vSphere 6.x licensing and feature product matrix

Posted on

Ever want to compare a full list of the vSphere features to the associated licensing level?

Well now you can… Check out >> https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2109507

For vSphere 5 >> https://vmexplorer.com/2014/02/27/vsphere-5-x-licensing-matrix-2/

Here is a quick snapshot of the matrix. Enjoy!

 

This entry was posted in ESXi, vmware, VMworld.

PowerCLI to change VM from e1000 to VMXNET3

Posted on Updated on

In this blog, I wanted to document some simple PowerCLI commands I did to change a VMs network adapter from e1000 to VMXNET3.

  1. Took a snapshot of the VM prior (Recommend)
  2. Updated VM Tools and Virtual Hardware (Recommended)
  3. Downloaded and installed PowerCLI / VRC on my local desktop
  4. Launched the PowerCLI ICON on my desktop
  5. Set the execution policy >> Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
  6. Executed the following commands.

This entry was posted in ESXi, vmware.

A Memorable Visit to Chicago Firehouse #13

Posted on Updated on

During a recent trip to Chicago for a VMware Technical Summit, I stepped out of my hotel to pick up a few essentials. As I made my way to the store, I passed by Chicago Firehouse #13 and noticed a memorial displayed prominently out front. On my return, curiosity led me to stop and learn more about it.

The firefighters at the station welcomed me warmly and graciously offered a tour of the firehouse. Inside, I found a tribute to a fallen hero, Walter Watroba, commemorated on a plaque mounted on the back wall. Alongside it were newspaper clippings and articles honoring both Watroba and other firefighters who had lost their lives in the line of duty. The memorial serves as a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by these brave individuals—particularly the significance of November 22, 1976, for Firehouse #13. (You can find more information about the memorial at the link provided at the end of this post.)

During my visit, I had the opportunity to speak at length with a firefighter affectionately known as “The Saint.” He generously shared the story of Walter Watroba, as well as several personal anecdotes from his own career. One particularly moving story involved a retired firefighter who passed down a piece of his equipment to “The Saint”—a rare and powerful gesture of respect in the firefighting community. As he recounted the experience, it was clear how much it meant to him—it even gave him goosebumps.

I truly appreciated the time I spent at Firehouse #13. It was a meaningful and unexpected highlight of my trip. If you find yourself in the area, I highly recommend stopping by. The stories, the history, and the sense of camaraderie within those walls are well worth experiencing.

More on Walters story here >> https://www.fsi.illinois.edu/content/library/IFLODD/search/Image.cfm?ID=364&ff_id=128

 

This entry was posted in Other.

10-30-2015 Phoenix VMUG this event is going to be EPIC!

Posted on Updated on

Back in the day when I lead the Phoenix VMUG the other leaders and I put our attention on the quality of the event vs. trying to drive attendance. We knew producing quality events would lead to more users wanting to attend. Man were we right. Our first VMUG in 2008 drew a crowd of 65, not too bad for our first showing. However we worked hard, listened to our attendees, and in just 2 years time we built an event framework to support 300-500 users and 20+ sponsors ever quarter! The framework we created was so successful it was key in creating the framework for the VMUG UserCon.

Flash forward to October-30-2015 and one of the most EPIC VMUG events ever is about to take place in Phoenix! I never use the word epic unless there is something absolutely stunning. Example – Me doing a selfie drinking a soda is not epic. However – when VMware COO Carl Eschenbach, Principal Architect Rawlinson Rivera, Senior Technical Marketing Architect Doug Baer, Chris Wahl, Josh Atwell, Instructor lead labs, 30+ Partners/Sponsors, multiple breakout sessions, and cocktails at the end of the day come to your VMUG, then this is EPIC!

I know that was quite a bit to take in but like it said EPIC, for now I’d recommend registering for the event and downloading the VMUG UserCon App.

Registration – To register for this event go here >> https://www.vmug.com/p/cm/ld/fid=10175

Download the App – To help you manage your day at this event. Install the VMUG UserCon App >> https://www.vmug.com/p/cm/ld/fid=9653

The overall agenda should be posted soon, and when it does I’ll post up my recommendations around this event!

 

This entry was posted in VMUG, vmware.

Supported features for VMware virtual machine compatibility

Posted on

Here is one of my most favorite VMware KB articles.

