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Oracle RAC 11g R2 Standard Edition on vSphere
January 22, 2012
2 comments
I was recently engaged to design and implement a VMware vSphere architecture solution for a large company that wanted to virtualize Oracle RAC 11g R2 as the back end of a small number of web based online transactional systems. Nothing unusual about that, I hear you say. Well the interesting thing with this project is that the customer intended to use Oracle 11g R2 Standard Edition (11.2.0.3). Up until this point all of the Oracle single instance and RAC systems I had been involved with virtualizing were using Enterprise Edition licenses. This was only a relatively small project and a small part of a very large Oracle landscape, although it was still business critical. The customer was planning to use this project as the test case for virtualizing Oracle RAC 11g R2 with VMware vSphere, with the aim of potentially migrating a significant number of additional database systems off their existing Intel standalone, IBM pSeries and Sun SPARC platforms (which are and will remain using Oracle Enterprise Edition).
Categories: Business Critical Applications, VMware
Oracle RAC, VMware, vSphere
Jumbo Frames on your VMK Management Network
January 21, 2012
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Many companies are starting to run Jumbo Frames across their network to improve performance, especially as 10Gbe infrastructures become the norm. When you’re making a change such as implementing Jumbo Frames it’s important to evaluate what possible implications it might have. One such implication that I wasn’t aware of till today is a possible problem with Jumbo Frames when used on your VMKernel Management Network with vSphere 5.0 and vSphere HA. Duncan Epping at Yellow-Bricks.com posted an article describing the situation titled “No Jumbo Frames on your Management Network” and pointing to a VMware KB article 2006729. The KB article only mentions Jumbo Frames in a very small not right at the very bottom. I would strongly recommend you read Duncan’s post for more information.
I personally haven’t come across this problem even though I run Jumbo Frames across my entire network in my lab, including on the VMKernel Management Network used for HA. However I have run into other problems with Jumbo Frames support in the VMware VMXNET3 Driver when using the VMware Tools version from ESXi 5.0. My advice is that you should have a thorough test plan whenever you are making a significant infrastructure change, and evaluate all the pro’s and con’s. There are significant advantages when running Jumbo Frames on 10G networks, and even advantages on 1G networks, although not the same magnitude.
This post first appeared on the Long White Virtual Clouds blog at longwhiteclouds.com.
Categories: VMware
Jumbo Frames, VMK, VMware
Windows VMXNET3 Performance Issues and Instability with vSphere 5.0
January 7, 2012
1 comment
There is a bug with the new version of VMware Tools that comes with vSphere 5.0 GA when using VMXNET3 and Jumbo Frames on Windows. The bug can cause performance problems or instability and loss of connectivity. VMware KB 2006277 explains the problem and offers a workaround. It is expected that this problem will be fixed in ESXi 5.0 Update 1. This will be important for customers thinking of migrating to vSphere 5.0 that normally update VMware Tools immediately as part of the upgrade process and customers wanting to implement VMXNET3 and Jumbo Frames.
This post first appeared on the Long White Virtual Clouds blog at longwhiteclouds.com.
Categories: VMware
Jumbo Frames, VMXNET3, Windows
vSphere 5 and vShield 5 Critical Considerations
December 14, 2011
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vSphere 5.0 introduces some great enhancements to host profiles and the ability to quickly and automatcially deploy new hosts (both stateful and stateless), which will be especially attractive to enterprise customers. These new features present some unique challenges and considerations for customers that are using or are thinking of deploying the VMware vShield Suite of products as part of their virtualization security strategy. In this article I’ll briefly discuss some things you must consider to successfully deploy both vSphere 5.0 and vShield App and Endpoint.
