If like me, you find the ‘vCenter Getting Started Tabs’ slightly annoying then you are in the right place!
vSphere Client
To disable them in vCenter using the vSphere Client, simply go to Edit > General Tab > Deselect ‘Show Getting Started Tabs’
vSphere Web Client
To disable them in vCenter using the vSphere Web Client, simply go to Help > Select ‘Hide All Getting Started Pages’
For those of you who have read my VCAP5-DCD: Passed post, you will have gotten an insight into what I do for a living which is pre-sales focusing on infrastructure design. The process I used to pass the VCAP5-DCD isn’t one that I would recommend as I relied heavily on my day to day experience.
Wind forward to the VCAP5-DCA, administration of vSphere environments is something I simply don’t do. Normally it’s design, maybe configure and install but never administrate. To be fair I wasn’t even sure if I would attempt the exam as it would be a steep learning curve.
Why VCAP5-DCA?
So why did I put myself through the ordeal of studying for the VCAP5-DCA? Well this had a lot to do with a colleague of mine Steve Wenban @stevewenban79. When I joined SCC, Steve had already passed his VCAP5-DCA and VCAP5-DCD and wanted a second pair of eyes to check his design, implementation guide and operational procedures. He had heard via the ‘jungle drums’ that I knew my ‘vSphere onions’ and got in touch.
Firstly, I was honored that he felt I was capable of reviewing his documents, however I wasn’t sure what value I would bring to his design as at this point I was only a VCP (not knocking this achievement). My designs had been successful but I hadn’t had the opportunity for peer validation in my previous role.
Reviewing Steve’s VCDX documents, it was clear he really knew vSphere inside and out, but it also dawned on me that I knew a lot more than I first realized. Steve and I went over his VCDX document’s and he mentioned that I should start the journey towards the elite certification.
During this time, I made a tweet about knowing nearly everything in the VCDX document. Bold, I know! This lead to Simon Long @SimonLong_ and Tim Antonowicz @timantz who are both VCDX calling me out.
With the right timing, certain tweets resonate and the ones from Simon and Tim did that. It was an ‘ah ha’ or ‘light bulb’ moment, so thanks for that chaps.
After passing the VCAP5-DCD I started the slog towards VCAP5-DCA, I knew it was going to be an up hill struggle. In the same way that someone who administrates a vSphere environment would find the VCAP5-DCD harder.
Studying
I will be the first to admit that I have a family with two young children and a demanding job, so motivating myself to study is difficult as especially when you might want to study your children don’t quite agree!
How do I do it? Well I use my time wisely, for example whilst travelling in the car or on a train I will be listening to Jason Nash’s @TheJasonNash excellent VMware vSphere Optimise & Scale course. I would then repeat the material in the evening when I had access to my lab. Having access to a home lab is crucial, you need to be able to practice every piece of the VCAP5-DCA blueprint.
I didn’t really have an exact study plan, it was more a methodology. For me it’s consistency and discipline, plugging away day in, day out to get through the blueprint. Obviously something has to give and for me it’s my exercise regime.
VCAP5-DCA Blueprint
This is the keys to the kingdom, you need to follow this closely. It is great that the VMware vSphere Optimize & Scale course that Jason Nash provides follows the blueprint closely. This coupled with the fact that he gives some great tips on what he feels can and can’t be included in the exam. After the first run of the VMware vSphere Optimize & Scale course, I would go over the areas I felt I was weakest on.
Next was the excellent ‘Unofficial Official VCAP5-DCA Study Guide‘ by Josh Coen @joshcoen and Jason Langer @jaslanger. A quick read over this and a practice of the CLI commands and I was ready for the final preparation.
Mock Exam
I set myself a mock exam each night for five days leading up to the exam. This mock exam was for me to work on the areas that I weakest (PowerCLI and ESXCLI) until I had them more or less down to a ‘t’. An example mock exam is at the end of this blog post (with answers).
Actual Exam
I knew the exam was going to be brutal, from a time and concentration perspective. Plus I don’t function to well if I’m tired or hungry. So I tried to get a decent nights sleep on Wednesday, about six hours in total.
I had a two hour drive to the exam, during this time, I didn’t listen to anything VMware related, I was of the opinion either I know it or I don’t.
Fifteen minutes before going into the exam, I did the following:
Much like the VCAP5-DCD, time is your enemy, you have 26 questions to complete in 3.5 hours (if English is your first language). I had a game plan when I went into the exam, which was to follow Tim Antonowicz VCAP5-DCA Whiteboard Strategy & Tips. In reality I saw the first question and thought I can do this and my game plan erm, didn’t happen!
