Performance

My Top 10 VMworld 2021 Sessions

dvdmorera #VMworld , , , ,

VMworld 2021, is fast approaching. In only two weeks we will be able to enjoy free sessions on new technology, features, and solutions. Imagine that!

I have recently moved to a new role, and I now have a little (a lot actually) more insight as to what is going on behind the curtain. I am exited for this year’s VMworld announcements about VMware partnering with vendors to deliver new, emerging tech to help customer solve their complex problems. From cost efficiency to high performance, to the cloud… I better stop before I give anything away.

I have compiled my top ten sessions. Make sure to check them out.

  1. Big Memory – An Industry Perspective on Customer Pain Points and Potential Solutions [MCL2384] 
  2. Introducing VMware’s Project Capitola: Unbounding the “Memory Bound” [MCL1453] 
  3. 10 Things You Need to Know About Project Monterey [MCL1833]
  4. Partner Roundtable Discussion: Project Monterey—Redefining Data Center Solutions MCL2379] 
  5. Project Monterey: Present, Future and Beyond [MCL1401]  
  6. Disaggregating Storage and Compute with HCI Mesh: Why, When, and How [MCL1683]
  7. VMware Cloud Foundation Tips and Tricks from the Trenches [MCL1025]
  8. How vSphere Is Redefining Infrastructure For Running Apps In the Multi-Cloud Era [MCL2500]
  9. The Big Memory Transformation [VI2342]
  10. Bring Intel PMem into the Mainstream with Memory Monitoring and Remediation [MCL3014S]

Go register for VMworld (free). See you there…

HCIBench null Results? But it worked last week?!

dvdmorera Performance, VSAN , , ,

hcibench_logoLast week a new version of HCIBench was released (version 1.5.0.5). If you are not familiar with HCIBench, this is a VMware Fling that gives you a nice web UI to conduct performance testing for vSAN environments. It leverages vdbench to create VMs and stress test vSAN. The reports generated in addition to realtime views of vSAN observer can give you a great look at what your vSAN cluster can do.

If you are running version 1.5.0.4, you may now encounter an issue where the test runs, but it doesn’t run as long as you told it to. It also displays zeros for results. You probably ran it prior to Nov. 1st as was fine, so what gives?

The issue is with the vm-template. HCIBench will spin up vdbench VMs during the test. The problem is, the password on those VMs has expired for version 1.5.0.4.

Symptoms:
==========================================
In host-ESXi_IP-vm-deploy.log or vc-VC_IP-vm-deploy.log you will see the err msg: “no such mark “~pvscsi””
Or in all-in-one-testing.log, you will see err msg: “Too many authentication failures”
Or in io-test log you will see err msg: “Net::SCP::Error: SCP did not finish successfully (1)”
Your test will finish with 0s results.
==========================================

What to do?

You have 2 choices. You can either upgrade HCIBench to version 1.5.0.5 or replace the vm-template file within HCIBench. Ideally, you will upgrade, since there are more fixes on this new release.

Upgrade Path – Download HCIBench ova from https://labs.vmware.com/flings/hcibench#summary and deploy.

Workaround – If you are not willing to upgrade, we are providing the vm-template file in the download, vm-template.tar.gz, please download this file, upload it to HCIBench:/root/, in HCIBench command line, run 

“tar -zxvf /root/vm-template.tar.gz ; mv -f vm-template/* /opt/output/vm-template/”

hcib_download

OR you can resolve the issue by yourself:

1. Deploy the perf-photon-vdbench vm from http://HCIBENCH_IP/vm-template/perf-photon-vdbench.ovf (KEEP THE VM NAME AS perf-photon-vdbench )
2. log into perf-photon-vdbench vm using root/vdbench and run “chage -I -1 -m 0 -M 99999 -E -1 root”
3. shutdown perf-photon-vdbench vm
4. Login into HCIBench and run “rvc ‘VC_USERNAME’@VCENTER_IP”
5. In RVC, go to /VC/DATACENTER/ and run “ovf.download /opt/output/vm-template vms/perf-photon-vdbench”, after downloading, exit rvc by typing “exit”
6. Run “mv /opt/output/vm-template/perf-photon-vdbench/* /opt/output/vm-template” and “chmod 755 /opt/output/vm-template/*”

 

List of Fixes on version 1.5.0.5

  • Increased Timeout value of client VM disk from 30 seconds to 180 seconds.
  • Disabled client VM password expiration.
  • Disabled client VM OS disk fsck.
  • Set Observer interval to 60 seconds to shrink the size of observer data.
  • Fixed PCPU calculation.
  • Created link directory of /opt/automation/logs, user will be able to review the testing logs in http://HCIBENCH/hcibench_logs/
  • Increased the RAM of HCIBench from 4GB to 8GB to avoid running out-of-resource issue.