Scope of Gratitude\n_Someone I know described a self-improvement group in which he participated. In order to improve their sense of gratitude, everyone in the group was to select one thing that they do frequently - and then think for 10 minutes about its ramifications.","tags":["Virtualization","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Where Does it All Come From?"},{"content":"For those of you in Israel (Yes I know you are all dying to be here…), next week\nthe local Israel VMUG meeting will be held.\nWhen: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - 08:30 - 13:30\nWhere: Habayit Hayarok (The Green Villa), Tel Aviv\nHow to attend: Register here\nThe Agenda:\n08:30-09:0 - Welcome \u0026amp;amp; Registration 09:00-09:10 - Opening by VMware Israel Country Manager 09:10-09:55 - VMware vCloud Director – Technical Overview 09:55-10:40 - Backup \u0026amp;amp; DR for Virtual Environments 10:40-11:25 - vCenter Operations – Real Time Performance Management (Including Demo) 11:25-11:50 - Coffee break 11:50-12:50 - End User Computing: View 4.6 (and iPad client) ThinApp Horizon AppManager 12:50-13:30 - VMware vShield – Next Generation Security Architecture 13:30 - Lunch Hope to see you there!!!\n","date":"Jun 8, 2011","href":"/2011/06/israel-vmug-meeting.html","summary":"For those of you in Israel (Yes I know you are all dying to be here…), next week\nthe local Israel VMUG meeting will be held.\nWhen: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - 08:30 - 13:30\nWhere: Habayit Hayarok (The Green Villa), Tel Aviv\nHow to attend: Register here\nThe Agenda:\n08:30-09:0 - Welcome \u0026amp; Registration 09:00-09:10 - Opening by VMware Israel Country Manager 09:10-09:55 - VMware vCloud Director – Technical Overview 09:55-10:40 - Backup \u0026amp; DR for Virtual Environments 10:40-11:25 - vCenter Operations – Real Time Performance Management (Including Demo) 11:25-11:50 - Coffee break 11:50-12:50 - End User Computing: View 4.6 (and iPad client) ThinApp Horizon AppManager 12:50-13:30 - VMware vShield – Next Generation Security Architecture 13:30 - Lunch Hope to see you there!!!","tags":["VMUG","VMware"],"title":"Israel VMUG Meeting"},{"content":"Unfortunately the session submitted by Forbes Guthrie, Scott Lowe, Tom Howarth and myself was not accepted.\nThank you for your interest in speaking at VMworld 2011. We received a record number of submissions this year and were only able to accept ~15%. Unfortunately, we are not able to accept your session proposal, but we greatly appreciate and value the time and effort you took to submit a session proposal, and we hope that you will participate in the VMworld 2012 Call for Papers.\nThe session catalog is now live - and it seems there are a great number of amazing sessions that will be presented at VMworld 2011.\nHopefully next time.\n","date":"Jun 8, 2011","href":"/2011/06/my-vmworld-session-not-accepted.html","summary":"Unfortunately the session submitted by Forbes Guthrie, Scott Lowe, Tom Howarth and myself was not accepted.\nThank you for your interest in speaking at VMworld 2011. We received a record number of submissions this year and were only able to accept ~15%. Unfortunately, we are not able to accept your session proposal, but we greatly appreciate and value the time and effort you took to submit a session proposal, and we hope that you will participate in the VMworld 2012 Call for Papers.","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous"],"title":"My VMworld Session Not accepted"},{"content":"NetApp has quietly released an updated version of their Virtual Storage Console Software (you will need a NetApp Now account to access).\nHere is the announcement:\nThe Virtual Storage Console software is a single vCenter Server plug-in that provides end-to-end virtual machine lifecycle management for VMware environments running NetApp storage. The plug-in provides the following capabilities:\nStorage configuration and monitoring using the Monitoring and Host Configuration capability (previously called the Virtual Storage Console capability) Datastore provisioning and virtual machine cloning using the Provisioning and Cloning capability Backup and recovery of virtual machines and datastores using Backup and Recovery capability Note: Use of various capabilities in VSC requires the purchase of one or more NetApp software licenses. For more information on required software licenses, see the NetApp Virtual Storage Console 2.1 for VMware vSphere Installation and Administration Guide (HTML, PDF).\nNew Features__:\nVirtual Storage Console 2.1 includes the following enhancements:\nThe Virtual Storage Console capability is renamed Monitoring and Host Configuration to better describe what it is used for. Monitoring and Host Configuration offers faster discovery, and the discovery now runs as a background task. An updated version of the mbralign program that corrects problems with the mbralign version in Virtual Storage Console 2.0.1. Monitoring and Host Configuration panels display only the resources associated with the selection in the vCenter Client Inventory panel. Support for VMware View 4.6 in the Provisioning and Cloning capability. Support for saving BIOS settings when cloning from template in the Provisioning and Cloning capability. Enabled sense key codes and added domain user support in the Provisioning and Cloning capability. Bug fixes for all VSC capabilities; see the Release Notes (HTML, PDF) for details. I would like to thank Vaughn Stewart for the heads-up on the new","date":"Jun 1, 2011","href":"/2011/06/netapp-virtual-storage-console-21.html","summary":"NetApp has quietly released an updated version of their Virtual Storage Console Software (you will need a NetApp Now account to access).\nHere is the announcement:\nThe Virtual Storage Console software is a single vCenter Server plug-in that provides end-to-end virtual machine lifecycle management for VMware environments running NetApp storage. The plug-in provides the following capabilities:\nStorage configuration and monitoring using the Monitoring and Host Configuration capability (previously called the Virtual Storage Console capability) Datastore provisioning and virtual machine cloning using the Provisioning and Cloning capability Backup and recovery of virtual machines and datastores using Backup and Recovery capability Note: Use of various capabilities in VSC requires the purchase of one or more NetApp software licenses. For more information on required software licenses, see the NetApp Virtual Storage Console 2.1 for VMware vSphere Installation and Administration Guide (HTML, PDF).","tags":["Tools","Management","Administration","VMware"],"title":"NetApp Virtual Storage Console 2.1 released"},{"content":"I was having some difficulty with the conversion of a Linux machine. Every time I tried to import the machine it would fail at about 19%.\nSo two things I wanted share with you today.\nIf you are using the integrated vCenter Converter (which you should..) then you can monitor the results of the conversion from the vSphere client itself.\nIf you right click on the task you will get a view summary option. Here you can monitor the conversion and get the history of prior attempts as well.\nThis is what I was getting during the conversion\nSo Mr. Google was my friend as usual (or at least I thought so) which brought me to KB1026348:\nRedhat 4 conversion fails or the virtual machine does not boot after successful conversion\nI tried step 4. which worked fine. there were no errors in the /var/log/messages file either.\nI admit this had me stumped for a while. I have done several of these conversions (today as well) without any issue before so Enable Retention of Sparse Files During Linux Conversions (1008303) was not appealing - it required a restart of the service and RedHat\u0026amp;rsquo;s tar bug fix update did sound right either.\nSo after searching a bit more I came across this thread. Now my solution was not exactly the one that was presented there but in my case it was an abnormal amount of files in the var partition.\nI had found 148371 files that were located in /var/spool/clientmqueue/. It seemed that sendmail had barfed all over itself and had gone whacko.\nAfter removing all those files - I was able to import without an issue.\n","date":"May 30, 2011","href":"/2011/05/converting-linux-machine-fails-during.html","summary":"I was having some difficulty with the conversion of a Linux machine. Every time I tried to import the machine it would fail at about 19%.\nSo two things I wanted share with you today.\nIf you are using the integrated vCenter Converter (which you should..) then you can monitor the results of the conversion from the vSphere client itself.\nIf you right click on the task you will get a view summary option. Here you can monitor the conversion and get the history of prior attempts as well.","tags":["vSphere","Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting","Converter"],"title":"Converting a Linux Machine fails during /var clone"},{"content":"Of all the features available with vSphere - one of the greatest features I like is Storage vMotion, which is described by VMware as follows:\nIn simple terms, vMotion allows you to move your VM from one host to another, Storage vMotion allows you to move your VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s between different Storage arrays / LUNS that presented to you ESX Host. All without downtime (ok, one or two pings.. ).\nUpdated info vSphere 4.x here\nI was looking to understand more on how this exactly works - so I looked up Kit Colbert\u0026amp;rsquo;s Session from VMworld 2009 (ancient, I know but still a great source of information)\nBorrowing some slides from Kit\u0026amp;rsquo;s presentation we will try and understand a bit more.\nAnd how does this work?\nThat is all nice and fine - and now for a look under the covers - to see exactly what is happening.\nSo we start a Storage vMotion of a VM named deb1 from vsa1_vol_1 to vsa1_vol_2\nThe task starts running as you can see in vCenter tasks.\nBut the real \u0026amp;ldquo;magic\u0026amp;rdquo; is happening on the Host itself.\nOpening a vSphere client session to the host itself, we will see a new VM that is created. Just before the the SvMotion is completed you will see that both machines co-exist for a short amount of time and both are powered on\nThe switch is made and the old one is powered off and removed.\nAnd from an esxtop perspective. Here you can see that there is one VM with an ID of 175523.\nStart the SvMotion and there are two VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s.\nSvMotion completes and only the new VM with its new ID (175722) remains.\nAnd the machine is now running from vsa1_vol_2.\nAnd that is how sVmotion works.\n**Update** After receiving a message on Twitter from Emré Celebi with the following text,\nand also a comment from Duncan Epping, I realised that the information I posted was pertaining to ESX 3.5 and not 4.x.\nSo here is the correct technical document for 4.x.\nSo what changed? CBT is now used to tracks the changes between the start of the process and the last stage just before the switch over. A","date":"May 23, 2011","href":"/2011/05/storage-vmotion-deep-dive.html","summary":"Of all the features available with vSphere - one of the greatest features I like is Storage vMotion, which is described by VMware as follows:\nIn simple terms, vMotion allows you to move your VM from one host to another, Storage vMotion allows you to move your VM\u0026rsquo;s between different Storage arrays / LUNS that presented to you ESX Host. All without downtime (ok, one or two pings.. ).\nUpdated info vSphere 4.x here","tags":["VMotion","vSphere","Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Storage vMotion - A Deep-Dive"},{"content":"I Installed an IBM x3650 M3 the other day. During the installation the additional Intel NIC was not recognized by default in the ESX Host.\nThis I could see in two different ways, from the output on the console\nmsaidelk@esx9:~$ sudo lspci | grep Ethernet0b:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T (rev 20) 0b:00.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T (rev 20) 10:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T (rev 20) 10:00.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T (rev 20) 15:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 1516 (rev 01) 15:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 1516 (rev 01) 1f:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 1516 (rev 01) 1f:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 1516 (rev 01) And the GUI also only recognized the first 4 Broadcom NICs (instead of 8)\nI posted an article about IBM x3650 M3 Does not Recognize NICs a while back - but as you can see from the output above they are recognized in hardware - just ESX does not know how to deal with them.\nI downloaded the driver from VMware\u0026amp;rsquo;s Site and extracted the files from the ISO image and the file I am interested in is in the offline-bundle folder\nThe host has to be in Maintenance mode for the patch update.\nInstall through vCLI\nC:\\Program Files (x86)\\VMware\\VMware vSphere CLI\\bin\u0026amp;gt;vihostupdate.pl --server esx9.maishsk.local --username root -i -b [\\\\vc\\VMware\\ESX\\INT-intel-lad-ddk-igb-2.4.10-offline_bundle-320657.zip](file://\\vc\\VMware\\ESX\\INT-intel-lad-ddk-igb-2.4.10-offline_bundle-320657.zip) After installation\nmsaidelk@esx9:~$ sudo lspci | grep Ethernet0b:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T (rev 20) 0b:00.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T (rev","date":"May 19, 2011","href":"/2011/05/update-intel-nic-drivers-on-esx-41.html","summary":"I Installed an IBM x3650 M3 the other day. During the installation the additional Intel NIC was not recognized by default in the ESX Host.\nThis I could see in two different ways, from the output on the console\nmsaidelk@esx9:~$ sudo lspci | grep Ethernet0b:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T (rev 20) 0b:00.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T (rev 20) 10:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T (rev 20) 10:00.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T (rev 20) 15:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 1516 (rev 01) 15:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 1516 (rev 01) 1f:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 1516 (rev 01) 1f:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 1516 (rev 01) And the GUI also only recognized the first 4 Broadcom NICs (instead of 8)","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Update Intel NIC Drivers on ESX 4.1"},{"content":"VMware has launched Project Horizon !!\nHere is the VMware Horizon App Manager landing page\nDatasheet - FAQ - News Release Q. What Is VMware Horizon App Manager? A. VMware Horizon App Manager is a hosted service that enables organizations to centrally manage the provisioning, access and usage of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. With this turnkey solution, IT departments can extend on-premises Microsoft Active Directory identity to the public cloud, simplifying the security of application access. In addition, strong policy management delivers robust user activity reporting. End users, even those with multiple devices, have a single login and simplified, self-service access to the organization’s application store.\nQ. How does VMware Horizon App Manager work? A. VMware Horizon App Manager provides a cloud identity service layer for securing managed access to SaaS and Web-based applications. Specifically, IT managers will utilize a Web-based SaaS application management tool to provision and entitle access to end users. The identity and access management (IAM) technology in VMware Horizon App Manager unifies silos of user identities in the private and public cloud into a single cloud identity, increasing the security of SaaS and Web-based application usage for the enterprise. In addition, managers will have control over user access policies and be able to track SaaS license activity centrally, via usage reports.\nThis is not a downloadable product - for more information please visit this form.\n","date":"May 17, 2011","href":"/2011/05/vmware-horizon-app-manager.html","summary":"VMware has launched Project Horizon !!\nHere is the VMware Horizon App Manager landing page\nDatasheet - FAQ - News Release Q. What Is VMware Horizon App Manager? A. VMware Horizon App Manager is a hosted service that enables organizations to centrally manage the provisioning, access and usage of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. With this turnkey solution, IT departments can extend on-premises Microsoft Active Directory identity to the public cloud, simplifying the security of application access. In addition, strong policy management delivers robust user activity reporting. End users, even those with multiple devices, have a single login and simplified, self-service access to the organization’s application store.","tags":["Virtualization","Management","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","Cloud"],"title":"VMware Horizon App Manager"},{"content":"I will not go over the details of this announcement that was released today.\nBoth David Davis and Sean Clark wrote very good articles about the release.\nI do want to add a small point of my own, and that is why I think this is a big thing - or at least the start of a big thing.\nThere is no doubt that:\nVMware is the current market leader. Microsoft see VMware as the biggest competitor in the virtualization market. vSphere is the more mature product (and depends who you ask, more robust as well). After this announcement it is clear - Hyper-V is here to stay.\nI am a VMware fan (if you haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t noticed then you are not following my blog) but part of my job is to provide the best solution to my customer - and that solution depends on the customer. If the solution that suits them best is not based on VMware technology - then so be it - because it is right for the customer.\nA year or two ago - the vendor bashing and FUD from both sides was in abundance, Microsoft said you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t need this feature - and VMware said you cannot live without it. VMware said that Microsoft does provide this - and Microsoft played catch up with the technology race to get those features that VMware has. Bad mouthing - from both sides - but I am happy to say - that it has calmed down as of late - and both parties are focusing on what they have - and not on what the competitor\u0026amp;rsquo;s do not.\nSo back to Veeam\u0026amp;rsquo;s announcement and why is this a big thing (IMHO)? Veeam is a company that has based 100% of their product (and revenue) on VMware. From day one. I think that it has paid off and they have found a very good place in the market for all of their products. And now the announcement that they will be adding support for Hyper-V. If a company that has based their complete business on VMware - are now opening up to different Hypervisors - then is a turning point. Not only is Microsoft getting part of the customer share - and how much is not the issue - they have started to get into the","date":"May 17, 2011","href":"/2011/05/why-should-that-veeam-will-support-for.html","summary":"I will not go over the details of this announcement that was released today.\nBoth David Davis and Sean Clark wrote very good articles about the release.\nI do want to add a small point of my own, and that is why I think this is a big thing - or at least the start of a big thing.\nThere is no doubt that:\nVMware is the current market leader. Microsoft see VMware as the biggest competitor in the virtualization market. vSphere is the more mature product (and depends who you ask, more robust as well). After this announcement it is clear - Hyper-V is here to stay.","tags":["Microsoft","Virtualization","vSphere","Hyper-V","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Why Should you Care about Veeam Support for Hyper-V"},{"content":"I was recently asked what are the things that I currently working on and what is occupying my time.\nI thought I would share that list with you - as it holds a list of things that you should have on your list of things to do:\nHow do I provide more automation for my environment? Mainly for the end user.\nSecuring my environment – performing security audits, reviews – what tools can be utilized.\nUpdating documentation of the current environment.\nDefining standards.\nWhat should be virtualized? What not? If not - then Why? If yes – how do we present insight into how resources are really used, and who uses them? Capacity planning and analysis.\nPreparing for the internal cloud (if you are not already there).\nSite redundancy.\nBackup and restore of VM’s – should they be treated the same as your physical machines? If not what are the tools we should be looking at to provide the optimal process to restore in different scenarios.\nKeeping an eye on what the competition have – and when (if at all) is worth my while to switch to a different vendor. (be it hypervisor/storage/network etc.)\nPreparing for the upcoming release of certain Hypervisor.\nDo you have anything else you want would like to add? Feel free to leave a comment below.\n","date":"May 16, 2011","href":"/2011/05/10-things-that-are-on-my-mind.html","summary":"I was recently asked what are the things that I currently working on and what is occupying my time.\nI thought I would share that list with you - as it holds a list of things that you should have on your list of things to do:\nHow do I provide more automation for my environment? Mainly for the end user.\nSecuring my environment – performing security audits, reviews – what tools can be utilized.","tags":["Virtualization","Management","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware"],"title":"10 Things That are on my Mind"},{"content":"Sorry for the shameless plug – but the amount of amazing sessions that are available are enormous – 1164 of them to be precise – and all of these are open for public voting.\nForbes Guthrie, Scott Lowe and yours truly have submitted a session as an opportunity to present your questions and voice your opinions on vSphere Design at VMworld. Tom Howarth has kindly agreed to moderate the session.\nSession 1843 Your vSphere Design and a Session with the Experts Abstract Every infrastructure administrator would like to have the best of all worlds from their virtual infrastructure. You want a solid and sound foundation to build your datacenter and your cloud environment for the future. Join in this session with the 3 authors of VMware vSphere Design who have \u0026amp;ldquo;written the book\u0026amp;rdquo; on how to get the most out your environment. Come join us for a one hour panel session where you can quiz the Experts on your Virtual Infrastructure Design. Join the Virtualization Experts and Authors; Forbes Guthrie from vReference, Scott Lowe of EMC, and Maish Saidel-Keesing from Technodrone for chance to get the answers to your vSphere design problems.\nI think that such a session will be beneficial to all that participate.\nIf you think so as well – then come on over and cast your vote on the Public Session Voting. You will need a VMworld account – which is easy to set up.\nFrom the FAQ:\nQ: Who can participate in Session Voting?\nA: Anyone with a vmworld.com account can vote.\nQ: How long is Session Voting open?\nA: Session Voting is open May 9 – May 18.\nQ: Am I voting on sessions for both events – US and EMEA?\nA: Yes, this is global and 80% of sessions selected will occur at both events.\nQ: I’d like to vote on a specific track and/or session. How can I do this?\nA: Once you login to the voting site, select a Track and a dropdown menu will appear with the relevant topics. You can also search by Area of Interest (Healthcare, SMB, etc.) or Keywords (Session ID, title, speaker, etc.).\nQ: How many","date":"May 9, 2011","href":"/2011/05/vmworld-session-voting-is-now-open.html","summary":"Sorry for the shameless plug – but the amount of amazing sessions that are available are enormous – 1164 of them to be precise – and all of these are open for public voting.\nForbes Guthrie, Scott Lowe and yours truly have submitted a session as an opportunity to present your questions and voice your opinions on vSphere Design at VMworld. Tom Howarth has kindly agreed to moderate the session.\nSession 1843 Your vSphere Design and a Session with the Experts Abstract Every infrastructure administrator would like to have the best of all worlds from their virtual infrastructure. You want a solid and sound foundation to build your datacenter and your cloud environment for the future. Join in this session with the 3 authors of VMware vSphere Design who have \u0026ldquo;written the book\u0026rdquo; on how to get the most out your environment. Come join us for a one hour panel session where you can quiz the Experts on your Virtual Infrastructure Design. Join the Virtualization Experts and Authors; Forbes Guthrie from vReference, Scott Lowe of EMC, and Maish Saidel-Keesing from Technodrone for chance to get the answers to your vSphere design problems.","tags":["Design","VMworld","Book"],"title":"VMworld Session Voting is now Open!!"},{"content":"I would like to thank SolarWinds for joining as a sponsor for my blog.\nWelcome aboard!!\nIf you would like to join as a sponsor please feel free to contact me\n","date":"Apr 14, 2011","href":"/2011/04/welcome-to-my-latest-sponsor-solarwinds.html","summary":"I would like to thank SolarWinds for joining as a sponsor for my blog.\nWelcome aboard!!\nIf you would like to join as a sponsor please feel free to contact me","tags":["Miscellaneous"],"title":"Welcome to my Latest Sponsor - Solarwinds"},{"content":"VMware Security best practices are to not allow PermitRootLogin to an ESX host.\nEnabling root SSH login on an ESX host.\nI could not SSH into a newly provisioned host. The server would not allow root login (rightfully so), and my domain account could not log in either.\nThis is how I solved the issue.\nLogged into the ESX host directly with the vSphere Client.\nCreated a new user with SSH access to the host.\nLogged in to the host and found what the problem was time skew.\nHere is the error from /var/log/secure:\nJan 9 09:52:36 ilesxdmz1 sshd[18263]: pam_krb5[18263]: authentication fails for \u0026amp;#39;msaidelk\u0026amp;#39; (msaidelk@maishsk.local): Authentication failure (Clock skew too great) Fixed the time issue.\nTest SSH access with my domain account - Success.\nRemoved the temporary account.\nThe full how-to including video - is in the KB above.\nAnd a bit of PowerCLI to create (and remove) the user, instead of having to open up the GUI.\nNew-VMHostAccount -Server esx1.maishsk.local -Id maish -Password \u0026amp;quot;a:123456\u0026amp;quot; -UserAccount -GrantShellAccess:$true -AssignGroups root\n#And remove afterwards\nGet-VMHostAccount -Server esx1.maishsk.local -Id maish | Remove-VMHostAccount -confirm:$false\n","date":"Apr 13, 2011","href":"/2011/04/access-esx-host-when-root-login-is.html","summary":"VMware Security best practices are to not allow PermitRootLogin to an ESX host.\nEnabling root SSH login on an ESX host.\nI could not SSH into a newly provisioned host. The server would not allow root login (rightfully so), and my domain account could not log in either.\nThis is how I solved the issue.\nLogged into the ESX host directly with the vSphere Client.\nCreated a new user with SSH access to the host.","tags":["Management","Miscellaneous","Administration","ESX","Troubleshooting","PowerCLI"],"title":"Access ESX Host When Root Login is Disabled"},{"content":"I was battling with a piece of IBM hardware last week during the install of a new ESX host.\nI had installed a new server, IBM x3650 M3 with 2 Intel Dual Port Server Adapters, and the damn thing would not recognize the cards in the system. I updated to the latest firmware. This was not the first time this model had been installed but up until now now problems had occurred.\nAfter mucking about on the internet and calling support - apparently some of the NICS are not recognized properly in the UEFI settings (see full article for all the details).\nSymptom Upon power up, after the user installs one or more PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Server Adapters, Option 39Y6136, Field Replaceable Unit (replacement part number) 39Y6138, in one or more PCIe slot(s) in a System x Gen2 server, the adapters are not seen by the system.\nAffected configurations The system may be any of the following IBM servers:\nSystem x3550 M2, Type 4198, any model System x3550 M2, Type 7946, any model System x3550 M3, Type 4254, any model System x3550 M3, Type 7944, any model System x3650 M2, Type 4199, any model System x3650 M2, Type 7947, any model System x3650 M3, Type 4255, any model System x3650 M3, Type 7945, any model System x3850 X5, Type 7145, any model System x3850 X5, Type 7146, any model System x3950 X5, Type 7145, any model Workaround In the UEFI, change the setting for the PCIe slot(s) from \u0026amp;ldquo;Gen2\u0026amp;rdquo; to \u0026amp;ldquo;Gen1\u0026amp;rdquo; as follows:\nTo set the system PCIe bus/slots to Gen1 mode in the system UEFI:\nIn UEFI, go to Devices and I/O Ports and select Gen1. Save the new setting and reboot the system. The adapter(s) should now work fine with the system PCIe bus/slots set to Gen1 mode.\nThis is really stupid and ridiculous it should just work!!\nPosted here so I do not have to look for it again, and perhaps is useful for you as well.\n","date":"Apr 12, 2011","href":"/2011/04/ibm-x3650-m3-does-not-recognize-nics.html","summary":"I was battling with a piece of IBM hardware last week during the install of a new ESX host.\nI had installed a new server, IBM x3650 M3 with 2 Intel Dual Port Server Adapters, and the damn thing would not recognize the cards in the system. I updated to the latest firmware. This was not the first time this model had been installed but up until now now problems had occurred.","tags":["Administration","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"IBM x3650 M3 Does Not Recognize NICs"},{"content":"John Troyer has just announced that the applications for the vExpert 2011 Program is now open.\nvExperts are the bloggers, the book authors, the VMUG leaders, the tool builders and town criers, the tinkerers and speakers and thinkers who are moving us all forward as an IT industry.\nA vExpert should demonstrate knowledge about VMware solutions and their benefits, and how they fit into the overall IT landscape. A vExpert designation is not a technical certification of any kind, although they are often very articulate and knowledgeable about virtualization and IT topics, both technical and non-technical. It should not be confused with a VCDX (VMware Certified Design Expert).\nSo there are a few things that are different this year, so please go over to the original announcement and read the details\nI can say it was well worth while being awarded the honor last year, be it the early access to different programs, and other small freebies (and no, John would not give us a personalized iPad!!)\nInformation Forms will be accepted until midnight PST Friday, May 6, 2011. vExpert recipients will be notified within the following two weeks.\n","date":"Apr 12, 2011","href":"/2011/04/vmware-vexpert-2011-applications-now.html","summary":"John Troyer has just announced that the applications for the vExpert 2011 Program is now open.\nvExperts are the bloggers, the book authors, the VMUG leaders, the tool builders and town criers, the tinkerers and speakers and thinkers who are moving us all forward as an IT industry.\nA vExpert should demonstrate knowledge about VMware solutions and their benefits, and how they fit into the overall IT landscape. A vExpert designation is not a technical certification of any kind, although they are often very articulate and knowledgeable about virtualization and IT topics, both technical and non-technical. It should not be confused with a VCDX (VMware Certified Design Expert).","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware","vExpert"],"title":"VMware vExpert 2011 Applications Are Now Open"},{"content":"Ever since EMC released the the VNX I have been itching to get my hands on a simulator to try it out. Now seeing that Chad and Nick are not ones to leave us hanging for long, I started to ask for it straight after the launch. I was told that it would be out, in the not too distance future.\nYesterday, I saw that Nick Weaver had done it again. Just some things to note:\nNFS/CIFS only (at the moment) One datamover only So here is my installation experience.\nDownload links can be found on Nick\u0026amp;rsquo;s post.\nI will not go into how you import that into your ESX host - that should be pretty straight forward by now.\nThe appliance comes configured by default with:\n1vCPU 2GB RAM 1 40GB IDE Hard disk 3 e1000 NICs Thin provisioned this takes up 6.5 GB of disk space.\nSo let us Power on the appliance.\nSo first thing you will be asked to enter an IP for management for the device.\nThis will be the eth0 (Network Adapter 1)\nEnter the following info:\nIP Address Subnet Mask Default Gateway Hostname Domain Suffix DNS server NTP server A quick reboot and hup - Bob\u0026amp;rsquo;s your uncle, and for a simple setup you are all set to continue with the Web interface.\nDefault credentials are: nasadmin/nasadmin and here you have it\nNow forget for a minute the error messages that are present - this is because of no access to the NTP servers.\nYou can see the new Unisphere interface\nLet us go and create some NFS storage that we can use.\nAnd now we have a new filesystem,\nNext we create a network interface that will serve as NFS for this filesystem.\nThis device will use interface cge0 (Network Adapter 2) which in my specific case is not on the same network as the management network but - 192.168.166.x\nAnd we now have a new interface on the network.\nNow to export the storage to the correct subnet.\nJust add in the correct values.\nAnd Done.\nNow to connect the ESX Hosts to the storage:\nGet-VMHost esx*.maishsk.local | % { New-Datastore -vmhost $_ -Name nfs_1 -Nfs -NfsHost 192.168.166.5 -Path /nfs_1","date":"Apr 10, 2011","href":"/2011/04/installing-uber-vnx-nfs-v1-1st-steps.html","summary":"Ever since EMC released the the VNX I have been itching to get my hands on a simulator to try it out. Now seeing that Chad and Nick are not ones to leave us hanging for long, I started to ask for it straight after the launch. I was told that it would be out, in the not too distance future.\nYesterday, I saw that Nick Weaver had done it again. Just some things to note:","tags":["Tools","Virtualization","Management","vSphere","Administration","ESX"],"title":"Installing the UBER VNX (NFS) v1 - 1st Steps"},{"content":"The new version of Xangati for ESX was designed specifically to make the installation process as simple as possible and provides VI administrators with the following benefits and features:\nA new and simplified GUI-based appliance set up – for getting the appliance addressed, powered-up and on the network – launched directly from the vCenter console tab; Standardization on one virtual appliance covering dynamic and static IP addressed data center segments; Streamlining of the steps required to enable Xangati to gather and summarize traffic traversing a vSwitch; Fifty percent reduction in the screens required to get to a working Xangati UI. Available immediately – at absolutely no cost – Xangati for ESX gives VI administrators the ability to implement its real-time monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities for both server virtualization and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments.\nA fully-functioning management tool, Xangati for ESX goes far beyond the capabilities of other free VMware or trial software tools by providing VI administrators with comprehensive and robust performance management that includes: continuous real-time insights into VMs and the ESX; a superior navigational drill-down user interface (UI) presentation; multiple data sources, including traffic traversing vSwitches and the VMware API; and Xangati’s unique and acclaimed DVR-recordings – allowing VI administrators to visually see and capture a problem through recordings triggered by VMware alerts.\nXangati for ESX works with VMware 3.5, 4.0, and 4.1 for ESX and ESXi. To download an enhanced version of the free Xangati for ESX tool and try it yourself, go to www.xangati.com/free-download. You can also watch a video describing the free Xangati for ESX for additional background.\nAbout Xangati Xangati, the emerging leader in Infrastructure Performance Management solutions, accelerates virtualization by providing critical VM visibility previously unavailable, enabling superior design,","date":"Mar 9, 2011","href":"/2011/03/xangati-for-esx-and-it-free.html","summary":"The new version of Xangati for ESX was designed specifically to make the installation process as simple as possible and provides VI administrators with the following benefits and features:\nA new and simplified GUI-based appliance set up – for getting the appliance addressed, powered-up and on the network – launched directly from the vCenter console tab; Standardization on one virtual appliance covering dynamic and static IP addressed data center segments; Streamlining of the steps required to enable Xangati to gather and summarize traffic traversing a vSwitch; Fifty percent reduction in the screens required to get to a working Xangati UI. Available immediately – at absolutely no cost – Xangati for ESX gives VI administrators the ability to implement its real-time monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities for both server virtualization and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments.","tags":["vSphere","Administration","VMware","ESX"],"title":"Xangati for ESX - And it's Free!!"},{"content":"I recently participated in writing a short piece on the question, \u0026amp;ldquo;Is the Hypervisor a Commodity Nowadays?\u0026amp;rdquo; on TechTarget. The consensus there was split 50/50.\nI would like to explain a little more. What is a commodity?\nA good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (as brand name) other than price.\n[Source: Webster Dictionary].\nSo let us give two examples.\nGasoline. Your car needs gasoline to run. But what qualifies gasoline as a commodity? the fact that you can go to any gas station, be it Shell, BP, Paz, Texco - what ever you want.. and fill in the same gasoline into you car and it will continue to take you to where you want to go. You don\u0026amp;rsquo;t have to worry about if your car will be compatible with the gasoline you just put in - since it is the correct octane - it is guaranteed to go. Now mind you - there are certain requirements that need to be considered (octane is one of them). And of course - each company will have their small \u0026amp;ldquo;extras\u0026amp;rdquo; that will make their offering more appealing to the customers.\nThe main thing here is that you can put in the gas and your car will drive. Water. You are thirsty and you go and buy a bottle of water in the store. This helps you wuench your thirst, stops you from dehydrating, and gives the ability to keep on going. Does it make a difference which company the water is from? To serve the purpose of satisfying the need to quench your thirst - no. Will it taste nicer if it is cooled, or has a slight addition of lemon, or peach or bubbles, to each his own preference.\nAnd again the main thing, no matter what kind of water you buy, it quenches your thirst. So that is how I would define a commodity. So back to the question raised before.\nIs the Hypervisor a commodity?\nMicrosoft has one, VMware has one, Xen has one, Redhat has one and who knows what the future will hold. They each have their benefits and their flaws, their ups and","date":"Mar 6, 2011","href":"/2011/03/datacenter-in-few-years-from-now.html","summary":"I recently participated in writing a short piece on the question, \u0026ldquo;Is the Hypervisor a Commodity Nowadays?\u0026rdquo; on TechTarget. The consensus there was split 50/50.\nI would like to explain a little more. What is a commodity?\nA good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (as brand name) other than price.\n[Source: Webster Dictionary].\nSo let us give two examples.","tags":["Virtualization","Hyper-V","Administration","ESX","Cloud"],"title":"The Datacenter - in a Few Years From Now"},{"content":" I received this email on Friday and just received the OK to pass this offer on.\nFrom: A.\nSent: Friday, February 25, 2011 21:09\nTo: maishsk@…\nSubject: Thanks for completing that survey on clouds\nYou\u0026amp;rsquo;re one of the winners (according to the very scientific =randbetween function in Google Spreadsheet.)\nIf you can make it to Cloud Connect (www.cloudconnectevent.com) on March 7, let me know, and I\u0026amp;rsquo;ll mail you a Flexpass code which will let you attend the whole event for free. If you can\u0026amp;rsquo;t make it, please tell me so I can let the next winner know.\nI will not be able to make this conference - I would have really liked to.\nAnd here is where someone gets to benefit. I am giving this pass away to a someone who will be able to use it. This is how it will work.\nPost a comment below the post to explain why you would like to go, and what the benefit you expect to receive from participating in this event and how you will use this knowledge to pay something forward to the community.\nThe winner will be chosen from those who posts a comment below. I will look for a co-judge to determine who that is.\nEntries will be accepted until 21.00 (GMT +2) Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011.\nWinner will be announced by 23.00 (GMT +2) Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011.\nThe Winner will receive a full Flex Pass valued at $2,095 - Hotel and Travel arrangements you will have to take care of yourself.\nThe Speaker List - if very impressive and here is some more info about the conference.\nACCELERATE YOUR CLOUD STRATEGY Join your colleagues at Cloud Connect, where enterprise IT and cloud providers meet to set the cloud roadmap and explore the latest technologies, platforms and opportunities in the cloud.\nThousands of cloud leaders and technology experts from top companies attend to get the latest on private clouds, industry standards, data storage and CloudSec. Gain insight to move your deployment forward and reap the benefits of the cloud.\nGain comprehensive insight from the experts who are living","date":"Feb 28, 2011","href":"/2011/02/cloud-connect-here-is-your-chance.html","summary":" I received this email on Friday and just received the OK to pass this offer on.\nFrom: A.\nSent: Friday, February 25, 2011 21:09\nTo: maishsk@…\nSubject: Thanks for completing that survey on clouds\nYou\u0026rsquo;re one of the winners (according to the very scientific =randbetween function in Google Spreadsheet.)\nIf you can make it to Cloud Connect (www.cloudconnectevent.com) on March 7, let me know, and I\u0026rsquo;ll mail you a Flexpass code which will let you attend the whole event for free. If you can\u0026rsquo;t make it, please tell me so I can let the next winner know.","tags":["Microsoft","Miscellaneous","VMware","Cloud"],"title":"Cloud Connect - Here is your Chance!!"},{"content":"I received the answer back from VMware on the conversion ratio that I was waiting for from my\nprevious post.\nCustomers who bought LM before 9/1/2010 (Sep. 1) can exchange 1 CPU of LM\nfor 20VMs of vCD. Customers who bought LM after 9/1/2010 (Sep. 1) can exchange 1 CPU of LM\nfor 10VMs of vCD. Lab Manager goes for $1,495 per CPU\nAnd vCloud Licenses for a 25 VM bundle for $3,750\nSo I put the question out on Twitter\nQuick question for those using VMware Lab Manager - how many VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s do you have per host (vm/CPU ratio)?\nThe answers I got - which were completely reasonable - were approximately 4 vCPU\u0026amp;rsquo;s per per core (and that was quite conservative)\nA small bit of math. Most ESX hosts today are 2 Quad Core CPU\u0026amp;rsquo;s.\n4 vCPU\u0026amp;rsquo;s x 8 cores = 32 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s\nTaking the answer that I received from VMware this can be divided in two scenarios.\nYou have Lab Manager Licenses from before Sep. 1, 2010.\nI trade my Lab Manager Licenses for 40 VM licenses of vCloud Director\nI am covered and I am happy!\nYou purchased Lab Manager after Sep. 1, 2010.\nI trade my Lab Manager Licenses in for 20 VM licenses of vCloud Director and I now have to add another $3,750 to cover my licenses.\nI am not happy!!!!!!!!\nI asked Support the question which I found to be the most obvious.\nWhy was the cutoff point defined at Sep. 1, 2010? The answered I originally received was that there was a public announcement made stating that this would be the case. As far as my memory serves me there was not such announcement made, and\nSeptember 1st 2010 was smack in the middle of VMworld in San Francisco. I asked for a link to that public announcement. Support retracted their previous statement and indeed said there was no previous statement issued about the conversion option.\nPersonally, my environment is not largely affected by this \u0026amp;ldquo;strange\u0026amp;rdquo; decision, but I am sure there are others that this change will have a much larger impact, and if so then I would suggest you take it up with your local","date":"Feb 27, 2011","href":"/2011/02/lab-manager-retired-to-vcloud-update.html","summary":"I received the answer back from VMware on the conversion ratio that I was waiting for from my\nprevious post.\nCustomers who bought LM before 9/1/2010 (Sep. 1) can exchange 1 CPU of LM\nfor 20VMs of vCD. Customers who bought LM after 9/1/2010 (Sep. 1) can exchange 1 CPU of LM\nfor 10VMs of vCD. Lab Manager goes for $1,495 per CPU\nAnd vCloud Licenses for a 25 VM bundle for $3,750","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware","Licensing"],"title":"Lab Manager (retired) to vCloud  - Update"},{"content":"For those of you who were waiting, the next round of VCDX Defenses will be:\nMay 16-20, 2011 - Frimley, UK\nApplications due: March 21, 2011, 5:00 PM Pacific\nCongratulations to the new VCDX\u0026amp;rsquo;s that defended and passed at Partner Exchange\nI will not be submitting. Good luck to you all!\n","date":"Feb 21, 2011","href":"/2011/02/vcdx-defense-new-dates.html","summary":"For those of you who were waiting, the next round of VCDX Defenses will be:\nMay 16-20, 2011 - Frimley, UK\nApplications due: March 21, 2011, 5:00 PM Pacific\nCongratulations to the new VCDX\u0026rsquo;s that defended and passed at Partner Exchange\nI will not be submitting. Good luck to you all!","tags":["VCDX","Certification"],"title":"VCDX Defense - New Dates"},{"content":"Our book page has now been updated with the following info:\nTable of Contents Introduction.\nChapter 1 An Introduction to Designing VMware Environments.\nChapter 2 ESX vs. ESXi.\nChapter 3 Designing the Management Layer.\nChapter 4 Server Hardware.\nChapter 5 Designing your Network.\nChapter 6 Storage.\nChapter 7 Virtual Machines.\nChapter 8 Datacenter Design.\nChapter 9 Designing with Security in Mind.\nChapter 10 Monitoring and Capacity Planning.\nChapter 11 Bringing It All Together.\nIndex.\nChapter Excerpt (PDF)\nFull Table of Contents (PDF)\nFeel free to go over to the site to look around and of course the book can always be ordered on that page\nor on Amazon. Expected Availability is mid-March 2011. And YES, there should be a electronic download version available\n","date":"Feb 21, 2011","href":"/2011/02/vmware-vsphere-design-book-update.html","summary":"Our book page has now been updated with the following info:\nTable of Contents Introduction.\nChapter 1 An Introduction to Designing VMware Environments.\nChapter 2 ESX vs. ESXi.\nChapter 3 Designing the Management Layer.\nChapter 4 Server Hardware.\nChapter 5 Designing your Network.\nChapter 6 Storage.\nChapter 7 Virtual Machines.\nChapter 8 Datacenter Design.\nChapter 9 Designing with Security in Mind.\nChapter 10 Monitoring and Capacity Planning.\nChapter 11 Bringing It All Together.\nIndex.","tags":["Design","vSphere","Book","VMware"],"title":"VMware vSphere Design Book - Update"},{"content":"Even if you might think I came down hard on Drobo earlier in the week, I really like their products.\nAnd being a Tech Field Day delegate does have it benefits, even if they are not for me.\nUsing the Promotional code below you can get the following considerable discounts on the products below:\n$50 off on Drobo 4-bay $100 off on Drobo 4-bay with drives\n$100 off on Drobo S \u0026amp;amp; Drobo FS\n$150 off on Drobo S and Drobo FS with drives\n$150 off on DroboPro \u0026amp;amp; DroboPro FS\n$200 off DroboPro \u0026amp;amp; DroboPro FS with drives\nUse this code for the discounts DRIKEESING\nHope this will be of benefit to you all.\n","date":"Feb 16, 2011","href":"/2011/02/drobo-discount-codes-tech-field-day.html","summary":"Even if you might think I came down hard on Drobo earlier in the week, I really like their products.\nAnd being a Tech Field Day delegate does have it benefits, even if they are not for me.\nUsing the Promotional code below you can get the following considerable discounts on the products below:\n$50 off on Drobo 4-bay $100 off on Drobo 4-bay with drives\n$100 off on Drobo S \u0026amp; Drobo FS\n$150 off on Drobo S and Drobo FS with drives\n$150 off on DroboPro \u0026amp; DroboPro FS\n$200 off DroboPro \u0026amp; DroboPro FS with drives","tags":["TechFieldDay","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Drobo - Discount Codes - Tech Field Day"},{"content":"Jason Boche - The Future of VMware Lab Manager, Ian Koenig - Lab Manager is dead.. Long Live Lab Manager and Mike Laverick - VMware Lab Manager vs. VMware Cloud Director: Another Case of \u0026amp;ldquo;Spanners\u0026amp;rdquo; and \u0026amp;ldquo;Hammers?\u0026amp;rdquo; - the writing was on the wall.\nFor those of you who saw this - my apologies, but if not, VMware has posted an update on Lab Manager - announcing that there will be no more major releases for Lab Manager\nWe want to provide you with an important update about the vCenter Lab Manager product. As customers continue to expand the use of virtualization both inside the datacenter and outside the firewall, we are focusing on delivering infrastructure solutions that can support these expanded scalability and security requirements. As a result of this focus, we have decided to discontinue additional major releases of vCenter Lab Manager. Lab Manager 4 will continue to be supported in line with our General Support Policy through May 1st, 2013.\nAs VMware continues to invest in our customers\u0026amp;rsquo; journey to cloud computing, we are focusing on delivering secure multi-tenant enterprise hybrid clouds with VMware vCloud Director. vCloud Director is a new software solution that provides the scalability and security necessary to deliver catalog-based self-service provisioning across different workload types, across multiple enterprise tenants, and across both private and public deployment models.\nAs a customer of Lab Manager, we would like to offer you a special opportunity to leverage the scale and security of vCloud Director. Customers who are active on SnS may exchange their existing licenses of Lab Manager to licenses of vCloud Director at no additional cost. This exchange program is entirely optional and may be exercised anytime during Lab Manager’s General Support period. This provides you the freedom and flexibility to decide whether and when to implement a secure enterprise hybrid cloud.\nThe part in bold is something that I am interested in","date":"Feb 16, 2011","href":"/2011/02/vcenter-lab-manager-to-be-retired-told.html","summary":"Jason Boche - The Future of VMware Lab Manager, Ian Koenig - Lab Manager is dead.. Long Live Lab Manager and Mike Laverick - VMware Lab Manager vs. VMware Cloud Director: Another Case of \u0026ldquo;Spanners\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Hammers?\u0026rdquo; - the writing was on the wall.\nFor those of you who saw this - my apologies, but if not, VMware has posted an update on Lab Manager - announcing that there will be no more major releases for Lab Manager","tags":["Lab","Administration","VMware","Licensing"],"title":"vCenter Lab Manager to be Retired - Told You So?"},{"content":"I upgraded my lab to vSphere 4.1 U1 on Friday.\nvCenter was simple.\nA quick set of screen shots\nAnd I was done.\n1 Small thing though. On the credentials screenshot above which is a different color, I was asked to enter credentials for the vCenter Server Service. In My lab I have the Domain Administrator account MAISHSK\\Administrator and on the vCenter Server there is a local Administrator account as well.\nThe Service was configured to run under a the Domain Admin account as per the vSphere 4.1 Hardening Guide\nAfter the installation - my vCenter services would not start\nA quick look at the vpxd vCenter logs located at\nC:\\ProgramData\\VMware\\VMware VirtualCenter\\Logs\ngave me this\nI looked at the Services of the vCenter server and found that the credentials to start the service were changed to .\\Administrator - instead of MAISHSK\\Administrator\nSo of course they would not start. A quick change of the credentials and all was fine\nThe problem arises I think - because you have no option of changing the username - only the password during the upgrade - some of the options are greyed out as you can see below.\nQuick question for VMware. If you present with a screen that allows to set the credentials - why are the options greyed out? And also we are way past 2008!\nAnd after all that I was upgraded.\nOnto the vSphere hosts.\n","date":"Feb 15, 2011","href":"/2011/02/upgrade-vcenter-to-41-u1.html","summary":"I upgraded my lab to vSphere 4.1 U1 on Friday.\nvCenter was simple.\nA quick set of screen shots\nAnd I was done.","tags":[4.1,"VMware","Troubleshooting","vCenter","Upgrade"],"title":"Upgrade vCenter to 4.1 U1"},{"content":"During Day 1 of TechFieldDay #5 we were presented with a new solution that Drobo will start to market in the not too distant future.\nNow I kid you not. The technology behind the way Drobo does storage is really really smart. We received an overview on how this works and what the secret sauce is all made of. (too many people used the term Secret Sauce in these two days)\nThis is the product that they are marketing as a small business solution.\nThe full specs can be found here, below are a few selected items that I thought should be mentioned.\nDrobo model B1200i Specifications\nConnectivity 3 x 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet ports 1 x 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet port for out-of-band management USB 2.0 port for management Capacity 12 drive bays 3.5\u0026amp;quot; SATA 1 / SATA II or SAS 3.0 Gbps drives Expandable by hot-swapping drives with larger ones. Use our capacity calculator to estimate available storage in various configurations. BeyondRAID Features Thin Provisioning Instant Expansion Mixed Drive Size Utilization Automatic Protection Levels Dual Disk Redundancy Virtual Hot Spare Data Aware Drive Re-ordering Additional Features Data-Aware Tiering Smart Volumes (LUNs, up to 255) Drive Spin Down Drobo Copy Field-replaceable controller, power supplies, and fan unit Ethernet Features Connection failover Jumbo Frames (up to 9000 Kb MTU) Network Protocols iSCSI CHAP Authentication Operating System Support Windows 7 Windows Vista (Service Pack 1) Windows XP (Service Pack 3) Windows 2008 Server Windows 2003 Server Mac OS X 10.5.6 or greater (Intel Only) Mac OS X Server 10.5.6 or greater (Intel Only) Linux (support is currently in Beta) VMware vSphere 4.x XenServer 5.6 File System Options Windows: NTFS Mac OS X: HFS+ Linux: EXT3 VMware: VMFS Certified Applications VMware vSphere 4.x Citrix XenServer 5.6 Symantec Backup Exec 2010 Management Drive bay indicator lights, capacity gauge, status lights Drobo Dashboard version 2.1 or later Drobo-initiated email notifications SNMP Power and","date":"Feb 13, 2011","href":"/2011/02/drobo-my-visit-from-tech-field-day.html","summary":"During Day 1 of TechFieldDay #5 we were presented with a new solution that Drobo will start to market in the not too distant future.\nNow I kid you not. The technology behind the way Drobo does storage is really really smart. We received an overview on how this works and what the secret sauce is all made of. (too many people used the term Secret Sauce in these two days)","tags":["TechFieldDay","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Drobo - My visit from Tech Field Day"},{"content":"Pablo Roesch posted on the VMware Communities the latest version of the PowerCLI poster.\nThanks to all that made this happen.\n","date":"Feb 13, 2011","href":"/2011/02/powercli-411-poster-updated.html","summary":"Pablo Roesch posted on the VMware Communities the latest version of the PowerCLI poster.\nThanks to all that made this happen.","tags":["Scripting","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"PowerCLI 4.1.1 poster - Updated"},{"content":" Well, frankly, I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t care. If I told him once, I told him a thousand times, \u0026amp;ldquo;Don\u0026amp;rsquo;t go, Julie!\u0026amp;rdquo; I said, \u0026amp;ldquo;It\u0026amp;rsquo;s the Ides of March; beware already. Don\u0026amp;rsquo;t go, Julie, don\u0026amp;rsquo;t go \u0026amp;hellip;\nRinse the Blood off my Toga - Wayne and Schuster\nI grew up on this stuff, and it is actually quite funny.\nBut bringing this back to a relevant subject.\nIf I told him once I told him a thousand times, \u0026amp;ldquo;Snapshots are not backups!\u0026amp;rdquo;, I said \u0026amp;ldquo;It\u0026amp;rsquo;s the Ides of March; beware already. they are not backups, Julie, they are not backups \u0026amp;hellip;\u0026amp;rdquo;\nWell if you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t believe me, then believe VMware. There is official KB 1025279 -\nBest practices for virtual machine snapshots in the VMware environment (modifications are my own, refer to the original for the full article)\nSnapshots are not backups. As the snapshot file is only a change log of the original virtual disk, do not rely upon it as a direct backup process. The virtual machine is running on the most current snapshot, not the original vmdk disk files.\nThe maximum supported amount in a chain is 32. However, VMware recommends that you use only 2-3 snapshots in a chain.\nUse no single snapshot for more than 24-72 hours. An excessive number of snapshots in a chain or snapshots large in size may cause\ndecreased virtual machine and host performance.\nConfigure automated vCenter Server alarms to trigger when a virtual machine is running from snapshots. For more information, see Configuring VMware vCenter Server to send alarms when virtual machines are running from snapshots (1018029).\nConfirm that there no snapshots are present (via command line) before a Storage vMotion. If snapshots are present, delete them prior to the Storage vMotion. For more information, see Migrating an ESX 3.x virtual machine with snapshots in powered-off or suspended state to another datastore might cause data loss and make the virtual machine unusable (1020709).\nConfirm that there are no","date":"Feb 13, 2011","href":"/2011/02/snapshots-are-not-backups.html","summary":" Well, frankly, I don\u0026rsquo;t care. If I told him once, I told him a thousand times, \u0026ldquo;Don\u0026rsquo;t go, Julie!\u0026rdquo; I said, \u0026ldquo;It\u0026rsquo;s the Ides of March; beware already. Don\u0026rsquo;t go, Julie, don\u0026rsquo;t go \u0026hellip;\nRinse the Blood off my Toga - Wayne and Schuster\nI grew up on this stuff, and it is actually quite funny.","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware","Troubleshooting","Performance"],"title":"Snapshots are not backups"},{"content":"This will not be a long post or detailed report of what we experienced today, that will have to wait for a later date. Too much info - to go into detail into a specific subject.\nWe spent the morning at Symantec - presentations about Netbackup and Backup Exec.\nFrom there we went to Drobo - where we learned about some of their upcoming offerings.\nNext on the same location was Druva - a new company that provides a Remote backup of mobile computers.\nFrom there we went to the Computer History Museum.\nXangati presented their solution, and also some of what is to come in their upcoming release\nWe also got to see the:\nBabbage Difference Engine\nCray-1 Supercomputer\nDinner and party followed\nLong day, brain drained, a slight bit jet lagged but hey who\u0026amp;rsquo;s complaining ????\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s get ready for tomorrow\nDisclosure:\nTech Field Day is a sponsored event by the companies that are presenting. That means my travel \u0026amp;amp; lodging expenses were covered by these vendors. I did take personal vacation days to attend this event. And I am under no obligation to promote any of these companies.\n","date":"Feb 11, 2011","href":"/2011/02/techfieldday-day-1.html","summary":"This will not be a long post or detailed report of what we experienced today, that will have to wait for a later date. Too much info - to go into detail into a specific subject.\nWe spent the morning at Symantec - presentations about Netbackup and Backup Exec.\nFrom there we went to Drobo - where we learned about some of their upcoming offerings.\nNext on the same location was Druva - a new company that provides a Remote backup of mobile computers.","tags":["TechFieldDay"],"title":"TechFieldDay - Day 1"},{"content":"Thanks to a tweet from vConsult I learned that a new vCenter and vSphere update was released.\nAs always test before deployment!!\nWhat\u0026amp;rsquo;s New The following information describes some of the enhancements available in this release of VMware ESXi:\nEnablement of Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) — ESXi 4.1 Update 1 can be configured to boot with Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT). This boot option can protect ESXi in some cases where system binaries are corrupted or have been tampered with. TXT is currently available on Intel Xeon processor 5600 series servers. For more information, see KB 1033811. Improvement in scalability — ESXi 4.1 Update 1 supports up to 160 logical processors. Support for additional guest operating systems — ESXi 4.1 Update 1 provides support for RHEL 6, RHEL 5.6, SLES 11 SP1 for VMware, Ubuntu 10.10, and Solaris 10 Update 9 guest operating systems. For a complete list of guest operating systems supported in this release, see the VMware Compatibility Guide. Inclusion of additional drivers — ESXi 4.1 Update 1 includes the 3ware SCSI 2.26.08.036vm40 and Neterion vxge 2.0.28.21239-p3.0.1.2 drivers. For earlier releases, these drivers are only available as separate downloads. Resolved Issues – In addition, this release delivers a number of bug fixes that are documented in the Resolved Issues section.\nWhat\u0026amp;rsquo;s New This release of VMware vCenter Server 4.1 Update 1 offers the following improvements:\nAdditional Guest Operating System Customization Support: vCenter Server now supports customization of the following guest operating systems: Windows 7 SP1 (x32 and x64) Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (x32 and x64) RHEL 6.0 (x32 and x64) RHEL5.5 (x32 and x64) Additional vCenter Server Database Support: vCenter Server now supports the following databases: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP3 Oracle 11g Standard/Enterprise Release 2, 11.2.0.1.0 or later, (x32 and x64) IBM DB2 9.7.2 Express C (x32 and x64) IBM DB2 9.7.2","date":"Feb 11, 2011","href":"/2011/02/vsphere-41-update-1-released.html","summary":"Thanks to a tweet from vConsult I learned that a new vCenter and vSphere update was released.\nAs always test before deployment!!\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s New The following information describes some of the enhancements available in this release of VMware ESXi:\nEnablement of Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) — ESXi 4.1 Update 1 can be configured to boot with Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT). This boot option can protect ESXi in some cases where system binaries are corrupted or have been tampered with. TXT is currently available on Intel Xeon processor 5600 series servers. For more information, see KB 1033811. Improvement in scalability — ESXi 4.1 Update 1 supports up to 160 logical processors. Support for additional guest operating systems — ESXi 4.1 Update 1 provides support for RHEL 6, RHEL 5.6, SLES 11 SP1 for VMware, Ubuntu 10.10, and Solaris 10 Update 9 guest operating systems. For a complete list of guest operating systems supported in this release, see the VMware Compatibility Guide. Inclusion of additional drivers — ESXi 4.1 Update 1 includes the 3ware SCSI 2.26.08.036vm40 and Neterion vxge 2.0.28.21239-p3.0.1.2 drivers. For earlier releases, these drivers are only available as separate downloads. Resolved Issues – In addition, this release delivers a number of bug fixes that are documented in the Resolved Issues section.","tags":["vSphere",4.1,"VMware","ESX","vCenter","ESX4i"],"title":"vSphere 4.1 Update 1 released"},{"content":"Less than 12 hours until wheels up.\nI have a long trip ahead of me later tonight. I start with a 12 hour flight from TLV to JFK, 2 hour wait and then another 6 hours to San Jose. I have some reading material with me - hopefully there will be an option to charge the laptop on the plane.\nI am extremely excited to be able to participate in this event. The days are packed completely from start to finish.\nI must commend the whole staff, with excellent organization, for their great ideas, for setting up a great schedule and taking care of a decent number of requests (some of them pretty weird… )\nThis will be second time in the US (last time was over 13 years ago).\nIt is going to be fun..\n","date":"Feb 8, 2011","href":"/2011/02/tech-field-day-5-day-1.html","summary":"Less than 12 hours until wheels up.\nI have a long trip ahead of me later tonight. I start with a 12 hour flight from TLV to JFK, 2 hour wait and then another 6 hours to San Jose. I have some reading material with me - hopefully there will be an option to charge the laptop on the plane.\nI am extremely excited to be able to participate in this event. The days are packed completely from start to finish.","tags":["TechFieldDay","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Tech Field Day 5 - Day (-1)"},{"content":"I was presented with an issue yesterday regarding a VM that I was not able to start\nI went through KB Article 10051, step by step, until I got to:\nI did not want to reboot the host, seriously… just because there was one VM that would not power on?\nWhat I did not tell you was that a few hours before there was a power failure that took out the Fiber Channel switches (yeah… you always find out that someone plugged something into the wrong power strip after things like this) which in turn caused the all the ESX Hosts in the cluster to lose the LUNs and HA tried to failover the machines.\nThis I saw in the logs of the VM.\nAs you can see the machine tried to failover to another host, but was not successful because the other hosts also had not access to the LUN.\nI could not clone the VM. I could not remove the VM from the inventory either.\nDid you notice that the machine was no longer on esxdmz2 (where it originally was located before the power failure)?\nI confirmed this within the Events of the VM. the machine had been moved and changes were made on the new host.\nI figured I would try to power it back up on the original host esxdm2.\nThat worked! I then moved it back esxdmz3 and powered it on on and as you can see the machine powered on with out an issue.\nSometimes all it needs is a bit of putting things back the way they were - before it hit the fan - and things go back to working the way they were.\n","date":"Feb 4, 2011","href":"/2011/02/cannot-start-virtual-machine.html","summary":"I was presented with an issue yesterday regarding a VM that I was not able to start\nI went through KB Article 10051, step by step, until I got to:\nI did not want to reboot the host, seriously… just because there was one VM that would not power on?\nWhat I did not tell you was that a few hours before there was a power failure that took out the Fiber Channel switches (yeah… you always find out that someone plugged something into the wrong power strip after things like this) which in turn caused the all the ESX Hosts in the cluster to lose the LUNs and HA tried to failover the machines.","tags":["vSphere","Administration","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Cannot start a Virtual Machine"},{"content":"Today I wanted to join in on Simon Seagrave\u0026amp;rsquo;s EMC Live Webcast:\nInstall \u0026amp;amp; Run the EMC Celerra Virtual Storage Appliance But I was not able to view it from the comfort of my desk, I was on the way back home - on the bus.\nI decided not give the webcast a miss so I decided to view on my laptop using my phone as my internet connection. I have a an HTC Wildfire with Android Gingerbread courtesy of Cyanogenmod. One of the benefits of Froyo is Wireless tethering - which allows you to set your phone up as a Wi-Fi hotspot.\nI use this great application 3G Watchdog to monitor my Mobile Internet usage.\nThe statistics from today from my phone during the WebEx:\nA quick PowerShell line to give that in numbers that I can understand:\nWrite-Output \u0026amp;quot;Data Received: $(\u0026amp;quot;{0:N2}\u0026amp;quot; -f (81121147 /1MB)) MB\u0026amp;quot; \u0026amp;quot;Data Sent: $(\u0026amp;quot;{0:N2}\u0026amp;quot; -f (5838872/1MB)) MB\u0026amp;quot;\nI was happily surprised to find for a webcast that took over hour - including audio, the amount of bandwidth used was negligible.\nThat means I do not need to give up live webcasts on the ride home.\nThanks Simon for the great webcast!\n","date":"Feb 3, 2011","href":"/2011/02/viewing-webex-on-road.html","summary":"Today I wanted to join in on Simon Seagrave\u0026rsquo;s EMC Live Webcast:\nInstall \u0026amp; Run the EMC Celerra Virtual Storage Appliance But I was not able to view it from the comfort of my desk, I was on the way back home - on the bus.\nI decided not give the webcast a miss so I decided to view on my laptop using my phone as my internet connection. I have a an HTC Wildfire with Android Gingerbread courtesy of Cyanogenmod. One of the benefits of Froyo is Wireless tethering - which allows you to set your phone up as a Wi-Fi hotspot.","tags":["Tools","Virtualization","Appliances"],"title":"Viewing a WebEx on the Road"},{"content":"This is a joint post of three prominent writers in the virtualization community:\nForbes Guthrie, Scott Lowe and Maish Saidel-Keesing.\nFor the past 6 months we have been working on a joint project. It has actually been kept pretty quiet, and it is now time to make this public.\nPrevious VMware vSphere books have focused on how to master the technology, deep-diving into certain elements and giving tips \u0026amp;amp; tricks that help you manage your virtual infrastructure.\nBut we felt there was something missing in all these books. How to design an infrastructure, accounting for all the elements that you need to consider. For example:\nWhat kind of servers should I use? Which storage - NFS/iSCSI/FC? How to scale an vCenter server appropriately? and many more similar questions. This is how VMware vSphere design was born\u0026amp;hellip;\nThe three of us collaborated on the book, to not only explain how to configure each element of your infrastructure, but to make you think about all the options available, and how each choice can impact the overall design. It should help you find the right solution for your environment – because no “one size fits all”.\nIt is the only book focused on designing VMware vSphere implementations. It is written for engineers and architects who plan, install, maintain and optimize vSphere solutions.\nThe book details the overall design process, server hardware selection, network layout, security considerations, storage infrastructure, virtual machine design, and more. We debate the merits of scaling up servers versus scaling out, ESX versus ESXi hypervisors, vSwitches versus dvSwitches, and FC, FCoE, iSCSI or NFS storage. We show you which tools can be used to monitor, to plan, to manage, to deploy and to secure your vSphere landscape. We run through the design decisions that a typical company might face, and question the choices you come to. The book is packed with real-world proven strategies. VMware vSphere Design examines how the virtualization architecture for","date":"Jan 31, 2011","href":"/2011/01/vmware-vsphere-design-book.html","summary":"This is a joint post of three prominent writers in the virtualization community:\nForbes Guthrie, Scott Lowe and Maish Saidel-Keesing.\nFor the past 6 months we have been working on a joint project. It has actually been kept pretty quiet, and it is now time to make this public.\nPrevious VMware vSphere books have focused on how to master the technology, deep-diving into certain elements and giving tips \u0026amp; tricks that help you manage your virtual infrastructure.","tags":["vSphere","VMware"],"title":"VMware vSphere design - the book"},{"content":"This post was triggered by a very informative conversation I had with William Lam this week. Thanks William!\nvMA - vSphere Management Assistant, is a virtual machine that includes prepackaged software such as a Linux distribution, the vSphere command‐line interface, and the vSphere SDK for Perl. Basically it is the missing service console for ESXi. But it\u0026amp;rsquo;s more than that too.\nThis allows administrators to run scripts or agents that interact with ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server systems without having to explicitly authenticate each time. vMA can also collect ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server logs and store the information for analysis.\nEver since VMware announced that ESXi will be be the de-facto platform going forward for the hypervisor starting from 4.1 - a large amount of speculation was raised about how to continue forward, and how we will continue to perform what we were doing up until now on the service console - with the console that is gone.\nVMware is pushing all of us to move to the vMA to do all this administration.\nNow let me share a trail of thought with you. (I would like to stress, these are my thoughts - and are based on my speculation)\nDoes the vMA have a future? Will there be a need for it down the road? Up until now one of the two limiting factors that were not available in was esxcli and esxtop. Since PowerCLI 4.1.1 this is no longer a limitation.\nESXCLI now available through PowerCLI and ESXTOP Available Through PowerCLI\nSo my question to you is, what do we need to keep the vMA for? If someone would tell me because of the built-in syslog server which is available - that does not sell me.\nThe amount of API objects that are currently available for use in PowerCLI - that are not available or exposed through the Perl SDK, has continuously been rising with each new version released.\nWhat is the reason to keep the vMA around in the future? What (if anything) is the necessity for you to have a vMA? Is there anything that you cannot do today with PowerCLI","date":"Jan 19, 2011","href":"/2011/01/do-you-really-need-vma.html","summary":"This post was triggered by a very informative conversation I had with William Lam this week. Thanks William!\nvMA - vSphere Management Assistant, is a virtual machine that includes prepackaged software such as a Linux distribution, the vSphere command‐line interface, and the vSphere SDK for Perl. Basically it is the missing service console for ESXi. But it\u0026rsquo;s more than that too.\nThis allows administrators to run scripts or agents that interact with ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server systems without having to explicitly authenticate each time. vMA can also collect ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server logs and store the information for analysis.","tags":["Tools","Management","Scripting","Appliances",4.1,"VMware"],"title":"Do You Really Need the vMA?"},{"content":"Continuing the problem from part 1.\nOver the past 8 months this template has been updated with Microsoft security patches (released once a month) and during that time the template OS was activated - while connected to the network.\nAfter the upgrade to 4.1, I noticed that I could no longer deploy a Windows 2008 R2 template with customization. (There were several issues here. In the beginning I could not deploy a template at all - but after a restart of the vCenter server and an SR submitted to VMware on the issue that was solved). But when customizing the the template - either with a manual Customization Spec or with a previous one we had been using for almost a year, the customization would not work. None of it.\nNow this can become extremely annoying. Because once you get used to working with deploying a template with a customization spec, to do it manually takes time and can be cumbersome and prone to inconsistencies.The VM name would not be changed, network settings would not work, VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s were not being deployed with their vNIC\u0026amp;rsquo;s connected. There of course is a workaround to the whole problem, to do it manually but as I said before, this is not ideal.\nLast week I finally found the reason this was happening, and partly for my own benefit (documentation) and to share the experience, let me explain what was happening.\nWhen a Windows (7 or 2008) OS is activated with a MAK License Key, the OS is automatically set with a ReArm count of 3. This you you can see with a running the following command.\nC:\\Users\\msaidelk\u0026amp;gt;cscript c:\\Windows\\system32\\slmgr.vbs -dlv Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Software licensing service version: 6.1.7600.16385 Name: Windows(R) 7, Enterprise edition Description: Windows Operating System - Windows(R) 7, VOLUME\\_MAK channel Activation ID: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxx-ad1e-7fe15931a8dd Application ID: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxx-983e-d6ec3f16059f Extended PID:","date":"Jan 17, 2011","href":"/2011/01/windows-72008-deployment-kms-and-mak_17.html","summary":"Continuing the problem from part 1.\nOver the past 8 months this template has been updated with Microsoft security patches (released once a month) and during that time the template OS was activated - while connected to the network.\nAfter the upgrade to 4.1, I noticed that I could no longer deploy a Windows 2008 R2 template with customization. (There were several issues here. In the beginning I could not deploy a template at all - but after a restart of the vCenter server and an SR submitted to VMware on the issue that was solved). But when customizing the the template - either with a manual Customization Spec or with a previous one we had been using for almost a year, the customization would not work. None of it.","tags":["Active Directory","Management","Windows","Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Windows 7/2008 Deployment - KMS and MAK Keys pt. 2"},{"content":"I would close up what we have learned from part 1 and part 2. During my work with the VMware Support on this case, one of the questions I asked, was is it possible to to inject a parameter into the customization process, but the only option was to import a full sysprep file. This would in essence break a good deal of the automation process, such as the rename of the OS to match the deployed VM name. So this was out of the question.\nUnfortunately there was not much I could do here. So I rebuilt a new VM. But I had to take some certain precautions. Once your KMS is registered in the DNS and new OS connects to the network and gets an IP, it automatically looks up for a DNS record for the KMS server and will activate - which is exactly what I did not want.\nThe machine was started disconnected from the external network. I applied a MAK Key to the machine and then connected it to the network. Once a machine is activated with a MAK key, it will not try to contact a KMS server, so I was set.\nSo just to re-cap\nBuild your VM Customize the OS - including your default profile settings Do not connect it to the network Install a MAK Key Connect to the network Activate the MAK key The last part of the puzzle was how to change the MAK key to KMS for all the VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s that will be deployed from this template? This was actually the easiest part. In the Customization Spec you can enter a License Key, and yep you guessed it here you insert the MAK key.\nMachine is deployed, the Customization Spec injects the xml (with the MAK key) into the VM, the vm is sysprep\u0026amp;rsquo;ed (without a problem because you have 3 ReArms left) and when it comes back up automatically is activated with the KMS server.\nA few things still puzzle me though. All of this worked - flawlessly on vCenter 4.0 - I did not have to go through this whole process with MAK and KMS and USD and BS! So did something change? Was there a change in the way the machines are customized from the previous version?\nThe deployment and","date":"Jan 17, 2011","href":"/2011/01/windows-72008-deployment-kms-and-mak_4336.html","summary":"I would close up what we have learned from part 1 and part 2. During my work with the VMware Support on this case, one of the questions I asked, was is it possible to to inject a parameter into the customization process, but the only option was to import a full sysprep file. This would in essence break a good deal of the automation process, such as the rename of the OS to match the deployed VM name. So this was out of the question.","tags":["Active Directory","Tools","Management","Windows","VMware","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Windows 7/2008 Deployment - KMS and MAK Keys pt. 3"},{"content":"Wow!\nWhen I joined on: Thu 21 Aug 2008 07:23 I would have never thought that anyone would actually have much interest in what I have to say, evidently I was wrong.\nOn to the next 1000!!\nW00t!!!\n","date":"Jan 16, 2011","href":"/2011/01/milestone-1000-twitter-followers.html","summary":"Wow!\nWhen I joined on: Thu 21 Aug 2008 07:23 I would have never thought that anyone would actually have much interest in what I have to say, evidently I was wrong.\nOn to the next 1000!!\nW00t!!!","tags":["Miscellaneous"],"title":"A milestone - 1000 Twitter Followers"},{"content":"I have been dealing with an issue that has been bugging me for quite a while. It has to do with the deployment of Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s and License Activation.\nFirst let\u0026amp;rsquo;s describe the environment and situation. The whole infrastructure is at 4.1, vCenter and all ESX hosts as well. It was upgraded recently from 4.0. 7 months ago I created my templates - with all my customizations. Some of these customizations included different OS settings, menu sizes, toolbars etc. In order to copy all of these settings to the default profile, once upon a time all you had to do was to copy that current user profile to the Default User Profile, and subsequently every user than would logon thereafter would have all those settings defined. Starting with Windows 7 and 2008 (perhaps also Vista - I am not sure, we gave this version a skip) this was not the recommended way to this. There is a detailed Microsoft KB that explains the method - which is to Sysprep the machine and provide a setting in the unattend.xml file which will copy the profile. This can be done manually but that is not recommended. You should use the WAIK. This tool is available from Microsoft.\nAfter installing the software you attach a Operating System Image and create an answer file. In that answer file you can search for the Copy Profile option and set:\n\u0026amp;lt;CopyProfile\u0026amp;gt;true\u0026amp;lt;/CopyProfile\u0026amp;gt;\nMy first problem I ran into then was that I was not aware of the fact you can only Sysprep a machine 3 times, thereafter you will not be able to do it any more. This of course led me to a problem of after making changes to the VM and Sysprep\u0026amp;rsquo;ing again and again and again - I could no longer continue with this Template (Thank you VMware for snapshots!!).\nFailure occurred while executing \u0026#39;C:\\Windows\\System32\\slc.dll,SLReArmWindows\u0026#39;, returned error code -1073425657\nThere is a solution to this issue which can avoided by adding an additional flag to the unattend.xml file","date":"Jan 16, 2011","href":"/2011/01/windows-72008-deployment-kms-and-mak.html","summary":"I have been dealing with an issue that has been bugging me for quite a while. It has to do with the deployment of Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2 VM\u0026rsquo;s and License Activation.\nFirst let\u0026rsquo;s describe the environment and situation. The whole infrastructure is at 4.1, vCenter and all ESX hosts as well. It was upgraded recently from 4.0. 7 months ago I created my templates - with all my customizations. Some of these customizations included different OS settings, menu sizes, toolbars etc. In order to copy all of these settings to the default profile, once upon a time all you had to do was to copy that current user profile to the Default User Profile, and subsequently every user than would logon thereafter would have all those settings defined. Starting with Windows 7 and 2008 (perhaps also Vista - I am not sure, we gave this version a skip) this was not the recommended way to this. There is a detailed Microsoft KB that explains the method - which is to Sysprep the machine and provide a setting in the unattend.xml file which will copy the profile. This can be done manually but that is not recommended. You should use the WAIK. This tool is available from Microsoft.","tags":["Active Directory","Windows","Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Windows 7/2008 Deployment - KMS and MAK Keys pt. 1"},{"content":"I was honored to receive an email last night from Stephen Foskett offering me a spot on on the next\nTech Field Day in February in San Jose.\nI am happy to be able to accept the offer, so I will hopefully be making my way to the US in the beginning of February.\nThe list of delegates are as follows.\nSean Clark SeanClark.us @vSeanClark\nBill Hill Virtual Bill Gestalt IT @Virtual_Bill\nTom Hollingsworth The Networking Nerd @NetworkingNerd\nDevang Panchigar StorageNerve @StorageNerve\nChris Wells vSamurai @wygtya\nW. Curtis Preston Backup Central @WCPreston\nMaish Saidel-Keesing Technodrone @maishsk\nEric Siebert vSphere-land @EricSiebert\nGreg Stuart vDestination\nI am really looking forward to this and expect some more blog posts to come.\n","date":"Jan 13, 2011","href":"/2011/01/i-am-delegate-gestalt-it-tech-field-day.html","summary":"I was honored to receive an email last night from Stephen Foskett offering me a spot on on the next\nTech Field Day in February in San Jose.\nI am happy to be able to accept the offer, so I will hopefully be making my way to the US in the beginning of February.\nThe list of delegates are as follows.\nSean Clark SeanClark.us @vSeanClark\nBill Hill Virtual Bill Gestalt IT @Virtual_Bill","tags":["TechFieldDay","Miscellaneous"],"title":"I am a delegate - Gestalt IT Tech Field Day 5"},{"content":"I would be interested in hearing your opinions on what you use for monitoring your VMware environment. I am conducting a study on what tools you find useful for monitoring and Capacity Management/Planning\nIf you would be so kind as to answer the poll below and if you could leave a comment below on why you made your choice - it would be highly appreciated.\nWhat do you use for monitoring your VMware environment? Thanks for the co-operation.\n","date":"Jan 12, 2011","href":"/2011/01/what-do-you-use-for-your-vmware.html","summary":"I would be interested in hearing your opinions on what you use for monitoring your VMware environment. I am conducting a study on what tools you find useful for monitoring and Capacity Management/Planning\nIf you would be so kind as to answer the poll below and if you could leave a comment below on why you made your choice - it would be highly appreciated.\nWhat do you use for monitoring your VMware environment? Thanks for the co-operation.","tags":["Tools","vSphere","Administration","Performance"],"title":"What do you use for your VMware monitoring?"},{"content":"I wanted to give you a heads-up on a webcast that will be held on Wednesday January 12th, 2011 09.00 GMT\nYou are all cordially invited to join, it should be an interesting talk!\nGary Thornton, Simon Seagrave, Steve Chambers, Richard Garsthagen, and myself for an hour of discussion about Virtualization Challenges in 2011 or on the site directly. Looking forward to see you there!\n","date":"Jan 10, 2011","href":"/2011/01/virtualization-challenges-in-2011-under.html","summary":"I wanted to give you a heads-up on a webcast that will be held on Wednesday January 12th, 2011 09.00 GMT\nYou are all cordially invited to join, it should be an interesting talk!\nGary Thornton, Simon Seagrave, Steve Chambers, Richard Garsthagen, and myself for an hour of discussion about Virtualization Challenges in 2011 or on the site directly. Looking forward to see you there!","tags":["Podcast","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Virtualization Challenges in 2011: Under Blogger Scrutiny"},{"content":"I was listening to an very interesting presentation this evening from Olivier Cremel, Principal Engineer\nESXi Internals: Better Understanding for Better Management and Troubleshooting\nThe ESXi Architecture document actually states that the memory footprint of the hypervisor is 32mb\nEric Gray, also put up a post regarding the hypervisor footprint - again 32mb\nThe hypervisor is loaded into memory into a RAMDISK. But where exactly can you see the size of the RAMDISK in which the hypervisor runs, and is it actually 32mb?\nTwo places:\nIn the System Resource Allocation settings for your ESXi host.\nHere you can see that the size of 32MB is reserved - so that it will always be available - but it is also limited at 32MB so that it does not grow larger than the specified size.\nIn the ESXi host itself.\nAs you can see from the output below\n~ # vdf --help vdf: invalid option -- - Gather stats about visorfs visorfsdf [filepath] -h multiple instead of blocks -p resource pool view As you can see from the output above the MAINSYS partition is the set 32MB.\nOf course because all the entities above are resource pools, they can be configured to your needs - but they should only be done with specific guidance from VMware support.\nA nice bit of info..\n","date":"Dec 29, 2010","href":"/2010/12/esxi-has-32mb-memory-footprint.html","summary":"I was listening to an very interesting presentation this evening from Olivier Cremel, Principal Engineer\nESXi Internals: Better Understanding for Better Management and Troubleshooting\nThe ESXi Architecture document actually states that the memory footprint of the hypervisor is 32mb\nEric Gray, also put up a post regarding the hypervisor footprint - again 32mb\nThe hypervisor is loaded into memory into a RAMDISK. But where exactly can you see the size of the RAMDISK in which the hypervisor runs, and is it actually 32mb?","tags":["vSphere",4.1,"VMware","ESX4i"],"title":"ESXi has a 32mb Memory footprint"},{"content":"2010 has come and gone. It has been a great year, seriously, there are so many things I can point out that continue to amaze me, that makes me wonder sometimes what is it that I do that has brought these great times upon me.\nTwo contributions of mine that were published lately were predictions on what is store for us in 2011.\nPredictions for 2011 by the virtualization community - Veeam 2011 server virtualization predictions from our advisory board - SearchServerVirtualization.com\nI will not repeat any of the the predictions that have been published above - but I would like to add a small something on a personal note.\nKeeping up with the technological advances is becoming harder. Anyone that does not agree - put up your hand! More and more products are being released, by all of the major players in the industry.Be it virtualization, be it the supporting Eco shell around it (monitoring, management, planning, security etc. etc.) , be it the hardware vendors, the storage vendors the sausage vendors, (hey not the sausage people - just wanted to check if you were paying attention). If you are not developing a product that will be connected with virtualization in some way - then you are losing out on a really large potential market.\nIf I were to dedicate all my time (which I cannot - I have a life - and a day job) to only testing all the new products, technologies that are being released, developed on a daily basis, then perhaps, maybe I would be able to keep up. Maybe. Only very few of us can actually do this there just is not enough time.\nSo how to keep up? I have a few suggestions.\nTwitter. Twitter is a unbelievable source of information, it is actually sometimes scary and can become quite an addiction, that is why you have to control how you use Twitter. If you have not already joined in I would suggest the following lists to follow.\nvExperts 2010 Top Bloggers Official VMware Certified Design Experts If you you were to follow the people in these lists (and some of them","date":"Dec 28, 2010","href":"/2010/12/what-is-in-store-for-2011-and-how-to.html","summary":"2010 has come and gone. It has been a great year, seriously, there are so many things I can point out that continue to amaze me, that makes me wonder sometimes what is it that I do that has brought these great times upon me.\nTwo contributions of mine that were published lately were predictions on what is store for us in 2011.