ESX 4.1 Host Profile Copy
Wouldn’t it be nice be able to make a copy of an existing host profile allowing you to create new profile?
vCenter Server 4.1.0 doesn’t have a copy function but you can export the profile then import it with a different name.
Note – Keep in mind this might not work on your destination hardware, you should use a base profile that is simlar and go fromt there. You also might have to tweek the copied profile for it work properly.
In vCenter Server 4.1.0 go to the Host Profiles area on you vCenter server
Simply right click and choose export profile
Choose ok to this warning…
Choose a good name and click on save
When the creation is complete from the main window Choose “Create a new host profile” > Import Profile >, Browse to the Import location and choose your file > Enter a new Name for the profile > Choose Finish
Once your done you can now edit this profile, updated it, add hosts, etc..
EMC VPLEX – vMotion over Distance
Here are some links I’ve been using to research the EMC VPLEX Technology…
VMware and EMC – The Value of EMC VPLEX in the Virtual Data Center
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zf-5NNDFKI&feature=related
EMC VPLEX – Simple, Scalable vMotion over distance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKKhrI7A7Og&feature=related
vMotion over Distance support with EMC VPLEX Metro
vmworld 2010 – The Schedule
Here is my schedule for vmworld 2010… This year I plan to hit the self-paced labs in the morning, followed up by super-sessions, performance, and cloud computing throughout the week. Hopefully I’ll have time for lunch and the vendor area!
| EA7850 — Design, Deploy, and Optimize Microsoft SQL 2008 |
| SS1055 — Partner Track Super Session |
| TA8102 — Tuning Linux for Virtual Machines |
| EA8210 — Zimbra and The Future for Mission Critical Apps in the Virtualized Enterprise |
| ALT3005 — VMware vCenter™ Orchestrator – Orchestrating the Cloud |
| ALT2004 — Building the VMworld Lab Cloud Infrastructure |
| EA7829 — Panel Discussion: Virtualization’s Impact on the Delivery of Healthcare IT Services |
| TA9420 — vSphere 4.1 Overview |
| SP9820 — Getting the Most Out of Your Storage Infrastructure with Client and Server Virtualization |
| TA6720 — Troubleshooting using ESXTOP for Advanced Users |
| TA8133 — Best Practices to Increase Availability and Throughput for VMware |
| SS1011 — How Cisco, EMC and VMware Are Changing the IT Landscape with Vblock Converged Infrastructure |
| TA8623 — Storage Super-Heavyweight Challenge |
| SP9721 — How to Use Virtual I/O to Provision and Manage Networks and Storage Resources in a Private Cloud |
| TA6944 — PowerCLI Is For Administrators! |
| TA8051 — Infrastructure Technologies to Long Distance VMotion – What Is “VM Teleportation”? |
| TA8101 — Virtual Storage and VMware vSphere: Best Practices and Design Considerations |
| TA7994 — vStorage Update for vSphere 4.1 |
EMC Ionix UIM 2.0 and VMware Project Redwood Preview
I got a chance to review this you video and must say the “cloud” / vblock is starting to take a real form. Imagine if you could provision you servers + storage + networking with simple clicks… with EMC vblock you can…
At vmworld 2010 I plan to sit in as many of the Ionix UIM / Vmware Redwood seminars as I can…
Very cool!
SQL Server Performance Issues
This is an on going post that I am updating as it progresses… the issue start in early July of 2010 – Present date…
The Issue..
Recently I was working on a MS SQL 2000 Server and it was having some performance issues. Users were reporting random slowness and disconnects. Three other servers would feed this server SQL based data and a MS SQL 2008 Reporting server would occasionally connect and retrieve data for reporting services. Keep in mind this is non-clustered production server and the business needs to have up 24/7, and rebooting it is close to impossible. Hence this drove some of our decisions…
What we know about the server…
- Server is a HP DL380 G5 server, Single Socket Quad Core Xeon 5160, 4GB RAM (4x 1GB Sticks) , 2 x 36GB SAS 10K Drives (C Drive) , 5 x 146GB SAS 10K Drives (D Drive)
- OS is Windows 2003 SP2
- SQL Enterprise Edition 2000 SP 4
- HP Management Tools are installed
- C: Drive is 33GB / 14GB Free and is ~ 75% Fragmented
- D: Drive is 410GB / 172GB Free and is ~100% Fragmented
- SQL is taking 1.7GB of RAM as of 07/28/2010
- SQL is taking 5 to 20% of the CPU
- 980MB of RAM is average Free Space
Items we tried… (Keep in mind the order we could attempt analysis was partially based on the business)
- Basic analysis – No issues found, memory okay, disk okay, etc..
