How to move VMware Single Sign On (SSO) database
Customer had all his VMware databases for vCenter Server, Update Manager, Single Sign On (SSO), vCloud Director and vCenter Chargeback running on one big SQL Server where they shared resources with other databases. They asked me to move the databases to a new MS SQL Server because the load of the VMware databases was more than expected. I prepared the move by reading a few VMware KB's that described how to move the databases, but still experienced some issues, that is why I wrote this blogpost to have a good manual for the next time I have to move these databases. This first post shows how to move the SSO database. … [Continue Reading]
Design question: Why vCenter Server Datacenter?
When working on a design in which there would be two physical datacenters, I started to rethink about why I would create multiple datacenters inside vCenter Server. I noticed that almost all example designs I look at that cover two physical datacenters, also have two datacenters in the vCenter Server design. But why? When searching for an answer in the vSphere 5.1 documentation, the only reason mentioned to create a datacenter is "You can create multiple datacenters to organize sets of environments.". But it also states that creating datacenters creates limits: "Inventory objects can interact within a datacenter, but interaction across datacenters is limited. For example, you can hot migrate virtual machines from one host to another host in the same datacenter, but not from a host in one datacenter to a host in a different datacenter." … [Continue Reading]
VMware vCloud 5.1 Networking part 4 Cell Load balancing
Hope you enjoyed the previous series on VMware vCloud Director networking. In this post I will show you how to make the vCloud Cells available through a Load Balancer using the vShield Edge. By publishing two or more vCloud Cells behind a load balancer, it is easier to separate management network from user network and you make the vCloud more redundant because you can shutdown a cell without bringing down the whole vCloud. Do keep in mind that a user session will get disconnected when you shutdown a cell, but the user can immediately reconnect and will be redirected. Design To better understand the configuration we need a design. Below you'll see the design in which the ESXi hosts and the vCenter Server are in the management network (172.10.0.x range). The user network is in the 192.168.0.x range and all traffic goes over the user network to the internet. The real situation this design is based upon is a little different, since the management network is routed to the internet over another network, but that would only complicate the example. … [Continue Reading]
Bare Metal Cloud for your Auto-Lab by Mike
Today Mike Laverick drew my attention to his blogpost about BareMetalCloud. He writes about the possibilities to run your virtual ESXi host on their cloud offering. And best of all, by using a promocode, something like MikeLaverickIsAnAwesomeDudeAndThisWillGiveMeCloudForFree or maybe a shorter version, you can get free access. Read all about it on Mike's blogpost: Bare Metal Cloud for your Auto-Lab. … [Continue Reading]
Veeam first to offer real vCloud Backup?
I don't often publish news bulletins and especially not about products that haven't been released yet, but today I made an exception. In my mailbox I found Veeam's announcement of Veeam Backup & Replication v7. The announcement is about the ability to back-up vCloud Director VMs including the vApp, metadata and attributes. This is great news and something I've been wanting since my first vCloud Director project. When designing a vCloud Director environment for my customer I was surprised that there was no way to backup the intelligence of the vCloud which is the vApp including all the NAT & Firewall rules and networking that have been created. The only way for backups of vCloud VMs was to just backup VMs through vCenter and if you needed to restore them, you would just restore the VM in a different location and then bring it into the vCloud through an import. Veeam also announced the possibility to restore your vApps and VMs. Because Veeam also makes a backup of the metadata the integration is much further than just a simple backup of a group of VMs. Nice !!! So MY assumption is that it will now be able to restore vApps including NAT & Firewall rules, networking and maybe even restore into a different vCloud. Unfortunately I can't get any confirmation on this, but knowing Veeam in the past years, I don't think they will deliver only half a solution. … [Continue Reading]
How to move VMware Single Sign On (SSO) database
Customer had all his VMware databases for vCenter Server, Update Manager, Single Sign On (SSO), vCloud Director and vCenter Chargeback running on one big SQL Server where they shared resources with other databases. They asked me to move the databases to a new MS SQL Server because the load of the … [Read More...]
Design question: Why vCenter Server Datacenter?
When working on a design in which there would be two physical datacenters, I started to rethink about why I would create multiple datacenters inside vCenter Server. I noticed that almost all example designs I look at that cover two physical datacenters, also have two datacenters in the vCenter … [Read More...]
VMware vCloud 5.1 Networking part 4 Cell Load balancing
Hope you enjoyed the previous series on VMware vCloud Director networking. In this post I will show you how to make the vCloud Cells available through a Load Balancer using the vShield Edge. By publishing two or more vCloud Cells behind a load balancer, it is easier to separate management network … [Read More...]
Bare Metal Cloud for your Auto-Lab by Mike
Today Mike Laverick drew my attention to his blogpost about BareMetalCloud. He writes about the possibilities to run your virtual ESXi host on their cloud offering. And best of all, by using a promocode, something like MikeLaverickIsAnAwesomeDudeAndThisWillGiveMeCloudForFree or maybe a shorter … [Read More...]
Veeam first to offer real vCloud Backup?
I don't often publish news bulletins and especially not about products that haven't been released yet, but today I made an exception. In my mailbox I found Veeam's announcement of Veeam Backup & Replication v7. The announcement is about the ability to back-up vCloud Director VMs including the … [Read More...]
Voting for the top virtualisation blogs of 2013
It's that time of year again, Eric Siebert launched the new vLaunchpad top VMware/virtualization blogs survey and is asking you to vote for the best blogs on virtualization in 2013. Go to: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1165270/Top-vBlog-2013 and select your top 10 favourite blogs. This year … [Read More...]
vCloud disk space thresholds crossed
Oh those little things in life that sometimes cost you a whole day before you figured out that you we're doing it all wrong. This was one of those days where I got alerted by some colleagues about vCloud Director reporting "Disk space red threshold crossed." When looking at the "Datastores" … [Read More...]
Software Defined Datacenter Roadshow – Benelux – Free Event!
(Shamelessly copied from Yellow-Bricks.com) Would like to hear more about Software Defined Datacenters from experts like Frank Denneman, Mike Laverick, Cormac Hogan, Kamau Wanguhu and many others? VMware and IBM are organizing an awesome event in the Benelux. Yes this is a full day event, and it … [Read More...]
vCenter SSO changes when demoting domain controller
I'm still getting used to the important part vCenter SSO (Single Sign-On) is playing in vSphere 5.1. In my home lab I was switching domain controllers from W2k8 to Windows 2012. Transferred FSMO roles, integrated DNS, changed IP addresses for DNS on all servers and all seemed fine. My w2k8-dom01 … [Read More...]
vCloud can’t delete Organizational VDC
In my last VMware vCloud Director project I ran into an issue that I want to share with you. Initially the design was to create two OrgVDC to use different allocation models, but the resources would be almost the same because it was only a fairly small environment. I created one Edge Gateway and two … [Read More...]
