From the VMware website.
On HP Proliant systems, when attempting to upgrade ESX 4.0 to ESX 4.0 Update 1 (U1), you may experience these symptoms:
- Upgrade operation may fail or hang and can result in an incomplete installation
- Upon reboot, the host that was being upgraded may be left in an inconsistent state and may display a purple diagnostic screen with the following error:COS Panic: Int3 @ mp_register_ioapic
WARNING: Rebooting the host means the host has to be reinstalled because it is not recoverable after a reboot.
WARNING: If you have virtual machines running on local storage, they may not be retained if you reinstall ESX 4.0 as a result of this issue. Contact VMware Support for assistance before reinstalling.
Solution
To avoid this issue, prior to the update, disable HP Insight Management Agents running on the ESX 4.0.0 server.
HP Insight Management Agents can be disabled using these commands:
- service hpsmhd stop
- service hp-snmp-agents stop
- service hp-health stop
HP management agents can be enabled after the upgrade is completed. Refer to HP documentation on how to re-enable these management agents.
If you have already updated the ESX host,
do not reboot the ESX host. Open a support request with VMware support. For more information, see
How to Submit a Support Request.
Beginning of this week I got contacted by VMware with a small questionaire about VMworld Europe 2009. It was quite the usual questionaire about how I liked VMworld Europe 2009. If I had some comments. What VMware could do to improve the event. Things like that.
An inventory was made about the location of VMworld Europe. In general VMware got suggestions about an alternative location. Germany was mentioned as a more central location in Europe. Personally I suggested Barcelona as a candidate. It should have all the facilities as well since Teched is also being held there.
Also I shared my disappointment about the lack of availability of a public VMware “4″ beta. Many people expected to receive a public beta on USB drive much like the way ESXi was distributed at VMworld 2007 (I believe) in San Francisco. I was told that the private beta is closed, furthermore that there was no real use anymore to participate in the beta since the product would probably be released in April.
With all the secrecy about the release date, this was more than I hoped to hear and I am looking forward to the final release of ESX somewhere in April? I hope this is more than a rumor.
The last day of VMworld 2009. I notice it is getting harder to get up 
but I managed anyways. First a coffee and something sweet to go with it. Then first session on my list DC14 – Overview of 2009 VMware Datacenter Products. Unfortunately I saw some people turning around already because of a full room. So decided to see something of “VI4″ in a LAB01 – Next Generation Datacenter Exploration.
I think this LAB was one of the busiest amongst all lab’s, but I just HAD to lay my hands on the new candy. Finally I could have a seat and after a brief explanation I wavered off the instuctor to let me be with my long awaited “VI4″ experience. Can’t remember the first part of the LAB. Wanted to make notes but I was told the LAB would be online the same very night. So far nothing there yet.
- Thin provisioning
It is already possible from the CLI to thin provision disks in VI 3.5. However now able to chose all kinds of formats within the GUI. Like thin/thick/thick zeroed and some more options available. Also when performing a migrate (storage vmotion), you are able to change your provisioning
- Migrate (storage vmotion)
Storage vmotion is now available from the GUI 
, no need to load the 3rd party strorage vmotion plugin anymore. A demo can found here
- vAPP
It is possible to logically group VM’s together in a vAPP. In the settings you are able to chose startup order and startup delay. It is possible to powerup/powerdown the complete vAPP as a single entity
- Virtual Distributed Switch (VDS)
The Virtual Distributed Switch is a virtual switch defined on cluster level instead of on a per host based level. This makes administration much easier. Also switch vendors are able to provide their own VDS with vendor specific features like Cisco’s Nexus 1000V. A flash demo can be found here
- Fault Tolerence (FT)
One feature that make me all warm and fuzzy inside, FT. Upon enabling this feature it clones and powers on a standby VM. A video can say more than a thousand words and can be found here
- Host Profiles
With vSphere it is possible to make a configuration template from your ESX server. They are called “Host Profiles” and allow you to take a template from an ESX server, adjust it if necessary and check compliance against another ESX host. You can apply the template if you want to. A demo can be found here
- Hot Cloning of VM’s
It is possible to Hot Clone VM’s! I think people will love this one!
- More ways of extending VMFS partitions
The last part of the day I spent my time in the Solutions Exchange before going back home to The Netherlands where we all landed safely.
