Just a quick note to let everyone know that I have decided to post articles related to VMware, virtualization and cloud computing to a new blog: http://vmclouds.e-wilkin.com
I will leave current posts as-is but new content will be posted to the new blog. I will continue to post my other ramblings here moving forward.
Friday, September 8, 2017
Sunday, March 12, 2017
New NAS Build Update 1
After working with Rockstor and weighing my options with HDDs, I've decided to go a slightly different direction...
NAS OS
I'm a big CentOS fan. I also have been wanting to learn more about Docker and BTRFS. This makes Rockstor with its "Rock-ons" and BTRFS filesystem the perfect choice. Or does it?
BTRFS
BTRFS seems to be Linux's answer to ZFS. However, it is not nearly as mature, feature complete or ready for primetime in my opinion. I wanted to work with 4+ drives which implies a RAID5/6 type of setup. I quickly found that BTRFS has some serious problems with its RAID5/6 implementation to the point where it corrupts data and therefore is not recommended for production. I could buy a true hardware-based RAID card for around $100, but I'm trying to avoid spending additional coin on this build (see Hardware section).
XPEnology
I'm "upgrading" from a Synology NAS. I love the simplicity and the 'it just works' factor it provides. Finding a NAS OS that provides a similar experience has proven to be difficult. Rockstor will not let you use any non-BTRFS filesystems on data drives. Per the RAID issue above and the fact that I did not get very good support from their somewhat inactive forums rules out Rockstor for this build. About the same time I started running into obstacles with Rockstor, I stumbled upon XPEnology.
While not officially supported by Synology, it is based on their OSS code and the forum appears fairly active. I've been testing it in a VM while waiting for some additional hardware parts to arrive (see hardware section). This is basically DSM on your hardware of choice. The real test will be the installation on the TS140-based system. This is in no way my final decision on the NAS OS as further testing is required.
Hardware
The more I worked with the TS140's case, the less I liked it. Both internal drive trays require an L-shaped SATA connector since they're so close to the side of the case. Lenovo only provides one. That was the final straw. Luckily, I had a storage server case, an ARK 4U-500-CA that I was about to list on Craigslist but decided to use for this build. It fits nicely with my 'low cost, greater flexibility' theme. The rackmount hardware is removable. Just add some rubber feet on the bottom and presto-chango - it's a server tower case! It can hold at least 10 drives, has great air-flow and best of all - its free (to me).
In the next update, I'll detail the fun of moving the TS140 guts into a new case and some additional decisions required based on the number of drives needed.
NAS OS
I'm a big CentOS fan. I also have been wanting to learn more about Docker and BTRFS. This makes Rockstor with its "Rock-ons" and BTRFS filesystem the perfect choice. Or does it?
BTRFS
BTRFS seems to be Linux's answer to ZFS. However, it is not nearly as mature, feature complete or ready for primetime in my opinion. I wanted to work with 4+ drives which implies a RAID5/6 type of setup. I quickly found that BTRFS has some serious problems with its RAID5/6 implementation to the point where it corrupts data and therefore is not recommended for production. I could buy a true hardware-based RAID card for around $100, but I'm trying to avoid spending additional coin on this build (see Hardware section).
XPEnology
I'm "upgrading" from a Synology NAS. I love the simplicity and the 'it just works' factor it provides. Finding a NAS OS that provides a similar experience has proven to be difficult. Rockstor will not let you use any non-BTRFS filesystems on data drives. Per the RAID issue above and the fact that I did not get very good support from their somewhat inactive forums rules out Rockstor for this build. About the same time I started running into obstacles with Rockstor, I stumbled upon XPEnology.
While not officially supported by Synology, it is based on their OSS code and the forum appears fairly active. I've been testing it in a VM while waiting for some additional hardware parts to arrive (see hardware section). This is basically DSM on your hardware of choice. The real test will be the installation on the TS140-based system. This is in no way my final decision on the NAS OS as further testing is required.
Hardware
The more I worked with the TS140's case, the less I liked it. Both internal drive trays require an L-shaped SATA connector since they're so close to the side of the case. Lenovo only provides one. That was the final straw. Luckily, I had a storage server case, an ARK 4U-500-CA that I was about to list on Craigslist but decided to use for this build. It fits nicely with my 'low cost, greater flexibility' theme. The rackmount hardware is removable. Just add some rubber feet on the bottom and presto-chango - it's a server tower case! It can hold at least 10 drives, has great air-flow and best of all - its free (to me).
In the next update, I'll detail the fun of moving the TS140 guts into a new case and some additional decisions required based on the number of drives needed.
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Time for a (NAS) Change
I have been running the DVR feature of Plex for several months now. During the same time the message "this server is not powerful enough to convert video" kept popping up intermittently preventing some videos from playing. Oddly enough, it doesn't happen all of the time on all shows, but enough to be more than annoying. Another thing I couldn't understand is why it was trying to transcode video at all when I have this option turned off for local streaming.
I was finally able to determine that the tuners record TV shows using the older MPEG-2 video standard which is still used to broadcast HD television today. On the other hand, Plex wants to stream video using the newer H.264 standard. Therefore, Plex will convert recorded TV shows on-the-fly (transcode) when streaming to Plex clients.
My existing NAS is a Synology DS713+ running Plex Media Server along with several other applications. Upon researching this problem, I found a list of compatible NAS devices along with performance notes here: Plex NAS Compatibility List.
What this list tells me is that I have to spend around $1500 to get a Synology box that does not have any problems streaming 1080P HD video (mostly due to the requirement a modern Intel Core I3 CPU or higher). I love my Synology but not that much - its hard to justify that kind of coin when I can build a system twice as powerful for half the price (or better).
So now I've decided to build my own. I used to build and repair systems over twenty years ago and its interesting how little has really changes with system components. I have spare disks, a RAID controller (if needed) and so my requirements are relatively light:
Form-factor: Tower
CPU: Xeon proc (no more problems with transcoding)
Memory: At least 4GB ECC RAM but expandable
Disk: capable of at least 4 disks, hot-swappable nice-to-have]
Quiet (will live in my office)
Cheap (I'm poor... and cheap)
I narrowed the system choice down to the Dell PowerEdge T20 or the Lenovo ThinkServer TS140. These units are nearly identical and I wanted to go with the Dell but the ThinkServer prides itself in being quiet (26 decibels) and has an extra PCI slot that pushed it over the 'edge (hidden pun). I ordered the ThinkServer from eBay/Newegg here: Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 70A4003AUX Tower Server
A note on memory: I'm going to try the 4GB of memory to start. It comes as a single DIMM (as opposed to two or more DIMMs) which leaves three open slots. So if more memory is needed I can add another 4GB DIMM later. I had tried running a custom built storage server three or four years ago using a desktop board with non-ECC memory running FreeNAS. I had read on the forums multiple warnings that only ECC memory should be used due to the risk of bit rot and eventual data corruption. Well, it only took a couple weeks before VMs stored on that systems starting becoming corrupted. Having been bit by this bug, I won't run a storage server without ECC memory and highly, highly, highly recommend you do the same.
A note on storage: I'm going to reuse the two 4TB drives in my Synology for this system in addition to two more 4TB drives I'll purchase for this build. The TS140 has an integrated hardware RAID controller. So for the data volume, I'll install the two new drives and pull one of the Synology drives for a total of three. Then transfer the data off the Synology to the new system. Once I'm satisfied everything is in good working order, I'll pull the fourth drive and install into the new system, expand the volume, etc. Then I'll have a very nice DS713+ for sale!
A note on the OS: I will miss the easy UI experience Synology DSM provides. However, I have found a decent alternative: Rockstor. I looked at several options: OpenFiler (dead) NexentaStor, FreeNAS, etc. But Rockstor offers features that I really want: web-based interface, based on CentOS 7, Docker-based plugin system called Rock-ons, optimized to run from an USB drive and Apple Time Machine Support. I also use the Synology for security cameras but found Rockstor also supports ZoneMinder video surveillance system.
It's not all rainbows and unicorns though. I'm not very confident about BTRFS (pronounced 'butter FS'). Rockstor recommends against using RAID5 or 6 for production systems. No worries for me since I'm using hardware-based RAID. I've also read that newer versions are much more stable than early releases. So while they tout BTRFS as a big feature, it may actually be their biggest drawback. Time and testing will tell. There must be a reason that many if not most NAS companies are now offering this filesystem as an option on their devices.
Also note that the TS140 has an internal USB port - perfect for a USB flash drive to host the OS.
Here's the parts list:
System: Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 70A4003AUX Tower Server = $320
4TB Enterprise SATA x 2 = $177
16GB USB Flash Drive: Transcend 16GB JetFlash 820 = $10
Operating System: Rockstor = Free
RAID Adapter (if needed): PERC H310 = Free
NIC Adapter = Intel Quad port = Free
Application Mapping:
Plex Media Server (Synology package) = PMS Rock-on (Rock-on)
Surveillance Station (Synology package) = ZoneMinder (Rock-on)
CrashPlan (Community Package) = CrashPlan (Rock-on or native)
Photo Station (Synology Package) = TBD
Download Station (Synology Station) = CouchPotato? TBD
So for $100 less I'll have a systems that's much more powerful and expandable than a Synology 916+ with twice the capacity. I'll follow-up with some additional thoughts once I have run this build through its paces.
