vExpert 2014 Applications are Open Now !!!!

There's chance to show the contributions of VMwareArena and get recognized. Nothing but vExpert 2014. I am happy to announce via my website that vExpert 2014 applications are open now. Applications of vExpert 2014 will be accepted untill March 6th Midnight PST. Applications received after March 6th will be roll into Q2 nomination & Voting Process. Got Shocked???.. Yes.There are new changes to vExpert Program

1. If you are a Current 2013 vExpert, Your 2014 application process has been shortened. Since you have proved yourself as a vExpert, you need to let them know the contributions since May 2013 vExpert announcement.

2. There will be quarterly nominations into 2014 vExpert program. Applications will be open year round at the end of each quarter. The voting process will begin for new vExperts from the previous quarter. So if you are not selected as vExpert 2014 right away, you will have change for quarterly voting and nominations.

As same as the last year, There are 3 different paths to prove yourself as vExpert.

Evangelist Path:

The Evangelist Path includes book authors, bloggers, tool builders, public speakers, VMTN contributors, and other IT professionals who share their knowledge and passion with others with the leverage of a personal public platform to reach many people. Employees of VMware can also apply via the Evangelist path. A VMware employee reference is recommended if your activities weren’t all in public or were in a language other than English.

Customer Path:

The Customer Path is for leaders from VMware customer organizations. They have been internal champions in their organizations, or worked with VMware to build success stories, act as customer references, given public interviews, spoken at conferences, or were VMUG leaders. A VMware employee reference is recommended if your activities weren’t all in public.

VPN (VMware Partner Network) Path:

The VPN Path is for employees of our partner companies who lead with passion and by example, who are committed to continuous learning through accreditations and certifications and to making their technical knowledge and expertise available to many. This can take shape of event participation, video, IP generation, as well as public speaking engagements. A VMware employee reference is required for VPN Path candidates.

Apply Now:

If you Current vExpert 2013, Use the Fast Track vExpert 2014 Application

 For 2014 vExpert Nomination ,2014 vExpert Application

I hope this is informative for you. Apply now to show your contribution to virtual community and get awarded by VMware as vExpert 2014. Thanks for Reading!!!!

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Difference Between vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 and vCenter Server 5.5 on Windows

vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 is reducing the dependency of Windows operating system for vCenter server Install. With VCSA 5.5 on Embedded database can manage 100 hosts and 3000 Virtual Machines. vCSA reduces lot of administrative efforts by reducing efforts needed for windows patching, software update and management of Guest OS on windows operating system. It is necessary to understand the difference between the vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 and vCenter server 5.5 installed on windows Server. This post will explain you the detailed difference between the 2 items.

Feature	vCenter Server Appliance 5.5	vCenter Server 5.5 on Windows
Can be Deployed	Only as a Virtual Machine	Can be installed on Physical or Virtual windows Machine
Operating System	Preconfigured Linux-based virtual machine	vCenter 5.5 requires 64 Bit OS and 64 bit DSN: Windows Server 2013 (64 bit) Windows Server 2008 Sp2 (64 bit) Windows Server 2008 R2 Sp1 (64 bit) Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit)
Database	PostgreSQL for the embedded database Supports Oracle Database	SQL Server 2005 (SP4) (Standard\Enterprise)  (32-bit & 64-bit) SQL Server 2008 (R2 SP2, R2 SP1) (Express\standard\Enterprise\Datacenter) (32-bit & 64-bit) SQL Server 2012 (SP1) (Enterprise\Standard) (32-bit & 64-bit) Oracle 11 G Release 2 (Enterprise\Standard) & Oracle 11G ONE edition (32-bit & 64-bit)
Installation Method	Deployed as a Virtual Machine using OVF or OVA template	Need to install on top of Windows Operating System.
Hosts Per vCenter	100 Hosts with  embedded vPostgres database 1000 Hosts with Oracle Database	1000 hosts per vCenter Server
Virtual Machines Per vCenter	3,000 VM's with  embedded vPostgres database 10,000 VM's with Oracle Database	10,000 VM's per vCenter Server
vCenter Linked Mode	Not Supported	Supported with Windows Install
vCenter Server Heartbeat	Not Supported	vCenter heartbeat is a windows application.  It works with Windows install vCenter server
VMware Update Manager	You can't install VUM on VCSA. Update Manager can be installed on separate windows machine to use with VCSA	Supported with Windows Install
AutoDeploy	Autodeploy is bundled with VCSA	Should be installed as an additional package. Installation files are located in vCenter Installation DVD
Syslog Collector	Syslog collector is installed by default	Should be installed as an additional package. Installation files are located in vCenter Installation DVD
ESXi Dump Collector Service	ESXi Dump Collector Service is installed by default	Should be installed as an additional package. Installation files are located in vCenter Installation DVD
vSphere Web Client	Pre-Installed with VCSA	Should be installed as an additional package. Installation files are located in vCenter Installation DVD
PowerCLI	Cannot be installed on vCSA	Can be installed on Windows vCenter Server machine
IPV6 support	IPv6 is not supported. Only supports IPV4	Both  IPv4 and IPv6 are supported

