A couple of weeks ago Gartner released their October 2009 magic Quadrant for blade server report. If you have been tracking blade servers, you know the market has been rapidly adopting new technology due to the tidal wave of server virtualization. 10Gb Ethernet, 8Gb Fibre Channel, 10Gb FCoE, and 4x...
Today in my vSphere class a question came up about zoning a fibre channel SAN. Best practices from most storage vendors and security specialists recommends WWN single initiator/single target zoning. What the heck does that mean? First, it means a lot of zones--they multiply like bunnies! An initiator is your...
Under some circumstances you may feel the need to partition an ESX LUN, so you can create two or more datastores. Why? Let's say you have a small branch office with a single ESX host and it's only using internal storage from a RAID controller. And for some reason you...
One of the problems with modern disk arrays that support thin provisioning is that volumes tend to get fat over time, just like us Americans! Instead of putting yourself on a diet, you can put your storage array on a diet. Think you will need to haul your array to...
There's a scary article on Slashdot about a SSL attack that was revealed that this year's DEFCON hacker conference. Now there's been a certificate issued for PayPal which aids in exploiting the hole. This is the null-prefix attack! SlashDot The Register SSL Hacking tools here. And while we are at it..let's defeat...
Quick, run, don't walk to the Workstation 7.0 release candidate download! Full Windows 7 Host and Guest support including the ability to run Aero! Improved 3D Graphics for Windows guests with OpenGL and Shader Model 3.0 support Support for many new OSs including Windows Server 2008 R2, Debian 5, and...
There's an interesting article at the Channel Register about some comments the 3PAR CEO has made about possible future enhancements to their storage arrays. The project I support recently acquired a 3PAR T400 storage array and so far we are quite pleased with the ease of self-installation and the attractive...
During the installation of VMware vCenter Server it creates a self-signed certificate which is used to secure communications between the vCenter server, the web console, and VIC. Most organizations will probably want to install their own SSL certificate from a trusted certificate authority. However, doing this is easier said than...
If you haven't purchased the HP BladeSystem before, the power options may be a bit confusing. In particular, if you want to buy the large C-7000 chassis, and want to minimize the number of outlets you have a variety of options. Each C-7000 chassis when fully populated with power supplies...
Cisco has a good set of documentation for the Nexus 1000v. I've provided the direct links below. The compatibility guide seems to be frequently updated, so always be sure to download the latest version prior to deployment. For a good overview of the 1000v and all of the components, review...
Today I burned the HP version of ESXi 4.0 to DVD, since I wanted to test the exact same version at home that we will be using at work. My home computer is a generic Asus computer, but I figured the extra HP CIM providers wouldn't hurt. I got as...
Unfortunately at this time VMware does not support the vSphere client or vCenter on Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2. If you try and launch the client you will get:Error parsing the server "SERVER IP" "clients.xml" file. Login will continue, contact your system administratorThere are many threads over on the...