Cisco impresses with UCS

http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2011/121911-cisco-ucs-test-253603.html?page=1

Data Center Networking – Victor Lama's White Paper Series

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/w/wiki/2841.aspx

HP Virtual Connect for the Cisco Network Administrator

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01386629/c01386629.pdf

VMware View Client for Mac OS X Technology Preview

http://www.vmware.com/downloads/download.do;jsessionid=B7E5ABE5FA738051C60941B10362525D

TINTRI - VM-aware storage appliance for VMs

http://www.tintri.com

Linux: 20 Iptables Examples For New SysAdmins

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-iptables-examples.html

CentOS / Redhat Iptables Firewall Configuration Tutorial

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/rhel-fedorta-linux-iptables-firewall-configuration-tutorial/

Data Center Interconnect: Layer 2 Extension Between Remote Data Centers

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps708/white_paper_c11_493718.html

This document is intended to help network managers and systems managers understand the various solutions and recommendations that Cisco offers to geographically extend Layer 2 networks over multiple distant data centers. These offerings address the requirements of high performance and fast convergence.

This document also introduces the capabilities of the Cisco^® Data Center Interconnect (DCI) solution. Please note that it does not address the requirements for SANs.

Initially, this document describes the types of connectivity (Layer 2, Layer 3, and storage) that can be established between remote data center locations, together with the services that a given enterprise can obtain from a service provider.

The discussion then focuses on LAN extension designs, analyzing some of the most relevant business factors requiring the deployment of a LAN extension, and providing a list of solution requirements.

The document concludes by describing some technical alternatives to provide LAN extension functions, including:

• Point-to-point or point-to-multipoint interconnection, using virtual switching system (VSS), virtual PortChannel (vPC), and optical technologies

• Point-to-point interconnection using Ethernet over Multiprotocol Label Switching (EoMPLS) natively (over an MPLS core) and over a Layer 3 IP core

• Point-to-multipoint interconnections, using virtual private LAN services (VPLS) or advanced VPLS (A-VPLS) natively (over an MPLS core) or over a Layer 3 IP core

For each technical alternative, specific platform support and positioning information is provided.

UCS 2.0: Cisco Stacks the Deck in Las Vegas

http://www.mseanmcgee.com/2011/07/ucs-2-0-cisco-stacks-the-deck-in-las-vegas/

10G SR Fiber Optics Specs

DELL Visio Templates

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/global/products/pvaul/topics/en/visio?c=us&l=en

VMware vSphere Health Check Report v5.0.0

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9842

This script generates a health check report for the new vSphere release of VMware ESX(i) 4.x/5.x and VMware vCenter 4.x/5.x and it's managed entities. User's can now fully customize the report based on the categories that are of importance to their operating environment, including selecting specific set of ESX(i) hosts and/or Virtual Machines.

UBERAlign - disk partition alignment

UBERAlign is vSphere tool automating disk partition alignment and disk space reclamation.

VCP 5.0 exam

Test 1: Post

http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eclassmarker%2Ecom%2Fonline-test%2Fstart%2F%3Fquiz%3Dkmh4e272723524e2&urlhash=t-rM&_t=tracking_anet

Test 2:

http://www.aiotestking.com/vmware/category/vmware-certified-professional-on-vsphere5/

Adding a VM as an unmanaged desktop in VMware View

Copy of article at
http://virtualisedreality.com/2011/01/29/adding-a-vm-as-an-unmanaged-desktop-in-view-4-5/

I have just come across a situation where I wished to add a VM from one environment (completely separated test and dev environment) to VMware View in another enviorment as an unmanaged desktop. To do this with a physical server you simply install the agent and enter the connection server details during the installation. When trying to do this on a VM the final screen where you are able to enter the connection server address doesn’t appear.

It turns out this is by design and if you wish to add a VM in this manner to View you need to start the View Agent install with the following switch

VMware-viewagent-4.5.0-xxxxxx.exe /v”VDM_VC_MANAGED_AGENT=0″

This will cause it to act as if it is a physical machine and give you the oppertunity to add the View connection server.

