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

2009/03/30

VMware ESX Cost Per GB Calculator

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , , , , , , , — iben @ 09:51

I ran some numbers for a customer recently and discovered the single processor high-RAM hardware configurations can be more cost effective for most corporate windows applications hosted on VMware ESX. Keep in mind that the number of processors a server has doesn’t always need to equal the number of sockets.

This includes the cost of hardware, ESX Enterprise, and Microsoft Windows Data Center Edition.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p0EnXM-6h5gbFTHB27ffELA

What did I miss in these calculations. There are also per port costs to include for Network, Storage, backup agents, etc.

NOTE: Recently updated to show HP blades with 16 GB DIMMS

Reference:
VMware’s Multi-Core Pricing & Licensing Policy
http://www.vmware.com/download/eula/multicore.html

VMware’s End User License Agreement
http://www.vmware.com/download/eula/virtualcenter.html
1.6 "Processor" means a single, physical chip that houses no more than six (6) processor cores.

2009/03/25

Pano Logic Cube Video Resolution Settings

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — iben @ 10:50

When logging into a PanoLogic virtual desktop console for the first time…

The default display resolution was 1024×768 standard 4:3 XGA

The HP w1707 LCD monitor has a native resolution of 1680×1050@60Hz 16:10 WSXGA+

Using the pano logic control panel I was only able to set the max resolution to 1440×900@69Hz 16:10 WSXGA

http://www.panologic.com/

List of Supported Reslutions: http://help.panologic.com/2.6/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm#href=Introduction/Supported_Monitor_Resolutions.html

2009/03/24

Configure DataDomain NFS ESX DataStore

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , , , , , , — iben @ 13:02

How to configure DataDomain as NFS DataStore for ESX
Purpose:
Follow these steps to allow a datadomain storage appliance to be used as a high capacity datastore by ESX and ESXi hosts using NFS so Virtual Machines can be moved from Production ESX cluster to test/dev ESXi hosts.

Basic steps:
1 – configure datadomain appliance nfs export
2 – add NFS datastore on ESX hosts
3 – copy VMs from Primary Storage to DDA (DataDomain Archiver).

Setup:
Data Domain OS 4.5.3.0-82657
Model 565
Active Directory Domain Admin user-id “itadmin”
DD IP Address: 10.10.10.99

Source ESX hosts’ VMkernel portgroups on 10.10.11.0/24 network
Destination ESXi host on 10.10.10.7 (VMkernel and Management are on shared Port Group)

itadmin@datadomain-lan# nfs show clients
path client options
—————- —————— —————————————-

itadmin@datadomain-lan# nfs add
nfs add [ ( ) ]
Add NFS clients to an export

itadmin@datadomain-lan# nfs add /share/vmtest 10.10.11.0/24
NFS export for “/share/vmtest” added.
dirodriguez@datadomain01-source# nfs add /share/vmtest 10.10.10.7
NFS export for “/share/vmtest” added.

itadmin@datadomain-lan# nfs show clients
path client options
—————- —————— —————————————-
/share/vmtest 10.10.11.0/24 (rw,no_root_squash,no_all_squash,secure)
/share/vmtest 10.10.10.7 (rw,no_root_squash,no_all_squash,secure)
—————- —————— —————————————-

Add share on ESX hosts.

Copy VMs from Source ESX SAN datastores to new shared datastore.

Copy VMs from shared datastore to local ESXi datastore and reconfigure.

Check Deduplication Compression.
You can see amount of deduplication provided by multiple VM images by running this command:

itadmin@datadomain-lan# file show compression /share/vmtest
Total files: 15; bytes/storage_used: 18.3
Original Bytes: 15,462,695,250
Globally Compressed: 2,191,220,844
Locally Compressed: 840,288,247
Meta-data: 6,953,000

In this example we are getting only 18x compression. With additional Virtual Machines the compression will increase allowing many VMs to be stored and archived.

2009/03/22

Is Cisco California right for your data center?

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , , , , , , — iben @ 23:12

The Cisco Unified Fabric – California – is getting a lot of buzz lately.

This video gives some idea of the implications…

“All your base are belong to us”

Let the debates begin…

Will IBM buy SUN as part of this?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/19/ibm_sun_deal_comment/

Juniper lowers CAPEX and OPEX and ensures flexibility and choice, and customer feedback verifies that we deliver a high-performance network.
http://forums.juniper.net/t5/Architecting-the-Network/California-Dreamin/ba-p/16488

http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2009/03/interesting-dialog-on-the-cisco-ucs-stuff-and-a-bit-of-detail.html

http://www.internetworkexpert.org/2009/01/01/nexus-1000v-with-fcoe-cna-and-vmware-esx-40-deployment-diagram/

http://www.breakingpointsystems.com/community/blog/unified-computing-begets-unified-testing

2009/03/19

how to reset root password on vmware esx classic

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , , , , , , — iben @ 11:15

Follow these steps if you need to reset the root password on an ESX classic.

Note: Ignore the “quote marks” in the instructions below.

