Storage on Virtualthoughts

Replicating my vSphere network configuration in Openshift Virtualisation

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Red Hat Openshift Virtualisation provides a platform for running and managing Virtual Machines alongside Containers using a consistent API. It also provides a mechanism for migrating VMs from platforms such as vSphere.

As I have both environments, I wanted to deploy an Openshift Virtualisation setup that mimics my current vSphere setup so I could migrate Virtual Machines to it.

Existing vSphere Design

Below is a diagram depicting my current vSphere setup. My ESXi hosts are dual-homed with a separation of management (vmkernel) and virtual machine traffic.

Homelab Networking Refresh

Mon, 18 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Adios, Netgear router

In hindsight, I shouldn’t have bought a Netgear D7000 router. The reviews were good but after about 6 months of ownership, it decided to exhibit some pretty awful symptoms. One of which was completely and indiscriminately drop all wireless clients regardless of device type, range, band or frequency it resided on. A reconnect to the wireless network would prompt the passphrase again, weirdly. Even after putting in the passphrase (again) it wouldn’t connect. The only way to rectify this was to physically reboot the router.

VMware Cloud on AWS

Fri, 24 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Perhaps one of VMware’s most significant announcements made in recent times is the partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), including the ability to leverage AWS’s infrastructure to provision vSphere managed resources. What exactly does this mean and what benefits could this bring to the enterprise?

Collaboration of Two Giants

To understand and appreciate the significance of this partnership we must acknowledge the position and perspective of each.

Market leader in private cloud offerings
Deep roots and history in virtualisation
Expanding portfolio

Intel Skylake/Kaby Lake processors: broken hyper-threading

Mon, 26 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Overview

Source : https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2017/06/msg00308.html

It appears some Intel Xeon CPU’s are susceptible to a recently discovered Hyper Threading bug. However, these are limited to E3 v5/v6 based Xeon systems which are found mostly in entry level servers with single socket implementations. > Dual socket systems currently leverage E5 based Xeons which don’t appear to be affected.

Currently, the easiest way to mitigate against this bug is to simply disable hyper-threading. The bug also appears to be OS agnostic.

Homelab v2 - Part 1

Fri, 19 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Out with the old

My previous homelab, although functional was starting to hit the limits of 32GB of RAM, particularly when running vCenter, vSAN, NSX, etc concurrently.

A family member had use for my old lab so I decided to sell it and get a replacement whitebox.

Requirements

Quiet - As this would live in my office and powered on pretty much 24/7 it need a silent running machine
Power efficient - I’d rather not rack up the electric bill.
64GB Ram Support

Achievement Unlocked : Dell Compellent Certified Deployment Professional

Thu, 11 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve only recently started focusing more on developing my storage skills which I personally believe to be a good complement to my existing VMware knowledge. I’ve been working with Compellent systems for a few months now and thought it was a good time to get officially certified.

The exam itself put me a little out of my comfort zone, as in the past my storage level knowledge was limited to administrator level on EqualLogic setups. This exam was tough but rewarding.

An introduction to vSphere Metro Storage Cluster with Compellent Live Volume

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Intro

VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster is a suite of infrastructure configurations that facilitate a stretched cluster setup. It’s not a feature like HA/DRS that we can switch on easily; it requires architectural design decisions that specifically contribute to this configuration. The foundation of which are stretched clusters and with regards to the Compellent suite of solutions Live Volume

Stretched Cluster

Stretched clusters are pretty much self explanatory. In comparison to a lot of configurations where compute clusters reside within the same physical room, stretched clusters spread the compute capacity over more than one physical location. This can still be internally (different server rooms within the same building) or further apart over geographically disperse sites.