- Checked Network connections (cable, switch), and Error Logs – Found HP NIC was reporting disconnects since 2008
- Reseated and tested cables, okay no issues
- Updated with MS Updates and rebooted
- Updated firmware (HP FW 9.00), Software Drivers (PSP 8.40), and Rebooted
- Noted that PSP8.40 NIC driver was dated update Driver manually to latest
- After updates users reported no change still slow
- Found the TCP Off Load Chimney issue (kb/942861) but we decided to explore other options first
- Monitored the server via Task Manager / Process Explorer, Nothing definitive found
- Vendor Ran the SQL Profiler Program to determine issues, Nothing definitive found
- Vendor believed that Hard Page Faults were the issue based on Task Manager Reports. I used the link below with Performance Monitor & Process Explorer to prove the server was not paging to disk.
- Noted the SQL Data disk and Boot Disk were fragmented
- Noted that SQL Maintenance was never run
- Noted that the /3GB Switch could be implemented & vendor concurred it is being used in other locations without issue
- Implemented the TCP Off Load Chimney and the /3GB, users reported improvements
- Contacted HP about the issue with Windows 2003 SP2, NC373i, and the TCP OffLoad issue
- HP Confirms NIC driver is up today
- HP would like to run HPS Reports, I ran/emailed them the reports
- HP Responds, Nothing definitive found in the HPS Reports
- HP will escalate to their network team for further analysis
Still to do…
- Database Maintenance & De-fragment hard disks
Summary so far..
It does appear that specific types of NIC controllers are having issues after the Windows 2003 SP2 update with the TCP Offload feature. Even updated drivers and firmware at this time don’t fix this. In-fact we even had one P2V VM that was having the same issue (I still need to look at this one)
Helpful Links….
Defrag Link –
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc966523.aspx
SysInternals Links –
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963887.aspx
Basic of Page Faults –
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2008/06/10/the-basics-of-page-faults.aspx
The effect of TCP Chimney off load –
Symantec In-depth explanation of TCP Chimney off load – (a great read)
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/290098.htm
SQL Profiler
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa173918(SQL.80).aspx
Memory Management – Demystifying /3GB
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2007/03/23/memory-management-demystifying-3gb.aspx
Error message when an application connects to SQL Server on a server that is running Windows Server 2003: “General Network error,” “Communication link failure,” or “A transport-level error”
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942861
An update to turn off default SNP features is available for Windows Server 2003-based and Small Business Server 2003-based computers
Book – Virtualizing Microsoft Tier 1 Applications with VMware vSphere 4
I got the honor of talking with Charles Windom today. He is the author of “Virtualizing Microsoft Tier 1 Applications with VMware vSphere 4”
We were concerned about Exchange performance with our SAN being setup as a large aggregate of drives vs. discrete drives.
All the best practices I read specifically stated discrete drives for performance reasons with Exchange 2003. However our SAN is setup as a large aggregate of drives.
Sean Dehlinger of vmware set me up with Charles and in about 2 minutes I had the confirmation that I needed.. (Thanks Sean!)
Here is the feed back from Charles…
1. Exchange 2003 Database does lots of Random R/W’s to the LUN, if the LUN is not discrete then you will see delays. The Logs and C: Drive are doing more Sequential R/W’s and the LUN aggregate should be okay.
2. IF your using Exchange 2010 Database or Logs then the R/W’s are Sequential and LUN discreteness is a non-issue.
It was nice to talk to an true expert and I look forward to meeting him at vmworld 2010 or having him talk at our Phoenix event..
ESX – Using USB to IP Adapeters
Here are some IP to USB Adapters that I know have worked with ESX…
Multi VM Use –http://www.lantronix.com/device-networking/external-device-servers/ubox.html
Single VM Use – http://www.digi.com/products/usb/anywhereusb.jsp#overview
I’ve worked with the DIGI models and they have pretty well…
One note – if you are working with a true VM then you need to enable Windows USB features…
Special Steps for VMware ESX Server Virtual Machines
Since ESX Server does not provide direct support for USB, USB drivers are not installed in the
guest operating system by default. The AnywhereUSB device depends on the USB core files to
install properly.
To enable the rest of the installation to proceed normally, copy and rename the required file from the original operating system CD.
