I am currently doing some test to simulate the real update requirement for my production VMware Farm to be upgraded from ESX 3.5 to vSphere 4. To minimize the impact to our production system, we may want to do this with as minimal impact as possible. Due to the virtual hardware version and tools upgrade require, is pretty tough for us to perform the entire upgrade at 1 time. Therefore, our plan is get the host upgraded and follow by each individual virtual machine to be upgraded follow the suitable timing for different business unit. HA and DRS will need to be disable temp during the ESX upgrade.
I am able to get the ESX 3.5 to be manage by the latest vcenter. A vmotion from ESX 3.5 to vsphere 4 had been successes too, but the latest version of virtual machine which built from vSphere 4 might not compatible to vmotion back to the ESX 3.5 hosts. At the same time, if you have different processors chipset in the environment and require EVC to be turned on, it may be a little challenge to do so. You may want to ensure the EVC to be done with no down time. You may need to refer to my previous post about how to enable EVC with no down time.
To have SSH enable on vSphere 4i is always important and helpful when you require to troubleshoot any problem you may face. The way to get this done should similar as esx 3i.
First, you press Alt + f1 then type “unsupported” and press enter.
You will see the prompt for password after this. Key in the root password you had previously configure, and you will be able to log in to the service console.
Follow by that, do a vi /etc/xinetd.conf and look for #ssh. Remove the # and save the file after this.
Go to /sbin, and run this command ./services.sh restart
Noted: If you still having problem with SSH access, please restart and it should be work.
With the recent experience I had on the deployment with vSphere 4 and PowerVault MD3000i, I found there are plenty of room you may able to further fine tune to improve the performance of the storage and virtual infrastructure. Before this, the initial deployment was done by default configuration without any fine tune yet, and I found that the storage performance looks little bit slow. Therefore, I had decided to further research and fine tune everything we had to improve the performance.
I just got the official release of vSphere 4 today and finally got it work on my test lab. 1st thing before I upgraded my ESX servers is I need to upgrade my vCenter. If you are running RC now, you may not able to manage the official release vSphere 4 host by RC version of vCenter you had. I reinstall fresh for my vCenter 4 on Windows 2003. Since is a test lab, I do not build the DB on SQL Server as I did for production. I am using the default sql express as part of the installation.The installation process will not be much different compare to RC, but the resource utilization of the vCenter 4 will make the different.
• Improve availability and uptime for business critical applications
• Reduce capital and operating costs by more than 50 percent
• Cut new server deployment time from weeks to hours
• Automate operations to improve IT responsiveness
Join VMware, along with leading alliance partners, as we unveil the latest technology breakthrough that will take your vision to new heights of efficiency, choice and control.
When
Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Time: 8.30am – 12.30pm
Where
Venue: Hilton Kuala Lumpur
Grand Ballroom A,
Level 6
3 Jalan Stesen Sentral
Kuala Lumpur 50470, Malaysia
Agenda
Time Topic
8.30am Registration
9.00am Welcome Address – Presented by: VMware
9.15am Virtualization takes another giant leap with VMware vSphere 4 – Presented by: VMware
10.30am Refreshment break
10.45am Solving today’s challenges with vSphere 4 – Presented by: VMware
11.20am Enabling a Unified Virtualized Datacentre – Presented by: Cisco
11.40am Partnering with Technology leaders to build data centers of the future – Presented by: EMC
12.00pm Unlocking the value of vSphere 4 – Presented by: VMware
12.30pm End of Session Read more »