I was finally able to determine that the tuners record TV shows using the older MPEG-2 video standard which is still used to broadcast HD television today. On the other hand, Plex wants to stream video using the newer H.264 standard. Therefore, Plex will convert recorded TV shows on-the-fly (transcode) when streaming to Plex clients.
My existing NAS is a Synology DS713+ running Plex Media Server along with several other applications. Upon researching this problem, I found a list of compatible NAS devices along with performance notes here: Plex NAS Compatibility List.
What this list tells me is that I have to spend around $1500 to get a Synology box that does not have any problems streaming 1080P HD video (mostly due to the requirement a modern Intel Core I3 CPU or higher). I love my Synology but not that much - its hard to justify that kind of coin when I can build a system twice as powerful for half the price (or better).
So now I've decided to build my own. I used to build and repair systems over twenty years ago and its interesting how little has really changes with system components. I have spare disks, a RAID controller (if needed) and so my requirements are relatively light:
Form-factor: Tower
CPU: Xeon proc (no more problems with transcoding)
Memory: At least 4GB ECC RAM but expandable
Disk: capable of at least 4 disks, hot-swappable nice-to-have]
Quiet (will live in my office)
Cheap (I'm poor... and cheap)
I narrowed the system choice down to the Dell PowerEdge T20 or the Lenovo ThinkServer TS140. These units are nearly identical and I wanted to go with the Dell but the ThinkServer prides itself in being quiet (26 decibels) and has an extra PCI slot that pushed it over the 'edge (hidden pun). I ordered the ThinkServer from eBay/Newegg here: Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 70A4003AUX Tower Server
A note on memory: I'm going to try the 4GB of memory to start. It comes as a single DIMM (as opposed to two or more DIMMs) which leaves three open slots. So if more memory is needed I can add another 4GB DIMM later. I had tried running a custom built storage server three or four years ago using a desktop board with non-ECC memory running FreeNAS. I had read on the forums multiple warnings that only ECC memory should be used due to the risk of bit rot and eventual data corruption. Well, it only took a couple weeks before VMs stored on that systems starting becoming corrupted. Having been bit by this bug, I won't run a storage server without ECC memory and highly, highly, highly recommend you do the same.
A note on storage: I'm going to reuse the two 4TB drives in my Synology for this system in addition to two more 4TB drives I'll purchase for this build. The TS140 has an integrated hardware RAID controller. So for the data volume, I'll install the two new drives and pull one of the Synology drives for a total of three. Then transfer the data off the Synology to the new system. Once I'm satisfied everything is in good working order, I'll pull the fourth drive and install into the new system, expand the volume, etc. Then I'll have a very nice DS713+ for sale!
A note on the OS: I will miss the easy UI experience Synology DSM provides. However, I have found a decent alternative: Rockstor. I looked at several options: OpenFiler (dead) NexentaStor, FreeNAS, etc. But Rockstor offers features that I really want: web-based interface, based on CentOS 7, Docker-based plugin system called Rock-ons, optimized to run from an USB drive and Apple Time Machine Support. I also use the Synology for security cameras but found Rockstor also supports ZoneMinder video surveillance system.
It's not all rainbows and unicorns though. I'm not very confident about BTRFS (pronounced 'butter FS'). Rockstor recommends against using RAID5 or 6 for production systems. No worries for me since I'm using hardware-based RAID. I've also read that newer versions are much more stable than early releases. So while they tout BTRFS as a big feature, it may actually be their biggest drawback. Time and testing will tell. There must be a reason that many if not most NAS companies are now offering this filesystem as an option on their devices.
Also note that the TS140 has an internal USB port - perfect for a USB flash drive to host the OS.
Here's the parts list:
System: Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 70A4003AUX Tower Server = $320
4TB Enterprise SATA x 2 = $177
16GB USB Flash Drive: Transcend 16GB JetFlash 820 = $10
Operating System: Rockstor = Free
RAID Adapter (if needed): PERC H310 = Free
NIC Adapter = Intel Quad port = Free
Application Mapping:
Plex Media Server (Synology package) = PMS Rock-on (Rock-on)
Surveillance Station (Synology package) = ZoneMinder (Rock-on)
CrashPlan (Community Package) = CrashPlan (Rock-on or native)
Photo Station (Synology Package) = TBD
Download Station (Synology Station) = CouchPotato? TBD
So for $100 less I'll have a systems that's much more powerful and expandable than a Synology 916+ with twice the capacity. I'll follow-up with some additional thoughts once I have run this build through its paces.
Thursday, July 28, 2016
VMworld 2016: The End of an Era
I sadly report that I will not be attending VMworld 2016 this year. This will be the first conference I've missed - "13" really is an unlucky number! I was not selected per the criteria my organization used to determine who goes and who stays. I respect their decision, but that doesn't change the fact that I will be watching the general sessions remotely on a computer screen. Yeah, that won't quite be the same - no assisting customers, meeting friends, attending sessions or keeping up with what's going on with partners in the Solutions Exchange this year for me.
My passion for the conference won't change - I still believe it to be the best IT conference and highly recommend attending.
So the VMworld Alumni Elite group will be at least one less this year. What a prestigious group! I know from meeting with these guys year after year that they have a real passion for VMworld, VMware and its products. Guys - I'll catch up with you next time!
Its ironic - during my interview I was told that the surest way to not attend VMworld was to become a VMware employee. My first year VMware decided to send my entire organization! My second year they decided to send most of the organization, yours truly included. This is my third year and it appears as though my luck has run out.
I did try multiple alternative options but none of those panned-out. So all good things must come to an end? C'est la vie - its the end of an era... and the start of a new era - carpe diem!
For those that are going - have a great conference! For the reset of us, make sure to tune in to the general sessions which will be live-streamed again this year. And don't forget about the breakout sessions that will be made available shortly after the conference.
My passion for the conference won't change - I still believe it to be the best IT conference and highly recommend attending.
So the VMworld Alumni Elite group will be at least one less this year. What a prestigious group! I know from meeting with these guys year after year that they have a real passion for VMworld, VMware and its products. Guys - I'll catch up with you next time!
Its ironic - during my interview I was told that the surest way to not attend VMworld was to become a VMware employee. My first year VMware decided to send my entire organization! My second year they decided to send most of the organization, yours truly included. This is my third year and it appears as though my luck has run out.
I did try multiple alternative options but none of those panned-out. So all good things must come to an end? C'est la vie - its the end of an era... and the start of a new era - carpe diem!
For those that are going - have a great conference! For the reset of us, make sure to tune in to the general sessions which will be live-streamed again this year. And don't forget about the breakout sessions that will be made available shortly after the conference.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Enabling the Digital Enterprise: VMware Announcements
VMware made several major product announcements this week and I'm super-excite about some of the improvements and new features coming our way.
Our EUC team is really firing on all cylinders and continues to update and integrate products. In this case AirWatch, Horizon and Identity Manager are brought together with Workspace One. Did you know we coined the term "Workspace" (well okay, a company we acquired years ago did). I used to be one of those guys that connected to my View desktop and worked from there. Now, more often than not I browse our internal Workspace One portal and launch whatever app I need to get work done. How did I work without this before?
Also worth noting are several SDDC product updates. The big news here is VSAN 6.2 - what an awesome release! VSAN was ready to host your tier 1 applications with the release of 6.0 - now with 6.2's dedupe, compression and RAID5/6 features, the nay-sayers won't be able say it's not ready for the enterprise (well, they can but they would be wrong).
Here is a "Did you know" PSA:
Did you know that if you use vSphere Replication to replicate VMs hosted on VSAN storage, you can set the RPO as low as 5 minutes?
Now you know.
Finally. take a look at the vCloud Suite pricing and packaging changes. We've really change the Suites to refocus on what customer's really want - the tools needed to run a true SDDC datacenter (wait, isn't that redundant?).
