Home - Chris's Blogs

11/9/2009

I have finally completed a comprehensive review of the vSphere 4 product. For those of you who have attended training with me you will recognize a lot of this information as information that I like to deliver during the 4 day ICM course or the 5 day FT course.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

I am calling this version 1 becaue I continue to think of more content to add, but if I waited to make it available until I was done thinking of stuff then it would never get put out there.

I hope the review helps keep your skills sharp. Feel free to contact me with any questions. chris.mccain@vilogics.com.

Added bonus. Pearson VUE has provided VMware Certified Instructors with a code to distribute to VCP candidates that will provide a 10% discount on the exam. The VCI who's code is used the most will win a trip to VMworld. So ask your favorite VCI for their code or you can settle for mine. :)

Pearson VUE 10% discount --- VMTQ873A4400 ---

You can use this code as often as you like (hopefully only need it once) and you can even gift it to friends and family who may want to take the VCP exam. It makes for a wonderful gift for birthdays, Easter, Memorial Day, the NCAA Final Four, Winter Olympics, and just about any of the other 365 days of the year. Maybe not a good idea for Christmas though. Well, at least my wife wasn't too thrilled about it.

Enjoy.

Posted at 1:12 PM by NERD-WSS1\chris | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

11/21/2008

VMware Site Recovery Manager…… The Staples EASY BUTTON of disaster recovery.

Several months ago VMware released a new product with the moniker Site Recovery Manager. In the past two weeks I have had the luxury of access to some really good equipment and have had the pleasure of getting to put this product through some tests. And after having done all this I can confidently declare, in part due to John Daley of Dell, that SRM is truly the Staples Easy Button for disaster recovery.

(As a side note, John knows how to hack the Staples Easy button to put your own MP3’s on it. I heard him mention something about uploading Barry Manilow to his Easy Button but I might he might have said Hannah Montana. Either way, kudos to you John for not denying your musical breadth.)

Now, back to SRM.

Over the past several years of teaching and consulting on VI3 there have been countless situations where students/clients were rather disappointed to hear that VMware HA did not work across geographic boundaries because of the shared storage requirement. SRM now fills a huge gap in providing site protection where HA leaves off. And it does it really well.

The following is a list of the equipment and software used in the demos:

· Dell Poweredge 2950’s running ESX 3.5 update 2.

· 2 Dell/EMC CX4-120 SANs with Navisphere and Mirrorview/s and SNAPView

· VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 3 in a Virtual Machine.

I am not going to get into all of the details of storage replication and the Mirrorview/S and Mirrorview/A, though I used Mirrorview/S in the demo because the CX4’s were sitting right next to each other.

(Note: In real life, please don’t put your 2 SANs right next to each as part of your DR plan)

The videos do not have audio (maybe soon) but you can follow the configuration in the eight videos. Next time I get access to hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment I will create new videos that are a little cleaner but this will help for now.

The SRM process begins with the configuration of the storage arrays. The first video shows how the protected and recovery CX4’s, specifically, the creation of LUNs, mirrors, and snapshots to support the requirements of SRM.

!! Please note that the Dell/EMC storage device must use consistency groups in order to present datastore groups through the SRA to the SRM server.!! (Thanks Scott Speer, you’re a SAN genius).

The remaining videos in the series progress through the installation and configuration of VMware SRM.

· 01 Dell/EMC CX4 Configuration

· 02 Installation of SRM, SRA, and EMC Solutions Enabler

· 03 Site pairing and array manager configuration

· 04 Inventory mapping

· 05 Creating protection groups

· 06 Creating recovery plans

· 07 Testing recovery plans

· 08 Performing a failover (You can also click the Easy button below to watch failover. Do it John!)

On a final note thanks again to Scott Speer, Tom Hall, and Dean Elzie. There was lots of brainpower going into the successful configuration and testing of this product.

Enjoy the series. Email me if you have any questions or ideas for new videos.

Chris

P.S. My next blog will be the secret trick for VMotioning with an Internal Only configuration. I owe it to Sean “The Bouncer” Moore at Dell.

