VM /ETC Go Green with Virtualization. Go UGLY Green with vmetc.com.

updated 03.13.08 - Unfortunately I declared victory too soon on this issue. I got a status update this week and the customer can deploy from template in some scenarios but is still getting the same error at times. The HP SIM agents are still turned off and have not been ruled out as part of the problem, but IBM has provided a recommended design and they have made the changes.

As Brian points out in his comment the customer has a multiple IBM SVC design in front of multiple storage devices.

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Last week I helped a customer resolve an issue where whenever they deployed a new VM from a template the job would fail with the error “Failed to deploy template: The virtual disk is either corrupted or not a supported format” We were troubleshooting numerous ESX servers and the problem was the same on all the hosts. The template was fine. We changed it back to a VM and turned it on without issue. The vmtools and virtual hardware were up to date.

Surprisingly the Virtual Center error message was not well indexed on Google. I was scratching my head until I stumbled across the VMware Communities thread

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How do you design resource pools in an ESX Cluster? There are two strategies that are the most popular in my experience. The first strategy creates resource pools based on CPU and Memory shares for host resource conflict management, and the second strategy uses reservations and limits to guarantee physical resources and ensure VM containment. This post will use a 3 ESX host example to explain both strategies. Please feel free to comment on the pros and cons of each or why you think one is better than the other.

In the example scenario three ESX hosts each have 16 GB RAM and 2 dual core 3.0 Ghz CPUs. The three hosts will all be members of the same ESX cluster.

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Aaron Delp’s BladeVault.info site reports about calculators from HP and IBM that can help you plan for power when considering physical server consolidation by implementing blades. IBM’s calculator is a downloadable .msi while HP’s is an online calculator. HP also offers a downloadable offline version which has limited functionality compared to the online tool. IBM’s calculator is not just limited to blades as it computes power figures for all x series servers.

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Australian VAC Partner Oriel has created a clever Virtualization Calculator that illustrates how virtualization is good for the planet. Based on the statistic that the average 2 cpu server produces 12.5 tons of CO2 per year, the calculator not only tells you how much money you can save in hardware and power but it also provides comparable environmental benefit examples such as planting trees, reduced car emmissions, and reduced cow emissions.

I entered 200 servers in the calculator and received the following results (click on the screen shot to see a larger image):

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It’s great to see the recent positive changes to the VMware Partner program. As the competition enters the market, VMware realizes that who better to help continue growth and capture the untapped market share than the services organizations that are already implementing and supporting the VMware products in the field. In my experience, VMware has always “talked the talk” about enabling the partner channel, but not necessarily “walked the walk” when it came time to ensure margin and protecting the deal.

Internally, Partner Channel Managers have reduced their accounts and are focusing on building better relationships with a smaller group of partners. Externally VMware has announced some exciting new benefits for members of the Partner Program. VMware Unveils Major Program Enhancements for its Nearly 10,000 Virtualization Channel Partners was a news release last week from VMware that promises better profitability, training, marketing and support. From the release:

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Installing ESX is fast and simple. By default you could click through the installer GUI changing only your local time zone and end up with a stable, dependable host. However, there are some recommended partitioning best practices that should be followed in order to make sure you minimize possible future headaches and create a repeatable and scalable environment.

This post uses content from documents found in the VI Plan and Design Toolkit available to VMware partners. Logging on to Partner Central and accessing > Info Center > VAC > Services is how you find the various toolkits. It also should be pointed out that the partitioning information in this post is for ESX 3.x only, and is not applicable to ESX 3i, 2.x or previous versions.

When installing ESX you quickly reach the Partitioning Options screen. Select the “Recommended” radio button initially. You can then make changes from

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What is VMware’s Capacity Planner tool and how do you get a copy? It’s a common question. Bottom line is that Capacity Planner is not a tool that can be downloaded by a Systems Administrator, but it is a tool that VMware partners use to perform a Capacity Analysis for Virtualization services project.

To understand the Capacity Planner tool let’s first back up and understand the Capacity Analysis services project. When you start to consider how to migrate your data center to VI:

• You need to size server hardware which will become ESX hosts, and you need to know how many ESX hosts you’ll deploy.
• You’d like to explore different vendor hardware platform scenarios for your ESX hosts.
• You need to understand which of your physical servers will consolidate well and which ones are not good virtualization canidates.
• You’d like to figure out a good VM to Host consolidation ratio.
• You need to estimate your total disk storage for the VI solution.

Capacity Planner helps you

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Yep. It’s a shameless plug for my company. Regardless, I thought it was worth letting everyone know about these promotions from Microsoft before the year ended. Go crazy and implement a new server infrastructure on VI3 with your favorite solutions provider.

The following is from an email I received. I also have created a Promos page with this info.

Have you recently purchased Microsoft Office, SQL or Windows Server? If so, keep reading as you may have some free services to claim.

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More lab materials from VMWorld for those who can’t download themselves.

Linked to this post are the materials from “Using VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure for Hosted Computing”. This lab walks through installation, administration, creating a desktop, creating desktop pools, and finally connecting to desktops and desktop pools.

The Appendix also goes through a detailed process of getting a WinXP VM ready to become a template. Too many template VMs are created without taking the time to optimize the VM for future cloning. This process can be used to prepare any VM for becoming a template - not just for use in VDI.

Using VDI Vmworld 2007 Lab

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These are my notes I used to prepare for a discussion with a client about implementing a secondary site for DR fail over. The client has already virtualized their production data center and is wanting to leverage VI for DR. The point of my discussion is that VI is too often viewed as a “silver bullet” for tough projects like back up and fail over. Yes, there are some specific areas that are easier to implement with VI, but careful consideration and planning must be executed if the overall DR plan is to be successful.

Goals and Objectives - the customer must make important decisions first !

· Recovery Time Objectives – acceptable time to start up systems and allow user access

requires server by server analysis

· Recovery Point Objectives – acceptable point in time recovery or start up at secondary site

requires application by application analysis

· Mission Critical Services

which applications & services must be available first.

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I received an email announcing a new release of PowerRecon from Platespin. It sounds like features have been added to the product to take it from being a capacity analysis tool to a VI monitoring and reporting tool. I will have to stop by their booth and get the scoop.

From the email:

PlateSpin is announcing the general availability of PowerRecon 3.1., and the new Virtual Infrastructure Edition.

Highlights of this release:

VIE features:- Integration with VMware Virtual Center

- Discovery and inventory of the complete physical and virtual infrastructure

- Power and Cooling Reporting

- Virtual Infrastructure Chargeback Reporting

- Virtual Machine Sprawl Reporting

- Priced per CPU

Other noteworthy feature enhancements:- Group and matrix reporting capabilities

- Scalability enhancements

- Tighter integration with the virtual infrastructure layer

- Extended platform support

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A common issue error encountered after the P2V migration of a windows server is:

The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter Name of adapter. Name of adapter is hidden from the network and Dial-up Connections folder because it is not physically in the computer or is a legacy adapter that is not working. If the same address is assigned to both adapters and they become active, only one of them will use this address. This may result in incorrect system configuration. Do you want to enter a different IP address for this adapter in the list of IP addresses in the advanced dialog box?

Microsoft KB Article 269155 provides the explanation and the work arounds methods for this issue.

From the KB Article, here is an explanation of the cause of the issue and the most common resolution method.

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