- Yesterday’s VMware EUC Announcement
- Horizon 7
- Main: http://www.vmware.com/products/horizon-view/
- Press Release: http://www.vmware.com/go/pr-horizon-app
- VMware Blog: http://blogs.vmware.com/euc/2016/02/vmware-horizon-7.html
- Workspace One
- Main: https://www.vmware.com/products/workspace-one/
- VMware Blog: http://blogs.vmware.com/euc/2016/02/new-vmware-workspace-one.html
- ZDNet Article: http://www.zdnet.com/article/vmwares-workspace-one-targets-mobile-enterprise-with-hybridity/
- PCWorld Article: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3031792/vmware-gives-enterprises-a-byod-boost-with-three-new-tools.html
- Horizon Air with Hybrid Mode
- Main: http://www.vmware.com/cloud-services/desktop/horizon-air-hybrid-mode/
- VMware Blog: http://blogs.vmware.com/euc/2016/02/vmware-horizon-air-hybrid-mode.html
- Madden Article: http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/gabeknuth/archive/2016/02/09/vmware-announces-horizon-air-hybrid-mode_2C00_-plus-horizon-7-and-appvolumes-3-0-here-s-our-full-analysis.aspx
- Today’s SDDC Announcements
- vCloud Suite 7 and vRealize Suite 7
- VMware Blog: http://blogs.vmware.com/management/2016/02/introducing-vmware-vcloud-suite-7-vrealize-suite-7.html
- CTR Article: http://wwpi.com/vmware-advances-cloud-management-platform-debuts-all-flash-hyper-converged-solutions/
- vRealize Operations 6.2
- Main: https://www.vmware.com/products/vrealize-operations/
- VMware : Bloghttps://blogs.vmware.com/management/2016/02/whats-new-in-vrealize-operations-6-2.html
- vRealize Log Insight 3.3
- Main: http://www.vmware.com/products/vrealize-log-insight
- VMware Blog: https://blogs.vmware.com/management/2016/02/whats-new-log-insight-3-3.html
- vRealize Automation 7
- Main: https://www.vmware.com/products/vrealize-automation
- VMware Blog: http://blogs.vmware.com/management/2015/11/whats-new-vrealize-automation-7.html
- vRealize Business for Cloud 7
- Main: https://www.vmware.com/products/vrealize-business-for-cloud/
- VMware Blog: https://blogs.vmware.com/management/2016/02/changes-vrealize-business-pricing-packaging.html
- Virtual SAN (VSAN) 6.2
- Main: http://www.vmware.com/products/whats-new-virtual-san.html
- VMware Blog: http://blogs.vmware.com/virtualblocks/2016/02/10/whats-new-vmware-virtual-san-6-2/
- Duncan’s Blog: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2016/02/10/whats-new-for-virtual-san-6-2/
- Cormac’s Blog: http://cormachogan.com/2016/02/10/vsan-6-2-an-overview-of-the-new-virtual-san-6-2-features/
- StorageReview Article: http://www.storagereview.com/vmware_introduces_vsan_62_with_an_eye_on_allflash
- New pricing and packaging
Replay’s of this week's events are available here: http://www.vmware.com/digitalenterprise
vROps Alert: One or more ports on the Distributed Port Group are experiencing network contention due to dropped packets
Here is a vROps problem experienced by one of my customers:
Alert: One or more ports are experiencing network connection
This compliance state applies mainly to patches. The target object has a newer version of the patch. For example, if a patch has multiple versions, after you apply the latest version to the host, the earlier versions of the patch are in Obsoleted By Host compliance state.
(https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.update_manager.doc_50%2FGUID-EBAA4F4A-57E0-45ED-8730-4B851FC846A9.html)
Alert: One or more ports are experiencing network connection
(One or more ports on the Distributed Port Group are experiencing network contention due to dropped packets)
There was no evidence in vCenter that packets were being dropped. The customer found KB2105109: VMware vRealize Operations Manager counters report false dropped packets on vSphere Distributed Switches with the alert: One or more ports are experiencing network contention
However, this seems to only apply to vROps 6.0.x and the customer is running the 6.2.x release. An SR was opened and the support tech recommended the fix per KB2052917: vCenter Server 5.1/5.5/6.0 performance charts report dropped network packets
Okay great, so a patch needs to be applied to the ESXi 5.5 host. The customer tried to applied the patch via VUM but it was marked obsoleted. "Obsoleted" is an Update Manager compliance state. As explained in the Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager documentation:
This compliance state applies mainly to patches. The target object has a newer version of the patch. For example, if a patch has multiple versions, after you apply the latest version to the host, the earlier versions of the patch are in Obsoleted By Host compliance state.
(https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.update_manager.doc_50%2FGUID-EBAA4F4A-57E0-45ED-8730-4B851FC846A9.html)
Hmmm.... so the host has a newer version of the patch, so now what?
After some discussion we landed on the fact that the vCenter instance managing this host was likely the culprit as it has a patch level several versions behind the host. I always recommend customers keep their vCenter and ESXi hosts at the same Update patch level. Installing patches on hosts in-between major Updates is okay. In this case, they were on different Update versions.
The vCenter instance was patched to the latest update and voila, the error disappeared from vROps.
Monday, February 1, 2016
Horizon View Restart/Reboot Sequence
View admins - please make sure you restart View infrastructure servers in the proper order for fastest uptime! I recently had a customer that rebooted vCenter and View servers in an effort to fix an apparent connection problem. When they did not appear to be coming online fast enough, the admin rebooted them again.
Now normally rebooting these servers can cause ADLDS synchronization to take up to fifteen minutes or so, but rebooting them again, before the initial sync completes, can cause them to take thirty minutes or more - and then leave inconsistencies within the pools.
For more information on the proper boot sequence:
Restart order of the View environment to clear ADLDS (ADAM) synchronization in View 4.5, 4.6, 5.0, and 5.1
And to clear out any inconsistencies:
Manually deleting linked clones or stale virtual desktop entries from the View Composer database in VMware View Manager and VMware Horizon ViewThursday, 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)!
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:
And pics of how we used Log Insight and vCOps to monitor the environment via custom dashboards:
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):
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:
robocopy d:\home n:\home /E /DCOPY:T /COPYALL /R:1 /W:1 /NP /LOG:c:\scripts\HomeCopy.logThe 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
Start DFS Replication service
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
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
Also try disabling/re-enabling target folder.
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.logThe 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.
wmic pagefile (lists pagefiles)
wmic pagefileset where name="D:\\pagefile.sys" delete
Delete the old pagefile
wmic computersystem set AutomaticManagedPagefile=Falsewmic 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.
Friday, August 22, 2014
Back in Black!
I hit the sack. It's been too long I'm glad to be back...
Yes, it has been one year since I've blogged on VMware and virtualization. Well, in my defense, a lot has happened keeping me from spending quality time with my beloved blog.
My biggest excuse = I joined VMware! I am a Technical Account Manager for customers in the Dayton/Cincinnati area. Shameless plug = if you would like to know more about what a TAM can do for you, please reach out to me by leaving a comment and I'll get back to you.
I was warned that the first year is like drinking from the fire hose and I found that to be true, but in a good way. So yes, I did neglect my blog to the point of having to delete drafts that are no longer relevant.
But the good new is: I'm back! I've personally re-committed to posting articles on a more-frequent/regular basis (although not on a specific schedule, no change there).
Note that the opinions in my blog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect that of my employer. Also note the subject matter won't change either - I won't post "newsie" articles as there are too many other blogs that do a good job of that.
What I will publish are articles describing technical problems I'm seeing in the field along with their resolution. I may also post articles of a more strategic nature on occasion.
My experience with customers in the field gives me a unique perspective (and fresh content!) on many IT topics. Three of my accounts are in healthcare so I may also publish articles discussing challenges specific to that segment.
Finally, next week is VMworld 2014! I'm doing things a little differently this year - instead of one VMworld recap article (which I may still publish), I'm going to try to post bits through-out the week so stay tuned!
Sunday, February 23, 2014
They Don't Make 'em Like They Used To
Such a cliche, but so true when it comes to printers. I purchased an HP OfficeJet Pro L7590 for $160 about 3 years ago and it recently failed. The print heads need to be replaced. The cheapest price I could find? $68 each and this printer needs 2 - that's almost the price I paid for it!!! After further investigation I discovered this is an all-to-common scenario. Manufacturers are making printers cheap (as in low quality), selling them cheap (as in low-price) and making money on the expensive consumables - ink, paper, printheads, etc. If your printer experiences a problem not covered under warranty, in most cases it's cheaper to pitch it and buy a new one than to get it fixed. Does this make any sense?
The OfficeJet printed quality prints while it lasted, but now is relegated to scanning duties, since that's the only function that works on it.
Around the same time, my HP LaserJet 4100 started printing really bad lines and other artifacts on the paper. Here is an example:
First, let me tell you a little bit about this printer. I acquired it from a previous employer that was just going to throw it away. I literally saved it just before it was going to be thrown in the dumpster. It wasn't working and the help desk administrators figured it was cheaper to pitch it than get it fixed. This thing did live on the factory floor in a harsh environment. It had a thin covering of black soot and looked even worse inside.
I took it home and the following weekend blew out as much gunk as I could with my air compressor. It still wouldn't work. I noticed it had a memory DIMM installed so I removed it, cleaned out the area and reinstalled the module. Voila! The printer booted successfully. The toner cartridge had about a 1000 more pages left! Test prints looked nice and clean.
It continued to create great looking output for about 2 years, then started experiencing the problem mentioned previously. After further investigation, one of the suggestions was to replace the toner cartridge. I purchased a refurbished cartridge and installed it into the printer but no luck, same problem. Then I found what would finally fix the problem and wouldn't you know, the part costs $20! Wait... what? I don't have to throw the whole thing out? Yep, and let me tell you, these things are built like tanks. HP probably hates how so many 4x00's are still in production. For $20, why not fix it? Yes, they are somewhat slow compared to newer laser printers and it's only black/white, but the price per page is very low.
If you see lines on pages like the one pictured above, you most likely need a new fuser sleeve. In some cases, I would recommend a whole fuser kit, which runs roughly $60. In my case, I decided to try replacing the fuser sleeve with a new one I purchased on eBay (made in America, ironically enough).
The old one looked like this:
Notice the lines and discoloration on the sides. There's even a small piece of paper "fused" to the sleeve on the far left. Now here's what a new one looks like:
Notice the smooth, even and darker black color of the sleeve. It was very easy to replace - here's a link to a video with step-by-step instructions:
Now, the output looks like this:
Okay, so now that we've replaced the fuser sleeve and the output is looking great. Let's reset the page/paper and maintenance counts.
The OfficeJet printed quality prints while it lasted, but now is relegated to scanning duties, since that's the only function that works on it.
