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VMware consolidation error
Finally had a chance to sit down and take a good look at my issue with snapshots on one of my VMs. I actually did not have a lot of choice as I was having a strange error, a host disconnected from the cluster for no apparent reason. However after further inspection I noticed a VM I have been having issues with, Configuration issues as in the screenshot below.
The obvious first fix for this is to consolidate
However that has failed telling me that there are over 100 redo files.
I removed the VM from the troubled host, which turned out was not troubled at all. When I removed the VM from the inventory on the “Troubled” host I was able to re-add that host to Vcenter. However the new host in which I brought the VM up on disconnected. I tried to re-add the host to the cluster with no success I wish I had got a screen shot of the error as it was so long I could not read it all or press the OK button, pressing enter exited the error message and brought me to the add a host screen where you enter your IP, and creds. I then removed the VM from inventory and I was able to reconnect the host to the cluster.
Creating a snapshot and deleting the files was another option However that has failed telling me that the files are locked (Might be locked on the SAN side of things according to support, I am still in the process of fixing this)
I am now down to cloning and will do it using the SSH console as below you can see the snapshots that the backup software has created.
From here I will clone using the command line using the –I command from the last snapshot name and cloning to a new folder and file
vmkfstools -i newDev-000232.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/4ee143c7-b67f57fe-72ac-a4badb3d92af/dev/dev.vmdk
Next steps:
Bring the new VM in using the custom create a VM interface.
Find out why this happened (I suspect backup software, but need to look deeper)
Well it seems I have become heavily involved in deploying VMware vsphere throughout the organization I work for; I must say this has been one of the best hypervisor products I have come across with many rich features, and a huge community base.
However an announcement was made that they will be restructuring prices and dropping core restrictions (which is great as I am sure we me see up to 24 socket cores with Moores law) In this announcement came what the community started to refer to as vTax.
Now we do not have core restrictions in each version of Vsphere we have the following
vSphere 5 Essentials, Essentials Plus and Standard will receive 24 GB of vRAM per CPU license
vSphere 5 Enterprise will receive 32 GB
Enterprise Plus will receive 48 GB
In vSphere 4.1, a customer that configured the entire RAM on a 128-GB, two-socket server only needed two licenses. With vSphere 5, that customer will need three licenses, even if they're only using 96 GB of memory
I am pleased at the moment that VMware his listened to the community and has re-priced each one of the packages, as well as capped the vRam so if you are using over 96GB of vRam in one VM you only need 3 licenes for that VM even if you do create a moneter 1TB VM.
The following are what I have read to be the new prices on vSphere 5.0
vSphere Edition |
Previous vRAM Entitlement |
New vRAM Entitlement |
|
vSphere Enterprise+ |
48 GB |
96 GB |
|
vSphere Enterprise |
32 GB |
64 GB |
|
vSphere Standard |
24 GB |
32 GB |
|
vSphere Essentials+ |
24 GB |
32 GB |
|
vSphere Essentials |
24 GB |
32 GB |
|
Free vSphere Hypervisor |
8 GB |
32 GB[ii] |
|
vSphere Desktop |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
At the beginning this was very scary for my organization as we do not have a lot of money for licensing and would have needed to by additional licensing to just run what we had going. Now after running the tool available at http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/upgrade-center/vsphere-licensing-advisor.html
It seems that we are at about 50% which even seems a bit high though I know I am deploying 2 more Enterprise servers within the next month with Dual Sockets so I believe this will drop us down to about 25% usage of our vTax.
I am now hoping we can focus on some of the great new features of 5, such as larger luns, faster IOPS etc. Looking forward to getting to VMworld and hearing more about what VMWare has to offer.
Wow am I doing a terrible job at keeping this updated, I think I should make a new years resolution. I realize it may be a little late for that however I think I should start putting up some of the things I have been working on whether it be VMWARE related, Server related, software, etc.
A few projects I have on the go are the following:
- Set up LDAP Sync for a Google apps domain
- Set up Vizioncore by Quest Backup and replication
- Set up Capacity IQ for VMWARE
- Set up GhettoVCB for about 10 ESXi servers
- Set up Dell Servers to run open manage in VMWARE
- Set up VDI using VIEW and VMWARE
- Go to Interop Las Vegas
- Setup another Joomla Website
- Find out if anybody actually reads this... (Suppose I should create some interesting content if I can)
- Find a reliable Exchange 2007 Backup
- Hopefully do an Exchange 2007 to 2010 upgrade in the summer
Well seems like I might have a bit o right about, I think this may end up being a how I did what site, I am going to try and document what I am doing and post it here at least weekly.
Shawn
As I may have mentioned earlier I am in the process of moving a workgroup to a domain. The current setup consists of 50 mixed windows XP, and Vista machines. There are 3 Server 2008 Standard servers running in workgroup mode. The project so far has consisted of testing every network connection in the building, replacing cables, and fixing broken wall jacks. As well as repunching the jacks to a standard. In the process all labels have been updated at the patch, and on the wall jacks. This is a fun task at 3 floors running back and forth.
Anyway in moving the local users to the domain, windows server resource kit has an awesome piece of software by the name of moveuser.exe, which works great on XP and speeds things up immensely! However once we got to the vista machines the tool no longer worked. In wanting to speed the process up and keep a steady pace without losing any data we are looking at using a tool by http://www.forensit.com that claims it will move user profiles, which goes by the name of User Profile Wizard 3.0.
Well it turns out this tool is amazing, and there is no need to fight with windows Vista patching and what not to try and get moveuser.exe to work. The tool seems to do the same thing as moveuser. I only wish that if needed in case of disaster, during the change over, there was an easy way to go back to local workgroup from domain.
Another issue we ran into today during the transition of joining machines is a user purchased their own special notebook to use at work, and billed it to the company. The notebook looks very nice, and will have no issue running any of the software. However it came with Windows XP Media Center edition which can not be joined to a domain.
There we have it for today, time to relax and watch some movies. Over the next week I will be building a few new VMWARE servers, with some new SANS which I may try and take a few pictures of, as I write about them, and the process of implementing them.
Well turns out I am doing more than just virtualization these days. I am currently in the process of looking for hardware that will connect remote offices together, as well as allow the users easy VPN access into the network. In my searches I have been looking at the Sonicwall products for SMB. As well I have been looking at fortinet products. I have not done much research into the fortinet products as of yet.
The Sonicwall solution seems rather easy to implement so far. The current network I am taking over is using a dlink router/firewall I believe upgrading this to a better piece of gear will be beneficial. I need to be able to support up to 100 users, and I just don't believe the dfl-200 Dlink will do the job I am looking for.
As I look more into this I will try and post more about the solution that is implemented.
Well here I am, updating the layout of the site, was hoping to have more content available by now, however for the moment I do not. I am going to try the newer K2 rather than playing with all kinds of modules, and whatnot. So far I really like the layout this is using however I believe I will need to change the template. This solves all the issues I was having. I suppose one of the next things to try and do is write on a regular basis, so that people might actually come read what I have to say.
I imagine most of my posts will be somehow technology related, focusing on virtualization.