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Licensing VMware Fusion

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Graham Daly

Hi folks,

We have a new video today which is brief and straight to the point. This video is specifically geared towards first-time users of our VMware Fusion product.

This video discusses and demonstrates how you can license VMware Fusion.

In this brief video tutorial you will learn how quick and easy it is to license your VMware Fusion product installation on your Mac operating system.

For more information, see VMware Knowledge Base article Licensing VMware Fusion (2014287).

Note: For best viewing experience, ensure the 720p quality setting is selected and view using full screen mode.

The Inside Scoop: Maintenance tips for your vSphere Database

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Graham Daly

Today we have the third edition of our blog series The Inside Scoop. In this installment we will look at vSphere Databases and more specifically some helpful tips for maintaining them.

In order to obtain some real world perspective, we met up with some of our Technical Support Engineers at our support center in Cork, Ireland and mainly asked them two questions:

What are the most common issues they deal with concerning vSphere Databases?
What advice do they have for ensuring that a vSphere Database is maintained?

Here is what they had to say….

Common Issues

The two most common issues that come into our Technical Support teams are:

Database Corruption
Database Performance

These are really the two biggest issues that customers encounter with their SQL databases in their vSphere environments.

Many a database administrator has nightmares about database corruption and when an incident comes along quite often many hours are spent by the DBA trying to rescue the situation. Sadly, database corruption is something that just happens; nobody plans to have it.

If you are or were a system administrator or a database administrator at some point during your career, chances are that there was probably a time when you learned the hard way about not having a recent database backup.

However it is not all doom and gloom when it comes to database corruption incidents. The impact and headaches of such a corruption incident can be minimized and reduced by simply applying and enforcing a policy of regular database backups. Taking regular database backups will not fix the corrupted database but at least your road to recovery will be a much better and less painful one.

Along with database corruption the other big generator for support requests is that of database performance. A database is like the heart of the environment and just like a heart, if it is in a bad or a poorly maintained condition then it is going to experience performance issues.

The vSphere database is what manages and runs the jobs and processes that take place within the environment in any given moment. The speed at which the vSphere environment can run effectively and efficiently is quite often determined by the health of the database. If your database is unhealthy, then chances are you will notice performance impacts within your environment.

What symptoms should I look out for?

Symptoms of database corruption would include the vCenter Server failing to start or crashing on particular tasks.

Symptoms for database performance related issues can be more varied, however some common ones include:

The vCenter Server taking a long time to start up
Tasks taking a long time to complete or are timing out

Some Helpful Database Maintenance Tips

When it comes to database corruption scenarios the best thing that you really can have is a recent backup. This will save a lot of time and heartache when it comes to restoring your environment and the more recent the backup the better as it will minimize the loss of data.

In regards to database performance issues, prevention really is the best cure and so here are some steps and measures which will help to reduce or prevent your environment from encountering poor database performance:

Monitor scheduled database jobs to ensure they are running correctly – For more information, refer to KB article: Checking the status of vCenter Server performance rollup jobs (2012226)
Collect Stats
Rebuild Indexes – For more information, refer to KB article: Rebuilding indexes to improve the performance of SQL Server and Oracle vCenter Server databases (2009918)
Delete old data – For more information, refer to KB article: Reducing the size of the vCenter Server database when the rollup scripts take a long time to run (1007453)
Monitor Database Growth – For more information, refer to KB article:
Determining where growth is occurring in the vCenter Server database (1028356)

A pdf document on vCenter Server Database Best Practices is available: VMware vCenter Server 5.1 Database Performance Improvements and Best Practices for Large-Scale Environments

Logging in to the vSphere Web Client failing

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Dana Thomas

Some customers are still running into issues when logging into the vSphere Client and we want to re-publicize the fix for this. If you see either of the following two messages:

unknown user or bad password

or:

The authentication server returned an unexpected error: ns0:RequestFailed: 
Internal Error while creating SAML 2.0 Token. 
The error may be caused by a malfunctioning identity source.

This is caused by a configuration issue related to the groups on the local Operating System having Active Directory users in them. There is an easy fix to the issue, removing the localOS identity source from vCenter Server Single-Sign-On(SSO). All of the steps are detailed in KB article: Logging in to the vSphere Web Client fails with the error: ns0:RequestFailed: Internal Error while creating SAML 2.0 Token (2043070) but you can think of this as an addendum.

Before you go ahead and remove the local identity source, one should be aware that any local users will no longer have login access once the local identity source is removed. Also, a domain account should be configured with SSO administrative privileges before removing the identity source.

