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Configuring Local datastore as Syslog for ESXi server

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From vSphere 5, VMware announces only ESXi will be available and ESX will be discontinued. So we have prepare our environment for ESXi servers. ESXi server stores its logs on a ramdisk. It will be lost if ESXi power lost or reboot. Information stored on a ramdisk are not persistent across reboots. It is very important to keep the troubleshooting information such as logs and core files.It is always recommends to place the ESXi logs in persistent location to store logs and diagnostic information.

Configure Local datastore as Syslog server

1.Connect to your ESXi host using vSphere Client

2.Click on the Configuration tab

3. Select Advanced settings under software section

4. Expand the syslog and select global

5. Specify the datastore location under the config value " Syslog.global.logDir" with the below format. Create a folder in the datastore to save the logs.

 Example : [datastorename]foldername

[datastore1]logging



6. Select the checkbox for config  "Syslog.global.logDirUnique" to create a log directory with the name based on ESXi host.

7. Click Ok

Once it is created, You will be able to see the ESXi logs are saved on the defined location.


Thanks For Reading !!!!

Free Video Training - VMware vCloud Director

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Now, Your ears would have been tired of hearing about Cloud computing. It is very important to update your self with Cloud products. The wonderful product from the VMware which completely integrated with existing VMware  vSphere virtualization product is VMware vCloud Director.It is necessary to update your self with VMware Cloud products to keep yourself updated with virtualization. You all might have been in search war about the document and video tutorials to learn about VMware vCloud director.

VMware Released Free video training for VMware vCloud Director. It contains 13 videos which extensively talks about the different steps and components involved in configuring and administering VMware vCloud Director





Watch all the free informative videos about vCloud Director from VMware Education services and Start your carrier build with vCloud Director. I believe this should be an informative and Thanks for Reading !!!!

vSphere 5.1 - Local User Account with DCUI permission - Eliminates need of Root Account

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As compared to ESX, ESXi is released to add more security to the hypervisor. As of vSphere 5.0, VMware Announced only the release of ESXi will be available and there won't be an ESX servers.With the release of vSphere 5.1, VMware introduced an added security enhancements for high security standards with access and auditing.

With the Previous Version of ESXi, you need to use root account to manage the ESXi host. But with the release of ESXi 5.1, There is no need to use root account to manage the ESXi host. Root account access is needed, when Lockdown mode is enabled. You need to login to ESXi shell using root account.Only root account can able to login to access physical console access of the ESXi host using DCUI. With vSphere 5.1, You can login to DCUI without need of root privileges. Just add the locally created user account of ESXi host to DCUI privileges or admin access. This eliminates the need of root account usage. With previous versions of ESXi host, You need to use su to execute the commands in ESXi shell but with vSphere 5.1, you can execute all permissions with the use of locally created user account with Administrative permission automatically get ssh and local DCUI access. Main use of the individual user account simplifies the auditing of the local logins and task performed by user.

Before adding the Local user account to DCUI permission, If you try to login to DCUI using the user account you will get the below error message


Adding ESXi Local User account to DCUI Access permission

1. Login to your ESXi host using vSphere Client

2.Click on the Configuration Tab

3. Select Advanced Settings under software section

4.Click on DCUI and add the Local user account under DCUI.Access settings



5. Click Ok.

6. Now you will be able to login to DCUI with Local user account "Mohammed" with DCUI permission.



Adding ESXi Local User account to Administrator Group

Locally created user account with Administrative permission automatically get ssh and local DCUI access no need to add the user account to DCUI access separately.

1. Login to your ESXi host using vSphere Client

2. Click on Permission Tab and Right-click on Blank space

3. Click Add permission

4. From the Assigned role drop-down, Select Administrator

5. Click Add and add the local User account which you want to provide with Administrator permission.



Thanks for Reading !!!!

Auditing User Logins and commands in ESXi

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Most of you would have been asked by your auditors during your security audit of your environment. How to track the individual user login and actions performed by the user account in ESXi servers. It was not available in previous versions of vSphere. But with ESXi 5.x, You will be able to login to Shell access using Locally created user account. In previous versions, You have use Su to switch to execute all the commands at ESX or ESXi level but with latest versions you can login and execute all the commands using locally created account by adding them into administrator group. By that you can easily achieve user auditing and when was the last user login and what action was performed by the user during his login.

With this new feature, You will be able to easily provide the auditing information for ESXi logins to your auditor. You will be saved during your IT audit.

Let's take a step by step look to understand this feature.

1. Create a local user account in ESXi server by login to ESXI directly using vSphere Client

2. Add the user account into Administrator Group 

3. Login to ESXi via SSH using the newly created user account called "Mohammed"



4. Execute the below commands with user "Mohammed" Login
 
This command to list the vSwitch connected to this ESXi host

      esxcli network vswitch standard list



This command to list the Number of CPU's and its details

       esxcli hardware cpu list



5. Now We will verify the  "/Var/log/shell.log" to audit the actions performed by user called "Mohammed"

It lists the login information and all the commands executed by the user called "Mohammed" and also logs information about all User logins and tasks performed by users.


I believe this is informative for you. Thanks for Reading !!!

List of VMware Certfications for VMware Admins and Developers

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This posts will gives you the complete list of VMware certifications and how to found information about VMware certifications from the VMware Website. Nowadays, lot of people are interested to appear for VMware certifications. I would like to share the complete list of certifications available from VMware. The certifications are broken into 4 Main categories by VMware. 
  • Cloud
  • Data Center Virtualization
  • End User Computing
  • Cloud Application Platform
Let's take a look at the list of certifications under these 4 categories

Cloud

VMware Certified Professional – Cloud (VCP-Cloud)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional – Cloud Infrastructure Design (VCAP-CID) 
VMware Certified Advanced Professional – Cloud Infrastructure Administration (VCAP-CIA) 
VMware Certified Advanced Professional – Cloud Governance (Coming Soon)
VMware Certified Design Expert – Cloud (VCDX-Cloud) 

Data Center Virtualization

VCP is renamed as VCP-Data center Virtualization

VMware Certified Professional 4 - Data Center Virtualization (VCP4-DCV)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional 4 - Data Center Administration (VCAP4-DCA)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional 4 - Data Center Design (VCAP4-DCD)
VMware Certified Design Expert 4 - Data Center Virtualization (VCDX4-DCV)

End User Computing

VMware Certified Associate 4 - Desktop (VCA4-DT)
VMware Certified Professional 4 - Desktop (VCP4-DT)
VMware Certified Professional 5 - Desktop (VCP5-DT)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional - Desktop Administration (VCAP-DTA) (Coming Soon)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional - Desktop Design (VCAP-DTD) 
VMware Certified Design Expert – Desktop (VCDX-DT) (Coming Soon)

Cloud Application Platform

Certified Spring Professional
Certified Spring Web Application Developer
Certified Spring Enterprise Integration Specialist

You will be able to found the above information from the Certification Page of the VMware.


In addition to that , VMware have a Certification RoadMap page , Click on  the name of the certification to get complete detail about that particular certification and to download the PDF's related to that certification


  
Thanks for Reading !!!!!

