VMware Virtual SAN or vSAN is a software-defined storage or hyper-converged infrastructure and it’s fully integrated with VMware vSphere. vSAN create a software defined storage area from local storage devices or direct attached devices. vSAN supports vSphere features that the features needs shared storage such as HA and DRS. vSAN is also fully integrated with desktop solutions and any virtual machine will be provisioned and protected on vSAN.
ESXi PCI Passthrough This is a combination hardware and software feature on hypervisors to allows VMs to use PCI functions directly And we know it as VMDirectPath I/O in vSphere environment. VMDirectPath I/O needs some requirements to work perfectly, please read this KB for more information, as we read it! https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2142307 There is also some limitation when using VMDirectPath I/O and the below features will unavailable: Hot adding and removing of virtual devices Suspend and resume Record and replay Fault tolerance High availability DRS (limited availability. The virtual machine can be part of a cluster, but cannot migrate across hosts) Snapshots I couldn’t find any other limitation specially about memory size, so now why we couldn’t use more than 790 GB to 850 GB of our server memory capacity?! Anyway, let’s review our test scenario! Our Test Scenario We have some Sun X4-8 servers with the below specifications: CPU: 8 x E7-8895 v2 Local Disk: 8 x 600 GB SAS Disk Memory: 48 x 16 GB – Totally 768 GB PCI Devices: 2 x QLogic 2600 16 Gb – 2 Ports (HBA) 2 x Intel 82599EB 10 Gb – 2 Ports (Network) Embedded Devices: 2 x Intel I350 1Gb ESXi 6.x U2 has...
What’s UUID? Each virtual machine has UUID and it will appear on OS as guest UUID too. A universally unique identifier (UUID) is a 128-bit number used to identify information in computer systems, the 16 bytes of this value are separated by spaces. Microsoft uses the term globally unique identifier (GUID), either as a synonym for UUID or to refer to a particular UUID variant.
You may read previous post about OpBot on this blog and if you didn’t check it, here is the previous post: OpBot – Virtual Assistant For Your Virtual Datacenter Now, new version of the virtual assistant is available to download and try it as free software for limited period of time. There is some changes to improve your assistance performance:
What’s OpBot? OpBot is a virtual assistant for VMware vSphere from Opvizor. OpBot is a full featured OpBot, that can manage VMware vSphere via natural chat commands from any device and any place. You can also connect OpBot with Opvzor Performance Analyzer, which unleashes amazing new remote troubleshooting and analysis possibilities. OpBot can give you some useful information about your virtual datacenter such as: VM Config: Filter your VMs using wildcards, cluster or ESXi hosts and get information about the virtual and physical hardware configuration. VM Load: Get ESXi and Virtual Machine CPU and Memory Load as well as disk usage information. VM Snapshot: Check instantly for existing Snapshots, creation date and comments. Benefits Using this virtual assistant has many benefits for you: No VPN: There is no need to use VPN for secure access to your virtual datacenter. No RDP Session No Mobile Hotspot Any Device: You can ask OpBot to do some tasks from any deviecs. Any Place: You can do it from any place and any location. async commands Audit log in the chat Avoid annoying bandwidth issues using remote desktops or VMware Web client How does that work? You import a virtual appliance in your environment that...
Why You Need Log Files? Log files are keys to resolving problems in any IT system, why?! You are unable to troubleshooting without having log files. Any enterprise system must have logging system and logging is very important to IT administrators. Log location is very important for IT administrators even very importantly. Oracle VM Server log files locations are listed in the following table: Log File Directory Description xend.log /var/log/xen/ Contains a log of all the actions of the Oracle VM Server daemon. Actions are normal or error conditions. This log contains the same information as output using the xm log command. xend-debug.log /var/log/xen/ Contains more detailed logs of the actions of the Oracle VM Server daemon. xen-hotplug.log /var/log/xen/ Contains a log of hotplug events. Hotplug events are logged if a device or network script does not start up or become available. qemu-dm.pid.log /var/log/xen/ Contains a log for each hardware virtualized guest. This log is created by the quemu-dm process. Use the ps command to find the pid (process identifier) and replace this in the file name. ovs-agent.log /var/log/ Contains a log for Oracle VM Agent. osc.log /var/log/ Contains a log for Oracle VM Storage Connect plug-ins. ovm-consoled.log /var/log/ Contains...
