Here is what to expect at VMworld:

1. Crowds everywhere. This forum is huge and there will be lines for just about everything including some places on the show floor. Talk to your neighbors in line, they may just have information that will help you as you make your journey into virtualization.
2. Most talks will also be crowded. If you are not in the proper line early you may not be able to make it to the talk so it is important to pick your talks carefully. Since VMworld is crowded it will be difficult to get from talk to talk. Also, the labs are in a different location than the talks — and travel time from the Marriot to the Moscone Center is not just 5 minutes.
3. If you do not make it into a session, do not fret. Head to the show floor and talk directly with the vendors, people staffing the VMware Genius Bar, or go to the VMware Communities vExpert lounge. In this lounge you never know who is going to show up and they will be able to help you. Or make your way to your next talk and have a seat in line, catch up on email or just talk to your neighbors who are doing the same thing.
4. Expect to be walking quite a bit, so bring comfortable shoes.
5. Expect to be walking outside as well. San Francisco is not the warmest city in August. Last time I was there, I had to buy a fleece else I froze, even inside the Moscone.
6. VMware will provide lunch and breakfast, but dinner is on you. There are plenty of things happening at night as well. Maybe you have an invitation to a vendor-hosted dinner or can get one, else dinner will be at the restaurants around Moscone or deeper into the city. A little planning will go a long way.

VMworld is one conference that is full of information. Expect three days of information overload. The good thing is that if you miss a talk, an archived version will soon be up at http://www.vmworld.com so you can go back and refresh your memory.

For those not attending, nearly every blog and media outlet will be at VMworld, and you can get a live feed of what’s happening via Twitter. I fully expect that if you follow the #vmworld hash tag, you will stay up-to-date on VMworld with no issues. People will also be blogging from the event, so during or immediately after keynotes you will see those blogs appearing.

Do not forget the post show activities as well. Information overload leads to people blogging and writing about VMworld for several weeks afterwards as everything percolates through the brain to paper.

Take one morning’s statistics from this past week:

• 3 pages of new VMware vSphere Forum Posts vs 1.5 pages of VMware ESX 3.5 Forum Posts.
• VMware ESX 3.5 Forum posts used to be around 3 pages
• The majority of VMware vSphere Forum Posts that dealt with ESX 4 vs ESXi 4 was in favor of ESXi 4 by a wide margin (I did not actually count posts but noticed there were more ESXi posts than ESX posts in those 3 pages)

So using this as a rough measurement and in a completely unscientific way, we do see that VMware vSphere is being investigated for use at least by those activie within the VMware community forums. The same thing happened when ESX v3.5 was released, and over time ESX 3.0 community posts dropped to less than a dozen per day. (I say per day because I review the vSphere, ESX 3.5, and ESX 3.0 communities once about every 24 hours give or take an hour or so.)

Given the types of questions, it looks like two things are happening:

• VMware vSphere is being investigated
• VMware ESXi 4 is the packaging of choice

The second item could be because many people believe that when the next version of ESX comes out, it won’t have a service console, and these users want to get a head start on the adjustment.

What we do not know from this type of adoption measurement is whether these are adoptions for use within production, enthusiasts, or testing within lab environments.

What we do know is that the increase in volume and the drop in ESX v3.5 forum posts is that vSphere is definitely gaining traction. This is not surprising, but what is to me is that ESXi 4 has a constant flow of posts while ESX 4 does not. This will shift the security model people employ to protect virtualization hosts as well.

• The hardware involved. VMware vSphere has certain hardware requriements, if your target hosts do not support these minimal requirements, then they are not good candidates for running VMware vSphere. The basic requirements are:

- 64 Bit CPU support. This does mean that some EMT64 machines will work. However they may not be on the VMware Hardware Compatibility Guides.

- Intel-VT or AMD-V support. This pretty much goes without saying; it is impossible to use VMware vSphere if these features are not enabled within the BIOS.