VMware Authorized Training Centers and Course Schedule - How to Find

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I am receiving lot of email request related to VMware Authorized training centers ,Schedule and course information. It is very important to attend the prerequisite course to appear for the VCP Exam. This post gives you way how to found the training schedules from VMware authorized training providers. The VMware training site will give you the power search to search the courses available as per your search filters.

Select Options as per your need to search the course schedules

1. Select the Course Name
2.Select Start Date (Greater Than or Equal to) and (Less Than or Equal to)
3. Select your Country
4.Select the Currency type for your country
5.Choose the Delivery type  (Either classroom or online etc)
6.Choose the Language for the training
7.Select the Provider or choose All providers
8.Choose the time Zone for your country
9.Select the product
10.Choose your Role
 

Click on Find Class to list the available course schedule in your country based on your search filter. Click on Schedule to schedule a course with the training provider as per your convenient. It gives the result of Course info with Actual schedule for the course , training provider details, classroom mode and Location details.




I believe this is informational to you. Thanks for Reading !!!!! 

101 Free Tools for VMware Administrators

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After a hard work, Finally prepared a Post with 101 free tools which are absolutely  free. This tools helps VMware administrators to manage the virtual environment efficiently and intelligently. You will be able to complete your assigned tasks in a inspired way as compared to others with the use of this below tools. The below long list contains various  varieties of free tools including Monitoring Tools ,Backup Tools, Storage tools like (iSCSI & NAS), Health Monitor tools, Cloud related tools, security tools, log management tools, Disk Management tools, Storage monitoring tools, Consolidation tools, Hardware Management tools, Compliance Monitoring tools, Troubleshooting tools, Scripting Tools, Free VMware Visio stencils ,Virtual Machine Management tools and lot of Tiny tools to simplify the VMware administration.
 

Click on the Images to download the Tool (Please use Google Chrome If you face formatting issue in IE and Firefox)

 

Tool Name

Features of the Tool

Download link

Veeam Backup Free Edition
for VMware and Hyper-v

With Veeam Backup Free Edition, you can quickly

  • Backup, archive or copy a VM—without pausing or powering it off
  • Restore data from inside a VM
  • Restore from backups or SAN snapshots
  • Migrate and manage VMs and files
  • All in one easy-to-use tool that’s completely free.

1_VeeamZIp

Veeam ONE Free Edition for VMware & Hyper-V

With Veeam one Free Edition, you can Monitor

  • 24x7 real-time monitoring and alerts
  • Easy documentation and management reporting
  • Saves time and cost
  • Predefined and customizable dashboards

Veeam_one_2 

  Veeam Stencils for VMware and Hyper-V

Veeam Software provides a free collection of VMware and Hyper-V virtualization Visio stencils that can be used by ESX administrators, system integrators and datacenter managers to create their own diagrams in Microsoft Visio 2003, 2007 or 2010 as part of your Hyper-V or VMware deployment planning.

veeam_stencils_3 

Veeam Management Pack for VMware

 

Veeam Management Pack(MP) extends deep VMware monitoring, management and capacity planning to Microsoft System Center, providing complete visibility of physical and virtual infrastructures and applications – all from one console.Veeam MP integrates fully with VMware and System Center, enabling all System Center functionality—including alerts, diagrams, dashboards, reporting, auditing, notifications, responses and automation.

 Veeam Mgmt pack_4

Veeam FastSCP

Veeam FastSCP can copy files over 6 times faster than WinSCP and other SCP-based tools

  • Fast VM / File Transfer
  • Simple ESX File Management
    Integration with Veeam Backup
    Secure Connection
veeam fastscp_4_1

Solarwinds Free VM Monitor

VM Monitor Highlights:

  • Quickly check the health of your VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V host by monitoring CPU, memory utilization, number of virtual machines configured and running, and much more
  • View detailed virtual machine health statistics including VM name, guest OS, and VM state, as well as processor, memory, and network usage

Solarwinds_VMMonitor_5

Solarwinds Free VM-to-Cloud Calculator

VM-to-Cloud Calculator Highlights:

  • Automatically inventory your virtual machines and capturing description, CPU, memory, storage, and count
  • Compare cost estimates from Amazon EC2, Windows Azure, and Rack space Cloud Servers
  • Easily generate updated estimates as your virtualized infrastructure evolves

Solarwinds_VM to Cloud Calculator_6

Solarwinds Free VM Console

Free VM Console Highlights:

  • Bounce (shutdown & restart) VMs without logging into vCenter or vSphere
  • Get end-to-end visibility into your VMware environment—from vCenter through ESX hosts to VM guests
  • Track the real-time up/down status of your VMs from your desktop — without logging into VMware apps

Solawinds_Free VM console_7 

Free Cloud Performance Monitor Powered by CopperEgg

Free Cloud Performance Monitor Powered by CopperEgg Highlights

  • Fast, non-stop, real-time monitoring
  • Server-resident, small footprint, no polling, push-only
  • Delivered as a SaaS service
  • Simple and easy installation. 5-seconds and you are up!

Free-Cloud-Perfromance monitor_8

Unitrends Enterprise Backup

Free Edition:

  • Protect 4 VMS
  • Free forever – no expiration
  • Online support only

NFR (Not for Resale) Edition:

  • Eligibility: VCPs, VCIs, vExperts, MVPs, MCPs
  • Protect 2 sockets and 2 physical servers
  • Phone, e-mail and online support
  • 1-year expiration (renewable along with certification)

9_unitrends Enterprise backup

PhdVirtual  Virtual SAN

Virtual SAN appliance for VMware ESX 3 Server provides the benefits of shared VMFS storage without the cost of a SAN.

 10_Phdvirtual_virtualsan

PhdVirtual Patch Downloader for ESX

Patch Downloader simplifies the task of downloading patches for various VMware ESX versions by automating the task.

 11_Phdvirtual_patchdownloader

VMTurbo’s

Virtual Health Monitor

VMTurbo Virtual Health Monitor is the only FREE real-time performance monitoring solution without limitations of how broadly it can be deployed or which hypervisor platform it runs on. It enables you to:

  • Gain visibility into your entire infrastructure
  • See and identify problems in real time
  • Generate performance and efficiency reports

 12_VMturbo_Virtual health monitor

Trilead VM Explorer

Trilead VM Explorer is a uniquely simple and flexible back-up solution for your infrastructure. It is easy to configure and offers powerful functionalities. VM Explorer® even supports the ESXi free edition for full back-ups. Maximum 2 host support in Free edition

  • Job scheduling made easy
  • Flexible Configuration
  • Dynamic Compression
  • Full and incremental backups
  • Replication for disaster recovery
  • File level restoration

13_Trliead_VM Exlporer

Xangati for vSphere – Free

Xangati for vSphere – Free can help you tackle the following issues:

  • Tracking which VM’s IOPS surge is bogging down a high latency datastore
  • Identifying where you have underutilized capacity that can be re-allocated
  • Zeroing in on which processes are driving a CPU spike on a Windows VM and much more.

 14_xangati for vsphere free

Xtravirt vAlarm for vSphere

vAlarm for vSphere is a Windows based application which monitors alarms generated by VMware vCenter, and provides visual alerts via a smart notification bubble on the desktop where installed as it happens.

It removes the need to actively watch management consoles, and reduces the risk of missing that system generated message amongst the dozens of other emails received every day.

