bblog » vSphere

VMware vCloud Express?

Mourad — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:25:12 +0000

The cloud express explained by David Davis, the Traing Signal Author of the vMware vSphere Video Training,

” vCloud Express is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering delivered by leading VMware service provider partners. It provides reliable, on-demand, pay-as-you-go infrastructure that ensures compatibility with internal VMware environments and with VMware Virtualized™ services…………..”

Follow this link and you will have some more information about the Cloud Express, really worth watching.

VCP!! Done and Dusted

Mourad — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:46:05 +0000

Wow, finally got my VCP exam after a long time studying and playing with it. passed this last Friday and I got 419 which will allow me to continue if I wanted so. Now priority for sure is to Land a job on VMware and hopefully get more experience with this.

If you are plaing to pass your VCP, lots of videos and learning stuff are available at the VMware.com website and also the Simon long blog is one of the best to test your knowledge.
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Links for Hardware Compatibility List

Mourad — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:42:33 +0000

I have been looking for some compatibility informations about some NIC cards that I’ve bought from ebay and got a chance to save these on my bookmarks and why not share it as well!!

Main Search Page
Systems Search Page
Storage/SAN Search Page
I/O Devices Search Page
Full Compatibility Guide

The Hardway to Study VMware

Mourad — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:35:56 +0000

Hard way Study Tips:

1) Installed a lab environment at home. So that i could evaluate, test and get “hands-on” experience on vSphere. (2x ESX hosts + openfiler for shared storage) This is by far the absolute best way to learn about vSphere and get experience and knowledge about this great product.

2) Read and memorized the “vSphere documentation notes” (http://www.vreference.com/downloads/…4-notes1.0.pdf) and the “vSphere reference card” (http://www.vreference.com/downloads/…re4card1.0.pdf) from vreference.com. Many thanks to Forbes Guthrie for his excellent work on these pdfs.

3) Read the “VCP on vSphere4 Exam Blueprint” from VMware () to define what i had to learn to pass the exam. All questions, reflections and obscurity’s that i had on the content of the blueprint i looked up and read about in the main documentation set for vSphere. You can download this in pdf format or you can (as i did) search it in the online version found here WebWorks Help 5.0 . This is the definitive resource and answers all your questions.

good luck!!

Verifying that VT-x is Enabled and Locked at Boot

Mourad — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:39:39 +0000

Verifying that VT-x is Enabled and Locked at Boot

Filed under: Installation — Tags: ESX4, Intel, vmware, VT-x, Xeon — Mourad @ 8:50 am

Having had issues during the last few months regarding installing an ESX4 inside an ESX4, I cam across a solution which might have resolved my problem happily as ever, I have been fighting to get my ESX4 box to run on an other Hypervisor and this wasn’t that easy.

This is written by jmattson from the VMware Cummunity and I would really thank him for all this information,

Feel free to comment in any case,

“Intel first introduced VT-x on late-model P4 processors (codenamed Paxville). Many Core, Core 2, Core i7 and Core i5 processors are VT-capable (as are their Xeon-branded counterparts). However, some skus of these models are not VT-capable. (For example, the Q8200 Intel Core 2 Quad Processor is not VT-capable). You can check to see if your processor is VT-capable here. If your processor is VT-capable, “Intel Virtualization Technology” will be listed as one of the supported features.

On Intel CPUs, it is expected that the BIOS (or other firmware) will either enable or disable VT-x at boot, and will then lock the setting so that it cannot be subsequently changed without powering down the CPU. Note that VT-x must be both enabled and locked before software can make use of the VMX extensions. This operation must be performed for each core of a multi-core system, and for each thread of a multi-threaded system.

Because the VT-x setting is typically locked at power on, it is necessary to fully power down the system after changing any VT-x options in the BIOS. A simple reboot is not sufficient! After saving your BIOS changes, I recommend that you actually pull the power cord(s) out of the wall and wait ten seconds. For laptop systems, you may have to remove the battery as well.

Some BIOSes do not have VT-x enable/disable options. Some BIOSes with such an option fail to enable/disable VT-x on each core of a multi-core system or on each thread of a multi-threaded system. To verify that VT-x is enabled and locked on each core/thread of your system, download the attached ISO, burn it to a CD, and boot your host from the CD.

If the ISO reports that your CPU is not VT-capable, and your CPU should be VT-capable, you may have encountered an Intel chip erratum (possibly AW67 or AV69, depending on the CPU). The effect of this erratum is that some CPU features are reported incorrectly after a particular machine specific register has been updated by the BIOS. The solution to this problem is to obtain an updated BIOS from your system vendor.

If the ISO reports that VT-x is unlocked on one or more threads/cores, a workaround is available for current VMware hosted products. Simply add the following option to your system-wide configuration file:

hv.enableIfUnlocked = TRUE

On Linux systems, the system-wide configuration file is /etc/vmware/config. On Windows systems, the system-wide configuration file varies according to VMware product and Windows version. For VMware Workstation on XP hosts, the system-wide configuration file is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Workstation\config.ini. For VMware Workstation on Vista hosts, the system-wide configuration file is C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation\config.ini. For other VMware products, adjust the path appropriately.

Note that this workaround can also be helpful if your BIOS fails to enable and lock VT-x when waking from hibernation. However, the ISO is not helpful in diagnosing this failure. If VT-x works after a power-cycle but fails after resuming from hibernation, then you should try the above workaround.

If your BIOS specifically disables VT-x and locks it in that state, then it is impossible to subsequently enable VT-x through software.

Note that VT-x is unavailable to normal software if you have enabled “trusted execution,” which restricts VT-x to “trusted” code. You should disable trusted execution in the BIOS and power-cycle the system.”

VT.ISO