Around the same time, my HP LaserJet 4100 started printing really bad lines and other artifacts on the paper. Here is an example:
First, let me tell you a little bit about this printer. I acquired it from a previous employer that was just going to throw it away. I literally saved it just before it was going to be thrown in the dumpster. It wasn't working and the help desk administrators figured it was cheaper to pitch it than get it fixed. This thing did live on the factory floor in a harsh environment. It had a thin covering of black soot and looked even worse inside.
I took it home and the following weekend blew out as much gunk as I could with my air compressor. It still wouldn't work. I noticed it had a memory DIMM installed so I removed it, cleaned out the area and reinstalled the module. Voila! The printer booted successfully. The toner cartridge had about a 1000 more pages left! Test prints looked nice and clean.
It continued to create great looking output for about 2 years, then started experiencing the problem mentioned previously. After further investigation, one of the suggestions was to replace the toner cartridge. I purchased a refurbished cartridge and installed it into the printer but no luck, same problem. Then I found what would finally fix the problem and wouldn't you know, the part costs $20! Wait... what? I don't have to throw the whole thing out? Yep, and let me tell you, these things are built like tanks. HP probably hates how so many 4x00's are still in production. For $20, why not fix it? Yes, they are somewhat slow compared to newer laser printers and it's only black/white, but the price per page is very low.
If you see lines on pages like the one pictured above, you most likely need a new fuser sleeve. In some cases, I would recommend a whole fuser kit, which runs roughly $60. In my case, I decided to try replacing the fuser sleeve with a new one I purchased on eBay (made in America, ironically enough).
The old one looked like this:
Notice the lines and discoloration on the sides. There's even a small piece of paper "fused" to the sleeve on the far left. Now here's what a new one looks like:
Notice the smooth, even and darker black color of the sleeve. It was very easy to replace - here's a link to a video with step-by-step instructions:
Now, the output looks like this:
Okay, so now that we've replaced the fuser sleeve and the output is looking great. Let's reset the page/paper and maintenance counts.
Reset Paper Count Procedure:
- Turn the printer off
- Hold down the value - and item - keys (the left side)
- Switch the printer on
- Release the keys when the display changes to reset maintenance count.
- Turn the printer off
- Turn the printer on
- Press the select button when the memory starts to count and hold down until all three LEDs illuminate
- Release the select button
- Press up arrow until the message new maintenance kit is displayed on the control panel
- Press select, the display will read new maintenance kit and the printer will reset.
Beautiful! So if you come across an HP LaserJet 4x00, especially for free and even if it doesn't work, I highly recommend taking it home and spending an hour getting it working for years of future service. They don't make printers like these anymore.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Post-VMworld 2013 Recap
Okay, yes, it's been too long coming, but it's finally here - my VMworld recap. Now, I have a good excuse, but you'll have to read the next post for that! Note that most of this was written shortly after the event, so in that since the content is "timely". So here it is, enjoy!
Theme: Defy Convention - on the steps, pretty cool:
Ten years baby, yes!
There was the "10th Annual" wall this year where we all got our pics posted (and by all, and mean every attendee that wanted to have their pic posted). We were one of the first pics taken so they're at the bottom of the "1". Can you see me?
No? Okay, then here's a close-up:
VMworld seemed to be about one word for VMware this year: focus. I could see the focus (or re-focus in some cases) on the entire stack from the virtual infrastructure to hybrid cloud computing. This focus seems to be coming from a renewed customer focus = they're really listening. Proof-in-point = The shifting of vCloud Director features to vSphere and vCloud Automation Center, leaving the multi-tenant capabilities for cloud providers. I really believe we have Pat Gelsinger to thank for this along with his management team. With this renewed focus on customers, market and product/feature mix, I think VMware has really put itself in the position to continue to be on the forefront of innovation and an agent of change in the IT world.
Here are some other words that really defined VMworld 2013:
SSD
Flash
Software Defined x (datacenter, networking, storage, etc.)
Convergence (this time, as in compute, network and storage)
Imagine Dragons/Train
Alumni Elite (34 left!)
Server-side flash
Server-side cache
VSAN
vSphere 5.5
NSX
Did I mention SSDs?
Location: San Francisco this year and again next year - I really have nothing else to say about it. I go there for the conference. I actually prefer Vegas, but to each his own.
Keynotes: As I mentioned, this year was about a renewed focus on product mix and the datacenter stack including the following four areas - Compute, Storage, Networking and Operations.
The big story in Compute is the announcement of vSphere 5.5. This will be a big release with a many improvements and new features. I won't detail them in this post but you can read about them here:
https://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10385
The big story in Storage was, of course, VMware's new VSAN feature/technology. And they announced a public beta you can download here:
http://www.vmware.com/vsan-beta-register
VMworld App: Much better this year. WiFi still weak during the general sessions, and it didn't help that the app was updated a half-million times during the event but I suppose there were a lot of schedule changes(?).
Alumni Elite Event: Whoa! The 10 year Alumni Elite event was, in a word, awesome! They bused us down to Candlestick, er, AT&T park an hour before the VMworld party. We got our own locker in the Giants locker room, along with great food and drink. I'm not a big fan of clam chowder but it was so highly recommended I figured I had nothing to lose. Holy cow, it was fantastic!
There were many highlights on this night, meeting VMware's CMO, Robin Matlock, was certainly one:
Getting to talk shop with VMware's CEO, Pat Gelsinger again this year was fantastic:
![]()
I also got to meet VMware's COO, Carl Eschenbach. Let me tell you, all three of these executives were very down-to-earth, highly energetic, and very excited about VMware and the future of IT. I really didn't expect them to be as genuine and accessible as they were but I was pleasantly surprised. I really shouldn't have been since VMware is a great company that attracts great talent.
Later that evening we get to try the batting cages - 60MPH pitches, not a bad workout. Out of six pitches, I made solid contact with three of them, whiffed one, got out of the way of one and fouled the last. Pat is up after me and let me just say he made me look bad, and this was supposedly after only two hours of sleep!
Finally, I was told there are 34 of us left. I only count 27 in this picture, so several didn't make it to the pre-party event. We seem to lose about 10 per year. 25 next year? I wonder who will be the last one standing?
VMworld Party: Time to head out to the party:
It was a real "festive" atmosphere. The entertainment for the night was Imagine Dragons and Train. I thought both groups put on a great show. Train was a bit of a surprise for me - I didn't realize how entertaining they would be nor did I realize how many of their songs I know until I heard them:
Solutions Exhibit: There was another record number of exhibitors this year. As always I highly recommend hitting the floor and talking to as many vendors as you can. It a great way to discover new tools or solutions you may not have known even existed. No unique schwag to report on this year, however there was still a lot of it if you wanted it. And again, I didn't win anything - not that I tried very hard though. There's always a group that hits it really hard. I guess I don't have the patience, especially when I know the odds are quite high against me.
Attendance: If there's one thing that's consistent about VMworld, it's that the attendance numbers go up every year and this year was no different: over 30,000 - another record.
Break-out Sessions: I attended more of these this year than previous years and found them to be very useful. This encourages me to go back to VMworld.com and view the ones I missed. If you can't make VMworld, I highly recommended buying a subscription to gain access to the sessions.
Hands-on Labs: These are all about timing - if you go at the right time, there's little-to-no line. On the other hand, I saw lines that wrapped around the corner and outside of the building(!). I'll try to take note of the best times next year, but for now my advice is if the line is long, keep checking back. On a positive note, I did notice the line seemed to move at a decent pace.
Adventure: So we asked a cabbie to take us to Gordon Biersch brewery/restaurant. We had gone there the previous year and they had good food, great beer and scenery over-looking the bay. So he drops us off at what looks like the right spot and takes off. Walking up the steps we saw this:
Gordon Biersch = closed. New Mozilla offices = opened. At least it was tech-related? Weird. As we were walking back toward the pier, we stumbled upon an indoor/outdoor restaurant with a decent beer selection, so not all was lost!
So another great VMworld again this year. What will next year bring? All we know for certain is that it will be in San Francisco at the Moscone Center, August 25th-28th.
One last thing... why were there Hyper-V books in the store?
Until next year...
Theme: Defy Convention - on the steps, pretty cool:
There was the "10th Annual" wall this year where we all got our pics posted (and by all, and mean every attendee that wanted to have their pic posted). We were one of the first pics taken so they're at the bottom of the "1". Can you see me?
VMworld seemed to be about one word for VMware this year: focus. I could see the focus (or re-focus in some cases) on the entire stack from the virtual infrastructure to hybrid cloud computing. This focus seems to be coming from a renewed customer focus = they're really listening. Proof-in-point = The shifting of vCloud Director features to vSphere and vCloud Automation Center, leaving the multi-tenant capabilities for cloud providers. I really believe we have Pat Gelsinger to thank for this along with his management team. With this renewed focus on customers, market and product/feature mix, I think VMware has really put itself in the position to continue to be on the forefront of innovation and an agent of change in the IT world.
Here are some other words that really defined VMworld 2013:
SSD
Flash
Software Defined x (datacenter, networking, storage, etc.)
Convergence (this time, as in compute, network and storage)
Imagine Dragons/Train
Alumni Elite (34 left!)
Server-side flash
Server-side cache
VSAN
vSphere 5.5
NSX
Did I mention SSDs?
Location: San Francisco this year and again next year - I really have nothing else to say about it. I go there for the conference. I actually prefer Vegas, but to each his own.