- No eXecute (NX) or eXecute Disable (XD) support within the BIOS. In some cases you are required to enable this bit to allow VMware vSphere to run.

• Whether or not the hardware is fully supported by VMware for VMware vSphere 4. This implies that the hardware and IO devices you are planning to use are listed within the VMware Hardware Compatibility Guides. If they are not then there is a chance that when you call for VMware Support that they will deny you this support. It does not happen often but it is possible, so be aware of this. If you are not using VMware vSphere 4 in production, this may not be a huge issue as many a whitebox will work, just be sure your IO devices are listed within the VMware Hardware Compatibility Guides.
• Whether or not current management agents exist for VMware vSphere 4. This implies that your current crop of management agents, such as HP Insight Management Agents, are available for VMware vSphere 4. Monitoring of your physical hardware and alerting on issues is too important to not have available if your use VMware vSphere 4.
• Have you tested vSphere 4 in your environment? Wanting to upgrade implies that you have tested vSphere 4 within your environment and that you are comfortable with the changes in licensing and operation of this .0 release of software. It is unwise to just place VMware vSphere 4 into production without first running some tests. How much of a test plan you use depends on your existing testing processes, but some testing is required. If you are upgrading, at minimum you should test to see which path is a smoother transition for you: upgrading or reinstalling.
• Have you considered licensing level changes? There are many licensing level changes within VMware vSphere 4 with respect to what is available at each license level. If you upgrade will you also need to upgrade your licenses to maintain the appropriate levels of functionality. DRS is a case in point. It is important to know exactly what your licenses imply when you upgrade. With new starts of VMware ESX, it is also important to understand your license levels.
• Do you need to upgrade your hardware to use all vSphere 4.0 functions? In some cases, before you can utilize all features of VMware vSphere 4 such as Fault Tolerance you will need to also upgrade your processors. Not every processor supports VMware vLockstep. If you do require VMware Fault Tolerance, for example, it is important to know its limitations and the required CPUs.

These are not all of the issues involved with upgrading to VMware vSphere 4, but they are helpful considerations for deciding if you should upgrade or even can upgrade as well as start using VMware vSphere 4 for new installations.

As with any virtualization endeavor, it is extremely import to architect, design, and plan your vSphere 4 installations or upgrades. It is very easy to install VMware vSphere 4 without doing any planning, but if you do so, expect frustration, delays, and long days and nights. Ask the tough questions during your planning stages and do not rush to implement vSphere 4 unless there is a major need to do so.

Get your license keys:

1. Log in to your VMware Account by going to http://www.vmware.com, clicking on Account, then clicking on Manage Product Licenses.
2. Select your product, ‘VMware Infrastructure 3′ from the drop down menu for Server & Datacenter Products.
3. Once you go to vSphere licenses, your VI3 licenses no longer exist, so be sure you get the proper number of VI3 licenses that you need for the time being.
4. In the upper right will be a ‘vSphere Licenses’ button to click. Click on that button or clock on Go To: ‘VMware vSphere’. Either will work.
5. Here is where you can divide your licenses so you have the proper number of CPUs per host. If for example you have 12 licenses and 6 2 CPU hosts, you can create 6 2 CPU licenses.

If you make too many vSphere licenses and need more VI3 licenses you can also use the ‘Downgrade Licenses’ link to do so.

That is all there is to it. VMware vSphere uses a license key instead of a license file. Once you have migrated your licenses to vSphere and divided them appropriately you can record the license keys for future use. No need to download a license file or anything like that.

Get the software:

Getting vSphere 4 is much easier than getting the licensing but there is still a gotcha. The steps are follows:

1. Go to the VMware download page.
2. Click ‘Download’ for VMware vSphere 4.
3. Expand the level of your license. I.e. if your level is Standard you will expand the ‘Download VMware vSphere 4 Standard’ link. If your level is Enterprise you will expand the ‘Download VMware vSphere 4 Enterprise’ link.
4. Click on the link for your choice of install, ESX 4 or ESXi 4 (I usually get both).
5. Read the EULA carefully and accept it as you desire.
6. Download pretty much everything from the resultant download page. VMware has added a Download Manager that I found very useful indeed.
7. Go back and click on the link for VMware vCenter Server 4 as well as for VMware Consolidated Backup and repeat the process you used for ESX 4 and/or ESXi 4.

