vReality

VMFS Datastore UNMAP using vCenter Orchestrator

Aug

2014

If you are using thin provisioned block volumes for your VMware vSphere VMFS datastores you will certainly benefit from this new vCenter Orchestrator workflow I created. VMware introduced VAAI UNMAP capability in vSphere 5.0, and since vSphere 5.0 update 1 UNMAP has been on-demand operation which requires use of CLI on VMware ESXi host. With ...

VMWorld 2014 US top 10 session recordings now online!

Aug

2014

Recordings of top 10 sessions at VMWorld 2014 US are now available online! STO1965.1 – Virtual Volumes Technical Deep Dive NET1674 – Advanced Topics & Future Directions in Network Virtualization with NSX BCO1916.1 – Site Recovery Manager and Stretched Storage: Tech Preview of a New Approach to Active-Active Data Centers INF1522 – vSphere With Operations ...

Schedule VM version upgrades with vCenter Orchestrator 1

Aug

2014

Upgrading large number of virtual machines to higher virtual machine version can be painstakingly laborious task if done manually using GUI tools, as a result virtual machine versions are usually left untouched, until it is absolutely necessary to upgrade to new version to unlock new vSphere features. However, if your server gear is recent enough ...

vSphere VM version impact on available CPU instructions

Aug

2014

While working on new vCenter Orchestrator workflow for scheduling VM version upgrades I ended up doing some fact checking on low level differences of available VM versions. Using simple cat /proc/cpuinfo method on Linux, I noticed that set of CPU instructions exposed to guest OS is actually dependent on VM version. I tested VM versions 7, ...

RHEL, CentOS and Oracle Linux 7 support on vCloud Director 2

Aug

2014

VMware vCloud admins heads up, please note that recently released RHEL, CentOS and Oracle Linux 7 releases are NOT supported on current vCloud Director 5.5 releases. And in this case “no supported” also means not going to work! RHEL 7 introduced radical OS level changes which require changes in vCloud Director guest customization workflows, mostly on ...

vCenter Server 5.5 keeps on crashing, fix available

Aug

2014

A fellow vSphere administrator on #vmug_fi IRCnet channel was hit by obscure issue on vCenter Server 5.5 Update 1b, after a vCenter Server Windows host reboot vpxd.exe kept on crashing immediately after it started. VMware support came through and provided a resolution in no time, it seems that vCenter Server 5.5.x thread stack size is too ...

Manage ESXi host power saving state using vCenter Orchestrator

Aug

2014

VMware ESXi software is capable of utilizing CPU power saving techniques by controlling CPU clock speed and core run state dynamically by demand. In some cases dynamic CPU power saving can have impact on system performance, depending on system total load and application used, performance can be reduced up to 20% compared to system with ...

Manage vSwitch VM portgroups with vCenter Orchestrator

Aug

2014

Here is something handy for those managing large vSphere clusters without luxury of having distributed virtual switch available. I have developed a vCenter Orchestrator workflow for managing ESXi host standard vSwitch VM portgoups on a cluster level, with this workflow you can add and remove VM portgroups across large clusters with a single task. There ...

Latest Tweets

Tomi Hakala
@tphakala

@IPv6Freely I think you hit well known bug on E1000 virtual adapter, patch was released over a year ago

4 days ago
Tomi Hakala
@tphakala

RT @RollingStone: Leonard Nimoy, the actor and sci-fi icon that portrayed Spock in the #StarTrek franchise, passed away this morning: http://t.co/icjKZMWUUy

6 days ago
Tomi Hakala
@tphakala

@HannuB so it seems

2 weeks ago
Tomi Hakala
@tphakala

@CoquiPR81 Sorry, I have not used vRA 6.0 yet. Once vSphere 6.0 is GA I will check this.

2 weeks ago
Tomi Hakala
@tphakala

Is my #VMware #NSX Edge appliance is borked or does SSL VPN-Plus really route like this by design?? https://t.co/ew6GieNsrd @vmwarensx

2 weeks ago