Keynotes: As I mentioned, this year was about a renewed focus on product mix and the datacenter stack including the following four areas - Compute, Storage, Networking and Operations.
The big story in Compute is the announcement of vSphere 5.5. This will be a big release with a many improvements and new features. I won't detail them in this post but you can read about them here:
https://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10385
The big story in Storage was, of course, VMware's new VSAN feature/technology. And they announced a public beta you can download here:
http://www.vmware.com/vsan-beta-register
VMworld App: Much better this year. WiFi still weak during the general sessions, and it didn't help that the app was updated a half-million times during the event but I suppose there were a lot of schedule changes(?).
Alumni Elite Event: Whoa! The 10 year Alumni Elite event was, in a word, awesome! They bused us down to Candlestick, er, AT&T park an hour before the VMworld party. We got our own locker in the Giants locker room, along with great food and drink. I'm not a big fan of clam chowder but it was so highly recommended I figured I had nothing to lose. Holy cow, it was fantastic!
Getting to talk shop with VMware's CEO, Pat Gelsinger again this year was fantastic:
I also got to meet VMware's COO, Carl Eschenbach. Let me tell you, all three of these executives were very down-to-earth, highly energetic, and very excited about VMware and the future of IT. I really didn't expect them to be as genuine and accessible as they were but I was pleasantly surprised. I really shouldn't have been since VMware is a great company that attracts great talent.
Later that evening we get to try the batting cages - 60MPH pitches, not a bad workout. Out of six pitches, I made solid contact with three of them, whiffed one, got out of the way of one and fouled the last. Pat is up after me and let me just say he made me look bad, and this was supposedly after only two hours of sleep!
Finally, I was told there are 34 of us left. I only count 27 in this picture, so several didn't make it to the pre-party event. We seem to lose about 10 per year. 25 next year? I wonder who will be the last one standing?
VMworld Party: Time to head out to the party:
It was a real "festive" atmosphere. The entertainment for the night was Imagine Dragons and Train. I thought both groups put on a great show. Train was a bit of a surprise for me - I didn't realize how entertaining they would be nor did I realize how many of their songs I know until I heard them:
Solutions Exhibit: There was another record number of exhibitors this year. As always I highly recommend hitting the floor and talking to as many vendors as you can. It a great way to discover new tools or solutions you may not have known even existed. No unique schwag to report on this year, however there was still a lot of it if you wanted it. And again, I didn't win anything - not that I tried very hard though. There's always a group that hits it really hard. I guess I don't have the patience, especially when I know the odds are quite high against me.
Attendance: If there's one thing that's consistent about VMworld, it's that the attendance numbers go up every year and this year was no different: over 30,000 - another record.
Break-out Sessions: I attended more of these this year than previous years and found them to be very useful. This encourages me to go back to VMworld.com and view the ones I missed. If you can't make VMworld, I highly recommended buying a subscription to gain access to the sessions.
Hands-on Labs: These are all about timing - if you go at the right time, there's little-to-no line. On the other hand, I saw lines that wrapped around the corner and outside of the building(!). I'll try to take note of the best times next year, but for now my advice is if the line is long, keep checking back. On a positive note, I did notice the line seemed to move at a decent pace.
Adventure: So we asked a cabbie to take us to Gordon Biersch brewery/restaurant. We had gone there the previous year and they had good food, great beer and scenery over-looking the bay. So he drops us off at what looks like the right spot and takes off. Walking up the steps we saw this:
Gordon Biersch = closed. New Mozilla offices = opened. At least it was tech-related? Weird. As we were walking back toward the pier, we stumbled upon an indoor/outdoor restaurant with a decent beer selection, so not all was lost!
So another great VMworld again this year. What will next year bring? All we know for certain is that it will be in San Francisco at the Moscone Center, August 25th-28th.
One last thing... why were there Hyper-V books in the store?
Until next year...
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
NGD: 1997 Fender American Standard Strat
I scored this one from GC Used for roughly half the going used rate. The reason is because it was refinished - and it was either a terrible job or the previous owner tried to relic it. Either way, the body needs a little TLC.
Until I have the time to properly refinish it, I stuck some stickers on it - one of which may look familiar to some of you. It covers the name "Anna" that was carved into it. I think it looks better now!
Yeah, the stickers really improved the tone. ;)
I've blogged about 90's strats before - the necks are great. The bodies are typically heavier than more modern strats and don't have the same cuts/route measurements. But I think their saddles are an acoustic improvement. I understand the return to "vintage: rolled saddles, but they aren't "better". I A/B this one with my 2011 Fender American Standard strat unplugged and the 90's was certainly louder, more acoustic with more "ring" to it (if that makes any sense).
The '97 pickups are as stratty-quack sounding as any I've heard. The only confusing thing was the lack of a TBX tone pot. It has three CTS pots so my guess is the stock pots were replaced. Whoever did the replacement did it right as all pickups and switch positions function and sound as they should.
It didn't come with the trem bar but I happened to have an extra righty lying around so NBD. I actually like the (opposite) curve though I might try to straighten it out jut a bit.
The neck is in great condition as are the frets. There is some binding at the nut - the slots probably need to be widened a bit with a small dab of graphite. No case but at the price I paid I can't complain.
So there it is, the VMware strat!
Until I have the time to properly refinish it, I stuck some stickers on it - one of which may look familiar to some of you. It covers the name "Anna" that was carved into it. I think it looks better now!
Yeah, the stickers really improved the tone. ;)
I've blogged about 90's strats before - the necks are great. The bodies are typically heavier than more modern strats and don't have the same cuts/route measurements. But I think their saddles are an acoustic improvement. I understand the return to "vintage: rolled saddles, but they aren't "better". I A/B this one with my 2011 Fender American Standard strat unplugged and the 90's was certainly louder, more acoustic with more "ring" to it (if that makes any sense).
The '97 pickups are as stratty-quack sounding as any I've heard. The only confusing thing was the lack of a TBX tone pot. It has three CTS pots so my guess is the stock pots were replaced. Whoever did the replacement did it right as all pickups and switch positions function and sound as they should.
It didn't come with the trem bar but I happened to have an extra righty lying around so NBD. I actually like the (opposite) curve though I might try to straighten it out jut a bit.
The neck is in great condition as are the frets. There is some binding at the nut - the slots probably need to be widened a bit with a small dab of graphite. No case but at the price I paid I can't complain.
So there it is, the VMware strat!
Monday, June 3, 2013
2013 VMware vExpert!
Looks like 2013 is going to be another stellar vYear! I found out last week that I was awarded the vExpert designation again this year. The official announcement and list can be found here:
http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2013/05/vexpert-2013-awardees-announced.html
VMware has a good thing going with this program - it gives them the opportunity to recognize those that are active in the virtualization community and provides benefits to the receivers from both VMware and it's partners. Here's a partial list of the benefits I've received thus far:
http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2013/05/vexpert-2013-awardees-announced.html
VMware has a good thing going with this program - it gives them the opportunity to recognize those that are active in the virtualization community and provides benefits to the receivers from both VMware and it's partners. Here's a partial list of the benefits I've received thus far:
- Eval licenses from VMware
- Polo shirt from Tintri (now x2)
- Free year subscription from Train Signal
- $100 off VMworld registration
- Free license for V-locity Performance Accelerator from Condusiv
- Access to various VMware beta programs like vSphere and Project NEE
On a related note, I also completed registration for VMworld 2013 last week. A decade of VMworld! Keep watching for my VMworld recap in early September.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Re-Purposing an Old EMC Celerra
One of the reasons I was hired by my current employer was to implement an EMC Celerra NS352 NAS/SAN that was purchased the year before. That was six years ago. Since then I have moved all workloads off of this storage and on to other SANs. So what to do with this device? We tried selling it to four different vendors that specialize in used hardware - none of them would take it, not even for free. Ouch! Instead of paying a recycling company to come pick it up, I decided we could re-use it for tier II or III data. Note that the Celerra has a CLARiiON SAN back-end. I was never impressed with the Celerra's performance (putting it nicely) but connecting the CLARiiON directly to the SAN fabric and shutting-down/disconnecting all of the NAS head components should be worth the effort. It does have roughly 13TB of 2Gb fibre drives after-all.
The last EMC recommendation I'm aware of is 1 hot spare per 30 disks.
A word about maintenance: This NAS/SAN system EOL'ed in February of this year. Now the data I'm hosting on here will not be very important - backups, temporary data, test VMs, etc, but if a disk or other component fails (and it will), it would be more than nice to get the item replaced in a timely manner. Enter third-party maintenance. The Celerras were already under third-party maintenance, I simply worked with the existing vendor to convert the asset from Celerra to CLARiiON. This also had the unexpected benefit of further reducing the cost of the maintenance contract.
The following sections document the process and procedures I used to re-purpose the CLARiiON back-end of two Celerras, giving a little more life to what would have otherwise been sent to the scrap heap.
Connect both SPs to Ethernet switch.
Now the remaining steps can be performed remotely.
The following sections document the process and procedures I used to re-purpose the CLARiiON back-end of two Celerras, giving a little more life to what would have otherwise been sent to the scrap heap.
Shutdown and Cabling
- Power off Celerra NAS head (not CLARiiON disk shelves or Service Processor bay)
- Disconnect Ethernet and fiber cables from SP bay.
