Microsoft announced the release of Hyper-V today six weeks ahead of schedule. Originally expected to be released in August, news of the much anticipated virtualization platform’s general availability is all over the Internet. In an article on Yahoo News, Jim Finkle reports that Microsoft is charging $28 per server. Although technically the correct cost for the hypervisor if the Server 2008 operating system is already owned, the article, Microsoft starts selling rival to VMware programs, is a shining example of the marketing spin capable of Microsoft.

“Microsoft says it charges $28 per server for its software, dubbed Hyper-V, which was put up on its website for download on Thursday. The company previously said it would make the product available in August.

VMware said it charges $495 for the most comparable software in its product line, which is known as ESXi.”

A more realistic comparison price for the IT department deciding to implement Hyper-V can be found at Newegg.com.

Microsoft Windows Server Standard 2008 32Bit/x64 English 1pk DSP OEI DVD 1-4CPU 5 Clt w/Hyper V - OEM

$699

Earlier this week the VMware VI Team Blog reported that as of ESX version 3.5 Update 1 Storage VMotion is now officially supported for iSCSI SANs. This means that administrators can reorganize virtual machines without down time in order to match any storage needs. The Storage VMotion and 10Gb Ethernet support for iSCSI SAN’s post explains:

“Although Storage VMotion is designed to work with any type of storage, it was initially supported only with Fibre Channel SANs. As of Update 1, Storage VMotion is supported with iSCSI SAN’s for moving virtual machine disk files in the following scenarios:

- From iSCSI SANs to other iSCSI SANs

- From iSCSI SANs to FibreChannel SANs

- From FibreChannel SANs to iSCSI SANs

In addition, we now support the use of 10Gb Ethernet for iSCSI in a VMware Infrastructure environment.”

In my experience Storage VMotion has worked great, but be careful with VMs that have higher I/O utilizations. (more…)

There are several ways to determine if you have virtual machines with snapshots. Why you would want to know has been covered In various other posts both here at VM /ETC as well as on the other virtualization blogs. It’s so important that the virtualization community has created different tools and scripts to identify and monitor snapshot files for administrators.  So, when I read the post WWoIT - Wayne’s World of IT: Find VM snapshots in ESX/VC I had an experience that Aaron Delp described as “/HEADDESK” (when he commented on my uploading files with the VI Client post).

It may not be the fanciest of methods, but probably the quickest way to find VM snapshots is to use the ls command from the ESX Service Console. By piping the output with grep to find files with the snapshot extension, .vmsn, and using the recursive switch you can scan all the VMFS LUNs visible to an ESX host. That’s so simple it hurts!

To use the ls command to find snapshots do the following: (more…)

Lately, I have had several clients and peers ask me how to get disk usage and performance statistics from their current virtual infrastructure of ESX hosts and virtual machines . Some needed data for planning and sizing a new SAN, while others needed statistics for upgrading, adding more disks, or for optimizing multi path and VMFS performance. In one case the customer was trouble shooting poor VM performance issues. Regardless of the objectives there are some built in tools in both VirtualCenter and ESX server that can get this information for you. This post explains 2 native methods:

• Using the VI Cleint to access the Performance data in VirtualCenter
• Using esxtop from the ESX Service Console

I have included plenty of screenshots. As always, click on them for larger views. The rest of this post is in an outline format, but should be easy enough to follow. (more…)

Yes, this post uses another movie reference.

In the film 28 Days Later the Rage virus infects the Island of Great Britain turning all but a few survivors into zombie-like monsters called “The Infected”. The virus was unleashed when animal activists released medical research chimpanzees which ended up attacking the activists and scientists. This post is about what could cause a similar rage 730 days after installing VirtualCenter, potentially causing VI administrators to become lifeless, rabid, and insane.

After installing VirtualCenter (VC), you should check the installed SSL certificate used by the VI Client because you will most likely need to manually replace it. After a fresh installation the default certifcate expires in 730 days (or 2 years). If the certificate expires you will be unable to log in to the VirtualCenter Management Server using either the VI Client or the web administration interface.

Unfortunately, it is unclear to me at this writing if upgrading the VC Server within the 730 day period updates the certificate store. (more…)

Businessweek.com reported back in April about how VirtualLogix’s Peter Richards is building a virtualization layer for mobile phones. Virtualization Goes Mobile explains that just like virtualization for the computer, a phone could use virtualization software to simultaneously host multiple operating systems such as RIMM, Symbian, Windows Mobile, or Google Android. Assuming VirtualLogix can work out each individual operating system’s dependencies on their current physical hardware device (qwerty keyboard, touch screens, etc.), imagine finally being able to have just one smart phone on your belt.

