VMware vSphere 5.

1: Upgrade Tips & Top New Features

October 25, 2012
Bill Oyler Lead Systems Engineer St. Croix Solutions, Inc. boyler@scsmn.com

Slide Deck Will Be Posted:

www.scsmn.com/vmware2012

VMware vSphere 5.1 Update

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Licensing Gotchas Upgrade Tips New Web Interface Enhanced vMotion vSphere Replication & SRM Networking Honorable Mentions

Licensing

Licensing
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Free upgrade to v5.1 with valid support contract. No more vRAM entitlement licensing!
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Licensed by physical CPU (as in the past).

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No price increases. (Some prices went down.) vSphere Standard Edition now includes:
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Storage vMotion & Enhanced vMotion Fault Tolerance Hot Add vSphere Replication
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existing Standard customers will receive these entitlements automatically!

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Acceleration Kit bundles are 6 CPU and come with vCenter Standard. Essentials Plus Kit and all Acceleration Kits now include Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA).

Gotchas

Gotchas
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VMware View 5.1.x is not currently supported with vSphere 5.1.

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A vSphere 5.1 patch will be released this month to fix this issue!

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SQL 2012 is not yet supported with any VMware products. EMC PowerPath/VE requires a vSphere 5.1 hot-patch plus PowerPath/VE patch to prevent Purple Screen of Death (KB #2034796). Cisco Nexus 1000V requires new version. Custom drivers (Ethernet, iSCSI, FC, FCoE) will need to be reinstalled. Some server models are no longer supported by VMware. Some storage array models are no longer supported by VMware. Some databases are no longer supported by VMware. Many third-party backup solutions do not support vSphere 5.1 yet.

Gotchas
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vCenter 5.1 is the first version of vCenter that cannot manage ESX(i) 3.x hosts.
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OK to mix ESXi 4.x and ESXi 5.x hosts in the same cluster.
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Be careful with virtual hardware versions!

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VM Version 4 = ESXi 3.5+ VM Version 7 = ESXi 4.x+ VM Version 8 = ESXi 5.0+ VM Version 9 = ESXi 5.1+

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VMware Tools 4.x and 5.x are fully compatible with 5.1. VMware Tools 3.x and earlier are not supported with 5.1. VMFS-3 and VMFS-5 are both supported with 5.1.
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VMFS-5 upgrades are non-disruptive.

Gotchas

Gotchas

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VMware Best Practice: If you have the luxury of doing so, create a brand new VMFS-5 datastore, use Storage vMotion to move VMs to it, then re-format old VMFS-3 datastore using VMFS-5.

Upgrade Tips

Upgrade Tips
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VMware Single Sign-On (SSO) is a brand new component that is required.

Upgrade Tips
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vCenter components require much more RAM than in the past.

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vCenter + Single Sign On + Inventory Service installed together = 10 GB RAM minimum

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plus SQL database = Add 2+ GB RAM plus Update Manager = Add 2+ GB RAM

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VMware Single Sign-On (SSO) is non-trivial* to set up. vCenter database upgrade can cause database destruction*. SRM upgrade can lead to services that wont start*. Some DBA/SQL experience required*, especially for SSO. Installing trusted certificates for VMware products is non-trivial*. There are a few bugs* to be aware of.
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WWN display issues in Web Client (KB #2035448). Standalone vSphere Replication failover issue (KB #2035929).

* St. Croix Professional Services is highly recommended!!

Upgrade Tips
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High-level vSphere 5.1 upgrade strategy:

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Verify compatibility of all components (software/hardware).

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Upgrade third-party software/hardware/firmware as required.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Upgrade VMware View to v5.1.1. Upgrade vCloud Director to v5.1. Upgrade vShield Manager to v5.1. Upgrade vCenter to v5.1. Upgrade SRM & vSphere Replication to v5.1. Upgrade ESXi hosts to v5.1 (plus patch for VMware View compatibility). Upgrade/rebuild datastores from VMFS-3 to VMFS-5. Upgrade Virtual Distributed Switches to v5.1. Upgrade VMware Tools to most current version. Upgrade VM Hardware to v9.

New Web Interface

New Web Interface

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5.1 marks the final release of the vSphere Client for Windows! New vSphere Web Client is only supported on specific browsers.
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Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9
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Disable this: VERY SLOW VERY FAST!

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Firefox 3.6 and later

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Google Chrome 14 and later

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All browsers require Adobe Flash Player 11.1 or later.

New Web Interface

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Windows and Linux are supported today.

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Client Integration Plug-In is required for:

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VM Remote Console (but you should use RDP instead!) Datastore File Upload/Download Works great today on Google Chrome for Mac
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Mac OS X will be supported in the future

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but there is no Client Integration Plug-In

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Many vCenter plug-ins do not work in the Web Client (today):

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VMware Update Manager VMware Site Recovery Manager Many third-party plug-ins

New Web Interface

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Demo: Interface Overview

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Cluster Host VM

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Demo: VMware Tools Upgrade Demo: Schedule Virtual Hardware Upgrade

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Enhanced vMotion*
* Also commonly referred to as: Unified vMotion X-vMotion vSphere 5.1 vMotion Shared Nothing vMotion vMotion + Storage vMotion

Enhanced vMotion
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Combination of vMotion and Storage vMotion. Migrate VMs live between hosts/clusters without shared storage. Supported on vSphere Standard* and above.
* Frank Dennemans blog indicates support for Essentials Plus customers, but current GUI blocks Enhanced vMotion in Essentials Plus.

