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Some Xsigo Links

Jon Owings — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:30:35 +0000

*Disclaimer I work for a Xsigo Partner, but I also think it is cool stuff. I do not get any compensation from any vendor for any blog post. My opinions are my own, unless I am copying them from someone.

I recently had someone on twitter ask if there were more Xsigo resources out there for research. He commented that it was really cool, but seemingly hard to find information. I tried to find good information that had some technical content (not just a press release). So I will post some links here and as I come across more I will update this post.

Straight from Xsigo.com
Xsigo Resources

Blog Posts
Xsigo – Try it out, I dare you! - Nigel Poulton (Awesome review and great comments)

Xsigo tips and tricks – Scott Lowe (Good technical content, some of this may have changed since new XMS’ have been released.)

Benefitting from IO Virtualization – Scott Lowe (Another good look at the product)

Maximizing I/O Virtualization – Scott Lowe (Again good concepts)

View Open Client 4.5 Beta 1.1 Now Out

Jon Owings — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:51:34 +0000

I usually don’t just make announcements on this site. There are plenty of good news sites that let you know what is new and whatnot. I don’t remember if I saw this but I am behind on my reader feeds so forgive me if everyone already checked this out. The View Open Client is an open client (hence the name) to connect to VMware View Managed Desktop deployments if your OS is Mac or Linux and this is very good news. The java plugin or whatever you call it from the View web manager is annoying to me mainly because the java security is pesky. I know you can just change the settings in Java but I have had in the past where an update from Apple kills my previous settings.

All this to say someone today had never heard of the client and I had show him what was up. He was very happy to be introduced to the View Open client. So I thought it would be cool to spread the word a little more.

Here is the June 3, 2010 release with the fixes and changes from last version.

Here is the main google code site to get the download.

Enjoy the View Open Client!

You might be a vDiva if…

Jon Owings — Wed, 26 May 2010 00:04:31 +0000

I am avoiding a post where I have to think really hard about a topic. That makes me procrastinate and come up with even crazier ideas. I am writing this one down now. Most of these apply to me so if you are offended by any of them you are probably a vDiva.

You might be a vDiva if…

… you roll your eyes when someone talks about installing a PHYSICAL server.

… you are on twitter to see how many people you can get to look at your blog, but you never stoop so low to interact with the common folk.

… you are surprised when the guy at the table at the VMUG doesn’t know who you are.

… you constantly check your Google Analytics account to see how many views you have. (guilty)

… you refer to yourself as @… (your twitter account)

… you hunt down @jtroyer if you latest post takes too long to get on the v12n board.

… your require a signed rider agreement with your speaking topic for VMworld, saying you need 800 green M&M’s, a copy of Lord of the Rings in your hotel room, and direct phone access to Steve Herrod’s iPhone.

I probably ticked a bunch of people off. I am just having fun. Have a great day! Go ahead and add your own in the comments.

No related posts.

VMworld 2010 voting – Check out this VDI Session

Jon Owings — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:49:44 +0000

I try to not “self promote” too much. A co-worker and I submitted a topic in the Desktop Virtualization track and I am giving in and spreading the word:

Thinning Down to Scale Out

Abstract:

Desktop Virtualization provides the ability run hundreds even thousands of desktops. Each small performance enhancement can make a difference when multiplied across an entire enterprise. This presentation will demonstrate the steps necessary to thin down your guest desktop image in order to provide overall better user experience.

Speaker: Kevin Miller, VeriStor Systems

We are not popular so this doesn’t qualify for the popularity contest that many other sessions have, plus my name doesn’t even show on the Session. One thing I will say is this will be a Practical technical session. You should leave saying, “here is some stuff I can do to improve my VDI setup.”

So go vote and if we get to present the session I will give you a high five. Vote now because voting ends May 26.

Five Things you should know about VMware Certification – thanks @rickvanover

Jon Owings — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:15:01 +0000

Tonight I was sitting with my Mac Book Pro, wife and kids all in bed, perfect blogging time. Except no idea what I wanted to write. After a burst of twitter encouragement from @rickvanover here we go:

Five things you should know about VMware Certs:

1. If you work for a VMware partner, start with the VSP/VTSP Certifications. They require a lot less initial investment and give you the start into VMware products. Partners only.

2. You can take the “Install and Configure” or “Design Secure and Analyze” or the “Fast Track” (which is some kind of combo of the previous 2) then study and take the VCP. The VMware Certified Professional is the standard in Virtualization industry and has personally opened many doors for me professionally. VMware Partners NEED them, but it is quite an investment. The class is far from free and the test isn’t cheap. Something to know though, if you go to VMworld the tests are discounted. So everyone at VMworld take advantage! Save a few bucks.

3. As good as the VCP is, there is still a demand for VMware knowledge more advanced than the base cert. I lost my job last year, while job hunting I saw listings asking for VCDX certified people. At the time no VCDX’s were publically known. It just shows the demand for proof of advanced knowledge in VMware and a possible dilution of the VCP due to brain dumping.