I usually download all four ESX, ESXi, VMware vCenter Server 4, and VMware Consolidated Backup. Once that is done you are now ready to reinstall.

Upgrade vs. Reinstall

I leave that to you. Hopefully these steps will aid you in upgrading your vSphere licenses and getting the software. Many people are doing this at this moment so occassionally the VMware site will either not display everything properly or be temporarily out of service. Be patient as it will come back very soon.

The big question is: What is the plus within Enterprise Plus? Where is the extra value? My thoughts on the distinction between the two levels percolated until the brew was right: Apart from the obvious, Enterprise Plus adds multipath plug-in support, host profiles, and the vNetwork Distributed Switch, all of which may or not be needed by the average virtual environment.

Host profiles provide a way to automate the creation of an ESX host from an existing configuration performed from within the vCenter Server. The configurations you can copy are limited to vCenter Server configurations, however. If you copy an ESX host using host profiles, it will not transfer security configurations such as isolation settings, hardening the service console/management appliance and other storage driver settings that are typically made outside of vCenter. For these tasks you will still need the automation and scripts you currently have, although they may have to be slightly modified for host profiles. Host profiles is also an enabling technology for the vNetwork Distributed Switch. You can not use the switch without using host profiles.

The VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch allows for better virtual network integration across vSphere 4 ESX hosts – but you get that with Host Profiles and your existing automation scripts. So what is so special about this virtual switch? It is a container of virtual switches and provides a higher level of management. In addition, it enables the use of the vSphere 4.0 Cisco switch, the Cisco Nexus 1000V. Once more, the vNetwork Distributed Switch is an enabling technology.

The last item that puts the plus in Enterprise Plus is multipath plug-in support. By itself, this functionality only gives you the ability to use a third-party multipathing tool such as EMC’s PowerPath. I fully expect that HP and other SAN makers will add their own tools into the mix. This is a big win for those with EMC SANs who can use EMC’s PowerPath, but at the same time, multi-path plug-in support by itself is just an enabling technology.

So the final equation is really:

Enterprise + Enabling Technologies for Third Party Integration = Enterprise Plus.

Now if VMware would provide something akin to the current Enterprise level without the extra enabling technologies that would be great, because in most environments the Plus will not be of much use. Customers want Distributed Power Management, Distributed Resource Scheduler and Storage VMotion in addition to what the Advanced license would get them. They do not need enabling technologies for products they may never buy, and yes PowerPath and the Nexus 1000V cost monies. Host profiles and vNetwork Distributed Switch are beneficial unto themselves but are not necessary for the proper management of an enterprise virtual environment. I can use existing scripts and tools to do the exact same thing.

So yes, Enterprise Plus provides extra value, but the question remains: Does it give enough value?

Here are the main discussion points:

• VMware should be allowed to make money
• SMBs want everything for free
• VMware vSphere is more expensive than Hyper-V or Xen
• Those at Enterprise license levels are no longer at the top of the license tree
• Enterprise Licensing is disappearing and there will be a forced upgrade to Enterprise Plus
• The forced upgrade is timed to correspond to the termination of the most Support and Service (SnS) contracts
• There is no upgrade path from Essentials to the more advanced license levels without repurchasing
• VMware does not understand the SMB

So what does this all mean? Do these appear to be in conflict with each other? No. But they are in conflict with the customer in this economic climate.

Most of the above is FUD, but there are grains of truth to every bit of FUD out there.

