Virtuozity

VMware has implemented some new features in the VMFS file system in vSphere 4 and these updates bring some good news for you: In the past you had to consider the block size very carefully when formatting a VMFS volume, because in VI3 configuration and log files were stored within the VMFS for the first time. This meant that every file allocated at least the chosen block size, no matter how large or small it really was. VMFS in vSphere 4 introduced the ability to store smaller files in so-called 64KB "sub-blocks" to save disk space.

So choosing a small block size will not give you an advantage anymore, it will only limit you in the future in case you want to grow your VMFS! Yes, that's another difference, you are not limited to extents in vSphere 4, now you able to really grow your VMFS, which makes it even more flexible. Unfortunately the VMFS wizard will still ask you to format your volume with 1MB block size by default. I would recommend to choose the largest available block size here to be as flexible as possible, because changing it later is not possible.

By the way, it is definitely false information that the chosen block size will impact your storage performance, but: Another highly acclaimed feature by VMware is thin provisioning. As you already figured out yourself, you should be pretty careful using it in your production environment, although there are cases in which it will be very useful. In my opinion thin provisioning also makes sense with larger VMFS block sizes, because increasing the VMDK file in tiny 1MB chunks doesn't look like best practice to me.

Link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/vip-svmotion/

There is a nice SourceForge Project for the neglected SVMotion feature. Since VMware does not provide any integration into the vCenter GUI, Schley Andrew Kutz developed a vCenter plugin on his own that delivers if you don't like the command line. Great stuff, check it out!

Glücklich kann sich schätzen, wer eine NetApp-Appliance besitzt. Denn neben der vortrefflichen Hardware gibt es auch noch hilfreiche Tools wie das "Unified Host Utilities Kit 5.0 for ESX Server" dazu. Dieses umfasst folgende Werkzeuge:

• brocade_info - Collects configuration information about Brocade FC switches.
• cisco_info - Collects configuration information about Cisco FC switches.
• config_hba - Utility used to set HBA parameters for communicating with NetApp storage devices.
• config_mpath - Utility used to determine which of the available paths are primary paths and to set primary paths
• config_nfs - Utility used to set the NetApp recommended NFS Heartbeat settings.
• controller_info - Collects configuration information about NetApp storage devices.
• mbrscan - Utilty used to check vmdk files for proper alignment from the ESX console (for VMFS and NFS datastores), and from unix/linux (NFS datatstores).
• mcdata_info - Collects configuration information about McData FC switches
• qlogic_info - Collects configuration information about QLogic FC switches
• san_version - Prints the EHU version
• sanlun - collects information about the LUNs currently mapped to your host

Da das Paket ausschließlich für Kunden verfügbar ist, kann es nur über einen entsprechenden NetApp-Now-Account bezogen werden.

Link: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-6960

Ad van Bokhoven hat ein einfaches, aber praktisches PowerShell-Skript zum Auffinden verwaister VMDK-Dateien veröffentlicht. Die Ausgabe erfolgt in einer einfachen Textdatei, die zur weiteren automatisierten Löschung allerdings noch umformatiert werden muss. Ich empfehle jedoch dringend, vor der Löschung noch einmal zu verifizieren, wenn Sie das Skript in einer produktiven Umgebung einsetzen.

Link: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9276

Dieses White Paper bietet Ihnen einen guten Überblick über das VMFS Dateisystem von VMware. Es erklärt die Grundlagen und die optimale Anwendung verschiedener VMFS-Konzepte, wie z.B. LUN Sizing, Disk Spanning oder Raw Device Mapping.