Tag: vSphere

Validate that the VAAI block primitives are enabled in vSphere

by pgkeilty, posted in Uncategorized

The hardware offloading and acceleration benefits of VAAI in vSphere are well documented. Check here for one of many explanations.  I am frequently asked by customers how to know if VAAI is enabled and where to check.

Here are the instructions to validate that the VAAI block primitives are enabled in vSphere.

Verify Hardware Assisted (Accelerated) Locking is enabled

  1. From the vSphere Client click Home > Inventory > Hosts and Clusters
  2. Select a host, click the Configuration tab, and select Advanced Settings
  3. Select VMFS3 and note that the VMFS3.HardwareAcceleratedLocking parameter is set to 1

Verify Block Zeroing (Hardware Accelerated Zero) is enabled

  1. From the vSphere Client click Home > Inventory > Hosts and Clusters
  2. Select a host, click the Configuration tab, and select Advanced Settings
  3. Select DataMover and note that the DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedInit parameter is set to 1

Verify Hardware Accelerated Copy is enabled

  1. From the vSphere Client click Home > Inventory > Hosts and Clusters
  2. Select a host, click the Configuration tab, and select Advanced Settings
  3. Select DataMover and note that the DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedMove parameter is set to 1

vSphere 5 licensing entitlement checker

by pgkeilty, posted in Uncategorized

vSphere 5 was launched almost a year ago and with much discussions around their new vRAM based licensing model.  Personally the whole idea makes sense to me especially considering the evolution to cloud computing and determining a common measurement to find the least expensive place to run your virtual machines and applications.  If a public cloud provider charge $X per GB vRAM then your private cloud needs to be able to do it for $X minus a little bit or provide a better service that makes it worth the additional cost.  I am frequently asked if it’ll cost more to run a VM/app in vSphere 5 versus vSphere 4.  Luckily “there’s an app for that”.

Here’s the link to the VMware tool to check vSphere 5 licensing entitlements.

http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/upgrade-center/vsphere-licensing-advisor.html

I also recommend watching this video by one of my former vSpecialists colleagues to show you how to use it.

http://www.virtu-al.net/2011/08/11/vmware-license-advisorofficial-tool/