Virtualization Adapted Adapting Business Processes for Virtual Infrastrcuture (and vice-versa)

2009/05/28

Server Room Infrastructure Information

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , , , , , , , — iben @ 15:03

Take an average office turned into a server room.  Many companies throw a 3 or 5 ton split air conditioner on a wall call the electrician and start loading the racks up with servers. Now a days the new server hardware can use all the power (and cooling) you have in probably one rack (think three loaded blade chassis with 16 servers each = 90 amps of 208v).  The question is how much cooling can you afford?

For customers deploying 10 or more servers it is recommended to use the most efficient power delivery and structured wiring options.

Calculate you power and cooling needs with this spreadsheet. https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tsfSMUDYsB-Ef2umhyORqvA

Using 3 phase power reduces the number of PDUs and “whips” required to power up large quantity of machines.  The actual cables from the server to the PDU are the same and the power supplies still receive 1 phase 208v power.  This is just a different and more efficient method of delivering the power to the servers.

You get higher densities with fewer wires to the electrical service panel with 3 phase power over single phase power. ServerTech has a great white paper on this topic here:

http://www.servertech.com/uploads/documents/0000/0236/3-Phase_Power_in_the_Data_Center.pdf

A 3 phase 30 amp 208V circuit can deliver 8.6 kw versus a 1 phase 30 amp 208V circuit which only delivers 4.99 kv.

Here is one of the more popular units…

http://www.servertech.com/products/smart-pdus/smart-pdu-cs-84vdd-vdy-3ph

Go with the 4 wire “Delta” configuration instead of the 5 wire “WYE” config. Wye power can distribute both 208 V and 120 V power from the same cabinet power distribution unit but requires an extra wire per PDU and is not needed in most datacenters. You will also be limiting the number of 208 volt power outlets with a WYE config PDU.

CS-24VD-L1530 – List $860.
CS-48VDD-L1530 – List $985.
CS-84VDD-L1530 – List $1,290.

You need to hire an electrician at $100 per hour x 4 hours plus parts.

Cheap fast switch with life time warranty:

24 ports NetGear GigE Unmanaged Switch – $260
http://www.netgear.com/Products/Switches/UnmanagedSwitches/JGS524.aspx

SuperGoose temp and humidity – $500
http://www.itwatchdogs.com/products_mon.shtml#wxg-2

Trendpoint power monitoring – direct $3085

http://www.trendpoint.com/TrendPointOne.html

48 port tie lines from each server rack to a central control rack cost about $2000 per rack

Sample power calculations (need to be adjusted) 24 amps x 208 volts = 5000 watts * 3 racks = 15000 watts = 51,113.088 with BTU/hour = 4.25 tons cooling (worst case)

3 Homaco M6 Square Hole 4 post Racks – $360.19 each
19-84-SSDA2732
http://www.homaco.com/equipfloorracks/adjustdual/m6serverrack.htm
OR-19-84-SSDA2732. 84″- M6 SERVER RACK. 84″- M6 SERVER RACK.

And you can get all the various power cables needed for 208vac
operation from quail.
http://www.quail.com/seriesPage.cfm?seriesID=9

2009/05/26

PC Setup Checklist

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , , , , — iben @ 23:43

PC Setup Checklist

configure printers
map Q: drive to nas
remove any trial versions of antivirus or other security software
run windows updates reboot repeat
install bginfo – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897557.aspx
install newsid – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897557.aspx
install avg free – http://www.avg.com/filedir/inst/avg_free_stf_en_85_339a1525.exe
Install Yahoo ToolBar with Anti-Spy
install winrar – http://www.rarlab.com/rar/wrar39b2.exe
install firefox
install treesize free – http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/TreeSizeSetup.exe
install outlook 2007 – http://support.themessagecenter.com/support/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=18
edit local %windir%system32driversetchosts file if needed
Configure outook profile using mail control panel
install bittorrent
install skype
install openoffice
install blackberry desktop software
install blackberry handheld software
install apple itunes and quicktime
install adobe acrobat reader
install google earth
setup network time server – us.pool.ntp.org
setup and test vpn client to work headquarters
Turn off “I want to make windows better” check box
Install and test free pdf 995 creation print driver

Connect to exchange server and download cached copy of mail box
Change display options to windows classic and turn off options to enhance performance
turn off system restore
turn off drive indexing
label hard drive for user_c

Equipment List

k62132-3141Kensington Guardian Premium 6 Outlet Surge
6-outlet surge protector, 210 Joules
MFG#: 62132
Price:  $11.99
They are unique in that they have no power switch to accidentally turn off the equipment AND they also have a power indicator LED and a $2500 connected equipment guarantee.