 15_Xtravirt_VAlarm for vSphere 

Xtravirt Presentation Pack for VMware

Presentation Pack for VMware is a huge package of exquisitely detailed icons including virtual infrastructure, conventional IT equipment and many more high quality objects.

Provided in flexible formats for Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, together with a set designed especially for Visio, your diagrams and illustrations will be the showcase of any document or presentation.

 16_xtravirt Presenatation pack for vmware 

Xtravirt Document Downloader for VMware

Document Downloader for VMware is a handy utility which maintains a local repository of VMware product documentation on your PC, making it an ideal tool for consultants or administrators that require offline access to those resources.

17_xtravirt Document downloader for vmware

Foglight for Virtualization, Free Edition

Foglight for Virtualization, Free Edition includes:

  • Snapshot Explorer
  • Storage Explorer
  • Change Explorer
  • Environment Explorer
  • vScope Explorer
  • SearchMyVM Explorer

18 _Foglight for Virtualization-Free edition

PowerGUI

 

 

Graphical User Interface & Script Editor for Microsoft Windows PowerShell. PowerGUI is the freeware tool administrators need to speed PowerShell adoption, and harness the power of PowerShell to efficiently manage their entire Windows environment. PowerGUI simplifies management with an intuitive user console that includes Point, Click, Script™ for quickly building scripts using only a mouse.

 19_powerGui

Workspace Assessment from Quest

Take the first step toward a successful desktop virtualization project with free Workspace Assessment .
Is the transition from physical to virtual desktops a smart move for your organization? Do you want to know which of the many desktop virtualization deployment options will be the best fit for your users, applications and machines? Our Workspace Assessment provides the insight you need to make well-informed decisions. And it's free!

20_Workspace Assesment from Dell

IgniteFreeVm from ignitefree

IgniteFreeVM is the only free VMware performance monitoring tool linking visibility of the database, virtual server, physical server, and storage layers.

 21_ignitefreeVM_ignitefree

vOptimizer Waste Finder

vOptimizer Waste Finder quickly locate and reclaim over-allocated VM storage and dramatically reduce unnecessary storage costs and also improves VM performance, reduces time spent managing virtual storage, and eliminates risks of poor virtual storage management practices.

  • Provides visibility of the total amount and value of over-allocated VM storage
  • Reclaims wasted VM storage (shrinking VM disk files) for use by other applications and business units

22_vOptimizer waste finder

vDisk Informer from Virtualize Planet

vDisk Informer demonstrates which virtual disks have potentially wasted space on them and which virtual disks are misaligned causing a performance impact.

 23_vDiskinformer

Thinware vBackup

Thinware vBackup is an enterprise grade backup solution for virtual infrastructure that can be easily implemented in any size environment.

  • Reduce backup costs.
  • Reduce down-time.
  • Agent-free configuration
  • Utilizes Off-host processing.

 24_Thinware vBackup

 

VMDK Stub File Generator

A free trouble-shooting tool for VMware administrators. Often times the VMDK stub file is either corrupt or removed by mistake making the -flat.vmdk unusable even though all of the user data is still contained within it. This new stub file generator is an absolute necessity when a corrupt VMDK file prevents you from accessing your flat file backup data.

The PHD Virtual Stub File Generator lets you recreate the .vmdk STUB file so that you can re-attach and access the data in the -flat.vmdk.

 10_Phdvirtual_virtualsan

  RVTools

RVTools is able to list information about VMs, CPU, Memory, Disks, Partitions, Network, Floppy drives, CD drives, Snapshots, VMware tools, Resource pools, ESX hosts, HBAs, Nics, Switches, Ports, Distributed Switches, Distributed Ports, Service consoles, VM Kernels, Datastores and health checks.

  

27_rvtools

  svfAlarms

A windows utility to allow the export and import of VMware vCenter Alarms.

  28_svfalarm

 

ESXi-Customizer

ESXi-Customizer is a user-friendly script that automates the process of customizing the ESXi install-ISO with drivers that are not originally included. Unlike other scripts and manuals that are available for this purpose ESXi-Customizer runs entirely on Windows and does not require any knowledge of or access to Linux.

  29 _ESXi-Customizer-2.7-GUI _VMwareArena

 

VMware Scanner v.1.4

This is a simple utility to scan for VMware Servers (ESX, ESXi, VirtualCenter and VMware Server). It uses the VMware API to identify a VMware server and query the product name, version and build number.

  30_VMware Scanner

 

vAudit 1.5

 

vAudit is a utility for VMware View environments (3.01 and 3.1). The tool will display when your users are logging in to their virtual machines and it can also display and unsuccessful login attempts. Version 1.5 includes the option to export the data to a comma separated file.

  31_vaudit

VMware CPU Host Info 2.01

This tools will allow you to read out all CPU information from all your ESX Servers by querying your VC server. It will show what features are available on your CPUs and if they are compatible to vmotion VMs and if FT is supported.

 32_VMware CPU Host Info

ITQ VLan and Portgroup Manager

 

This application in C# based on the new ESX3.x /VC2.x SDK. It allows you to easily setup all port groups and VLan IDs on all your ESX Servers. You can first read out (use the export feature) the network settings of a single ESX Host. With that information you can then setup all your other servers.

  33_itq_VLAN and Portgroup Manager

VCplus

 

VCplus is a program (windows service) that can add additional information into your VirtualCenter environment. Currently it can add Disk Usage within the VM, is snapshot is present and snapshot size and it can sync DNS name with display name

  34_VCPlus

 

Virtual MAC Tools

 

To keep the MAC address of your virtual machines persistent, you can use Virtual MAC Tools to achieve this without manually editing .VMX file of virtual machine.

  35_VirtualMACTools

 

VM Time

 

A small utility that measures the time within a Virtual Machine and the time of the Host it is running on. It will report on any time differences between the two. Nice for testing and checking if the VM really knows what time it is and detect any 'time drifting'

  36_VMtime

 

VM PerfMon

 

This is a simple program to actually measure the actual performance within a VM. It uses the VI3 GuestSDK and shows a graph of the actual CPU usage (not what the VM thinks, but real world usage) and displays in text more information about memory and CPU usage.

  37_vmperfmon

 

vmclient

 

A lightweight tool which enables you to control the power of your virtual machines, it’s also capable of presenting the MKS console of your virtual machine

 38_vmClient

 

VCE Vblock Visio Stencils

 

These stencils can be used by partners for presentations to show they are Vblock Qualified or by parent companies to show validated diagrams.

  39_VCEBLOCK Stencils

Openfiler

Openfiler is a powerful, intuitive browser-based network storage software distribution. Openfiler delivers file-based Network Attached Storage and block-based Storage Area Networking in a single framework.

  40_openfiler

 

StarWind iSCSI SAN Free Edition

StarWind iSCSI SAN Free is an iSCSI Target that converts any Windows server into a SAN. This tool provides the wide range of storage management and data protection features. If you want to deploy iSCSI SAN in your testing lab, for personal use or educational purposes, and evaluate this technology, you can do so completely free with StarWind. The solution is designed for use with the market leading server virtualization platforms – VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix.

