With the release of VMware vSphere 4.1 it has become even more apparent that the next vSphere release will only have an ESXi version. This isn’t world shocking news since VMware had announce this already at VMworld 2009, but somehow many have been triggered to finally make the switch and install ESXi on their ESX […]
vmfs
When you can’t reconnect to NFS share on your IX4-200D
In my home lab it sometimes happens that I lose power and then my Iomega IX4-200D will reboot. Often, the ESX hosts I run in my lab have trouble reconnecting to the NFS share on the IX4-200D which will cause my primary VMs to fail. Both my domain controllers, vCenter server, SQL Server and Exchange […]
Change blocksize of local VMFS
During install vSphere now creates a VMFS partition by default on the local storage on which the service console partitions will be installed. When you want to use this partition to store your VMs on (non-VMotionable) there is no problem, just point to this datastore and use it. In my homelab the ESX hosts have […]
(Presentation) Design tips for VMware vSphere 4
Recently at the Belgium VMUG I gave a presentation in which I covered some design tips for VMware vSphere 4. I talked about some business decisions that, how boring they may seem, are crucial for your design. I covered some security requirements you should check with the security department of the organisation and of course advised good […]
Reclaiming unused VMDK space with storage thin provisioning
Storage thin provisioning can save space on a VMware Virtual Machine Disk File (VMDK), but reclaiming that space requires the use of tools described below. I have experimented with Virtual Machine Disk Format (VMDK) thin provisioning since the beta release of vSphere 4.0 as I don’t have much storage space to spare. Before we get […]