Lifetime guaranteed replacement if unit takes a surge and stops working.
http://us.kensington.com/html/13265.html

2009/05/23

Saturday Morning Waffle Recipe

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , , , — iben @ 13:04
Although this topic doesn’t necessarily relate directly to adapting virtualization technology to our business processes (or vice versa) we all need to eat and this is an example of a procedure that I learned and am continually improving according to ITIL 3 Framework.  Anything we do in life can be documented and thus improved. This allows others to repeat the process in the way we want (establish standards) and then we can apply Kaizen principles to improve gradually as needed.
I got this recipe for Everyday chocolate chip waffles out of an old cook book we purchased from the store  Half to Have IT in Half Moon Bay during one of our weekend getaways to the coast.  I always ask the kids what they want for breakfast on Saturday mornings and they always give me a funny look like “What do you mean, waffles, of course!”.
 
We like to prepare side dishes for each person to customize their waffles after they’re cooked: Blueberries, Yogurt, Maple Syrup mixed with melted butter, Chocolate Chips, Bananas are some of our favorites.  If we have guests we’ll make a double batch per measurements listed below. If it’s “only” a few of us at home on a Saturday morning we cut this recipe in half.
 
Sift dry ingredients together in 10 cup mixing bowl.
  • This bowl will be used to dispense the batter to the waffle maker.
  • 118 ml, 3.5 cups flour
  • 30 ml , 6 tsp baking powder
  • 5 ml, 1 tsp salt
Separate 4 eggs – whites go into mixing bowl to be beaten for a couple minutes, yolks go into mixing bowl with other wet ingredients below.
  • 4 stiffly beaten egg whites
Combine yolks, milk, and oil in an 8 cup mixing bowl.
  • 118 ml, 3.5 cups milk
  • 237 ml, 1 cup oil
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 237 ml, 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional – these can be added during cooking or after cooking too)
 

Stir wet ingredients into dry bowl.

 

Fold whites leaving a few fluffs. Mix first third in fully, then fold second third, then last third.

 
Fold in chocolate chips.
 
Bake 3/4 cup at a time.
 
Makes 8 6″ round belgian style waffles.
 

 

2009/05/20

Free AntiVirus Tools for Windows

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , , — iben @ 13:36

There are some good free AntiVirus tools you can use to scan and protect your Microsoft Windows based computers.

Are there others you use? Let me know your feedback on these.


Spelling – VMware or VMWare or VMWARE or vmware

Filed under: cloud,Education,it,security,virtualization — Tags: , , , , , , — iben @ 11:20

[NMAP has been corrected! see email replies from Fydor and IEEE at end]

Here are a couple emails I sent off today requesting (suggesting) that the OUI information be corrected for VMware’s MAC addresses.  I first noticed the issue when my friend ran the latest NMAP on his MacBook against our internal work net. So I was all set to submit a bug to the NMAP developers when I realized they just get their information on this from the I triple E standards body and they just get their info from whomever happened to be on duty that day and made the request.

It’s the OCD part of me that can’t stand to see VMware spelled wrong (VMWare).

I’m sure other companies like McAfee and McDonald’s have entire teams dedicated to protecting this sort of brand identity.

All lower case would have been fine (vmware) like Unix style.

So would have all UPPERCASE  (VMWARE) as it adds emphasis or might be a convention for a proper noun in certain types of databases or programming languages.

But if you are going to make the effort to use the shift key for just part of the word the least you could do is learn which letters are supposed to be upper case and which ones are not.

To: ieee-registration-authority@ieee.org

Subject: typo in spelling of company name…

Dear Registration Team,

I noticed a minor typo in the list here: https://standards-oui.ieee.org/oui/oui.txt

The word “VMware” is spelled wrong when reporting the company for an OUI. The “w” should be lower case – not upper case.

Also, the company has moved and is no longer located on Porter Drive but around the corner now on Hillview Ave.