\nPredictions for 2011 by the virtualization community - Veeam ","tags":["Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware"],"title":"What is in Store for 2011 and How to Keep up?"},{"content":"Today I came across two different products that could provide a large amount of benefit to any organization. But there is an issue with both of them.\nThe first one is Nexenta\nNexentaStor**™** is a fully featured NAS/SAN software platform with capabilities that meet and even exceed the capabilities of legacy storage systems. NexentaStor’s rapid development is due in great measure to the feedback and input of well over 10,000 NexentaStor**™** users and the ongoing progress of the underlying OpenSolaris and Nexenta.org communities, each of which are estimated to have hundreds of thousands of members.\nFile system: NexentaStor™ can be installed as a filesystem on a wide variety of servers and server blades. Software Virtual Appliance: NexentaStor**™** is packaged as a virtual appliance with other products such as VMware’s virtualization products. Community Version: NexentaStor**™** is also packaged into a Community version for community use and for hardware and software developers that want to embed the product or integrate with the product. The product itself seems to be very promising - with one caveat (which I will get to in a second)\nThe second one I came across was because of a Xsigo blog post here\n(which in itself is a very informative read!)\nWith Xsigo virtual I/O, you can move, add, or change connectivity on demand. Configure up to 64 isolated connections per server through a single cable.\nNetworks and storage all connect to the I/O Director, which in turn connects to each server via a single cable (or two for redundancy). Xsigo offers both InfiniBand and standard Ethernet options for server connectivity.\nUnlike any other virtual I/O or unified computing solutions on the market, only Xsigo lets you converge server I/O using the ports your servers already have.\nAgain this seems to be an amazing product - I have seen some demos of the product - but again with one caveat (here it comes!)\nNeither of the two products are supported by VMware. They do not appear on the","date":"Dec 14, 2010","href":"/2010/12/unsupported-hardware-would-you.html","summary":"Today I came across two different products that could provide a large amount of benefit to any organization. But there is an issue with both of them.\nThe first one is Nexenta\nNexentaStor**™** is a fully featured NAS/SAN software platform with capabilities that meet and even exceed the capabilities of legacy storage systems. NexentaStor’s rapid development is due in great measure to the feedback and input of well over 10,000 NexentaStor**™** users and the ongoing progress of the underlying OpenSolaris and Nexenta.org communities, each of which are estimated to have hundreds of thousands of members.","tags":["Management","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Unsupported Hardware - Would You?"},{"content":"I would like to tell you a short story about the new present that Veeam has announced today.\nJust under 2 months ago I sent the message above to Doug Hazelman. The text speaks for itself. This is the answer I got back from him\nSo the Hash tags were out #F4C - which was of course #NFR4VCP\nIsn\u0026amp;rsquo;t it great to have companies like this that actually think of these things before you even have the idea? and even more so - bring these things to fruition!!\nThe NFR licenses include 2 sockets of Veeam Backup \u0026amp;amp; Replication v5 with vPower and Veeam One Solution.\nThis is a good strategic move on Veeam\u0026amp;rsquo;s behalf, getting the people that deal with virtualization to test drive the products, get to know them, and if the find them useful, then continue to expand their deployment\nThe promotion is here: https://www.veeam.com/go/free-nfr-license\nThank you very much Veeam!!\n(And this is completely coincidental that there have been two blog posts regarding Veeam\nin two days - I swear!!)\n","date":"Dec 9, 2010","href":"/2010/12/veeam-holiday-present.html","summary":"I would like to tell you a short story about the new present that Veeam has announced today.\nJust under 2 months ago I sent the message above to Doug Hazelman. The text speaks for itself. This is the answer I got back from him\nSo the Hash tags were out #F4C - which was of course #NFR4VCP\nIsn\u0026rsquo;t it great to have companies like this that actually think of these things before you even have the idea? and even more so - bring these things to fruition!!","tags":["Tools","Virtualization","vSphere","Administration"],"title":"Veeam's Holiday Present"},{"content":"For those of you who have not already noticed.\nVMware will be upgrading Communities systems between 10-12 December 2010. During this time, the system will be placed in read-only mode. While we work on the upgrade, you will not be able to log in, and only public content will be available. All data will be preserved and become available again once the upgrade is complete.\nThis is a sneak preview of the demo site.\nIf you need urgent support during the upcoming weekend, please submit a Support Request.\n","date":"Dec 9, 2010","href":"/2010/12/vmware-communities-downtime-this.html","summary":"For those of you who have not already noticed.\nVMware will be upgrading Communities systems between 10-12 December 2010. During this time, the system will be placed in read-only mode. While we work on the upgrade, you will not be able to log in, and only public content will be available. All data will be preserved and become available again once the upgrade is complete.\nThis is a sneak preview of the demo site.","tags":["Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","Upgrade"],"title":"VMware Communities Downtime this weekend"},{"content":"I would like to thank Veeam for becoming a sponsor of Technodrone\nWelcome aboard!!\n","date":"Dec 9, 2010","href":"/2010/12/welcome-to-new-sponsor.html","summary":"I would like to thank Veeam for becoming a sponsor of Technodrone\nWelcome aboard!!","tags":["Miscellaneous"],"title":"Welcome To A New Sponsor"},{"content":"A few days ago, I was presented with a situation that I had a failed ESX Server which needed to be re-installed. How and what happened is another tory for another time though.\nI wanted to get some information off of the ESX host, namely the configuration and the whole /var/log partition for the purposes of opening an SR with VMware to analyze the issue.\nIn this particular case I could only get into single mode on the ESX host, so I did not have any network connectivity to the outside.\nSo I thought that I might as well use a USB stick. Well life is not so simple. The only one I had on me was a 16GB Sandisk Cruzer. Now this USB stick was formatted in Windows, and of course because of the partition size - it was NTFS.\nNow the process of mounting a USB stick on an ESX host is really very simple.\nPlug it in dmesg to get the identity of the drive that was just inserted (for example /dev/sda) mkdir /tmp/usb mount /dev/sda /tmp/usb It is that simple.\nI needed to copy off the files before I wiped and re-installed the host.\nI thought - where else do I have an available USB stick? And Bling! Light bulb!! My phone!!!\nPlugged it into the host. Found the identity from dmesg Created the directory, mounted the device Copied off my files umount /tmp/usb I now had the necessary files on my phone - which I could thereafter forward to the relevant people.\nHandy to have a phone wherever you go, don\u0026amp;rsquo;t you think?\n","date":"Dec 2, 2010","href":"/2010/12/my-android-phone-as-usb-stick.html","summary":"A few days ago, I was presented with a situation that I had a failed ESX Server which needed to be re-installed. How and what happened is another tory for another time though.\nI wanted to get some information off of the ESX host, namely the configuration and the whole /var/log partition for the purposes of opening an SR with VMware to analyze the issue.\nIn this particular case I could only get into single mode on the ESX host, so I did not have any network connectivity to the outside.","tags":["Tools","vSphere","Administration","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"My Android Phone as a USB stick"},{"content":"Heh? Alive VM? I have never hear of it? Well up until today neither had I.\nLooking at my previous post Upgrade to Enterprise Plus promotion I clicked on the link (which was originally pointing to the above mentioned promotion) and was presented with this page.\nA quick search on VMware\u0026amp;rsquo;s site brought only these two hits\nA Google search brought me to this\nAha! Integrien!!\nNow Integrien was acquired at the end of August 2010 by VMware.\nNow judging from what is on the VMware landing page\nGet a comprehensive view of overall performance for the entire vSphere environment; health, performance and capacity. Heat maps easily locate trouble areas and mapping of virtual machines to host, cluster and datacenter combined with trended analytics enable quick and effective problem solving.\nQ. What is the current offer?\nA. During this promotion, when you purchase an eligible VMware vSphere product offering you will qualify to receive a perpetual license of VMware Alive VM allowing you to manage up to 50 virtual machines and one (1) year of Basic Support and Subscription (SnS) at no additional charge.\nQ. What is the timeframe for this promotion?\nA. When you purchase eligible products between November 23, 2010 and March 1, 2011, you will be qualified to receive a promotional code for our VMware online store which can be used to redeem the applicable VMware Alive VM perpetual license. Redemptions must be made by April 30, 2011 at midnight PST.\nQ. What is the benefit of VMware Alive VM\nA. VMware Alive VM is a uniquely designed product that enables the VM administrator to have a comprehensive view of the overall performance of their complete vSphere environment.\nIndicators of health, workload and capacity\nHeat maps to easily locate trouble areas\nMapping of virtual machines to host to cluster and datacenter to get to root cause analysis\nTrending and analytics for quick and effective problem solving\nAn Alive VM promotional redemption code will be emailed to eligible customers within","date":"Nov 29, 2010","href":"/2010/11/welcome-to-vmware-alive-vm.html","summary":"Heh? Alive VM? I have never hear of it? Well up until today neither had I.\nLooking at my previous post Upgrade to Enterprise Plus promotion I clicked on the link (which was originally pointing to the above mentioned promotion) and was presented with this page.\nA quick search on VMware\u0026rsquo;s site brought only these two hits\nA Google search brought me to this\nAha! Integrien!!\nNow Integrien was acquired at the end of August 2010 by VMware.","tags":["vSphere","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Welcome to VMware Alive VM"},{"content":"Pablo Roesch approached me a while back to ask if he could add me to the Hero Spotlight on the\nVMware Developer Community.\nI was contacted today by a colleague in Israel who said he saw my face up on the VMware site\nThe Heroes in the Spotlight are rotated, so F5 to go through them all.\nI am honored I am not worthy - there are so many others that should be up there. Thank you Pablo for making this happen. ","date":"Nov 22, 2010","href":"/2010/11/i-got-my-ugly-mug-on-vmware-site.html","summary":"Pablo Roesch approached me a while back to ask if he could add me to the Hero Spotlight on the\nVMware Developer Community.\nI was contacted today by a colleague in Israel who said he saw my face up on the VMware site\nThe Heroes in the Spotlight are rotated, so F5 to go through them all.\nI am honored I am not worthy - there are so many others that should be up there. Thank you Pablo for making this happen. ","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"I Got my Ugly Mug on the VMware site"},{"content":"Act Now to Get More Value from vSphere\nThat is the title of the promotion valid for less than one month from today.\nFor a limited time, you can get VMware vCenter CapacityIQ and/or VMware View for free, depending on which version of VMware vSphere you upgrade to or purchase, making the ROI better than ever.\nIf buy vSphere Standard, Advanced, or Enterprise or Enterprise Plus, upgrade to any of these editions, or purchase any vSphere acceleration kit that contains these editions between August 9, 2010 and December 15, 2010 and get 15 VMs of VMware vCenter CapacityIQ, a robust virtualization capacity planning solution that helps you utilize your datacenter and desktop capacity in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. Review the list of qualifying SKUs or read the FAQs for more details.\nBuy or upgrade to vSphere Enterprise Plus between August 9, 2010 and December 15, 2010 when you purchase or upgrade to vSphere Enterprise Plus and get 50 free licenses of View Premier Add-On plus 15 VMs of vCenter Capacity IQ.\nReview the list of qualifying SKUs or read the FAQs for more details.\nAs an additional, ongoing benefit, qualifying purchases will also be entitled to the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware operating system with subscription to patches and updates at no incremental cost. To learn more, visit the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware product page and read the terms and conditions and list of eligible SKUs.\nAdd-on packages mean you need to have a current license of VMware View.\nRegular price for 10 View Premier 4.5 add-on licenses goes for $1,500 (+$375 SNS for one year).\nApproximate price for one VM license of CapacityIQ is $75/vm (+$19 SNS for one year)\nIn total - $10,785 value for the promotion.This looks like a great deal - seriously, so if you have the opportunity I would advise you use it.\nAnd if this is done in 3 eligible orders it goes up to $32,355. Kachinggggggg………..\nSo just to clarify here - from the FAQ.\nQ. What is included in the View","date":"Nov 18, 2010","href":"/2010/11/upgrade-to-enterprise-plus-promotion.html","summary":"Act Now to Get More Value from vSphere\nThat is the title of the promotion valid for less than one month from today.\nFor a limited time, you can get VMware vCenter CapacityIQ and/or VMware View for free, depending on which version of VMware vSphere you upgrade to or purchase, making the ROI better than ever.\nIf buy vSphere Standard, Advanced, or Enterprise or Enterprise Plus, upgrade to any of these editions, or purchase any vSphere acceleration kit that contains these editions between August 9, 2010 and December 15, 2010 and get 15 VMs of VMware vCenter CapacityIQ, a robust virtualization capacity planning solution that helps you utilize your datacenter and desktop capacity in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. Review the list of qualifying SKUs or read the FAQs for more details.","tags":["vSphere",4.1,"Miscellaneous","VMware","Licensing"],"title":"Upgrade to Enterprise Plus promotion - ends soon"},{"content":"This was just released. KB 1027027 (ESX) and KB 1027753 (ESXi)\nI wanted to point out that is should deal with several issues that include a patch to solve this Host crash because of ESX Active Directory Integration.\nHere is the info from the KB 1027021\nWhen an user who is a member of more than 32 groups attempts to log into an ESXi host by using KVM, any one of the following issues might occur:\nESX/i host restarts\nESX/i host becomes unresponsive\nNote: With this patch, a user who is a member of more than 128 groups can access the console, but loses any group information beyond the 128th group.\nAnd also the 8 character password issue that William Lam posted about here\nIf passwords of more than eight characters are set for ESXi 4.1 system users, the set password is truncated to eight characters, and the system evaluates only the first 8 characters of the password submitted for authentication.\nNote: To implement this fix, reset the password of the existing ESXi 4.1 system users after applying the patch.\nAs always - Test before deployment\n","date":"Nov 16, 2010","href":"/2010/11/new-patch-released-vmsa-2010-0016.html","summary":"This was just released. KB 1027027 (ESX) and KB 1027753 (ESXi)\nI wanted to point out that is should deal with several issues that include a patch to solve this Host crash because of ESX Active Directory Integration.\nHere is the info from the KB 1027021\nWhen an user who is a member of more than 32 groups attempts to log into an ESXi host by using KVM, any one of the following issues might occur:","tags":["Security","vSphere",4.1,"VMware","ESX"],"title":"New Patch released - VMSA-2010-0016"},{"content":"I was contacted the other day with an issue where someone was trying to create a cluster in a box, and they were running into an issue. When trying to power on the VM with the shared, eager-zeroed-thick disk that was created they were running into an error message, saying that they did not have permission to access the disk.\nI checked to see if the VM settings were correct and that the SCSI adapter was set to a different controller with the correct disk sharing options. It was.\nI enquired how was the eager zeroed disk created, and that was also done correctly. The admin logged into the ESX host and created the disk with the following command on the datastore.\nsudo vmkfstools -c 60G -d eagerzeroedthick /vmfs/volumes/IT_DBM_QT/shared/shared.vmdk\nI logged into the host and noticed something weird. The disk was created in a folder called shared but the permissions on the folder and the files were not correct. they were set with owner:group which was not root:root the way it should have been.\nFrom the ESX host\ndrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Nov 1 14:43 . drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 512 Nov 1 15:23 .. drwxr-xr-x 1 65534 65534 4096 Sep 20 14:31 md1 drwxr-xr-x 1 65534 65534 4096 Oct 27 11:23 md2 drwxr-xr-x 1 65534 65534 4096 Sep 19 16:21 mich_bi drwxr-xr-x 1 65534 65534 4096 Oct 14 18:04 oem11 drwxr-xr-x 1 65534 65534 4096 Sep 16 10:20 orabi11 drwxr-xr-x 1 65534 65534 4096 Oct 3 12:09 rh5.5-m2.kickstart drwxr-xr-x 1 65534 65534 4096 Sep 12 12:36 rh5-dg1 drwxr-xr-x 1 65534 65534 4096 Oct 14 16:53 rh5-dg1_1 drwxr-xr-x 1 65534 65534 4096 Sep 12 15:46 rh5-dg1_2 drwxr-xr-x 1 65534 65534 4096 Sep 13 11:05 rh5-dg2 drwxr-xr-x 1 65534 65534 4096 Sep 12 15:08 rh5-dg2_1 drwxr-xr-x 1 65534 65534 4096 Nov 1 15:07 rh5-rac1 drwxr-xr-x 1 65534 65534 4096 Nov 1 15:09 rh5-rac2 drwxrwxr-x 1 admin admin 4096 Nov 1 14:43 shared drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Nov 1 12:00 .snapshot Now the listing above shows that the owner was 65534:65534 which was not right.\nNow who is user 65534? I tried to cat","date":"Nov 3, 2010","href":"/2010/11/incorrect-nfs-datastore-mount.html","summary":"I was contacted the other day with an issue where someone was trying to create a cluster in a box, and they were running into an issue. When trying to power on the VM with the shared, eager-zeroed-thick disk that was created they were running into an error message, saying that they did not have permission to access the disk.\nI checked to see if the VM settings were correct and that the SCSI adapter was set to a different controller with the correct disk sharing options. It was.","tags":["vSphere","Administration","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Incorrect NFS Datastore mount"},{"content":"As was posted on the new KB article 1029925 the vSphere Client is no longer packaged with current builds of ESX and ESXi. However it is packaged with vCenter, so you can still get it from the web interface of your vCenter server.\nSince they have posted a direct URL to the download I decided to wrap this in a PowerShell script\nGet-vSphereClient.\nFunction Get-vSphereClient { \u0026amp;lt;# .SYNOPSIS Downloads the vsphere 4.1 Build 258902 Client .DESCRIPTION As was posted on the new KB article 1029925 the vSphere Client is no longer packaged with builds of ESX and ESXi. This function will download the vSphere client from VMware\u0026amp;#39;s site .NOTES Author: Maish Saidel-Keesing .PARAMETER Url The url for the .exe file .PARAMETER Path The location the file will be saved .EXAMPLE PS\u0026amp;gt; Get-vSphereClient -url https://vsphereclient.vmware.com/vsphereclient/2/5/8/9/0/2/VMware-viclient-all-4.1.0-258902.exe -path c:\\temp\\viclient.exe #\u0026amp;gt; param ( $url=\u0026amp;#34;https://vsphereclient.vmware.com/vsphereclient/2/5/8/9/0/2/VMware-viclient-all-4.1.0-258902.exe\u0026amp;#34;, $path=\u0026amp;#34;c:\\temp\\VMware-viclient-all-4.1.0-258902.exe\u0026amp;#34; ) ##Create Web Client $client = new-object System.Net.WebClient $client.DownloadFile($url,$path) } Hope you can make use of this.\nJase McCarty posted an article on on how to change this behavior on his blog a few months back as well.\n","date":"Nov 2, 2010","href":"/2010/11/get-vsphere-client.html","summary":"As was posted on the new KB article 1029925 the vSphere Client is no longer packaged with current builds of ESX and ESXi. However it is packaged with vCenter, so you can still get it from the web interface of your vCenter server.\nSince they have posted a direct URL to the download I decided to wrap this in a PowerShell script\nGet-vSphereClient.\nFunction Get-vSphereClient { \u0026lt;# .SYNOPSIS Downloads the vsphere 4.1 Build 258902 Client .DESCRIPTION As was posted on the new KB article 1029925 the vSphere Client is no longer packaged with builds of ESX and ESXi. This function will download the vSphere client from VMware\u0026#39;s site .NOTES Author: Maish Saidel-Keesing .PARAMETER Url The url for the .exe file .PARAMETER Path The location the file will be saved .EXAMPLE PS\u0026gt; Get-vSphereClient -url https://vsphereclient.vmware.com/vsphereclient/2/5/8/9/0/2/VMware-viclient-all-4.1.0-258902.exe -path c:\\temp\\viclient.exe #\u0026gt; param ( $url=\u0026#34;https://vsphereclient.vmware.com/vsphereclient/2/5/8/9/0/2/VMware-viclient-all-4.1.0-258902.exe\u0026#34;, $path=\u0026#34;c:\\temp\\VMware-viclient-all-4.1.0-258902.exe\u0026#34; ) ##Create Web Client $client = new-object System.Net.WebClient $client.DownloadFile($url,$path) } Hope you can make use of this.","tags":["vSphere","Powershell",4.1,"Administration","ESX4i"],"title":"Get-vSphereClient Function"},{"content":"I came across this list of free eBooks that Microsoft has released as of late.\nWindows 7 troubleshooting tips\nDeploying Windows 7, Essential Guidance\nIntroducing Windows Server 2008 R2\nFirst Look Microsoft Office 2010\nPerhaps you can find something useful here.\n","date":"Nov 2, 2010","href":"/2010/11/list-of-free-ebooks.html","summary":"I came across this list of free eBooks that Microsoft has released as of late.\nWindows 7 troubleshooting tips\nDeploying Windows 7, Essential Guidance\nIntroducing Windows Server 2008 R2\nFirst Look Microsoft Office 2010\nPerhaps you can find something useful here.","tags":["Microsoft","Tools","Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"List of Free Ebooks"},{"content":"I started reading Eric Siebert\u0026amp;rsquo;s book this afternoon - Maximum vSphere: Tips, How-Tos, and Best Practices for Working with VMware vSphere 4 (which is a great book - highly recommended!!), and for some reason during the part that he was speaking about licensing and the features, a thought crossed my mind.\nI put out a feeler this evening on Twitter with this question:\nQuick twitter poll - what is your average CPU usage on your ESX hosts? \u0026amp;lt;25% - \u0026amp;lt;50% - \u0026amp;lt;75% - \u0026amp;gt;75% - Interested to hear...\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) October 30, 2010 All the answers I received all pointed to the same conclusion.\nThe constraint that almost everyone hits first is RAM, not CPU. Some admins cannot expand on the amount of RAM in their server, because the cost of the bigger DIMM\u0026amp;rsquo;s are too high, and there are not enough slots left in the server. Which leaves them with servers that are nearing memory capacity, but not not anywhere close on utilizing the CPU power of the server.\nMany people are purchasing dual-socket servers for redundancy or because of the fear of not having the server perform well enough.\nFrom my own environment I can say that my hosts are utilizing around 30% of their CPU, with 2 Quad Core CPU\u0026amp;rsquo;s. And from the answers I got tonight on my question above - the results are pretty much the same.\nNow perhaps a sacrilegious thought. What would happen if we only used one physical processor in a server?\nToday we are talking about a six or eight core processors and this number is rising. The amount of cores available are more or less the same, as what the majority of people are using today, 8 cores - 2 x Quad-core processors.\nNow you might ask, but here I lose the redundancy. This could be true, but how many of you have actually lost a CPU due to malfunction in a server? I personally have not. Ever. I would also suppose - that if a physical CPU barfs on you during a production workload - then it will not be pretty. The VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s that were","date":"Oct 31, 2010","href":"/2010/10/can-we-move-to-only-one-physical-cpu.html","summary":"I started reading Eric Siebert\u0026rsquo;s book this afternoon - Maximum vSphere: Tips, How-Tos, and Best Practices for Working with VMware vSphere 4 (which is a great book - highly recommended!!), and for some reason during the part that he was speaking about licensing and the features, a thought crossed my mind.\nI put out a feeler this evening on Twitter with this question:\nQuick twitter poll - what is your average CPU usage on your ESX hosts? \u0026lt;25% - \u0026lt;50% - \u0026lt;75% - \u0026gt;75% - Interested to hear...","tags":["vSphere","VMware","ESX"],"title":"Can We move to only one Physical CPU?"},{"content":"10 days ago I completed my VCDX defense in front of a Panel of some the top professionals and technical people in VMware. This has been the completion of a journey, a path and quest to achieve the VCDX certification.\nBut let us roll back a bit - approximately a year back.\nVMware announced that there would be a new certification path that would be a level above the current VCP certification.\nThere was a great amount of buzz around this when it launched and people were all gung-ho to start and get this new cert.\nUntil.. They saw what was involved. And then a large number of people dropped it.\nVMware Certified Design Expert - that is the abbreviation. 4 letters but oh it is so much more.\nSo let\u0026amp;rsquo;s start why I decided to pursue this certification.\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s face it. There are approximately 56,000 VCP certification holders. That number becomes less for those who hold both VCP3 and VCP4, and even less for those who hold VCP2, VCP3 and VCP4. I am not a certification chaser, not by a long shot, usually I only update my Certs if I have to or find additional benefit, it was the same with MCSE 2000, and MCSE 2003. I have not pursued the 2008 certifications, because I did not need to, but more so - I do not see the benefit of doing so at this time. Being one of 56,000 individuals in a population of almost 7 billion is an amazing achievement.\nBut I aspired for something more. Doing the regular day-to-day admin work was not enough. So you start to look for more interests, you go into new subjects, you continuously learn new things.\nNow this certification was something that caught my eye. This was not your average Admin work. The most interesting thing that I saw, was that you could not study from a book for the exams. The Exam blueprint was based on experience and in-depth knowledge of VI3 products and the surrounding infrastructure. There were no braindumps, no cheat sheets. This is either something that you know or you do not, based primarily on you own experience and","date":"Oct 23, 2010","href":"/2010/10/journey-to-vcdx-not-complete-yet.html","summary":"10 days ago I completed my VCDX defense in front of a Panel of some the top professionals and technical people in VMware. This has been the completion of a journey, a path and quest to achieve the VCDX certification.\nBut let us roll back a bit - approximately a year back.\nVMware announced that there would be a new certification path that would be a level above the current VCP certification.","tags":["VCDX","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Journey to VCDX - Not complete - YET!"},{"content":"A week has passed since the last day of VMworld in Copenhagen. And I owe myself (and you as well) a roundup and summary of the event\nQuite a few roundups have been published over the past week. I will not repeat what has been said in the other posts, but I would like to add my following comments.\nWhich kid does not like going to Disneyworld? So I guess you can say the same thing, which virtualization enthusiast does not like like going to VMworld?\nThere are very few events or places that you can go and find a load of people who are interested in the same thing you are, who understand what you are talking about, who will crack up laughing at the funny slogans on the splunk tshirts. So thanks VMworld.\nThere are many opportunities we all have to play with new technologies. But we hardly ever have the privilege to have everything prepared for us, the same way we provide for our end users and customers. That is why I think that the labs were such a hit. Of course the experience, the diversity, and the performance of the labs was amazing, but for me to go and and have a a vCloud Environment all ready for me with the click of a mouse, without me having to go and find hardware, storage, licenses and time to set it up, was a treat. So thanks VMworld.\nThe social networking. It was great finally meeting a great amount of people that I have chatted with, tweeted with, DM\u0026amp;rsquo;ed and read their blog posts over the past year or two. It was an honor to meet you all. The conversations were great. The live troubleshooting sessions were great. The ad-hoc meetings were great. So thanks VMworld.\nMeeting and talking with the VMware Product Managers / Architects. Meeting and talking with the Vendors, the Directors, VP\u0026amp;rsquo;s, Architects and big-wigs. I have mentioned it perhaps before, but I am continually amazed at how accessible you all are. I sometimes think that maybe it is me who is well connected, but no it is not! It is all of you who are willing to listen, to help with a","date":"Oct 21, 2010","href":"/2010/10/vmworld-2010-or-was-it-disneyworld.html","summary":"A week has passed since the last day of VMworld in Copenhagen. And I owe myself (and you as well) a roundup and summary of the event\nQuite a few roundups have been published over the past week. I will not repeat what has been said in the other posts, but I would like to add my following comments.\nWhich kid does not like going to Disneyworld? So I guess you can say the same thing, which virtualization enthusiast does not like like going to VMworld?","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"VMworld 2010 - or was it Disneyworld?"},{"content":"I wanted to share with you a short interview that John Troyer held with Alex Mittell, Erik Scholten and myself during the Show last week.\nI apologize I did not manage to trim the video properly, so please scroll to the 3.00 minute mark to get to the beginning.\nHope you enjoy.\n","date":"Oct 21, 2010","href":"/2010/10/vmworld-2010-copenhagen-vexperts-panel.html","summary":"I wanted to share with you a short interview that John Troyer held with Alex Mittell, Erik Scholten and myself during the Show last week.\nI apologize I did not manage to trim the video properly, so please scroll to the 3.00 minute mark to get to the beginning.\nHope you enjoy.","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"VMworld 2010 Copenhagen - vExperts Panel"},{"content":"I was asked to provide a small report on what the average RAM usage was on each host over the past 30 days\nI forgot to mention the code was inspired by the session that Luc Dekens and Alan Renouf gave at VMworld.\nOf course you could do it with mouse clicks – but man I love PowerCLI. 10 lines of code. less than 3 minutes and BAM!\n$start = (Get-Date).AddDays(-30) $finish = Get-Date $metrics = \u0026amp;#34;mem.usage.average\u0026amp;#34; Get-Datacenter | ForEach-Object{ Get-VMHost -location $_ | Sort-Object Name | ForEach-Object { Write-Host $_.Name $stats = \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#34; $stats = get-stat -Entity $_ -Stat $metrics -Start $start -Finish $finish Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;$($_) average Memory Usage over the last month is: $(\u0026amp;#34;{0:N2}\u0026amp;#34; -f ($stats | Measure-Object -Property Value -Average).Average)%\u0026amp;#34; } } 1-2. Set start variable with the date I need (30 days ago) and finish with today\u0026amp;rsquo;s date\n3. This is the metric I am looking for.\n5-6. Here we get each Host, I divided it up by datacenter/cluster to show that all hosts are (should be) balanced and using the same amount of resources and we perform the action on each host.\n7-8. First clear the variable, from any previous runs, and set the stats variable with the information I want.\n9. Here I used the .Net format for numbering \u0026amp;ldquo;{0:N2}\u0026amp;rdquo; -f otherwise I received a number which had 10 digits after the decimal point (which is pointless .. ;) )\nAnd I got this output\nDev esx2.maishsk.local average Memory Usage over the last month is: 82.46% esx3.maishsk.local average Memory Usage over the last month is: 79.20% esx5.maishsk.local average Memory Usage over the last month is: 79.04% esx6.maishsk.local average Memory Usage over the last month is: 72.57% esx7.maishsk.local average Memory Usage over the last month is: 77.97% Of course you can do this with any metric as well.\nTime to add more hosts to the Cluster (me thinks)….\n","date":"Oct 18, 2010","href":"/2010/10/getting-average-usage-from-your-hosts.html","summary":"I was asked to provide a small report on what the average RAM usage was on each host over the past 30 days\nI forgot to mention the code was inspired by the session that Luc Dekens and Alan Renouf gave at VMworld.\nOf course you could do it with mouse clicks – but man I love PowerCLI. 10 lines of code. less than 3 minutes and BAM!\n$start = (Get-Date).AddDays(-30) $finish = Get-Date $metrics = \u0026#34;mem.usage.average\u0026#34; Get-Datacenter | ForEach-Object{ Get-VMHost -location $_ | Sort-Object Name | ForEach-Object { Write-Host $_.Name $stats = \u0026#34;\u0026#34; $stats = get-stat -Entity $_ -Stat $metrics -Start $start -Finish $finish Write-Host \u0026#34;$($_) average Memory Usage over the last month is: $(\u0026#34;{0:N2}\u0026#34; -f ($stats | Measure-Object -Property Value -Average).Average)%\u0026#34; } } 1-2. Set start variable with the date I need (30 days ago) and finish with today\u0026rsquo;s date\n3. This is the metric I am looking for.\n5-6. Here we get each Host, I divided it up by datacenter/cluster to show that all hosts are (should be) balanced and using the same amount of resources and we perform the action on each host.\n7-8. First clear the variable, from any previous runs, and set the stats variable with the information I want.\n9. Here I used the .Net format for numbering \u0026ldquo;{0:N2}\u0026rdquo; -f otherwise I received a number which had 10 digits after the decimal point (which is pointless .. ;) )","tags":["vSphere","Scripting","Powershell","Administration","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"Getting Average Usage from your hosts - PowerCLI"},{"content":"My day started at 08.00 with two labs that. The labs were nice and quiet.\nLAB17 Lab: VMware vCenter™ Orchestrator\nThis I think is one of the most hidden secrets and most unused featured that is bundled with vCenter. In essence this could enable you to basically do almost anything you want in your Virtual Infrastructure. But the issue is that the documentation for the product was, IMHO, severely lacking until the current release and besides a few how-to\u0026amp;rsquo;s on how to set it up - the knowledge is practically non-existent.\nI would like to point you all to the VCO Team site who have been releasing amazing content on how to make better use of the product.\nThe first part was the installation process of Orchestrator which has been simplified even more than previous versions.\nThe Lab continued on how to create workflows to deploy VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s and move VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s from one location the other.\nI would have liked to see a more advanced level for giving more insight on how to configure and create workflows and how to present them to the end user through the web interface, maybe at VMworld 2011\nLAB20 Lab: VMware vCenter™ vShield 2.0\nI was extremely impressed by the product. The lab gave a good overview, precise explanations and the enough amount of hands-on to see an example on how to load balance or NAT a VM, amongst other things.\nI started to walk around the Solutions Exchange floor. SWAG, SWAG SWAG!! Mike has started a worthy cause of the The SwagBag Competition.\nI had two very interesting demo\u0026amp;rsquo;s. One with the VP of Xangati who have what seems to be a very promising product. The second was a demo of Splunk. They actually had the funniest t-shirts. Seriously! This is something I would like to investigate further after the show.\nI then spent some time in the Blogger lounge where it was great to put a real face to the Twitter handles that we all use. Great discussions about all sorts of things are happening the whole time. @jtroyer (so much taller than I expected) is busy","date":"Oct 14, 2010","href":"/2010/10/vmworld-day-2.html","summary":"My day started at 08.00 with two labs that. The labs were nice and quiet.\nLAB17 Lab: VMware vCenter™ Orchestrator\nThis I think is one of the most hidden secrets and most unused featured that is bundled with vCenter. In essence this could enable you to basically do almost anything you want in your Virtual Infrastructure. But the issue is that the documentation for the product was, IMHO, severely lacking until the current release and besides a few how-to\u0026rsquo;s on how to set it up - the knowledge is practically non-existent.","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"VMworld - Day 2"},{"content":"Day 3 started with me being a bunch of nerves and getting up at the crack of dawn. I would like to lodge an official complaint with the Danish Hotel Association (If that even exists)\nYou should not have two hotels named the same in the same city\nFirst Hotel Vesterbro // COPENHAGEN and the First Hotel Skt. Petri // COPENHAGEN. Not being Danish - can you see how this can be confusing - and they are located within 1.5 Kilometers of each other.\nThis caused confusion this morning which almost made me late for my VCDX defense. I will talk about that in a separate post.\nAfter a short walk through town, and back at the Bella Center I felt so relieved after the defense was over - so it was back to the conference.\nA session with the support services of VMware that I was invited to (but left before it was finished) - after receiving some interesting information which I shared on Twitter\n8 character password issue is 4/12 of top support issue in vSphere 4.1 - http://bit.ly/bSn8t2\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) October 13, 2010 http://bit.ly/d1zQCc 5/12 top support call Host Crash because of ESX Active Directory Authentication\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) October 13, 2010 Solutions Exchange was still buzzing - it was quite amazing how much you do not notice the noise when you are down on the floor.\nI then joined ALT2004 Building the VMworld Lab Cloud Infrastructure - Dan Anderson. Absolutely amazing!!\nI so enjoy these sessions which are given by extremely technical people, who do the every day job that I do as well, and it is great to hear how they did it, what were the issues they came across along the way and how they dealt with the issues.\nA quick summary.\nA large part of the lab infrastructure is running on Nested ESXi This was the Infrastructure in San Francisco And this is what was set up in Copenhagen There was another full datacenter set up in the Bella Center itself - but was not used. (redundancy) Storage used was iSCSI, NFS, and FC Cloud Lab is an","date":"Oct 14, 2010","href":"/2010/10/vmworld-day-3.html","summary":"Day 3 started with me being a bunch of nerves and getting up at the crack of dawn. I would like to lodge an official complaint with the Danish Hotel Association (If that even exists)\nYou should not have two hotels named the same in the same city\nFirst Hotel Vesterbro // COPENHAGEN and the First Hotel Skt. Petri // COPENHAGEN. Not being Danish - can you see how this can be confusing - and they are located within 1.5 Kilometers of each other.","tags":["VMworld","VMware"],"title":"VMworld - Day 3"},{"content":"Today was the day of packing up. Early check-out from the hotel.\nI headed over to the Labs early to get a lab done. The labs were already busy at 08:10. The Wyse thin-client on each and every station was what connected you to the labs and from there further into the cloud to the remote datacenter\nThe lab I completed was LAB18: VMware vCloud Director - Networking. This was the 3rd in the series of Cloud related related Labs. I think I have said this before. The hardest part of understanding vCD is going to be the Network. I think the rest of the concept is really easy - especially if you have used Lab Manager before. The different kinds of networks and segmentation of these networks is much more complicated than the VIAdmin has been used till until now - dealing with the vSwitch and the dvSwitch. It seems that In addition to having to administer the Hardware, the virtualization layer, the Operating Systems, and as of late Storage is becoming a more integral part of a VIAdmins day to day job, we will now also start to design/manage the network in our cloud environment - or at least have to understand how it works, before selling it to your customers, or implementing in our own Environment. The lab had some quirks and did not run smoothly. And at one time, I had Duncan Epping and two other proctors (I apologize I did not get your names) around me trying to to solve the issue, which they did, which allowed me to complete the lab.\nI finally got Duncan to autograph both of his books(one day they will be worth millions $$$$ on EBay)\nvSphere 4.0 Quick Start Guide and\nFoundation for Cloud Computing with VMware vSphere 4\nAfter the Lab I moved over to the Blogger Lounge where at one time, where there was such a concentration of talent, knowledge and good moods - It was great. Scott Lowe was kind enough to give me a Spousetivities shirt to take back for the missus. On a whole, besides one or two sessions, I think the largest benefit I gained from this conference was interacting","date":"Oct 14, 2010","href":"/2010/10/vmworld-day-4.html","summary":"Today was the day of packing up. Early check-out from the hotel.\nI headed over to the Labs early to get a lab done. The labs were already busy at 08:10. The Wyse thin-client on each and every station was what connected you to the labs and from there further into the cloud to the remote datacenter\nThe lab I completed was LAB18: VMware vCloud Director - Networking. This was the 3rd in the series of Cloud related related Labs. I think I have said this before. The hardest part of understanding vCD is going to be the Network. I think the rest of the concept is really easy - especially if you have used Lab Manager before. The different kinds of networks and segmentation of these networks is much more complicated than the VIAdmin has been used till until now - dealing with the vSwitch and the dvSwitch. It seems that In addition to having to administer the Hardware, the virtualization layer, the Operating Systems, and as of late Storage is becoming a more integral part of a VIAdmins day to day job, we will now also start to design/manage the network in our cloud environment - or at least have to understand how it works, before selling it to your customers, or implementing in our own Environment. The lab had some quirks and did not run smoothly. And at one time, I had Duncan Epping and two other proctors (I apologize I did not get your names) around me trying to to solve the issue, which they did, which allowed me to complete the lab.","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"VMworld - Day 4"},{"content":"Instead of answering 300 times on Twitter on how it went I will say that it is over.\nAnd it is a huge relief!! Feelings and more details to follow in a later post.\nI will not know how I did, until the results are released in about 2 weeks.\nThank you all very, very much for all the good wishes, the support and advice you have given throughout the whole process.\nNow it is time to win me an IPAD!!!\n","date":"Oct 13, 2010","href":"/2010/10/vcdx-defense-is-complete-i-feel-15.html","summary":"Instead of answering 300 times on Twitter on how it went I will say that it is over.\nAnd it is a huge relief!! Feelings and more details to follow in a later post.\nI will not know how I did, until the results are released in about 2 weeks.\nThank you all very, very much for all the good wishes, the support and advice you have given throughout the whole process.","tags":["VMworld","VCDX","VMware"],"title":"VCDX Defense is complete! - I feel 15 kilos lighter"},{"content":"So day one started with @esloof sneaking into the Bella Center at the crack of dawn and sneaking some pictures in from the solutions exchange. The first 20 Seconds you can can see how quiet (AND EARLY) it was.\nI arrived at the Bella Center at around 9.00 and completed registration without hardly having to wait line. There are at least 12 stations with two computers each, for registering. Very simple process. Put in your name, show your ID and that\u0026amp;rsquo;s it.\nRegistration came with a Name tag and a bag.\nBag came with all kinds of goodies enclosed.\nWi-Fi connectivity sucked - BIG TIME. Until (I gather) someone decided to increase the DHCP scope for the Access Points, and that was only after 14.00.\nI snuck in some pictures of the Exhibition Floor myself\nThe labs were opened early today, and it was good to see some familiar faces. I sat and completed LAB13 Lab: VMware vCloud Director - Install \u0026amp;amp; Config. One of many I hope.\nThe interface was as good as they said. Two monitors per seat, response time was good. The content of the lab was helpful and as I said to @DuncanYB, we all like to play with the stuff (yes even us bloggers), and it is not every day that you get to have the opportunity to have someone prepare a lab environment for you, instead of you having to do it for yourself.\nThe Technology Exchange day was quite productive. I was especially interested in the session\nPPC-04 vSphere APIs for Performance Monitoring, Ravi Soundararajan (Sr. Staff Engineer) and Balaji Parimi (Staff Engineer), both of them really know their way around the API, and gave a good session.\nUsing the API for POWERCLI work, there are several takeaways from this session that I took with:\nGetting Performance metrics from the API is extremely easy (when you know what you are looking for) You can do it easily with POWERCLI When you environment grows, you will have to change how you do it with POWERCLI, other this will get messy, very very fast. I gave two short Video Interviews with VMware,","date":"Oct 12, 2010","href":"/2010/10/vmworld-day-1.html","summary":"So day one started with @esloof sneaking into the Bella Center at the crack of dawn and sneaking some pictures in from the solutions exchange. The first 20 Seconds you can can see how quiet (AND EARLY) it was.\nI arrived at the Bella Center at around 9.00 and completed registration without hardly having to wait line. There are at least 12 stations with two computers each, for registering. Very simple process. Put in your name, show your ID and that\u0026rsquo;s it.","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"VMworld - Day 1"},{"content":" Sunday, I started my trip to Copenhagen, not nearly as exciting as the vRoadtrip but I do guarantee you I flew faster than 210 KM/h\nI usually travel with my family, at least once a year, so flying to Europe is not new. But flying without kids is a whole different experience.\nComing from Israel though does not put you in a central location. I was en route from door to door almost 11 hours - with stop overs and waiting for flights.\nI am staying at the Wakeup Copenhagen\nI do have to say, that even though the inconvenience of security checks in Ben-Gurion Airport are frowned upon by some, I am really shocked about how the rest of you in the world could have done without the checks before 9/11.\nTomorrow a relatively early start. I will most probably go into the Tech Exchange Day, and I have a meeting or two in the Bella Center.\nOn with the show!!!\n","date":"Oct 11, 2010","href":"/2010/10/vmworld-day-0.html","summary":" Sunday, I started my trip to Copenhagen, not nearly as exciting as the vRoadtrip but I do guarantee you I flew faster than 210 KM/h\nI usually travel with my family, at least once a year, so flying to Europe is not new. But flying without kids is a whole different experience.\nComing from Israel though does not put you in a central location. I was en route from door to door almost 11 hours - with stop overs and waiting for flights.","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"VMworld - Day 0"},{"content":"Corey Romero from VMware posted a very useful list of directions from all the hotels to the Bella Center.\nEach one on a PDF page that you can easily print out and put in your pocket.\nClick on the picture below for the directions\n","date":"Oct 11, 2010","href":"/2010/10/vmworld-directions-from-hotels-to-bella.html","summary":"Corey Romero from VMware posted a very useful list of directions from all the hotels to the Bella Center.\nEach one on a PDF page that you can easily print out and put in your pocket.\nClick on the picture below for the directions","tags":["VMworld"],"title":"VMworld Directions from Hotels to the Bella Center"},{"content":"Finalizing my schedule.There are not enough hours in the day to accommodate all that I would like to do.\nIt will actually be interesting to see how much of this changes or how much of the schedule I abided by. Will let you know after VMworld.\nAnd have I mentioned I would like to come back with an IPAD? (nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more??)\nI am wheels up tomorrow at 16.00 local time.\nSee you all on Monday!!\n","date":"Oct 10, 2010","href":"/2010/10/vmworld-copenhagen-here-i-come.html","summary":"Finalizing my schedule.There are not enough hours in the day to accommodate all that I would like to do.\nIt will actually be interesting to see how much of this changes or how much of the schedule I abided by. Will let you know after VMworld.\nAnd have I mentioned I would like to come back with an IPAD? (nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more??)\nI am wheels up tomorrow at 16.00 local time.","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous"],"title":"VMworld Copenhagen - Here I come"},{"content":"How do you know what vSphere Family product is compatible with another?\nDoes ESX 3.5 work with vCenter 4.0? Does Capacity IQ 1.0.2 work with ESX 4.1?\nVMware have published the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix which allows you to check which product (and version) is compatible with another VMware Product and version?\nHere you can see the vCenter 2.5 U6 compatible only with ESX 3.5 U5.\nAnd here you can see the Capacity IQ 1.0.4 is the only version compatible with ESX 4.1\nI find it a useful tool!\n","date":"Oct 6, 2010","href":"/2010/10/vmware-product-interoperability-matrix.html","summary":"How do you know what vSphere Family product is compatible with another?\nDoes ESX 3.5 work with vCenter 4.0? Does Capacity IQ 1.0.2 work with ESX 4.1?\nVMware have published the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix which allows you to check which product (and version) is compatible with another VMware Product and version?\nHere you can see the vCenter 2.5 U6 compatible only with ESX 3.5 U5.\nAnd here you can see the Capacity IQ 1.0.4 is the only version compatible with ESX 4.1","tags":["Tools","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"VMware Product Interoperability Matrix"},{"content":"Stuxnet for those of you have been unaware to the what has been happening with one of the most talked about worms since Conficker is an industrial rootkit targeted at Siemens software.\nNow conspiracy theories aside:\nWho was this targeted at? Who created it? I started to think how can or could this reflect on a Virtual Infrastructure?\nWhat would happen if you had a worm / virus targeted at virtual machines or even worse at the ESX host themselves?\nLet me give the following scenario.\nYou have a 30 Windows VM’s each using 1 vCPU on your ESX host. The host has 2 Quad core Processors, a pretty sensible VM:core ratio (3.75). All of a sudden every single VM on the host – jumps to 100% CPU utilization – which in turn brings your host to a stall.\nThis is a perfect DOS attack but in this case it is directed at the ESX host by causing the load on the VM.\nThis was also an issue before without Virtualization, but with all of the VM’s spiking at the same time - this issue is extremely amplified.\nThe thing is though it does not have to be a virus with malicious code that causes the load. You could easily do it as well with Calc.exe (which is on EVERY SINGLE WINDOWS MACHINE)\nRun calc.exe and switch to scientific mode Type a large number (eg. 12345678901234567890), press the \u0026amp;rsquo;n!\u0026amp;rsquo; button. Calc will ask to confirm after warning this will take a very long time 100% CPU utilization will now occur (essentially forever) For a Linux machine\ncd /usr/src/linux make -j8 \u0026amp;amp; ping -l 100000 -q -s 10 -f localhost \u0026amp;amp; 100% CPU utilization will now occur (essentially forever) I am sure that this can be scripted in some way.\nSo here you have it, a DOS attack not only on the VM – but also on the host itself.\nI am not sure that the AV vendors will recognize this as malicious activity, because you are running a legitimate Windows Application.\nSecurity experts are wary of the dreaded Blue Pill which compromises the hypervisor. How ready are the Vendors against such a kind of attack? How","date":"Oct 4, 2010","href":"/2010/10/stuxnet-virtualization-targeted-dos.html","summary":"Stuxnet for those of you have been unaware to the what has been happening with one of the most talked about worms since Conficker is an industrial rootkit targeted at Siemens software.\nNow conspiracy theories aside:\nWho was this targeted at? Who created it? I started to think how can or could this reflect on a Virtual Infrastructure?\nWhat would happen if you had a worm / virus targeted at virtual machines or even worse at the ESX host themselves?","tags":["Security","Virtualization","Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"Stuxnet \u0026 Virtualization Targeted DOS"},{"content":"I have been waiting for confirmation from the VMware Certification Team regarding this and it came in today.\nFor those of you who remember, when the track was released there were a number of people already in the process who wanted to upgrade to the new track. The assurance back then was that people already in the track would receive a discount on the new exams.\nAfter exchanging emails back and forth with Jon Hall and the Certification team, asking about this discount, I received this in my inbox today.\nIf you have passed the VCE310 exam (but have not yet passed the VCD310 exam) and are a VCP4:\nRegister for the VCAP4-DCA exam at a discounted rate. Become one of the first VCAP4-DCA certified professionals, and fulfill one of the pre-requisites for the VCDX4 certification.\nSign up to register: www.vmware.com/go/vcap\nOur records indicate that you have successfully passed the Enterprise Administration Exam. Your voucher for a 50% discount on the VCAP4-DCA Exam is:\nCode: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX\nExpires: March 31, 2011\nThis voucher is good for one use only. It cannot be combined with any other promotions. Voucher expirations cannot be extended. You must be a VCP4 in order to register for the VCAP4-DCA Exam.\nVCAP4-DCD Exam vouchers will be distributed to eligible candidates at a later time.\nIf you have not received notification I would suggest that you contact the Certification team to see if you are eligible.\n","date":"Oct 4, 2010","href":"/2010/10/vcdx3-track-50-discount-for-vcap-dca.html","summary":"I have been waiting for confirmation from the VMware Certification Team regarding this and it came in today.\nFor those of you who remember, when the track was released there were a number of people already in the process who wanted to upgrade to the new track. The assurance back then was that people already in the track would receive a discount on the new exams.\nAfter exchanging emails back and forth with Jon Hall and the Certification team, asking about this discount, I received this in my inbox today.","tags":["VCDX","VMware","Certification","VCAP"],"title":"VCDX3 track - 50% Discount for VCAP-DCA and VCAP-DCD"},{"content":"I was subscribed to this thread and received an update today that I must have missed previously, with an issue much more serious than the one that the thread was originally started with.\nPreviously, I posted an article to explain how to Integrate ESXi into Active Directory. After the integration logging onto a host with your domain credentials can cause the host to crash. The issue occurs when the user logging into the ESX host with their Active Directory credentials is a member of more than 30 Security Groups.\nThe issue has been confirmed with happening with the user being a member of as little as 23 security groups as well.\nThe ESX Host throws an error and reboots (PSOD) and reboots. The thread owner has a ticket open with VMware and according to the information there engineering are working on the issue.\nBelow are Screenshots taken from the thread\nI ran a quick check to how many groups my AD account is a member of (Powershell of course)\nGet-QADUser msaidelk | Get-QADMemberOf -ErrorAction Continue | where {$_.GroupType -eq \u0026amp;#34;Security\u0026amp;#34; } | Measure-Object | Select-Object -Property Count | Format-List Count : 45 I have tried to re-create this on my standalone host but have not experienced this problem.\nHas anyone else encountered this issue?\n","date":"Sep 29, 2010","href":"/2010/09/host-crash-because-of-esx-active.html","summary":"I was subscribed to this thread and received an update today that I must have missed previously, with an issue much more serious than the one that the thread was originally started with.\nPreviously, I posted an article to explain how to Integrate ESXi into Active Directory. After the integration logging onto a host with your domain credentials can cause the host to crash. The issue occurs when the user logging into the ESX host with their Active Directory credentials is a member of more than 30 Security Groups.","tags":["Active Directory","vSphere",4.1,"Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Host Crash because of ESX Active Directory Authentication"},{"content":"The list of the top 25 blogs was released yesterday.\nI unfortunately did not make the top 25 this year - close but not enough. I am honored to be placed anywhere on this list, be it number 1, number 32 or even 115. The way I look at it is that people are enjoying the content I write on my blog and think it is useful, and the ranking I received - is for me a great vote of confidence and makes me extremely proud!\nSure there are benefits of being a top 25 Blogger - be it advertising opportunities on your blog, exposure and there others I am sure (and perhaps also the prospect of being hired by VMware/EMC/Veeam/NetApp). But we do not do it for those reasons.\nI blog partly for my own benefit of having a place of reference to document things that I come across during the day, but also because I feel that I have people can benefit from the knowledge that I have to share. I think that I can say for certain that every single one of the top 25 bloggers do it for the same reason. We do not get paid for this - we do it because we enjoy it.\nI would like to make a few observations I had on the results.\nI am happy to see that there are at least two new scripting bloggers that have been added to the list. This is becoming more and more important as environments grow larger and larger. Congratulations both to William Lam and to Luc Dekens on their places in the top 25. Very well deserved!\nYou do not have to blog every day with something new to become a popular blog. There are some bloggers on the top 25 list that have not posted more than 15 posts in the last 3 months. Which leads me to believe that people did not really read the criteria that Eric posted when the voting opened, and did make this into some kind of popularity contest.\nThere are several top bloggers that have moved under the employment of a major vendor over the past 6 months. It seems that the amount of time that these people now have left to blog during their day is not as much as they had before, and therefore","date":"Sep 28, 2010","href":"/2010/09/no-32-thank-you-all-so-much.html","summary":"The list of the top 25 blogs was released yesterday.\nI unfortunately did not make the top 25 this year - close but not enough. I am honored to be placed anywhere on this list, be it number 1, number 32 or even 115. The way I look at it is that people are enjoying the content I write on my blog and think it is useful, and the ranking I received - is for me a great vote of confidence and makes me extremely proud!","tags":["Virtualization","Miscellaneous"],"title":"No. 32 - Thank you all so much!"},{"content":"Let me introduce you to a good old soul by the name of Edward Murphy. Who was Edward Murphy?\nIn short he was responsible for the famous saying, \u0026amp;ldquo;Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nAnd so the story goes.\nAfter preparing with the rest of my team members about what should be done - how it should be done, and going over all the current open issues that needed to be taken care of while I would be away on vacation, I thought, \u0026amp;ldquo;Great! Finally some quiet and relaxing times while I go on vacation\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nBut our dear old soul Murphy? Nuhuh, he had other plans …\nI received an email 6 hours after I had flown out of the country - saying that a the following VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s were deleted.\nDeleted? Deleted? How? What? When? Why???????????????????????\nSo what happened? User Error. Plain and simple. Someone on the storage team wanted to delete the snapshots on an NFS Qtree but by mistake, instead of deleting the snapshots they deleted the volume. And in the flick of a button, Boom! 40 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s were gone!\nSource (Deepspar)\nA great deal of SMS\u0026amp;rsquo;s alerts, email notifications and several phone calls later, the error was identified.\nNow we were left with 40 orphaned VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s in the infrastructure.\nBy the way - there is no undo button here.\nSo what did I get from this experience?\nMy boss has already told me that the next time I can take vacation - is somewhere in 2020 :) No matter how much redundancy you plan for (Raid Groups, Storage Processors, Disks, Network), there is always the unknown things that catch you with your pants down. Human Error - is a good percentage of the reason for outages. Mistakes can be made, mistakes will be made. You can cover 99% of the cases - but again it will always be that 1% that will get you. Backup - Backup - BACKUP. Restoring from Backup can take a while. Quite a while Back to my vacation…\n","date":"Sep 21, 2010","href":"/2010/09/murphy-law.html","summary":"Let me introduce you to a good old soul by the name of Edward Murphy. Who was Edward Murphy?\nIn short he was responsible for the famous saying, \u0026ldquo;Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong\u0026rdquo;.\nAnd so the story goes.\nAfter preparing with the rest of my team members about what should be done - how it should be done, and going over all the current open issues that needed to be taken care of while I would be away on vacation, I thought, \u0026ldquo;Great! Finally some quiet and relaxing times while I go on vacation\u0026rdquo;.\nBut our dear old soul Murphy? Nuhuh, he had other plans …","tags":["Management","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Murphy's Law"},{"content":"After having a Twitter conversation with Massimo Re Ferre\u0026amp;rsquo; - VMware vCloud Architect, (his article is a great read - you should definitely make the time to get to understand it -\nvCloud Director Networking for Dummies)\nhe was surprised that the whole conversation was going on because as far as he knew the Ent. Plus was not a pre-requisite for vCloud Director (even though the information states so on the VMware website)\nThese are the updates that he posted today.\nRT @maishsk: @mreferre Any news regarding the Licensing and cloud? \u0026amp;lt;- yes. Ent is supported. Web will be updated.\n\u0026amp;mdash; Massimo Re Ferrè (@mreferre) September 16, 2010 @maishsk @hany_michael @jasonboche @langonej to recap ... I got confirmed Ent is supported (along with Ent Plus) with vCD\n\u0026amp;mdash; Massimo Re Ferrè (@mreferre) September 17, 2010 Updated 22/09/2010\nThe information on the Website has now been changed to reflect that Enterprise is supported, but Enterprise Plus is Strongly recommended\nWell I guess this closes this previous post VMware vCloud Director - Enterprise (Plus) only? I am really pleased to see that the proper people are paying attention to the feedback coming from the community are are quick to react on it. Thank you.\nNow it will be interesting to hear what happens regarding - The Future of VMware Lab Manager\n","date":"Sep 17, 2010","href":"/2010/09/vcloud-enterprise-as-well-not-only.html","summary":"After having a Twitter conversation with Massimo Re Ferre\u0026rsquo; - VMware vCloud Architect, (his article is a great read - you should definitely make the time to get to understand it -\nvCloud Director Networking for Dummies)\nhe was surprised that the whole conversation was going on because as far as he knew the Ent. Plus was not a pre-requisite for vCloud Director (even though the information states so on the VMware website)","tags":["vCloud","vSphere","Administration","VMware","Licensing"],"title":"vCloud - Enterprise as well not only Enterprise Plus"},{"content":"It is that time of the year again, and it time to perform your duties and help me stay in the top 25 bloggers list. Eric Siebert has opened the survey on his site.\nThe list is a large, 100 blogs, but you can only pick your top 10.\nI hope you enjoy the content I provide and will put me in the top 3!\n(Seriously though - anywhere on this list will make me happy).\nI am honored to be listed amongst such a great list of people.\nSo how does it work. 3 stages\nSelect your top 10 favorite blogs, you will be asked to rank them in the next question. Current top 25 blogs are listed first followed by the remaining blogs in alphabetical order. You can view links to all the blogs on the vLaunchpad. You must select exactly 10 blogs to continue.\nRank the 10 blogs that you clicked in the previous question with #1 being your most favorite blog. Rankings are weighted with a #1 vote equal to 10 points and working down to a #10 vote being equal to 1 points. Here you will have to drag and drop your selections, move them around until you get the order correct\nEnter your name, email and a Captcha Code.\nWho knows, you might even win some prizes.\nTwo random voters will be picked to win a copy of Eric\u0026amp;rsquo;s book, Maximum vSphere or a copy of the Train Signal vSphere Pro Series Vol. 2 video training course.\n","date":"Sep 14, 2010","href":"/2010/09/vote-for-top-25-virtualization-blogs.html","summary":"It is that time of the year again, and it time to perform your duties and help me stay in the top 25 bloggers list. Eric Siebert has opened the survey on his site.\nThe list is a large, 100 blogs, but you can only pick your top 10.\nI hope you enjoy the content I provide and will put me in the top 3!\n(Seriously though - anywhere on this list will make me happy).","tags":["Virtualization","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Vote for the Top 25 Virtualization Blogs"},{"content":"I was asked today to cancel a task of a machine import today - because it was created by mistake. So I naturally asked the Cluster Admin, \u0026amp;ldquo;Why do you not do it yourself?\u0026amp;rdquo;. And he naturally answered me, \u0026amp;ldquo;Because I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t! The option is greyed out.\u0026amp;rdquo;\nNow there are certain tasks you cannot cancel in vCenter. The exact list - I am sure LucD will be able to pull this out of the SDK - but this was not the purpose of this post.\nThe way permissions are set up in my environment - is least amount of privileges needed is what is granted.\nEach Admin is assigned Full Administrator permissions on their Cluster with Propagation set. On the Top level folder is whole different ball game.\nThe way I do my daily work is by assigning myself the same rights as the Cluster Admin (msaidelk)- and all Elevated privileges are performed with another user (admin) that have full control over the whole Environment. I do my PowerCLI work with that elevated user.\nSo I checked with my msaidelk user and I also could not cancel the task.\nSo I checked if it was because the task was not cancellable. That was simple with PowerCLI\nget-task -Status running | select ID, StartTime, IsCancelable| fl\nWhich gave me output that the task was cancellable.\nId : Task-task-33529 StartTime : 13/09/2010 18:59:40 IsCancelable : True I tried to stop the task with my admin user\nGet-Task | where {$_.id -eq \u0026amp;quot;Task-task-33529\u0026amp;quot; } | stop-task -confirm:$false\nWorked fine. So this had to be a permissions issue.\nI looked on the Permissions for the Top folder and found my isseu\nGlobal -\u0026amp;gt; Cancel Task was not checked\nYou might have thought that if the user was an admin on the cluster then they would be able to cancel the task but I guess not.\nAdded that right to role and Voila!\n","date":"Sep 13, 2010","href":"/2010/09/user-can-cancel-task.html","summary":"I was asked today to cancel a task of a machine import today - because it was created by mistake. So I naturally asked the Cluster Admin, \u0026ldquo;Why do you not do it yourself?\u0026rdquo;. And he naturally answered me, \u0026ldquo;Because I can\u0026rsquo;t! The option is greyed out.\u0026rdquo;\nNow there are certain tasks you cannot cancel in vCenter. The exact list - I am sure LucD will be able to pull this out of the SDK - but this was not the purpose of this post.","tags":["Management","vSphere","Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting","PowerCLI"],"title":"User Can't Cancel a task"},{"content":"In my previous post about Converter 4.3 - My First Impressions - I mentioned a new feature called Throttling which was introduced in the new version.\nSo what does it do? You can limit the amount of resources that will be used by the Conversion Task.\nI would like to clarify two things about throttling:\nThis is only valid for Windows Machines this has no effect for Linux. The throttling is not done one the ESX host. You can use throttling in two different scenario\u0026amp;rsquo;s\nConversion of a Powered on Windows OS In this case the throttling occurs on the source machine being converted - minimizing the resources used by the conversion process. Conversion of a Powered off Windows OS In this case the throttling occurs on the machine where you are running the converter application - minimizing the resources used by the conversion process as to not interfere with the regular operation of the OS. Why would you want to do use throttling? Because a conversion task competes for computing resources with other processes. To limit the impact of the conversion task on other workloads, you can throttle the task. If you do not throttle conversion tasks, they are carried out with normal priority and depending on the available computing resources during conversion.\nLets give an example.\nCase 1 - Powered on OS - The throttling is performed on BIG_SERVER\nCase 2 - Powered off OS - The Throttling will occur on SMALL_CLIENT\nThe CPU throttling drop-down menu, has 3 options\nNone - The priority of the current conversion task is set to normal.\nLight - The priority of the current conversion task is reduced slightly below normal.\nMedium - The priority of the current conversion task is set to lowest.\nYou can also throttle the maximum network bandwidth that will be used during the conversion\nYou cannot throttle disk I/O from the Converter Standalone interface, but by changing the network bandwidth indirectly will have an effect on the Disk I/O\nIt will be interesting to see numbers on what the","date":"Sep 12, 2010","href":"/2010/09/converter-43-throttling.html","summary":"In my previous post about Converter 4.3 - My First Impressions - I mentioned a new feature called Throttling which was introduced in the new version.\nSo what does it do? You can limit the amount of resources that will be used by the Conversion Task.\nI would like to clarify two things about throttling:\nThis is only valid for Windows Machines this has no effect for Linux. The throttling is not done one the ESX host. You can use throttling in two different scenario\u0026rsquo;s","tags":["Tools","vSphere","Miscellaneous","VMware","Converter"],"title":"Converter 4.3 - Throttling"},{"content":"There are a few changes to note with the new Converter version.\nYou can now import Hyper-V Machines Directly\nThere is a new Throttling feature (More about that in an upcoming post)\nYou can now define a cluster as a destination for your conversion - I guess DRS will sort out where to place the VM.\nAs opposed to\nAnd Last But not Least. It is blazing fast. Give it a spin…\nGreat Job VMware!!\n","date":"Sep 6, 2010","href":"/2010/09/converter-43-my-first-impressions.html","summary":"There are a few changes to note with the new Converter version.\nYou can now import Hyper-V Machines Directly\nThere is a new Throttling feature (More about that in an upcoming post)\nYou can now define a cluster as a destination for your conversion - I guess DRS will sort out where to place the VM.\nAs opposed to\nAnd Last But not Least. It is blazing fast. Give it a spin…","tags":["Tools","Administration","VMware","Converter"],"title":"Converter 4.3 - My First Impressions"},{"content":"Please see the update in the follow up to this post. OK VMworld is now over. I was actually not in San Francisco, but with all the updates from Twitter, the Keynotes, and #thecube I felt part of the conference. From all the feedback that I have heard from the show, it seems that it was a great event, and extremely beneficial.\nI will not go over all the product releases that were announced over the past week, there have been more than enough posted last week.\nI would like to go into a bit more detail about the vCloud offering that VMware has now made available.\nUp till now I have been asked - a number of times\nWhat are we doing for cloud in our organization? How are we building the cloud? What are we going to use for Cloud? Cloud has been a very nice buzzword used at all levels - but is not really understood properly at any of the levels.\nThose of you who have used in the past VMware Lab Manager - will recognize some similarities between the two products, be it the Libraries, Organizations and so on.\nI would like to stress a few things\nI have not yet taken the product for a test drive yet (but I will) I would like to recommend Hany Michael\u0026amp;rsquo;s great tutorial on Taking vCloud Director for a Spin which provides a great introduction on how to get this up and running on your laptop/desktop with only 8GB of RAM. The only database that you can use is Oracle. At present there is no support for MS SQL in this release (It will be added soon) And last but least - this only works with dvSwitches. For me the last item is the one that stands out most for me and is the most problematic. Let me explain why.\nApproximately 15 months ago VMware released vSphere 4.0 and with it they decided to change their Licensing Model - and introduced a new Licensing level for some of the new features - Enterprise Plus. Originally the plan was to retire Enterprise edition completely, but due to several reasons - one of them I suppose was pressure from the customers - they decided to ditch that","date":"Sep 5, 2010","href":"/2010/09/vmware-vcloud-director-for-enterprise.html","summary":"Please see the update in the follow up to this post. OK VMworld is now over. I was actually not in San Francisco, but with all the updates from Twitter, the Keynotes, and #thecube I felt part of the conference. From all the feedback that I have heard from the show, it seems that it was a great event, and extremely beneficial.\nI will not go over all the product releases that were announced over the past week, there have been more than enough posted last week.","tags":["vCloud","VMworld","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"VMware vCloud Director - Enterprise (Plus) only?"},{"content":"VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.3 | 30 Aug 2010 | Build 292238 Release Notes - VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.3 User\u0026amp;rsquo;s Guide\nWhat\u0026amp;rsquo;s New The VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.3 includes the following new functionality:\nSupport for VMware vSphere 4.1 as source and destination targets Support for importing powered-off Microsoft Hyper-V R1 and Hyper-V R2 virtual machines Public API and sample code for submitting and monitoring Converter jobs Support for importing Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 sources Ability to throttle the data transfer from source to destination based on network bandwidth or CPU IPv6 support Discontinued Support Support of the following operating systems is discontinued: Windows 2000 Windows NT Support for OVF format is discontinued Support for VCB image sources is discontinued Linux installation support is discontinued In addition there is a new SDK that was made available\nvCenter Converter Standalone SDK\nThe VMware vCenter Converter SDK is a programmatic interface to manage the conversion operations. The API is exposed as a Web service running on vCenter Converter server systems. The SDK includes comprehensive documentations as well as Java and C# samples that demonstrate common use cases for programmatically managing VMware VCenter Converter. Support Information: vCenter Converter SDK is a forum supported only SDK.\nThe Converter Standalone SDK includes the Converter Standalone API and Java and C# samples that demonstrate features of Converter Standalone server. The Converter Standalone SDK enables developers to evolve their applications to support new server features while maintaining compatibility with older server versions.\nI guess this will be one of many new releases this week. Stay tuned…\n","date":"Aug 31, 2010","href":"/2010/08/vmware-vcenter-converter-new-releases.html","summary":"VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.3 | 30 Aug 2010 | Build 292238 Release Notes - VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.3 User\u0026rsquo;s Guide\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s New The VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.3 includes the following new functionality:\nSupport for VMware vSphere 4.1 as source and destination targets Support for importing powered-off Microsoft Hyper-V R1 and Hyper-V R2 virtual machines Public API and sample code for submitting and monitoring Converter jobs Support for importing Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 sources Ability to throttle the data transfer from source to destination based on network bandwidth or CPU IPv6 support Discontinued Support Support of the following operating systems is discontinued: Windows 2000 Windows NT Support for OVF format is discontinued Support for VCB image sources is discontinued Linux installation support is discontinued In addition there is a new SDK that was made available","tags":["VMworld","vSphere","VMware","Converter"],"title":"VMware vCenter Converter New Releases"},{"content":"VMware vCloud SDK for Java allows you to get started quickly interfacing using vCloud API. It brings the REST based vCloud API in the world of Java developers by providing easy to use client side representation of vCloud resources and hiding the details of REST and HTTP.\nFeatures and Benefits: REST resources of vCloud API available in Java High fidelity to vCloud API resource models Simple and clean design to help understanding and predictability No new client side object model Associate resources with their operations meaningful to clients Hide REST verbs and URL semantics Download VMware vCloud SDK for Java version 1.0\nDeveloper\u0026amp;rsquo;s Guide\n","date":"Aug 31, 2010","href":"/2010/08/vmware-vcloud-sdk-for-java.html","summary":"VMware vCloud SDK for Java allows you to get started quickly interfacing using vCloud API. It brings the REST based vCloud API in the world of Java developers by providing easy to use client side representation of vCloud resources and hiding the details of REST and HTTP.\nFeatures and Benefits: REST resources of vCloud API available in Java High fidelity to vCloud API resource models Simple and clean design to help understanding and predictability No new client side object model Associate resources with their operations meaningful to clients Hide REST verbs and URL semantics Download VMware vCloud SDK for Java version 1.0","tags":["vCloud","VMworld","vSphere","VMware"],"title":"VMware vCloud SDK for Java"},{"content":"If you looked at the list of labs that were released here, here, there was a definitive missing LAB13\nWell the answer to that was released with the program guide.\nExpect some news….\nBy the way did anyone think why the ALT labs started at 2002 and not at 2000? Same for ALT3000?\n","date":"Aug 30, 2010","href":"/2010/08/mysterious-lab-013.html","summary":"If you looked at the list of labs that were released here, here, there was a definitive missing LAB13\nWell the answer to that was released with the program guide.\nExpect some news….\nBy the way did anyone think why the ALT labs started at 2002 and not at 2000? Same for ALT3000?","tags":["VMworld","VMware"],"title":"Mysterious Lab 013"},{"content":"I did this last year – and I will post this information again for 2010.\nMeals Continental Breakfast is served in Moscone South-Hall A and Moscone West-Level One.\nHot Lunches are served in Moscone South-Hall A and Moscone West-Level One.\nBoxed Sandwich \u0026amp;amp; Salad Lunches are served in Moscone South-Hall C, Moscone West-Level Three.\nThere is additional ground seating (no food service) outside in the Yerba\nBuena Gardens above Moscone North.\nMeals will be served during the following hours:\nContinental Breakfast Monday-Thursday: 7:00am-9:00am Lunch Monday-Thursday: 11:30am-1:30pm Wireless Access Complimentary wireless access is available to all conference attendees in specific areas. Look for “VMworld2010” in your list of available wireless networks. The wireless network supports 802.11 a/b/g protocols and there is no WEP key. Once you connect to the network, just launch your Internet browser to gain access. If you need help connecting, please see the conference staff at the information desks located throughout the conference.\nEmail Stations—Sponsored by WYSE Email stations, where you can check email, print your schedule, and fill out overall\nconference surveys, are located in the Moscone South Lobby, Concourse Level and at Moscone West.\nInformation Desks Visit one of many information desks located throughout the VMworld conference venue. Conference staff members are on hand to answer general questions about the conference and conference activities.\n**VMworld information desks are located in the following areas:\n**North Lobby, South Lobby, Concourse\nLevel and Moscone West-Level Two.\nSurveys Help us make it a better VMware and VMworld!\nVMware is proud to have a long history of listening to our customers and partners, and making changes and investments according to your needs and wishes.\nOn all email stations at the Moscone Center, you will see two shortcuts on the desktop which take you to our online surveys:\nVMworld Overall Conference Survey-\nBe entered into a drawing","date":"Aug 30, 2010","href":"/2010/08/useful-vmworld-2010-information.html","summary":"I did this last year – and I will post this information again for 2010.\nMeals Continental Breakfast is served in Moscone South-Hall A and Moscone West-Level One.\nHot Lunches are served in Moscone South-Hall A and Moscone West-Level One.\nBoxed Sandwich \u0026amp; Salad Lunches are served in Moscone South-Hall C, Moscone West-Level Three.\nThere is additional ground seating (no food service) outside in the Yerba\nBuena Gardens above Moscone North.","tags":["VMworld","VMware"],"title":"Useful VMworld 2010 Information"},{"content":"Even though we are only starting the 2010 Conference Today - it is always nice to see what will be happening next year, so here is some information.\nVMware Partner Exchange will be between February 8-11, 2011 in Orlando Florida\nVMworld 2011 will be held in Las Vegas between August 29-September 01, 2011\n","date":"Aug 30, 2010","href":"/2010/08/vmworld-2011-partner-exchange-2011.html","summary":"Even though we are only starting the 2010 Conference Today - it is always nice to see what will be happening next year, so here is some information.\nVMware Partner Exchange will be between February 8-11, 2011 in Orlando Florida\nVMworld 2011 will be held in Las Vegas between August 29-September 01, 2011","tags":["VMworld","VMware"],"title":"VMworld 2011 \u0026 Partner Exchange 2011 Dates"},{"content":"I got fed up with trying to get what I wanted from the online Content Catalog. All I wanted was a spreadsheet that I could use and keep, but there was no option like that – so I created my own.\nI know this is not for San Francisco next week – I am not going, but I will be in Copenhagen so this will be useful for me (and I am sure some others as well).\nClick on the image below for the spreadsheet on Google.\nHope you can make use of it\n","date":"Aug 26, 2010","href":"/2010/08/list-of-sessions-for-vmworld-copenhagen.html","summary":"I got fed up with trying to get what I wanted from the online Content Catalog. All I wanted was a spreadsheet that I could use and keep, but there was no option like that – so I created my own.\nI know this is not for San Francisco next week – I am not going, but I will be in Copenhagen so this will be useful for me (and I am sure some others as well).","tags":["VMworld","VMware"],"title":"List of Sessions for VMworld Copenhagen"},{"content":"As I said today on Twitter - this one took up some of my time today.\nThis bit me in the butt today http://twitpic.com/2hr42l #vCenter Upgrade. Butt - I bite back!!!!\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) August 24, 2010 During the upgrade of a vCenter 4.0 Server to 4.1 - which included installing a new 64 bit Windows 2008 R2 Machine and moving the Database from one server to another, I encountered an error during the process of the upgrade of the SQL database which stopped the installation.\nThe installation log (which is usually located under C:\\Users\u0026amp;lt;username\u0026amp;gt;\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\u0026amp;lt;digit\u0026amp;gt;\\vminst.log gave me an error\nThe SQL upgrade log in the same location said:\nError: Failed to execute command: create unique clustered index VPXI_DEVICE_COUNTER_INDEX on dbo.VPXV_DEVICE_COUNTER(entity_id, device_name, stat_id) [24-08-2010 13:50:26] Got exception: ERROR [42000] [Microsoft][SQL Native Client][SQL Server]CREATE INDEX failed because the following SET options have incorrect settings: \u0026amp;#39;ARITHABORT\u0026amp;#39;. Verify that SET options are correct for use with indexed views and/or indexes on computed columns and/or query notifications and/or xml data type methods. Which in-turn sent me to Prof. Google and KB 1024449 which in essence says that you will have to make a change to the database server configuration due to some SQL options not being set. Which struck me as strange because this was a default installation - the same as many before.\nWhich brought me to this thread which suggested an issue with the compatibility mode of the database itself, which was spot on.\nA quick change of the compatibility level from 2000 to 2005 and the installation went on without a hitch.\nAnother successful upgrade completed!!\n","date":"Aug 24, 2010","href":"/2010/08/sql-upgrade-error-vcenter-41-upgrade.html","summary":"As I said today on Twitter - this one took up some of my time today.\nThis bit me in the butt today http://twitpic.com/2hr42l #vCenter Upgrade. Butt - I bite back!!!!\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) August 24, 2010 During the upgrade of a vCenter 4.0 Server to 4.1 - which included installing a new 64 bit Windows 2008 R2 Machine and moving the Database from one server to another, I encountered an error during the process of the upgrade of the SQL database which stopped the installation.","tags":[4.1,"VMware","vCenter","Upgrade"],"title":"SQL Upgrade Error - vCenter 4.1 Upgrade"},{"content":"I noticed something that I thought was an issue with my the vCenter installation and perhaps a change in location of the SQL database. But it turns out not to be the case.\nMany of us have, are in the process or will soon upgrade to vSphere 4.1.\nI personally like to test things before I do an upgrade so I currently have two environments running simultaneously\nWhen you install your new 4.1 vCenter you will need to install a new vCenter client of course an now you will now have 2 versions of the vSphere client installed\nThe good thing is that when connecting to each of the versions you will not need to choose which client to connect with, that is done automatically\nFrom the VMware vCenter Server Performance and Best Practices one of the recommendations are:\nYep it is that small box on the top right hand side of your vSphere client\nSo on my 4.0 vCenter, I tried to find a VM. I entered the VM Name (MAMA) and what I got was this\nand no results. and this was really strange. It was working before, so I tried to do the same on the 4.1 vCenter, looking for a VM (Maish)\nVOILA, worked!! Now this was strange\nSo I decided to try this out on the vCenter 4.0 Server itself – where only one version of the client was installed, and also it worked\nI tried this again on the vCenter 4.1 server. I tried to connect to the4.0 vCenter and was presented with the option of downloading the old client\nAnd when connecting to the 4.0 vCenter – the same issue occurred.\nI actually had a SR open with VMware on this issue on 07/19/2010 – but did not really get a solution.\nHello Maish, We have opened a bug with our development engineering group for this issue. I will keep you updated as to the progress of this issue, however, I do not know when a solution will be available.\nWorkaround at the moment – and it is not optimal\nDo not connect to multiple versions of vCenter from the same machine. If you need to use 4.0 then make sure you have only the 4.0 Client installed. Take the plunge and upgrade to 4.1","date":"Aug 23, 2010","href":"/2010/08/issue-with-vcenter-versions.html","summary":"I noticed something that I thought was an issue with my the vCenter installation and perhaps a change in location of the SQL database. But it turns out not to be the case.\nMany of us have, are in the process or will soon upgrade to vSphere 4.1.\nI personally like to test things before I do an upgrade so I currently have two environments running simultaneously\nWhen you install your new 4.1 vCenter you will need to install a new vCenter client of course an now you will now have 2 versions of the vSphere client installed","tags":["Management","vSphere",4.1,"Administration","vCenter","Upgrade"],"title":"Issue with vCenter Versions"},{"content":"What troubleshooting tools are you familiar with for monitoring your ESX host? I am sure that one of the first things that pop into your mind is of course ESXTOP.\nESXTOP will provide a great deal of information about the performance of your Host, be it network, your storage, VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s you name it.\nThe next thing that pops into my head is logs.\nThere are numerous amount of logs on an ESX host be it the hostd, vmkernel, vmkwarning, aam and I am sure that I am leaving out a number of others as well. In order to find out what is going wrong you will have go through the logs - and troubleshoot the issue.\nIt is a bit like going through a needle in the haystack. Troubleshooting is an art. Sometimes it is luck - sometimes it just knowing where to look for the right things, and they will pop up at you.\nLet me give an example. I was asked the other to check why some computers running some continuous integration tests were freezing periodically, so badly that they would freeze after a few days. So looking at the Task Manager there was no problem of RAM/CPU/Disk/Network on the OS. Now I have seen more than once, a Windows OS lock up because a huge amount of open handles from a process clogging up the system. Lo and behold the process they were using had approximately 300 times more handles than it should have been using. but how did I find this? Using Task manager which gave me enough information as to what was happening.