Vmware VCB and iSCSI not supported – possible help is !

While using VCB w/ iSCSI is not “officially” supported by VMware; some clients are using it and say that it works well when used with esxRangerPro by VizionCore – in some situations when trying to use VCB w/ iSCSI, they will see SCSI Reservation errors and
think it is not working, but most of the time it is.

Feel free to try it out http://vizioncore.com/download.html
and if you run into an issue , you can email
support@vizioncore.com.

Using RangerPRO alone w/ iSCSI as a storage destination is
definitely supported.

VMware confirms they acquired Propero and StorageCraft OEM

VMware confirms they acquired Propero; to be used as broker software with VDI ; the acquisition seems a bit curious though – is Propero best of breed in this area? Mixed reviews so far….
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1124610/000119312507090409/dex211.htm
“Propero is a leading provider of desktop virtualization software that helps customers reduce the cost and complexity of IT while increasing business flexibility. “

A new player in the P2V, P2P, etc, etc space is StorageCraft – seems like a lot of PowerQuest Corporation – Symantec talent on board with this firm.

StorageCraft Signs OEM Agreement with VMware Volume Snapshot Manager (VSM) Licensed for use in VMWare Converter 3.0 2/14/2007

http://www.storagecraft.com/news/newsItem.aspx?ArticleID=37

Vmotion Issues and different CPU families

Here is the link to the vmotion site that explains which family of cpus customers are able to vmotion across. This should help you understand the issue surrounding vmotion.

You can vmotion across different families of cpus but it requires turning off some features in the newer cpus, so they are the same as the older cpus. So customers have to decide how much vmotion is worth to them verses the newer features.

If they purchase cpus that are Core mircoarchitecture based ie Xeon 5100 and 5300 they can vmotion across those cpus.

If they have the older cpus Xeon 2.8ghx or Xeon 3.0ghz they can vmotion across those cpus.

If they have legacy infrastructure Xeon 2.8ghz and want to add Xeon 5100 or 5300 they are unable to vmotion across these cpus. (w/out doing some “kloogy work around”

AMD has the same issue also.

It comes down to the instruction sets on the cpus. The older cpus are SSE3 (Xeon 2.8etc)and the newer ones have SSE4, (xeon 5100 and 5300) you cannot vmotion across differing instruction sets.

VMotion CPU Compatibility Requirements for Intel Processors

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=1991