VCP Club and User Group

Folks,
Glad to share we will do another gathering.

10 Oct, Monday, 5pm: for VCP holders only.
12 Oct, Wednesday, 5pm: for users (both VCP or non)

As usual, we will have it at VMware office at Suntec.
Trevor Gerdes, security specialist, APAC, will be moderating discussion on the impact of security on virtualisation. He will also demo vShield.
See you folks!
e1@vmware.com

How to convert VMDK to RDM

I needed to enhance the ASEAN Lab MS Exchange demo so we can show integration with array level snapshot. In this case, NetApp SnapManager for Exchange. As it does not support VMDK, I need to convert the virtual disk to RDM.

I found this post useful http://www.virtualclouds.info/?p=2122

The steps are:

From the NetApp web admin:
1. Create a new RDM disk. Match the size to the VMDK file. I'm using OnTAP 8.0.1 and I have to make Reservation when creating my LUN. If not, the commands vmkfstools complained.
2. Give it a LUN ID.
3. Map it to the ESX groups in the cluster, so it's mountable by all ESX in the cluster.

From the vSphere Admin client:
1. Check that the ESX can see the new disk. You might need to wait for 5 minutes for the _entire_ info to appear. Take note the LUN ID.
2. Shutdown the Exchange VM.
3. Remove the disk from the VM property. If you don't, Windows will still see it, and you will get a new drive letter for the RDM disk.

From the vMA or SSH to the ESXi server:
1. Login to the ESXi server holding the VM as root.
2. issue the commmand below

vmkfstools --clonevirtualdisk /vmfs/volumes/Demo-Desktop-01/Exchange1/Exchange1_1.vmdk
/vmfs/volumes/Demo-Desktop-01/Exchange1/Exchange1_1_RDM.vmdk
--diskformat rdmp:/vmfs/devices/disks/naa.60a9800057396d2f685a64346b664549

The command takes the form of
vmkfstools --clonevirtualdisk --diskformat rdmp:

I'm not sure if VAAI will speed it up. It is pretty slow in my case.

Once it is completed, go back to vSphere client. Perform the following:
1. Right click on the Exchange VM, and add disk.
2. Choose physical RDM
3. Follow the wizard. Click OK to complete it.
It would automatically create a new VMDK file. So I ended up with 2 VMDK file. This means the purpose of specifying the the pointer VMDK file is not necessary?
4. Power on the VM.

Login to the Exchange VM.
1. Open the Disk Management in Windows. Make sure that the new disk is there.
2. Click on disk, and bring it online. It would take the former disk drive letter.

Back to the vSphere Admin client.
1. Click on any of the ESX in the cluster.
2. Go to Configuration tab.
3. Click on Storage, then click on Add Storage
4. Make sure that the LUN is no longer visible. Else it can be accidentally mounted.

That seems to be the step :-)

vCenter Operations - Standard edition

I did a training for partners recently on vCenter Operations. Feedback was good (thanks folks!) and here is the slide as requested.

Have fun playing with it!
Cheers!
e1

VMware VCP Club - 22 Feb 2011

Folks,

The materials for tonight gathering can be found here. This will be a good input for a lot of fun discussion!

Cheers!
e1

VMware VCP Club - 16 Dec 2010

To fellow VCP in Singapore,

Glad that we will have our next VCP Club on the above date. You should have received invitation by now. If you are a VCP in Singapore and did not receive it, you can drop me an email at "e1 at vmware dot com".

We will have Ravi from Verizon and Anand from HP to lead the discussion on storage.

You can find them here and here


Cheers!
e1

VMware User Group - 15 Dec 2010

Hi,
Thanks for registering to our last meeting for 2010.

We've closed the registration as we want to ensure seating for everyone, but you can still drop by if you want. The room has seating capacity of 30 only.

You can find the details here.

See you!
e1

VMware User Group - Nov 2010

Thanks for attending the Nov 2010 user group. Glad it was useful.

You can find the material shared by GSS team here.

Singapore VMware User Group: Teaser Questions

Folks,

Here is the set of teaser questions for our upcoming meeting in Dec.

You can download it here.

Have fun! :-)

vSphere 4.1 differences with to 4.0

As part of the training to our top partners in Singapore on the 4.1, I compiled materials on the delta between 4.0 and 4.1

You can find it here.

vSphere 5 design best practices

Update: 2 May 2012. The document has been updated to include vSphere 5 capabilities.

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Here is the material for the last VCP Club session in Jakarta. I will cover a similar topic for the VCP Club in Singapore, scheduled in early Dec.

The material was well received, and I sure learned a lot from the audience too.

You can download it from here.