What I did stick to was using the vSphere Client on the first window, and then only using the vCenter Desktop when I needed to for a task. Looking back this was a important as it saved a fair bit of time.
The first thirteen questions I sailed over, not saying I completed every one, I just moved on if there was a small part I didn’t know the answer to. These are typically items I would look up from a PDF and I don’t like committing them to brain just for the sake of an exam. Then after the first thirteen questions I started to experience the typical VCAP5-DCA lab issues, MAJOR LATENCY! Frustrating to say the least, it really throws you a curve ball as you can’t remember where you have clicked. I found myself getting irritated which resulted in not focusing on the task at hand, wasting time.
I tried going forward onto another task to kick this off, but found that this didn’t help either, especially as some of the remaining tasks involved PowerCLI which actually took five minutes to open!
Final Thoughts
Overall, I didn’t answer three questions, even though I could have answered them with help from a PDF, I knew my time was better spent on the ones I could answer. Another four questions I didn’t fully complete, again because I would have to refer to the PDF and knowing how slowly the exam was responding this wasn’t worth the effort.
When I clicked submit, I reflected thinking if I was an actual vSphere Administrator would this reflect my day to day job and my answer was yes. However, I think that a weeks worth of work is condensed down to 3.5 hours for the exam!
I’m pleased to say that I received the exam results within a eight days of sitting the exam. It was the last day of HP Discover and I was sitting down at dinner with seventeen other people including Philip Sellers @pbsellers, Chris Wahl @chriswahl, Alastair Cooke @DemitasseNZ and Calvin Zito @HPStorageGuy when I received the results. To say I was happy was an understatement!
Mock Exam Examples
These are the mock exam questions that I practiced. Naturally, I’m not able to say if they where in the exam. What I suggest you do is make yourself a practice test the areas you are weakest on.
1. Change Default IOP Limit To 100
esxcli storage nmp device listnaa.6000eb34d2a20c040000000000000365
Device Display Name: VCAP_LUN
Storage Array Type: VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA
Storage Array Type Device Config: SATP VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA does not support device configuration.
Path Selection Policy: VMW_PSP_RR
Path Selection Policy Device Config: {policy=rr,iops=1000,bytes=10485760,useANO=0;lastPathIndex=2: NumIOsPending=0,numBytesPending=0}
Path Selection Policy Device Custom Config:
Working Paths: vmhba38:C2:T2:L0, vmhba38:C1:T2:L0, vmhba38:C0:T2:L0esxcli storage nmp psp roundrobin deviceconfig set -d naa.6000eb34d2a20c040000000000000365 -t iops -I 100
2. Claim Rules To remove Storage From Host
esxcli storage core claimrule add -r 901 -t location -A vmhba38 -C 2 -T 2 -L 0 -P MASK_PATH
esxcli storage core claimrule add -r 902 -t location -A vmhba38 -C 1 -T 2 -L 0 -P MASK_PATH
esxcli storage core claimrule add -r 903 -t location -A vmhba38 -C 0 -T 2 -L 0 -P MASK_PATHesxcli storage core claimrule list
Rule Class Rule Class Type Plugin Matches
———- —– ——- ——— ——— —————————————-
MP 0 runtime transport NMP transport=usb
MP 1 runtime transport NMP transport=sata
MP 2 runtime transport NMP transport=ide
MP 3 runtime transport NMP transport=block
MP 4 runtime transport NMP transport=unknown
MP 101 runtime vendor MASK_PATH vendor=DELL model=Universal Xport
MP 101 file vendor MASK_PATH vendor=DELL model=Universal Xport
MP 901 file location MASK_PATH adapter=vmhba38 channel=2 target=2 lun=0
MP 902 file location MASK_PATH adapter=vmhba38 channel=1 target=2 lun=0
MP 903 file location MASK_PATH adapter=vmhba38 channel=0 target=2 lun=0
MP 65535 runtime vendor NMP vendor=* model=*esxcli storage core claimrule run
esxcli storage core claimrule load
3. Remove Claim Rules
esxcli storage core claiming unclaim -t location -A vmhba38 -C 0 -T 2 -L 0 -P MASK_PATH
