Fusion-IO Caching Tests…
After some issues with the setup and configuration of the Fusion-IO ioCache cards we picked up, I finally got to dig in and do some basic testing with IOMeter.
To setup the test, I configured a new 20GB VMDK on it's own paravirtualized SCSI Controller. The drive was formatted NTFS in a full/non-quick method as the F:\ drive. The IOMeter test was run on a single worker against the entire F:\ drive. The All-in-one test was selected and run for 20 minutes.
First up, I tested the drive all by itself with no caching enabled:
| IOps: | 1348.69 | Read IOps: | 670.1738 | Write IOps: | 678.5159 |
Next, I tested Volume based caching. I started off by making the following modifications to the Fusion-IO tab within vCenter as follows to add only the F:\ drive to the Volume Caching Filter:
Then I reset the F:\ drive by formatting it again as NTFS in a full/non-quick method. Once the format was complete, I reran the IOMeter test and received these results:
| IOps: | 1486.163 | Read IOps: | 737.5608 | Write IOps: | 748.6018 |
Lastly, I tested the Drive based caching. I went back to the Fusion-IO tab within vCenter and removed the Volume Caching Filter on the F:\ drive and then set the Drive Caching Filter to Drive1 (Drive0 was the drive the OS was installed on, Drive2 was the drive which is attached by FusionIO automatically):
Then I reset the F:\ drive by formatting it again as NTFS in a full/non-quick method. Once the format was complete, I reran the IOMeter test and received these results:
| IOps: | 1509.644 | Read IOps: | 748.7889 | Write IOps: | 760.8555 |
I also managed to grab a shot of the Performance graphs for the disk during the tests via vSphere client: (pardon the lapse between 2PM and 3PM on the graph)
So to review and put the results all on the same table:
| No Caching Enabled | IOps: | 1348.69 | Read IOps: | 670.1738 | Write IOps: | 678.5159 |
| Volume Caching Enabled | IOps: | 1486.163 | Read IOps: | 737.5608 | Write IOps: | 748.6018 |
| Drive Caching Enabled | IOps: | 1509.644 | Read IOps: | 748.7889 | Write IOps: | 760.8555 |
Remember, these are just initial results with nothing but having the card installed, drivers installed, firmware upgraded, ioTurbine installed, and the guest package installed. While some of the results weren't exactly what I was expecting, I'm pretty excited to dig in deeper to see what kind of performance we can gain out of these cards.
Small update...
While this particular blog post is about caching, since that's how these cards will be used in this environment, I couldn't help but go back, mount the Fusion-IO card as VMFS storage, SvMotion the F:\ drive over to the Fusion-IO VMFS datastore and run the test again. So once again, the F:\ drive was formatted as NTFS in a full/non-quick method. Once the format was complete, I reran the IOMeter test and received these results:
| IOps: | 5443.904 | Read IOps: | 2700.201 | Write IOps: | 2743.703 |
RDM Conversion Pain Points…
The latest infrastructure I've inherited is loaded full with RDMs. My first order of business was to get rid of them, especially since we aren't using them for any reason other than a possible performance improvement.
The steps we've been taking is to get rid of them:
- Convert from a physical RDM to a virtual RDM
- Shut down system
- Take note of SCSI information
- Remove and Delete from Disk
- Apply
- Re-add the RDM as a virutal RDM instead
- Perform a Storage Migration from one datastore to any other datastore, specifically move the virtual RDM
- Once complete, check the settings on the VM and verify that the hard disk is listed as "virtual disk"
A couple of the pain points we've run into:
Removing and deleting of the physical RDMs did not work as planned. Roughly 10% of the VMs ran into a problem where the pointer files were not properly removed and therefore the RDMs could not be remapped as virtual RDMs. We could still add a hard disk and point it at the pointer files and it properly added back to the VM. We tried rescanning HBAs, we tried different SCSI controllers, etc.
Finally, we figured out that by going into the datastore and manually deleting the pointer files and then vMotioning the VMs to another ESXi host within the cluster, we could then add a new RDM to those previously used RDMs.