Re-IP The Service Processors
- Connect a laptop to the Ethernet port on SPA
- Change laptop's IP to 128.221.252.111/255.255.255.0
- Browse to 128.221.252.200 (SPA)
- Logon using nasadmin/nasadmin
- Drill down to SPA, right-click and choose properties
- Under the Network tab, change IP and SP Network Name.
- Unplug the Ethernet cable from SPA an connect to SPB.
Connect both SPs to Ethernet switch.
User Management
I recommend setting up an administrative user to coexist with nasadmin. There is also an existing "admin" user that I would just leave there. I create an account named "Administrator" with a unique password.- Go to the Tools menu and select Security\User Management\Add.
Clean-up Existing LUN
There will likely be many LUNs that were configure for and consumed by the Celerra NAS part of the system. I simply deleted all of these, event the DART/OS LUNs and RAID Groups. I did not have any hosts defined/registered.
Enable Access Logix
- Right-click on the CLARiiON (serial number) and choose Properties
- In the Storage Access tab, in the Data Access pane, check "Access Control Enabled"
Disk Layout/Hot Spares
Next I generate a disk layout report to see what disks are assigned as hot spares. Go to the Reporting node and generate a Configuration\Available Storage report. Check to see where the current hot spare disks are located. I typically like to have these at the end of the disk cabinet/bus enclosure. Move the spare(s) to the appropriate drive(s) as needed.The last EMC recommendation I'm aware of is 1 hot spare per 30 disks.
SAN Fabric Configuration
Time to connect the CLARiiON to your fibre fabric.- Each SP should have 2 ports. Connect one port to each fabric.
- Both SPs should be connected to both fabrics.
- Create an alias for each port/WWN in your SAN switch.
- Create the zones in your SAN switch to allow the hosts to "see" the CLARiiON.
- Save and enable the new configuration.
Host and LUN Creation, Masking
Now that the CLARiiON can see the hosts, its time to register the hosts with the CLARiiON:- Right-click on the CLARiiON (the serial number) and choose Connectivity Status
- Note that you will need to know the WWNs of each FC port of your hosts. All of my hosts are ESXi servers, so the following instructions will be for these types of hosts.
- Highlight the Initiator Name and click Register
- The Initiator Type should be "CLARiiON Open"
- Enter the HBA information
- Enter the Host information
- When finished click OK
- Click the Refresh button and you should see the host name appear in the "Server Name" column
- Complete the remaining initiators.
- Create a RAID Group -
- Right-click on the RAID Groups node and choose 'Create RAID Group'
- RAID Group ID: leave the default value ("0" for the first one)
- Number of disks: this is the stuff that starts religous wars. To keep it simple I use groups of 5 using RAID5.
- RAID Type: RAID 5
- Disk Selection: you could leave the default of "Automatic" and Navisphere will choose for you. However, I've never liked it's choices, so set it to manual and choose the disks that make the most sense (for example, the first 5 disks in enclosure x).
- Create the LUN -
- Right-click on the RAID Group you just created and choose "Bind LUN"
- RAID Type - default should match the RAID Group setting
- RAID Group - should be the same ID as the one you selected
- Rebuild Priority - leave default
- Verify Priority - leave default
- Default Owner - Choose Auto
- LUN Size - Choose MAX from the drop-down list
Connecting It All Together
- Create the Storage Group -
- Right-click on Storage Groups and choose "Create Storage Group"
- I used the name of my cluster since this storage will be shared among all hosts in that cluster
- Add hosts to the storage group -
- Right-click on the storage group name and choose "Connect Hosts"
- Select all of the hosts that should be a member of this group and move them to the right-hand pane
- Click OK
- Add LUNs to the Storage Group -
- Right-click on the storage group and choose "Select LUNs"
- Expand out the appropriate component and select the LUN(s)
- Click OK
Other Notes
- I recommend documenting the config as your setting this up. This includes network names, IPs and SP WWNs which can be found at:
Storage Domains\LocalDomain\[SerialNo]\Physical\SPs\SPA(B)\Ports
(It's the second half of each WWN) - Don't forget to recan your ESXi hosts and check to make sure the paths are using RoundRobin, VMW_SATP_CX and IOPS=1
- I would also generate a new Available Storage report after each RAID Group/LUN creation event. I save these to an Excel spreadsheet for future reference
- Use a tool such as Solarwinds Storage Manager to monitor SAN usage and availability.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Cool Tool: Seagate Wireless Plus
Okay, the Seagate Wireless Plus is probably closer to a cool "toy", but it is cool nonetheless. I was skeptical at first - why do I need yet another storage device for media when I have Spotify for music (or one of the countless online streaming music providers)? Why not just use Amazon Video On Demand (or one of the countless streaming movie providers)? Well, it stores movies, music and pictures. It can stream up to four HD movies simultaneously. Built-in 10hr battery, Wi-Fi broadcasting, apps for iDevices and Android devices, hmmm...
Then the rationalization, er... use case, hit me - since my kids have Android tablets, I could replace the bulky CD carrier and flaky behind-the-seat DVD players in the mini-van. Sweet! The kids keep pulling out the cables to the point where I'm re-splicing them once every couple of months. With this thing I can turn it on, put it in the glove box and forget about it. Nice!
Problem! How do I get all of those movies ripped and copied on to the drive. Well, its going to take two more (cool) tools to get this done. First up, Slysoft's AnyDVD HD. One year of updates is roughly $80 and 2 years is around $103 (I'd get 2 years). It's worth every penny. This handy little software sits between your DVD/Blu-ray drive and your software player such that the disc appears to be unencrypted. We need the disc to appear this way for the ripping tool to work.
Now that we have unfettered access to our movie, how do we rip and compress it into one file? Note that if we don't compress it we'll fill up the wireless drive much sooner than we might have otherwise. Also remember we're streaming moving to 7" Android tablets, we don't need the HD detail Blu-ray (1080p) or even DVD (480p) gives us. After searching the Interwebs for some time I discovered the answer: DVD Catalyst 4. As of this writing its on sale for $10 but it's worth even the full price of $20. This product is simply amazing - the number of supported devices is staggering.
This actually presented another problem - my kids have two different devices, an Acer A100 and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (which has much better hardware specs). Which device do I choose? I tried a couple of different options but found the best compromise to be the Acer A101. Using this profile, movies stream and playback fine on both devices. They even work on my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone nicely.
With these two tools working together, ripping a disc to an MP4 file is an easy 2-3 click process. After that, connect the drive via the USB port to the computer and copy the files to the "Video" folder. That's it!
I'm about two-thirds through the discs and just now starting to break 100GB (out of 900GB+ free). The kids have used it a dozen times on various trips w/o issue - they're happy so I'm happy!
I can highly recommend this product. Note that I haven't discussed all of the features such as wireless Internet connectivity pass-thru. I'm sure there are other "use cases" that I didn't even touch on. If you need a portable drive that can be accessed wirelessly, this is it.
Then the rationalization, er... use case, hit me - since my kids have Android tablets, I could replace the bulky CD carrier and flaky behind-the-seat DVD players in the mini-van. Sweet! The kids keep pulling out the cables to the point where I'm re-splicing them once every couple of months. With this thing I can turn it on, put it in the glove box and forget about it. Nice!
Problem! How do I get all of those movies ripped and copied on to the drive. Well, its going to take two more (cool) tools to get this done. First up, Slysoft's AnyDVD HD. One year of updates is roughly $80 and 2 years is around $103 (I'd get 2 years). It's worth every penny. This handy little software sits between your DVD/Blu-ray drive and your software player such that the disc appears to be unencrypted. We need the disc to appear this way for the ripping tool to work.
Now that we have unfettered access to our movie, how do we rip and compress it into one file? Note that if we don't compress it we'll fill up the wireless drive much sooner than we might have otherwise. Also remember we're streaming moving to 7" Android tablets, we don't need the HD detail Blu-ray (1080p) or even DVD (480p) gives us. After searching the Interwebs for some time I discovered the answer: DVD Catalyst 4. As of this writing its on sale for $10 but it's worth even the full price of $20. This product is simply amazing - the number of supported devices is staggering.
This actually presented another problem - my kids have two different devices, an Acer A100 and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (which has much better hardware specs). Which device do I choose? I tried a couple of different options but found the best compromise to be the Acer A101. Using this profile, movies stream and playback fine on both devices. They even work on my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone nicely.
With these two tools working together, ripping a disc to an MP4 file is an easy 2-3 click process. After that, connect the drive via the USB port to the computer and copy the files to the "Video" folder. That's it!
I'm about two-thirds through the discs and just now starting to break 100GB (out of 900GB+ free). The kids have used it a dozen times on various trips w/o issue - they're happy so I'm happy!
I can highly recommend this product. Note that I haven't discussed all of the features such as wireless Internet connectivity pass-thru. I'm sure there are other "use cases" that I didn't even touch on. If you need a portable drive that can be accessed wirelessly, this is it.
VMworld 2013: Are you ready?
VMworld 2013 - 10 years of VMworlds! Registration is open - time to sign-up. There were 45 of us that have attended every VMworld. I predict 35 this year - time to start an office pool.
I'm on the VMworld Content Committee again this year and I'm seeing some fantastic sessions in the Business Continuity and Storage tracks. Some are some reoccurring themes again this year such as Cloud and the Software Defined Datacenter, but I'm seeing more focus on specific aspects of these concepts - backup in the cloud, cross-cloud backup and recovery, Software Defined Storage and Software Defined Networking. I'm seeing more on distributed storage than in past years. I saw a demo of VMware's distributed storage tech at a session last year (I think they were calling vSAN). I was very impressed. Lot's of questions remain on scalability, performance and of course, when it will be released. But given they had a working prototype last year, I have to believe it will be soon.
