Snapshots are not backups! or VDP and YOU

Ominous words would be echoed in the meeting… “You do have a BACKUP right?” Working in production environments the constant challenge of maintaining uptime aka ‘steady-state’ but at the same slowly or as quick as feasible move forward with changing demands of the business. Change can came in many forms. It is a driver for

part 2/2 Troubleshooting VSAN errors. VSAN misconfiguration??

VSAN cluster isn’t 100% there is some problems with see all the storage.  Symptoms: 1. Cannot write to the VSAN Datastore 2. Correct amount of capacity isn’t present How to resolve with ESXCLI Log into each host via ssh. You do remember the root password right?? This example is a three node VSAN cluster. node 1::::::

Technical notes on IP Based Storage Guide for EMC VNX and VMware 5.5

When it comes to IP based storage there are two major choices for use in VMware environments. NFS and iSCSI This article will discuss iSCSI options. NFS is a very valid design choice with very flexible options for deployment. NFS for use with VMware is Fast and Flexible in other words a solid choice. But

How to “fix” VCSA IP settings from command line.

More and more often customers are looking for an easier method to deploy their vsphere management. Vcenter traditionally has been an application loaded on top of Windows. .. but “the times they are a changing” There are more use cases that the business requirements will allow for deployment of vcenter appliance. But here is a

VExpert 2015 announced

vExpert 2015 VMware has announced the vExpert list for 2015. Each year I read the FANTASTIC information shared by all the vExperts and I am always learning something new. This year I made a huge effort to share more and do more to vocalize all things VMware to educate my customers and wow.. I am

VFRC sizing considerations SSD quandry

Sure you know about it.. I am sure you have read about it.. but you even know how to enable it. But are you sizing it correctly?? Recently a customer I was working with wanted to boot their ESX blades from RAID1 SSD drives! Wow cool, but not cool. Let me explain… ESXi is tiny

The answer is…. VMware EVO:RAIL ?? VMworld2014

VMworld 2014 has just wrapped up. WOW! There is SO MUCH to share and so much to learn. One of the biggest things to make public is EVO:RAIL. That is just one of many.. other items to be discussed later… What is EVO:RAIL An overview demo from Duncan Epping. http://www.vmware.com/products/evorail Why EVO:RAIL EVO:RAIL is considered

Software Defined Storage: VMware VVOL

Closer to reality… Closer to GA Yesterday VMware announced public beta2 for vsphere6 and VVOL. Why separate Beta programs? While vSphere 6 can be leveraged ontop of most existing hardware that supports vSphere 5.5; not all storage vendors will be ready for VVOL. All major storage vendors will be supporting the new VVOL feature. And

Learning VMware… where to start on your journey to Virtualization Mastery.

Ok, so I have been asked this question many times as a consultant. This topic often is brought up  when interacting with their customer. And the answer is what a consultant most often says: “It depends…” You have to understand what the purpose of the question is. Meaning who is asking you the question? What

Open Source tool: Vagrant + vmware Fusion +EMC ScaleIO = ?

Open Source tool: Vagrant OPENSOURCE. Learn it. Use it. Software tools are great and sharing tools and supporting the OpenSource community is a good thing. This is part of a multi-part post. I will share my experience setting up ScaleIO in my vmware Fusion Lab. First find a tool to make provisioning quicker, more consistent,