Archive for 'ESX'

Finding CPU Ready Values on ESXi

Lacking a service console, ESXi needs to be approached differently when performing common troubleshooting tasks. One of these, like the title states, is to find the CPU Ready values for a particular VM. There are more than a few ways to skin this particular cat, but in this case I’ll show you two: The vSphere [...]

vSphere 4 and Core Dumps (vmkdump)

Today I was reviewing my post on ESX Crash Dumps and found that well, for vSphere, it is quite broken. How? Well…
No /usr/sbin/vmkdump in ESX 4
As referenced in this KB article, vmkdump has been replaced with some additional flags on esxcfg-dumppart:

In ESX 4.X, esxcfg-dumppart is now used to extract the logs files.
The syntax [...]

Configure an NFS Datastore From the CLI – VCDX Prep

Like the last post, this one also hails from objective 1.1 of the VCDX Blueprint, and is part of my exam prep.
Task:
Configure an NFS Datastore using command line tools.
Solution:
[root@ProfessionalVMware root]# esxcfg-nas esxcfg-nas <options> [<label>] -a|–add                Add a new NASc filesystem to /vmfs volumes.                          [...]

Installing ESX 3.5 in VMware Fusion

While this actually requires no special settings, I figure it’s worth noting, if for nothing more than to state that in VMware Fusion 3, ESX 3.5 requires no additional settings to be operational. Basically it works as follows:

Download the ESX ISO (vmware.com/download/vi)
In VMware Fusion create a new virtual machine, choosing said ISO: [...]

Using AMD’s mcat.exe to Debug your PSOD MCE (Machine Check Exception)

"Sokath, his eyes opened" or roughly “Understanding”. So what does the Tamarian language have to do with PSODs or Machine Check Exceptions (MCEs)? Well, neither one of them make much sense, and need some understanding in order to translate them appropriately.
What is an MCE (Machine Check Exception)
A machine check exception, or MCE is [...]

Migrate Storage – “Failed to Connect to Host”

This one came at me from left field recently. The task at hand was to cold migrate one of a Virtual Machine’s disks from it’s old LUN, to a new one with some more breathing room. Simple enough, no? We’ve all done it a million times. What happened however, was that I received a “Error: [...]

vSphere Custom Drivers – The Coolest New vSphere Installer Screen!

Walking through the full vSphere ESX install today (Not ESXi like I had been using) I came across what seems to be one of the most awesome new features of vSphere ESX: Custom Drivers!

I just don’t have any custom drivers to install right now, but it is gloriously awesome none the less.

WTF Is A Step Ticker? – Step Tickers. and Why They Matters

What is a “Step Ticker”
You know, it’s one of those little pedometer things you strap onto your hip and tracks how far you’ve walked. Ok, so it’s not that. At least not within the context of servers & virtualization. So what IS it? It’s a horribly named NTP (network time protocol) concept. Yup. That’s it. [...]

Choosing SQL Clustering or VMware HA – What is Right?

This is a big one to try to tackle in a single post, but the question comes up often enough to try. I figure to best answer it, it would help to understand what each does:
VMware HA
What it does: VMware HA will detects host & VM (VM heartbeat, etc) failures. On a failure it will [...]

New Script – Get VM or ESX Host UUIDs (get-uuid.ps1)

UUIDs are wonderful! Really. They’re just not all that easy to get to, at least not when you need more than a few of them at a time. That is where this script comes in:
# get-uuid.ps1 # # Takes either a VMHost or VM object from [...]

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