\nLets get back on track. Back to vCenter. What troubleshooting tools are there for vCenter?\nTasks and Events - which can give you great deal of information of what is happening on your vCenter server. Logs again. Under \\ProgramData\\VMware\\VMware VirtualCenter\\Logs But then again. Do we really know what is happening under the covers?\n\u0026amp;ldquo;I\u0026amp;rsquo;m looking for a script to kill a hung vCenter task.\u0026amp;rdquo;\n\u0026amp;ldquo;stuck Task in Virtual Center\u0026amp;rdquo;\n\u0026amp;ldquo;Cancelled task stuck in \u0026amp;ldquo;Recent Tasks\u0026amp;rdquo; area\u0026amp;rdquo;\nThere are many many more like this - and","date":"Aug 10, 2010","href":"/2010/08/troubleshooting-tools-for-vcenter.html","summary":"What troubleshooting tools are you familiar with for monitoring your ESX host? I am sure that one of the first things that pop into your mind is of course ESXTOP.\nESXTOP will provide a great deal of information about the performance of your Host, be it network, your storage, VM\u0026rsquo;s you name it.\nThe next thing that pops into my head is logs.\nThere are numerous amount of logs on an ESX host be it the hostd, vmkernel, vmkwarning, aam and I am sure that I am leaving out a number of others as well. In order to find out what is going wrong you will have go through the logs - and troubleshoot the issue.","tags":["Tools","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"Troubleshooting Tools for vCenter"},{"content":"I was entrusted with the deployment of a new HP DL380 G7 as a new ESX Host.\nI have my build process down very well. I use the UDA:\ncreate a new sub-template enter the information that I need in for the hostname and IP Boot the server. Choose the server name from the menu Come back 20 minutes later and add the ESX host to my vCenter. All fine and dandy. So.. I prepared to do the same with the new G7.\nI booted the server and started the process. And BAM! it failed - complaining that is could not find the disks. I was intrigued to say the least because this is a proven working process - which never, ever fails!\nAs always - I use Google as part of my right-brain - and this brought me to the following post that shed some light on the issue.\nDuring the kickstart operation you define where you are going to install your partitions.\nHistorically this was /dev/cciss/c0d0 as you can see from part of the kickstart configuration below\n# Clear Partitions clearpart --drives=/dev/cciss/c0d0 --overwritevmfs If once upon a time it was\nesxcfg-module -l | grep -iE \u0026amp;#34;cciss|hpsa\u0026amp;#34; cciss 0x8ae000 0x7000 0x290d140 0x2000 3 Yes It was now\nesxcfg-module -l | grep -iE \u0026amp;#34;cciss|hpsa\u0026amp;#34; hpsa 0x961000 0xa000 0x2956da0 0x10000 4 Yes** Ken Cline also pointed me in right direction. With this new adapter the devices are now recognized as /dev/sda and not /dev/cciss/c0d0.\nWell all in all this is a good change - I think. If you were using different Vendors IBM, Dell, HP you needed to keep one template for HP and another for all the rest.\nEven the UDA specifically was built this way\nNow I will not have to keep a template specifically for HP hardware\nJudging from the post mentioned above this is not only a G7 issue but also a G6 blades as well.\nHope you can make use of the info.\n","date":"Aug 9, 2010","href":"/2010/08/hp-g7-does-not-use-devccissc0d0.html","summary":"I was entrusted with the deployment of a new HP DL380 G7 as a new ESX Host.\nI have my build process down very well. I use the UDA:\ncreate a new sub-template enter the information that I need in for the hostname and IP Boot the server. Choose the server name from the menu Come back 20 minutes later and add the ESX host to my vCenter. All fine and dandy. So.. I prepared to do the same with the new G7.","tags":["Tools","vSphere","Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"The HP G7 does not use /dev/cciss/c0d0"},{"content":"I have been entrusted with converting a large number of Virtual machines that are currently hosted on Xen Server into the VMware Infrastructure.\nThere are all sorts of ways of migrating these a virtual machine exporting to VMDK\u0026amp;rsquo;s, Xen can export to a VMDK, convert to an OVF, other tools etc. I have found that the easiest way for the conversion is to treat the XEN VM as a live machine.\nBesides all the different other lessons I am learning regarding the ins-and-outs of Xen Server and their virtual machines, and all kinds of gotchas that you need to prepare for (look out for them in the upcoming blog posts). During the testing of the process, I noticed something quite interesting.\nSo the Xen VM is running either RHEL 4 / RHEL 5 / Windows XP / Windows 2003.\nImporting Virtual machines directly with the vCenter Enterprise Converter is supports Windows targets only.\nSo in order to simplify the process and not have to use two different tools and procedures, I went with the vCenter Converter Standalone 4.0.1 for both flavors.\nI will not put you through the steps on how to convert the live machine - you can actually refer to this post from a quite a while back.\nOnce the conversion starts - a new VM is created - as per your input, but this is where it differs.\nA Linux conversion. The VM is powered on, connected to the network, booted with the helper ISO and the conversion begins. Creation of the partitions and copying them over one by one. Here are the screen shots of the converter and the details of the process in the vCenter as well.\nAnd now a windows conversion. The VM is created but not powered on. The copy of the data actually takes place directly into the VM without having to use the Helper VM. Look at the screenshot below.\nI find this quite interesting because I it seems that the conversion is occurring somehow in the background without having to use the helper VM. And even more so - if this can be done for a windows VM - why can this not be done also with a Linux","date":"Aug 5, 2010","href":"/2010/08/linux-vs-windows-live-conversion.html","summary":"I have been entrusted with converting a large number of Virtual machines that are currently hosted on Xen Server into the VMware Infrastructure.\nThere are all sorts of ways of migrating these a virtual machine exporting to VMDK\u0026rsquo;s, Xen can export to a VMDK, convert to an OVF, other tools etc. I have found that the easiest way for the conversion is to treat the XEN VM as a live machine.","tags":["Linux","vSphere","Windows","Administration","VMware","Converter"],"title":"Linux vs. Windows Live Conversion"},{"content":"John Troyer published a document on the VMworld site\nVMworld 2010 is going to be a whirlwind of technological and social activity. Let\u0026amp;rsquo;s keep in touch! If you are going to VMworld 2010 in San Francisco and use social media - like blogs or Twitter \u0026amp;ndash; please add yourself to the list below. We\u0026amp;rsquo;re going to use this in a few ways at the event.\nWe\u0026amp;rsquo;ll pull blog and Twitter feeds from this list to aggregate and feature on VMworld.com If you do have a blog, you\u0026amp;rsquo;ll qualify to be an \u0026amp;lsquo;official blogger\u0026amp;rsquo; at VMworld 2010, with access to the blogger lounge and blogger and press briefings Other people will know to expect you and to watch out for you at the lounge If you are a blogger and will be at VMworld in San Francisco - go and add yourself to the list.\nThere will be a separate list for Copenhagen released soon.\nT minus 31 days till it starts.\nAnd no I did not look at my calendar - I used Powershell to give me the answer.\n(Get-Date -Date 29/08/2010) - (Get-Date -Date 29/07/2010) | Select-Object Days | Format-List Days: 31 ","date":"Jul 28, 2010","href":"/2010/07/social-media-users-list-at-vmworld-2010.html","summary":"John Troyer published a document on the VMworld site\nVMworld 2010 is going to be a whirlwind of technological and social activity. Let\u0026rsquo;s keep in touch! If you are going to VMworld 2010 in San Francisco and use social media - like blogs or Twitter \u0026ndash; please add yourself to the list below. We\u0026rsquo;re going to use this in a few ways at the event.\nWe\u0026rsquo;ll pull blog and Twitter feeds from this list to aggregate and feature on VMworld.com If you do have a blog, you\u0026rsquo;ll qualify to be an \u0026lsquo;official blogger\u0026rsquo; at VMworld 2010, with access to the blogger lounge and blogger and press briefings Other people will know to expect you and to watch out for you at the lounge If you are a blogger and will be at VMworld in San Francisco - go and add yourself to the list.","tags":["VMworld","Powershell"],"title":"Social Media Users List at VMworld 2010"},{"content":"July 14, 2010 Kirk Munro posted last week about the PowerCLI 4.1: A fork in the road regarding changes in namespaces that were introduced in the new version of PowerCLI 4.1. Scott Herold of Vizioncore also posted an article regarding these Changes - vEcoShell 1.2.6 and PowerCLI 4.1.\nFirst and foremost - I would like to commend the PowerCLI team for becoming active again and since my post PowerCLI - What Will the Future Hold? - I have noticed that they returned to Twitter and the Blogosphere - so this make me very happy!\nI do want to point out though. Until now we did not have a full list of what exactly had changed regarding the namespaces.\nToday the PowerCLI Team posted Output type changes in PowerCLI 4.1.\nBelow is the full list from the blog with the mappings of the Namespaces Old -\u0026amp;gt; New\nVMware.VimAutomation.Types.Annotation -\u0026amp;gt; VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.AnnotationManagement.Annotation VMware.VimAutomation.Types.CDDrive -\u0026amp;gt; VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.VirtualDevice.CDDrive VMware.VimAutomation.Types.Host.Storage.ChapType -\u0026amp;gt; VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Host.Storage.ChapType VMware.VimAutomation.Types.Cluster -\u0026amp;gt; VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Inventory.Cluster VMware.VimAutomation.Types.ConnectInfo -\u0026amp;gt; VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.VirtualDevice.ConnectInfo VMware.VimAutomation.Types.CpuAffinity -\u0026amp;gt; VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.VM.CpuAffinity VMware.VimAutomation.Types.CustomAttribute -\u0026amp;gt; VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.AnnotationManagement.CustomAttribute VMware.VimAutomation.Types.CustomAttributeTargetType -\u0026amp;gt; VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.AnnotationManagement.CustomAttributeTargetType VMware.VimAutomation.Types.Datacenter -\u0026amp;gt; VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Inventory.Datacenter Datastore -\u0026amp;gt; VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.DatastoreManagement.Datastore VMware.VimAutomation.Types.DatastoreManagement.DatastoreFile -\u0026amp;gt;","date":"Jul 20, 2010","href":"/2010/07/changes-in-powercli-41.html","summary":"July 14, 2010 Kirk Munro posted last week about the PowerCLI 4.1: A fork in the road regarding changes in namespaces that were introduced in the new version of PowerCLI 4.1. Scott Herold of Vizioncore also posted an article regarding these Changes - vEcoShell 1.2.6 and PowerCLI 4.1.\nFirst and foremost - I would like to commend the PowerCLI team for becoming active again and since my post PowerCLI - What Will the Future Hold? - I have noticed that they returned to Twitter and the Blogosphere - so this make me very happy!","tags":["Management","Scripting","Powershell",4.1,"VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"Changes in PowerCLI 4.1"},{"content":"This one has been bothering me lately. Where do you place your Virtual Machine Swap files?\nThere are two options:\nIn the Same Directory as the VM In the Datastore specified by the host. As you can see below.\nIf you choose the second option then you can configure the swap location per host\nHere comes my question.\nDuncan Epping posted about the Impact of decisions… - for those that wanted to keep the vswp files on local VMFS datastores on their Hosts. Frank Denneman also wrote a post regarding this subject as well- Impact of host local VM swap on HA and DRS.\nMy question is as follows. When changing this you see (in both screenshots) a nice warning from VMware that this could degrade vMotion performance.\nI take this to be true if you were moving the swapfile location to a local VMFS volume located on the ESX host. When initiating a vMotion - the vswp file will have to be copied to the other host\u0026amp;rsquo;s vswp location for the migration to complete.\nBut what about a different Datastore that is shared storage - but not the location of the virtual machine files?\nThis is actually specified as a one of NetApp\u0026amp;rsquo;s best practices (NetApp and VMware vSphere Storage Best Practices TR-3749) pg. 80.\nNow why would you do this? If you look on the right - you will see one reason - no snapshots, which will save precious disk space. Second reason - no replication is needed (unless of course this is a requirement)\nSome say this is a risk - because if your datastore with the vswp files goes down then all your VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s go down, which in essence is true - but… Since in most cases the datastore is just another volume on the same storage array from which the VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s are running from - the chance of the vswp datastore failing is equal to that of the chance that VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s datastore will fail.\nSo my question at the end of the day. Is the warning still valid when you define a shared datastore - one which all the ESX hosts in that cluster can access?\nThere is of course a certain","date":"Jul 20, 2010","href":"/2010/07/where-to-place-your-vm-swap.html","summary":"This one has been bothering me lately. Where do you place your Virtual Machine Swap files?\nThere are two options:\nIn the Same Directory as the VM In the Datastore specified by the host. As you can see below.\nIf you choose the second option then you can configure the swap location per host\nHere comes my question.\nDuncan Epping posted about the Impact of decisions… - for those that wanted to keep the vswp files on local VMFS datastores on their Hosts. Frank Denneman also wrote a post regarding this subject as well- Impact of host local VM swap on HA and DRS.","tags":["Management","VMotion","vSphere","Performance"],"title":"Where to Place your VM Swap?"},{"content":"Quest just released a new version of there amazing Active Directory Module - Version 1.4\nHere is Dmitry’s Post about the release:\nThere are many new Cmdlets available here are some of the details from the release notes\n1.1. New cmdlets\nGet-QADLocalCertificateStore New-QADLocalCertificateStore Remove-QADLocalCertificateStore Get-QADCertificate Where-QADCertificate Add-QADCertificate Import-QADCertificate Show-QADCertificate Edit-QADCertificate Export-QADCertificate Remove-QADCertificate Remove-QADPrivateKey Get-QADCertificateRevocationList Add-QADCertificateRevocationList Import-QADCertificateRevocationList Export-QADCertificateRevocationList Remove-QADCertificateRevocationList Get-QADPKIObject Publish-QADCertificate Unpublish-QADCertificate Publish-QADCertificateRevocationList Unpublish-QADCertificateRevocationList Add-QADProxyAddress Set-QADProxyAddress Remove-QADProxyAddress Clear-QADProxyAddress Enable-QADEmailAddressPolicy Disable-QADEmailAddressPolicy Set-QADProgressPolicy Get-QADProgressPolicy Set-QADInactiveAccountsPolicy Get-QADInactiveAccountsPolicy 1.2. New parameters\n1.3. Multi-value SearchRoot Parameter\nThe data type of the SearchRoot parameter has been changed to support a search within two or more containers at a time. This parameter now accepts an array of objects rather than a single object as it was with earlier versions. This makes it possible for the cmdlet to search multiple containers identified by the SearchRoot parameter value. For example, you can supply an array of strings each of which\nrepresents the canonical name of a certain container, to retrieve objects from all of the containers specified.\nBugs fixed [48939] Cannot work with object that contain round brackets in their names in Proxy mode.\n[48941] Command \u0026amp;lsquo;Get-QADRootDSE | Format-List \u0026amp;rsquo; fails in Proxy mode.\n[112742] Command \u0026amp;lsquo;Get-QADGroup -ContainsMember \u0026amp;rsquo; doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t work in Proxy mode.\n[112870] Command \u0026amp;lsquo;Get-QADGroupMember \u0026amp;lsquo;Domain Users\u0026amp;rsquo; |","date":"Jul 16, 2010","href":"/2010/07/quest-activeroles-management-shell-for.html","summary":"Quest just released a new version of there amazing Active Directory Module - Version 1.4\nHere is Dmitry’s Post about the release:\nThere are many new Cmdlets available here are some of the details from the release notes\n1.1. New cmdlets\nGet-QADLocalCertificateStore New-QADLocalCertificateStore Remove-QADLocalCertificateStore Get-QADCertificate Where-QADCertificate Add-QADCertificate Import-QADCertificate Show-QADCertificate Edit-QADCertificate Export-QADCertificate Remove-QADCertificate Remove-QADPrivateKey Get-QADCertificateRevocationList Add-QADCertificateRevocationList Import-QADCertificateRevocationList Export-QADCertificateRevocationList Remove-QADCertificateRevocationList Get-QADPKIObject Publish-QADCertificate Unpublish-QADCertificate Publish-QADCertificateRevocationList Unpublish-QADCertificateRevocationList Add-QADProxyAddress Set-QADProxyAddress Remove-QADProxyAddress Clear-QADProxyAddress Enable-QADEmailAddressPolicy Disable-QADEmailAddressPolicy Set-QADProgressPolicy Get-QADProgressPolicy Set-QADInactiveAccountsPolicy Get-QADInactiveAccountsPolicy 1.2. New parameters","tags":["Active Directory","Microsoft","Tools","Management","Powershell"],"title":"Quest ActiveRoles Management Shell for AD-1.4"},{"content":"The previous post about what was new in vSphere 4.1 was a general overview with some slide shots. For all ye of little faith thinking that I was only going to post those screenshots with no details Nuh-Uh! I prefer to lay down the basics with screen shots - and then go into the details. I mean you do have to cater for all spectrums of the public from basic to advanced.\nSo without further a due - let\u0026amp;rsquo;s go into how you can add you ESX/i server into the domain.\nBut why would you?\nWell actually there is a very simple reason - Security. One of the biggest problems it providing a single mechanism to authenticate yourself with the same credentials to all components of your infrastructure. With vCenter it is easy - since it is a Domain Member - all authentication is done through active directory. But going directly into the ESXi host - that is a different story all together you will have either authenticate with Linux credentials - or configure the authentication to be done by active directory - but for that you need a valid Linux user on the ESXi box.\nSmall note - since the future version of ESX will only be ESXi I have decided - that I will be using ESXi exclusively in my posts - unless the issue is directly related to the full ESX version)\nThere are 4 ways of doing this\nESXi Host directly Host Profiles CLI Script Before starting you need to make sure of a few things\nYou have correct time synchronization with between your ESX host and the Domain controllers - this is a must. Kerberos is extremely picky when time difference off.\nYou have proper DNS resolution from the ESX Host, and that the name servers are correct.\nAlso your ESX host has to have a FQDN - for example:\nHostname: esx1\nDomain: maishsk.local\nFQDN: esx1.maishsk.local\nOn the ESXi Host Log into your host directly - NOT through the vCenter. The documentation says\nI have found that if you do this on the vCenter server - the Properties option is grayed out. and you cannot make the change.\nConfiguration Tab","date":"Jul 15, 2010","href":"/2010/07/esxi-41-active-directory-integration.html","summary":"The previous post about what was new in vSphere 4.1 was a general overview with some slide shots. For all ye of little faith thinking that I was only going to post those screenshots with no details Nuh-Uh! I prefer to lay down the basics with screen shots - and then go into the details. I mean you do have to cater for all spectrums of the public from basic to advanced.","tags":["Active Directory","Tools","Management","vSphere","Administration","ESX4i"],"title":"ESXi 4.1 Active Directory Integration"},{"content":"So first post about the free Hypervisor under its new name.\nI wrote an article regarding the process of upgrading from ESXi 3.5 to ESXi 4.0.\nWell I am happy to announce that this has changed - again! Have you tried to find the VMware vSphere Host Update Utility? It was never downloadable - it was part of the vSphere Client which was bundled with your ESXi Installation.(by the way that has also been removed from the installation and is not a separate download as well.\nWhat once was\nIs now..\nThe reason that the download is actually almost 160MB larger with less inside is a mystery to me (I guess the multiple languages now built in - make it a lot larger). But there is no Host Update utility any more.\nThe general consensus is that that VMware are pushing for Central Management - which means you need to use Update Manager - which is only part of the vCenter Package.\nIf you still want to update your hosts you will have to revert to a bit of command-line work.\nThe solution to this in the Upgrade Guide.\nWhat you will need is:\nA Scratch Partition on your ESXi host\nYou must configure a scratch partition and reboot the host before proceeding with the upgrade.\nYou can configure a scratch partition for a host under the Software Advanced Settings in the Configuration tab of the vSphere Client.\nWhat is the Scratch Partition?\nDuring the autoconfiguration phase in the Host installation process, a 4GB VFAT scratch partition is created if the partition is not present on another disk. When ESXi boots, the system tries to find a suitable partition on a local disk to create a scratch partition. The scratch partition is not required. It is used to store vm-support output, which you need when you create a support bundle. If the scratch partition is not present, vm-support output is stored in a ramdisk. This might be problematic in low-memory situations, but is not critical.\nFor ESXi Installable, the partition is created during installation and is thus selected. VMware recommends that you","date":"Jul 15, 2010","href":"/2010/07/updating-your-vmware-hypervisor-server.html","summary":"So first post about the free Hypervisor under its new name.\nI wrote an article regarding the process of upgrading from ESXi 3.5 to ESXi 4.0.\nWell I am happy to announce that this has changed - again! Have you tried to find the VMware vSphere Host Update Utility? It was never downloadable - it was part of the vSphere Client which was bundled with your ESXi Installation.(by the way that has also been removed from the installation and is not a separate download as well.","tags":["Management","vSphere",4.1,"Administration","ESX4i"],"title":"Updating VMware vSphere Hypervisor"},{"content":"I posted in a previous post about the VMware Tools Icon in VMware Workstation.\nAfter updating the tools this evening on a VM running on a ESXi 4.1 Host - this is confirmed\nPersonally - I like the new icons much better\u0026amp;hellip;\n","date":"Jul 14, 2010","href":"/2010/07/vmware-tools-icon-has-changed.html","summary":"I posted in a previous post about the VMware Tools Icon in VMware Workstation.\nAfter updating the tools this evening on a VM running on a ESXi 4.1 Host - this is confirmed\nPersonally - I like the new icons much better\u0026hellip;","tags":["Tools","vSphere",4.1,"Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"The VMware Tools Icon has Changed"},{"content":"Forgive the corny humor\u0026amp;hellip; The free ESXi Hypervisor is no more (well at least not by that name).\nVMware have re-branded it as VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi)\nVMware vSphere Hypervisor FAQs What is the difference between VMware ESXi and VMware vSphere Hypervisor? VMware vSphere Hypervisor is the new name for what was formerly known as VMware ESXi Single Server or free ESXi (often abbreviated to simply “VMware ESXi”). VMware vSphere Hypervisor is the free edition of the vSphere production line. It is licensed to only unlock the hypervisor functionality of vSphere, but it can be seamlessly upgraded to more advanced offerings of VMware vSphere. VMware vSphere is available in multiple editions including several options specifically designed for small businesses.\nHow is the free VMware vSphere Hypervisor different than paid editions of VMware vSphere? How can I upgrade? VMware vSphere Hypervisor is available at no cost in order to help companies of all sizes experience the basic benefits of virtualization. Granting free access to vSphere’s basic hypervisor functionality enables IT professionals to become familiar with the technology and prove its value in their own companies.\nVMware vSphere Hypervisor can be seamlessly upgraded to more advanced editions of vSphere. Simply upgrade the free license to the desired upgraded vSphere license to take advantage of advanced vSphere functionally including centralized management, live migration of virtual machines, automatic load balancing, business continuity, power management, and back up and restore capabilities for virtual machines. VMware vSphere is available in multiple editions including two kits specifically designed for small businesses. A reason for moving to a paid kit or edition is that you could take advantage of the vSphere management server, called VMware vCenter Server, to enable centralized management.\nWhat tools can I use to manage my free VMware vSphere Hypervisor license? VMware recommends using the free","date":"Jul 13, 2010","href":"/2010/07/king-is-dead-long-live-king.html","summary":"Forgive the corny humor\u0026hellip; The free ESXi Hypervisor is no more (well at least not by that name).\nVMware have re-branded it as VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi)\nVMware vSphere Hypervisor FAQs What is the difference between VMware ESXi and VMware vSphere Hypervisor? VMware vSphere Hypervisor is the new name for what was formerly known as VMware ESXi Single Server or free ESXi (often abbreviated to simply “VMware ESXi”). VMware vSphere Hypervisor is the free edition of the vSphere production line. It is licensed to only unlock the hypervisor functionality of vSphere, but it can be seamlessly upgraded to more advanced offerings of VMware vSphere. VMware vSphere is available in multiple editions including several options specifically designed for small businesses.","tags":["GO","vSphere","vSphere Hypervisor","VMware","ESX4i"],"title":"The King is Dead! Long Live the King!"},{"content":"Now that vSphere 4.1 is now released one of the new not so exciting features or developments that have emerged but are definitely worth mentioning.\nVMware has finally made the change.\nUp until this release - the live migration of virtual machines between hosts was known as\nVMotion (with a capital V) From here on it will now be know as\nvMotion (with a small v) This moves everything into synch with all the other VMware branding\nI hope this finally puts this long lasting debate to rest.\n","date":"Jul 13, 2010","href":"/2010/07/vmotion-or-vmotion.html","summary":"Now that vSphere 4.1 is now released one of the new not so exciting features or developments that have emerged but are definitely worth mentioning.\nVMware has finally made the change.\nUp until this release - the live migration of virtual machines between hosts was known as\nVMotion (with a capital V) From here on it will now be know as\nvMotion (with a small v) ","tags":["VMotion","vSphere","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"vMotion or VMotion?"},{"content":"A small group of people were granted access to the Release Candidate Beta and over the past 3 weeks have been exposed to the new features and improvements that are involved with this new release. I was one of this group.\nThere are going to be an abundance of posts flying fast over the next few days, with a huge amount of information.One of the purposes of the program, was to spread the word and expose the new features that are available with the new release.\nSo here goes.\nFirst some marketing material. Several technical posts with more details will follow over the next few days.\nLeveraging more than a decade of industry-leading technology, VMware vSphere™ sets a new standard as the most robust and reliable virtualization platform, and now forms the best foundation\nfor building cloud infrastructures. VMware vSphere is used in over 170,000 deployments in companies of all sizes throughout the world. The latest release of VMware vSphere (version 4.1) pushes the platform even further by:\nDramatically expanding the scale of the platform to an unmatched number of virtual machines and virtualized hosts, enabling the creation of private and public clouds at even lower operational costs than before. Introducing new capabilities for the most efficient aggregation of IT resources into an elastic pool of computing power that applications can consume on demand as a utility-like service. The major new and enhanced features that vSphere 4.1 delivers are listed below and grouped by the major benefits of the platform:\nEfficiency through utilization and automation\nAgility with control\nFreedom of choice\nThe sections below outline each of these benefits in greater detail.\nEfficiency through Utilization and Automation vSphere 4.1 enables higher consolidation ratios with unequaled performance by providing groundbreaking new memory management technology, expanded resource pooling capabilities with more granular storage and network I/O controls, and major enhancements to overall","date":"Jul 13, 2010","href":"/2010/07/what-new-in-vsphere-41.html","summary":"A small group of people were granted access to the Release Candidate Beta and over the past 3 weeks have been exposed to the new features and improvements that are involved with this new release. I was one of this group.\nThere are going to be an abundance of posts flying fast over the next few days, with a huge amount of information.One of the purposes of the program, was to spread the word and expose the new features that are available with the new release.","tags":["vSphere",4.1,"VMware","ESX"],"title":"What's New in vSphere 4.1"},{"content":"Here are some of the New features and enhancements for ESXi 4.1 and the vCLI\nGet ready - THERE WILL BE NO MORE FULL ESX!! (or so VMware promises…)\nBoot From SAN will be fully supported in ESXi 4.1. It was as only experimentally supported in ESXi 4.0. Boot from SAN will be supported for FC, iSCSI, and FCoE – for the latter two, it will depend upon hardware qualification, so please check the HCL and Release Notes for vSphere 4.1.\nScripted Installation, the equivalent of Kickstart, will be supported on ESXi 4.1. The installer can boot over the network, and at that point you can also do an interactive installation, or else set it up to do a scripted installation. Both the installed image and the config file (called “ks.cfg”) can be obtained over the network using a variety of protocols. There is also an ability to specify preinstall, postinstall, and first-boot scripts. For example, the postinstall script can configure all the host settings, and the first boot script could join the host to vCenter. These three types of scripts run either in the context of the Tech Support Mode shell (which is a highly stripped down version of bash) or in Python.\nIn ESXi 4.0, Tech Support Mode usage was ambiguous. We stated that you should only use it with guidance from VMware Support, but VMware also issued several KBs telling customers how to use it. Getting into Tech Support Mode was also not very user-friendly.\nIn ESXi 4.1, Tech Support Mode (TSM) will be fully supported. You can enable and disable it either in the DCUI or in vCenter. TSM over SSH, aka Remote TSM, is also fully supported, and can enabled and disabled independently of local TSM.\nThe warning not to use TSM will be removed from the login screen However, anytime TSM is enabled (either local or remote), a warning banner will appear in vSphere Client for that host. This is meant to reinforce the recommendation that TSM only be used for fixing problems, not on a routine basis.\nBy default, after you enable TSM (both local","date":"Jul 13, 2010","href":"/2010/07/what-new-in-vsphere-41-esxi.html","summary":"Here are some of the New features and enhancements for ESXi 4.1 and the vCLI\nGet ready - THERE WILL BE NO MORE FULL ESX!! (or so VMware promises…)\nBoot From SAN will be fully supported in ESXi 4.1. It was as only experimentally supported in ESXi 4.0. Boot from SAN will be supported for FC, iSCSI, and FCoE – for the latter two, it will depend upon hardware qualification, so please check the HCL and Release Notes for vSphere 4.1.","tags":["vSphere",4.1,"VMware","ESX4i"],"title":"What's New in vSphere 4.1 - ESXi"},{"content":"Network Traffic Management. A great new feature allowing you to define shares on the Network traffic of your ESX servers.\nThe diagram at left should be familiar to most. When using 1GigE NICs, ESX hosts are typically deployed with NICs dedicated to particular traffic types. For example you may dedicate 4x 1GigE NICs for VM traffic; one NIC to iSCSI, another NIC to vMotion, and another to the service console. Each traffic type gets a dedicated bandwidth by virtue of the physical NIC allocation.\nMoving to the diagram at right … ESX hosts deployed with 10GigE NICs are likely to be deployed (for the time being) with only two 10GigE interfaces. Multiple traffic types will be converged over the two interfaces. So long as the load offered to the 10GE interfaces is less than 10GE, everything is ok—the NIC can service the offered load. But what happens when the offered load from the various traffic types exceeds the capacity of the interface? What happens when you offer say 11Gbps to a 10GigE interface? Something has to suffer. This is where Network IO Control steps in. It addresses the issue of oversubscription by allowing you to set the relative importance of predetermined traffic types.\nNetwork IO Control isolates the traffic types and ensures one traffic type is not dominated by others. It ensures or guarantees a minimum level of service for each traffic type when those traffic types (or flows) compete for a vmnic (physical NIC)\nNote that NetIOC is available only with the vDS. It is not available on the standard switch (vSS).\nNetIOC is controlled with two parameters—Limits and Shares.\nLimits, as the name suggests, sets a limit for that traffic type (e.g VM traffic) across the NIC team. The value is specified in absolute terms in Mbps. When set, that traffic type will not exceed that limit *outbound* (or egress) of the host\nShares specify the relative importance of that traffic type when those traffic types compete for a particular vmnic (physical NIC). Shares are","date":"Jul 13, 2010","href":"/2010/07/what-new-in-vsphere-41-network-io.html","summary":"Network Traffic Management. A great new feature allowing you to define shares on the Network traffic of your ESX servers.\nThe diagram at left should be familiar to most. When using 1GigE NICs, ESX hosts are typically deployed with NICs dedicated to particular traffic types. For example you may dedicate 4x 1GigE NICs for VM traffic; one NIC to iSCSI, another NIC to vMotion, and another to the service console. Each traffic type gets a dedicated bandwidth by virtue of the physical NIC allocation.","tags":["vSphere",4.1,"VMware"],"title":"What's New in vSphere 4.1 - Network IO Control"},{"content":"After all the videos and Posts published regarding the new Feature of SIOC, here are some of the new features and solutions that SIOC addresses.\nThe problem Storage I/O control is addressing is the situation where some less important workloads are taking the majority of I/O bandwidth from more important applications. In the case of the three applications shown here, the data mining is hogging a majority of the storage I/O resource. And the two more important to the business operations are getting less performance than needed.\nWhat a Virtualization Admin wants to see is a distribution of I/O that is aligned with the importance of each virtual machine. Where the most important business critical applications are getting the I/O bandwidth needed for them to be responsive and the less critical data mining application is taking less I/O bandwidth.\nI/O shares can be set at the Virtual Machine level and although this capability has been there for a few previous releases, it was not enforced on a VMware cluster wide level until release 4.1.\nPrior to 4.1 the I/O shares and limits were enforced for a VM with more than one virtual disk or a number of VMs on a single ESX server. But with 4.1 these I/O shares are now used to distribute I/O bandwidth across all the ESX servers which have access to that shared datastore.\nThe ability to set shares for I/O is done via edit properties on the virtual machine. This screen shows two virtual disks and the ability to set priority and limits on the I/Os per second.\nOnce the shares are set on the virtual machines in a VMware cluster, one needs to also enable the “Storage I/O Control” option on the properties screen for that datastores on which you want to have Storage I/O control working. The other thing that is needed for Storage I/O to kick in is that congestion measured in the form of latency must exist for a period of time on the datastore before the I/O control kicks in.\nThe example which comes to mind is a car pool lane is not","date":"Jul 13, 2010","href":"/2010/07/what-new-in-vsphere-41-storage-io.html","summary":"After all the videos and Posts published regarding the new Feature of SIOC, here are some of the new features and solutions that SIOC addresses.\nThe problem Storage I/O control is addressing is the situation where some less important workloads are taking the majority of I/O bandwidth from more important applications. In the case of the three applications shown here, the data mining is hogging a majority of the storage I/O resource. And the two more important to the business operations are getting less performance than needed.","tags":["vSphere",4.1,"VMware"],"title":"What's New in vSphere 4.1 - Storage IO Control"},{"content":"Veeam will be releasing a new Backup product including verification of the integrity of the backup job. I blogged about this a few months ago\nI would like to point you to a small Demo that was brought to my attention in an email from today\nYou’ve heard about it—now see it in action!\nThank you for your interest in SureBackup and the upcoming release of Veeam Backup \u0026amp;amp; Replication™ 5.0. We’re still on track for a release this quarter, and are pleased to provide a “sneak peek” at the new recovery verification functionality.\nTo see how it will work and why it’s so important to verify the RECOVERABILITY of EVERY backup of EVERY virtual machine EVERY time, please view the recorded demo at www.veeam.com/surebackup.\nStay tuned for more updates on the upcoming release of Veeam Backup \u0026amp;amp; Replication 5.0 and the patent-pending technologies that will change the way you look at VMware backup FOREVER.\nSureBackup Demo\n","date":"Jul 8, 2010","href":"/2010/07/surebackup-demo-veeam-backup.html","summary":"Veeam will be releasing a new Backup product including verification of the integrity of the backup job. I blogged about this a few months ago\nI would like to point you to a small Demo that was brought to my attention in an email from today\nYou’ve heard about it—now see it in action!\nThank you for your interest in SureBackup and the upcoming release of Veeam Backup \u0026amp; Replication™ 5.0. We’re still on track for a release this quarter, and are pleased to provide a “sneak peek” at the new recovery verification functionality.\nTo see how it will work and why it’s so important to verify the RECOVERABILITY of EVERY backup of EVERY virtual machine EVERY time, please view the recorded demo at www.veeam.com/surebackup.\nStay tuned for more updates on the upcoming release of Veeam Backup \u0026amp; Replication 5.0 and the patent-pending technologies that will change the way you look at VMware backup FOREVER.","tags":["Tools","Administration","VMware"],"title":"SureBackup Demo - Veeam Backup \u0026 Replication 5"},{"content":"I have another post coming up regarding 2rd party plug-ins - explaining a few things I have learned over the past two days - regarding SSL and getting that to work with your properly in the vSphere client, but first…\nI am extremely grateful to all those who are providing their plug-ins to make the administrators life easier to work with.\nBoth EMC and NetApp have their plug-ins.\nI have installed both the Rapid Cloning Utility (RCU) and the Virtual Storage Console (VSC).\nI have yet to get to know both of the tools and use them to their full potential, I hope to post my findings here in the future.\nI did notice something though. Both tools are built on a Tomcat Web Application. They are both installed on the vCenter server. Which is also running - you guessed - a Tomcat server.\nSo I now have 3 Tomcat processes running simultaneously.\nI am personally not a Tomcat person - even though I am getting to know it (to my dismay) better and better - but I am sure there must be a better way to do this?\nI do not want 3 processes (doing basically the same thing just on different ports) - which are taking disk space and RAM and need the same SSL certificate, etc. etc…\nIdeas anyone?\nMy request is to find a way to have these apps all run under the same web server - If possible the vCenter Web Server and not have each plug-in/vendor install there own full web server for each\nplug-in.\n","date":"Jul 7, 2010","href":"/2010/07/plug-ins-and-tomcat.html","summary":"I have another post coming up regarding 2rd party plug-ins - explaining a few things I have learned over the past two days - regarding SSL and getting that to work with your properly in the vSphere client, but first…\nI am extremely grateful to all those who are providing their plug-ins to make the administrators life easier to work with.\nBoth EMC and NetApp have their plug-ins.\nI have installed both the Rapid Cloning Utility (RCU) and the Virtual Storage Console (VSC).","tags":["Tools","Management","vSphere","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Plug-ins and Tomcat"},{"content":"This is just a small rant on my part, so forgive me if it comes over the wrong way.\nCarter Shanklin left the PowerCLI team about at the end of April 2010. For those of you who do not know, Carter was (and still is) the PowerCLI guru. It was his project for a long time. It has evolved into a great automation tool that I use every single day. I really do not know hat I would do without it.\nSince Carter left to move onto SpringSource, I have wondered what will be with this product. I am not saying that PowerCLI is and was only a one man show (G-d help us all if this was the case), but each product has their PM and the one that \u0026amp;ldquo;Evangelizes\u0026amp;rdquo; it to the World.\nSince April - I have repeatedly tried to find who is that Evangelist. I have not yet received an answer.\nWhat is the effect of this you may ask? This is how I see it.\nFrom the content catalog from the upcoming VMworld there are only two PowerCLI sessions . None are being given by VMware Employees.\nAutomate Application Deployments to vCloud Express\nPowerCLI Is For Administrators\nIf I recall the PowerCLI sessions were one of the most popular and requested sessions at last years VMworld.\nDon\u0026amp;rsquo;t get me wrong. I do not know the presenter of the 1st session but the second is being given by Alan Renouf and Luc Dekens, both PowerCLI masters in their own right. So I am sure that they will both be great sessions.\nThe PowerCLI Community. I cannot remember the last time I saw a VMware employee post an answer / solution to a problem that someone asked. Luc does not really give anyone else a\nchance , but still. There are bug fixes that need to be taken care of, improvements, new things that need to be added.\nThe PowerCLI Blog - When was the last post ? March 4, 2010! If I were to have taken a 3 month Hiatus - people would lose interest in my blog, and why should this be any different for PowerCLI.\nI have had some questions regarding PowerCLI and an upcoming release - which I cannot really go into, but no answers","date":"Jul 1, 2010","href":"/2010/07/powercli-what-will-future-hold.html","summary":"This is just a small rant on my part, so forgive me if it comes over the wrong way.\nCarter Shanklin left the PowerCLI team about at the end of April 2010. For those of you who do not know, Carter was (and still is) the PowerCLI guru. It was his project for a long time. It has evolved into a great automation tool that I use every single day. I really do not know hat I would do without it.","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"PowerCLI - What Will the Future Hold?"},{"content":"The last sentence in my previous post on Updating Pictures for Users in AD was:\nNow the only part hat needs to be taken care of - is getting a proper image from HR in the correct size. Maybe we will find a Powershell script to take care of this :)\nSo here it is.\nThis can be done with ImageMagick\nOnce you have unpacked the Zip file (to c:\\temp\\ for example)\nFunction convert-pics { $cmd = \u0026amp;#34;C:\\temp\\ImageMagick-6.6.2-5\\convert.exe\u0026amp;#34; Get-ChildItem C:\\temp\\pics | ForEach-Object { $newname = \u0026amp;#34;C:\\temp\\pics\\test\\\u0026amp;#34;+$_.Name $filename = $_.Fullname invoke-expression \u0026amp;#34;$cmd $Filename -resize 96x96 $newname\u0026amp;#34; } } convert-pics Line 2. Define the command you will run\nLine 4. Save the files to different folder\nLine 6. Run the command to convert the pictures to the correct size.\nAnd uploading them all to Active Directory\nGet-QADUser -sizelimit 0 -IncludedProperties thumbnailphoto | ForEach-Object { if ($_.thumbnailPhoto -notlike \u0026amp;#34;FF*\u0026amp;#34;) { $filename = \u0026amp;#34;C:\\temp\\pics\\test\\\u0026amp;#34;+$_.SamAccountName+\u0026amp;#34;.jpg\u0026amp;#34; if (Test-Path $filename) { $photo = [byte[]](Get-Content $filename -Encoding byte) Set-QADObject -identity $_.SamAccountName -ObjectAttributes @{thumbnailPhoto=$photo} }\t} }\tLine 1. You have to specifically define the thumbnailPhoto attribute to be retrieved\nLine 2. Check if the user already has the attribute populated already - if not then continue\nLine 3. Set the variable of the filename\nLine 4. Check for the file - if it exists then continue.\n","date":"Jul 1, 2010","href":"/2010/07/updating-pictures-for-users-in-ad-pt-2.html","summary":"The last sentence in my previous post on Updating Pictures for Users in AD was:\nNow the only part hat needs to be taken care of - is getting a proper image from HR in the correct size. Maybe we will find a Powershell script to take care of this :)\nSo here it is.\nThis can be done with ImageMagick\nOnce you have unpacked the Zip file (to c:\\temp\\ for example)","tags":["Active Directory","Tools","Scripting","Powershell","Administration"],"title":"Updating pictures for Users in AD - pt. 2"},{"content":"I was looking yesterday at post from Matt McSpirit regarding the Cluster Limits of Hyper-V. I started to look at how this would compare to vSphere.\nI do not want to go into who can cram more VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s into a cluster VMware / Hyper-V? I did notice something that I realized - I think I should point out.\nTake the following Scenario.\nNow you want to add another Host to your cluster.\nOn pg. 7 of The Configuration Maximums for vSphere 4.0 and vSphere 4.0 Update 1 you will see that when adding the 9th host - the number of VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s per host is limited to 40.\nSo therefore the scenario will change to this:\nIn thinking that you can increase your capacity in your Cluster but adding another host - you just reduced the number of VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s that can run in your cluster 280!! In order to get back to the same amount of VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s you were previously running - will need another 7 additional hosts\nAs always my advice is - read the documentation and research the implications of your actions will be.\n","date":"Jun 24, 2010","href":"/2010/06/be-careful-of-9th-host-in-cluster.html","summary":"I was looking yesterday at post from Matt McSpirit regarding the Cluster Limits of Hyper-V. I started to look at how this would compare to vSphere.\nI do not want to go into who can cram more VM\u0026rsquo;s into a cluster VMware / Hyper-V? I did notice something that I realized - I think I should point out.\nTake the following Scenario.\nNow you want to add another Host to your cluster.","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","VMware","ESX"],"title":"Be Careful of the 9th Host in the Cluster"},{"content":"Sometimes you would like to run a query against all DC’s in your forest. For example today – I was looking a specific error on the System Event Logs.\nHere is a quick way to get all the DC\u0026amp;rsquo;s in the forest adapted from Marcus Oh’s blog.\n# ============================================================================================== # NAME: Get-AllDomainControllers # # AUTHOR: Maish Saidel-Keesing # DATE : 22/06/2010 # # COMMENT: Will collect all Domain controllers, set the list as the $alldcs variable #\tand output as list # # ============================================================================================== function Get-AllDomainControllers{ $myDomain = [System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Domain]::GetCurrentDomain() $script:alldcs = $myDomain.Forest.Domains | ForEach-Object { $_.DomainControllers } | ` Select-Object -Property Name | Sort-Object -Property Name $alldcs } ### Entry point to script Get-AllDomainControllers From there to get the event I wanted was easy\n$alldcs | ForEach-Object { Get-EventLog -LogName System -ComputerName $_.Name -source KDC -EntryType Error -Newest 10 | where {$_.EventID -eq 27} | select-object TimeGenerated,MachineName,message } ","date":"Jun 22, 2010","href":"/2010/06/get-alldomaincontrollers-function.html","summary":"Sometimes you would like to run a query against all DC’s in your forest. For example today – I was looking a specific error on the System Event Logs.\nHere is a quick way to get all the DC\u0026rsquo;s in the forest adapted from Marcus Oh’s blog.\n# ============================================================================================== # NAME: Get-AllDomainControllers # # AUTHOR: Maish Saidel-Keesing # DATE : 22/06/2010 # # COMMENT: Will collect all Domain controllers, set the list as the $alldcs variable #\tand output as list # # ============================================================================================== function Get-AllDomainControllers{ $myDomain = [System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Domain]::GetCurrentDomain() $script:alldcs = $myDomain.Forest.Domains | ForEach-Object { $_.DomainControllers } | ` Select-Object -Property Name | Sort-Object -Property Name $alldcs } ### Entry point to script Get-AllDomainControllers From there to get the event I wanted was easy","tags":["Active Directory","Tools","Scripting","Powershell","Administration"],"title":"Get-AllDomainControllers Function"},{"content":"How fast is your storage? How do you even check what kind of throughput you are getting?\nThat is a question that comes up often enough, when performing benchmarks.\nI actually dealt with such a case last week. The customer was performing a storage Migration of all their VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s from an HP MSA Array to a NetApp Filer. In order to ensure that no decrease in performance was experienced, I needed to benchmark the the disk I/O before and after the migration.\nThere is an \u0026amp;ldquo;unofficial storage performance thread\u0026amp;rdquo; which is on the VMTN forums. This is actually an follow up on a even older thread that started way back in February 2007.\nThe principle is the same.\nPrepare a Windows VM. This VM does not need anything specific in it, so a basic install will do just fine.\nAdd a Second Disk to the VM (10GB will do fine)\nFormat the new Drive with NTFS.\nDownload Iometer - according to your operating system (32/64 bit)\nDownload the Unofficial performance config test file\nExtract the zip file. Copy the Dynamo.exe and IOmeter.exe files (located under the .\\iometer-2008-06-22-rc2.win.32\\iometer-2008-06-22-rc2\\src\\Release folder) to your VM\nCopy the OpenPerformanceTest.icf file you downloaded in Step 5 to the VM.\nDouble click on the IOmeter file.\nYou will be presented with a window like this below\nClick on the folder icon to load the config file for the test and point it to the OpenPerformanceTest.icf\nChoose your newly created drive that formatted in Step 3\nClick the Access Specifications Tab and add the bottom four tests to the Assigned Access Specifications\nYou can if you would like click on edit to see what each of these specifications will test - and customize to your liking if need be.\nClick the green flag to start the test.\nYou will be asked for the to save the file.\nIOmeter will then begin to prepare the drive.\nWhat does that mean. IOmeter will create a file in the root of the drive you selected (approximately\n4 GB, that is why 10GB is more than enough, and then perform","date":"Jun 20, 2010","href":"/2010/06/benchmarking-your-disk-io.html","summary":"How fast is your storage? How do you even check what kind of throughput you are getting?\nThat is a question that comes up often enough, when performing benchmarks.\nI actually dealt with such a case last week. The customer was performing a storage Migration of all their VM\u0026rsquo;s from an HP MSA Array to a NetApp Filer. In order to ensure that no decrease in performance was experienced, I needed to benchmark the the disk I/O before and after the migration.","tags":["Management","Administration","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Benchmarking your Disk I/O"},{"content":"I received a number of comments on my previous post and offline as well I want to clear up some things regarding the previous post.\nI am not against virtualizing domain controllers - not at all. I am against trying to P2V a domain controller. It seems that was not clear enough from the last post. I do still advise that if your risk analysis - you should do that before virtualizing your domain controllers (or anything else for that matter) comes out that it is more cost effective to keep one Physical DC then do so. There are a number of reasons to go either way - it all depends on your environment and what you are willing to risk.\nIt will save you so much headache and anguish - if you would just promote a new clean VM to a Domain controller.\nNow lets go into a a good reason (or two) why you should actually virtualize your domain controllers\nDomain Controllers do not need that many resources\nOf course there is a whole science behind this and a good amount planning guides out there - you can see that a domain controller does not need that many resources. It has relatively stable RAM usage (loading the AD database into RAM is mostly what it does) - CPU usage will depend on the authentication traffic - same with Network and Disk IO.\nThe resource usage can be predicted very well - so you can plan the resources for such a Machine.\nYou should have more than one - if you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t then you are not doing your job correctly. But that means if your one of your Domain controllers fail - because your ESX host failed - then you are still up and running - because you have another DC running (either on an ESX host or physical).\nTesting purposes. You need to prepare your AD Schema for the upgrade to Exchange 2010. Even though the schema extension is a Microsoft product, and has probably been tested countless amount of times with all levels of AD Domains. But of course every domain is different. And no matter how many times Microsoft have tested it - it has not been tested on my","date":"Jun 20, 2010","href":"/2010/06/virtualization-domain-controllers-2.html","summary":"I received a number of comments on my previous post and offline as well I want to clear up some things regarding the previous post.\nI am not against virtualizing domain controllers - not at all. I am against trying to P2V a domain controller. It seems that was not clear enough from the last post. I do still advise that if your risk analysis - you should do that before virtualizing your domain controllers (or anything else for that matter) comes out that it is more cost effective to keep one Physical DC then do so. There are a number of reasons to go either way - it all depends on your environment and what you are willing to risk.","tags":["Active Directory","Microsoft","Virtualization","Windows","Administration"],"title":"Virtualization Domain Controllers - #2"},{"content":"I came across a nice article last week regarding pictures for User accounts in an Active Directory environment\nFirst let describe the issue at hand. Every now and again, my manager gets an email saying,\n\u0026amp;ldquo;Why don\u0026amp;rsquo;t I see the picture of xxx when I open up his mail?\u0026amp;rdquo;\nAnd shortly thereafter I get an email asking the exact same question.\nWell the answer is always give is that up until Exchange 2003 - there was no option of adding a picture to GAL (Global Address List) - and even if you did you had to jump through hoops to get that picture to appear in Outlook on every computer.\nStarting with Outlook 2010 - that feature is built-in so it makes life a lot easier.\nNow of course this does not only work with Outlook - but with everything that uses this GAL - for example OCS, SharePoint ….\nSo how do you get the picture into the GAL? Simple put the picture into the Users attribute in Active Directory.. :)\nUhmmm \u0026amp;hellip; Simple? How do you do that?\nWith Powershell it is, which leads me to the article I came across on Mike Pfeiffer\u0026amp;rsquo;s Blog which shows you how. He is using the native AD Cmdlets - but that of course only works if you have a Windows 2008 Domain Controller or the Active Directory Web Services installed in your domain.\nAnd if not?\nI used the Quest Active Directory Powershell Cmdlets to do the job.\n#Convert the image to Bytes $photo = [byte[]](Get-Content C:\\temp\\maish.jpg -Encoding byte) #Set the Attribute on the User Set-QADObject -Identity -ObjectAttributes @{thumbnailPhoto=$photo} Next to come up - what is the size of the Thumbnail that should be put there?\nRecommended is no larger than 96x96 pixels and is limited to 10Kb in size, anything bigger will not work.\nHow does this affect the Active Directory Database?\nWell adding in more information will make the DB grow - but for 1000 Users x 10KB you get 10MB so that addition is negligible IMHO - User certificates that are stored in AD are about the same size. Add to the fact that it is a one","date":"Jun 17, 2010","href":"/2010/06/updating-pictures-for-users-in-ad.html","summary":"I came across a nice article last week regarding pictures for User accounts in an Active Directory environment\nFirst let describe the issue at hand. Every now and again, my manager gets an email saying,\n\u0026ldquo;Why don\u0026rsquo;t I see the picture of xxx when I open up his mail?\u0026rdquo;\nAnd shortly thereafter I get an email asking the exact same question.\nWell the answer is always give is that up until Exchange 2003 - there was no option of adding a picture to GAL (Global Address List) - and even if you did you had to jump through hoops to get that picture to appear in Outlook on every computer.","tags":["Active Directory","Powershell","Administration"],"title":"Updating Pictures for Users in AD"},{"content":"After waiting most the day, and seeing a number of people on Twitter who announced that they had sessions that were accepted, I was waiting for an email - and yes, lo and behold - it arrived this evening - along with many emails to others, the rejection letter.\nLast night on the Communities Roundtable - the VMworld team was there, including Richard Garsthagen. He spoke about the 1000 Sessions submitted for the call for papers this year. About how many were accepted, about the fact the that the number of votes was not the only factor for having a session accepted.\nI posted a short while back - which were the popular session that were up for voting. This is not testify as to which sessions received the most votes, but to which track that people found to be most popular to submit a presentation for.\nAm I disappointed? Yes - I am. I actually did think that one (of my three) sessions would be accepted this year. But I guess it was not meant to be.\nI have my reservations and opinions about the way the whole process was handled (public voting process, timetables etc.) but I will take that offline.\nI would like to thank all 50 of you who voted for my vCenter Migration - It\u0026amp;rsquo;s a Snap with POWERCLI session - Thanks for the vote of confidence - it is highly appreciated!!\nIt is my nature to always try to see the good side of things in events, so here is what find to be the bright side of none my sessions being accepted:\nFirst and foremost I will have more time to prepare for my VCDX Design Application. It is a huge amount of work, and I do not feel that I would have done it justice if I would have submitted before the June 21st deadline. I now have some more time to complete the work properly for a defense in Copenhagen before August 2nd. As of now I am not sure if I will be attending VMworld in San Francisco - but I will be in Copenhagen. It will clear off my schedule a bit for the upcoming period to start working on a new project that I will be able to disclose in the","date":"Jun 17, 2010","href":"/2010/06/vmworld-sessions-close-but-no-cigar.html","summary":"After waiting most the day, and seeing a number of people on Twitter who announced that they had sessions that were accepted, I was waiting for an email - and yes, lo and behold - it arrived this evening - along with many emails to others, the rejection letter.\nLast night on the Communities Roundtable - the VMworld team was there, including Richard Garsthagen. He spoke about the 1000 Sessions submitted for the call for papers this year. About how many were accepted, about the fact the that the number of votes was not the only factor for having a session accepted.","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous"],"title":"VMworld Sessions - Close but no Cigar!"},{"content":"One of the frequent questions that come up on the forums is,\n\u0026amp;ldquo;How do I convert (P2V) my Windows Domain Controller (or SBS Server)?\u0026amp;rdquo;\nLet me first start with the following statement.\nDON\u0026amp;rsquo;T!!!! Now that I have that off my chest - lets explain why and provide some references to back that up.\nA Domain Controller could possibly be - and probably is - one of the most important computers on your network. Almost everything relies on Active Directory:\nAuthentication Mail Web File Access etc. etc. If your Domain controller is not functioning - then rest assured - slowly but surely a lot of other things will stop working shortly thereafter.\nI was reading a good blog post from the Active Directory Team on their blog - How to Virtualize Active Directory Domain Controllers (Part 1). This is a Hyper-V centric article - but it is relevant to VMware as well .I do advise giving the full article a good read.\nThis is what I have taken with me from the above article.\nIn most environments there is no reason not to virtualize your Domain Controllers. If they are only being used as Domain Controllers (and not File Servers, DHCP, Web Servers) then unless you have a very large or extremely busy environment your DC\u0026amp;rsquo;s will not need an extravagant amount of resources so it can run very nicely as a virtual machine. I would always, ALWAYS, leave at at least one physical server running as a domain controller on the network. The reason being, if your virtual infrastructure depends on your Active Directory infrastructure - and it always does then if your DC\u0026amp;rsquo;s are not available due to your Virtual Infrastructure being down, or your storage being down, then you will have a serious chicken and egg situation - with not being able to easily bring up the storage or the Virtual infrastructure because they are dependant on DNS / Active Directory and that cannot come up because the the storage / Virtual infrastructure is not available. Jason Boche posted an article last week","date":"Jun 13, 2010","href":"/2010/06/virtualizing-domain-controllers.html","summary":"One of the frequent questions that come up on the forums is,\n\u0026ldquo;How do I convert (P2V) my Windows Domain Controller (or SBS Server)?\u0026rdquo;\nLet me first start with the following statement.\nDON\u0026rsquo;T!!!! Now that I have that off my chest - lets explain why and provide some references to back that up.\nA Domain Controller could possibly be - and probably is - one of the most important computers on your network. Almost everything relies on Active Directory:","tags":["Active Directory","Microsoft","vSphere","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Virtualizing Domain Controllers"},{"content":"As Always, Test Before you deploy!!! VMware Data Recovery 1.2 Available. Release Notes - Download Link - Admin Guide\nHere are some highlights of the new release:\na file level restore client for Linux virtual machines\nability to run up to 10 VDR appliances per vCenter Server instance\nability to fast switch between the deployed appliances via the vSphere Client plug-in\nMiscellaneous vSphere Client Plug-In user interface enhancements including:\nThe means to name backup jobs during their creation.\nAdditional information about the current status of destination disks including the disk\u0026amp;rsquo;s health and the degree of space savings provided by the de-duplication store\u0026amp;rsquo;s optimizations.\nInformation about the datastore from which virtual disks are backed up.\nVMware vCenter Server 4.0 Update 2 Release Notes - Download Link\nHere Are some Highlights of the new release\nGuest Operating System Customization Improvements: vCenter Server now supports customization of the following guest operating systems:\nWindows XP Professional SP2 (x64) serviced by Windows Server 2003 SP2 SLES 11 (x32 and x64) SLES 10 SP3 (x32 and x64) RHEL 5.5 Server Platform (x32 and x64) RHEL 5.4 Server Platform (x32 and x64) RHEL 4.8 Server Platform (x32 and 64) Debian 5.0 (x32 and x64) Debian 5.0 R1 (x32 and x64) Debian 5.0 R2 (x32 and x64) - Resolved Issues :In addition, this release delivers a number of bug fixes that have been documented in the Resolved Issues section.\nCIM and API Guest Operating Systems Licensing Miscellaneous Networking Security Server Configuration Storage Upgrade and Installation vCenter Server, vSphere Client, and vSphere Web Access Virtual Machine Management vMotion and Storage vMotion VMware High Availability and Fault Tolerance VMware ESX 4.0 Update 2 Release Notes - Download Link\nHere Are some Highlights of the new release\nEnablement of Fault Tolerance Functionality for Intel Xeon 56xx Series processors— vSphere 4.0 Update 1 supports the Intel Xeon 56xx Series processors","date":"Jun 11, 2010","href":"/2010/06/new-updates-of-vmware-products.html","summary":"As Always, Test Before you deploy!!! VMware Data Recovery 1.2 Available. Release Notes - Download Link - Admin Guide\nHere are some highlights of the new release:\na file level restore client for Linux virtual machines\nability to run up to 10 VDR appliances per vCenter Server instance\nability to fast switch between the deployed appliances via the vSphere Client plug-in\nMiscellaneous vSphere Client Plug-In user interface enhancements including:\nThe means to name backup jobs during their creation.","tags":["vSphere","VMware","ESX","vCenter","ESX4i"],"title":"New Updates of VMware Products"},{"content":"While installing VMware tools on a virtual machine this week on VMware Workstation 7.1 (build-261024) I noticed that the small icon that appears to show that VMware tools are installed looked different.\nBefore After Will it be the same for the next update of ESX??\n","date":"Jun 8, 2010","href":"/2010/06/vmware-tools-icon-changed-did-you.html","summary":"While installing VMware tools on a virtual machine this week on VMware Workstation 7.1 (build-261024) I noticed that the small icon that appears to show that VMware tools are installed looked different.\nBefore After Will it be the same for the next update of ESX??","tags":["Tools","Workstation","VMware","ESX"],"title":"VMware Tools Icon Changed – Did you notice?"},{"content":"Yesterday the vExperts for 2010 were announced.\nVMware awards the vExpert to individuals who have significantly contributed to the community of VMware users over the past year. vExperts are book authors, bloggers, VMUG leaders, tool builders, and other IT professionals who share their knowledge and passion with others. These vExperts have gone above and beyond their day jobs to share their technical expertise and communicate the value of VMware and virtualization to their colleagues and community.\nI am happy to announce that I am one of those who have received this award, and I am grateful to have been granted such an honor.\nI have created a Twitter List that I will be updating - with those who have received the award.\nIf you are not on this list - please let me know - so I can add you.\nCongratulations to all those that got the first round - there will be another round of emails going out on Monday.\n","date":"Jun 5, 2010","href":"/2010/06/vmware-vexpert-awards-2010.html","summary":"Yesterday the vExperts for 2010 were announced.\nVMware awards the vExpert to individuals who have significantly contributed to the community of VMware users over the past year. vExperts are book authors, bloggers, VMUG leaders, tool builders, and other IT professionals who share their knowledge and passion with others. These vExperts have gone above and beyond their day jobs to share their technical expertise and communicate the value of VMware and virtualization to their colleagues and community.","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware","vExpert"],"title":"VMware vExpert Awards 2010"},{"content":"Duncan pointed out to today on the VCDX forum that they have changed the name.\nWhat was once – the VCDX4-DCD:\nIs now – the VCDX4:\nCheck out the VMware official page for more info.\nI for one am pleased with the change… :)\n","date":"May 30, 2010","href":"/2010/05/vcdx4-dcd-out-vcdx4-in.html","summary":"Duncan pointed out to today on the VCDX forum that they have changed the name.\nWhat was once – the VCDX4-DCD:\nIs now – the VCDX4:\nCheck out the VMware official page for more info.\nI for one am pleased with the change… :)","tags":["VCDX","VMware","Certification"],"title":"VCDX4-DCD – Out, VCDX4 – In!"},{"content":"No I do not have a crystal ball. I am not a magician, and also not a fortune teller.\nA large number of sessions were submitted for VMWorld.\nNow I do not know how many were submitted - but I can tell you how many were up for voting in each track.\nHow did I come by these numbers? I spent an evening counting each line (NOT!) But then I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t give away all my trade secrets can I? :)\nTrack # of Submissions Technology and Architecture 145 Enterprise Applications 104 Private Cloud - Management 99 Desktop Virtualization 94 Virtualization 101 72 Hybrid and Public Cloud 63 Private Cloud - Business Continuity 57 Private Cloud Security 24 My conclusions from the list of submissions:\nSecurity is way too low on the amount sessions submitted - compared to the importance of the subject Cloud, Cloud and more cloud. People still want to show / want to see how to run their Enterprise Applications on VMware Desktop Virtualization - Is going to become bigger and bigger!!! Now it is really time to call it a day.\n","date":"May 27, 2010","href":"/2010/05/vmworld-sessions-most-popular.html","summary":"No I do not have a crystal ball. I am not a magician, and also not a fortune teller.\nA large number of sessions were submitted for VMWorld.\nNow I do not know how many were submitted - but I can tell you how many were up for voting in each track.\nHow did I come by these numbers? I spent an evening counting each line (NOT!) But then I can\u0026rsquo;t give away all my trade secrets can I? :)","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"VMworld Sessions - Most Popular Track"},{"content":"The 2010 Scripting Games are over and the results have been posted here. The scripting games is a fun little competition - well not so little. Similar to a decathlon there are 10 Events, published over the period of about 2 weeks. A huge amount of work goes into the logistics of the whole competition. Preparing the events,finding people (judges) to go over the huge amount of scripts that are submitted and grading them and so on ..\nWell I really enjoyed the Games this year. Each event presented a problem that needed to be solved with a script, be it Powershell or VBScript (the amount of VBScript submissions this year were really low - which means more and more people are going over to Powershell). There were two levels - Advanced and Beginner. Now of course the criteria for grading was published and were very clear, including due dates.\nFrom the Final Standings, I see I came in at #33 (out of 177)\nPersonally - I am extremely proud of my achievement, seeing that I only really started getting into Powershell only about 18 months ago. I decided to only participate in the Beginner level only - I did not submit any scripts for the advanced level\nGlenn Sizemore - the winner of the contest - posted a round up of the games on his blog.\nI would like to add a few more observations of my own.\nI really liked the idea of presenting the events as a real world problem that needs to be solved - this added a sense of how you can use the script in your every day work. I would separate the winners into the two different categories. A winner list for Beginner and one for Advanced Events.\nPeople who submit entries for the Advanced Level - are people that know how to use Powershell. So the beginner events are easy for them to solve, sometimes too easy. I mean it is like putting a heavyweight boxer and a featherweight together in a ring - and expecting them to be more or less equal. - they are not - and should not be. Each should perform best in their category. Contestants should not be","date":"May 26, 2010","href":"/2010/05/2010-scripting-games.html","summary":"The 2010 Scripting Games are over and the results have been posted here. The scripting games is a fun little competition - well not so little. Similar to a decathlon there are 10 Events, published over the period of about 2 weeks. A huge amount of work goes into the logistics of the whole competition. Preparing the events,finding people (judges) to go over the huge amount of scripts that are submitted and grading them and so on ..","tags":["Scripting Games","Scripting","Powershell","Miscellaneous"],"title":"2010 Scripting Games"},{"content":"VMware Workstation 7.1 was released yesterday.\nWith it - was the release of it\u0026amp;rsquo;s baby brother/sister - VMware Player 3.1\nWhat\u0026amp;rsquo;s New? This release provides support for the following host and guest operating systems:\nOperating System Host and Guest Support** Ubuntu 8.04.4 - Host and guest Ubuntu 10.04 - Host and guest OpenSUSE 11.2 - Host and guest Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 - Host and guest Fedora 12 -Guest Debian 5.0.4 - Guest Mandriva 2009.1 - Guest New Features in VMware Player OpenGL 2.1 support for Windows 7 and Windows Vista guests — Improves the ability to run graphics-based applications in virtual machines. Improved Graphics Performance — Enhanced performance with better benchmarks, frame rates, and improved rendering on Windows 7 and Windows Vista guests allows you to run various graphics-based applications. In addition, major improvements in video playback enable you to play high-resolution videos in virtual machines. Automatic Software Updates — Download and install VMware Tools and receive maintenance updates when available. Direct Launch — Drag guest applications from the Unity start menu directly onto the host desktop. Double-click the shortcut to open the guest application. The shortcut remains on the desktop after you exit Unity and close VMware Player. Autologon — Save your login credentials and bypass the login dialog box when you power on a Windows guest. Use this feature if you restart the guest frequently and want to avoid entering your login credentials. You can enable Autologon and use direct launch to open guest applications from the host. OVF 1.1 Support — Import or export virtual machines and vApps to upload them to VMware vSphere or VMware vCloud. The VMware OVF Tool is a command-line utility bundled in the VMware Player installer. Use this tool along with VMware Player to convert VMware .vmx files to .ovf format or vice versa. VMware recommends that you use the OVF command-line utility. For more information, see the OVF Web","date":"May 26, 2010","href":"/2010/05/vmware-player-31-new-release.html","summary":"VMware Workstation 7.1 was released yesterday.\nWith it - was the release of it\u0026rsquo;s baby brother/sister - VMware Player 3.1\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s New? This release provides support for the following host and guest operating systems:\nOperating System Host and Guest Support** Ubuntu 8.04.4 - Host and guest Ubuntu 10.04 - Host and guest OpenSUSE 11.2 - Host and guest Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 - Host and guest Fedora 12 -Guest Debian 5.0.4 - Guest Mandriva 2009.1 - Guest New Features in VMware Player OpenGL 2.1 support for Windows 7 and Windows Vista guests — Improves the ability to run graphics-based applications in virtual machines. Improved Graphics Performance — Enhanced performance with better benchmarks, frame rates, and improved rendering on Windows 7 and Windows Vista guests allows you to run various graphics-based applications. In addition, major improvements in video playback enable you to play high-resolution videos in virtual machines. Automatic Software Updates — Download and install VMware Tools and receive maintenance updates when available. Direct Launch — Drag guest applications from the Unity start menu directly onto the host desktop. Double-click the shortcut to open the guest application. The shortcut remains on the desktop after you exit Unity and close VMware Player. Autologon — Save your login credentials and bypass the login dialog box when you power on a Windows guest. Use this feature if you restart the guest frequently and want to avoid entering your login credentials. You can enable Autologon and use direct launch to open guest applications from the host. OVF 1.1 Support — Import or export virtual machines and vApps to upload them to VMware vSphere or VMware vCloud. The VMware OVF Tool is a command-line utility bundled in the VMware Player installer. Use this tool along with VMware Player to convert VMware .vmx files to .ovf format or vice versa. VMware recommends that you use the OVF command-line utility. For more information, see the OVF Web site and OVF Tool User Guide. Eight-Way SMP Support — Create and run virtual machines with a total of up to eight-processor cores. 2TB Virtual Disk Support — Maximum virtual disks and raw disks size increased from 950GB to 2TB. Encryption Enhancements — VMware Player includes support for Intel\u0026rsquo;s Advanced Encryption Standard instruction set (AES-NI) to improve performance while encrypting and decrypting virtual machines and faster run-time access to encrypted virtual machines on new processors. Memory Management — User interface enhancements have simplified the handling of increased virtual memory capacity. User Experience Improvement Program — Help VMware improve future versions of the product by participating in the User Experience Improvement Program. Participation in the program is voluntary and you can opt out at any time. When you participate in the User Experience Improvement Program, your computer sends anonymous information to VMware, which may include product configuration; usage and performance data, virtual machine configuration; usage and performance data, and information about your host system specifications and configuration.\nThe User Experience Improvement Program does not collect any personal data, such as your name, address, telephone number, or email address that can be used to identify or contact you. No user identifiable data such as the product license key or MAC address are sent to VMware. VMware does not store your IP address with the data that is collected.\nFor more information about the User Experience Improvement Program, click the Learn More link during installation or from the VMware Player Preferences menu. The full details and Known issues can be found in the Release Notes","tags":["Tools","Workstation","VMware"],"title":"VMware Player 3.1 - New Release"},{"content":"So today we will deal with how to get the scripts into the an ESXi installation. On Part 3 we dealt with what the scripts were and how to to use them\nSo how do we get the script to run on startup?\nThe two things that need to be done are:\nAdd the script to /sbin/client.py\n# TCP client example import time import socket time.sleep(20) s = socket.socket() s.connect((\u0026amp;#34;192.168.113.1\u0026amp;#34;,3333)) s.send(\u0026amp;#34;14332354169934n2nduN\u0026amp;#34;) s.close() Add a Startup script to **/etc/rc.local.d/S99unattend\n#!/bin/ash export PYTHONHOME=/ export PYTHONPATH=/lib/python2.5-visor:/lib/python2.5-visor/lib-dynload:/lib/pyt export PATH python /sbin/client.py The reason for all the exports are since the script is not really running under any specific user it will not load the path and the Python variables, hence the explicit declaration.\nSo in order for us to add this to an ESXi ISO we need to do the following:\nAdd /etc/rc.local.d/S99unattend to the oem.tgz file Add /sbin/client.py to the oem.tgz file Now why the oem.tgz. The oem.tgz file is a file that will be parsed for installation which allows for OEM\u0026amp;rsquo;s to add bits and pieces into the ESXi install if needed.\nIn a default ESXi ISO - these are the contents of the image:\nWhat we will need to do is a bit of manipulation to add some files to the oem.tgz and also into the image.tgz. Why both files you may ask - in order to make the changes to the installation persistent they have also be updated into the install.tgz file.\nThe most comprehensive resource I have found on customizing the oem.tgz file is on\nDave Mischenko\u0026amp;rsquo;s site.\nThere is a project on https://code.google.com/p/mkesxiaio/ where the process is automated - I cannot say that I have tried this personally - but it is on my list of to-do things.\nWe are going to this manually to explain the process a bit more so you can understand it a bit better and change it to your needs if you would like\nTools for the job that are needed:\nwinscp or pscp (if you are using a windows","date":"May 24, 2010","href":"/2010/05/esxi-deployment-solution-part-4.html","summary":"So today we will deal with how to get the scripts into the an ESXi installation. On Part 3 we dealt with what the scripts were and how to to use them\nSo how do we get the script to run on startup?\nThe two things that need to be done are:\nAdd the script to /sbin/client.py\n# TCP client example import time import socket time.sleep(20) s = socket.socket() s.connect((\u0026#34;192.168.113.1\u0026#34;,3333)) s.send(\u0026#34;14332354169934n2nduN\u0026#34;) s.close() Add a Startup script to **/etc/rc.local.d/S99unattend","tags":["Tools","Management","vSphere","Administration","VMware","ESX4i"],"title":"ESXi Deployment Solution - Part 4"},{"content":"For those who are already in the process of the VCDX 3 (me included), regarding the announcements today - the most important bit of information for me was what will happen in the interim to those who are already in the track\nTaken from the FAQ\nI’ve started on the path to VCDX3. How will the VCAP program affect my next steps?\nYour progress toward a VCDX3 certification can help you with VCDX4-DCD certification process because:\nIndividuals who have passed the VMware Enterprise Administration exam get a discount on the VCAP4-DCA exam Individuals who have passed the VMware Design on VI3 exam get a discount on the VCAP4-DCD Individuals who have successfully defended a Design and Implementation Plan and achieved the VCDX3 certification are required to pass the VCAP4-DCD. This exam will be offered at a discount for VCDX3 certified candidates. These individuals are not required to submit a VCDX4-DCD Application nor required to defend another Design and Implementation Plan. Depending on the path, you can earn additional certifications on your path to VCDX4-DCD. Review the Pathway Diagram now.\nVCDX3 Applications will be accepted through the Defenses held in Cambridge, MA during the week of November 1, 2010.\nWhen will VMware Design Exam on VI3 stop being offered?\nYou can sit for the VMware Design Exam on VI3 until Aug 30, 2010.\nWhen will VMware Design Exam on VI3 stop being offered?\nYou can sit for the VMware Enterprise Administration Exam on VI3 until Aug 30, 2010.\nWill I receive a VCAP certification if I pass the Enterprise Administration or Design Exam?\nVCAP certifications will not be available for exams on VI3.\nSo this is the way that I see the way you should continue - depending on which stage you are currently in\nYou have only passed the Enterprise Admin Exam.\nGet the discount voucher from VMware for the VCAP4-DCA. Take the VCAP4-DCD and apply for the defense.\nYou have passed both the Enterprise Admin Exam and the Design Exam but have not submitted a design.\nGo for the","date":"May 24, 2010","href":"/2010/05/vcdx3-upgrade-path-to-vcdx4-dcd.html","summary":"For those who are already in the process of the VCDX 3 (me included), regarding the announcements today - the most important bit of information for me was what will happen in the interim to those who are already in the track\nTaken from the FAQ\nI’ve started on the path to VCDX3. How will the VCAP program affect my next steps?\nYour progress toward a VCDX3 certification can help you with VCDX4-DCD certification process because:","tags":["VMworld","VCDX","VCP","VMware","Certification","VCAP"],"title":"VCDX3 - Upgrade path to VCDX4-DCD"},{"content":"vSphere Essentials is a package that is for the SMB. At present there is a promotional offer (Until June 15, 2010) reducing the price from $995 to $495.\nIn this package you receive vCenter and 3 ESX host licenses (up to 6 CPU Licenses)\nOf course this a basic package - with only the basic features - no HA, Vmotion etc.\nThis is ideal for a small business starting out.\nI tried today to see if the limit is actually 6 CPU\u0026amp;rsquo;s or 3 hosts.\nHere I have an Essentials License with 3 ESX hosts - but each of them only have 1 Physical CPU\nTrying to add the 4th host I got this\nWhat I did find strange though was that it did take up an extra CPU from my license\nThe new host was disconnected but still taking up a CPU license\nAfter removing the Host - it went back to the correct state\nWhat did I learn from this experience?\nThe limit is 3 ESX hosts - not the amount of CPU\u0026amp;rsquo;s This is still an amazing package for a lab setup!! ","date":"May 21, 2010","href":"/2010/05/vcenter-essentials-3-host-limit-not-6.html","summary":"vSphere Essentials is a package that is for the SMB. At present there is a promotional offer (Until June 15, 2010) reducing the price from $995 to $495.\nIn this package you receive vCenter and 3 ESX host licenses (up to 6 CPU Licenses)\nOf course this a basic package - with only the basic features - no HA, Vmotion etc.\nThis is ideal for a small business starting out.\nI tried today to see if the limit is actually 6 CPU\u0026rsquo;s or 3 hosts.","tags":["Management","vSphere","Administration","VMware","ESX","Licensing"],"title":"vCenter Essentials - 3 Host Limit (not 6 CPU)"},{"content":"One of the most surprising things that Microsoft have not yet provided in Active Directory management - is allowing you to set a time limit on assigning membership of a user to a group.\nLet me explain the use case for this kind of feature.\nYou have resource (be it a file, web site - what ever). You want to assign the permission to a user, but you only want to do it until the end of the day, of for the next hour. Unfortunately there is no functionality like that is Active Directory. Sure you can set expiration on an account - but not on group membership.\nI was asked to provide a solution to this problem for a specific use-case problem. I would like to point out that a great part of the original logic of this script was done by a fellow team member - who is a great scripter - So thanks Natan. I did change the script in order to accommodate a few more features.\nThe users were not allowed to be members of this group for more than 7 days, and they should be removed automatically after that period\nSo the logic was as follows:\nThe user would call in to the helpdesk, and get added to the group. Once a day, the members of the group would be checked and compared to a list of users in a file (from the previous run). If they were there, then their Countdays field in a file would be reduced by one (until reaching zero). If they were new additions to the group (and they would not be in the file) then add there info with a default counter. If their record had reached zero - then remove them from the group.\nHere is a more graphical explanation\nHere is the script\n# ============================================================================================== # NAME: erase-after-days.ps1 # # AUTHOR: Maish Saidel-Keesing # DATE : 12/05/2010 # # COMMENT: script erase-after-days is for erasing users from a security after predefined number of days # Changed by Maish Saidel-Keesing (12/05/2010) # Added 3rd field SubmittedBy, changed logic to Compare-object # Requires","date":"May 14, 2010","href":"/2010/05/set-time-limit-on-group-membership.html","summary":"One of the most surprising things that Microsoft have not yet provided in Active Directory management - is allowing you to set a time limit on assigning membership of a user to a group.\nLet me explain the use case for this kind of feature.\nYou have resource (be it a file, web site - what ever). You want to assign the permission to a user, but you only want to do it until the end of the day, of for the next hour. Unfortunately there is no functionality like that is Active Directory. Sure you can set expiration on an account - but not on group membership.","tags":["Active Directory","Tools","Security","Scripting","Powershell","Administration"],"title":"Set a Time Limit on Group Membership"},{"content":"Ok it is up.\nI see that all three of my submissions are up for Public Voting. (good to know that I am still up for consideration).\nIf you would like to see the sessions below accepted for VMworld - pop on over to the\nVMworld 2010 Call for Papers Public Voting! and submit a click.\nThere a great number of sessions there - and many familiar names - and again I am honored to have my names up with such a great list of people.\nYou will need a VMworld account (free registration) and remember you can only click on each session once.\n2 sessions in the Private Cloud Management Track and one on the Virtualization 101\nTitle: vCenter Migration - It\u0026amp;rsquo;s a Snap with POWERCLI Session Id: MA6840 Abstract: \u0026amp;ldquo;In this session, you will learn that there are certain cases where you would like to migrate your vCenter environment from one server to another without keeping the previous data and database problems from the previous environment. The session will walk the attendees through the steps of which information should be collected for a successful migration. Then we will describe the step by step by step process of collecting the correct information that is needed for export including Folder Structure, Virtual Machine locations, DRS rules, Templates, Custom Attributes, Permission, Resource Pools - all of this using POWERCLI. The next stage will be to use all the information collected to disconnect the ESX Hosts from the old vCenter server to to new with no downtime to the Virtual Machines. We will recreate the folder structure and move all VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s back to their original location, apply all custom attributes and permissions back to the VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s and folders\u0026amp;rdquo;**\nType: Breakout Session Track: Private Cloud - Management Speaker Detail: Maish Saidel-Keesing Company: NDS Title: Creating Your Virtual Lab in a few easy steps Session Id: MA6662 Abstract: \u0026amp;ldquo;In order to perform your due diligence before planning any change or testing a new product, you will need a lab","date":"May 14, 2010","href":"/2010/05/so-i-need-some-assistance-vmworld-2010.html","summary":"Ok it is up.\nI see that all three of my submissions are up for Public Voting. (good to know that I am still up for consideration).\nIf you would like to see the sessions below accepted for VMworld - pop on over to the\nVMworld 2010 Call for Papers Public Voting! and submit a click.