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vSphere Distributed Switch Part 19 - Understanding vSwitch Network Load Balancing policies

Load Balancing and failover policy allows you to define how the network traffic distributed between physical network adapters and how to reroute the traffic in case of network adapter failure. There are 5 types of network load balancing policies available with vSphere distributed switch. Let's discuss in details about each load balancing policy. Load Balancing Policy  available at vSwitch and dvSwitch is only to control the Outgoing traffic

1. Route based on originating Virtual Port

2. Route based on IP hash

3. Route based on originating virtual Port

4. Use Explicit failover order

5. Route based on Physical NIC load

Route based on originating Virtual Port

This is the default load balancing policy. Virtual Switch consists of number of virtual ports. In this load balancing policy, Virtual ports of the vSwitch are associated with the Physical network adapter. This physical network adapters are determined by the virtual Port ID in which the virtual machine is connected. Traffic from that particular virtual machine virtual Ethernet adapter is consistently sent only to the same Ethernet adapter until and unless there is a failure of that particular physical Ethernet adapter. In that case, There will be a failover to another physical adapter in the NIC team. Network replies will also be received on the same physical adapter as the physical switch learns the port association.

Route based on IP Hash

If this Load balancing policy is configured, Physical Nic for outbound packet is chosen based on its source and destination IP address. Physical uplink will be selected based on the hash of the source and destination IP address of the each packet sent from the VM. This method need higher CPU overhead.

In the above diagram, You can see the different uplinks are chosen based on the hash of the source and destination IP address.

Hash of A & X associated with Uplink1
Hash of A & Y associated with Uplink2
Hash of  B & Y associated with Uplink3
Hash of  B & Z associated with Uplink3

Above diagram will clearly explains how the physical uplink adapters will be chosen using Load based on IP hash load balancing policy.

Route based on  Source MAC Hash

In this load balancing policy, Each Virtual machine outbound traffic will be mapped to a particular physical NIC based on the hash of Virtual Machine NIC's MAC address. Traffic from a particular virtual NIC is consistently sent to the same uplink adapter unless there is failure of that particular uplink adapter. Even replies are received on the same physical adapter.

Hash of VM A vNIC's MAC is associated with Uplink 1
Hash of VM B vNIC's MAC is associated with Uplink 2
Hash of VM C vNIC's MAC is associated with Uplink 3

Route based on Physical NIC load

This load balancing policy is only available as part of dvSwitch and it is not available in Standard switches. This policy chooses a uplink based on the current load of the physical network adapters. This load balancing policy use a algorithm to perform a regular inspection of load on the Physical NICs every 30 seconds. When the utilization of Particular physical uplink exceeds 75% over 30 seconds, the hypervisor will move VM's traffic to another uplink adapter. This load balancing doesn't require any additional configuration at the physical switch level.

This load balancing policy provides better utilization of all the uplink adapters and does perfect load balancing. Please find the below test case results  dvUplinkswith the network bandwidth usage on 2 Uplink adapter during the entire benchmark period. This load balancing policy provides even distribution of network load on both physical uplink adapters.