  41_starwind_iscsi_san_free

StarWind V2V Converter

 

StarWind Converter is a downloadable V2V conversion tool for virtual machines. You can use it to convert VMDK to VHD files and VHD to VMDK as well as to IMG file, which is a native StarWind format. This is a very simple but useful file conversion tool that will convert virtual hard drive images from VMware's VMDK format into the Microsoft's VHD format. It is a sector by sector copy operation from one format to the other. It does not modify the source image and will leave it so you can continue to use it.

  42_starwind_v2v_converter

  FreeNAS

 

FreeNAS is a powerful, flexible home storage system – configured by you, for your needs.From inexplicable file system incompatibilities to the mystery of the missing crossover cable, everyone knows the pain of trying to share files between different operating systems. Luckily, FreeNAS is here to make make the solution simple.Whether it’s streaming music and movies, backing up a desktop, or syncing files over the web, FreeNAS provides the tools to help you build the perfect file storage appliance for your home!

  43_freeNAS

  Loadstorm

 

It’s a pretty simple utility to generate CPU and/or memory load within a virtual machine (or a physical server if you are still living in the dark ages). You can specify the number of threads to generate for CPU load and the approximate load each thread generates. You can also specify how much memory you want the application to consume. There’s a timer so you can configure it to only generate the specified load for a set period of time, and system memory utilization and system/per core CPU utilization indicators within the application.

44_load_storm

SyslogAppliance

 

SyslogAppliance is a ready to run logging system which can be deployed right "out of the box". Just plug it into any VMWare environment and enjoy receiving log messages from a variety of sources, including Routers, Firewalls and even Windows event logs. It is a great troubleshooting, reporting, analysis and capacity planning tool.

  45_syslogappliance

 

ManageEngine  Free VM configuration Tool

VMware Configuration Tool helps administrators to monitor VMware ESX 4.0 & VMware ESX 4.1 hosts and it can manage/configure some important attributes of the virtual machines available in the host machine. Parameters that can be managed/configured for a virtual machine(s) using this tool are as follows:

Power Operations
CPU - Configuration
Memory - Configuration
Rename Virtual Machine

  46_ManageEngine_VM configurationtool

 

ManageEngine VM Health Monitor Free Tool

Using VM Health Monitor Tool, You will be able to perform:

Monitor VMware ESX server
Monitor VMware ESXi server
VMware host resources like CPU, Memory, Disk Details
Monitor Virtual Machine(VM ) and Guest OS Resources
Network Bandwidth Usage Monitoring
Real time monitoring tool
Easy to learn and use

  47_ManageEngine_VM Monitor Tool

Jam Software’s

HeavyLoad

Free Stress Test Tool for Your PC

 

48_jamsoftware_heavyload

  GParted

GParted is a free partition manager that enables you to resize, copy, and move partitions without data loss.

  49_GParted

 

UBERAlign

 

UBERAlign is the tool for VMware Virtual Machine alignment and Space Reclamation

 50_UBERAlign

  SteelBytes  HD_Speed

HD_Speed Measures both sustained and burst data transfer rates of your hard disks, cd/dvd-roms, flash cards/sticks, floppys, etc. Realtime graphical display.

  51_HD_Speed

 

FalconStor’s  Free iSCSI SAN software

 

FalconStor iSCSI Virtual SAN Appliance enables you to use shared storage without requiring additional storage arrays, SAN switches, or HBAs.

  52_FaloconStor_Free iSCSI SAN software

 

StorMagic’s SvSAN for VMware

SvSAN Provides a single shared data store on your existing servers disk or other direct attached storage device.

 

53_stoarmagicSvSAN

 

Netwrix VMware Change Reporter

 

Netwrix VMware Change Reporter provides virtual machine monitoring solutions to audit what changes were applied to your virtual environment, who made them, and where. Detailed reports help control VM sprawl and sustain regulatory compliance. See how your organization can benefit from Netwrix virtual machine monitoring tool.

54_Netwrix VMware Change Reporter

 

Iometer

 

Iometer is an I/O subsystem measurement and characterization tool for single and clustered systems.

 55_Iometer

Slym software’s vSphere Configuration Backup

vSphere Configuration Backup is an automating tool for saving configurations of multiple ESXi and SQL databases.

 56_vsphere configuration backup

 

ImgBurn

 

ImgBurn Allows you to create and manage ISO files to use with your VMs.

  57_imgburn

 

Winscp

Winscp is a free SFTP, SCP and FTP client for Windows.

 

58_winscp

 

PuTTY

 

PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Windows and Unix platforms, along with an terminal emulator

  59_putty

 

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Solution Accelerator

 

The Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) Solution Accelerator is a Microsoft-supported, stand-alone solution for the IT pro or solution provider who wants to convert VMware-based virtual machines and disks to Hyper-V-based virtual machines and disks.

60_Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 

 

HP Insight Control Storage Module for vCenter

 

HP Insight Control Storage Module for VMware vCenter is a plug-in for VMware's vCenter management console which enables the VMware administrator to quickly obtain context-aware information about the HP storage in their VMware environment directly from within vCenter.

  61_HP_insight control storage module for vcenter

 

Free ISO Creator

 

With Free ISO Creator, you can easily create ISO image from any files and folders (with the subfolders). Free ISO Creator is one of the best solution to create ISO file.

  62_FreeISOcreator

  MagicISO  Maker

 

MagicISO is a powerful CD/DVD image file creating/editing/extracting tool. It can open / create / edit /extract CD/DVD image files, and it can convert bin to iso and back.  as well as make ISO file from DVD/CD-ROM or hard disk, and handle bootable information at meanwhile.

  63_mageiISOMaker

 

Free WinISO Maker

 

Free WinISO Maker  is the first CD image file Editing tool , which allows you to open, edit, create, extract, and convert ISO files, and make bootable ISO files. It can be served as Free ISO Maker,

 

64_WINISO

 

vSphere Plugin Wizard

 

vSphere Plugin Wizard allows you to create a tabbed plug-in of your favorite website or admin page.

  65_vSPhere plugin wizard

  VMware Lab’s ESXi Google Authenticator

 

Google Authenticator is a project that provides two-factor authentication by using both a PAM (Pluggable Authentication Module) module and a mobile application for generating one-time pass codes. In ESXi Google Authenticator, we modified the source code of Google-Authenticator to enable two-step authentication on ESXi (5.0, 5.1).

  66_ESXi_Google Aythenticator

 

VMware Lab's I/O Analyzer

VMware I/O Analyzer is an integrated framework designed to measure storage performance in a virtual environment and to help diagnose storage performance concerns. I/O Analyzer, supplied as an easy-to-deploy virtual appliance, automates storage performance analysis through a unified interface that can be used to configure and deploy storage tests and view graphical results for those tests.

 67_IO Analyzer

VMware Lab’s  Statsfeeder

 

Statsfeeder is a tool that enables performance metrics to be retrieved from vCenter and sent to multiple destinations, including 3rd party systems.

  68_Statsfeeder

vCenter 5.1 Pre-Install Check Script

 

This is a PowerShell script written to help customers validate their environment and assess if it is ready for a 5.1.x upgrade. The script checks against known misconfiguration and issues raised with VMware Support.

  69_vCenter_Pre-install check script

 

Auto Deploy GUI

 

Auto Deploy GUI is a front end interface to the Auto Deploy/Stateless infrastructure.