\nThere a great number of sessions there - and many familiar names - and again I am honored to have my names up with such a great list of people.","tags":["VMworld","VMware"],"title":"So I need some assistance - VMworld 2010 Sessions"},{"content":"No - I have not gone over to the Dark Side. And forgive me for the Powershell pun, but I read an article by Ronald Beekelaar on the Microsoft Virtualization Team Blog - demonstrating the wonders of Virtualization that were used in MMS 2010 Labs: Powered by Hyper-V, System Center \u0026amp;amp; HP\u0026amp;hellip;\nThe numbers are impressive - very impressive - I would suggest that you read the article.\nThe numbers were as follows:\n6 half racks - ~7 Servers per rack 41 HP Proliant DL380G6 servers (Dual socket, quad-core, Nehalem Processors with SMT, 16 LPs per system) each configured with 128 GB of memory and 4x300 GB SAS drive of local storage striped All networking was 1 Gb/E switched (no 10 Gb/E) and demonstrates the efficiency of Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Even with hundreds of labs going on simultaneously, network bandwidth was never an issue on 1 Gb/E Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and System Center Virtual machines were configured on average with 3-4 GB of memory each and the majority of labs used multiple VMs per lab. ~40,000 Hyper-V VMs for ~80 different labs in 5 days Ok, so I did a bit of math. I came to the conclusion that the most that they could run on 1 server at any given time would be 40 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s per server.\nLet me explain the calculation - and forgive me for my assumptions, and I not sure that they are 100% accurate but you will see where I am getting here.\nMy assumptions:\nThe hosts were not CPU / network / Disk constrained RAM Usage on each host should not be higher than 120GB (90%) - I was being conservative. The average RAM used per VM that was quoted was 3-4GB, I assumed that it was 3GB. Using those assumptions I got to the following numbers.\n120GB (Host RAM) / 3GB (VM RAM) = 40 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s per host.\n40 (VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s) x 41 (Hosts) = 1640 Virtual machines running simultaneously\nSo 1640 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s running simultaneously is a good amount of VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s, now of course not all of them run at the same time. and bringing up labs and down throughout the 5 days - I can","date":"May 6, 2010","href":"/2010/05/mms-2010-labs-powered-by-hyper-v-whatif.html","summary":"No - I have not gone over to the Dark Side. And forgive me for the Powershell pun, but I read an article by Ronald Beekelaar on the Microsoft Virtualization Team Blog - demonstrating the wonders of Virtualization that were used in MMS 2010 Labs: Powered by Hyper-V, System Center \u0026amp; HP\u0026hellip;\nThe numbers are impressive - very impressive - I would suggest that you read the article.\nThe numbers were as follows:","tags":["Microsoft","Lab","vSphere","Hyper-V","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"MMS 2010 Labs: Powered by Hyper-V -Whatif"},{"content":"I was introduced to an product today that caught my eye.\nHP StorageWorks IO Accelerator for BladeSystem c-Class\nSo what is this IO module. It is a mezzanine card that is currently available in HP Blades (it will be available in the near future also for the Proliant Series as well).\nIt comes in different capacities: 80GB, 160GB and 320GB\nNow what caught my eye, is the Maximum IOPS 100,000 IO/sec\nNow of course this not certified for ESX (YET!!)\nBut I am thinking could this an amazing solution for certain use cases. If you have an intensive I/O VM it could use this device as its storage.\nTrue, the biggest issue here is that the disk here is local and not shared storage. Which of course is a major issue and limits this solution to very specific use cases, but to get 100,000 IOPS would need something like this (100,000 I/O Operations Per Second, One ESX Host)\nThe next step was to get our hands on enough storage to run the experiments on a large scale. We went to the Midrange Partner Solutions Engineering team at EMC, Santa Clara and they were kind enough to let us use the storage infrastructure in their lab. They loaned us three CLARiiON CX3-80 storage arrays, each with 165 15K RPM disks, for a total of 495 disks and 77TB of storage. Our experiments used the Iometer I/O stress tool running in virtual machines on a server equipped with ESX 3.5 Update 1. The server was a quad-core, quad-socket (16 cores total) system with 32GB of physical memory.\nNow all that is needed is to find a way and technology to share this storage device for use in a cluster..\nHrmmmm..\n","date":"May 5, 2010","href":"/2010/05/need-lot-of-iops.html","summary":"I was introduced to an product today that caught my eye.\nHP StorageWorks IO Accelerator for BladeSystem c-Class\nSo what is this IO module. It is a mezzanine card that is currently available in HP Blades (it will be available in the near future also for the Proliant Series as well).\nIt comes in different capacities: 80GB, 160GB and 320GB\nNow what caught my eye, is the Maximum IOPS 100,000 IO/sec\nNow of course this not certified for ESX (YET!!)","tags":["Miscellaneous","ESX"],"title":"Need a Lot of IOPS?"},{"content":"Today April 30, 2010 is the closing day for Nominations.\nVMware vExpert Application Form\nAward Benefits\nCriteria \u0026amp;amp; Guidelines\nIf you have not already got your nomination in, the clock is ticking……\n","date":"Apr 30, 2010","href":"/2010/04/last-chance-for-vmware-vexpert.html","summary":"Today April 30, 2010 is the closing day for Nominations.\nVMware vExpert Application Form\nAward Benefits\nCriteria \u0026amp; Guidelines\nIf you have not already got your nomination in, the clock is ticking……","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware","vExpert"],"title":"Last Chance for VMware vExpert Nominations"},{"content":"In continuation to my post regarding mistakes, it actually started a very interesting discussion.on Twitter on the subject.\nDon\u0026amp;rsquo;t get me wrong - I am not for publicizing information that was under NDA. And if you ask me - if someone does publicize a piece of information that is covered by an NDA - then the publisher should have sanctions taken against them.\nBut the whole idea of that post was not because someone broke an NDA, not at all.\nIt was not that someone overheard a conversation that should not have in a Starbucks coffee shop.\nThe main subject under debate was a planned announcement with a recognized spokesman of the vendor on a pre-planned public webcast.\nSaying that though - if an error happened and something did leak out - I do think that common sense should be used. It all depends what your motives are. If you want to be a sensationalist - then by all means - go for it. But as I heard from someone wise - do not bite the hand that feeds you.\nRemember information is one of the easiest things to come by in our day and age. If you value your privacy and your company\u0026amp;rsquo;s then you will have to protect that information - in more ways then one.\n","date":"Apr 29, 2010","href":"/2010/04/are-we-allowed-to-publish-everything.html","summary":"In continuation to my post regarding mistakes, it actually started a very interesting discussion.on Twitter on the subject.\nDon\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong - I am not for publicizing information that was under NDA. And if you ask me - if someone does publicize a piece of information that is covered by an NDA - then the publisher should have sanctions taken against them.\nBut the whole idea of that post was not because someone broke an NDA, not at all.","tags":["Miscellaneous"],"title":"Are We Allowed to Publish Everything?"},{"content":"Small Rant \u0026amp;hellip;\nOver the last two weeks there have been a numerous amount of occurrences where VMware employees have voiced new announcements in Public, and thereafter several bloggers have posted on their blogs information based on these announcements.\nContent here, here, here, here and here.\nNow what you will find in common with all of the above posts - is that they either have been pulled, or the content they were pointing to has been removed.\nI personally have been asked (in the past and not related to the topics above) to remove content off of my blog because the material was confidential and not for public knowledge - but the source forgot to tell me and 60 other people in the room with me that this information was under NDA.\nI mean we all make mistakes - we are all human, but I would like to put in a public request to VMware and to any other vendor as well for that matter. If you do not want something out in the public - do not go and announce it on a public forum! You will have to go around cleaning up your mess after you.\nThis does not add to your credibility.\n","date":"Apr 28, 2010","href":"/2010/04/mistakes-mistakes-and-more-mistakes.html","summary":"Small Rant \u0026hellip;\nOver the last two weeks there have been a numerous amount of occurrences where VMware employees have voiced new announcements in Public, and thereafter several bloggers have posted on their blogs information based on these announcements.\nContent here, here, here, here and here.\nNow what you will find in common with all of the above posts - is that they either have been pulled, or the content they were pointing to has been removed.","tags":["Miscellaneous"],"title":"Mistakes, Mistakes and more mistakes.."},{"content":"Do you know the feeling?\nYou have 40 domain controllers located in 20 different locations - with a multitude of child domains and children of those child domains, on all sides of the globe (yeah I know a globe does not have sides….), with different people at different levels of expertise managing these DC\u0026amp;rsquo;s? Sound familiar?\nAnd for some reason someone went on vacation and forgot to clean up a movie that they put on the DC\u0026amp;rsquo;s C: drive - because they had nowhere else to put it? (well I am joking of course - but the reasons for disk space running out could be for multitude of reasons).\nAnd the C: drive has no more free space.\nAnd therefore the DC\u0026amp;rsquo;s stops responding properly.\nAnd your start getting replication errors between the Domain Controllers.\nSo do you know the feeling??\nNow of course you could have someone (or something monitor your logs for you - but not necessarily would you catch the replication issue - because you would have to monitor more than just one DC).\nWell thanks to Microsoft there is small tool which will give you the replication status and if you would like it can do a whole lot more than that, but for this example the replication status will suffice.\nRepadmin - and if you have not used it before then I suggest you get to know the tool.\nrepadmin.exe /showrepl * /csv\nOk .. Whoopee! And now what do I do with that info? Well you could:\nopen it in Excel and filter out all the values that have 0 failures and then see where the issues are That would be nice… but not automated!!\nWhat if you could get the data, filter out to retrieve only what you wanted (which would be all the failures) and send it to an admin by mail. And to make your life complete (just kidding), have this run on a regular schedule?\nHere you are.\n# ============================================================================================== # NAME: Check-Replication # # AUTHOR: Maish Saidel-Keesing # DATE : 27/04/2010 # # COMMENT: Will check the replication status and","date":"Apr 28, 2010","href":"/2010/04/monitor-ad-replication-status-with.html","summary":"Do you know the feeling?\nYou have 40 domain controllers located in 20 different locations - with a multitude of child domains and children of those child domains, on all sides of the globe (yeah I know a globe does not have sides….), with different people at different levels of expertise managing these DC\u0026rsquo;s? Sound familiar?\nAnd for some reason someone went on vacation and forgot to clean up a movie that they put on the DC\u0026rsquo;s C: drive - because they had nowhere else to put it? (well I am joking of course - but the reasons for disk space running out could be for multitude of reasons).","tags":["Active Directory","Management","Powershell","Windows","Administration"],"title":"Monitor AD Replication Status with Powershell"},{"content":"VMworld 2010 registration is now open.\nA few facts and new introductions to this year\u0026amp;rsquo;s conference\nFollow the Experts - New in 2010 This year, VMworld is connecting you directly with subject-matter authorities with our Knowledge Experts Program. These highly respected members of the VMware community - made up of industry-leading customers, bloggers and VMware employees - will be conducting and participating in Breakout sessions and Birds of a Feather discussion groups. Plus, they’ll also be available for one-on-one meetings and more casual discussions as they circulate throughout the conference.\nOne-on-One Meetings You can schedule one-on-one meetings with up to 3 Knowledge Experts during the conference. Use these 15-minute sessions to delve into topics that relate specifically to your organization.\nBirds of a Feather Discussion Groups In addition to traditional Breakout Sessions, we’re introducing Birds of a Feather Discussion Groups led by one of the Knowledge Experts. These informative and interactive discussion groups are a great opportunity for you to gain insight from like-minded colleagues in similar industries. Attendance is on a first-come, first-served basis.\nSelf-Paced Labs - More Options In 2010, all VMworld Labs will be held in a self-paced environment - allowing us to maximize the number of labs offered and giving you more opportunities to explore how virtualization can make a powerful impact on your organization. Unlike traditional instructor-led labs, self-paced labs create a more interactive and educational environment - one that lets you see, first hand, how the latest in VMware software can help you energize your business.\nVMworld will stage more than 18,000 lab seats and conduct up to 400 simultaneous lab sessions during the 4-day event. Plus, we have committed 200,000+ man-hours in lab creation and development to produce over 20 self-paced lab topics - covering everything from SRM to DRS. With over 100 VMware Specialists on hand to answer","date":"Apr 28, 2010","href":"/2010/04/vmworld-2010-what-new.html","summary":"VMworld 2010 registration is now open.\nA few facts and new introductions to this year\u0026rsquo;s conference\nFollow the Experts - New in 2010 This year, VMworld is connecting you directly with subject-matter authorities with our Knowledge Experts Program. These highly respected members of the VMware community - made up of industry-leading customers, bloggers and VMware employees - will be conducting and participating in Breakout sessions and Birds of a Feather discussion groups. Plus, they’ll also be available for one-on-one meetings and more casual discussions as they circulate throughout the conference.","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous"],"title":"VMworld 2010 - What's New"},{"content":"Today we will deal with the client and server scripts, and before we start I would like to get the definitions straight.\nClient Script: The script that is executed on the ESXi machine (Python)\nServer Script:The script running on a Windows host that will configure the ESXi machine after deployment (Powershell)\nSo let\u0026amp;rsquo;s start. Here is the client script - it was adapted from here\n# TCP client example import socket s = socket.socket() s.connect((\u0026amp;#34;192.168.113.1\u0026amp;#34;,3333)) s.send(\u0026amp;#34;myuniquestring\u0026amp;#34;) s.close() Simple isn\u0026amp;rsquo;t it? - Well for me to understand this took a while so I will try and explain in as much detail as possible.\nLine 2. Import the socket module - which will allow us to to create the communication socket\nLine 3. Create the variable s as a socket\nLine 4. Connect to an \u0026amp;ldquo;IP\u0026amp;rdquo;,\u0026amp;ldquo;port\u0026amp;rdquo; - in my case 192.168.113.1 and port 3333 - You can define this to the IP and port of your choice\nLine 5. Send a string of text. This again can be anything you would like - but I would define it as something unique so not to have any false positives.\nLine 6. Close the connection - and close the script.\nAnd in plain text - the machine will open a communication socket on port 3333 to 192.168.113.1, send myuniquestring and exit.\nNow on to the Server script - adapted from here\n############################################################################################### ##\tTCP port Listener + Connect to ESXi ## Author: Maish Saidel-Keesing ## https://blog.technodrone.cloud\t##\tDate:\tApril 15, 2010\t##\tVersion: 1.0 ##\tSynopsis:\tThis script will configure a TCP listener that will recive a string ##\tIt will then connect to a ESXi machine ready to configure the instance ############################################################################################### #Define parameters with setting default port function Trace-Port { param ([int]$port=3333, [string]$IPAdress=\u0026amp;#34;192.168.113.1\u0026amp;#34;, [switch]$Echo=$false) #create a new .net listener","date":"Apr 27, 2010","href":"/2010/04/esxi-deployment-solution-part-3.html","summary":"Today we will deal with the client and server scripts, and before we start I would like to get the definitions straight.\nClient Script: The script that is executed on the ESXi machine (Python)\nServer Script:The script running on a Windows host that will configure the ESXi machine after deployment (Powershell)\nSo let\u0026rsquo;s start. Here is the client script - it was adapted from here\n# TCP client example import socket s = socket.socket() s.connect((\u0026#34;192.168.113.1\u0026#34;,3333)) s.send(\u0026#34;myuniquestring\u0026#34;) s.close() Simple isn\u0026rsquo;t it? - Well for me to understand this took a while so I will try and explain in as much detail as possible.","tags":["Tools","Management","vSphere","Administration","PowerCLI","ESX4i"],"title":"ESXi Deployment Solution - Part 3"},{"content":"Now I am happy to say that I have completed the VCDX Design Exam today - and if you did not know that will probably be because you missed my announcement on Twitter this afternoon.\nOK so first what did I use to prepare for this exam?\nDuncan Epping\u0026amp;rsquo;s Post has a great list.\nJason Boche\u0026amp;rsquo;s post on his experience.\nJoep Piscaer\u0026amp;rsquo;s review as well.\nJon posted a review of the process as well.\nI think that the posts above have done a wonderful job of providing the proper resources to prepare and describing the process. I spent the last month going over more than 1,000 pages of manuals, Whitepapers, articles, best practices etc.\nYou cannot study for the VCDX from a book. There are no brain dumps and no just going over a list of multiple choice questions and memorizing the correct answer.\nThe VCDX process will test your experience and your knowledge of Enterprise infrastructures. The Admin Exam will test your technical knowledge and the Design Exam will see if you are capable of making the correct design decisions.\nIf the VCDX was the next level Certification (up until the VCAP was announced - and pulled not so long after that) - then us VMware Admins had no choice but to go for the VCDX as the next Level.\nBut now that there will be a VCAP intermediate Certification, the full VCDX is not for everyone.\nWhat I can advise is the following:\nThe VCDX is a long and time consuming process. You cannot really study for this exam, but you will need to rely on your knowledge, and your personal experience. From what I hear, the easy part is over, now starts the real work - submitting a design and the defense. I would like to thank 2vcps, FrankDenneman, jpiscaer and DuncanYB for all there assistance along the process so far.\nWish me luck!\n","date":"Apr 26, 2010","href":"/2010/04/vcdx-design-exam-check.html","summary":"Now I am happy to say that I have completed the VCDX Design Exam today - and if you did not know that will probably be because you missed my announcement on Twitter this afternoon.\nOK so first what did I use to prepare for this exam?\nDuncan Epping\u0026rsquo;s Post has a great list.\nJason Boche\u0026rsquo;s post on his experience.\nJoep Piscaer\u0026rsquo;s review as well.\nJon posted a review of the process as well.","tags":["VCDX","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"VCDX Design Exam - Check!"},{"content":"Today we will be dealing with some details of the parts involved. In my previous post - I explained the rationale behind the whole process.\nSo let us get into the schematics.\nAn ESX server can be installed with a kickstart script. There are multiple posts all over the web on how to configure this and customize the process. In a nutshell - most of the additional customization is performed in the %post section\n%post (optional)\nExecutes the specified script after package installation has been completed. If you specify multiple %post sections, they are executed in the order they appear in the installation script.\nAs I said in my previous post - one of the reasons for doing this was because there is no kickstart for ESXi, it is whole different process. Two of the best posts I have read are on this here and here\nThe way it works is that ESXi boot into a full ESXi environment from the ISO image. It then kicks off an install process to ask you for input:\nWhich disk.. Eula etc. etc. Install Reboot Hey presto - you have an ESXi It then formats the disk with VMFS and configures the boot partition to start off the ESX Kernel on the next boot. Andrew gives a much better explanation than I do so read the posts above.\nOk then what? you cannot perform any customization.\nSo the options (as I saw them) were:\nDig into the Python Libraries in the installation source and customize the installation\nThat was not what I wanted because:\nThe learning curve to learn a new language - not something I am up to at the moment. This would be good for the one installation but what about the subsequent installations. And if I want to make a change to the process, this did not seem viable to me. Take the customization process out of the installation and like the kickstart do it post installation.\nOk so how?\nThe solution I came up with was based on the solution provided by Lance Berc.\nWhat Lance did was to provide a parameter to the PXE boot parameters including a variable called PBHOST which is an IP","date":"Apr 23, 2010","href":"/2010/04/esxi-deployment-solution-part-2.html","summary":"Today we will be dealing with some details of the parts involved. In my previous post - I explained the rationale behind the whole process.\nSo let us get into the schematics.\nAn ESX server can be installed with a kickstart script. There are multiple posts all over the web on how to configure this and customize the process. In a nutshell - most of the additional customization is performed in the %post section","tags":["Tools","Management","vSphere","Scripting","Administration","VMware","ESX4i"],"title":"ESXi Deployment Solution - Part 2"},{"content":"This one has nothing to do with Virtualization as such.\nAll new IBM servers from the M2 series and up have a IMM IBM Integrated Management Module. For you HP\u0026amp;rsquo;ers - it is the same as ILO.\nThe same as ILO the IMM comes in two modes - the free integrated version which does not allow Remote Presence (remote console control) and the full version which requires a Virtual Media Key (a physical component on the Motherboard) at an additional cost\nBy default the IMM comes up with with a DHCP Address.\nDefault Credentials - USERID/PASSW0RD (the 0 is a ZERO)\nSo instead of creating a local user for each and every user that was supposed to connect I wanted to configure it for AD authentication. I wanted to allow a group of users to manage the server.\nSo here is the process.\nFirst we go to the Login Profiles Section and change the default from Local only to\nLDAP first, then local. Don\u0026amp;rsquo;t forget to save the settings..\nWe then choose the Network Protocols Section\nand go to the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Client section\nLets go through each of the the Sections\nHere you put in the FQDN of you domain controller and the port that DC is listening on.\nFor example: dc1.maishsk.local - 389\nRoot DN - here you will set the DN where you will search for your group.\nUID Search Attribute - What attribute you will use to search on.\nBinding Method - This will use the sAMAccountName Attribute\nEnhanced role-based security - This I left disabled because the use of this feature requires a lot more intense configuration\nGroup Filter - Here you use the name of the group that you want to grant access\nThe format should be CN=\u0026amp;lt;groupname\u0026amp;gt; (and yes - it does not have to be a security group - DG\u0026amp;rsquo;s work as well)\nGroup Search Attribute - memberOf - this is to see that the user is a member of the group.\nHope you can all make some use of this.\n","date":"Apr 22, 2010","href":"/2010/04/ibm-imm-integration-into-ad.html","summary":"This one has nothing to do with Virtualization as such.\nAll new IBM servers from the M2 series and up have a IMM IBM Integrated Management Module. For you HP\u0026rsquo;ers - it is the same as ILO.\nThe same as ILO the IMM comes in two modes - the free integrated version which does not allow Remote Presence (remote console control) and the full version which requires a Virtual Media Key (a physical component on the Motherboard) at an additional cost","tags":["Active Directory","Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"IBM IMM integration into AD"},{"content":"I posted a small preview about a new ESXi Deployment Solution.\nFirst question I would like to answer is why? Why is a Deployment solution needed for ESXi? Why is it any different to Deploying the full ESX version? So the answers were: VMware has announced multiple times that ESXi will be the platform of choice for the next version of ESX. They are moving away from the Service Console for a multitude of reasons.\nThe same way that you as a Virtualization Administrator would like to prepare a standard installation configuration for all your ESX Hosts, I am sure that you would like to deploy a standard ESXi across your environment.\nESX you can deploy with a kickstart script. This is fully supported by VMware. At present there are two Virtual Appliances that you can use to deploy ESX, namely the UDA and the EDA. Personally I prefer using the UDA, just came more naturally to me. With the customization of kickstart script you can practically do what you would like - anything that can be run from the command line.\nBack to ESXi. At present there is no way to mass deploy - at least not any officially supported by VMware method. There are one or two mentions of how to do this. I do suppose (or so I am told) that this functionality will be available before we are all moved off of the Service Console.\nNext Question is - what? What can you do with this deployment solution? What components will I need for this solution? And the Answers: Anything you can do with the API, you can configure through this solution. Including adding the host to a cluster, patching, the options are almost endless a. PowerCLI\nb. PUTTY (or ssh client of your choice)\nc. One of the above mentioned deployment appliances (NOT compulsory) or a CD burner to create an ISO And now for the open topic questions: Can this be used as a replacement for Host Profiles (which is only available in Enterprise Plus)? Will this be customizable - Can I make changes to suit my environment? Does this contain any proprietary code","date":"Apr 20, 2010","href":"/2010/04/esxi-deployment-solution-beginning.html","summary":"I posted a small preview about a new ESXi Deployment Solution.\nFirst question I would like to answer is why? Why is a Deployment solution needed for ESXi? Why is it any different to Deploying the full ESX version? So the answers were: VMware has announced multiple times that ESXi will be the platform of choice for the next version of ESX. They are moving away from the Service Console for a multitude of reasons.","tags":["Tools","Scripting","Administration","VMware","PowerCLI","ESX4i"],"title":"ESXi Deployment Solution - the beginning"},{"content":"Well after cursing more than once at Python on Twitter over the past week or so - I finally got managed to overcome\nThis is a sneak preview of my ESXi Deployment Solution\nHow exactly it works - will come in the next few days with a detailed explanation.\nI can tell you it is made up of several components including:\nPowerCLI Python Deployment appliance Here is a video of the process below.\n","date":"Apr 20, 2010","href":"/2010/04/sneak-preview-of-esxi-deployment.html","summary":"Well after cursing more than once at Python on Twitter over the past week or so - I finally got managed to overcome\nThis is a sneak preview of my ESXi Deployment Solution\nHow exactly it works - will come in the next few days with a detailed explanation.\nI can tell you it is made up of several components including:\nPowerCLI Python Deployment appliance Here is a video of the process below.","tags":["Tools","Management","vSphere","Administration","VMware","PowerCLI","ESX4i"],"title":"Sneak Preview of ESXi Deployment Solution"},{"content":"Powershell v2.0 has a cmdlet that allows you to send an email\nSend-MailMessage\nNAME Send-MailMessage SYNOPSIS Sends an e-mail message. SYNTAX Send-MailMessage [-To] \u0026amp;lt;string[]\u0026amp;gt; [-Subject] \u0026amp;lt;string\u0026amp;gt; -From \u0026amp;lt;string\u0026amp;gt; [[-Body] \u0026amp;lt;string\u0026amp;gt;] [[-SmtpServer] \u0026amp;lt;string\u0026amp;gt;] [-Attachments \u0026amp;lt;string[ ]\u0026amp;gt;] [-Bcc \u0026amp;lt;string[]\u0026amp;gt;] [-BodyAsHtml] [-Cc \u0026amp;lt;string[]\u0026amp;gt;] [-Credential \u0026amp;lt;PSCredential\u0026amp;gt;] [-DeliveryNotificationOption {None | OnSuccess | OnFailure | Delay | Never}] [-Encoding \u0026amp;lt;Encoding\u0026amp;gt;] [-Priority {Normal | Low | High}] [-UseSsl] [\u0026amp;lt;CommonParameters\u0026amp;gt;] DESCRIPTION The Send-MailMessage cmdlet sends an e-mail message from within Windows PowerShell. RELATED LINKS Online version: [https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135256](https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135256) REMARKS To see the examples, type: \u0026amp;#34;get-help Send-MailMessage -examples\u0026amp;#34;. For more information, type: \u0026amp;#34;get-help Send-MailMessage -detailed\u0026amp;#34;. For technical information, type: \u0026amp;#34;get-help Send-MailMessage -full\u0026amp;#34;. Ok so today I has a collection that I had stored in a variable\n[12:39:03] ~\u0026amp;gt; $myvar | gm TypeName: Selected.System.Management.Automation.PSCustomObject And when I tried this:\n[12:40:18] ~\u0026amp;gt; Send-MailMessage –From \u0026amp;#34;maishsk@maishsk.local\u0026amp;#34; -To \u0026amp;#34;maishsk@maishsk.local\u0026amp;#34; -Subject \u0026amp;#34;test\u0026amp;#34; -SmtpServer smtp.maishsk.local -Body ($myvar) I was presented with this:\n**Send-MailMessage : Cannot convert \u0026amp;#39;System.Object[]\u0026amp;#39; to the type \u0026amp;#39;System.String\u0026amp;#39; required by parameter \u0026amp;#39;Body\u0026amp;#39;. Specified method is not supported. At line:1 char:114 + Send-MailMessage –From “maishsk@maishsk.local” –To “maishsk@maishsk.local” -Subject \u0026amp;#34;test\u0026amp;#34; -SmtpServer smtp.maishsk.local -Body \u0026amp;lt;\u0026amp;lt;\u0026amp;lt;\u0026amp;lt; ($myvar) + CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Send-MailMessage], ParameterBindingException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CannotConvertArgument,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SendMailMessage** Thanks to my trusted friend Shay","date":"Apr 14, 2010","href":"/2010/04/those-annoying-thing-in-powershell.html","summary":"Powershell v2.0 has a cmdlet that allows you to send an email\nSend-MailMessage\nNAME Send-MailMessage SYNOPSIS Sends an e-mail message. SYNTAX Send-MailMessage [-To] \u0026lt;string[]\u0026gt; [-Subject] \u0026lt;string\u0026gt; -From \u0026lt;string\u0026gt; [[-Body] \u0026lt;string\u0026gt;] [[-SmtpServer] \u0026lt;string\u0026gt;] [-Attachments \u0026lt;string[ ]\u0026gt;] [-Bcc \u0026lt;string[]\u0026gt;] [-BodyAsHtml] [-Cc \u0026lt;string[]\u0026gt;] [-Credential \u0026lt;PSCredential\u0026gt;] [-DeliveryNotificationOption {None | OnSuccess | OnFailure | Delay | Never}] [-Encoding \u0026lt;Encoding\u0026gt;] [-Priority {Normal | Low | High}] [-UseSsl] [\u0026lt;CommonParameters\u0026gt;] DESCRIPTION The Send-MailMessage cmdlet sends an e-mail message from within Windows PowerShell. RELATED LINKS Online version: [https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135256](https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135256) REMARKS To see the examples, type: \u0026#34;get-help Send-MailMessage -examples\u0026#34;. For more information, type: \u0026#34;get-help Send-MailMessage -detailed\u0026#34;. For technical information, type: \u0026#34;get-help Send-MailMessage -full\u0026#34;. Ok so today I has a collection that I had stored in a variable","tags":["Scripting","Powershell","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Those Annoying thing in Powershell"},{"content":"It is a known fact that using PowerCLI there are more than one way to skin a cat - or more than one way to access the SDK and the properties that you would like to get.\nTake for example getting all the VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s - their Name, their Memory and CPU count\nMeasure-command {get-vm | ForEach-Object { Write-host $_.Name $_.MemoryMB $_.NumCpu } } | select TotalSeconds TotalSeconds ------------ 5.402703 You can also get the same thing with the Get-View cmdlet\nmeasure-command {Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine | ForEach-Object { Write-host $_.Name $_.Config.Hardware.memoryMB $_.Config.Hardware.numCPU }} | select TotalSeconds TotalSeconds ------------ 11.1451083 Now of course you can speed this up with only getting the attributes you want like this\nMeasure-command {get-vm | select Name, MemoryMB, NumCPU | ForEach-Object { Write-host $_.Name $_.MemoryMB $_.NumCpu } } | select TotalSeconds TotalSeconds ------------ 5.0431041 But you can also get the same with get-view but this time running the query only getting the properties that you want\nmeasure-command {Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -property Name,Config.Hardware | ForEach-Object { Write-host $_.Name $_.Config.Hardware.memoryMB $_.Config.Hardware.numCPU }} | select TotalSeconds TotalSeconds ------------ 3.8932184 Whoa - that was 1.5094846 seconds difference or 38.77% faster.\nLessons learned from this one?\nAs you can see from Example 2 - not always is Get-View faster In some cases - (and you have to test this!) Get-View can be much, much faster Thanks to LucD and Keshav Attrey for the info from this forum thread\n","date":"Apr 11, 2010","href":"/2010/04/how-to-speed-up-your-powercli-queries.html","summary":"It is a known fact that using PowerCLI there are more than one way to skin a cat - or more than one way to access the SDK and the properties that you would like to get.\nTake for example getting all the VM\u0026rsquo;s - their Name, their Memory and CPU count\nMeasure-command {get-vm | ForEach-Object { Write-host $_.Name $_.MemoryMB $_.NumCpu } } | select TotalSeconds TotalSeconds ------------ 5.402703 You can also get the same thing with the Get-View cmdlet","tags":["vSphere","Scripting","Powershell","Administration","PowerCLI"],"title":"How to Speed Up Your PowerCLI Queries"},{"content":"I was trying something last night to compare the speed of the two Cmdlets here.\nI noticed something though.\nWhile running the command I wanted to check against how many machines I was running the command against.\nGet-View -ViewType VirtualMachine | Measure-Object Count : 371 And compared to\nget-vm | Measure-Object Count : 356 And as you can see they are not the same! The reason for that being that Get-VM does not retrieve any templates only virtual machines. To get the Template you need to get them specifically\nGet-Template | Measure-Object Count : 15 And adding the results from above to the ones from Get-VM will give me the same amount of machines that I got from the first Command.\nSo how would you get only the Virtual Machines (and not templates)? You can add a filter to the command\nGet-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Filter @{\u0026amp;#34;Config.Template\u0026amp;#34;=\u0026amp;#34;false\u0026amp;#34;} | Measure-Object Count : 356 But so that you know, the filtering adds some overhead to the time it takes to run the command.\n$filtered = (Measure-command {Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Filter @{\u0026amp;#34;Config.Template\u0026amp;#34;=\u0026amp;#34;false\u0026amp;#34;} | Measure-Object}).TotalSeconds $filtered 8.3746321 $notfiltered = (Measure-command {Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine}).TotalSeconds $notfiltered 8.03360323 As you can see the filtered query is slower even though it processes less objects. Now you might say this is negligible - it is. But the bigger your environment is the more substantial this can become.\nSo sometimes even though you want to make your life easier by filtering to get only what you would like - it does not always optimize your scripts.\n","date":"Apr 11, 2010","href":"/2010/04/small-quirk-with-get-view-vs-get-vm.html","summary":"I was trying something last night to compare the speed of the two Cmdlets here.\nI noticed something though.\nWhile running the command I wanted to check against how many machines I was running the command against.\nGet-View -ViewType VirtualMachine | Measure-Object Count : 371 And compared to\nget-vm | Measure-Object Count : 356 And as you can see they are not the same! The reason for that being that Get-VM does not retrieve any templates only virtual machines. To get the Template you need to get them specifically","tags":["vSphere","Scripting","Powershell","Administration","PowerCLI"],"title":"Small Quirk with Get-View vs. Get-VM"},{"content":"As I posted a few weeks ago - I entered the ESXi Script-0-Mania Contest. Unfortunately, my entry was not chosen as one of the top entries, but hey - I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t do this for the money - I enjoy what I do - I feel that the contribution back to the virtualization community is the least I can do - seeing the amount of info and help that I receive from you all.\nSo - Deploy-ESXi.ps1 v1.0 - My entry. As you can deduct from the script name this script does what it says.\nThe need for the script? I find that I am deploying more and more systems with ESXi - be it the free version - or a fully-licensed system. Now of course to install ESXi is really, really simple!\nI mean F11 -\u0026amp;gt; Enter -\u0026amp;gt; Enter … and Bob\u0026amp;rsquo;s your uncle - or you have an ESXi server deployed - that\u0026amp;rsquo;s it. But then you have the mundane tasks of configuring the installation according to your requirements. Removing Default port groups, changing the Management IP, set NTP settings. I guess you understand what I am talking about. Now of course all of this can be scripted with a Kickstart script - but guess what ?? No Kickstart script for ESXi!! So either you have to do this manually - or if you some of the Enterprise customers - you can utilize Host Profiles to do all of this for you.\nOr you can use this script as a base for your environment.\nYou might say that this will not work with the free version of ESXi because the API is read-only in this version. Well that is true - but by default the new installation is deployed with a fully functional evaluation license which makes the API read-write and allows you to make the changes you need\nThe script is commented within.\n############################################################################ ##\tESXi Deployment script ## Author: Maish Saidel-Keesing ## https://blog.technodrone.cloud ##\tDate:\tMarch 15, 2010 ##\tSynopsis:\tThis script will configure an ESXi server ##\tthat has been installed with several basic settings","date":"Apr 7, 2010","href":"/2010/04/deploy-esxi-v10-my-esxi-script-0-mania.html","summary":"As I posted a few weeks ago - I entered the ESXi Script-0-Mania Contest. Unfortunately, my entry was not chosen as one of the top entries, but hey - I don\u0026rsquo;t do this for the money - I enjoy what I do - I feel that the contribution back to the virtualization community is the least I can do - seeing the amount of info and help that I receive from you all.","tags":["Tools","vSphere","Scripting","Powershell","Administration","VMware","PowerCLI","ESX4i"],"title":"Deploy-ESXi v1.0 - My ESXi Script-0-Mania entry"},{"content":"Let me give you a real case scenario. (I am not saying that any of the implementations in this example are best practice)\nDefault rack that was installed was a 42U rack.\nEach rack was populated with no more than 16 Servers. (This was the most that they were willing to lose in the case of losing a full rack and also due to cooling issues per rack they were leaving 1U empty between each server).\nEach rack has a 16 port LCD KVM keyboard tray (1 for each server).\nEach rack has 24 1Gb Ports and also a 48port 10/100mb for backup network and management ports.\nUp until now each Server by default had 1 NIC connected to a 1Gb port and the backup to the 100mb port - which left them with 16/24 1Gb ports populated.\nEnter ESX.\nEach ESX server has by default 6 NICS\nvmnic0 + vmnic5 - SC + Vmotion vmnic1 + vmnic3 - Iscsi/NFS storage vmnc2 + vmnic4 - VM network traffic Out of the 16 servers in each rack 2 ESX servers in a rack (the most they would risk is two hosts per rack)\nQuick math again.\n2 ESX hosts x 6 ports = 12 (All port have to be 1Gb)\nOK 14 more servers in the rack - but one sec, there are only 12 ports free - which means that you can only put in 12 more servers.\nThe options were:\nRun more 1GB cables to the Network Infrastructure - more switch ports which meant additional cost Reduce the number of servers per rack to 14 servers per rack (not 16) - which meant 2 KVM ports were wasted and more empty U\u0026amp;rsquo;s in each rack. Run some production servers not on 1Gb infrastructure Deploy 10Gbe - cost for 10Gbe NICS and modules for the Backbone infrastructure What happened here? The racks were cabled several years ago - before Virtualization was something that they had in their datacenter - and they had what they thought more than enough place to grow in their network ports, and they did until they started to put in ESX servers with 6 NIC\u0026amp;rsquo;s each.\nOf course all of the options above have a cost with them - be it a cost that you have to lay out immediately or cost of not","date":"Mar 30, 2010","href":"/2010/03/review-your-infrastructure-needs.html","summary":"Let me give you a real case scenario. (I am not saying that any of the implementations in this example are best practice)\nDefault rack that was installed was a 42U rack.\nEach rack was populated with no more than 16 Servers. (This was the most that they were willing to lose in the case of losing a full rack and also due to cooling issues per rack they were leaving 1U empty between each server).","tags":["Virtualization","Management","Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"Review Your Infrastructure Needs Regularly - or ...."},{"content":"I was looking into this a short while ago – after updating the hosts to Update 4.01.\nThis VMware KB – 1018740 will show you the way.\nDownload the the Powerpath/VE 5.4 SP1 package from Powerlink\n(if you are looking for the document location manually - Home \u0026amp;gt; Support \u0026amp;gt; Software Downloads and Licensing \u0026amp;gt; Downloads P-R \u0026amp;gt; PowerPath for VMware).\nOnce the package is downloaded extract the zip package to a folder which is accessible to a web browser.\nOnce you confirm that the package is accessible from a web browser – you are ready to go.\nThe beauty of it all is that this can be done in Update Manager.\nMake sure you put the full path to the xml file!!\nApply and Download Now\nAnd the progress shoots off\nWe then create a new Host Extension Baseline to deploy the package\nYou will then have a new Extension Baseline\nYou can then Attach that baseline to your host/s - stage and remediate..\n(Mind you it requires maintenance mode and a reboot)\nThis is not including the licensing that needs to be set up for PowerPath.\nNoticeable mentions on the topic are:\nHOWTO: Download, Install and License EMC PowerPath/VE – Chad Sakacc\nWhite Paper: Third Party PSPs – EMC Power Path for VMware – Mike Laverick\n","date":"Mar 29, 2010","href":"/2010/03/install-emc-powerpathve-with-update.html","summary":"I was looking into this a short while ago – after updating the hosts to Update 4.01.\nThis VMware KB – 1018740 will show you the way.\nDownload the the Powerpath/VE 5.4 SP1 package from Powerlink\n(if you are looking for the document location manually - Home \u0026gt; Support \u0026gt; Software Downloads and Licensing \u0026gt; Downloads P-R \u0026gt; PowerPath for VMware).\nOnce the package is downloaded extract the zip package to a folder which is accessible to a web browser.","tags":["Tools","Management","vSphere","Administration","Upgrade"],"title":"Install EMC PowerPath/VE with Update Manager"},{"content":"P2V a machine - who does not want to get rid of all their physical machines to get the rid of the old hardware? If so raise you hand!\nSo now that we have that out the way - P2V\u0026amp;rsquo;ing a Windows 2000 Operating System is not always as straight forward as a the other operating systems.\nTake into account the following scenario. you have a Windows 2000 SP6 Server running a customized app. You start the Convert process, either using Converter Standalone - or the Guided consolation plug-in. You let the process run - and anything from 45minutes to hours later - you have a new VM registered in you virtual infrastructure.\nYey! - But - the conversion process - reported as failed somewhere between 97-99%.\nThe VM - is there so you power on the VM - and BAM! Blue Screen!!!\nSTOP 0x7B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE or\nSTOP 0x0000007B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE And of course I could not boot the converted machine.\nThis brought me to this KB article on VMware\u0026amp;rsquo;s site - which provided this solution\nInjecting SCSI controller device drivers into Windows\nBefore you convert the virtual machine you should perform the following on the source OS.\nAll Windows Versions (vmscsi only)\nTo copy the appropriate disk controller driver from a working virtual machine with a Windows guest operating system:\nDownload the VMware SCSI Disk Controller driver diskette here.\nCopy the contents of the floppy either by mounting it or extracting the files\nRight-click vmscsi.inf and click Install. The VMware SCSI drivers are installed.\nRestart the source machine to complete installation.\n**\nWindows XP / 2000 / NT (buslogic and vmscsi)**\nFind a working VM installed with the same OS. Export these 3 registry keys.\nHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\BusLogic\nHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\CriticalDeviceDatabase\\pci#ven_104b\u0026amp;amp;dev_1040\nHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\vmscsi\n(Note**: The vmscsi service registry key may not exist if VMware Tools is not","date":"Mar 28, 2010","href":"/2010/03/inject-vmware-drivers-into-source-os.html","summary":"P2V a machine - who does not want to get rid of all their physical machines to get the rid of the old hardware? If so raise you hand!\nSo now that we have that out the way - P2V\u0026rsquo;ing a Windows 2000 Operating System is not always as straight forward as a the other operating systems.\nTake into account the following scenario. you have a Windows 2000 SP6 Server running a customized app. You start the Convert process, either using Converter Standalone - or the Guided consolation plug-in. You let the process run - and anything from 45minutes to hours later - you have a new VM registered in you virtual infrastructure.","tags":["Tools","Windows","Administration","ESX","Troubleshooting","Converter"],"title":"Inject VMware drivers into Source OS before P2V"},{"content":"I was one of a few blogger that were invited to participate yesterday in a Bloggers briefing -\ngiven by Doug Hazelman - presenting Veeam\u0026amp;rsquo;s new product Surebackup.\nWell this is not actually a new product as such - but a family of the current technologies that Veeam use with the addition of one significant new feature that will be introduced in Q3 of 2010 in Backup and Replication v5.\nSome of the points that were shown at the briefing - which I am sure will be public as well after the announcement.\nOne of the biggest issues Administrators have with verifying the validity of Backups of an OS is that when doing this you cannot only rely on the restore only of one restored system.\nLet me give you an example:\nVerify an Exchange Backup. For this you will need Exchange, DNS, Active directory , which means we are not talking only about one system, but multiple systems. The same would go for almost any Web application restore as well.\nNow in the case of the Exchange backup, the restore will entail not only multiple Operating Systems, but also having to isolate these machines from the production Network.\nSo as you can see - we all have a problem with attesting to the reliability of the backups that we take - will they actually work when push come to shove? It is not a definite answer - one way or the other.\nSo how will SureBackup help us out? With the new technology - you will be able to to verify the backups of your VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s . How will this be done? The VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s can be brought up in a fenced environment (isolated) and they can be \u0026amp;ldquo;packaged\u0026amp;rdquo; as a vApp to come up as a group. But even more so - you will be able to run these VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s from the compressed backup files - without even having to inflate them. One thing that all participants were amazed about was the information below\nAnd a slide to give a bit more info about the process and something to think about the future\nSome other points to note:\nThe restore can be done on existing ESX hosts - no extra","date":"Mar 22, 2010","href":"/2010/03/surebackup-by-veeam.html","summary":"I was one of a few blogger that were invited to participate yesterday in a Bloggers briefing -\ngiven by Doug Hazelman - presenting Veeam\u0026rsquo;s new product Surebackup.\nWell this is not actually a new product as such - but a family of the current technologies that Veeam use with the addition of one significant new feature that will be introduced in Q3 of 2010 in Backup and Replication v5.\nSome of the points that were shown at the briefing - which I am sure will be public as well after the announcement.","tags":["Tools","Management","Administration","VMware","ESX","ESX4i"],"title":"SureBackup by Veeam"},{"content":"I was asked to day at work, \u0026amp;ldquo;What would be the quickest way to add all of the members of a Distribution Group to a Security Group?\u0026amp;rdquo;, the reason of course being because you cannot assign permissions to a Distribution group.\nMy answer was, \u0026amp;ldquo;To script it.\u0026amp;rdquo;\nAnd I never would have thought how easy it would be\nGet-QADGroupMember \u0026amp;quot;My_DG_GROUP\u0026amp;quot; | Add-QADMemberOf -Group \u0026amp;quot;MY_SG_GROUP\u0026amp;quot;\nAmount of time spent on Task: 30 seconds Financial investment in that task: Depends on how much you make per hour :) The reaction I got for doing something so complicated \u0026amp;ldquo;so quickly\u0026amp;rdquo;: PRICELESS!!!!! ","date":"Mar 19, 2010","href":"/2010/03/distribution-and-security-groups.html","summary":"I was asked to day at work, \u0026ldquo;What would be the quickest way to add all of the members of a Distribution Group to a Security Group?\u0026rdquo;, the reason of course being because you cannot assign permissions to a Distribution group.\nMy answer was, \u0026ldquo;To script it.\u0026rdquo;\nAnd I never would have thought how easy it would be\nGet-QADGroupMember \u0026quot;My_DG_GROUP\u0026quot; | Add-QADMemberOf -Group \u0026quot;MY_SG_GROUP\u0026quot;\nAmount of time spent on Task: 30 seconds Financial investment in that task: Depends on how much you make per hour :) The reaction I got for doing something so complicated \u0026ldquo;so quickly\u0026rdquo;: PRICELESS!!!!! ","tags":["Active Directory","Tools","Management","Scripting","Powershell","Windows","Administration"],"title":"Distribution and Security Groups"},{"content":"While trying to VMotion a VM I hit an error because of a Mounted CD. Well you might say – that is simple. Just go into the GUI and then disconnect it.\nBut this time it was connected and open in another users sessions so I got this\nThe reason I think this was happenning was because of the other user still having a console session open to the VM with the CD mounted.\nThis post on VMTN spoke about a perl script that would allow you to disconnect – but I thought why not try with PowerCLI\nget-vm myvm | Get-CDDrive | Set-CDDrive -Connected:$false -confirm:$false\nThat disconnected the CD and allowed me to VMotion the machine without any issues.\n","date":"Mar 18, 2010","href":"/2010/03/cd-connected-to-another-client.html","summary":"While trying to VMotion a VM I hit an error because of a Mounted CD. Well you might say – that is simple. Just go into the GUI and then disconnect it.\nBut this time it was connected and open in another users sessions so I got this\nThe reason I think this was happenning was because of the other user still having a console session open to the VM with the CD mounted.","tags":["Tools","vSphere","Administration","ESX","Troubleshooting","PowerCLI"],"title":"CD Connected to Another Client"},{"content":"This was a weird one that hit me today.\nI had a performance issue on a server.\nesxtop is the first I thing I looked at and got this:\nID GID NAME NWLD %USED %RUN %SYS %WAIT %RDY 69 69 VSE 5 83.98 85.74 0.00 380.16 22.14 So I looked to which machine it was:\n[root@dmz1 root]# vmware-cmd -l | grep VSE [root@dmz1 root]# And the result I got was nuddah!!\nSo next\n[root@dmz1 root]# vm-support -x | grep VSE vmid=1428 VSE [root@dmz1 ]# ps -efww | grep VSE root 4426 1 0 Feb23 ? 00:00:06 /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmkload_app …… …… a/**VSE/VSE.vmx** root 4476 3756 0 12:27 pts/2 00:00:00 grep VSE So there was a running VM – or so it seemed.\nI ran the same steps the other host in cluster\nID GID NAME NWLD %USED %RUN %SYS %WAIT %RDY 59 59 VSE 5 11.74 11.96 0.00 487.23 6.94 [root@dmz2 root]# vm-support -x | grep VSE vmid=1410 VSE [root@dmz2 root]# vmware-cmd -l | grep VSE [root@dmz2 root]# OK so what was going on here? Looking at the details of the machine – I saw that the name of the VM had no correlation to the actual folder it was in\nLooking for the machine again\n[root@dmz2 root]# vmware-cmd -l | grep CSG1 /vmfs/volumes/…………a/CSG1/CSG1.vmx [root@dmz1 ]# vmware-cmd -l | grep CSG1 [root@dmz1 ]# OK. So I now have found the machine Named VSE running on dmz2 but I still had a process running on dmz1 that was taking up CPU\n[root@dmz1 ]# ps -efww | grep VSE root 4426 1 0 Feb23 ? 00:00:06 /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmkload_app ... /**VSE/VSE.vmx** root 4476 3756 0 12:27 pts/2 00:00:00 grep VSE I looked into the folder itself\n[root@dmz1 ]# ls -la /vmfs/volumes/……a/VSE/ total 23413952 drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 980 Mar 17 11:39 . drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 2380 Mar 15 11:21 .. -rw------- 1 root root 2510 Mar 17 11:35 vmdumper.png -rw------- 1 root root 23573652480 Feb 23 23:53 VSE_1-flat.vmdk -rw------- 1 root root 268435456 Feb 23 23:53 VSE-6785c36f.vswp -rw------- 1 root root 131604480 Feb 23 23:53 VSE-flat.vmdk -rwxr-xr-- 1 root root 1960 Feb 24 02:04 VSE.vmx [root@ilesxdmz1 ]# As you can see all the files","date":"Mar 17, 2010","href":"/2010/03/running-vm-that-did-not-exist.html","summary":"This was a weird one that hit me today.\nI had a performance issue on a server.\nesxtop is the first I thing I looked at and got this:\nID GID NAME NWLD %USED %RUN %SYS %WAIT %RDY 69 69 VSE 5 83.98 85.74 0.00 380.16 22.14 So I looked to which machine it was:\n[root@dmz1 root]# vmware-cmd -l | grep VSE [root@dmz1 root]# And the result I got was nuddah!!","tags":["Tools","vSphere","Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"A running VM that did not exist"},{"content":"I have submitted a script for the VMware Script-O-Mania contest that will end in a little under 9 hours from now.\nThe idea behind the script was for automating the deployment of a stand-alone ESXi server.\nA small demo you can see below.\n","date":"Mar 16, 2010","href":"/2010/03/my-esxi-script-o-mania-entry-deploy.html","summary":"I have submitted a script for the VMware Script-O-Mania contest that will end in a little under 9 hours from now.\nThe idea behind the script was for automating the deployment of a stand-alone ESXi server.\nA small demo you can see below.","tags":["Scripting","Administration","VMware","PowerCLI","ESX4i"],"title":"My ESXi Script-O-Mania entry - Deploy-ESXi"},{"content":"As usual looking for this list of which ports need to be punched through the firewall in order allow all kinds of services to work correctly.\nWell today – I tried to scan a host for (that is behind a firewall) and vCenter failed with this error message:\nNow since I knew that this was behind a firewall and only the needed ports are opened (the way it should be) I knew that it was a firewall problem, also because scanning other hosts (not behind this firewall) worked fine.\nSo after looking at the logs on the firewall it showed that the communications were being dropped\nESX –\u0026amp;gt; vCenter on port 9084\nvCenter –\u0026amp;gt; ESX on port 5989\nOpening up the ports allowed for the Scan and Remediation to complete successfully\nNow of course looking for the list of ports needed to be opened for proper communication\non Google – two links came to mind..\nGreg A. Lato – VMware Network Portlist VMware KB So after adding the list from the KB above into an useable list, you can add the excel file below to your useful list of documents can use as well.\nHope you you make use of this in your troubleshooting adventures!\nEdit for this post \u0026amp;ndash; 21/04/2010 I would also like to point to two notable mentions and other resources that are of great benefit.\nForbes Guthrie\u0026amp;rsquo;s page - Firewall diagram – version 5 Hany Michael\u0026amp;rsquo;s page - Diagram: VMware vSphere 4.0 in The Enterprise ","date":"Mar 16, 2010","href":"/2010/03/network-ports-needed-for-vmware.html","summary":"As usual looking for this list of which ports need to be punched through the firewall in order allow all kinds of services to work correctly.\nWell today – I tried to scan a host for (that is behind a firewall) and vCenter failed with this error message:\nNow since I knew that this was behind a firewall and only the needed ports are opened (the way it should be) I knew that it was a firewall problem, also because scanning other hosts (not behind this firewall) worked fine.","tags":["Tools","vSphere","Administration","ESX","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"Network Ports needed for VMware Products"},{"content":"A task that I do quite often when building a new System is to create random password a local user on the machine – Don’t ask – it is a an OPSEC requirement from way before my time.\nSo instead of Running my fingers of the keyboard in a random way and having my colleagues ask what I am doing each time I decided to simplify this Powershell.\nDmitry Sotnikov’s post set me in the correct direction, the result below is a function that will prompt you for the length you want, create a password and put it in your clipboard\n#======================================================================== # # NAME: Generate-password # # AUTHOR: Maish Saidel-Keesing # DATE : 09/03/2009 # # COMMENT: Will generate a random password according to required length # # ======================================================================== function Generate-Password () { param () PROCESS { if ($args.count -eq 0) { do { $length = Read-Host \u0026amp;#34;How many characters long should the password be?\u0026amp;#34; } until ($length -ne $null) } else { $length = $args[0] } #load Assembly [Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName(\u0026amp;#34;System.Web\u0026amp;#34;) $password = [System.Web.Security.Membership]::GeneratePassword($length,3) $password | clip Write-host The password is now in your clipboard } } Line 16-20. If there is no argument passed then it will prompt you for the number of characters needed in the password\nLine 23. load the System.Web.Security Namespace\nLine 24. Generate the password. The two parameters that are needed are password length and numberOfNonAlphanumericCharacters\nLine 25. clip is a command line utility for the clipboard. In this case I piped it into the clipboard so I could paste it into the password window.\n","date":"Mar 9, 2010","href":"/2010/03/generate-random-password-powershell.html","summary":"A task that I do quite often when building a new System is to create random password a local user on the machine – Don’t ask – it is a an OPSEC requirement from way before my time.\nSo instead of Running my fingers of the keyboard in a random way and having my colleagues ask what I am doing each time I decided to simplify this Powershell.\nDmitry Sotnikov’s post set me in the correct direction, the result below is a function that will prompt you for the length you want, create a password and put it in your clipboard","tags":["Tools","Security","Powershell","Administration"],"title":"Generate a Random Password - Powershell"},{"content":"VMware acquired Springsource not so long ago, and now they have started to offer their first promotion.\nExcerpt of the announcement below\nAs IT organizations continue to virtualize increasing proportions of their datacenters, the virtualization of servers running custom Java applications is becoming increasingly common. Building and running custom Java Spring applications on an application server that is ideally suited for usage in a virtual environment is a critical step in extending the operational efficiencies of virtualization to a greater proportion of server workloads. With its lightweight footprint that allows for higher application server density in a virtual machine and tight integration with the Spring application framework, tc Server Spring Edition 2.0 is the best application server to run Spring applications and ideally suited for a virtual environment.\nSpring on VMware Promotion Build your applications to be run in a virtual environment with SpringSource tc Server Spring Edition 2.0 – free with the Spring on VMware Promotion.\nTo help you get started, VMware is pleased to announce the “Spring on VMware Promotion”. Under this promotion, all customer orders fulfilled between March 8th 2010 and May 8th 2010 that include products (license only) from the vSphere, vCenter, View or ThinApp product family will receive 2 perpetual, production-use CPU licenses of tc Server Spring Edition 2.0 and 60 days of Evaluation Support for SpringSource (collectively referred to as the “Spring on VMware Bundle”). Key Terms and Conditions include:\n60-days of Evaluation Support for SpringSource (60-days of web-only support) included for no additional charge as part of promotion. After the 60-days of Evaluation Support for SpringSource, customers may purchase VMware Basic or Production Support at the then-current list price. Start date for the Evaluation Support for SpringSource will be the date on which the promotion codes are sent to the customer. One (1) Spring on VMware","date":"Mar 8, 2010","href":"/2010/03/spring-on-vmware-promotion.html","summary":"VMware acquired Springsource not so long ago, and now they have started to offer their first promotion.\nExcerpt of the announcement below\nAs IT organizations continue to virtualize increasing proportions of their datacenters, the virtualization of servers running custom Java applications is becoming increasingly common. Building and running custom Java Spring applications on an application server that is ideally suited for usage in a virtual environment is a critical step in extending the operational efficiencies of virtualization to a greater proportion of server workloads. With its lightweight footprint that allows for higher application server density in a virtual machine and tight integration with the Spring application framework, tc Server Spring Edition 2.0 is the best application server to run Spring applications and ideally suited for a virtual environment.","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Spring on VMware Promotion"},{"content":"When deploying a Virtual Machine from a template you have the option of Using the Customization Specifications for Automating Deployment.\nI am sure this has been mentioned more than once but I could not find an easy reference on a blog only on the VMTN Forums\nWell the problem was like this below, when trying to deploy a VM the option was greyed out\nThe user had the correct Privileges on the folder, cluster and on the storage, but could choose the customization specification.\nThe reason is that the user needs the correct Privilege on the top-level of Hosts and Cluster.\nThe Read Customization Specifications Privilege has to assigned\nand does not have to be propagated.\n","date":"Mar 7, 2010","href":"/2010/03/customize-template-during-deployment.html","summary":"When deploying a Virtual Machine from a template you have the option of Using the Customization Specifications for Automating Deployment.\nI am sure this has been mentioned more than once but I could not find an easy reference on a blog only on the VMTN Forums\nWell the problem was like this below, when trying to deploy a VM the option was greyed out\nThe user had the correct Privileges on the folder, cluster and on the storage, but could choose the customization specification.","tags":["Management","vSphere","Administration","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Customize a Template During Deployment"},{"content":"Something that I do every now and again (almost every day - many times per day) is to connect to the Event Viewer / Computer Management / Services console of a Remote Windows machine for troubleshooting purposes.\nNow of course you could do it like this:\nStart -\u0026amp;gt; Run -\u0026amp;gt; compmgmt.msc\nRight-Click -\u0026amp;gt; Connect to another computer -\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;Computer_Name\u0026amp;gt; -\u0026amp;gt; OK\nor you could make it even shorter\nStart -\u0026amp;gt; Run -\u0026amp;gt; compmgmt.msc /computer:\u0026amp;lt;Computer_Name\u0026amp;gt;\nBut after spending some time reading about Powershell today, I decided since I have a Powershell prompt open the whole time would it not be easier to do it in Powershell as well? And maybe also do it one command with switches?\nThe result is the function below:\nfunction manage-server { param () if ($args.count -eq 0) { do { $compname = Read-Host \u0026amp;#34;Which server would you like to connect to?\u0026amp;#34; } until ($compname -ne $null) } else { $Compname = $args[0] } if ($args[1] -eq $null) { do { $task = read-host \u0026amp;#34;Which task would you like to perform? [Manage/Event/Services]\u0026amp;#34; } until (($task -match \u0026amp;#34;manage\u0026amp;#34;) -OR ($task -match \u0026amp;#34;event\u0026amp;#34;) -OR ($task -match \u0026amp;#34;services\u0026amp;#34;)) } else { $task = $args[1] } switch ($task) { Manage {compmgmt.msc /computer:$compname} Event {eventvwr.msc /computer:$compname} Services {services.msc /computer:$compname} } } And to make it even shorter you can create an Alias for the command\nNew-Alias -Name manage -Value manage-server -Description \u0026amp;quot;Quick Remote Manage Server\u0026amp;quot;\n3-5. If the Server name is not entered you will be prompted for input.\n10-13. If you have not entered which task you would like to perform - you will be prompted.\n18-22. A Switch statement on the task variable will perform the correct task.\nI am loving Powershell more and more and more!!\n","date":"Mar 7, 2010","href":"/2010/03/quick-powershell-tip.html","summary":"Something that I do every now and again (almost every day - many times per day) is to connect to the Event Viewer / Computer Management / Services console of a Remote Windows machine for troubleshooting purposes.\nNow of course you could do it like this:\nStart -\u0026gt; Run -\u0026gt; compmgmt.msc\nRight-Click -\u0026gt; Connect to another computer -\u0026gt; \u0026lt;Computer_Name\u0026gt; -\u0026gt; OK\nor you could make it even shorter\nStart -\u0026gt; Run -\u0026gt; compmgmt.msc /computer:\u0026lt;Computer_Name\u0026gt;","tags":["Microsoft","Tools","Scripting","Powershell","Windows","Administration"],"title":"Quick Powershell tip - Remote Windows Management"},{"content":"Recently we had a planned maintenance window that required shutting down power to the entire building. As part of the procedure we created snapshots of each VM before the powerdown. With PowerCLI this is really easy\nget-vm | new-snapshot -name \u0026amp;quot;before power down\u0026amp;quot; -description \u0026amp;quot;powerdown\u0026amp;quot; -runasync -confirm:$false\nOf course there is a whole methodology of how to perform this shutdown - what comes before what and what should be powered down in which order, but that is not the issue at hand.\nAfter powering everything back up and verifying that all was ok I wanted to remove the snapshots. Now since I had given the snapshot a name it is easy to remove that specific snapshot.\n$snapshots = get-vm | get-snapshot -name \u0026amp;#34;before power down\u0026amp;#34; foreach ($item in $snapshots) { remove-snaphot $item -confirm:$false } OK so that started to remove the snapshots - but one at a time\nWHICH \u0026amp;hellip; WAS \u0026amp;hellip; SLOW \u0026amp;hellip;\u0026amp;hellip;\u0026amp;hellip;\u0026amp;hellip;\u0026amp;hellip;!\nSo a quick change to the code adding the runasync switch\n$snaps = get-vm | get-snapshot -name \u0026amp;#34;before power down\u0026amp;#34; foreach ($item in $snapshots) { remove-snaphot $item -confirm:$false -runasync } And it started to run them all one after the other. Great!\nOr was it ??? within a short time the host choked! trying to remove all the snapshots at once - simultaneously - it was not happy.\nIn the end I ended up looping though the array manually. But after consulting with the PowerCLI master Luc Dekens who helped me out tonight with finding a way to throttle the process. Here is is below\n$maxtasks = 5 $snaps = get-vm | get-snapshot -name \u0026amp;#34;before power down\u0026amp;#34; $i = 0 while($i -lt $snaps.Count){ Remove-Snapshot -Snapshot $snaps[$i] -RunAsync -Confirm:$false $tasks = Get-Task -Status \u0026amp;#34;Running\u0026amp;#34; | where {$_.Name -eq \u0026amp;#34;RemoveSnapshot_Task\u0026amp;#34;} while($tasks.Count -gt ($maxtasks-1)) { sleep 30 $tasks = Get-Task -Status \u0026amp;#34;Running\u0026amp;#34; | where {$_.Name -eq \u0026amp;#34;RemoveSnapshot_Task\u0026amp;#34;} } $i++ }","date":"Mar 5, 2010","href":"/2010/03/removing-esx-snapshots-en-mass.html","summary":"Recently we had a planned maintenance window that required shutting down power to the entire building. As part of the procedure we created snapshots of each VM before the powerdown. With PowerCLI this is really easy\nget-vm | new-snapshot -name \u0026quot;before power down\u0026quot; -description \u0026quot;powerdown\u0026quot; -runasync -confirm:$false\nOf course there is a whole methodology of how to perform this shutdown - what comes before what and what should be powered down in which order, but that is not the issue at hand.","tags":["Tools","Management","Powershell","Administration","VMware","ESX","PowerCLI"],"title":"How to Throttle Removing ESX Snapshots"},{"content":"Ladies and Gentlemen!!!\nBecause I have seen two such posts in almost as many days here and here - dealing with installation of vCenter Server on Windows 2008 R2 (which of course is 64-bit only) I feel it is important to point out that this is not a good idea and to bring your attention to the\nvSphere Compatibility Matrix - pg.18.\nvCenter is not supported (as of today) running on Windows 2008 R2!!!!!!!!!!!\nWill it work on Windows 2008 R2? \u0026amp;ndash; Yes!!\nDoes vSphere client run on Windows 2008 R2? \u0026amp;ndash; Yes!!\nDoes Update Manager run on Windows 2008 R2?? \u0026amp;ndash; Yes!!\nAre you willing to risk the fact that your infrastructure is running on an unsupported platform - and if you run into a problem that is OS related - you are on your own?? I for sure am not!!\nFor a test Environment or a lab - sure no problem - why not. But I would not do it (and refused) for my Production Infrastructure.\nUntil VMware updates the above document - I would strongly advise that if you want to install vCenter on Windows 2008 - do so on Windows 2008 64-bit SP2 - that way you can still upgrade to R2 when the OS becomes officially supported.\nPersonally I think it it is a technicality that the QC process was not completed on Windows 2008 R2 before the release of 4.0 Update 1 - and it will be just a matter of time until it is added in ….\n","date":"Mar 4, 2010","href":"/2010/03/vcenter-on-windows-2008-r2.html","summary":"Ladies and Gentlemen!!!\nBecause I have seen two such posts in almost as many days here and here - dealing with installation of vCenter Server on Windows 2008 R2 (which of course is 64-bit only) I feel it is important to point out that this is not a good idea and to bring your attention to the\nvSphere Compatibility Matrix - pg.18.\nvCenter is not supported (as of today) running on Windows 2008 R2!!!!!!!!!!!","tags":["Management","vSphere","Windows","Administration","vCenter"],"title":"vCenter on Windows 2008 R2 - not the best idea"},{"content":"Here is a tale of a small little airplane and what kind of damage it can do. No I am not going back to Sep. 11 and the WTC. more of the likes of Feb 17th, 2010 - 07:50 in Palo Alto California.\nA play-by-play of the events showed that because of a small plane that crashed (unfortunately killing 3 people) Palo Alto went dark - well not really dark, because it was early morning - but power went out, COMPLETELY!!\nNow I guess that most of us can imagine what that means for us in our personal life, I mean you have No lights, no TV - no VoIP, no computers, no air conditioners, no hot espresso from the espresso machine…\nYou see where I am going.\nBut taking this to a different angle. Your Datacenter.\nPower goes out. If you are well organized - you will have backup power for a certain amount of time - depending on the generator.\nSMS alerts start flying into your mobile phone like crazy.\nYou call the office … no-one answers.\nYou manage to find someone on his mobile that is at work - and try to find out what is going on - but they are as confused as you are.\nYou try to turn on your TV to see what is going on - whoops forgot no electricity - which means not internet connection either.\nChaos \u0026amp;hellip; Confusion \u0026amp;hellip; this is what it can be like.\nI mean I could go on and on but I think you get my drift.\nSo if you are lucky enough you manage to power everything down properly before your backup power runs out of juice.\nOK now comes the analysis phase - WHAT IS DOWN?\nLet us go back to VMware\u0026amp;rsquo;s case. No Email. No Phones.\nPost notification to the world of service availability\nOpen up a channel of communications as soon as possible\nRestore services as soon as possible\n(in this case until full functionality was back was almost 10 hours)\nI am not going to go into the BCP plan of VMware - because I have absolutely no knowledge of what was down and what was still up and working.\nFor your BCP plan you will need (amongst others) these things:\nRecovery time objective - How long until I","date":"Feb 24, 2010","href":"/2010/02/so-how-up-to-date-is-your-bcp-plan.html","summary":"Here is a tale of a small little airplane and what kind of damage it can do. No I am not going back to Sep. 11 and the WTC. more of the likes of Feb 17th, 2010 - 07:50 in Palo Alto California.\nA play-by-play of the events showed that because of a small plane that crashed (unfortunately killing 3 people) Palo Alto went dark - well not really dark, because it was early morning - but power went out, COMPLETELY!!","tags":["Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware"],"title":"So How Up-to-Date is Your BCP Plan?"},{"content":"Last Thursday I participated in the Israeli VMUG meeting. The following are my thought and observations from what was presented at this meeting. (The product release dates mentioned below are not mine, but were presented at the event).\nFirst up was someone from the Systems Engineering group from VMware who talked about:\nCloud Vision\nIt was mentioned that ESX 4.1 will be released in not to distant future.\nVMware are working on the options of raising the Maximum number of vCpu\u0026amp;rsquo;s for a VM from 8 per VM. This will assure that there is no CPU workload - whatsoever - that cannot be run as a VM.\nFrom a VMware Customer survey from 2008:\nThe application is that is most customers are virtualizing is SQL - 56%, followed by SharePoint - 53%, IBM Websphere 50%, Oracle Middleware - 41% and Exchange 36%\nThe average Oracle DB Server uses 2-4vCPUS, utilization is approximately 6%\nAverage disk I/O 2000 IOPS\nVMware are going to push cloud this upcoming year, and in order to embrace this you should treat your VM as a server - it should be a service - that way it will be easier to define the financial cost for this service as opposed to the single server.\nVMware is looking for Service providers for Cloud Services in Israel.\nProject Redwood - Middleware - Common service model for Infrastructure clouds, which will allow for use of services for a user centric perspective - will include API that can communicate between clouds, the focus will be on this for the upcoming year\nNext up was a presentation about capacity IQ, I was surprised to see that not many of the 60-80 of the participants knew of any of the other vendors that provide these similar services. I did not receive a satisfactory response regarding what the added benefit that CapacityIQ has over these 3rd party products.\nThereafter was a presentation about AppSpeed. At present, the product is limited to a small number of protocols that it can analyze. Plans for the future are to enlarge that number for broader application","date":"Feb 21, 2010","href":"/2010/02/israel-vmug-february-2010-cloud-vision.html","summary":"Last Thursday I participated in the Israeli VMUG meeting. The following are my thought and observations from what was presented at this meeting. (The product release dates mentioned below are not mine, but were presented at the event).\nFirst up was someone from the Systems Engineering group from VMware who talked about:\nCloud Vision\nIt was mentioned that ESX 4.1 will be released in not to distant future.\nVMware are working on the options of raising the Maximum number of vCpu\u0026rsquo;s for a VM from 8 per VM. This will assure that there is no CPU workload - whatsoever - that cannot be run as a VM.","tags":["VMUG","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"Israel VMUG - February 2010 - Cloud vision"},{"content":"There are numerous posts about how to use Active Directory to authenticate your ssh logins to your ESX servers.\nJason Boche,Travis Laird, Geert Baeke\nThe idea is pretty simple\nConfigure the ESX server with esxcfg-auth as in the above posts Add the desired users locally on your ESX Server Login away But \u0026amp;hellip;\nOnce this is enabled all authentication will be done against Active directory – INCLUDING THE root USER\nJason mentioned this on his post\nWarning: One thing to watch out for would the existance of a root account in AD in which you are not the owner of. By implementing AD authentication, a root account in AD is going to be granted root level Service Console access on the ESX host! Take the necessary precautions here.\nTravis did as well and provided a solution as well\nIf you are not using root login through SSH and you want to exclude the root user login from attempting Active Directory authentication, modify the /etc/pam.d/system-auth file and add the parameter minimum_uid=1 to the following line so it reads:\nauth sufficient /lib/security/$ISA/pam_krb5.so use_first_pass minimum_uid=1\nGeert as well..\nA couple of other things to think of:\nIf you create a user in AD with account name root, you can logon as root with its AD password. If you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t want AD authentication for root, you can edit /etc/pam.d/system-auth. On the line that starts with auth and also includes pam_krb5.so, add this to the end: minimum_uid=1. Authentication for root (uid=0) will now be done locally only. Now of course ssh login is disabled for root. But when trying to login I saw in the logs /var/log/secure that root was trying to authenticate against the domain.\nFeb 17 10:32:08 esx2 sshd[5838]: pam_krb5[5838]: authentication fails for \u0026amp;lsquo;root\u0026amp;rsquo; (root@MAISHK.LOCAL): User not known to the underlying authentication module (Clients credentials have been revoked)\n(the root account exists in the domain, but is disabled)\nSo I wanted to add the solution as published above.\nThese are","date":"Feb 17, 2010","href":"/2010/02/esx-40-active-directory-authentication.html","summary":"There are numerous posts about how to use Active Directory to authenticate your ssh logins to your ESX servers.\nJason Boche,Travis Laird, Geert Baeke\nThe idea is pretty simple\nConfigure the ESX server with esxcfg-auth as in the above posts Add the desired users locally on your ESX Server Login away But \u0026hellip;\nOnce this is enabled all authentication will be done against Active directory – INCLUDING THE root USER\nJason mentioned this on his post","tags":["Active Directory","Security","Management","Administration","MJTV","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"ESX 4.0 Active Directory Authentication"},{"content":"It is accepted practice amongst most of the virtualization world that you can use a 100mb/s link for your Service Console port, because there is not much traffic that is flowing over that link.\nWell in the majority of the cases that is true.\nFor example. vmnic0 is running the Service Console. This link is connected at 1000mb/s\nAs you can see in the screen shot there is nothing really running through the Service Console (vmnic0)\nBut how about this\nNow you would (and should) most definitely ask what is running through vmnic0 that is causing that amount of traffic.\nIt is not a Backup agent, no VMkernel on vmnic0 either. It was a regular virtual machine import.\nA bit more of an explanation. How often does it happen that you are asked to import a virtual machine from somewhere? A virtual appliance? A new image that has to go onto the ESX?\nWhen importing a virtual machine into an ESX host, the traffic goes directly through the service console and it\u0026amp;rsquo;s vmnic.\nAs you can see that amount of traffic can easily surpass 100mb/s.\nBut if you have the option of only running a SC on 100mb/s then you will have to take into account the virtual machine imports will take longer - they can take much.. much longer if you run multiple simultaneous imports. I do not know what impact it will have on the other traffic that has to run on the Service console. I do not know of any QOS on ESX that will ensure that some kind of traffic is more important than others.\nFinding a 100mb/s NIC is something that you will have to go on a treasure hunt for - we are at the time and age that a 1Gb is default and soon 10Gb will become the norm. the issue here is not the NIC - it is the switchport. Not everything can run on 1Gb end-to-end, so here is your limitation.\nSolutions?\nRun your SC on 1Gb Share your SC with other ESX Network components (Vmkernel / VM Traffic) and lower the level of security for your ESX Create an aggregate to widen the \u0026amp;ldquo;pipe\u0026amp;rdquo; Run your SC on 100mb/s and take into","date":"Feb 16, 2010","href":"/2010/02/is-100mb-enough-for-service-console.html","summary":"It is accepted practice amongst most of the virtualization world that you can use a 100mb/s link for your Service Console port, because there is not much traffic that is flowing over that link.\nWell in the majority of the cases that is true.\nFor example. vmnic0 is running the Service Console. This link is connected at 1000mb/s\nAs you can see in the screen shot there is nothing really running through the Service Console (vmnic0)","tags":["Network","Management","Appliances","Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting","Converter"],"title":"Is 100mb Enough for the Service Console?"},{"content":"Just to remind you all - Server Core - NO GUI!\nI needed to install VMware tools today on a VM with Windows 2008 R2 Core.\nStart the VMware tools install.\nmsiexec /i \u0026amp;lt;path to\u0026amp;gt;\\VMware Tools64.msi /qn\nMachine will reboot automatically - unless you provide the correct parameters to the msi installer\nThanks to Mike and Geert for the assistance\n","date":"Feb 10, 2010","href":"/2010/02/install-vmware-tools-on-server-core.html","summary":"Just to remind you all - Server Core - NO GUI!\nI needed to install VMware tools today on a VM with Windows 2008 R2 Core.\nStart the VMware tools install.\nmsiexec /i \u0026lt;path to\u0026gt;\\VMware Tools64.msi /qn\nMachine will reboot automatically - unless you provide the correct parameters to the msi installer\nThanks to Mike and Geert for the assistance","tags":["Tools","Management","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Install VMware Tools on Server Core"},{"content":"Many eons ago there was talk about patch footprints - comparing ESXi to Hyper-V, footprints and security patches.\nSo today I came across this one.\nMicrosoft Security Bulletin MS10-010 - Important General Information Executive Summary This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V. The vulnerability could allow denial of service if a malformed sequence of machine instructions is run by an authenticated user in one of the guest virtual machines hosted by the Hyper-V server. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally into a guest virtual machine to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users.\nThis security update is rated Important for all supported x64-based editions of Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.\nThe security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting the way Hyper-V server validates encoding on machine instructions executed inside its guest virtual machines. For more information about the vulnerability, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection for the specific vulnerability entry under the next section, Vulnerability Information.\nSo what is so different about this one - I mean Microsoft release patches once a month (and in certain extreme cases - more often).\nRead the fine print\u0026amp;hellip;\nAn attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally into a guest virtual machine to exploit this vulnerability.\nFrom the details:\nAn attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to a Hyper-V virtual machine to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users.\nWhat is the scope of the vulnerability?\nThis is a denial of service vulnerability. An attacker who exploited this","date":"Feb 10, 2010","href":"/2010/02/new-hyper-v-security-vulnerability.html","summary":"Many eons ago there was talk about patch footprints - comparing ESXi to Hyper-V, footprints and security patches.\nSo today I came across this one.\nMicrosoft Security Bulletin MS10-010 - Important General Information Executive Summary This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V. The vulnerability could allow denial of service if a malformed sequence of machine instructions is run by an authenticated user in one of the guest virtual machines hosted by the Hyper-V server. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally into a guest virtual machine to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users.","tags":["Microsoft","Security","Hyper-V","Miscellaneous"],"title":"New Hyper-V Security Vulnerability"},{"content":"Last week I posted the link to the Beta release. Today Veeam announces the release of version 3.0.2 that now supports Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2.\nRelease Notes\nNew Features The following is a list of new features introduced in the Veeam FastSCP 3.0.2:\nAdded support for Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 VMware vSphere 4 is now “officially” supported. The following is a list of new features introduced in the Veeam FastSCP 3.0.1:\nAdded support for ESX 3.5 Update 4. The following is a list of new features introduced in the Veeam FastSCP 3.0:\nFull ESXi support. Improved file copy scheduling options Improved user interface Resolved Issues The following is a list of issues resolved in the Veeam FastSCP 3.0.2:\nFastSCP doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t process flat.vmdk files on ESX(i) 4 when using agentless mode\nThe following is a list of issues resolved in the Veeam FastSCP 3.0.1:\nInactive datastore error when trying to copy files to/from online NFS datastore connected to an ESXi host. If the daily scheduled copy job’s schedule is set to skip some days, the job always start at 12am on the next day it is allowed to run. Unknown api version error displayed when processing vCenter containing older versions of ESX servers (prior to ESX 3.0). File deletion errors are not displayed correctly Known Issues The following is a list of issues known to exist at the time of the Veeam FastSCP 3.0.2 release:\nGeneral Creating new folder, and copying files within the same datastore fails with COM error () is not when FastSCP is installed on the 64bit OS and agentless data transfer mode (ESXi) is used. Service console agent based data transfer mode ESX and Linux is not affected. Scheduled file copy job statuses do not refresh automatically. Click the Refresh button to update the status for all jobs when required. Under certain circumstances, making changes in FastSCP user interface while a file copy job is running may result session information and statistics loss. Local administrator","date":"Feb 9, 2010","href":"/2010/02/veeam-fastscp-supports-win7-and.html","summary":"Last week I posted the link to the Beta release. Today Veeam announces the release of version 3.0.2 that now supports Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2.\nRelease Notes\nNew Features The following is a list of new features introduced in the Veeam FastSCP 3.0.2:\nAdded support for Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 VMware vSphere 4 is now “officially” supported. The following is a list of new features introduced in the Veeam FastSCP 3.0.1:","tags":["Tools","Administration","VMware","ESX","ESX4i"],"title":"Veeam FastSCP - Supports Win7 and Win2008R2"},{"content":"Every now and again VMware releases an update for their products, among those are also VMware Workstation. I have a small issue with the whole thing.\nFirstly, I must say this is only regarding those who are running Workstation on Windows - from what I hear this does not happen on on a Linux Host OS.\nWhen you install an update for Workstation - you are required to reboot the machine. That would be fine and more than acceptable - but this has to be done twice. Workstation cannot update the software it has to uninstall the previous version, reboot and then install the new version and then reboot again.\nAll in all the the process took 35 minutes from start to finish (Uninstall - Reboot - Install - Reboot).\nIs there no way that VMware can make this process less time consuming??\nThanks @jasonboche @wilva for the empathy :)\n","date":"Feb 8, 2010","href":"/2010/02/vmware-workstation-small-rant.html","summary":"Every now and again VMware releases an update for their products, among those are also VMware Workstation. I have a small issue with the whole thing.\nFirstly, I must say this is only regarding those who are running Workstation on Windows - from what I hear this does not happen on on a Linux Host OS.