For some reason, I can’t login and the particular ESX host was disconnect for few minutes on vCenter server. Again, the console fly tons of weird error message for few minutes as screen shot below.

click to enlarge.

The similar message also display on /var/log/messages as below:

Aug 20 15:43:56 MYxxxxx02 kernel: [2992240.963580] [] default_wake_function+0×0/0xf
Aug 20 15:43:56 MYxxxxx02 kernel: [2992240.987718] [] :vmnixmod:VMnix64_SwitchPost+0x2c/0×30
Aug 20 15:43:56 MYxxxxx02 kernel: [2992241.011771] [] do_gettimeofday+0x3e/0x8b
Aug 20 15:43:56 MYxxxxx02 kernel: [2992241.035843] [] audit_syscall_entry+0x18b/0x1c1
Aug 20 15:43:56 MYxxxxx02 kernel: [2992241.059990] [] compat_sys_futex+0×101/0×121
Aug 20 15:43:56 MYxxxxx02 kernel: [2992241.084052] [] ia32_sysret+0×0/0×5
Aug 20 15:43:56 MYxxxxx02 kernel: [2992241.108200]
Aug 20 15:43:56 MYxxxxx02 kernel: [2992241.132297] ftProcMon S 000aa157ab2d703d 5720 7303 7052 7304 7300 (NOTLB)
Aug 20 15:43:56 MYxxxxx02 kernel: [2992241.180762] ffff81000e85bcf8 0000000000000086 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
Aug 20 15:43:56 MYxxxxx02 kernel: [2992241.229104] ffff81000ee72af0 ffff81000f3d4280 000000000000d9df ffff81000ee72af0
Aug 20 15:43:56 MYxxxxx02 kernel: [2992241.277503] 0000000000000000 ffff81000e85bef8 ffff81000ee72af0 ffff81000e85bdd0

Something must be wrong with the vSphere 4 kernel and the incident report have been submitted to VMware Technical team. And yet I’m still waiting for the official response.

Stay tuned…….

Related posts:

1. Participate in new version of vSphere Beta?
2. Apply VMware vSphere 4 Update 1 Patches
3. VMware vCenter 4.0 Update 2 & VMware vSPhere 4.0 Update 2 Released

According to Wikipedia,

• VMFS version 1 was used by ESX Server v1.x, which is no longer sold. It didn’t feature the cluster filesystem properties and was used only by a single server at a time. VMFS1 is a flat filesystem with no directory structure. — Officially named “VMware File System”
• VMFS version 2 is used by ESX Server v2.x and (in a limited capacity) v3.x. VMFS2 is a flat filesystem with no directory structure. — Officially named “VMware File System”
• VMFS version 3 is used by ESX Server v3.x and vSphere (4.x). As a most noticeable feature, it introduced directory structure in the filesystem. Older versions of ESX Server cannot read or write VMFS3 volumes. Beginning from ESX 3 and VMFS3, virtual machine configuration files are stored in the VMFS partition by default. — Officially named “VMware Virtual Machine File System”

In order to know the exact VMFS version number, see below:

1. VMware ESX 3 – VMFS ver 3.21
2. VMware ESX 3.5 – VMFS ver 3.31
3. VMware vSphere 4 – VMFS ver 3.33
4. VMware vSphere 4.1 – VMFS ver 3.46

Please take note that migration between different VMFS version may cause some problem in the sense of vSphere vStorage features, probably you may read more here or refer to vSphere Upgrade Guide.

Related posts:

1. Apply VMware vSphere 4 Update 1 Patches
2. Windows 2008 R2 officially supported on vCenter 4.1
3. VMware vSphere 4.1 avaible for download now

The following is complete VMware vSphere 4.1 license comparison chart.

click to enlarge.

Please feel free to download from here.

Related posts:

1. Extending VMware vSphere 4 Enterprise Availability FAQ
2. VMware vCenter 4.0 Update 2 & VMware vSPhere 4.0 Update 2 Released
3. VLAN ID not remove

Last week I have configured a VLAN tagging on one of my vSphere 4 Update 2 cluster and due to some reason, I have remove the VLAN ID manually.

After hard reboot, the VLAN ID remains and it’s not removing from Port Group. I was surprised and I guess probably this is a bug for vSphere Update 2? Again, I tried with manual reboot and it’s worked. All the VLAN ID has been removed.

