Please join us as we are joined by members of VMware's technical staff to discuss VMware vSphere 4.1. Also, the new Dell TechCenter VMware Tech wiki page is live and direct or you can indirectly get to it from www.dell.com/vmwaretech.

Our featured guests are VMware engineers:

  • Dan Kingslien- Senior System Engineer VDI Architect
  • Merlin Glynn- Senior System Engineer vCloud Architect

From Dell EqualLogic, we have David Glynn- Technical Solutions Architect.

Technical Community - Background Reading

Dell TechCenter VMware vSphere 4

VMware Performance R&D vROOM posts on Microsoft Exchange and SAP on VMware vSphere

VMware vSphere 4.1

Chat Transcript



Dell-KongY We also have David (dell-d_glynn) – Dell EqualLogic Technical Solutions architect.
Dell-KongY We also have Todd Muirhead – VMware Staff Perf R&D engineer on.
Dell-KongY And hopefully Dan Kingslien – VMware VDI architect.
Dell-KongY So today's chat will cover VMware vSphere 4.1.
Dell-KongY Dell TechCenter VMware Tech wiki page: http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/vmware+tech.
Dell-KongY VMware vSphere 4.1 Config Max: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_config_max.pdf.
Dell-KongY VMware Performance R&D team blog: http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/.
Dell-KongY VMware vSphere 4.1 blog by Steve Herrod http://blogs.vmware.com/console/2010/07/vmware-vsphere-41-advancing-the-platform-for-cloud-computing.html.
Dell-KongY So what's new in VMware vSphere 4.1?
gzulauf Will there be any new Dell EqualLogic Tech Reports published/updated for vSphere 4.1?
ddkingslien There are more than 150 new and improved features!
ddkingslien Major updates to Storage and Networking.
VirtualMerlin There are quite a few, but Network I/O Control is probably one of the most important when your looking at iSCSI and 10GE.
Craig Ok.
Dell-d_glynn @gzulauf: There will be. Is there a topic in particular you'd like to see covered?
VirtualMerlin VMware ESXi scripted install supported Boot from San supported Storage Performance Statistics Storage I/O Control Network I/O Control Windows Failover Clustering with VMware HA License Reporting Manager Memory Compression VMware ESX/ESXi Active Directory Integration USB Device Passthrough from VMware ESX/ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine.
Dell-d_glynn There are a few changes to the licensing that might have slipped past people.
Dell-d_glynn http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/buy/editions_comparison.html
Dell-d_glynn VMware VMotion is now available in Standard edition.
gzulauf @dell-d_glynn: Specifically interested in a detailed configuration for configuring the VMware ESX hosts and VM when using a Microsoft iSCSI initiator within the VM.
VirtualMerlin Yes, most importantly VMware VMotion is now in the Standard stack.
HellerMD98 Any special considerations upgrading 4.0 up2 to 4.1 (we are doing iSCSI on Dell EqualLogic Ps4000e)?
JasonPowell We have standard...so we now have VMware VMotion?
Dell-d_glynn @gzulauf: I can tell you that is one that is been worked on :).
Dell-d_glynn I don't have a release date for it.
HoosierCAB JasonPowell: It would appear so. And I wasted money on Advanced.
VirtualMerlin If you upgrade to 4.1, Jasonpowell, with your SNS (Service and Support).
JasonPowell SNS?
HoosierCAB Service and Support.
VirtualMerlin Advanced still has many benefits over standard, so shouldn’t be a waste :).
Dell-d_glynn Very true Merlin.
HellerMD98 Does VMware VMotion Storage become available in standard stack too? Wishful thinking :-).
shanfont Any major changes to SRM 4.1 (Site Recovery Manager) or is that another topic?
Dell-d_glynn Still Enterprise for that.
gzulauf Has the configuration for the binding of VMKernel to VMNICs been simplified in vSphere 4.1?
Dell-d_glynn @gzulauf: Are you thinking from a round robin point of view?
VirtualMerlin Hellermd98, just make sure your kit is on the HCL for 4.1 and you should be ok. Generally, when designing iSCSI deployments, you want to make sure your I/O workload is being served by enough bandwidth back to the Dell EqualLogic. Also pay attention to how you setup your uplinks when binding software iSCSI initiator if you are attempting multi-path.
VirtualMerlin New in SRM 4.1 Full compatibility with vCenter 4.1. » Support for IP customization of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. » Test recovery times have been improved for VMware ESX 4.0.1 hosts that use iSCSI arrays. » Full compatibility with vCenter Solution Licensing. » New configuration file options: change guest operating system shutdown retry timeout when customizing IP address during recovery and change datastore discovery timeout during recovery (see Configuration Notes). » Full support for networks backed by a VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch (VDS) at the protected and recovery sites.