Please see the corporate web site for the accurate information and correct the list output.

http://www.vmware.com/company/contact.html

VMware, Inc.
3401 Hillview Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA

For example: Here is the current output…

00-05-69   (hex)        VMWARE, Inc.
000569     (base 16)        VMWARE, Inc.
3145 Porter Dr., Bldg. F
Palo Alto CA 94304
UNITED STATES

00-0C-29   (hex)        VMware, Inc.
000C29     (base 16)        VMware, Inc.
3145 Porter Dr.
Palo Alto CA 94304
UNITED STATES

00-1C-14   (hex)        VMware, Inc
001C14     (base 16)        VMware, Inc
3145 Porter Drive
Palo Alto CA 94304
UNITED STATES

00-50-56   (hex)        VMWare, Inc.
005056     (base 16)        VMWare, Inc.
44 ENCINA AVENUE
PALO ALTO CA 94301
UNITED STATES

Reference Info:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/108426

To: nmap-dev@insecure.org

Subject: spelling of company name “VMware” for a given mac address

Dear NMAP Developer Team,

I noticed a minor typo in the OS Detection Output.

The word “VMware” is spelled wrong when reporting the company for an OUI. The “w” should be lower case – not upper case.

For example: Here is the current output…

MAC Address: 00:50:56:01:11:00 (VMWare)

And this is the corrected version…

MAC Address: 00:50:56:01:11:00 (VMware)

Reference Info:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/108426

http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt

00-05-69   (hex)                VMWARE, Inc.
000569     (base 16)            VMWARE, Inc.
3145 Porter Dr., Bldg. F
Palo Alto CA 94304
UNITED STATES

00-0C-29   (hex)                VMware, Inc.
000C29     (base 16)            VMware, Inc.
3145 Porter Dr.
Palo Alto CA 94304
UNITED STATES

00-1C-14   (hex)                VMware, Inc
001C14     (base 16)            VMware, Inc
3145 Porter Drive
Palo Alto CA 94304
UNITED STATES

00-50-56   (hex)                VMWare, Inc.
005056     (base 16)            VMWare, Inc.
44 ENCINA AVENUE
PALO ALTO CA 94301
UNITED STATES

On May 20, 2009, at 5:52 PM, Fyodor wrote:

Hi Iben.  Unfortunately, that is wrong in the official document at
http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt.  VMware should really
contact the IEEE and canonicalize their name and addresses in that
file.  As you show in your email, it is even all caps in one case.

So while there is little I can do about the varying VMware
capitalization until they fix it upstream, I took the opportunity to
update the data to correspond with the latest version of
http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt.  Looking at the changes
in r13359, it is clear that companies often get minor capitalization
changes put through, so VMware just needs to do that as well.
Instructions are at http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/index.shtml.

Cheers,
-F

From: ieee-registration-authority@ieee.org

Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 11:24 AM
To: Iben Rodriguez
Subject: Re: typo in spelling of company name…

Mr. Rodriguez,

The changes have been completed and will reflect on our website within 24 hours.
Please let me know if you have additional questions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IEEE Registration Authority
IEEE Standards Department
445 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA
Phone:  +1 732-465-6481
Fax:  +1 732-562-1571
E-mail:  ieee-registration-authority@ieee.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/index.html

IEEE.  Fostering technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.

Celebrating 125 Years of Engineering the Future.  www.ieee125.org

—end of email–

Success!

5/25/2009 shows corrected updates.  Still waiting to find out if NMAP will dynamically reflect these changes or if a code rev is needed.

Here are the results of your search through the public section of the IEEE Standards OUI database report for vmware:

00-05-69   (hex)		VMware, Inc.
000569     (base 16)		VMware, Inc.
				3401 Hillview Avenue
				Palo Alto CA 94304
				UNITED STATES
00-0C-29   (hex)		VMware, Inc.
000C29     (base 16)		VMware, Inc.
				3401 Hillview Avenue
				Palo Alto CA 94304
				UNITED STATES
00-1C-14   (hex)		VMware, Inc
001C14     (base 16)		VMware, Inc
				3401 Hillview Avenue
				Palo Alto CA 94304
				UNITED STATES
00-50-56   (hex)		VMware, Inc.
005056     (base 16)		VMware, Inc.
				3401 Hillview Avenue
				PALO ALTO CA 94304
				UNITED STATES

Now – need to fix NMAP

Nmap 4.85BETA9

MAC Address: 00:0C:29:11:00:11 (VMware) <– virtual machine guest – correct

MAC Address: 00:50:56:00:11:00 (VMWare) <– ESX host – wrong

As you can see a scan with the latest version of NMAP still shows the wrong spelling.  Now that the OUI is corrected on the public IEEE web site we’ll need to wait for NMAP to get updated.

