Virtual (VMware) Guru's wanted!

Knubje

Knubje

Knubje

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Hi,

I am looking at studying for a VCP soon and am looking to further my career in virtual systems.

I wondering who currently has a career working with virtualisation and primarily VMware based platforms. If possible I would like to take a little of their time to ask a few questions and their opinions- off the OcUK record of course. Any management experience would be even better.

If anyone fits that bill, please let me know if I can drop you an email in trust (alternatively drop me an email to my trust, I check it frequently).

Cheers guys, happy virtualising :D
 
Wow, thanks for all the replies gents. I appreciate it a great deal! Essentially I am at a potential crossroads in my career. I've been a system admin for nearly 3 years at a respectable employer, all be it small/medium business.

In that time I've set up 3 hosts currently running vSphere 4.0 and have pretty much fully virtualised my employers current business critical services (Exchange, SQL, File, Print, Telecoms, Web, etc).

Essentially, I am wondering what you would say if you had to prove that your respective virtual solutions were resilient. It is a question posed to me at the moment and whilst I have a good idea of my response, I wonder what you would all say?

There is much to talk about when making sure the platform you have in place is resilient and robust enough to deal with any issues that might arise.

Any thoughts or discussion on the matter would be really appreciated!

Cheers!
 
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Thanks M4cc45, I was thinking of going down your route.

We do have DRS plans and have actually acted them out for real as a complete off-site test. It was very successful which is always a plus. (One of the reasons I love VMware).

We do use HA to the point of having production machines replicated every few hours or so to other hosts/SAN. This gives us opportunity to fail over entire Hosts or individual VM's if needed. Everything is currently spread across 3 hosts, 3 SANS and 2 FC switches.

We have other backup/restore plans for VM's and data which is always considered. (Daily differential backups of VMs, Monthly full copies, etc, etc). Data it sent offsite etc.

I have even gone down the lines of rack placement and power distribution from several different UPS to the PSUs in the Host. To negate the impact that power failure might cause.

In terms of Windows domain we have our Exchange sat on different Host/SAN to our SQL sever. All production machines split across 2 hosts (with one as a complete backup, currently running a test environment). We have configured SANs and Hosts with guidance from white papers to ensure that different LUNS are used for Database files and log files. Our DC is on one host and our secondary DC is on another.

I'd like to think that I have covered most bases and whilst I'm sure there is always something that could go wrong that might catch you out, there is no solution that never has problems. There comes an acceptable limit for most businesses where they will not be prepared to spend 10's of 1000's on paying for a solution that they might only ever use once in a blue moon.

In terms of resilience I think our systems are able to bounce back from whatever bad times might get thrown our way. Be it hardware failure, user error or catastrophic unforeseen circumstances.

Getting it all down on paper to show you've thought of as many possible angles is quite an extensive job!
 
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oddjob62 said:
I'm guessing he means "DR" plan and has recently been talking about Vmware features too much :p
Click to expand...

Yeah this is true! :)

My acronyms are going out of the window as we use DRS as DR here, don't ask why. Anyway, in terms of resilience and building a resilient virtual platform I would imagine proof of covering all/as many bases as you can.

Everything from disaster recovery to high availability would need to be covered. Has anyone any more thoughts on the matter and what makes a virtual platform resilient?
 
Sorry I am obviously not making myself clear.

East host has multiple HBA's which are connected to different Brocade FC Switches. Each switch then in turns connects to SANs which have multiple fibre channel connections. The idea being if a switch fails, they can still communicate. If a host fails, the other hosts can read the data store of the failed one and run the machines that are down. If a SAN fails, the other SANS have replications of the VM's on the one that has gone down.


Overall, it allows us to replicate VM's to other storage and hosts and bring them up in the event of something failing on the original. We aren't using vMotion to do this but a manual process. It takes less than 5 minutes which according to our business is an acceptable time frame for a loss of service. Saves them buying vMotion I guess.

Am I going down the right lines?

What is the benefit of DRS not as in disaster recovery scenario but distributed resource scheduler. How does it work and where is it applicable?
 
Interesting discussion taking place here since I last checked this thread. The environment I work in at the moment isn't really huge so DRS probably isn't needed as much to automate resource allocation.

As far as I understand it, vMotion automates HA in the fact that it keeps things running regardless of most localised issues. If there is a problem with the VM or the HOST then it will automate the process of moving the VM somewhere were the resource demands are less whilst at the same time not causing disruption to users.

I will have a look at it in more depth I think.

I have more questions regarding this area, I am being interviewed for a new job. I am confident that my experience/skills are what they are looking for as I have been shortlisted.

For any IT managers out there or people with relevant experience, what sort of questioning would you ask in an interview to a candidate other than the stock interview questions, "what are your weaknesses, etc" ?

Specifically relating to Virtual Infrastructures or IT related roles that are reasonably technical.
 
Yeah, I believe there will be a certain amount of technical questions involving ESX directly, which I'm not too worried about. I will be able to answer them or not at the end of the day, depending on what they ask.

I suppose just be prepared in and around the subject matter and do the usual background work and see what happens.


Troubleshooting will be high on the list, of course m4cc45. I use a variety of collection log files, host web interface, vCentre and get them from the host service console. I do not think they are looking for expert command line skills, just the ability to know what to look for and where to go to fix it.

I have prepared material to discuss with them regarding the OP subject matter which is where I believe a great deal of the questioning may come from.
 
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Wondered when you'd show up Chicco :) I've seen you discuss VM stuff before and seem to know your stuff.

Do you have anything further to add along the lines of building resilient virtualised solutions and how to demonstrate resilience? Do you have anything futher to add?

Cheers all!
 
m4cc45 said:
Recent post

M.
Click to expand...

I take your point about CLI stuff. Is there anywhere to start to look at the basics and brush up?

I'm familiar with some basic linux command and anytime I've ever had to use CLI in ESX 3.5 and now vSphere is actually quite limited and usually assistance was only a google away.

I would say that CLI is getting into the realms of technical expert in relation to VMware. The job was not looking for that specifically, although the more knowledge I have the better I will look!

Regarding my situation, its a presentation and then approximately 1 hour interview. It doesn't mention tests or anything else, although I am fully expecting some questions relating to my knowledge of VMware.

Cheers.
 
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