HellerMD98 @virtualmerlin: Thanks. So we should definitely spend some time configuring the PowerConnect 5424s and making sure we have jumbo frames on VMKernels?
gzulauf @dell-dglynn: In vSphere 4 we needed to type out the CLI command esxcli swiscsi nic in order to set up the Dell EqualLogic MPIO (Multipath IO) correctly. Is that simplified via the GUI or PowerCLI?
VirtualMerlin Yes, end to end Heller. Also if you are using multi-path, make sure your IO pattern is higher than 1000 IOPs so it actually triggers round robin.
Dell-d_glynn There is a tech report soon-to-be published relating the Dell EqualLogic MPIO plug in, the setup script that will do the complex configuration of the NICs, etc., with just one command line and a few arguments.
VirtualMerlin Network IO control is a big deal because it allows us to put a type of 'QOS' on what type of traffic takes precedence when a vmnic is congested—really important when consolidating workloads on 10ge. I can enforce bandwidth limits for VM/iSCSI/nfs/vMotion/ft traffic etc. It requires ENT +, but is really important if you are using 10GE on your hosts.
virtualTodd There is a great whitepaper on Network IO control that is in the final stages of publication. Should be out soon—watch for it on VROOM!
VirtualMerlin Anybody here ever need to pass a USB security key to a VM and wound up using VMware Server or some other hypervisor to virtualize it?
gzulauf When will "MPIO for vSphere 4.1 (qupe)" be published?
DavidSzp Virtualmerlin: Yes.
Dell-d_glynn Very soon, next week or the week after.
HoosierCAB Virtualmerlin: I just put the USB key and service on my physical vCenter server.
VirtualMerlin New USB passthrough support solves that now :).
DavidSzp What about MPIO for Dell PowerVault MD3000i? Is that working/easier now than it was?
Dell-d_glynn And VMotion will not break it.
Dell-d_glynn Configuring USB Device Passthrough from an VMware ESX/ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine. You can configure a virtual machine to use USB devices that are connected to a VMware ESX/ESXi host where the virtual machine is running. The connection is maintained even if you migrate the virtual machine using VMotion. See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide.
HoosierCAB That's supported now? Yay!
srayl We do back up a mail database to an external USB drive and wanted to mount it to an ESX VM, but had to do it with VMware server.
suresh Yes it is...
VirtualMerlin Has anyone built any HA clusters larger than 8 Hosts?
Dell-d_glynn Try right clicking Heller.
JasonPowell Side thread – any new info on the October Dell EqualLogic User conference?
VirtualMerlin In VMware vSphere 4.0, HA clusters larger than 8 hosts only support 40VMs per host. Now that number is in parity with DRs to 320— fewer hosts and many more VMs, tons of scalability enhancements like that in 4.1, like 255gb MEM and 8vCPU, 1TB MEM per host.
Dell-KongY @jasonpowell: Dm Sanpenguin, he's got the 411.
VirtualMerlin Has anyone ever wanted to limit IOPs to a VM who was hogging shared storage?
ddkingslien VMware APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) is also part of vSphere 4.1. This integration basically allows us to offload basic copy functions to the array for increased performance.
Dell-d_glynn And a lot more, ddking.
gillymon234 What's the deal with MEM (Multipathing Entension Module) now, dropped from Enterprise Plus?
ddkingslien MEM is now in Enterprise and Enterprise Plus.
Dell-d_glynn VAAI is also giving Block Zeroing and Hardware Assisted Locking, the latter means a lot more VMs per volumes.
Dell-d_glynn That is right Andrew.
gillymon234 Great news for our customers Re: MEM.
HellerMD98 Slightly off topic, is it an appropriate time to move to Firmware 5 for the Dell EqualLogic PS4000 Arrays, or is early production really for *crazy* early adopters?
Dell-d_glynn Yup!
VirtualMerlin Storage IO control actually allows you to impose IOP limits and disk queue submission access when the array is deemed to be responding to slow, regardless of what host the VM is on. Great for enforcing high priority workloads on shared storage.
Dell-d_glynn MEM is Multipathing Entension Module.
JasonPowell FW5 is fine...we have it running on one array.
gzulauf Can you clarify the changes for MEM? It's now available on all vSphere editions?