To remove the identity source, log in to the Web Client using the SSO administrator,(admin@system-domain, go to Administration, then Configuration under Sign-On and Discovery and then remove the Local Identity Source (local machine name) as shown.

A couple of common questions:

Q – What if I can’t log in with SSO Administrator credentials?
A – See Unlocking and resetting the vCenter Single Sign On (SSO) administrator password (2034608)

Q – How do I add an SSO administrator?
A – Log in to the vSphere Web Client as an SSO administrator. By default, this user is admin@system-domain.

In the home page, click Administration > Access > SSO Users and Groups.

Click on the plus sign and add account from identity source.

New My VMware KB Articles for New Features

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Rick Blythe

Last week we talked about how My VMware had turned one (year old), and the changes that have come about since its inception. Today, we present a list of Knowledgebase articles that have been published to explain new features. Chances are good you’ve been looking for one or more of these features.

vCenter Server issue with Oracle client resolved

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Jasbinder Bhatti

Back in December, we posted the support alert: vCenter Server 5.x does not function correctly when installed with Oracle 11.2.0.3 Patch 10. The support alert was documented fully in KB article: vCenter Server 5.x does not function correctly when installed with Oracle 11.2.0.3 Patch 10 (2039874).

There is news on this alert. Oracle has since resolved the issue in the Windows Oracle Client 11.2.0.3 p16656151 (Patch 19) 64-bit, which can be downloaded today.

Attempting to Sysprep a Virtual Machine with IE10 fails

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Rick Blythe

We just received word from one of our support engineers working on the front-lines that some customers are reporting problems wherein Sysprep fails on Virtual Machines that have IE10 on them.

The issue is not a VMware bug, it’s an Registry location problem, but customers might still reach for the phone to call us first. We thought we’d try and get the word out today to try and save you some steps (and time).

The problem manifests itself when you attempt to Sysprep a Virtual Machine that has IE10 on it. In the Sysprep setupact.log log file (located at C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\Panther), you see:

Error[0x0f0085]SYSPRP LaunchDll:Could not load DLL C:\Windows\SysWOW64\iesysprep.dll[gle=0x000000c1]

The registry entry for the location of certain files is incorrect. For further details and resolution, we refer you to KB article: Sysprep fails on Virtual Machine installed with IE10 (2051620).

My VMware Turns One

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Rick Blythe

By Greg Daly, Sr. Director, VMware Customer Advocacy

My VMware, the web site that provides our customers and partners with simplified management of product licenses and support, is celebrating an anniversary – the site was launched one year ago. My VMware has had more than 33 million visits, and we are continuing to see an increase in usage over time. Other milestones include 3.8 million downloads, 188 million page views, and a recent new release loaded with new features and functionality.

Since its initial launch, we continue to actively solicit feedback from users, who have provided us with a tremendous amount of helpful input that we have used to improve the site. We’ve implemented numerous enhancements that have evolved My VMware from offering basic functionality to providing additional features that boost user productivity and efficiency.

You asked, and we listened: here are a few of the most recent feature/functionality enhancements we implemented:

Improved Data Accessibility: Now you can export to CSV, run reports across all accounts, and filter on and expose License Key notes to view information more easily

Increased Productivity: Move License Keys in bulk, right-click on folders to view actions, and create custom License Key labels to organize and manage your License Keys the way you want

Enhanced User Experience: Liquid layout and resizable panes and columns give you flexibility to focus on the data that’s most important to you

Streamlined Users & Permissions: You can set permissions during the invite/add user flow, remove yourself from an Account, and request permissions for specific tasks, making it easier to manage users and permissions

We have received positive response to the enhanced site – our customers and partners are excited to see My VMware functionality expanding. Here are just a few of the comments we’ve received from My VMware users:

In the past 10 years while I have been working with VMware as a customer, partner and distributor, the immense growth in both products and licenses to manage and handle was beginning to pose a real challenge. With My VMware, this issue is solved in a simple and intuitive way that is helping us to manage our NFR, commercial and trial licenses centrally, effectively and smoothly.
– Thomas Hagedorn, Solution Specialist, Arrow ECS Denmark

I was amazed how easy it was to divide a license. When we ordered the license we got 1X4cpu license but wanted 4x1cpu license. it took me 3 minutes to log on to myvmware and find out how to divide license. Very, very good
I love the My VMware site. Licensing info is so easy to see.
Great steps in improving the customer portal.
Very nice site – clean, quick and stylish.
This is a huge improvement over the old license management tool. Good job listening to your customers.
Once again an easy interface with your firm to upgrade my Fusion S/W. Thanks!
The my.vmware web site is a significant improvement over the old web site.
Great online experience.
The MyVMware portal is much, much easier to use now. Thank you @VMware [via Twitter]

We’re excited to see My VMware growing up, as well. But we’re not finished improving and expanding the site – we have many more enhancements planned! Highlights include a mobile My VMware app and improvements to the download process and license management. Keep the feedback coming – with your help, we’ll continue to improve My VMware, and in the process, hopefully make your job easier.

