2/5/11

Upgrade ESX 3.5 to vSphere 4 with Host Update Utility

Are you nervous about upgrading VMware ESX 3.5 to vSphere 4? I was too but I discovered with VMware's Host Update Utility, not only could a non-patched ESX 3.5 host get upgraded but the ability to rollback to ESX 3.5 with all the settings in tack was available. If all goes well, there are scripts to remove the ESX 3.5 files permanently from the host as well as scripts to remove vSphere 4 and roll back to ESX 3.5.

Production versus Test

The video was recorded prior to executing this in production. I would love to say that everything went smoothly but it did not. The "upgrade" went fine but (host) VMotion did not work after the upgrade. The production environment was comprised of 2 ESX 3.5 hosts that utilized vMotion. The approach was to upgrade each host with a day or 2 in between for testing purposes. Unfortunately, after the first host was upgraded, VMotion did not work. Additionally, once I rolled back to ESX 3.5, vMotion would work again.

After a phone call to VMware technical support and three VMware engineers later, we determined that one vmnic (on each host) was not seeing the proper local traffic. For instance, if my traffic for the VMkernal was on 10.10.1.x, the associated vmnic was seeing 10.10.30.x. We believe that some cables were moved around to the wrong port on the switch but since our WAN engineers handle the switches, I did not have access to make the corrections. I am over-simplifying the issues that took several hours to resolve but be forewarned, check are your cabling and networking prior to upgrading.

This demo offers a side-by-side view of the host update utility and the ESX host as it is upgrading. NOTE: This demo concentrates on just the upgrade while a future upgrade will detail the rollback and clean-up steps.

Virtualbox: Free/Desktop Virtualization

Free. There is something about the word free that causes many of us to lose our minds and install any free applications even if it is junk. With stiffer competition for market share, the primary competitors are releasing free versions of their virtualization platforms that are worth testing and far from junk.

Free Server Offerings

VMWare, the industry leader for virtualization, has VMware Server for some time but recently released ESXi to compete with Microsoft’s soon-to-be released free version of Hyper-V. Sun has entered the game, offering VirtualBox for free with support for more versions of Linux than can be imagined. It should be noted that VirtualBox offers not only a PC and Mac version but a Linux version too.

Desktop Offerings

On the desktop side, VMWare, has offered Workstation for PC and Fusion for Mac. As a long-time Windows administrator and recent convert to an Intel Mac, VMware’s Fusion is pricelss. Prior to Fusion, Parallel’s Desktop for Mac was the popular, if not only solution, for virtualization on the Mac but it has been riddled with performance issues. Additionally, it is far more convenient to use Fusion and import a guest machine into ESX or Virtual Server with minimum configuration changes. One should keep in mind that converting a guest machine from Parallels to Vmware can take hours depending on how large the virtual guest machine.

For hesitant users desiring to switch to a Mac, virtualization offers the best of both worlds. Even though I administer Windows servers for a living, I am able to do so from my Mac without using Apple's Native BootCamp. When necessary, I am able to run any of the desktop solutions above. Now that Sun offers a free desktop solution, it can reduce the overall cost when purchasing a Mac.

Summary

Regardless of the major operating systems, a free and/or desktop solution should be available to meet most testing or development needs. If a business requires a full-time, production virtualization solution, ensure the chosen option is fully supported by all vendors should any problems arise. A free solution could be the most costly mistake ever made if it is not supported. Otherwise, test away!!

6/10/09

Parallels Overview and Importing a Vmware Guest


Parallels makes desktop and server virtualization products for Mac and Windows users. In this overview and demo, I show how I converted a Windows guest VM (virtual machine) from Vmware's Fusion (or Windows Desktop) to Parallels Desktop for Mac.

History


I use a portable USB drive that is formatted using NTFS. Apple's operating system, namely Mac OS X, does not write to this partition type. As a result, I was using a free utility, namely NTFS-3G. This is a wonderful app that allows me to share my 320 GB USB drive between my Windows and Mac computers. Unfortunately, I aka QueenGeek, wasn not thinking when I applied Apple's recent firmware upgrade. DOH!!! Well, the upgrade broke NTFS-3G but I'm confident that an update will be forthcoming.


The Problem and Solution

In the interim, I could not run my Windows guest VM because the USB drive was viewed as a read-only partition by my Mac. Additionally, I was unable to copy the guest machine locally to the Mac. Fortunately, Parallels and VMware are pretty good about keeping their utilities current such that migration to the other's manufacturer's platform is pretty painless. Enjoy the video!!

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