VMware CPU Resources

Look at my VMware ESX Server CPU Resources.

click here for bigger image.

As you can see from graph above, my VMware ESX Server running for more than 85% – 97% of CPU resources.

Basically I have 2 VMware ESX 3.5 running on top of Dell R900, Intel Xeon E7330 @2.4 Ghz processor and 128 RAM on each server. The CPU hungry incident happen when I did a vMotion about 40 VM guests from ESX 1 to another ESX 2 server for VMware ESX host patches update. Thanks god! My VM guest are still running without any issue and this is mixed of PRODUCTION and DEVELOPMENT servers.

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July 12, 2008 · Filed Under VMware

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How to add a raw mapping device on VMware

VMware ESX Server offers two choices for managing disk access in a virtual machine—VMware Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) and raw device mapping (RDM). It is very important to understand the I/O characteristics of these disk access management systems in order to choose the right access type for a particular application. Choosing the right disk access management method can be a key factor in achieving high system performance for enterprise-class applications.

Basically you can read few VMware RDM related guide from VMware such as: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx25_rawdevicemapping.pdf and http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/1040

I would like to share “How to add a raw mapping device on VMware” in my VMware ESX development box together with SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 VMware guest.

Click on SLES 10 VMware guest in my Virtual Infrastructure Client
Click Edit Setting
Click Add
Select Hard Disk
Click Next
Selecet Raw Device Mappings
Click Next
Select Target LUN
/vmfs/devices/disks/vmhba0:0:16:0
/vmfs/devices/disks/vmhba0:0:22:0
Click Next
Select Store with Virtual Machine OR Specify datastore
Click Next
Select Compatibility
Choose physical (allow the guest operating system to access the hardware directly. Taking a snapshot of this virtual machine will not include this disk)
For Virtual (it’s allow the virtual machine to use VMware snapshots and other advanced functionality
Click Next
Select Virtual Device Node -> SCSI (0:1)
Click Next
Ready to Complete
Click Finish
Click OK

Done!

As you can see from pictures show above, SLES 9 with 200G Raw Device Mapping Drive created.

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May 3, 2008 · Filed Under How's To, Tips, VMware

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Adding a new Hard Disk in SLES

For any system that can avoid downtime would be a great solution for system admin like me. I have a request from customer ask for additional 10G partition for /u03 due to emergency request in my SuSE Linux Enterprise Server running on top of VMware ESX host.

Adding a new hdd in VMware is pretty simple. Logon to VMware Infrastruce Client -> click edit setting in my SLES VMware guest and add new hard disk.

SSH as superuser into my SLES box and type:

rescan-scsi-bus.sh

That’s simple. I can view my new hard disk using command:

cat /proc/partitions

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April 15, 2008 · Filed Under Tips, VMware

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VMware ESX 3.5.1 Updated

VMware Inc. released VMware ESX 3.5 Update 1 on 10 April 2008 and I made time to apply on my ESX development box today.

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April 15, 2008 · Filed Under Tips, VMware

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VMware Workstation 6.5 Beta Open for Public Download

VMware just posted about VMware Workstation 6.5 Beta, Build 84113 open for public download. This might be a point five release but it will ship with the “Unity” feature that allows you to “hide” the desktop and show just the virtual guest’s applications on top of the hosts desktop. So we can call it “seamless virtual windows”.