In the case of Storage vMotioning the virtual RDMs to a new datastore, if we SvMotioned the RDM to a Storage DRS datastore cluster it only moved the pointer files. If we went through and checked the "Disable Storage DRS" option and selected an individual VMFS datastore, it did the conversion over to VMDK. Adds an extra step, but still gets the job done.
Only a 100+ more RDMs to go... Good times.
vDR – causing problems…
For those new to vSphere 5's GUI, there's a new column that's been added to the Virtual Machine view by the name of "Needs Consolidation".
This option was put in due to the occasional problem when Snapshots did not delete properly and would leave the delta files remaining in the VM's folder while the Snapshot Manager would show no snapshots existing.
With this option added to the columns, you should also take note of the option within the Snapshot options for each VM which will now allow a user to select the "Consolidate" function
As noticed with the first screenshot, we had a couple systems which were requiring some consolidation to them. So another admin went through and hit the consolidated button and got hit with a "Unable to access file
I still decided to dive into the CLI and check it out. I was stunned...
18 deltas... 18! Regardless of the vmsn file in there, there was no record of there being any snapshots.
In this case, that system probably hasn't even been rebooted 18 times much less been snapshot that many times... Except, vDR (VMware Data Recovery) is setup on it to do daily snaps. So I checked the vDR appliance settings and I found 8 disks too many attached.
After removing all of those extra hard disks, the consolidations would succeed. Note, it took a while, but they did succeed.
Just another reminder of while vDR is a great tool to have on hand, it should definitely not be the one and only method of backup
SRM: vSphere Replicated VMs stuck in a “Sync” status
Here recently I've noticed that there is an occasional time where the VMs I have replicating using the vSphere Replication system are stuck in a "Sync" status for an overly long time.
After pulling the logs, I was able to figure out what was happening... Timeouts, lots of them. The log file vmware-dr.log pulled from the remote site was full of lines like the following: (local is the SRM server, peer is the vCenter server)
2012-04-02T07:35:04.077-04:00 [02784 verbose 'Default'] Timed out reading between HTTP requests. : Read timeout after approximately 50000ms. Closing stream TCPStreamWin32(socket=TCP(fd=2596) local=10.xx.xx.xxx:9085, peer=10.xx.xx.xxx:55039)
2012-04-02T11:54:34.159-04:00 [02744 verbose 'Licensing'] Asset in sync.
2012-04-02T11:58:12.527-04:00 [02868 info 'LocalVC' opID=ac2d1cb] [PCM] Received NULL results from PropertyCollector::WaitForUpdatesEx due to timeout of 900 seconds
2012-04-02T11:58:12.723-04:00 [02860 info 'LocalVC' opID=596971f7] [PCM] Received NULL results from PropertyCollector::WaitForUpdatesEx due to timeout of 900 seconds
After a brief discussion with our network engineers, it was believed that there was no problem with the connection between the local and remote site. So I took a "when in doubt, reboot" approach. I restarted the SRM service on the remote SRM server. No luck. After that, I did a "Restart Guest" on the VRS system at the remote site. After about 5 minutes, the systems started to connect and replicate again.
I've noticed it a lot, and I've heard from other people whom also manage their own SRM deployments that a reboot is a pretty good first step in troubleshooting. So keep that in mind as issues arise and troubleshooting is required.
VMware Update Manager: Error Code 7
After updating from vSphere 4 to vSphere 5 (both hosts and vCenter) in our production environment, I happened to run into a problem with VMware's Update Manager (VUM) and it's ability to update the hosts. When attempting to remediate the host I was being given a message stating: The host returns esxupdate error code: 7. Cannot download VIB. Check the Update Manager log files and esxupdate log files for more details.
So I do as the error code says, and go check out the logs...
vmware-vum-server.log sample of what I saw:
2011-12-08T10:51:17.916-05:00 [02704 warning 'Libs'] SSLVerifyIsEnabled: failed to read registry value. Falling back to default behavior: verification off. LastError = -2146885628
2011-12-08T10:55:54.054-05:00 [02704 error 'Default'] SSLStreamImpl::BIORead (0c594a48) failed: The specified network name is no longer available.
