How many NIC’s need for vSphere 4?

Hal ini menjadi issue jika sejak awal kita tidak mempersiapkan NIC’s card di vSphere 4. Banyak pertanyaan, berapa sebenarnya kebutuhan NIC’s untuk VMware atau vSphere 4.

Jika kita membaca manual Installation ataupun whitepaper di VMware, disana hanya menyebutkan minimal 1 NIC (1 Gb) untuk menjalankan vSphere. Benar, jika hanya untuk menjalankan vSphere kita hanya perlu 1 NIC, akan tetapi bagaimana mengenai features lainnya seperti HA, VMotion, FT dll. Apakah cukup dengan 1 NIC? Bagaimana dengan performance-nya?

Asumsi jika kita memperhitungankan redundancy dan failover, maka best practice adalah 12 NIC’s (1Gb):

2 NICs   : Management

2 NICs   : VMotion

2 NICs   : VM Production

2 NICs   : FT

2 NICs   : iSCSI/SAN

2 NICs   : vDistribution Switch / Nexus 1000V

Akan tetapi kembali lagi kebutuhan masing-masing customer. Apakah semua features tersebut diaktifkan? Akan tetapi saran saya adalah min. 8 NIC’s untuk masing2 ESX/ESXi box (Jika kita menggunakan Nexus 1000V)

2 NICs   : Management + VMotion

2 NICs   : VM Production

2 NICs   : FT

2 NICs   : vDistribution Switch / Nexus 1000V

Ada feedback or saran?

Thanks.

Fresh installation ESX, but no network connectivity

Pengalaman pertama setelah 2 tahun bermain di VMware .

Ketika saya selesai install 3 ESX di HP DL385G6 dengan 4 NIC Broadcom 1GB. Kemudian saya ping ke gateway…loh kok error, trus saya coba ping ke localhost ternyata bisa. Kemudian saya coba lakukan hal yang sama di 2 ESX lainnya loh kok error juga…walaah.

Pikiran pertama langsung kearah Switch, mereka pakai Cisco Catalyst 3650. Coba cek konfigurasi-nya semua OK, waduh apa ya..kemudian VLAN saya buat menjadi native, coba lagi masih error. Terus saya coba ganti kabel network…coba lagi error lagi. Kenapa ini ya..akhirnya saya coba cek pakai cross cable dari ESX server langsung ke Laptop saya, masih tidak bisa di Ping… duuhh bakalan panjang nih.

Kemudian saya coba masuk ke console ESX, kemudian saya lakukan:

esxcfg-nics -l .. outputnya semua nics terdaftar kecuali 1 server ESX.

esxcfg-vswitch -l .. ok semua, vswitch di tagging oleh vnic1.

esxcfg-vswif -l..  LOH kok service console dapat IP yang beda dengan ESX Host..kok bisa ya.

Ternyata di 2 ESX Server, Service Console IP berbeda segment dengan ESX Host, pantas tidak bisa di ping.

Kemudian saya ganti IP Service Console dengan command:

esxcfg-vswif -a vswif0 -p Service\ Console -i 10.11.14.11 -n 255.255.255.128 -b 10.11.14.1

Akhirnya berhasil… tapi baru 2 ESX Server. Masih ada 1 ESX lagi nih bermasalah.

saya coba lagi:

esxcfg-nics -l .. Loh kok cuma 2 NIC yang terlist, kemana 2 NIC lainnya…apakah disable di BIOS-nya? (4 NICs embedded di mainboard). Saya masuk ke BIOS, semua NIC enable, kok bisa ya….

Akhirnya saya bongkar server, pastikan semua berada di posisinya, kemudian saya nyalakan, dan diinnggg..normal kembali. Wah ini pasti mainboad-nya cacat. Daripada nanti di complain terus oleh customer, akhirnya saya buat log ke HP untuk penggantian mainboard.

Masih banyak yang harus dikerjakan nih..belum lagi config Storage Mirroring..maklum ESX yang saya config ini untuk DRC, sedangkan primary site mereka sudah memakai VMware.

Top 10 things you don’t know about Windows Server 2008 R2

Let’s take a brief look at 10 of them you might not have heard much about:

1. Out of the box, Windows Server 2008 R2 uses less power on the same hardware than Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 – with no additional configuration. This isn’t a gimmick, but a proven 10% to 15% reduction on identical boxes, just with a different operating system.
2. Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.5, included with Windows Server 2008 R2, supports .NET on Server Core installations. The big shortcoming in the original Server 2008 edition was the lack of support for running managed code on Server Core-based Web servers. This is now resolved.
3. Microsoft’s new BranchCache feature can speed up perceived access to files for users at branch offices while allowing you to save on data line and bandwidth costs. In this environment, your users might be clamoring for increased speeds on your data lines that you can’t afford. Caching in their branch will help increase productivity and remove user frustrations without bailing out a telco.
4. The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) has been enhanced in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, allowing for far smoother media playback, multi-monitor support and more. It makes remoting into virtual machines a lot more palatable as the experience is barely distinguishable from using a real machine at your current location.
5. The Agile VPN feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 allows a virtual private network connection to generate multiple paths between discrete points in the VPN tunnel. If a problem occurs, the Agile VPN feature uses other network paths to maintain the tunnel without interruption.
6. You can use BitLocker on removable drives to eliminate easy information leakage. This isn’t just a Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2 feature either. If you protect a removable drive with BitLocker, the BitLocker to Go reader is also copied to the drive. This provides backward compatibility so that machines running Windows XP Service Pack 2 and higher can read the encrypted contents if the user enters the correct password.
7. Offline Files, a feature that helps mobile users maintain access to their network share files when disconnected, is now enabled on slow network connections. This reduces network traffic while not degrading the user experience too much.
8. IIS 7.5 now has a Best Practices Analyzer (BPA). Microsoft Exchange Server, Windows Small Business Serve, and other server products have had these BPAs for a while now. The BPA itself scans your environment and compares a number of different elements against known best-practice states, delivering the results in a very consumable format—an instant quick-check for your configuration.
9. Windows Server 2008 R2 also contains enhancements to PowerShell. Windows PowerShell 2.0, includes more than 240 new pre-built cmdlets along with a new graphical user interface with colored syntaxing, new production script debugging capabilities, and testing tools.
10. You don’t need new client access licenses, or CALs, specifically for Windows Server 2008 R2.  — Windows Server 2008 CALs are still valid.

Source: http://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid68_gci1369268,00.html?track=NL-468&ad=728030&asrc=EM_NLT_9363437&uid=7796367

Enable Hot Add feature in vSphere 4

Salah satu feature vSphere 4 adalah hot add memory dan CPU. Cool…karena VM tidak perlu di shutdown ketika memory ataupun CPU kita tambahkan.

Ada yang harus diperhatikan ketika kita enable feature ini, yaitu:

1. Virtual Machines Version 7 (kalau belum, tinggal upgrade, klik kanan kemudian pilih ‘upgrade hardware’)
2. Enable Memory/CPU hotplug (VM Property – Options)

 Untuk Windows, feature ini hanya berfungsi di Enterprise dan Datacenter. Windows Standard tidak support.

sedikit info, setelah memory/cpu dinaikkan (hot add), maka hot remove tidak bisa dilakukan jadi VM harus dishutdown kemudian baru diturunkan memory/cpu-nya (tidak hot remove ya…)