The calculation is (MBps / Block size) * 1024.

To use the calculation the block size of the SAN needs to be understood and in the following it is assumed that a 64k block size has been used.

So… We have run PerfMon for 24 hours over the weekend and the same in the week. This is against the virtual machine or physical that is to be moved. I this case it is a SQL servers to give us the peak data throughput. Using PerfMon will allow us to see the average and peak.

The findings are listed below:

• Physical – Read 282 MBps
• Physical– Write 175 MBps
• Virtual – Read 495 MBps
• Virtual – Write 326 MBps

From these I can work out the I/O

• Physical – Read (282 / 64) * 1024 = 4512
• Physical – Write (175 / 64) * 1024 = 2800
• Virtual – Read (495 / 64) *1024 = 7943
• Virtual – Write (326 / 64) * 1024 = 5216

Now, with the virtual server it is known to have some caching that is involved, and that the actual data being written to the disk is 2900 IOPS Read and 1600 Write (Reported from the SAN console).

Which roughly translates to 36% of the 7943 is actual disk I/O and 64% is cached for reads and 31% is actual disk I/O and 69% is cached for writes.

Taking these numbers, I can apply the same percentages to the physical server

Reads total being 4512 IOPS, these are then broken down into 1624 IOPS actual disk I/O and 2888 IOPS cached. Writes total being 2800 IOPS, broken down to 868 IOPS actual disk I/O and 1932 IOPS cached.

Physical server would need 2492 total IOPS

I hope this helps people out when you are not able to run any other tool to gather the data required.

By Paul Wood

Sorry for the lack of content of late. This will change over the next month and its all due to work that I have not had the time to keep posting.

Keep safe and interesting content is just around the corner….

Paul Wood

To get around the need for the IP Pool the vAPP options need to be disabled to allow the virtual machine to power on and be configured. The following steps should be followed:

1. Right click on the virtual machine (the VMA machine)
2. Select Edit Settings
3. Select the Options tab
4. Select vApp Options
5. Select Disabled
6. Select Ok
7. Power on the virtual machine and configure

Once the machine has been configured and powered on the settings changed will have reverted back to Enabled but will not need the pool. I’m not 100% sure why this happens and I have not yet had to restart the VMA. I will update this post if I get any issues.

By Paul Wood

The following are links to the site regards AutoLab and the download site.

• What is AutoLab
• Download AutoLab

Paul Wood

Darren Woollard, Sean Duffy and Gregg Robertson

The complete list for vExpert 2012 can be found here

It seems 2012 is still proving to be a great year personally and for Xtravirt

Paul Wood

Well I’m now in study mode for the VMWare VCP5-DT which I will be taking in a few weeks. I will keep this post updated with the resources I have been using but here is a quick overview:

1. VMware vSphere 5 test lab
2.  All of the PDF files from VMware from the VMware View download page
3.  VMware View exam blurprint
4.  Making notes on each knowledge section (this I will upload in the future)

I will add links to each location once I have the time but its all easy to find. A test exam is also being hosted by VMware under the MyLearn section which I will again link later. As I said this post will be updated as I go through the study process with more data and links.

Paul Wood

The process meant that during the migration the disk would be converted to thin which did not seem to be an issue for the Windows 2000 machine but the NT machine would fail at 98% (virtual machine configuration) each time. I decided to try the NT machine and not touch the disk configuration and everything completed.

The next job is installing VMware Tools and this turned out to be an issue. The automated process locked on each machine to the point of having to revert back to a snapshot (taken of each virtual machine before anything is carried out). The interactive was then tried which showed that the process and machine locked when the VMXnet drivers where installed. It had been so long since an NT and 2000 machine had been seen that the need to do a custom install had been filled. Reverted both machines and carried out a custom installation making sure that the VMXnet driver was not selected and everything worked.

I hope this helps someone that comes across the same issue and has forgotten the issues of NT and 2000 within a virtual estate these days.

Paul Wood

Now to start looking at the VCAP which again I will be using thesaffageek content so that I’m ready and on the correct path.

Good luck to all those that are looking to pass the VCP before the end of February.

A good place to start regards the VCP5 is at thesaffageek and a great bloke. This site has lost of great infomration and can help with all your needs.

As always a great source of information is the guys at Train Signal with the vSphere 5 training package with videos.

As I use more resources I will update this page.

Good luck all in 2012