Category: Reviews

vSphere 5.1 and later supports Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV). SR-IOV is a specification that allows a single Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) physical device under a single root port to appear to be multiple separate physical devices to the hypervisor or the guest operating system. SR-IOV uses physical functions (PFs) and virtual functions (VFs) to manage global functions for the SR-IOV devices. PFs are full PCIe functions that include the SR-IOV Extended Capability which is used to configure and manage the SR-IOV functionality. It is possible to configure or control PCIe devices using PFs, and the PF has full ability to move data in and out of the device. VFs are lightweight PCIe functions that contain all the resources necessary for data movement but have a carefully minimized set of configuration resources. SR-IOV-enabled PCIe devices present multiple instances of themselves to the guest OS instance and hypervisor. The number of virtual functions presented depends on the device. For SR-IOV-enabled PCIe devices to function, you must have the appropriate BIOS and hardware support, as well as SR-IOV support in the guest driver or hypervisor instance. SR-IOV Support vSphere 5.1 supports SR-IOV. However, some features of vSphere are not functional when...

New tool has been released by VMware Lab about better resource load balancing in a vSphere cluster. Its name can explain, what’s its mission?! I’ll publish a post about installation and configuration. You can download it from: http://labs.vmware.com/flings/proactive-drs What is ProactiveDRS? It is a way for DRS to  react to changes in the virtual cluster, and to act on predicted changes in resource demands before hosts become stressed. For example, if you have a VM that historically uses 100% CPU at 8am every morning, ProactiveDRS  makes  sure that the CPU resources will be available for that VM before 8am. These actions ensure that your cluster runs smoother and reduces the amount of reactive VM rebalances that occur. Features Given an advance forecast/prediction of each VM’s resource demands, e.g., CPU and Memory, ProactiveDRS seeks to reorganize the placement of VMs to best balance the current resource demands while taking early actions to accommodate the future/predicted resource demands. Sample actions include, but are not limited to, proactive vMotions (migrations) and proactively powering on a new physical host to accept VMs whose resource demands are expected to spike beyond the available resources of their current physical host.

What is VisualEsxtop? VisualEsxtop is a new performance monitoring tool that was recently posted on the VMware Labs Flings project. On Flings, apps and tools built by VMware engineers for fun are available for download. The intent is to make VMware Administrators’ lives easier in their daily work. VisualEsxtop is an enhanced version of resxtop and esxtop. VisualEsxtop can connect to VMware vCenter Server or ESX hosts, and display ESX server stats with a better user interface and more advanced features. How to install VisualEsxtop ? Download visualEsxtop.zip from http://labs.vmware.com/flings/visualesxtop Unzip visualEsxtop.zip to folder Make sure Java 1.6 is in the PATH. On windows, to verify if Java is in the path, Click on Start > run > TYPE cmd and press ENTER > TYPE java and press Enter. If java is not in path, you will notice error like this – If JDK 1.6 or later is already installed on your machine but not in the path, here is how you add it (Instructions for Windows 7, other versions might be slightly different) -Go to Control Panel > System and Security > System > -Click Advanced system settings -Click on Environmental Variables -Click on New -Under Edit User Variable type the following and...

Table of Contents Section 1. Introduction Section 2. CPU Section 2.1 Worlds and Groups Section 2.2 PCPUs Section 2.3 Global Statistics Section 2.4 World Statistics Section 3. Memory Section 3.1 Machine Memory and Guest Physical Memory Section 3.2 Global Statistics Section 3.3 Group Statistics Section 4 Disk Section 4.1 Adapter, Device, VM screens Section 4.2 Disk Statistics Section 4.2.1 I/O Throughput Statistics Section 4.2.2 Latency Statistics Section 4.2.3 Queue Statistics Section 4.2.4 Error Statistics Section 4.2.5 PAE Statistics Section 4.2.6 Split Statistics Section 4.3 Batch Mode Output Section 5 Network Section 5.1 Port Section 5.2 Port Statistics Section 6. Interrupt Section 7. Batch Mode   Section 1. Introduction Esxtop allows monitoring and collection of data for all system resources: CPU, memory, disk and network. When used interactively, this data can be viewed on different types of screens; one each for CPU statistics, memory statistics, network statistics and disk adapter statistics. In addition to the disk adapter statistics in earlier versions, starting with ESX3.5, disk statistics at the device and VM level are also available. Starting with ESX 4.0, esxtop has an interrupt statistics screen. In the batch mode, data can be redirected to a file for offline uses.   Many...

The single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) interface is an extension to the PCI Express (PCIe) specification. SR-IOV allows a device, such as a network adapter, to separate access to its resources among various PCIe hardware functions. These functions consist of the following types: A PCIe Physical Function (PF). This function is the primary function of the device and advertises the device’s SR-IOV capabilities. The PF is associated with the Hyper-V parent partition in a virtualized environment. One or more PCIe Virtual Functions (VFs). Each VF is associated with the device’s PF. A VF shares one or more physical resources of the device, such as a memory and a network port, with the PF and other VFs on the device. Each VF is associated with a Hyper-V child partition in a virtualized environment. Each PF and VF is assigned a unique PCI Express Requester ID (RID) that allows an I/O memory management unit (IOMMU) to differentiate between different traffic streams and apply memory and interrupt translations between the PF and VFs. This allows traffic streams to be delivered directly to the appropriate Hyper-V parent or child partition. As a result, nonprivileged data traffic flows from the PF to VF without affecting...