Graphic Thanks to VMware.com

Use Explicit Failover Order

This setting always use the highest order uplink from the list of Active uplink adapters. In case of failover or both the active uplink adapters failed, Standby adapters will be used. Move the adapters up and down based on the requirement.  uplinks adapters under Unused uplink will not used for the communication.

I hope this is informative for you. Thanks for Reading!!!. Be Social and share it in social media if you feel worth sharing it.

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VMTurbo Released Operations Manager 4.5 with Storage and Fabric Control Module

First of all before going to talk about VMTurbo Operation Manager, VMwareArena Welcomes VMTurbo as a new Sponsor. On Jan 28,2014 -VMTurbo released its new version version of Operation manager which is Operations manager version 4.5. VMTurbo's Operation manager continuously analyzes the real-time performance, resource capacity, Service level priorities and System constraints across your virtualized environment to determine, implement and adjust resource configurations and workload placements. VMTurbo's Operations Manager support various virtualization platforms including VMware,Citrix, Microsoft and RedHat.

VMTurbo Operations Manager integrates with Microsoft VMM (SCVMM) which allows you to manage the inventory of Hyper-V hosts and VM's.

Below are the Few of the New features which are available as part of Operations Manager 4.5

VMTurbo Storage Control Module

Storage Control Module supports advanced features such as NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP (Cluster mode) and FlexPod. This Module helps users to solve their Storage Performance problems, Cost Challenges by enabling the efficient use of storage infrastructure by preventing unnecessary  storage provisioning.




VMTurbo Fabric Control Module

Fabric Control Module supports Cisco UCS fabric. which helps to identify the right amount of blades for the current workload in your environment so that, you can provision more or less as needed for your current workload. It helps your to reduce the hardware cost based on workload identified So, blades can be provisioned or decommissioned on demand. This Fabric Control Module also controls the number of Ports on the NICs which allows to provision the correct amount of bandwidth from the fabric interconnect. This Module simply ensures that your workloads get the perfect compute and network resources to get the reliable performance by utilizing the underlying blades and Ports



Apart from the above 2 New Modules, there are many key improvements to Operation Manger foundation features like Supply chain management, ROI Report, Workload summary, lot of reporting and capacity dashboard.

Download Your Free Trail of  VMTurbo Operation Manger 4.5 Now

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New VCP certfication :VCP550 based on vSphere 5.5 is available Now

It is been a great news that VMware have release new VCP certification VCP550 on January 22 2014. which is based out of vSphere 5.5.  We have already been testing and implementing lot of new features of vSphere 5.5 in our production and lab environment. It would be nice that you have a new certification which test your skills on vSphere 5.5. Let's get ready  for VCP (VMware Certified Professional) 550 (VCP550).

One more thing to notice is Even if you appear for VCP510(exam based on vSphere 5.0/5.1) or VCP 550 (exam based on vSphere 5.5), You will earn the certification called "VCP5-DCV"(VMware Certified Professional 5- Data Center Virtualization). It is upto to you to choose which version you want to test and proof your skills.

Your Certification can be achieved in Simple 3 Steps

1. Attend a mandatory VMware Authorized course

2. Gain hands-on experience with vSphere 5

3. Appear and pass the VCP5-DCV (VCP510 or VCP550) exam.

To appear for the certification VCP5-DCV based on VCP550, you need to first get authorization for the exam using the link Request for Authorization for VCP550. Review your details in the authorization form and click on submit to submit the request for authorization for this exam.

• Allow up to 15 minutes for your authorization request to be processed 
• You will receive an email with your authorization information from VMware within in the next hour.
• Go to Pearson VUE testing site to schedule your exam.
• Login using the name and Candidate ID.

Below is the overview from the Exam blue Print of VCP5-DCV (VCP 550)  Download the exam blue print for VCP5-DCV (VCP550)  for detailed items covered in each objective.