VMworld 2013 – Time to Vote!

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Rick Blythe

Voting for VMworld 2013 Sessions is now open to all. Do you believe it’s that time of year already?

There are tons of sessions to choose from, and it’s all up to you to decide on what will make it. You will be required to log in to your vmworld.com account to vote. If you do not have a vmworld.com account, you can set one up for free at http://www.vmworld.com Once you have registered your account, just follow this link: http://www.vmworld.com/cfp.jspa

You will get a list of all of the session proposals, all with a small icon of a white thumb in front of the sessions. You can vote on as many sessions as you’d like. To vote, just click on the thumb. You’ll receive a confirmation window that you voted, and the thumb will turn green. Voting is open April 23 – May 6 until 5:00pm PDT.

Questions? Email: VMworld2013SpeakerSupport@vmware-events.com

A plug for VMware Global Services

The following are sessions submitted for voting by our very own Global Services employees from our offices around the globe. If you see something of interest to you here, be sure to give them your vote!

Title	Track/Number	Submitter
Architecting a software defined datacenter	4529	David Hill
Deploying a Private Cloud with vCloud Automation Center and vSphere	4517	David Hill & Raman Veeramraju
Monitoring your vCloud Infrastructure with VCenter Operations	4667	David Hill & Aidan Dalgeish
How to deploy a Hybrid Cloud in less than a day	4750	David Hill
The Good, The Bad and the Troubleshooting	4551 – VSA	Simon Todd
EUC Application Strategy Best Practices	4610	Ray Dusseault
Mirage 101	4609	Ray Dusseault
Mirage 201	4608	Ray Dusseault
Horizon Mirage Implementation and Design Best Practices	4587	Ray Dusseault
ThinApp Implementation and Design Best Practices	4586	Ray Dusseault
Managed Packaging Services Best Practices	4611	Ray Dusseault
How to Optimally Architect and Implement the VMware Single Sign On	6228	Deji Akomolafe & Deep Bhattacharjee
Demystifying vSphere SSL Certificates Use and Replacement	6229	Deji Akomolafe & Josh Gray
How to Peacefully coexist with Your VMware Infrastructure	4883	Josh Gray
vSphere 5.1 Install and Upgrade Best Practices	4884	Josh Gray
vSphere Identity & SSL Management: Past, Present, and Future	4882	Josh Gray
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?!?!? [vCloud Director]	4495	Jon Hemming
Best Practices for Virtualizing Tier1 Oracle on vSphere, SDDC Platform	5598	Kannan Mani & Matt Scott
Disaster Recovery solution with Oracle Data Guard and Site Recovery Manager	4905	Kannan Mani & Brad Pinkston
Demystifying VMware Mirage – Tips and Tricks for Success	4815	Justin Venezia & Simon Long
Best Practices for Load Balancing and High Availability for the Horizon Suite	4782	Justin Venezia
EUC Design Double Check – Validating Your EUC Solutions	4810	Justin Venezia
Locking Down the Horizon Suite with vCNS/NSX	4825	Justin Venezia & Rob Randall
An Architect’s View of the Horizon Suite – Best Practices for Putting the Pieces Together	4781	Justin Venezia & Stephane Asselin
Ready, set, go! – The race to Operational Readiness for EUC	4591	Kris Boyd
EUC Experts Panel — Successful Implementations	6045	Kris Boyd, Simon Long, Stephane Asselin, Ray Dusseault & Justin Venezia (Panel)
Getting started with Horizon Workspace – Use Cases and configuration	6044	Kris Boyd & Stephane Asselin
College wins student over with EUC	4634	Stephane Asselin & Yves Bourgeois
Load-Balancing and High-Availability for EUC solutions	4624	Stephane Asselin & Justin Venezia
EUC – Putting the Pieces Together	4592	Stephane Asselin & Jared Cook
vCenter Stats for Developers	4840	Melori Arellano & Marcelo Rodriguez
The world in my Postgres : Integrating PostGIS with vFabric Postgres	4829	Marcelo Rodriguez
vFabric Postgres on vSphere: The Virtual-Aware Database	4826	Marcelo Rodriguez