A small addenum for Tuesday. After visiting the solutions exchange I attended session DC31 – What’s new in the enterprise cloud. Personally I think cloud computing is a very nice concept and when listening throughout the event everyone can hear the buzz about it. Though cloud computing certainly is not a new concept it has my interest and am surely keeping track of it. At the end Tarry Singh, a well known and respected Technology Evangelist elaborated on cloud computing and the role it will take in the future. With all the new technologies coming out it seems cloud computing is “The next logical step”.
After the Q&A I attended session DC18 – Introduction to VMware vCenter ConfigControl. vCenter ConfigControl is a product that is best described as an additional tooling to your CMDB but as said in the session, does not replace it. It inventories Virtual Machines automatically and keeps track of configuration changes and updates. This product can come quite in handy to automate an keep track of “Virtual CI’s” and keeps de “Virtual CMDB” and it’s relations accurate.
The last part of the day I spend at the Solutions Exchange followed up by a dinner with some peers.
At 20.00 it was time for the VMworld Afterparty. I think the decorations and the themes were awesome on “Cloud number 9″ which was the place where the party was held. A relaxed downstairs where the music was of such a level you could actually hear each other talking, following by a great band on the upper levels. Of course everything was accompanied with lots of food and drinks. The floor was moving like crazy with all the people jumping and it was just a great place to be. At midnight the party was over. Wow what a great party!
Since it got a bit late with the VMworld afterparty something on the third day, about the second day. Sorry for that , but I notice that it gets harder to stay up till the early hours in the morning. It must be lack of coffee .
The keynotes of the second day were a lot better. In fact almost everyone decided to stay, give a few that wanted a headstart to beat the crowd leaving. The keynotes were a good fast and humourous overview of what’s going on with the new vSphere roadmap. It was fun to notice that also the tweets are read by Stephen Herrod and he plead to us to please tweet a numerous of things on which he gladly gave some hints. Overall it was a good session.
After that I attended session DC08 – vCenter Server for Linux. VMware has nice plans for proceeding onto this path and announced that the beta can be downloaded as a virtual appliance here. Even though not all features will be available yet in the first releases, like vConverter and Capacity Planner, VMware is aware of the need for such a platform for many of its customers. When asked when a linux client would be released, VMware said that a client for Linux has a lower priority since the demand voor vCenter server for Linux is much greater and of much greater value to the customers. Not only that, but in the future VMware intends to make the client completely web based. At the moment the beta only supports Oracle. On the Oracle website it is possible to download Oracle XE for free.
With loud applause the Linux session was over and I followed my colleagues to the Q&A session. A few notes on that are that there is no announcement of the release date yet due to accounting issues on which Paul Maritz appoligized. VMware hopes to do better in the future concerning release announcements. So for all of you guys and gals out there, some more patience because to quote Paul, “It will be released sooner or later” *laughs from the crowd*. On the question about a rumor of an acquisition between Cisco and VMware, Paul was lost for words what to say. For me personally it was the first time I heard of such a rumor and did not pay much attention to it.
So the VMworld has started this morning beginning with the Keynotes.
A lot of talks and sponsors about the extensively discussed Cloud Computing. After that, finally the first session. Tried to attend AP08 – Virtualizing Citrix XENApp Application Server. Unfortunately the room was packed like sardines in a tin can and had to move to another session. Decided to go to TP31 – Dell, Veeam and VMware: Best practices for virtual environments instead.
Unfortunately it was packed too, 
leaving no more time to go to another session. Luckily someone was leaving the session so I could officially start my VMworld session experience.
As could be expected from the session title there was a lot of Veaam talk and its product line and how Dell adopted and embraced this product suite in their consultancy trajectories.
Veeam has some very nice products out there. Also some of them are FREE! Make sure to check them out.
After that it was time for some lunch which was actually very good.
After taking care of our inner selves it was time too look at the exhibition room. Really a lot of products and vendors over there with all the necesarry and unnecesarry goodies and gifts . Always nice to look around there on how vendors are profiling themselves to customers in order to get your information. But I just love it and enjoy every pen and gadget I can find. I will post more on that later.
So visited several booths to get some information like RES Powerfuse, Appsense esXpress and Microsoft? Yes they are also present at VMworld. But decided it would be better to plan a few hours to visit them all and hear what they have to say and why I need their product.
So for now back to the booths and see what other sessions I am able to pick up.
VMworld Europe Edition is about to start. Some people have already landed and are preparing for “Partner Day” tomorrow. Several bloggers have also arrived and are actively blogging on several sites. To see a list of all the Dutch bloggers please follow the link below.
http://www.tendam.info
Since this site is brand new it is not there yet but maybe it will be in the future .
Happy reading!
