Very cool option with Citrix XenDesktop
In fact, local streamed desktops have the potential to drastically reduce the costs of a desktop virtualization solution. If you have no idea what a local streamed desktop is, then STOP. Read about how local streamed desktops can extend virtual desktops and also look at the different FlexCast models.
http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2010/03/23/Question+about+Setting+up+Local+Streamed+Desktops
Configuring NetBackup 7 for VMware backup (using vStorage API)
right-click on master server, select “Properties”
) , change on the policy’s attributes window
Great article pointing out the VMware networking differences between Flex-10 and UCS QoS. Of course HP is getting ready to make some more changes to their Flex-10 (Flex Fabric I think it is called) so stay tuned.
http://blog.aarondelp.com/2010/03/cisco-ucs-qos-vs-hp-flex-10-vnics-in.html
Are you an App-V customer? Check out the integration with Branch Repeater to reduce the amount of time it takes to stream, cache, and launch an application.
Good article from AnandTech on the new Intel 5600 series processors. Pay special close attention to the Virtualization Round Trip Latency graph and explanation. This is one of the key reasons that virtualized guests continue to improve in performance and close the gap to a physical host.
VM /ETC has a great article that helped me while onsite to perform an upgrade of the vCenter SQL database from 2005 express edition to a licensed version of SQL 2005 (in my case it worked on SQL 2008).
Normally, using SQL Express for the vCenter database isn’t a bad thing necessarily, however as VM /ETC mentions in his article, VMware only supports SQL Express as the vCenter Database if your VMware environment is 5 hosts or under, 50 virtual machines or under. Also of note is that SQL express databases can only get to 4 GB in size, so if your database is getting that large, then you’ll need to upgrade for that reason too.
Here’s the link to the VM /ETC article:
http://vmetc.com/2009/01/11/how-to-upgrade-the-virtualcenter-sql-2005-express-database/
Here’s a copy/paste from his article for easy reference:
VM /ETC’s article also has links if you want to move your vCenter Database to another SQL server and if you want to move databases between computers that are running SQL server.
This lesson describes how to reset a lost password on vSphere 4 and ESX 3.x. This information is based off of VMware KB article 1317898 which can be found here:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1317898.
1.Reboot the ESX host.
2.When the GRUB screen appears, press the space bar to stop the server from automatically booting into VMware ESX .
3.Use the arrow keys to select Service Console only (troubleshooting mode).
4.Press the ‘a’ key to modify the kernel arguments (boot options).
5.On the line presented, type a space followed by the word single.
6.Press Enter. The server continues to boot into single-user mode.
7.When presented with a bash prompt such as sh-2.05b#, type the command passwd and press Enter.
8.Follow the prompts to set a new root user password.
9.When the password is changed successfully, reboot the host using the command reboot and allow VMware ESX Server to boot normally.
1.Reboot the ESX host.
2.When the GRUB screen appears, press the space bar to stop the server from automatically booting into VMware ESX .
3.Use the arrow keys to select Service Console only (troubleshooting mode).
4.Press the ‘e‘ key to modify the kernel arguments (boot options).
5.On the line presented, type a space followed by the word single.
6.Press Enter then press the ‘b‘ key to boot the ESX host in single-user mode.
7.When presented with a bash prompt such as sh-2.05b#, type the command passwd and press Enter.
8.Follow the prompts to set a new root user password.
9.When the password is changed successfully, reboot the host using the command reboot and allow VMware ESX Server to boot normally.
1.Reboot the ESX Host.
2.When the LILO screen appears, press the space bar to stop the server from automatically booting into VMware ESX.
3.At the LILO prompt select linux, adding the -s to the end of the line. For example: linux -s.
4.Press Enter. The system begins to boot. The server continues to boot into single-user mode.
5.When presented with a bash prompt such as sh-2.05b#, type the command passwd and press Enter.
6.Follow the prompts to set a new root user password.
7.When the password is changed successfully, reboot the host using the command reboot and allow VMware ESX to boot normally.
This KB article was very helpful for me while onsite troubleshooting some permission based errors while setting up the Data Source (in my case a DSN to a SQL server) after we moved the database to a new server.
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003928
I ran across this VMware KB article while actually looking for something else. This KB article has some good information and links to use for general best practices when installing ESX/vSphere 4 and vCenter 4. Enjoy!
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1009080