Anyway, I do not make VMware support report and if you have similar case, please feel free to share with me.

Related posts:

1. Upgrade from ESX 4 to ESX 4 update 1 with update manager fail
2. Apply VMware vSphere 4 Update 1 Patches
3. VMware vCenter 4.0 Update 2 & VMware vSPhere 4.0 Update 2 Released

Latest version:
vCenter Server 4.0 Update 2 (Build 258672)
vSphere Client 4.0 Update 2 (Build 258672)
ESX 4.0 Update 2 (Build 261974)
VMware Tools (Build 261974)

What ‘s new about VMware vCenter 4.0 Update 2:

• Guest Operating System Customization Improvements: vCenter Server now supports customization of the following guest operating systems:
  • Windows XP Professional SP2 (x64) serviced by Windows Server 2003 SP2
  • SLES 11 (x32 and x64)
  • SLES 10 SP3 (x32 and x64)
  • RHEL 5.5 Server Platform (x32 and x64)
  • RHEL 5.4 Server Platform (x32 and x64)
  • RHEL 4.8 Server Platform (x32 and 64)
  • Debian 5.0 (x32 and x64)
  • Debian 5.0 R1 (x32 and x64)
  • Debian 5.0 R2 (x32 and x64)
• Resolved Issues:In addition, this release delivers a number of bug fixes that have been documented in theResolved Issues section.

What ‘s new about VMware vSPhere 4.0 Update 2:

• Enablement of Fault Tolerance Functionality for Intel Xeon 56xx Series processors— vSphere 4.0 Update 1 supports the Intel Xeon 56xx Series processors without Fault Tolerance. vSphere 4.0 Update 2 enables Fault Tolerance functionality for the Intel Xeon 56xx Series processors.
• Enablement of Fault Tolerance Functionality for Intel i3/i5 Clarkdale Series and Intel Xeon 34xx Clarkdale Series processors— vSphere 4.0 Update 1 supports the Intel i3/i5 Clarkdale Series and Intel Xeon 34xx Clarkdale Series processors without Fault Tolerance. vSphere 4.0 Update 2 enables Fault Tolerance functionality for the Intel i3/i5 Clarkdale Series and Intel Xeon 34xx Clarkdale Series processors.
• Enablement of IOMMU Functionality for AMD Opteron 61xx and 41xx Series processors— vSphere 4.0 Update 1 supports the AMD Opteron 61xx and 41xx Series processors without input/output memory management unit (IOMMU). vSphere 4.0 Update 2 enables IOMMU functionality for the AMD Opteron 61xx and 41xx Series processors.
• Enhancement of the esxtop/resxtop utility— vSphere 4.0 Update 2 includes an enhancement of the performance monitoring utilities, esxtop and resxtop. The esxtop/resxtop utilities now provide visibility into the performance of NFS datastores in that they display the following statistics for NFS datastores: Reads/s, writes/s, MBreads/s,MBwrtn/s, cmds/s, GAVG/s(guest latency).
• Additional Guest Operating System Support— ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 2 adds support for Ubuntu 10.04. For a complete list of supported guest operating systems with this release, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

Check out VMware vCenter 4 Update 2 Release Notes here and VMware vSphere Update 2 Release Notes here.

In order to upgrade or download, please refer to VMware download page here.

Related posts:

1. Apply VMware vSphere 4 Update 1 Patches
2. Running Chrome OS on vSphere Update 1
3. SQL Native client on vCenter 4 with Windows 2008 64 bits

Summary tab it shows Cisco as the product manufacturer.

Screen shot capture on DV switch which using dual 10G Ethernet uplink.

Screen shot of the summary tab of the B200 M1 blade system in the UCS 5108. You will notice the hardware details and specification in the picture as well.

Related posts:

1. Nexus 1000V come with free when Virtualization with VMware vSphere 4 on Cisco UCS
2. Memory Architecture of Cisco UCS
3. VMware vSphere 4 Performance Troubleshooting Guide

Please make sure you have selected Other 2.6x Linux 32bit as per your guest OS.

Download Chrome OS VMware Image at http://gdgt.com/google/chrome-os/download/

Related posts:

1. Apply VMware vSphere 4 Update 1 Patches
2. VMware vSphere 4 Performance Troubleshooting Guide
3. Participate in new version of vSphere Beta?

