Virtualfuture.info

Normally when multiple datacenters are created in Virtual Center it is because they located at different sites aka physical datacenters. In this case the administrator created a datacenter that spanned multiple physical locations, which isn’t a good idea.

That’s why he created a new datacenter and cluster at his own location for the hosts at that site, VMotioned all running VM’s to other hosts and set the host in maintenance mode, believing that he could VMotion the running VM’s to the new datacenter. Well it went a bit different than he thought: although Virtual Center wasn’t happy VMotioning the VM’s to the new datacenter (it gave a clear warning that in the new datacenter vSwitches might be missing) it gave an OK, but when the Finish button was clicked it failed all together stating that VMotioning between datacenters isn’t allowed. 

Ok this is what he eventually did: he disconnected the host from the original Datacenter\Cluster with all VM’s still running on that host and reconnected that host to the new Datacenter\Cluster. I must admit it was pretty bold to do but it all worked because no ip-addresses/names etc were altered in this process. Whether it is a supported method I really can’t say, the only thing I know it worked for him.

In my opinion it is better to have good design and stick to it because good designs are ment to be flexible, easy to maintain and easy to expand.

Yesterday VMware released version 3.5u3 of their flagship product ESX, several new features are appealing for me. In previous 3.5 versions it was not possible to tarball upgrade to those versions; gladly VMware corrected this and with the u3 version it’s possible. To do this follow the procedure in the Upgrade Guide pages 76 for ESX2 hosts and 77 for ESX3 hosts.

This u3 version incorporates a number of other features Read the rest of this entry »

Most people who read our blog know something about virtualization so probably know what VMWare ESX and VMWare ESXi are. But Alessandro Perilli pointed the following KB article from VMWare out to me and I find it pretty usefull because it really clearly sums up the differences between the full ESX and the free ESXi product.

Check out the comparison here.

VMWare has released a new build of their flagship products ESX3.5Update2 (build #110268) and ESX3i 3.5Update2 (build #110271), due to the problems mentioned earlier on this blog. VMWare kept their promise to fix the problems with the expiration bug very quick. The updated binaries can be downloaded here.

I found this interesting article on the VMware Knowledge base site, at least one I really never thought of … a virtual machine doesn’t need a screensaver. Below is exactly told how to do this. Read the rest of this entry »

In the light of the offically released Virtual Infrastructure Toolkit I decided to create a simple powershell script. I’m planning to create more powershell scripts and post them on virtualfuture.info.

The first one is a script which can remove the connected iso files from the CD drive. Some administrators do not disconnect a CD drive when the have finished use the ISO, the side effects of this behaviour are: the VM regurally polls the CD drive which creates a slight overhead and a VMotion may fail. This script can run unattended e.g. every night so even when an ISO file remains mounted it is ejected everynight. Read the rest of this entry »

After I upgraded my ESX test box from ESX3 update1 to update2 my Virtual WSUS server complained about lack of disk space. One of the improvements in Update2 would be extending disks on running machines, so I thought: “What the heck, a great chance to give that a try”.

So I went into the properties of the VM and specified a larger disksize for the WSUS download disk; the “New Size”  box was previously grayed out under Update1 now I could specify a larger size.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tripwire updated their free ConfigCheck utility to assess the security and configuration of an ESX host. The previous version only supported ESX 3.5 and the updated version also checks ESX 3.0.

Tripwire ConfigCheck provides an immediate assessment of the configurations of a VMware ESX hypervisor, comparing them against VMware hardening security guidelines, which are best practice recommendations for optimal security in virtual environments, and provides remediation instructions if any are needed. With Tripwire ConfigCheck, customers gain immediate visibility into risks that might exist in their virtual environment due to misconfiguration and are advised of recommended fixes to any configuration settings that could present future risk.

Read the press release 

Download ConfigCheck

Recently I was a bit puzzled; a client of mine asked me which SCSI interface he should use for his XP test machine on ESX 3.02. Because after he loaded the VMWare SCSI driver the XP setup told him there was no disk present. I told him to use a Buslogic SCSI card instead of the LSI Logic and everything went smooth after that. Last day I did the same except I used the default SCSI Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday Tripwire released their free utility call TripWire ConfigCheck.

Together with VMWare Tripwire has developed this tool which helps to rapidly assess the security of your VMWare ESX 3.5 servers. Among other things the joint effort consists of VMWare delivering the VMWare Infrastructure 3 Security Hardening guidelines. This tool also provides the necessary steps that are needed for full remediation.

A couple of configuration parameters that are being checked are:

- Virtual network labeling
- Port Group settings
- Network isolation for VMotion and iSCSI
- NIC Mode settings / Layer 2 Security settings
- VMWare ESX Service Console security settings
- SAN resource masking and zoning

The website states that the system requirements are Windows Server 2003 + JRE 1.5 so that’s the official supported platform by TripWire. But as you can see in Gavin’s post below: Windows XP, Linux and even OS-X should work without a problem. Great work Gavin!

You can download the tool here.

Edit [10-6-2008 Matthijs] : Gavin Millard from TripWire yesterday published a “How To” concerning ConfigCheck : http://www.tripwire.org/blog/?p=38 . Kind-a-handy since there’s no official manual :).