http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/planet/v12n/

http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/

http://vmwaretips.com/wp/

Here is way

How to find queue depth for HBA ?

[root@pz-vmware07 scripts]# tail /etc/vmware/esx.conf
/vmkmodule[0003]/enabled = “true”
/vmkmodule[0003]/module = “tg3.o”
/vmkmodule[0003]/type = “nic”
/vmkmodule[0004]/enabled = “true”
/vmkmodule[0004]/module = “cciss.o”
/vmkmodule[0004]/type = “scsi”
/vmkmodule[0005]/enabled = “true”
/vmkmodule[0005]/module = “lpfcdd_732.o”
/vmkmodule[0005]/options = “lpfc0_lun_queue_depth=16 lpfc1_lun_queue_depth=16 lpfc_tgt_queue_depth=31″
/vmkmodule[0005]/type = “fc”

Or

[root@pz-vmware07 scripts]# esxcfg-module -l
Device Driver Modules
Module Type Enabled Loaded
vmkapimod vmkapimod true true
vmklinux linux true true
bnx2 nic true true
tg3 nic true true
cciss scsi true true
lpfcdd_732 fc true true
[root@ci-vmware07 scripts]# esxcfg-module -g lpfcdd_732
lpfcdd_732 enabled = 1 options = ‘lpfc0_lun_queue_depth=16 lpfc1_lun_queue_depth=16 lpfc_tgt_queue_depth=31′

Best design guide ever available and that too free of cost. Go and download it here.

VMware Infrastructure 3: Advanced Technical Design Guide Downloads

Thank you to Ron,Mike and Scott.

Internetwork Operating System stands for IOS

Downlink ports are connected to blade network cards using the enclosure’s shared backplane. Uplink ports connect the switch module to external network switches.

The following network interconnect modules are available for the HP c-Class BladeSystem

· HP 1/10Gb Virtual Connect Ethernet Module for c-Class BladeSystem

· Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3020 for HP c-Class BladeSystem

· HP GbE2c Ethernet Blade Switch for c-Class BladeSystem

HP supports the following FC switch models

· HP 4Gb Virtual Connect Fiber Channel Module for c-Class BladeSystem

· Cisco MDS 9124e Fabric Switch for HP c-Class BladeSystem

· Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch for HP c-Class BladeSystem

This web-based management suite (HP Insight control) includes:

· HP SIM

· iLO 2

· Onboard Administrator

· HP ProLiant Essentials Rapid Deployment Pack; Server Migration Packs for P2P, P2V, V2V (Virtual to Virtual), and V2P; and many other management packs

The 10U HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure can support up to 16 HP server blades versus the 9U IBM Blade Center H enclosure, which supports up to 14 IBM server blades. In server systems, a U is a standard unit of measure, equal to 1.75 inches, for vertical usable space or height of racks and cabinets. A 20U rack, for example, has 20 rack spaces in 35 inches of vertical space.

To find the BL equivalent of a ProLiant DL series server, just add "100" to the model number. For example, a ProLiant BL460 blade server is the equivalent of a ProLiant DL360 rack-mounted server.

For example, 16 x 1U servers with redundant power require 24 power supplies and 24 power cables. An HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure with 16 server blades requires only six power supplies and six power cables. Blade systems use fewer fans. For example, 16 x 1U servers with redundant fans require approximately 144 fans. An HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure with 16 server blades requires only 10 fans. Fewer fans equates to less power consumed.

If you have an existing network or FC infrastructure, you may want to have an unmanaged direct connection between each server blade and an external network or FC switch. Ethernet and FC pass-thru modules provide the unmanaged direct connections. Pass-thru modules don’t provide any cable consolidation between the enclosure and the external switch or SAN and are not as popular as network and FC interconnect modules. Consider using pass-thru modules only if you already have a significant, underutilized investment in network or FC switches.

VMWare Educational service

http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrreg/index.cfm

VMWare technical Papers

www.vmware.com/vmtn/resources

[root@my-vmware01 root]# cat /opt/LGTOaam512/log/aam_config_util_listnodes.log
KEY: -z VAL: 1
KEY: domain VAL: vmware
KEY: cmd VAL: listnodes
CMD: hostname -s
RESULT:
————-
my-vmware01

CMD: /opt/LGTOaam512/bin/ft_gethostbyname my-vmware01 |grep FAILED
RESULT:
————-

list_nodes
CMD: /opt/LGTOaam512/bin/ftcli -domain vmware -connect my-vmware02 -port 8042 -timeout 60 -cmd listnodes
RESULT:
————-
        Node              Type              State
———————–  ————    ————–
  my-vmware01            Primary      Agent Running
  my-vmware02            Primary      Agent Running

Total time for script to complete:  0 minute(s) and 1 second(s)

Courtesy: Yellow Bricks

Amazing site (http://viops.vmware.com/home/index.jspa) is launched by VMWare. And great stuff is over here. Proven practices. I like the concept and i can assure it is going to help us all. Just have a look Blades vs. traditional Rack servers. Meaningful discussion is going on here. And many more.