The Redhat Linux and Windows 2003 & 2008 Virtual Machines VMware tools upgraded successful and everything look goods after the Update 1 patched.

I would suggest you refer to VMware Communities – vSphere Upgrade and Install forum & “vSphere 4u1 – any issues” thread before apply any VMware vSphere ESX/ESXi Update 1 patches on production environment.

Read more details about VMware ESX 4.0 Update 1 Release Notes here.

Updated:
Please make sure you check VMware Knowledge Base – Upgrading ESX 4.0 to 4.0 U1 using Update Manager fails or times out and rebooting the host results in a purple diagnostic screen
A quick note: The problem with U1 is now known to be limited to HP Proliant systems and HP Insight Management agents are running.

Related posts:

1. Extending VMware vSphere 4 Enterprise Availability FAQ
2. VMware vSphere 4 Performance Troubleshooting Guide
3. Participate in new version of vSphere Beta?

Want to be a vSphere beta participant?
We are looking for beta participants to test out some new vSphere features currently in development. Interested? If so, contact your VMware account team for further details.

What are you waiting for? Contact your local VMware Account Team now!

Good luck!

Related posts:

1. SRM 4 is ready for VMware vSphere 4
2. Extending VMware vSphere 4 Enterprise Availability FAQ
3. VMware vSphere 4 Performance Troubleshooting Guide

Read FAQ show below as posted VMware Sales portal few days back.

FAQ
1. Are the promotions extending as well?
No the upgrade promotions are ending as planned on December 15, 2009

2. Why is VMware changing its position?
Customers have asked us to make this change in policy as they plan out their 2010 budgets and plan their vSphere implementations. They want these items to align with their Enterprise Plus upgrades. We want to provide maximum flexibility for every customer situation.

3. Is there a new date for Enterprise end of availability?
No, no specific date has been set. We expect Enterprise unit share to continue to decline as customers upgrade to Enterprise Plus and higher core processors enter the market. However, we want to provide maximum flexibility for every customer situation.

4. What happens to customers that bought Enterprise Plus because they believed Enterprise was going away?
VMware will not be implementing any kind of price protection program. Enterprise Plus provides exceptional additional value through the new features (vNetwork Distributed Switch, Host Profiles, 8-way vSMP, large memory configurations) and additional processor core entitlements. Ultimately, Enterprise Plus provides a significantly lower total cost per application than any other solution or option.

5. How does the 6-core restriction work for Enterprise?
The Enterprise core entitlement remains at 6-core and is technically enforced in the product. However, two Enterprise licenses can license one 8, 10, or 12 core processor

6. Will you introduce STD->ENT upgrade SKUs?
No, there are no plans at this time. Enterprise unit sales are already declining versus Enterprise Plus and this trend will only accelerate over Q4 and 2010. Enterprise Plus provides significant additional value at a lower cost per application.

7. Will VMware re-introduce the Enterprise Acceleration Kits?
No, there are no plans at this time. Our market research has shown that the vSphere Advanced Acceleration Kit provides a compelling set of integrated availability features for mid-size businesses at a lower initial price than vSphere Enterprise while vSphere Enterprise Plus provides the tools for minimizing total cost per application for larger deployments.

8. What kind of customer feedback did VMware receive?
Customers have asked us to make this change in policy as they plan out their 2010 budgets and plan their vSphere implementations. They want these items to align with their Enterprise Plus upgrades. We want to provide maximum flexibility for every customer situation.

9. Will Enterprise support more than 6 cores?
No, the Enterprise core entitlement remains at 6-core and is technically enforced in the product. However, two Enterprise licenses can license one 8, 10, or 12 core processor

10. Does this mean customers are not buying Enterprise Plus?
No, not at all. Customers are already buying and deploying Enterprise Plus as they upgrade from VI3 to vSphere 4. However, some customers have longer budget cycles and need to plan their upgrades far in advance. We want to provide maximum flexibility for every customer situation.

Hope this is clear and useful!

Related posts:

1. Nexus 1000V come with free when Virtualization with VMware vSphere 4 on Cisco UCS
2. SRM 4 is ready for VMware vSphere 4
3. Long Distance VMotion on VMware vSphere 4