Comparison between VMFS3 & VMFS5

Comparison between VMFS3 & VMFS5

There are so many people who want to know what is this VMFS3 And VMFS5. First of All i will let you know what is this. So come on.

VMware VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) is VMware, Inc.'s cluster file system. It is used by VMware ESX/ ESXi Server.

•             VMFS version 3 is used by ESX Server v3.x and vSphere (4.x). Beginning from ESX 3 and VMFS3, virtual machine configuration files are stored in the VMFS partition by default. -- Officially named "VMware Virtual Machine File System"

•             VMFS version 5 is used by ESXi Server v5.x and vSphere (5.x). It introduced unified 1MB block-size (upgraded VMFS5 volumes will however inherit the VMFS3 block size value), and larger LUN-sizes than 2TB, but the maximum VMDK-file size remain at 2TB (minus 512 bytes, irrespective of the file‐system block size), same as VMFS3. Older versions of ESX/ESXi cannot read or write VMFS5 volumes. Beginning from ESXi 5.0 and VMFS5, virtual machine configuration files are stored in the VMFS5 partition by default.

VMFS3	VMFS5
Single Largest extent of 2TB less 512bytes	Single largest extent of 64TB
Uses MSDOS partition table	Uses GPT partition table
Supports 64TB Spanned Volume (32 extents x 2TB)	Supports 64TB Spanned Volume (32 extents with any size combination)
Different block size based on the datastore size (1MB/2MB/4MB/8MB)	Unified 1MB Block Size
Max size of RDM in virtual compatibility mode would be 2TB less 512bytes	Max size of RDM in virtual compatibility mode would be 2TB less 512bytes.
Max size of RDM in physical compatibility mode would be 2TB less 512bytes.	Max size of RDM in physical compatibility mode would be 64TB.

                    

How to bring ORPHAN Virtual Machine online.(Grayed out Virtual Machine.)

How to bring ORPHAN Virtual Machine online.(Grayed out Virtual Machine.)

Hi All,

Good day to you..

There are so many issues we seen while the Virtual machine becomes "Grayed Out" and inaccessible through vCenter or any other way . So many people still wonder to "how to bring it back in the previous condition" . I am sharing the process to make it easy, so you can use it and make your task easy..

Scenario : The virtual machine is grayed out and in vCenter server and (orphaned) started showing.

Orphaned Virtual Machine

 To bring it back online please follow these steps.

(Most Important  : Before doing this task you must note down the orphaned virtual machine Name, Host/Cluster Name, Resource pool if any, Datastore, Virtual machine folder path  in Specified datastore, as it will be required while adding them back to the vcenter. Also remove the orhaned virtual machine from inventory of the vcenter by clicking on " Remove from inventory" .  )

1. First of all select the Orphaned VM and find the Datastore & the folder of the virtual machine where it resides. In my example its "Datastore1"

2. Now go to the specified datastore by selecting  the configuration> Storage option on vcenter server or ESX (in case of stand alone host) .

3. "Right Click "  on the residing datastore and click on "Browse Datastore".

4. Go to the specified folder of orphaned virtual machine . And select the file which extension name will be  ".vmx" followed by the virtual machine name and select "right click > "Add to Inventory".

5. After Selection it, It will open "Add to Inventory" wizard . Now provide the Name of the original virtual machine, Vcentr name, ESX Host details, Resource pool, and it will finish the wizard with the summary details.

6 . Now you can verify all the details and check the virtual machine .. It will be back .. Mission Accomplished.

Have a good day techies. :)

Thanks for Reading...

Correction of Misaligned VM Disk

Hi All,

As we know in real IT world we need the speed and performance while accessing application and files . And  in world of virtual environment of servers we need this more, but there are some flaws come in to the picture while implementing 2003 server in virtual environment Here we will  discuss about the misaligned disk of VM servers and how to correct it...

What is VM Misaligned Disk.

