One of the smaller improvements in vSphere 5 was the introduction of the “Virtual machine disks consolidation is needed” configuration alert if vSphere determines that there are orphaned snapshots for a given VM.
Previous versions does not show this warning message, and datastore usage could potentially skyrocket for no apparent reason if something continues to create snapshots that are not properly cleaned up when they are no longer in use. Unless there is active space monitoring for your datastores, and there should be, it could go on unnoticed for some time.
A little while ago VMware announced Project Nee, something I was, and still am, pretty excited about.
This afternoon I finally got access to the Hands-on Labs Online Beta part of Project Nee, and I have to say, this looks incredibly promising and useful.
At the moment, the available labs are:
Cloud Infrastructure: #
HOL-INF-02 - Explore vSphere 5.1 Distributed Switch (vDS) New Features This lab explores the new features of the vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS).
VMware vSphere Health Check is a service provided by VMware Professional Services, either by their own consultants or by a consultant from a VMware Certified Solution Provider.
I´m lucky enough to be employed by a Premier VMware Solution Provider who offers this service to our customers, and I´ve completed a fair number of these health checks in the last couple of months.
You might ask what the value of the Health Check is, and for the end customer it´s pretty clear cut. They get a very detailed report on the current status of their vSphere infrastructure, complete with action items and concise recommendations for improvements. Of course, I sell these service professionally and therefore I´m biased by default.
The new vCenter Operations Manager 5.6 is now generally available, and one of many improvements from v5.5 is the new licensing scheme.
The new foundation edition, is the new entry-level edition which from now on is included in every licensed vSphere edition free of charge. That´s right, you can now run vCenter Operations Manager 5.6 Foundation without purchasing any additional licenses.
vCenter Operations Manager now comes in the following flavors:
One of my clients has recently been having issues with their storage solution, and wanted to export the events from vCenter that show storage performance degradation, to aid in troubleshooting with the vendor.
For some reason, and I have yet to confirm that this is a bug with the vCenter 5.0 appliance or the vCenter Desktop Client, when an event export is done, the storage related events are not exported with the rest of the events.
What is VIP VCP Club? #
This a new concept by VMware Norway, for certified VMware professionals, where the idea is to gather local certified VMware Professionals for a day of hands-on labs, specialized technical sessions and general community building.
Agenda #
- Storage/HA/DR/Clustering Presented by Lee Dilworth
- End User Computing Presented by Joel Lindberg
- vCenter Operations Management Suite Presented by Ulf Andreasson
The hands-on labs covered VMware Site Recovery Manager, vCenter Operations and Horizon Suite.
Post Update: As per Preetam´s comment, HP has published a customer advisory regarding the usage of install vs update.
After installing a couple of brand new HP ProLiant BL460c G8 blades with HP Smart Array P220i controllers at a customer site, I decided that I should upgrade from the VMware-ESXi-5.0.0-Update1-623860-HP-5.20.43.iso Build 623860 used to install the blades, to the latest 821926 build offered by VMware.
Normally this is a really easy process using VMware Update Manager, but since this is a new installation all the prerequisites for that are not in place just yet and I decided to use esxcli to perform the update.
Fellow vExpert Rick Scherer is giving away a voucher that provides free access to all of the VMworld 2012 sessions, including associated MP3′s and PDF’s.
Have a look at his post Win Access to VMworld 2012 Sessions and enter to win now!
Good stuff Rick, real good!
Update October 30th:
Fresh VCDX and fellow vExpert Joep Piscaer has followed suit and announced his own “Want to win a VMworld 2012 Subscription?” contest.
Now you have two chances to win access!
When VMware vSphere 5.1 and vCloud Networking and Security 5.1 was launched at VMworld US in late August, one of the news items was the change in licensing relating to vShield Endpoint.
vShield Endpoint is now included in every vSphere edition, with the exception of the lowest tier vSphere Essentials package.
I was under the impression that you had to upgrade to the new 5.1 version to take advantage of the licensing change, and get licenses available for vShield Endpoint, but a new VMware Knowledgebase article named KB: 2036875 Downloading and enabling vShield Endpoint on supported vSphere platforms debunks that.
Everyone, and probably their extended family including their mother-in-law, has heard me whine and complain about the VCP training requirements.
VMware has unveiled a new lab, namely Project Nee (Next-Generation Education Environment)
and this is something I´m really excited about.
Project Nee is described as this:
VMware Project NEE is a new VMware Labs project providing a richly featured, powerful online learning and lab environment delivered from the cloud to any device, anywhere, anytime.
There aren´t many details available at the moment, except that this seems to be exactly what I have looked for from VMware; Online access to a virtual lab environment, where you can access training resources in a flexible manner. Self paced online training, without the need to spend days on end in a classroom.
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