JasonPowell There is a bug when you FW5 upgrade...remember to restart your browser after upgrade or you likely can't connect to it.
Dell-d_glynn On Enterprise and Enterprise Plus.
Dell-KongY So VMware gents, can you elaborate on memory compression of vSphere 4.1?
Dell-d_glynn http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/buy/editions_comparison.html
Dell-d_glynn vStorage APIs for Multipathing.
Dell-KongY It was called out by your CTO Steve Herrod in his blog post today.
gzulauf @dell-d_glynn: Thanks for the link.
VirtualMerlin Yes, memory compression is really cool, can you tell me more about it Dan? :)
ddkingslien Compressed memory is a new level of the memory hierarchy, between RAM and disk. Slower than memory, but much faster than disk, this feature improves the performance of virtual machines when memory is under contention, because less virtual memory is swapped to disk as a result.
VirtualMerlin So in essence, kernel checks to see if pages can be compressed in active memory instead of paging hard to disk, thought process being inline compression/de compression is much faster that disk block access for paging. This greatly increases effect of memory over-commit.
Dell-KongY Before I forget, Virtualmerlin created a new wiki page on the Dell TechCenter: http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/vmware+tech.
VirtualMerlin Can be accessed by www.dell.com/vmwaretech as well, correct Kong?
Dell-KongY If you have any VMware virtual questions/requests, go ahead and post a thread on that page.
Dell-KongY Yes.
erson Is there a more detailed document than this? http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vmware-whats-new-in-vsphere-41-ds-en.pdf
erson So Enterprise (Plus) is the version you want if you have Dell EqualLogic storage then?
VirtualMerlin Dell has four dedicated VMware SES, (merlin says showing off that Dell & VMware work very closely) that assist their tech staff, and we will be adding content to that link as well, keeping it current with info on this and upcoming product releases.
Dell-d_glynn VMware vSphere will work with any version, but the MPIO plug in will require Enterprise or above.
VirtualMerlin And all will be spell checked before posting, but not by me.
ddkingslien And the storage IO controls are only in Enterprise Plus.
Dell-KongY How many of you would use the network & storage IO controls in your environments?
erson Dropping the cores per CPU to six on enterprise from 12 on advanced is just cruel.
Dell-KongY By the way – the IO controls demoed at last year's VMworld were really cool.
Dell-d_glynn Definitely in a two 10gb environment.
JasonPowell Enterprise Plus too spendy for us ... just happy we get some VMotion in standard now. :)
DavidSzp Jason: No Storage VMotion still from what I see though, just regular VMotion.
VirtualMerlin It’s also in Essentials Plus now for those of you who may be running ESX environments with three or fewer Hosts.
VirtualMerlin Ya Kong, IO controls are a big deal for larger clusters, they are the foundation for future enhancements that will be built around dynamic storage.
DavidSzp Virtualmerlin: I saw that, I have Essentials but no Plus, but now Plus is tempting!
Dell-d_glynn VMotion is in Essential Plus? This is great for the SMB (Small-Medium Business) market.
VirtualMerlin I’m sure that’s why the product guys did that Davidszp. :)
DavidSzp Sadly, I think maintenance on Essentials expired without being renewed.
DavidSzp Need to get on that...never got the renewal quote from my Dell rep after I asked.
DavidSzp Virtualmerlin: Well, no reason to buy Plus for the backup product when we have Veeam. :-)
JasonPowell Davidszp: ping Tom Templin ...he was able to get our "expired" status cleared.
DavidSzp Jasonpowell: Cool, I'll have to do that!
VirtualMerlin Anyone ever need to use their Active Directory accounts for VMware ESX hosts level auth instead of root?
erson Does vSphere 4.1 bring anything to the table that could alter the design decisions when purchasing Dell hardware for virtualizing with vSphere?
JasonPowell Are the academic/non-profit price plans still in effect for vSphere 4.1?
Dell-d_glynn iSCSI offload with the Broadcom NICs.
VirtualMerlin More scalability and the tools to effectively consolidate workloads on 10GE could make for designs with fewer Hosts and fewer NICs. So in a broad sense, yes erson. Dell EqualLogic VAAI integration is a big deal for performance sensitive environments with lots of VMotions/clones/template operations, so ensuring that is designed is a big deal as well.
ddkingslien Yes, there still is academic pricing.
Dell-d_glynn The Full Copy off load does dramatically reduce the deployment time for templates, especially when doing several at once.