2011-12-08T10:55:54.054-05:00 [02704 error 'Default'] SSLStreamImpl::DoServerHandshake (0c594a48) SSL_accept failed with BIO Error
2011-12-08T10:55:54.054-05:00 [02704 error 'Ufa.HTTPService'] accept failure class Vmacore::Ssl::SSLException(SSL Exception: BIO Error) on stream (null)
2011-12-08T10:55:54.054-05:00 [02704 error 'Ufa.HTTPService'] stream is NULL - no read scheduled
2011-12-08T10:56:49.625-05:00 [03392 error 'PropertyJournal'] [ValidateChange]INVALID operations on path supportedUpdateProduct["embeddedEsx 4.0.0"]: lastOp=ADD, thisOp=ADD - ADD can only follow REMOVE
2011-12-08T10:56:49.625-05:00 [03392 error 'PropertyJournal'] [ValidateChange]INVALID operations on path supportedUpdateProduct["embeddedEsx 4.1.0"]: lastOp=ADD, thisOp=ADD - ADD can only follow REMOVE
2011-12-08T10:56:49.625-05:00 [03392 error 'PropertyJournal'] [ValidateChange]INVALID operations on path supportedUpdateProduct["esx 4.0.0"]: lastOp=ADD, thisOp=ADD - ADD can only follow REMOVE
2011-12-08T10:56:49.625-05:00 [03392 error 'PropertyJournal'] [ValidateChange]INVALID operations on path supportedUpdateProduct["esx 4.1.0"]: lastOp=ADD, thisOp=ADD - ADD can only follow REMOVE
2011-12-08T10:56:50.347-05:00 [03392 error 'PropertyJournal'] [ValidateChange]INVALID operations on path supportedUpdateProduct["embeddedEsx 4.0.0"]: lastOp=ADD, thisOp=ADD - ADD can only follow REMOVE
2011-12-08T10:56:50.347-05:00 [03392 error 'PropertyJournal'] [ValidateChange]INVALID operations on path supportedUpdateProduct["embeddedEsx 4.1.0"]: lastOp=ADD, thisOp=ADD - ADD can only follow REMOVE
2011-12-08T10:56:50.347-05:00 [03392 error 'PropertyJournal'] [ValidateChange]INVALID operations on path supportedUpdateProduct["esx 4.0.0"]: lastOp=ADD, thisOp=ADD - ADD can only follow REMOVE
2011-12-08T10:56:50.347-05:00 [03392 error 'PropertyJournal'] [ValidateChange]INVALID operations on path supportedUpdateProduct["esx 4.1.0"]: lastOp=ADD, thisOp=ADD - ADD can only follow REMOVE
2011-12-08T10:57:34.344-05:00 [01796 warning 'Libs'] SSLVerifyIsEnabled: failed to read registry value. Falling back to default behavior: verification off. LastError = -2146885628
esxupdate.log sample from the host:
2011-12-08T15:57:29Z esxupdate: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = '['/sbin/esxcfg-advcfg', '-q', '-g', '/UserVars/EsximageNetTimeout']', outfile = 'None', returnoutput = 'True', timeout = '0.0'.
2011-12-08T15:57:29Z esxupdate: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = '['/sbin/esxcfg-advcfg', '-q', '-g', '/UserVars/EsximageNetRetries']', outfile = 'None', returnoutput = 'True', timeout = '0.0'.
2011-12-08T15:57:29Z esxupdate: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = '['/sbin/esxcfg-advcfg', '-q', '-g', '/UserVars/EsximageNetRateLimit']', outfile = 'None', returnoutput = 'True', timeout = '0.0'.