I’ve emailed Fydor and hopefully he can fix it next week…?

I b e n

Nmap Changelog – fixed

# Nmap Changelog ($Id: CHANGELOG 13432 2009-05-28 

o Updated nmap-mac-prefixes with the latest MAC address prefix data
  from http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt as of
  5/20/09. [Fyodor]
Reference: http://nmap.org/changelog.html

2009/05/19

Microsot SQL Server Consolidation Worksheet – information

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , — iben @ 12:33

Complete a Worksheet like the one provided by Microsoft to get a better idea of any consolidation opportunities. Microsoft has provided a SQL Server consolidation Worksheet to assist with the process of consolidating SQL Servers and it can be found at:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/plan/sql2kcon.mspx#EAAA.
* Server product and version
* Perfmon – Read / Write ratios (2 Weeks of data minimum at 5 Minute averages)
* Perfmon – Memory utilization (2 Weeks of data minimum at 5 Minute averages)
* Perfmon – Disk I/O (2 Weeks of data minimum at 5 Minute averages)
* Perfmon – Network I/O (2 Weeks of data minimum at 5 Minute averages)
* Security context of databases
* High Availability requirements / Clustering
* Limitations that prevent clustering
* Stability of servers
* Analysis add-ons
* Custom Stored Procedures
* OLTP and OLAP features and frequency of use
* Dependencies of Server / Instance names
* Life expectancy of each database / application / dependency
* Do the apps support Instance Names
* Do the apps have hard coded Server Names / IP’s
* Business continuance requirements
* How many databases
* Data growth rate
* Data Retention Policies
* Backup windows
* Backup technologies
* Change Management for Upgrades / Patching
* SAN technologies
* Peak usage / Low usage time windows of each server
* Location
* Replication frequency, duration, and volume
* SQL mail and other tool interaction
* Indexing / Natural Language Query
* Connectivity requirements
* Processor or Seat licensing
* Internet / Public Access vs. Internal only
* SLA’s to business units
* Who owns the servers (Business Units / Customers / IT Services, etc)

A typical database assessment can last 4 to 6 weeks if the resource has access to the servers and the answers to the questions above. Regardless of the number of servers, the assessment process is the same. You may be able to ballpark the number of servers early, but the actual count can only be determined by detailed analysis and thorough testing.

Netapp Security Best Practices

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , , — iben @ 09:58

Roles and RBAC on NetApp filers – http://www.netapp.com/us/library/technical-reports/tr-3358.htm or http://media.netapp.com/documents/tr-3358.pdf


2009/05/06

vmxnet3 – features and use information – tips and tricks

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , , , , , — iben @ 00:01
vmxnet3 – features and use information – tips and tricks
  
UPDATED for Windows 2008 Core

Glad to see this has been posted and we can talk about it now… please share your experiences and let us know if these tips work for you and what sort of performance benefits you’ve noticed when using this new driver.

We’ve been switching our Windows and Linux VMs to use “VMXNET Enhanced” for some time now and see public information on the new VMXNET3 NIC for guests…
This Thread has been started to help with procedures on the conversion of existing machines from older NIC to newer NIC as it is not 100% straightforward and there are some tricks to remove old hardware and change to new hardware. This would be similar in the physical world to changing from a 100 BaseT PCI Card to a GigE card. The old drivers need to be removed, new drivers installed, and IP Addresses moved over. If you just remove the old NIC and install the new one you may end up with a IP Address Conflict error saying the Address you are trying to use is already in use on another Network Interface. The problem is that when you open Device Manager the old NIC is hidden. See below for steps on how to overcome this.
Question: What is VMXNET3?
Answer: VMXNET3 builds upon VMXNET and Enhanced VMXNET as the third generation paravirtualized virtual networking NIC for guest operating systems.
New VMXNET3 features over previous version of Enhanced VMXNET include:
• MSI/MSI-X support (subject to guest operating system kernel support)
• Receive Side Scaling (supported in Windows 2008 when explicitly enabled through the device’s Advanced configuration tab)
• IPv6 checksum and TCP Segmentation Offloading (TSO) over IPv6
• VLAN off-loading
• Large TX/RX ring sizes (configured from within the virtual machine)

