Symptoms

• If you configure VMware High Availability (HA) in VirtualCenter 2.5, you may see the message:
   
• This message does not appear to cause any failures.

Resolution

This message occurs with ESX 3.5/4 and vCenter 2.5/4. It indicates that the Service Console does not have network redundancy.

This message can be safely ignored.

You can, however, prevent this message by:

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VMWare has made CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol ) available to their host.

When you the CDP is running on router/switch where the physical network card is connected it provide information to both Network administrator and ESX admin about host name/network card. This information help when you are trying to figure out which network card on the host is connected to which physical switch

B|–set-cdp          Set the CDP status for a given virtual switch.
                        To set pass one of “down”, “listen”, “advertise”, “both”

On this ESX host we got 3 vSwitches, you need to enable the CDP feature for each vSwitch like (putty or console):

[root@ESX-vm2 root]# esxcfg-vswitch -B both vSwitch0
[root@ESX-vm2 root]# esxcfg-vswitch -B both vSwitch1
[root@ESX-vm2 root]# esxcfg-vswitch -B both vSwitch2

Now in vCenter 2.5 you see the Configuration > Networking > vSwitches, in te little comment box you can click:

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Just seeing that I can use VMware Data Recovery (VDR) without connecting vCenter by vSphere client, I only connect to the ESX host. You need only install the VMware Data Recovery Plugin into your VMware vSphere Client and you can manage your backups.

Little note: vCenter must be online!
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When I tried to “Shutdown Guest” of “Power Off” my VM called VMPROS_RCLI (VMware-RCLI-3.5-U2-Appliance) getting the following error message:

“Another task is allready in progress”

VMware Tools installation is in progress on this virtual machine. Virtual DVD/CDROM devices can’t be edited or removed while Tools is being installed. –> Klik OK
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Bij het configureren van VMware Data Recovery krijg kreeg ik bij het connecten naar de VDR Virtual Machine de volgende foutmelding: “Error: Connect:BeginSession: failed to authenticate Please make sure that the Data Recovery Appliance is turned on”

De VM draaide in hetzelfde subnet, geen nat of firewall aanstaan maar kon maar niet connecten.

vCenter + SQL database staat geinstalleerd op een Windows 2003 SP2 R2 64-Bit.

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Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) simplifies VMotion compatibility issues across CPU generations. EVC automatically configures server CPUs with Intel FlexMigration or AMD-V Extended Migration technologies to be compatible with older servers. After EVC is enabled for a cluster in the VirtualCenter inventory, all hosts in that cluster are configured to present identical CPU features and ensure CPU compatibility for VMotion. The features presented by each host are determined by selecting a predefined EVC baseline. VirtualCenter does not permit the addition of hosts that cannot be automatically configured to be compatible with the EVC baseline.

To use the EVC feature, you must be running ESX Server 3.5 Update 2 or higher with Virtual Center 2.5 Update 2 or higher and have only compatible processors that are listed in one of the following tables. EVC does not allow for migration with VMotion between Intel and AMD processors. Note the following restrictions:

• The tables below are based upon public information. VMware has not verified all of these processors. For more information on which servers and processors are supported, see the Systems Compatibility Guide for ESX Server 3.5 and ESX Server 3i.
• This list only covers server class processors compatible with the EVC baseline(s) and might not be a complete list.
• You must ensure the BIOS settings for these processors enable Hardware Virtualization (if available) and Execute Protection. Default BIOS settings may not always enable these features. Hardware Virtualization is Intel VT on Intel processors and AMD-V on (supported) AMD processors. Execute Protection is Intel eXecute Disable (XD) on Intel processors and AMD No eXecute (NX) on AMD processors.

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• When attempting to customize the deployment of a virtual machine the radio buttons are disabled (greyed out).
• When attempting to create a new virtual machine from a Template in ESX v3.5 you receive the following error message:
  Warning: Windows customization resources were not found on this server

The problem is seen when if Micosoft’s sysprep files are not found on the VirtualCenter host, or are not in the location they are expected.

This article guides you through the process of determining the correct version of sysprep to use and the correct locations for these files.

Microsoft has a different version of Sysprep for each release and service pack of Windows. According to Microsoft, "You need to use the version of Sysprep specific to the operating system you are deploying." For more information, see http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/en-us/management/setupdeply_faq.mspx
Link valid as of May 27, 2008. If you find the link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the article as necessary.

The differences are not immediately visible in the packaging and documentation of the service packs, so it is necessary to manually investigate.

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vCenter Server 2.5 on linux is still beta and not all features are supported.

Unsupported VirtualCenter Server Components
The technical preview version of VirtualCenter on Linux does not support the following VirtualCenter server components:
• Embedded database
• LDAP support
• Virtual machine customizations
• Plug-in support
• Virtual Infrastructure Web Access

Unsupported VirtualCenter Server Features
The technical preview version of VirtualCenter on Linux does not support the following VirtualCenter
features and associated products:
• Monitoring
• Alarms
• Schedule tasks
• Topology maps
• Update Manager
• Site Recovery Manager (SRM)
• Getting Started tab
• Converter Enterprise
• Guided consolidation

This is Part II of the howto, if you have missed Part I go check it out.

Last week I have released Part I and it is now time for Part II. Let me explain to you how I setup vCenter Server on Linux and connected it to the Oracle XE Database.

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