How to download vSphere software with VMware Software Manager

9. March 2017 by Karl Widmer

The VMware Software Manager is a very helpful tool if you want to download your VMware vSphere, vCloud or vRealize software packages. It is also very helpful to keep your VMware software repository up to date. All you need is your VMware login and the installer package. Let me introduce this software to you.

Download

Visit this website to download the VMware Software Manager (login / registration required). It’s an 18 megabyte MSI package. So big deal.

You have to accept the End User License Agreement to download the software:

Installation

Double click the MSI package to start the setup process.

Click Next.
Accept the EULA and click Next.
Choose the installation folder (just let the standard is also fine).

Choose the depot location; either a local drive, an external disk or even a UNC path is possible.

Click Next to continue.
When all things are set, click Install to continue.
You can check the box to open Download Service web application.

Click Finish to close the setup assistant.

Now after installation we can move on with the further configuration. When you checked the box to open the web application, then you’re ready. Otherwise look on your desktop for the icon to start the web application manually.

Accessing VMware Software Manager

When you start the web application you’ll see the login screen.

Use your My VMware login (or one of the other two possibilities) to login.

Click Connect to login.
Now Software Manager reads the VMware software depot for the first time. This can take some time…
After reading the VMware software Depot you’ll see the main software dashboard.

When you click the arrow (>) on the right side of a product you can see more details.

This is also the way how to find the download button.

Conclusion

As mentioned above the VMWare Software Manager is a great tool to download various VMware software all around data center virtualization and automation. If you have a VMware software repository in your company it’s also a good way to keep that repository up to date. The software itself does not run as a service, you have to start it manually.

VMware – Becoming a vExpert for the first time

8. February 2017 by Karl Widmer

Today evening VMware announced the list of new and renewed vExperts on their VMTN Blog. All the fellow virtualization people out there were eager for this specific announcement on this 8th of February 2017. And guess what, my name is also on this list! I can’t believe it! The first time i become a vExpert! I’m close to freaking out! No worries, i calmed down a little. But anyway, awesome!

Honored to become this accreditation the first time! Thank you!

Here is the list:

https://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2017/02/vexpert-2017-award-announcement.html

What is the vExpert program?

Let’s have a quote from the vExpert community website. I think that will explain it a little:

The VMware vExpert program is VMware’s global evangelism and advocacy program. The program is designed to put VMware’s marketing resources towards your advocacy efforts. Awards are for individuals, not companies, and last for one year.

Employees of VMware customers or partners can receive this award. Yes, an award. It’s nothing you can learn for and get certified with an exam. A board of specialists will review your application and the reasons you applied for this. It’s your personal effort which will be measured. It’s all about community. If you’re a blogger, active in social media like Twitter and Facebook, posting in VMware communities and helping people with their technical problems, VMUG leader, and so on, then there are chances for you. Spread the word! It’s a “giving back” as its written on the vExpert community website. IT professionals who share their VMware knowledge and contributing it back to the community.

How can i become a vExpert?

Twice per calendar year VMware opens the applications for a 30 day period. After these 30 days the applications are closed and voting mode become active. This takes usually about 45 to 60 days. First half of the applications are opened in November and thus the announcement is in the following February. The second applications opens in June with the announcements in August. Every vExpert, VCDX as well as any new applicants must apply at least once per year.

vExpert benefits

Yes you’re reading correct. It’s a lot of work to become a vExpert. But there is also a thank you after you’re nominated. You’ll get a signed certificate by VMware’s CEO Pat Gelsinger, 365-day eval licenses for most of the VMware products (ideal for us homelabbers), and so many other stuff! I think that’s a huge “thank you” from VMware to you guys!

Invite to our private #Slack channel
vExpert certificate signed by our CEO Pat Gelsinger.
Private forums on communities.vmware.com.
Permission to use the vExpert logo on cards, website, etc for one year
Access to a private directory for networking, etc.
Exclusive gifts from various VMware partners.
Private webinars with VMware partners as well as NFR’s.
Access to private betas (subject to admission by beta teams).
365-day eval licenses for most products for home lab / cloud providers.
Private pre-launch briefings via our blogger briefing pre-VMworld (subject to admission by product teams)
Blogger early access program for vSphere and some other products.
Opportunity to receive a free blogger pass to VMworld US or VMworld Europe (limited to 50 for US and 35 for EU).
Featured in a public vExpert online directory.
Access to vetted VMware & Virtualization content for your social channels.
Yearly vExpert parties at both VMworld US and VMworld Europe events.
Identification as a vExpert at both VMworld US and VMworld EU.

Conclusion

I’m still a little shaky and received already many congratulations, not only from my twitter buddies, but also from my family. My parents are not that “technical”, as probably many parents are not. I explained them a few days ago what i applied for. And they just made big eyes. Today i announced to them that i made it. And they were proud. So i’m proud to.

Again, thank you very much! Enjoy the evening with some celebration!