Oracle VM Server installer using the below algorithm to set default memory size for dom0: dom0 Memory = 502 (MB) + (Physical Memory (MB) * 0.0205) As an example, your physical server has 256 GB memory, dom0 needs to 5.7 GB memory. If you didn’t assign enough memory to dom0, you will face with serious performance issues. So calculating dom0 memory is very important for preventing performance issues on your virtual machines. Also you can change dom0 memory size by the below instruction: Edit your grub configuration on the Oracle VM Server to adjust the value for the dom0_mem parameter. If you are using UEFI boot, the grub configuration file is located at /boot/efi/EFI/redhat/grub.cfg, otherwise the grub configuration file is located at /boot/grub2/grub.cfg. Edit the line starting with multiboot2 /xen.gz and append the required boot parameters. For example, to change the memory allocation to 1024 MB, edit the file to contain: multiboot2 /xen.gz dom0_mem=max:1024M placeholder ${xen_rm_opts}
You will need to a backup solution in virtual environments same as physical environments. There is many backup solutions for VMware vSphere, Nakivo or Veeam are third-party solutions. Also Veeam is best third-party solution Hyper-V platform. But if you are implementing Oracle VM, you need to know, what is best backup and restore solution for this platform. Below are some partners with currently supported data protection solutions: Acronis with Acronis Backup Advanced Actifio with Actifio Sky. Actifio Sky for Oracle Cloud is available in Oracle Cloud Marketplace Asigra with Asigra Cloud backup Zmanda, a Carbonite company with Amanda Enterprise Arcserve with two backup products: Arcserve Backup and Arcserve Unified Data Protection Barracuda Networks with Barracuda Backup CloudBerrry Lab with CloudBerry Backup. CloudBerry Explorer provides a user interface to Oracle cloud storage Commvault with Commvault Software (formerly Simpana) Dell with Rapid Recovery and NetVault EMC with its Data Protection Suite (DPS), with Avamar and NetWorker as key components FalconStor Optimized backup (VTL & NAS) Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Data Protector; StoreOnce R1Soft with Server backup Manager SEP with Sesam Storware with vProtect Storix System Backup Administrator Veritas Technologies with Backup Exec and NetBackup, available in the Oracle Cloud Marketplace
it seems, there is incompatibility issue between Windows Server 2008 R2 and VMware Ballooning driver and it’s cause of stop error on Windows: Stop A: 0xA As Microsoft describe in its KB, the issue is happening when ballooning activated on virtual machines that use NUMA. So, we know that NUMA can improve our machines performance by grant local access to memory. You can read my post about NUMA for more information: NUMA and vNUMA: Back to the Basics for Better Performance Microsoft has released a hotfix for fixing this issue on Windows Server 2008 R2. It’s strongly recommended to download and install the hotfix on all your virtual machine that those have Windows Server 2008 R2 as guest OS. You can download the hotfx from the below link: Hotfx Download
Which server brand do you use? HPE, Dell, Fujitsu or any other. It doesn’t matter, you should check your server compatibility with new vSphere version before planning for migration or upgrade. I don’t want to share server list because the list will be different during time and new servers will be added to the list. You can find supported servers in VMware Compatibility Guide and it’s best reference for servers compatibility. Also you can check it on OEM web sites: HPE: VMware Support Matrix Just you should choose your ESXi version on the web page and trust to the result! Dell: Virtualization Solutions Choose VMware ESXi version and then should click on “Manual” and download a PDF which contains list of compatible servers. Cisco:UCS Hardware and Software Interoperability Matrix Tool (New) just you should select some items to find proper result. Also you can use older tools: Hardware and Software Interoperability Matrix Utility Tool Fujitsu: I couldn’t find a tools on their web site and we have to download a PDF file and find our product. Sample link for FUJITSU Server PRIMERGY: x86 Servers released OS Lenovo (IBM): OS Interoperability Guide I know, there is more OEM vendor and may...
Each new version of vSphere includes some improvements and new features and many of them will be applied on virtual machines. The improvements and features will be add to “Hardware Version” and you be able to use those, if you use latest “Hardware Version”. It’s strongly recommended that don’t upgrade your hardware version to latest just when you need to use a specific feature or expand hardware resources that older hardware version doesn’t support that. Because “Hardware Version” doesn’t have any compatibility with older ESXi and if you have mixed cluster, you can’t use latest hardware version. Here is an example: You have a cluster and the cluster contains some ESXi 6.5, 6.0 and 5.5. If you upgrade hardware version to 11, your virtual machine will be hosted by ESXi 6.0, ESXi 6.5 and the machine will not be migrated on ESXi 5.5. So, keep your hardware version compatible with oldest ESXi in your environment. You can downgrade hardware version but it’s not recommended. For make sure about hardware version, you can change default version on your cluster anytime. Let’s review new hardware version, compare it with older versions and compatibility with ESXi: Feature ESXi 6.5 and later ESXi 6.0...