When looking at performance problems traditionally storage is usually the first place many of us would look and for a good reason. In many of the environments these storage problems are caused by misaligned file systems. Why is that? Well fairly simple, misalignment causes overhead. Just look at this diagram:

If you look at the Guest OS and the Array, you will see that in order to read 1 Guest OS cluster the Array needs to read two chunks. With a single VM running on a datastore and your array the impact might not be severe but when you have dozens or hundreds running it will be substantial while it is completely unnecesarry.

How to correct VM Misalignment.

Before you begin:

Log into vCenter and Shut down the VM with misaligned disks.                                                         Rename the server to <server name-old>

  1.Start VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Client ver.5 with Run As administrator

  2.Select Convert Machine

   3. Select source type: VMware Infrastructure virtual machine

   Specify server connection information to vCenter server

 4.    Ignore Security Warning

 5.    Select VM with misaligned disks

6.    Select destination type: VMware Infrastructure virtual machine

Specify VMware Infrastructure server details for vCenter

 7.Ignore Security Warning

 8.  Enter the original server name as destination and put it in the correct folder

 

9. Select destination host and datastore.

NB! The datastore can not be the same as source

  10.  Edit Data to copy

11.      Data copy type: Select volumes to copy and click Advanced ->Destination Layout

 12.  Select Thin provisioning for all disks

Select correct datastore

Select Ignore page file and hibemation file

Select Create optimized partition layout

 13.   Verify and Click Finished to start

 14.     When the job  completed log into vCenter and verify that the new aligned VM is using the same network adapter and connected to the same network label as the original misaligned VM. If not, this has to be corrected before you can power on the new aligned VM.

 15.    Power on the new aligned VM and verify that all disk are aligned

From command prompt run: wmic partition get Index, Name, StartingOffset

Misaligned disk will have StartingOffset 32256

Aligned disk will have StartingOffset 32768 , 1048576 or amy other StartingOffset dividable with 4096

After you finish

When the customer has verified that the new aligned VM is ok, delete the original misaligned VM named <server name-old>.

How to Use the Inventory Snapshot for vSphere

 
How to Use the Inventory Snapshot for vSphere by VMware Labs..

Hi All,

After so many days i m updating my blog again which will be really helpful for those who wants to save there vcenter server settings or just planning to deploy there development vCenter enviroment to the Production. Using this tool you can snapshot your dev environment and recreate it on the production server, saving your time of createing cluster and resource pools adding host etc...

"inventory snapshot" is the latest tool from vmware labs is used for this. This free vSphere tool allows you to take a snapshot of an entire vCenter inventory and then reproduce that inventory on the same vCenter server or another vCenter server. Thus, you could reproduce a vCenter cluster on the same vCenter server or another server.


Downloading Inventory snapshot for vSphere.

To use the tool , you would need vSphere 4.1 (including vCenter). With your vSphere infrastructure already up and running, you can download the inventory snapshot here

Unzip the file and place it in an convenient location.

You'll also need the latest version of Java installed AND VMware's PowerCLI.

From the inventory snapshot ZIP file, you can run inventorysnaphsot.bat

Keep in mind that PowerCLI is required because inventory snapshot will be creating a PowerCLI script that you will be modifying and then using to recreate your entire vSphere infrastructure (or a piece of it) on the same or another server.


Using Inventory snapshot

Once you have met the requirements and have Inventory Snapshot ready to use run inventorySnapshot.bat to bring up the UI. In Linux and MacOS, you use the inventorySnapshot.sh shell script to bring up the graphical user interface.

You'll enter your vCenter hostname, username, password, and a path to store all the inventorysnapshot PowerCLI (PS1) snapshot files.

 

                                                  Figure 1 : This will run multiple PowerCLI scripts and brings up this screen:
 

                                                   Figure : 2


Notice the 4 tabs on the top. From here, you can review the actual code that will be used to recreate the vSphere inventory.

On the Host Info tab, you will configure the username and password for each ESXi server as passwords are not captured as part of the inventory snapshot.

                                                   Figure : 3

                                                    Figure 4

Finally, you'll create your PowerCLI script which will be used to recreate the inventory (and is modified based on the choices you selected here).