The System Update Readiness Tool can help fix problems that might prevent Windows updates and service packs from installing. For example, an update might not install if a damaged system file prevents the update from recognizing the version of Windows that’s running on your computer. If your computer is having problems installing an update or a service pack, download and install the tool, which runs automatically. Then, try installing the update or service pack again. To download and run the System Update Readiness Tool Click the link in the table that corresponds to the version of Windows running on your computer. To find out which version of Windows you’re running, and whether it’s a 32-bit (x86), 64-bit (x64), or Itanium-based system, click the Start button , right-click Computer, and then click Properties. Windows version Link to Microsoft Download Center Windows Vista 32-bit (x86) Download Windows Vista 64-bit (x64) Download Windows 7 32-bit (x86) Download Windows 7 64-bit (x64) Download Windows Server 2008 32-bit (x86) Download Windows Server 2008 64-bit (x64) Download Windows Server 2008 Itanium-based Download Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit (x64) Download Windows Server 2008 R2 Itanium-based Download On the Microsoft Download Center webpage, click Download.If you see a message indicating that validation is required, click Continue and follow the instructions on your screen. Then, click Download. Do one of the following: To install the program immediately, click Open or Run, and then follow the instructions on your screen. To install the program later, click Save, and then...

You are familiar with some terms like server virtualization, desktop virtulization and cloud computing. But maybe you don’t know that you can turn your server or PC to a mainframe computer. ESX/ESXi supporting wide range of OS, they are supporting desktop OS, server OS, mobile OS and also mainframe OS such as z/OS. Now, VMWare ESXi hardware version (September 2013) is 9.0 and memory limit is 1011 GB for this version. You can see memory limit in the below table: ESXi/ESX virtual machines Hardware version Memory limit 5.1 9 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines: 1011 GB All specified memory is accessible to the guest. The guest accounts for space obscured by PCI devices. 5.0 8 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines: 1011 GB All specified memory is accessible to the guest. The guest accounts for space obscured by PCI devices. 4.x 7 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines: 255 GB All specified memory is accessible to the guest. The guest accounts for space obscured by PCI devices. 3.5 4 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines: 65532 MB 3.x 4 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines: 16384 MB 2.x 3 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines: 3600 MB

As you know, VMware View using PCoIP and RDP protocols for transfer multimedia data and other data between virtual desktop and clients. One session will be opened between virtual desktop and client that managing by connection server. Some times, this session closed cause of many problems such as network problems, virtual desktop problem and etc. You can use some log files that stored on virtual desktop for detect problem and find solution for resolve that. VMware release a KB1027744 about location of VMware View log files. you can find the log files and use the below table for detect PCoIP disconnection problem: This table lists the common PCoIP Disconnection Codes:   Variable Name Code Description TERA_DISCONNECT_CAUSE_NONE 0x00000000 PCoIP session terminated due to lost network. TERA_DISCONNECT_CAUSE_HOST_BROKER_INTERNAL_SERVER_FAILURE 0x00000100 PCoIP connection not established due to failure of PCoIP server initialization. This should not occur. Please contact Teradici support. TERA_DISCONNECT_CAUSE_HOST_BROKER_GENERIC 0x00000101 PCoIP connection not established due to failure of PCoIP server initialization. This should not occur in normal operation. Note: If the Welcome Screen is enable in the View Administrator a ConnectionTicketTimeout will trigger a disconnect after 15 min with this code. TERA_DISCONNECT_CAUSE_HOST_BROKER_SESSION_EXPIRY_TIMEOUT 0x00000102 PCoIP session terminated due to VMware View Connection Server (broker) maximum...

The VMware NSX platform delivers the entire networking and security model in software, decoupled from traditional networking hardware, representing a transformative leap forward in data center networking architecture. Overview:  Today’s data center is largely virtualized from a compute perspective, and has unleashed unprecedented benefits of agility, efficiency and capex/opex savings. What is less known is that virtual network access ports have exceeded physical network access ports in number, and this trend is accelerating. In fact, today, 40% of vAdmins manage virtual networks. Beyond virtual switching, the time is ripe to virtualize the rest of the networking stack, and accelerate our customer’s journey to the software-defined data center. At VMware, we’ve put together an all-star team, the Networking & Security Business Unit (NSBU), to address this opportunity, and bring virtualization-centric innovation to networking. This team has been responsible for many key foundational innovations toward network virtualization. We started with the best of Nicira, vSphere networking and vCloud networking and security technologies, and embarked on a mission to build a unified solution that will transform networking and security in the virtualized data center.  Today, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger will be launching VMware NSX™, the platform for network virtualization, in his keynote at...

Chris Halstead wrote an application for reviewing and sending VMware Horizon View server event as notification via email. It’s very useful tool for administrators. You can download it form this link: http://goo.gl/WP7Vnt Also you can read more about that on Chirs’s blog and Andre’s blog.  

New white paper is published by Veeam about Microsoft VSS and its roles in virtualization environments. You can download it from Veeam link and it. Also it’s translated to Farsi by me, you can download Farsi version from this link.

The challenges that come with virtualization must be addressed to achieve successful implementation. Virtualization affects everything in the data center. Don’t ignore the challenges that come with virtualization. Learn how to conquer the top management challenges of implementing VMware virtualization, including: VM sprawl Storage management Monitoring/reporting and more About author: Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran, author and blogger with more than 25 years of experience, most recently specializing in server administration and virtualization. He is a very active member of the VMware VMTN support forums, where he′s attained the elite Guru status by helping others with their virtualization-related challenges. Reference: http://go.veeam.com/wp-eric-siebert-2011-top-7-vmware-management-challenges.html?ad=vmware-esx-management-one-solution.html