esxcli storage core claiming unclaim -t location -A vmhba38 -C 1 -T 2 -L 0 -P MASK_PATH
esxcli storage core claiming unclaim -t location -A vmhba38 -C 2 -T 2 -L 0 -P MASK_PATH
esxcli storage core claimrule remove -r 901
esxcli storage core claimrule remove -r 902
esxcli storage core claimrule remove -r 903
esxcli storage core claimrule list
Rule Class Rule Class Type Plugin Matches
———- —– ——- ——— ——— ———————————
MP 0 runtime transport NMP transport=usb
MP 1 runtime transport NMP transport=sata
MP 2 runtime transport NMP transport=ide
MP 3 runtime transport NMP transport=block
MP 4 runtime transport NMP transport=unknown
MP 101 runtime vendor MASK_PATH vendor=DELL model=Universal Xport
MP 101 file vendor MASK_PATH vendor=DELL model=Universal Xport
MP 65535 runtime vendor NMP vendor=* model=*
4. Add SATP
esxcli storage core plugin registration add -m VCAP_DCA -P VCAP_DCA -N SATP
5. Change Default SATP PSP
esxcli storage nmp satp set -s VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA -P VMW_PSP_RR
6. Enable SSD
esxcli storage core device listnaa.6000eb34d2a20c040000000000000365
esxcli storage nmp satp rule add -d naa.6000eb34d2a20c040000000000000365 -s VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA -o enable_ssd
esxcli storage core claiming reclaim -d naa.6000eb34d2a20c040000000000000365
7. Remove SSD
esxcli storage core claiming reclaim -d naa.6000eb34d2a20c040000000000000365
8. Enable Syslog
esxcli system syslog config set –loghost 10.3.2.203:514
esxcli system syslog reload
9. Add Firewall Rule
esxcli network firewall ruleset set -r syslog -e true
esxcli network firewall refresh
10. ESXTOP Output CSV File
esxtop -b -a -n 10 > vmfs/volumes/ESXi02_RAID1_L01_SAS/esxtop.csv
11. Log locations Host & vCenter
var/log
12. Create New Custom Image
Connect VI-Server
PowerCLI C:> Add-EsxSoftwareDepotAdd-EsxSoftwareDepot
Supply values for the following parameters:
DepotUrl[0]: C:SoftwareDepotupdate-from-esxi5.0-5.0_update03.zip
DepotUrl[1]: C:SoftwareDepotBCD-bna-3.2.3.0-00000-offline_bundle-1326881.zip
DepotUrl[2]: http://VMF-VC01/vSphere-HA-depot
DepotUrl[3]:Depot Url
———
zip:C:SoftwareDepotupdate-from-esxi5.0-5.0_update03.zip?index.xml
zip:C:SoftwareDepotBCD-bna-3.2.3.0-00000-offline_bundle-1326881.zip?index.xml
http://vmf-vc01/vSphere-HA-depot/index.xml
Get-EsxImageProfile | Select NameName
—-
ESXi-5.0.0-20131001001s-standard
ESXi-5.0.0-20131001001s-no-tools
ESXi-5.0.0-20131002001-no-tools
New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile ESXi-5.0.0-20131002001-standard -Name ESXi5U3 -Vendor VMFocusN
Name Vendor Last Modified Acceptance Level
—- —— ————- —————-
ESXi5U3 VMFocus 06/09/2013 0… PartnerSupported
Get-EsxSoftwarePackage
net-bna
vmware-fdm
Add-EsxSoftwarePackageImageProfile: ESXi5U3
SoftwarePackage[0]: net-bna
SoftwarePackage[1]: vmware-fdm
SoftwarePackage[2]:Name Vendor Last Modified Acceptance Level
—- —— ————- —————-
ESXi5U3 VMFocus 04/12/2013 2… PartnerSupported
Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile ESXi5U3 -FilePath C:SoftwareDepotESXi5U3.zip -ExportToBundle
13. Create New Autodeploy Image
New-DeployRule -Name Image_Profile -Item ESXi5U3 -Pattern “ipv4=10.3.2.1-10.3.2.254”
Add-DeployRule Image_Profile
New-DeployRule -Name Cluster_Profile -Item AutoDeploy01 -Pattern “ipv4=10.3.2.1-10.3.2.254”
Add-DeployRule Cluster_Profile
New-DeployRule -Name Host_Profile -Item Host_Profile -Pattern “ipv4=10.3.2.1-10.3.2.254”
Add-DeployRule Host_Profile
14. ESXi Host Update
esxcli software vib update -d vmfs/volumes/ESXi02_RAID1_L01_SAS/ESXi5U3.zip
15. Add Server to VMA
vifp addserver AD-ESXi01 –authpolicy fpauth –username root –password Narlicwes0
16. Target AD-ESXi02
vifptarget -s AD-ESXi02
A little while ago I was working on a infrastructure design with a colleague who is a double HP Master ASE. We where talking about the lack visibility of vCenter Operations Manager into the 3PAR layer and due to this we had to combine vCOPS with a HP tool to give a complete view of the stack. Somewhat messy, but it achieved what the client wanted.
