The download of my vSphere Release History in PDF Format is now available. It includes the latest vSphere updates. The document is a printable Version of… Read More »vSphere Release History PDF Format – November 2014
On 2014-09-09 VMware released a bunch of new versions, including vSphere 5.5 Update 2. ESXi 5.5 U2 supports hosts with up to 6TB of RAM vCenter… Read More »What's New in vSphere 5.5 Update 2
Slightly hidden in vSphere 5.5 Update 2 there is a new vSphere C# Client that can edit Virtual Machines running the latest Virtual Hardware (vmx-10). Instead of getting an error message when trying to edit Virtual Machines with Hardware Version 10 you can now reconfigure these machines with the legacy C# client. Understandably you can only edit pre-5.1 features. All 5.1/5.5 features are still only available with the vSphere Web Client.
With the vSphere Client you would usually see the following error message:
Read More »vSphere 5.5 U2 C# Client can now edit Hardware Version 10 VMs
At VMworld 2014, VMware has announced vSphere Remote Office Branch Office (ROBO). This new package, available as Standard and Advanced edition, offers a per virtual machine licensing model. These 25 VM packs can be distributed across multiple remote sites.
vSphere ROBO is expected to be available in Q3 2014.
The new web based Virtual SAN Sizing Tool provides assistance for design considerations for a Virtual SAN infrastructure. Based on given requirement the tool provides full detailed specifications. Input parameters are split into 2 separate sections: Virtual Machine Characteristics and Host Hardware Characteristics.
[Last Update April 19, 2014 - Patches available]
There are a lot of news according to the recently published OpenSSL vulnerability. The bug, also known as "Heartbleed", allows attackers to steal informations that are protected by the SSL/TLS encryption.
Is VMware ESXi and the vCenter affected?
There is currently no official statement from VMware regarding this issue. After some research I found affected versions im VMware products. Here are my findings:
The affected versions are OpenSSL 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f.
Read More »ESXi 5.5 affected by OpenSSL CVE-2014-0160 aka Heartbleed
VMware Virtual SAN 5.5 is available for download now. There are no additional binaries required to get started. Just download vSphere 5.5 Update 1 (vCenter and ESXi) and get started. Virtual SAN requires a separate license which is also available as 60 days evaluation.
The download of my vSphere Release History in PDF Format is now available. It includes the latest vSphere updates: VMware_vSphere_Release_and_Build_Number_History_2014-03-11.pdf VMware ESXi Release and Build Number… Read More »vSphere Release History PDF Format - 5.5 Update 1
The new coredump file feature in vSphere ESXi 5.5 creates a file to extend the coredump partition. This usually happens when you upgrade from a previous version to ESXi 5.5, or you install ESXi to a USB drive or SD card. This coredump file is created on a random VMFS datastoore by using a smart selection algorithm. This random placement causes different kind of problems, for example when you want to delete a datastore. Another problem might occur in an EMC VPLEX deployment where you want to failover VMs to the secondary site in a PDL situation (VMkernel.Boot.terminateVMOnPDL=1 / Disk.AutoremoveOnPDL=0). Datastores that had a coredump file configured can't get mounted back when the volume leaves the PDL state after a site failure has been fixed.
To workaround this issue you might want to permanently disable the coredump file. You can't just disable it, as it gets created automatically after a reboot.
KB1005576 explains how to enable or disable verbose logging on QLogic and Emulex Host Bus Adapters. With ESXi 5.5 and its Native Device Driver Architecture the option has been slightly changed, but is still available. This post explains how to enable verbose logging on QLogic and Emulex HBAs in ESXi 5.5.
The new native drivers and their predecessor are:
Emulex FC: lpfc (replaces lpfc820)
QLogic FC: qlnativefc (replaces qla2xxx)
Read More »Enabling verbose logging on QLogic and Emulex HBAs in ESXi 5.5