2011-12-08T15:57:29Z esxupdate: esxupdate: INFO: ---
Command: scan
Args: ['scan']
Options: {'nosigcheck': None, 'retry': 5, 'loglevel': None, 'cleancache': None, 'viburls': None, 'meta': ['http://*VIRTUALCENTER*:9084/vum/repository/hostupdate/DELL/metadata_1323354549.zip', 'http://*VIRTUALCENTER*:9084/vum/repository/hostupdate/csco/csco-VEM-5.0.0-metadata.zip', 'http://*VIRTUALCENTER*:9084/vum/repository/hostupdate/vmw/vmw-ESXi-5.0.0-metadata.zip'], 'proxyurl': None, 'timeout': 30.0, 'cachesize': None, 'hamode': True, 'maintenancemode': None}
2011-12-08T15:57:29Z esxupdate: BootBankInstaller.pyc: INFO: Unrecognized value "title=Loading VMware ESXi" in boot.cfg
2011-12-08T15:57:30Z esxupdate: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = '['/sbin/bootOption', '-rp']', outfile = 'None', returnoutput = 'True', timeout = '0.0'.
2011-12-08T15:57:30Z esxupdate: downloader: DEBUG: Downloading http://*VIRTUALCENTER*:9084/vum/repository/hostupdate/DELL/metadata_1323354549.zip to /tmp/tmp0HbTco...
2011-12-08T15:57:30Z esxupdate: Metadata.pyc: INFO: Unrecognized file vendor-index.xml in Metadata file
2011-12-08T15:57:30Z esxupdate: downloader: DEBUG: Downloading http://*VIRTUALCENTER*:9084/vum/repository/hostupdate/csco/csco-VEM-5.0.0-metadata.zip to /tmp/tmpBQa1zj...
2011-12-08T15:57:30Z esxupdate: Metadata.pyc: INFO: Unrecognized file vendor-index.xml in Metadata file
2011-12-08T15:57:30Z esxupdate: downloader: DEBUG: Downloading http://*VIRTUALCENTER*:9084/vum/repository/hostupdate/vmw/vmw-ESXi-5.0.0-metadata.zip to /tmp/tmpyQ8Q7O...
2011-12-08T15:57:30Z esxupdate: Metadata.pyc: INFO: Unrecognized file vendor-index.xml in Metadata file
2011-12-08T15:57:30Z esxupdate: BootBankInstaller.pyc: INFO: Unrecognized value "title=Loading VMware ESXi" in boot.cfg
2011-12-08T15:57:30Z esxupdate: HostImage: DEBUG: Live image has been updated but /altbootbank image has not. This means a reboot is not safe.
2011-12-08T15:57:30Z esxupdate: HostImage: DEBUG: Live image has been updated but /altbootbank image has not. This means a reboot is not safe.
2011-12-08T15:57:30Z esxupdate: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = '['/usr/sbin/vsish', '-e', '-p', 'cat', '/hardware/bios/dmiInfo']', outfile = 'None', returnoutput = 'True', timeout = '0.0'.
2011-12-08T15:57:30Z esxupdate: esxupdate: INFO: All done!
2011-12-08T15:57:30Z esxupdate: esxupdate: DEBUG: <<<
There wasn't much in there to give me much to go on, however the "Unrecognized file vendor-index.xml in Metadata file" part was a good lead. I was using the default download sources, so that shouldn't be a problem. I turned off the Windows firewall, no luck. I put in the URL to the repository and could get to it just fine.
I don't normally stage the updates, but I went back and clicked on the "Stage" button. That ran just fine, even staged the Dell extension for our EqualLogic MEM. Tried to remediate again, no luck. This time I tried to do just the extension, it worked!
I go back and check out the staged updates, 2 are listed as missing! We've found our problem.
I head out to the VMware Download Patches site: http://www.vmware.com/patchmgr/download.portal and download the missing patches and then import them into the VUM Patch Repository and remediate the host again. It worked!
Moral of the story: always check to make sure that the patches are not only listed as available, but that they're able to be staged.
Update...
One thing I may have MAJORLY overlooked... Check the status of your "vmw" and "csco" folders. If they look like "VMW" and "CSCO", they will not work and have to be lower case!
This is not the case with the example I have included above, but I have run into it on another install. Such a simple thing to overlook on accident.
Generating RSA Key & CSR for use with VMware Solutions…
Ever received a Security Warning while logging into either you ESX/i host and/or vCenter?
