VAAI- Hear me now, believe me later

VAAI (vStorage API for Array Integration) was first introduced into vSphere in v4.1 with promises of deeper integration and control over supported storage Arrays.  Each feature (or Primitve) was designed to help us gain benefits from our Arrays. Vendors who didn’t support VAAI were frowned upon and those delivering on Continue Reading

VMware ESXi CBT Bug – Your data may be at risk

Changed Block Tracking (CBT) is a great feature introduced in ESXi 4.0, that effectively brought incremental backup technology to our virtual machines. Third parties were able to leverage this so backups would only require the processing of blocks that have changed rather than all blocks. This saved inordinate amounts of time, Continue Reading

EMC Recoverpoint+VMware SRM – ‘discover Arrays’ failed.

I noticed this little gem today whilst in the process of adjusting some SRM documentation and grabbing some screenshots;                 I hadn’t received any alerts so didn’t think it was a major issue, but sounded like it’s the sort of error that may be annoying during execution Continue Reading

vSphere 6 Release Candidate – Out now (Beta only)

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2014/10/vsphere-6-0-rc-now-live.html It’s here…or is it. The above link went live and was then pulled, the explanation being that the vSPhere 6.0 RC is available, but ONLY for BETA program members. Regardless, the features and improvements listed are worthy of being posted;   •Quality: Improved overall quality of the product, increased Continue Reading

VMware EVO:RAIL : SDDC in a box

Rumours of the VMware hyper-converged appliance have been riding high for some months under the guise of “Project Marvin”, now official, the details are out about EVO:RAIL VMware EVO:RAlL landing page is here. From the release; VMware EVO: RAIL™ combines compute, networking, and storage resources into a hyper-converged infrastructure appliance Continue Reading

vSphere – “Another task is already in progress..” fix with esxcli

I recently had the ‘pleasure’ of an unresponsive vm that had basically turned into a ZOMBIE ! It could not be restarted, edited, snapshot’d and was of course, unresponsive from an OS perspective (No RDP, ping or comms just totally off the air) Any attempted operation from the vSphere client returned Continue Reading

PowerCLI for basic vCenter/ESXi config management

Many admins use Host Profiles, vCM, vCOPS and the like to ensure element compliance within their VI inventory.  While these can be fine solutions, many companies do not have the luxury of owning these products. In many cases the targeted use of powerCLI commands across your environment can help to Continue Reading