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Virtualization

Preview on HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 for ESXi

Hewlett-Packard has just released a Generation 8 Microserver which is going to replace the well-known N36L/N40L/N54L Microservers. The new server has the same trendy design as the entire Gen8 series. The AMD Turion CPU has been replaced by an Intel Ivy Bride CPU which is way more powerful and the memory limit has been raised to 16GB. With that, the new server brings much more power to your VMware vSphere Homelab and allows you to run more virtual machines. In this post, I am going to compare both specs to point out what's new and better.

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Run Scripts in Linux Guests by using VMware Tools

Running commands inside a virtual machine without accessing it can be helpful in some cases. For example when you want to change an IP address from a Linux virtual machine that is not reachable through ssh. VMware provides the VIX (Virtual Infrastructure eXtension) API that helps you to write scripts to automate virtual machine operations and run programs within guest operating systems. I am going to show some basic VIX implementations using PowerCLI.

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vCenter Log Insight Beta Quickstart Guide

VMware has just release a new log aggregator called vCenter Log Insight. It's a new tool that collects and aggregate logs from vCenter Server and ESXi Hosts. vCenter Log Insight is delivered as virtual appliances and can be deployed in less than 10 minutes. If you know Splunk you might be familiar with the user appearance. In my opinion a tool like vCenter Log Insight is indispensable for troubleshooting purposes.

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Match VMware vCenter 5.1 Component Versions

With the separation of the vCenter Service into 4 components in vSphere 5.1 (vCenter Single Sign On, vCenter Inventory Service, vCenter Server and vSphere Web Client) there is a possible issue that you could have mismatched services installed. When you install an update you have to install all components one after another without having a workflow to check that all have been updated. I have already written about the update process from 5.1 to 5.1u1 and their versions but this is not the only update available. Now I've created an overview of all possible vCenter 5.1 version numbers that can be identified in the Control Panel.

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Choose and Install VMware Tools on Linux Guests (Original vs. OSPs vs. open-vm-tools)

When you virtualize Linux Operating Systems with VMware you have 3 opportunities when it comes to the decision which VMware Tools to install. The well-known VMware Tools that come with the ESXi Hypervisor and can be installed from the vSphere Client, the VMware Operating System Specific Package (OSPs) and the open source project open-vm-tools. This post explains the differences between the variants and helps you to understand the advantages to choose the right package for your environment.

If you use Linux Guests inside VMware I encourage you to comment on what kind of VMware Tools you are using.

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Building a VSA with Open-E DSS V7 inside ESXi

When you run a VMware platform there is usually no way around a shared storage system. A SAN is very expensive and you throw away the opportunity of using local storage. Common usage of ESXi hosts and storage Systems on x86 hardware also leads to a dilemma: Standard Servers usually have plenty of CPU, Memory and local Disks. With ESXi Hosts you waste the local storage and with storage systems you waste CPU and Memory. Combining both on the same hardware leads to an efficient usage that has the option to scale automatically. Today there are already some vendors in the market that provide SAN-free solutions with high available replicated local storage. This howto shows you how to share local storage by installing Open-E DSS V7 as a VSA inside an ESXi host using local storage with RDM.

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Howto Update vCenter Server from 5.1 to 5.1 Update 1

About 6 months after the release of VMware vSphere 5.1 the first Update is available since this weekend. As you know, the vCenter Server has been split into 4 services: Single-Sign On, Inventory Service, vCenter Server and the vSphere Web Client. That makes the update process a little bit more more complex. Here is a small Walk-though how to Update to vSphere 5.1.0 U1

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Intel CPU EVC Matrix (VMware Enhanced vMotion Compatibility)

Intel uses a model named "Tick-Tock" to follow every microarchitectural change with a die shrink. This results in having two EVC baselines for every microarchitecture. I've created a small table with a quick overview about EVC Modes with their appropriate CPU Series and Codenames used by Intel to denote their CPUs. I've also included additional Codenames that may be used by Intel for special processors. The upcoming Haswell architecture is named, but not yet available or supported by VMware.

This post is updated regularly. [Last Update: April 2018]

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