Found a good blog there http://virtuallycrazy.blogspot.com/ 

Good Redbook http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp3953.html

And again good stuff here http://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2008/09/11/WhyBladeServersArentTheAnswerToAllQu estions.aspx

What else ? Thanks to VMWare again !!

Excellent explanation of various storage technologies, especially Thin disks from vmmba.

 There are three main technologies that can accomplish storage oversubscription:

1. Linked clones
   • This feature is available in VMware Lab Manager and VMware Workstation at the virtual disk level.  When a linked clone is used, the new VM uses pointers to the original VM for all common data.
   • The additional advantage of linked clones is that whitespace is not stored – for example if an empty data disk is part of a clone operation, the new disk will act as a "thin" disk and only consume the storage that it really requires for data
   • Linked clones can also be accomplished at the datastore level using technologies such as NetApp FlexClone (useful when cloning many VMs at once)
   • Keep in mind: linked clones pay a performance penalty on write operations (using copy-on-write), and put added stress on the source disks on read operations
2. Thin Disks
   • Thin-provisioned disks are virtual disks that "appear" to the VM as one size, but only consume up to the amount of data that is required by that disk.  So, a 10 GB drive that is 50% utilized will only store 5 GB on disk (a traditional "thick" virtual disk would consume the entire 10 GB on disk)
   • Thin disks are options in VMware Workstation, and are the default disk type when using NFS storage in VMware ESX Server – however, VMs cloned from templates are always thick
   • Storage vendors such as Hitachi and NetApp have LUN-level thin provisioning, but that would only apply to VMware if using RDMs
3. Deduplication
   • Deduplication is a technology similar to memory page sharing (above), where common data is stored only once.  It is done "after the fact" (ex poste), meaning de-duplication opportunities are scanned using a background process
   • Deduplication is primarily used for backups (e.g. Symantec PureDisk, EMC Avamar, or Quantum DXi-Series), but can also be used on the filesystem itself (today, using NetApp Deduplication, formerly A-SIS)

REFERENCE: www.vmmba.com

in ESX3i all logs are lost during reboot. Therefore a syslog server is required to record and archive all ESX Server 3i logs since a simple reboot will erase all activity of all users.

ISO Images consumes a lot of disk space since they are not compressed when they are created.

Users should create hash checksums on all ISO OS images on the ESX server before utilizing the ISO OS images for virtual machines.

Shares and Resource allocation: Minimum and Maximum resource settings within ESX Servers are absolute values, whereas shares are used to give preference to a guest OS when resource is scare. Minimum guarantee a specific amount of a resource to the virtual machine but deny that much of the resource to other virtual machine, While Maximum deny the virtual machine a portion of the resource while allowing other virtual machine more access to that resources. Do not configure the minimum virtual machine CPU and memory setting equal the total physical amount available. Use reservations,shares and limits to allocate resources.

Time management, synchronizing the virtual machine with the ESX Server is the preferred method for time synchronization.

• The ESX server virtual switch port groups will be configured with any value between 2 and 4094. Utilizing VLAN1 will cause a denial of service since the ESX Server drops this traffic. The maximum port group that may be configured on a virtual switch is 512. Each port group is identified by a network label and a VLAN ID.

• Ports Groups may have VLAN ID between  0 –4095.

• VLAN ID 4095 specifies that the port group should use trunk mode or Virtual Guest Tagging (VGT) mode.

• A value of Zero or blank VLAN ID is default value for External Switch Tagging(EST). EST is default configuration for all virtual switches within ESX Server. EST mode has 1-to-1 relationship, the number of VLAN’s are limited to the number of physical network adapter ports assigned to ESX.

• Virtual Switch Tagging(VST) allows virtual switch to handle it’s own VLAN tagging. This processing is handled by Pnic and this overhead never comes to VMkernel. Each physical switch port that connects to virtual switch is configured in trunk mode. VLAN’s can span across multiple PSwitch. VLAN is enabled by trunked link connecting the virtual switch and PSwitch thru frame tags. Trunk links can carry the traffic of multiple VLANs simultaneously.Within Switch fabric, switches uses frame tagging to direct frames to the appropriate switch and port. Frame tagging assigns frame id prior to traversing trunked link. After the frame reaches the access link, VLAN ID is removed and the end device receives the frame.

• Each Virtual Nic (VNic) has two MAC Address. effective and initial MAC address. Both the MAC address are same when they are first created.

• Forged Transmits (set to accept by default): When effective MAC Address and initial MAC address are different, which means effective MAC address is always compared with initial MAC address.it is considered as forged transmits.

• MAC Address Changes (set to accept by default): When effective MAC address is changed compared to initial one.

• Promiscuous mode: When promiscuous mode is applied, all virtual machine connected to virtual switch have potential of reading all packets.

• STP is not supported on vSwitch.Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is either needs to disabled or Port fast needs to be enabled on PSwitch.

The vpxuser has privileges of a root user on the ESX server host,, but has no file privileges on the ESX server console. The vpxuser is created when the ESX server host is attached to Virtual Center. It is not present on the ESX Server host unless the host is being managed through VirtualCenter.

Virtual Center has two default roles defined, system roles and sample roles. System Roles are permanent and the permissions associated with these roles cannot be changed. All changes made to permissions of custom roles are effective immediately not requiring users to log off and log back in.