\nWhen you install an update for Workstation - you are required to reboot the machine. That would be fine and more than acceptable - but this has to be done twice. Workstation cannot update the software it has to uninstall the previous version, reboot and then install the new version and then reboot again.","tags":["Workstation","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"VMware workstation - Small Rant"},{"content":"For all of you who have been waiting for a version that works on Windows 7 and on Windows Server 2008 R2 it is out. For those that do not know the current tool does not work correctly on Windows 7 or on Windows 2008 R2\nAs was posted on the Veeam Forums you download a Beta release here\nThere are issues with ESXi and 64-bit Windows OS’s so read the post on the forum to see what can be done and what cannot\n","date":"Feb 2, 2010","href":"/2010/02/fastscp-302270-beta.html","summary":"For all of you who have been waiting for a version that works on Windows 7 and on Windows Server 2008 R2 it is out. For those that do not know the current tool does not work correctly on Windows 7 or on Windows 2008 R2\nAs was posted on the Veeam Forums you download a Beta release here\nThere are issues with ESXi and 64-bit Windows OS’s so read the post on the forum to see what can be done and what cannot","tags":["Tools","Management","Administration","VMware"],"title":"FastSCP 3.0.2.270 Beta"},{"content":"In continuation to both Jason Boche\u0026amp;rsquo;s and Scott Lowe\u0026amp;rsquo;s excellent posts about the recommended Advanced Settings for ESX while using a Celerra NFS mount, and after Jase McCarty\u0026amp;rsquo;s post earlier regarding how to set the recommended settings for ESX and NetApp, I wanted to share with you my script for doing the same for those who are using EMC\nfunction optimize-CelerraNFS { Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name NFS.SendBufferSize -Value 64 Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name NFS.ReceiveBufferSize -Value 64 Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name NFS.MaxVolumes -Value 32 Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name Net.TcpipHeapMax -Value 120 Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name Net.TcpipHeapSize -Value 30 Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name NFS.HeartbeatFrequency -Value 12 Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name NFS.HeartbeatDelta -Value 12 Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name NFS.HeartbeatMaxFailures -Value 10 } Connect-VIServer VISERVER $hostcreds = Get-Credential Get-VMHost | ForEach-Object { Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;Optimizing $($_.Name) ...\u0026amp;#34; Connect-VIServer -server $_.Name -Credential $hostcreds optimize-CelerraNFS Disconnect-VIServer -Confirm:$false } The settings are as per the recommendations on the above blog posts and this EMC document.\nRegarding the lines 5-6. The settings are taken from this knowledgebase article, seeing that in the EMC document and on Scott\u0026amp;rsquo;s blog the recommendation is multiply the values by the same number that you multiplied NFS.MaxVolumes - but taking into account that the maximum value for Net.TcpipHeapMax is 120, I could not multiply it by 4.\nLines 12-13: The action must be performed against the ESX host directly, so I gather the credentials for each the ESX Host.\nThe rest is pretty self-explanatory.\nIt goes without saying that you have to reboot your Host in order for these settings to take effect.\n","date":"Feb 2, 2010","href":"/2010/02/optimize-nfs-settings-for-celerra.html","summary":"In continuation to both Jason Boche\u0026rsquo;s and Scott Lowe\u0026rsquo;s excellent posts about the recommended Advanced Settings for ESX while using a Celerra NFS mount, and after Jase McCarty\u0026rsquo;s post earlier regarding how to set the recommended settings for ESX and NetApp, I wanted to share with you my script for doing the same for those who are using EMC\nfunction optimize-CelerraNFS { Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name NFS.SendBufferSize -Value 64 Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name NFS.ReceiveBufferSize -Value 64 Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name NFS.MaxVolumes -Value 32 Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name Net.TcpipHeapMax -Value 120 Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name Net.TcpipHeapSize -Value 30 Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name NFS.HeartbeatFrequency -Value 12 Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name NFS.HeartbeatDelta -Value 12 Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name NFS.HeartbeatMaxFailures -Value 10 } Connect-VIServer VISERVER $hostcreds = Get-Credential Get-VMHost | ForEach-Object { Write-Host \u0026#34;Optimizing $($_.Name) ...\u0026#34; Connect-VIServer -server $_.Name -Credential $hostcreds optimize-CelerraNFS Disconnect-VIServer -Confirm:$false } The settings are as per the recommendations on the above blog posts and this EMC document.","tags":["vSphere","Powershell","Administration","VMware","ESX","PowerCLI"],"title":"Optimize NFS settings for Celerra"},{"content":"Workstation 7.0.1 - Release Notes\nWhat\u0026amp;rsquo;s New Workstation 7.0.1 is a maintenance release that resolves some known issues. This release of VMware Workstation adds the following new support:\nNew Support for 32-Bit and 64-Bit Operating Systems This release provides support for the following host and guest operating systems:\nOperating System Host and Guest Support Windows 2008 R2 Host and guest Windows Vista SP2 Host and guest Ubuntu 9.10 Host and guest RHEL 5.4 Host and guest CentOS 5.4 Guest Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.4 Guest vCenter Server 2.5 Update 6 - Release Notes\nWhat\u0026amp;rsquo;s New Guest Operating Systems Customization Improvements\nCustomization support for the following guest operating systems has been added in this release:\nFor more complete information about supported guests included in this release, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.\nWindows 7 Enterprise (32-bit and 64-bit) Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit and 64-bit) Windows 7 Professional (32-bit and 64-bit) Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit and 64-bit) Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition (64-bit) Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition (64-bit) Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition (64-bit) Windows Server 2008 R2 Web Server (64-bit) Support for Firefox 3.x Browsers with VirtualCenter Web Access\nThis release adds support for Firefox 3.x browsers with VirtualCenter Web Access. Firefox 3.x is not a supported browser for ESX Server 3.5 Update 5 Web Access with this release.\nLifeCycle Manager 1.1 - Release Notes\nWhat\u0026amp;rsquo;s New VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager (LCM) 1.1 release enhances the performance, robustness, and scalability of LCM and resolves a number of known issues.\nThe LCM 1.1 release runs on VMware vCenter Orchestrator 4.0.1. To run LCM 1.1, you must install the version of Orchestrator (4.0.1 Build 4502) that accompanies the LCM 1.1 download. See the vCenter Lifecycle Manager 1.1 Installation and Configuration Guide for installation instructions.\n","date":"Jan 31, 2010","href":"/2010/01/new-releases-from-vmware.html","summary":"Workstation 7.0.1 - Release Notes\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s New Workstation 7.0.1 is a maintenance release that resolves some known issues. This release of VMware Workstation adds the following new support:\nNew Support for 32-Bit and 64-Bit Operating Systems This release provides support for the following host and guest operating systems:\nOperating System Host and Guest Support Windows 2008 R2 Host and guest Windows Vista SP2 Host and guest Ubuntu 9.10 Host and guest RHEL 5.4 Host and guest CentOS 5.4 Guest Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.4 Guest vCenter Server 2.5 Update 6 - Release Notes","tags":["Workstation","Miscellaneous","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"New Releases from VMware"},{"content":"Duncan posted this one this evening.\nSo to add to his post there is a way to \u0026amp;ldquo;hide\u0026amp;rdquo; the web service at least front page\nin ESXi the configuration file that is responsible for all this is /etc/vmware/hostd/proxy.xml\n\u0026amp;lt;ConfigRoot\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;EndpointList\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;length\u0026amp;gt;10\u0026amp;lt;/length\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;type\u0026amp;gt;vim.ProxyService.EndpointSpec[]\u0026amp;lt;/type\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;e id=\u0026amp;#34;0\u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;type\u0026amp;gt;vim.ProxyService.LocalServiceSpec\u0026amp;lt;/type\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;accessMode\u0026amp;gt;httpsWithRedirect\u0026amp;lt;/accessMode\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;port\u0026amp;gt;8309\u0026amp;lt;/port\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;serverNamespace\u0026amp;gt;/\u0026amp;lt;/serverNamespace\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;/e\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;e id=\u0026amp;#34;1\u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;type\u0026amp;gt;vim.ProxyService.LocalServiceSpec\u0026amp;lt;/type\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;accessMode\u0026amp;gt;httpsWithRedirect\u0026amp;lt;/accessMode\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;port\u0026amp;gt;8307\u0026amp;lt;/port\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;serverNamespace\u0026amp;gt;/sdk\u0026amp;lt;/serverNamespace\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;/e\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;e id=\u0026amp;#34;2\u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;type\u0026amp;gt;vim.ProxyService.LocalServiceSpec\u0026amp;lt;/type\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;accessMode\u0026amp;gt;httpsWithRedirect\u0026amp;lt;/accessMode\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;port\u0026amp;gt;8308\u0026amp;lt;/port\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;serverNamespace\u0026amp;gt;/ui\u0026amp;lt;/serverNamespace\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;/e\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;e id=\u0026amp;#34;3\u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;type\u0026amp;gt;vim.ProxyService.NamedPipeServiceSpec\u0026amp;lt;/type\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;accessMode\u0026amp;gt;httpsOnly\u0026amp;lt;/accessMode\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;pipeName\u0026amp;gt;/var/run/vmware/proxy-vpxa\u0026amp;lt;/pipeName\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;serverNamespace\u0026amp;gt;/vpxa\u0026amp;lt;/serverNamespace\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;/e\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;e id=\u0026amp;#34;4\u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;type\u0026amp;gt;vim.ProxyService.NamedPipeServiceSpec\u0026amp;lt;/type\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;accessMode\u0026amp;gt;httpsWithRedirect\u0026amp;lt;/accessMode\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;pipeName\u0026amp;gt;/var/run/vmware/proxy-mob\u0026amp;lt;/pipeName\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;serverNamespace\u0026amp;gt;/mob\u0026amp;lt;/serverNamespace\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;/e\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;e id=\u0026amp;#34;5\u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;type\u0026amp;gt;vim.ProxyService.LocalServiceSpec\u0026amp;lt;/type\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;!-- Use this mode for \u0026amp;#34;secure\u0026amp;#34; deployment --\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;accessMode\u0026amp;gt;httpsWithRedirect\u0026amp;lt;/accessMode\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;!-- Use this mode for \u0026amp;#34;insecure\u0026amp;#34; deployment --\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;!-- \u0026amp;lt;accessMode\u0026amp;gt;httpAndHttps\u0026amp;lt;/accessMode\u0026amp;gt; --\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;port\u0026amp;gt;8889\u0026amp;lt;/port\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;serverNamespace\u0026amp;gt;/wsman\u0026amp;lt;/serverNamespace\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;/e\u0026amp;gt;","date":"Jan 29, 2010","href":"/2010/01/disabling-services-in-esxi.html","summary":"Duncan posted this one this evening.\nSo to add to his post there is a way to \u0026ldquo;hide\u0026rdquo; the web service at least front page\nin ESXi the configuration file that is responsible for all this is /etc/vmware/hostd/proxy.xml\n\u0026lt;ConfigRoot\u0026gt; \u0026lt;EndpointList\u0026gt; \u0026lt;length\u0026gt;10\u0026lt;/length\u0026gt; \u0026lt;type\u0026gt;vim.ProxyService.EndpointSpec[]\u0026lt;/type\u0026gt; \u0026lt;e id=\u0026#34;0\u0026#34;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;type\u0026gt;vim.ProxyService.LocalServiceSpec\u0026lt;/type\u0026gt; \u0026lt;accessMode\u0026gt;httpsWithRedirect\u0026lt;/accessMode\u0026gt; \u0026lt;port\u0026gt;8309\u0026lt;/port\u0026gt; \u0026lt;serverNamespace\u0026gt;/\u0026lt;/serverNamespace\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/e\u0026gt; \u0026lt;e id=\u0026#34;1\u0026#34;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;type\u0026gt;vim.ProxyService.LocalServiceSpec\u0026lt;/type\u0026gt; \u0026lt;accessMode\u0026gt;httpsWithRedirect\u0026lt;/accessMode\u0026gt; \u0026lt;port\u0026gt;8307\u0026lt;/port\u0026gt; \u0026lt;serverNamespace\u0026gt;/sdk\u0026lt;/serverNamespace\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/e\u0026gt; \u0026lt;e id=\u0026#34;2\u0026#34;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;type\u0026gt;vim.ProxyService.LocalServiceSpec\u0026lt;/type\u0026gt; \u0026lt;accessMode\u0026gt;httpsWithRedirect\u0026lt;/accessMode\u0026gt; \u0026lt;port\u0026gt;8308\u0026lt;/port\u0026gt; \u0026lt;serverNamespace\u0026gt;/ui\u0026lt;/serverNamespace\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/e\u0026gt; \u0026lt;e id=\u0026#34;3\u0026#34;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;type\u0026gt;vim.ProxyService.NamedPipeServiceSpec\u0026lt;/type\u0026gt; \u0026lt;accessMode\u0026gt;httpsOnly\u0026lt;/accessMode\u0026gt; \u0026lt;pipeName\u0026gt;/var/run/vmware/proxy-vpxa\u0026lt;/pipeName\u0026gt; \u0026lt;serverNamespace\u0026gt;/vpxa\u0026lt;/serverNamespace\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/e\u0026gt; \u0026lt;e id=\u0026#34;4\u0026#34;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;type\u0026gt;vim.ProxyService.NamedPipeServiceSpec\u0026lt;/type\u0026gt; \u0026lt;accessMode\u0026gt;httpsWithRedirect\u0026lt;/accessMode\u0026gt; \u0026lt;pipeName\u0026gt;/var/run/vmware/proxy-mob\u0026lt;/pipeName\u0026gt; \u0026lt;serverNamespace\u0026gt;/mob\u0026lt;/serverNamespace\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/e\u0026gt; \u0026lt;e id=\u0026#34;5\u0026#34;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;type\u0026gt;vim.ProxyService.LocalServiceSpec\u0026lt;/type\u0026gt; \u0026lt;!-- Use this mode for \u0026#34;secure\u0026#34; deployment --\u0026gt; \u0026lt;accessMode\u0026gt;httpsWithRedirect\u0026lt;/accessMode\u0026gt; \u0026lt;!-- Use this mode for \u0026#34;insecure\u0026#34; deployment --\u0026gt; \u0026lt;!-- \u0026lt;accessMode\u0026gt;httpAndHttps\u0026lt;/accessMode\u0026gt; --\u0026gt; \u0026lt;port\u0026gt;8889\u0026lt;/port\u0026gt; \u0026lt;serverNamespace\u0026gt;/wsman\u0026lt;/serverNamespace\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/e\u0026gt; \u0026lt;!-- Needed because old versions of the VI client access the clients.xml file over Http for upgrade --\u0026gt; \u0026lt;e id=\u0026#34;6\u0026#34;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;type\u0026gt;vim.ProxyService.LocalServiceSpec\u0026lt;/type\u0026gt; \u0026lt;accessMode\u0026gt;httpAndHttps\u0026lt;/accessMode\u0026gt; \u0026lt;port\u0026gt;8309\u0026lt;/port\u0026gt; \u0026lt;serverNamespace\u0026gt;/client/clients.xml\u0026lt;/serverNamespace\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/e\u0026gt; \u0026lt;e id=\u0026#34;7\u0026#34;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;type\u0026gt;vim.ProxyService.NamedPipeTunnelSpec\u0026lt;/type\u0026gt; \u0026lt;serverNamespace\u0026gt;/sdkTunnel\u0026lt;/serverNamespace\u0026gt; \u0026lt;accessMode\u0026gt;httpOnly\u0026lt;/accessMode\u0026gt; \u0026lt;pipeName\u0026gt;/var/run/vmware/proxy-sdk-tunnel\u0026lt;/pipeName\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/e\u0026gt; \u0026lt;e id=\u0026#34;8\u0026#34;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;type\u0026gt;vim.ProxyService.LocalServiceSpec\u0026lt;/type\u0026gt; \u0026lt;accessMode\u0026gt;httpAndHttps\u0026lt;/accessMode\u0026gt; \u0026lt;port\u0026gt;12001\u0026lt;/port\u0026gt; \u0026lt;serverNamespace\u0026gt;/ha-nfc\u0026lt;/serverNamespace\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/e\u0026gt; \u0026lt;e id=\u0026#34;9\u0026#34;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;type\u0026gt;vim.ProxyService.LocalServiceSpec\u0026lt;/type\u0026gt; \u0026lt;accessMode\u0026gt;httpAndHttps\u0026lt;/accessMode\u0026gt; \u0026lt;port\u0026gt;12000\u0026lt;/port\u0026gt; \u0026lt;serverNamespace\u0026gt;/nfc\u0026lt;/serverNamespace\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/e\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/EndpointList\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/ConfigRoot\u0026gt; The part we are interested in is this \u0026lt;e id=\u0026#34;0\u0026#34;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;type\u0026gt;vim.ProxyService.LocalServiceSpec\u0026lt;/type\u0026gt; \u0026lt;accessMode\u0026gt;httpsWithRedirect\u0026lt;/accessMode\u0026gt; \u0026lt;port\u0026gt;8309\u0026lt;/port\u0026gt; \u0026lt;serverNamespace\u0026gt;/\u0026lt;/serverNamespace\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/e\u0026gt; ","tags":["Management","vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting","ESX4i"],"title":"Disabling Web Services in ESXi"},{"content":"We are outgrowing our current storage capabilities, and virtualization is one of main \u0026amp;ldquo;customers\u0026amp;rdquo; that is causing this.\nSo we are now looking for a 2nd storage that will enable us to continue on our journey forward.\nI am a great fan of NFS for usage as a datastore for ESX. There are numerous reasons:\nBackups can be done on the storage level with little or no impact on the Host. In our specific environment, the backup speed we are getting with NDMP are excellent. The ability to mount the file systems elsewhere is extremely beneficial This is just to name a few.\nBut NFS has its downsides. ESX does support NFS as your storage platform, but I do not think that VMware are completely \u0026amp;ldquo;gung-ho\u0026amp;rdquo; about using NFS as storage.\nI do think that the future will be be more in VMFS - it is a proprietary File System that is VMware\u0026amp;rsquo;s. they know it inside out, and have been tweaking it more and more over the years, to provide better performance, to be more stable and so on… NFS on the other hand is not something that VMware will have any much of a say in how to tweak or improve the protocol or its performance.\nA small example. Disk metrics. How many of us know how to measure disk metrics for NFS datastores, in the vSphere client? Metrics Per host? Metrics per VM? Same question I can ask about the metrics in ESXTOP. They are not there. Disk metrics are for VMFS volumes only, which means iSCSI / SAN.\nTrue you can get the metrics out of vscsistats but it is not an intuitive tool, and not the easiest to figure out. What you will get from the GUI is network throughput for the whole VMkernel but you will not be able to tell which VM is using the disk throughput.\nFrom performance papers that VMware have published, performance of FC is always the best on all counts, NFS and iSCSI are almost the same.\nSo which to go for? The answer for that one I think would be go for tiers.\nNot all your dev and test machines will not need the speed and redundancy that your will","date":"Jan 28, 2010","href":"/2010/01/vmfs-or-nfs.html","summary":"We are outgrowing our current storage capabilities, and virtualization is one of main \u0026ldquo;customers\u0026rdquo; that is causing this.\nSo we are now looking for a 2nd storage that will enable us to continue on our journey forward.\nI am a great fan of NFS for usage as a datastore for ESX. There are numerous reasons:\nBackups can be done on the storage level with little or no impact on the Host. In our specific environment, the backup speed we are getting with NDMP are excellent. The ability to mount the file systems elsewhere is extremely beneficial This is just to name a few.","tags":["Management","Administration","VMware","ESX"],"title":"VMFS or NFS"},{"content":"Lately I have been asked more and more to install an ESXi system on a whitebox. Why you may ask - because users (we are a R\u0026amp;amp;D company) are asking to have a box with multiple operating systems with all kinds of configurations for testing purposes.\nNow of course the ideal would be to say, \u0026amp;ldquo;Sure, no problem! Let me deploy a VM for you!\u0026amp;rdquo; But seeing that the infrastructure that our ESX farm resides on (Servers, Network, Storage) is a hell of a lot more expensive than $700 PC. And in that PC you can stuff a 500GB disk, 8gb RAM, and a Dual (sometimes Quad) Core Processor. That is more than enough to run 4-5 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s on it without any issue.\nNot every OS, needs to run on the Central infrastructure! I mean the cost involved regarding maintenance, licensing backup etc. etc. do not justify having every single OS on the main vSphere Farm. I know some of you will disagree, but that is my opinion. Each company has its policies regarding what is backed up, how often, and under what SLA things need to be maintained.\nNow seeing that more and more of my users using VMware products in their daily tasks, be it VMware Player, Workstation, Server, and as of late the vSphere infrastructure client - they are familiar with the environment, they have a decent foundation of what virtualization does, and how it works.\nSo why add ESXi? Today deployed images that we use are including almost every version of Windows and multiple flavors of Linux (RH, Centos etc.)\nWe already have VMware images for all of the above OS\u0026amp;rsquo;s - way long ago. We saw this coming so we prepared the VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s of all the OS\u0026amp;rsquo;s.\nMost of the Brand-Name PC\u0026amp;rsquo;s (IBM/Dell/HP) will run ESX4i out of the box without too much customization, and if the customization was needed, the hours invested were well worth it\nTaking all of the above into account we found that building a custom CD of ESXi with some of our own additions, would provide a good solution to the growing need for a multiple OS computer.","date":"Jan 21, 2010","href":"/2010/01/adding-esxi-as-standard-operating.html","summary":"Lately I have been asked more and more to install an ESXi system on a whitebox. Why you may ask - because users (we are a R\u0026amp;D company) are asking to have a box with multiple operating systems with all kinds of configurations for testing purposes.\nNow of course the ideal would be to say, \u0026ldquo;Sure, no problem! Let me deploy a VM for you!\u0026rdquo; But seeing that the infrastructure that our ESX farm resides on (Servers, Network, Storage) is a hell of a lot more expensive than $700 PC. And in that PC you can stuff a 500GB disk, 8gb RAM, and a Dual (sometimes Quad) Core Processor. That is more than enough to run 4-5 VM\u0026rsquo;s on it without any issue.","tags":["Management","vSphere","Miscellaneous","Whitebox","Administration","VMware","ESX4i"],"title":"Adding ESXi as a standard Operating System"},{"content":"I encountered this today.\nI was trying to configure the alarm for datastore usage.\nRelatively simple operation - there is even a built in alarm for this in vCenter\nSo I configured the alarm to fire to test and to send me a notification email and an SNMP trap\nI received the email\nTarget: ESX2_NFS Previous Status: Gray New Status: Red Alarm Definition: ([Yellow metric Is above 75%; Red metric Is above 85%]) Current values for metric/state: Metric Storage Space Actually Used = 86% Description: Alarm \u0026amp;#39;Datastore usage on disk\u0026amp;#39; on ESX2_NFS changed from Gray to Red and the SNMP trap as well\nSNMPv2-MIB::snmpTrapOID.0 SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.6876.4.3.0.201 SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.6876.4.3.301 \u0026amp;#34;host\u0026amp;#34; SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.6876.4.3.302 \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#34; SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.6876.4.3.303 \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#34; SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.6876.4.3.304 \u0026amp;#34;Gray\u0026amp;#34; SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.6876.4.3.305 \u0026amp;#34;Red\u0026amp;#34; SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.6876.4.3.306 \u0026amp;#34;Datastore usage on disk - Metric Storage Space Actually Used = 86%\u0026amp;#34; SNMP-COMMUNITY-MIB::snmpTrapAddress.0 10.xx.xx.63 SNMP-COMMUNITY-MIB::snmpTrapCommunity.0 \u0026amp;#34;public\u0026amp;#34; The trap gave all the data except one small but important detail - THE NAME OF THE DATASTORE!\nAfter opening a call with VMware today the response I received:\nThe symptom you are explaining is a know issue and has been resolved by engineering.\nThis fix will be issued in VC4.0 update 2. There is no release date for this update as of yet, so I would suggest keeping update to date with the VMware website product downloads as it will be released there.\nSo if you are not getting the correct data from your SNMP traps - this could be the reason.\n","date":"Jan 20, 2010","href":"/2010/01/bug-in-snmp-traps-sent-from-vcenter.html","summary":"I encountered this today.\nI was trying to configure the alarm for datastore usage.\nRelatively simple operation - there is even a built in alarm for this in vCenter\nSo I configured the alarm to fire to test and to send me a notification email and an SNMP trap\nI received the email\nTarget: ESX2_NFS Previous Status: Gray New Status: Red Alarm Definition: ([Yellow metric Is above 75%; Red metric Is above 85%]) Current values for metric/state: Metric Storage Space Actually Used = 86% Description: Alarm \u0026#39;Datastore usage on disk\u0026#39; on ESX2_NFS changed from Gray to Red and the SNMP trap as well","tags":["Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"Bug in SNMP traps sent from vCenter"},{"content":"As I promised in a previous post I wanted to migrate from a vCenter to whole new machine\nProcess was:\nExport folders Export VM locations in Folders Export Permissions Export Custom Attributes Create Folders on the new vCenter Disable DRS/HA Remove ESX hosts from Source vCenter and add to Destination vCenter Enable DRS/HA again Move all vm’s to correct folders Apply the permissions back Apply custom attributes and notes Here is the script\n#load Vmware Module Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core #Change to multi-mode vcenter management Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -DefaultVIServerMode Multiple -Confirm:$false #Get vCenter Server Names $sourceVI = Read-Host \u0026amp;#34;Please enter the name of the source Server\u0026amp;#34;; $destVI = Read-Host \u0026amp;#34;Please enter the name of the destination Server\u0026amp;#34; $creds = get-credential $datacenter = Read-Host \u0026amp;#34;Please give the name of the datacenter you would like to run against\u0026amp;#34; #Connect to Source vCenter connect-viserver -server $sourceVI -credential $creds connect-viserver -server $destVI -credential $creds -NotDefault:$false filter Get-FolderPath { $_ | Get-View | % { $row = \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#34; | select Name, Path $row.Name = $_.Name $current = Get-View $_.Parent $path = $_.Name do { $parent = $current if($parent.Name -ne \u0026amp;#34;vm\u0026amp;#34;){$path = $parent.Name + \u0026amp;#34;\\\u0026amp;#34; + $path} $current = Get-View $current.Parent } while ($current.Parent -ne $null) $row.Path = $path $row } } ## Export all folders $report = @() $report = get-datacenter $datacenter -Server $sourceVI| Get-folder vm | get-folder | Get-Folderpath ##Replace the top level with vm foreach ($line in $report) { $line.Path = ($line.Path).Replace($datacenter + \u0026amp;#34;\\\u0026amp;#34;,\u0026amp;#34;vm\\\u0026amp;#34;) } $report | Export-Csv \u0026amp;#34;c:\\Folders-with-FolderPath-$($datacenter).csv\u0026amp;#34; -NoTypeInformation ##Export all VM locations $report = @() $report = get-datacenter $datacenter -Server $sourceVI| get-vm | Get-Folderpath $report | Export-Csv \u0026amp;#34;c:\\vms-with-FolderPath-$($datacenter).csv\u0026amp;#34;","date":"Jan 20, 2010","href":"/2010/01/vcenter-powercli-migration-script.html","summary":"As I promised in a previous post I wanted to migrate from a vCenter to whole new machine\nProcess was:\nExport folders Export VM locations in Folders Export Permissions Export Custom Attributes Create Folders on the new vCenter Disable DRS/HA Remove ESX hosts from Source vCenter and add to Destination vCenter Enable DRS/HA again Move all vm’s to correct folders Apply the permissions back Apply custom attributes and notes Here is the script","tags":["Virtualization","Scripting","Powershell","Administration","MJTV","VMware","vCenter","PowerCLI","Upgrade"],"title":"vCenter PowerCLI Migration Script"},{"content":"Eric Siebert just released the results for the Top Virtualization Bloggers poll that was running over the last 2 weeks.\nI am flabbergasted to say that was included in the top 25 (24) !!!!!!\nI highly appreciate the vote of confidence from all of you that voted for me.\nI do have to express my thanks and support from my number one fan Njoesh! Without your support I really could not have done it.\nI gather that what I am doing is interesting, and I do sincerely hope that I will be able to keep it up and make it even better.\nYou can follow all of the bloggers on this Twitter list\nAgain thank you all!\n","date":"Jan 17, 2010","href":"/2010/01/wow-i-am-honored.html","summary":"Eric Siebert just released the results for the Top Virtualization Bloggers poll that was running over the last 2 weeks.\nI am flabbergasted to say that was included in the top 25 (24) !!!!!!\nI highly appreciate the vote of confidence from all of you that voted for me.\nI do have to express my thanks and support from my number one fan Njoesh! Without your support I really could not have done it.","tags":["Virtualization","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Wow! I am honored!!"},{"content":"I have been busy with using Powershell in these past few days.\nI would like to share with you two of the scripts that I used lately. They were both used because of a password change that was made on a service account.\nNow the thing about service accounts in Windows 2003 is, they are good, they need elevated privileges in some cases, and since the account is used for the specific purpose then you know that you have to change it once in a while and you know where. Problem is though unless you catch them all – and someone – somewhere did not update the password somewhere, then you will start having issues with account lockouts.\nFirst is to get all the services from all the computers in my OU, and change the password\n$logfile = \u0026amp;#34;c:\\temp\\results.log\u0026amp;#34; $serviceaccount = \u0026amp;#34;svcmacct\u0026amp;#34; $password = \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#34; $serviceslist = Get\\QADComputer -SearchRoot \u0026amp;#34;OU=Public Servers,DC=maishsk,DC=local\u0026amp;#34; -OsName window* -searchscope \u0026amp;#34;subtree\u0026amp;#34; -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ` ForEach-Object { (Get\\WmiObject -Class Win32_Service -ComputerName $_.Name -ErrorAction ` SilentlyContinue | where { $_.\u0026amp;#39;StartName\u0026amp;#39; -like $serviceaccount } ) } [System.Reflection.Assembly\\]::LoadWithPartialName(\u0026amp;#39;system.serviceprocess\u0026amp;#39;) ForEach ($line in $serviceslist) { Write-Host Processing $line.Systemname $service = Get\\WmiObject win32_Service -ComputerName $line.Systemname -Filter \u0026amp;#34;Name=\u0026amp;#39;$($line.Name)\u0026amp;#39;\u0026amp;#34; Write-host Stopping Service $line.Name (new-object System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController($($line.Name),$($line.Systemname))).Stop() (new-object System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController($($line.Name),$($line.Systemname))).WaitForStatus(\u0026amp;#39;Stopped\u0026amp;#39;,(new-timespan -seconds 90)) if ($? -eq $true) { $service.Change($null ,$null ,$null ,$null ,$null ,$null , $serviceAccount, $password ) Write-host Starting Service $line.Name (new-object System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController($($line.Name),$($line.Systemname))).Start() (new-object","date":"Jan 15, 2010","href":"/2010/01/bit-of-housekeeping-powershell.html","summary":"I have been busy with using Powershell in these past few days.\nI would like to share with you two of the scripts that I used lately. They were both used because of a password change that was made on a service account.\nNow the thing about service accounts in Windows 2003 is, they are good, they need elevated privileges in some cases, and since the account is used for the specific purpose then you know that you have to change it once in a while and you know where. Problem is though unless you catch them all – and someone – somewhere did not update the password somewhere, then you will start having issues with account lockouts.","tags":["Microsoft","Server","Tools","Security","Management","Powershell","Windows"],"title":"A bit of housekeeping – Powershell"},{"content":"Stuff We All Get (for those of you who were wondering) - I only found this out not so long ago - in Yiddish it is called tchachkes.\nI got a letter in the mail today with my VCP4 Certificate.\nI am very pleased to see that Paul Maritz (himself) signed it!\nSeriously though - it is a nice addition to my Current Certifications. I am actually quite impressed with the speed that it was issued and delivered.\nThanks VMware !!\n","date":"Jan 15, 2010","href":"/2010/01/vcp4-swag.html","summary":"Stuff We All Get (for those of you who were wondering) - I only found this out not so long ago - in Yiddish it is called tchachkes.\nI got a letter in the mail today with my VCP4 Certificate.\nI am very pleased to see that Paul Maritz (himself) signed it!\nSeriously though - it is a nice addition to my Current Certifications. I am actually quite impressed with the speed that it was issued and delivered.","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"VCP4 SWAG"},{"content":"This evening I started to create a Windows 2008 R2 Template for my environment.\nI created the VM with the assistance of this walkthrough adding my own tweaks along the way.\nI then tried to import the VM into my vCenter Server and was presented with an error:\nUnable to Determine the Guest Operating System. Going into the Converter log on the client I found this row:\n_P2VError UNABLE_TO_DETERMINE_GUEST_OS()_\nWhen creating the VM it was on a ESX 4i U1 Host and I chose the option for Server 2008 R2\nI was trying to import the VM into a ESX 3.5 host where as you can see the version is different:\nI changed the version on the template to Windows Server 2008 (64-bit) and the import went fine.\nI will change it to the correct version - after all the ESX Hosts are at ESX 4 U1.\n","date":"Jan 13, 2010","href":"/2010/01/always-look-at-your-os-versions.html","summary":"This evening I started to create a Windows 2008 R2 Template for my environment.\nI created the VM with the assistance of this walkthrough adding my own tweaks along the way.\nI then tried to import the VM into my vCenter Server and was presented with an error:\nUnable to Determine the Guest Operating System. Going into the Converter log on the client I found this row:\n_P2VError UNABLE_TO_DETERMINE_GUEST_OS()_\nWhen creating the VM it was on a ESX 4i U1 Host and I chose the option for Server 2008 R2","tags":["Tools","Management","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting","Converter","ESX4i"],"title":"Always look at your OS versions."},{"content":"I had an issue today with a slowly responding ESX 3.5 Host.\nWhen going into the Host – it was visible that pCPU0 was running constantly at 90-100%.\nIn esxtop I saw that the console process was running at 50-70% of %USED CPU.\nBack into top on the host. I saw that vmkload_app was sitting at 30-50 %CPU on a permanent basis.\nBelow is similar to what I was seeing\nTOP PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM TIME CPU COMMAND 7645 root 5 -10 920 920 600 S 30.9 0.3 0:26 0 vmkload_app ESXTOP PCPU(%): 95.06, 13.33, ……… ID GID NAME NWLD %USED %RUN %SYS 9 9 console 1 4.40 4.43 0.01 Looking on Google the suggestions were:\nservice mgmt-vmware restart service vmware-vpxa restart service pegasus restart Disable HA and re-enable on the Cluster. Nothing helped\nSo I tried to get some more information from the process\nps –ef | 7645 and got this:\nroot 7645 1 0 15:00 ? 00:00:31 /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmkload_app /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx -ssched.group=host/user -# name=VMware ESX Server;version=3.5.0;licensename=VMware ESX Server;licenseversion=2.0 build-143128; -@ pipe=/tmp/vmhsdaemon-0/vmx8bb2cfd461217725; /vmfs/volumes/49af9c6a-c4e3adf1-e61 Now if you notice the really interesting stuff (like the VM name) is not there. I tried to pipe it to a file – nope tried other options – nope.\nSo how did I find which VM it was?\nEach Process that is running will be listed under /proc. Remember the Process ID (7645)?\n[ESX]# cat /proc/7645/cmdline /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmkload_app/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx-ssched.group=host/user-#name=VMware ESX Server;version=3.5.0;licensename=VMware ESX Server;licenseversion=2.0 build-143128;-@pipe=/tmp/vmhsdaemon-0/vmx8bb2cfd461217725;/vmfs/volumes/49af9c6a-c4e3adf1-e616-001e0bd66d9a/FILE_LOADER/FILE_LOADER.vmx I looked at the VM – it seemed to be performing correctly, still we power cycled the VM – and that cleared up the process and released the resources on the ESX host.\n2 Questions I still have.\nIs there another way of getting the full command of the","date":"Jan 12, 2010","href":"/2010/01/bad-vm-bad-vm.html","summary":"I had an issue today with a slowly responding ESX 3.5 Host.\nWhen going into the Host – it was visible that pCPU0 was running constantly at 90-100%.\nIn esxtop I saw that the console process was running at 50-70% of %USED CPU.\nBack into top on the host. I saw that vmkload_app was sitting at 30-50 %CPU on a permanent basis.\nBelow is similar to what I was seeing","tags":["Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Bad VM! Bad VM!!"},{"content":"As much as some of the Virtualization community would like - vCenter is a Windows application that means no Linux. VMware have released a CTP of an appliance that will run on Linux, but if you ask me - the project will never get off the ground - there just is not enough interest.\nSo a new server, new OS. Supported Operating Systems are (Compatibility Matrix):\nWindows XP SP2 / SP3 Windows 2003 32/64 SP1 / SP2 / R2 Windows 2008 32/64 Std/Ent/Datacenter The de-facto OS that we deploy today for a server is Windows Server 2008 R2 64bit - and this was not on the list! Sure many people have installed vCenter on R2 and it works, but for a production environment - if you want VMware support - then you go with the supported components.No arguing!! So compromises had to be made on all counts and with the new OS installed, static IP set and all default components (monitoring, AV etc.) installed we were ready to go.\nIt is a big download so if you are using a 56k modem - I think you should drop this post and come back when they release vSphere 24 because it will take that long.\nJust kidding, please stay with me……\nWhile the download completes ….\nI like to write down on paper (or in a txt file) what I have and where I want to go.\nWhat I have Windows 2003 32bit R2 SP2 vCenter 2.5 U4 on a DC Xeon with 2GB RAM License Server is on the the vCenter Server Database on a separate SQL 2005 server hosting the DB (and others as well) VMware Update Manager - on a VM in the virtual infrastructure Update Manager DB on the same SQL server VMware Guided consolidation x # of ESX hosts x # of Clusters x # VM’s x Number of Templates Where I want to go (this stage only) Windows 2008 64bit SP2 vCenter 4.0 Update 1 on a QC with 8GB ram (why I will get to in a minute) Database on on a separate Central SQL 2008 Server Update Manager installed on the same server Update Manager DB on the same Central SQL server. Same number of Hosts, Clusters, VM’s and templates as before. Converter Since this was not an","date":"Jan 8, 2010","href":"/2010/01/upgrade-vcenter-pt-2.html","summary":"As much as some of the Virtualization community would like - vCenter is a Windows application that means no Linux. VMware have released a CTP of an appliance that will run on Linux, but if you ask me - the project will never get off the ground - there just is not enough interest.\nSo a new server, new OS. Supported Operating Systems are (Compatibility Matrix):\nWindows XP SP2 / SP3 Windows 2003 32/64 SP1 / SP2 / R2 Windows 2008 32/64 Std/Ent/Datacenter The de-facto OS that we deploy today for a server is Windows Server 2008 R2 64bit - and this was not on the list! Sure many people have installed vCenter on R2 and it works, but for a production environment - if you want VMware support - then you go with the supported components.No arguing!! So compromises had to be made on all counts and with the new OS installed, static IP set and all default components (monitoring, AV etc.) installed we were ready to go.","tags":["Management","vSphere","Administration","MJTV","VMware","vCenter","Upgrade"],"title":"Upgrade vCenter pt. 2"},{"content":"To continue my experiences and planning for the upgrade to vSphere, here is the next stage.\nTo Upgrade / Re-install - that is the question (and it is a very good one if I may say so). Here are some of the pros and cons for both scenarios, and there are differences for reasons between the vCenter Server and the ESX hosts themselves.\nvCenter ESX Hosts I elected to go with a fresh install of all components of my vCenter infrastructure for a number of reasons:\nOriginal Installation was not done by me, and is over 3 years old. True it has been updated along the way, from 2.0 -\u0026amp;gt; 2.5 -\u0026amp;gt; 2.5 U4, but still there were several things that were not installed correctly from the start which have been causing issues for quite a while (For Example Performance Charts View that has never worked) and I wanted to start out with a new and fresh environment - seeing that this is becoming more and more of a crucial part of the infrastructure. The Historical Data was not make/or/break issue with us, that made the move a lot easier. There were several issues that had to be addressed of how all permissions, folder structure and custom attributes should be migrated to the new server that had to be ironed out. Physical / Virtual An never ending question that comes up al the time. vCenter is supported on both there are several benefits of having it as a VM - for one it can be be protected by HA in your cluster - but of course the are a number of caveats that need to be taken into consideration before virtualization your vCenter server.\nI elected to go for a physical machine. Why? for a number of reasons.\nThe hardware was available The SQL Database is on a separate server so most of the information is not dependent on the vCenter hardware anyways. There is always the fear (not mine - but management’s) that the Server that is supposed to manage the whole Virtual Infrastructure is actually hosted on the Virtual Infrastructure itself, a bit of a chicken and the egg story, so a physical","date":"Jan 7, 2010","href":"/2010/01/upgrade-vcenter-pt-1.html","summary":"To continue my experiences and planning for the upgrade to vSphere, here is the next stage.\nTo Upgrade / Re-install - that is the question (and it is a very good one if I may say so). Here are some of the pros and cons for both scenarios, and there are differences for reasons between the vCenter Server and the ESX hosts themselves.\nvCenter ESX Hosts I elected to go with a fresh install of all components of my vCenter infrastructure for a number of reasons:","tags":["Administration","MJTV","VMware","vCenter","Upgrade"],"title":"Upgrade vCenter pt. 1"},{"content":"I came across this today while performing and migration from vCenter 2.5 to vCenter 4.0\nWhen adding an ESX 3.5 Server you will need to provide a license for the host.\nvCenter 2.5 uses a separate application (FLEXLM) and there is no way to point the ESX host to use a vCenter 4.0 License.\nFrom the vSphere Upgrade Guide\nSo all of this is pointing to the same thing - you have to connect your vCenter server to the old licensing server.\nSo how do you do this?\nIn the vSphere Client, select Home \u0026amp;gt; vCenter Server Settings \u0026amp;gt; Licensing and add your old licensing server in the field at the bottom.\nOnce the ESX servers have been upgraded then you will be able to assign the licenses from your vCenter 4.0 Server and remove the licensing server.\n","date":"Jan 6, 2010","href":"/2010/01/adding-esx-35-servers-to-vcenter-40.html","summary":"I came across this today while performing and migration from vCenter 2.5 to vCenter 4.0\nWhen adding an ESX 3.5 Server you will need to provide a license for the host.\nvCenter 2.5 uses a separate application (FLEXLM) and there is no way to point the ESX host to use a vCenter 4.0 License.\nFrom the vSphere Upgrade Guide\nSo all of this is pointing to the same thing - you have to connect your vCenter server to the old licensing server.","tags":["Administration","MJTV","VMware","ESX","vCenter","Upgrade"],"title":"Adding ESX 3.5 Servers to vCenter 4.0"},{"content":"I really do not like pushing myself my readers and self plugging is not my style but since I have been included in the list of the VMware top bloggers poll, I feel honored to be on the list of 63 other great bloggers out there, spending large amounts of their free time for a greater cause. If I remember correctly, none of us really blog for a living - this is a “sidekick” of our regular lives and daily jobs which we all enjoy doing.\nPlease show your appreciation and cast your vote - and if you wish to add my name to the list of top bloggers - I will be highly honored.\nClick here to Vote\nMy most popular articles have already been published in my previous post 2009 in 349 Words so I will not post them here, but here is a link to my post that were chosen as the one of the Top 5 blog Post of the week on the VMTN blog during 2009\nhttps://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2009/11/top-5-planet-v12n-blog-posts-week-46.html\nhttps://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2009/06/top-5-planet-v12n-blog-posts-week-26.html\nHappy voting and Thanks!\n","date":"Jan 6, 2010","href":"/2010/01/i-hate-self-promotion-but-sometimes.html","summary":"I really do not like pushing myself my readers and self plugging is not my style but since I have been included in the list of the VMware top bloggers poll, I feel honored to be on the list of 63 other great bloggers out there, spending large amounts of their free time for a greater cause. If I remember correctly, none of us really blog for a living - this is a “sidekick” of our regular lives and daily jobs which we all enjoy doing.","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"I hate self promotion but sometimes…"},{"content":"Today I got an urgent call from an administrator saying that he had one machine that “had started to crawl. It was working fine yesterday!!!”\nSo I pulled out my VI client.\nFirst thing you look for is what the resources are allocated to the VM.\nLo and behold - A Windows 2003 64bit server with 8gb RAM and 4 vCPU’s\nThe machine was not moving, not\u0026amp;hellip; at\u0026amp;hellip; all\nOnto the ESX host, fire up ESXTOP and I was seeing %WAIT times for this specific VM that was x14 more than any of the others.\nThe machine was using 20% of one CPU, only 20%\nOf course powering down the machine - removing the excess CPU’s go the machine back up and running like a jack rabbit in no time at all.\nWhat I did want to share with you all was the email I sent to the Admin after receiving the questions below\nIt is not logical and not true that more CPUs will make a VM work slower.\nWhy yesterday the same computer worked just fine with the same resources and today it was crawling to an extreme?\nMy answer:\nAs always the answer is it depends\nJust as a matter of methodology\nhttps://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US\u0026amp;amp;cmd=displayKC\u0026amp;amp;externalId=1005362 – What to do when you suffer from bad performance on a VM\nOpinions in the VMware world about multiple vCPU’s\nMultiple vCPU\u0026amp;rsquo;s (SMP); convincing the business (Thanks Edward!!)https://communities.vmware.com/message/1003293#1003293\nAbsolutely no performance increase but there could be a performance decrease. Basically that extra vCPU is sitting idle and just using up resources.\nEven with co-scheduling, there may be a performance hit. In essence, unless the app is seriously multithreaded/multi-programmed such as Exchange, SQL, or Terminal Services_, then there is no benefit to having more than one vCPU and often a penalty.\nPerformance Tuning Best Practices for ESX Server 3 - Page 3 https://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi_performance_tuning.pdf\nUse as few virtual CPUs (VCPUs) as possible. Do not use virtual SMP if your application is","date":"Jan 6, 2010","href":"/2010/01/travelling-down-5th-ave-at-180-kmh.html","summary":"Today I got an urgent call from an administrator saying that he had one machine that “had started to crawl. It was working fine yesterday!!!”\nSo I pulled out my VI client.\nFirst thing you look for is what the resources are allocated to the VM.\nLo and behold - A Windows 2003 64bit server with 8gb RAM and 4 vCPU’s\nThe machine was not moving, not\u0026hellip; at\u0026hellip; all\nOnto the ESX host, fire up ESXTOP and I was seeing %WAIT times for this specific VM that was x14 more than any of the others.","tags":["Management","Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Travelling Down 5th ave. - at 180 KMH"},{"content":"To continue my experiences and planning for the upgrade to vSphere, here is the next stage.\nFirst and foremost you have to understand what the process is for upgrading your environment. So off I went to the vSphere Upgrade Guide. I highly advise you read this document from start to finish , but to lay it down in short the process is:\nUpgrade vCenter Server (including all additions) Upgrade the Hosts Upgrade the Datastores (not relevant in my case) Upgrade VM’s You need to understand - what will be affected (and what will not!) in each and every stage of he process.\nDuring the Upgrade - Services provided by the vCenter Server will not be available DRS VMotion Console Access to the VM (unless you go in per host HA will continue to work During the host upgrade you will need enough resources on the other members of your cluster to allow for upgrade of each host - without downtime for your VM’s Datastores - was not relevant in my case. Virtual machine will need to be powered off and upgraded - which will mean downtime for all the VM’s You can of course plan to take the whole infrastructure down at the same time (vCenter, ESX hosts, VM’s and all) but I think that is completely not necessary seeing that this can be done in stages with minimal disturbance to you Infrastructure.\nComing up next vCenter Server Upgrade.\n","date":"Jan 4, 2010","href":"/2010/01/understanding-upgrade-process-mjtv2.html","summary":"To continue my experiences and planning for the upgrade to vSphere, here is the next stage.\nFirst and foremost you have to understand what the process is for upgrading your environment. So off I went to the vSphere Upgrade Guide. I highly advise you read this document from start to finish , but to lay it down in short the process is:\nUpgrade vCenter Server (including all additions) Upgrade the Hosts Upgrade the Datastores (not relevant in my case) Upgrade VM’s You need to understand - what will be affected (and what will not!) in each and every stage of he process.","tags":["vSphere","Administration","MJTV","VMware","ESX","Upgrade"],"title":"Understanding the Upgrade Process - MJTV2"},{"content":"I started this blog - like most of us bloggers for none other than a personal reference for keeping track of things I find during my day.\nOfficially my first blog post is dated somewhere in November 2007, but I can say that I started seriously from November 2008.\nNow I posted some new years resolutions a while back when the new Jewish year started.\nI can say that from that list of things I wanted to get done I have done the following:\nThe Business Continue assistance to R\u0026amp;amp;D / PD with enabling them to perform their job better / faster / easier (This project is well under way) Lab manager - start to work with these products - for better productivity (I am starting a POC for Lab Manager) Help the business with developing a Virtual Appliance Version of our product (Not yet - but we are getting more and more interest from the customer’s to utilize Virtualization) BCP/DR More efficient backup methods and faster restore time (we are currently evaluating EMC Avamar for this purpose) Storage Utilize the latest storage technologies for Thin provisioning Storage de-duplication Storage offloaded snapshots (This is coming - much sooner than I expected since we are outgrowing our current storage) Automation Utilize more scripting for more standardization of procedures (PowerCLI) (Have you noticed my blog lately???) There is still a lot of work for me to do, but I think this is a good start.\nI would like to thank each and every one of my 50,533 Unique visitors since January 1, 2009, that have honored me by visiting this blog. I certainly did not think that this was going to happen when I started my first blog Just over a year ago.\nThe most popular articles over the past year were:\nESX3i to ESX4i Update\nSmall Present for you all - VMware Visio Stencils\nHow Heavy is your ESX Load?\nConverting a Linux Virtual Machine With an LVM\nThank you all for a wonderful year - and I am really looking forward to an even more interesting one in 2010.\n","date":"Dec 30, 2009","href":"/2009/12/2009-in-349-words.html","summary":"I started this blog - like most of us bloggers for none other than a personal reference for keeping track of things I find during my day.\nOfficially my first blog post is dated somewhere in November 2007, but I can say that I started seriously from November 2008.\nNow I posted some new years resolutions a while back when the new Jewish year started.\nI can say that from that list of things I wanted to get done I have done the following:","tags":["Miscellaneous"],"title":"2009 - in 349 words"},{"content":"As of vCenter 4.0 when installing a new instance of vCenter, in order to allow for Linked Mode, an instance of Microsoft ADAM is installed on Windows 2003 or AD LDS on Windows 2008. The reason for this is because in order to link your vCenter Server together there has to be some kind of hierarchy in order to allow for the communication between the servers, similar to Active Directory.\nBelow is a sample screenshot of what it looks like:\nOk so here comes the reason for the post and why all of this important. A customer contacted me today saying, “I cannot log into my vCenter Server - something is wrong!”. I asked what was the error message he said, “Something about an error! Please Fix it!!”. He sent me a screenshot:\nWell he was right about the error message, totally no information here.\nFirst things first I looked at the Services, to see if everything was started and lo and behold there was one that was not:\nStarted the Service and connectivity returned to normal.\nThe reason this service stopped is not exactly clear, but then I was thinking to myself, if this is such a critical service then why did it not restart, I mean if you do experience an error (for whatever reason) and it shuts the service down - I would expect it to restart.\nThis is the service setting for the vCenter Service\nFor the Webservices:\nAnd even for Update Manager:\nBut the VMwareVCMSDS?\nNow that seems a bit strange for a Critical service - don’t you think? It would be interesting find the logic behind not setting this service to be the same as all the other?\nI am changing mine - What about you?\nUpdate:\nI would actually not be doing myself justice if I would not provide a quick Powershell way to change this value – without going into the GUI.\nI would like to thank Shay Levy for the assistance and point you to his:\nStand alone registry functions library\nSaving this file as a .ps1 file\nAnd then using this small bit of Powershell code.\n##Load the modules in the script ################################ .","date":"Dec 28, 2009","href":"/2009/12/vmwarevcmsds-time-for-change.html","summary":"As of vCenter 4.0 when installing a new instance of vCenter, in order to allow for Linked Mode, an instance of Microsoft ADAM is installed on Windows 2003 or AD LDS on Windows 2008. The reason for this is because in order to link your vCenter Server together there has to be some kind of hierarchy in order to allow for the communication between the servers, similar to Active Directory.\nBelow is a sample screenshot of what it looks like:","tags":["vSphere","Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"VMwareVCMSDS - A time for change"},{"content":"It took me a while to understand why this was not working - it could be because I hate - actually loath -having to dig through logs because of Java and Tomcat issues, but I only have my self to blame for this one.\nI am currently installing a new vCenter for my Production Environment (this is part of my MJTV series that I currently going through the process). The last time we installed - we were just starting out with VMware – and there have been a decent amount of problems that we have encountered because of lack of experience and knowledge. Therefore a new vCenter (not from scratch but that is another post entirely).\nFast forwarding a couple of years - the technology has evolved - and I have gained more knowledge. So one of the things that were never implemented correctly was an SSL Certificate for vCenter. I wanted to do this right so I started out on what and how this should be done.\nFirstly – this is the official VMware reference document. Since we are a Microsoft shop with a established PKI Infrastructure I went to page 2 - Replacing Default Server Certificates with Certificates Signed by a Commercial CA.\nOk so first things first. In order to create the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) you will have to download the OpenSSL binaries from here. Since the vCenter is a 64-bit box – I got the 64-bit version. Before installing the software you will need to download and install I installed the Visual C++ 2008 Redistributables (x64) as well otherwise you will not be able to run the binaries.\nI installed to it all to C:\\Program Files\\OpenSSL. In the bin Directory of the installation folder are the files you will work with.\nFirst you generate an RSA key for your host.\nC:\\Program Files\\OpenSSL\\bin\u0026amp;gt;openssl.exe genrsa 1024 \u0026amp;gt; rui.key\nA small pause here. The openssl.cfg is the configuration file for the application. I wanted to install a certificate with two different hostnames. Why you may ask? well actually it is very simple. Not all of the users will always remember","date":"Dec 26, 2009","href":"/2009/12/case-of-my-ssl-cert-rtfm.html","summary":"It took me a while to understand why this was not working - it could be because I hate - actually loath -having to dig through logs because of Java and Tomcat issues, but I only have my self to blame for this one.\nI am currently installing a new vCenter for my Production Environment (this is part of my MJTV series that I currently going through the process). The last time we installed - we were just starting out with VMware – and there have been a decent amount of problems that we have encountered because of lack of experience and knowledge. Therefore a new vCenter (not from scratch but that is another post entirely).","tags":["Management","Administration","MJTV","VMware","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"The case of the my SSL cert – RTFM!!!!!"},{"content":"I got a call today from a colleague that had an issue with an ESX Server that was behind a firewall that kept on disconnecting every 30 seconds, and he could not understand why.\nI remember that I had encountered this before, and the solution this was happening because not all ports in the firewall were open to allow the traffic through, and there the Host was losing connection.\nSo as a reference for myself (and anyone else that can use it) here is what needs to be opened.\nHappy holidays to you all!\n","date":"Dec 23, 2009","href":"/2009/12/esx-disconnecting-from-vcenter.html","summary":"I got a call today from a colleague that had an issue with an ESX Server that was behind a firewall that kept on disconnecting every 30 seconds, and he could not understand why.\nI remember that I had encountered this before, and the solution this was happening because not all ports in the firewall were open to allow the traffic through, and there the Host was losing connection.\nSo as a reference for myself (and anyone else that can use it) here is what needs to be opened.","tags":["VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"ESX Disconnecting from vCenter"},{"content":"Have you ever been asked to assign permissions to a VM/Folder/Resource?\nCome on, own up! Of course you have.\nEver done it with the GUI? I guess the answer is the same.\nSo GUI is pretty easy:\nFind Resource (for example VM) Right-Click Add Permission Choose Role Check Propagate (if needed) Add User/Group OK OK In total 8 different actions that need to be performed for one action.\nEnter PowerCLI. In the latest release there is a new cmdlet – New-VIPermission\nNAME New-VIPermission SYNOPSIS Creates new permissions on the specified inventory objects for the provided users and groups in the role. SYNTAX New-VIPermission [-Entity[ \u0026amp;lt;InventoryItem[[\u0026amp;gt; [-Principal[ \u0026amp;lt;VIAccount[[\u0026amp;gt; [-Role[ \u0026amp;lt;Role\u0026amp;gt; [-Propagate [\u0026amp;lt;Boolean\u0026amp;gt;[[ [-Server \u0026amp;lt;VIServer\u0026amp;gt;[ [-WhatIf[ [-Confirm[ [\u0026amp;lt;CommonParameters\u0026amp;gt;[** So if you would like to add a Domain (MAISHSK) User (User1) as an Administrator on a Folder (Folder1) you would\n[vSphere PowerCLI[ C:\\\u0026amp;gt; get-folder folder1 | New-VIPermission -Role \u0026amp;#39;Admin\u0026amp;#39; -Principal \u0026amp;#39;MAISHSK\\User1\u0026amp;#39; **New-VIPermission : 12/21/2009 5:48:29 AM New-VIPermission Could not find VIAccount with name \u0026amp;#39;MAISHSK\\User1\u0026amp;#39;. At line:1 char:17 + New-VIPermission \u0026amp;lt;\u0026amp;lt;\u0026amp;lt;\u0026amp;lt; -Role \u0026amp;#39;Admin\u0026amp;#39; -Principal \u0026amp;#39;MAISHSK\\User1\u0026amp;#39; -Entity (Get-folder folder1) + CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (MAISHSK\\User1:String) [New-VIPermission[, VimException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Core_ObnSelector_SelectObjectByNameCore_ObjectNotFound, VMware.VimAutomation.Commands.PermissionManagement.NewVIPermission** **New-VIPermission : Value cannot be found for the mandatory parameter Principal At line:1 char:17 + New-VIPermission \u0026amp;lt;\u0026amp;lt;\u0026amp;lt;\u0026amp;lt; -Role \u0026amp;#39;Admin\u0026amp;#39; -Principal \u0026amp;#39;MAISHSK\\User1\u0026amp;#39; -Entity (Get-folder folder1) + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [New-VIPermission[, ParameterBindingException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : RuntimeException,VMware.VimAutomation.Commands. PermissionManagement.NewVIPermission** But Hey that did not work!","date":"Dec 21, 2009","href":"/2009/12/assigning-permissions-powercli.html","summary":"Have you ever been asked to assign permissions to a VM/Folder/Resource?\nCome on, own up! Of course you have.\nEver done it with the GUI? I guess the answer is the same.\nSo GUI is pretty easy:\nFind Resource (for example VM) Right-Click Add Permission Choose Role Check Propagate (if needed) Add User/Group OK OK In total 8 different actions that need to be performed for one action.\nEnter PowerCLI. In the latest release there is a new cmdlet – New-VIPermission","tags":["Tools","vSphere","Powershell","Administration","VMware","vCenter","PowerCLI"],"title":"Assigning Permissions – PowerCLI"},{"content":"I was asked to update an attribute of the EmployeeNumber for each and every user in the Enterprise for a new Application that will be using the newly populated attribute for a Global Database application.\nI had several examples that I could use for the job utilizing VbScript – but I wanted to use Powershell for the task.\nIt turned out to be a relatively easy task – using the Quest Active Directory Commandlets.\nadd-PSSnapin quest.activeroles.admanagement Connect-QADService -Service domain.com -Credential (Get-Credential) $infile = Import-Csv \u0026amp;#34;c:\\temp\\file.csv\u0026amp;#34; $logfile = \u0026amp;#34;c:\\temp\\logfile.log\u0026amp;#34; foreach ($line in $infile) { set-QADObject ($line.domain +\u0026amp;#34;\\\u0026amp;#34; + $line.login) -ObjectAttributes ` @{employeeNumber=$line.guid} if ($? -eq $true){ Write-output \u0026amp;#34;Updated: $($line.domain)\\$($line.login) with employeeNumber: ` $($line.guid)\u0026amp;#34; \u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;gt; $logfile } else { Write-output \u0026amp;#34;Error in updating: $($line.domain)\\$($line.login)\u0026amp;#34; \u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;gt; $logfile } } ##Get Results $results = foreach ($line in $infile) { get-QADObject ($line.domain +\u0026amp;#34;\\\u0026amp;#34; + $line.login) -IncludedProperties ` Name, employeeNumber | select Name, employeeNumber } $results \u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;gt; $logfile Disconnect-QADService -Service domain.com A Quick explanation:\nAdd the Quest Snapin\nConnect to the domain with acquired credentials\nImport the CSV file that was formatted - domain,login,guid, and create a log file for results\nGo through each line in the CSV – if successful log to the file and if not then report the error to the log file.\nGo through the list of users again – retrieving only the Name and EmployeeNumber properties and pipe the results in the same log file.\nThe script to a longer to write than it did to run.\nHope you enjoyed the ride.\n","date":"Dec 20, 2009","href":"/2009/12/updating-user-attribute-in-enterprise.html","summary":"I was asked to update an attribute of the EmployeeNumber for each and every user in the Enterprise for a new Application that will be using the newly populated attribute for a Global Database application.\nI had several examples that I could use for the job utilizing VbScript – but I wanted to use Powershell for the task.\nIt turned out to be a relatively easy task – using the Quest Active Directory Commandlets.","tags":["Active Directory","Microsoft","Tools","Powershell","Windows","Administration"],"title":"Updating a User attribute in the Enterprise"},{"content":"Firstly, you might ask what is MJTV1? I was thinking that I would like to tag all my posts for this series with something to be easy to recognize it by. So no it is not Michael Jackson TV 1, but rather\nMy Journey To VSphere. I started two weeks ago with this post.\nSo let us start with Part 1. Today I will discuss the topic: Benefits and Justification\nAs you might all know the actual percentage of the technical part of a successful project is is less than 20%. I believe that a project will succeed/fail mainly based how well the project was planned documented, thought through, risks identified, risks mitigated and only in the end - technical implementation.\nSo what goes into planning your project?\nFirst and foremost - you will have to identify (and of course \u0026amp;ldquo;sell\u0026amp;rdquo; to Management) why do you need to upgrade? We all know the saying \u0026amp;ldquo;if it ain\u0026amp;rsquo;t broke then don\u0026amp;rsquo;t fix it!\u0026amp;rdquo; I personally do not really believe in that because technology evolves, all the time, things get better, faster and cheaper which makes this kind of logic not always the best option. I mean driving around in a Mustang 69 is a really cool thing - I mean you get the babes, you get to go from A-\u0026amp;gt;B and in general this car fills it purpose.Comparing it to the new Hybrid cars today - you still get the babes - get from A-\u0026amp;gt;B and it also fills it purpose. But looking at the bigger picture…\nYour Mustang needs:\nfrequent repairs and tune-ups more gas a new coat of paint doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t drive as fast emits more fumes parts are harder to come by but it still stays a cool car! no air-conditioning Your Hybrid needs:\nless gas - because it use alternative energy less repairs (it is a new car) zooms like the wind easier on the environment can be a cool car - depends on who is driving it it has air-conditioning I think you see where I am going here. Let us take it to the upgrade to vSphere. The question you will and must ask yourself is - \u0026amp;ldquo;What are the benefits I will receive","date":"Dec 6, 2009","href":"/2009/12/benefits-and-justification-mjtv1.html","summary":"Firstly, you might ask what is MJTV1? I was thinking that I would like to tag all my posts for this series with something to be easy to recognize it by. So no it is not Michael Jackson TV 1, but rather\nMy Journey To VSphere. I started two weeks ago with this post.\nSo let us start with Part 1. Today I will discuss the topic: Benefits and Justification","tags":["vSphere","MJTV","ESX","vCenter","Upgrade"],"title":"Benefits and Justification - MJTV1"},{"content":"if you were following me on Twitter - you would have noticed this week that I was extremely busy with troubleshooting and solving a serious performance issue that I encountered.\nFirst things first - the environment.\nMultiple ESX 3.5 Clusters residing on NFS across multiple Datastores coming from same Storage.\nOn average these hosts are utilizing 50-70% RAM and 20-30% CPU. The machines run without any noticeable issues.\nNext - the incident.\nAlong comes 05.00 - alerts start coming in from the monitoring system - timeouts from the monitoring agents were occurring - i,e, it looked like the virtual machines were not responding. Within 20 minutes things were back to normal.\n8.00 Same thing happens again. While this was happening I tested the guest machines for connectivity - all 100%. Tried to log into a virtual machine with RDP - Slow as a snail. It took approximately 3 minutes from CTRL+ALT+DELETE till I got the desktop, and again all this time - network connectivity to the VM was100%.\nI started to receive more complaints of the same issue across a number of Virtual Machines. First thing I did was to try to find what (if anything) was in common. The machines were spread around over different hosts, in different clusters on different VLAN\u0026amp;rsquo;s, so that was not it.\nDuring these outages the Hosts themselves were completely fine.\nCPU usage was normal\nRAM usage was normal\nNetwork Usage was normal\nESXTOP statistics were normal - no contention on CPU / memory.\nNow what the heck was going on here?\nThe only thing that was common amongst all the Virtual machines - they were all using NFS datastores - divided over 3 different Datamovers on the same EMC Storage array.\nThe outages were intermittent and not permanent.\nIn the meantime I opened a priority 1 SR with VMware support. Support was back to me within 30 minutes (according to the Severity Definitions) so they we right on time.\nLogs were collected.\nTests were performed to test network issues with the ESX hosts.\nIn the","date":"Dec 4, 2009","href":"/2009/12/once-upon-performance-issue.html","summary":"if you were following me on Twitter - you would have noticed this week that I was extremely busy with troubleshooting and solving a serious performance issue that I encountered.\nFirst things first - the environment.\nMultiple ESX 3.5 Clusters residing on NFS across multiple Datastores coming from same Storage.\nOn average these hosts are utilizing 50-70% RAM and 20-30% CPU. The machines run without any noticeable issues.\nNext - the incident.","tags":["Tools","vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","ESX","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"Once Upon a Performance Issue"},{"content":"Trend Micro have now joined Altor Networks and Reflex Systems with their new offering that utilizes VMware\u0026amp;rsquo;s VMsafe technology. I expect we will be seeing more and more of the Security Companies release their products that will utilize VMsafe\nFrom the Product Page\nProtect physical, virtual and cloud servers from malicious attack Trend Micro Deep Security 7 provides advanced protection for servers in the dynamic datacenter, whether physical, virtual or in the cloud. Brought to Trend Micro through the acquisition of Third Brigade, Deep Security combines intrusion detection and prevention, firewall, integrity monitoring and log inspection capabilities in a single, centrally managed software agent.\nDeep Security protects confidential data and critical applications to help prevent data breaches and ensure business continuity, while enabling compliance with important standards and regulations such as PCI, FISMA and HIPAA. Whether implemented as software, virtual appliance, or in a hybrid approach, this solution equips enterprises to identify suspicious activity and behavior, and take proactive or preventive measures to ensure the security of the datacenter.\nFrom the datasheet\nARCHITECTURE Deep Security Virtual Appliance. Transparently enforces security policies on VMware vSphere virtual machines for IDS/IPS, web application protection, application control, and firewall protection—coordinating with Deep Security Agent, if desired, for integrity monitoring and log inspection. Deep Security Agent. This small software component deployed on the server or virtual machine being protected enforces the datacenter’s security policy (IDS/IPS, web application protection, application control, firewall, integrity monitoring, and log inspection). Deep Security Manager. Powerful, centralized management enables administrators to create security profiles and apply them to servers, monitor alerts and preventive actions taken in response to threats, distribute security updates to","date":"Nov 30, 2009","href":"/2009/11/deep-security-7-trend-micro-vmsafe.html","summary":"Trend Micro have now joined Altor Networks and Reflex Systems with their new offering that utilizes VMware\u0026rsquo;s VMsafe technology. I expect we will be seeing more and more of the Security Companies release their products that will utilize VMsafe\nFrom the Product Page\nProtect physical, virtual and cloud servers from malicious attack Trend Micro Deep Security 7 provides advanced protection for servers in the dynamic datacenter, whether physical, virtual or in the cloud. Brought to Trend Micro through the acquisition of Third Brigade, Deep Security combines intrusion detection and prevention, firewall, integrity monitoring and log inspection capabilities in a single, centrally managed software agent.","tags":["Security","vSphere","Appliances","VMware"],"title":"Deep Security 7 - Trend Micro \u0026 VMsafe"},{"content":"My policy is not to update to new releases until they have stabilized for a decent period of time.\nTherefore, we have not yet performed our upgrade to Version 4.0 yet. We were waiting for the release of Update 1 before migrating the system to version 4.\nI have been using ESX4 since the private Beta, but not on a production environment.\nOver the upcoming period I will share with you the process of the upgrade from 3.5 to 4.1.\nFirst off, I will not perform the upgrade until the latest release stabilizes a bit, and the \u0026amp;ldquo;oversights\u0026amp;rdquo; that have and will pop up - calm down. I actually find this a good sound idea,\nBut just to lay out the Migration Plan:\nInstallation of a new vCenter - 4.1 Migration of environment to the new vCenter (this will probably be the most lengthy part) Upgrade ESX Hosts 1 by 1 Upgrade VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s to Virtual Hardware Version 7 Project complete. It may look simple - but when dealing with a production environment and with so many dependencies - nothing is that simple.\nI hope that the sharing of my experiences will be able to help those in their journey through the virtual universe (and also as a by-product, document my stages for the future reference).\n","date":"Nov 26, 2009","href":"/2009/11/my-journey-to-vsphere-update-1.html","summary":"My policy is not to update to new releases until they have stabilized for a decent period of time.\nTherefore, we have not yet performed our upgrade to Version 4.0 yet. We were waiting for the release of Update 1 before migrating the system to version 4.\nI have been using ESX4 since the private Beta, but not on a production environment.\nOver the upcoming period I will share with you the process of the upgrade from 3.5 to 4.1.","tags":["Management","vSphere","Administration","VMware","Upgrade"],"title":"My Journey to vSphere - The Beginning"},{"content":"Two weeks ago I wrote an article about How To Bring Down A Single NIC In ESX?. In that post you could see that in order to test this you had to go into the console of the ESX and run the commands on the console.\nAlready then I was thinking, why not do this from PowerCLI, without having to log into each host.\nSo here we go..\nFor the examples sake:\nVI Server: vcenter.maishsk.local\nESX Host for Testing: esx1.maishsk.local\nvmnic for Redundancy test: vmnic2\nfunction Test-NetworkFO ($vmhost, $vmnic, $switch) { If ($switch){ ##Define which NIC should be tested $mynic = Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost (get-vmhost $vmhost) | ` Where-Object { $_.DeviceName -eq $vmnic } ##Bring the NIC down Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter -PhysicalNic $mynic -Duplex Half -BitRatePerSecMb 10 } If (-not $switch){ ##Define which NIC should be tested $mynic = Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost (get-vmhost $vmhost) | ` Where-Object { $_.DeviceName -eq $vmnic } ##Bring the NIC back up Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter -PhysicalNic $mynic -AutoNegotiate } } # Turn it on Test-NetworkF0 \u0026amp;#34;vcenter.maishsk.local\u0026amp;#34; \u0026amp;#34;vmnic2\u0026amp;#34; $true # Turn it off Test-NetworkF0 \u0026amp;#34;vcenter.maishsk.local\u0026amp;#34; \u0026amp;#34;vmnic2\u0026amp;#34; $false This is a way to test your Network Redundancy for your ESX hosts.\nI would like to thank Alan Renouf - who helped me clean up the code and put it into a function.\nHave a happy Thanksgiving and a good weekend!\n","date":"Nov 26, 2009","href":"/2009/11/testing-network-failover-with-powercli.html","summary":"Two weeks ago I wrote an article about How To Bring Down A Single NIC In ESX?. In that post you could see that in order to test this you had to go into the console of the ESX and run the commands on the console.\nAlready then I was thinking, why not do this from PowerCLI, without having to log into each host.\nSo here we go..\nFor the examples sake:","tags":["Tools","vSphere","Scripting","Administration","VMware","ESX","VI Toolkit","PowerCLI"],"title":"Testing Network Failover with PowerCLI"},{"content":"If you remember about 6 months ago I wrote an article about the fact that hot add of any kind of virtual hardware in the free free version of ESXi. I thought I would revisit the problems I had now that Update 1 was released last week.\nThe host has been upgraded to ESX4i Update 1\nI took a Windows 2008 Guest OS.\nFirstly, I noticed - CPU Hot plug was not available. Regarding memory Hot Add - I did have the option to turn on / off.\nI powered on the machine. And started my journey again to add a new hard disk to the VM while it was powered on.\nEdit Settings -\u0026amp;gt; Add -\u0026amp;gt; yada yada yada….. (you know the drill…)\nI did not receive any errors\nAnd Lo and Behold:\nTried the same with a second NIC\nAnd Lo and Behold:\nLast thing I tried - (you remember the memory/CPU hot-add from before.\nThis is not a feature that is offered with the free version of ESXi - but what the heck - the option was there, so I figured I would try it.\nAnd I got shot down - as expected:\nThe questions I asked my previous article were:\nThe error message of course is not very well phrased - and I would love to know what \u0026amp;ldquo;need have have\u0026amp;rdquo; is? Why in heaven\u0026amp;rsquo;s name would you take away the most basic functionality that has been in every single VMware product (besides Player) for the past 5 years? VMware? Please tell me that was a mistake? So as you can see, the first has been fixed, and William Shakespeare will no longer be turning over in his grave.\nRegarding the second one, I guess VMware realized the mistake, and have remedied the situation that arose with ESX4i. Thank you for correcting the problem\nAnd of course - the removal of the above mentioned hardware (HD and NIC) works on a live machine as well.\nHope you enjoyed the ride!\n","date":"Nov 25, 2009","href":"/2009/11/have-have-revisited.html","summary":"If you remember about 6 months ago I wrote an article about the fact that hot add of any kind of virtual hardware in the free free version of ESXi. I thought I would revisit the problems I had now that Update 1 was released last week.\nThe host has been upgraded to ESX4i Update 1\nI took a Windows 2008 Guest OS.\nFirstly, I noticed - CPU Hot plug was not available. Regarding memory Hot Add - I did have the option to turn on / off.","tags":["Management","vSphere","Whitebox","Administration","Licensing","ESX4i","Upgrade"],"title":"\"Need have have\" - revisited"},{"content":"71-663: Pro: Designing and Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form.\nAvailability Registration begins: November 23, 2009\nBeta exam period runs: December 1, 2009– December 21, 2009\nReceiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend that you register immediately. Beta exams have limited availability and are operated under a first-come-first-served basis. Once all beta slots are filled, no additional seats will be offered.\nTesting is held at Prometric testing centers worldwide, although this exam may not be available in all countries (see Regional Restrictions). All testing centers will have the capability to offer this exam in its live version.\nRegistration Information You must register at least 24 hours prior to taking the exam.\nPlease use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: EPROJ\nReceiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend that you register immediately.\nOriginally posted here\nI have already signed up for this exam - it helps to get a personal invitation :)\n","date":"Nov 23, 2009","href":"/2009/11/71-663-exchange-2010-beta-exam.html","summary":"71-663: Pro: Designing and Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form.\nAvailability Registration begins: November 23, 2009\nBeta exam period runs: December 1, 2009– December 21, 2009\nReceiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend that you register immediately. Beta exams have limited availability and are operated under a first-come-first-served basis. Once all beta slots are filled, no additional seats will be offered.","tags":["Microsoft","Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"71-663 - Exchange 2010 Beta exam"},{"content":"Got a call today.\nPanic!!!!\nAll VM on an ESX host just went grey – all disconnected.\nTrouble shooting steps:\nPing ESX host Service Console – All ok\nLook in the VI client what is with the server – NOT OK – all machines are greyed out – (hey that is what they said wasn’t it).\nSSH into the Service console - All ok\nDirect GUI management to the server NOT OK. could not load the inventory\nAll VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s on the host were running and responding to ping.\nNo failover was initiated in the cluster.\nOn the console – I saw that there were 7 processes of vmware-hostd each using a lot of RAM.\nservice mgmt-vmware stop – to stop the service. GOT STUCK\nOff to this KB which helped me stop the service and get the host responsive again.\ncd /var/run/vmware ls -l vmware-hostd.PID watchdog-hostd.PID (to get the current PID of the process) cat vmware-hostd.PID (i.e. 1234 is the PID) kill -9 \u0026amp;lt;PID\u0026amp;gt; (kill the process) rm vmware-hostd.PID watchdog-hostd.PID remove the files service mgmt-vmware start (restart the agent) The host came back online – all VM’s were no longer grey.\nHere starts my questions.\nWhy did this happen?\nI went to start digging into the logs and found that there was a gap in the system logs for about 20 minutes – which is really strange.\nIt seems this happened after a snapshot removal\nI have opened a SR with VMware to get to the bottom of this issue.\n","date":"Nov 23, 2009","href":"/2009/11/disconnected-esx-host.html","summary":"Got a call today.\nPanic!!!!\nAll VM on an ESX host just went grey – all disconnected.\nTrouble shooting steps:\nPing ESX host Service Console – All ok\nLook in the VI client what is with the server – NOT OK – all machines are greyed out – (hey that is what they said wasn’t it).\nSSH into the Service console - All ok\nDirect GUI management to the server NOT OK. could not load the inventory","tags":["Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Disconnected ESX Host"},{"content":"No official sources, but a small bit of detective work.\nI hate rumors, but it has already started on Twitter.\nWhat a day! View 4 and vSphere update 1 tomorrow!\n\u0026amp;mdash; Barry Coombs (The Doodle Guy) (@VirtualisedReal) November 18, 2009 Trickles of info also from here and here.\nThe talk is that View 4.0 will only work with ESX(i) 4 Update 1. View will be released tomorrow.\nFrom the View Press Release\nPricing and Availability\nVMware View 4 will be generally available on November 19, 2009 through VMware sales and the company’s extensive network of OEM partners and channel partners.\nSo officially it is November 19th, 2009 at least in my part of the globe - so get ready\u0026amp;hellip;\nPut 2 + 2 together and what do you get? VMware View 4.0 and ESX 4 Update 1!\nA whole lot of Virtualization happiness.\n","date":"Nov 19, 2009","href":"/2009/11/is-today-day-for-update-1.html","summary":"No official sources, but a small bit of detective work.\nI hate rumors, but it has already started on Twitter.\nWhat a day! View 4 and vSphere update 1 tomorrow!\n\u0026mdash; Barry Coombs (The Doodle Guy) (@VirtualisedReal) November 18, 2009 Trickles of info also from here and here.\nThe talk is that View 4.0 will only work with ESX(i) 4 Update 1. View will be released tomorrow.\nFrom the View Press Release\nPricing and Availability","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Is today the day for Update 1??"},{"content":"Ok so the detective work was not 100% correct. If it was not for unforeseen circumstances then we should have had a release today\nSo why was there no release?\nThe only thing I found was from Andre Leibovici’s Blog\nVMware uncovered some upgrade issues from View 3 to View 4 and the new unofficial date slipped to Monday 23/11. It also looks like the vSphere 4.0 Update 1 has also slipped to the same date.\nPersonally I would prefer the wait instead of having to deal with issues because of the new build.\nIt is ok, only a few more days to go.\n","date":"Nov 19, 2009","href":"/2009/11/release-that-was-not.html","summary":"Ok so the detective work was not 100% correct. If it was not for unforeseen circumstances then we should have had a release today\nSo why was there no release?\nThe only thing I found was from Andre Leibovici’s Blog\nVMware uncovered some upgrade issues from View 3 to View 4 and the new unofficial date slipped to Monday 23/11. It also looks like the vSphere 4.0 Update 1 has also slipped to the same date.","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"The release that was (NOT!)"},{"content":"Have you ever had the issue of wanting to go into the console of a Linux Virtual Machine that is running at RUNLEVEL 5 (GUI) - because you are one of those Linux geeks who think that GUI is for the weak?\nSeriously though - sometimes you need to access the console - to try and fix up something that cannot be done in the GUI.\nOn a Linux host you would usually press CTRL+ALT+F1 (of Fx - depending on which console you would like). It doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t work does it?\nHold Ctrl+Alt and hit Space and then F1 (or Fx) without releasing Ctrl+Alt.\nThis will invoke the Ctrl+Alt+F1 on the guest OS.\n","date":"Nov 17, 2009","href":"/2009/11/access-console-in-linux-guest.html","summary":"Have you ever had the issue of wanting to go into the console of a Linux Virtual Machine that is running at RUNLEVEL 5 (GUI) - because you are one of those Linux geeks who think that GUI is for the weak?\nSeriously though - sometimes you need to access the console - to try and fix up something that cannot be done in the GUI.\nOn a Linux host you would usually press CTRL+ALT+F1 (of Fx - depending on which console you would like). It doesn\u0026rsquo;t work does it?","tags":["Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Access Console in Linux Guest"},{"content":"I have been waiting for this ever since it was announced at VMWorld 2009.\nCarter Shanklin just announced tonight!\nBeen waiting to try \u0026amp;ldquo;Project Onyx\u0026amp;rdquo; the PowerCLI script generator for VMware vSphere? Check out https://is.gd/4Wxmc\nHere is a small Demo\nGo forth and PowerCLI\u0026amp;rsquo;ze !!\n","date":"Nov 16, 2009","href":"/2009/11/onyx-go-forth-and-powercli.html","summary":"I have been waiting for this ever since it was announced at VMWorld 2009.\nCarter Shanklin just announced tonight!\nBeen waiting to try \u0026ldquo;Project Onyx\u0026rdquo; the PowerCLI script generator for VMware vSphere? Check out https://is.gd/4Wxmc\nHere is a small Demo\nGo forth and PowerCLI\u0026rsquo;ze !!","tags":["Tools","vSphere","Scripting","Administration","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"ONYX - Go forth and PowerCLI'ze!"},{"content":"On October 26th, I sat the VCDX Administration Exam. Today I received notification that I passed.\nNow if you were following me on Twitter then you would have seen that I was not at all happy with the feeling I left the Exam with.\nWell back from the #vcdx Admin exam - 2/3 sick kids and am not at all happy with the feeling I left with after the exam BAH!!!!!\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) October 26, 2009 My experience.\nIt was taken in the Pearson testing Center in Tel-Aviv. This was the first time I have taken an exam there. Firstly, I am grateful that I could do the Exam in Israel, and did not have to fly to another country to actually sit the Exam.\nI have taken exams before, but for the first time, I think, this is the only place that really abided 100% (TO THE LETTER!!!!!) to all the rules (Well done!). I felt like I was in a fish tank. Constantly being watched and with two surveillance cameras on me from the roof at all times. Adding to the fact that this was an important exam, feeling relaxed was not part of the experience.\nOf course I will not be able to provide you any of the questions that were on the Exam, that would be violating the NDA, but I will add to the common knowledge already out there.\nThe exam time limit was 2 hours and 45 minutes. 70 Multiple choice questions and 11 Hands-on lab. I distinctly remember that the split was 50-50 (questions-labs) and not 60-40 as I have seen on several places on the www.\nI as well finished the Exam with not more than 60 seconds to spare. You have to manage and divide your own time between the two parts.\nI will say that there were questions / Labs on almost every part of the blueprint, some more than others.\nYou will need to know your command syntax and remember that there is more than one way to do things.\nThe VCDX is a 4 part process (https://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/certification/)\nYou must be certified as a VMware Certified Professional (VCP) on VMware Infrastructure 3 and you must complete the","date":"Nov 16, 2009","href":"/2009/11/yep-i-passed-my-vcdx-admin-exam.html","summary":"On October 26th, I sat the VCDX Administration Exam. Today I received notification that I passed.\nNow if you were following me on Twitter then you would have seen that I was not at all happy with the feeling I left the Exam with.\nWell back from the #vcdx Admin exam - 2/3 sick kids and am not at all happy with the feeling I left with after the exam BAH!!!!!\n\u0026mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) October 26, 2009 My experience.","tags":["VCDX","Miscellaneous","VMware","ESX"],"title":"Yep I passed! - My VCDX Admin Exam"},{"content":"I was installing a new ESX Host today, and before putting it into Production, I wanted to test that the Network Failover was working correctly.\nNow instead of going over to the server and pulling out network cables, I started to think, there must be a way to do this (like all good administrators do) from the comfort of my desk.\nEasiest would be – Log into the switch and shutdown the port. I agree, but what happens when your the Virtualization Team do not control the Physical network (my situation)? That was not an option.\nI started to look if I could bring the interface down.\nWith regular Linux you would – ifdown eth0\n[root@esx1 ~]# ifdown eth0 usage: ifdown \u0026amp;lt;device name\u0026amp;gt; So that did not work! Pretty obvious why though… There is no eth0 interface.