Practical Technology

Problem: Three VMs are dropping network connectivity SQL4 SRV_GP YYZ-MAIL-1 (200 packets sent over an hour or so) SQL4->gateway : 100% SQL4->service console5: 100% SQL4->10.1.1.2: 100% SQL4->YYZ-MAIL-1: 93% (75 packets sent over 20 minutes or so) 10.1.1.2->gateway: 100% 10.1.1.2->service console5: 100% 10.1.1.2->SQL4: 73% and dropping 10.1.1.2->YYZ-MAIL-1: 100% so far (after testing like crazy) On the advice of the VMware rep (well, something he said might fix it), we tried separating the service console vSwitch from the LAN vSwitch, giving the LAN one nic and the service console one nic, and then rebooting. My understanding was that having the service console and LAN on the same nic was supported in 4.0. Guess not. So far, all the servers we fixed are 100% fine, but that could be due to the reboots. We'll have to wait for 2-3 weeks for verification on that - it was about two weeks after we got set up that the issue appeared, and after some changes, it ...

Well, the parts arrived today! Got it all set up and kitted out as well. Specs: - Ci7 920 - 2.67GHz - 12GB RAM - Scythe Ninja.B HSF - Intel Pro 1000 CT - 36GB Raptor for the ISO datastore & ESXi installation - 1x1TB, 2x160GB, and 2x320GB SATA for VMFS - ESXi 4.0 I would have added more hard disks, but I ran out of ports and drive locations! I'm going with the multi-disk setup like this because I can't do RAID with that many un-like disks, and at this time could not afford the RAID card even if I had the disks. By spreading out the VMs to say two per spindle, I should be able to get acceptable performance. My goals for this ESXi installation are: - Personal web server for WWW, FTP, media, etc. (hopefully host the blog here one day) - Domain for home PCs - Server 2008 sandbox environment (furthering MSCE goals and general knowledge) - Development VM for asterisk training The specs should be up to the job, and it'll be fun setting all this up. edit: Also, I really want...

This is a test of publishing in word. Edit: Interesting HTML tags on it, and it seems I need my own server to set up pictures. Well, good thing we have a static IP! Just need to get the DNS records moved...

Well, the AOpen P4 box just can't cut it anymore. I booted it up after network connectivity was lost, and suddenly ESX doesn't see any hard disks. Lovely. Time for something reliable - won't be able to learn much on something that is made by AOpen. Or run more than 3-4 VMs on 2GB of RAM. If I want to use thin provisioning, I need to upgrade the NIC to a proper Intel pcie gig nic. While I may be able to get away with that, I'm still stuck with 1 core and 2GB of ram...with a max of 8GB! Not that much anymore, not when you can have 25 VMs running on a single quad core with 16GB.... I'd like to be able to run at least a dozen Windows Server VMs at a time, and that means a bunch of RAM is needed. In my experience with ESX, it's the RAM that gets sucked up first, and the CPU:RAM ratio is usually 1:3, or more. So, it makes sense to me that the Core i7 architecture is a good starting point. - has RAM capabilities up to 24GB - LGA1366 socket, relatively new, coul...

Well, got lots of sleep! After all that hassle, they really didn't point out too much. RPC was timing out due to a few packets not making it to the destination - okay, interesting, but how come everything else was working 100%? Why only RPC for replication between 2008 DCs? What about the fact that 2003 DC replication works 100%? Clearly either there is a bug with 2008 or the Cisco routers are filtering certain packets during replication, i.e. a filter template just needs updating by Cisco. However, we have no time to figure out those problems, not now. We're moving all our DCs back to 2003. Dan dug up this link: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Server_Software/File_Servers/Active_Directory/Q_24423610.html Indicates that 2008 replication to multiple sites has issues, while replication with no sites configured works just fine. We haven't had a chance to test this yet.

4:00am (11:30pm start) Not going well so far. Problem: The US exchange server refuses to route emails to the CAN exchange server. Here's what we know: - They are in the same domain. - They can ping each other using IP and DNS. - They can telnet to each other on port 25. - They can send a message via SMTP commands across the VPN connection that arrives in a recipient's mailbox successfully, verified from both sides. - Active directory replication has been troublesome, but seems to work, for the most part. - Tracert functions correctly - three hops, one local, one *s, one destination - so the VPN is functioning correctly in that respect. - A share can be mapped from one server to the other. - AD domains and trusts becomes unresponsive when opened - RPC issues - dcpromo fails at replication (times out) - RPC issue - SCCM 2007 installation completes with some failures - timouts - RPC issue 11:30am We call Microsoft and are assured contact soon. 2:30pm ...