Category: Virtualization
Migrating Roles & Privileges from an old vCenter to a new vCenter using PowerCLI
So we’re finally upgrading an old environment running vCenter 4.0 to a new vCenter running 5.5. Instead of attempting an upgrade, we’re building new. As it’s a new build, we had to find a way to migrate the roles & privileges to the new vCenter. I have done this in the past utilizing the “Cheap Disaster Recovery” scripts from Gabe’s…
Place a vSphere Host into Maintenance Mode via PowerCLI
So, we had two different vSphere hosts, in two different environments, have hardware faults this week. One had a bad memory module, and the other a bad FAN. As I launched the VI client for each environment and placed the problem host into maintenance mode, I started to think… “I bet I can automate this!” Depending on how complex your…
You should backup your VDS Configs with PowerCLI
So, another vExpert that I follow on twitter (@h0bbel) recently had an issue in his home lab where he cut power to his lab, and his vDS lost all the portgroup names. Seeing this post made me think, “I should probably backup MY vDS configs too, as my backups were pretty old! Here are some PowerCLI commands that I found…
My First VMworld Experience
So, VMworld US 2015 was my first time being able to experience VMworld first hand, and not by streaming keynotes and watching recorded sessions months later. As a VMUG Leader, I’ve experienced VMUG Meetings and UserCons before (both as a leader and a member) but this was a whole different animal! First off, I…
PowerCLI Script to list VMs not specifically set to Thick Eager Zeroed
First, I’ll start with a little back story. We recently deployed an EMC XTremIO All-Flash storage appliance. The recommendation we got from EMC, for the best deduplication ratios, was to use the Thick-Eager Zeroed disk format. No matter how many times I tell my coworkers to make sure to use this format when deploying VMs to the xTremIO LUNs, once…
PowerCLI Script to change the DRS Slider
So, I have a cluster of hosts that makes up our QA Environment. As with most QA environments, it’s tight on resources and very over-subscribed. On a regular basis, I have to move our DRS Slider to be more aggressive, RUN DRS to refresh recommendations, and then move the slider back. This allows DRS to rebalance the cluster. Today, I…
PowerCLI Script to migrate VMs from one vCenter to another
Hey everyone, this is another guest post from Ben Liebowitz, Matt’s brother. Before I get into the script, I’ll give you some background… We are working on migrating VMs off of our vSphere 4.1 environment to our new vSphere 5.5 environment. The 4.1 environment is using the Nexus 1000v Virtual Switch while the 5.5 environment is using a vDS switch.…
VMware Certified Professional Delta Exam
This weekend I had the opportunity to take the VMware Certified Professional Delta exam (VCP550D) to renew my VCP5-DCV certification for another two years. I wanted to share my thoughts on this exam specifically as well as the future of online exams. I’ll echo what I’ve read from other folks regarding this exam in that you need to know more…
Virtualizing Microsoft Lync 2013
It seems there is a bit of an uproar about a document Microsoft recently released called Planning a Lync Server 2013 Deployment on Virtual Servers. In that document, Microsoft makes some odd recommendations when virtualizing Lync, sync has disabling NUMA on physical servers and not using hyperthreading. To address these concerns, VMware has published a really nice blog post that…
Thoughts on EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud
I’ve never been a prolific blogger like others in the virtualization community, but this year was especially bad. One of the reasons is that I’m in a new role with EMC which has changed my focus a bit. Still focused on virtualization, but less so on the business critical apps that I used to write more frequently about and more…