1 – turn on system (if it’s on then reboot it with Ctrl-Alt-Del from console)
2 – when grub appears press the “tab” key
3 – highlight VMware ESX line using the “arrow” keys
4 – press the “e” key
5 – scroll to kernel line using the “arrow” keys
6 – press the “e” key (again, I know!)
7 – press the “end” key to move cursor to end of the kernel line
8 – type the word “single” (using the keys)
9 – press the “b” key to boot the ESX host into single user mode
10 – eventually a “sh-3.2#” root prompt will appear
11 – use the command “passwd” to reset the password
12 – use the command “reboot” to reboot the ESX machine
13 – login to the console or the vic using the new password!

That’s it! I hope this procedure works for you. Your feedback is appreciated.

Morale of this story is:
1 – always protect the physical environment where you ESX host is located.
2 – always secure the Lights Out/Remote Access/IP-KVM/console access to your host.
3 – consider using a GRUB password on your ESX host so as to prevent password resets.

2009/03/09

Overhead Memory Table on ESX Virtual Machines

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , , , , — iben @ 13:46

Refer to page 30 of http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_resource_mgmt.pdf or page 136 of http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_resource_mgmt.pdf

Memory overhead usage chart

Memory overhead usage chart

Some examples:

With 1 vcpu and 256MB of RAM; the VM kernel requires 87MB for 32 bit VM’s and 108MB for 64 bit VM’s.

With 8GM of RAM and 1 vCPU you’ll need 188MB and 209MB for 32 and 64 bit.

With 4 vCPU’s and 8GB of RAM you’re looking at ~360MB for a 32 bit VM and 431MB for a 64 bit VM.

Note: memory overhead for 32-bit VMs generally increased between 3.0.1 and 3.5 while 64-bit overhead generally decreased.

ESX 3.5 Overhead

ESX
3.5 Update 2
Virtual CPUs Virtual Memory (MB) Overhead for 32-bit VM
(MB)		 % Overhead for 32-bit VM Overhead for 64-bit VM
(MB)		 % Overhead for 64-bit VM
1 256 87.56 34.20% 107.54 42.01%
1 512 90.82 17.74% 110.81 21.64%
1 1,024 97.35 9.51% 117.35 11.46%
1 2,048 110.40 5.39% 130.42 6.37%
1 4,096 136.50 3.33% 156.57 3.82%
1 8,192 188.69 2.30% 208.85 2.55%
1 16,384 293.07 1.79% 313.42 1.91%
1 32,768 501.84 1.53% 522.56 1.59%
1 65,536 919.37 1.40% 940.84 1.44%
2 256 108.73 42.47% 146.41 57.19%
2 512 114.49 22.36% 152.20 29.73%
2 1,024 126.04 12.31% 163.79 16.00%
2 2,048 149.11 7.28% 186.96 9.13%
2 4,096 195.27 4.77% 233.30 5.70%
2 8,192 287.57 3.51% 325.98 3.98%
2 16,384 472.18 2.88% 511.34 3.12%
2 32,768 841.40 2.57% 882.06 2.69%
2 65,536 1579.84 2.41% 1623.50 2.48%
4 256 146.75 57.32% 219.82 85.87%
4 512 153.52 29.98% 226.64 44.27%
4 1,024 167.09 16.32% 240.30 23.47%
4 2,048 194.20 9.48% 267.61 13.07%
4 4,096 248.45 6.07% 322.22 7.87%
4 8,192 356.91 4.36% 431.44 5.27%
4 16,384 573.85 3.50% 649.88 3.97%
4 32,768 1007.73 3.08% 1086.75 3.32%
4 65,536 1875.48 2.86% 1960.52 2.99%
Averages 408.30 11.51% 453.30 15.29%

ESX 3.0 Overhead

vcpu vRAM 32 bit overhead 64 bit overhead
1 256 79 174
1 512 79 176
1 1024 84 180
1 2048 91 188
1 4096 107 204
1 8192 139 236
1 16384 203 300
2 256 97 288
2 512 101 292
2 1024 101 300
2 2048 125 316
2 4096 157 349
2 8192 221 413
2 16384 349 541
4 256 129 511
4 512 133 515
4 1024 141 523
4 2048 157 540
4 4096 189 572
4 8192 222 605
4 16384 350 734

TCP Wrappers for ESX Classic

Filed under: virtualization — Tags: , , , , , , , — iben @ 08:50

Here’s an example hosts.allow:
#begin
sshd:management.host.com:allow
sshd:ALL:deny
xinetd:management-host-ip-or-fqdn-hostname:allow
xinetx:ALL:deny
httpd:management-host-ip-or-fqdn-hostname:allow
httpd:ALL:deny
#eof
But even this may be too simple.

Reference:
http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/…/tnc/dell_vmware_certified_deploy.pdf

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/182964?tstart=0
What this will do is allow all hosts to ssh into the system while only allowing VI client connections from the virtualcenter server. This means you pretty much have to go through virtualcenter to manage the system.

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