ESXi 4.1 - Scripted Installation Via PXE and Kickstart!

http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/vmwareinsmb/2010/07/13/esxi-41-scripted-installation-via-pxe-and-kickstart

get 2 free VEEAM products for VCP

Get 2 free VEEAM products for VCP, vexpert people (NFR licence only)
http://www.veeam.com/nfr/free-nfr-license

VMware NFS Best Practices

http://vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMware-NFS-BestPractices-WP-EN.pdf

Getting the network adapters’ order in Windows

http://saltwetbytes.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/getting-network-adapter-order-in-windows/

VCDX BrownBags

BrownBags are a series of online webinars held using GotoMeeting and covering various VMware Certification topics. On this page you’ll find a sign-up for the live series, as well as links to past recordings.

http://professionalvmware.com/brownbags/

Open Source VMFS Driver

This driver enables read-only access to files and folders on partitions formatted with the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS). VMFS is a clustered file system that is used by the VMware ESX hosts to store virtual machines and virtual disk files.

http://code.google.com/p/vmfs/

How to configure HSRP in Cisco IOS Routers

http://www.itsyourip.com/cisco/how-to-configure-hsrp-in-cisco-ios-routers/

PPTPD on FreeBSD

http://faded.org/2009/02/freebsd_pptp_server.html

NetApp multitenancy

NetApp’s MultiStore functionality allows storage partitioning for multiple tenants.

It supporst up to 130 vFiler instances (128 vFilers plus 2 vFiler0 instances) but only for NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, HTTP, and NDMP. Fibre Channel is not supported. You can only use Fibre Channel with vFiler0.

More info:
http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/04/08/3010-a-multistore-primer/

VCAP-DCA and VCAP-DCD Live Lab Tutorials

http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=239190681&gid=51214&type=news&item=239190681&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ntpro.nl%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F1628-VCAP-DCA-Live-Lab-Tutorial.html&urlhash=2XoB&goback=.gde_51214_news_239190681

VCAP-DCA and VCAP-DCD Live Lab Tutorials

VMware has released the VCAP-DCA and VCAP-DCD Live Lab Tutorials which can help you prepare for the actual exam.

The VCAP4-DCA is directed toward System Administrators, Consultants and Technical Support Engineers who can demonstrate their skills in VMware vSphere and VMware vCenter technologies in relation to the datacenter, as well as their knowledge of application and physical-infrastructure services and their integration with the virtual infrastructure.

http://mylearn.vmware.com/courseware/82526/VCAPDCA_Tutorial.swf

The VCAP-DCD is directed toward IT Architects and Consulting Architects who are capable of designing VMware solutions in a multi-site, large enterprise environment. They have a deep understanding both of VMware core components and their relation to storage and networking, and also of datacenter design methodologies. They also possess knowledge of applications and physical infrastructure, as well as their relationship to the virtual infrastructure.

http://mylearn.vmware.com/courseware/82525/VCAPDCD_Tutorial.swf

Open source, ITIL-aligned IT change management tool

http://www.otrs.com/en/products/

VMware HA Deepdive

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/vmware-high-availability-deepdiv/

Disaster Recovery Plan

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/09/28/disaster-recovery-scenario-stick-to-the-plan/?utm-source=feedburner&utm-medium=feed&utm-campaign=Feed%3A+DataCenterKnowledge+%28Data+Center+Knowledge%29

How CISCO UCS can help to Disaster and Recovery

Here is the video recording of Harpreet Singh presentation at Cisco booth at VMWorld 2010.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R9oWMBOAow
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pEtR8eNUYI

LANAMARK

Another datacenter capacity planning tool
http://www.lanamark.com/

I would like to install it and compare against Platespin Recon.

Celerra VSA UBER v2

http://nickapedia.com/2010/05/19/besser-uber-celerra-vsa-uber-v2/

Microsoft NLB Cluster on VMware

Microsoft Resources:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323437
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323431
VMware Resources
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/implmenting_ms_network_load_balancing.pdf
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1006580
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1556

Oracle Forms

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/forms/overview/index.html

VMDK Handbook - Basics

http://sanbarrow.com/vmdk-basics.html

EMC Unified Storage – Next Generation Efficiency Details

http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2010/05/emc-unified-storage-next-generation-efficiency-details.html

Cisco UCS Networking Best Practices

http://bradhedlund.com/2010/06/22/cisco-ucs-networking-best-practices/

ITaaS - EMC Ionix UIM 2.0 and VMware Project Redwood Preview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0BbPmX64Kc&feature=related

Removing orphaned Nexus DVS

http://frankdenneman.nl/2010/03/removing-orphaned-nexus-dvs/

NIMSOFT - flexible monitoring solution

http://www.nimsoft.com/solutions/index.php

Equinix Announces Third Sydney Data Center

Full article at
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/06/28/equinix-announces-third-sydney-data-center/?utm-source=feedburner&utm-medium=feed&utm-campaign=Feed%3A+DataCenterKnowledge+%28Data+Center+Knowledge%29

How to remove Cisco Nexus 1000V plugin

This is just a copy from original post at http://malaysiavm.com/blog/how-to-remove-cisco-nexus-1000v-plugin/

--- COPY STARTS HERE ---

The Cisco Nexus 1000V switch is a pure software implementation of a Cisco Nexus switch. It resides on a server and integrates with the hypervisor to deliver VN-Link virtual machine-aware network services. The Cisco Nexus 1000V switch takes advantage of the VMware vSphere vNetwork Distributed Switch framework to offer tightly integrated network services as part of both a server virtualization strategy and a broader data center virtualization strategy. In addition, the switch provides operations and management consistency with existing Cisco Nexus and Cisco Catalyst switches.