Posted at 9:47 AM by NERD-WSS1\chris | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

9/24/2008

Configuring and NFS Server on Ubuntu 8.04.1 Server

I can't believe that I am about to publicly say (or type rather) this.... the command line in some cases is easier than the GUI.

There. I said it! As a hard nosed GUI lover I have for a long time felt that administration is just easier when you are not fumbling for commands or mistyping parameters or for that matter I just want a little color in my life instead of just a black screen with white letters.

For the past few days I have been playing with some virtual appliances and "built-for-storage" devices like the ones that are freely available from FreeNAS.org and OpenFiler.com. I had read about these two utilities and seen screen shots and many many moons ago spent a little time with them. Well the past few days I had been revisiting these old friends with the intent of creating an NFS server demonstration. Well the days went buy and I just did not find these tools very easy to use. The documentation was extremely weak if at all, and in some cases I was looking at demo screenshots of screens I could not even find.

So after a bit of effort with these two GUI oriented storage appliance I decided to try my hand at creating NFS on good old Ubuntu Server. The escapade began with obtaining the free Ubuntu 8.04.1 Server ISO from the Ubuntu Web site. (Click the link to go to the page yourself.)

The next task was to install it, which I did into a virtual machine on ESX 3.5 Update 2. The install was a piece of cake.

The video takes over from here and shows how I configured the new Ubuntu VM with a static IP address and a pair of valid DNS server and then shows the installation of the NFS server components, modification of the /etc/exports and then finishes by testing to see if the new directory was shared out.

Click here to view the video.

Who knows.... this might be the beginning of a beautiful career in command line management!! Probably not, but I will admit this configuration was 10,000 times easier than mucking with those two GUI products.

Enjoy getting your nerd on.

Chris

Posted at 10:36 PM by NERD-WSS1\chris | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

7/28/2008

SQL and VC Revisited... Windows Authentication Configuration BONUS!!!

One of the first posts I did, and a popular one, based on the statistics was a video on how to configure SQL Server 2005 for VC. This post provides an update to that same idea but with the added bonus of showing how to configure VC to use Windows Authentication to a remote SQL Server 2005 system.

While the video shows configuration with VC update 1 it still holds true for the Update 2 that was released this past weekend (7/24/2008).

The video shows the following steps:

1. Creation of SQL Server user account.

2. Creation of VC database.

3. Configuration of SQL Server user account.

4. Install of SQL Native Client

5. Creation of ODBC connection.

6. Install of VC 2.5.

7. Removal of MSDB permissions for SQL Server account.

8. Creation and configuration of Windows account for VC to use for Windows Authentication.

NOTE: According to the VMware setup guide for VC it is not supported to use Windows Authentication for remote SQL access. This may change in the future, however, I can't promise or guarantee it.

I created this because I have run into a few scenarios when engaging customers where the company does not allow SQL Server authentication due to its historically bad reputation. The reality is that SQL Server Authentication can be configured to use the same security settings as the Windows domain password policy and therefore has really eliminated the age old threat of a no password SA account. Any environment wth an SA account that has no password has been purposefully configured that way.

Enjoy the video. Click here to watch. E-mail me with questions.

Chris

Posted at 12:46 PM by NERD-WSS1\chris | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

6/10/2008

MCITP: EA! The certification is much more than a mouthful.. but easy as pie.

In a quest to once again send a jolt of obscurity and confusion into the world of IT certification Microsoft has revamped its certification product line. The new line says good bye to some old titles and hello to lots and lots of new ones. Gone are the days of the MCSA and MCSE, these are the days of the MCTS and MCIPT. The new twist is that there are many flavors of MCTS and MCITP certs.

The changes to the Microsoft certification line come in response to the market demand (?) for specialized certifications to fit specific job roles. For example there exists an MCTS certification for products like:

Windows SharePoint Services
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Exchange Server 2007
SQL Server 2005
Windows Vista
Windows Server 2008
and more....

