Thursday, August 27, 2015

VMworld 2014 Recap

Well, VMworld 2015 is next week so I guess I'd better get this one published!  I actually found this sitting in my drafts, I was waiting for a picture to come through which took so long I forgot to go back and publish it after receiving it!  So here it is in all it's glory...

This was my first VMworld as an employee.  My new role gave me a unique perspective to the conference.  Having attended every previous conference as a VMware customer has given me knowledge and experience I can pass on to my customers so they can get the most out of the conference.

Consequently, I walked through the Solutions Exchange but didn't spend as much time there as I normally do.  I attended a whopping one break-out session, and all of the general sessions.  Why?  Because I spent most of my time with my customers - assisting them in some form or shape.  I also spent a lot of time at TAM Customer Central.  What is TCC you ask?  It's a top secret location we reserve for VMware TAM customers where we provide special break-out sessions not available to VMworld attendees, receptions and meeting rooms among other things.

The theme this year was NO LIMITS.  Here is some cool desktop wallpaper for you:

And here is the Moscone all dressed up:

We were asked to provide pics of us with our customers for use as a collage at VMworld to be displayed at various times such as just before and after the general sessions.  Here's the pic I sent in with "Mr. Corvette" Jarod and his red sports car that made us mini-celebrities for the week:

Another one of those TAM customer benefits is the Hands-on Labs VIP tour.  This gives select customers a behind-the-scenes look at HOL operations and how the whole thing is managed.  Check out these stats:


Its interesting that the NSX lab remained the most popular lab during the entire conference - indicates a lot of interest by our customers.  And, consequently I think, this product continues to gain momentum in the marketplace.

And pics of how we used Log Insight and vCOps to monitor the environment via custom dashboards:




Even though I attended as a VMware employee this year, I was still invited to the CTO party (I had customers in attendance, so I'm sure that helped):

Why yes Johnny, everything is better with bacon:




And a pic from the Alumni Elite pre-party party - the pic I was waiting for as it was taken by someone else's camera - which wouldn't be complete without a shot with the big guy (me=literally, Mr. Gelsinger=figuratively):

And finally, lookie at what I found:

I found a "Meet the Experts" area hidden (not really) on the third floor of Moscone West.  If you have any technical or strategic product questions, these are the guys to ask and anyone can sign-up.  I highly recommend this resource if we offer it again in 2015.

Here's to seeing you there next year (he says with bacon in one hand, bourbon in the other)!

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Moving a DFS-Replicated Share to a New Drive

Here is the process I've followed successfully several times:

Add drives/VMDKs to file server VM

In the Windows OS:

  •    I used 500GB VMDKs and created a Spanned Volume
  •    Use GPT partition style to allow volumes greater than 2TB (future-proof the volume)
  •    Use Dynamic type disk to allow for Spanned Volumes
  •    I named the volume "Spanned" so I could easily recognize the drive

Copy Data to the new volume

Create Robocopy batch file on C drive:


robocopy d:\home n:\home /E /DCOPY:T /COPYALL /R:1 /W:1 /NP /LOG:c:\scripts\HomeCopy.log
The source path should include the directory on the root drive (probably drive D) because of inherited permissions
Run this once per day to minimize the amount of files required to be copied for the final sync
Perform the final sync

Stop DFS Replication service

Stop DFS Namespace service

Delete the share

Run last robocopy batch file

Make sure to close all sessions (except yours) and open files.

Delete the old pagefile

wmic computersystem set AutomaticManagedPagefile=False
wmic pagefile (lists pagefiles)
wmic pagefileset where name="D:\\pagefile.sys" delete



Switch Drive Letters

Final Robocopy job must be complete!
Review the log file to ensure all files have been copied in the final pass.
Note that Robocopy will probably error on "desktop.ini" files - these are unimortant and will re-created by the OS so you can safely ignore these errors on these files.

Delete all data on the replicated share

DFSR will notice the drive has changed and will try to do a full sync.  If you don't perform this step the replicated share destination will likely fill up and run out of space.

Start DFS Replication service
Start DFS Namespace service
OR REBOOT SERVER

Create Pagefile on new drive

Create new instance:

wmic.exe pagefileset create name="D:\pagefile.sys"

Set Size:

wmic.exe pagefileset where name="D:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=8191,MaximumSize=8191

Dont' use "MB" at end of size (ulike MS KB); Set for 8191MB (Good for 8GB system)
shutdown -r -f -t 0

For memory dump files and other settings, see:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee424384(WS.10).aspx

Post Move Testing
Test namespace
Test replication
Test VSS

Troubleshooting

Check the log files at C:\Windows\Debug

If you see the message "content not set" in the log run the following command to set primary replication membership:
DFSRADMIN Membership Set /RGName:<replication group name> /RFName:<replicated folder name> /MemName:<member you want to be primary> /IsPrimary:True

See:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725893(WS.10).aspx - What happens during the initial replication

Check the DFS Management MMC

Re-add namespace server if its missing.
Also try disabling/re-enabling target folder.