If you want to upgrade the network drivers within ESXi 5 follow these simple steps. First off you need the name of the vmnic that you want to upgrade. Run this to display a list of installed network adapters currently in use. # esxcfg-nics -l This will return something similar to below. You then need [...]
This is part 3 of my guide, you can read part 1 here and part 2 here Availability High Availability (HA) New features with HA include heartbeat Datastores and support for IPv6. A heartbeat datastore is great because it helps to prevent situations where the management network drops out but the virtual machines continue running on the virtual [...]
This is part 2 of my guide, you can read part 1 here Storage Quite a few improvements have been made to storage with vSphere 5. Storage Profiles Profile driven storage allows SLAs to be set to certain storage types, For example this together with Storage DRS (explained below) can be used to automatically keep [...]
vSphere 5 has been available for a couple of months now so now is an ideal time to look at upgrading your infrastructure and also to start the upgrade path for the VCP 4s out there to the VCP5. This is by no means a complete study guide, rather an introduction into the various new [...]
I recently sat the VCAP-DCA exam having spent the last couple of months with my head in the books preparing for the exam. I am very pleased to announce that I passed the exam. I have been on the ‘certification road’ for about 8 years now, and during that time each exam I have taken [...]
Someone once likened esxtop to windows task manager on steroids. When you have a look at the monitoring options available you can see why someone would think that. Esxtop is based on the ‘nix top system tool, used to monitor running applications, services and system processes. It is an interactive task manager that can be used [...]
The vNetwork distributed switch is a vCenter Server managed entity. It is designed to create a consistent switch configuration across every host in the datacentre. It allows port groups and individual port settings and statistics to migrate between ESX(i) hosts in a datacentre, the uses of private VLAN’s (PVLAN) and third party deployment. vCenter Server [...]
Working with ESX(i) log files is important when troubleshooting issues within the virtual environment. You can view and search log files in ESX(i) and in vCenter Server using a few different methods. Methods Using the vSphere client The direct console user interface (DCUI) A web browser A syslog or vMA appliance An SSH connection to [...]
The best way to add iSCSI storage is by utilizing dedicating NIC’s to iSCSI traffic, on dedicated VMkernel switches, with separate IP subnet address ranges and separate physical switches or VLAN’s. Enable Jumbo Frames on a vSwitch To enable Jumbo Frames on a vSwitch, change the MTU configuration for that vSwitch. It is best to start with a new [...]
The vMA, or vSphere management assistant is an ovf template which can be downloaded for free from the VMware website. The vMA has the following minimum system requirements ESX(i) 3.5 update 2 or later 512MB RAM 64 bit Intel-VT or AMD-V compatible CPU as the vMA is a 64-bit virtual machine 5GB virtual disk size Access to the ESX(i) host management network An ESX(i) server or a vCenter Server [...]