Hidden VAAI Command

Link to original Scott Lowe article.

COPY

As some of you are probably already aware, one of the storage-related features added to vSphere 5 is support for the SCSI UNMAP command. While you would normally want this functionality enabled, there could be instances where you might want to disable this functionality. Unfortunately, there’s no option in the user interface to enable or disable SCSI UNMAP support.

However, you can use esxcli to enable or disable UNMAP support:

esxcli system advcfg setvalue --int-value [0|1] --option /VMFS3/EnableBlockDelete

Setting this value to 0 disables SCSI UNMAP support; setting the value to 1 enables it.

Many thanks to Cormac Hogan of VMware and Cody Hosterman of EMC for their help with this command.

EMC Storage and Backup solutions for VMware

ftp://Bloglink:vgeekb1og@vspecialist.emc.com/Events/VMworld/2011/Americas/Sessions/SPO3977/SPO3977_sakac_final_v1.2_w_fonts.pptx

NUTANIX

http://www.nutanix.com/

CentOS: Configuring a VNC Server

http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/VNC-Server

Running VMWare Remote Console outside the browser

I found this solution at
http://www.geeklab.info/2010/02/running-vmware-remote-console-outside-the-browser/

cd /tmp
IP=the.esx.srv.ip # < fill in esx server ip address here
wget --no-check-certificate https://$IP/ui/plugin/vmware-vmrc-linux-x86.xpi
mv vmware-vmrc-linux-x86.xpi vmware-vmrc-linux-x86.zip
cd ~
mkdir -p bin/vmwareconsole # make directory bin in your own homedir
cd bin/vmwareconsole
unzip /tmp/vmware-vmrc-linux-x86.zip
cd ~/bin
ln -s vmwareconsole/plugins/vmware-vmrc . # make a symlink for easy access
vmware-vmrc # run the console

In 64 bit CentOS I had to install QtGUI library.

yum install libQtGui.so.4

or from CD/DVD media

yum --disablerepo=\* --enablerepo=c6-media install libQtGui.so.4

VMware-vmrc Documentation
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/156057?start=0&tstart=0

Linux:

https://[IP]/ui/plugin/vmware-vmrc-linux-x86.xpi

vmware-vmrc -h [] [-u -p ] -M moid

Windows:

https://[IP]/ui/plugin/vmware-vmrc-win32-x86.exe

vmware-vmrc.exe -h [-u -p ] -M moid

Example: vmware-vmrc -h 1.2.3.4 -u administrator -p 'password' -M vm-481

There are other options. Run vmware-vmrc -help to get help.

The parameter moid is Vmware Managed Object ID which can be retrieved by VMware PERL Toolkit. Here is perl example how to get it:

my %filter_hash = create_hash(Opts::get_option('ipaddress'),
Opts::get_option('powerstatus'),
Opts::get_option('guestos'));

my $vm_views = VMUtils::get_vms ('VirtualMachine',
Opts::get_option ('vmname'),
Opts::get_option ('datacenter'),
Opts::get_option ('folder'),
Opts::get_option ('pool'),
Opts::get_option ('host'),
%filter_hash);


foreach (@$vm_views) {
my $vm_view = $_;
my $moid = $vm_view->get_property('mo_ref')->value;
print "Manage Object ID: $moid\n";
}

Minimal Centos6 for VNC server running vmware-vmrc remotely

yum --disablerepo=\* --enablerepo=c6-media install xorg-x11-server-Xorg xorg-x11-xinit dbus-x11 xorg-x11-drv-ati twm xterm

INSTALL VMWARE TOOLS
it creates new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

yum --disablerepo=\* --enablerepo=c6-media install tigervnc-server
yum install xorg-x11-font*

Other useful links
https://github.com/vmware/rvc/downloads
http://kintoandar.blogspot.com/2011/06/gnome-3-vmware-console-with-vmware-vmrc.html


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