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Archive for the ‘IT’ Category

Binding software iSCSI initiators in VMWare

11 Apr

General steps:
1) Create vmkernel port groups and assign each one to a single Broadcom vmnic
2) Determine which vmnic belongs to which Broadcom HBA
3) Bind the vmkernel port group to the associated Broadcom HBA
4) Configure the HBA to communicate with the iSCSI target.

From VMware KB
Add the Physical Network Interface as a binding to the Software iSCSI HBA Device by running the following commands. In this example, we are referencing the Software iSCSI HBA as vmhba32:

List the currently-bound Network Interfaces to the Software iSCSI HBA by running the following command:

# esxcli swiscsi vmnic list -d vmhba32

List the current available network interfaces available on the ESX Host and identify the interface(s) you wish to bind:

# esxcfg-vmknic -l

Bind the network interface(s) identified in the previous step to the Software iSCSI HBA Device:

# esxcli swiscsi nic add -n vmk0 -d vmhba32

Verify the network interface(s) were successfully bound to the HBA:

# esxcli swiscsi vmnic list -d vmhba32

Enable the Software iSCSI Adapter in the Storage Adapters section of the Configuration tab.
Enter the dynamic discovery addresses of the storage array.
At the top-right, perform a Rescan of the Software iSCSI HBA.

Note: You may repeat this process and create additional bindings

For detailed information regarding the configuration of the networking within ESX read pages 36-40 of the iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide.

 
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HP Proliant Memory Configuration

25 Mar

When adding additional memory to an HP Proliant server or building up a new one memory type and location is important to consider.

A great tool for new builds is the DDR3 Memory Configuration Tool from HP: http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/options/tool/hp_memtool.html

If you already have memory installed and have already purchased or planned on the amount of additional memory you can follow a basic guideline to optimize your memory configuration for performance.

Depending on how many processors you have you will use one or both memory banks. In this example below we have two processor and have balanced the memory across both banks and 3 channels.

The path to follow is start with A and put your smallest memory in that slot. In this case 3A on both sides gets 2GB. Then go to B, C, D and so on. In this case 8GB in both 6B and 9C.

HP Proliant Support can offer additional advise depending on your goals, performance, power saving, etc. US: 800-334-5144

 
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MS DPM 2010 Client install ports

31 Jan

After installing the DPM server you need to add clients to protect. You will need to install the client on the computer you want to protect. You can do this from the DPM server but it requires that you add the following incoming firewall rules.

Protocol Port Details
DCOM 135/TCP
Dynamic		 The DPM control protocol uses DCOM. DPM issues commands to the protection agent by invoking DCOM calls on the agent. The protection agent responds by invoking DCOM calls on the DPM server.

TCP port 135 is the DCE endpoint resolution point used by DCOM.

By default, DCOM assigns ports dynamically from the TCP port range of 1024 through 65535. However, you can configure this range by using Component Services. For more information, see Using Distributed COM with Firewalls(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=46088).
TCP 5718/TCP
5719/TCP		 The DPM data channel is based on TCP. Both DPM and the protected computer initiate connections to enable DPM operations such as synchronization and recovery.

DPM communicates with the agent coordinator on port 5718 and with the protection agent on port 5719.
DNS 53/UDP Used between DPM and the domain controller, and between the protected computer and the domain controller, for host name resolution.
Kerberos 88/UDP 88/TCP Used between DPM and the domain controller, and between the protected computer and the domain controller, for authentication of the connection endpoint.
LDAP 389/TCP
389/UDP		 Used between DPM and the domain controller for queries.
NetBIOS 137/UDP
138/UDP
139/TCP
445/TCP		 Used between DPM and the protected computer, between DPM and the domain controller, and between the protected computer and the domain controller, for miscellaneous operations. Used for SMB directly hosted on TCP/IP for DPM functions.
 
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MS DPM 2010 Evalution

31 Jan

In the past I have used Retrospect (now owned by Roxio) as a backup for servers and workstations. It’s OK. It does backup the data and I have successfully restored data with it. But the interfaces is poor. As of 01/2011 Retrospect does not support Exchange 2010 database backups.

A good looking alternative is Microsoft’s Data Protection Manager, DPM 2010. You must set up an additional server to run DPM. Then download and install the 180-day trial here.

DPM offers volume and system state backups as well as bare metal restore. It’s also application aware, Exchange, MS SQL, SAP, Sharepoint.

It sounds great and from my experience so far it is very easy to use. Cost is much lower than some other 3rd party utilities with similar features.

 
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Configure NFS for VM datastore

28 Jan

If you are trying to add a datastore to vCenter and receive the error:

Call “HostDatastoreSystem.CreateNasDatastore” for object ….

it is likely due to permissions. You can check the log on the ESX host /var/log/vmkernel

On the NFS server check the configuration of /etc/exports

You will want to make sure you give full access to the ESX host that will use this datastore.

Example – Setting permissions on the directory /backups, allowing the network 192.168.0.1/24, read write permission without root squashing (allow the client to map and act as root):

/backups 192.168.0.1/24(rw,no_root_squash)

After you will need to commit these changes.

service nfs-kernal-server restart
exportfs -a

Now attempt to map the NFS datastore through vCenter again. If it still fails you may want to make sure you aren’t blocking any specific IP address in the /etc/hosts.deny config file.

 
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