                                        Figure 5


That script should be called something like createInventory.PasswordModified.PS1. Now, connect to the new vCenter server where you want to recreate the captured inventory. With PowerCLI, you'll do this with Connect-VIServer.

Once connected, run the new script and you'll be able to recreate your vSphere infrastructure.

Now you can deploy your vcenter Environment in just some keystrokes.  :-) 

Change the SID and computer name of a virtual machine

Hi Guys,

Today i am going to introduce a new and interesting scenario, where all teh Vmware &  Wintel Administrator feel uncomfortable to work with Cloned Virtual MAchines.

Like  you clone a vm in minutes to test something, but find that the SID remains the same. A simple utility exists that enables you to quickly change the SID and the computer name of a cloned virtual machine.

1. The utility is called NewSID v4.10 and is available for download free of charge.

Figure A

2. Next, Run the command prompt and run the auto option (switch A) to create a new SID and rename the computer. It takes a few minutes for the process to complete and the computer to reboot (Figure B). When you log in to the computer again, the SID is brand new and the computer automatically renamed.

With the command newsid.exe /a [newcomputername]

Figure B

 Now Check your computer Information by going to computer properties. Vola.

you did the Change Of your computer name and SID.

Download Link : http://ituploads.com/microsoft/microsoft-sysinternals-new-sid-tool/

Description of vSphere, Vcenter Server, VMware Hypervisor & vSphere Client etc...

Hi guys,

I know you are lil bit confused why I written down all those name started from Latter “V”. Well Today I m going to differenciate all those things  so you will not confused next time, As I do when I started working with VMware… Hope this will be a interesting topic for you….So read Carefully….

1.     Vsphere 5.0 : This is a complete package of Vmware Hypervisor ESXi (OS) + vSphere Client(Management Point)..

    And other things you can understand better by below scenario....

Scenario : 1 - ESXi Server Ready..But no way to administer it. No Management Point..

Solution :Vmware vSphere Client installed and now it's ready to manage the ESX server and there VM.

Scenario : 2 - Multiple ESXi Server are ready but how to manage them along for Vmotion, Distributed Power Management (DPM), Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), High Availability (HA) etc..

Solution : VMware vCenter Server installed on a single machine as a Linked point and now we can manage multiple ESXi Server via Vmware vSphere Client ...

If you find reading this helpful and cleared your doubts than comment and if still have any doubts den query me. will try out to clear your doubts more clearly...Thanks..

R

Physical to virtual Coversion (P2V)

Hi All,


Today we will learn " how to migrate from Physical to Virtual or P2V migration."As we know that in today's world, Virtualization is need of every organization.. As we know while using VMware we can run up to 255 virtual machine in a single box .. So everyone is now run there servers or machine's in a single box and migrating there existing machine's in to virtual.. So here i m telling you how to migrate from physical to virtual environment with ease....


First of all you need to download and install the VMware Converter . There are so many features of it .



VMware Converter is designed to do the following:

• convert local and remote physical servers with NO DOWNTIME
• convert many P2V conversions at the same time with a centralized console
• convert third party VMs to VMware. For example- MS Virtual PC, MS Virtual Server, Backup Exec LiveState, & Ghost.
• Clone and backup physical machines to virtual machines as part of a DR plan.

When VMware converter installed your vSphere is ready to migrate the Physical machine's in to Virtual.

Step 1 -Right click on vSphere Server  & click on  “Select import machine…”

Step 2 -Fill the target’s info like: IP, Username, Password, OS type.

Step 3- Leave the default click yes.”It will install vCenter converter agent temorarily on remore source machine and automatically uninstall it after successful completion of migration.”

Step 4- It will start deploying agent on Source machine..

Step 5- Select a ESXi server to receive new VM,  Select a shared datastore..

Step 6- Finish converting options then click next, we can increase volumes on target

Step 7 : - Now it will show you the configuration overview of the VM you are going to import.

Step 8 : -Status show in Tasks & events panel, wait for 100% complete.

Finally you got your physical machine in Virtual Box.. But dont forget to remove the physical machine from the network to avoid name or IP Confliction...Have a good day techies...