New memory hot add feature in vSphere 4

In the new vSphere, there is a new feature - hot add memory and CPU. This is very cool as downtime can be avoided which is, at least in my company, very helphul during daily operations. To enable these features, do the following:

1. Make sure the virtual machine hardware is upgraded to version 7 (right click the VM, choose 'Upgrade Virtual hardware', see below).
2. Go to edit settings for the VM, then the options tab -> Memory/CPU hotplug and enable the two features (see below).

This is all very fine. However, for the features to work, you need a compatible VM OS. And Win2k3 Standard isn't supported. For Windows, it is primarily Enterprise Edition and Datacenter Edition that will work for win2k3. For Win2k8 at least hot add memory will work for all editions 32-bit and 64-bit. See the VMware Compability Guide or for compatible guest operating systems.

Update 2013.07.23: The CPU hot add will auto register the new CPUs in the guest OS for win2k8 R2 Datacenter and Enterprise edition (at least in vSphere 5), see compability chart here. Not for Standard edition. See demonstration here.

iSCSI on a Windows box with Starwind

If you want to run shared storage in e.g. a test setup, then Starwind's iSCSI application can be recommended. Earlier, I have tried Openfiler (iSCSI in a linux distro VM) which works fine, It's not too complicated to configure, but still it's much easier with Starwind iSCSI in a Windows environment. The application is free but there's a 2 TB storage limit.

Download Starwind Free here.

Starwind installation guide. It's easy to install, just go next next done. Load the serial key, connect to the localhost (user: test, pw: test), add a new device, and then follow install guide page pp 5.

For a guide on how to configure iSCSI in ESX 3 and 4, click here

A typical test setup could be one physcial host with 8 GB of memory and one quad core cpu. Check vm-help.com for a list of compatible whitebox ESX hardware.

From ESX 4 it's possible to run ESX as a VM within an ESX. Even VMotion will work (go to vcritical.com for a demonstration). And if you have a VM with an iSCSI target running on it, then you have a full enterprise setup running on one box.

Top VMware blogs and sites - in short

If you're new to VMware it can be a little overwhelming to figure out what and where to get info to get started. The web is full of excellent blogs and sites with VMware stuff, not to mention the VMware communities. I've come across numerous sites that list top blogs and sites and they are very rich on info but maybe it's a little too much if you're just starting out. So in stead of going full throttle, I will list just a few of the most popular blogs and sites. If you follow these, then you'll get a good picture on what's going on. I recommend using an RSS reader like Netvibes for keeping the overview. Here's the sites I recommend:

Blogs

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/ - Duncan Depping, VMware Employee. One of the most popular VMware blogs.

http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/ - Eric Sloof, has his own consulting firm. Dutch guy. The Netherlands is probably one of the most advanced European countries in regards to VMware.

http://vmetc.com/ - Go ugly green with Rich Brambley

http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/ - EMC guy. Writes some very technical an in depth posts

Communities

VMware Communities - an account in the communities is a must. People here are very fast to respond and very helpful. Try google before you post, though...

Sites

vSphere Land - this site has two very cool subsites. vLuanchpad is a comprehensive list of top blogs and sites. Use this if you want to get further inspiration. And then the Top 10 lists where I especially like the one with Tools.

VMware icons for Powerpoint

At the VMware VIOPS page you'll find a whole package of icons for making snazzy Powerpoint presentations. Basically they're the same as the Visio stencils mentioned in an earlier post but just in a PP friendly format for easy copying and pasting. Go here for download.

Visio stencils for VMware - icons and diagrams

Update 2023.06.16: It's been a while since this page has been updated. But there still seems to be interest in Visio Stencils. The latest relevant links I have found are: This first link to virtualg.uk and a secondary one that links to Github, link here. The Github link has installation instructions in the Readme file as well.

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When making visio diagrams of virtual infrastructures, there are plenty of icons for depicting the IT infrastructure. But when it comes to VMware and virtualization specific icons, then Visio is all out. Earlier on, one could go to the VMware VIOPS page to download the official VMware stencils. Today, it seems, that VMware is releasing only the icons in Powerpoint format. These (ppt icons) can be downloaded here.

Maish Saidel-Keesing over at Technodrone has taken it upon him to convert these icons and diagrams into a set of Visio stencils which will give you all you need for making boss friendly diagrams (latest update 2012.06.11). These stencils are compatible with Visio 2010.

The VMware Visio stencils can be downloaded here.

A new set of VMware View stencils has been release on 2012.09.17 by Joshua Townsend at vmtoday.com

A first look at installing ESX 4.0 GA

As most people probably know by now, vSphere 4.0 was released in GA earlier today (2009.05.21). To try it out, I have installed ESX 4.0 in Workstation 6.5.1 on a Lenovo T61 - and it works fine. For those who haven't had a chance to play with it yet, here's some screenshots of the installation process, see below.

Workstation VM settings:

• OS type: Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 64-bit
• Mem: 2 GB (that was minimum on the beta)
• Network: Bridged (tick the "Replicate physical network connection state)
• Processor: 1, choose Intel-VT or AMD-V as preferred mode
  
  

P2V - Error with NIC after migration with static IP

When doing a P2V and the server has to have a static IP address after the migration, then you may recieve an error message stating that there's an IP conflict and the ip is already configured on an existing NIC - even though only one VMware NIC is visible in network connections.

The reason is that the physical NICs have not been entirely uninstalled in Windows, they still exist in the device manager as hidden devices. Do the following to uninstall the hidden NICs:

Open a command prompt and type the following commands:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
start DEVMGMT.MSC

Click ‘View’ and then click ‘Show Hidden Devices’.
Expand the Network Adapters tree and right click the dimmed network adapter and click ‘Uninstall’ (You may also see a hidden 'RAS async adapter' device under NICs. This cannot be uninstalled. However, it doesn't matter as it doesn't influence the NIC issue, so just leave it).

Now you can configure the static IP with no errors.