I'm amazed every day by the amount of effort people in VCE contribute. VCE has that VMware Labs feel to it. If you see a hole that needs to be filled, go fill it. Do you have an idea that you want to make into a project, run with it. It's innovation and ideas that keep things moving forward.
Today, VCE released a new tool for its customers called the Vblock Version Tool. This program will allow a partner/customer to gather all the required firmware/software level versions on their Vblock and compare it against the Official Release Matrix. If you don't know, the Official Release Matrix is a chart/martix/pdf that gets updated about once or twice a quarter (depending on how many and what types of firmwares are released) and plays into VCE's strategy of a Pre-Integrated & Pre-Tested Product. Every component in the Vblock (Storage, UCS, VMware, MDS, Nexus, 1000v, PowerPath V/E, UIM, etc) all have some sort of firmware or software level tied to them. VCE's goal is to release a product that adheres to specific firmware/software levels to ensure complete interoperability and superior performance. The Official Release Matrix contains all the software/firmware levels for specific Vblock models and can be found internally on VCE Portal or partners can get it on VCE Partner Portal.
The Vblock Version Tool shows the continued effort VCE makes in building the industry's ONLY integrated stack with true differentiating characteristics. VCE is continuing to help customers realize the value in Vblock above and beyond the best of breed hardware components. The VCE Vblock Version Tool can be found on the VCE Partner Portal and customers can get the tool from VCE Support Portal.
Ok. enough jibber jabber, let's see it!
Step 1. Select the Vblock Platform type or AMP type. Then choose the support matrix version to compare against.
Step 2. Fill out all appropriate fields. Select output types desired. The “Applications List” section will attempt to gather software versions on the local host where the Vblock Platform version tool is executed. If those applications are located on a remote host, please specify host name or IP. In addition, the host must be on the same network. Disable any component that is not going to be gathered. To disable components, click the checkbox next to Disable (Do not collect).
Step 3. Click the Generate Version Output button and select the filename and location. Note: Depending on the types of output selected, the file extension will vary. If selecting HTML, CSV, and XML, the initial filename extension will be listed as HTML, but when the tool generates the output files, the name given to the HTML file will also be applied to the .csv and .xml files.
Step 4. The tool will gather all component information. Any warnings or errors will be saved to a log file named with the current date when the tool was executed. The log files are stored in the Vblock Platform version tool installation folder location, in the log folder.
Step5. Upon completion, the file output names and locations are displayed in the Output Complete dialog box.
Below are examples of HTML, CSV, and XML outputs.
That's a taste of version 1.0 sitting high level. The upcoming versions will include more detailed information such as UCS specifics with C200s and FI, gather serial numbers for all the components, chassis info, blade specifics such as processor type, ram types, and DIMM status. You can also expect to see a CLI or perhaps PowerShell Cmd-lets so you can script it to run it against multiple Vblocks at a single time.