Scott Vessey has just announced on his VMTraining Blog that the new VCAP4-DSA Exam will be available as of the 13th September.

I've been waiting for this for a while as I missed the opportunity to site the Beta exam. So, I'm off to grab the latest copy of the Exam Blueprint to start preparing.

Good Luck!

 Remember this?

Watching this brought back the excitement I felt after the VMware MVP presentation that VMware made back at VMWorld 2008. Since then it's all been quiet…..Until now.

Read the rest of this entry »

VMworld San Francisco is looming and there have already been some great events announced such as VMUnderground’s WuPaaS on Sunday evening(for more details see here) and the Official VMworld Tweetup (details here) on Monday.

With VMworld kicking off on a Monday this year many folk will be rolling into town over the weekend so what better time to arrange a nice social get together on the Saturday night before the main event’s festivities begin.

Based on this Simon Seagrave and myself put our heads together and thought that a vBeers sounded like a jolly good idea, so if you’re in San Francisco on the Saturday night and would like to come and meet fellow virtualizationgeeks enthusiasts then make a note in your diary and come along.  All welcome and the more the merrier!

Read the rest of this entry »

Every month Simon Seagrave and I try organise a social get together of like-minded Virtualization enthusiasts held in a pub in central London (and Amsterdam). We like to call it vBeers. Before I go on, I would just like to state, although it's called vBeers, you do NOT have to drink beer or any other alcohol for that matter. This isn't just an excuse to get blind drunk. 

We came up with idea whilst on the Gestalt IT Tech Field Day back in April. We were chatting and we both recognised that we don't get together enough to catch-up, mostly do to busy work schedules and private lives. We felt that if we had a set date each month, the likely hood of us actually making that date would be higher than previous attempts. So the idea of vBeers was born.

London

The London vBeers is held on the first Thursday of every month starting at 6pm in ‘The Cittie of Yorke’ pub which is placed centrally to both London’s West End and The City. This venue serves a fine of selection of English beers along with soft drinks and bar snacks.

• Location: The ‘Cittie of Yorke’, London
• Address:  22 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6BS
• Nearest Tube:  Chancery Lane
• Time: 6:00pm
• Location: Map

 

---

 

Amsterdam

 

The Amsterdam vBeers is held on the first Thursday of every month starting at 6:30pm in ‘Cafe De Omval’ which is placed between Amstelstation and Spaklerweg stations. This venue serves a fine selection of beers along with soft drinks and bar food.

Drinks will not be paid for, there will not be a tab. When you buy a drink please pay for it as no one else will be paying for your drinks.

• Location: Cafe De Omval
• Address:  Weesperzijde 250 (hoek Omval)
• Nearest Metro Station:  Amstelstation (51,53,54)
• Nearest Tram Station:  Amstelstation (Lijn 12)
• Nearest Train Station:  Amstelstation 
• Nearest Bus Station:  Amstelstation (37,40,62,65,136,240,245,355)
• Time: 6:30pm
• Location: Map

Hi guys, just a quick post to remind you that the next vBeers will be help this Thursday, August 5th. The last vBeers was great fun, I met a lot of new people so I'm hoping there will be more new faces again this time. This time I must remember to eat something!!

When & Where

The London vBeers is held on the first Thursday of every month starting at 6pm in ‘The Cittie of Yorke’ pub which is placed centrally to both London’s West End and The City. This venue serves a fine of selection of English beers along with soft drinks and bar snacks.

• Location: The ‘Cittie of Yorke’, London
• Address:  22 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6BS
• Nearest Tube:  Chancery Lane
• Time: 6:00pm
• Ye Olde Map: MAP

What are vBeers?

Read the rest of this entry »

VDCA410 Section 1 – Implement and Manage Storage

Objective 1.1 – Implement and Manage Complex Storage Solutions

Knowledge

• Identify RAID levels
• Identify supported HBA types
• Identify virtual disk format types

Skills and Abilities

• Determine use cases for and configure VMware DirectPath I/O
• Determine requirements for and configure NPIV
• Determine appropriate RAID level for various Virtual Machine workloads
• Apply VMware storage best practices
• Understand use cases for Raw Device Mapping
• Configure vCenter Server storage filters
• Understand and apply VMFS resignaturing
• Understand and apply LUN masking using PSA?related commands
• Analyze I/O workloads to determine storage performance requirements

