Archive
Important! Default HBA Device Queue Depth Changes Between vSphere Versions
A little while ago I wrote an article titled 5 Tips to Prevent 80% of Virtualization Problems. This article was all about storage and how to configure your storage and the dangers to watch out for. This is because problems in virtualized environments are predominantly caused by or related to storage in one way or another. In that article I explained the impact of queue depths on performance and also some of the dangers of making the HBA device queue depths too high. What I didn’t know at the time I wrote the previous article was that the default queue depth for QLogic HBA’s was changed between vSphere 4.1 and 5.x. This article will being you up to date on the changes and the impacts of the change in default values between vSphere 4.x and 5.x.
vSphere 5.1 Hardening Guide Official Release
One of the most important documents for any vSphere administrator or architect has been released. The vSphere 5.1 Hardening Guide is now available. The guide was announced on the vSphere Blog by Mike Foley – vSphere 5.1 Hardening Guide – Official Release. I’d like to thank Mike and the rest of the VMware Security Team that was involved in putting this invaluable resource together. It has been reformatted from the previous version to make it easier to use. I think you’ll all like the new improvements.
The Status of Microsoft Failover Clustering Support on VMware vSphere 5.1
The number of enquiries I’ve been receiving regarding Microsoft Failover Clustering, especially for Microsoft SQL Server Databases has skyrocketed in the past few weeks. I have been receiving a number of enquiries from customers and also from partners including cloud service providers. As a result I thought I’d write this article to help you understand what the current status is of support for Microsoft Failover Clustering on VMware vSphere 5.1 (GA) and with regard to some VMware products.
Disabling vSphere 5.1 Single Sign-on (SSO) – Don’t do it!
I’ve been getting feedback and questions from a number of different places of people wanting to disable Single Sign-on in vSphere 5.1 for various reasons (with vCenter). This is mainly due to difficulties around implementation of SSO in combination with other VMware solutions, such as VMware View, vCloud Director. My response to the questions is very simple. DON’T DO IT! At least not with vCenter itself. vSphere 5.1 and vCenter was not designed to run without SSO and this is definitely not supported and will likely result in a broken environment. This brief article will give you some tips on how you can be successful with SSO.
vCenter Server Heartbeat Installation and Validation
vCenter Heartbeat is the only supported and validated solution for providing high availability to vCenter Server, and can also protect the core components that go with it (such as SSO, VUM, Inventory Service etc). I strongly recommend vCenter Server Heartbeat be considered for environments where the management infrastructure availability is critical. I’ve used vCenter Server Heartbeat in a number of implementations. But it hasn’t always been easy to implement. The good news is that now thanks to the team at VMware and VMware KBTV we have a video that takes you through the installation and validation of vCenter Server Heartbeat in a vSphere 5.1 environment. In this article I’ll give you some insight into when you might want to deploy vCenter Server Heartbeat, and you can learn how by viewing the video.
Peak Performance – The VMware vSphere 5.1 CPU Scheduler Explained
The people in VMware Technical Marketing and Engineering have been very busy as usual and have recently published an excellent and deep paper on the VMware vSphere 5.1 CPU Scheduler. This paper is an update from previous papers that have been written about it. Getting the most out of your CPU’s and tuning the environment for peak performance from a CPU perspective starts here.
Return of the FUD – Oracle Licensing on VMware vSphere
Some of my regular readers may remember an article I published titled Fight the FUD – Oracle Licensing and Support on VMware vSphere . This new article represents an addendum to my original article as some additional FUD has come to light. Hopefully this will allow you to avoid investing in licenses that will be unnecessary and unused, and thereby improve your return on your license investment. It’s again time to fight back and to stop the FUD!
Fail to Mount ATS-Only VMFS Datastore in ESXi 5.x
I recently noticed VMware KB that talks about vSphere 5.x hosts may fail to mount an ATS-Only VMFS Datastore on some storage arrays.
vSphere 5.1 Performance History Not Retained Past 30 Days
I was made aware of a KB 2042164 describing an issue where vSphere 5.1 vCenter Systems will not keep performance data past 30 days, this KB has now been replaced with KB 2042009. This article will briefly discuss the symptoms, seriousness and solutions.
Free vSphere 5.1 What’s New eLearning Course
I just heard about this and thought I’d share it with you all. VMware is offering a free vSphere 5.1 What’s New eLearning Course and it’s available in 9 languages. If you’re interested you can check it out on the VMware Education and Certification Blog.
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Your Author: Michael Webster, VCDX-066, vExpert 2012
IT Solutions 2000 Ltd
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