DMZ Virtualization Using Vsphere and Cisco Nexus 1000v Virtual Switch

Migration from Physical to Virtual

Click here for Whitepaper on DMZ with Nexus and vSphere

How to get your 60 day trial for the Cisco Nexus 1000v

Go to http://www.cisco.com/go/1000v to access the design, install and upgrade guides—look for the “Support” box on the upper right part of the page

Go to http://www.cisco.com/go/1000vdownload a pull down a copy of the software - install it per instructions
Go to http://www.cisco.com/go/1000veval and obtain your eval license

Ports Required for vCentre and Managed Hosts

Just what is Virtual Connect?

Ethernet Module

Fibre Module

Excerpt from HP site:

"Virtual Connect Ethernet and Fibre Channel modules are interconnect options for HP BladeSystem c3000 and c7000 enclosures used in place of conventional pass-thru or managed switch modules. They abstract and pool the server-edge connections so they look like NICs and HBAs to the external LAN and SAN. This allows server administrators to independently manage server blades and their connectivity to, so you can maintain high-availability connections throughout your server racks as you securely administer Media Access Control (MAC) addresses and World Wide Names (WWN) for each server"
More About Virtual Connect

503 Service Unavailable when using Web Interface for Vsphere Host

503 Service Unavailable displays when you type in IP address of Vsphere host into web browser.

By default the service is disabled, you will need to console on to the actual vsphere host and run the following command

service vmware-webAccess start

Vizioncore Free Products

Link to download from

The vConvertor SC and Virtualization EcoShell is of interest mainly.

The convertor for Physical to Virtual migrations. demo video
The EcoShell; scripting for the Sys Admins.



Managing VMware vSphere 4 with The Virtualization EcoShell from Eric Sloof NTPRO.NL on Vimeo.

Adrian Brough earns his VCP4 Certification

An experienced Senior Technical Specialist in my team has earned his VCP4 Certification.
He has earned his 2x, 3x, and now the 4x VCP certification.

He has provided a few guidelines you could say to assist in preparing for those wanting to earn their VCP4 Certification.

Total Questions - 85 ( Some key words mentioned, should head you in the right direction)

- Common Maximums
- No VCB
- Alot on Vcentre
- Vcentre related topics / especially plugins. Default etc
- Guided Consolidation / High Confidence/ Confidence Metric
- iSCSI
- HBA
- NPIV
- Fault Tolerance
- Uplink Ports

Try a practice test from SimonLong/Blog

Vsphere Practice Test

Sometimes when you prepare for an exam, the question becomes have you prepared enough?
It does help knowing someone who has sat the exam already :)

Default Service Console Partition Values for ESX4.0 and Explanations

If a default installation of ESX4.0 or Vsphere were to be done the values would be the same as what you will see in this post. Except for the VMFS volume which will depend on the storage available for you at the time of installation. There are required partitions and optional partitions, You may slightly increase the values depending on available storage and design considerations. A good resource for the maximum guide is available from VMware or the VMware Cookbook from O'reilly Publishing which covers this quite in depth.

Example:

Storage Device: mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0

Service Console Partitions (Required):

The below partitions are for ESX, which are created during installation, with the exception of /var/log which is optional but gets created by default when the graphical or text installer is used.

vmkcore 110MB debug information for tech support  Cannot be on a software iSCSI Volume


vmfs3 39.75GB where VM's will reside this varies


swap 600MB ESX swap; minimum is 600MB maximum is 1600MB


ext3 5.00GB / ESX OS and services accessible through the service console.  Also contains 3rd Party services or applications installed


ext3 1.10 GB /boot Information required to boot the ESX OS, e.g. where the Grub loader resides


ext3 2.00 GB /var/log Used for logs

Optional Partitions

/home (512MB and above recommended - storage for individual users)
/usr (1024MB and above recommended - used for user programs and data)
/var/log (2000MB and above recommended - used for logs, I would recommend 4000MB)

Exam 70-652: TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring

Microsoft Hyper-V Exam

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-652

Skills Being Measured
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below.
The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam.

Installing Hyper-V (14 percent)
Select and configure hardware to meet Hyper-V prerequisites.
This objective may include but is not limited to: evaluate the existing environment, disk/logical unit number (LUN), memory requirements, correct CPU/BIOS, networking/Network Interface Card (NIC)
Configure Windows Server 2008 for Hyper-V.