VMware is a company that is there to make money so it charges for its products, as do the other vendors.  Make no mistake, the total cost of ownership (TCO) for any virtualization product is NOT zero — from any vendor. They all are there to make money, either now, or in the future.  So when talking about TCO you need to look at the immediate costs, such as:

• The cost of virtualization management
• The cost of operating system upgrades
• The cost of possibly replacing existing virtual environment software and licenses
• The cost associated with training and certification
• The cost of support
• and more

All companies are there to make money, but how they do it may not be immediately obvious.

VMware has a new level of licensing, but is it really new? They will expire the current Enterprise License by the end of the year and only offer the new Enterprise Plus license. There will be a cost to upgrade from current Enterprise licenses to the new highest level, but that only happens if you need those features or need to renew your SnS.

The SMB does not want everything for free, but it does want a clearly defined upgrade path. In addition, most SMBs do not mind spending the appropriate monies, although they may not purchase everything at once. They may buy in stages or a la carte instead.

Some SMBs and Enterprise customers may want VMotion, Fault Tolerance (FT) and High Availability (HA) but nothing else. This is basically what’s in the Advanced package, but if a business already has Standard, HA and VMotion, can it easily upgrade to get FT?

Is the new licensing confusing? I think so.

What can VMware do about it? Make licensing simpler or easier to understand for its customers.

How can VMware do this? Solve the problems already brought up by customers.

What should you do as the customer? Until May 21st, you need to go to http://www.vmware.com/account/index.do, click on the Manage Support Contracts link and verify that your current Service and Support contracts are still valid and available. If they are not, get on the phone with VMware and solve the problem. Your SnS must be up-to-date as of the 21st in order for VMware to automatically upgrade your VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3) licenses to vSphere 4 licenses. If your SnS is not up to date, has expired, or does not exist for some reason, you will need to renew in order to get the automatic upgrade from VI3 to vSphere. Since the license manager is disappearing in vSphere 4, new license keys must be issued.

VMware has some homework to do, so do the customers.  Grades will be issued to everyone based on the ease of receiving and purchasing the upgraded licenses.

To the rescue was my handy iPhone and the TouchTerm application that I downloaded for free. TouchTerm provides an SSH client for accessing a remote SSH server. The application even allows the use of pre-shared keys, which alleviates the major security concern when using SSH and other SSL-based codes.

Using TouchTerm I was able to access my SSH server and then my ESX hosts service consoles to fix the security problem that occurred.

Another item I am looking forward to adding to my Virtualization Toolbox is Virtualization Manager Mobile from Andrew Kutz and H9Labs. I had a great discussion with Andrew when I was on vacation and some new features coming to VMM look very promising. I have been looking for a secure mobile virtualization manager and hopefully it will be here soon.

For now, TouchTerm adds a much-needed mobile access capability to my Virtualization Toolbox. Bonus: it also supports vSphere.

Granted, you have probably already upgraded to quad-core technologies which means you are probably safe, but those using dual-core technologies may not be. Case in point: HP DLxx0 G4 platforms. These are somewhere between 32- and 64-bit with EMT64 support, but unfortunately this is not enough to run VMware vSphere 4. You will need actual 64-bit hardware. Hopefully you can attain this with just a CPU change.

AMD processors have been 64-bit for some time so those with an investment in AMD processors and systems may not have to worry about such an upgrade.

For me, this requirement meant purchasing brand new hardware months ago to run the vSphere 4 beta.

The rest of you will have to make a choice, move to vSphere 4 and possibly upgrade your hardware all at once, or take a staged approach and do your hardware upgrade while still using VMware Infrastructure 3 until all your systems are on the hardware compatibility list for vSphere 4. At that time you can consider upgrading to vSphere 4 — or not.

Editor’s Note: See Eric Siebert’s article VMware vSphere: Got 64-bit hardware? for additional information on the 64-bit hardware requirement.

Must haves:

• VMware Update Manager (part of VMware vCenter Server)
• Storage VMotion plug-in. This plug-in was created by Andrew Kutz who now works for Hyper9 and works on the H9Labs.com projects.
• H9Labs Hyper9 VI Client plug-in Also from Andrew Kutz. It allows me to do simple searches within the infrastructure and hooks in to Hyper9 if you have it.