Objective 1.2 – Manage Storage Capacity in a vSphere Environment

Knowledge

• Identify storage provisioning methods
• Identify available storage monitoring tools, metrics and alarms

Skills and Abilities

• Apply space utilization data to manage storage resources
• Provision and manage storage resources according to Virtual Machine requirements
• Understand interactions between virtual storage provisioning and physical storage provisioning
• Apply VMware storage best practices
• Configure datastore alarms
• Analyze datastore alarms and errors to determine space availability

Objective 1.3 – Configure and Manage Complex Multipathing and PSA Plug?ins

Knowledge

• Explain the Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA) layout

Skills and Abilities

• Install and Configure PSA plug?ins
• Understand different multipathing policy functionalities
• Perform command line configuration of multipathing options
• Change a multipath policy
• Configure Software iSCSI port binding

 

Section 2 – Implement and Manage Networking

Objective 2.1 – Implement and Manage Complex Virtual Networks

Knowledge

• Identify common virtual switch configurations

Skills and Abilities

• Determine use cases for and apply IPv6
• Configure NetQueue
• Configure SNMP
• Determine use cases for and apply VMware DirectPath I/O
• Migrate a vSS network to a Hybrid or Full vDS solution
• Configure vSS and vDS settings using command line tools
• Analyze command line output to identify vSS and vDS configuration details

Objective 2.2 – Configure and Maintain VLANs, PVLANs and VLAN Settings

Knowledge

• Identify types of VLANs and PVLANs

Skills and Abilities

• Determine use cases for and configure VLAN Trunking
• Determine use cases for and configure PVLANs
• Use command line tools to troubleshoot and identify VLAN configurations

Objective 2.3 – Deploy and Maintain Scalable Virtual Networking

Knowledge

• Identify VMware NIC Teaming policies
• Identify common network protocols

Skills and Abilities

• Understand the NIC Teaming failover types and related physical network settings
• Determine and apply Failover settings
• Configure explicit failover to conform with VMware best practices
• Configure port groups to properly isolate network traffic

Objective 2.4 – Administer vNetwork Distributed Switch Settings

Knowledge

• Explain relationship between vDS and logical vSSes

Skills and Abilities

• Understand the use of command line tools to configure appropriate vDS settings on an ESX/ESXi host
• Determine use cases for and apply Port Binding settings
• Configure Live Port Moving
• Given a set of network requirements, identify the appropriate distributed switch technology to use
• Use command line tools to troubleshoot and identify configuration items from an existing vDS

 

Section 3 – Deploy DRS Clusters and Manage Performance

Objective 3.1 – Tune and Optimize vSphere Performance

Knowledge

• Identify appropriate BIOS and firmware setting requirements for optimal ESX/ESXi Host
• performance
• Identify appropriate ESX driver revisions required for optimal ESX/ESXi Host performance
• Recall where to locate information resources to verify compliance with VMware and third party
• vendor best practices

Skills and Abilities

• Tune ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine memory configurations
• Tune ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine networking configurations
• Tune ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine CPU configurations
• Tune ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine storage configurations
• Configure and apply advanced ESX/ESXi Host attributes
• Configure and apply advanced Virtual Machine attributes
• Tune and optimize NUMA controls

Objective 3.2 – Optimize Virtual Machine Resources

Knowledge

• Compare and contrast virtual and physical hardware resources
• Identify VMware memory management techniques
• Identify VMware CPU load balancing techniques
• Identify pre?requisites for Hot Add features

Skills and Abilities

• Calculate available resources
• Properly size a Virtual Machine based on application workload
• Configure large memory pages
• Understand appropriate use cases for CPU affinity

Objective 3.3 – Implement and Maintain Complex DRS Solutions

Knowledge

• Explain DRS affinity and anti?affinity rules
• Identify required hardware components to support DPM
• Identify EVC requirements, baselines and components
• Understand the DRS slot?size algorithm and its impact on migration recommendations

Skills and Abilities

• Properly configure BIOS and management settings to support DPM
• Test DPM to verify proper configuration
• Configure appropriate DPM Threshold to meet business requirements
• Configure EVC using appropriate baseline
• Change the EVC mode on an existing DRS cluster
• Create DRS and DPM alarms
• Configure applicable power management settings for ESX Hosts
• Properly size virtual machines and clusters for optimal DRS efficiency
• Properly apply virtual machine automation levels based upon application requirements