That's due to the SSL certificate being untrusted with your machine. You can always click the "Ignore" button or check the "Install this certificate..." box and then "Ignore" and move on, however you can improve the security by replacing the certificates with certificates signed by a commercial certificate authority (CA).
To generate an RSA Key and certificate signing request (CSR), we'll start by downloading the OpenSSL-Light application on the system you'll be installing or have already installed a VMware application. The application is available from the following site: http://www.slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html
Download the "Win32 OpenSSL v1.0.0e Light" application along with the "Visual C++ 2008 Redistributables". Once downloaded, run the Visual C++ file (in this case, "vcredist_x86.exe"). Click "Next", check the "I have read and accept the license terms." box and click "Install", wait a couple seconds and click "Finish".
Now it's time to install OpenSSL by running the "Win32OpenSSL_Light-1_0_0e.exe" and installing it to your desired location. Click "Next", accept the agreement and click "Next", choose an install location (default is the root of C:\, but I don't like cluttering up the root of C:\) and click "Next", click "Next", change the option so that the OpenSSL DLLs are copied to the OpenSSL binaries (/bin) directory and click "Next", then click "Install", once the installer is finished click "Finish".
From this point, open up a command prompt and navigate to the bin folder within the location of the installation of OpenSSL. To generate the key, run the following command: openssl genrsa 1024 > rui.key Once that is complete, generate the CSR by running this command: openssl req -new -key rui.key > rui.csr After running the command, you'll be asked to populate some information regarding your country name, state, city, organization name and unit, common name and email address.
If you happen to receive the error: "WARNING: can’t open config file: /usr/local/ssl/openssl.cnf" this is due to OpenSSL being unable to find the openssl.cnf file. To correct this error, run the following command: set OPENSSL_CONF=c:\[PATH TO OPENSSL DIRECTORY]\bin\openssl.cfg
After creating the CSR, submit it to either the admin of your Microsoft Certificate Services CA or to whomever handles the certificates from a commercial CA.
Upgrading vCenter from 4.1 to 5…
Finally, after months of waiting... vSphere 5 has been released. After upgrading one of my dev hosts to ESXi 5, it was time to address the Virtual Center.
Here's what I'm starting with:
Start by heading out the the VMware site and downloading the vCenter software: http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsphere/5_0
If you grabbed the zip, extract it and run the "autorun.exe". If you grabbed the ISO, either mount it in your VM (if your vCenter is virtualized) or burn it and toss it in the drive. You'll be met with this screen:
Click on the "vCenter Server" installer, select your preferred language and select "OK"
You should be greeted with a message that "An earlier version of vCenter Server is already installed on this computer and will be upgraded to vCenter Server 5.0", click "Next", click "Next" on the Patent Agreement screen, agree to the EULA and click "Next"
Enter the User Name, Org, and License Key (if you have one). You'll next receive a message about the new licensing keys for vSphere 5 and how using your old key won't work, either acknowledge or grab your new license key from the VMware License Portal.
I used SQL server on my previous install, verify the database information and click "Next"
With the new install of vCenter, a new version of vSphere Update Manager is required. You should now see a message about that reading: This vCenter Server is being used by the following registered extension(s). This essentially just says that you need to upgrade these programs as well.
Now it's time to upgrade the Database, make sure to backup the existing DB and the SSL certs associated with it
The vCenter Agent will need upgraded on each host the vCenter manages. Note: if you select "Manual", all of the hosts will disconnect and it will be up to you to reconnect them. I chose "Automatic".
Enter the password for the account that the service runs as and the fully qualified domain name
Verify the locations to install the vCenter Server and Inventory Service, verify the ports the vCenter uses, and verify the ports the Inventory Service uses
Set the Java VM Memory setting for the WebService to what fits your environment and click "Next", then click "Install", and sit back and watch it install.
Once it's done, you'll see a nice screen you can click "Finish" on
Pop open your vSphere client and connect to the vCenter and you should be greeted with it reading version 5.
