In our first ever vChat (episode 1 / “The Pilot”), Simon Seagrave and David Davis discuss the new vSphere 4.1 and its top 15 killer features.

vChat is a regular virtualization video chat covering VMware vSphere, Cloud Computing, Virtualization News, and maybe some geeky humor. Regular contributors are 3 vExperts – Simon Seagrave (TechHead.co.uk), Eric Siebert (vSphere-Land.com), and David Davis (VMwareVideos.com).

Sponsored by vSphere Video Training from TrainSignal.com

{ 7 comments }

With the new vSphere 4.1, the ESXi “hidden” tech support mode is no longer hidden. You can enable access the ESXi command line on the console and remotely via SSH easily in the new ESXi Tech Support Mode features, inside the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI). In the past, you had to press ALT+F1, type unsupported, and type the root password (all without any echo/response on the screen).

Now, to access the ESXi console locally or via SSH, just press F2, go to Troubleshooting Options, and enable local and/or remote tech support mode. From there, you can login just like an ESX server by pressing ALT+F1 and logging in as root.

Watch the video to see how it works, step by step:

{ 0 comments }

With the VMware vSphere 4.1 release there are lots of new features to talk about! One of those features that caught my eye is the ability for ESX/ESXi servers to “join” a Windows Active Directory (AD) domain. That’s right, an ESX server can be a member server in AD. That means that you can then login to that ESX host using your Winodws AD username and password. This applies when connecting to the server using the vSphere Client, going to the console, or connecting via SSH. This is also a nice security function because instead of logging on locally as “root”, now each user can login as themselves (and that entry will be made in the associated security logs).

Here’s a new video I created on how to configure this cool new vSphere 4.1 feature – Windows Active Directory Authentication.

{ 11 comments }

I recently bought an Iomega Ix4-200D disk storage array with the intent on both using it for my centralized office (it’s just me) data store AND as shared storage in my vSphere lab using iSCSI. So far, I’ve been very satisfied with the product, considering the high load that I put on the storage array. For example, I have moved a running VM from one VMFS data store to another with both datastrores being on this array. I have run VMware Data Recovery and Veeam Backups of VMs with the source being the VMFS datastores and the destination being a network file share, both on this array. While I know that these kind of crazy lab exercises put a ton of load on the array, it has handle it well. So well, I thought I would make a video covering this nice line of storage products and how to use it with vSphere…

Here is what you’ll learn in this video:

• Overview of the Iomega NAS/SAN Product Line
• How to enable iSCSI in the Iomega StorCenter
• How to enable iSCSI in vSphere and connect to the SAN
• How to format the new iSCSI disk with VMFS
• How to migrate a running VM to the Iomega SAN with SVMotion

{ 0 comments }

How cool is this? We get to see what the VMworld 2010 backpack will look like BEFORE we get to VMworld! In this video, John Troyer and Luke Kilpatrick walk us through what the VMworld 2010 backpack will look like. I am definately going now (just kidding, I was going anyway). I like how it has “room for pencils and floppy disks” – too funny John! See you at VMworld!

{ 0 comments }