VMware on Zachary Loeber's Blog

Determine if a computer is virtual with powershell

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 18:22:43 +0000

This function attempts to connect to a computer and find out if it is virtual or not using WMI. If it is virtual, a best guess at the type of virtual platform it is running upon is returned as well.

VMware: VMware Report Generation GUI

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 17:11:52 +0000

Its been a while since I posted something new. This GUI is meant to configure regular vmware report generation. You are able to select reporting scoped to the whole farm down to individual hosts. Reports can be emailed or saved and be generated based on custom thresholds.

VMware: Migrating a vCenter virtual appliance to a vCenter Windows server

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 04:30:52 +0000

I finally bit the bullet and migrated my lab from a vCenter virtual appliance to a vCenter Windows server. This is what I did to maintain all my settings and not disrupt any currently running VMs.

Create Your Own Network Assessment Appliance

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:49:19 +0000

In this write-up I setup several network assessment tools which can be used in the discovery process of a new environment. This can be useful for a newly hired sysadmin or a consultant in rapidly gathering information to assess the health and/or state of a network.

Introduction

I often find myself assessing a foreign network infrastructure for performance or other issues. Depending on the size of the environment, digesting everything can be daunting without the help of some third party tools. I’ve been using a custom Linux VM on my workstation that has all kinds of tools specifically for gathering information about a network’s performance, layout, and statistics. I’ve decided to retool the VM I currently use and take better notes on what I install so others may do the same if they so desire.

Virtualization: vCPU Provisioning Best Practices

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 01:31:47 +0000

I had always been of the mindset that when provisioning new VMs it is best to start out with less vCPUs and add more as they are required (unless you specifically know that you will be using and needing more for such things as sql server or exchange). I had even recently felt some vindication of this provisioning best practice in reading a book recently (Critical VMware Mistakes You Should Avoid)

ESX + MSCS 2008 R2 + SQL Server 2008

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:41:21 +0000

Just a quick note on this little combo. Should you be looking to setup a windows 2008 R2 cluster in a virtual environment (details on specific vmware configuration left to the reader) here are some quick notes that I have on some caveats.

1.) Either keep vmware tools un-uninstalled or make certain not to install the Shared Folder component of vmware tools.

2.) Don’t clone the second node from the first using vmware. Even if it changes the SID it does NOT change athe NIC card underlying GUID which causes issues in the cluster validation wizard.

ESX 4.0: Post-Install Script

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 04:08:02 +0000

Sure there are better ways to mass deploy ESX servers, but this way will save the one off farm deployment person some time 🙂 I took liberties in assuming you would be able to fill in the blanks for variables so or _VARIABLE_ will need to be replaced ad-lib style. Just for you my friend, served up proper on a hyper-link plate….. esx4_postinstall

Vmware: RVTools

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:38:34 +0000

This sly bastard wrote an excellent little .NET app for enumerating esx farm information. Any sysadmins working with VMware should definitely check this out. I really like the vHealth tab which will show possible zombie vmdks. Add the ability to export to csv and you have a nice tool for on the fly farm enumeration for the boss.

Go get RVTools now!