VMware has published a list that includes unsupported and deprecated devices from two vendors: Emulex Qlogic Deprecated devices may still be worked and drivers will be installed but those devices are not supported on vSphere 6.5 officially. You need to upgrade your hardware before upgrading vSphere, but it’s your choice! Because your device may be worked without any issue. You can find the deprecated and unsupported devices in the below table: Partner Driver Name Device IDs Device Name Emulex lpfc 10DF:F0E5:0000:0000 Emulex LPe1105-M4 4 Dual-Channel 4Gb/s Fibre Channel HBA 10DF:F0E5:0000:0000 Emulex LPe1150 Single-Channel 4Gb/s Fibre Channel HBA 10DF:F0E5:0000:0000 Emulex LPe1150 4Gb/s Fibre Channel Adapter 10DF:F0E5:10DF:F0E5 Emulex LPe1150 Single-Channel 4Gb/s Fibre Channel HBA 10DF:F0E5:10DF:F0E5 LPe1150-E Emulex LPe1150 Single-Channel 4Gb/s Fibre Channel HBA for Dell and EMC 10DF:FE00:0000:0000 LPe11002 4Gb Fibre Channel Host Adapter 10DF:FE00:0000:0000 NE3008-102 10DF:FE00:0000:0000 NE2000-001 10DF:FE00:0000:0000 Emulex LPe11000 4Gb PCIe Fibre Channel Adapter 10DF:FE00:10DF:FE00 Emulex LPe11002 Dual-Channel 4Gb/s Fibre Channel HBA 10DF:FE00:10DF:FE00 N8403-018 10DF:FE00:10DF:FE00 EMC LPe11000-E 10DF:FE00:10DF:FE00 EMC LPe11002-E 10DF:FE00:10DF:FE00 Emulex LPe11000 Single-Channel 4Gb/s Fibre Channel HBA 10DF:FE00:10DF:FE22 Emulex L1105-M Emulex LPe1105-M4 Dual-Channel 4Gb/s Fibre Channel mezzanine card for Dell PowerEdge 10DF:FE00:103c:1708 403621-B21 Emulex LPe1105-HP Dual-Channel 4Gb/s Fibre Channel mezzanine card for HP BladeSystem c-Cl 10DF:FE00:10DF:FE00 A8002A – FC2142SR Emulex...
You can find VMware products which are compatible with vSphere 6.5 on the below post: Compatible VMware Products – vSphere 6.5 If you need to update the mentioned products, you should upgrade the products according to the below sequence table. Please consider that: You should start with lowest sequence number. If you need to update products with same sequence number, order doesn’t matter. Before you update vCenter Server, disable vCenter Server from vCloud Director. Also ensure that you stop or disable other VMware services so that they do not communicate with vCenter Server during the update process. PSC / SSO External vRA VCM vRB vCD NSX Manager NSX Controllers View Composer View Connection Server VDP vCenterServer vRO VR VUM vROPs VIN vCC vRLI BDE SRM ESXi VSAN VMware Tools NSX Edge NSX LFw NSX Guest IDS View Agent / Client Seq. 1 2 2 2 3 4 5 5 6 7 8 9 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 11 12 12 12 13 13 13 Sample VMware product upgrade scenarios 1st Scenario: VMware Horizon View If applicable, upgrade the External vCenter Single Sign-On / Platform Services Controller instance (sequence step 1) Upgrade View Composer (sequence step 5)...
vSphere 6.5 has been released and many of users are planning to upgrade their environments to new version. But we should check vSphere 6.5 compatibility with VMware products and even third-party products. We can check compatibility matrix on the below link: VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes But also you can find the products that those are compatible with vSphere 6.5: Product Latest Available Version Recommended Action Important Links Platform Services Controller (PSC) Note: External Deployment Only 6.0 Update 2 Upgrade to 6.5 Release Notes Update Procedure vRealize Automation 7.0.1 No supported version available N/A vRealize Business for Cloud 7.0.1 7.2 Release Notes Update Procedure vRealize Configuration Manager (VCM) 5.8.5 No supported version available N/A vCloud Director for Service Providers (VCD) 8.0.1 No supported version available N/A VMware NSX for vSphere 6.2.4 No supported version available N/A Horizon View (View) 7.0.1 7.0.2 Release Notes Update Procedure vCenter Server / vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 Update 2 Upgrade to 6.5 Release Notes Update Procedure vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) 7.0.1 No supported version available N/A vSphere Replication (VR) vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) VR Version – 6.1.1 SRM Version – 6.1.1 Upgrade to 6.5 VR Release Notes SRM Release Notes Upgrading VR Upgrading SRM vRealize Operations...
We’ve reviewed some of vSphere 6.5 configuration maximums in the previous post: http://www.teimouri.net/vsphere-6-5-configuration-maximums/ And we’ll review and compare the rest of configuration maximums in this post. Networking Maximums Item vSphere 5.5 vSphere 6.0 vSphere 6.5 vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch Total virtual network switch ports per host (VDS and VSS ports) 4096 4096 4096 Maximum active ports per host (VDS and VSS) 1016 1016 1016 Virtual network switch creation ports per standard switch 4088 4088 4088 Port groups per standard switch 512 512 512 Static/Dynamic port groups per distributed switch 6500 10000 10000 Ephemeral port groups per distributed switch 1016 1016 1016 Ports per distributed switch 60000 60000 60000 Distributed switches per vCenter 128 128 128 Distributed switches per host 16 16 16 Hosts per distributed switch 1000 1000 2000 Cluster and Resource Pool Maximums Item vSphere 5.5 vSphere 6.0 vSphere 6.5 Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS) Hosts per cluster 32 64 64 Virtual Machines per cluster 4000 8000 8000 Virtual machines per host 512 1024 1024 Powered-on virtual machine 2048 2048 2048 FT virtual machines per cluster 98 128 FT virtual machines vCPU per Cluster 256 256 Resource pools per host 1600 1600 1600 Children per resource...