Objective 3.4 – Perform Capacity Planning in a vSphere Environment

Knowledge

• Understand the DRS slot?size algorithm and its impact on migration recommendations
• Identify tools needed for monitoring capacity planning
• Identify performance metrics related to resource contention and saturation

Skills and Abilities

• Predict when additional ESX/ESXi Host, network or storage resources will be required by observing
• an existing environment
• Determine when to expand or contract provisioned Virtual Machine resources based upon
• observed Virtual Machine utilization
• Interpret performance metrics from vCenter to properly size the environment

Objective 3.5 – Utilize Advanced vSphere Performance Monitoring Tools

Knowledge

• Identify hot keys and fields used with resxtop/esxtop
• Identify fields used with vscsiStats

Skills and Abilities

• Configure esxtop/resxtop custom profiles
• Determine use cases for and apply esxtop/resxtop Interactive, Batch and Replay modes
• Use vscsiStats to gather storage performance data
• Use esxtop/resxtop to collect performance data
• Given esxtop/resxtop output, identify relative performance data for capacity planning purposes

 

Section 4 – Manage Business Continuity and Protect Data

Objective 4.1 – Implement and Maintain Complex VMware HA Solutions

Knowledge

• Identify the three admission control policies for HA
• Identify heartbeat options and dependencies

Skills and Abilities

• Calculate host failure requirements
• Configure customized isolation response settings
• Configure HA redundancy in a mixed ESX/ESXi environment
• Configure HA related alarms and monitor an HA cluster
• Create a custom slot size configuration
• Understand interactions between DRS and HA
• Create an HA solution that ensures primary node distribution across sites
• Analyze vSphere environment to determine appropriate HA admission control policy
• Analyze performance metrics to calculate host failure requirements
• Analyze Virtual Machine workload to determine optimum slot size
• Analyze HA cluster capacity to determine optimum cluster size

Objective 4.2 – Deploy and Test VMware FT

Knowledge

• Identify VMware FT hardware requirements
• Identify VMware FT compatibility requirements

Skills and Abilities

• Modify VM and ESX/ESXi Host settings to allow for FT compatibility
• Use VMware best practices to prepare a vSphere environment for FT
• Configure FT logging
• ©VMware, Inc. All rights reserved May 2010 15
• Prepare the infrastructure for FT compliance
• Test FT failover, secondary restart and application fault tolerance in a FT Virtual Machine

Objective 4.3 – Configure a vSphere Environment to support MSCS Clustering

Knowledge

• Identify MSCS clustering solution requirements
• Identify the three supported MSCS configurations

Skills and Abilities

• Configure Virtual Machine hardware to support cluster type and guest OS
• Configure a MSCS cluster on a single ESX/ESXi Host
• Configure a MSCS cluster across ESX/ESXi Hosts
• Configure standby host clustering

Objective 4.4 – Deploy and Maintain vCenter Server Heartbeat

Knowledge

• Identify the five protection levels for vCenter Server Heartbeat
• Identify the three server protection options for vCenter Server Heartbeat
• Identify supported cloning options

Skills and Abilities

• Install and configure vCenter Server Heartbeat
• Determine use cases for and execute a manual switchover
• Recover from a failover
• Monitor vCenter Server Heartbeat and communication status
• Configure heartbeat settings
• Configure shutdown options
• Configure application protection
• Add/Edit Services
• Add/Edit Tasks
• Edit/Test Rules
• Install/Edit Plug?ins
• Add/Remove Inclusion/Exclusion Filters
• Perform Full System and Full Registry checks
• Configure/Test Alerts
• Troubleshoot common vCenter Server Heartbeat error conditions

 

Section 5 – Perform Operational Maintenance

Objective 5.1 – Implement and Maintain Host Profiles

Skills and Abilities

• Use Profile Editor to edit and/or disable policies
• Create sub?profiles
• Use Host Profiles to deploy vDS

Objective 5.2 – Deploy and Manage Complex Update Manager Environments

Knowledge

• Identify firewall access rules for Update Manager

Skills and Abilities

• Determine use case for, install and configure Update Manager Download Service
• Configure a shared repository
• Configure smart rebooting
• Manually download updates to a repository
• Perform orchestrated vSphere upgrades
• Create and modify baseline groups
• Troubleshoot Update Manager problem areas and issues
• Generate database reports using MS Excel or MS SQL
• Upgrade vApps using Update Manager