Dell-d_glynn And Dell EqualLoigc will be releasing their MPIO plug in in the next two weeks – reduced latency, improved bandwidth etc.
JasonPowell Plug ins will require Enterprise Plus though, correct?
Dell-KongY We are nearing the top of the hour.
Dell-d_glynn Just Enterprise, not Enterprise Plus.
srayl Any other storage vendors in the works for plug ins?
Dell-KongY I’d like to thank Merlin, Dan and David for sharing their expertise.
Dell-KongY I'd also like to thank all attendees for making this chat awesome! :)
Dell-KongY I forgot to thank Todd and Andrew as well.
Dell-KongY Todd – @virtualtodd on Twitter is a must-follow for his VMware Perf and application work.
Dell-KongY Andrew Gilman – @andrewgilman on Twitter knows EqualLogic.
erson So, what's topic for next week?
Dell-KongY Join us next week for a chat on Win 7.
Dell-KongY http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/07-20-10+windows+7+migration+-+water+cooler+chat+with+paul+thurrott+%26+phil+dakas
Dell-KongY Thank you everyone for joining us today.
JasonPowell I'm a happy camper.
erson Scotth: I'm expecting some wisdom about the latest server updates and lack of them on ftp://ftp.dell.com/. CPLD, you are missed...
JasonPowell Bring on the VMotion!
HoosierCAB Anyone using a Dell PowerVault MD3220i as shared storage for VMWare ESX?
HoosierCAB I abuse the end of the chat.
HoosierCAB Looking at buying, haven't pulled the trigger yet.
erson Make sure you check out Dell EqualLogic PS4000e as well.
Dell-ScottH I've used our 3200i with Esx in the lab – did a demo on it, worked for me.
srayl Using Dell PowerVault MD3000i in about ten sites.
HoosierCAB Way too pricey, the Dell PowerVault MD3220i can be had for less than $10,000.
erson But lots of people are using Dell PowerVault MD3000i for VMware ESX, so Dell PowerVault MD3220i should work just fine as well. But Dell EqualLogic is superior in so many ways.
erson Hoosiercab: I'm thinking the Dell EqualLogic PS4000E could probably be had for less than $20,000.
HoosierCAB erson: Way out of the budget, $10,000 is pushing it for a K–12.
JasonPowell Depending on disk size, yes, Dell EqualLogic can be under $20,000.
erson Ok.
srayl Price is our issue, public school system, not too many good options. At some sites we need several TB of storage, but budget for only one Dell PowerVault MD3000i. You can get more spindles in the Dell PowerVault MD3220i. Wish we had waited.
Dell-ScottH First demo on this page shows Dell PowerVault MD3200i connected to VMware ESX.
Dell-ScottH http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/double+take+availability+with+vmware+%26+md3200i
erson Scotth: Can you get me in touch with someone with knowledge about the new server updates?
srayl Dell PowerVault MD3000i, plus two Dell PowerEdge610s, two switches and licenses times 50+ schools adds up quick.
erson d_glynn: For sure.
JasonPowell Srayl: Novell?
Dell-ScottH @erson: Sure, what's exactly missing?
erson CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device)
erson And I would rather skip the fatal error when I enter the new USC (Unified Server Configurator).
srayl Got rid of Novell before I started here, about eight years ago. Active Directory now.
Dell-ScottH You have Dell PowerEdge 610s and Dell PowerEdge 710s?
erson I would also like to know what is needed for the new one-to-many update in CMC (Chassis Management Controller) that you have a video about.
HoosierCAB Dell-Scotth: Thanks for the link, that eases my nervousness about the Dell PowerVault MD32xxi and VMware ESX.
erson M710s
Dell-ScottH I'll reach out to an internal list we have.
erson It would be fantastic if the updates could be put in the catalog on ftp://ftp.dell.com/ also, so we can update using platform update with the USC.
srayl We consulted with Sidney Policard and he agreed it wasn't the best budget situation. We did the best we could.
erson Maybe I'm just rushing things though...
Dell-ScottH Perhaps, 7/6 release and always takes longer to get into the catalog.
erson But then I would prefer that the updates weren’t released until you were ready to release the whole shebang at once.
Dell-ScottH Different groups – internal stuff – I agree with you.
erson All related updates slated for the same time frame, documentation, ftp://ftp.dell.com/ catalog. Everything released at once... would be awesome.
Dell-ScottH @erson: One-to-many updates got pushed to 1Q of next year. Roger just told me to pull the demo off the website.
erson Doh.
erson I was actually thinking it was missing since I couldn't find any information in the CMC 3.0 manual.