VI3 ATDG Available as a free download now!
Just like they did with the Advanced Technical Design Guide for VI2, Scott, Mike and Ron are releasing the VI3 ATDG today. I read it when it was first rele
Looking Back
vSphere Service Console and Disk Partitioning
Everyone at this point should be aware that the Service Console is now located in a vmdk on a VMFS partition. The Service Console vmdk must be stored on a
Setting up a Splunk Server to Monitor a VMware Environment
In a previous article , I compared syslog servers and decided to use Splunk . Splunk is easy to set up as a generic Syslog server, but it can be a pain in
How-To: Disable Debug Mode in Workstation 7.0 Beta
OK... I know the wonks at VMware will frown upon this one, but someone posted a similar hack for WS 6.5 beta, so here it is for WS 7.0 beta. I finally got
Dear VMware: Pick a Common (SUPPORTED) Virtual Appliance OS...Please....
One of my pet peeves is that each virtual appliance coming out of VMware is that each different virtual appliance released by them is based on a different
Storage Protocol Differences and FCoE Diagrams
Just thought I would share these diagrams that I used in a recent training session. I used them to explain the differences in the storage protocols that ma
VMware Capacity Planner 2.7: Lipstick on a Pig
Last week''s upgrade / outage of the VMware Capacity Planner Dashboard was a COMPLETE surprise to me. I was trying to access data on Friday with no success
VMTN: I/O Performance in vSphere, Block Sizes and Disk Alignment
Yes folks, it rears its ugly head again...Disk Alignment... If you have not read it yet, check out the whitepaper on disk alignment from VMware . First, ch
Differences between vSwitches and dvSwitches
There are not huge differences between a vNetwork Standard Switch (vSwitch, vSS) and a vNetwork Distributed Switch (dvSwitch, vDS). The big thing is the co
VMware ESX Configuration Maximums Comparison Matrix
Have you ever needed an easy to reference way to see what the configuration maximums are for different versions of VMware ESX. I know I seem to need this a
vSphere Install and Upgrade Best Practices KB Articles and Links
So, I use NewsGator to aggregate a BAZILLION feeds from several sources, blogs, like this one, actual news feeds and a bunch of VMware feeds. The VMware fe
SPLUNK! Goes the Syslog Server...
The use of a “syslog” server is important in today''s data center. Most network and SAN switches, along with Unix and Linux servers are capable of sending