\n[root@esx1 ~]# ifconfig lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:784233 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:784233 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:3017478364 (2877.6 Mb) ...:3017478364 (2877.6 Mb) vmnic0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1A:64:E5:31:38 UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:6602129 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:237757 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:1130250120 (1077.8 Mb) ..es:195027359 (185.9 Mb) Interrupt:113 Memory:92000000-92012100 vmnic1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1A:64:E5:31:3A UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:505 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:303685 (296.5 Kb) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b) Interrupt:201 Memory:94000000-94012100 vswif0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:56:4C:43:11 inet addr:1.1.1.1 Bcast:1.1.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:2490053 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:260404 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0","date":"Nov 12, 2009","href":"/2009/11/how-to-bring-down-single-nic-in-esx.html","summary":"I was installing a new ESX Host today, and before putting it into Production, I wanted to test that the Network Failover was working correctly.\nNow instead of going over to the server and pulling out network cables, I started to think, there must be a way to do this (like all good administrators do) from the comfort of my desk.\nEasiest would be – Log into the switch and shutdown the port. I agree, but what happens when your the Virtualization Team do not control the Physical network (my situation)? That was not an option.","tags":["Network","Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"How To Bring Down A Single NIC In ESX?"},{"content":"VMware Update Manager is the Enterprise tool for Patching your ESX Hosts and for some also the tool used to patch your Windows / Linux Guests as well.\nThis is all fine and dandy, but what is you do not have all of your ESXi hosts connected to your vCenter?\nWhy would you so that – you may ask? Well in my environment, we have several labs that are running their Environment on a ESXi Whitebox,with the free ESXi License. No vCenter, and central management is not that easy.\nNow you could update all of these hosts with the VMware infrastructure Update Client and I showed in a previous post – how you can upgrade from ESX3i to ESX4i with this tool. To update the patches is more or less the same.\nToday I was asked to automate this process for a number of ESX3i hosts that were all at\nbuild 123629 (ESX3i U2) and update them to build 199239 (ESX3i U4).\nI did this with the GUI client, but it was too cumbersome, so I looked for another method.\nI downloaded the package from VMware. This contents of the zip file are below.\nAs you can see the contents of this bundle contain 3 separate Updates.\n(The three ESXi patches for Firmware \u0026amp;ldquo;I\u0026amp;rdquo;, VMware Tools \u0026amp;ldquo;T,\u0026amp;rdquo; and the VI Client \u0026amp;ldquo;C\u0026amp;rdquo; are contained in a single offline \u0026amp;ldquo;O\u0026amp;rdquo; download file.)\nAfter Unpacking the 3 patches I was left with this:\nIn each folder there is an exe file:\nThe Command Syntax:\nC:\\ESXe350-200910402-T-BG\u0026amp;gt;remoteInstall.exe Allowed options: -? [ --help ] Display program usage -h [ --host ] arg ESX host name -u [ --userName ] arg User name -p [ --password ] arg Password So all you need to do is:\nremoteInstall.exe –h \u0026amp;lt;HOSTNAME\u0026amp;gt; –u \u0026amp;lt;USERNAME\u0026amp;gt; –p \u0026amp;lt;PASSWORD\u0026amp;gt;\nWhile the patch is installing the output on the screen is is the progress:\nprogress: 0 progress: 5 progress: 7 . . . progress: 100 Run this for both 3 patches, reboot your ESXi Host, and you are done\nTo automate the process I created a small batch file update.bat (I did not use Powershell – because not all the","date":"Nov 11, 2009","href":"/2009/11/patching-your-esxi-host-without-vcenter.html","summary":"VMware Update Manager is the Enterprise tool for Patching your ESX Hosts and for some also the tool used to patch your Windows / Linux Guests as well.\nThis is all fine and dandy, but what is you do not have all of your ESXi hosts connected to your vCenter?\nWhy would you so that – you may ask? Well in my environment, we have several labs that are running their Environment on a ESXi Whitebox,with the free ESXi License. No vCenter, and central management is not that easy.","tags":["ESX3i","Management","Windows","Administration","VMware","Upgrade"],"title":"Patching your ESXi Host – Without vCenter"},{"content":"VMware have released an official KB regarding the problem that we have all known about for ummm\u0026amp;hellip; how long is it already :) ?\nCannot launch vSphere Client after installing in Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2 I guess that all the traffic that Joep Piscaer was getting on his blog post on the subject will start to slow down now.\nVMware – we are still waiting on a permanent fix for this!\n","date":"Nov 11, 2009","href":"/2009/11/vcenter-client-for-windows-7-and-server.html","summary":"VMware have released an official KB regarding the problem that we have all known about for ummm\u0026hellip; how long is it already :) ?\nCannot launch vSphere Client after installing in Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2 I guess that all the traffic that Joep Piscaer was getting on his blog post on the subject will start to slow down now.\nVMware – we are still waiting on a permanent fix for this!","tags":["vSphere","Windows","Administration","Server 2008"],"title":"vSphere Client for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2"},{"content":"This is not a ESX or a virtualization tool but for those who are interested in tracking their blogging traffic.\nFirst thing is to install Google Analytics on your blog. I will not go into the details of how that should be done, Wordpress and other blogging platforms have plugins to do this for you.\nOnce you have it defined, you can either:\nGo into the site every day and check you statistics. Set up a report that will land in your inbox at your specified interval Use Polaris. So what is Polaris?\nPolaris is a cross-platform desktop widget for Google Analytics. With 8 standard reports it\u0026amp;rsquo;s the easiest way keep your data always instantly available. The rich interface and swift navigation make it a pleasure to use.\nPolaris is a free download for everyone who manages one website profile. For those who are managing multiple profiles, the upgrade to the full version is $15 / year. Both the free and the full version will get regular free updates with new functionality and features.\nA great app, free and is of course cross-platform. Highly recommended!\n","date":"Nov 9, 2009","href":"/2009/11/useful-statistics-tool.html","summary":"This is not a ESX or a virtualization tool but for those who are interested in tracking their blogging traffic.\nFirst thing is to install Google Analytics on your blog. I will not go into the details of how that should be done, Wordpress and other blogging platforms have plugins to do this for you.\nOnce you have it defined, you can either:\nGo into the site every day and check you statistics. Set up a report that will land in your inbox at your specified interval Use Polaris. So what is Polaris?","tags":["Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"A useful statistics tool"},{"content":"I am not talking about a new Anti-virus solution or a new product, even though VMware does offer VMsafe for this exact purpose.\nToday I was hit with a very clever phishing attack.\nDetails can be found here. In short a customized email that was sent to large number of employees specifically addressed and personalized.The link was to a a site that looked like a Outlook Web Access page with a message telling that the IT support should click on the file to update your settings. Of course the file is a Trojan which does all kinds of nasty things as you can see on this report.\nNow how is this connected to VMware? Well I knew this was a virus. But we needed to assess what it was doing, and the only to do that is to run the file. But knowingly infecting your computer with something like this is not the brightest idea to put it mildly, and who can predict what it will do?\nBut what if you had a machine that you could run the virus on, disconnected from the network, record the actions, export log files etc. and then return it back to the original state?\nDo I hear anyone say a VM? Anyone?????\nSo this is how it went\nWorkstation VM. Host-Only Network Snapshot VM Disconnect VM network card Import exe file (virus) with USB key Start up Wireshark Start up Procmon Run exe file Record all actions Stop Procmon and Wireshark capture Save captures for further analysis Export all to USB key. Revert VM snapshot to previous state. Repeat process twice more Now if I wanted to I could have reverted the snapshot back the previous state before the virus had touched it, and continued to use it, But since this is a test VM that I use for these kind of incidents, I trashed it. Better be safe than sorry.\nLogs were analyzed, virus activity was identified and measures were taken to protect the network. Report sent to AV Software provider to provide updated signature files that will identify and remove the virus.\nYou just gotta love the wonders of Virtualization, don\u0026amp;rsquo;t ya?\nHope you enjoyed the","date":"Oct 14, 2009","href":"/2009/10/how-vmware-helps-combat-viruses.html","summary":"I am not talking about a new Anti-virus solution or a new product, even though VMware does offer VMsafe for this exact purpose.\nToday I was hit with a very clever phishing attack.\nDetails can be found here. In short a customized email that was sent to large number of employees specifically addressed and personalized.The link was to a a site that looked like a Outlook Web Access page with a message telling that the IT support should click on the file to update your settings. Of course the file is a Trojan which does all kinds of nasty things as you can see on this report.","tags":["Microsoft","Tools","Security","Workstation","Windows","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting"],"title":"How VMware helps combat Viruses"},{"content":"A colleague (thanks Natan) of mine reminded me of a simple but not very well know feature that exists in Windows.\nWe all download software from the Internet or install applications off a CD or some other media. This is also true if you need to install/transport information into a VM that is not connected to your network.\nSome people package them as Zip files, some as ISO\u0026amp;rsquo;s and some as exe files. Did you ever wonder how these exe files are created??\nExpensive Software packagers? Compression utilities? Well, most of us do not know that there is a utility built into the Windows operating system.\nThe utility is called IEXPRESS, and this is one of the easiest was to make a executable archive.\nThere is no shortcut available for the utility, but all you need to do is start the search box in Vista/Windows 7 or go to %systemroot%\\system32\\iexpress.exe\nSo here we go\nChoose your desired option\nName your Package\nFill in your desired text\nAdd a License if you would like\nChoose your files that you would like in the package\nChoose some more options\nGive the location for the package and some more options\nAnd it does the work\nAnd I now have a package\nAnd of course in reverse - double click on the exe\nAnd as they say, \u0026amp;ldquo;A picture is worth more than a thousand words!!\u0026amp;rdquo;\nOh yeah, did I mention that this is available in all Microsoft Operating systems??\n","date":"Oct 13, 2009","href":"/2009/10/how-to-create-exe-package-in-windows.html","summary":"A colleague (thanks Natan) of mine reminded me of a simple but not very well know feature that exists in Windows.\nWe all download software from the Internet or install applications off a CD or some other media. This is also true if you need to install/transport information into a VM that is not connected to your network.\nSome people package them as Zip files, some as ISO\u0026rsquo;s and some as exe files. Did you ever wonder how these exe files are created??","tags":["Virtualization","Management","Windows","Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"How to create an exe package in Windows"},{"content":"VMware will allow for those who have failed their first attempt at the VCP 410 exam to go for a second shot - FREE OF CHARGE!\nIt is a two part process.\nEnroll in the 2nd Shot Upgrade Program\nYou should will receive a voucher number from VMware that you will enter when purchasing your exam that will entitle you to the free second shot - in case you fail.\nBelow are the details.\nUpgrade to VCP4!\nVMware is allowing participating candidates who fail a VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 4 exam (exam code – VCP410) to have a free re-take.\nVisit www.PearsonVUE.com/VMware/Upgrade for more details.\nClick Here to enroll in the 2nd Shot/Upgrade Program.\nSource\nOf course this has to be completed before December 31, 2009.\nGood Luck!\n","date":"Oct 8, 2009","href":"/2009/10/vcp-410-second-shot.html","summary":"VMware will allow for those who have failed their first attempt at the VCP 410 exam to go for a second shot - FREE OF CHARGE!\nIt is a two part process.\nEnroll in the 2nd Shot Upgrade Program\nYou should will receive a voucher number from VMware that you will enter when purchasing your exam that will entitle you to the free second shot - in case you fail.","tags":["VCP","Miscellaneous","VMware","Upgrade"],"title":"VCP 410 Second Shot"},{"content":"Veeam have released a new version of their Free Monitoring product\nThe following is a list of new features in the Veeam Monitor 4.5:\nFull Veeam Business View integration for business‐centric performance monitoring,reporting and alerting. Please refer to this video for more information on this feature Configurable custom views which represent “intersection” of groups from different Business View categories, for instance: only show VMs with department “Marketing\u0026amp;quot;and purpose “Desktop”. New view showing top loaded ESX hosts below the selected infrastructure node. Uptime and socket count is now shown in ESX host’s summary. Datastore free space alarm now can be set in relative amount (percents) in addition to absolute amount. Support for Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 and Microsoft Windows 7 Support for Microsoft SQL Server 2008. The following is a list of new features in the Veeam Monitor 4.0.1:\nBackend Microsoft SQL Server load is reduced dramatically comparing to previous Veeam Monitor releases. Multiple enhancements improving product scalability and allowing for support of very large environments (hundreds of ESX hosts). New “Disk Commands Issued” alarm counter representing the sum of read and write requests to a datastore has been added. “Check Database” command in Veeam Monitor Server Settings program now also checks DB integrity and attempts to correct any issues encountered. Release notes\nAnd of course - there is more for the full version of the product, and for a free product it does a very good job!!\n","date":"Oct 6, 2009","href":"/2009/10/veeam-monitor-45.html","summary":"Veeam have released a new version of their Free Monitoring product\nThe following is a list of new features in the Veeam Monitor 4.5:\nFull Veeam Business View integration for business‐centric performance monitoring,reporting and alerting. Please refer to this video for more information on this feature Configurable custom views which represent “intersection” of groups from different Business View categories, for instance: only show VMs with department “Marketing\u0026quot;and purpose “Desktop”. New view showing top loaded ESX hosts below the selected infrastructure node. Uptime and socket count is now shown in ESX host’s summary. Datastore free space alarm now can be set in relative amount (percents) in addition to absolute amount. Support for Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 and Microsoft Windows 7 Support for Microsoft SQL Server 2008. The following is a list of new features in the Veeam Monitor 4.0.1:","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Veeam Monitor 4.5"},{"content":"One of the most ridiculous things that Microsoft are saying as of late is that the feature in vSphere that allows you to over commit memory, is not such a big thing and that most people do not use it anyway - here here and here.\nIf you saw my previous post you will see that I managed to double the amount of virtual machines running on the same host (from 8 to 16 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s running Windows 2003 Server 1GB RAM) without changing the 8GB RAM configuration on the host.\nWould I be able to do this with Hyper-V? Hell No!\nSo I will say this again to Microsoft. Customers use Memory over-commit, they use it daily, and use it all the time. As long as you do not have this feature - this will be a strong point against using your product.\nEnough said about that!\n","date":"Sep 23, 2009","href":"/2009/09/and-i-do-use-memory-over-commit.html","summary":"One of the most ridiculous things that Microsoft are saying as of late is that the feature in vSphere that allows you to over commit memory, is not such a big thing and that most people do not use it anyway - here here and here.\nIf you saw my previous post you will see that I managed to double the amount of virtual machines running on the same host (from 8 to 16 VM\u0026rsquo;s running Windows 2003 Server 1GB RAM) without changing the 8GB RAM configuration on the host.","tags":["Microsoft","vSphere","Hyper-V","Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"And I do use memory over-commit"},{"content":"When VMware released the free product VMware Server 2.0.0 version, they decided to get rid of the Console client application.\nWas this a good thing? Some say no, some say that it was, personally - I think it was a mistake to ditch the Console.\nA bit of background.\nWhen you install Server 2.0.x, bundled with it you get an Apache/Tomcat installation on your host.\nNow this is something that I find personally annoying. Take for example a Windows Host. Windows has IIS built in. So why do I need to add another Web server to the machine. Same goes for Linux by the way, this will install its own Web Server, regardless if you are already using Apache on you Linux host\nAnd it uses resources..\nThis is the management console that you receive.\nThere are certain use cases for running Server instead of ESXi, to name a few - non compatible hardware, access to USB devices, sound etc. that you cannot get with using ESXi\nBut never fear, and this is not a very well documented feature, but it is available. Some of you might have heard about a management tool that can help. It is free, it is a VMware product and most of you are already using it.\nIf you have not already guessed, I am talking about the vSphere Infrastructure Client.\nSo how would you go about doing this? Well it is pretty simple. When managing your host through the Web interface you went to the following ling (my host IP = 10.0.0.5) https://10.0.0.5:8333/ui/#\nSo what you should do is open the VIC and in the host field connect to the host but on port 8333 like this:\nLogin with your credentials and then you get a familiar screen\nNote the subtle differences though\nAnd last but not least a remote console to a working VM\nThis is fully functional. You can create VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s, change resources, Snapshots, the works!\nAnd of course I do not need apache running and using resources.\nWhy did I find it important to bring this to your attention? With this method it allows you use a single tool and application to manage all your virtual","date":"Sep 23, 2009","href":"/2009/09/how-to-manage-vmware-server-20x.html","summary":"When VMware released the free product VMware Server 2.0.0 version, they decided to get rid of the Console client application.\nWas this a good thing? Some say no, some say that it was, personally - I think it was a mistake to ditch the Console.\nA bit of background.\nWhen you install Server 2.0.x, bundled with it you get an Apache/Tomcat installation on your host.\nNow this is something that I find personally annoying. Take for example a Windows Host. Windows has IIS built in. So why do I need to add another Web server to the machine. Same goes for Linux by the way, this will install its own Web Server, regardless if you are already using Apache on you Linux host","tags":["Server","vSphere","Administration","VMware"],"title":"How To Manage VMware Server 2.0.x ?"},{"content":"A client came to me a few months ago requesting help with a problem they had.\nThey have a system that does some (I guess you can call it) grid computing. They were using 20 desktops with XP to compute perform some calculations, and the the process was taking 10 hours , utilizing ~100% CPU on each machine throughout the process.\nBecause of a change that was made in the algorithm, the process would now take 22 hours to complete, for the same amount of calculations and that was not an acceptable result.\nWe wanted to test, would it be possible to cram a large amount of Virtual machines to do the work and we came up with the following solution:\n3 IBM x3550 Dual E5430 Processors 8 GB RAM ESX3i on each of them 8 Windows Server 2003 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s on each server (total of 24 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s) We saw that when the Virtual machines were busy doing the calculation process, they were utilizing 100% of the vCPU, bringing the host to very close to 100% utilization during the calculations. This was the hard limit of 8 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s on each host.\nThe amazing thing was that the same run that would have taken 22 hours on physical Desktops now took on these three servers 8 hours (a 275% increase in performance). The client was thrilled!\nWe tested different configurations of more VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s with lower CPU limits, but since the utilization was 100% regardless of the speed of the vCPU, the results stayed that the optimized configuration was 8 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s per host.\nThe cost for the whole design (including a test Server and a Management sever) was\nFast forward 6 months. Budget issues, etc. etc.\nClient comes to say that they are ready to go forward with the project. But there was one slight problem. During that period IBM announced that they were going over to a new series of Servers (x3550M2) and that the old ones were no longer available for purchase.\nAnd also during that period ESX4 was released.\nNew servers were tested with the same data as before, this time on a x3550M2 with Dual E5530 Processors.","date":"Sep 23, 2009","href":"/2009/09/nehalem-processors-are-great.html","summary":"A client came to me a few months ago requesting help with a problem they had.\nThey have a system that does some (I guess you can call it) grid computing. They were using 20 desktops with XP to compute perform some calculations, and the the process was taking 10 hours , utilizing ~100% CPU on each machine throughout the process.\nBecause of a change that was made in the algorithm, the process would now take 22 hours to complete, for the same amount of calculations and that was not an acceptable result.","tags":["Virtualization","Miscellaneous","VMware","ESX4i"],"title":"Nehalem Processors Are Great"},{"content":"From this this post on Technet - we can finally say that if you have a Windows 2000 Server in your enviroment - GET RID OF IT!!!!!! (or at least before July 13, 2010)\nAnother small thing to note - Service Pack 2 for Windows 2003 - was the last, there will be no no SP3.\nHere is the short version.\nWindows 2000 Server\nExtended Support for Windows 2000 Server will end on July 13, 2010. At this time, Windows 2000 Server will no longer be publicly supported. You will be able to continue using \u0026amp;ldquo;Self-Help Online Support\u0026amp;rdquo;*\nWindows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2\nAlso on July 13, 2010, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 (at a supported service pack level) will move from the Mainstream Support phase to the Extended Support phase. During the Extended Support phase:\nMicrosoft will continue to provide security updates and paid support (Example: Premier and Essential support, per-incident telephone/web support, etc.) Customers will continue to have access to all security updates and Self-Help Online Support options (Example: Knowledge Base articles, online product information etc.) Non-security hotfixes developed during the Extended Support phase will be provided ONLY to customers who enroll in Extended Hotfix Support (EHS). Please note: If you\u0026amp;rsquo;d like to enroll in EHS, customers must already have a Premier Support contract. In addition, customers must enroll in EHS within the first 90 days of the Extended Support phase. Program and per fix fees may also apply. Customers with Software Assurance can enroll in EHS at any time. Service Pack 3 for Windows Server 2003\nWe have received inquiries from our customers and partners on whether or not there will be a need for a Service Pack 3 for Windows Server 2003. Microsoft will not have a SP3 release for Windows Server 2003. To Summarize\u0026amp;hellip;\nSelf-Help Online Support* will be available for Windows 2000 Server after Extended Support before it ends on July 13, 2010. Windows Server 2003 and Windows","date":"Sep 17, 2009","href":"/2009/09/windows-2000-rip.html","summary":"From this this post on Technet - we can finally say that if you have a Windows 2000 Server in your enviroment - GET RID OF IT!!!!!! (or at least before July 13, 2010)\nAnother small thing to note - Service Pack 2 for Windows 2003 - was the last, there will be no no SP3.\nHere is the short version.\nWindows 2000 Server\nExtended Support for Windows 2000 Server will end on July 13, 2010. At this time, Windows 2000 Server will no longer be publicly supported. You will be able to continue using \u0026ldquo;Self-Help Online Support\u0026rdquo;*","tags":["Microsoft","Server","Windows","Administration"],"title":"Windows 2000 - R.I.P."},{"content":"According to Jewish religion, the year is based on the lunar calendar and coming up at the end of this week is Rosh Hashanah - the beginning of the new Jewish Year.\nNo, I am not getting religious on you all, but it is a good time for self refection on what I have done this past year, and what I would like to accomplish in the upcoming year.\nI was asked to prepare the vision for where we are going in the next year compared to where we are today.\nI though I would share with you the list that I came up with (with no particular order of importance)\nInternal Cloud\nCollaboration of virtual resources across the forest Connect the different virtual Centers together with Virtual Center Linked-mode Allow for check-out - migration - check back in on a different global location Security Tighten Virtualization security across the board\nHost\nVirtual Machines\nVirtual Center\nProcedures - Standardize procedures for more conformity and better operations\nAuditing changes made to the Infrastructure to allow a paper trail\nLook into utilizing VMSafe for security on the host for virtual machines when they become more widely available\nAutomation\nUtilize more scripting for more standardization of procedures (PowerCLI) Make use of Orchestrator for workflows and deployment 3rd party / native tools for monitoring / alerts / problem identification and resolution Storage\nUtilize the latest storage technologies for\nThin provisioning\nStorage de-duplication\nStorage offloaded snapshots\nStorage replication between sites (SRM)\nBCP/DR\nMore efficient backup methods and faster restore time Start testing SRM Cost / chargeback\nDefine a cost model for each workload we offer Realistic chargeback according to resources consumed Network\n10gb Ethernet for higher throughput using iSCSI/NFS on the backbone network FCOE Integration with Cisco Nexus 1000 for bettor control and conformity of network policies and compatibility in our current Infrastructure The Human Factor\nEducation to the end user - virtualization","date":"Sep 16, 2009","href":"/2009/09/my-new-year-resolutions.html","summary":"According to Jewish religion, the year is based on the lunar calendar and coming up at the end of this week is Rosh Hashanah - the beginning of the new Jewish Year.\nNo, I am not getting religious on you all, but it is a good time for self refection on what I have done this past year, and what I would like to accomplish in the upcoming year.\nI was asked to prepare the vision for where we are going in the next year compared to where we are today.","tags":["Virtualization","Management","vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","ESX","PowerCLI"],"title":"My New Years Resolutions"},{"content":"This one I saw from a tweet] from lamw.\nESXi 4.0 does have an ftp client in the unsupported console for anyone that is interested: http://bit.ly/moZkT\n\u0026amp;mdash; William Lam (@lamw) September 14, 2009 Of course activating the shell console on ESXi is not supported - I do not need to remind you about that. But, if you already have done it and would like to transfer files in and out of your ESXi host with FTP, here is how.\nVMTN Thread\n~ # ftpget BusyBox v1.9.1-VMware-visor-654 (2008-12-17 10:01:32 PST) multi-call binary Usage: ftpget [options] remote-host local-file remote-file Retrieve a remote file via FTP Options: -c,--continue Continue previous transfer -v,--verbose Verbose -u,--username Username -p,--password Password -P,--port Port number ~ # ftpput BusyBox v1.9.1-VMware-visor-654 (2008-12-17 10:01:32 PST) multi-call binary Usage: ftpput [options] remote-host remote-file local-file Store a local file on a remote machine via FTP Options: -v,--verbose Verbose -u,--username Username -p,--password Password -P,--port Port number ","date":"Sep 14, 2009","href":"/2009/09/ftp-client-in-esxi.html","summary":"This one I saw from a tweet] from lamw.\nESXi 4.0 does have an ftp client in the unsupported console for anyone that is interested: http://bit.ly/moZkT\n\u0026mdash; William Lam (@lamw) September 14, 2009 Of course activating the shell console on ESXi is not supported - I do not need to remind you about that. But, if you already have done it and would like to transfer files in and out of your ESXi host with FTP, here is how.","tags":["Tools","Administration","VMware","ESX4i"],"title":"FTP client in ESXi"},{"content":"A new white paper has been published by Hal Rosenberg from VMware\nit is a 51 page document, with step-by-step walkthroughs of how to troubleshoot performance problems on an ESX host regarding all aspects - Network, Storage, CPU, RAM, Guest, and Host.\nThe troubleshooting process starts with the top-level troubleshooting flow in Top-Level Troubleshooting Flow. However, the introductory material includes background information that is important for the successful completion of a performance troubleshooting effort. Identifying Performance Problems discusses what we mean by a performance problem, and how to tell when observed behavior is and is not a problem. Performance Troubleshooting Methodology gives an overview of the troubleshooting methodology used in this document. Using This Guide discusses how to use this guide. The guided approach makes using this document different than reading a typical manual. Performance Tools Overview gives an overview of the performance monitoring tools used in the troubleshooting process. Starting with Top-Level Troubleshooting Flow, the remainder of the document covers the process of using the performance monitoring tools to identify observable performance problems, find the root-cause of those problems, and then fix the causes.\nA highly recommended document for all ESX Admins.\n","date":"Sep 14, 2009","href":"/2009/09/performance-troubleshooting-for-vmware.html","summary":"A new white paper has been published by Hal Rosenberg from VMware\nit is a 51 page document, with step-by-step walkthroughs of how to troubleshoot performance problems on an ESX host regarding all aspects - Network, Storage, CPU, RAM, Guest, and Host.\nThe troubleshooting process starts with the top-level troubleshooting flow in Top-Level Troubleshooting Flow. However, the introductory material includes background information that is important for the successful completion of a performance troubleshooting effort. Identifying Performance Problems discusses what we mean by a performance problem, and how to tell when observed behavior is and is not a problem. Performance Troubleshooting Methodology gives an overview of the troubleshooting methodology used in this document. Using This Guide discusses how to use this guide. The guided approach makes using this document different than reading a typical manual. Performance Tools Overview gives an overview of the performance monitoring tools used in the troubleshooting process. Starting with Top-Level Troubleshooting Flow, the remainder of the document covers the process of using the performance monitoring tools to identify observable performance problems, find the root-cause of those problems, and then fix the causes.","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Performance Troubleshooting for VMware vSphere 4"},{"content":"So who would you believe?\nMicrosoft or Google?\nQuick search for VMware on\nBing\nand on Google\nOr are they just not as good as one another?\nQuick search for Barack Obama on Bing\nand on Google\nYou be the judge.\n","date":"Sep 14, 2009","href":"/2009/09/search-engines-are-they-biased.html","summary":"So who would you believe?\nMicrosoft or Google?\nQuick search for VMware on\nBing\nand on Google\nOr are they just not as good as one another?\nQuick search for Barack Obama on Bing\nand on Google\nYou be the judge.","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Search Engines - Are They Biased ?"},{"content":"From the WebEx that held this evening (IDT 21.00), VMware will be announcing a new bloggers contest that will be focusing on specific technologies over the next few months.\nKeep your browsers open and refreshing automatically (until John gets the page up) pointing at\nthis page - where the contest will be announced.\n(Update.. - The page is now live)\nSo what is VMware looking for? (I have cut the email address - until the official announcement)\nThe timeline of contest is as follows:\nThe rules (so I am sorry Duncan - you cannot participate)\nThe idea behind this contest is to promote the leading features - and get more in-depth information about these features out to the public.\nSo I will play, not for the prizes. I mean, I blog anyway on most of these subjects.\nAll-in-all a nice idea - it should bring some more publicity to the winning blog entry (and blogger) and of course allow us bloggers to spread our religion about next best thing since sliced bread.\nHope you enjoyed the ride.\n","date":"Sep 14, 2009","href":"/2009/09/vsphere-blogging-contest-it-begins.html","summary":"From the WebEx that held this evening (IDT 21.00), VMware will be announcing a new bloggers contest that will be focusing on specific technologies over the next few months.\nKeep your browsers open and refreshing automatically (until John gets the page up) pointing at\nthis page - where the contest will be announced.\n(Update.. - The page is now live)\nSo what is VMware looking for? (I have cut the email address - until the official announcement)","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"The vSphere Blogging Contest - It Begins!!"},{"content":"Last week I prepared a short explanation of what changes there are in vSphere Licensing in anticipation of the upcoming date of December 15, 2009 whereas we will no longer be able to purchase vSphere ESX Enterprise.\nThink this is a good summation of what your options are, and thought that I would share it with the community.\nIt is always good idea to be pro-active, instead of re-active.\nWith the release of vSphere at the end of May 2009, the licensing Structure for vSphere has changed from the previous structure that we are accustomed to in VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3.5 (VI3)\nThere is no change in vCenter Server Licensing.\nvSphere is now sold per physical CPU. The VI3 license was always for 2 CPU\u0026amp;rsquo;s. As of the change to vSphere it is priced per CPU, so please take care when placing your orders.\nThe editions in which ESX are now offered have changed from what was available in VI3\nEditions Available in ESX 3.x were:\nFoundation Standard Enterprise Editions available in ESX 4.x are:\nEssentials / Essentials Plus (Bundle) Standard Advanced Enterprise (*This is a special case that will explained later in detail) Enterprise plus Below is a schematic as to how the different editions map between the versions\n(all Prices in the document are VMware List Price)\nHere is the feature breakdown for the new versions\nMost of the Servers deployed today in our company are using the ESX Enterprise version, and using the Enterprise features of: VMotion, Storage VMotion, and DRS.\nIn order to accommodate customers VMware decided to continue the Enterprise License - but only until the End of the year (December 15, 2009). Thereafter, this edition will not be available for purchase. This has been confirmed with VMware support and licensing departments and on numerous locations in the Virtual community.\nWhat does this mean for customers and for company in particular?\nStarting December 16, 2009 - Enterprise will no longer be an option for purchase.\nThe Enterprise version will continue","date":"Sep 10, 2009","href":"/2009/09/how-to-prepare-for-enterprise-plus.html","summary":"Last week I prepared a short explanation of what changes there are in vSphere Licensing in anticipation of the upcoming date of December 15, 2009 whereas we will no longer be able to purchase vSphere ESX Enterprise.\nThink this is a good summation of what your options are, and thought that I would share it with the community.\nIt is always good idea to be pro-active, instead of re-active.\nWith the release of vSphere at the end of May 2009, the licensing Structure for vSphere has changed from the previous structure that we are accustomed to in VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3.5 (VI3)","tags":["Management","vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","ESX","Licensing","Upgrade"],"title":"How to Prepare for Enterprise Plus?"},{"content":"I would like you all to give a very warm welcome to Luc Dekens.\nLuc is one of the Masters of PowerCLI Forums. If you have a question about Powershell and VMware - he is the guy to ask - and he will answer!\nHe has finally started a Blog - I advise you to follow each and every post - it is a gem\n","date":"Sep 9, 2009","href":"/2009/09/master-luc-lucd22.html","summary":"I would like you all to give a very warm welcome to Luc Dekens.\nLuc is one of the Masters of PowerCLI Forums. If you have a question about Powershell and VMware - he is the guy to ask - and he will answer!\nHe has finally started a Blog - I advise you to follow each and every post - it is a gem","tags":["Tools","Powershell","Administration","VMware","PowerCLI"],"title":"Master Luc (LucD22)"},{"content":"Continuing this post from Dave Lawrence - VMworld 2009 by the numbers I will add a few of my own.\n29 video interviews done by John Troyer on the VMworld Live [Ustream channel](https://www.ustream.tv/channel/vmworld 23 (at least) new VCP4\u0026amp;rsquo;s 251 blog posts that came through on PlanetV12N about VMworld 7600 Tweets that have accumulated in my inbox (I use Twinbox) Since the beginning of VMworld 35MB - The amount of storage space - those 7600 tweets use in my PST 11 Blog posts on my blog about VMworld 2009 (and counting) - AND I WAS NOT EVEN THERE!!! Thanks for a great Show!\n","date":"Sep 6, 2009","href":"/2009/09/more-vmworld-2009-numbers.html","summary":"Continuing this post from Dave Lawrence - VMworld 2009 by the numbers I will add a few of my own.\n29 video interviews done by John Troyer on the VMworld Live [Ustream channel](https://www.ustream.tv/channel/vmworld 23 (at least) new VCP4\u0026rsquo;s 251 blog posts that came through on PlanetV12N about VMworld 7600 Tweets that have accumulated in my inbox (I use Twinbox) Since the beginning of VMworld 35MB - The amount of storage space - those 7600 tweets use in my PST 11 Blog posts on my blog about VMworld 2009 (and counting) - AND I WAS NOT EVEN THERE!!! Thanks for a great Show!","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"More VMworld 2009 Numbers"},{"content":"Category: Business Continuity and Data Protection Gold: Vizioncore Inc., vRanger Pro 4.0\nFinalist: Veeam Software Inc., Veeam Backup \u0026amp;amp; Replication\nFinalist: PHD Virtual Technologies, esXpress n 3.6\nCategory: **Security and Virtualization Gold**: Hytrust, Hytrust Appliance\nFinalist: Catbird Networks Inc., Catbird vCompliance\nCategory: Virtualization Management Gold: Netuitive Inc., Netuitive SI for Virtual Data Centers\nFinalist: Veeam Software, Veeam Management Suite\nFinalist: Embotics Corp., V-Commander 3.0\nCategory: Hardware for Virtualization Gold: Cisco Systems Inc., Unified Computing System\nFinalist: Xsigo Systems, VP780 I/O Director 2.0\nFinalist: AFORE Solutions Inc., ASE3300\nCategory: Desktop Virtualization Gold: AppSense, AppSense Environment Manager, 8.0\nFinalist: Liquidware Labs, Stratusphere\nFinalist: Virtual Computer Inc., NxTop\nCategory: Cloud Computing Technologies Gold: Mellanox Technologies, Italio Cloud Appliance\nFinalist: InContinuum Software, CloudController v 1.5\nFinalist: Catbird Networks Inc., Catbird V-Security Cloud Edition\nCategory: New Technology Winner: VirtenSys, Virtensys IOV switch VMX-500LSR\nCategory: Best of Show Winner: Hytrust, Hytrust Appliance\nCongratulations to all the Winners!!!\n","date":"Sep 3, 2009","href":"/2009/09/best-of-vmworld-2009-contest-winners.html","summary":"Category: Business Continuity and Data Protection Gold: Vizioncore Inc., vRanger Pro 4.0\nFinalist: Veeam Software Inc., Veeam Backup \u0026amp; Replication\nFinalist: PHD Virtual Technologies, esXpress n 3.6\nCategory: **Security and Virtualization Gold**: Hytrust, Hytrust Appliance\nFinalist: Catbird Networks Inc., Catbird vCompliance\nCategory: Virtualization Management Gold: Netuitive Inc., Netuitive SI for Virtual Data Centers\nFinalist: Veeam Software, Veeam Management Suite\nFinalist: Embotics Corp., V-Commander 3.0\nCategory: Hardware for Virtualization Gold: Cisco Systems Inc., Unified Computing System\nFinalist: Xsigo Systems, VP780 I/O Director 2.0\nFinalist: AFORE Solutions Inc., ASE3300","tags":["Tools","VMworld","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Best of VMworld 2009 Contest Winners"},{"content":"Vizioncore have released 3 new products that are free.\nvControl\nvControl Multi-Hypervisor Management provides multi-VM control and task-based automation to reduce VM administration and improve consistency. Furthermore, vControl Multi-Hypervisor Management allows organizations to automate manual and repetitive tasks while enabling a cost-effective solution for high availability in the data center.\nWorking across multiple platforms, including VMware ESX/ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, and Sun Solaris Zones, vControl gives administrators the power to manage single or multiple VMs one-by-one or simultaneously. Finally, vControl Multi-Hypervisor Management provides pre-configured workflows to manage daily tasks, as well as a workflow builder for customization.\nvControl Multi-Hypervisor Management helps organizations:\nReduce virtual machine (VM) administration time and errors without sacrificing control of the virtual environment Perform various actions on a single VM or for multiple VMs to reduce time and effort Automate manual and repetitive tasks while freeing up time to perform more valuable tasks Reduce the costs of providing high availability (HA) to VMs Reduce VM configuration and setup times while preventing oversight More Details here\nvConverter\nvConverter SC freeware from Vizioncore is enterprise-class software that significantly reduces the time, cost, and effort required to convert physical and virtual machines to VMware®, Microsoft®, or XenServer™. vConverter SC is suitable for all types and sizes of server consolidation initiatives where several or even thousands of physical servers need to be virtualized.\nvConverter SC enables fast, easy and reliable conversions without disrupting the source physical system during the conversion process. There is no need to reboot, no need to visit machines being converted and no software to install on the source, which means virtually no downtime, thus significantly reducing the time and cost of the conversion","date":"Sep 2, 2009","href":"/2009/09/new-free-products-from-vizioncore.html","summary":"Vizioncore have released 3 new products that are free.\nvControl\nvControl Multi-Hypervisor Management provides multi-VM control and task-based automation to reduce VM administration and improve consistency. Furthermore, vControl Multi-Hypervisor Management allows organizations to automate manual and repetitive tasks while enabling a cost-effective solution for high availability in the data center.\nWorking across multiple platforms, including VMware ESX/ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, and Sun Solaris Zones, vControl gives administrators the power to manage single or multiple VMs one-by-one or simultaneously. Finally, vControl Multi-Hypervisor Management provides pre-configured workflows to manage daily tasks, as well as a workflow builder for customization.","tags":["Tools","Virtualization","Management","VMworld","Hyper-V","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware"],"title":"New Free Products from Vizioncore"},{"content":"VMware has announced the Beta release of their new management product for ESXi free - VMware GO.\nFrom the short summary of the product\nVMware Go is a Cloud based application that enables you get up and running quickly with VMware virtualization in a completely automated fashion.\nWeb Browser Interface Easy-to-use Wizard Quickly create ESXis Easily add VMs Manage ESXis and VMs Ok I have already gone through the motions of installing. A few points that I have noted.\nSupported OS XP SP3, Vista 32bit SP2, Vista 64bit SP2 (No Windows Server OS). Support Browsers: IE 7 \u0026amp;amp; up, Firefox 3 \u0026amp;amp; up. I found the the installation finicky - with Firefox - because of the .Net components The whole application is run from your browser on the web - it is a cloud App. I posted a few questions on the forum, which immediately came to mind.\nAll the data is stored where - I gather with VMware somewhere on a DB - correct? Is the GO interface the only way to interact with the product? From what I remember - the API\u0026amp;rsquo;s in ESXi free were read only - so what changed that this now allows changes? Will there be a possibility to run the GO application on my network - and not with VMware? (Virtual Appliance) What information is collected by VMware and what is done with this information? The answers I received\nVMware Go stores information that\u0026amp;rsquo;s discovered from your ESXi servers, VMs, Patch Data, etc in a secure database. The Go interface is the only way to interact with that data at this time. Although future versions will be able to export data and get more extensive reports. VMware Go can read and write from your ESXi installation using the VMware PowerCLI. It does not interface to ESXi through APIs. VMware Go is a SaaS application that runs in the cloud and cannot be run locally on your network. However, since the VMware Go agent runs on your client machine, you can access ESXi and VMs running on your network and they can be used by VMware Go. VMware Go is available for free on","date":"Sep 2, 2009","href":"/2009/09/vmware-go-will-you-go.html","summary":"VMware has announced the Beta release of their new management product for ESXi free - VMware GO.\nFrom the short summary of the product\nVMware Go is a Cloud based application that enables you get up and running quickly with VMware virtualization in a completely automated fashion.\nWeb Browser Interface Easy-to-use Wizard Quickly create ESXis Easily add VMs Manage ESXis and VMs Ok I have already gone through the motions of installing. A few points that I have noted.","tags":["GO","Tools","Security","Management","VMworld","vSphere","Beta","Administration","VMware","ESX4i"],"title":"VMware GO - Will You GO?"},{"content":"For all of you people (like me) who are not able to attend the conference in San Francisco – a post on the VMWorld communities about a decent number of sessions that you can view online (for free)\nNone of these sessions are available as live sessions at the conference.\nHere is the Available List:\nBC2082 VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Performance and Best Practice\nBC2253 Pain-free VMware Agentless Backup AND Recovery - VCB \u0026amp;amp; Beyond\nBC3083 Mission Critical: Virtualization and Robust DR Architectures for Vital Systems\nBC3602 VMware Fault Tolerance - vSphere Workflows and API Considerations\nDV1406 Integrating VMware View with your VPN\nEA1396 SQL, Exchange and SharePoint Deployments on EMC Celerra Unified Storage\nEA3216 Best Practice for Virtualizing Active Directory using vSphere\nEA3579 Oracle Enterprise Workloads on VMware How-To\nTA1440 Networking in ESX: VM DirectPath Dynamic - the road to Direct VM to Hardware\nTA3488 All Hypervisors Are Not Created Equal - The Unique Advantages of VMware ESX\nV12789 VMware vCenter Converter 101\nVM2711 Virtual Infrastructure Performance Optimization: From the Data Center to the Desktop\nVM3237 vCenter Databases: Setup, Management and Best Practices\nVM3237 VC Linked Mode in vSphere 4.0\nVM3325 vSphere and ESXi Log Files 101 \u0026amp;amp; 102\nVM3404 Alarms for vCenter 4.0\nVM3414 Study Reveals Production Best Practices for Virtualization\nEnjoy!!\n","date":"Sep 1, 2009","href":"/2009/09/vmworld-for-masses-not-in-sf.html","summary":"For all of you people (like me) who are not able to attend the conference in San Francisco – a post on the VMWorld communities about a decent number of sessions that you can view online (for free)\nNone of these sessions are available as live sessions at the conference.\nHere is the Available List:\nBC2082 VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Performance and Best Practice\nBC2253 Pain-free VMware Agentless Backup AND Recovery - VCB \u0026amp; Beyond","tags":["Virtualization","VMworld","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"VMWorld – for the masses (not in SF)"},{"content":"This was from an announcement from John Troyer\nI saw a demo of a plug-in that utilizes this a while ago\nThe forum is now live\nhttps://communities.vmware.com/community/developer/forums/vcloudapi\nFrom the Q\u0026amp;amp;A vCloud API General Description What is the vCloud API? The vCloud API is an interface for providing and consuming virtual resources in the cloud. It enables deploying and managing virtualized workloads in internal and external clouds as well as interoperability between clouds. The vCloud API enables the upload, download, instantiation, deployment and operation of vApps, networks and Virtual Datacenters.\nWhat are networks in this case? These are virtual L2 networks in the cloud that enable flexible model for establishing connectivity between vApps in the cloud and connecting them to external networks outside the cloud.\nWhat is a Virtual Datacenter? A virtual Datacenter (vDC) is a new construct in the VMware vocabulary that contains storage, networking and compute capacity in which vApps are deployed.\nWhat are vApps? vApps are software solutions optimized for the cloud, consisting of one or more virtual machines, packaged and maintained as a single entity in OVF format. Just like the UPC bar code contains all information about a product, the vApp gives application owners a standard way to describe operational policies for an application which VMware vSphere (cloud OS) can automatically interpret and execute. Therefore, vApps are self-describing to and self-managing on the platform they run.\nWhat is OVF?\nOpen Virtualization Format (OVF) is a platform independent, efficient, extensible, and open packaging and distribution format for virtual machines. OVF enables efficient, flexible, and secure distribution of software, facilitating the mobility of virtual machines and giving customers vendor and platform independence. Customers can deploy an OVF formatted vApp on the virtualization platform or cloud of choice. Learn more about OVF.\nWhat version of the vCloud API","date":"Aug 31, 2009","href":"/2009/08/cloud-api-technology-preview.html","summary":"This was from an announcement from John Troyer\nI saw a demo of a plug-in that utilizes this a while ago\nThe forum is now live\nhttps://communities.vmware.com/community/developer/forums/vcloudapi\nFrom the Q\u0026amp;A vCloud API General Description What is the vCloud API? The vCloud API is an interface for providing and consuming virtual resources in the cloud. It enables deploying and managing virtualized workloads in internal and external clouds as well as interoperability between clouds. The vCloud API enables the upload, download, instantiation, deployment and operation of vApps, networks and Virtual Datacenters.","tags":["vCloud","VMworld","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Cloud API Technology Preview"},{"content":"F5 Announced today that they were providing with their BIG-IP can VMotion from one site to another without downtime.\nFirst the VM is sVmotioned from one storage to another, and then Vmotioned, F5 BIG-IP will redirect the to the remote site, including live sessions that are currently in progress.\nTaken from the Demo on their Site\nIn this webcast we will demonstrate how to perform a secure live migration of a VM from one cloud to another, without downtime, and without user disruption using LTM, GTM and vCenter APIs. Until now, it has been difficult if not impossible to accomplish this. VMotion is today limited to a single L2 broadcast domain, and Storage VMotions are even more restrictive. IP address space limitations make management cumbersome at best.\nF5 will be demonstrating this capability on Wednesday, September 2 at 10:30 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. at the VMware vCloud Pavilion at VMworld 2009. Come visit F5 Networks at Booth #2302\nDemo You can download the webcast video here\n","date":"Aug 31, 2009","href":"/2009/08/f5-live-app-migration-between-clouds.html","summary":"F5 Announced today that they were providing with their BIG-IP can VMotion from one site to another without downtime.\nFirst the VM is sVmotioned from one storage to another, and then Vmotioned, F5 BIG-IP will redirect the to the remote site, including live sessions that are currently in progress.\nTaken from the Demo on their Site\nIn this webcast we will demonstrate how to perform a secure live migration of a VM from one cloud to another, without downtime, and without user disruption using LTM, GTM and vCenter APIs. Until now, it has been difficult if not impossible to accomplish this. VMotion is today limited to a single L2 broadcast domain, and Storage VMotions are even more restrictive. IP address space limitations make management cumbersome at best.","tags":["Virtualization","VMotion","VMworld","Administration","VMware","ESX"],"title":"F5 Live App Migration Between Clouds Demo"},{"content":"Release Notes\nGeneral Availability Release | 31 August 2009 | Build 1017\nLast document update: 25 August 2009\nNew Features in VMware Studio 2.0 The following features were added between VMware Studio 1.0 and 2.0:\nAbility to create multiple-VM appliances, or vApps, to run on VMware vSphere. More provisioning engines including ESX/ESXi 3.5 and 4, VMware Workstation 6.5.1, and VMware Server 2.0. Build support for Windows Server 2003 and 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) virtual appliances. Build support for 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES). Build support new Linux distributions RHEL 5.3, CentOS 5.3, and Ubuntu 8.04.1. Extensible management services allow you to customize an interface into a new tab. An Eclipse™ plug-in helps you package applications and create management services. Automatic dependency resolution for application packages installed on Linux-based virtual appliances. Existing VM build (input-as-VM) for Linux virtual appliances. DMTF standard OVF 1.0 and open virtual appliance (OVA) packaging. VMware Studio 1.0 supported OVF 0.9. Can be downloaded from this link\n","date":"Aug 31, 2009","href":"/2009/08/vmware-studio-20-ga.html","summary":"Release Notes\nGeneral Availability Release | 31 August 2009 | Build 1017\nLast document update: 25 August 2009\nNew Features in VMware Studio 2.0 The following features were added between VMware Studio 1.0 and 2.0:\nAbility to create multiple-VM appliances, or vApps, to run on VMware vSphere. More provisioning engines including ESX/ESXi 3.5 and 4, VMware Workstation 6.5.1, and VMware Server 2.0. Build support for Windows Server 2003 and 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) virtual appliances. Build support for 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES). Build support new Linux distributions RHEL 5.3, CentOS 5.3, and Ubuntu 8.04.1. Extensible management services allow you to customize an interface into a new tab. An Eclipse™ plug-in helps you package applications and create management services. Automatic dependency resolution for application packages installed on Linux-based virtual appliances. Existing VM build (input-as-VM) for Linux virtual appliances. DMTF standard OVF 1.0 and open virtual appliance (OVA) packaging. VMware Studio 1.0 supported OVF 0.9. Can be downloaded from this link","tags":["VMworld","Appliances","Administration","VMware"],"title":"VMware Studio 2.0 - GA"},{"content":"Wifi Complimentary wireless access is available to all conference attendees in specific areas. Look for “VMworld2009” in your list of available wireless networks. The wireless network supports 802.11 a/b/g protocols and there is no WEP key. Once you connect to the network, just launch your Internet browser to gain access. If you need help connecting, please see the conference staff at the information desks located throughout the conference.\nEmail stations Sponsored by HP, where you can check email, confirm and print your schedule, and fill out overall conference surveys, are located throughout the VMworld conference venue. VMworld email stations are located in the Moscone South Lobby, Concourse Level and at the Marriott Hotel, Yerba Buena Ballroom.\nMeal Breakfast and Lunch are served in the Moscone Center, Hall A. Lunch will also be served in The Forum, with additional seating in Yerba Buena Gardens.\nContinental Breakfast Tuesday \u0026amp;amp; Wednesday: 6:30am – 8:00am\nThursday: 7:30am – 9:00am\nLunch\nTuesday through Thursday: 11:30am – 1:30pm\nVMWorld Alumni Have you attended two previous VMworld conferences as a general attendee? If yes, you’re a VMworld Alumnus! We want to recognize and thank you for your continued support of VMworld, so be sure to take advantage of the many special alumni activities and opportunities during the conference. Drop by the exclusive Alumni Lounge, located in Room 105 of the Moscone Center, to hang out, get online, have a snack or simply rejuvenate. You can pick up your exclusive alumni button here, too. Alumni also get 10% off\nVMware merchandise during VMworld 2009, redeemable at the VMware Company Store, located in the South Lobby.\n","date":"Aug 26, 2009","href":"/2009/08/useful-vmworld-2009-info.html","summary":"Wifi Complimentary wireless access is available to all conference attendees in specific areas. Look for “VMworld2009” in your list of available wireless networks. The wireless network supports 802.11 a/b/g protocols and there is no WEP key. Once you connect to the network, just launch your Internet browser to gain access. If you need help connecting, please see the conference staff at the information desks located throughout the conference.\nEmail stations Sponsored by HP, where you can check email, confirm and print your schedule, and fill out overall conference surveys, are located throughout the VMworld conference venue. VMworld email stations are located in the Moscone South Lobby, Concourse Level and at the Marriott Hotel, Yerba Buena Ballroom.","tags":["VMworld","VMware"],"title":"Useful VMWorld 2009 info"},{"content":"I know we are all busy with next weeks VMworld 2009 in San Francisco but a small heads-up for next year\nNext year the conferences will be back-to-back\nVMworld US 2010 – Aug 30-Sep 02 in Moscone Center, San Francisco\nVmworld Europe 2010 - Oct 11-14, Bella Centre, Copenhagen\nMark your Calendars!!!!\n","date":"Aug 26, 2009","href":"/2009/08/vmworld-conferences-2010.html","summary":"I know we are all busy with next weeks VMworld 2009 in San Francisco but a small heads-up for next year\nNext year the conferences will be back-to-back\nVMworld US 2010 – Aug 30-Sep 02 in Moscone Center, San Francisco\nVmworld Europe 2010 - Oct 11-14, Bella Centre, Copenhagen\nMark your Calendars!!!!","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"VMWorld Conferences 2010"},{"content":"For those of you who have not heard yet, Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager R2 was RTM a few days ago.\nOne thing I noticed on a post on the Microsoft Virtualization Blog was a reference to some of the details that are in the upcoming release (granted this is for the RC and I cannot attest to this being the same for the RTM version) and found these little points of interest.\nI wonder where Microsoft got this \u0026amp;ldquo;need\u0026amp;rdquo; from? Perhaps because it is a feature that has been around in ESX 3.5 since January 2008? Downtime of less than 2 minutes? (need I say more?) True by default you can only perform 2 simultaneous vmotions, but this is not a hard limit and can be changed - you can see a good review of the her from Simon Long and Jason Boche in this post.\nI dread to even think if this is true - how long it will take to evacuate a Hyper-V host if they have to be done one by one. At least now you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t have wait for each one to finish before starting the other - Thanks Microsoft for fixing that one! For full disclosure - granted Storage vMotion is now only available in the Enterprise Plus version of vSphere (which is not something I am very pleased about) and Microsoft claims that this is completely free (I have yet to confirm this) On a personal note a small message to Microsoft (and their supporters).\nDear Microsoft,\nYou have come a long way since Hyper-V version 1. Hyper-V R2 is a great product. I personally use both - and will continue to do so. Each one has their use-cases and their appropriate time and place to be used.\nThere are a number of features that you still have a lot of catching up to do to get to where VMware is today, but I gather you will get there.\nThe competition is healthy, and welcomed and me as the customer will benefit from it without a doubt.\nI personally have a favorite - but that does not mean that I will not continue to explore new and emerging technologies, be it VMware, Hyper-V, Xen or KVM\nHope you enjoyed the ride!\n","date":"Aug 25, 2009","href":"/2009/08/one-simultaneous-live-migration.html","summary":"For those of you who have not heard yet, Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager R2 was RTM a few days ago.\nOne thing I noticed on a post on the Microsoft Virtualization Blog was a reference to some of the details that are in the upcoming release (granted this is for the RC and I cannot attest to this being the same for the RTM version) and found these little points of interest.","tags":["Microsoft","SCVMM","VMotion","Hyper-V","Administration","VMware","ESX"],"title":"One Simultaneous Live Migration"},{"content":"I had to to migrate 43 Virtual Machines today, from one Datastore to another.\nThe environment is still not upgraded to vSphere yet.\nOptions I had:\nsVmotion Plug-in Command line PowerCLI I found the most efficient to be the following\nGet-Folder \u0026amp;quot;\u0026amp;lt;Folder Name\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;quot; | get-vm | Move-Vm -Datastore \u0026amp;lt;New_DataStoreName\u0026amp;gt; -RunAsync\nThe plug-in was too many mouse clicks, and the command line - I have never tried - so I do not know if you can run it against multiple machines\nThe command completed within 3 minutes - and the storage VMotion was queued for all Virtual\nMachines - it did take a bit longer\nHope you enjoyed the ride!\n","date":"Aug 24, 2009","href":"/2009/08/powercli-storage-vmotion.html","summary":"I had to to migrate 43 Virtual Machines today, from one Datastore to another.\nThe environment is still not upgraded to vSphere yet.\nOptions I had:\nsVmotion Plug-in Command line PowerCLI I found the most efficient to be the following\nGet-Folder \u0026quot;\u0026lt;Folder Name\u0026gt;\u0026quot; | get-vm | Move-Vm -Datastore \u0026lt;New_DataStoreName\u0026gt; -RunAsync\nThe plug-in was too many mouse clicks, and the command line - I have never tried - so I do not know if you can run it against multiple machines","tags":["VMotion","Scripting","Powershell","Administration","VMware"],"title":"So Easy - PowerCLI Storage VMotion"},{"content":"Well I am back from vacation - I was in Europe and also spent two wonderful days in Prague.\nI came across a small piece of history there and think I found the first ever Doctor that used Virtualization, and it was way way back in 1708.\nThis comes from a statue that is located on the Charles Bridge in Prague, and no I did not touch the photo in any way\nSeriously though, this is on the bottom of a statue of St. Nicholas on the bridge.\nStrange how different people see things differently.\nVacation was nice, and now back to serious blog posts\n","date":"Aug 24, 2009","href":"/2009/08/first-phd-in-virtualization-history.html","summary":"Well I am back from vacation - I was in Europe and also spent two wonderful days in Prague.\nI came across a small piece of history there and think I found the first ever Doctor that used Virtualization, and it was way way back in 1708.\nThis comes from a statue that is located on the Charles Bridge in Prague, and no I did not touch the photo in any way","tags":["Virtualization","Miscellaneous"],"title":"The first PhD in Virtualization History (1708)"},{"content":"I have been meaning to blog about this for a while so hear it is.\nOne of the features I used in ESX3i was the option to export a VM once it was powered off. This made the option of moving a VM off a stand-alone host to different Storage on different hosts a very easy process.\nIn ESXi 3.5\nAnd save it anywhere on your local Drive\nBut for some reason this has disappeared from ESX4i.\nThe option is grayed out.\nThe only way to export a VM from a standalone host is to use VMware Converter.\nThis was done on a stand-alone host - without vCenter, virtual machine was powered off using a free license.\nAnyone know why this was removed?\n","date":"Aug 24, 2009","href":"/2009/08/what-happened-to-export-vm-in-esx4.html","summary":"I have been meaning to blog about this for a while so hear it is.\nOne of the features I used in ESX3i was the option to export a VM once it was powered off. This made the option of moving a VM off a stand-alone host to different Storage on different hosts a very easy process.\nIn ESXi 3.5\nAnd save it anywhere on your local Drive","tags":["Tools","ESX3i","Management","Administration","VMware","Converter","ESX4i"],"title":"What Happened to Export a VM in ESX4i?"},{"content":"Jeff Woolsey posted a comparison of disk footprint of ESXi and Windows 2008 Hyper-V server. Not getting into what I think of it yet, just a few facts and misconceptions before I start.\nSince then these patches have been released for Windows 2008. I could not find a list of specific patches for Microsoft Hyper-V server 2008 R1 - because it is not listed as a product under Microsoft\u0026amp;rsquo;s Security site - not under Microsoft Hyper-v Server, Hyper-V, Windows Hyper-V, the only thing that I could find which was remotely was for Windows Server 2008.\nI assume that the security patches that Jeff spoke about here in this paragraph were patches that were released for Windows 2008, seeing the lack of anything else that Microsoft defines as a product called Microsoft Hyper-V server 2008 R1 I looked for patches that released for Windows Server 2008 and that were applicable to Core Edition (because as I understand, Hyper-v runs on a version of Core edition). So if Hyper-V server is a product - then define it as such, if not then it is still windows and need to be patched like windows\nIt is very nice that Jeff started to compare all patches from January 1, 2008 for both Systems but he forgot to mention that Hyper-V RTM\u0026amp;rsquo;ed on June 26, 2008. Seeing that So I think it should be fair that you should start comparing from July 1, 2008 for both products.\nBelow is a list of patches that were released for Windows 2008 and were applicable to core Edition.\nMS08-040 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 39.8 MB - 82.3 MB\nMS08-038 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update. 7.1 MB\nMS08-037 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update. 428 KB\nMS08-047 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update. 447 KB\nMS08-049 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update. 330 KB\nMS08-067 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security","date":"Aug 13, 2009","href":"/2009/08/esxi-patches-my-response-to-jeff.html","summary":"Jeff Woolsey posted a comparison of disk footprint of ESXi and Windows 2008 Hyper-V server. Not getting into what I think of it yet, just a few facts and misconceptions before I start.\nSince then these patches have been released for Windows 2008. I could not find a list of specific patches for Microsoft Hyper-V server 2008 R1 - because it is not listed as a product under Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s Security site - not under Microsoft Hyper-v Server, Hyper-V, Windows Hyper-V, the only thing that I could find which was remotely was for Windows Server 2008.","tags":["Microsoft","Security","ESX3i","Windows","Miscellaneous","VMware","Troubleshooting"],"title":"ESXi patches - My Response to Jeff Woolsey"},{"content":"It is less than 1 month to VMWorld 2009 in the Moscone Center in San Francisco (August 31-September 3, 2009). A great conference to start with, and picking up more and more momentum as we draw closer.\nThis is the main Virtualization Event of the year, and the only one for another 14 months - seeing that VMware has decided to \u0026amp;ldquo;consolidate\u0026amp;rdquo; the European and US events back-to-back, which I personally think is not a good idea (but enough has been said on the blogosphere about this subject)\nWhat I would like to discuss is what we can expect at this conference. vSphere was released less than 3 months ago - and the latest family of product, including AppSpeed, Lab Manager, and Chargeback were announced just 3 weeks ago.\nSpeculation from Sven Huisman about releasing vCenter for free was and interesting one that came up not long ago.\nI will add some speculations of my own of one of the features that I think will be announced in the upcoming conference.\nWell it is not actually a new product, but more of a feature that will be supported by at least two of the big Storage Vendors, EMC and NetApp.\nI am talking about Storage DRS.\nStorage vendors today are incorporate the usage of SSD (Solid State Disks) into their products. The benefits of SSD disks are not a small thing. In a presentation I saw last week from EMC, I was shown a graph of the comparison of what was needed to achieve a level of Disk I/O from a storage array. The ratio of the amount of disks Solid State:Conventional was approximately 1:10 to achieve the same performance. True - at the moment you would not save that much on pricing at the moment because SSD disk are much more expensive, but on power, cooling, space, and other overhead, I am sure you can see where the savings will come from.\nDRS - is a built in feature (now only available from Enterprise Plus versions and up) that balances your virtual machines according to the load on the ESX host, allowing for overall better performance for all you","date":"Aug 3, 2009","href":"/2009/08/storage-drs-and-new-things-at-vmworld.html","summary":"It is less than 1 month to VMWorld 2009 in the Moscone Center in San Francisco (August 31-September 3, 2009). A great conference to start with, and picking up more and more momentum as we draw closer.\nThis is the main Virtualization Event of the year, and the only one for another 14 months - seeing that VMware has decided to \u0026ldquo;consolidate\u0026rdquo; the European and US events back-to-back, which I personally think is not a good idea (but enough has been said on the blogosphere about this subject)","tags":["Virtualization","Management","VMotion","VMworld","vSphere","Administration","VMware","ESX"],"title":"Storage DRS and New things at VMWorld 2009"},{"content":"Very quick post for this morning\nShow your appreciation for SysAdmin - https://www.sysadminday.com\nLots more here\n","date":"Jul 31, 2009","href":"/2009/07/happy-sysadmin-day.html","summary":"Very quick post for this morning\nShow your appreciation for SysAdmin - https://www.sysadminday.com\nLots more here","tags":["Miscellaneous","Administration"],"title":"Happy Sysadmin Day"},{"content":"And so this started today with a Twitter post. If you know it or not I am a big enthusiast of trying to install ESX on all kinds of hardware - especially Whiteboxes that are not on the HCL. I have tested it on a number of HP, Dell and IBM desktops. The great thing about this is - it mostly works, it is completely not supported, but a lot of fun to do. But to lug around with a desktop to present demos, is not always the most convenient thing in the world - to put it mildly.\nWhat-if (or as you would say it in Powershell -whatif) you could create a system, that has a full demonstration environment of multiple VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s - and all of this on your LAPTOP!\nSo I looked around on the Web and found a few mentions of people who have done this. What kind of problems they ran into and what was possible or not. The consensus is to Install a Base OS, Workstation on top of that, ESX as a VM, and then VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s onto that ESX VM. The consensus about this as well was \u0026amp;ldquo;IT IS AS SLOW AS A TORTISE!\u0026amp;rdquo;. ESX on bare metal should be much much faster,\nSo my adventure started with this:\nLenovo T400 Laptop 267812G - Intel Core2 Duo T9400 2.53GHz with 2GB RAM ESX4i build 171294 The laptop:\nStarted out in the BIOS, enabled Intel VT\nSATA was set as AHCI\nAnd off we go\nInstall Screen\nRecognizes the Disk\nAnd 4 minutes later\nAll hardware detected out of the box - Network card included\nNext was to connect to the laptop with the VI client.\nNow all I have to do is find out why I cannot power on a machine. Every time I started a VM the laptop froze - completely! Hard reboot and the machine came back up OK but the VM was no longer registered.\nHave to look into that further\nHope you enjoyed the ride.\n","date":"Jul 28, 2009","href":"/2009/07/install-esx-on-your-laptop-i-had-crazy.html","summary":"And so this started today with a Twitter post. If you know it or not I am a big enthusiast of trying to install ESX on all kinds of hardware - especially Whiteboxes that are not on the HCL. I have tested it on a number of HP, Dell and IBM desktops. The great thing about this is - it mostly works, it is completely not supported, but a lot of fun to do. But to lug around with a desktop to present demos, is not always the most convenient thing in the world - to put it mildly.","tags":["Miscellaneous","Whitebox","VMware","ESX4i"],"title":"Install ESX on your Laptop - I had a Crazy Idea"},{"content":"Yes disconnected environments do exist! I mean completely and totally disconnected.\nNO INTERNET!!!\nWell I had one of those today. My customer has a network which is completely and physically disconnected from the corporate LAN and therefore also not connected to the internet. This because of the nature of the information that is on this secluded network, that no option for anything to go in or out over the wire.\nAll fine an Dandy! Installed an new ESX4i machine there today. I then wanted to install the new VI client on the users PC. Pretty straight forward - or so you would think..\nOpened up the web browser and pointed it to https://ESX-HOST/client/VMware-viclient.exe and ran the exe file.\nNext -\u0026amp;gt; Next -\u0026amp;gt; Next -\u0026amp;gt; skipped the host Update utility, Waited, waited, waited\nand then ………… BOINK!!!!\nInstallation failed returned error code 1603. And of course no Vi client.\nHmmm. Maybe something was wrong with the .net Framework on the machine - checked it and all seemed to be kosher.\nTried the installation again, and guess what? Same story! Tried it on another machine - you guessed right - Same story!\nI love a challenge and solving puzzles - so this was one for me :)\nI unpacked the VMware-viclient.exe and received this\nSo you would think that the package has all the goodies it needs in order to install. Nope..\nLooking into the netfx.log which was located in the %TEMP% directory i noticed that during the installation of the .Net Framework - the Installation was looking for some file on the internet and in a local path. Internet of course would not work here - remember? Disconnected network! - and local path did not have the file either.\nLooked again at the folder sizes - 2.4MB seems a bit small don\u0026amp;rsquo;t you think? Microsoft offers Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1 available here - but again 2.4MB in size. So I gathered I need the redistributable package (which should include all that I need) - again Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Redistributable Package","date":"Jul 27, 2009","href":"/2009/07/vi-client-install-in-disconnected.html","summary":"Yes disconnected environments do exist! I mean completely and totally disconnected.\nNO INTERNET!!!\nWell I had one of those today. My customer has a network which is completely and physically disconnected from the corporate LAN and therefore also not connected to the internet. This because of the nature of the information that is on this secluded network, that no option for anything to go in or out over the wire.","tags":["Virtualization","ESX3i","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","Troubleshooting","ESX4i"],"title":"VI client Install in Disconnected Environments"},{"content":"Well ok.. This could be taken the wrong way (and all of your with the dirty minds should be ashamed of yourselves - ha ha). On one of my previous posts - How Much Ram per Host - a.k.a Lego - I gave a hypothetical scenario of 40 1 vCPU VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s on a single host as opposed to 80 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s on one host. There was one thing I neglected to mention, and because of a issue with a client this week, I feel it is important to point out.\nCPU Contention. For those of you who do not know what the issue is about, a brief explanation. If you have too many VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s competing for CPU resources to work, then your VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s will stop behaving and start to crawl.\nSo here was the story - a client called me with an issue, all his VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s had started to crawl - EVERYTHING was running slowly!\nTroubleshooting walkthrough:\nLog into the VI Client - and check the resource utilization of the Host - CPU, RAM, Network, Disk.\nOk I did that - absolutely nothing!\nCPU - 40%\nRAM - 50%\nNIC - 5-10mb/s utilization\nDisk - This was NFS no disk statistics - so I looked at the VMNIC of the VMKernel - and also nothing!\nOn to the next step..\ntop on the ESX host\nssh\u0026amp;rsquo;d into the ESX host and looked at the resources with top. I do this first before even going into the ESX statistics. I looked to see if any the iowait was high or if there was any processes stealing up too many resources and the state of the RAM on the host.\n14:21:34 up 2 days, 20:57, 1 user, load average: 1.06, 0.92, 0.75 286 processes: 284 sleeping, 2 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped CPU states: cpu user nice system irq softirq iowait idle total 0.9% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 45.8% 94.1% Mem: 268548k av, 256560k used, 11988k free, 0k shrd, 21432k buff 189028k actv, 29240k in_d, 3232k in_c Swap: 1638620k av, 251022k used, 1541988k free 74068k cached If you notice on the last line\nSwap: 1638620k av, **251022k used**, 1541988k free 74068k cached Why was it swapping - that is not normal. Quick check on the Vi Client how much RAM was allocated,\nSo","date":"Jul 24, 2009","href":"/2009/07/how-heavy-is-your-esx-load.html","summary":"Well ok.. This could be taken the wrong way (and all of your with the dirty minds should be ashamed of yourselves - ha ha). On one of my previous posts - How Much Ram per Host - a.k.a Lego - I gave a hypothetical scenario of 40 1 vCPU VM\u0026rsquo;s on a single host as opposed to 80 VM\u0026rsquo;s on one host. There was one thing I neglected to mention, and because of a issue with a client this week, I feel it is important to point out.","tags":["Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"How Heavy is your ESX Load?"},{"content":"No I am not offering one - VMware is.\nHot off the press from Twitter - starts now until Midnight - July 24, 2009.\nThe idea is for you to register for the conference and therefore become eligible to win the pass for free.\nIf you read the fine print though on the Terms and Conditions you will find that there is a shorter route.\nGood luck!!\n","date":"Jul 16, 2009","href":"/2009/07/promotional-drawing-for-free-vmworld.html","summary":"No I am not offering one - VMware is.\nHot off the press from Twitter - starts now until Midnight - July 24, 2009.\nThe idea is for you to register for the conference and therefore become eligible to win the pass for free.\nIf you read the fine print though on the Terms and Conditions you will find that there is a shorter route.\nGood luck!!","tags":["VMworld","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Promotional Drawing for Free VMworld Pass"},{"content":"One of the little known features but, at least I think so, the coolest gems in the last few versions of VMware Workstation is Unity Mode.\nAccess applications within virtual machines as if they were part of the host operating system desktop with “Unity” view\nTwo perfect use cases:\nIn most big corporate environments - Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook are the de-facto tools used for email. If you are like some of those who refuse to use Microsoft OS - then you have to resort to using Evolution, which does not always work well.\nUnity to the rescue, I can run whatever OS I would like and run a windows virtual machine with for running Outlook, and all I need is to activate Unity and you will have an window (almost like any other) in you Linux OS. Some organizations (do use Exchange) did not move to LCS or OCS. Why? A number of reasons. Too much money for the CAL\u0026amp;rsquo;s. No need. It works. So for one we are still using Windows Messenger 5.1 for our internal messenger software. Starting from Windows Vista - every time you open a chat window and the screen scrolls, the Application crashes. This has been documented numerous amounts of times on the web, with no solution. Unity to the rescue. I can now run Windows Vista / 7 /Server 2008 and have a VM with my Messenger client open without having to run another whole desktop for this purpose A short demo about Unity\nAnd yeah yeah, I know. Time to change the Messenger client, I hear ya!\n","date":"Jul 16, 2009","href":"/2009/07/vmware-workstation-unity.html","summary":"One of the little known features but, at least I think so, the coolest gems in the last few versions of VMware Workstation is Unity Mode.\nAccess applications within virtual machines as if they were part of the host operating system desktop with “Unity” view\nTwo perfect use cases:\nIn most big corporate environments - Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook are the de-facto tools used for email. If you are like some of those who refuse to use Microsoft OS - then you have to resort to using Evolution, which does not always work well.\nUnity to the rescue, I can run whatever OS I would like and run a windows virtual machine with for running Outlook, and all I need is to activate Unity and you will have an window (almost like any other) in you Linux OS. Some organizations (do use Exchange) did not move to LCS or OCS. Why? A number of reasons. Too much money for the CAL\u0026rsquo;s. No need. It works. So for one we are still using Windows Messenger 5.1 for our internal messenger software. Starting from Windows Vista - every time you open a chat window and the screen scrolls, the Application crashes. This has been documented numerous amounts of times on the web, with no solution. Unity to the rescue. I can now run Windows Vista / 7 /Server 2008 and have a VM with my Messenger client open without having to run another whole desktop for this purpose A short demo about Unity","tags":["Tools","Workstation","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"VMware Workstation \u0026 Unity"},{"content":"I was waiting for these to come in they have arrived, and I think that you all could benefit from these presentations.\nvSphere, What\u0026amp;rsquo;s New? - Technical Overview - Ofir Zamir (Team Leader SEs, VMware Israel)\nand\nvSphere Upgrade and Best Practices - Ben Hagai (VMUG Leader) and Yaniv Weinberg (Senior Consultant at VMware)\nGood presentation from all three of them. Enjoy!\n","date":"Jul 15, 2009","href":"/2009/07/presentations-from-israel-vmug.html","summary":"I was waiting for these to come in they have arrived, and I think that you all could benefit from these presentations.\nvSphere, What\u0026rsquo;s New? - Technical Overview - Ofir Zamir (Team Leader SEs, VMware Israel)\nand\nvSphere Upgrade and Best Practices - Ben Hagai (VMUG Leader) and Yaniv Weinberg (Senior Consultant at VMware)\nGood presentation from all three of them. Enjoy!","tags":["Virtualization","VMUG","vSphere","Miscellaneous","ESX","Upgrade"],"title":"Presentations from an Israel VMUG"},{"content":"I was invited (amongst a good number of others that were in the Beta) to sit the Beta Exam. I have decided not to take the opportunity. Only two days left by the way.\nWhy you should? Beta Participants receive a good discount on the exam The privilege of becoming one of the 1st few to achieve the VCP4 Certification The privilege of contributing to the testing process for the rest of those that will take the exam in the future Why you should not? You have a a lot of questions to answer in a very short time (270 in 4.5 hours = 1 question/minute) Not all of these questions will be in the GA exam You will not receive your results after the exam, it can actually take something like 6-8 weeks Personally none of the cons mentioned above were the reason for my decision. I will not be taking it because the only VUE testing center in Israel that I could schedule the exam was, available only on one date, three hours drive away from where I live/work, and the slot was at 08.30 in the morning. So I will pass. Pity, but when the exam becomes available, I will definitely book a more suitable slot.\nThank you VMware anyway, for giving me the opportunity though.\n","date":"Jul 15, 2009","href":"/2009/07/vcp4-beta-exam-why-i-will-not-take-exam.html","summary":"I was invited (amongst a good number of others that were in the Beta) to sit the Beta Exam. I have decided not to take the opportunity. Only two days left by the way.\nWhy you should? Beta Participants receive a good discount on the exam The privilege of becoming one of the 1st few to achieve the VCP4 Certification The privilege of contributing to the testing process for the rest of those that will take the exam in the future Why you should not? You have a a lot of questions to answer in a very short time (270 in 4.5 hours = 1 question/minute) Not all of these questions will be in the GA exam You will not receive your results after the exam, it can actually take something like 6-8 weeks Personally none of the cons mentioned above were the reason for my decision. I will not be taking it because the only VUE testing center in Israel that I could schedule the exam was, available only on one date, three hours drive away from where I live/work, and the slot was at 08.30 in the morning. So I will pass. Pity, but when the exam becomes available, I will definitely book a more suitable slot.","tags":["Beta","VCP","Miscellaneous"],"title":"VCP4 Beta Exam - Why I will not take the Exam."},{"content":"I started to read the sample chapters that Scott Lowe released from his upcoming book, and one of the parts were about the subject of scaling up vs. scaling out.\nA slight bit more of an explanation as to what I mean by this. Should I buy bigger more monstrous servers, or a greater number of smaller servers?\nLet us take a sample case study. We have an environment that has sized the following:\nOn this hardware an organization has sized their server\u0026amp;rsquo;s capacity as:\nThe estimate of 40 Virtual Machines per host is pretty conservative, but for arguments sake let\u0026amp;rsquo;s say that is the requirements that came from the client. The projected amount of VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s - up to 200.\nWhich hardware should be used to to host these virtual machines? I am not talking about if it should be a Blade or a Rack mount, and also not which Vendor, IBM,HP,Dell or other.I am talking about more about what should go into the hardware for each server. And in particular for this post what would be the best amount of RAM per server.\nFrom my experience of my current environment that I manage, the bottleneck we hit first is always RAM. Our servers are performing at 60%-70% utilization of RAM, but only 30%-40% CPU utilization per server. And from what I have been hearing from the virtualization community - the feeling is generally the same. I wanted to compare what would be the optimal configuration for a server. Each server was a 2U IBM x3650 with 2 72GB Hard disks (for ESX OS), 2 Power supply\u0026amp;rsquo;s, 2 Intel PRO/1000T Dual NIC adapters. Shared Storage is the same for both Servers, so that is not something that I take into the equation here.The only difference between them was the amount of RAM in the servers.All the prices and part numbers are up to date from IBM, done with a tool called the\nIBM Standalone Solutions Configuration Tool (SSCT). The tool is updated once/twice a month and is extremely useful in configuring and pricing my servers.\nNow the first thing that hit me was - the sheer amount","date":"Jul 9, 2009","href":"/2009/07/how-much-ram-for-esx-server-aka-lego.html","summary":"I started to read the sample chapters that Scott Lowe released from his upcoming book, and one of the parts were about the subject of scaling up vs. scaling out.\nA slight bit more of an explanation as to what I mean by this. Should I buy bigger more monstrous servers, or a greater number of smaller servers?\nLet us take a sample case study. We have an environment that has sized the following:","tags":["Tools","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","ESX"],"title":"How much RAM for an ESX server - a.k.a. Lego Blocks"},{"content":"In the current series of posts I am writing on running a vSphere lab on ESX 1, 2 and 3, I wanted to set up an NFS shared storage between my 2 ESX hosts to test vMotion.\nI ran into an interesting issue which I could hardly find any mention of on the web.\nWe all know that there are countless amount of posts about vMotion failing at 10% or failing at 90% but not anything about 78%. Well I hate to be picky, but this one was baffling me a bit. I found only only mention of this on the communities, but nothing else.\nA bit more detail. I had connected two ESX hosts to an NFS share from Openfiler. There was no problem at all. Both hosts saw the storage. Created machines without any issues on both hosts. Only vMotion would fail – with a very ambiguous error.\nEvery single time at 78%. At first I though it was because Promiscuous mode was not enabled on the NIC and on the vSwitch, so I changed that to enabled\nDid not help.\nI tried to get information of of the VMware.log file of the VM, but the only things I could see were these:\nJun 30 13:34:04.615: vmx| Running VMware ESX in a virtual machine or with some other virtualization products is not supported and may result in unpredictable behavior. Do you want to continue?--------------------------------------- So maybe that was the issue? I asked hany_michael and the_crooked_toe if they had any issues with vMotion like this but they did not, even though running a similar environment to mine. This line above was because I was running ESX as a VM, I would get it as well when powering on a VM but it would succeed.\nI tried to go through the logs of the VM’s and was not getting more information from it either besides that it could not find the file on the new host.\nTurned on verbose logging on the vCenter\nDid not get much either.