What’s New in vSphere 4.0

http://communities.vmware.com/viewwebdoc.jspa?documentID=DOC-9225&communityID=2701
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMW_09Q1_WP_vSphereNetworking_P8_R1.pdf

From the Cisco document:VMware vSphere 4 and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series

VMware vNetwork module that encompasses the vDS and VMXNET-3 enables inline monitoring and centralized firewall services and maintains the virtualmachine’s network run-time characteristics.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9902/solution_overview_c22-529767-00.pdf

Tech Notes

Flexible shows up in Windows Device Manager as an “VMware
Accelerated AMD PCNet Adapter” and Enhanced vmxnet show up as “VMware
PCI Ethernet Adapter”.
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1001805
Flexible — The Flexible network adapter
identifies itself as a Vlance adapter when a virtual machine boots, but
initializes itself and functions as either a Vlance or a vmxnet
adapter, depending which driver initializes it. VMware Tools versions
recent enough to know about the Flexible network adapter include the
vmxnet driver but identify it as an updated Vlance driver, so the guest
operating system uses that driver. When using the Flexible network
adapter, you can have vmxnet performance when sufficiently recent
VMware tools are installed. When an older version of VMware Tools is
installed, the Flexible adapter uses the Vlance adapter (with Vlance
performance) rather than giving no network capability at all when it
can’t find the vmxnet adapter.
Enhanced vmxnet — The enhanced vmxnet adapter is
based on the vmxnet adapter but provides some high-performance features
commonly used on modern networks, such as jumbo frames. This virtual
network adapter is the current state-of-the-art device in virtual
network adapter performance, but it is available only for some guest
operating systems on ESX Server 3.5. This network adapter will become
available for additional guest operating systems in the future.

Networking Error, IP Address Already Assigned to Another Adapter
KB Article 1179
Updated Jan. 07, 2009
Why do I see an error message that “The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX…” is already assigned to another adapter?

Solution
Under certain conditions, you may see the following error message from a Windows guest operating system:
The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you have entered for this network
adapter is already assigned to another adapter Name of adapter. Name of
adapter is hidden from the network and Dial-up Connections folder
because it is not physically in the computer or is a legacy adapter
that is not working. If the same address is assigned to both adapters
and they become active, only one of them will use this address. This
may result in incorrect system configuration. Do you want to enter a
different IP address for this adapter in the list of IP addresses in
the advanced dialog box?
In this message, XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX is an IP address that you are
trying to set and Name of adapter is the name of a network adapter that
is present in the registry but hidden in Device Manager.
This can occur when you change a network connection’s TCP/IP configuration from DHCP to a static IP address if:

  • You have upgraded VMware virtual network adapters (for example

when you migrate a virtual machine from an older to a new version of
VMware software.)

  • You have added and removed network adapters multiple times.

The cause of the error is that a network adapter with the same IP
address is in the Windows registry but is hidden in the Device Manager
(My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager). This
hidden adapter is called a ghosted network adapter.

Using the Show hidden devices option in the Device Manager (View

Show hidden devices) does not always show the old virtual NIC

(ghosted adapter) to which that IP Address is assigned

Microsoft addresses this issue in their Knowledge Base article
269155, which is available at the time of this writing at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=269155.

To resolve this problem, follow these steps to make the ghosted
network adapter visible in the Device Manager and uninstall the ghosted
network adapter from the registry:
1. Select Start > Run.
2. Enter cmd.exe and press Enter.
3. At the command prompt, run this command:
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
4. Enter Start DEVMGMT.MSC and press Enter to start Device Manager.
5. Select View > Show Hidden Devices.
6. Expand the Network Adapters tree (select the plus sign next to the Network adapters entry).
7. Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then select Uninstall.
8. Close Device Manager.

How to remove these “phantom” NICs from Windows 2008 Server Core

  1. Copy devcon.exe over to the server core server (extract devcon.exe from \SUPPORT\TOOLS\SUPPORT.CAB on a Windows 2003 R2 x64 disc).
  2. Run devcon.exe findall =net (this should list all NICs on the system, including the phantoms). Example output:
    PCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_0720&SUBSYS_072015AD&REV_10\4&B70F118&0&0088: VMware PCI Ethernet Adapter #2
    PCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_0720&SUBSYS_072015AD&REV_10\3&18D45AA6&0&88: VMware PCI Ethernet Adapter
    PCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_07B0&SUBSYS_07B015AD&REV_01\FF565000EB16A3FE00: vmxnet3 Ethernet Adapter
    3 matching device(s) found.
    Observe that vmxnet3 was the active NIC and the others needed to be removed.
  3. devcon -r remove “@PCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_0720&SUBSYS_072015AD&REV_10\3&18D45AA6&0&88″ removed the first one.
  4. Repeat for the remaining unwanted NICs
  5. Reboot the machine to restart all services

