This applies to upgrades from Data Protector 6.x and 7.x to 8.x and 9.x. It seems that today is my debugging day… Yesterday I performed a Data Protector update from 7.03 to 8.13. During this update, the Data Protector IDB is migrated to another database format. Last night the backups went smoothly, but today I noticed that two old Detail Catalog Binary File (DCBF) directories were still referenced in the HP Data Protector IDB.

HP has brushed up the StoreServ 7000 series and updated the StoreServ 7200 and 7400 models. HP also added a new model to the 7000 series: The StoreServ 7440c. New 3PAR StoreServ models: Model 3PAR StoreServ 7200c 3PAR StoreServ 7400c 3PAR StoreServ 7440c Nodes 2 2 or 4 2 or 4 CPUs 2x 6-Core 1,8 GHz 2x or 4x 6-Core 1,8 GHz 2x or 4x 8-Core 2,3 GHz Gen4 ASICs 2 2 or 4 2 or 4 On-Node Cache 40 GB 48 - 96 GB 96 - 192 GB Max Drives 8 - 240 (max 120 SSDs) 8 – 576 (max 240 SSDs) 8 - 960 (max 240 SSDs) Max Enclosures 0 - 9 0 - 22 0 - 38 Old 3PAR StoreServ models

When you want to go fast, go slow. Otherwise you will get into trouble… Today I tried to quickly deploy a VM from a template and customize this VM with a customization specification. The codeword is “quickly”. The fun started with this error message: Patrick Terlisten/ vcloudnine.de/ Creative Commons CC0 Fortunately I asked the VMware Knowledge Base, which lead me to VMware KB2086930 (Deploying a template with customization fails with the error: Authenticity of the host’s SSL certificate is not verified).

It’s a common practice to replace self-signed certificates, that are used in several VMware products, with CA signed certificates. I did this in my lab for my vCenter Server Appliance and my VMware Update Manager. While I was working with vRealize Orchestrator I noticed, that it is also using self-signed certificates (what else?). For completeness, I decided to replace the self-signed certificates with CA signed. My lab environment VMware vSphere 5.

The clock is ticking… Current VCP5-DCVs who need to recertify their VCP can do this until 30. November 2014 by passing the VCP5-DCV Delta exam (VCP550D). The exam can booked online via Pearson VUE and it’s delivered as an online exam. This means, that you don’t have to visit a Pearson VUE test center to take the exam. The costs for the exam are 90,- € plus taxes (in my case ~ 107 €).

While preparing for a VMware vSphere 5.5 update at a customer of mine, I stumbled over VMware KB2085618 (ESXi host cannot initiate vMotion or enable services and reports the error: Heap globalCartel-1 already at its maximum size.Cannot expand.). I checked the HP AMS version in the latest HP custom ESXi image and found out, that version hp-ams-esx-550.10.0.0-18.1198610 is included (source). Unfortunately the bug is not fixed in 10.0.0, but it’s fixed in 10.

This is not a brand new issue and it’s well discussed in the VMTN. After applying the ESXi 5.5.0 U2 patches from 15. October 2014, you may notice the following symptoms: Some Citrix NetScaler VMs with e1000 vNICs loses network connectivity You can’t access the VM console after applying the patches VMware has released a couple of patches in October: ESXi550-201410101-SG (esx-base) ESXi550-201410401-BG (esx-base) ESXi550-201410402-BG (misc-drivers) ESXi550-201410403-BG (sata-ahci) ESXi550-201410404-BG (xhci-xhci) ESXi550-201410405-BG (tools-light) ESXi550-201410406-BG (net-vmxnet3) More specifically, it’s the patch ESXi550-201410401-BG that is causing the problem.

This tweet from @JuniperNetworks has really inspired me yesterday. I liked Junipers Firefly Perimeter (vSRX) from the first day. I like the idea behind this product (yes, I like everything that can be run as a VM…). But yesterday Juniper has go one better. Introducing the vMX – the industry's only carrier class virtualized router: http://t.co/2lgXaQ1cjh #networkunlocked pic.twitter.com/V8zWvpRXoA — Juniper Networks (@JuniperNetworks) November 6, 2014 Juniper Networks announced yesterday a virtualized and carrier-grade version of their MX Series 3D router.

On October 28 2014 HP has published HP 3PAR OS 3.2.1 MU1, the first maintenance update for HP 3PAR OS 3.2.1. Beside some fixes, HP enabled in-line deduplication (Thin Deduplication) on all the systems with 3PAR GEN4 ASIC (StoreServ 7000 and 10000). Thin Deduplication does not require any license! It’s included in the base license and every customer can use it without spending money for it. Thin Deduplication In-line deduplication is awesome, congrats to HP for making this possible.

Today I was at a customers site. My attention was initially directed on a vCOps deployment. vCOps is a good startpoint if you need a quick overview over a vSphere environment. Unfortunately vCOps wasn’t working any more. The license was expired and the login page wasn’t accessable, but the admin login page was workingI restarted the vApp but this doesn’t solve the problem. The customer owns a VMware vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus license and it would be a shame, if he wouldn’t use vCOps in his environment (> 15 hosts).