Whilst at HP Discover, David Scott gave a coffee talk to the bloggers and he mentioned a vCOPS plugin for 3PAR. So Justin Vashisht @3cvguy, Bart Heungens @BartHeungens and I hit the show floor to find out more.
HP StoreFront Analytics Pack
In true HP form they have named the vCOPS plugin beginning with ‘Store’. HP StoreFront Analytics provides an in depth view of all 3PAR components including CPG, storage systems, drive cages, drives, disk ports, fibre channel ports, fans and more.
*The free trial is for 60 days after which HP StoreFront Analytics will continue to run, however you will only have access to the HP Store Monitoring dashboard.
Enjoy the video below of vCOPS for 3PAR using HP StoreFront Analytics Pack
When designing an infrastructure, you will have a percentage of virtual machines that run applications that the business considers critical. Out of an entire virtual machine estate this could be 10% or less.
Often the critical virtual machines share the same shared storage as the non critical virtual machines. If a non critical virtual machine makes a call for 1,000 IOPS the shared storage will deliver it, but at what cost to the critical virtual machine? This effect is known as the ‘noisy neighbor’ and is flagged in most designs I carry out. Until now I have used vSphere Enterprise Plus licenses with Storage IO Control to counteract this.
Today, I had an idea for a use case, which I thought I would share with you. Maybe we can do things differently with the release of 3PAR Inform OS 3.1.3?
Rewind 3PAR Inform OS 3.1.2
In 3pAR Inform OS 3.1.2 the concept of applying quality of service to a virtual volume set was introduced. This gave you the ability to control two settings:
For me this setting was always the wrong way round as I wanted to guarantee a virtual volume set to have ‘x’ IOPS or bandwidth.
3PAR Inform OS 3.1.3 QoS
I have it on good authority that in January 2014 3PAR Inform OS 3.1.3 is having a QoS face lift. With the ability to guarantee performance to a virtual volume set.
vSphere Use Case
This is when things start to get interesting, do we need to purchase vSphere Enterprise Plus licenses for every processor socket in our physical servers to protect a small percentage of critical virtual machines? Maybe not.
Perhaps we could use the Optimization Suite from 3PAR instead. Let me walk you over my thoughts:
The result is you have a VM which is guaranteed the correct resources in times of contention without the need for SIOC in vSphere Enterprise Plus licences.
I wasn’t sure what to expect at my first HP Discover, however one thing is for sure. The same community feel that ‘VMware’ has exists at HP. I think that this starts with Calvin Zito @HPStorageGuy who takes care to ensure that you are welcomed and introduced to other community members.
Entering HP Discover, it felt the same as VMworld (probably linked to the fact that it is held at the same place), with the usual check in process. I was expecting an abundance of ‘swag’, but was quite surprised with the distinct lack of it, with just an event guide and a sessions schedule.
When entering the vendor floor, I started to see some major differences with other events.
Next on the agenda was a concept that HP call a ‘Coffee Talk’ which is an awesome concept. Essentially, HP wheel in a person of standing, for example David Scott (Senior Vice President and General Manager, Storage). It’s not often you get time with these individuals, so kudos for HP for making it happen.
The framework for the Coffee Talks is, and I quote ‘hosed down with information’ Chris Purcell @chrispman01 which usually lasts for around 20 minutes. After this it’s a Q&A session, giving you the ability to find out or challenge the ‘HP leader’ on their particular area of responsibility.
A great question was posed to David Scott by Chris Evans @chrismevans which was along the lines of ‘how and why has HP managed to drop the price of the StoreServ 7450 all flash array?’ For me, these are the best type of questions as they are open.
David answered this by explaining they had produced greater efficiency in software by modifying the OS for adaptive sparing (part of the SSD is hidden from use so when blocks can no longer be written to due to degradation they come from the adaptive sparing area) essentially making the adaptive sparing area smaller in space. So this with using a different MLC technology provider has driven down the costs by 50%.
David then went onto explain that they had have also introduced further efficiency by driving the IOPS from 550K to 900K just by a software upgrade to Inform OS 3.1.3 which is due to be released in January 2014.
Part of the reason for coming to HP Discover was to meet other bloggers who are interested in storage and all things HP. HP have dedicated part of the conference to form the ‘Bloggers Lounge’. In this area you can meet the likes of:
A couple of item’s I wasn’t aware of, which will require further investigation are:
So to sum up my first impressions, HP Discover is a ‘business technical’ conference.
VMFocus 