The SLOG - SimonLong/Blog » Gestalt IT

I Must Have Done Something Right In A Previous Life

Simon Long — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:29:34 +0000

What an amazing past two weeks it's been…….

vExpert

About two weeks ago I received an email from John Troyer from VMware notifying me that I have been awarded the vExpert award. This was one of my targets for the year, so I have to say that I am very happy to recieve this award. For those of you who don't know what the vExpert award is, here is a little quote from the vExpert landing page.

The VMware vExpert Award is given to individuals who have significantly contributed to the community of VMware users over the past year. vExperts are book authors, bloggers, VMUG leaders, tool builders, and other IT professionals who share their knowledge and passion with others.

It's quite an honor when you see the list of others who have also been the vExpert title. For a comprehesive list have a look at Armin Van Lieshout's vExpert Directory.

Hitachi Data Systems, Blogger Day

I had the pleasure of spending most of last week over in California attending the Hitachi Data Systems Bloggers Day. This was another great experience. I caught up with some old friends and have made some great new friends. I'm not going to go into too much depth about my visit as I plan to write a post which will give you a little more detail into what I got up to at HDS.

As you can see, things have been pretty good for me. But it doesn't stop there, I'm pleased to tell you all, I have landed my dream job!!!

NEW JOB!!!

In August 2010 I will be joining VMware as a Senior Consultant. I CANNOT wait! I will be working in a team consisting of some of best Virtualisation Consultants in the world, Including Frank Denneman, Hany Michael, Kenneth Van Ditmarsch. This for me is the icing on the cake. This is a job I have wanted since I first started working with ESX 3 back in 2007.

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VMware ESXi 4 Log Files

Simon Long — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:05:24 +0000

Like most VI Admins, I've been using VMware ESXi quite a lot more lately and I'm slowly coming across things that are different to how they are in ESX. Log files being one of these differences.

With the absence of the Service Console, ESXi presents a slightly different architecture. If you haven't yet read The Architecture of VMware ESXi, I would recommend having a good read through.

Differences between ESX and ESXi logs

Here is the common log file structure in ESX (Source)

/var/log/vmware/hostd.log – ESX Service Log
var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log – vSphere Client Agent Logs
/var/log/vmware/aam – VMware HA Logs
/var/logvmkernel – VMKernel Messages
/var/log/vmkwarning – VMKernel Warnings
/var/log/messages – Service Console Log

Here is the common log file structure in ESXi

/var/log/vmware/hostd.log – ESXi Service Log
var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log – vCenter Agent Logs
/var/log/messages – Syslog Log (Combines vmkernel & hostd)

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Using vMA As Your ESXi Syslog Server

Simon Long — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:18:13 +0000

This is something I did a while ago, but it came to my attention that people didn't; a) Know that it's recommended to use a syslog server with ESXi b) You could use an application built in to vMA called vilogger.

Although it is stated in The Architecture of VMware ESXi…..

Because the in-memory file system does not persist when the power is shut down, log files do not survive a reboot. ESXi has the ability to configure a remote syslog server, enabling you to save all log information on an external system.

…..it is not a well known fact. So that is partly the reason for writing the post. The other reason is to introduce you to vilogger, which is part of the vMA. Of course you can use which ever syslog server you wish, if you plan to use your own, be sure to checkout Managing VMware ESXi page #68 to view the configuration steps.

I'm not going to take you through the steps of installing vMA, nor am I going to tell you all about what the vMA (vSphere Manage Assistant) does. If you want to read more about that please find the relevant links in the Sources section at the bottom of the page. But I am going to take you through the steps I took to use vMA as my ESXi syslog server.

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VMware Certified Advanced Professional – VCAP

Simon Long — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:27:34 +0000

Today VMware finally officially announced their new Exam set named; VMware Certified Advanced Professional – VCAP The VCAP Certification will sit in between VCP and VCDX. The VCAP comprises of two Exams: VMware Certified Advanced Professional – Datacenter Administrator (VCAP4-DCA) VMware Certified Advanced Professional - Datacenter Design (VCAP4-DCD) You must be a VCP4 before being able to sit the VCAP4 exams. So if you pass the VCP [...]

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PowerCLI: A Simple VM Backup Script

Simon Long — Wed, 05 May 2010 08:10:32 +0000

Just lately I've been doing a lot of work in a Lab environment. Some of the work I'm doing is quite important to me so I decided to workout a way I can backup my VM's onto a backup device. To my surprise this was pretty simple to do. Here is how I decided the script [...]

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Bedtime Reading – EMC’s ISM Book

Simon Long — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:13:49 +0000

If you're a virtualisation enthusiast like myself, you'll understand that we don't only need to know about virtualisation. We also need to know about all of the other IT areas that are incorporated into our virtual environment. Storage is a massive part of this. Whether your using iSCSI, FC SAN, NFS or even local storage, it's crucial to make sure you have your storage set up correctly to get the best performance, reliability and availability for your data. Storage isn't one of my strengths. Even though I know the basics, I feel, and have also been told that this can hold me back in becoming a better virtualisation specialist.

Fortunately whilst visiting EMC at the GestalIT TechFieldDay earlier in April, each of the delegates, including myself were given a copy of EMC's book; Information, Storage And Management.

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TechFieldDay Boston – Brilliant!

Simon Long — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:30:45 +0000

As you probably all know, at the start of the month I was invited over to Boston to take part in the 2nd ever GestaltIT TechFieldDay. For those of you who didn’t know, or who aren’t sure what the TechFieldDays are about, first read my earlier blog and then read below to find out how I got on.

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Drobo FS, Where does it fit?

Simon Long — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:50:02 +0000

During GestalIT TechFieldDay, myself and the other bloggers were introduced to the new Data Robotic’s product called the Drobo FS.

About the Drobo FS

The revolutionary Drobo FS was designed with one purpose in mind: to deliver the best file sharing experience ever. From the moment you plug it in and see it instantly appear on your desktop, you’ll know there’s nothing like it. The all-in-one Drobo FS is perfect any connected home, home office, or small office environment needing a simple, safe device for sharing and backing up files over the network.

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Free! HDS Storage Virtualization for Dummies eBook

Simon Long — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:41:43 +0000

I came across this free eBook today on the Hitachi website. If you're like me and work with Virtualization products but would like to learn more about Storage Virtualization then is a great freebie to download.

Just click on the following link and fill out the form to get your copy. HDS: eBook – Storage Virtualization for Dummies by Hitachi Data Systems

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The object has already been deleted or has not been completely created

Simon Long — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:59:10 +0000

Problem

When trying to Power On an old VM I was greeted with this message:

I checked the Datastore and everything seemed to be present and correct. I tried to migrate the VM to a different Host, but again I was shown this error. A quick Google didn't show up anything useful so I decided to check the logs.

running the command tail /var/log/vmware/hostd.log -f whist trying to Power On the VM flagged these error messages:

[2010-03-24 12:11:10.547 'BaseLibs' 129907632 info] readlink /var/run/vmware/7f0f49adb5092b09694cdf456a488d6c: No such file or directory
[2010-03-24 12:11:10.547 'BaseLibs' 129907632 info] readlink /var/run/vmware/%2fvmfs%2fvolumes%2f4ad45c8d%2ddb2eadd5%2d411f%2d00237d3c8b86%2fTEST%2dVWB01%2fTEST%2dVWB01%2evmx: No such file or directory

Solution

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