Here I would like to share how to remove Cisco Nexus 1000V Plugin

1. To view the extension key on the vCenter Server, open an Internet Browser, and enter the URL path http://vcenter-host/mob

2. Authentication dialog box open, Enter the username and password and click OK

3. The Managed Object Browser (MOB) open the Service Instance page, in the value column of the Properties table, click Content

4. In the Value column of the Properties table, Click extensionManager OR you can open browser with URL http://localhost/mob/?moid=ExtensionManager

5. In the Methods table, click UnregisterExtension

6. In the Value of the Parameters table, paste “Cisco_Nexus_1000V_1850055053″ and click Invoke Method.

Note: The actual value of “Cisco_Nexus_1000v_xxxxx” will wary. It should match the extension key from the Cisco_nexus_1000v_extension.xml file.

Enjoy!

VMware ESX 4 can even virtualize itself

Running VMware ESX inside a virtual machine is a great way to experiment with different configurations and features without building out a whole lab full of hardware and storage. It is pretty common to do this on VMware Workstation nowadays — the first public documentation of this process that I know of was published by Xtravirt a couple of years ago.

But what if you prefer to run ESX on ESX instead of Workstation?

Full article at:
http://www.vcritical.com/2009/05/vmware-esx-4-can-even-virtualize-itself/

CFM to BTU formula

Citation from: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_BTU%27s_are_in_a_CFM

A BTU is a British thermal unit, which is the measure of energy to raise one CC of water one degree Celsius.

But you probably want to know about airflow in CFM (not water), and the amount of cooling (or heating) available in 1 cfm or airflow.

In Houston, we tend to cool things more than heat. We also try to drive moisture out of the air (dehumidify), but I won't discuss that now. The general equation to answer your question is like this: Q_sens = cfm * 1.08 * (T_in - T_out) <-- "delta T"

You need to determine what your "delta T" is. For cooling a space to 75degF (23.89 degC), your dT is usually 20degF (-6.67 degC) with your supply air temperature (SA=55degF 12.78degC) and your return air temperature (RA=75degF 23.89 degC). This has been idealized and simplified. For cooling, 1cfm will do about 21.6btu/h of cooling. For heating, (SA=90/32.2, RA=68, 1cfm => 23.76btu/h)

Citaton from: http://forum.onlineconversion.com/showthread.php?t=701
--------------------------------------
CFM * 1.08 * tRise = Btu/hr
--------------------------------------

General information follows.

That factor is based on standard conditions which are at sea level and A standard humidity level which i do not remember off hand. As altitude increases the factor decreases. At 2100 feet it is roughly 1.0.
The humidity also affects this number. Generally the greater the humidity the greater the factor.

1.08 Will be good enough for most applications though.

I'll give an example of the use:

Suppose the room temperature is 65.
We have a 1200 CFM blower. We measure an output temperature of 100.
100 - 65 = 35 tRise.

Now we have all the numbers to get our BUT/hr.

1200 * 1.08 * 35 = 45,360 btu/hr


This particular problem often compilments another, And that is how do we verify the CFM is as cited or measured with an anemometer.

Assuming we have electric heat and the temperature probe is not in line of site of the heating elements (to be sure we are not measuring the IR radiation) All you need to know is the power consumption. Either measure it with an amp meter. Or go with cited figure(not as accurate).


CFM = btu / (1.08 * tRise)


For reference: 1 kw/hr = 3412.14 btu


assume we have a 15kw heater and a tRise of 22

15kw * 3412.14 = 51182.12 btu

now we can solve for CFM

51182.12 / (1.08 * 22) = 2154.

In that example our result is 2,154 CFM.

If that conflicts with a suspected figure An investigation is required.

Keep in mind the factor is based on standard conditions. As a rule of thumb the result should be within 10% of the calculation. Anything out of this range is a trouble spot. Most likely to be a dirty air filter, or incorrect power factoring.

Nice syslog explenation

http://content.hccfl.edu/pollock/AUnix2/Logging.htm

OpenVPN - The Easy Tutorial

http://openmaniak.com/cz/openvpn.php

Storage fundamentals

Throughput part 1: The Basics
http://www.vmdamentals.com/?p=266

Throughput part 2: RAID types and segment sizes
http://www.vmdamentals.com/?p=296

RAID 10 or RAID 5

This is a common question in every storage consultation. Right answers for such questions is - It depends. Lot of people don't like RAID 5 and they have good reasons ... Look at BAARF (http://www.baarf.com/) initiative Battle Agains Any RAID Five, Four, F(T)hree. Very nice RAID5 versus RAID10 comparison is at http://www.miracleas.com/BAARF/RAID5_versus_RAID10.txt

I think that good choice depends on required performance, capacity, and data value stored on protected disks. RAID is just one type of protection and other protections should be used. Other data protections are:

• Backup
• Local Disk Replication (Volume Clones - Business Continous Volumes like i.e. EMC SnapView)
• Remote Disk Replications (EMC SAN Copy, EMC SRDF, IBM Metro Mirror, etc.)

So sometimes RAID 5 or 6 makes sense.

Mepis Linux

LiveCD, System Recovery CD, Linux USB Boot Key
https://www.mepis.org/

UPS, Motorgenerators, A/C, ...

http://www.elteco-ups.cz/

Turning an opensolaris host into a fibre channel storage array

http://prefetch.net/blog/index.php/2009/05/11/turning-an-opensolaris-host-into-a-fibre-channel-storage-array/