WJPatton.com » ESX4

VMware KB1007566 – Monitor Snapshot Deletion

wjpatton — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:03:11 +0000

VMware updated a KB today on how to monitor snapshot deletion. This is especially useful for large snapshots that “time out” for vCenter because they take more than 5-10 minutes to complete. I have been using this exact procedure for years and never thought to blog it…for some insane reason.

Read the KB here.

Basically, use the watch command on the *.vmdk files in the VM datastore. You can use -n to set a refresh interval and -d to show the change in size between refreshes. However, the most important information is what base .vmdk file is being written to and when. This touch timestamp will give you more information on which disk is in progress, which has not yet started, and what is already done.

VMware vSphere Hardening Guide – Draft Rev. B

wjpatton — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:46:54 +0000

VMware has released a draft of the vSphere Hardening Guide, and are encouraging feedback from the community. It is broken into multiple pieces.

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Virtual Machines

Part 3: Host

Part 4: vNetwork

Part 5: vCenter

Part 6: COS

VMware KB1011170 – Checking Zero vs EagerZero Disk Status

wjpatton — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:43:59 +0000

VMware has released a KB with a handy vmfstools command to check your VM’s disk status. If the VMFS output shows a “Z” it is Zerothick with blocks that have not been written to yet.

Read the article here.

This allows you to check the disk status for options such as Fault Tolerance or Microsoft Cluster Services. The disks must be in an Eagerzerothick format for these options to work.

VMware ESX4 Update 01 Removed from Update Manager

wjpatton — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:35:34 +0000

If you are looking to update your ESX4 hosts to Update 01, don’t look in Update Manager. VMware has removed the update because of a bug with the HP Management Agents preventing the update from completely successfully and rendering the host inoperable.

From KB1016070:

“Note: If you want to install the update, you must download the update manually. The update is no longer available for automatic download in Update Manager and the vSphere Update Utility. You can find the update on the VMware Downloads site and copy the download to your local depot as needed.”

Note: ESXi 4 is unaffected by this KB.

VMware KB1016070 – ESX 4 Update 01 and HP Management Agents Failed Upgrade

wjpatton — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:26:12 +0000

VMware has posted a bug when upgrading ESX 4 to Update 01 with HP Management Agents running. (ESXi is unaffected)

You may have your host end the update unsuccessfully, and in a non-responsive state. To avoid this, disable all the HP Management Agents prior to running the update.

Read the full article here.

VMware KB1009607 – Pegasus CIMSERVER Memory Leak

wjpatton — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:56:26 +0000

VMware has acknowledged an issue that we have been battling for some time with a Pegasus CIMSERVER memory leak. It has been fixed under ESX 4, as it does not use Pegasus, otherwise setup a CRON job for restart Pegasus periodically.

This issue has been extremely frustrating in our environment for a very long time, and initially we suspected that HP SIM may be to blame, turns out we may have gotten that wrong.

We have worked with VMware Support many times, and this is the first time they have acknowledged this leak and that HP SIM is not the culprit.

Read the KB here.

VCP vSphere Practise Exam

wjpatton — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:54:51 +0000

Simon Long of The Slog has posted a VCP vSphere Practise Exam built out of VMware documentation and personal information and experience. Looks great, I plan on taking it tonight to brush up!

Take the Exam here.

VCP vSphere Practise Exam

VMware Tech Resource: vSphere Memory Management

wjpatton — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:05:00 +0000

VMware has released a new white page on memory management techniques within ESX/i 4. The previous version for 3.x was a great resource for many discussions, troubleshooting, and designs over the past few years. This new document is every bit as good, but has even better documentation and examples with greater technical information.

Read the whitepaper here.

VMware Tech Resource: vSphere Memory Management

VMware KB1003490 – Restarting ESX Management Agents

wjpatton — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:53:17 +0000

You will find these instructions in other How To posts and links here, but I thought I would post a simple KB from VMware for quick reference. service mgmt-vmware restart, will NOT cause a Guest to reboot or go down.

Click here for the article.

VMware Tech Resource: vSphere 4 CPU Scheduler in ESX 4

wjpatton — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:13:37 +0000

VMware document defining Scheduler process improvements, and changes for ESX 4. There are some very significant changes, and there are always many customer, client, and user questions about how ESX handles the Scheduler functions.

Get the document here.