Tag: VMware

GNS3 VM startup error with Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI enabled – Resolved

by Samuel Mitchell, posted in Data Center Virtualization, Hyper-V, Network Virtualization, Security, Uncategorized, VMware

I have spent many days setting up my GNS3 LAB on my high spec laptop, only to be disappointed at the end of all that effort suddenly with a startup error “Feature ‘hv.capable’ was 0, but must be at least 0x1. Module ‘FeatureCompatLate’ power on failed. Failed to sart the virtual machine”

I have the GNS3 VM version 2.2.59 running on VMware Workstation version 25H2u1 which was working during the setup.

The GNS3 VM uses nested virtualization which requests the vCPU processor feature Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI enabled for KVM to function in GNS3.

I started to investigate and research the error and it was identified that in Windows 11, the Core Isolation (Memory Integrity) feature in Windows Security –> Device Security was the cause of the error.

Resolution

In Windows Security -> Device security -> Core Isolation -> Disable Memory Integrity

Research

I did some digging to find out the root cause of the memory integrity causing error in the VMware workstation. I found out that the memory integrity is using hardware-based virtualization security which forces the CPU to grant exclusive access to the virtualization technology features to Windows restricting this features to other virtualization platform.

reference:

Virtualization applications don’t work together with Hyper-V and Hyper-V-based features

Core isolation

VMware VCP 6.7-DCV – Objective 1.8 – Differentiate between VDS and VSS

by Samuel Mitchell, posted in VMware

The following notes will assist you to prepare for this objective:

  • You will need to know the features set of both type of switch
    • Standard and Distributed switch
    • Select the appropriate switch given a scenario
    • Understand level of effort in administration
  • Don’t let questions mislead you on feature set
    • Standard switches have significant functionality
  • Learn what the standards actually mean
    • IEEE 802.1q / IEEE 802.3ad
  • Also be able to differentiate discovery protocols
    • When would you use LLDP or CDP?
    • Does that affect switch choice?
  • Be able to determine when a feature is appropriate
    • Health check
    • Beacon probing – detect uplink failure
    • Notify switches – switch cache mac address
    • Roll back
    • Traffic shaping
    • NIOC
  • Questions on NIC teaming rules are possible
  • Can you draw out how traffic flows given each load balancing algorithm is used?
    • Route based on originating virtual port
    • Route based on source MAC hash
    • Route based on source IP hash
    • Route based on physical NIC load
    • Explicit failover order

Reference:

vSphere Networking Guide pdf – Chapter 8 – Networking Policies

VMware VCP 6.7-DCV – Objective 1.7 – Describe and identify resource pools and use cases

by Samuel Mitchell, posted in VMware

The following notes will assist you to prepare for this objective:

  • Resource management is an essential skills for passing VCP-DCV
    • What resource are you being asked to control?
    • Different resources have different controls
  • Know the resource pool settings
    • You need to be able to select the right settings for a scenario
    • Proportional share allocation
  • Why use resource pools

Reference:

VMware VCP 6.7-DCV – Objective 1.9 – Describe the purpose of cluster and the features it provides

by Samuel Mitchell, posted in VMware

The following notes will assist you to prepare for this objective:

  • Be aware of additional features of both HA and DRS
    • HA provides option to enable VM fault tolerance
    • HA provides optional VM Component Protection
    • DRS rules control placement (affinity)
    • DRS provides optional DPM
  • Make sure you have read and experimented with admission control
    • Remember this is a gating of VM power on operations
    • What is slot size? Different from %?
  • Ultimately DRS is automating vMotion
    • So what stops vMotion from working?
    • Incompatible CPUs!
  • Ensure you have looked at Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC)
    • Can you explain CPU masking?
    • Can you pick the appropriate use-case from implementation of either?
  • You need to have awareness of vMotion Encryption

Reference:

vSphere Availability Guide pdf – Chapter 2 – Creating and Using vSphere HA Clusters

vSphere Resource Management Guide pdf

  • Chapter 10 – Managing Resource Pools
  • Chapter 11 – Creating a DRS Cluster

vSphere Security Guide pdf – Chapter 6 – Encrypted vSphere vMotion

VMware VCP 6.7-DCV – Objective 1.10 – Describe virtual machine (VM) file structure

by Samuel Mitchell, posted in VMware

The following notes will assist you to prepare for this objective:

  • You need to know the files that make up a VM and what they do
    • VMX, VMDK, VSWP, VMSD, VMSN, etc
  • You need to know their behaviour
    • What gets created if missing?
    • What is naming convention of files?
    • What is the snapshot naming behaviour?
    • Any differences between VMFS5 and VMFS6?
    • How do resources reservation affects files?
  • You should also be familiar with virtual disk types
  • Try in your home lab to create VMs with
    • Thin provisioned disk
    • Thick provisioned disk
    • Eager zero thick provisioned disk
    • Could you convert from one disk type to another? How exactly?
  • Get to a vSphere host command line and look at what gets created
    • Nothin like doing to lock this into your memory!