  70_Auto Deploy GUI

 

VMware Lab’s Makyo

 

Makyo lets you copy virtual machines and vApps from one vCenter Server to another using a wizard in the vSphere Web Client. The said copy operation from one vCenter Server to another is done by starting an OVF export operation on the source server and an import OVF operation on the target server. No intermediate files are created when you copy a virtual machine or a vApp. The fling is installed as a plugin to the vSphere Web Client

 71_makyo

 

VMware Boomerang

 

VMware Boomerang is a radically simple client application that allows you to use multiple vSphere servers simultaneously. Simply select “Add a Server…” to connect and login to an ESX server, vCenter server, or View Connection Server and you will be presented with a list of all available virtual machines.

  72_VMware Boomerang

VMware Guest Reclaim

 

Guest Reclaim reclaims dead space from NTFS volumes hosted on a thin provisioned SCSI disk. The tool can also reclaim space from full disks and partitions, thereby wiping off the file systems on it. As the tool deals with active data, please take all precautionary measures understanding the SCSI UNMAP framework and backing up important data.

  73_VMware Guest Reclaim

  vCenter Inventory Snapshot

 

Inventory Snapshot allows a user to “snapshot” a given vCenter inventory configuration and then reproduce it. The “inventory” includes the Datacenter folders, datacenters, clusters, resource pools, vApps, hierarchy, roles and permissions, configuration settings, and custom fields. In other words, if you have an inventory with a given set of hosts and VMs organized into a group of clusters, we can faithfully reproduce this environment, including the cluster settings and custom roles you may have defined.

  74_Inventory Snapshot

ESX System Analyzer

 

The ESX System Analyzer is a tool designed to help administrators plan a migration from ESX to ESXi. It analyzes the ESX hosts in your environment and, for each host, collects information on factors that pertain to the migration process

  75_ESX System Analyzer

   VMware Onyx

 

Onyx is a standalone application that serves as a proxy between the vSphere Client and the vCenter Server. It monitors the network communication between them and translates it into an executable PowerShell code. Later, this code could be modified and saved into a reusable function or script.

  76_onyx

 

VMware vBenchmark

 

vBenchmark provides a succinct set of metrics in these categories for your VMware virtualized private cloud. Additionally, if you choose to contribute your metrics to the community repository, vBenchmark also allows you to compare your metrics against those of comparable companies in your peer group. The data you submit is anonymized and encrypted for secure transmission.

  77_vBenchmark

 

VMware CloudFS

 

CloudFS is a prototype replicated and distributed storage system for the VMware ESX platform. It allows VMs to run using local storage, without any single points of failure. CloudFS has been described in the research papers “Lithium: Virtual Machine Storage for the Cloud” at SoCC 2010 in Indianapolis, and “Scalable virtual machine storage using local disks” in the December 2010 issue of ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review.

  78_CloudFS

 

VMware vCenter Mobile Access

VMware vCenter Mobile Access (vCMA) is a fully configured and ready to run virtual appliance that is required to manage your datacenter from mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets (iPad). Using either a mobile browser or the native iPad application, administrators can now perform various troubleshooting and remediation activities in their VMware environments from anywhere in the world.

  79_VMCA

CloudCleaner

 

vCloud Director (vCD for short) relies heavily on the vCenter Servers and host machines it uses. And there may be times when you want to “uninstall” all traces of vCD from your servers and machines. CloudCleaner is a free product that helps restore these systems to a clean state. It selectively (or completely) removes all vCD-created virtual machines, resource pools, network pools, and networks. It can also unprepare  hosts that have been prepared by vCD.

 80_CloudCleaner

PXE Manager for vCenter

 

PXE Manager for vCenter enables ESXi host state (firmware) management and provisioning. Specifically, it allows:

Automated provisioning of new ESXi hosts stateless and statefull (no ESX)
ESXi host state (firmware) backup, restore, and archiving with retention
ESXi builds repository management (stateless and statefull)
ESXi Patch management
Multi vCenter support  and Much More…

 81_PXE Manger for vCenter

 

VMware vCenter XVP Manager and Converter

 

VMware vCenter XVP Manager and Converter provides basic virtualization management capabilities for non-vSphere hypervisor platforms towards enabling centralized visibility and control across heterogeneous virtual infrastructures. It also simplifies and enables easy migrations of virtual machines from non-vSphere virtualization platforms to VMware vSphere.

  82_VMware vCenter XVP Manager

VMware Guest Console

 

VMware Guest Console (VGC) can be used as Task Manager for Virtual Machines and can be used for Mass Deployment by copying and executing  scripts to multiple Guest OS ,File explorer,Snapshot Manager, VM Manager and Inventory.

  83_VMware Guest Console

 

ESXPlot

 

Esxplot is a GUI-based tool that lets you explore the data collected by esxtop in batch mode. The program loads files of this data and presents it as a hierarchical tree where the values are selectable in the left panel of the tool, and graphs of the selected metrics are plotted in the right panel.

  84_ESXplot

IOBlazer

 

IOBlazer is a multi-platform storage stack micro-benchmark. IOBlazer runs on Linux, Windows and OSX and it is capable of generating a highly customizable workload. Parameters like IO size and pattern, burstiness (number of outstanding IOs), burst interarrival time, read vs. write mix, buffered vs. direct IO, etc., can be configured independently. IOBlazer is also capable of playing back VSCSI traces captured using vscsiStats. The performance metrics reported are throughput (in terms of both IOPS and bytes/s) and IO latency.

85_IOblazer

VMware SiteSurvey

 

VMware SiteSurvey Produces a report showing hardware compatibility and software configuration compatibility with advanced VMware features such as Fault Tolerance.

  86_VMware Site Survey

CPU Identification Utility

 

CPU Identification Utility displays CPU features for VMotion compatibility, EVC and indicates 64-bit VMware support.

  87_CPU identification utility

 

VMware Support Toolbar

 

The VMware Support Toolbar gives you instant access to documentation, patches, live peer to peer chat and more

  88_VMware Support Toolbar

 

VMware vCenter Converter

 

VMware vCenter Converter Automates and simplifies physical to virtual machine conversions as well as conversions between virtual machine formats with VMware vCenter Converter. Use the intuitive wizard-driven interface of VMware vCenter Converter to transform your physical machines to virtual machines.

  89_VMware vCenter Converter

 

Free VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 5.1)

 

Get started with free virtualization. VMware vSphere Hypervisor is a production-ready hypervisor that lets you virtualize your servers, helping you save time and money on managing your IT infrastructure. Built on the world’s smallest and most robust architecture, VMware vSphere ESXi, the vSphere Hypervisor, sets the industry standard for reliability, performance and ecosystem support. Consolidate your applications onto fewer servers and start saving money through reduced hardware, power, cooling and administration costs.

  90_VMware vSphere Free Hypervisor

VMware Player

VMware Player is the easiest way to run multiple operating systems at the same time on your PC. With its user-friendly interface, VMware Player makes it effortless for anyone to try out Windows 8, Windows 7, Chrome OS, the latest Linux releases, or create isolated virtual machines to safely test new software. VMware Player is free for personal use.

  91_VMware Player

vSphere Management Assistant (vMA)

 

The vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) allows administrators and developers to run scripts and agents to manage ESXi hosts and vCenter Server systems. vMA is a virtual machine that includes prepackaged software, a logging component, and an authentication component that supports non-interactive login.