Here is a list of plug-ins I use but don’t consider must-haves.

• GuessMyOS plug-in from H9Labs (adds cool icons).
• PowerGUI plug-in from Quest Software (allows me to use PowerShell from within the VMware Infrastructure Client).

Here are ones I know about but do not use.

• Twitter plug-in (I use Twhirl instead because I need to see the VMware Infrastructure Client when chatting sometimes)
• Invoke plug-in (Invoke a command in the security context of your logged-in user on a host) I consider Invoke to be rather dangerous. I would want a way to limit its usage by command, which is the main reason I don’t install this plug-in. Perhaps the Hytrust Appliance will help with this.
• Console plug-in (SSH console for ESX host, not very useful for ESXi).
• AddPortGroups plug-in (Adds multiple portgroups to multiple vSwitches at the same time).

My wish list

• Plug-in to one of the backup tools (VCB, Veeam, vRanger, esXpress, etc.)
• Opscheck plug-in
• ConfigCheck plug-in

Many of the current batch of plug-ins were written by Andrew Kutz of Hyper9. Hopefully, others will add more soon!

• vmmemctl – Balloon driver.
• vmxnet – Paravirtualized network VMwaredriver.
• vmblock – Block filesystem driver to provide drag-and-drop functionality from the remote console.
• vmsync – Sync driver for freezing and thawing filesystems (Linux specific).
• vmhgfs – VMware host/guest file system driver (not used within ESX).
• SVGA Display Driver for Windows systems.
• Mouse Driver for Windows systems.
• vmdesched – Experimental driver for improving time keeping.
• vsock – Socket driver that works with VMCI.
• VMware Guest Daemon for controlling communication between the guest and the host including time sychronization.
• VMware Toolbox for Linux or VMware Tray for Windows for controlling various VMware Tools settings.

A few FAQs:

Do I have to install VMware Tools?
Not at all, your VMs will run fine without VMware Tools, but they will not be notified when memory ballooning occurs. The balloon driver aids the OS in handling these cases.

What do I do if the network is flakey?
Switch to the PCNET32 default device driver that comes with the OS instead of using vmxnet. Or even switch to the e1000 driver that comes with the OS, but this also requires a VM configuration file change.

What if VMware Tools fails to load?
In general this is not an issue unless it is the network driver you are currently using. In that case, you need to modify the system to use the PCNET32 device driver instead. In general, there is often no need to use VMware Tools.

Do I lose out on any other functionality if I don’t install VMware Tools?
When using the VMware Infrastructure Client without VMware Tools some of the information such as IP address will not be available.

The security document says to add X isolation setting. Why?
These isolation settings the security documentation says to disable are good things to do and are really unrelated to VMware Tools. What they do is modify VMware Backdoor functionality to be more secure.

I have a Linux system and the tools do not exist.
For Linux systems you often have to rebuild your VMware Tools to match your system. To do so you will need the GNU compiler collection (GCC) and kernel development packages installed.  If your kernel is relatively new then you will need to use the VMware Tools from http://open-vm-tools.sourceforge.net/ as they are more up-to-date than the official ones from VMware.

How can I tell if VMware Tools is causing a problem in my system?
One way to tell if VMware Tools is involved in your problems is to uninstall it. If your problem goes away then VMware Tools is the culprit. However, once you install it you can select to only install certain items within VMware Tools. Do this until the combination causes a problem.

What do I do if I’m getting a message that VMware Tools is out of date?
Upgrade your VMware tools, this implies that there are newer official VMware tools available with a patch to the host. This is not really a guest OS issue.

VMware Tools are becoming a fact of life with VMware virtualization but they are not necessary and knowing when to install them is just as important as knowing how to debug your guest OS when they are in use. There are many posts on VMware Tools within the VMware VMTN Communities forums, so navigate to the VMTN forums for more information.