Enhanced vMotion
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Can only be performed in the new Web Client. Hosts must be managed by same vCenter. Hosts must be part of same Datacenter. Hosts must be on the same Layer 2 network (and same vSwitch if using Virtual Distributed Switch). Uses vMotion (LAN) interface for shared nothing data transfer; uses storage fabric for data transfer if destination is on shared storage. Maximum of 2 concurrent Storage vMotions (including Enhanced vMotions) per host. DRS and SDRS do not use Enhanced vMotion technology at all, and will not make any recommendations for Enhanced vMotion migrations. Remember that HA still requires shared storage! For a true HA/DRS-enabled cluster, you still need shared storage.

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Enhanced vMotion
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Storage vMotion and Enhanced vMotion support parallel disk copies (up to 4 VMDKs simultaneously).
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Only applies to disk copies between distinct datastores.

Enhanced vMotion
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Demo: Local Storage to Local Storage Migration

vSphere Replication & SRM

vSphere Replication 5.1

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Now included in all editions of vSphere 5.1 from Essentials Plus and above at no additional cost. Baseline replicas can be seeded at remote site easily. Up to 500 VMs can be replicated. RPO can be between 15 minutes and 24 hours. Can be used for local replication within the same vCenter. Leverages Microsoft VSS to quiesce the file system as well as VSSaware applications, such as SQL and Exchange. Only block-level changes are transferred across the network.

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vSphere Replication 5.1

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Demo: vSphere Replication Setup

Site Recovery Manager 5.1

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SRM now supports vSphere Essentials Plus. SRM now supports Reprotect with vSphere Replication. Storage DRS and Storage vMotion are now supported with SRM. SRM client is currently only available from the legacy Windows vCenter Client.
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except for vSphere Replication, which is managed from the Web Client.
but VMware promises to release a complete SRM Web Client within 90 days of GA.
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i.e. December 2012?

Site Recovery Manager 5.1

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Demo: SRM Overview Demo: DR Test

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Networking

Networking
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Virtual Distributed Switch Health Check detects common problems:

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VLAN assignment (requires 2+ pNICs) MTU mis-match (requires 2+ pNICs) NIC teaming/load balancing mis-match (requires 2+ pNICs & 2 hosts)

Networking
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Automatic Network Rollback helps recover from typical configuration mistakes on management interfaces (i.e. user error):
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VLAN mismatches IP address conflicts MTU size conflicts NIC teaming/load balancing conflicts NIC speed/duplex mismatches DNS and routing mismatches

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Available on Virtual Distributed Switch (VDS) as well as Virtual Standard Switch (VSS)
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Now you can safely run management traffic through your VDS!

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Enabled by default in v5.1.

Networking
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If you really mess up your Virtual Distributed Switch

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Now you can easily Restore it from the Direct Console UI (DCUI):

Networking
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BPDU Filter for Standard and Distributed vSwitch:

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Not the same as BPDU Guard.

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Can still allow Layer 2 loops.

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Will prevent entire ESXi host from having ports blocked by upstream switchs BPDU Guard feature. Not enabled by default; you must enable it manually:

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Networking
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Demo: Network Health Check Demo: Virtual Distributed Switch Export & Restore Configuration Demo: Automatic Rollback for Management Network

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Networking

Roughly the year 1999 was the peak of when jumbo frames would have been most beneficial.
- Requiem for Jumbo Frames
http://codingrelic.geekhold.com/2011/12/requiem-for-jumbo-frames.html

Honorable Mentions

Honorable Mentions
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vSphere Data Protection (VDP): Small-scale backup solution based on Avamar. 1 million IOPS from a single virtual machine is technically possible. VMware Tools upgrade will not require reboot (starting with next update).
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but only on Windows Vista or later VMs.

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Linked clone support for 32 hosts per cluster on VMFS (View & vCD). 16 Gbps Fibre Channel HBA support. SDRS can now detect datastores backed by same physical disks. Storage I/O Control can detect optimal latency threshold. Transient All Paths Down (APD) situations no longer cause ESXi hosts to get disconnected in vCenter or traffic to halt forever. HA now detects Permanent Device Loss (PDL) and shuts down VMs. vShield Endpoint (agentless anti-virus) included in Essentials Plus and above.

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Additional VMware Resources

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Yellow Bricks Blog

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Duncan Epping (VMware) www.yellow-bricks.com

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Frank Denneman Blog

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Frank Denneman (VMware) frankdenneman.nl

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Virtual Geek Blog

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Chad Sakac (EMC) virtualgeek.typepad.com

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Virtualization Evangelist Blog

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Jason Boche (local Minnesota vExpert) www.boche.net

Questions?
October 25, 2012
Bill Oyler Lead Systems Engineer St. Croix Solutions, Inc. boyler@scsmn.com

Slide Deck Will Be Posted:

www.scsmn.com/vmware2012