Storage DRS Default VM Affinity Setting

[Updated] This is a very short post as I only learnt about this recently myself. I thought it was only available in vSphere 5.5 but it appears to be in vSphere 5.1 too. Anyhow Storage DRS now has a new setting that allows you to configure the default VM affinity setting. Historically, VMDKs from the same virtual machine were always kept together on the same datastore by default; you had to set a VMDK anti-affinity rule to keep them apart. Now you can set a default for this option, which can either be to keep VMDKs together on the same…

What happens when VMFS heap depletes completely?

I’ve blogged about the VMFS heap situation numerous times now already. However, a question that I frequently get asked is what actual happens when heap runs out? I thought I’d put together a short article explaining the symptoms one would see when there is no VMFS heap left on an ESXi host. Thanks once again to my good friend and colleague, Paudie O’Riordan, for sharing his support experiences with me on this matter – “together we win”, right Paud?

vSOM and VDPA Releases

In case you missed it, VMware released two interesting additions to the product portfolio last week. vSOM – vSphere with Operations Manager It became apparent that vCenter’s UI, while adequate for a lot of activities such as VM provisioning, does not provide the level of detail or forecasting required to manage large and complex infrastructures on a day to day basis. This is why VMware has introduced a new SKU which bundles the vCenter Operations product with vSphere. vCenter Operations Manager (vCOps) is the most comprehensive product for monitoring the health and performance of your virtual infrastructure. It  also monitors…

Software iSCSI and IPv6 Support

A little while ago, I researched a support statement regarding Software iSCSI & IPsec. After digging around a bit, I found out that the answer was no, it is not supported since we have not yet done a complete set of tests on this combination of products/features. However, in the course of my research, I came across some conflicting support statements about Software iSCSI & IPv6. KB article 1010812 – IPv6 Storage (Software iSCSI and NFS) is experimental in ESX 4.0 KB article 1021769 – VMware vSphere ESX/ESXi 4.1 supports IPv6 for use with the Service Console and VMkernel management…

Does Software iSCSI on vSphere support IPsec?

This came up in a conversation today. Does VMware’s Software iSCSI implementation support Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) in vSphere 5.1? Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) secures IP communications coming from and arriving at an ESXi host. Although KB article 1021769 states that IPv6 is compatible with Software iSCSI, it doesn’t state whether or not IPsec is supported with Software iSCSI. To find this information, you have to reach for the vSphere Security Guide. Under the section ‘Securing iSCSI Devices Through Authentication’, it states: ESXi does not support Kerberos, Secure Remote Protocol (SRP), or public-key authentication methods for iSCSI. Additionally, it does not…

Heads Up! VOMA – ERROR: Trying to do IO beyond device Size

This is a short note on trying to use VOMA, the vSphere On-disk Metadata Analyzer, on a dump taken from a VMFS-5 volume which was upgraded from VMFS-3. This is not an issue if VOMA is run directly on the volume; it is only an issue if a dump is taken from the volume and then you try to run VOMA on the dump. It may error during phase 1- ‘Checking VMFS header and resource files‘ with an error ‘ERROR: Trying to do IO beyond device Size‘. When a VMFS-3 is upgraded to VMFS-5, a new system file, pb2.sf, is…