Section 1 – Plan, Install, Configure and Upgrade vCenter Server and VMware ESXi

Objective 1.1 – Identify and Explain vSphere Architecture and Solutions

Objective 1.2 -- Install and Configure vCenter Server

Objective 1.3 – Install and Configure VMware ESXi

Objective 1.4 – Plan and Perform Upgrades of vCenter Server and VMware ESXi

Objective 1.5 –Secure vCenter Server and ESXi

Section 2 – Plan and Configure vSphere Networking

Objective 2.1 – Configure vSphere Standard Switches

Objective 2.2 – Configure vSphere Distributed Switches

Objective 2.3 – Configure vSS and vDS Policies

Section 3 – Plan and Configure vSphere Storage

Objective 3.1 – Configure Shared Storage for vSphere

Objective 3.2 – Create and Configure VMFS and NFS Datastores

Section 4 – Deploy and Administer Virtual Machines and vApps

Objective 4.1 – Create and Deploy Virtual Machines

Objective 4.2 – Create and Deploy vApps

Objective 4.3 – Manage Virtual Machine Clones and Templates

Objective 4.4 – Administer Virtual Machines and vApps

Section 5 – Establish and Maintain Service Levels

Objective 5.1 – Create and Configure VMware Clusters

Objective 5.2 – Plan and Implement VMware Fault Tolerance

Objective 5.3 – Create and Administer Resource Pools

Objective 5.4 – Migrate Virtual Machines

Objective 5.5 – Backup and Restore Virtual Machines

Objective 5.6 – Patch and Update ESXi and Virtual Machines

Section 6 – Perform Basic Troubleshooting

Objective 6.1 – Perform Basic Troubleshooting for ESXi Hosts

Objective 6.2 – Perform Basic vSphere Network Troubleshooting

Objective 6.3 – Perform Basic vSphere Storage Troubleshooting

Objective 6.4 – Perform Basic Troubleshooting for HA/DRS Clusters and vMotion/Storage vMotion

Section 7 – Monitor a vSphere Implementation

Objective 7.1 – Monitor ESXi, vCenter Server and Virtual Machines

Objective 7.2 – Create and Administer vCenter Server Alarms

Objective 7.3 – Install, Configure and Administer vCenter Operations Manager

I hope this is informative for you. Let's ready to test our skills in vSphere 5.5. Be Social and Share it in Social media if you feel it is worth sharing it.

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vSphere Distributed Switch Part 18 - Configuring dVPortGrouP VLAN Policy

In this post i am going to explain how to configure VLAN policy at distributed port Group. This VLAN ploicy can also be configured at distributed port, Uplink PortGroup and Uplink Port level.  I have explained different types of VLAN's available with distributed portGroup along with the detailed explanation about different types of VLAN tagging like External Switch Tagging(EST), Virtual Switch Tagging (VST) and Virtual Guest Tagging (VGT).

VLAN type = None:

Configure VLAN type as None, If you are not using VLAN's or In case of External switch Tagging. I have explained about External switch tagging in my one of the blog post " VLAN Tagging : VST,EST & VGT on VMware vSphere". For better understanding i am recollecting the concepts of VLAN tagging here.

External Switch Tagging (EST)
1  In EST, ESX host doesn't see any vlan tags and does not handle any VLAN tagging.
2  All the tagging operation is done by physical switch and virtual switch is not aware about that.
3  Number of physical nics = no of VLANs connected to ESX
4.Port groups on the Virtual switch of ESX server need not to be configured with the VLAN number or configure VLAN ID 0 (if it is not native VLAN)
5  Count of NICS and cable connected to ESX is more as compared to VST approach.
6  The physical switch port connecting the uplink from the ESX should be configured as Access port assigned to specific VLAN.
7  virtual machine network Packet is delivered to physical switch without any tagging operation performed by the virtual switch.

Below are the examples of External Switch tagging. Each Port group is not tagged with VLAN iD.