  92_Vsphere Management assistant

 

VMware vCenter Configuration Manager Free Compliance Checkers

Free Compliance Checkers are based on VMware vCenter Configuration Manager and can be used to manage configuration compliance requirements in your environment . Each free checker includes compliance assessment for a single standard and can only assess a small number of hosts or VMs (depending on checker) at the same time. To use any of the available checkers simply download the selected checker to a Windows desktop.

 93_VMware COmpliance checker

 

VMware vSphere PowerCLI

 

VMware vSphere PowerCLI is a powerful command-line tool that lets you automate all aspects of vSphere management, including network, storage, VM, guest OS and more. PowerCLI is distributed as a Windows PowerShell snapin, and includes over 370 PowerShell cmdlets for managing and automating vSphere and vCloud.

  94_Powercli

 

VMware VMmark

 

VMmark is a free tool that hardware vendors, virtualization software vendors and other organizations use to measure the performance and scalability of applications running in virtualized environments. Get an accurate measurement of your virtual datacenter performance with VMmark , the industry's first virtualization platform benchmark for x86-based computers.

  95_VMware VMmark

 

VMware vCenter Support Assistant

 

VMware vCenter Support Assistant is a FREE plug-in for vCenter Server that provides an easy-to-use, secure, one-stop shop BOTH for creating and managing service requests AND generating and uploading logs.

  96_vCenter Support Assistant

 

VMware Posters

 

This page is dedicated to the VMware posters which were created by Technical Marketing and have been released at VMworld and VMUGs around the world, this is a central place to find the latest versions of the PDF versions which can be used for reference or printed off as needed.

  97_VMware posters

 

VMware vCenter Update Manager Sizing Estimator

VMware vCenter Update Manager Sizing Estimator  will help you estimate the size of your VUM database, patch store and temporary disk space. It will also give you recommendations on where to place your VUM database and if you should install VMware Update Manager on your vCenter server.

  98_VMware vCenter Update Manager Sizing Estimator

ThinApp Factory

 

The ThinApp Factory is a virtual appliance that brings centralized administration and automation to the process of creating virtualized Windows applications with VMware ThinApp technology.

  99_Thinapp Factory

vBenchmark

 

vBenchmark provides a succinct set of metrics in these categories for your VMware virtualized private cloud. Additionally, if you choose to contribute your metrics to the community repository, vBenchmark also allows you to compare your metrics against those of comparable companies in your peer group. The data you submit is anonymized and encrypted for secure transmission.

  100_vBenchMark

 

Thinapped vSphere Client

No install, just download the EXE and double-click. Place the ThinApped vSphere client on any network share and it will automatically stream to any Windows PC with no installation, agents, drivers, or specialized servers required. Carry ThinApped vSphere client and your customization on USB stick and now your vSphere client is available on the GO!

  101_Thinapped vSphere client

FREE VIDEO TRAINING - VMware vSphere 5.0

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VMware Education services has released free training to learn the basics concepts about VMware vSphere 5.0. It covers  the various installation steps including vCenter server and ESXi Server. Configuration of networking including Standard and distributed switches. It also covers the High availability and DRS along with Virtual Machine Administration. It has 13 videos which extensively covers different topics and features about vSphere 5.0

                           


Watch all the free Videos about vSphere 5.0 and ready for your virtualization certification. I believe this is informative for you. Thanks for watching !!!

Boot from a USB Flash Drive in VMware Workstation

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We all have been playing around with VMware Workstation from long time. We are installing and testing all the operating systems features and lot of advanced configurations in VMware workstation. IN general, we will always attach ISO images to our Workstation to boot  and install Guest operating system in the virtual machine. Have you ever tried to boot  your Virtual Machine in VMware workstation from USB falsh drive. You will not be able to do it. It is one of the limitation of the VMware workstation and you will not be  given any option in Virtual Machine BIOS to boot from USB drive. This can be achieved with the help of free tool called Plop Boot Manager. This post tells you the step by step procedure how to boot VM's in VMware workstation from USB with the use of Plop Boot Manager.

1. Download the Plop Boot Manager

2.Extract the downloaded ZIP file in your local hard disk

3. Go your  virtual Machine settings and Make sure the USB controller is added and below 2 connection options are selected

Enable high-speed support for USB 2.0 devices
Automatically connect new USB devices


4. Now attach the ISO image of Plop boot Manager to your virtual Machine.



5. Power on to BIOS to load the virtual Machine BIOS when power on. Click on VM tab and Select Power and choose Power On to BIOS. Make sure your Virtual Machine is configured to boot from CD-ROM. Save the BIOS and exit.

6. We will be given with the option to Boot the VM from (Floppy,CDROM & USB) from the Plop Boot Manager


7. Choose USB to from boot options.(Make sure your USB device is connected to your Virtual Machine by click on VM > Removable devices ->Choose your USB drive -> Connect (Disconnect from Host)

8.It will boot into your USB drive and list the options to boot from


That's it. You are Done.  I believe this is informative for you. Be Social and share this post in your social media if you think it is useful.

Install ESXi 5.1 using USB Flash Drive

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There are many situations that you have to install your ESXi host from USB flash drive. Let's say you server or workstation which has malfunctioned CD-ROM drive or you always want your ESXi boot image handy. Data center technician always want ESXi bootable image handy during ESXi build or troubleshooting ESXi host bu attaching the installation disk. This post gives you the step by step procedure how to use USB flash drive as the bookable media for ESXi installation. I am using the software called UNettbootin to convert my USB flash drive as boot media for ESXi installation.

Pre -requisites steps to perform

1. First Download the UNettbootin
2. Keep your ESXi 5.1 ISO image on your local drive
3.Attach you USB flash drive in your desktop

Steps to configure USB Flash drive as bootable Media for ESXi 5.1 installation

1. Double-click on the downloaded UNetbootin.exe executable file


2. Once UNetbootin wizard is opened, Select the USB Drive under Type and select the Drive letter for the connected USB Flash drive. 


3. Select ISO in the Diskimage drop-down and click on Browse button. Select your ESXi 5.1 ISO and click Open to attach the ISO image to UNetbootin. Click on OK to start the process.


4.It takes few minutes to complete the process to change your USB flash drive as bootbale media.


After the all 4 steps below steps completed

A.Download Files
B.Extracting and copying files
C. Installing Bootloader
D. Installation complete

5. Attach your USB Flash drive to your server and boot the server using USB drive.. If you are trying to boot the Virtual Machine using  USB in Workstation. Follow the steps "Boot from a USB Flash Drive in VMware Workstation"

6. Once it it booted into ESXi image from the USB flash drive, Proceed with the installation steps.


That's it. You are Done.  I believe this is informative for you. Be Social and share this post in your social media if you think it is useful.

Clear IP address and Hostnames cache of VMware vSphere Client

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This post is for busy administrators who have keep themselves busy always connecting to vCenter server or ESXi host using VMware vSphere Client. You may need to connect around number of vCenter servers or hundred's of ESX/ESXi host from your vSphere client and managing them. When you are trying to connect to our vCenter server or ESXi host, you may be annoyed by the lot of cached ip address and host names appearing in the IP address/Name tab of VMware vSphere Client. you may want to clear all the cached ip address and hostnames in VMware vSphere Client. This post explains you step by step how to clear cached IP address and host names form the vSphere Client.


