A few weeks ago at geek week, I was assigned the task of getting the Cisco Nexus 1000v distributed virtual switch set up. I probably spent a good 4 hours on my first cluster because I had no clue what was going on and I ended up losing my management network and spent lots of time restoring my network to the original vSwitch. I followed TrainSignal's 1000v Installation training in Pro Series Vol. 1 but the Nexus 10000v setup has changed a bit since then. It has actually gotten much easier. After finding a few walk throughs and talking to rock star Jason Nash, I was able to setup my 2nd cluster in less than 10 minutes. I'll show you the easiest step by step instructions I can possibly do.

There are a few prerequisites to understand before we get started.

1. VSM = Virtual Supervisor Module which is the "brains" or the engine on a Cisco switch. This is an .ovf that is deployed as a VM into our cluster. We are going to setup 2 of these for HA purposes
2. VEM = Virtual Ethernet Module will be installed on the ESXi hosts through Update Manager.
3. Packet VLAN = Used for communication between the VSM and the VEMs within a switch domain by protocols such as CDP, LACP, and IGMP. Cisco recommends keeping this on it's own separate VLAN, but I would put Packet and Control on the same L2 VLAN.
4. Control VLAN = Used to send VSM configuration commands to each VEM, VEM notifications to the VSM, and NetFlow exports. Cisco recommends keeping this on it's own separate VLAN, but I would put Packet and Control on the same L2 VLAN.
5. Management VLAN = The management interface is not used to exchange data between the VSM and VEM, it is used to establish and maintain the connection between the VSM and VMware vCenter Server. Needs to be on a routable VLAN that can communicate with the vCenter Server.

After attending my first PEX show, I can't wait to attend the next. The atmosphere at PEX is a lot different than what you see at VMworld. PEX was by far one of the most professional conferences I've attended. When I wasn't running around on con-calls, I was part of the booth staff for VCE and it amazed me that when the show floor first opened, there was never a mad dash for SWAG (stuff we all get). Everyone was more interested in actually hearing about the products that could benefit them as a partner and what they could take back to their customers. It was great to talk Vblock with people that want to become VCE partners and educate people on a lot of the technology and value Vblock brings to the table.

VMware Partner Exchange (PEX) is taking place next week in Orlando, FL and I'm stoked about attending. If you follow me on twitter, you would have seen conversations today of me going back and forth on my travel plans. Luckily, big boss man Trey came through and squeezed me in. I'll be heading to PEX representing VCE and looking forward to proudly putting in my booth time. The VCE booth will have a Vblock 1 on site so you can check out the rack and components yourself. I can guarantee that the Vblock will probably be the most extravagant piece of technology on the show room floor. I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about Vblock or the future of integrated stacks in general. In addition, there will be more VCE rock stars that can field your toughest questions (I'm looking at you Jay and Jeremiah, haha)

I know I usually blog about virtualization and cloud, but I came across something that was to cool to not share. I went out for a few drinks with my buddy and he told me about his co-worker that was developing a new iPad case called the Sleeve360. His co-worker was nice enough to give me a demo unit and I wanted to write an honest review. Plus, iPads are becoming an integral part of business strategies and accessing virtual desktops through your iPad are making mobile users more efficient than ever. So I guess this can be chalked up as a virtualization article after all.

When I first got the iPad, my wife ran out and bought the Apple branded iPad Case. It has a nice microfiber texture to it, but once I put the iPad into the Sleeve360, I couldn't believe all the functionality I've been missing out on. I mostly use my iPad while laying down on the couch, and usually had to hold the iPad by gripping the outside of it, or grasping on to the folding cover on the Apple branded iPad Case. With the Sleeve360 I'm able to easily hold the iPad by putting my hand through the strap. This design lets me lay on my back and use one hand to browse and when I need to type I slide my hand out and prop the iPad on my knees. In addition, I'm also comfortable to use the iPad with the while laying on my side, which I could never do with the Apple branded iPad Case one.

If you've kept up with what is happening, EMC and VMware have had a stellar performing year and VCE has gone from $0 to $100 million in just a few months. That being said, VCE is still ramping up on folks and we need more vArchitects. If you're interested, keep reading.

Qualities that VCE is looking for in a candidate:

• Are you a forward thinker? Have you wrapped your head around the thought that Vblocks aren't just a fad, but revolutionizing the industry!
• Do you have pre-sales experience? vArchitects are in a customer facing role, you have to talk the talk.
• Are you a rockstar with VMware, Cisco, and EMC technical skills? You don't have to be a guru in every facet, but being strong in one category will place you on a team where your skills can be noticed. There will be plenty of training, believe me.

Last week I built my vSphere Home Lab "The Green Machines". One of the biggest purchases I made for my lab was the Synology DS411+. I bought this NAS because DSM 3.0 is supposed to be "VMware Ready" and it has NFS, iSCSI, and iSCSI Thin Provisioning abilities. During my testing with iSCSI, I noticed some unusual behavior. If i ever put an I/O load on iSCSI, the connection to the VMware ESXi servers would drop off. It wasn't heavy I/O either, the connection would drop during an install of Office 2010 on my Windows 7 VM. The datastore on ESXi would gray out and go italic, but the NFS datastore was still available. I am running the latest DSM 3.0 Build 1372.

To remedy the situation, I would have to go back in to the Synology GUI, restart the iSCSI service, reboot the NAS, then reboot both of my ESXi servers and it was back. I did a quick google search which lead me to this post on the Synology forums ESX 4 and iSCSI problem. This was the same exact symptoms I saw so I opened up a ticket with Synology and sent them my log file. Luckily, they knew the exact problem and already have an undocumented remedy.

Quick plug for Louisville's VMware User Group. The Louisville VMUG will be taking place this Friday (1/21/11) at Sullivan University at 1:00pm - 5:00pm.

Hey everyone, got this in an email this morning and figured some of you may be interested. Veeam's new recruit, Rick Vanover (@RickVanover), will be leading a webinar. Read below...

On January 20th, Rick Vanover (@RickVanover) is doing a webinar on “5 New ways to use SureBackup”.

Join Rick Vanover, Veeam’s Product Strategy Specialist and VMware vExpert, as he shows a live demo of Veeam Backup & Replicaiton™ v5’s SureBackup™ Recovery Verification. This webinar will also include: