VMware vSphere Evaluators Guide

VMware vSphere Evaluators Guide

Awesome resource for anyone looking into deploying or upgrading to vSphere 4.0

vSphere Upgrades – vCenter and ESXi

We upgraded our vCenter server on Tuesday AM and all is well so far. Our production ESX servers are still on 3.5 Update 4 and vCenter is managing them fine. We have tested the storage vmotion and converting vmdks from thick to thin – so far so good. The management interface is a little different but I like it. The new inventory views of Networking and Datastores are very handy.

We upgraded our test ESXi server this AM to ESXi 4.0 using the vSphere Host Update Utility. The upgrade went very well. The only real problem we ran into was with an older NIC that was not supported. No problems other than that.

Our test ESX server is a HP DL380 G4 with 2 3.6GHz Xeon CPUs (Single Core) and 4 GB RAM. This is managed as a stand alone server, it is not managed by vCenter.

If all goes well we will probably upgrade production ESX host this Sunday night.

Hope to have at least an overview of what I did at EMC World posted in the next day or so, just too busy right now.

BGInfo

Display Windows Computer information on the desktop background.

Download BGInfo from Microsoft

Every vSphere Link You Need to Get Started at vSphere-land

At least that’s what the post says… http://vsphere-land.com/news/vsphere-the-missing-links-every-vsphere-link-you-need-to-get-started.html

Every link or not, there are a bunch of great resources for vSphere 4.

I am just back from EMC World and I have a lot information I will be posting soon about the conference but right now I am going to enjoy the holiday weekend. Have a great one!

Split Tunneling VPN Clients on ASA VPN

Configuration examples for setting up an Cisco ASA to allow Split Tunneling (Local LAN Access) to VPN Clients. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6120/products_configuration_example09186a0080702999.shtml

Sets up routes to networks accessible over the tunnel while allow the default route to remain the local default.

VMware Resolution Paths

These are very handy when trying to troubleshoot VM/vCenter/ESX issues. Just identify the path for the issue and read the KBs.

http://blogs.vmware.com/kb/2009/05/resolution-paths-published.html
–
Many common tech support issues in VMware products can be solved using what we call Resolution Paths. Resolution Paths are collections of modular steps that can be used to solve tech support issues.

These can be very handy and can save you having to make that call into Tech Support. Click the links below. There’s one for each potential problem area.
http://blogs.vmware.com/kb/2009/05/resolution-paths-published.html

Another Interesting Waste of Time

Check out this online game – My Brute – http://hkb2009.mybrute.com. Kind of silly, but another good distraction if you need a break.