Reference: http://vmtoday.com/2009/11/vsphere-upgrade-breaks-active-directory/

Performance

http://blogs.vmware.com/networking/2009/04/considerations-for-maximum-network-performance.html

For UDP, use vmxnet3 to be able to configure a larger vNIC Rx ring size.  Because UDP can be a lot more bursty (due to lack of flow-control), having a larger Rx ring size helps to provide buffering/elasticity to better absorb the bursts.  The new vmxnet3 allows resizing the vNIC’s Rx ring size, up to around 1 to 2 thousand buffers.  As a side note, there is some negative performance impact with larger ring size due to larger memory foot print. The new vxmnet3 vNIC is more efficient than the e1000 vNIC.  Also in general, ESX 4 has some performance improvements over ESX 3.5.

Line Rate 10GigE

Howie Xu, Director of R&D for VMkernel IO remarked recently that after talking with a few customers, many are still unaware we can achieve line rate 10GigE performance on ESX 3.5. Read “10Gbps Networking Performance on ESX 3.5u1” posted on VMware’s network technology resources page.

The story only gets better with vSphere 4 and ESX 4 with the new Intel Nehalem processors. Initial tests from engineering show a staggering 30Gbps throughput.

Choosing a Network Adapter for Your Virtual Machine
KB Article 1001805
Updated May 05, 2009
 
 
Details
  
The Virtual Machine wizard’s Choose Networks window allows you to specify a network and a network adapter. The network adapter choices available depend on these factors:
  • The version of the virtual machine, which depends on what host created it or most recently updated it
  • Whether or not the virtual machine has been updated to the latest version for the current host
  • The guest operating system

The Choose Networks window makes available only those network adapters that make sense for the virtual machine you are creating. Each adapter type is discussed in some detail in “Available Network Adapters,” below. Here is an overview of what Choose Networks might offer you:

  • For virtual machines native to VMware Workstation 4x, VMware GSX Server 3, or VMware ESX Server 2.x, you can explicitly choose between Vlance and vmxnet
  • For most 32bit virtual machines native to VMware Workstation 5 or 6, VMware Server 2, or VMware ESX Server 3, only the Flexible adapter is available
  • For most 64bit virtual machines and for 32bit Microsoft Windows Vista virtual machines, only the e1000 adapter is available
  • For certain guest operating systems on VMware ESX Server 3.5 and later, you can choose the Enhanced vmxnet adapter in addition to the Flexible or e1000 adapter mentioned for that guest type in the previous bullets
Solution
  
Available Network Adapters
 
The following network adapters might be available for your virtual machine, depending on the factors discussed above:
  • Vlance — Vlance (also called PCNet32) is a faithful virtual implementation of a common, if now somewhat aging, physical network adapter. Most 32bit guest operating systems, except for Windows Vista, have built-in support for this card so a virtual machine configured with this network adapter can use its network immediately.
  • vmxnet — The vmxnet virtual network adapter has no physical counterpart. VMware makes vmxnet available because Vlance, a faithful implementation of a physical card, is far from optimal for network performance in a virtual machine. Vmxnet is highly optimized for performance in a virtual machine. Because there is no physical card of type vmxnet, operating system vendors do not provide built-in drivers for this card. You must install VMware Tools to have a driver for the vmxnet network adapter available.
  • Flexible — The Flexible network adapter identifies itself as a Vlance adapter when a virtual machine boots, but initializes itself and functions as either a Vlance or a vmxnet adapter, depending which driver initializes it. VMware Tools versions recent enough to know about the Flexible network adapter include the vmxnet driver but identify it as an updated Vlance driver, so the guest operating system uses that driver. When using the Flexible network adapter, you can have vmxnet performance when sufficiently recent VMware tools are installed. When an older version of VMware Tools is installed, the Flexible adapter uses the Vlance adapter (with Vlance performance) rather than giving no network capability at all when it cannot find the vmxnet adapter.
  • e1000 — e1000 is a faithful virtual implementation of a physical network adapter that is broadly supported by newer operating systems, specifically most 64bit operating systems and both 32 and 64bit Windows Vista. e1000 performance is intermediate between Vlance and vmxnet.
  • Enhanced vmxnet — The enhanced vmxnet adapter is based on the vmxnet adapter but provides some high-performance features commonly used on modern networks, such as jumbo frames. This virtual network adapter is the current state-of-the-art device in virtual network adapter performance, but it is available only for some guest operating systems on ESX Server 3.5. This network adapter will become available for additional guest operating systems in the future.