 

Section 6 – Perform Advanced Troubleshooting

Objective 6.1 – Configure, Manage and Analyze vSphere Log Files

Knowledge

• Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations
• Identify ESX/ESXi log files names and locations
• Identify tools used to view vSphere log files

Skills and Abilities

• Generate vCenter Server and ESX/ESXi log bundles
• Use vicfg?syslog to configure centralized logging on ESX/ESXi Hosts
• Test centralized logging configuration
• Configure the vMA appliance as a log host
• Use vilogger to enable/disable log collection on the vMA appliance
• Use vilogger to configure log rotation and retention
• Analyze log entries to obtain configuration information
• Analyze log entries to identify and resolve issues

 

Objective 6.2 – Troubleshoot CPU and Memory Performance

Knowledge

Identify resxtop/esxtop metrics related to memory and CPU

Identify vCenter Server Performance Chart metrics related to memory and CPU

Skills and Abilities

• Troubleshoot ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine CPU performance issues using appropriate metrics
• Troubleshoot ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine memory performance issues using appropriate metrics
• Use Hot?Add functionality to resolve identified Virtual Machine CPU and memory performance issues

Objective 6.3 – Troubleshoot Network Performance and Connectivity

Knowledge

• Identify virtual switch entries in a Virtual Machine’s configuration file
• Identify virtual switch entries in the ESX/ESXi Host configuration file
• Identify CLI commands and tools used to troubleshoot vSphere networking configurations
• Identify logs used to troubleshoot network issues

Skills and Abilities

• Utilize net-dvs to troubleshoot vNetwork Distributed Switch configurations
• Utilize vicfg-* commands to troubleshoot ESX/ESXi network configurations
• Configure a network packet analyzer in a vSphere environment
• Troubleshoot Private VLANs
• Troubleshoot Service Console and vmkernel network configuration issues
• Troubleshoot DNS and routing related issues
• Use esxtop/resxtop to identify network performance problems
• Use CDP and/or network hints to identify connectivity issues
• Analyze troubleshooting data to determine if the root cause for a given network problem
• originates in the physical infrastructure or vSphere environment

Objective 6.4 – Troubleshoot Storage Performance and Connectivity

Knowledge

• Recall vicfg-* commands related to listing storage configuration
• Recall vSphere 4 storage maximums
• Identify logs used to troubleshoot storage issues
• Describe the VMFS file system

Skills and Abilities

• Use vicfg-* and esxcli to troubleshoot multipathing and PSA?related issues
• Use vicfg-module to troubleshoot VMkernel storage module configurations
• Use vicfg-* and esxcli to troubleshoot iSCSI related issues
• Troubleshoot NFS mounting and permission issues
• Use esxtop/resxtop and vscsiStats to identify storage performance issues
• Configure and troubleshoot VMFS datastores using vmkfstools
• Troubleshoot snapshot and resignaturing issues
• Analyze log files to identify storage and multipathing problems

Objective 6.5 – Troubleshoot vCenter Server and ESX/ESXi Host Management

Knowledge

• Identify CLI commands and tools used to troubleshoot management issues

Skills and Abilities

• Troubleshoot vCenter Server service and database connection issues
• Troubleshoot the ESX Service Console firewall
• Troubleshoot ESX/ESXi server management and connectivity issues
• Determine the root cause of vSphere management or connectivity issue

 

Section 7 – Secure a vSphere Environment

Objective 7.1 – Secure ESX/ESXi Hosts

Knowledge

• Identify configuration files related to network security
• Identify virtual switch security characteristics

Skills and Abilities

• Add/Edit Remove users/groups on an ESX Host
• Customize SSH settings for increased security
• Enable/Disable certificate checking
• Generate ESX Host certificates
• Enable ESXi lockdown mode
• Replace default certificate with CA?signed certificate
• Configure SSL timeouts
• Secure ESX Web Proxy
• Enable strong passwords and configure password policies
• Identify methods for hardening virtual machines
• Analyze logs for security?related messages

Objective 7.2 – Configure and Maintain the ESX Firewall

Knowledge

• Identify vicfg-firewall commands
• Explain the three firewall security levels
• Identify ESX firewall architecture with/without vCenter Server