Supported features for virtual machine compatibility

Hardware

ESXi 6.0 and later

ESXi 5.5 and later

ESXi 5.1 and later

ESXi 5.0 and later

ESX/ESXi 4.x and later 

Hardware version

11

10

9

8

7

Maximum memory (GB)

4080

1011

1011

1011

255

Maximum number of logical
processors

128

64

64

32

8

Maximum number of cores (virtual CPUs) per socket

128

64

64

32

8

Maximum SCSI adapters

4

4

4

4

4

Bus Logic adapters

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

LSI Logic adapters

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

LSI-Logic SAS adapters

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SATA adapters

Yes*

Yes*

No

No

No

VMware Paravirtual controllers

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Virtual SCSI disk

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SCSI passthrough

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SCSI hot plug support

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

IDE nodes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Virtual IDE disk

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Virtual IDE CDROMs

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

IDE hot plug support

No

No

No

No

No

Maximum NICs

10

10

10

10

10

PCNet32

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

VMXNet

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

VMXNet2

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

VMXNet3

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

E1000

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

E1000e

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

USB 1.x and 2.0

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

USB 3.0

Yes**

Yes**

Yes**

Yes**

No

Maximum video memory (MB)

512

512

512

128

128

SVGA displays

10

10

10

10

10

SVGA 3D hardware acceleration

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

VMCI

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

PCI passthrough

16

6

6

6

6

PCI hot plug support

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Nested HV support

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

vPMC support

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Serial ports

32

4

4

4

4

Parallel ports

3

3

3

3

3

Floppy devices

2

2

2

2

2

Guest OS support

91

91

91

91

78

This entry was posted in ESXi, vCenter Server, vmware, VMworld.

Estimating the size of a Core Dump file (PSOD) for ESXi 5.0-5.5

Posted on Updated on

If your ESXi host has a PSOD do you know if you have enough room to write the PSOD file to your local disk? Ever need to estimate the size of a core dump?

In this blog, I’m going to show you 2 ways to estimate the size of the core dump file and then from there you can compare this size to the your core partition ensuring it is able to write the file.

For ESXi 5.5:

If you run the following command on vSphere 5.5 (This command only will run on 5.5) it will estimate your core dump for you.

‘localcli –plugin-dir /usr/lib/vmware/esxcli/int systemInternal coredump configuration check’

core

For ESXi 5.0/.1 – the command above does not exist with 5.0-5.1 but if you follow the steps below it is a slick way to estimate the size.

Couple of options –

  • 1st Option — as a possible comparative,  you could run the 5.5 core dump command and use the result as your baseline for the similar esxi hosts running  5.0/.1 hosts
  • 2nd Option — Force a core dump test
  1. Follow these instructions to create a core dump and re-direct the dump file to a data store with enough space
  2. Once completed, note the size of the core dump and then multiply it times the number of core dumps you want to keep.
    – 250MB core dump file x 4 = 1GB << would be this size you need, my recommendation just make it 2.5GB, as this would align you for ESXi5.5 and beyond
  3.  Use these instructions to increase the size of the core dump partition – Core Dump KB’s 1000328, 2004299

This entry was posted in ESXi, vmware.

F11 Key for nested ESXi with MAC OS X

Posted on Updated on

In my home office and abroad I use a MAC Powerbook with VMware fusion quite a bit and most recently I was installing ESXi to a Fusion VM.  Kindly enough the ESXi install program asked me to push F11 to continue, and when I pushed F11 my wonderful MAC translated this as the MAC function — shrink the screen.

By default, the MAC function keys are for MAC purposes vs. the standard function key they are intended.  After doing a bit of searching I found two options.   1 – You can use the keypress as I described below or 2 – you can adjust your MAC settings under keyboard and uncheck “Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys”

At this point, I didn’t want to change the overall behavior of my MAC and I went with option 1.  To issue the F11 key in a fusion VM simply Press FN-CMD-F11 and this allows the ESXi install to continue.


This entry was posted in ESX.

Free vSphere 6 Webinar Series!

Posted on

VMware has a great webinar series coming up, see the chart below for dates and times.

These sessions would be a great primer before going to VMworld!

Date

Webcast Topic

vSphere Expert

Registration / Replay

June 2

vCenter ServerWhat’s new in vCenter Server including differences between Windows install and the virtual appliance.

Mohan Potheri

Replay

June 16

vSphere SecuritySecurity at the top of mind?  Learn about security in vSphere 6 including considerations for Platform Services Controller.

Mike Foley

Register

June 30

Business Continuity
Business continuity equals business productivity.  Learn how vSphere 6 minimizes downtime for applications and maximizes productivity for businesses.  Availability and data protection aspects of vSphere 6 will be covered.