VLAN type = VLAN

Tag your network traffic with the VLAN ID. Enter the number between 1 and 4094 for the Virtual Switch Tagging (VST) and Type VLAN number as 4095 for Virtual Guest Tagging(VGT)

 Virtual Switch Tagging (VST)

1. VST uses 802.1q VLAN trunks and tagged traffic.

2 VLAN tagging for all packets is performed by the Virtual Switch before leaving the ESX/ESXI host
3 Port groups on the Virtual switch of ESX server should be configured with VLAN ID (1-4094)
4 vSwitch responsibility is  to strip off the vlan tag and send packet to virtual machine in corresponding port group.
5 Reduces the number of Physical nics on the server by running all the VLANs over one physical nic. Better solution would be keep 2 nics for redundancy.
6.Reduces number of cables from ESX server to physical switch.
7 The physical switch port connecting the uplink from the ESX should be configured as Trunk port.
8 virtual machine network Packet is delivered to vSwitch and before it is sent to physical switch the packet is tagged with vlan id according to the port group membership of originating virtual machine.

Virtual Guest Tagging (VGT)

1. you must install 8021.Q VLAN trunking driver inside virtual machine guest operating system.
2 All the VLAN tagging is performed by the virtual machine with use of trunking driver in the guest.
3 VLAN tags are understandable only between the virtual machine and external switch when frames are passed to/from virtual switches.
4 Virtual Switch will not be involved or aware of this operation. vSwitch only forwards the packets from Virtual machine to physical switch and will not perform any operation.
5 Port group of the virtual machine should be configured with VLAN ID 4095
6 The physical switch port connecting the uplink from the ESX should be configured as Trunk port

VLAN Type = VLAN Trunking

Configure the VLAN ID within the VLAN trunk range. Multiple ranges and individual VLANs can be used by entering as comma-separated list. This option should be with Virtual Guest Tagging (VGT)

VLAN Type = Private VLAN

Associate the PortGroup traffic with a private VLAN. Private VLAN can only be created on the distributed switch. I will explain how to create PVLAN and uses cases of three different types of VLANs in my upcoming posts.

Below is comparison table for the people who want a comparison of different VLAN tagging types under single table

         

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vSphere Distributed Switch Part 17 - Configuring dvPortGroup Traffic Shaping Policies

Traffic shaping is a method to regulate the network data transfer to obtain certain level of network performance and quality of service (QOS). It allows you to prioritize the network packet of most important traffic as compared to leased important traffic. Below are major scenarios in which traffic shaping plays a major role

• Let's say you have Time sensitive data like Credit card gateway servers, which should be given more priority as compared to internal production environment. Production traffic should be given more priority than your development traffic. This can be achieved by traffic shaping by limiting the traffic for development and production environment as compared to the network of credit card gateway servers.
• If your are the ISP provider, then you may need to shape the traffic on your customer based on bandwidth plan  or based on the support contract they have with your company.

Traffic Without Traffic Shaping

  

Traffic With Traffic Shaping

Graphic Thanks to linebroker.co.uk

I hope you have understood about the necessity of traffic shaping. In this post, I am going to explain about the VMware's Traffic shaping policies. Which can be configured at standard switch, Standard Port Group, Distributed PortGroup and Distributed port.The main difference between the traffic shaping policy on Standard Switch and Distributed switch is ESX/ESXi host shapes outbound traffic traffic on Standard switches whereas  both Incoming and outgoing traffic shaping can be achieved using vSphere distributed switches.

Standard Switch = Outgoing Traffic Shaping (Egress Traffic Shaping)

Distributed Switch = Incoming + Outgoing Traffic shaping (Ingress + Egress Traffic Shaping)

Average Bandwidth:

This will be specified in Kbit/s. This option controls the number of bits per second to allow across a port,averaged over time. Specified value is the allowed average load on the PortGroup.

Peak Bandwidth:

This will be specified in Kbit/s. This option controls the maximum number of bits per second to allow across a portGroup .Value Specified in the peak bandwidth option is maximum value in Kbit/s that portGroup can handle. Peak bandwidth should never be smaller than the average bandwidth.

Burst Size:

This will be specified in KB. This is Maximum number of bytes to allow in a burst. Let's say, If you have configured Burst size parameter, Port Group might gain the burst bonus if it is not at all using all its allocated bandwidth on the port Group. During Peak time, When the same port group needs more bandwidth than value specified in the Average bandwidth. It will be allowed temporarily to transmit data at higher speed if port group has burst bonus. It is nothing but the factor which defines how long the bandwidth can exceed the average.