• Source: usbd.sy_ in the \I386 directory of the CD
• Destination: usbd.sys in the \system32\drivers directory of the guest operating system
After copying this file, reboot your machine. You can then continue with the normal
AnywhereUSB installation.
VMware vExpert 2010
The other day I was selected as a VMware vExpert for 2010. John Troyer (of VMWARE) is building a great community of vExperts with like minded individuals that are proponents of virtualization evangelism. On another note I nominated my entire Phoenix VMUG Team (Luke, Rob, Duke, and Charles) for the award and they all were excepted ! Congrats Guys, you have earned it.
For those of you that do not know, the VMware vExpert program was created in 2009 to show appreciation for those individuals who have significantly contributed to the community of VMware users over the past year. For more information on the program visit the vExpert site
HP c7000 Mid-Plane Replacement
If you’re reading this blog, I’m hoping you never have to do this procedure. However the other day we had a c7000 Mid-plane go out.
We first noticed some odd issues with Ethernet NICs randomly disconnecting. Then, our chassis started to fail entire Ethernet pass through modules, it came back online and then a few weeks later just one Ethernet port stayed in a failed state. Working with HP and our local VAR we tried all the troubleshooting steps and found it was the mid-plane had failed.
This blog post is merely my notes and some of my findings during the replacement of the mid-plane. I worked with an HP certified technician and he had a punch list from HP to complete this repair. I recommend a certified technician do the repair as you never know what you’re going to run into and we did run into a few gotchas that stumped us all.
Quick Disclaimer – This is not a guide for repairing this device but merely my notes…
First thing – The Plan:
- 7:00 Migrate VM’s to BC2 (BC = blade chassis) and shut down ESX hosts on BC1
- 8:00 Shutdown remaining blades in BC1
- 8:20 Start Repair on BC1
- 8:40 Test repair on BC1
- 8:50 bring up Blades on BC1
- 9:00 TEST applications
- 9:10 Migrate VM’s from BC2 to BC1
- 10:00 Finish
The Plan with Notes:
7:00 Migrate VM’s to BC2 (BC = blade chassis) and shut down ESX hosts in BC1
- No issues, vMotion worked without issues & shutdown 6 ESX hosts via vCenter Server
8:00 Shutdown remaining blades in BC1
- No issues, shut down blade servers
8:20 Start Repair on BC1
Power down the c7000 chassis, remove all the cards, power supplies and blades
This is a pic where we removed the rear cards. One thing we were able to do was remove the Ethernet & Fibre Pass through cards without having to disconnect the cables.
Second shot of the removal
Remove the blades and Power supplies
To remove the mid-plane there were four bolts holding in it in place. We removed them and then pull it till it stops. The retaining clips needed depressed to allow the unit to be removed and we pressed them in and it removed with ease. Note: The manual fails to mention this.
Here is a shot of the retaining clips. They help to hold the mid-plane in. At first we could not figure out why the mid-place would not come out. This held us up a bit as the instructions failed to mention depressing them to allow the mid-plane removal.
Inside the blade chassis – Rear
After removing the mid-plane chassis there are several bolts that hold in this together. One item you have to do is remove the foam tape in the screen shot below.
This will allow you to separate the mid-plane board from the chassis. This was another gotcha that the instructions failed to mention this step.
Our package came with replacement tape, yours may vary.
After replacing the mid-plane board we reassemble the chassis in this order..
- Reinserted the Mid-Plane chassis
- ilo Control Modules
- Power Supplies
- Powered on device, wait
- Inserted pass though modules, wait
- Inserted Blades and powered them on
9:00 Ensure the Blades on BC1 are reporting in
-
No issues, everything is now working!
9:15 TEST applications
-
No issues, all blades and apps came right up
9:30 Migrate VM’s from BC2 to BC1
- No Issues, all VM’s migrated perfectly
10:00 Finish
Gotchas / Notes
2 Items slowed us down
- The retaining clips on the lower right and left hand sides were not noted in the documentation. We had lots of cables on the left and right side so it made it hard to clearly see where they were.
- The tape holding on the mid-plane board wasn’t documented. It took us a bit to figure out that a simple piece of foam tape could hold together, but it did.
Next time I mount a c7000 chassis I’ll remember to mount it about 4U from the base of a rack. The issue we were having was the cabling and PDU power cords were getting in the way of the mid-plane and this made it harder to remove.
Other than these minor issues, the repair went smooth, and it was fun to see the “guts” of a c7000.
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