The VMguy

Thanks to Mike D for posting this one and thanks to MS for not having a RSS feed for me to follow or I would have caught it myself.  Microsoft has updated the SVVP Program to include the largest VM configurations currently available from VMware.  The SVVP Program is basicly approved VM configurations that Microsoft will support.  MS will now support VMs on Xeon and Operton running 32-bit or 64-bit VMs on ESX 3.5 Update 2 up to 4-way smp and 64GB of RAM.

Mike mentions that ESX 3.5 U3 and ESXi 3.5 U2 and U3 will appear soon (Awesome news!).

For a great set of links explaning the program check out Mike’s blog here .

This question is about to come up again so I can see multiple posts coming in the future on it.  Intel’s Nehalem Processor is adding HyperThreading back into the chips so you can expect more posts on this topic in the near future.  I have not reviewed HT on Nehalem so I don’t know all of the changes that have been made to HT (if any).  This is the position I have responded with in the past:

There are pros and cons to using HT in ESX. Read the rest of this entry »

Huh!?!  I know you’re going to read that title and say "Dave, uh, that came out like 3 months ago."  Yes, I know it did.  I have many customers that stay one release behind in their updates (after the license bug, I completely understand.)  I have been talking to many customers this week about updating and since U3 is out now, update 2 is a reality and on their agenda.  First off, the license bug has been fixed.  Paul Maritz assured us all that it will not happen again and, quite frankly, I believe him.  In addition, there are some really great features added in U2 (read the full list here .)  Here are of the ones I get asked most about:

1. EVC (Enhanced VMotion Compatibility) This allows you to live migrate your VM’s between different generations of CPUs from the same vendor. Basically you need Intel’s Merom (or newer) processor or AMD’s Rev.E (or newer) Based Processor.  The official list can be found here .
2. New guest operating system support: Windows Server 2008, Solaris 10 U5, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2, and Ubuntu 8.04.  Customers are always happy when we expand the supported OS list, some don’t even wait for us to try a new OS out.  However, if you call in for support, the guest OS needs to be on the supported list .
3. Storage VMotion to iSCSI and FC.  You can now live migrate VM’s on storage (move where the VM’s are stored) from one datastore to another on either (or both) of the storage platforms.
4. Hot virtual disk extend.  You can now entend a virtual disk drive while the VM is running from the GUI.  Just edit the VM’s hard disk config while the VM is running to the max allowed by the datastore.
5. VSS quescing support.  The VCB (VMware Consolidated Backup) agents now allow for VSS integration so when you take a backup of a Server 2003 VM, VCB will quiesce the data from the app (like SQL and Exchange) and then have ESX quiesce the disks and then take a nice clean VM snapshot.  Which then can be backup by the backup agents on the VCB backup proxy.  This give a more consistant snapshot image to work with.

Those are some of the main features added in U2.  If you are not ready to go up to ESX 3.5 Update 3, Update 2 should be on your radar.  The licensing bug is no more and, in my opinion, the list of features warrants considering it during your next patch cycle.

ESX 3.5 U3 has been released. You can read the release notes here .  There were a few significant updates in it that Commercial Customers have been asking me about.

1. The vCPU limit per core has been raised from 8 (or 11 with VDI) to 20.  This means that you can run vCPU’s 20x the number of cores in a box to a host limit of 192 vCPU’s today or 170 VM’s, whichever comes first.
2. Guest operating system support added for Solaris 10 U5, Ubuntu 8.04.1, and RHEL 4.7.  New OS support is always good for customers and always something I get asked about.
3. Numerous hardware additions to the HCLs .

Great stuff added, of course I understand some customers are not on the bleeding edge and hold off before updating which I completely understand (especially after the licensing bug).  For those customers, watch for a follow up post on the benefits of Update 2 (which was huge).  Now may be the time to consider Update 2 for rollout if you have not already.