Storage solutions for Microsoft Tier-1 Applications	5432	Alex Fontana & NetApp
Virtualize Active Directory, the Right Way!	5618	Alex Fontana
Successfully Virtualize Microsoft Exchange Server	5613	Alex Fontana
Data Visualization in a Cloud Environment	4492	Faisal Akber
Did you say Mango or Mongo? Best Practices for Running MongoDB on VMware vSphere	4554	Faisal Akber
My name…is NEO! Best Practices for Running Neo4J on VMware vSphere	4573	Faisal Akber
Running Hadoop in a VMware vSphere Environment	4588	Faisal Akber
Troubleshooting tips for VMware vFabric Postgres	4589	Faisal Akber
Performance Tuning VMware vFabric Postgres	4593	Faisal Akber
VMware vSphere CSI – So your host experienced a Purple Screen crash?	4491	Faisal Akber, Alan Castonguay & Jimmie Clinton
Redis in a VMware vSphere Environment	4574	Faisal Akber & Bill Sitchler
Software-Defined Storage, the VCDX Way	4798	Wade Holmes & Rawlinson Rivera
Open up the vCloud hood using PowerCLI, Hyperic, vCenter Operations Manager and vCenter Orchestrator to reveal the inner cloud	5287	Phil Ditzel
A Class on Software Defined Datacenter Integration (3-part session)	5389	Chris Knowles & Thomas Kraus
SAP on VMware Design and Performance Management Guidelines	4926	Vas Mitra & Mohan Potheri
Performance Management of Business Critical Applications using vCenter Operations Manager	4891	Vas Mitra & TBD
Single Sign on To Your Cloud!	5344	Jeremy Sage & Tom Ralph
Managing 5,000 vCloud Users, from the Tenant Point of View	5346	Jeremy Sage & Tom Ralph
7 Design Patterns for vCenter Orchestrator Workflows	5365	Joerg Lew
vCenter Orchestrator Best-Practices	5360	Joerg Lew & Christophe Decanini
How To Build Your Hybrid Cloud and Consume the Public Cloud	4783	Chris Colotti
Technical Deep Dive: ESX Top Tips and Tricks to Keep You on Top of Your vSphere Environment!	5268	Mostafa Khalil & Wen Yu (Nimble Storage)
Deploying VMware vCloud with Amazing Scale: Tips & Tricks	5268	Ford Donald
Virtualizing Highly Available SQL Servers	5932	Scott Salyer
The Role of Overlay Networks in Network Virtualization	4768	Kamau Wanguhu
Addressing your DR IP ails without the need for ale	4804	Kamau Wanguhu & Aidan Dalgleish
Demystifying the Network on the Road to the SDDC	4784	Kamau Wanguhu & Chris Colotti
Firmware Drivers for ESX – Why, and Why Not?	4762	Nathan Small & Steve Sykes
vSphere Performance – Getting the most bang for your buck	5111	Peter Boone
vSphere Security – Protecting your environment and how to CYA	5127	Peter Boone
The Persuit of Security – The vSphere SSL Certificate Story	4794	Jonathan McDonald
vCenter Database Architecture, Performance and Troubleshooting	4645	Jonathan McDonald
Many Moving Parts – Designing Distributed vSphere 5.1+ Infrastructures	4647	Jonathan McDonald
vCenter SSO – a Panel Discussion	4988	Jonathan McDonald, Evelina Krumova, Deep Bhattacharjee, Justin King & Josh Gray (Panel)
Just because you could doesn’t mean you should – Lessons learned in designing vCenter Single Sign On environment	4646	Jonathan McDonald & Josh Gray
Building the Pyramids – A Beginner’s Guide to Demystifying Storage Architecture	4789	Patrick Carmichael
Found by the Side of the Road – Building a Low-Cost, Yet Effective, DR Site	4792	Patrick Carmichael
Just because you could doesn’t mean you should – Lessons learned in Storage Best Practices	4791	Patrick Carmichael
Flash – Architecting for a New Storage Paradigm	5435	Patrick Carmichael & Tee Glasgow (Violin Memory)
How to skin Puppet with Razor: a practical guide to vSphere automation	5383	Fabio Rapposelli & Massimo Re Ferrè

VMware vFabric Postgres Cheat-sheet

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Rick Blythe

Here’s a cool pdf download for you. It’s a cube note (or cheat sheet) that you can use when troubleshooting Postgres issues with VMware vFabric, straight from our awesome team of storage support engineers.

VMware vFabric Postgres Chart

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