Skills and Abilities

• Enable/Disable pre?configured services
• Configure service behavior automation
• Open/Close ports in the firewall
• Create a custom service
• Set firewall security level

Objective 7.3 – Deploy and Administer vShield Zones

Knowledge

• Identify vShield Zones components
• Identify the four CLI command modes

Skills and Abilities

• Configure vShield Zones
• Backup and restore vShield Manager Data
• Backup CLI Configuration
• Create/Delete Layer 2/3/4 firewall rules using VM Wall
• Install/Uninstall a vShield manually and from template
• Configure vShield Manager plug?in capability
• Configure VM Flow charts
• Update vShield Zones
• Add/Edit/Delete User Accounts
• Assign rights to a user
• Add/Delete Application?Port Pair mapping
• Execute/Schedule Execution of virtual machine discovery
• Utilize vShield Zones CLI commands to configure and monitor vShield Zones
• Analyze traffic using VM Flow to determine root cause of network related issues

 

Section 8 – Perform Scripting and Automation

Objective 8.1 – Execute VMware Cmdlets and Customize Scripts Using PowerCLI

Knowledge

• Identify vSphere PowerCLI requirements
• Identify Cmdlet concepts
• Identify environment variables usage

Skills and Abilities

• Use VMRun to execute commands in a guest OS
• Install vSphere PowerCLI
• Install Update Manager PowerShell Library
• Use basic and advanced Cmdlets to manage VMs and ESX Hosts
• Use Web Service Access Cmdlets
• Use Datastore and Inventory Providers
• Given a sample script, modify the script to perform a given action

Objective 8.2 – Administer vCenter Orchestrator

Knowledge

• Identify vCenter Orchestrator requirements
• Identify default Orchestrator plug?ins

Skills and Abilities

• Install and Configure vCenter Orchestrator
• Configure vCenter Orchestrator database
• Configure vCenter Orchestrator LDAP connection
• Configure vCenter Orchestrator vCenter server connections
• Run a Workflow
• Administer Actions, Tasks, Workflows and Policies
• Administer Packages
• Identify appropriate Workflow for a given management activity

Objective 8.3 – Administer vSphere Using the vSphere Management Assistant

Knowledge

• Identify vMA prerequisites
• Identify vMA specific commands
• Determine when vMA is needed

Skills and Abilities

• Install and Configure vMA
• Add/Remove target servers
• Perform updates to the vMA
• Use vmkfstools to manage VMFS datastores
• Use vmware-cmd to manage VMs
• Use esxcli to manage Storage Multipathing
• Troubleshoot common vMA errors and conditions

 

Section 9 – Perform Advanced vSphere Installations and Configurations

Objective 9.1 – Install ESX Server with custom settings

Knowledge

• Identify Service Console memory defaults and maximums
• Identify default and optional ESX partitions

Skills and Abilities

• Configure optional ESX partitions during installation
• Install/uninstall custom drivers
• Configure advanced bootloader options
• Configure kernel options
• Given a scenario, determine when to customize a configuration

Objective 9.2 – Plan and Execute Scripted Installations

Knowledge

• Identify default installation scripts
• Identify boot options for scripted installation

Skills and Abilities

• Perform a scripted ESX Host installation
• Perform a scripted ESXi Host installation
• Configure media repository
• Edit installation script parameters
• Configure pre/post script tasks
• Evaluate use cases for scripted installation

Objective 9.3 – Configure vCenter Server Linked Mode

Knowledge

• Identify Linked Mode Prerequisites
• Identify differences between Linked and non?linked vCenter Server Configurations
• Identify when a role requires reconciliation

Skills and Abilities

• Reconcile Roles in a Linked Mode Configuration
• Create and Join a Linked Mode Group
• Determine use cases for vCenter Server Linked Mode
• Troubleshoot Linked Mode Configurations

Hi guys, just a quick post to remind you that the next vBeers will be help this Thursday, July 1st.

When & Where

The London vBeers is held on the first Thursday of every month starting at 6pm in ‘The Cittie of Yorke’ pub which is placed centrally to both London’s West End and The City. This venue serves a fine of selection of English beers along with soft drinks and bar snacks.

• Location: The ‘Cittie of Yorke’, London
• Address:  22 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6BS
• Nearest Tube:  Chancery Lane
• Time: 6:00pm
• Ye Olde Map: MAP

What are vBeers?

Read the rest of this entry »

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)

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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)

Read the rest of this entry »