You're not quite done yet though, there's still the VMware vSphere Web Client (Server) to install. Which the installer indicates that "New improvements in license reporting require installation of hte VMware vSphere Web Client". So click on the link to the Web Client and then click "Install"
Select the preferred language, click "Next" to start the installer, click "Next" to agree to the Patent Agreement, and click "Next" to agree to the EULA
Enter the customer information, verify the port settings, verify the install folder, and click "Install"
The installer will start and then you'll reach a completed screen, click on "Finish"
Upon clicking finish, a webpage will pop up (which requires an install of Adobe Flash) going to the Web Client Admin Tool (https://localhost:9443/admin-app/)
The page should display a message: vSphere Web Client is not ready to use as there are no vCenter Server Systems registered with this vSphere Web Client. Under that message, click on the "Register vCenter Server". Enter the vCenter name or IP, a username & password to authenticate with, and the name or IP to the vCenter's Web Client server, then click "Register"
If you haven't already added an SSL cert, it will give you a warning. This can be ignored.
You'll return back to the Admin Tool's main page and be able to see that a new vCenter Server has been added
Now you can go to the Web Client page (https://localhost:9443/vsphere-client/), the drop down box should show the recently added vCenter Server, then enter a username/password for an account whom can authenticate to the vCenter Server and click "Login"
You'll be greeted with a page explaining where everything is click on the circular "X" button on the top right, and you'll see a rather comprehensive view of your environment in a web browser
Upgrading to ESXi 5 with Update Manager
So now with ESXi 5 and vSphere 5 dropping to the masses, it's time to get some hands on experience with it.
So first things first, upgrade your vSphere 4 server to vSphere 5 and make sure to update VMware Update Manager (VUM) as well. Personally, I did a new install, but will cover an upgrade at a later date. Next, you'll want to connect your ESXi 4 host to the vSphere 5 server's DC. You'll also want to download the ESXi ISO from VMware's website. Now that we're on the same page, here's how the upgrade process goes:
Here's an ESXi 4.1 host that I'll be upgrading.
Now you'll want to head over to the "Solutions and Applications" area, select "Update Manager" then click on the "ESXi Images" tab
You'll want to click on "Import ESXi Image", browse to where the ISO for ESXi 5 was downloaded and click "Next", the image will be uploaded and imported to the VUM repository, and once the upload is done it will display a success note.
Then check the "Create a baseline" and name it something appropriate, then click "Finish"
Here's how the ESXi Image looks once it's upgraded in VUM
Go back to the VUM tab for the individual host and attach the baseline, by clicking "Attach", then checkmark the Upgrade Baseline that was just created and click "Attach". The Baseline will now show up in the "Attached Baseline" along with having an upgrade notice in the bottom portion
Click on the "Scan" button and ensure that "Upgrades" is checkmarked then click "Scan"
In most cases, the host will show up as "Non-Compliant" however my host has an added plugin which won't work with ESXi 5 and will have to be removed during the VUM upgrade. The error I received in this case was: "Software modules oem-vmware-esx-drivers-net-vxge oem-vmware-esx-drives-scsi-3w-9xxx published by third party vendor(s) are installed on the host. Upgrading the host will remove these modules."
We're all set to proceed with the upgrade by clicking on "Remediate", selecting the "Upgrade Baselines" followed by the Baselines which was created (should show VMware ESXi 5.0.0 in the Upgrades column), accept the EULA, remove the software which will be incompatible with the upgrade, give the task a name and select a time to schedule the remediation, modify any maintenance mode options, verify the information and click "Finish"
Here's how the events went:
We have success!
My only problem with the whole process was after the host was upgraded, you have to physically push the "Enter" button to allow the machine to reboot. I was hoping for it to be a completely seamless and hands off experience, but a DRAC or iLO card makes up for it
vCMA – Access vSphere From a Mobile Device
Have you ever wanted to control your vSphere environment from your mobile device?
With the vCMA appliance, now you can. Best of all, it's free. The appliance is free, the device software is free.