1. From your windows machine, Start -> Run 

2. Type regedit to open the registry editor

3. Browse towards the below registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VMware\VMware Infrastructure Client\Preferences


4. Edit the Recent connections string value and clear the value of the recent connections string value.

5. once cleared the items in the Value Data. click on OK.

6. After it is done, Open VMware vSphere client. you will not see the cached IP address and Hostnames from vSphere Client.


That's it. You are Done.  I believe this is informative for you. Be Social and share this post in your social media if you think it is useful.

Shared Folders Feature in VMware Workstation

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This post explains you about the shared folder feature of VMware workstation. This feature is really helpful in lot of situations like accessing your folders and files saved in your host machine from Virtual machine running inside VMware workstation. This feature allows you to access the folders from host machine in few clicks. This feature is disabled by default. This feature saves lot of efforts by enabling you to directly accessing folder from client machine directly instead of using windows share feature or manually copying file inside virtual Machine. Let's take a look at step by step procedure how to enable shared folder feature in VMware Workstation.

1. Open VMware workstation and Select the Virtual Machine. Make sure virtual Machine is powered off.

2. Click on VM tab and Select Properties and click on Options tab

3. Select Shared Folders and check "Always Enabled" to enable the feature.



4. Click on Add to add the shared folder to the Virtual Machine


5. Browse the path for the folder and select the folder to share and click ok. Provide name for the shared folder to appear inside the virtual machine.



6. Click on Next and Select Enable this share. you have been given a option to even choose the folder as Read-only inside the Virtual Machine. Click on Finish.



7. Now shared folder is added. If you want to add multiple folders from the local drive as shared folders to virtual machine perform the same steps by click on Add button.


Power on the Virtual Machine .Now. You will be able to access the shared folders inside the virtual machine.That's it. You are Done.  I believe this is informative for you. Be Social and share this post in your social media if you think it is useful.

Free Online VMware Lab - VMware Hands-on Labs (HOL)

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This post is for the VMware Administrators who are really interested to learn new features of VMware virtualization products but they are limited by the environment or cost to setup lab environment to test and explore all the advanced features of  the VMware virtualization products. Now you cannot tell the exceptions that you don't have lab to learn new things because VMware announced " VMware HOL Online – Public Beta Registration is open Now". You can register for the VMware Hands-on Lab and access the labs on latest VMware Products and Solutions - Lab content created by VMware and Community product specialist.

To access the HOL Labs you have to register yourself to the interested list. To register yourself to the interested list, follow the below procedure

1. Open the VMware Hands-on Lab registration link

2. Read the instructions given in the screen and click on Next


3. Enter your name and email address to register your interest in the HOL Online - Public Beta. This e-mail address will be used to contact you regarding portal availability only.


4. Click Submit and you are registered.

5. After registering on the interest list, be sure to participate in the HOL Communities site and follow VMware HOL on twitter @VMwareHOL.

6. Wait for the Email from "hands-on-lab-beta@vmware.com" with username and password for the HOL access.

7. Once you received the username and password for VMware Hands-on Lab via Email, Login to VMware Hands-on Lab portal with your username and password.


8. Once logged-in , You will be provided with VMware Hands-on Lab  to play around.



I hope this is informative for you to explore the features of Various VMware products.

VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor-Manager 1.1 - Manage Hyper-v Hosts from vCenter

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VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor-Manager 1.1 is for the environment with multiple hypervisor from different vendors. Let's say you have Hyper-v hosts in your environment along with your VMware ESX/ESXi hosts. It is difficult to manage hypervisors from different management consoles like vCenter server and SCVMM. VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor-Manager reduces the complexity of managing multi vendor hypervisor from multiple management consoles. VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor-Manager allows to manage Hyper-v hosts form vCenter server. Now it allows the centralized management of ESX/ESXi and hyper-v hosts from vCenter server.

                                                            Picture Thanks to VMware.com

Supported Hypervisors 
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012
Microsoft Hyper-V for Windows Server 2012
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2
Microsoft Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008 R2
Microsoft Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008

Key capabilities of  VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor-Manager
  • vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager 1.1  allows third-party host management including adding, removing,connect, disconnect and view host configuration
  • Allows to migrate the Virtual machines from third-pary hosts(hyper-v) to ESX or ESXi hsots
  • Allows to provison virtual machines on third-party hosts like hyper-v
  • Allows to edit thrid-party hosts virtual machine settings
  • Allows to perform power operations with third-party hosts and virtual machines
  • Allows to connect and disconnect DVD,CD-ROM and floppy drives and install operating systems.
  • Integrate with vCenter authorization mechanism acroos ESX/ESXi and third-party hosts

Difference between VMware ESX and ESXi

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It's been a long debate that everyone has been asked by what is the difference between ESX and ESXi. Most of the admins would have asked this question during interviews and also asked by new learners of VMware virtualization. I decided to post on the topic to give architectural difference always as to compare the different level capabilities between ESX & ESXi.
 
What is VMware ESX ?

ESX (Elastic Sky X) is the VMware’s enterprise server virtualization platform. In ESX, VMkernel is the virtualization kernel which is managed by a console operating system which is also called as Service console. Which is linux based and its main purpose is it to provide a Management interface for the host and lot of management agents and other thrid party software agents are installed on the service console to provide  the functionalists like hardware management and monitoring of ESX hypervisor.                                                                                                                                         
Graphic Thanks to VMware


What is VMware ESXi ?

ESXi (Elastic sky X Integrated) is also the VMware’s enterprise server virtualization platform. In ESXi, Service console is removed. All the VMware related agents and third party agents such as management and monitoring agents can also run directly on the VMkernel. ESXi is ultra-thin architecture which is highly reliable and its small code-base allows it to be more secure with less codes to patch. ESXi uses Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) instead of a service console to perform management of ESXi server. ESXi installation will happen very quickly as compared to ESX installation.

Graphic Thanks to VMware

Difference between ESX and ESXi
 ESX 4.1 is the last version availability of ESX server. After vSphere 5, only ESXi is available.  This comparison based out of the VMware Article

Capability
ESX     
ESXi
Service Console
Present
Removed
Troubleshooting performed via
Service Console            
ESXi Shell
Active Director Authentication
Enabled
Enabled
Secure Syslog
Not Supported
Supported
Management Network
Service Console Interface
VMKernel Interface
Jumbo Frames
Supported
Supported
Hardware Montioring
3 rd Party agents installed in Service console
Via CIM Providers
Boot from SAN
Supported in ESX
Supported in ESXi
Software patches and updates
Needed as smilar to linux operation system
Few pacthes because of small footprint and more secure
vSphere web Access
Only experimental
Full managenet capability via vSPhere web client
Locked Down Mode
Not present
Present . Lockdown mode prevents remote users to login to the host
Scripted Installtion
Supported
Supported
vMA Support
Yes
Yes
Major Administration command-line Command
esxcfg-
esxcli
Rapid deployment via Auto Deploy
Not supported
Supported
Custom Image creation
Not supported
Supported
VMkernel Network Used for
vMotion,Fault Tolarance,Stoarge Connectivity
Management Network , vMotion, Fault Tolarance, Stoarge Connectivity, ISCSI port binding

Default Username and password for VMware Virtual Appliances

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A virtual Appliance is a pre-packed software, comprised of one or more virtual machines which is packaged,maintained,updated and managed as a unit. Virtual appliances are self-contained with application stacks that customized for the workload and embedded with the operating system. Benefits of using virtual appliance will reduce lot of effects of manual development,installation and configuration of software components and operating system. Virtual appliances are more reliable and secure with a set of files. Once powered-on the virtual appliance, application is instantaneously available.Virtual appliance are packaged to run as a virtual machine on VMware vSphere, VMware Infrastructure (VI),VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion, VMware Server, and VMware Player. virtual appliances can also be utilize high availability features by deploying on the vSphere hosts.