Meanwhile there are MCITP certifications with titles like:

Database Administrator (DBA)
Database Developer
Enterprise Messaging Administrator
Enterprise Support Technician
Consumer Support Technician
Server Administrator (SA)
Enterprise Administrator (EA)

In case you are wondering, the MCSA and MCSE are most closely linked to the MCITP: SA and MCITP: EA, although Microsoft seems to suggest that the old MCSA is not the same as the MCITP:SA and the old MCSE is not the same as the new MCITP: EA. However, it is a bit contradictory then for them to offer MCSA upgrades to the MCITP:SA and MCSE upgrades to the MCITP:EA.

Anyhow, the most important part of this blog is to let you know that as of right now the MCITP: EA exams are actually quite easy. Microsoft has gone through great lengths to simplify question wording and delivery. Simply put, they have eliminated a good portion of drag and drop items, hot spot items, "choose all that apply" items, and even simulations. WARNING!!! This is subject to change at any time. So my advice to you is that if you plan on upgrading your existing Microsoft certification or just earning one at all... NOW IS THE TIME TO DO IT!!! Get it over with while the questions are still so immature. Don't wait longer because only time will bring difficulty.

In time, Microsoft will recruit new subject matter experts with deeper Windows Server 2008 experience than the previous pool of SMEs and the questions will become more difficult and the exam items will venture back into more complex simulation (and maybe even emulation) item types.

The simulations are make believe operating systems that are presented within a scenario and the candidate must complete anywhere from one to three tasks. There has been a rumor however that Microsoft is looking to introduce emulations in which students will connect to full blown virtual machines and be asked to perform tasks. The difference then is that simulations do not permit full access to the operating system and therefore can provide direction to a solution; while and emulation will be wide open for all kinds of dead ends.

If you have any questions on the new Microsoft certification track contact me at chris@getyournerdon.com.

Posted at 1:57 PM by NERD-WSS1\chris | Category: Microsoft | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/20/2008

SVMotion.... Watch it happen here!!

There has been quite a bit of buzz about Storage VMotion (aka SVMotion) as a new feature of ESX 3.5 and VC 2.5.

The idea behind the feature is that a running (hot) virtual machine can be moved from one datastore to another without incurring downtime. For example, as shown in the diagram, virtual machines stored on local VMFS volumes of an ESX Server, or virtual machines that are outgrowing their existing VMFS datastore can be hot migrated to another datastore that offers more flexibility or more space as needed.

Click here to view the SVMotion diagram.

While there has been a lot of excitement around there has also been confusion as to how to get it to work. I have created three videos to show how SVMotion can be executed. Click on each of the videos to begin playing.

Video 1: SVMotion for Remote Command Line Interface

Video 2: SVMotion Interactive from Remote Command Line Interface

Video 3: SVMotion with the unsupported but nifty SVMotion plugin from viplugins.com

The remote command line interface can be downloaded from VMware as a virtual appliance or installation package for Windows and Linux.

The SVMotion plugin is very cool and functional but please do not call VMware for help with the plugin. It was created by a third-party (pretty smart one) that has several plugins for VirtualCenter. You can find them at http://www.viplugins.com. I imagine that eventually it will be built into the interface by VMware but for those without much patience and a weak stomach for the command line. This will certainly hold you over!

This should help clear up some of that confusion.

Enjoy

Chris

Posted at 11:56 AM by NERD-WSS1\chris | Category: Miscellaneous | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (2)

3/19/2008

30 years of programming for 21 seconds of magic.

I have only been in IT for about 9 years now. Teaching and consulting for almost a decade I can easily admit that one of the greatest wonders in my mind is why Microsoft did not have a native tool that could be used to grow and shrink a system volume. Was it some deep dark problem with the construction of the OS? No, because Acronis was able to do it. Was it a lack of programmers available to Microsoft? Come on, does the Pope $H1T in the woods? Is a bear Catholic? Of course not!!!