Start off by downloading and extracting the OVF of the appliance from VMware's Lab website: http://labs.vmware.com/flings/vcma
Login to your vSphere environment, go to "File", then "Deploy OVF Template", click on the browse button and point it at the newly downloaded and extracted OVF file
Verify the details on the appliance and accept the License Agreement:
Name the appliance and assign it a location:
Assign a datastore and a provisioned format
Assign a Port Group for the networking
Verify all the configured information, click "Finish", and let the appliance be deployed
Once deployed, it will look similar to the image below, then power the system on.
Once powered on, it will attempt to grab an IP from DHCP and then arrive at this screen:
If you need to configure the network (as I do), drop down to "Configure Network" and follow the steps:
The appliance should be all set up. Now head out to either the iTunes or Android Marketplace, search for the "VMware vSphere Client". Download and install the app, and launch it.
I use my iPad most often, so I have the VMware vSphere Client installed on there. This is the login screen:
If this happens to be the first time you're using the app, click on the "Settings" button in the top left corner and then enter the vCMA Server's IP Address
Click "Sign-In" and it will greet you with this screen showing a summary of your hosts
Click on a host and you will be shown a summary page along with the current VMs residing on that host
Along the bottom, there are three buttons. First one is Information, second one is Performance, and third is Tools. Information is the summary, Performance shows the performance graphs, and Tools allows you to do pings and trace routes. Examples:
Going back to the Information page, click on a VM and you will receive the same three buttons for Information, Performance, and Tools.
Overall, it's very useful and quite nice to look at as well. This is definitely a must-have app for the traveling admin!
Adding the MEM to ESXi Hosts with Update Manager
Tossed up a new Equallogic unit, and wanted to experiment with installing the Multipathing Extension Module. I heard at a recent VMUG event that you could install the MEM via the Update Manager, so I figured I would give it a shot.
Now there's nothing wrong with the Round Robing multipathing option, it actually works quite well. Here's how the connections are setup from the beginning:
First things first, head out to the Equallogic Support site and download the MEM zip through the VMware Integration link. Once it's downloaded, extract it.
Now in your Virtual Center, go to your Update Manager, then select the "Patch Repository" tab, and then select the "Import Patches" link".
Browse for the MEM Patch you downloaded, select the zip file, select "Next":
Let the patches upload and confirm that's the version you want installed:
Once completed, go back through and verify that it was added (Note: it will be bold since you imported it).
Now you'll need to create an Host Extension Baseline. If you already have one, skip this part. You'll want to go back to the "Baselines and Groups" tab and then select "Create".
Add a name and then select "Host Extension" for the Baseline Type.
Next, add the Dell Equallogic Extension, and click Finish.
With the baseline added and then the extension added to the baseline, go back to the ESXi host and then to the Update Manager tab and select the "Attach".
Check the new Extension Baseline that was created and select "Attach".
Now scan the host and make sure to include the "Patches and Extensions" check box.
You should see that your host is "Non-Compliant" and there is at least an Extension that is missing.
Click on the "Stage" button, which will bring up the wizard. Ensure that the Extension Baseline is selected and select "Next".
Make sure that the extension you loaded is selected to be staged.
Click on "Finish" and allow the system to stage the updates on the host, you'll also notice the missing extension now says that it's "staged".
Click on the "Remediate" button to bring up the next wizard. Ensure the Baseline you want is selected for the host you want and select "Next".
Similar to the staging step, ensure the Extension you wish to install is selected and choose "Next". Then give the task a name and schedule it. Also if it's part of a Cluster, select any kind of options that work with your cluster, and finally verify that everything is correct and click on "Finish"
You'll see the host enter maintenance mode, install the extension, and then reboot. Once it boots back up, it will exit maintenance mode automatically.
Now your host will be updated on the storage paths to be "DELL_PSP_EQL_ROUTED" which will allow the plugin to choose the best way to route the traffic between ESXi host and SAN.
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- PowerCLI – Copying PortGroups from a Standard vSwitch to a Distributed vSwitch
- PowerCLI – Rescan HBAs for a Cluster on a Host by Host Basis
- PowerCLI – Analyze a Cluster to Move VMs to a Resource Pool
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- Updating the Fusion-IO firmware…
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