Reference: vSphere ESXi vCenter-Server 67 Virtual Machine Admin Guide pdf

VMware VCP 6.7-DCV – Objective 1.6 – Describe and differentiate among vSphere, HA, DRS, and SDRS functionality

by Samuel Mitchell, posted in VMware

The following notes will assist you to prepare for this objective:

  • HA has come a long way, don’t rely on legacy knowledge of HA to meet objective
  • Learn the newer features, pre-reqs and limitations of:
    • Proactive HA
    • Orchestrated Restart
    • Fault Tolerance (FT) vSMP
  • HA can’t work around everything
    • For example datastore connectivity loss or unable to satisfy reservation
  • Ensure you can explain the basic modes of DRS
    • Disable, Manual, Partial, Full Automated, per-VM
  • DRS has come a long way
    • Predictive DRS
    • Limitations of vMotion have been overcome
  • What are the vMotion pre-reqs?
    • CPU compatibility
    • Network configuration
    • Compatible virtual hardware
  • What virtual hardware options can and cannot be migrated with DRS?
  • SDRS often gets overlooked
    • Remember it has 2 dimensions to optimization
      • Space utilization & I/O latency
      • What are you being asked in the question?

Reference: 

vSphere Availability Guide pdf

vSphere Resource Guide pdf

Brian Graf Blog – https://www.brianjgraf.com/2016/10/17/vsphere-6-5-vsphere-ha-whats-new-part-3-orchestrated-restart/

VMware VCP 6.7-DCV – Objective 1.5 – Manage vCenter inventory efficiently

by Samuel Mitchell, posted in VMware

The following notes will assist you to prepare for this objective:

  • What is efficient?
    • Think about vCenter inventory hierarchy and its organization
    • Parents/children/siblings
  • What constructs do you have available to you to organize objects?
    • Datacenter object
    • Cluster object
    • Folder object
    • Resource pool
    • vApp
  • Be aware of dependency
    • Can you create a cluster before a datacenter?
    • Can you put a datacenter in a folder?
    • Try these simple operations in your test lab
  • Are there any constraints on inventory object creation?
    • Resource pools and vApps have scope
  • Can you scale beyond a vCenter?

Reference:

vCenter Server and Host Management Guide pdf – chapter 8 – Organizing the inventory

VMware VCP 6.7-DCV – Objective 1.4 – Differentiate between NIOC and SIOC

by Samuel Mitchell, posted in VMware

The following notes will assist you to prepare for this objective:

  • This objective is about managing noisy neighbors!
    • NIOC for network & SIOC for storage
  • You need to demonstrate understanding of
    • What dimensions you can control and applied-to
    • Limitations of service
    • Pre-reqs for implementation
  • Foundation knowledge of proportional share allocation is expected
    • What does low, medium & high mean?
    • What happens when you use numbers instead of labels?
    • How does the power on of another VM affect share allocation?

Reference:

vSphere Resource Management Guide pdf – Chapter 9-Managing Storage I/o Resources

vSphere Networking Guide pdf – Chapter 11 – vSphere Network I/O Control

VMware VCP 6.7-DCV – Objective 1.3 – Describe storage types for vSphere

by Samuel Mitchell, posted in VMware

The following notes will assist you to prepare for this objective:

  • Ensure you are clear on the differences between
    • Block (LUN/vVOL)
    • File access
    • vSAN
  • Read storage questions slowly and carefully
    • Are you being asked about VMs and their virtual hard disks?
    • Are you being asked about what storage vSphere can address?
  • VMware loves acronyms
    • For this objective, you need to learn lots of them
  • For example
    • Can you differentiate SIOC from VAIO?
    • Do you know if RDM is possible with NFS?
    • Happy with VASA providers?

Reference: vSphere 6.7 Storage Guide

VMware VCP 6.7-DCV – Objective 1.2 – Identify vCenter high availability (HA) requirements

by Samuel Mitchell, posted in VMware

The following notes will assist you to prepare for this objective:

  • Be very clear that this is vCenter availability management NOT host
  • Learn the topology of a vCenter HA deployment
    • Nodes
    • Roles of nodes
    • What can and can’t they do? Particularly witness
  • Set up vCenter HA in your lab, so much more interesting study than just reading
    • Easy to enable/disable
  • Make sure you read the vCenter HA section of the vSphere Availability Guide

Reference: vSphere 6.7 Availability Guide pdf – Chapter 4 – vCenter High Availability