Update

Now the vExpert profile is finally created 😉

https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-33986

VMware – vSphere Update Manager in a DRS cluster (white paper)

8. January 2017 by Karl Widmer

Yesterday i published my first white paper. It’s nothing special. Just a small guide on how to use the vSphere Update Manager (VUM) in your DRS enabled cluster.

In today’s world of IT, datacenter and cloud automation, maintenance windows and downtime are a special topic. A few years ago the IT department did updates mostly on weekends because nobody was working then. On Monday everyone came back to the office, the mail server was patched and driver updates were installed. Anybody uses IT like running water. And nobody except the IT knows what effort it is to keep the IT thus the business running.

Today at least maintenance windows with service interruption are somewhat of the past, but not to be forgotten, because everyone want’s access to their data whenever it’s needed, wherever it’s located. You can’t shut down a mail server to install updates, you can’t restart virtualization hosts just to install a driver or a patch. IT has to continue to run like water from the tap.

I’m working as a system engineer for an IT company in Switzerland. We provide different services to our customers, ranging from small to medium sized businesses. I saw so many transformations in business needs, but most of the customers had the same whish. The employees of the customers should have access to their emails, wanted to work from home or when they are on the go. So the IT systems had to run twenty four hours and seven days a week.

VMware vSphere Update Manager is a powerful tool to update your ESXi hosts. You can automatically set your hosts into maintenance mode, and if DRS is enabled, your virtual machines are moved to other hosts automatically. At least from infrastructure perspective you can avoid any maintenance window or even downtime. Because the DRS cluster manages the VMs and you can patch your ESXi hosts in the middle of the day.

Read and download this white paper here.

VMware – Create VAAI supported iSCSI LUNs on Synology

6. January 2017 by Karl Widmer

Today i was working with storage topics. I tried to create iSCSI connections in my vSphere homelab and tried to figure out how to connect or mount iSCSI storage. I had already some iSCSI storage connected to my nested ESXi hosts. But i felt as there is something not correct. And i was right. After some research on the internet i’ve found out that you should take another approach to add iSCSI storage as i did in my previous post. There is a way that your new iSCSI storage on your Synology NAS is fully vSphere and VAAI compatible. Let me show you how you do that.

Before we start to create storage and add it to our ESXi hosts you have to install the VAAI plugin from Synology:
1. How do I install Synology NFS VAAI Plug-in on an ESXi host?
Reboot your hosts after plugin installation

Now your hosts are ready to get connected to your VAAI supported Synology NAS. Let’s create now the iSCSI LUNs in the next step.

VMware – Homelab storage extension installed

28. December 2016 by Karl Widmer

Recently i ordered the last piece of hardware for 2016 for use in my VMware vSphere homelab. I failled in the fourth VCP exam in December 2016 and that gave me the kick to extend my homelab a little, and look into storage stuff in detail.

Thoughts and requirements

I had some ideas in mind and received good inputs from my fellow homelab colleagues, but there are so much possibilities for extending storage. There are various NAS manufacturers and storage vendors. You can “extend” your storage even virtually with some virtual storage appliances. But i have to keep my budget small, well as small as possible for my needs. I don’t have a sponsor (would be nice indeed). So for the extension of my homelab any storage device other than a NAS costs way too much money. And i want to use real physical existent storage, so also a no-go for virtual storage appliances (which also requires some physical storage in the back end). This made the field of choice at least a little smaller, not much, and i’m still kicking out some devices to find the one which suits my needs the best.

Another point is network connectivity. My decision was to have four network ports on this specific NAS device. It should support link aggregation, load balancing and failover. The NAS device should also support NFS and iSCSI protocols so i can reach it from my ESXi hosts and use it. It would be the best for the integration into my homelab when i’m already familiar with a specific kind of device / operating system / manufacturer. Yes, i know, that’s not a real decision maker, at least not the best. But why struggle if there exist easy to setup systems? And last but not least it should be supported within VMware, for example with VAAI.

With all this points from above i decided to go for a Synology NAS device.

The hardware

The base system is a Synology DS1515+ NAS device. The technical specifications:

CPU Model	Intel Atom C2538
CPU Architecture	64-bit
CPU Frequency	Quad Core 2.4 GHz
System Memory	2 GB DDR3
Memory Expandable up to	6 GB (2 GB + 4 GB)
Drive Bay(s)	5
Hot Swappable Drive	YES
RJ-45 1GbE LAN Port	4
VMware vSphere 5 with VAAI	YES
VMware vSphere 6 with VAAI	YES

Details specifications are available here: Synology DS1515+

Disks (capazity / cache)

I ordered also three WD Red SATA disk with 4TB each and two Sandisk X400 SSDs with 512GB each. In this configuration i’ll get enough raw storage space (roughly 8TB usable capazity). With two SSD in a Synology multi-bay NAS i can also configure read-write cache (you’ll get read cache only with one SSD).

So let’s get our hands on the hardware…