I remember the first VMworld - everything was anemic compared to today's event: standing-room-only sessions (if you could get in), a couple of dozen exhibitors, etc. I do remember being blown away by some stats given by Diane Greene in the General Session, especially those on processor utilization - Mainframes=85%, Unix/mid-range=50%, x86/Wintel=5-15% (or something very similar). Unfortunately, this video is not on the VMworld site. However, for a blast down memory lane, check this one out:
http://www.vmworld.com/docs/DOC-4087
I won't get to sign-up of another week or two but as my mom used to say "beggars can't be choosers". And that's okay - the main thing will be getting a decent hotel within a decent walking distance. May not be
possible this year but we'll see.
Overall it looks to be another good one. What will be theme? The party? Who's the band? I'm guessing VMware has something special planned this year. Another office pool?
See you there!
I'm on the VMworld Content Committee again this year and I'm seeing some fantastic sessions in the Business Continuity and Storage tracks. Some are some reoccurring themes again this year such as Cloud and the Software Defined Datacenter, but I'm seeing more focus on specific aspects of these concepts - backup in the cloud, cross-cloud backup and recovery, Software Defined Storage and Software Defined Networking. I'm seeing more on distributed storage than in past years. I saw a demo of VMware's distributed storage tech at a session last year (I think they were calling vSAN). I was very impressed. Lot's of questions remain on scalability, performance and of course, when it will be released. But given they had a working prototype last year, I have to believe it will be soon.
I remember the first VMworld - everything was anemic compared to today's event: standing-room-only sessions (if you could get in), a couple of dozen exhibitors, etc. I do remember being blown away by some stats given by Diane Greene in the General Session, especially those on processor utilization - Mainframes=85%, Unix/mid-range=50%, x86/Wintel=5-15% (or something very similar). Unfortunately, this video is not on the VMworld site. However, for a blast down memory lane, check this one out:
http://www.vmworld.com/docs/DOC-4087
I won't get to sign-up of another week or two but as my mom used to say "beggars can't be choosers". And that's okay - the main thing will be getting a decent hotel within a decent walking distance. May not be
possible this year but we'll see.
Overall it looks to be another good one. What will be theme? The party? Who's the band? I'm guessing VMware has something special planned this year. Another office pool?
See you there!
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
ERROR: Call fails for “HostDatastoreSystem.QueryVmfsDatastore- CreateOptions”
I've run into this several times now when re-deploying servers as iSCSI SAN storage systems for vSphere. What happens is there's an old filesystem partition (or two) on the device\disk so ESXi refuses to configure it as a datastore.
To fix this problem you have to delete these partition(s) from the device\disk.
Word of warning: make sure you delete the correct partition! If you delete the wrong partitions, you may have to recover/re-install ESXi. The correct partitions should not be difficult to find, but now if you screw something up you can't blame me - you've been warned!
Use the vSphere client - on the ESXi host go to the Configuration tab, Storage, Devices. Take note of the device name your trying to configure as a new datastore.
SSH into the ESXi host.
Run the following command:
fdisk -l
This will list the partitions on that disk device.
Now you need to delete these partitions:
fdisk /dev/disks/[DEVICE_NAME]
When prompted, delete each partition. Press "d" for delete, then "1" for partition 1. Do this for all partitions on this device.
When finished, press "w" to write the changes to disk.
You should now be able to go back into the vSphere client and create a new datastore using this device!
To fix this problem you have to delete these partition(s) from the device\disk.
Word of warning: make sure you delete the correct partition! If you delete the wrong partitions, you may have to recover/re-install ESXi. The correct partitions should not be difficult to find, but now if you screw something up you can't blame me - you've been warned!
Use the vSphere client - on the ESXi host go to the Configuration tab, Storage, Devices. Take note of the device name your trying to configure as a new datastore.
SSH into the ESXi host.
Run the following command:
fdisk -l
This will list the partitions on that disk device.
Now you need to delete these partitions:
fdisk /dev/disks/[DEVICE_NAME]
When prompted, delete each partition. Press "d" for delete, then "1" for partition 1. Do this for all partitions on this device.
When finished, press "w" to write the changes to disk.
You should now be able to go back into the vSphere client and create a new datastore using this device!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Using the vSphere 5 CLI for Storage Configuration
When Adding a new host, SAN or LUN to your vSphere environment there are some CLI commands and configuration settings you should consider. Since Windows 7 is my primary desktop OS, I use the VMware vSphere CLI for Windows. You can download the latest version from VMware's downloads site.
Before using any of the commands below, please review your SAN manufacturers best practices documentation for vSphere environments. Can't find any? Then you bought the wrong SAN! Seriously, most manufacturers provide something around documentation - if Google doesn't help try using Bing... better yet, try contacting your VAR.
View Devices and Their Settings
To view devices and some of their related settings, use the following command:
esxcli -s [HOSTNAME] -u root -p [PASSWORD] storage nmp device list
Set Storage Array Type and Path Selection Policy
One of the first things you'll want to do is change the DEFAULT Path Selection Policy (PSP) for whatever storage array types (SATP) you're using. This way, when adding a new LUN/device, the type will be set to the proper type automatically. Most modern arrays support ROUND ROBIN. To change the array type, use the following command:
esxcli -s [ESXHOST] -u root -p [PASSWORD] storage nmp satp set --default-psp VMW_PSP_RR --satp VMW_SATP_ALUA (or VMW_SATP_CX, etc.)
Note that this will not change/update existing LUNs/devices. I recommend using the vSphere client for this unless you have many that need to be updated. In this case, use the following command:
FOR /F %G IN ('esxcli --server [HOSTNAME] --username root --password [PASSWORD] storage nmp device list ^| findstr naa.600') DO esxcli --server [HOSTNAME] --username root --password [PASSWORD] storage nmp device set --device %G --psp VMW_PSP_RR
Note 1: In the above command, I loop through and set the RR policy for all devices that begin with "naa.600" - set the NAA ID for your environment as needed.
Note 2: the Linux command uses grep but Windows has FINDSTR. Took a bit for me to figure out but if nothing else, this is the big find in this article - your welcome!
Set the IOPs Value
Finally, most array manufacturers recommend setting IOPS to "1". To change the IOPs parameter, use the following command (again, thank you FINDSTR!):
FOR /F %G IN ('esxcli --server [HOSTNAME] --username root --password [PASSWORD] storage nmp device list ^| findstr naa.6005') DO esxcli --server [HOSTNAME] --username root --password [PASSWORD] storage nmp psp roundrobin deviceconfig set -d %G --iops 1 --type iops
Note: As in the previous command, I loop through and set the IOPs parameter for devices that start with "naa.600" - set this for your environment as needed.
Now the "devices" hosted on your array should be optimally configured for use by vSphere 5. Don't forget to go through and check each host.
Other Helpful Commands
esxcli storage vmfs extent list
esxcli storage core device detached list
esxcli storage core device detached remove -d [NAA ID]
esxcli storage core adapter rescan [ -A vmhba# | --all ]
esxcli storage filesystem list
esxcli storage filesystem unmount [-u <UUID> | -l <label> | -p <path> ]
Before using any of the commands below, please review your SAN manufacturers best practices documentation for vSphere environments. Can't find any? Then you bought the wrong SAN! Seriously, most manufacturers provide something around documentation - if Google doesn't help try using Bing... better yet, try contacting your VAR.
View Devices and Their Settings
To view devices and some of their related settings, use the following command:
esxcli -s [HOSTNAME] -u root -p [PASSWORD] storage nmp device list
Set Storage Array Type and Path Selection Policy
One of the first things you'll want to do is change the DEFAULT Path Selection Policy (PSP) for whatever storage array types (SATP) you're using. This way, when adding a new LUN/device, the type will be set to the proper type automatically. Most modern arrays support ROUND ROBIN. To change the array type, use the following command:
esxcli -s [ESXHOST] -u root -p [PASSWORD] storage nmp satp set --default-psp VMW_PSP_RR --satp VMW_SATP_ALUA (or VMW_SATP_CX, etc.)
Note that this will not change/update existing LUNs/devices. I recommend using the vSphere client for this unless you have many that need to be updated. In this case, use the following command:
FOR /F %G IN ('esxcli --server [HOSTNAME] --username root --password [PASSWORD] storage nmp device list ^| findstr naa.600') DO esxcli --server [HOSTNAME] --username root --password [PASSWORD] storage nmp device set --device %G --psp VMW_PSP_RR
Note 1: In the above command, I loop through and set the RR policy for all devices that begin with "naa.600" - set the NAA ID for your environment as needed.
Note 2: the Linux command uses grep but Windows has FINDSTR. Took a bit for me to figure out but if nothing else, this is the big find in this article - your welcome!
Set the IOPs Value
Finally, most array manufacturers recommend setting IOPS to "1". To change the IOPs parameter, use the following command (again, thank you FINDSTR!):
FOR /F %G IN ('esxcli --server [HOSTNAME] --username root --password [PASSWORD] storage nmp device list ^| findstr naa.6005') DO esxcli --server [HOSTNAME] --username root --password [PASSWORD] storage nmp psp roundrobin deviceconfig set -d %G --iops 1 --type iops
Note: As in the previous command, I loop through and set the IOPs parameter for devices that start with "naa.600" - set this for your environment as needed.
