ESXi 5 syslogger stopped working? ´Massive´ syslog deamon restart using PowerCLI

Posted on May 10, 2012 by viktorious

After configuring the vCenter Syslog Collector using this excellent article by Jason Boche, my vCenter Syslog Collector was not receiving messages from the configured ESXi servers. After a little research I found out that I forget to open the outbound firewall ports on my ESXi Server. After reconfiguring the firewall, the vCenter Syslog Collector was still not receiving any log message.What was the problem here?

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Posted in Server Virtualization | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

vCenter Howto: Remove a plugin from the plugin manager (including a plugin list)

Posted on May 6, 2012 by viktorious

While playing with some nice add-ons for vSphere, like vCenter Operations or the vCenter Infrastructure navigator I was wondering how one can remove a plugin from the Plug-in Manager.

For example, I have removed vCenter Operations but the plugin is still showing up in the plugin manager. The plugin is reporting an error because vCenter Operations is not available anymore:

Unfortunately there’s no remove plugin option available in the vSphere Client.

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Posted in Server Virtualization | 2 Comments

Can pfSense be used as a free load balancer for VMware View?

Posted on May 2, 2012 by viktorious

After my article about using pfSense as a load balancer for vCloud Director, I had a discussion with my colleague Sven Huisman (virtualfuture.info) about using pfSense as a (free) load balancer in a VMware View environment. Sven has written a great article on using the free Citrix Netscaler VPX Express in a VMware View environment. The question is: Is pfSense also suitable? Continue reading →

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vCloud Director: Refreshing your self-signed certificates and extend validity

Posted on April 26, 2012 by viktorious

If your running vCloud Director with self signed certificates, the validity of the certificates will be 90 days by default. After 90 days you have to refresh your certificates and maybe it’s also a good idea the extend the validity of the certificates.

You can refresh your certificates by recreating the certificates in your keystore, or create a new keystore and link this new keystore to your vCloud Director installation.

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VMware vCloud Director Investigated: Properly shutdown a vCD cell.

Posted on April 24, 2012 by viktorious

In my previous article “vCloud Director Howto: Load balancing with free pfSense” I’ve introduced the multi cell architecture of VMware vCloud Director (vCD). A multi cell vCD environment gives you two advantages: availability and performance:

  • Availability: If a cell shuts down (expected or unexpected), you have other cells available that can process requests from the cloud users.
  • Performance: More cells can process more load, quite obvious I think :) .

The question is, how to properly shutdown a cell?

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Virtualization / Cloud Computing Event Agenda for The Benelux

Posted on April 23, 2012 by viktorious

vmworldusa201117 The upcomming weeks some interesting Virtualization / Cloud Computing events are programmed in The Netherlands the Benelux. If you have time, you should really consider to visit one or more of these events! Continue reading →

Posted in Events, PQR | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

vCloud Director Howto: Load balancing with free pfSense

Posted on April 22, 2012 by viktorious
Also check:

After doing some testing with VMware’s vCloud Director, I wanted to configure a multi-cell vCD infrastructure with a network load balancer in front. Of course there are various commercial products (see Eric Sloof’s excellent article on configuring Kemp Load Master), I was actually looking for an open source alternative.

pfSense is doing the trick! pfSense is a freeBSD based firewall solution, and the successor of m0n0wall (maybe you know that one). You can download pfSense at www.pfsense.org. I am using the 64 bit 2.0.1 version. You can download the ISO from the pfSense website.

Note: This setup is intended for lab/home use :)

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VMUG Belgium Meeting: The Blogger Edition – June 1st 2012

Posted on April 19, 2012 by viktorious

Some great things are happening in Belgium. Erik Schils, the VMUG Leader for Belgium has managed to organize a great one day VMUG conference.

This VMUG meeting will take place on June 1st at the location of Cisco in Diegem, Belgium.

Erik has managed the crême de la crême of the blogosphere to speak at this meeting! Gert van Gorp, Erik Zandboer, Duncan Epping, Alan Renouf & Luc Dekens, Alex Muestege & Erik Scholten, Sven Huisman, Gabrie van Zanten, Eric Sloof, Frank Denneman, Arnim van Lieshout and myself will all be presenting! Wow!

The full agenda for this event is available on the VMUG.BE website. The event is free, but you have register! Full=full, Erik can only allow about 150 people….so don’t wait and register now.

Important Note: Please do NOT register if you do not intend to come or PLEASE let VMUG.BE know on time for cancellations. Why? No-Shows are a waste of money and food. Please watch this movie :http://www.dontspoiltheparty.org/

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Converter Standardalone 5 versus Converter Boot CD

Posted on April 13, 2012 by viktorious

The new Converter Standalone 5 lacks the Converter Boot CD. Fortunately you can still use the old version 4.1 Converter Boot CD, which is also compatible with vSphere 5! The Converter Boot CD is available for download on the VMware website, although you will need an Enterprise license.

I thought it would be good idead to create a short feature comparison between Converter Standalone 5 and the Boot CD. Things are summarized in the following table: Continue reading →

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PQR achieves VBCA competency!

Posted on April 10, 2012 by viktorious

A short article based on a press release last week from my employer PQR. PQR, a VMware Premier Solution Provider in The Netherlands, completed the requirements for the new VMware “Virtualization of Business Critical Applications” competency. PQR is the first and only VMware partner in The Netherlands that has this competency!

The VBCA competency shows that a VMware partner possesses the knowledge to succesfully virtualize tier-1 applications like Oracle, SQL Server, Exchange, SAP etc. We’re already virtualizing tier 1 apps for a couple of years: the achievement of this competency is a confirmation of the experience we have :) . I am happy.

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