\n[2009-06-30 13:56:47.886 03756 error \u0026amp;lsquo;App\u0026amp;rsquo;] [MIGRATE] (1246359385573990) error while tracking VMotion progress (RuntimeFault)\nSince this was NFS I started to dive into the vmkernel logs of the ESX","date":"Jul 1, 2009","href":"/2009/07/vmotion-issues-78.html","summary":"In the current series of posts I am writing on running a vSphere lab on ESX 1, 2 and 3, I wanted to set up an NFS shared storage between my 2 ESX hosts to test vMotion.\nI ran into an interesting issue which I could hardly find any mention of on the web.\nWe all know that there are countless amount of posts about vMotion failing at 10% or failing at 90% but not anything about 78%. Well I hate to be picky, but this one was baffling me a bit. I found only only mention of this on the communities, but nothing else.","tags":["VMotion","Scripting","Miscellaneous","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"vMotion issues (78%)"},{"content":"We continue our Saga. Part 2 ended with configuring our cluster and now we go onto shared storage and vMotion.\nIf you looked at the previous topology of my lab you will notice that there was no interface configured there for shared storage. That was a small oversight on my part which I corrected by adding a additional NIC, by the way, that is why I love working on virtual machines as a lab - hardware does not cost anything!!\nI added a fourth NIC to each ESX host with a VMKernel port connected to 1.1.2.x - named NFS.\nSo after adding a new nic to each of my ESX hosts the topology looks like this\nESX4-1\nESX4-2\nWe will now add a shared NFS volume to each server. I know that NFS is not the most popular choice for shared storage out there, but I do have to say that I am extremely pleased with the performance, and in my personal production environment, the benefits we receive with, ease of use, backup times and administration, has made NFS the de-facto choice for all our ESX deployments.\nThe NFS share is hosted on an Openfiler server (well I am exaggerating a bit - it is actually a desktop with a large disk). Extremely stable - as you can see from the screen shot below.\n\u0026amp;ldquo;There is more than one way to skin a cat\u0026amp;rdquo; - so go the saying, and there is more than one way to add an NFS volume.\nWe can do it through the VI client.\nOr we can do it from the command-line on the ESX host.\nesxcfg-nas -a \u0026amp;lt;volume name\u0026amp;gt; -o \u0026amp;lt;hostname/ip\u0026amp;gt; -s \u0026amp;lt;share name\u0026amp;gt;\nor in my case\nAnd now we have both Servers which see the same Shared Storage.\nAnd this is a diagram of my environment\nI now fired up a Windows Server machine to test out my vMotion\nNext up on the menu Fault Tolerance.\n","date":"Jun 30, 2009","href":"/2009/06/esx-40-running-vsphere-lab-part-3.html","summary":"We continue our Saga. Part 2 ended with configuring our cluster and now we go onto shared storage and vMotion.\nIf you looked at the previous topology of my lab you will notice that there was no interface configured there for shared storage. That was a small oversight on my part which I corrected by adding a additional NIC, by the way, that is why I love working on virtual machines as a lab - hardware does not cost anything!!","tags":["Lab","VMotion","vSphere","VMware","ESX","vCenter","ESX4i"],"title":"ESX 4.0 Running a VSphere Lab - Part 3"},{"content":"From a query on the VMTN forums, I found this one.\nIt seems there has been a release (very very quiet one… sshhhh..) from the original GA code version 164009.\nIt now seems there are two versions of ESX4i floating around now.\nESX4i\nESX4i Free There are no release notes for the new version, so I do not know if anything changed.\nFeelers are out on Twitter - for more info. If I have any new info I will update this post.\nUpdate 1 - Found another post on the forums with the same build number.\nUpdate 2 - Host Update Utility would not upgrade a ESX4i build 164009 vm\nSo I built a new VM with the new VMware-VMvisor-Installer-4.0.0-171294.x86_64.iso\nNow to see what has changed.\nUpdate 3 - a quick check of what was reported in this post have not been fixed in this release.\n","date":"Jun 30, 2009","href":"/2009/06/esx4i-build-171294-released.html","summary":"From a query on the VMTN forums, I found this one.\nIt seems there has been a release (very very quiet one… sshhhh..) from the original GA code version 164009.\nIt now seems there are two versions of ESX4i floating around now.\nESX4i\nESX4i Free There are no release notes for the new version, so I do not know if anything changed.\nFeelers are out on Twitter - for more info. If I have any new info I will update this post.","tags":["vSphere","Whitebox","VMware","ESX4i"],"title":"ESX4i build 171294 - released"},{"content":"Here is my solution for Event 8. Here we had to go through the hard drive and report which folder was using up all the space on the drive.\n#First we set the path $path = Read-Host \u0026amp;#34;Which folder would you like to scan?\u0026amp;#34; #assign what we want to get to a variable $myfolders = get-childitem $path -force -recurse | where-object{$_.PSIsContainer} #initiate an empty variable $mycol = @() #now we loop through all the folders foreach($folder in $myfolders) { Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;Processing Folder $folder\u0026amp;#34; #Create and initialize a new variable with two fields Name, SizeMB $myObj = \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#34; | Select Name,SizeMB #here we measure the actual size of the folder [int]$DirSize = \u0026amp;#34;{0:n2}\u0026amp;#34; -f (((Get-Childitem $folder.FullName -recurse -force | ` measure-object -sum Length).Sum)/1mb) #add the results to the variable $myobj.Name = $folder.Name $myobj.SizeMB = $DirSize #add these to the mycol variable $mycol += $myobj } #present the output and sort by size $mycol | sort-object SizeMB -Desc | format-table -auto Almost at the end!!\n","date":"Jun 27, 2009","href":"/2009/06/powershell-scripting-games-day-8.html","summary":"Here is my solution for Event 8. Here we had to go through the hard drive and report which folder was using up all the space on the drive.\n#First we set the path $path = Read-Host \u0026#34;Which folder would you like to scan?\u0026#34; #assign what we want to get to a variable $myfolders = get-childitem $path -force -recurse | where-object{$_.PSIsContainer} #initiate an empty variable $mycol = @() #now we loop through all the folders foreach($folder in $myfolders) { Write-Host \u0026#34;Processing Folder $folder\u0026#34; #Create and initialize a new variable with two fields Name, SizeMB $myObj = \u0026#34;\u0026#34; | Select Name,SizeMB #here we measure the actual size of the folder [int]$DirSize = \u0026#34;{0:n2}\u0026#34; -f (((Get-Childitem $folder.FullName -recurse -force | ` measure-object -sum Length).Sum)/1mb) #add the results to the variable $myobj.Name = $folder.Name $myobj.SizeMB = $DirSize #add these to the mycol variable $mycol += $myobj } #present the output and sort by size $mycol | sort-object SizeMB -Desc | format-table -auto Almost at the end!!","tags":["Scripting Games","Scripting","Powershell","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Powershell Scripting Games - Day 8"},{"content":"So Part 1 was about setting up the test environment. This part will be about setting up a cluster.\nBut before we can do anything with setting up clusters we need to set up networking.\nThis might be a bit complicated to understand so bear with me. Just a small recap.\nThe host (esx-sandbox2) has 3 vm\u0026amp;rsquo;s:\nILVSPHERE-TEST ESX4-1 ESX4-2 As this is a setup in a box first we have to go into how the host is set up. The host has 2 physical nic\u0026amp;rsquo;s, one for management and one for the vm\u0026amp;rsquo;s. There are 4 vSwitches on the esx-sandbox2:\nvSwitch0 (vmnic0) - Service console and VM Network virtual machine Port Group (which on second thought I should have removed since it was not in use - but never mind). vSwitch1 (vmnic1) - VM Port Group for VLAN 201 for external access to the vCenter and the Service console (SC) of ESX4-1 and ESX4-2. vSwitch2 (no adapter) - internal vSwitch for vMotion traffic. vSwitch3 (no adapter) - internal vSwitch for FT traffic. The diagram below should give you a clear explanation of the network setup of esx-sandbox2.\nEach of the ESX hosts are set up in the same way\nvSwitch0 (vmnic0) - Service Console and VM Port Group vSwitch1 (vmnic1) - VMkernel for vMotion (192.168.1.x) vSwitch2 (vmnic2) - VMkernel for Fault Tolerance (192.168.2.x) Again a diagram below.\nESX4-1\nESX4-2\nSo now we have enough to build our cluster. In the short video below the steps are:\nCreate TEST_CLS_01 Check both boxes for HA and DRS Accept all the defaults for the cluster configuration and complete the wizard Drag both hosts into the cluster Wait for HA configuration to finish configuration Since there is only one nic for the service console there will be an error about \u0026amp;ldquo;management network redundancy\u0026amp;rdquo;, so since this is only a test environment I would like to ignore that error. Duncan Epping\u0026amp;rsquo;s HA Advanced options page gave me the das.ignoreRedundantNetWarning setting to disable this check Reconfigure for HA on both hosts, and we have a functioning cluster.","date":"Jun 26, 2009","href":"/2009/06/esx-40-running-vsphere-lab-part-2.html","summary":"So Part 1 was about setting up the test environment. This part will be about setting up a cluster.\nBut before we can do anything with setting up clusters we need to set up networking.\nThis might be a bit complicated to understand so bear with me. Just a small recap.\nThe host (esx-sandbox2) has 3 vm\u0026rsquo;s:\nILVSPHERE-TEST ESX4-1 ESX4-2 As this is a setup in a box first we have to go into how the host is set up. The host has 2 physical nic\u0026rsquo;s, one for management and one for the vm\u0026rsquo;s. There are 4 vSwitches on the esx-sandbox2:","tags":["Lab","Virtualization","vSphere","VMware","ESX","vCenter","ESX4i"],"title":"ESX 4.0 running a vSphere Lab - Part 2"},{"content":"I started out on my quest for getting a vSphere environment up for testing of the new technologies. I already had a Beta environment running - but for those of you who did not realize our Beta serial numbers expire on June 30th, 2009 - so you will have to update your labs anyway.\nI have a dedicated Blade server for this purpose, and IBM HS21 E542 CPU (Quad) with 2GB of RAM and 150GB HD. Now you might say - and rightfully so - what can you do with only 2gb of RAM?? Well nothing really - that is why I have upped the RAM on the server to 8GB so I can get some testing done.\nSo since this is going to be a test bed for my full migration for the production system, I wanted to get it as close as possible to what my production system will be like.\nSo I started off by updating all the BIOS and firmware that was available for this Blade with the\nIBM ToolsCenter Bootable Media Creator tool. This tool allows you to download the most up-to-date Firmware releases, and create a bootable ISO or USB key to install them. This is extremely useful because you can download the relevant releases for many different kinds of hardware. Enable VT and the setting for the Execution bit in the BIOS and then I installed ESX4i as my base OS.\nOne of the things I really love about ESXi is that it takes no time to have your host up and running, From the time you turn on the computer till you get the first ESXi login screen is not more than 7 minutes - I mean isn\u0026amp;rsquo;t that great?\nSo on this host I installed 2 Virtual machines - ESX 4.0 full version - using the tips from Eric Gray,\nI had two hosts up and running in no time. The planned version for my production environment vCenter will be Windows 2008 Server. As you all know Windows Server R2 (which will be released on Oct. 22, 2009) will be 64 bit only - and therefore our IT dept. (with my \u0026amp;ldquo;minor\u0026amp;rdquo; influence) has decided that all Windows 2008 Servers will only be deployed as a 64bit OS.\nI installed a windows 2008 Server 64 system with","date":"Jun 24, 2009","href":"/2009/06/esx-40-running-vsphere-lab-part-1.html","summary":"I started out on my quest for getting a vSphere environment up for testing of the new technologies. I already had a Beta environment running - but for those of you who did not realize our Beta serial numbers expire on June 30th, 2009 - so you will have to update your labs anyway.\nI have a dedicated Blade server for this purpose, and IBM HS21 E542 CPU (Quad) with 2GB of RAM and 150GB HD. Now you might say - and rightfully so - what can you do with only 2gb of RAM?? Well nothing really - that is why I have upped the RAM on the server to 8GB so I can get some testing done.","tags":["Virtualization","vSphere","ESX","vCenter","ESX4i"],"title":"ESX 4.0 running a vSphere Lab - part 1"},{"content":"Here is my solution for the Beginner Event 7\nHere we had to create a logging solution for script\n# ------------------------------------------------------------------------ # NAME: ReplaceWordInWord.ps1 # ------------------------------------------------------------------------ $mypath = \u0026amp;#34;c:\\temp\\test.doc\u0026amp;#34; $logfile = \u0026amp;#34;c:\\temp\\logfile.txt\u0026amp;#34; #first we will see if the logfile exists $exists = Test-Path c:\\temp\\logfile.txt if ($exists -eq $true) { Remove-Item C:\\temp\\logfile.txt } New-Item -path c:\\temp\\ -Name logfile.txt -type \u0026amp;#34;file\u0026amp;#34; #Create the logfile \u0026amp;#34;$(get-date) -- Created Log file: $logfile\u0026amp;#34; | Out-File ` -Encoding ascii -Append $logfile $objWord = New-Object -ComObject word.application $objWord.Visible = $True \u0026amp;#34;$(get-date) -- We have launched word\u0026amp;#34; | Out-File ` -Encoding ascii -Append $logfile $objDoc = $objWord.Documents.Open($mypath) \u0026amp;#34;$(get-date) -- We have the document\u0026amp;#34; | Out-File ` -Encoding ascii -Append $logfile $objSelection = $objWord.Selection $FindText = \u0026amp;#34;mispelled\u0026amp;#34; $ReplaceText = \u0026amp;#34;spelled incorrectly\u0026amp;#34; \u0026amp;#34;$(get-date) -- Replacing \u0026amp;#39;$FindText\u0026amp;#39; with \u0026amp;#39;$ReplaceText\u0026amp;#39;\u0026amp;#34; | Out-File ` -Encoding ascii -Append $logfile $ReplaceAll = 2 $FindContinue = 1 $MatchCase = $False $MatchWholeWord = $True $MatchWildcards = $False $MatchSoundsLike = $False $MatchAllWordForms = $False $Forward = $True $Wrap = $FindContinue $Format = $False \u0026amp;#34;$(get-date) -- Executing command\u0026amp;#34; | Out-File -Encoding ascii -Append $logfile $objSelection.Find.Execute($FindText,$MatchCase, $MatchWholeWord,$MatchWildcards,$MatchSoundsLike, $MatchAllWordForms,$Forward,$Wrap,$Format, $ReplaceText,$ReplaceAll) \u0026amp;#34;$(get-date) -- Replace text complete\u0026amp;#34; | Out-File ` -Encoding ascii -Append $logfile ","date":"Jun 23, 2009","href":"/2009/06/powershell-scripting-games-day-7.html","summary":"Here is my solution for the Beginner Event 7\nHere we had to create a logging solution for script\n# ------------------------------------------------------------------------ # NAME: ReplaceWordInWord.ps1 # ------------------------------------------------------------------------ $mypath = \u0026#34;c:\\temp\\test.doc\u0026#34; $logfile = \u0026#34;c:\\temp\\logfile.txt\u0026#34; #first we will see if the logfile exists $exists = Test-Path c:\\temp\\logfile.txt if ($exists -eq $true) { Remove-Item C:\\temp\\logfile.txt } New-Item -path c:\\temp\\ -Name logfile.txt -type \u0026#34;file\u0026#34; #Create the logfile \u0026#34;$(get-date) -- Created Log file: $logfile\u0026#34; | Out-File ` -Encoding ascii -Append $logfile $objWord = New-Object -ComObject word.application $objWord.Visible = $True \u0026#34;$(get-date) -- We have launched word\u0026#34; | Out-File ` -Encoding ascii -Append $logfile $objDoc = $objWord.Documents.Open($mypath) \u0026#34;$(get-date) -- We have the document\u0026#34; | Out-File ` -Encoding ascii -Append $logfile $objSelection = $objWord.Selection $FindText = \u0026#34;mispelled\u0026#34; $ReplaceText = \u0026#34;spelled incorrectly\u0026#34; \u0026#34;$(get-date) -- Replacing \u0026#39;$FindText\u0026#39; with \u0026#39;$ReplaceText\u0026#39;\u0026#34; | Out-File ` -Encoding ascii -Append $logfile $ReplaceAll = 2 $FindContinue = 1 $MatchCase = $False $MatchWholeWord = $True $MatchWildcards = $False $MatchSoundsLike = $False $MatchAllWordForms = $False $Forward = $True $Wrap = $FindContinue $Format = $False \u0026#34;$(get-date) -- Executing command\u0026#34; | Out-File -Encoding ascii -Append $logfile $objSelection.Find.Execute($FindText,$MatchCase, $MatchWholeWord,$MatchWildcards,$MatchSoundsLike, $MatchAllWordForms,$Forward,$Wrap,$Format, $ReplaceText,$ReplaceAll) \u0026#34;$(get-date) -- Replace text complete\u0026#34; | Out-File ` -Encoding ascii -Append $logfile","tags":["Scripting Games","Scripting","Powershell","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Powershell Scripting Games - Day 7"},{"content":"This is my solution for Beginner Event 6\nHere we got a script that was not working and had to debug it.\n#========================================================================== # NAME: Beg_6.ps1 # # COMMENT: Key concepts are listed below: #1. Uses wscript.shell to create three shortcuts on the desktop. The first is a shortcut #2. to this actual script. It uses the scriptfullName property to assign the path. #3. The second is a simple Web site URL shortcut. The third one is a shortcut to #4. Notepad. #========================================================================== $ErrorActionPreference = \u0026amp;#34;SilentlyContinue\u0026amp;#34; Set-PSDebug -Strict #initialize all the variables New-Variable -Name objShell #instance of the wshSHell object New-Variable -Name strDesktop #pointer to desktop special folder New-Variable -Name objShortCut #used to set properties of the shortcut. #Comes from using createShortCut New-Variable -Name objURL #used to set properties of webshortcut. $objShell = New-Object -ComObject (\u0026amp;#34;WScript.Shell\u0026amp;#34;) $strDesktop = $objShell.SpecialFolders.item(\u0026amp;#34;Desktop\u0026amp;#34;) #Create shortcut to script $objShortCut = $objShell.CreateShortcut($strDesktop + \u0026amp;#34;\\Shortcut Script.lnk\u0026amp;#34;) $objShortCut.TargetPath = $myInvocation.mycommand.path $objShortCut.WindowStyle = 0 $objShortCut.Hotkey = \u0026amp;#34;CTRL+SHIFT+F\u0026amp;#34; $objShortCut.IconLocation = \u0026amp;#34;notepad.exe, 2\u0026amp;#34; $objShortCut.Description = \u0026amp;#34;Shortcut Script\u0026amp;#34; $objShortCut.WorkingDirectory = $strDesktop $objShortCut.Save #Create url link $objURL = $objShell.CreateShortcut($strDesktop + \u0026amp;#34;\\The Microsoft Scripting Guys.url\u0026amp;#34;) $objURL.TargetPath = \u0026amp;#34;https://www.ScriptingGuys.com\u0026amp;#34; $objURL.Save() #Create shotrcut to notepad $objShortCut = $objShell.CreateShortcut($strDesktop + \u0026amp;#34;\\notepad.lnk\u0026amp;#34;) $objShortCut.TargetPath = \u0026amp;#34;notepad.exe\u0026amp;#34; $objShortCut.IconLocation = \u0026amp;#34;notepad.exe, 0\u0026amp;#34; $objShortCut.description = \u0026amp;#34;notepad\u0026amp;#34; $objShortCut.Save() ","date":"Jun 18, 2009","href":"/2009/06/powershell-scripting-games-day-6.html","summary":"This is my solution for Beginner Event 6\nHere we got a script that was not working and had to debug it.\n#========================================================================== # NAME: Beg_6.ps1 # # COMMENT: Key concepts are listed below: #1. Uses wscript.shell to create three shortcuts on the desktop. The first is a shortcut #2. to this actual script. It uses the scriptfullName property to assign the path. #3. The second is a simple Web site URL shortcut. The third one is a shortcut to #4. Notepad. #========================================================================== $ErrorActionPreference = \u0026#34;SilentlyContinue\u0026#34; Set-PSDebug -Strict #initialize all the variables New-Variable -Name objShell #instance of the wshSHell object New-Variable -Name strDesktop #pointer to desktop special folder New-Variable -Name objShortCut #used to set properties of the shortcut. #Comes from using createShortCut New-Variable -Name objURL #used to set properties of webshortcut. $objShell = New-Object -ComObject (\u0026#34;WScript.Shell\u0026#34;) $strDesktop = $objShell.SpecialFolders.item(\u0026#34;Desktop\u0026#34;) #Create shortcut to script $objShortCut = $objShell.CreateShortcut($strDesktop + \u0026#34;\\Shortcut Script.lnk\u0026#34;) $objShortCut.TargetPath = $myInvocation.mycommand.path $objShortCut.WindowStyle = 0 $objShortCut.Hotkey = \u0026#34;CTRL+SHIFT+F\u0026#34; $objShortCut.IconLocation = \u0026#34;notepad.exe, 2\u0026#34; $objShortCut.Description = \u0026#34;Shortcut Script\u0026#34; $objShortCut.WorkingDirectory = $strDesktop $objShortCut.Save #Create url link $objURL = $objShell.CreateShortcut($strDesktop + \u0026#34;\\The Microsoft Scripting Guys.url\u0026#34;) $objURL.TargetPath = \u0026#34;https://www.ScriptingGuys.com\u0026#34; $objURL.Save() #Create shotrcut to notepad $objShortCut = $objShell.CreateShortcut($strDesktop + \u0026#34;\\notepad.lnk\u0026#34;) $objShortCut.TargetPath = \u0026#34;notepad.exe\u0026#34; $objShortCut.IconLocation = \u0026#34;notepad.exe, 0\u0026#34; $objShortCut.description = \u0026#34;notepad\u0026#34; $objShortCut.Save()","tags":["Scripting Games","Scripting","Powershell","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Powershell Scripting Games - Day 6"},{"content":"Registry keys. Sorry for the silly humor - don\u0026amp;rsquo;t know how and why Tonto got in there.\nThanks to Rob Rohr - for helping me out here.\n# first we define some variables $ourpath = \u0026amp;#34;HKCU:\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Internet Settings\u0026amp;#34; $Maxdl1_0 = \u0026amp;#34;MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server\u0026amp;#34; $Maxdl = \u0026amp;#34;MaxConnectionsPerServer\u0026amp;#34; #for IE8 $ie8path = \u0026amp;#34;HKLM:\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Internet Explorer\\MAIN\\FeatureControl\\FEATURE_MAXCONNECTIONSPERSERVER\u0026amp;#34; $ie8path1_0 = \u0026amp;#34;HKLM:\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Internet Explorer\\MAIN\\FeatureControl\\FEATURE_MAXCONNECTIONSPER1_0SERVER\u0026amp;#34; $ie8Max = \u0026amp;#34;iexplore.exe\u0026amp;#34; function upsertReg($path, [string]$name, [int]$value, [string]$propType) { \u0026amp;#34;Path: $path\u0026amp;#34; \u0026amp;#34;Name: $name\u0026amp;#34; \u0026amp;#34;Target Value: $value\u0026amp;#34; # verify path exists $keyExists = Test-Path $path if ($keyExists -eq $true) { # check if named registry item exists at path $reg = get-itemproperty $path if ($reg.$($name) -eq $null) { # value doesn\u0026amp;#39;t exist... Create. Write-Host \u0026amp;#34; Key is not there Kimosabi. Let\u0026amp;#39;s make some magic.\u0026amp;#34; New-ItemProperty $path -name $name -value $value -propertytype ` $propType } else { # value exists... Update... $curr = Get-ItemProperty -path $path -name $name Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;Hold you horses Kimosabi. It is already there!\u0026amp;#34; $confirm = read-host \u0026amp;#34; You have ($curr) as your current value and ` we are going to change it to ==\u0026amp;gt;$value. Are you sure? (Y/N)\u0026amp;#34; if ($confirm -eq \u0026amp;#34;Y\u0026amp;#34;) { Set-ItemProperty -path $path -name $name -value $value Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;Entry has been changed Kimosabi.\u0026amp;#34; } else { Write-Host \u0026amp;#34;You chose not to change it - so it stays there.\u0026amp;#34; } } } else { \u0026amp;#34;Path doesn\u0026amp;#39;t exist. Registry entry not created.\u0026amp;#34; } } # create/update registry items using the function upsertReg $ourpath $Maxdl 10 DWord upsertReg $ourpath $Maxdl1_0 10 DWord upsertReg $ie8path $ie8Max 10 DWord upsertReg $ie8path1_0 $ie8Max 10 DWord ","date":"Jun 15, 2009","href":"/2009/06/powershell-scripting-games-day-5.html","summary":"Registry keys. Sorry for the silly humor - don\u0026rsquo;t know how and why Tonto got in there.\nThanks to Rob Rohr - for helping me out here.\n# first we define some variables $ourpath = \u0026#34;HKCU:\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Internet Settings\u0026#34; $Maxdl1_0 = \u0026#34;MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server\u0026#34; $Maxdl = \u0026#34;MaxConnectionsPerServer\u0026#34; #for IE8 $ie8path = \u0026#34;HKLM:\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Internet Explorer\\MAIN\\FeatureControl\\FEATURE_MAXCONNECTIONSPERSERVER\u0026#34; $ie8path1_0 = \u0026#34;HKLM:\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Internet Explorer\\MAIN\\FeatureControl\\FEATURE_MAXCONNECTIONSPER1_0SERVER\u0026#34; $ie8Max = \u0026#34;iexplore.exe\u0026#34; function upsertReg($path, [string]$name, [int]$value, [string]$propType) { \u0026#34;Path: $path\u0026#34; \u0026#34;Name: $name\u0026#34; \u0026#34;Target Value: $value\u0026#34; # verify path exists $keyExists = Test-Path $path if ($keyExists -eq $true) { # check if named registry item exists at path $reg = get-itemproperty $path if ($reg.$($name) -eq $null) { # value doesn\u0026#39;t exist... Create. Write-Host \u0026#34; Key is not there Kimosabi. Let\u0026#39;s make some magic.\u0026#34; New-ItemProperty $path -name $name -value $value -propertytype ` $propType } else { # value exists... Update... $curr = Get-ItemProperty -path $path -name $name Write-Host \u0026#34;Hold you horses Kimosabi. It is already there!\u0026#34; $confirm = read-host \u0026#34; You have ($curr) as your current value and ` we are going to change it to ==\u0026gt;$value. Are you sure? (Y/N)\u0026#34; if ($confirm -eq \u0026#34;Y\u0026#34;) { Set-ItemProperty -path $path -name $name -value $value Write-Host \u0026#34;Entry has been changed Kimosabi.\u0026#34; } else { Write-Host \u0026#34;You chose not to change it - so it stays there.\u0026#34; } } } else { \u0026#34;Path doesn\u0026#39;t exist. Registry entry not created.\u0026#34; } } # create/update registry items using the function upsertReg $ourpath $Maxdl 10 DWord upsertReg $ourpath $Maxdl1_0 10 DWord upsertReg $ie8path $ie8Max 10 DWord upsertReg $ie8path1_0 $ie8Max 10 DWord","tags":["Scripting Games","Scripting","Powershell","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Powershell Scripting games - Day 5"},{"content":"This is my solution for Beginner Event 3\nHere we have to parse a file and split it into two and rename the original file\n# Read the input file $InputFile = \u0026amp;#34;.\\Shot Put.txt\u0026amp;#34; #Get the content of the file $Content = Get-Content $InputFile #create the two files $outfile1 = \u0026amp;#34;.\\Shot Put A.txt\u0026amp;#34; $outfile2 = \u0026amp;#34;.\\Shot Put B.txt\u0026amp;#34; #We now parse the file and divide it { if ($line -match \u0026amp;#34;^\\\\s\\*$\u0026amp;#34;) #We have reached the end of a paragraph foreach ($line in $Content) {$outfile = $outfile2} else {$line \u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;gt; $outfile1} #The rest we put into the first file } #Rename the file Rename-Item -path \u0026amp;#39;.\\Shot Put.txt\u0026amp;#39; -newname \u0026amp;#39;.\\Shot Put.old\u0026amp;#39; ","date":"Jun 11, 2009","href":"/2009/06/powershell-scripting-games-day-3.html","summary":"This is my solution for Beginner Event 3\nHere we have to parse a file and split it into two and rename the original file\n# Read the input file $InputFile = \u0026#34;.\\Shot Put.txt\u0026#34; #Get the content of the file $Content = Get-Content $InputFile #create the two files $outfile1 = \u0026#34;.\\Shot Put A.txt\u0026#34; $outfile2 = \u0026#34;.\\Shot Put B.txt\u0026#34; #We now parse the file and divide it { if ($line -match \u0026#34;^\\\\s\\*$\u0026#34;) #We have reached the end of a paragraph foreach ($line in $Content) {$outfile = $outfile2} else {$line \u0026gt;\u0026gt; $outfile1} #The rest we put into the first file } #Rename the file Rename-Item -path \u0026#39;.\\Shot Put.txt\u0026#39; -newname \u0026#39;.\\Shot Put.old\u0026#39;","tags":["Scripting Games","Scripting","Powershell","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Powershell Scripting Games - Day 3"},{"content":"This is my solution for Beginner Event 4\nConnecting and extracting data from a Access Database and retrieving the best result. Now of course you could get the correct result with an SQL statement, by I preferred to do it Powershell (this is actually what the whole purpose of this competition is for)\n$adOpenStatic = 3 $adLockOptimistic = 3 $objConnection = New-Object -comobject ADODB.Connection $objRecordset = New-Object -comobject ADODB.Recordset $objConnection.Open(\u0026amp;#34;Provider = Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; ` Data Source = C:\\users\\msaidelk\\Desktop\\HighJumperDatabase.mdb\u0026amp;#34;) $objRecordset.Open(\u0026amp;#34;Select * from [High Jumper Data]\u0026amp;#34;, $objConnection, ` $adOpenStatic,$adLockOptimistic) $objRecordset.MoveFirst() $mycollection = @() #initialize variable #Create a new object with the columns $myObj = \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#34; | Select Name, SeasonBest, PersonalBest do { #go through each record and populate the data $myObj.Name = $objRecordset.Fields.Item(\u0026amp;#34;Name\u0026amp;#34;).Value $myObj.SeasonBest = $objRecordset.Fields.Item(\u0026amp;#34;Season Best\u0026amp;#34;).Value $myObj.PersonalBest = $objRecordset.Fields.Item(\u0026amp;#34;Personal Best\u0026amp;#34;).Value $mycollection += $myObj #Go to the next record $objRecordset.MoveNext() } until ( $objRecordset.EOF -eq $True ) #Now sort the record according to Season best and Personal Best #get the best result and then output the Name ($mycollection | sort -Descending SeasonBest, PersonalBest | ` select -First 1).Name #Close connection to the Database $objRecordset.Close() $objConnection.Close() ","date":"Jun 11, 2009","href":"/2009/06/powershell-scripting-games-day-4.html","summary":"This is my solution for Beginner Event 4\nConnecting and extracting data from a Access Database and retrieving the best result. Now of course you could get the correct result with an SQL statement, by I preferred to do it Powershell (this is actually what the whole purpose of this competition is for)\n$adOpenStatic = 3 $adLockOptimistic = 3 $objConnection = New-Object -comobject ADODB.Connection $objRecordset = New-Object -comobject ADODB.Recordset $objConnection.Open(\u0026#34;Provider = Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; ` Data Source = C:\\users\\msaidelk\\Desktop\\HighJumperDatabase.mdb\u0026#34;) $objRecordset.Open(\u0026#34;Select * from [High Jumper Data]\u0026#34;, $objConnection, ` $adOpenStatic,$adLockOptimistic) $objRecordset.MoveFirst() $mycollection = @() #initialize variable #Create a new object with the columns $myObj = \u0026#34;\u0026#34; | Select Name, SeasonBest, PersonalBest do { #go through each record and populate the data $myObj.Name = $objRecordset.Fields.Item(\u0026#34;Name\u0026#34;).Value $myObj.SeasonBest = $objRecordset.Fields.Item(\u0026#34;Season Best\u0026#34;).Value $myObj.PersonalBest = $objRecordset.Fields.Item(\u0026#34;Personal Best\u0026#34;).Value $mycollection += $myObj #Go to the next record $objRecordset.MoveNext() } until ( $objRecordset.EOF -eq $True ) #Now sort the record according to Season best and Personal Best #get the best result and then output the Name ($mycollection | sort -Descending SeasonBest, PersonalBest | ` select -First 1).Name #Close connection to the Database $objRecordset.Close() $objConnection.Close()","tags":["Scripting Games","Scripting","Powershell","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Powershell Scripting Games - Day 4"},{"content":"If you have not heard about it yet - the Summer Scripting Games 2009 have started.\nWell I am one day late (sorry!!) but I was trying to figure out the solution for the Event for Day 1 -Beginner - it was late last night and my brain was not working too well.\nSo I looked online today and want to thank Hugo Peters for helping me out with his solution for this event.\nThe problems I had with this solution was the fact that the file was not formatted correctly - there were spaces and tabs, therefore I had to parse the file and replace the spaces with tabs(Line 7).\nAlso how to extract the information and to place it into an array (Lines 13 - 24).\nHere you go.\n# Read the input file $InputFile = \u0026amp;#34;.\\100 Meter Event.txt\u0026amp;#34; $Content = Get-Content $InputFile #Since the lines are not all separated with tabs and some are with spaces, #we will replace all spaces in the file with tabs $Content = $Content | foreach-object { $_ -replace \u0026amp;#34;(.*)\\s(.*)\u0026amp;#34;,\u0026amp;#34;`$1`t`$2\u0026amp;#34; } # Prepare output collection $myCollection = @() # Loop through lines in the file, exept the first one ForEach ($Line in ($Content[1..$($Content.Length)])) { # Properties are separated by tabs $myObj = \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;#34; | Select Name, Country, Time #Create a new object with the columns #Splitting the line on the tab returns 3 values - we get each one in turn and #add it to the appropriate column $myObj.Name = $Line.Split(\u0026amp;#34;`t\u0026amp;#34;)[0] #Retrieve the Name $myObj.Country = $Line.Split(\u0026amp;#34;`t\u0026amp;#34;)[1] #Retrieve the Country $myObj.Time = $Line.Split(\u0026amp;#34;`t\u0026amp;#34;)[2] #Retrieve the time # Add to output $myCollection += $myObj } # Now we sort the the object on the Time column and Select the top 3 results $myCollection | Sort Time | Select -First 3 ","date":"Jun 10, 2009","href":"/2009/06/powershell-scripting-games-day-1.html","summary":"If you have not heard about it yet - the Summer Scripting Games 2009 have started.\nWell I am one day late (sorry!!) but I was trying to figure out the solution for the Event for Day 1 -Beginner - it was late last night and my brain was not working too well.\nSo I looked online today and want to thank Hugo Peters for helping me out with his solution for this event.","tags":["Scripting Games","Scripting","Powershell"],"title":"Powershell Scripting Games - Day 1"},{"content":"Here is my solution for Day 2 - Beginner\nAll the information is retrieved from WMI\n#First we get the info from WMI $computer = \u0026amp;#34;Localhost\u0026amp;#34; $mycomp = Get-WmiObject Win32_Processor -ComputerName $computer # We Output our Info Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green \u0026amp;#34;Strength Evaluation for\u0026amp;#34; $computer Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow \u0026amp;#34;Speed:\u0026amp;#34; $mycomp.MaxClockSpeed\u0026amp;#34;Mhz\u0026amp;#34; Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow \u0026amp;#34;L2 Cache Size:\u0026amp;#34; $mycomp.L2CacheSize #We will check if the data is null or not if ($mycomp.L2CacheSpeed -eq $null) { $L2CacheSpeed = \u0026amp;#34;Data is not Available\u0026amp;#34; Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red \u0026amp;#34;L2 Cache Speed:\u0026amp;#34; $L2CacheSpeed } else { $L2CacheSpeed = $mycomp.L2CacheSpeed Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow \u0026amp;#34;L2 Cache Speed:\u0026amp;#34; $L2CacheSpeed } Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow \u0026amp;#34;L3 Cache Size:\u0026amp;#34; $mycomp.L3CacheSize #We will check if the data is null or not if ($mycomp.L3CacheSpeed -eq $null) { $L3CacheSpeed = \u0026amp;#34;Data is not Available\u0026amp;#34; Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red \u0026amp;#34;L3 Cache Speed:\u0026amp;#34; $L3CacheSpeed } else { $L3CacheSpeed = $mycomp.L3CacheSpeed Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow \u0026amp;#34;L3 Cache Speed:\u0026amp;#34; $L3CacheSpeed } Write-Host -ForegroundColor Magenta \u0026amp;#34;Strength ...\u0026amp;#34; Write-Host -ForegroundColor Magenta \u0026amp;#34;Number of Cores:\u0026amp;#34; $mycomp.NumberOfCores Write-Host -ForegroundColor Magenta \u0026amp;#34;Number of Logical Cores:\u0026amp;#34; ` $mycomp.NumberOfLogicalProcessors Write-Host -ForegroundColor Magenta \u0026amp;#34;Processor Name:\u0026amp;#34; $mycomp.Name Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan \u0026amp;#34;Agility ...\u0026amp;#34; Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan \u0026amp;#34;Adress Width:\u0026amp;#34; $mycomp.AddressWidth ","date":"Jun 10, 2009","href":"/2009/06/powershell-scripting-games-day-2.html","summary":"Here is my solution for Day 2 - Beginner\nAll the information is retrieved from WMI\n#First we get the info from WMI $computer = \u0026#34;Localhost\u0026#34; $mycomp = Get-WmiObject Win32_Processor -ComputerName $computer # We Output our Info Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green \u0026#34;Strength Evaluation for\u0026#34; $computer Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow \u0026#34;Speed:\u0026#34; $mycomp.MaxClockSpeed\u0026#34;Mhz\u0026#34; Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow \u0026#34;L2 Cache Size:\u0026#34; $mycomp.L2CacheSize #We will check if the data is null or not if ($mycomp.L2CacheSpeed -eq $null) { $L2CacheSpeed = \u0026#34;Data is not Available\u0026#34; Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red \u0026#34;L2 Cache Speed:\u0026#34; $L2CacheSpeed } else { $L2CacheSpeed = $mycomp.L2CacheSpeed Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow \u0026#34;L2 Cache Speed:\u0026#34; $L2CacheSpeed } Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow \u0026#34;L3 Cache Size:\u0026#34; $mycomp.L3CacheSize #We will check if the data is null or not if ($mycomp.L3CacheSpeed -eq $null) { $L3CacheSpeed = \u0026#34;Data is not Available\u0026#34; Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red \u0026#34;L3 Cache Speed:\u0026#34; $L3CacheSpeed } else { $L3CacheSpeed = $mycomp.L3CacheSpeed Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow \u0026#34;L3 Cache Speed:\u0026#34; $L3CacheSpeed } Write-Host -ForegroundColor Magenta \u0026#34;Strength ...\u0026#34; Write-Host -ForegroundColor Magenta \u0026#34;Number of Cores:\u0026#34; $mycomp.NumberOfCores Write-Host -ForegroundColor Magenta \u0026#34;Number of Logical Cores:\u0026#34; ` $mycomp.NumberOfLogicalProcessors Write-Host -ForegroundColor Magenta \u0026#34;Processor Name:\u0026#34; $mycomp.Name Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan \u0026#34;Agility ...\u0026#34; Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan \u0026#34;Adress Width:\u0026#34; $mycomp.AddressWidth","tags":["Scripting Games","Scripting","Powershell","Miscellaneous"],"title":"Powershell Scripting Games - Day 2"},{"content":"One of the new features that were added to ESX4 is Hot-Add. What this feature does it allows you to add additional RAM or vCPU to your VM (if the operating System supports it)\nLike any good vAdmin - I have upgraded my personal ESX box to Version 4. This is a whitebox with ESX3i installed.\nUpgrade process was pretty simple as you can see in this previous post.\nSo if you noticed in my previous post after installing your license is a 60-day Evaluation with all the bells and whistles like below\nThe option of ESX4i - Free version - is available for up to 999 CPU\u0026amp;rsquo;s all you have to do is just ask.\nSo I requested a license key and after receiving the mail from VMware I proceeded to enter my license. Now we all knew that when entering the free license key in ESX3i you lost some functionality - like VCB - Virtual Center Agent etc. But for ESX 4i when changing the license - You lose a lot more in comparison - and I was shocked to find out how much.\n[ [ One of the wonderful things you can do with ESX VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s is resize the VMDK\u0026amp;rsquo;s - it is a simple\nvmkfstools -X 30G /\u0026amp;lt;…..path to …. \u0026amp;gt;.vmdk\nAnd voila your vmdk just grew to the size you asked it to. So now you boot up your VM (for arguments sake - let\u0026amp;rsquo;s say it is a Windows 2003 Server) and you now have the extra space but in this case this was the system volume which cannot be extended while the system is live.\nSo the solution to this one is:\nExtend the volume Add the vmdk to a running Windows 2003 Server (while it is powered on) diskpart rescan select disk 1 (of course the number may vary) select partition 1 (same as above) extend Power off of this VM Remove the disk Power on the first VM again and hey presto you have a full partition including the extended space you just created. Now this is all fine and wonderful - and it all relies on the fact that we expect that we can add resources to a running machine (namely HD / NIC - those are the ones that I use the most). This can be used in a large amount of","date":"May 27, 2009","href":"/2009/05/hot-add-and-have-have.html","summary":"One of the new features that were added to ESX4 is Hot-Add. What this feature does it allows you to add additional RAM or vCPU to your VM (if the operating System supports it)\nLike any good vAdmin - I have upgraded my personal ESX box to Version 4. This is a whitebox with ESX3i installed.\nUpgrade process was pretty simple as you can see in this previous post.\nSo if you noticed in my previous post after installing your license is a 60-day Evaluation with all the bells and whistles like below","tags":["ESX3i","vSphere","Whitebox","VMware","Licensing","ESX4i","Upgrade"],"title":"Hot Add and \"Need have have\""},{"content":"One of my valuable tools that I use is Veeam\u0026amp;rsquo;s FastSCP. A while back they introduced a new version that was compatible with ESX3i - which was a great blessing!\nToday I tried to connect to my ESX4i server and I found that it would not.\nReceived an error:\nI started to look on their support forum, but could not find any mention of ESX4i - so I reverted to Twitter.\nI posted:\n@veeam - does fastscp work with esxi4 I am getting an unknown api verison 4.0 error http://twitpic.com/5zq83\n\u0026amp;mdash; Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) May 26, 2009 and lo and behold (10 minutes minus a few seconds later)\n@maishsk Currently testing version 3.1 with the GA code of vSphere 4.0, should just be a few more days. Veeam Backup first, then FastSCP\n\u0026amp;mdash; Veeam® Software (@Veeam) May 26, 2009 Twitter of course is an amazing tool, and I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t really how people work without it. Don\u0026amp;rsquo;t you love it?\nSo just to let you all know FastSCP will not work in its current version with ESX4i - but will very soon.\nUpdate: I was using an older version 3.0.0.220 to be exact. I downloaded a newer version 3.0.1 today and all works fine. Thanks again to Veeam for wonderful support and follow up. Well done!\n","date":"May 26, 2009","href":"/2009/05/veeam-fastscp.html","summary":"One of my valuable tools that I use is Veeam\u0026rsquo;s FastSCP. A while back they introduced a new version that was compatible with ESX3i - which was a great blessing!\nToday I tried to connect to my ESX4i server and I found that it would not.\nReceived an error:\nI started to look on their support forum, but could not find any mention of ESX4i - so I reverted to Twitter.","tags":["Tools","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","ESX4i"],"title":"Veeam FastSCP and ESX4i"},{"content":"No, I have not started to become philosophical and all, this is about a new podcast that will be held this evening.\nThe forum will be non-VMware centric, non-security centric podcast on virtualization technologies.\nVirtual Thoughts will tackle several items to start, like Licensing, Performance, Open Source tools, Cross Platform products, etc. This is not a product show but a bringing together of a discussion about these and other pressing issues, and questions in the industry. Hopefully with some sort of solid take away that either the vendors or the customers can apply.\nSo as you can see from the above – this will not be only a VMware podcast – for that we have the Communities Roundtable, and it will not be only a security podcast, for that we have Edward’s Security Roundtable. Most of the panelists use VMware’s products extensively – but not exclusively\nAmong the Panelists on the Podcast will be experienced members of the Virtualization community (in no particular order):\nEdward Haletky Tom Howarth Gabrie van Zanten Michael Keen Eric Siebert Yours truly (Maish Saidel-Keesing) The Podcast will be weekly occurrence and you can access it here on Talkshoe.\nLooking forward to it.\n","date":"May 26, 2009","href":"/2009/05/virtual-thoughts.html","summary":"No, I have not started to become philosophical and all, this is about a new podcast that will be held this evening.\nThe forum will be non-VMware centric, non-security centric podcast on virtualization technologies.\nVirtual Thoughts will tackle several items to start, like Licensing, Performance, Open Source tools, Cross Platform products, etc. This is not a product show but a bringing together of a discussion about these and other pressing issues, and questions in the industry. Hopefully with some sort of solid take away that either the vendors or the customers can apply.","tags":["Podcast","Security","Virtualization","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Virtual Thoughts"},{"content":"Released with the new version on Thursday was a upgrade package from ESX3i to ESX4i\nAfter you have downloaded the package – proceed to update your host.\nThe example below is a VM installed with latest build of ESX3i (158874)\nOpen the VMware vSphere Host Update Utility (this will not work with the VI 2.5 client – it must be the vSphere 4.0 version) and select the host you would like to upgrade\nAdd the Upgrade file. The file is verified\nAccept the EULA and enter Credentials\nYou will have to have put the host in Maintenance mode beforehand otherwise you will receive an error like this\nCompatibility checks are run – in my case this did not work the firs time round because the VM only had 1GB of Ram allocated so I got this. Duncan has written an informative post on the matter and how to manipulate the amount of RAM if you need to.\nSo after adding additional RAM to the VM the compatibilty check passed\nAnd The Upgrade Process Begins\nAnd after waiting a while the Host is updated with the new version of ESX\nA few points to note:\nDo not close the Host Update Utility during the upgrade otherwise you will most probably mess up your host You of course need the minimum amount of memory (2GB) for the upgrade to run When the host comes back online it will be in evaluation mode – you will have to provide a license for it.(you have 60 days) Of course your host has to be in Maintenance Mode before you upgrade. Happy Upgrading!\n","date":"May 23, 2009","href":"/2009/05/esx3i-to-esx4i-update.html","summary":"Released with the new version on Thursday was a upgrade package from ESX3i to ESX4i\nAfter you have downloaded the package – proceed to update your host.\nThe example below is a VM installed with latest build of ESX3i (158874)\nOpen the VMware vSphere Host Update Utility (this will not work with the VI 2.5 client – it must be the vSphere 4.0 version) and select the host you would like to upgrade","tags":["Virtualization","ESX3i","vSphere","Administration","VMware","Upgrade"],"title":"ESX3i to ESX4i Update"},{"content":"Many of the bloggers that are active in the community, participated in the vSphere 4.0 Beta, I was amongst the chosen few.\nWe were all under NDA, sworn to secrecy and not allowed to publish any info as to what the world was in store for. Later on down the road some information started to leak out, questions about vSphere and the NDA arose, but let bygones be bygones.\nKnowing something that others don’t is kind of fun – but at times can also be frustrating – I mean you want to discuss your opinions, experiences and disappointments with others – but you actually can’t – because you are under NDA.\nThe amount of improvements and new features that were released with the new version are countless – so many new things, so many things improved – I am confident that this is a better product, has more functionality and will empower us to all present better solutions to our customers, our clients and our employers.\nThe Beta Forums have been full with posts, information and problems – and most (if not all) issues were dealt with accordingly in the forums by the VMware staff and the other Beta testers.\nNow the cat is out of the Bag – the release is publicly available – and all the information is now public knowledge – for the good and the bad. And we all have a lot of work to do.\nExpect a large amount of information coming from the Blogosphere in the upcoming future (if you haven’t already noticed)\nBelow is a small ”Thank You” note from VMware. I think we all deserve it.\n","date":"May 22, 2009","href":"/2009/05/vsphere-40-beta-thanks.html","summary":"Many of the bloggers that are active in the community, participated in the vSphere 4.0 Beta, I was amongst the chosen few.\nWe were all under NDA, sworn to secrecy and not allowed to publish any info as to what the world was in store for. Later on down the road some information started to leak out, questions about vSphere and the NDA arose, but let bygones be bygones.\nKnowing something that others don’t is kind of fun – but at times can also be frustrating – I mean you want to discuss your opinions, experiences and disappointments with others – but you actually can’t – because you are under NDA.","tags":["vSphere","Beta","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"The vSphere 4.0 Beta – Thanks!"},{"content":"As of now there is only an online HCL.\nTill the official documents are released – here are the documents in PDF\nSystems Guide\nI/O Devices\nStorage/SAN\n","date":"May 21, 2009","href":"/2009/05/vsphere-hcl.html","summary":"As of now there is only an online HCL.\nTill the official documents are released – here are the documents in PDF\nSystems Guide\nI/O Devices\nStorage/SAN","tags":["vSphere","Administration","VMware","ESX"],"title":"vSphere HCL – Downloadable"},{"content":"Well not really born, but it went GA now.\nAfter a decent amount of Twitter traffic going back and forward first regarding the knowledge base that started to show up with vSphere KB’s and documentation that was posted\nDownload Link is Live\nThe rush is on!!!\nAs long as the servers are not running under Hyper-V they won’t crash\u0026amp;hellip;\n","date":"May 21, 2009","href":"/2009/05/vsphere-is-born.html","summary":"Well not really born, but it went GA now.\nAfter a decent amount of Twitter traffic going back and forward first regarding the knowledge base that started to show up with vSphere KB’s and documentation that was posted\nDownload Link is Live\nThe rush is on!!!\nAs long as the servers are not running under Hyper-V they won’t crash\u0026hellip;","tags":["Virtualization","vSphere","Miscellaneous","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"vSphere is Born"},{"content":"The Agenda has been released for this event.\nAttend the Online Virtualization Forum on June 9th and 10th,\n8:00am–1:00pm PDT. Don\u0026amp;rsquo;t miss this opportunity to:\nNetwork with VMware product experts, customers, partners and other IT Professionals. Attend 30-minute presentations and get the latest info on VMware solutions, products and industry trends. Access real-time information from industry leaders without the hassle or expense of travel. Create a multi-media resource kit, including white papers, videos and podcasts. It is Free Virtual event(online)\nThe Agenda and the sessions that caught my interest\nMaybe I will see you there?\n","date":"May 16, 2009","href":"/2009/05/vmware-online-virtualization-forum.html","summary":"The Agenda has been released for this event.\nAttend the Online Virtualization Forum on June 9th and 10th,\n8:00am–1:00pm PDT. Don\u0026rsquo;t miss this opportunity to:\nNetwork with VMware product experts, customers, partners and other IT Professionals. Attend 30-minute presentations and get the latest info on VMware solutions, products and industry trends. Access real-time information from industry leaders without the hassle or expense of travel. Create a multi-media resource kit, including white papers, videos and podcasts. It is Free Virtual event(online)","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"VMware Online Virtualization Forum"},{"content":"I received an email this morning that Bluebear have released a new version of the management.\nHere are the changes from the release notes\nKodiak 0.0.3 Release Notes: Thanks for downloading Kodiak! This version of Kodiak represents a significant change in our server-communication architecture.\nWe\u0026amp;rsquo;ve added a schema-compliant request/argument builder engine that populates requests based on known information. This makes building requests much easier. A lua scripting engine. Each server connection gets its own independent Lua script. Independent object pools. Improved mapping response and control. Map connection node \u0026amp;amp; link display control. We\u0026amp;rsquo;ve created a \u0026amp;ldquo;plugin api\u0026amp;rdquo; where a user may build a plugin to communicate with any kind of data service. We\u0026amp;rsquo;ll be publishing information on this on our wiki. We\u0026amp;rsquo;ve added a number of \u0026amp;ldquo;boilerplate\u0026amp;rdquo; features that will become more apparent in the next few releases as we push Kodiak towards our goal of creating an \u0026amp;ldquo;IT IDE\u0026amp;rdquo;. Access for users to create their own scripts. Kodiak\u0026amp;rsquo;s UI/inspector controls are driven by a \u0026amp;ldquo;global schema\u0026amp;rdquo; that allows a user to create their own customized scripts for management. Please visit the bluebear wiki for further information regarding customizing the script engine. As yet, we don\u0026amp;rsquo;t have a full UI for managing user scripts, but we will shortly. The remote event log has been removed for this release. For Windows users who experience the dreaded \u0026amp;ldquo;SSL certificate bug\u0026amp;rdquo;, we\u0026amp;rsquo;ve added a preferences option to bypass the windows SSL stack. This option is accessible from the Preferences menu. Password vault \u0026amp;amp; credentials storage. Kodiak now has the ability to save username/password pairs in an encrypted password vault, locked with a master password. Server object creation is disabled while we migrate the control components into the VMWare plugin, we will re-enable these in a couple of days. I have tried the","date":"May 15, 2009","href":"/2009/05/kodiak-003-released.html","summary":"I received an email this morning that Bluebear have released a new version of the management.\nHere are the changes from the release notes\nKodiak 0.0.3 Release Notes: Thanks for downloading Kodiak! This version of Kodiak represents a significant change in our server-communication architecture.\nWe\u0026rsquo;ve added a schema-compliant request/argument builder engine that populates requests based on known information. This makes building requests much easier. A lua scripting engine. Each server connection gets its own independent Lua script. Independent object pools. Improved mapping response and control. Map connection node \u0026amp; link display control. We\u0026rsquo;ve created a \u0026ldquo;plugin api\u0026rdquo; where a user may build a plugin to communicate with any kind of data service. We\u0026rsquo;ll be publishing information on this on our wiki. We\u0026rsquo;ve added a number of \u0026ldquo;boilerplate\u0026rdquo; features that will become more apparent in the next few releases as we push Kodiak towards our goal of creating an \u0026ldquo;IT IDE\u0026rdquo;. Access for users to create their own scripts. Kodiak\u0026rsquo;s UI/inspector controls are driven by a \u0026ldquo;global schema\u0026rdquo; that allows a user to create their own customized scripts for management. Please visit the bluebear wiki for further information regarding customizing the script engine. As yet, we don\u0026rsquo;t have a full UI for managing user scripts, but we will shortly. The remote event log has been removed for this release. For Windows users who experience the dreaded \u0026ldquo;SSL certificate bug\u0026rdquo;, we\u0026rsquo;ve added a preferences option to bypass the windows SSL stack. This option is accessible from the Preferences menu. Password vault \u0026amp; credentials storage. Kodiak now has the ability to save username/password pairs in an encrypted password vault, locked with a master password. Server object creation is disabled while we migrate the control components into the VMWare plugin, we will re-enable these in a couple of days. I have tried the previous releases of the product out, and find it to be an interesting idea. I personally had severe issues with it running on a windows machine because of SSL certificate issues (which it seems they have addressed), so I moved to running from a Ubuntu host instead.","tags":["Virtualization","Management","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Kodiak 0.0.3 Released"},{"content":"One of the wonderful useful features that was released with ESX 3.5 U2 was Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC).\nFrom the release notes:\nEnhanced VMotion Compatibility – Simplifies VMotion compatibility issues across CPU generations. Enhanced VMotion compatibility (EVC) automatically configure server CPUs with Intel FlexMigration or AMD-V Extended Migration technologies to be compatible with older servers. After EVC is enabled for a cluster in the VirtualCenter inventory, all hosts in that cluster are configured to ensure CPU compatibility for VMotion. VirtualCenter does not permit the addition of hosts that cannot be automatically configured to be compatible with those already in the EVC cluster.\nWhy am I blogging about this now, well I came across a situation this week, with a cluster that we wanted to enable EVC on. This is how the story goes.\nClient wanted to upgrade RAM on two 100% identical hosts (same server, same CPU, same configuration, same BIOS level – everything). In order to bring them down he needed to VMotion the VM’s off, and upgrade the RAM. For some reason some VM’s (mainly RHEL 64bit) would not Vmotion off the host, and we were getting CPU mismatch errors.\nWe powered down the problematic VM’s and cold migrated them to a new host. Upgraded the RAM, and at the same time, BIOS upgrades as well. Brought the one host back up – migrated the VM’s again (cold migrations for the problematic ones) and brought down the second host. RAM upgrade, BIOS as well, and brought the host up again.\nVmotion between the hosts worked fine. But in order to prevent such issues in the future, he wanted to enable EVC. So you cannot enable EVC on a cluster that currently has hosts inside of it,\nAs is detailed in this post – what you need to do essentially is:\nPut host in maintenance mode Remove host from original cluster Create new EVC enabled cluster Add host to it (check NX/XD and Intel_VT options in system BIOS. These options need to be enabled) VMotion files from old to","date":"May 14, 2009","href":"/2009/05/enable-evc-on-cluster.html","summary":"One of the wonderful useful features that was released with ESX 3.5 U2 was Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC).\nFrom the release notes:\nEnhanced VMotion Compatibility – Simplifies VMotion compatibility issues across CPU generations. Enhanced VMotion compatibility (EVC) automatically configure server CPUs with Intel FlexMigration or AMD-V Extended Migration technologies to be compatible with older servers. After EVC is enabled for a cluster in the VirtualCenter inventory, all hosts in that cluster are configured to ensure CPU compatibility for VMotion. VirtualCenter does not permit the addition of hosts that cannot be automatically configured to be compatible with those already in the EVC cluster.","tags":["Virtualization","VMotion","Miscellaneous","Administration","ESX","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"Enable EVC on a Cluster"},{"content":"Today I came across an issue that seemed to be strange.\nI tried to convert a template to VM in order to apply some patch updates.\nWhen trying I got a error message:\nSo I went into the folder where the template was located to see if I could see anything there.\nWhat I found was that there for some reason was that there already a vmx file in the folder which was causing the convert process to fail.\n[root@ /vmfs/volumes/Templates/templates/windows/T_Win2k3_SP2-32b]# ls -la total 15736624 drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2048 Feb 11 14:03 . drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 80 Nov 11 21:59 .. -rw------- 1 root root 16106127360 Jan 21 12:27 T_Win2k3_SP2-32b-flat.vmdk -rw------- 1 root root 8684 Jan 21 12:27 T_Win2k3_SP2-32b.nvram -rw------- 1 root root 409 May 10 16:31 T_Win2k3_SP2-32b.vmdk -rw------- 1 root root 457 Jan 1 10:55 T_Win2k3_SP2-32b.vmsd -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2815 May 10 16:15 T_Win2k3_SP2-32b.vmtx -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2813 Feb 11 14:03 T_Win2k3_SP2-32b.vmx -rw------- 1 root root 271 May 10 16:15 T_Win2k3_SP2-32b.vmxf -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21712 Nov 11 15:47 vmware-14.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18716 Nov 11 15:47 vmware-15.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 28084 Nov 11 15:47 vmware-16.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 22793 Nov 11 15:47 vmware-17.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 46379 Nov 11 15:47 vmware-18.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 39589 Nov 11 15:47 vmware-19.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 40180 Jan 21 12:27 vmware.log [root@ /vmfs/volumes/Templates/templates/windows/T_Win2k3_SP2-32b]# mv T_Win2k3_SP2-32b.vmx T_Win2k3_SP2-32b.old.vmx` I renamed the file and ran the same command again.\nWorks.\nQuestion now is how did the file get there in the first place???\n","date":"May 11, 2009","href":"/2009/05/error-converting-to-template.html","summary":"Today I came across an issue that seemed to be strange.\nI tried to convert a template to VM in order to apply some patch updates.\nWhen trying I got a error message:\nSo I went into the folder where the template was located to see if I could see anything there.\nWhat I found was that there for some reason was that there already a vmx file in the folder which was causing the convert process to fail.","tags":["Virtualization","Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"Error Converting to Template"},{"content":"I presented an overview of some of the new features that are upcoming in vSphere to my colleagues today.\nVMware vSphere Presentation\n","date":"May 7, 2009","href":"/2009/05/short-vsphere-presentation.html","summary":"I presented an overview of some of the new features that are upcoming in vSphere to my colleagues today.\nVMware vSphere Presentation","tags":["Virtualization","vSphere","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"A short vSphere Presentation"},{"content":"I wanted to put up this post mainly for myself, but I sure you can find this useful when trying to compare the differences between VI3 and vSphere. There have been a numerous amount of technical details and improvements with the new version. but in this post I want to address the price differences\nVI3 Pricing and vSphere Pricing. All prices include 1yr Gold Support.\nHere is what I will take with me from this comparison.\nStandard license just a hell of a lot cheaper.. If you do not need Storage VMotion and DRS – then you can use the new Advanced License instead of the old Enterprise and save some major $$$. The Essentials package is a huge upgrade on my view of what you got in Foundation. Starting from December 16, 2009 – Enterprise will become more expensive. ESXi – will still be offered as a free version with per incident support ($299) / SnS Gold/Plat ($495/595). ","date":"May 7, 2009","href":"/2009/05/vsphere-pricing-comparison.html","summary":"I wanted to put up this post mainly for myself, but I sure you can find this useful when trying to compare the differences between VI3 and vSphere. There have been a numerous amount of technical details and improvements with the new version. but in this post I want to address the price differences\nVI3 Pricing and vSphere Pricing. All prices include 1yr Gold Support.\nHere is what I will take with me from this comparison.","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","vCenter","Licensing"],"title":"vSphere Pricing Comparison"},{"content":"With the Virtualization world buzzing and with latest Microsoft announcement from today that the Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V Server will be completely free of charge (and will come with Live Migration and HA) and the prices and licensing of vSphere\nA few questions have come up:\nWill this change completely take over the SMB market with a product like this? Because of the above what will happen to the enterprise market? Here is how I see it. If you look at the table that was provided on the post above then the direction in which Microsoft is going is becoming clear.\nThey presented this table:\nNow if we compare any vSphere product that has HA and VMotion – the lowest level possible would be Advanced so the prices seem right (and we will not mention the fact that there is no VC license in here). I am not going into features and everything other reason to continue using VMware.\nFor the SMB market – the additional feature set is nice but, and especially in times like these, the bottom line will be $$$. And unfortunately for VMware in this battle they are not coming out on top – not by a long shot\u0026amp;hellip;\nBut as always this is the nature of competition and the open market – as soon as another player comes into the equation – the competition between them grows – and in the end – we all benefit, because prices drop.\nMy bottom line.. VMware is the Rolls-Royce of Virtualization – and anyone that says different needs their head examined. The new kid on the block (and yes believe me they are here) is Microsoft, and Citrix Xensource in my eyes is becoming less and less of a major player.\nBeing a Rolls is nice – but not everyone can afford it – and those that cannot – will look for something that will save them money – and sometimes at the expense of functionality. Does this change my view of what is the better technology – no it does not, but this is not the purpose of the post.\nSo for all those folks in Palo Alto – I think it is time to start looking over your shoulder, the","date":"May 6, 2009","href":"/2009/05/i-would-love-rolls-royce.html","summary":"With the Virtualization world buzzing and with latest Microsoft announcement from today that the Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V Server will be completely free of charge (and will come with Live Migration and HA) and the prices and licensing of vSphere\nA few questions have come up:\nWill this change completely take over the SMB market with a product like this? Because of the above what will happen to the enterprise market? Here is how I see it. If you look at the table that was provided on the post above then the direction in which Microsoft is going is becoming clear.","tags":["Microsoft","Virtualization","vSphere","Hyper-V","Administration","VMware","ESX","Server 2008"],"title":"I Would Love a Rolls-Royce but..."},{"content":"To continue my previous post about the Enterprise license not being available after December 15, 2009. I received several comments – some on the blog and some I received offline, but the picture has become clear.\nWhen vSphere launches, there will be 4 tiers\nStandard Advanced Enterprise Enterprise Plus Thereafter:\nThe Foundation License will be will be terminated immediately Enterprise will stay available until December 15, 2009. Starting December 16th, 2009 there will be 3 tiers only\nStandard Advanced Enterprise Plus Below are a few slides that confirm the fact.\nSo as you can see from the above, starting from December 16th, 2009 you will not be able to purchase vSphere Enterprise only Enterprise Plus.\nWhy did I label this post “Will we be Forced to pay more?”. I mean force is a pretty harsh word, but unfortunately, VMware will be leaving us no choice.\nLet me explain why. Any Enterprise Customer makes extensive use of DRS and will find a huge benefit in using DPM. Those features come in Enterprise and Enterprise Plus only.\nTake this hypothetical scenario for example. I have a 3 Clusters running with 5 ESX 3.5 Enterprise Licensed Hosts (with 2 sockets each). vSphere launches and with the launch I automatically receive with the new version the additional features of vShield Zones, Thin Provisioning, FT, Hot-Add and Data Recovery (don’t take me the wrong way – this is a lot and all highly useful and we should be extremely grateful). But for all different kinds of reasons we decide not to upgrade our ESX host licenses to Enterprise Plus. (I mean for that size environment Upgrades costs will be $295 * 2 * 15 = $8,850).\nComes January 1st, 2010. We need to add an additional host to each cluster. Now we need the Enterprise features (like all our other hosts). We cannot purchase an Enterprise license only Enterprise Plus.\nIt costs more approximately $750 more per socket. But we do get the additional features of Host Profiles and Distributed Switch – so we should be happy","date":"Apr 27, 2009","href":"/2009/04/will-we-be-forced-to-pay-more-pt-2.html","summary":"To continue my previous post about the Enterprise license not being available after December 15, 2009. I received several comments – some on the blog and some I received offline, but the picture has become clear.\nWhen vSphere launches, there will be 4 tiers\nStandard Advanced Enterprise Enterprise Plus Thereafter:\nThe Foundation License will be will be terminated immediately Enterprise will stay available until December 15, 2009. Starting December 16th, 2009 there will be 3 tiers only","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware"],"title":"Will we be Forced to Pay More – pt. 2"},{"content":"Extra Layers – cost more – Bah Rubbish !! It is the Enterprise features that Hyper-V (even in R2 – that to remind you all is at least 6 months away) does not have - that makes it all worthwhile!\nOver Commit – don’t nag about something you cannot do. How many times do we have say this? This is a feature that we use. All the time and enjoy using it – and we get better results than you bring about in your video.\nYou are going to get bashed again with this one… Come on Blogosphere. Bring it on!!!!!!\nMicrosoft Virtualization - Virtualization without Taxation\n","date":"Apr 23, 2009","href":"/2009/04/another-myth-buster-yeah-right.html","summary":"Extra Layers – cost more – Bah Rubbish !! It is the Enterprise features that Hyper-V (even in R2 – that to remind you all is at least 6 months away) does not have - that makes it all worthwhile!\nOver Commit – don’t nag about something you cannot do. How many times do we have say this? This is a feature that we use. All the time and enjoy using it – and we get better results than you bring about in your video.","tags":["Virtualization","Windows","Miscellaneous","VMware","Server 2008"],"title":"Another “Myth Buster” - Yeah Right!"},{"content":"VMware announce their licensing changes and I wrote about it in a previous post. I noticed something on a document that (I gather) was released by VMware Marketing and brought to the blogosphere by Jason Boche.\nThe title is, “VMware vSphere 4 Cheat Sheet”.\nIf you look carefully at the above document you will see on on page 3 of the document it is stated that vSphere Enterprise version is going to be available for sale only until Dec. 15, 2009. below is the screenshot.\nThis was noted again on page 4 as well.\nThis does not appear on the same graphic which is in the vSphere Pricing, Packaging, and Licensing Whitepaper on page 7.\nI truly and sincerely hope that this was a mistake. I mean if Enterprise Edition will only be available for the interim period until the end of the year, and then all new purchases will have to be Enterprise Plus licenses starting after December 15th, 2009, then I am sorry VMware - but you are going to have a lot of extremely unhappy customers (to put it mildly).\nIt would be nice to have someone from VMware to confirm if this is a mistake and amend the document. And if not to explain themselves.\n","date":"Apr 23, 2009","href":"/2009/04/will-we-be-forced-to-pay-more.html","summary":"VMware announce their licensing changes and I wrote about it in a previous post. I noticed something on a document that (I gather) was released by VMware Marketing and brought to the blogosphere by Jason Boche.\nThe title is, “VMware vSphere 4 Cheat Sheet”.\nIf you look carefully at the above document you will see on on page 3 of the document it is stated that vSphere Enterprise version is going to be available for sale only until Dec. 15, 2009. below is the screenshot.","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","ESX"],"title":"Will we be Forced to Pay More?"},{"content":"So all the buzz have quieted down – I think have approx 600% less traffic coming in through Twitter than I had yesterday.\nAll the news about the products names – version changes etc. etc. But I do not recall that there was a mention of one small but extremely important part that will also undergo changes.\nThe SDK’s and Toolkits.\nThis I got from the VMware Developer Center Blog. What is new in vSphere SDKs \u0026amp;amp;Toolkits\u0026amp;hellip;.\nSay goodbye to the to the old VI Toolkit and the RCLI and welcome the new names for our old and trusted tools\n","date":"Apr 22, 2009","href":"/2009/04/say-hello-to-vsphere-powercli.html","summary":"So all the buzz have quieted down – I think have approx 600% less traffic coming in through Twitter than I had yesterday.\nAll the news about the products names – version changes etc. etc. But I do not recall that there was a mention of one small but extremely important part that will also undergo changes.\nThe SDK’s and Toolkits.\nThis I got from the VMware Developer Center Blog. What is new in vSphere SDKs \u0026amp;Toolkits\u0026hellip;.","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","VI Toolkit"],"title":"Say Hello to vSphere PowerCLI"},{"content":"Well I think my speculation was not far off. if you read my previous post I speculated that we would not get anything Unofficial Release Date - May 21, 2009. We got this from the day that you can start purchasing new licenses\nJason Boche posted a few noticeable items about the licensing changes.\nLet me see I can make a bit of sense for what we are getting. All of this comes from the\nVMware vSphere Pricing Packaging and Licensing Overview\nVersions Some of the version names have changed (I mean what would we not live without another name change).Below is a comparison between the two:\nAre we getting anything new with the new names – yes we are!\nPricing The biggest change here is that licenses are per physical Socket and not licensed per two sockets as in the past (and is it only or did the prices just go up??)\nLicensing Now besides that all Twitter is going nuts, all the bloggers are going nuts and when the dust settles and things cool down I promise some more detail and insight later on down the road\u0026amp;hellip;\n","date":"Apr 21, 2009","href":"/2009/04/vsphere-4-so-what-is-new.html","summary":"Well I think my speculation was not far off. if you read my previous post I speculated that we would not get anything Unofficial Release Date - May 21, 2009. We got this from the day that you can start purchasing new licenses\nJason Boche posted a few noticeable items about the licensing changes.\nLet me see I can make a bit of sense for what we are getting. All of this comes from the\nVMware vSphere Pricing Packaging and Licensing Overview","tags":["Virtualization","ESX3i","VMotion","vSphere","VMware","ESX","vCenter"],"title":"vSphere 4 – So What is new?"},{"content":"I saw this post post on Simon Gallagher\u0026amp;rsquo;s Blog Using Virtualization to Extend The Hardware Lifecycle. Simon made a good point. Can we take the physical hardware out of the equation? Well I guess that is exactly what VMware and virtualization is doing. We are no longer dependant on physical servers any more.\nI would like to however raise another point of view. Correct, the easiest solution for a system residing on aging hardware is to P2V the system to a VM – and it seems that I have solved my problem. But have I? I posted a question about 9 months ago with this exact same thought.\nDo you really want to carry over legacy Operating Systems and applications and continue to support them forever?\nYou might find yourself with legacy operating systems, applications that Vendors no longer support, personnel do not have enough knowledge of these old operating systems, and will not know how to solve problems when they arise.\nClassic example: A Windows NT4 Server that has a legacy application was installed on it. The product was developed and installed over 6 years ago. A new system was requisitioned and designed to replace the old, for obvious reasons. The original company that developed the product no longer exists, staff that understand and support the application are no longer employed by the company. A project was planned and executed over the period of a year to replace the old system. The project was completed on schedule with close to 100% success. The new application Owner agreed that the old system would stay available for a period of maximum 6 months after going live with the new system and the old data would not be required to be migrated to the new system. Those six months have come and passed. When push came to shove – and we wanted to power off the server – the application owner (and thereafter it became a management decision) demanded that the old server stay online.\nThe hardware was over 7 years old. No parts, no service, and no guarantee that it could","date":"Apr 12, 2009","href":"/2009/04/how-long-should-you-keep-vm.html","summary":"I saw this post post on Simon Gallagher\u0026rsquo;s Blog Using Virtualization to Extend The Hardware Lifecycle. Simon made a good point. Can we take the physical hardware out of the equation? Well I guess that is exactly what VMware and virtualization is doing. We are no longer dependant on physical servers any more.\nI would like to however raise another point of view. Correct, the easiest solution for a system residing on aging hardware is to P2V the system to a VM – and it seems that I have solved my problem. But have I? I posted a question about 9 months ago with this exact same thought.","tags":["Microsoft","Server","Virtualization","Windows","Administration","ESX"],"title":"Is P2V always the best solution?"},{"content":"So many have already posted about the Virtualization announcement that is planned for April 21st, 2009 (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here). You can see from the amount of announcements on the Blogosphere that this is a highly anticipated event. (By the way all of the blogs posted above have a huge wealth of information that I highly recommend you frequent whenever you have a chance)\nSo I put up a balloon on Twitter this morning with the question, “Is this going to be the launch of vSphere (a.k.a. ESX 4) or will this be the announcement of when the launch date will be?”\nThe only answer I actually got from the Twittersphere was that is is an announcement – what it will contain is not yet disclosed (which – in VMware’s defense – I must say would sort of “be missing the point” if they removed the suspense. The hype around this announcement is HUGE!! I mean I only gave 12 examples above of bloggers that posted about it in the past 24 hours – I am sure there are at least double the amount of posts that I might have missed.\nWhat will we get? What will the announcement be? the way I see it - three different alternatives.\nVMware will release their new version of vSphere. It has been around in Beta since September 2008 (I have personally filled out countless amounts of surveys and feedback forms with my input on all aspects of the product and all the additional functionality that will be released with it). VMware will announce the release date for vSphere. Something completely new will come out – that has not been circumventing around the virtualization world. Now I have some thoughts on each of the above.\nOption One. vSphere has been in Private Beta since September 2008 (6 months in total). I was one of a number (exactly how many I do not know) of individuals that were given access to the new version – even before it was called vSphere. Testing, installing, playing around has been a good learning experience, has helped the VMware development team to","date":"Apr 7, 2009","href":"/2009/04/april-21st-what-will-we-get.html","summary":"So many have already posted about the Virtualization announcement that is planned for April 21st, 2009 (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here). You can see from the amount of announcements on the Blogosphere that this is a highly anticipated event. (By the way all of the blogs posted above have a huge wealth of information that I highly recommend you frequent whenever you have a chance)\nSo I put up a balloon on Twitter this morning with the question, “Is this going to be the launch of vSphere (a.k.a. ESX 4) or will this be the announcement of when the launch date will be?”","tags":["Virtualization","vSphere","Miscellaneous","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"April 21st – What will we get?"},{"content":"I picked this one up on Twitter and Secunia. Another reason to to upgrade to VC 2.5 U4\nVMware Virtual Infrastructure Client Password Disclosure Weakness\nSecunia Advisory:\nSA34585\nRelease Date:\n2009-04-06\nCritical:\nNot critical\nImpact:\nExposure of sensitive information\nWhere:\nLocal system\nSolution Status:\nVendor Patch\nDescription:\nA weakness has been reported in VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client, which can be exploited by malicious, local users to disclose sensitive information.\nThe weakness is caused due to the application improperly storing passwords in memory. This can be exploited to potentially disclose the VirtualCenter Server password by reading the memory of the client process.\nSolution:\nUpdate VirtualCenter, ESX, or ESXi to a fixed version, and install the included client.\nVMware VirtualCenter:\nUpdate to version 2.5 Update 4.\nESXi 3.5:\nApply patch ESXe350-200903201-O-UG (also included in ESXi 3.5 Update 4).\nESX 3.5:\nApply patch ESX350-200903201-UG (also included in ESX 3.5 Update 4).\nProvided and/or discovered by:\nThe vendor credits Craig Marshall.\nOriginal Advisory:\nVMSA-2009-0005:\nhttps://lists.vmware.com/pipermail/security-announce/2009/000054.html\n","date":"Apr 7, 2009","href":"/2009/04/vi-client-vulnerability-security-alert.html","summary":"I picked this one up on Twitter and Secunia. Another reason to to upgrade to VC 2.5 U4\nVMware Virtual Infrastructure Client Password Disclosure Weakness\nSecunia Advisory:\nSA34585\nRelease Date:\n2009-04-06\nCritical:\nNot critical\nImpact:\nExposure of sensitive information\nWhere:\nLocal system\nSolution Status:\nVendor Patch\nDescription:\nA weakness has been reported in VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client, which can be exploited by malicious, local users to disclose sensitive information.\nThe weakness is caused due to the application improperly storing passwords in memory. This can be exploited to potentially disclose the VirtualCenter Server password by reading the memory of the client process.","tags":["Security","ESX3i","VMware","ESX","vCenter"],"title":"VI Client vulnerability - Security Alert"},{"content":"NO! it is not the new ESX version! (there are other products that VMware sells besides ESX you know)\nBesides Update 4 for ESX and ESX3i that were released last week:\nVMware Player 2.5.2\nVMware Workstation 6.5.2\nVMware Server 2.0.1\nWhat\u0026amp;rsquo;s New With this release of VMware Player, certain new features and support have been added.\nSupport for New Guest Operating Systems VMware provides support for the following operating systems for Player 2.5.2:\nWindows Vista Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2 Asianux Server 3.0 Service Pack 1 openSUSE 11.1 Ubuntu 8.10 Ubuntu 8.04 LTS VMware provides experimental support to the following operating systems for Player:\nAsianux Server 3 Service Pack 1 Fedora 11 FreeBSD 7.1 Mandriva Linux 2009 Microsoft Windows 7 Novell SLE11.0 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8 Sun Solaris 10 Update 6 Ubuntu 9.04 Besides the new operating systems that were supported – there are several other issues that were addressed with each release.\nGo forth and Virtualize!!\n","date":"Apr 2, 2009","href":"/2009/04/new-vmware-product-releases.html","summary":"NO! it is not the new ESX version! (there are other products that VMware sells besides ESX you know)\nBesides Update 4 for ESX and ESX3i that were released last week:\nVMware Player 2.5.2\nVMware Workstation 6.5.2\nVMware Server 2.0.1\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s New With this release of VMware Player, certain new features and support have been added.\nSupport for New Guest Operating Systems VMware provides support for the following operating systems for Player 2.5.2:","tags":["Server","ESX3i","Workstation","Miscellaneous","VMware","ESX"],"title":"New VMware Product Releases"},{"content":"Well Actually yes. Because there is so much useful information about this reporting and troubleshooting tool, I wanted to add my own.\nI was pointed to very useful document regarding esxtop. Granted it has been a relatively popular topic lately, Both Jason and Duncan have very good posts on the subject\nSo take a look at the document Interpreting esxtop Statistics\n","date":"Apr 1, 2009","href":"/2009/04/not-another-esxtop-post.html","summary":"Well Actually yes. Because there is so much useful information about this reporting and troubleshooting tool, I wanted to add my own.\nI was pointed to very useful document regarding esxtop. Granted it has been a relatively popular topic lately, Both Jason and Duncan have very good posts on the subject\nSo take a look at the document Interpreting esxtop Statistics","tags":["Virtualization","Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"Not another esxtop post ..."},{"content":"Well I have been meaning to put up my experiences out on the web about what has happened with my attempts (and partial success) with the installation of vCenter 2.5 U4.\nNow for me the nicest new additions in this update were:\nGuest Operating System Customization Improvements Performance Overview Charts So I set out to install this update. Pretty straight forward. The install went smoothly – Database was upgraded – Update manager the whole works.\nThen came the Performance overview plug-in. Instructions were pretty simple.\nAll seems to go ok – but then I ran into the problem which this KB article solved for me.\nSo now I have the plug-in working correctly – or at least I thought I did.\nI was not getting some “chart cannot be displayed” errors on some of my hosts. (see below)\nWorking\nNot Working\nSome clusters would work – others would not. Some hosts in a cluster would work and others would not.\nNow after some debugging of the issue I found:\nThe issue was consistent on the same hosts all the time. No matter what I did (and tried all the relevant KB’s – and even re-installing vCenter from scratch – using the same DB) would not help. In the stats.log from the vCenter server I was seeing: When querying (via GUI) a working host the stats.log returns:\n[30 Mar 09, 15:35:31] [INFO] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.action.ViClientRequestAction : Request: [:8086/statsreport/vicr.do\u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;gt;:8086/statsreport/vicr.do\u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;gt;https://\u0026amp;lt;IPADDR\u0026amp;gt;:8086/statsreport/vicr.do](https://\u0026amp;lt;IPADDR\u0026amp;gt;:8086/statsreport/vicr.do) ? \u0026amp;amp;moref=HostSystem:host-11041\u0026amp;amp;sessionId=9A123CFD8AA-058F-4068-AC7C-66C66C2BDC7F\u0026amp;amp;locale=en_US\u0026amp;amp;serviceUrl=https://\u0026amp;lt;hostname\u0026amp;gt;/sdk [30 Mar 09, 15:35:31] [INFO] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.action.ViClientRequestAction : User (vmware_soap_session=\u0026amp;#34;AFCEC24C-1B37-414D-92E0-3523AC1BDED3F8\u0026amp;#34;) successfully authorized... [30 Mar 09, 15:35:31] [INFO] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.action.ViClientRequestAction : Redirect to corresponig MO Action","date":"Apr 1, 2009","href":"/2009/04/vcenter-25-u4-my-take.html","summary":"Well I have been meaning to put up my experiences out on the web about what has happened with my attempts (and partial success) with the installation of vCenter 2.5 U4.\nNow for me the nicest new additions in this update were:\nGuest Operating System Customization Improvements Performance Overview Charts So I set out to install this update. Pretty straight forward. The install went smoothly – Database was upgraded – Update manager the whole works.","tags":["Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"vCenter 2.5 U4 – My take…."},{"content":"So it seems that Andrew Kutz is having a nice time since he joined Hyper9. He has released a\nnew plug-in for all our use.\nSo what does it do? It changes the icons for the VM that you have to reflect their OS. There are Icons for Windows and Linux at the moment.\nSeamless download at 1mb (zip file enveloping an msi file) – Installed within 2 minutes and working perfectly. It is not earth shattering – but it gives you a nice visual about which OS you are looking at.\nHere is the before and after\nBefore\nAfter\nPlug-in can be downloaded here\nAndrew and H9Labs are promising some good things for the future – so stay tuned..\n","date":"Mar 25, 2009","href":"/2009/03/guessmyos-plug-in-from-h9labs.html","summary":"So it seems that Andrew Kutz is having a nice time since he joined Hyper9. He has released a\nnew plug-in for all our use.\nSo what does it do? It changes the icons for the VM that you have to reflect their OS. There are Icons for Windows and Linux at the moment.\nSeamless download at 1mb (zip file enveloping an msi file) – Installed within 2 minutes and working perfectly. It is not earth shattering – but it gives you a nice visual about which OS you are looking at.","tags":["Virtualization","Miscellaneous","Administration","ESX","vCenter"],"title":"GuessMyOS Plug-in from H9Labs"},{"content":"In the past 2 weeks or so there has been a lot of info that is starting to be posted about the next generation of ESX. Just to name a few Duncan Epping, Eric Sloof, Rich Brambley, MalaysiaVM, have all posted some extremely interesting content with previews of features and new additions to vSphere – which is currently in private Beta.\nNow the question came up in the forums about the NDA (and righteously so!)\nHi all,\nIt is my understanding that the vSphere is still in private beta and that we are not allowed to publish any tutorials or even screenshots in public, however, i can see that there are many blogs publishing lately many information and screenshots about vSphere and showing many features about it. Am i missing something here? am i allowed to start creating demos and tutorials for vSphere or it\u0026amp;rsquo;s still under NDA ?\nInteresting question here – I mean – those who are in the Beta program all signed this NDA – but all this content is still coming out.\nToday John Troyer (Sr Mgr, VMware Communities) gave us (I suppose) VMware’s official answer on the subject. Answer quoted below:\nAs stated above, here are the current ground rules: you can post about any thing that has been disclosed publicly. That includes the vmware.com website, VMworld presentations, non-NDA briefings, and non-NDA labs. (I believe there was at least one lab at VMworld that was considered under NDA - please correct me if I\u0026amp;rsquo;m wrong.) My understanding is that it also includes things that others have disclosed, whether it was in compliance with their NDA or not, because that information is now public.\nIn general, though, the NDA on the beta still holds.\nThis is tricky, because that line is not explicit \u0026amp;ndash; what exactly was shown in each lab isn\u0026amp;rsquo;t immediately obvious, especially if you weren\u0026amp;rsquo;t there. I appreciate that we\u0026amp;rsquo;ve put everybody in a bit of a bind by releasing some information but insisting that other information is confidential. Eric Sloof (NTPRO.NL), for","date":"Mar 25, 2009","href":"/2009/03/vsphere-beta-and-nda.html","summary":"In the past 2 weeks or so there has been a lot of info that is starting to be posted about the next generation of ESX. Just to name a few Duncan Epping, Eric Sloof, Rich Brambley, MalaysiaVM, have all posted some extremely interesting content with previews of features and new additions to vSphere – which is currently in private Beta.\nNow the question came up in the forums about the NDA (and righteously so!)","tags":["vSphere","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","ESX","vCenter"],"title":"vSphere Beta and the NDA"},{"content":"It seems that Microsoft have a knack of demoing products to the public that “don’t do what they are supposed to” - and it happened again.\nWhen?: Friday, March 20, 2009 8:00 PM Pacific Time (US \u0026amp;amp; Canada)\nWhere?: TechNet Webcast: Road Map for the Future of Virtualization (Level 300)\nTo see what happened you will have to register to see the recording – and move over to minute 38:00 to see exactly what happened.\nIn short – Live Migration did not work.\nShort note to myself – during a demo – check that what you want to do actually works before showing it to hundreds or thousands of people.\nMicrosoft – you should do the same.\n","date":"Mar 23, 2009","href":"/2009/03/hyper-v-live-migration-fail.html","summary":"It seems that Microsoft have a knack of demoing products to the public that “don’t do what they are supposed to” - and it happened again.