Excellent Diagram from LucD explaining the Traffic Shaping policies.

I believe This is informative for you. Thanks for Reading !!!. Be Social and Share it in social media if you feel worth sharing it.

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vSphere Distributed Switch Part 16 - Configuring dvPortGroup Security Settings

In this Post, I am going to explain in detail about the Security settings of dvPortGroup. Which works in exact way in both Standard and distributed switch. Only difference in the security settings between the standard switch and distributed switch is its default settings against the security policy.

Default Security Settings for all the below 3 settings (Promiscuous mode, MAC address changes & Forged Transmits is set to Reject)  in distributed Virtual Switch.

Promiscuous mode = Reject
 MAC address changes = Reject
 Forged Transmits = Reject

Default Security Settings of Standard Switch will be different than the dvswitch setting. In standard Switch, Below are the default settings:

Promiscuous mode = Reject
 MAC address changes = Accept
 Forged Transmits = Accept

Promiscuous Mode

Accept: If you set dvportgroup Security setting (Promiscuous mode to Accept), Virtual Machine adapter connect to this port group, will receive all frames passed on the switch in compliance with the VLAN policy of the port. This settings can only be useful in Firewalls, Intrusion detection systems and also in Packet capturing software. You can run packet capturing software like wireshark on the Guest operating system of the virtual machine connected to the port group with Promiscuous mode is set to Accept to capture the frames passing on that switch for network troubleshooting and analysis.

Reject: If you set dvportgroup Security setting (Promiscuous mode to Reject), Virtual Machine adapter will not receiving frames which is send for other virtual machines. By default, Promiscuous mode is set to reject. Don't set it to Accept unless and until it is required. Enabling promiscuous mode without any prominent use will create a unnecessary load on the virtual machines.

MAC Address Changes

MAC address is a unique number assigned to networking components like Network adapters. Each virtual machine will be assigned with atleast one virtual network adapter (vNIC). each vNIC will be assigned with a MAC address when VM powers on first time. MAC address of the Virtual network adapter will be saved in the virtual machine configuration file (.VMX).which will be stored in the virtual machine directory on your datastore. The MAC address which is saved in .VMX file aslo termed as Initial address.

 Usually this initial address will be copied by the Guest operating system to the network adapters as effective address unless you have bind some other MAC address at Guest OS level. Binding MAC address at Guest OS level will be useful when performing the P2V migration of the physical server in which installed application license is bind to the MAC address of physical host. This application will not work with other MAC address. In that case ,you can manually assign MAC address to network adapter inside the Guest operating system.

Runtime address is the address which is viewed by a port on the virtual switch. Runtime address will be same as the effective address which is assigned by Guest operating system.

Accept: If you set MAC Address Changes policy to accept and the guest operating system changes the MAC address of a  virtual network adapter other than the address specified in the .VMX (virtual machine configuration file)(Initial address), The switch allows the  inbound frames to pass with the new address.  In other terms, If initial address is not same the effective address,this policy allows the frames to pass the switch if this security policy is set as Accept.

Reject: If you set MAC Address changes to Reject and the Guest operating system changes the MAC address of the virtual network adapter other than the address specified in the .VMX file (Initial address), the switch drops all the inbound frames to that virtual machine adapter In other terms,. If initial address is not same the effective address,it does not allow incoming traffic to the VM.

Forged Transmits

Forged Transmits works as same as the MAC address changes policy. Only difference is it works on Outgoing traffic whereas MAC address changes works on Incoming traffic

Accept: If the Forged Transmits is set to Accept, Switch does not perform any security filtering and permits all the outbound frames from the virtual machine network adapter even if the source MAC address is different from the one saved in virtual machine configuration file (.VMX)

Reject: If the Forged Transmits is set to Reject, Switch drops any outbound frames from the virtual machine network adapter, if the source MAC address is different from the one saved in virtual machine configuration file.

I hope this is informative for you. Thanks for Reading!!!. Be Social and share it in social media, if you feel worth sharing it.

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