Issue Provisioning Disks with the XenDesktop Setup Wizard

I had an issue when running the XenDesktop Setup Wizard where the wizard wouldn't connect to the provisioning server.  This is because many of the ports have changed recently due to port collision issues.  To resolved this it is necessary to edit the SetupToolApplication.exe.config file and change the following settings. 


The default installation path is C:\Program Files\Citrix\XenDesktop Setup Wizard.
 Create a backup copy of this file.
 Within the section of the file:

a. Replace:
endpoint address="http://localhost:8000/pvs/mapi/commandset"
with:
endpoint address=http://localhost:54321/pvs/mapi/commandset 

b. Replace:
endpoint address="net.tcp://localhost:8001/pvs/mapi/commandset"
with:
endpoint address="net.tcp://localhost:54322/pvs/mapi/commandset"

You could read further about fixing the issue in this Citrix Support Document


http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX121658

Citrix Updates

Some new updates out recently for Xenapp and Provisioning Server


Hotfix Rollup Pack 5 for XenApp 5.0 on Server 2003

http://support.citrix.com/product/xa/v5.0_2003/

Citrix Provisioning Server 5.1 SP1

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX122799

TCP/IP Stack Corruption on VMware Host.

I encountered an issue this week where multiple VMs on a certain ESX host start having corruption of their TCP/IP stack. The 2008 VMs were unable to retain their gateway while the 2003 VMs were unable to retain any IP info whatsoever.  While still researching the cause, there is a solution. To repair the TCP/IP stack, just run this command which comes from this KB from Microsoft.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357

netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt

Here is a VMware Communities post with similar symptoms.

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1336502#1336502

This thread discusses the problem as well but doesn't really mention VMware.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistasp/thread/27fd86ad-caad-4698-9032-63550695ee3d

Some Thoughts on the New FLARE 29

I recently implemented a new CX4 with the latest version of Navisphere, FLARE 29.  There's been a lot of hype around this release because 29 now gives storage admins the ability to peer into VMware environments and even see which guest VMs exist on which LUNs. ESX hosts icons appear differently and are easy to decipher form other hosts. I really like the integration and setup was straight forward.  Just a quick wizard to run through that requires authentication to your virtual center server and your good to go.  I've only tested the new FLARE in with vsphere so I'm not sure if the interface would give similar results and visibility into a VI3.5 environment. 

Another change in FLARE 29 that appears simple at first but, in my opinion, is quite a great enhancement is an upgrade to the "connectivity status" section of Navisphere.  Host wwn's and iqn's are now grouped together in a tree structure under the hostname.  No more sorting and trying to figure out if all your initiators registered successfully or not!  What a time save if you're implementing several new hosts in an environment. 

CAUTION:  It does appear that there is a bug with FLARE 29 and Site Recovery Manager. If using SRM with MirrorView, hold off until the next version of SRM is released and do the SRM upgrade first.  Hopefully, this will also be the time a vSphere compatible version of SRM is released as well.  For more information about this issue, check out the end of this fine article from Chad Sakac.

http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2009/09/a-couple-important-alua-and-srm-notes.html

Guest Memory Utilization with Nehalem, ESX 4 and vSphere

One of the hot things to buy now with a new vSphere implementation are a set of beefy hosts with the new Nehalem processor line. This is great but there is a bug you need to watch out for. Memory usage for guests are showing 80%-90% utilized when actually there will only be 30%-50% consumed within the guest VM. This can really throw you for a loop and after some research, it appears to have something to do with Transparent Page Sharing or TPS and the way it works with MMU enabled.

You can learn more about MMU and VMware here

http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/2009/03/index.html

According to a VMware communities thread I was reading, there should be a patch coming out mid to late September. In the meantime you could disable large page sharing as a workaround, however, this will cause a big loss in performance. Check out this community thread for more info as well.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/211585;jsessionid=C282B0ADD49F2A96E3CA99A7951DC974?start=0&tstart=0

VMWare Workstation NAT problems in Windows 7

I learned from a co-worker this weekend that they were having trouble running VMWare Workstation VMs in NAT mode on the new release of Windows 7. It appears that this is fixed in the latest beta version of VMWare Workstation but until it reaches full release there seems to be a work around. I haven't tried this yet but I've read a lot of positive responses.


1. Run the Virtual Network Editor as Administrator (Use RunAS or right click and Run as Administrator on vmnetcfg.exe)
2. Goto Host Virtual Adapters and remove all VMNet instances (VMNet1 and VMNet8 typically).
3. Click Apply.
4. Add New and Assign it the new adapter to VMnet1.
5. Click Apply.
6. Select the Host Virtual Networking tab.
7. Click the > next to VMnet1 and change the address and subnet to the ICS network (192.168.37.0 / 255.255.255.0)
8. Click Apply.
9. Go to the NAT tab and select VMNet1.
10. Click Edit and change the Gateway to the ICS gateway IP (192.168.37.1)
11. Click Apply and restart the NAT service. (Counter-intuitive, I know.)
12. Go to the DHCP tab.
13. Add VMNet1 and remove all others.
14. Click Apply.
15. Select Properties of VMNet1 in DHCP Tab.
16. Enter a Start and End Address for DHCP Scope (192.168.37.50 to 192.168.37.75 as an example)
17. Adjust client lease to a few days to avoid potential DHCP client renewal timeouts.
18. Click OK / Click Apply.
19. Select Host Only Networking for every VM that needs NAT out to your host network/internet.
20. Enable ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) on the W7 Host network card that provides connectivity. Select VMNet1 as the network card that needs access.


This thread explains the issue in more detail:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1309197

Some more info on VMware Data Recovery

There's been a lot of talk about using VMware Data Recovery with ESX 4 and vSphere and what it does and doesn't do. We'll get the negatives out of the way first. vDR isn't a VCB replacement so if you still need a VCB proxy in your environment that will still need to be maintained. vDR doesn't write directly to tape. vDR's de-dupe technology is target based.. Therefore, you will experience disk space savings but all those redundant blocks will still be sent over the network.

Okay, now that we have some of the obvious negatives out of the way, let's talk about why vDR is really awesome. It comes as a virtual appliance so there's nothing to build or configure as far as the device goes. There's also a plugin that install directly into vSphere and your backups can be managed by the vSphere client (no 3rd party apps required!). There are many more cool features and there's also an experimental plugin that will allow you to perform file level restores from windows VMs.

vDR vs. Veeam and detailed install instructions

Here is a link that lists a vdr and veeam comparison as well as install instructions with screenshots:

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com.au/articles/34373-How-to-install-and-operate-VMware-Data-Recovery-Manager

Install and Configure Video

Here is the first part of an installation video. This is pretty cool and shows the different interfaces.

http://www.dabcc.com/media.aspx?id=505