October 2016 – Live Virtually

How to Change All of the vSAN VMkernel Port IP Addresses in a vSphere Cluster.

October 26, 2016 by pgkeilty, posted in Uncategorized, VSAN

Several months ago I was asked how to change all the vSAN VMkernel port IP Addresses in a vSphere cluster and today I was asked again, so here it is.

Non-Disruptively

Assuming each host has 2 VMkernel ports (a & b) enabled for vSAN traffic.

Disable vSAN traffic on each of the b networking interfaces on each host
Change the IP addresses on each of the b networking interfaces on each host
Move the physical network cable if moving to new switch ports
Re-enable vSAN traffic on each of the b networking interfaces on each host
Verify communication between all the b networking interfaces using vmkping test.
- Testing VMkernel network connectivity with the vmkping command (1003728) https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003728
Repeat for all the a networking interfaces

Disruptively (downtime is OK and/or the hosts are being moved)

Follow the vSAN enabled vSphere cluster shutdown process:
- VSAN Part 11 – Shutting down the VSAN cluster http://cormachogan.com/2013/12/10/vsan-part-11-shutting-down-the-vsan-cluster/
Or, if vCenter is running on the cluster, follow:
- Shutting down and powering on a VSAN 6.x Cluster when vCenter Server is running on top of VSAN (2142676) https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2142676
Move the hosts or the physical network cables if necessary.
Power the hosts back on.
Change the IPs of the VSAN VMKernel ports.
Verify communication between all the networking interfaces using vmkping test.
- Testing VMkernel network connectivity with the vmkping command (1003728) https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003728
Power on VM’s

vSAN,… correction its VSAN,… OK, OK, its vSAN now, VSAN and Virtual SAN are wrong.

October 25, 2016October 25, 2016 by pgkeilty, posted in Virtual SAN, VSAN

I spent 4 years at EMC prior to moving to VMware over 3 years ago to join the Software Defined Storage team. At EMC it was always a challenge to get the acronyms and names correct. When Acadia (VCE) first came out with the “Vblock” everybody wanted to type it as “vBlock”. I’d always try to subtly correct it and hope people got the hint. Other times I’d straight out correct them and feel like a jerk. But, to me, using the proper name was and is important. The same problem happened with “VPLEX”, everyone wanted to type it “vPLEX”. Why did people want to do this? Well, it’s VMware’s fault because they named things like “vSphere” and “vCenter” and later “vCloud” and “vRealize”. So when I joined VMware it was odd to me that we called our upcoming product “VSAN” and not “vSAN”. I’ve spent 3 years correcting Customers and VMware people one way or another that publically, and in product documentation, VMware actually could only call our product “Virtual SAN”. Many people, including me, got lazy and called it “VSAN”… but it was definitely not “vSAN”. Well, yesterday that all changed. Without going into detail, “vSAN” is the only name to use. Virtual SAN and VSAN are no more. Now I have to go fix all my spell checkers.

VMware Storage Technology Names & Acronyms

October 7, 2016October 25, 2016 by pgkeilty, posted in SDS, Software Defined Storage, SPBM, SRM, VAIO Filters, VASA, Virtual SAN, VSAN, VVols

vSAN = VMware’s Software Defined Storage Solution formerly known as Virtual SAN or VSAN. Now the only acceptible name is “vSAN” with the little “v”.
SPBM = Storage Policy Based Management
VASA = vSphere API’s for Storage Awareness
VVol = Virtual Volume
PE = Protocol Endpoint
VAAI = vSphere API’s for Array Integration
VAIO Filtering = vSphere API’s for IO Filtering
VR = vSphere Replication
SRM = Site Recovery Manager
VDP = vSphere Data Protection
vFRC = vSphere Flash Read Cache
VSA = vSphere Storage Appliance (end of life)
VMFS = Virtual Machine File System
SvMotion = Storage vMotion
XvMotion – Across Host, Cluster, vCenter vMotion (without shared storage)
SDRS = Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler
SIOC = Storage Input Output Control
MPIO = Multi Path Input Output

Citrix & VSAN

October 7, 2016October 17, 2016 by pgkeilty, posted in Uncategorized, Virtual SAN, VMware, VSAN, vSphere 6

There are many VMware and Citrix customers happily running Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop on VMware vSphere clusters with Virtual SAN enabled.

Citrix XenApp is fully supported on VSAN.

Citrix XenDesktop PVS is fully supported on VSAN.

Citrix XenDesktop MCS is still not supported on VSAN by Citrix at the time of this writing on October 7, 2016. Citrix has a fix that is in 7.8 and 7.9 already and customers have reported that the fix works, however Citrix claims the fix has not been qualified by them and thus is not supported. ETA for their official support is unclear at this point but is the responsibility of Citrix. If you are needing this feature, please reach out to Citrix to let them know.

Our friends at Dell Technologies (EMC/VCE) have tested XenApp, XenDesktop PVS and MCS on VxRail and have produced a report here:

Citrix XenDesktop 7.9 and VMware vSphere 6.0 with VCE VxRail Appliance
http://www.emc.com/collateral/technical-documentation/h15433-euc-citrix-xendesktop-vxrail-sg.pdf

In it they state “Citrix official support of MCS on VMware Virtual SAN is expected in a future release of XenDesktop. EMC tested this configuration and found no observable issues.”

For the record, I’ve been a fan of Citrix since I first deployed Citrix WinView in my data center and remote sites back in 1994. Yes, I’m that old. I’m sure this will all get worked out.