Today we configured a new VLAN on the physical switches, now we need to configure a portgroup with vlan id on multiple ESX hosts in our cluster. To do this by hand it will cost 3 minutes per host, to script this.. you configure this in 10 seconds!

The script:

^{Get-Cluster “clustername” | Get-VMHost | Get-VirtualSwitch -Name “vSwitch0″ | New-VirtualPortGroup -Name “VLAN-23-Citrix Provisioning” -VLanId 23}

Voila!

Last year we already posted about creating a bootable USB stick. In the last post we used WinImage to create the bootable USB stick to boot ESXi. Some time ago I found a tool which makes it much easier to create a bootable ESXi USB Stick. I am going to use UNetbootin to create bootable USB stick. You can download it here.

1. First connect the USB stick and start UNetbootin

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Next > Next > Next…

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Dear VMware Certified Professionals,

First, let us say thank you for supporting VMware’s certification program! We appreciate our VCPs who have worked hard over the past few months to achieve our newest certification, the VCP on vSphere 4. In order to meet the December 31st 2009 deadline, many of you recently scheduled (and hopefully passed!) your exam with our testing partner. In fact, so many of you scheduled exams that some of our VCP professionals were unable to find a testing center with available seats prior to the December deadline.

In order to accommodate participants that despite best efforts were unable to schedule their exam prior to the deadline, VMware will continue accepting the VCP3 certification as a qualification to take the VCP4 exam without requiring attending the ‘What’s New" class through January 31st 2010. We fully expect that the additional four weeks will allow remaining participants ample time to find a testing center with available seating, and will NOT be extending the deadline any further, so please take advantage of this opportunity! Regards, The VMware Technical Certification Team

Known issue’s:

When attempting to upgrade ESX 4.0 to ESX 4.0 Update 1 (U1), you may experience these symptoms:

• Upgrade operation may fail or hang and can result in an incomplete installation
• Upon reboot, the host that was being upgraded may be left in an inconsistent state and may display a purple diagnostic screen with the following error:
  COS Panic: Int3 @ mp_register_ioapic

To download the newest (re-released) Update 1 check url:

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/datacenter_downloads/vmware_vsphere_4/4

Symptoms:

Upgrading virtual hardware in ESX 4 may cause Windows 2008 disks to go offline. 
Upgrading virtual hardware from version 4 to version 7 may cause Windows 2008 disks to go offline.
Creating a new virtual machine on hardware version 7 may cause Windows 2008 disks to go offline.
Note: The first disk (C: drive) is not affected. Any additional disks may be affected and show marked as Offline within Disk Management.
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What’s New

The following information provides highlights of some of the enhancements available in this release of VMware ESX:

VMware View 4.0 support – This release adds support for VMware View 4.0, a solution built specifically for delivering desktops as a managed service from the protocol to the platform.

Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 support –This release adds support for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 as well as 64-bit Windows 2008 R2 as guest OS platforms. In addition, the vSphere Client is now supported and can be installed on a Windows 7 platform. For a complete list of supported guest operating systems with this release, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

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View also: Clustering vCenter Server 4.0 Using Microsoft Cluster Services Part: 1

Install Virtual Center 4.0 on Node 1:

Start the installation:

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Details:

If you plan to use Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2 as a guest operating system, do not use the SVGA drivers included with VMware Tools. Use the standard SVGA driver instead.

Symptoms:

Freeze

Hanging Console

High CPU

Reboots

Solution:

To deselect the SVGA drivers installed with VMware Tools:

1. When you install VMware Tools, select VMware Tools Custom Install and deselect the SVGA driver.

Alternatively, remove the SVGA driver from the Device Manager after installing VMware Tools

Product Versions:

VMware ESX 4.0.x

VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable

Source: KB 1011709