ESXi 6.7 U1 fixes: APD and VMCP is not triggered even when no paths can service I/Os

It has been over two years since I blogged about APD handling bug which I discovered, during partial storage outage in my environment. All path down (APD) handling and VMware Component Protection (VMCP) is not working when you have paths physically connected, but they are not able to serve any… Continue reading

Bricked QLogic Broadcom BCM57840 after driver update

alert

Two weeks ago, we started with regular updates of our Flex system servers, including drivers and firmwares. It is good practice to update drivers first so I followed this procedure as usually. Our update list included ESXi driver for CN4022 (QLogic Broadcom BCM57840). Since IBM/Lenovo doesn’t provide VMware drivers for… Continue reading

IBM/Lenovo Networking and security issue using Easy Connect mode!

alert

A couple of months ago, after a migration from our legacy vSphere environment into our brand new vSphere based on IBM/Lenovo Flex Systems environment. Some of the our VMs stopped or were randomly responding on the network. My networking team discovered those VMs have duplicate MAC addressees with another VMs.… Continue reading

IBM FlashSystem V9000 and VMware vSphere ESXi Guidelines

I’m really glad I had opportunity to participate on a RedBook residency regarding IBM FlashSystem V9000 and VMware “Best Practices” (it was actually one of my last thing which I did as IBMer) and till the RedPaper is released for public I decided to write a sneak peek with some… Continue reading

WhatMatrix Virtualization Comparison – Hypervisors (Update – Open Beta 26.8.2015)

WhatMatrix Virtualization Comparison – Hypervisors (Update – Open Beta 26.8.2015) The Story started during the last VMworld 2014 in one of Barcelona Pubs where I met the WhatMatrix core team we spoke about our common virtualization hobby and doing web-projects. We started to work together and now I’m pleased to show you what… Continue reading

A new IBM SVC, Storwize (Spectrum Virtualize) v7.5 brings VVols, HyperSwap…

IBM made an announcement last week that a new IBM Spectrum Virtualize Software V7.5.0 is coming soon (5th June 2015), which will bring supports for the features like vSphere VVols, HyperSwap, Microsoft ODX… If you haven’t heard yet, IBM replaced Storwize family naming earlier this year with Spectrum Virtualize Software.… Continue reading

CEE RTE – Regional Technical Exchange 2015

Central and Eastern Europe Regional Technical Exchange 2015 (CEE RTE) Last week I did have an opportunity to join an IBM RTE conference held in Prague, hotel Ambassador (Zlata Husa). CEE RTE started in 2010 and it’s a yearly event, for me it was the first time to attend. Event was… Continue reading

IBM/Lenovo (Pure) Flex system and vSphere part1: Useless stuff

flex chassis

In the last two years I was participating on the many designs, implementations and reviews of the vSphere on IBM/Lenovo Flex System or PureFlex, if you want to call like that. Therefore today I would like to share with you my preferred way of doing it right from vSphere perspective… Continue reading

Updated: Storage disconnects when using VAAI ATS on vSphere 5.5 Update2 and vSphere 6.0

alert

IBM has released a flash alert regarding a new behavior introduced in vSphere 5.5 Update2 and vSphere 6.0 where VAAI ATS (Atomic Test and Set or in the other words Hardware accelerated locking) is used for heartbeat I/O. http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ssg1S1005201 According to IBM: Due to the low timeout value for heartbeat… Continue reading

TheVirtualist hosted StorMagic in Brno, CZ

Last week, we had an opportunity to host Nathan and Mark from StorMagic, UK, who came to Brno, CZ, to give us more insight to their SvSAN solution. Roman Macek already wrote about the solution here.  But why am I writing about something that is quite common to happen? Well, first of all, it… Continue reading