Well all those years of wishing and now its like Christmas in March. While writing an article for Microsoft on Windows Server 2008 I found the Holy Grail. I found that Windows Server 2008 will let me change the size of my system volume. I sat stunned for several minutes upon the realization. I didn't think it were true. How could it be? Has technology brought us to that point? Has Microsoft landed a new Harvard MBA with an ear for the desires of the common IT Pro? I don't care which, but now I can change the size of my system volume. I must have changed it 10x just to be sure. Just in case at some point it went away I wanted to have experienced the good life as much as I could.

So I share this powerful, 21 second video with you so that you can bask in the same wonderous joy that I did. But I warn you, if you watch the video it might take some of the wind out of your sails for when you do this on your own the first time.

Click here to watch the video on growing and shrinking the system volume on Windows Server 2008.

Sleep well tonight!

Chris

Posted at 4:29 PM by NERD-WSS1\chris | Category: Microsoft | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

VMware Update Manager Demo

Nothing an IT goes without patching. Firmware needs it, operating systems need it, applications need it, and even hypervisors need it.

With the recent release of Vmware ESX 3.5 and VC 2.5 Vmware has included a new feature that facilitates the deployment of updates to ESX Server hosts.... AND VIRTUAL MACHINES!!!

So if you have been frustrated with SUS and its older brother WSUS and you refuse to buy System Center for complete control of updates then Vmware presents you with another option in VMware Update Manager.

Update Manager allows you to create update baselines that represent a set of updates and then compare a host or VM against that baseline. If the host or VM is not compliant against that baseline then it can be remediated to deploy the updates.

Click here to watch a video on using VUM to update an ESX Server host. Through the magic of video editing this happens much faster in the video than in real life. The video proceeds through the following steps:

Creation of a baseline.
Applying the baseline to a host.
Scanning the host.
Remediating the host.
Host transition to "Enter Maintenance Mode."
Manual VMotion of VMs on the host.
Host transition to "Maintenance Mode."
Applicaiton of updates
Reboot of host

Grab some semi-sweet chocolate non-pareils (aka Snowcaps) and a Cherry Coke... this one is action packed!!!

Chris

Posted at 4:11 PM by NERD-WSS1\chris | Category: VMware | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/13/2008

Need NFS? Got Windows?

So as you can probably tell I have been doing quite a bit of VMware work lately. In my consulting and even in the lab environment I have constructed I have found that having an NFS datastore really comes in handy. But I have found that its not as prevalent in the typical IT environment despite its storage friendly cost.

I found it especailly useful for VCB restores (thanks to Chris Skinner) because I could make the backup files available to the Service Console and not have to copy them locally. But then VMware allowed Enterprise Converter to restore VCB backups and that rendered the need for the NFS backup directory useless. But it still functions really well for ISOs and templates.

So you can imagine my surprise and happiness when I learned that I could tweak a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 to present itself as an NFS share. All it took was a simple download of the File Services for Unix and a few quick configuration steps.

I have created a video that details the configuration process.

Click here to view the video on configuring Windows Server 2003 as an NFS server for ESX.

Enjoy.

Chris

Posted at 7:47 PM by NERD-WSS1\chris | Category: VMware | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

VirtualCenter 2.5 with SQL Server 2005

If you have struggled getting VC 2.5 to work on top of SQL Server 2005 you will appreciate this video that walks through all the steps of installation including configuring the database.

In the video I opted not to go the route of just blindly assigning sysadmin fixed server role as is suggested in some of the installation documentation you may find.

As the video will show I used SQL Authentication and a user account that OWNS the VC database. Not a member of db_owner for the VC database, the user is listed as the OWNER giving them full rights of the dbo schema. In addition the video shows how to assign the user membership in the db_owner database role for the MSDB database which is required only for the duration of the VC installation and then can be removed.

Grab some popcorn and an RDP session and follow along if you want!

Click here to play the video for VC 2.5 installation on SQL Server 2005.

Enjoy.

Chris

Posted at 5:15 PM by NERD-WSS1\chris | Category: VMware | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

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