Basic HP ProCurve Command Reference - Part 2

When setting up an HP ProCurve switch it is important to setup the switch to use a time protocol
Otherwise the switch will use a default date and time of 01/01/1990.

If you simply set the time on the switch as opposed to using a dynamic time protocol the switch will revert to 01/01/1990 when the switch is rebooted.

Therefore you can execute the following commands to setup the switch to use the SNTP protocol. Please take not the items in bold are variables and are dependent on the geographic location of the switch.

Switch Name#config
Switch Name(config)#time timezone -360
Switch Name(config)#time daylight-time-rule continental-us-and-canada
Switch Name(config)#timesync sntp
Switch Name(config)#sntp server 172.16.32.10 3
Switch Name(config)#sntp unicast
Switch Name(config)#show sntp
Switch Name(config)#show time
Switch Name(config)#write memory

Basic HP ProCurve Command Reference - Part 1

HP ProCurve commands are similar to the commands for Cisco switches except more straight forward.

Here is a list of the basic tasks and the commands to complete those tasks.  Pay close attention to the context, certain commands can be executed in any context and others must be in a specific context.  I'm assuming the you have already logged into the switch.

Display a list of the current VLANs
switch_name#show vlans

Enter the configure context
switch_name#configure

Sometimes it is rather difficult to find the page that you need on the HP site when performing a warranty lookup or Care Pack status inquiry.  I've included links to both the Care Pack Services and Warranty Status Check pages.

HP Care Pack services

HP Product Warranty Status Check

HP Server Product Selector

HP has also release a Server Product Selector tool which will assist an individual with selecting a HP ProLiant server that meets their needs.

You can base you selection on the following criteria:

• Operating System
• This option doesn't list VMware which is a glaring omission
• Processor type
• Type of server
• BL (Blade)
• DL (Density Optimized Rack Mount)
• ML (Maximized for Internal Expansion)
• Maximum internal storage
• Maximum memory

HP Server Product Selector

HP Storage Selector

Once again I have recently discovered a little known HP tool that is designed to help prospective customers pick the appropriate storage area network for their environment.  Much like the HP ProCurve switch selector tool, an individual can select their requirements and the storage selector tool will refine the product offering based on those selections.

The HP Storage Selector tool provides an easy way to find any of the following products:

• Disk storage systems
• Tape and storage media
• Storage Blades
• NAS systems
• Storage networking
• Storage software
• Information Management Software

HP Storage Selector

HP releases latest D2D firmware with CIFS support

HP has finally released the latest firmware for its D2D devices that includes CIFS support. So far NFS support is not included but it should be available within the next couple of firmware releases.

This presents a real opportunity to implement the HP D2D devices along with Veeam or some other vStorage API capable product. Essentially when backing up a VM using Veeam it always writes to disk first and then you have the option of writing that backup to tape. The CIFS option allows for Veeam to write directly to the D2D device essentially cutting the potential backup time in half.

An HP D2D2504i lists at approximately $9900, can present itself to the next as 8 backup devices, either a Virtual tape library or CIFS share or any combination of VTL and CIFS as long as it doesn't exceed 8 backup targets. The D2D has 4TB of raw disk and has a capacity for 384 virtual tapes. Replication licenses are also available if a customer chooses to by more than one device. A key point to make about replication is that you only license the destination device not the source therefore you could in theory have 8 2504i devices replicate to one 2504i or larger D2D device.

Great VMware resource - VMware Knowledge Base TV

Late last year VMware started publishing technical videos from the VMware Knowledge Base.

Here's the link if you would like to check out some interesting videos for common and sometimes not so common tasks.

http://blogs.vmware.com/kbtv/

Starwind offers iSCSI SAN software for FREE!!

StarWind Offers High Availability iSCSI SAN Software Free to Microsoft MVP, MCP and MCT Professionals
http://www.starwindsoftware.com/news/31

New StarWind High Availability iSCSI SAN Software Free for Any VMware vExpert, VCP or VCI
http://www.starwindsoftware.com/news/30

Configuring VMkernel port with an MTU of 9000 bytes - Part 2

As a follow up to my original post "Configuring VMKernel port with an MTU of 9000 bytes" I thought that it would make more sense to include more of the configuration commands that are included in the VMware vSphere 4.0 iSCSI SAN Configuration document.

In the original post I only included the commands that enable you to create a vmkernel port with an MTU of 9000 bytes.  In this post it includes the details from the original post as well as the configuration of the virtual switch and a second vmkernel port.  In addition to that there are commands that bind the vmkernel ports to the software iSCSI adapter and removes a physical uplink from each vmkernel port.

In this example there are four physical network interfaces in the vSphere host, vmnic0 through vmnic3.  Vmnics 0 and 1 are one physical adapter and vmnics 2 and 3 are another.  We will be using vmnics 0 and 2 for vSwitch0, that way we have some redundany between physical adapters.  You can configure vSwitch0 with vmnics 0 and 2 using the virtual infrastructure client.

Once you have finished configuring the vSphere host you should use the virtual infrastructure client, configuration tab, storage adapters, and rescan for new storage devices and VMFS volumes.  The result should be that the existing LUNs will continue to be available except for the fact that the details of those LUNs will indicate that they have multiple paths.

VMware announces the end of availability for VMware Consolidated Backup

VMware Backup Product Strategy

VMware released vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) with the vSphere 4.0 release in May, 2009. VADP is the next generation of VMware’s backup framework. We have also been working with several backup partners to integrate VADP into their solutions to make backup of vSphere Virtual Machines fast, efficient and easy to deploy compared to VCB and other backup solutions. Several of our major backup partners have already released VADP integrated backup products and we expect most of the major backup partners to have VADP integrated backup software by the upcoming feature release of the vSphere platform in 2010.

Future Product Licensing

Given the strong interest and adoption of VADP by our backup eco-system and the benefits offered by VADP compared to VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB), we are announcing the End of Availability for VCB starting with next vSphere feature release in 2010. Starting with the next vSphere platform feature release, VCB will be removed from vSphere platform. VADP integrated backup products (including VMware Data Recovery) will be the recommended option for efficient backup and restoration of vSphere Virtual Machines. This will allow us to focus new value added feature development on VADP instead of two backup frameworks (VCB and VADP). You can find more information about the use of vStorage APIs for Data Protection in our Developer Community. For information on the availability of VADP integrated release of your backup product please contact your backup vendor.

End of Availability

With the release of the next vSphere platform, we will continue to provide the binaries for VCB, but they will not be compatible with the next platform release. We will continue to provide support for VCB on the current vSphere platform per the VMware support policy.
If you need assistance in the migration from VMware Consolidated Backup to the vStorage APIs for Data Protection, please contact your local reseller or storage backup vendor.
Best regards,

VMware Product Management

Configuring VMkernel port with an MTU of 9000 bytes

When configuring a vSphere4 host with a VMKernel port for iSCSI connectivity it is important to note that you cannot configure an MTU of 9000 bytes using the vSphere client. 

In addition you cannot create the VMKernel port using the vSphere client and then modify the MTU of the port via the service console.  You must create the VMKernel port with a MTU of 9000 bytes via the service console from the beginning.

I've included a sample script that will create an iSCSI port group and a VMKernel port with an MTU of 9000 bytes.  There are additional options that can be specified when using the esxcfg-vswitch and esxcfg-vmknic commands but I have only included those that are necessary for this example.