Categories: VMware
VMware, vShield, vShield App, vShield Edge, vShield Endpoint
Deploying Enterprise Oracle Databases on vSphere
November 22, 2011
7 comments
Many organizations are interested in deploying Oracle Databases, even the business critical ones, on vSphere. I’ve been helping customers for a while now to deploy Oracle and other business critical applications in a VMware environment (since ESX 3.x). As there is a lot of FUD around I thought I’d try and write an article on how to successfully virtualize Oracle databases in a way that will meet performance and SLA requirements, along with the key design considerations. This will focus a lot more on the how than the why, although I’ve included the key virtualization drivers from my experience. There are numerous benefits to virtualizing Oracle databases and other business critical applications on VMware vSphere, so I hope this helps you ensure the process is successful. This will be a fairly high level overview and by no means exhaustive, but should provide you with some solid guidance to build upon. Much of the information is also applicable to other database systems and other types of business critical applications.
Categories: Business Critical Applications, VMware
Oracle, VMware, vSphere
Increase vSphere Web Client Availability and Scalability for Enterprise Environments
November 6, 2011
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Previously I’ve written about why the vSphere Web Client is a must when you upgrade to vSphere 5 and how to deploy the vSphere Web Client without having to purchase an additional Microsoft Windows Server License. This article will now reveal how you can increase the availability and scalability of the vSphere Web Client and also for the all important vSphere License Plug-in for an enterprise environment. The design described in this article should allow you to scale to hundreds if not a few thousand concurrent vSphere Web Client Users.
Read more…
Categories: VMware
vCenter, VMware, vSphere, Web Client
Deploy vSphere Web Client without Additional Windows Server License
November 5, 2011
14 comments
So you want to run the vSphere Web Client server but you don’t want to install the Windows version, which may require you to purchase an additional Microsoft Windows Server License? Well I have good news for you. You can download and deploy the vCenter Server Virtual Appliance, which is a SUSE Enterprise Linux based appliance and use the vSphere Web Client server instance on that to manage any other vCenter system. You don’t have to use the VCVA itslef as a vCenter server. This will give you all the features and functions of a vSphere Web Client without having to purchase an additional Windows license from Microsoft. Thanks to Barrie Seed aka @vStorage for the inspiration for this article and the original idea. Let’s walk through the procedure.
Categories: VMware
vCenter, VMware, vSphere, Web Client
vSphere Web Client is a must when you upgrade to vSphere 5
October 31, 2011
5 comments
With vSphere 5 VMware has released a greatly enhanced Web Client for Virtual Machine Administrators. People who remember the old vSphere Web Access will be blown away by how good the new vSphere Web Client is. It will allow much easier and more efficient access to staff that need it, without having to install the full vSphere Client. The Virtual Machine Administration capability of the vSphere Web Client is very functionally rich. I am not talking here about the vCenter Virtual Appliance (VCVA), which is a completely new product and was also released with vSphere 5, so don’t get confused. The new vSphere Web Client works with either the VCVA or the vCenter Installable and has no problem with Cisco Nexus 1000v and Distributed Switches. You can even use it with multiple vCenter servers.
Categories: VMware
vCenter, VMware, vSphere, Web Client
Enterprise Firewall Replacement with vShield Edge and vShield App
October 16, 2011
3 comments
I recently finished a great project where our team replaced the enterprise firewall used in two DMZ’s with vShield Edge and vShield App (using vShield 5.0), in a PCI environment supporting some of the customers most critical applications. Due to the nature this type of environment there are a number of considerations that were important to completing it successfully.
Categories: Business Critical Applications, VMware
Firewall, PCI DSS, VMware, vShield, vShield App, vShield Edge
Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011 – You will be missed.
October 6, 2011
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I was a non-Apple device owner for many years and just didn’t see the point, oh how times change. We now have 5 iPod’s, 2 iPad’s, 2 iPhone’s, a MacBook Pro, and an iMac at home. There is no dispute that Steve Jobs was a visionary, creative genius and created an outstanding innovative company. He will be missed and I hope that Apple will continue to innovate and lead design trends with simplicity and style for a long time to come. This will be one of his lasting legacies.
This post first appeared on the Long White Virtual Clouds blog at longwhiteclouds.com.
Categories: VMware
Apple, Steve Jobs
