Virtualization The Future: January 2015

Thursday, 29 January 2015

Large VM copy to vCloud Director fails with "OVF Import failed. Attempted read from closed socket." error (2041322)

Details

Copying a large virtual machine to vCloud Director can fail during the "import to destination cloud" phase for the following reasons:

Destination vCloud Director does not have enough storage on transfer spooling area
Transfer session timed out

Solution

Increase the transfer spooling area of vCloud Director by mounting the required storage to /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/data/transfer.
Increase the vCloud Director transfer session timeout:

Log on to vCloud Director as a system administrator.
Select the System > Administration tab, then select General in the Administration panel.
Under Timeouts, increase the Transfer session timeout.

Source:-
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2041322&src=vmw_so_vex_ragga_1012

General System Settings - vCloud Director

Cloud Director includes general system settings that you can modify to meet your needs.

General System Settings
Name	Category	Description
Synchronization Start Time	LDAP Synchronization	Time of day to start LDAP synchronization.
Synchronization Interval	LDAP Synchronization	The number of hours between LDAP synchronisations.
Login policy	Login Policy	Select a login policy.
Activity log history to keep	Activity Log	Number of days of log history to keep before deleting it. Type `0` to never delete logs.
Activity log history shown	Activity Log	Number of days of log history to display. Type `0` to show all activity.
Display debug information	Activity Log	Enable this setting to display debug information in the vCloud Director task log.
IP address release timeout	Networking	Number of seconds to keep released IP addresses on hold before making them available for allocation again. This default setting is 2 hours (7200 seconds) to allow old entries to expire from client ARP tables.
Allow Overlapping External Networks	Networking	Select the check box to add external networks that run on the same network segment. Enable this setting only if you are using non-VLAN-based methods (for example, VMware vShield Manager) to isolate your external networks.
Default syslog server settings for networks	Networking	Type IP addresses for up to two Syslog servers for networks to use. This setting does not apply to Syslog servers used by cloud cells.
Provider Locale	Localization	Select a locale for provider activity, including log entries, email alerts, and so on.
Idle session timeout	Miscellaneous	Amount of time the vCloud Director application remains active without user interaction.
Maximum session timeout	Miscellaneous	Maximum amount of time the vCloud Director application remains active.
Host refresh frequency	Miscellaneous	How often vCloud Director checks whether its ESX/ESXi hosts are accessible or inaccessible.
Host hung timeout	Miscellaneous	Select the amount of time to wait before marking a host as hung.
Transfer session timeout	Miscellaneous	Amount of time to wait before failing a paused or canceled upload task, for example upload media or upload vApp template. This timeout does not affect upload tasks that are in progress.
Chargeback Event History to Keep	Miscellaneous	Number of days of chargeback event history to keep before deleting it.
Chargeback Event Cleanup Start Time	Miscellaneous	Time of day to start chargeback event history cleanup.
Provide default vApp names	Miscellaneous	Select the check box to generate default names for vApps.
Enable upload quarantine with a timeout of __ seconds	Miscellaneous	Select the check box and enter a timeout number representing the amount of time to quarantine uploaded files. For more information about working with quarantined files, see Monitoring Quarantined Files.
Verify vCenter certificates	Miscellaneous	Select the check box to allow vCloud Director to communicate only with trusted vCenter servers. Click Browse to locate the JCEKS keystore and type the keystore password.

Source VMware Documentation

XaaS - Anything as a Service

Monday, 26 January 2015

Notice of vCenter Chargeback Manager End of Availability

VMware has announced the End of Availability of all versions of VMware® vCenter™ Chargeback Manager™ for non-Service Provider customers, effective of June 10, 2014.

All support and maintenance for the removed versions of vCenter Chargeback Manager will be unaffected and will continue as per VMware Life Cycle Support Policy through the published support period, June 30, 2015. Existing customers can continue to use vCenter Chargeback Manager beyond the End of Availability and receive customer support until June 30, 2015.

vRealize Suite Consist of

Special Thanks to VMware for the Image

Sunday, 25 January 2015

vRealize Business Taxonomy & Definitions

Before we dig into the solution itself, it is important to understand the key components that will be referenced in this vRealize Business

Cost Model - a visual diagram that demonstrates and cost structure and flow of dollars through an organization.
Cost Object - an element of a Cost Model that depicts a single cost item. Examples include server type, storage type, or a specific data center.
Cost Group - an element of a Cost Model that is made up of multiple cost objects. A cost group called 'Physical Servers' would contain several server cost objects like 'Linux', 'Windows', or 'Unix', for example.
Cost Driver - in a Cost Model, these are the costs that a cost object inherits from other cost objects. For example, the cost drivers for Servers may be Data Center, Hardware, Software, and Labor.
Allocation - in a cost model, this is the spread of costs from one cost object to another. An example would be that costs from Servers are allocated to Applications.
Allocation Method - in a cost model, the manner in which costs are pushed to another cost object. This could be based on a predetermined percentage, price, or, most accurately, by actual consumption.