This objective may include but is not limited to: identify requirements, deploy Hyper-V with Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), Microsoft Assessment and Planning tool, install on Full, install on Core
Configure Hyper-V to be highly available.

This objective may include but is not limited to: failover clustering, disk structure (RAID, quorum, shared storage), network

Configuring and Optimizing Hyper-V (20 percent)
Manage and optimize the Hyper-V server.
This objective may include but is not limited to: VHD (virtual hard disk) location, snapshot location, Systems Center, Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), Authorization Manager, release key, performance monitoring of 2k8
Configure virtual networking.

This objective may include but is not limited to: Virtual Network Manager tool, SCVMM, virtual switches, VLAN tagging, external/private/internal switches
Configure remote administration.

This objective may include but is not limited to: install Hyper-V manager on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista; WMI, WinRM, firewall settings, RDP

Deploying Virtual Machines (30 percent)
Migrate a computer to Hyper-V.
This objective may include but is not limited to: from Virtual Server 2005, from third-party (Acronis), from VPC (virtual PC), from Hyper-V (import/export), Intel to AMD virtual machine state, by using SCVMM vNext (P2V and V2V), Integration Services/Virtual Machine additions, Assessment and Planning tool
Create or clone a virtual machine.

This objective may include but is not limited to: prepare guest operating system for duplication (sysprep), differencing disks, copying Virtual Hard Drive (VHD), SCVMM vNext, PXE Boot (legacy network adapter), manage the Self Service portal, Windows Deployment Services (WDS)
Create a virtual disk.

This objective may include but is not limited to: pass-through disks, fixed versus dynamic, differencing disks, IDE versus SCSI, Virtual Hard Disk Wizard
Manage templates, profiles, and the image library by using SCVMM vNext.

This objective may include but is not limited to: ISOs, VHDs, deployment from library

Managing and Monitoring Virtual Machines (36 percent)
Monitor and optimize virtual machines.
This objective may include but is not limited to: Tool: Reliability and performance monitor, Tool: SCVMM, processor, optimize memory, network, disks
Manage virtual machine settings.

This objective may include but is not limited to: DVD/ISO, NIC, Integration Services, state of virtual machines, Hypercall adapter availability requirements, reboot/start options, BIOS, memory, Processor (Windows NT 4.0)
Manage snapshots and backups.

This objective may include but is not limited to: live backups of a VM by using VSS Data Protection Manager (DPM), backup within a virtual machine, snapshots
Configure a virtual machine for high availability.

This objective may include but is not limited to: quick migration, storage redundancy, perform a manual failover, live migration if available, networking redundancy

VCP4 Exam Blueprint

For existing VCP on VI3, link below is the exam blueprint to prepare for your VCP on VI4. If done before 31st Dec 2009 you will not need to attend a Vsphere Course; After the given date, you will be required to attend the course before you can get your VCP4. ( You can sit your exam but will not get credited unless you attend the course)
VCP4 Exam blueprint in PDF

Power CLI - Quick Migrate VM to another host ( not using Vmotion)

VMware Quick Migration Function


Author: Justin Grote
Credit: Inspired by Mike DiPetrillo's Quick Migration Script: http://www.mikedipetrillo.com/mikedvirtualization/2008/10/quick-migration-for-vmware-the-power-of-powershell.html

Version: 0.1
Description: Performs the fucntional equivalent of a Hyper-V Quick Migration by suspending a VM,
moving it to a new host, and resuming it. This does not require vMotion licensing.
it works by providing required VM objects via the pipeline or the second argument,
and specifying the Destination host in the first argument.
The commeand accepts both text strings and VMHost objects for the VMHost Parameter
Prerequisites:
Powershell v1
VMWare PowerCLI 4.0 (May work with earlier version but not tested)

Instructions to Install: Save this script and import into your session with, for example, . C:\temp\quickmigrate.ps1
You can also include it in your PowerCLI profile to have it automatically included.
Command Usage: get-vm MyTestVM
Quick-MigrateVM "MyTestHost2"

Original Link
http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-10441

Want to Learn Powershell for ESX?

A VI Toolkit Hands-on Lab Manual to help you started with Powershell and VMware

Top-10-PowerShell-scripts-that-VMware-administrators-should-use