Below are list of Usernames and passwords for some of the VMware virtual Appliances. This information will be avilable in each of the appliance documentation but in this i am just consolidating default username and password for the below appliance for quick reference.

VMware Appliances
Username
Password
vSphere Management Assistant (vMA)
 vi-admin
Can be Provided during initial configuration
VMware vCenter Server Appliance(vCSA)
root
vmware
VMware vShield Manager Appliance
admin
default
vSphere Data Recovery Appliance
root
vmw@re
VMware vCenter Operations Manager
admin
admin
VMware vCloud Director Appliance
root
Default0

VMware vCloud Director Installation Step-by-Step

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This post will gives you step by step instructions to deploy vCloud Director virtual appliance. I would suggest to use vCloud director appliance in lab or development environment because it is suitable for limited infrastructure scale which is not fit for production environment. vCloud director appliance can be used for single -cell deployments with 2 vCenter servers attached and 100 virtual machines.

You can deploy VMware vCloud Director appliance usng "Deploy OVF Template " from vSphere client. Here i am using vSphere  web client to deploy VMware vCloud Director 5.1. Download the vCloud Director appliance and save it in your local disk.

1. Connect to your vCenter server using vSphere web client
2.Right-click on the cluster -> All vCenter Actions -> Deploy OVF Template



3. Browse the downloaded vCloud director appliance OVA and click on Next



4.Review the details and enter the description and click Next


5.Review the License agreement and click Accept and click on Next


6. Select the name and location for the deploy template. Click Next


7.Select the datastore to store the vCloud director virtual machine and click Next.


8. vCloud Director requires two network. Network 1 is used for API access to vCloud Director and Network 2 is used for console access to the VM's deployed by vCloud Director.


9. You can customize the template with options like database and network settings. You can use either internal database or External-MSSQL or External-Oracle.


10. Enter Networking details like Default Gateway, Network 1 IP Address, Network 1 Netmask, Network 2 IP Address, Network 2 Netmask and click on Next


11. Review the options selected and click on Finish to deploy the vCloud Director.


12. vCloud Director appliance will appear as virtual machine under your cluster.


I hope this post will be informative for you. Please be social and share in social media's. Thanks for Reading !!!

Search and Download VMware Patches

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This post explains you how to manually search and download patches for ESX/ESXi hosts from VMware patch download page. VMware Update Manager will download the required patches for your product. However, there are environments in which updater manger is not allowed to connect to internet  to download  the patches or VMware update manager is not used in the environment. In this case, You have to manually search and download the patches to update the ESX/ESXi with the downloaded patches. This post gives you detailed steps to search and download the patches for ESX/ESXi hosts.


2. Patch Download page can be used to download the patches for the below VMware Products

ESX: Patch bundle for ESX Classic
ESXi: Patch bundle for ESX Embedded and Installable
VEM: Patch bundle for Cisco Nexus Virtual Ethernet Module for ESX/ESXi
vCenter Server 5.x Patches

It will allow you to search the patches either Search by product or  Search by Release Name or Build Number or Bulletin Name.



2.  Select the VMware Product  (ESX, ESXi or VEM) from the drop-down to download the patches


3. Select the Product version from the drop-down to download the patches


4. Select the  patch classification  (General, Security or Critical) from the drop-dwon and click on search



5.You will provide with the  list of  patches based on your choice of Product, Version and Classification selected in the search option.



Select the Check box for the required patches and click on Download Now to download the patches.

Enable SSH and ESXi Shell for ESXi 5.1 host

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This post explain you different methods to enable SSH and ESXi shell for ESXi hosts. This demo is explained with ESXi 5.1 host. It is absolutely necessary to enable SSH or ESXi shell during troubleshooting your ESXi shell because all the troubleshooting cannot be performed via vSphere Client.  SSH and ESXi Shell can be enabled either via vSphere client or via Direct Console.

Enable SSH and ESXi Shell via vSphere client

1.Connect to your ESXi host or vCenter via vSphere client.
2.Click on Configuration tab ->Select security profile under software -> Click on Properties for services.



3.Select the service ESXi shell and click on Options


4. Select Start and stop Manually and click on Start to start the services


5. Follow the same step to enable SSH service for ESXi host. Make sure the service status is running once the service is started.



Enable SSH and ESXi Shell via Direct Console

1.Connect  to your ESXi host via remote console connections like ILO or DRAC.
2.Press F2 to login with your root credentials


3.Select Troubleshooting options -> Press Enter


4. Press Enter on "Enable ESXi Shell"  & "Enable SSH" to enable the services


5. Press Esc to logout.

I hope this post is informative for you..Be social and share in social media.

How to patch VMware ESXi 5 host using command line

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We have understood how to manually search and download the VMware ESX/ESXi patches from VMware patch download page from my previous post "Search and download VMware Patches" . This post is going to explain you how to manually install the patches on ESXi hosts using command line. This will be useful if you don't have update manager in your environment and patching to the ESX/ESXi servers in your environment requires manual intervention. I am going to explain you step by step procedure including all the pre-requisites steps to install the patches on ESXi 5.1 hosts.

Pre-requisites steps for installing ESXi patches

1. Download the patches applicable for our ESX/ESXi  version manually. I have manually downloaded 2 patches for my ESXi 5.1 host (ESXi510-201210001.zip & ESXi510-201212001.zip)

2. You can install patches using esxcli command by using SSH connection or via ESXi shell using remote console connections like ILO, DRAC. To enable SSH and ESXi Shell for your ESXi host , Take a look at my Blog post "Enable SSH and ESXi Shell for your ESXi host"

3. Now the downloaded patches needs to be transferred to the datastore of ESX/ESXi hosts. This can be done either by directly uploading the patches via datastore browser or transfer the files via winscp







4. Once file is transferred.Make sure Owner and Group have been assigned with execute permission. Right click on the transferred patch zip file in winscp and click properties. Make sure Owner and Group have been assigned with Read (R), Write (W) and execute (X) selected and click on OK.



Install Patches on ESXi host using esxcli commands

1. Login to your ESXi host using SSH or ESXi shell with your root credentials

2. Browse towards the Patch location in your datastore  and verify the donwloaded patches are alread in and note down the complete path for the patch.

cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/folder loctaion


3.Before installing patches placing your ESXi host in maintenance mode is very important. Please take look at my blog post "Placing ESX host in Maintenenace mode"

4. Execute the below command  to install the patch "ESXi510-201210001.zip"

esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ESXi\ patches/ESXi510-201210001.zip


5.  To verify the installed VIB's installed on your host execute the below command
esxcli software vib list



6. Reboot your ESXi host for the changes to take effect and exit your host from the maintenance mode.

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