Three Dimensions of Storage Sizing & Design – Part 4: Throughput
In this fourth post of the multi-post Three Dimensions of Storage Sizing & Design we will dive deeper in the dimension: Use and specifically the application Workloads part characteristic Throughput. Depending on the application workload requirements, you will need to size the storage system for…
Three Dimensions of Storage Sizing & Design – Part 3: Speed
In this third post of the multi-post Three Dimensions of Storage Sizing & Design we will dive deeper in the dimension: Use and specifically the application Workloads part characteristic Speed. Depending on the application workload requirements, you will need to size the storage system for…
Manually preparing ESXi hosts for VMware NSX
Usually when installing VMware NSX, the Update Manager takes care of ESXi host preparation. It takes a few VIB packages from the NSX Manager and pushes those to the ESXi hosts to prepare them for VXLAN, the distributed firewall and the distributed router. It can…
Building a new ESXi whitebox
Unfortunately the whitebox ESXi server I build in June 2011 died on me when testing a Nvidia Quadro K5000 graphics card. So I needed a new ESXi server for my home lab. I looked at some HP and Dell mini servers but I decided to…
Review: Synology Diskstation DS1513+ with VMware – Part 2
In part 1 we finished the hardware installation of the Synology and setup of the DSM software. In this part we will hook the Synology to the VMware vSphere 5.1 Lab environment. The Lab consist of a laptop with 32GB and 2 Quad core E5…
Looking for a reliable hypervisor?
Every time a vendor releases a new hypervisor, it’s always more reliable and stable than all the previous versions and certainly better than the competition. But was the previous version all that bad? Of course with the addition of more and more advanced features it…
ESXi 4.1 installation fails – Unable to find the system image
Earlier this week I already told you that I’ve build a new ESXi whitebox but I had some problems installing it. OK, first of all, what was the situation? I wanted to install VMware ESXi 4.1 Update 1 to a USB stick which is VMware certified.I…
How to: build an ESXi whitebox
Last week I decided to buy a new lab server and I doubted between a HP or Dell mini server or an ESXi whitebox. Because most mini servers only have 8GB memory, I decided to collect specific parts to build my own VMware ESXi whitebox….
Exchange CCR cluster on VMware with iSCSI
A few weeks ago I got an assignment to review a colleague’s infrastructure design based on VMware. The design was fine (because they used my design document as template :-) ) but one thing triggered me. There was a special port group on one of…
Problem with Update 2 for ESX 4.0 and View clients using PCoIP
VMware has given out a VMware Alert for customers who are using VMware View in combination with PCoIP and ESX 4.0 to NOT update with ESX Update 2 yet. After upgrading ESX 4.0 hosts with Update 2 VMware View clients are unable to connect to…
Add additional drivers to ESXi
Last week I have been struggling with the installation of a vSphere 4 infrastructure on Dell hardware at a Belgium client site. I have done many many many VMware installations and encountered my fair share of issues but apart from the HP USB sticks the…
VMware vSphere Update 1 updated
November 20th, VMware released VMware vSphere 4 Update 1 for ESX(i) and vCenter Server which included support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2,support for View 4, support for DB2 database and improved support for Microsoft Clustering. But soon after that the first issue…
Determining VMware vCenter Server and ESX Build Number (updated)
I have just updated the list after receiving word the new version is out and the build numbers are known for vSphere 4 and vCenter Server. So I compiled a list of build numbers and updates from the patch notes for VMware ESX and VMware…
iSCSI Super Friends
Since last week I’ve got a new assignment which is a long way from home. Next to the downsides of traveling 5 hours a day and staying in hotels, it certainly has advantages. During my 5 hour drive or when I’m staying in a hotel…
Low cost shared storage for test/home lab
A few weeks ago I attended the ‘What’s new in VMware vSphere 4‘ course given by Eric Sloof. Eric pointed us to a very nice and cheap shared storage solution from Iomega which he also uses in his home lab, the Iomega Storcenter ix-series. I…