Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Service Console Memory, a common misunderstanding (ESX 4.0+)
ESX 4.x hosts – the default amount of RAM is dynamically configured to a value between 300MB and 800MB, depending on the amount of RAM that is installed in the host. For example, if the host has 32GB of memory the service console RAM will be set to 500MB, while a host which has 128GB of RAM will see the service console RAM set to 700MB. The maximum has not changed from 800MB, which would be seen on hosts with 256GB of RAM or higher, if it is being dynamically allocated.
ESX Host – 8GB RAM -> Default allocated Service Console RAM = 300MB
ESX Host – 16GB RAM -> Default allocated Service Console RAM = 400MB
ESX Host – 32GB RAM -> Default allocated Service Console RAM = 500MB
ESX Host – 64GB RAM -> Default allocated Service Console RAM = 602MB
ESX Host – 96GB RAM -> Default allocated Service Console RAM = 661MB
ESX Host – 128GB RAM -> Default allocated Service Console RAM = 703MB
ESX Host – 256GB RAM -> Default allocated Service Console RAM = 800MB
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Jumbo Frames
In computer networking, jumbo frames are Ethernet frames with more than 1500 bytes of payload. Conventionally, jumbo frames can carry up to 9000 bytes of payload, but variations exist and some care must be taken when using the term. Many Gigabit Ethernet switches and Gigabit Ethernet network interface cards support jumbo frames, but all Fast Ethernet switches and Fast Ethernet network interface cards support only standard-sized frames.
Super jumbo frames (SJFs) are generally considered to be Internet packets which have a payload in excess of the tacitly accepted jumbo frame size of 9000 bytes.
Monday, October 4, 2010
VMware vCloud Director (vCD)
VMware vCloud Director is a new abstraction layer.VMware vCloud Director does not only abstracts and pools resources it also adds a self service portal.it is more or less bolted on top of vCenter/ESX(i).
As stated before, vCD abstracts resources which are managed by vCenter. Below each of the resource types I have mentioned what it links to on a vSphere layer so that it makes a bit more sense:
Compute
- clusters and resource pools
Network
- dvSwitches and/or portgroups
Storage
- VMFS datastores and NFS shares
As a vCD Administrator you can use the vCD portal to carve up these resources as required and assign these to a customer or department, often referred to in vCD as an “Organization”.
In order to carve up these resources a container will need to be created and this is what we call a Virtual Datacenter. There are two different types of Virtual Datacenter’s:
Provider Virtual Datacenter (Provider vDC)
A Provider Virtual Datacenter is the foundation for your Compute Resources. When creating a Provider Virtual Datacenter you will need to select a resource pool, however this can also be the root resource pool aka your vSphere cluster. At the same time you will need to associate a set of datastores with the Provider vDC, generally speaking this will be all LUNs masked to your cluster. Some describes the Provider vDC as the object where you specify the SLA and I guess that explains the concept a bit more.
Organization Virtual Datacenter (Org vDC)
After you have created a Provider vDC you can create an Org vDC and tie that Org vDC to a vCD Organization. Please note that an Organization can have multiple Org vDCs associated to it.
To summarize, vCD offers a self service portal. This portal enables you to provision resources to a tenant and enables the tenant to consume these resources by creating vApps. vApps are a container for one or multiple virtual machines and can contain isolated networks.
As stated before, vCD abstracts resources which are managed by vCenter. Below each of the resource types I have mentioned what it links to on a vSphere layer so that it makes a bit more sense:
Compute
- clusters and resource pools
Network
- dvSwitches and/or portgroups
Storage
- VMFS datastores and NFS shares
As a vCD Administrator you can use the vCD portal to carve up these resources as required and assign these to a customer or department, often referred to in vCD as an “Organization”.
In order to carve up these resources a container will need to be created and this is what we call a Virtual Datacenter. There are two different types of Virtual Datacenter’s:
Provider Virtual Datacenter (Provider vDC)
A Provider Virtual Datacenter is the foundation for your Compute Resources. When creating a Provider Virtual Datacenter you will need to select a resource pool, however this can also be the root resource pool aka your vSphere cluster. At the same time you will need to associate a set of datastores with the Provider vDC, generally speaking this will be all LUNs masked to your cluster. Some describes the Provider vDC as the object where you specify the SLA and I guess that explains the concept a bit more.
Organization Virtual Datacenter (Org vDC)
After you have created a Provider vDC you can create an Org vDC and tie that Org vDC to a vCD Organization. Please note that an Organization can have multiple Org vDCs associated to it.
To summarize, vCD offers a self service portal. This portal enables you to provision resources to a tenant and enables the tenant to consume these resources by creating vApps. vApps are a container for one or multiple virtual machines and can contain isolated networks.
Cisco's Unified Computing System
The Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) is Cisco's multi-chassis blade computing system based on Intel Xeon 5500 processors and lossless 10Gb unified fabric (FCoE and 10Gb Ethernet functions). UCS incorporates simplified management and service profiles to facilitate dynamic system provisioning.
Compute. New Cisco UCS B-Series blades based on Intel's Xeon Nehalem processors. The blades' extended memory promises to supports more virtual machines per server than does standard memory.
Network. The system supports "wire once" unified fabric over a 10 Gbps Ethernet. That network foundation consolidates LANs, SANs and high-performance computing networks to reduce the number of network adapters, switches, and cables.
Storage access. Support for unified fabric so the system can access storage over Ethernet, Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet, or iSCSI.
Management. Cisco UCS Manager provides a graphical user interface (GUI), command line interface (CLI) and an application programming interface (API) for all components of the system.
Unified Service Delivery (USD) unites the datacenter and IP-NGN for service providers to create a common infrastructure from which services can be deployed in a secure virtualized fashion. The Unified Computing System is leveraged by USD to deliver physical and virtual servers required by a service.
Compute. New Cisco UCS B-Series blades based on Intel's Xeon Nehalem processors. The blades' extended memory promises to supports more virtual machines per server than does standard memory.
Network. The system supports "wire once" unified fabric over a 10 Gbps Ethernet. That network foundation consolidates LANs, SANs and high-performance computing networks to reduce the number of network adapters, switches, and cables.
Storage access. Support for unified fabric so the system can access storage over Ethernet, Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet, or iSCSI.
Management. Cisco UCS Manager provides a graphical user interface (GUI), command line interface (CLI) and an application programming interface (API) for all components of the system.
Unified Service Delivery (USD) unites the datacenter and IP-NGN for service providers to create a common infrastructure from which services can be deployed in a secure virtualized fashion. The Unified Computing System is leveraged by USD to deliver physical and virtual servers required by a service.
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