So, while we’re fantasizing about the possibility let’s not stop there.

(more…)

There are several whitepapers, posts and articles already available to help you determine what processor models are compatible for VMotion between ESX hosts. I will provide some of those links at the end of this post. However, I stumbled across a new matrix published by Dell that, in my opinion, offers the easiest reference by processor model for preventing VMotion boundaries. Dell’s paper titled VMware VMotion and 64-bit VM Compatibility Matrix for VMware Infrastructure 3 and Dell PowerEdge Systems contains a VMotion and 32/64-Bit VM Compatibility Across Processor Models matrix that is easy to decipher. Of course, the .pdf provides a compatibility matrix by Dell server model number too.

Download the full paper at the link above, but the following image shows the CPU compatibility matrix for quick reference. Click on the image for a larger version. (more…)

I’ve heard VMware briefly speak about the Virtual Machine Interface (VMI) standard for the last few years. For example, it seems VMI is always a topic during one or more of the Keynote sessions at VMworld. However. I can’t recall ever hearing about VMI in the real world - that is , hearing about the progress of different operating systems integrating VMI. So, when I read the Techworld article Novell gives Suse kernel a VMware boost it made me realize that the open virtualization standard is alive and well. In fact, after a little research I discovered that popular GNU/Linux distributions now ship with VMI support enabled by default.

First of all, what is VMI? VMware has a couple of web pages on the subject. The Transparent Paravirtualization page provides a good introduction. (more…)

Chad Sakac has a great post on his Virtual Geek blog titled The Case For And Against Stretched ESX Clusters. In this post Chad discusses the possibilities of configuring ESX Clusters between 2 different physical data centers. That is, spanning the SAN across a wide area network so that VMs can be vmotioned between sites. The concept is a frequently discussed desire of many administrators, and Chad brings to light some great points for and against this design with specific configuration details about making it work with VMware ESX.

For example, the post explores several options: (more…)

Michael Healey over at InformationWeek has written an article that demonstrates real world pricing scenarios comparing the cost of a SAN with replacing physical servers and local RAID 5 storage. ROI Analysis: Virtualization uses an example of 10 physical servers at their “end of life” and focuses on hard cost savings that will even make sense to the CIO. Read the entire article, but here’s the results:

“Scenarios under consideration:

1. Replace with 10 traditional servers: Ten HP ML350 boxes with mirrored boot drives and RAID 5 storage–$62,100.

2. Virtualize 10 servers using three physical servers with local storage: Three HP ML350s with more memory and RAID 5 storage running VMware ESX (licenses included)–$49,300.

3. Same virtualized servers in a cluster that boots to a 1-TB SAN: Three HP ML350s with more memory, boot drives, and VMware Enterprise, plus a Hitachi SAN for storage–$52,730.”

As Michael points out, migrating to virtual infrastructure and spending $3500 extra for a SAN (scenario 2 versus 3) are options that should make sense to even the most cost conscious IT departments!

Microsoft has announced two new training and certification programs that align with their new virtualization products. In the news release Climbing the Ladder of Success with Microsoft Certification: New training and certification programs help IT professionals develop mastery of Microsoft technologies, Microsoft hints at the availability of the new certifications.

“… Jim Clark, senior product planner, and Per Farny, director of advanced training and certification, will be at Microsoft Tech-Ed 2008 in Orlando, Fla., this week to unveil two new training and certification programs from Microsoft Learning. Scheduled to begin later this year, the programs are designed to prime the pipeline of skilled workers and help companies maximize their technology investments.”

A general outline of how the curriculum will be be delivered is also discussed.

“The virtualization training will be delivered in a variety of virtual, distance learning, and instructor-led options that focus on the fundamentals of virtualization, the underlying principles of virtualization architecture and the specifics of Microsoft’s technology.”

In this same release Microsoft also announced (more…)

While troubleshooting poor performing VMs this week I was explaining to a customer the process of trying to downgrade the multi processor HAL of a Windows VM that was created by a P2V migration with VMware Converter. I ended up sending them a link to an older VMware Communities forum thread in which Mike Laverick of RTFM Education provides a quick how to guide. I also wrote (and sent the customer) a post earlier this year that offers similar advice, but P2V multi processor servers to single processor VMs instructs you to install a patch specifically for Windows Server 2003 VMs which then allows you to downgrade to a single processor.

The other difference worth mentioning between these two posts is the links to the Microsoft DevCon tool. Although VMware will not officially support using this tool on VMs, using this utility for forcing a HAL downgrade is possible when all else fails.

Check out the following instructions copied here and the various links in this post for more information. (more…)