Now the "devices" hosted on your array should be optimally configured for use by vSphere 5. Don't forget to go through and check each host.
Other Helpful Commands
esxcli storage vmfs extent list
esxcli storage core device detached list
esxcli storage core device detached remove -d [NAA ID]
esxcli storage core adapter rescan [ -A vmhba# | --all ]
esxcli storage filesystem list
esxcli storage filesystem unmount [-u <UUID> | -l <label> | -p <path> ]
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
vSphere 5.1 Upgrade: Home Lab
Being a vExpert has its benefits, one of which is getting a year-long evaluation license for VMware vCloud Suite 5 Enterprise. Since this includes vSphere 5.1 (vCenter and ESXi), I was inspired to get my home lab back up and running again.
Heads-up warning: this stuff is never as easy as it's supposed to be. We had an old saying at my previous employer: "it takes 100 hours"! When someone complained that they were spending too much time on a task, the joke was always, "did you put your 100 hours in?" Anyway, I digress...
Setting Up the Environment
The first step was getting my old/used Dell 2950 server racked and connected. Racking it up and connecting to a KVM was easy. Connecting it to my network was not. I recently moved my old rack out of my office to an unfinished part of my basement - with no network drops, of course. So I bought a small 4-port GbE switch and 50ft cable with the idea of running the cable to my existing switch still located in my office. Since my office is in the finished part of my basement, I needed to run the cable through the ceiling and down the far wall. I had done this several times using a draw-string to pull the cable through. Well this time the string decided to break - I heard a snap! - the cable didn't even make it half way.
Great, now I have to figure out how to fish the cable through and find it to pull it back down near the area where my switch lives. Long story short, there went my first 50 hours, but I did finally get the cable and new pull string through. Did I mention that I hate pulling cable?
Physical Server Installation and Configuration
Next up - updating BIOS and component firmware of the server. This went w/o a hitch. The Remote Access Card works great, no need to stand in front of the server in the basement.
I then installed ESXi 5.1 to a 2GB Kingston flash drive plugged into the back of the server. Again, installation completes successfully. I rebooted the server, connected via the vSphere client and configured the standard settings - NTP time, local datastore, etc.
Installing the First VM
I created a VM to host the Active Directory domain controller. I decided to use Windows Server 2012 since this was a brand new install in a new home lab network. This allows me to explore/learn the new features of AD on Sever 2012 and give me some future-proofing.
Installing vCenter 5.1
With the domain controller up and running it was time to create a VM for vCenter 5.1. I'm using the simple installation method since this is for a home lab and I'm keeping all of the components on the same VM. I decided to use Windows Server 2012 again to be consistent, if for no other reason. I know this is not supported per the compatibility list, but have read other admin using this version with success. Not my luck though. I got an error message stating the the installation was interrupted before it could be completed, and that I should check the logs. Hmmm... I tried again using a different service account during the installation but no luck. I even tried logging on as the local administrator security context and still no luck - each time I got the same error. So vCenter 5.1 simple install on Windows Server 2012 = FAIL. There goes another 25 hours!
At this point, I've decided to try the vCenter Server appliance. This should actually be the easist and fastest way to deploy a new instance of vCenter, right? There are other benefits as well: this will be the only option within the next several releases, the appliance is easy to upgrade, it includes a better, built-in database (vPostgreSQL) and most of the limitations of the 5.0 vCenter appliance have been removed. Seems like a no-brainer. Too bad it didn't work either(!). I'm not sure how a brand new instance deployed on a brand new install of ESXi can fail, but it did. The OVA deployed fine, vCenter appears to start fine, but 2 plugins failed to start: "VMware vCenter Storage Monitoring and Reporting" and " vCenter Service Status". The error is "the request failed because the remote server took too long to respond". Manually enabling the storage monitoring plugin works, gut the service status plugin still fails. I'd had enough of that so I deleted the VM. There goes another 10 hours!
Since that experiment failed, I wanted to go back to using a Windows OS which is not a bad thing since I suspect that this is what most environments will be using for some time to come. Getting back to using a compatible OS, I deployed a Windows Server 2008 R2 VM. Again, I start a simple installation of vCenter. This time, I get a different (SSO) error:
Error 29148.STS configuration error.
What the heck!?!? This is a plan, vanilla install on a newly built VM! Now I'm losing confidence of vCenter 5.1 and SSO. I decided to try again, this time choosing to use the local network account for the service account and making sure I choose as many defaults as possible (although I was mostly doing this previously). And finally, SUCCESS!!! (And final 15 hours!)
I logged on to the new vCenter instance via the vSphere client, added and licensed the new ESXi host and everything looked good.
Conclusion
Whew! At the end of the day, I wished I could have used the vCenter appliance - it would have been more than enough for my little home lab. But the Windows-based vCenter still works great and now I'm ready to move on.
Next up: Web Client and Update Manager installations. I don't expect any problems (famous last words). Later this week or early next week I'll post how this went along with the upgrade in my company's dev/test environment. Quick preview: SSO issues galore.
Heads-up warning: this stuff is never as easy as it's supposed to be. We had an old saying at my previous employer: "it takes 100 hours"! When someone complained that they were spending too much time on a task, the joke was always, "did you put your 100 hours in?" Anyway, I digress...
Setting Up the Environment
The first step was getting my old/used Dell 2950 server racked and connected. Racking it up and connecting to a KVM was easy. Connecting it to my network was not. I recently moved my old rack out of my office to an unfinished part of my basement - with no network drops, of course. So I bought a small 4-port GbE switch and 50ft cable with the idea of running the cable to my existing switch still located in my office. Since my office is in the finished part of my basement, I needed to run the cable through the ceiling and down the far wall. I had done this several times using a draw-string to pull the cable through. Well this time the string decided to break - I heard a snap! - the cable didn't even make it half way.
Great, now I have to figure out how to fish the cable through and find it to pull it back down near the area where my switch lives. Long story short, there went my first 50 hours, but I did finally get the cable and new pull string through. Did I mention that I hate pulling cable?
Physical Server Installation and Configuration
Next up - updating BIOS and component firmware of the server. This went w/o a hitch. The Remote Access Card works great, no need to stand in front of the server in the basement.
I then installed ESXi 5.1 to a 2GB Kingston flash drive plugged into the back of the server. Again, installation completes successfully. I rebooted the server, connected via the vSphere client and configured the standard settings - NTP time, local datastore, etc.
Installing the First VM
I created a VM to host the Active Directory domain controller. I decided to use Windows Server 2012 since this was a brand new install in a new home lab network. This allows me to explore/learn the new features of AD on Sever 2012 and give me some future-proofing.
Installing vCenter 5.1
With the domain controller up and running it was time to create a VM for vCenter 5.1. I'm using the simple installation method since this is for a home lab and I'm keeping all of the components on the same VM. I decided to use Windows Server 2012 again to be consistent, if for no other reason. I know this is not supported per the compatibility list, but have read other admin using this version with success. Not my luck though. I got an error message stating the the installation was interrupted before it could be completed, and that I should check the logs. Hmmm... I tried again using a different service account during the installation but no luck. I even tried logging on as the local administrator security context and still no luck - each time I got the same error. So vCenter 5.1 simple install on Windows Server 2012 = FAIL. There goes another 25 hours!
At this point, I've decided to try the vCenter Server appliance. This should actually be the easist and fastest way to deploy a new instance of vCenter, right? There are other benefits as well: this will be the only option within the next several releases, the appliance is easy to upgrade, it includes a better, built-in database (vPostgreSQL) and most of the limitations of the 5.0 vCenter appliance have been removed. Seems like a no-brainer. Too bad it didn't work either(!). I'm not sure how a brand new instance deployed on a brand new install of ESXi can fail, but it did. The OVA deployed fine, vCenter appears to start fine, but 2 plugins failed to start: "VMware vCenter Storage Monitoring and Reporting" and " vCenter Service Status". The error is "the request failed because the remote server took too long to respond". Manually enabling the storage monitoring plugin works, gut the service status plugin still fails. I'd had enough of that so I deleted the VM. There goes another 10 hours!
Since that experiment failed, I wanted to go back to using a Windows OS which is not a bad thing since I suspect that this is what most environments will be using for some time to come. Getting back to using a compatible OS, I deployed a Windows Server 2008 R2 VM. Again, I start a simple installation of vCenter. This time, I get a different (SSO) error:
Error 29148.STS configuration error.
What the heck!?!? This is a plan, vanilla install on a newly built VM! Now I'm losing confidence of vCenter 5.1 and SSO. I decided to try again, this time choosing to use the local network account for the service account and making sure I choose as many defaults as possible (although I was mostly doing this previously). And finally, SUCCESS!!! (And final 15 hours!)
I logged on to the new vCenter instance via the vSphere client, added and licensed the new ESXi host and everything looked good.
Conclusion
Whew! At the end of the day, I wished I could have used the vCenter appliance - it would have been more than enough for my little home lab. But the Windows-based vCenter still works great and now I'm ready to move on.
Next up: Web Client and Update Manager installations. I don't expect any problems (famous last words). Later this week or early next week I'll post how this went along with the upgrade in my company's dev/test environment. Quick preview: SSO issues galore.
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