\nWhen?: Friday, March 20, 2009 8:00 PM Pacific Time (US \u0026amp; Canada)\nWhere?: TechNet Webcast: Road Map for the Future of Virtualization (Level 300)\nTo see what happened you will have to register to see the recording – and move over to minute 38:00 to see exactly what happened.","tags":["hyper-v","Microsoft"],"title":"Hyper-V Live Migration – Fail!"},{"content":"HP started a new campaign \u0026amp;ldquo;The Guy Who Lives in the Server Room\u0026amp;rdquo;\nHow you can follow us to freedom\nStep 1: Admit you have a problem\nFear not, HP is here; seek refuge from your data center woes on our HP ProLiant Facebook page. Share your stories, post your pictures, help a fellow “Guy Who Lives in the Server Room,” but best of all – sign up to watch releases of all 6 episodes. Will he find his way out?\nStep 2: Plan your escape\nJoin our viewing party on 03.30.09 to be enlightened by HP ProLiant’s newest generation of servers. Be the first to watch the world premiere of Episode 2. Need we say more?\nStep 3: Share the sanity\nDo you know someone else who lives in their server room? Start them on the path to freedom by sharing these resources:\n","date":"Mar 22, 2009","href":"/2009/03/i-wonder-what-hp-have-planned.html","summary":"HP started a new campaign \u0026ldquo;The Guy Who Lives in the Server Room\u0026rdquo;\nHow you can follow us to freedom\nStep 1: Admit you have a problem\nFear not, HP is here; seek refuge from your data center woes on our HP ProLiant Facebook page. Share your stories, post your pictures, help a fellow “Guy Who Lives in the Server Room,” but best of all – sign up to watch releases of all 6 episodes. Will he find his way out?","tags":["Server","Miscellaneous"],"title":"I wonder what HP have planned?"},{"content":"Last week Azure went down for 22 hours – and this Microsoft’s Cloud solution.\nReading Hoff’s post I learned that the reason that this happened was:\nWhat Happened? During a routine operating system upgrade on Friday (March 13th), the deployment service within Windows Azure began to slow down due to networking issues. This caused a large number of servers to time out and fail.\nHow much do you all want to bet that this “routine operating system upgrade” was a patch installation that Microsoft released? Bets please….\nThis has been mentioned in several places ..\nDO YOU WANT TO RELY ON A WINDOWS OS AS THE VIRTUALIZATION PLATFORM FOR YOUR ENTERPRISE???\nIf you have to patch your host for vulnerabilities that are discovered every second day (and that is not say that Microsoft does not do a good job in fixing them) and are patched for stupid things like this? (yes the patch is relevant for Windows Server 2008 – and it requires a reboot!!)\n","date":"Mar 20, 2009","href":"/2009/03/azure-and-hyper-v.html","summary":"Last week Azure went down for 22 hours – and this Microsoft’s Cloud solution.\nReading Hoff’s post I learned that the reason that this happened was:\nWhat Happened? During a routine operating system upgrade on Friday (March 13th), the deployment service within Windows Azure began to slow down due to networking issues. This caused a large number of servers to time out and fail.\nHow much do you all want to bet that this “routine operating system upgrade” was a patch installation that Microsoft released? Bets please….","tags":["Microsoft","Virtualization","Hyper-V","Windows","Miscellaneous","Administration","Server2008"],"title":"Azure… and Hyper-V"},{"content":"So today a little surprise was released by VMware, vCenter Mobile Access.\nBelow is a short demo released with the announcement.\nA small excerpt from the product overview:\nEver wish you could restart a virtual machine or migrate it to another host from the convenience of your mobile phone? With VMware vCenter Mobile Access, you can\u0026amp;hellip;\nVMware vCenter Mobile Access allows you to monitor and manage VMware Infrastructure from your mobile phone with an interface that is optimized for such devices. Specifically, it allows you to:\nSearch for virtual machines in your data center Migrate virtual machines from one host to another using vMotion Execute recovery plans using VMware Site Recovery Manager Access Scheduled Tasks, Alarms and Events And much more\u0026amp;hellip;\nThe release date for the technology preview is set for April 2009.\nI wonder how much more we think we can squish into such a small screen???\n","date":"Mar 20, 2009","href":"/2009/03/vmware-vcenter-mobile-access.html","summary":"So today a little surprise was released by VMware, vCenter Mobile Access.\nBelow is a short demo released with the announcement.\nA small excerpt from the product overview:\nEver wish you could restart a virtual machine or migrate it to another host from the convenience of your mobile phone? With VMware vCenter Mobile Access, you can\u0026hellip;","tags":["Virtualization","VMotion","Appliances","Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","ESX","vCenter"],"title":"VMware vCenter Mobile Access"},{"content":"I found this in my inbox this morning ( I saw that this was mentioned here as well:\nDear SCVMM beta tester, As a past beta tester of the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 software, we wanted to notify you at that new Beta release of the \u0026amp;ldquo;R2\u0026amp;rdquo; release for VMM 2008 is now available on Microsoft Connect for download. What is VMM 2008 R2 Beta and what are its new capabilities? VMM 2008 R2 Beta is a comprehensive management solution for virtualized infrastructure that takes advantage of many of the great new features of Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta including:\nLive Migration: Enables the movement of running virtual machines from one virtual host to another with no downtime. Clustered Shared Volumes: Helps enable Live Migration and eliminates the previous one LUN per virtual machine requirement thus simplifying SAN administration. Hot addition/removal of storage: Allows the addition and removal of new virtual hard disks (VHDs) and iSCSI pass-through disks running on virtual infrastructure. Networking optimizations: two new technologies \u0026amp;ndash; Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ) and Chimney - provide increased network throughput while reducing CPU load. So who is ready or will to try it out? You can sign up for the Beta here\n","date":"Mar 16, 2009","href":"/2009/03/scvmm-2008-r2-beta.html","summary":"I found this in my inbox this morning ( I saw that this was mentioned here as well:\nDear SCVMM beta tester, As a past beta tester of the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 software, we wanted to notify you at that new Beta release of the \u0026ldquo;R2\u0026rdquo; release for VMM 2008 is now available on Microsoft Connect for download. What is VMM 2008 R2 Beta and what are its new capabilities? VMM 2008 R2 Beta is a comprehensive management solution for virtualized infrastructure that takes advantage of many of the great new features of Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta including:","tags":["Microsoft","Server","Virtualization","Windows","Administration"],"title":"SCVMM 2008 R2 Beta"},{"content":"I have the VUM (vCenter Update Manager) Server installed on a seperate machine (vm of course) than my vCenter Server.\nNow this of course is the most natural and logical way to patch your ESX servers, all you need to do it create your baselines, remediate your servers and hey presto, after a reboot you are fully patched. so this was working for a while on a test machine using an MSDE database. Now since this has become a essential part of the infrastructure it was time to move off of the MSDE and the test server.\nSo the plan was pretty simple:\nRename the server to reflect the production task it was performing Move the database to production SQL 2005 server Seems simple enough - don\u0026amp;rsquo;t you think? (but\u0026amp;hellip;. if life was simple we would not have job security!!!)\nWorked very easily, I mean renaming a windows server is something I can do with my eyes closed, my hands tied behind my back and with 4 big football players holding me back. Also pretty straight forward. Stop the Update Manager Service. Detach the Database from the MSDE instance - copy it to its new home. Attach the Database. Work some magic with credentials and security. Change the ODBC to point to the new server. And last but not least - start the service. Now all should be fine and dandy. So I start up my VIC again and lo and behold - It does not work!\nI was getting \u0026amp;ldquo;the request failed because the server name could not be resolved\u0026amp;rdquo;. Hmm. DNS resolving works forward and reverse so what was the problem?\nLike any good troubleshooter - reinstall the plugin was the next step. So 2 minutes later, I wanted to add in the plugin back in and I was presented with a new error message \u0026amp;ldquo;The remote name could not be resolved: \u0026amp;lsquo;oldhostame.xx.xx.xx\u0026amp;rsquo;\u0026amp;rdquo;. which led me to start thinking that vCenter did not update the name change of my VUM server.\nI had to dig into the SQL database and find where the settings of the old hostname were still hiding. so to save you the digging, the entries","date":"Mar 12, 2009","href":"/2009/03/renaming-your-vcenter-update-manager.html","summary":"I have the VUM (vCenter Update Manager) Server installed on a seperate machine (vm of course) than my vCenter Server.\nNow this of course is the most natural and logical way to patch your ESX servers, all you need to do it create your baselines, remediate your servers and hey presto, after a reboot you are fully patched. so this was working for a while on a test machine using an MSDE database. Now since this has become a essential part of the infrastructure it was time to move off of the MSDE and the test server.","tags":["vCenter","Vmware","Update Manager"],"title":"Renaming your vCenter Update Manager Server"},{"content":"Well yes it is experimental, but if you have tried their product, I am sure that you will see the benefit of what it can do for you. Now they have also released a plugin that will allow you to utilize the full power right in your VIC. Thanks to Alex Barett for bringing this to my attention.\nPlugin can be downloaded here. They also have the H9Labs Alert \u0026amp;amp; Monitoring Applet as well.\n","date":"Mar 11, 2009","href":"/2009/03/new-vi-plugin-hyper9-client-search.html","summary":"Well yes it is experimental, but if you have tried their product, I am sure that you will see the benefit of what it can do for you. Now they have also released a plugin that will allow you to utilize the full power right in your VIC. Thanks to Alex Barett for bringing this to my attention.\nPlugin can be downloaded here. They also have the H9Labs Alert \u0026amp; Monitoring Applet as well.","tags":["Microsoft","hyper9","Administration","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"New VI-Plugin - hyper9 Client Search"},{"content":"Now this has nothing to do with Virtualization, but it is still very handy, so I thought I would share it with you all. Yesterday I started to receive alerts from our monitoring system that our DC\u0026amp;rsquo;s were constantly using almost 100% CPU. Now of course this is not normal. Because of the high CPU usage I started to get more alerts of FRS replication issues, DNS problems and I saw a snowball slowly gathering momentum. First off, let me state that I am happy that our monitoring system notified us of a problem. Next, let me state I am not happy to announce that our monitoring system could not identify what the problem was, so I had to dig further (we are looking into a better monitoring solution). bTime to put on my detective\u0026amp;rsquo;s cap and go to work (Sorry for the shameless rip-off Gabrie!!)\nThe process that was eating up so much CPU was lsass.exe. Now of course as you can see, this process is responsible for domain authentication, and it was happening on both DC\u0026amp;rsquo;s at the same time, no viral activity was detected on our network, so I was thinking that something is causing this due to authentication problems. Therefore, I came to Windows Server 2003 Performance Advisor (SPA), for some more wisdom and enlightenment.\nA quick overview as how to use this utility can be found here. This tool is highly useful in diagnosing what is causing load on your server and can be used in many different ways to report problems and trends. Now after gathering the info and the reports on the DC\u0026amp;rsquo;s (which was not that easy running at almost 100% CPU) the results showed that one user account was trying to validate against the DC\u0026amp;rsquo;s at a rate of over 220 times/sec (which is NOT NORMAL). To make things more complicated, most of the load on the second DC was coming from the first. So after some investigation, it turned out that the user\u0026amp;rsquo;s account password had expired. According to Microsoft\nWhen a domain controller detects that an authentication attempt did not work","date":"Mar 10, 2009","href":"/2009/03/excessive-cpu-usage-on-domain.html","summary":"Now this has nothing to do with Virtualization, but it is still very handy, so I thought I would share it with you all. Yesterday I started to receive alerts from our monitoring system that our DC\u0026rsquo;s were constantly using almost 100% CPU. Now of course this is not normal. Because of the high CPU usage I started to get more alerts of FRS replication issues, DNS problems and I saw a snowball slowly gathering momentum. First off, let me state that I am happy that our monitoring system notified us of a problem. Next, let me state I am not happy to announce that our monitoring system could not identify what the problem was, so I had to dig further (we are looking into a better monitoring solution). bTime to put on my detective\u0026rsquo;s cap and go to work (Sorry for the shameless rip-off Gabrie!!)","tags":["Microsoft","Windows","Miscellaneous","Administration","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Excessive CPU usage on Domain Controllers"},{"content":"Today was our Israeli Quarterly VMUG in Tel-Aviv Lead by Ben Hagai. About 75 people there (the group is growing every time) Schedule was:\nRe-cap from VMWorld in Cannes Cisco Nexus 1000V ESX Storage Best Practices VMware Appspeed New Technologies Demonstration 1. Re-Cap - quick overview of technologies from Cannes.\nWell nothing really new here that has not been posted all over the internet over the past week. One thing that I did learn that was new, that with Vmware Fault Tolerance - If the host fails, the second VM will take over (become the primary) and a new secondary VM will be created on another host in the cluster.\n2. Storage best Practices (Yes they switched the order - Cisco guy was late)\nThis was given by Yaniv Weinberg who is a Senior VMware Consultant. This was an interesting session with a few points I took with me to reserach further. VM Pagefile - perhaps to install on a different VMDK on a different volume - (SRM reasons, Load) Partition Allignment - This has being going around the forums/blogs lately no need to go into more detail SCSI Reservations - Explanations about what causes them, and how they effect your environment.\n3. AppSpeed\nSince I have heard the product presentation on the VMTN Podcast - I got some work done during this presentation and did not really pay attention.\n4. Cisco NEXUS 1000V - Overview\nThis seems to be a big WOW!!! Strangely enough though, Even though I am participating in the Beta for vSphere, I could not find a way to test this product as well. Well It will be relased together with vSPhere, my Network Administrator will be in 7th Heaven to have such a product for our Virtualization Environment, and I now have a contact in Cisco that, I hope, will allow me to test this product as well.\n5. PCoIP\nShort explanation - and how VMware would like this to replace RDP, this will support HD video (which is a big plus) - Chris Wolf recently posted about this.\n6. Client Hypervisor - CVP\nAlso has been mentioned a few times this past week,","date":"Mar 4, 2009","href":"/2009/03/vmug-israel-march-2009.html","summary":"Today was our Israeli Quarterly VMUG in Tel-Aviv Lead by Ben Hagai. About 75 people there (the group is growing every time) Schedule was:\nRe-cap from VMWorld in Cannes Cisco Nexus 1000V ESX Storage Best Practices VMware Appspeed New Technologies Demonstration 1. Re-Cap - quick overview of technologies from Cannes.\nWell nothing really new here that has not been posted all over the internet over the past week. One thing that I did learn that was new, that with Vmware Fault Tolerance - If the host fails, the second VM will take over (become the primary) and a new secondary VM will be created on another host in the cluster.","tags":["VMUG","Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"VMUG Israel March 2009"},{"content":"Even though I was not there - the VI Toolkit lab, Lab 11 was highly popular and you can voice your opinion on that if you would like. Now Carter Shanklin was so kind to give me permission to publish the VI toolkit examples that were presented on the Hands-on Lab at this session. Luc Dekens , Hugo Peeters and Stephen Campbell also got an honorable mention in the document. This is more of a note to myself of how to perform common tasks with the VI Toolkit and a historical reference. It is a great list of examples collated in to one place. Of course credit goes to the team that made the lab such a success:\nAidan Dalgleish - Senior Consultant Carter Shanklin - Product Manager, End User Enablement Reg Hall – Senior Systems Engineer Hardev Sanghera – Lead Partner, Systems Engineer Yavor Boychev – VI Toolkit QA Lead Andrey Anastasov – VI Toolkit Architect So thank very much Carter - and of course the full PDF can be found here\n","date":"Mar 2, 2009","href":"/2009/03/tiny-bit-of-powershell.html","summary":"Even though I was not there - the VI Toolkit lab, Lab 11 was highly popular and you can voice your opinion on that if you would like. Now Carter Shanklin was so kind to give me permission to publish the VI toolkit examples that were presented on the Hands-on Lab at this session. Luc Dekens , Hugo Peeters and Stephen Campbell also got an honorable mention in the document. This is more of a note to myself of how to perform common tasks with the VI Toolkit and a historical reference. It is a great list of examples collated in to one place. Of course credit goes to the team that made the lab such a success:","tags":["Virtualization","VMworld","Scripting","Powershell","Administration","VMware"],"title":"A (tiny) bit of Powershell.."},{"content":"Busy month it has been\u0026amp;hellip; (Sounds a bit too much like Yoda)\nThe increase in my blog traffic was quite large this month. The most popular item was of course the VMware Visio stencils which have been downloaded almost 7,000 times in the last 10 days. A good boost was also the addition of my blog to Planet V12n.\nThanks for the vote of confidence!\n","date":"Mar 1, 2009","href":"/2009/03/statistics-for-february-2009.html","summary":"Busy month it has been\u0026hellip; (Sounds a bit too much like Yoda)\nThe increase in my blog traffic was quite large this month. The most popular item was of course the VMware Visio stencils which have been downloaded almost 7,000 times in the last 10 days. A good boost was also the addition of my blog to Planet V12n.\nThanks for the vote of confidence!","tags":["blog","statistics"],"title":"Statistics for February 2009"},{"content":"Announced by Steve Herrod today on stage in Cannes today:\n8 virtual CPUs 256GB per VM 40 GB/s network throughput up to 64 nodes per cluster up to 4096 cores to manage full support for Distributed Power Management (DPM), which saves 50% Watts consumption during VMwark benchmarks So much info flying around and coming in so fast, that I am sure, that most of it will be dealt with in more detail, once everyone has the time.\nMore to follow.\n","date":"Feb 25, 2009","href":"/2009/02/new-maximums-for-vsphere.html","summary":"Announced by Steve Herrod today on stage in Cannes today:\n8 virtual CPUs 256GB per VM 40 GB/s network throughput up to 64 nodes per cluster up to 4096 cores to manage full support for Distributed Power Management (DPM), which saves 50% Watts consumption during VMwark benchmarks So much info flying around and coming in so fast, that I am sure, that most of it will be dealt with in more detail, once everyone has the time.","tags":["VMworld","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"New Maximums for vSphere"},{"content":"As was mentioned by Duncan Epping - the beta for Virtual Center on Linux is out.\nComes an OVF package so it can be imported easily into all Vmware products.\nIt is based on Centos using Just Enough Operating System (JEOS)\nYou will need a an Oracle 10 Database\nDoes Not support\nMonitoring Alarms No LDAP No VM Customizations No VI Web Access No Plug-ins No Local DB Scheduled Tasks Maps Update Manager SRM Converter Enterprise Guided Consolidation More info here\n","date":"Feb 23, 2009","href":"/2009/02/vcenter-on-linux-beta.html","summary":"As was mentioned by Duncan Epping - the beta for Virtual Center on Linux is out.\nComes an OVF package so it can be imported easily into all Vmware products.\nIt is based on Centos using Just Enough Operating System (JEOS)\nYou will need a an Oracle 10 Database\nDoes Not support\nMonitoring Alarms No LDAP No VM Customizations No VI Web Access No Plug-ins No Local DB Scheduled Tasks Maps Update Manager SRM Converter Enterprise Guided Consolidation More info here","tags":["Appliances","Administration","VMware","ESX","vCenter"],"title":"vCenter on Linux - Beta"},{"content":"Well even though the announcement was only today at VMWorld Europe 2009, the cat was let out of the bag, (not by me..but here here and here) so I will provide a bit of what I learned about the product from the webcast on February 10th. We were asked not to disclose anything until the announcement in VMWorld in Cannes.\nSession will be at the upcoming VMworld in 2 weeks in Cannes - (DC10 - Chosing a Solution for vCenter Server Availability)\nvCenter Server Heartbeat will be a High Availability Add-on that will allow you to keep your vCenter up and running at all times - a Fault tolerance (FT) solution if you wish for vCenter.\nQ\u0026amp;amp;A from the session follows but here are some highlights\nGA - Sometime in March Will protect one instance of vCenter Physical or Virtual. Will protect the SQL instance that vCenter is using (be it on the vCenter server or a remote SQL server). Does not work with Oracle Will work over the WAN Will come as an additional Application not a plugin Estimated Price ~$10,000 per vCenter instance + SNS (Bundle of vCenter + Heartbeat - ~$13,000 Q: When does / did vCenter Server Heartbeat announce? A: Annouced at VMworld Europe 2009 with early March GA\nQ: Which critical Components of the Infrastructure will this protect? A: vcenter heartbeat will provide complete protection of the vCenter Server, installed components and SQL server (local or remote)\nQ: Will there be an acceleration kit upgrade or bundle with the acceleration kits? A: an acceleration kit will be available at GA\nQ: What about oracle, is this simply a SQL solution? A: SQL is 95% of the vCenter Server Market\nQ: vmware recommends running the virtualcenter server in a vm. i\u0026amp;rsquo;m really not convinced about it\u0026amp;hellip;.this may be not the focus os this vmlive, but could you please talk about running the vcenter in vm x physical server a little bit? A: around 60% of vCenter license have been deployed on a physical machine where protection has been limited until now\nQ: replication between","date":"Feb 23, 2009","href":"/2009/02/vcenter-server-heartbeat-announced-at.html","summary":"Well even though the announcement was only today at VMWorld Europe 2009, the cat was let out of the bag, (not by me..but here here and here) so I will provide a bit of what I learned about the product from the webcast on February 10th. We were asked not to disclose anything until the announcement in VMWorld in Cannes.\nSession will be at the upcoming VMworld in 2 weeks in Cannes - (DC10 - Chosing a Solution for vCenter Server Availability)","tags":["ESX","Heartbeat","vCenter","Virtualization","VMware","VMworld"],"title":"vCenter Server Heartbeat - VMworld Europe"},{"content":"Well this is nothing new, we see this all the time, but today it really annoyed me. During a lecture I participated in today with a Microsoft Partner at Microsoft offices in Israel today, one of the slides were comparing costs between VMware and Hyper-V.\n1 Host - 4 guest VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s Hyper-V VMware Windows 2008 Server $2,500 $2,500 Hypervisor - (Built-in) $5,800 (3.5 Enterprise) System Center $1,500 - Virtual Center - $5,800 Total $4,000 $14,100 Now Come on!!!!! - Where did they get these numbers? I guess that Microsoft think that people do not know how to compare technologies one to another.\nIf you are only using one host - then why do you need Virtual Center? Let\u0026amp;rsquo;s say you need the functionality to deploy templates etc. - then you cannot get away with a Standalone License - but the Bundles are much cheaper than what was presented above. For one host - you will not need an Enterprise License ($5,800) - for the same features that Hyper-V provides - a Foundation license ($1,000) will be more than overkill - you will probably be able to get away with a ESX3i free license (if you do not need central management). Comparing System Center to Virtual Center is not accurate (and if I was to put it less diplomatically - pure nonsense!!!). Get your facts straight - and as I have said more than once - compare apples to apples - not apples to oranges.\n","date":"Feb 22, 2009","href":"/2009/02/hyper-v-technologies-wrong-information.html","summary":"Well this is nothing new, we see this all the time, but today it really annoyed me. During a lecture I participated in today with a Microsoft Partner at Microsoft offices in Israel today, one of the slides were comparing costs between VMware and Hyper-V.\n1 Host - 4 guest VM\u0026rsquo;s Hyper-V VMware Windows 2008 Server $2,500 $2,500 Hypervisor - (Built-in) $5,800 (3.5 Enterprise) System Center $1,500 - Virtual Center - $5,800 Total $4,000 $14,100 Now Come on!!!!! - Where did they get these numbers? I guess that Microsoft think that people do not know how to compare technologies one to another.","tags":["Microsoft","Server","Hyper-V","Windows","Administration","VMware","ESX","vCenter"],"title":"Hyper-V Technologies - Wrong Information"},{"content":"Hyper-9 is a company that is working on field of retrieving more detailed information from your Virtual Infrastructure. I have beta tested their product over the past month and have to say that it looks promising.\nThey announced today that Andrew Kutz has joined their Team. Andrew was the one who wrote the GUI plug-in for Storage vMotion.\nThey will be in Cannes next week, so be sure to look them up.\nHere is the original announcement.\n","date":"Feb 19, 2009","href":"/2009/02/hyper-9-has-new-addition-to-their-team.html","summary":"Hyper-9 is a company that is working on field of retrieving more detailed information from your Virtual Infrastructure. I have beta tested their product over the past month and have to say that it looks promising.\nThey announced today that Andrew Kutz has joined their Team. Andrew was the one who wrote the GUI plug-in for Storage vMotion.\nThey will be in Cannes next week, so be sure to look them up.","tags":["Virtualization","VMotion","Administration","VMware","ESX","vCenter"],"title":"Hyper-9 Has a new addition to their team"},{"content":"Duncan Epping posted on twitter a few days ago Debian now has a new version out, and of course in no time at all, Simon has released a VMware image of the OS.\nIf you would like to receive the announcements here.\nBelow is the announcement.\nThanks Simon!\nGood evening!\n== Debian Lenny (Debian 5.0)\nThe Debian Lenny ThoughtPolice VMware image is available for immediate\ndownload:\nhttps://www.thoughtpolice.co.uk/vmware/#debian5.0\nTorrents and http downloads available, the torrent faster.\nPress release (with lots of technical info)\nhttps://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214\nRelease information\nhttps://www.debian.org/releases/lenny/\nRelease notes\nhttps://www.debian.org/releases/lenny/releasenotes\nThis release is the first release with OpenJDK, and features fewer setuid binaries, gcc hardening for security critical packages.\nAlso the FHS v2.3 and LSB v3.2.\nReview from The Register\nhttps://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/16/debian_lenny_review/\nThis is the first ThoughtPolice release in both 32-bit and 64-bit! More to follow.\nEnjoy,\nSimon www.thoughtpolice.co.uk/vmware/\n","date":"Feb 18, 2009","href":"/2009/02/debian-50-vmware-image.html","summary":"Duncan Epping posted on twitter a few days ago Debian now has a new version out, and of course in no time at all, Simon has released a VMware image of the OS.\nIf you would like to receive the announcements here.\nBelow is the announcement.\nThanks Simon!\nGood evening!\n== Debian Lenny (Debian 5.0)\nThe Debian Lenny ThoughtPolice VMware image is available for immediate\ndownload:\nhttps://www.thoughtpolice.co.uk/vmware/#debian5.0\nTorrents and http downloads available, the torrent faster.","tags":["Virtualization","Appliances","VMware","ESX"],"title":"Debian 5.0 VMware Image"},{"content":"Tripwire (or vWire) have released a new tool - OPSCHECK - that will check your VMotion configuration between your hosts.\nOpsCheck helps ensure your systems are configured to support VMware VMotion by rapidly analyzing ESX 3.0, 3.5, and ESXi hypervisors, and provides troubleshooting guidance for VMware VMotion.\nHow useful will this tool be? Will let you know after I have tested it.\n","date":"Feb 17, 2009","href":"/2009/02/opscheck-is-now-live.html","summary":"Tripwire (or vWire) have released a new tool - OPSCHECK - that will check your VMotion configuration between your hosts.\nOpsCheck helps ensure your systems are configured to support VMware VMotion by rapidly analyzing ESX 3.0, 3.5, and ESXi hypervisors, and provides troubleshooting guidance for VMware VMotion.\nHow useful will this tool be? Will let you know after I have tested it.","tags":["VMotion","Administration","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"OPSCHECK is now live"},{"content":"In continuation of my previous post about this issue with VNC and direct access to a vm through the service console.\nIn my original findings, I stated that this was possible with both ESX3i and ESX 3.5.\nI opened a SR with VMware on this issue. Together we have been trying backward and forward to troubleshoot the issue and try and re-create the scenario on ESX 3.5 hosts. Now we came across the fact that it was not consistent, some hosts would allow direct VNC access and others would not.\nThanks to lots of help from Edward I have managed to to find why it was not consistent.\nOn the hosts that would allow VNC into a guest VM - if you would run the command\niptables -L -n | wc -l\noutput would be 8\nOn the hosts that would not allow VNC into a guest VM - if you would run the command\niptables -L -n | wc -l\noutput would be a higher number 78 or 120\nNow as Edward pointed out to me the first case where the output was 8 meant that iptables was disabled on the ESX host, and therefore it would allow the VNC in by default. On a host that had the firewall enabled properly VNC connection to the VM was not possible.\nA quick esxcfg-firewall -r\nreset the firewall on the problematic hosts and VNC \u0026amp;ldquo;backdoor\u0026amp;rdquo; was closed.\n2 things to note.\nThis \u0026amp;ldquo;Backdoor\u0026amp;rdquo; still works on ESX3i - firewall configuration is minimal at best, more like non-existent.\nEven though the traffic traveling through the port that was opened up by the changes in the VMX file, was not forwarded to the VM, the port was still opened on the ESX 3.5 and ESX3i hosts as soon as the VM was powered on.\n","date":"Feb 17, 2009","href":"/2009/02/vnc-built-in-backdoor-part-2.html","summary":"In continuation of my previous post about this issue with VNC and direct access to a vm through the service console.\nIn my original findings, I stated that this was possible with both ESX3i and ESX 3.5.\nI opened a SR with VMware on this issue. Together we have been trying backward and forward to troubleshoot the issue and try and re-create the scenario on ESX 3.5 hosts. Now we came across the fact that it was not consistent, some hosts would allow direct VNC access and others would not.","tags":["Security","ESX3i","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"VNC Built-in Backdoor - Part 2"},{"content":"Every now and again, this comes up. It did again 2 Days ago on Dave Lawrence\u0026amp;rsquo;s Blog\nI still feel that in spite of all the benefits and extra redundancy you get with vCenter as a VM, it still feels like putting too much of my precious eggs in one basket.\nAccording to VMware - 60% of all vCenters are Physical - and 95% run of them use an SQL database.\nSeems that the majority feel the way I do..\n","date":"Feb 11, 2009","href":"/2009/02/vcenter-physical-or-virtual.html","summary":"Every now and again, this comes up. It did again 2 Days ago on Dave Lawrence\u0026rsquo;s Blog\nI still feel that in spite of all the benefits and extra redundancy you get with vCenter as a VM, it still feels like putting too much of my precious eggs in one basket.\nAccording to VMware - 60% of all vCenters are Physical - and 95% run of them use an SQL database.","tags":["Server","Virtualization","Administration","VMware","ESX","vCenter"],"title":"vCenter Physical or Virtual?"},{"content":"For those of you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t already know, VMware have a new feature coming out in there next version. I am lucky enough to be part of the Beta group who is busy testing this. The feature is called VMware Fault Tolerance. All of this info has been publicly exposed and even demonstrated.\nFault Tolerance Demo - VMware Roadmap\nIn a nutshell. We all know that one of the greatest features that are available today with VI is HA (High Availability). If you do not know what HA is, then I suggest you should start here. In short HA removes your dependency from physical hardware. If you physical host goes down (hardware failure / power \u0026amp;hellip; you get the picture) then within a pre-defined timeout, your VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s that were running on that host will automatically be powered on across the other hosts in the cluster (if you have it configured correctly of course).\nFault tolerance will come and either compliment / replace Microsoft Clustering. This feature will protect your VM with another VM up to the level of resident memory and mouse movements that are replicated between the primary and secondary machine. And you know what the best part of it all is? No need for cluster configuration, no dependence on any Clustering solution, it is all built into your Virtual Infrastructure. This can be implented on any supported VM OS, no shared storage between VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s and you are not limited to certain editions of software for the clustering solution.\nSo if you have HA, why would you need to use a Microsoft Cluster? (I hear you back there over in row 10..) Well, yes you could argue that HA covers most cases of failure, but not all.\nHA will not kick in if there is an OS failure - only Host failure (you could probably achieve that with Virtual machine monitoring - but that is still an expiremental feature).\nIf the host goes down, then your OS will reboot on a new host. Now how healthy is that for Databases that did not close properly, I would think - not \u0026amp;hellip; that \u0026amp;hellip; good!\nIf","date":"Feb 9, 2009","href":"/2009/02/future-of-cluster-services.html","summary":"For those of you don\u0026rsquo;t already know, VMware have a new feature coming out in there next version. I am lucky enough to be part of the Beta group who is busy testing this. The feature is called VMware Fault Tolerance. All of this info has been publicly exposed and even demonstrated.\nFault Tolerance Demo - VMware Roadmap\nIn a nutshell. We all know that one of the greatest features that are available today with VI is HA (High Availability). If you do not know what HA is, then I suggest you should start here. In short HA removes your dependency from physical hardware. If you physical host goes down (hardware failure / power \u0026hellip; you get the picture) then within a pre-defined timeout, your VM\u0026rsquo;s that were running on that host will automatically be powered on across the other hosts in the cluster (if you have it configured correctly of course).","tags":["Microsoft","Virtualization","Windows","Administration","VMware","ESX","vCenter"],"title":"The Future of Cluster Services"},{"content":"Firstly let\u0026amp;rsquo;s start with how this came about. I was trying to allow permissions to a user to a certain VM on an ESX3i Server. This is a the free edition. There is no option to allocate permissions on the VM/Resource pool level. Here you can see what I mean:\nOK so how do you give some console access to a specific machine? Well there is a small little trick that is from way back. As you all know, you have the option of opening a VNC session to a specific VM which is built into VMware Workstation.\nSo what the heck, why not try it with ESX? So first I wanted to see if the ESX3i host was listening on port 5900.\n[VI Toolkit] C:\\\u0026amp;gt; telnet msaidelk-esx 5900\nand I got as an answer\nRFB 003.003\nThat was a yes!! So what I did was took a the settings from the VMX file from my workstation machine which were relevant to VNC:\nRemoteDisplay.vnc.enabled = \u0026amp;#34;TRUE\u0026amp;#34; RemoteDisplay.vnc.key = \u0026amp;#34;\u0026amp;lt;..VERY LONG STRING..\u0026amp;gt; ... CcdEDwdAww=\u0026amp;#34; RemoteDisplay.vnc.port = \u0026amp;#34;5900\u0026amp;#34; And I pasted it in a VMX file that was sitting on my ESX3i machine. Lo and Behold!\nNow I was shocked. That means that someone can allow remote access to a VM without me actually knowing it and without any kind of control as an administrator. True they actually need access to the file system and the VMX file, what scares me though is that it was totally open in the firewall!! So what I tried straight after that was to see if this was the same for the full-blown version of ESX - if that would be true then I would really be shocked. So we did the same procedure - and you know what? Exactly the same..\nNetstat from the Host:\n[root@xxxxx ~]# netstat -a | grep 90 tcp 0 0 *:5900 *:* LISTEN\nSo what do you think? Is this a feature? An oversight? VI Admins beware!! Small update.. I found these references to this issue on the forums here and here Awaiting a reply from a SR that I logged with VMware..\n","date":"Feb 5, 2009","href":"/2009/02/now-how-do-you-like-this-built-in.html","summary":"Firstly let\u0026rsquo;s start with how this came about. I was trying to allow permissions to a user to a certain VM on an ESX3i Server. This is a the free edition. There is no option to allocate permissions on the VM/Resource pool level. Here you can see what I mean:\nOK so how do you give some console access to a specific machine? Well there is a small little trick that is from way back. As you all know, you have the option of opening a VNC session to a specific VM which is built into VMware Workstation.","tags":["Security","Virtualization","ESX3i","Administration","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting","vCenter"],"title":"Now how do you like this - Built-in Backdoor"},{"content":"There are those who like to get updates immediately when something changes in a feed, there are those who like to get notified once a day (something like a daily digest idea from Yahoogroups)\nWell I actually like a bit of both. I like to receive a daily mail that I can over the articles on the commute to work each morning, and during the day while I am connected to get updates in my browser.\nSo for the browser I use Firefox with a plugin called Brief which I find does the work very well.\nFor \u0026amp;ldquo;Daily Digest\u0026amp;rdquo; I use Feedburner. With Feedburner (which is moving everything over to Google - so if you have feeds there - it would be advised to transfer them) you have many options on how to manipulate the feed, one of them is email syndication. So for all of you who would like to receive a daily email of PlanetV12N feed (which for those of you who do not know is a comprehensive list of virtualization related Blogs/Feeds) be my guest.\nClick here to subscribe and you will receive a daily mail (between 03.00-05.00 GMT +2).\nLet me know how this turns out for you and if you find it useful.\nNight all\u0026amp;hellip;\n","date":"Feb 5, 2009","href":"/2009/02/so-how-do-you-like-your-feeds.html","summary":"There are those who like to get updates immediately when something changes in a feed, there are those who like to get notified once a day (something like a daily digest idea from Yahoogroups)\nWell I actually like a bit of both. I like to receive a daily mail that I can over the articles on the commute to work each morning, and during the day while I am connected to get updates in my browser.","tags":["Virtualization","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"So how do you like your feeds?"},{"content":"Rumors rumors\u0026amp;hellip;\u0026amp;hellip;.\nThis came up on SearchVMware (Hannah Drake - Associate Editor of SearchVMware.com)\n**The release of VMware Infrastructure 4 is slated for first half of this year. What will happen to the current VCP exam, which focuses on VI3?\n**\nTypically, when an updated product is released, the older product will continue to be the focus of the exam for the greater part of a year. In this case, VMware would make the announcement that it\u0026amp;rsquo;s retiring the VI3-focused VCP exam in a year. The new exam usually won\u0026amp;rsquo;t become available for six to nine months after the product is released. Also, it takes a short while for people to shift platforms and upgrade to a new release.\nOriginal post\nSo Hannah was asked where the information was from and the reply received was:\n\u0026amp;ldquo;actually right from Bogomil Balkansky (sr dr. product marketing, VMware)\u0026amp;hellip;he stopped by to interview two weeks ago.\u0026amp;rdquo;\nSo do think we can all expect a new version of VI before June 30th??\nWhat do you all say? Will the release be ready or is VMware jumping the gun?\n","date":"Feb 5, 2009","href":"/2009/02/so-when-will-we-see-release-of-next.html","summary":"Rumors rumors\u0026hellip;\u0026hellip;.\nThis came up on SearchVMware (Hannah Drake - Associate Editor of SearchVMware.com)\n**The release of VMware Infrastructure 4 is slated for first half of this year. What will happen to the current VCP exam, which focuses on VI3?\n**\nTypically, when an updated product is released, the older product will continue to be the focus of the exam for the greater part of a year. In this case, VMware would make the announcement that it\u0026rsquo;s retiring the VI3-focused VCP exam in a year. The new exam usually won\u0026rsquo;t become available for six to nine months after the product is released. Also, it takes a short while for people to shift platforms and upgrade to a new release.","tags":["Virtualization","Miscellaneous","VMware","ESX","vCenter"],"title":"So when will we see the get the next version of ESX?"},{"content":"Chad Sakac works for EMC, and has blog of course.\nHe wrote a wonderful post last week about getting the most you can out of IP storage for ESX. The post itself was great because it was a joint project from 6 different people from 5 different companies all working together to share great info for the virtualization community. The post can be found here.\nAnother great post he made today - So\u0026amp;hellip; What\u0026amp;rsquo;s the \u0026amp;ldquo;BIG picture stuff \u0026amp;quot; going on under the covers?\nI highly recommend it!\n","date":"Feb 3, 2009","href":"/2009/02/so-where-is-virtualization-heading-it.html","summary":"Chad Sakac works for EMC, and has blog of course.\nHe wrote a wonderful post last week about getting the most you can out of IP storage for ESX. The post itself was great because it was a joint project from 6 different people from 5 different companies all working together to share great info for the virtualization community. The post can be found here.\nAnother great post he made today - So\u0026hellip; What\u0026rsquo;s the \u0026ldquo;BIG picture stuff \u0026quot; going on under the covers?","tags":["Virtualization","Appliances","Administration","VMware","ESX"],"title":"So where is virtualization heading?"},{"content":"A bit of nostalgia..\nLook how far the world has come since then\u0026amp;hellip;\n","date":"Jan 29, 2009","href":"/2009/01/once-upon-time.html","summary":"A bit of nostalgia..\nLook how far the world has come since then\u0026hellip;","tags":["Miscellaneous"],"title":"Once upon a time...."},{"content":"I was entrusted with the task to try and migrate a VM from Xen 3.2 to ESX. Well you would think that is a trivial task - it should be. But let us not forget that we are talking here about version 3.2, which is two generations back from the current Citrix Xensource which is in use today. After successfully migrating it I would like to share with you the procedure. This was done on a Xen Guest VM runnning Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 3 (Taroon Update 7) Disk Layout was two disks, hda and hdb. The second disk was configured as part of a an Logical Volume as you can see below\n[root@xxxx root]# fdisk -l Disk /dev/hda: 26.8 GB, 26843545600 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3263 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 61 489951 83 Linux /dev/hda2 62 322 2096482+ 82 Linux swap /dev/hda3 323 453 1052257+ 83 Linux /dev/hda4 454 3263 22571325 f Win95 Ext\u0026amp;#39;d (LBA) /dev/hda5 454 1236 6289416 83 Linux /dev/hda6 1237 1497 2096451 83 Linux /dev/hda7 1498 1758 2096451 83 Linux /dev/hda8 1759 2019 2096451 83 Linux /dev/hda9 2020 2280 2096451 83 Linux /dev/hda10 2281 3263 7895916 83 Linux Disk /dev/hdb: 26.8 GB, 26843545600 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3263 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk /dev/hdb doesn\u0026amp;#39;t contain a valid partition table [root@XXXXXX root]# lvscan lvscan -- ACTIVE \u0026amp;#34;/dev/OracleVG/lvol1\u0026amp;#34; [10 GB] lvscan -- ACTIVE \u0026amp;#34;/dev/OracleVG/lvol2\u0026amp;#34; [5 GB] lvscan -- 2 logical volumes with 15 GB total in 1 volume group lvscan -- 2 active logical volumes Fired Up VMware Converter version 4.0 Beta and started the import as if the machine was a powered on physical machine\nSource info\nDestination info\nAnd when we get to the options you as you can see below the Data to copy is missing a drive\nWe continue with process of the import. The way the new converter works with a live Linux machine - it uses a helper VM. What it does is, it creates a VM on your","date":"Jan 27, 2009","href":"/2009/01/converting-linux-virtual-machine-with.html","summary":"I was entrusted with the task to try and migrate a VM from Xen 3.2 to ESX. Well you would think that is a trivial task - it should be. But let us not forget that we are talking here about version 3.2, which is two generations back from the current Citrix Xensource which is in use today. After successfully migrating it I would like to share with you the procedure. This was done on a Xen Guest VM runnning Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 3 (Taroon Update 7) Disk Layout was two disks, hda and hdb. The second disk was configured as part of a an Logical Volume as you can see below","tags":["Virtualization","Administration","VMware","ESX","Converter"],"title":"Converting a Linux Virtual Machine With an LVM"},{"content":"A potential client (hopefully will be a major client in the future) came to me with a requirement to consider ESX3i as their next platform for a stand-alone lab (x30). The major setback at the moment was the ability to easily export VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s from one Lab to another. They needed to exprt the image off of host relatively often. Now why they were not using ESX in the first place and why they are continuing not to do so, and why they would not go for an enterprise solution, that is a whole different story, which I will not get into. And neither why ESX does not really compare to Xensource.\nThey are using Citrix Xensource 3.2 - which is a quick Right-click -\u0026amp;gt; Export \u0026amp;hellip; Choose your location -\u0026amp;gt; Save.\nSince each VM is something like 40gb in size, this can be a very time consuming process.\nSo they started out by trying with thick disks (40GB) and to transfer that kind of a disk over the network can take mmmmm\u0026amp;hellip;. quite a while..\nNot acceptable!\nThey went for Thin-disks (yes - I know that it sucks performance-wise..). Well when we created the disks it showed the size of 40GB on the VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s settings, when ls -la on the Console (yeah yeah not supported - I know..) but when looking at it through the Datastore Browser - lo and behold - 8GB in size, exactly what we were expecting.\nSo we tried to move the VM off of the Host, with the Virtual Infrastructure Client GUI, with WinSCP, with ssh, with FastSCP, we all go the same results (as was expected), as soon as the files was exported off, it grew to 40GB in size, and therefore took too long to export the VM.\nAgain Not acceptable!\nSo what was left, and I have Edward again here to thank for reminding me, the export feature.\nAha!!\nIn the VIC, when the machine is powered off, when you select your VM and then from the top Menu, File -\u0026amp;gt; Virtual Appliance -\u0026amp;gt; Export, you have the option to Export the VM out to any location accessible from your computer. Me be the skeptic I am, I thought that it would not make","date":"Jan 23, 2009","href":"/2009/01/exporting-virual-machines-to-another.html","summary":"A potential client (hopefully will be a major client in the future) came to me with a requirement to consider ESX3i as their next platform for a stand-alone lab (x30). The major setback at the moment was the ability to easily export VM\u0026rsquo;s from one Lab to another. They needed to exprt the image off of host relatively often. Now why they were not using ESX in the first place and why they are continuing not to do so, and why they would not go for an enterprise solution, that is a whole different story, which I will not get into. And neither why ESX does not really compare to Xensource.","tags":["ESX3i","Appliances","Whitebox","ESX"],"title":"Exporting Virtual Machines to Another Computer"},{"content":"So I finally got around to installing a box for myself to play around with at work.\nOf course I do not want a noisy server running under my desk (I am sure that my co-workers in the room would not be too happy with it either..) so I had to go for something quieter..\nLo and Behold my new Whitebox!!\nHP DC 7800 Desktop with 8gb RAM 250gb HD Sata drive, running ESX3i and as quiet as a kitten.\nPrice-wise:\nHP Dc7800 DC E6550 - $630 4x2gb Kingston KVR800D2N5 - $176 Intel Pro 1000/MT - $30 (that is because the on-board Intel NIC refused to work!) 250GB HD - $60 Total for the Whitebox $900 (But in all honesty, since I work as part of the IT group, the only thing that was actually purchased was the Desktop, all other hardware was provided through our department)\nI have already put up 3 machines on it, two that I work with daily (1 Ubuntu, 1 Windows 2003 Server) and the 3rd one is a test for Windows server 2008 R2 Beta which I am trying out.\nThanks to Eric Sloof for the inspiration for the post. (did not come out as cheap as his though..)\n","date":"Jan 18, 2009","href":"/2009/01/my-new-esx-whitebox.html","summary":"So I finally got around to installing a box for myself to play around with at work.\nOf course I do not want a noisy server running under my desk (I am sure that my co-workers in the room would not be too happy with it either..) so I had to go for something quieter..\nLo and Behold my new Whitebox!!\nHP DC 7800 Desktop with 8gb RAM 250gb HD Sata drive, running ESX3i and as quiet as a kitten.","tags":["ESX3i","Miscellaneous","Whitebox","VMware","ESX"],"title":"My New ESX3i Whitebox"},{"content":"It is finally out.\nThe biggest addition to this Beta is the fact that it works with ESX3i.\nGet it here\n","date":"Jan 17, 2009","href":"/2009/01/veeam-fastscp-30-for-esxesxi-public.html","summary":"It is finally out.\nThe biggest addition to this Beta is the fact that it works with ESX3i.\nGet it here","tags":["Virtualization","ESX3i","VMware","ESX"],"title":"Veeam FastSCP 3.0 for ESX/ESXi Public Beta"},{"content":"Due to unforseen technical difficulties (Talkshoe messed up I guess) the roundtable was lots of fun but not audio.\nWill see you all in a week!!\nChat was fun though\u0026amp;hellip;\nWhoa!! - Hold on - it happened in the end started only 35 minutes late.\nSo we talked a bit about Exchange on VMware - but this was just a small teaser for the proper thing next week.\nThanks John for working to get it going..\n","date":"Jan 14, 2009","href":"/2009/01/roundtable-was-no-go-tonight.html","summary":"Due to unforseen technical difficulties (Talkshoe messed up I guess) the roundtable was lots of fun but not audio.\nWill see you all in a week!!\nChat was fun though\u0026hellip;\nWhoa!! - Hold on - it happened in the end started only 35 minutes late.\nSo we talked a bit about Exchange on VMware - but this was just a small teaser for the proper thing next week.\nThanks John for working to get it going..","tags":["Podcast","Roundtable"],"title":"RoundTable was a No-Go Tonight - Hold on it Happened in the End"},{"content":"I came across something really weird today.\nVmware have lots of community forums, and while trying to make some order in the alerts I receive from the forums, I noticed that there are two communities that deal with the same thing, but are in different places, with different content.\nand this one\nNow I asked the group of Virtual folks on Twitter and the answers I have received so far is:\nOne is vCenter and the other is vCenter Server Different Levels in the VMware Communities But seriously folks.. Why have two different forums with almost the same content, we actually talked about this topic on the Communities Roundtable Podcast #27, so until then I am going to have to continue receiving alerts from both locations till VMware gets their act sorted out.\nEdit:\nThe answer I got from John Troyer: @maishsk First URL is vCenter (Server), 2nd has no threads, is *parent* category for management tools (look at upper right for children)\nMakes sense, but it is still confusing ??????????\n","date":"Jan 12, 2009","href":"/2009/01/why-are-there-two-vmware-vmtn_12.html","summary":"I came across something really weird today.\nVmware have lots of community forums, and while trying to make some order in the alerts I receive from the forums, I noticed that there are two communities that deal with the same thing, but are in different places, with different content.\nand this one\nNow I asked the group of Virtual folks on Twitter and the answers I have received so far is:","tags":["Miscellaneous","Administration","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"Why Are There two VMware VMTN Communities With the Same Name"},{"content":"That was actually meant to be highly sarcastic, it seems that the folks in Microsoft thought this would be a good idea (acutally it would be very good - if it would work properly..)\nSo you can control vCenter with SCVMM but it seems that when you want to remove it, typically like microsoft does, it leaves a lot of \u0026amp;ldquo;leftovers\u0026amp;rdquo; behind. So I personally would like to have my environment back the way it was before Microsoft started to play with and Eric Grey posted on his blog what is left over when you remove SCVMM. He even went as far as to provide a Powershell script that will remove all the muck for you.\nThanks Eric!!!\n","date":"Jan 6, 2009","href":"/2009/01/so-how-are-you-all-doing-with-scvmm.html","summary":"That was actually meant to be highly sarcastic, it seems that the folks in Microsoft thought this would be a good idea (acutally it would be very good - if it would work properly..)\nSo you can control vCenter with SCVMM but it seems that when you want to remove it, typically like microsoft does, it leaves a lot of \u0026ldquo;leftovers\u0026rdquo; behind. So I personally would like to have my environment back the way it was before Microsoft started to play with and Eric Grey posted on his blog what is left over when you remove SCVMM. He even went as far as to provide a Powershell script that will remove all the muck for you.","tags":["Microsoft","SCVMM","Scripting","Powershell","Hyper-V","VMware","vCenter"],"title":"So How Are You All Doing with SCVMM Managing vCenter???"},{"content":"Well the Atari part is because of a post on PlanetVM, but seriously though the question is should ESX3i be installed on non-HCL machines? Here are my 2 cents (or agurot in local currency).. Yes and no.. Decisive don\u0026amp;rsquo;t you think?\nYes It gives people the chance to test out what ESX can do. The capabilities, the features, limitations and benefits. It is free, so why not use it. It can run off of a USB stick, so it will run on pretty much anything\u0026amp;hellip; It does work when installing it on all sorts of hardware. I have personally installed it on all kinds of desktop computers HP and IBM. It will increase exposure for VMware and in turn their market share when people learn that the product is the best thing since bread and butter. Because by nature technical people like a challenge, so installing on non-supported hardware, is challenging, and seeing the amount of posts, sites and blogs that are busy with this means that people like the challenge. It makes a wonderful platform for POC, testing or just playing around. If I can install Hyper-V on any hardware I would like, then why not ESX? No IT IS NOT SUPPORTED BY VMWARE!!! - Let me elaborate on this one. ESX abides to a strict HCL. Sometime I personally think that it is too strict, and that is only because of lack sufficient testing on other hardware. But that means that VMware has employees that their job is to sit and install ESX on each platform and see that it works properly. There is a lot of hardware out there, and it changes constantly so the HCL is a game of keeping up with the never ending amount hardware that is released each year.\nEven if you can install it on your old ZX Spectrum , does not mean that you should. I mean the software was meant to perform at a certain level. So installing it on something like this - it kind of defeats the purpose.\nMost of the features available do not come with the free product. (write with RCLI [ OK temporarily it does - oops!! ], HA, DRS, VMotion and that kind of Jazz)","date":"Dec 30, 2008","href":"/2008/12/esx3i-enterprise-virtualization-and.html","summary":"Well the Atari part is because of a post on PlanetVM, but seriously though the question is should ESX3i be installed on non-HCL machines? Here are my 2 cents (or agurot in local currency).. Yes and no.. Decisive don\u0026rsquo;t you think?\nYes It gives people the chance to test out what ESX can do. The capabilities, the features, limitations and benefits. It is free, so why not use it. It can run off of a USB stick, so it will run on pretty much anything\u0026hellip; It does work when installing it on all sorts of hardware. I have personally installed it on all kinds of desktop computers HP and IBM. It will increase exposure for VMware and in turn their market share when people learn that the product is the best thing since bread and butter. Because by nature technical people like a challenge, so installing on non-supported hardware, is challenging, and seeing the amount of posts, sites and blogs that are busy with this means that people like the challenge. It makes a wonderful platform for POC, testing or just playing around. If I can install Hyper-V on any hardware I would like, then why not ESX? No IT IS NOT SUPPORTED BY VMWARE!!! - Let me elaborate on this one. ESX abides to a strict HCL. Sometime I personally think that it is too strict, and that is only because of lack sufficient testing on other hardware. But that means that VMware has employees that their job is to sit and install ESX on each platform and see that it works properly. There is a lot of hardware out there, and it changes constantly so the HCL is a game of keeping up with the never ending amount hardware that is released each year.","tags":["Virtualization","ESX3i","VMware","ESX","Troubleshooting"],"title":"ESX3i, Enterprise Virtualization and Should it be Installed on an Atari"},{"content":"Microsoft have published a new book - granted it is on Virtualization - the Microsoft way, but still should be something to go over. Understanding Microsoft Virtualization.\nThis is the book for IT professionals who want to learn more about the latest Microsoft virtualization technologies, including Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, and Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. The book also examines other virtualization-enabling technologies from Microsoft including Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services, Roaming User Profiles, Folder Redirection, and Offline Files.\nDownload here\n","date":"Dec 24, 2008","href":"/2008/12/new-free-ebook.html","summary":"Microsoft have published a new book - granted it is on Virtualization - the Microsoft way, but still should be something to go over. Understanding Microsoft Virtualization.\nThis is the book for IT professionals who want to learn more about the latest Microsoft virtualization technologies, including Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, and Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. The book also examines other virtualization-enabling technologies from Microsoft including Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services, Roaming User Profiles, Folder Redirection, and Offline Files.","tags":["Microsoft","Server","Virtualization","Hyper-V","Windows"],"title":"A new free Ebook"},{"content":"So the folks at Microsoft have been busy, just in time for Christmas and the Holidays. Well you know that is the advantage of living in Israel (and being Jewish\u0026amp;hellip;) - we don\u0026amp;rsquo;t celebrate Christmas - we celebrate Chanukah (which is not directly related to the Gregorian calendar) so business is as usual here\u0026amp;hellip;\nSelected New and Updated Features in Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3 (Please refer to Release Notes and Help topics for more details)\nPowerShell Remoting Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) 63 New Cmdlets # Modules Script Debugging # Advanced Functions PowerShell Class API You can get it here.\n","date":"Dec 24, 2008","href":"/2008/12/community-technology-preview-3-ctp3-of.html","summary":"So the folks at Microsoft have been busy, just in time for Christmas and the Holidays. Well you know that is the advantage of living in Israel (and being Jewish\u0026hellip;) - we don\u0026rsquo;t celebrate Christmas - we celebrate Chanukah (which is not directly related to the Gregorian calendar) so business is as usual here\u0026hellip;\nSelected New and Updated Features in Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3 (Please refer to Release Notes and Help topics for more details)","tags":["Microsoft","Scripting","Powershell","Windows","Administration"],"title":"Community Technology Preview-3 (CTP3) of Windows PowerShell V2"},{"content":"Rodney Haywood has compiled a post of what happened over the last year in the VMware / Virtualization world. It gives a pretty good picture of what has been going on - milestones mainly as to what has been introduced in the Virtual world. There is a lot to absorb. I sometimes wonder - if I only had another 4-6 hours in my day - then I would manage to maintain control of all the information that flies around the technological world - let alone absorb and use/try some of the stuff. Man .. That is one of the things for a new year resolution.\n","date":"Dec 17, 2008","href":"/2008/12/recap-of-what-happened-throughout-year.html","summary":"Rodney Haywood has compiled a post of what happened over the last year in the VMware / Virtualization world. It gives a pretty good picture of what has been going on - milestones mainly as to what has been introduced in the Virtual world. There is a lot to absorb. I sometimes wonder - if I only had another 4-6 hours in my day - then I would manage to maintain control of all the information that flies around the technological world - let alone absorb and use/try some of the stuff. Man .. That is one of the things for a new year resolution.","tags":["Microsoft","Virtualization","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"A Recap of What Happened Throughout the Year"},{"content":"Do you all know how one of the biggest headaches you have is changing all the service accounts and administrative passwords on a regular basis? Well I did that this week.\nThis entailed changing passwords on almost 10 different accounts, local administrator passwords on over 100 servers, Local services, and tasks running under these accounts.\nIt wasn\u0026amp;rsquo;t so bad though the only real headache is the changing of the local passwords on the servers, the services and the tasks.\nHere is how I changed the service credentials (rename the file extensions to .ps1)\nchangeservicecreds.txt\nChange Admin Password on remote computers\nchangeadminpasswd.txt\nTasks - I have not found a decent script yet to perform this - when I do I will let you all know.\nAnd of course dont forget to run Eventcombt to check that you have not missed anywhere (or naturally there are places that you never knew about in the first place :) ) to catch all those incorrect loin attempts.\nHave a good one - it is about time I went to sleep.\n","date":"Dec 17, 2008","href":"/2008/12/time-to-change-passwords-again.html","summary":"Do you all know how one of the biggest headaches you have is changing all the service accounts and administrative passwords on a regular basis? Well I did that this week.\nThis entailed changing passwords on almost 10 different accounts, local administrator passwords on over 100 servers, Local services, and tasks running under these accounts.\nIt wasn\u0026rsquo;t so bad though the only real headache is the changing of the local passwords on the servers, the services and the tasks.","tags":["Active Directory","Microsoft","Server","Scripting","Powershell","Windows","Administration"],"title":"Time to Change the Passwords Again..."},{"content":"Ahh\u0026amp;hellip;.. Come On!!!!!!!!!\nVMware vs Hyper-V comparison.\nJason and Scott have said more than enough on the matter.\nPeople should get their facts straight!!!!\n","date":"Dec 15, 2008","href":"/2008/12/comparisons-comparisons.html","summary":"Ahh\u0026hellip;.. Come On!!!!!!!!!\nVMware vs Hyper-V comparison.\nJason and Scott have said more than enough on the matter.\nPeople should get their facts straight!!!!","tags":["Microsoft","Server","Virtualization","ESX3i","Hyper-V","Windows","VMware","ESX"],"title":"Comparisons... Comparisons...."},{"content":"EWeek posted their Top 5 Virtual appliances. They are all good applications, but all of them are products that cost moent and cost a lot. So I thought about how about compiling a list of my own most used Appliances (in no particular order) from the Virtual Appliance Marketplace\nJanus VM Ultimate Deployment Appliance v1.4 Openfiler Damn Small Linux If I come up with some more, I will let you know.\n","date":"Dec 15, 2008","href":"/2008/12/my-top-virtual-appliances.html","summary":"EWeek posted their Top 5 Virtual appliances. They are all good applications, but all of them are products that cost moent and cost a lot. So I thought about how about compiling a list of my own most used Appliances (in no particular order) from the Virtual Appliance Marketplace\nJanus VM Ultimate Deployment Appliance v1.4 Openfiler Damn Small Linux If I come up with some more, I will let you know.","tags":["Virtualization","Appliances","ESX"],"title":"My Top Virtual Appliances"},{"content":"So some of my friends in NL had their annual event yesterday, the Dutch VMUG 2008. But this gets me thinking. What is the purpose of a VMUG? Well this was taken from the Vmware web site:\nThe VMware User Group (VMUG) program is designed to encourage and support communities of VMware users who want to hold regular meetings in their local area. The purpose of these gatherings is to provide a forum in which VMware users can share best practices and expertise, and VMware can in turn obtain feedback from the user community.\nWe actually only started a Local VMUG in Israel (led by Ben Hagai) and we just had our second meeting recently last week. The idea of having a small community of people who all use the same technology, and come across similar problems throughout their day and sharing that knowledge - that is what I would like to see in a VMUG. An intimate group of 30-50 people, meeting once every 3-4 months for a morning to discuss technology, best practices, maybe get a technology update, listen to a technical lecture and things like that. To me having an event like the one titled in this post, seems to defeat the purpose. Don\u0026amp;rsquo;t get me wrong, I am sure it is beneficial, interesting, and highly successful. I mean there were over 600 people who registered and participated in the event. But with amount of people I do not see how you can keep this an intimate group and therefore how this can be a VMUG??\n","date":"Dec 13, 2008","href":"/2008/12/dutch-vmug-2008.html","summary":"So some of my friends in NL had their annual event yesterday, the Dutch VMUG 2008. But this gets me thinking. What is the purpose of a VMUG? Well this was taken from the Vmware web site:\nThe VMware User Group (VMUG) program is designed to encourage and support communities of VMware users who want to hold regular meetings in their local area. The purpose of these gatherings is to provide a forum in which VMware users can share best practices and expertise, and VMware can in turn obtain feedback from the user community.","tags":["VMUG","Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Dutch VMUG 2008"},{"content":"So yesterday VMware released a new application online that allows you to search for your hardware to see if it is supported with ESX systems\nWe got this one from John Troyer (and thanks to Duncan for letting us know).\nBut\u0026amp;hellip;\nThe the small print at the bottom says:\nTHE HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY GUIDE IS UPDATED FROM TIME TO TIME WITHOUT NOTICE. FOR THE LATEST HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY GUIDE, PLEASE GO TO THE FOLLOWING LINK\nSo I guess I will still be downloading/accessing the HCL PDF every time I buy a new server.\nIt is a great move in the right direction though!!\n","date":"Dec 11, 2008","href":"/2008/12/new-online-hardware-compatibility-guide.html","summary":"So yesterday VMware released a new application online that allows you to search for your hardware to see if it is supported with ESX systems\nWe got this one from John Troyer (and thanks to Duncan for letting us know).\nBut\u0026hellip;\nThe the small print at the bottom says:\nTHE HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY GUIDE IS UPDATED FROM TIME TO TIME WITHOUT NOTICE. FOR THE LATEST HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY GUIDE, PLEASE GO TO THE FOLLOWING LINK","tags":["Server","VMware","ESX"],"title":"The New online hardware Compatibility guide for Vmware"},{"content":"Well if you actually have time to read things which actually are printed on paper that is..\nEdward L. Haletky - a VMware Communities User Moderator, has put a list together on the Virtualization Wiki, that everyone and anyone who is serious about virtualization should read.\nThe list is here. Happy reading!!!\n","date":"Dec 11, 2008","href":"/2008/12/which-books-should-every-vi-admin-read.html","summary":"Well if you actually have time to read things which actually are printed on paper that is..\nEdward L. Haletky - a VMware Communities User Moderator, has put a list together on the Virtualization Wiki, that everyone and anyone who is serious about virtualization should read.\nThe list is here. Happy reading!!!","tags":["Virtualization","VMware","ESX"],"title":"Which Books Should Every VI Admin Read?"},{"content":"Well I have spent the past two days with a Microsoft PFE (Premier Field Engineer) who has been doing a quick health check for issues in our domain.\nThis does not replace an Active Directory Risk Assessment Process (ADRAP) - but was a highly informative and educating session.\nADRAP Objectives Perform a detailed analysis of an organization‘s Active Directory environment. Review Active Directory configuration. Improve availability by eliminating single points of failure and by verifying that fault tolerant designs are in place. Improve Active Directory performance. Reduce service outages and subsequent downtime by identifying current or imminent issues. Impart knowledge and skills to administer, manage, and troubleshoot Active Directory. Provide tools and methodologies that will enable customers to identify existing problems. So I have spent the past two days deep-diving into my forest.\nDNS (nltest, dcdiag, dfsutil) DNS architecture improvements Site Links redesign Schema (Active Directory Schema Analyzer) Replication (Sonar, Ultrasound) Advanced Active Directory Troubleshooting Group Policy (gpotool, AGPM) It was a fun two days, tons of stuff I have learned, and points taken for fixing and improvement. It is always a pleasure to work with such knowledgeable people - and our PFE is highly qualified and skilled.\n","date":"Dec 9, 2008","href":"/2008/12/active-directory-health-check.html","summary":"Well I have spent the past two days with a Microsoft PFE (Premier Field Engineer) who has been doing a quick health check for issues in our domain.\nThis does not replace an Active Directory Risk Assessment Process (ADRAP) - but was a highly informative and educating session.\nADRAP Objectives Perform a detailed analysis of an organization‘s Active Directory environment. Review Active Directory configuration. Improve availability by eliminating single points of failure and by verifying that fault tolerant designs are in place. Improve Active Directory performance. Reduce service outages and subsequent downtime by identifying current or imminent issues. Impart knowledge and skills to administer, manage, and troubleshoot Active Directory. Provide tools and methodologies that will enable customers to identify existing problems. So I have spent the past two days deep-diving into my forest.","tags":["Active Directory","Microsoft","Server","Windows","Troubleshooting"],"title":"Active Directory Health Check"},{"content":"I would have so much more time to blog here.\nThis is not what a VCP earns in Israel\u0026amp;hellip;.. :) And I actually have both certifications\u0026amp;hellip;.\n","date":"Dec 4, 2008","href":"/2008/12/now-if-only-i-would-earn-these-numbers.html","summary":"I would have so much more time to blog here.\nThis is not what a VCP earns in Israel\u0026hellip;.. :) And I actually have both certifications\u0026hellip;.","tags":["Miscellaneous","VMware"],"title":"Now if Only I Would Earn These Numbers..."},{"content":"So what did we have:\nClient story from Siemens PLM software Well I got there late (damn so much traffic that I am not used to..) but I have seen the presentation before, so there was nothing new to tell about it.\nVirtual Desktop Technical Deep Dive (VMware View - it is now called) VDI was a good product, but this.. this looks like \u0026amp;hellip; wow.. I will have to get hold of an evaluation copy to try it out. The best feature in my opinion will (actually more than one) the linked clones and offline copies.\nLinked clones - this has been available in Lab Manager for quite a while and now it has come View. What will this mean. For example - if you have 10 VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s all with a 10 GB Hard disk, till now that would have taken up 100GB space on you storage. Now true with de-dupe, this can be reduced up to savings of 80% in some cases, you will have one Master image that will be 10GB and each of the other 9 linked clones only take up 50-100MB for each VM so instead of going up 100GB - we are talking about 11GB!! Now that is a huge savings on precious and expensive storage space\u0026amp;hellip;\n\u0026amp;ldquo;Offline VDI\u0026amp;rdquo; - Now the problem with VDI always has been - I do not have access to my VM if I am not connected to the network. So I cannot continue my work on the train/plane/bus. That was a real PITA. But - and yes I know this is experimental only \u0026amp;hellip;. - but to take my machine offline with me before I go home, continue the work on it while I am out of the office - as they say in Yiddish \u0026amp;ldquo;A mechaye\u0026amp;rdquo; which means a lifesaver!! I cannot wait for a chance to try this one out.\nI am sure that View is going to be a huge topic for the upcoming weeks and months.\nWe will have to wait and see.\n","date":"Dec 4, 2008","href":"/2008/12/report-from-israel-vmug.html","summary":"So what did we have:\nClient story from Siemens PLM software Well I got there late (damn so much traffic that I am not used to..) but I have seen the presentation before, so there was nothing new to tell about it.\nVirtual Desktop Technical Deep Dive (VMware View - it is now called) VDI was a good product, but this.. this looks like \u0026hellip; wow.. I will have to get hold of an evaluation copy to try it out. The best feature in my opinion will (actually more than one) the linked clones and offline copies.","tags":["VMware","ESX","vmug"],"title":"Report from Israel VMUG"},{"content":"On the schedule:\nVMware Virtual Desktop Technical Deep Dive EMC Recover Point Product announcements and upcoming technologies (from VMworld 2008) It should be a good morning \u0026amp;hellip;\n","date":"Nov 30, 2008","href":"/2008/11/israeli-vmug-will-take-place-on.html","summary":"On the schedule:\nVMware Virtual Desktop Technical Deep Dive EMC Recover Point Product announcements and upcoming technologies (from VMworld 2008) It should be a good morning \u0026hellip;","tags":["Server","VMUG","VMware","ESX"],"title":"Israeli VMUG Will Take Place on Wednesday Dec. 3rd"},{"content":"I wanted share with you a bit of what is happening with a process on how we can save money with virtualization.\nAbout 3 years ago or more, Virtualization was not the mainstream for most companies, personally, my current employer did not really get into it until about 18 months ago. So\u0026amp;hellip; we are doing our yearly review on what hardware warranty will end and at the moment it looks like that I will have over 60 physical servers that will need to be replaced or have a maintenance contract applied to them for the next year.\nA bit of Math:\nAverage server (1QC/2GB RAM/2x73GB 15,000 SAS HD) - US$3,500\nA maintenance contract (next business day [NBD]) for a year for the above mentioned 60 servers - $450 per server.\nSo these are the options as I see them\u0026amp;hellip;\nReplace all Physical servers with new ones - US$210,000 Renew Maintenance contracts for all servers - US$27,000 (per year) Migrate the machines to Virtual machines:\n2 * ESX Hosts - US$10,000\n2 * ESX Enterprise Licenses - US$17,000\n1 TB Central Storage - $3,000 So I guess you can see where I am going with this.. :)\nNo one in management is going to sign off on option #1.\nI think you can see why option #3 is better than option #2. The cost of option #2 over 3 years - US$81,000. Option 2 - $US30,000 (including maintenance and support on VMware software for the period of 3 years).\nNow the only thing I need to convince the brass about is that all these servers should not be migrated \u0026amp;ldquo;as-is\u0026amp;rdquo; to Virtual Machines, but re-installed to a new OS just as they would do if it would be migrated to new hardware. I really and truly do not want to drag over Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 Server Operating Systems and continue to support them..\nBut that is a whole different ballgame, and for another post\u0026amp;hellip;.\n","date":"Nov 30, 2008","href":"/2008/11/so-what-to-do-with-60-or-so-servers.html","summary":"I wanted share with you a bit of what is happening with a process on how we can save money with virtualization.\nAbout 3 years ago or more, Virtualization was not the mainstream for most companies, personally, my current employer did not really get into it until about 18 months ago. So\u0026hellip; we are doing our yearly review on what hardware warranty will end and at the moment it looks like that I will have over 60 physical servers that will need to be replaced or have a maintenance contract applied to them for the next year.","tags":["Microsoft","Server","VMware","ESX"],"title":"So what to do with 60 or so servers that are falling out their warranty period"},{"content":"That small drop-down list on the IP Address/Name fiels can get a bit cluttered after you start working with a large amount of servers and start a lot of testing. So how do I clear the list you may ask?\nHKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\VMware\\VMware Infrastructure Client\\Preferences\nRemove the entries you want from the list and hey presto!!!\nThanks for the info Duncan\n","date":"Nov 22, 2008","href":"/2008/11/clearing-connection-list-of-your-vi.html","summary":"That small drop-down list on the IP Address/Name fiels can get a bit cluttered after you start working with a large amount of servers and start a lot of testing. So how do I clear the list you may ask?\nHKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\VMware\\VMware Infrastructure Client\\Preferences\nRemove the entries you want from the list and hey presto!!!\nThanks for the info Duncan","tags":["ESX3i","VMware","ESX"],"title":"Clearing the Connection List of your VI client"},{"content":"I wanted to do a bit of housekeeping for all the VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s floating around.\nI got to the state that there are machines that I do not know who they belong to, when they were installed and who is the responsible party in case the **** hits the fan.\nThat is where the VI toolkit comes to the rescue !!\nWhat I did was added to addiditonal fields for each machine.\nOwner Date installed This was pretty each to do both:\nCreate the field.\nGet-cluster \u0026amp;lt;Clustername\u0026amp;gt;| get-vm | New-CustomField -name Owner Get-cluster \u0026amp;lt;Clustername\u0026amp;gt;| get-vm | New-CustomField -name \u0026amp;#34;Date installed\u0026amp;#34; Now to populate the field you would use.\nget-vm \u0026amp;lt;VM Name\u0026amp;gt;| Set-CustomField -name Owner -value \u0026amp;quot;Whatever you want\u0026amp;quot;\nNow say you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t know which property it is you would like to update, well that you can get from running this command:\nPS C:\\Program Files\\VMware\\Infrastructure\\VIToolkitForWindows\u0026amp;gt; get-vm \u0026amp;lt;VM Name\u0026amp;gt;| Get-View Capability : VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineCapability Config : VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigInfo Layout : VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineFileLayout EnvironmentBrowser : VMware.Vim.ManagedObjectReference ResourcePool : VMware.Vim.ManagedObjectReference ResourceConfig : VMware.Vim.ResourceConfigSpec Runtime : VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineRuntimeInfo Guest : VMware.Vim.GuestInfo Summary : VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineSummary Datastore : {VMware.Vim.ManagedObjectReference} Network : {VMware.Vim.ManagedObjectReference} Snapshot : GuestHeartbeatStatus : green Parent : VMware.Vim.ManagedObjectReference CustomValue : {10} OverallStatus : green ConfigStatus : green ConfigIssue : {} EffectiveRole : {-1} Permission : {} Name : \u0026amp;lt;VM Name\u0026amp;gt; DisabledMethod : {Destroy_Task, UnregisterVM, RevertToCurrentSnapshot_Task, RemoveAllSnapshots_Task...} RecentTask : {} DeclaredAlarmState : {alarm-15.vm-3208, alarm-4.vm-3208, alarm-5.vm-3208} TriggeredAlarmState : {} Value : {10} AvailableField : {Date Installed, Owner} MoRef : VMware.Vim.ManagedObjectReference Client :","date":"Nov 16, 2008","href":"/2008/11/changing-custom-notes-on-virtual.html","summary":"I wanted to do a bit of housekeeping for all the VM\u0026rsquo;s floating around.\nI got to the state that there are machines that I do not know who they belong to, when they were installed and who is the responsible party in case the **** hits the fan.\nThat is where the VI toolkit comes to the rescue !!\nWhat I did was added to addiditonal fields for each machine.","tags":["Powershell","VMware","ESX","VI Toolkit"],"title":"Changing Custom Notes on Virtual Machines"},{"content":"Well we all know that OFFICIALLY VMware does not support any kind command that are running locally on the host of ESX3i. Of course there is a way to enable SSH to an ESX3i box But the question is how to run these commands?? Well you can do a lot.. vim-cmd is the command you are looking for:\nFew examples: vim-cmd hostsvc/datastore/listsummary - will give you a list of all the datastores on the host (local and remote)\n(vim.Datastore.Summary) [ (vim.Datastore.Summary) { dynamicType = \u0026amp;lt;unset\u0026amp;gt;, datastore = \u0026amp;#39;vim.Datastore:490ebeb2-4c2bfcc6-0a2e-0011258e8214\u0026amp;#39;, name = \u0026amp;#34;Local-esx3-lab\u0026amp;#34;, url = \u0026amp;#34;/vmfs/volumes/490ebeb2-4c2bfcc6-0a2e-0011258e8214\u0026amp;#34;, capacity = 31138512896, freeSpace = 30683430912, accessible = true, multipleHostAccess = \u0026amp;lt;unset\u0026amp;gt;, type = \u0026amp;#34;VMFS\u0026amp;#34;, }, (vim.Datastore.Summary) { dynamicType = \u0026amp;lt;unset\u0026amp;gt;, datastore = \u0026amp;#39;vim.Datastore:lab-of1:/mnt/storage/nfs/ESX\u0026amp;#39;, name = \u0026amp;#34;lab-of1\u0026amp;#34;, url = \u0026amp;#34;/vmfs/volumes/9fb378d1-bf803d06\u0026amp;#34;, capacity = 315019616256, freeSpace = 307618623488, accessible = true, multipleHostAccess = \u0026amp;lt;unset\u0026amp;gt;, type = \u0026amp;#34;NFS\u0026amp;#34;, } ] vim-cmd hostsvc/datastore/nascreate - Will add a new NFS share.\nvim-cmd hostsvc/net/info - will give you a list of all the network settings on the host\n(vim.host.PortGroup) { dynamicType = \u0026amp;lt;unset\u0026amp;gt;, key = \u0026amp;#34;key-vim.host.PortGroup-LAB Only-Network\u0026amp;#34;, vswitch = \u0026amp;lt;vim.host.VirtualSwitch:key-vim.host.VirtualSwitch-vSwitch1\u0026amp;gt;, computedPolicy = (vim.host.NetworkPolicy) { dynamicType = \u0026amp;lt;unset\u0026amp;gt;, security = (vim.host.NetworkPolicy.SecurityPolicy) { dynamicType = \u0026amp;lt;unset\u0026amp;gt;, allowPromiscuous = false, macChanges = true, forgedTransmits = true, }, nicTeaming = (vim.host.NetworkPolicy.NicTeamingPolicy) { dynamicType = \u0026amp;lt;unset\u0026amp;gt;, policy = \u0026amp;#34;loadbalance_srcid\u0026amp;#34;, reversePolicy = true, notifySwitches = true, rollingOrder = false, failureCriteria = (vim.host.NetworkPolicy.NicFailureCriteria) { dynamicType = \u0026amp;lt;unset\u0026amp;gt;, checkSpeed =","date":"Nov 14, 2008","href":"/2008/11/esx3i-console-commands.html","summary":"Well we all know that OFFICIALLY VMware does not support any kind command that are running locally on the host of ESX3i. Of course there is a way to enable SSH to an ESX3i box But the question is how to run these commands?? Well you can do a lot.. vim-cmd is the command you are looking for:\nFew examples: vim-cmd hostsvc/datastore/listsummary - will give you a list of all the datastores on the host (local and remote)","tags":["ESX3i","VMware","ESX"],"title":"ESX3i - Console Commands"},{"content":"Personally I think it was mostly a waste of time. Nothing new was said - most of the talk was about VDI (not that I have anything against it) but there was no OOMPH!! in it.\nHope the next Israeli VMUG will be better.\n","date":"Nov 12, 2008","href":"/2008/11/virtualization08-in-israel-nov-12-2008_12.html","summary":"Personally I think it was mostly a waste of time. Nothing new was said - most of the talk was about VDI (not that I have anything against it) but there was no OOMPH!! in it.\nHope the next Israeli VMUG will be better.","tags":["Virtualization"],"title":"VIRTUALIZATION08 in Israel - Nov. 12 2008 - Part II"},{"content":"So every now and again you come across something that makes you laugh - today was one of those days.\nIt seems that someone in VMware has a good sense of humor. I found this line in a log file of one of my VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s today.\n11 16:07:40.032: vmx| VMX has left the building: 0.\n","date":"Nov 11, 2008","href":"/2008/11/and-now-for-something-funny.html","summary":"So every now and again you come across something that makes you laugh - today was one of those days.\nIt seems that someone in VMware has a good sense of humor. I found this line in a log file of one of my VM\u0026rsquo;s today.\n11 16:07:40.032: vmx| VMX has left the building: 0.","tags":["VMware","ESX"],"title":"And Now for Something Funny"},{"content":"Well a colleague of mine had an issue today. A physical server running VMware server with 2 vm\u0026amp;rsquo;s on it. One VM\u0026amp;rsquo;s disk \u0026amp;ldquo;exploded\u0026amp;rdquo; and we were left with 0% (yep that is right) free space on the HD of the physical server.\nNow if this was a small VM then that would not be a problem but the vmdk was 120 GB in size (even though inside the VM it was only using 40GB). So to remove the file from the server would have taken too long.\nSolving the problem was one of two options:\nRun VMware converter and therefore resize the disk. Hook up to the the Physical server via a share from a machine running VMware workstation. We chose the latter (which was a bit more difficult to accomplish because the physical server was running Linux). Installed Samba and configured a share on the physical server. Opened the VM from a workstation. Added an additional HD (vmdk) with 50gb of space, and ghosted Disk 0 to Disk 1.\nProcess took something like 30 minutes. Booted the machine off the new vmdk. Ran through the tests and deleted the old 120GB vmdk.\nYou gotta love VMware products!!!\n","date":"Aug 29, 2008","href":"/2008/06/vmware-to-rescue-again.html","summary":"Well a colleague of mine had an issue today. A physical server running VMware server with 2 vm\u0026rsquo;s on it. One VM\u0026rsquo;s disk \u0026ldquo;exploded\u0026rdquo; and we were left with 0% (yep that is right) free space on the HD of the physical server.\nNow if this was a small VM then that would not be a problem but the vmdk was 120 GB in size (even though inside the VM it was only using 40GB). So to remove the file from the server would have taken too long.","tags":["VMware","Server","Workstation"],"title":"VMware to the Rescue Again"},{"content":"The Israeli VMUG group has been started. First meeting will be on 25/08/2008.\n","date":"Aug 3, 2008","href":"/2008/08/israeli-vmug.html","summary":"The Israeli VMUG group has been started. First meeting will be on 25/08/2008.","tags":["VMware","ESX"],"title":"Israeli VMUG"},{"content":" ESX3i is going to be free (just one of the places that this was mentioned) Powershell VI toolkit - Man this is better than bread and butter!!! and of course if you think you know what you are doing you could would win an all expenses paid trip to VMWorld 2008 in Las Vegas. ","date":"Jul 24, 2008","href":"/2008/07/so-what-is-going-on-in-virtualization.html","summary":" ESX3i is going to be free (just one of the places that this was mentioned) Powershell VI toolkit - Man this is better than bread and butter!!! and of course if you think you know what you are doing you could would win an all expenses paid trip to VMWorld 2008 in Las Vegas. ","tags":["Powershell","VMware","ESX"],"title":"So what is going on in the Virtualization world"},{"content":"Ok. I was in TechEd 2008 in Eilat, Israel 2 weeks ago. It was highly informational. The new technologies that were presented there (i.e. Server 2008, Hyper-V etc. etc. etc.) are something that is definitely worthwhile looking into.\nAt the moment, what I have \u0026amp;ldquo;on my plate\u0026amp;rdquo; in my day to day job is and upgrade from VI3 to 3.5. That includes all ESX hosts and the virtual center.\nI have successfully installed VMware Server 2.0 Beta 2 on my my home desktop, (Windows XP - which from my knowledge is not really supported) but from what I can see the product will fit very nicely into all other VMware products if they drop the WebUI (which no-one really likes) and go for management through a client.\n","date":"Apr 21, 2008","href":"/2008/04/ok-let-get-going.html","summary":"Ok. I was in TechEd 2008 in Eilat, Israel 2 weeks ago. It was highly informational. The new technologies that were presented there (i.e. Server 2008, Hyper-V etc. etc. etc.) are something that is definitely worthwhile looking into.\nAt the moment, what I have \u0026ldquo;on my plate\u0026rdquo; in my day to day job is and upgrade from VI3 to 3.5. That includes all ESX hosts and the virtual center.\nI have successfully installed VMware Server 2.0 Beta 2 on my my home desktop, (Windows XP - which from my knowledge is not really supported) but from what I can see the product will fit very nicely into all other VMware products if they drop the WebUI (which no-one really likes) and go for management through a client.","tags":["ESX","Microsoft","TechEd","VMware"],"title":"Ok Let's Get Going"},{"content":"","date":"Jan 1, 0001","href":"/pages/search/","summary":"","tags":null,"title":""}]