    • 32/64bit versions of Microsoft Windows 2003 (Enterprise and Datacenter Editions). You can use enhanced vmxnet adapters with other versions of the Microsoft Windows 2003 operating system, but a workaround is required to enable the option in the VI Client. For more information, see Enabling enhanced vmxnet adapters for Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
    • 32bit version Microsoft Windows XP Professional
    • 32/64bit versions Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0
    • 32/64bit versions SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
    • 64bit versions Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0

    Enhanced VMXNET is supported only for a limited set of guest operating systems:

Adapter Caveats
  
This section discusses some potential issues you might have.
 

 

Migrating virtual machines that use enhanced vmxnet. Enhanced vmxnet is new with ESX Server 3.5. Virtual machines configured to have enhanced vmxnet adapters cannot migrate to older ESX Server hosts, even though virtual machines can usually migrate freely between ESX Server 3.0 and ESX Server 3.0.1.

Upgrading from ESX Server 2.x to ESX Server 3.x. When a virtual hardware upgrade operation transforms a virtual machine created on an ESX Server 2.x host to an ESX Server 3.x host, Vlance adapters are automatically upgraded to Flexible. In contrast, vmxnet adapters are not upgraded automatically because certain guest operating systems — specifically most or all Linux versions — do not reliably preserve network settings when a network adapter is replaced. Because the guest operating system thinks a Flexible adapter is still Vlance, it retains the settings in that case. If the upgrade were to replace a vmxnet adapter with a Flexible adapter, the guest operating system would erroneously discard the settings.
 
After the virtual hardware upgrade, the network adapter is still vmxnet, without the fallback compatibility of the Flexible adapter. Just as on the original older host, if VMware Tools is uninstalled on the virtual machine, it is unable to access its network adapters.

 

Network adapters on multi-boot Linux. The Virtual Machine Settings dialog box and New Virtual Machine wizard allow creation of only those virtual network adapters that are supported for the selected guest operating system. If you change the guest operating system, the existing network adapters are not affected. When you switch a multi-boot Linux system between 32bit mode and 64bit mode, a problem arises because most 32bit Linux versions do not support e1000 adapters while most 64bit Linux versions support only e1000 adapters. Consider configuring your virtual machine with one of each type of network adapter (e1000 and Flexible). You can then set up your guest operating system to use only the network adapter for which it has a driver in each mode.
 
You can add the second adapter any time the virtual machine is powered off, but you need to change the configured guest operating system type from 32bit to 64bit or vice-versa in order to be offered the other network adapter. Since changing that setting before rebooting into the other bit depth can potentially improve the efficiency of virtual machine scheduling, plan to change the guest operating system type setting before your first reboot into the other bit depth.

Adding virtual disks. Adding an existing older (ESX Server 2.x) virtual disk to an ESX Server 3.x virtual machine results in a de-facto downgrade of that virtual machine to ESX Server 2.x. If you are using ESX Server 3.x features, such as enhanced vmxnet or Flexible network adapters, the virtual machine becomes inconsistent. When you add an existing ESX Server 2.x virtual disk to an ESX Server 3.x machine, you should immediately use the Upgrade Virtual Hardware command to restore the virtual machine to the ESX Server 3 version.
Note: Executing Upgrade Virtual Hardware changes the ESX Server 2 virtual disk so it is no longer usable on an ESX Server 2 virtual machine. Consider making a copy of the disk before you upgrade one of the two copies to ESX Server 3 format.

If you must migrate a virtual machine between newer and older hosts, do not choose enhanced vmxnet but instead one of the older adapter types. Flexible or e1000 are offered whenever enhanced vmxnet is offered.

2009/05/04

synergy screen sharing system

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , , , — iben @ 21:27

This is an oldie but goodie. I setup synergy today between two laptops on my desk and I no longer have to move my hands to go between one keyboard mouse and another. This is great!

http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/about.html

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