Fundamentals of vSphere Performance Management

http://www.doublecloud.org/2010/03/fundamentals-of-vsphere-performance-management/

Performance monitoring is a critical aspect of vSphere administration. This article introduces you the basic concepts and terminologies in vSphere performance management, for example, performance counters, performance metrics, real time vs historical statistics, etc. Much of the content is based on my book VMware VI and vSphere SDK by Prentice Hall.
Once you understand these basics, the related tools and APIs should be relatively easy. If you are already familiar with vSphere Client performance monitoring or esxtop, they help as well.

Performance Statistics (PowerCLI) 
http://www.sandfordit.com/vwiki/Performance_Statistics_(PowerCLI)

Performance Statistics (Perl SDK) 
http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/technology/developer/webinars/vi-perl-toolkit_webcast_2006-10-11.pdf

WAN Optimization for the Masses

The free virtual appliance version limited to two end points and 4Mb of traffic.

http://www.vx-xpress.com/

vSphere 5.0 Hardening Guide - Public Draft

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-19056

ControlByWeb Ethernet I/O

http://www.controlbyweb.com/

ControlByWeb Ethernet I/O products provide an easy and reliable way to monitor & control devices over a network.

vSphere 5 Host Network Design - 10GbE vDS Design

http://vrif.blogspot.com/2012/04/vsphere-5-host-network-design-10gbe-vds.html

ESX 5: Command Line VM Manipulation

http://blog.allanglesit.com/2012/04/esx-5-command-line-vm-manipulation/

Using esxcli to Mask a LUN from ESXi

http://www.virtuallanger.com/2012/05/01/using-esxcli-to-mask-a-lun-from-esxi/

VMware Health check - RVTools

If you don't have access to VMware Health Check Analyzer then other tool that can be used for VMware health-check engagement is RVTools.  It is free and has been around for about four years.  The author keeps it updated and once you connect to  vCenter or a Host you can export everything directly to an Excel spreadsheet.  The latest version is v3.3 as of April 12, 2012.

Google: RVTools
RVTools Homepage: http://www.robware.net/
Download Link: http://www.robware.net/download/RVTools.msi
 

vCenter Performance Counters

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-5600

How to enable/disable Intel VT-d on XEN

See: http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/VTd_HowTo

Usually, you just need 'iommu=1' to enable VT-d. At the same time, most of VT-d features (DMA remapping, snoop control, queued invalidation and interrupt remapping) are enabled by default if they are available. You can use 'no-xxx' to disable a feature, for example, 'iommu=no-snoop' disable snoop control.

When RMRR address range is not in reserved memory (BIOS issue), can use 'iommu_inclusive_mapping=1' to work around it.

The grub configuration is like:

title Xen-Linux (2.6.18-xen)

        root (hd0,0)

        kernel /boot/xen.gz iommu=1

        module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.8-xen root=LABEL=/

        module /boot/initrd-2.6.18-xen.img

How to disable Intel VT-d on ESX

When using Interrupt Remapping on some servers, you may experience vHBAs and other PCI devices stop responding in ESXi 6.0.x, ESXi 5.x and ESXi/ESX 4.1

This issue should be solved by server vendors releasing fixed BIOS version but if there is not a fix available you can use following workaround until new BIOS is released.

Disabling Intel VT-d Interrupt Remapping:

ESX/ESXi 4.1:

esxcfg-advcfg -k TRUE iovDisableIR

(reboot)

ESXi 5.0:

esxcli system settings kernel set --setting=iovDisableIR -v TRUE

(reboot)

Disabling all VT-d features:
Advanced setting VMkernel.Boot.noIOMMU = unchecked = 0

For more info look at https://kb.vmware.com/kb/1030265 

VMware Perl SDK - SSL Certificate verification

PROBLEM:

[root@MON-PROXY vm]# ./vminfo.pl --url https://10.10.4.70/sdk/vimService --username dpasek -vmname mon_proxy
Enter password:
Server version unavailable at 'https://10.10.4.70:443/sdk/vimService.wsdl' at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/VMware/VICommon.pm line 545, line 1.

SOLUTION:

[root@MON-PROXY vm]# export PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0
[root@MON-PROXY vm]# ./vminfo.pl --url https://10.10.4.70/sdk/vimService --username dpasek -vmname mon_proxy

VMware SRM

SRM Scripts
C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\scripts\SAN

command.pl
discoverArray.pl
discoverLuns.pl
testfailover.pl
failover.pl


SRM Logs
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\Logs\

Links:
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/01/20/sra-discoverluns/
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/01/10/hacking-site-recovery-manager-srm-a-storage-array-adapter/
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/01/12/fiddling-around-with-srms-storage-replication-adapter-part-ii/

GVRP - GARP VLAN Registration protocol

Very nice introduction to GVRP:
http://startnetworks.blogspot.com/2011/05/gvrp-garp-vlan-registration-protocol.html

Dell OpenManage Offline Bundle and VIB for ESXi

OMSA 6.5
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/555/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?c=us&l=en&s=&cs=555&DriverId=R300511

OMSA 7.0
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/555/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?DriverId=VPTVV&FileId=2922404090&productCode=poweredge-r720&urlProductCode=False

It can be installed with VMware Update Manager (VUM) or with CLI.
VUM is preferred, simpler and more convenient option.

CLI installation:
vihostupdate.pl -server -i -b OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-6.3.0-2075.VIBESX41i_A00.8.zip

vicfg-advcfg --server --username --password --set 1 UserVars.CIMoemProviderEnabled

For example:
vicfg-advcfg --server 10.10.1.72 --set 1 UserVars.CIMoemProviderEnabled

Note:
in ESX5 advanced parameter changed to UserVars.CIMvmw_OpenManageProviderEnabled

The Trouble with CA SSL Certificates and vCenter 5

http://longwhiteclouds.com/2012/02/07/the-trouble-with-ca-ssl-certificates-and-vcenter-5/

http://www.wooditwork.com/2011/11/30/vsphere-5-certificates-1-installing-a-root-certificate-authority-3/

How Vblock is built

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SCrO0kAVWA&feature=player_embedded

vSphere PowerCLI Administration Guide

http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/PowerCLI/PowerCLI41/doc/viwin_admg.pdf

DELL PCT 6224 (EQL configuration)

1. Enable the RSTP on the switch
2. Enable “spanning-tree portfast” on all ports connected to the SAN
3. Enable Jumbo Frame support on ports connected to the SAN
4. Disable the “storm control” feature on ports connected to the SAN
5. When you have dedicated SAN network enable Flow Control on the switch

Configuration:

Switch(config)# spanning-tree mode rstp
Switch(config)# interface range ethernet 1/g1-1/g12
Switch(config-if)# spanning-tree portfast
Switch(config-if)# mtu 9216
Switch(config-if)# no storm-control unicast
Switch(config-if)# exit
Switch(config)# flowcontrol (only you have dedicated SAN)
Switch# copy running-config startup-config

ESX, NUMA and "Node Interleaving"

Node interleaving disabled equals NUMA which is the best practice for ESX. That's usually default setting in BIOS of NUMA capable servers.

NUMA can be disabled by enabling Node Interleaving in the BIOS of the ESX host but that's not good practice for NUMA systems.

Full explanation at http://frankdenneman.nl/2010/12/node-interleaving-enable-or-disable/