Matt Meyer

Register

July 7

PowerCLIIncrease data center efficiency through automation.  Learn what’s new with PowerCLI including some tips and tricks that may surprise you.

Brian Graf

Register

July 14

vSphere Web ClientThe Web Client is one of the most improved areas of vSphere 6.  Streamlined design, improved responsiveness, and better overall usability are just a sampling of what makes the Web Client cool.  Learn what else the vSphere 6 Web Client has to offer.

Dennis Lu

Register

July 21

vSphere 6 PerformanceLearn about all the new performance improvements that vSphere 6 has to offer.  With the time you save, you may have time for an additional coffee break.

Mark Achtemichuk

Register

July 28

Virtual Volumes and Storage Policy-Based ManagementvSphere 6 has transformed storage for virtual machines.  Learn how Virtual Volumes and Storage Policy-Based Management redefines how you should think about storage.

Rawlinson Rivera

Register

August 11

vCenter Server AvailabilityFor some vCenter Server has become mission critical.  Learn how to provide high availability for vCenter Server.  Also covered with be Platform Services Controller.

Johnny Ferguson

Register

 

More information here — http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2015/05/vsphere-6-webcast-series.html

 

This entry was posted in ESXi, VCP, vmware, VMworld.

Quick ways to check disk alignment for ESXi Datastores and Windows VM’s

Posted on Updated on

There are two simple checks a virtual infrastructure (VI) admin should be doing to ensure ESXi Datastores and the Windows VM’s are properly aligned. If either are misaligned then performance issues will follow. Though I’m not going to get into the whys and how’s of alignment issues I will show you how to quickly check.

1 – ESXi Datastores (DS)

By default if the VI admin formats a target datastore with vCenter Server or directly connected to a host via the VI Client the starting sector will be 2048. A starting sector of 2048 will satisfy nearly all of the storage vendors out there, however a 2048 starting sector should be validated with your storage vendor.

If the VI Admin chose to format the DS via a script then they should choose a starting sector of 2048 or what the storage vendor recommends

Example — partedUtil setptbl \$disk gpt “1 2048…..” More info here on partedUtil

Here is a simple command to check your “Start Sector”.   SSH or Direct console into a host that has DSs you want to check and run this command.

~ # esxcli storage core device partition list

esxistartingsector

Some note about this –

RED Box – Is the local boot disk, so its starting sector will be 64, this is not an issue as this is the ESXi Boot disk

Yellow, Green, and Blue – Are all VSAN Disks and all have a starting sector of 2048   << This is what I’m looking for, I want to make sure all DS disks start at 2048, if not they could experience performance issues.

2 – Windows VM Check

Windows checks are pretty easy too, the starting sector offset should be 2048. Note the screenshot below shows the Partition starting offset of 1,048,576, also note it’s labeled in bytes not sectors. To find the starting sector just divide the Partition Starting Offset by the Bytes/Sector.   Simple math tells us its right — 1048576/512 = 2048 Sector. If your Partition Starting offset is anything other than 1,048,576 Bytes or 2048 Sectors then the VM is not aligned and will need adjusted.

To find your Partition Starting offset, from a Windows Command Prompt, type in ‘msinfo32.exe’, go to Components > Storage > Disks, and note your Partition Starting Offset.

windowsstartingsector

 

 

This entry was posted in ESXi, freeNAS, Home Lab, SAN, vmware, VMworld, Windows, Windows Performance.

Cannot install vCenter Server Appliance 6 Error “No apps are installed to open this type of link”

Posted on Updated on

A requirement for the installation of VCSA 6.0 is installing the Client Integration Plug-in. Normally, this can be done during the time you install the VCSA.   However, during a recent installation, I got the error “No apps are installed to open this type of link”

My first thought was there was a browser compatibility issue with IE11 and the installer, so I tried Firefox and Chome but I got the same results.  Next was a quick reboot, still same error.

Finally, I tried installing  “VMware-ClientIntegrationPlugin-6.0.0” manually and then running the VCSA installer.  What do you know it installed without issue.

Simple fix on this one — Manually, install the “VMware-ClientIntegrationPlugin-6.0.0” first and then run the VCSA installer.

 

You can find the “VMware-ClientIntegrationPlugin-6.0.0” in the ‘vcsa’ folder in the VCSA ISO.

 

 

This entry was posted in ESXi, vCenter Server, VMworld, Windows 8.