4. Testing experience is fairly standard technical testing. Although I wish it was all lab practical rather than memorization. Multiple choice type questions are the majority of the questions. My best test taking tip is to actually know how to Install and Manage Virtual Infrastructure. You can run it all in VMware Workstation 7, so there is no excuse to just memorize answers. I say that but you will have to memorize max and minimums and other facts in order to pass the VCP.

5. Check what is on the blue print on the VMware Certification website, this website is the final word on what is on the test.

Bonus: Use the communities/blogs/twitter to find information and answers. Don’t just post “Hey what is on the exam?”. Ask questions about technical topics, then make sure you could articulate the concept to someone else. I find if I understand enough to be able to teach it to someone else then I really am starting to learn things.

Bonus #2: Be willing to be always learning. If you already know everything you probably don’t need the certification.

*No clue who the original artist is of that picture. It is awesome, so if you know who to credit let me know.

My Fun with the VMware Enterprise Administration and Design Exams

Top 25 – Vote Now

Jon Owings — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:56:51 +0000

Well time to get on over to Eric Siebert’s vSphere-land and vote for the top 25 VMware Blogs. The goal this year is to have someone besides my Mom and myself vote for me. So if you happen to like the content of this blog please vote for me. Now some recap of recent posts to remind you why a vote for 2vcps is a vote for vAwesomeness.

Remember the what not to tweet list? Always fun.
What about the time I ranted some nonsense from VMworld? Here. and here.
Who could forget the time I said some stuff about VMware?

I trust equiped with this information you will now be able to place 2vcps in your list of votes.

All kidding aside, I think it is just cool to be on the ballot.

Get iSCSI iqn from the ESX Command Line

Jon Owings — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:25:17 +0000

I was in my personal ESX about to upgrade to update 1. I was distracted by trying to setup iSCSI from the command line. Right before I looked to the vSphere Client to get the iqn I said, “There is surely a way for me to find this from the command line.”

Searching around I found the command vmkiscsi-tool. Really good stuff, I can complete the rest of my setup without the GUI. One thing though to list out the iqn for iscsi after you enable it you must know the device name (ie vmhba??).

Using this command:
vmkiscsi-tool -I -l

I usually guess the iscsi hba is vmhba33 or 32 but how do I know for sure?
Try:
esxcfg-scsidevs -a

Ok great, now we know it is vmhba33
[root@esxhost01 sbin]# vmkiscsi-tool -I -l vmhba33 iSCSI Node Name: iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:esxhost01-35151883 [root@esxhost01 sbin]#

Now with a few more vmkiscsi-tool commands I can finish configuring my iSCSI.
Add the Ip of the SAN:
[root@esxhost01 sbin]# vmkiscsi-tool -D -a 172.16.23.251 vmhba33
Now rescan:
[root@esxhost01 sbin]# esxcfg-rescan -a vmhba33

Upgrade to vSphere already

Jon Owings — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:45:01 +0000

OK, SRM and View 4 are out. Go ahead and start planning those upgrades from 3.x to 4. I mean really, vSphere is out now for almost 6 months. Get Enterprise Plus or the Acceleration kit, just get to vSphere. Here are a few of my reason’s why.

1. Round Robin Storage IO. Those without can giant Fiber Channel SAN infrastructure can start to stack the Software iSCSI ports and get performance above and beyond what was possible before with iSCSI. Equalogic, Lefthand and other iSCSI SAN manufacturers have to be throwing huge parties about this. While talking about iSCSI you don’t need a Service Console just for every iSCSI VMkernel port. This always seemed like extra setup in 3.x.

2 Thin Provisioning, I am not technical enough with storage to know if SAN based thin provisioning is better for some reason. It is great to be able to save space with template and other large footprint VM’s.

3. dVSwitch, VMsafe and vShield zones. New hooks for security will eventually give us insight into areas of the VI we could not see before. VMsafe will let vendors tie into the kernel (at least that is how I understand it). Additionally the new dVSwitch (Distributed Virtual Switch, sometimes it is called something else) will give control and sight into the network stack in ways that was impossible before.

This is stuff many may have read on the release date in May, but now that I have seen vSphere in action and some of the biggest hurdles (SRM and View) have been overcome, it is now time to upgrade, already.

ESX Commands esxcfg-nics

Jon Owings — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:00:16 +0000

I have been missing for a couple weeks again, which means we have been busy doing VMware installs and that is a good thing. Next command in the order is esxcfg-nics. From the command line you can get some good information about the physical nics on your host. Additionally for troubleshooting purposes or configuration you can hard set physical nic speed and duplex.

VMware Knowledge Base Videos

Jon Owings — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:48:46 +0000

I just saw this on twitter and thought it was so cool I would post it.

The knowledge base team added some video KB entries.

Here is one: Restarting the Management Agents on ESX

Not everyone can just read a KB article and know right what to do. So this is a cool move by the KB team.