VMM with ESX 3

[Kevin Everts_1]

Has anyone tried to setup VMM on an ESX 3 server yet?

[David Claypool]

ESX 3.0 is not supported by VMM yet. It will be picked up with the next planned release of VMM in September.

[Kevin Everts_1]

In September?? They are going to be 4 months behind? It's nice to know that HP is keeping up with the virtualization software. I'm glad I spent money on VMM only to have it not work with the newest version of ESX.

[David Claypool]

I'm not sure where you're getting 4 months. ESX 3 is only just now being released to production. While we work closely with all of the OS vendors on their pre-release versions, it isn't until the RTM code is final that we can go into QA. There are some significant feature improvements being done for VMM as well, and that schedule is what takes it to September.

Out of curiousity, are you realistically going into production immediately with ESX 3.0? Real production--not test. We continue to see new deployments of NT4 and Windows 2000, and uncountable down-rev versions of Linux. HP-UX customers have 50% of their systems on a release that is not the current one. IT organization behavior is generally risk-averse, and only move to new versions gradually. How does your environment operate and what is your policy around that?

[MC1903]

The public website for VMware from HP (http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/software/vmware/index.html) has the following note posted on it -:

"Note: The ProLiant Essentials Virtualization Management Software will not support VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 products until the release of the ProLiant Essentials Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) version 2.1. VMM 2.1 will be available as a free upgrade within 90 days of the release of the VMware Infrastructure 3 software. The current VMM 2.0 product will support VMware ESX 2 products."

So, as VI3 officially launched on June 5th, we should expect to be downloading VMM 2.1 on September 2nd at the latest.

I too have customers deploying new installs of VI3 into production environments, who have purchased the VI3/PEVMS bundle from HP and are not happy that they can't use VMM today.

The only thing we can do is wait... 43 days to go...

Martin

[James Kennedy_4]

I'm in the same boat, playing the waiting game.

[Kevin Everts_1]

Has anyone heard the release date yet or is "September" the best answer we have?

[MC1903]

No surprise to see that HP missed the 90 day deadline for the release of VMM 2.1 (ESX 3.0 support)...

Come on HP... We would like to use the software features we have paid you for (with our VI3/PEVMS bundle) before the first years SnS runs out..!

Martin

[William Bednarzyk, Jr]

Sorry guys, I passed out holding my breath for the September 2nd release. I just regained consiousness and realized it is now the 13th of September. So, maybe the support will be released on September 31st. If HP makes this kind of promise, they can't go wrong, because there is no 31st of September.

I just want to be able to justify buying more licenses for a product that no longer supports our environment. Fiscal year is nearing and I will have a hard time being able to make a case for the VMM plugin if it doesn't work after an upgrade to the VMWare Host OS....

Waiting
Waiting
Waiting

[Rob Buxton]

I've seen what seems to be an advance notification for PSP 7.60 as the 25th September, maybe it will be on the same date?

Also I've heard rumours of an HPSIM 5.1 release, but no date as such.

Maybe I'll be in luck and the VMM update will come through when my new ESX Servers arrive.

But I've also heard that there's a patch update to ESX 3 due soon, so will the updated VMM work with the new ESX 3. whatever it is?

[Cristian Constantin]

HP has released the ProLiant Essentials Management Software CD ver.7.60 but to my surprise the SIM version of it is still 5.0 with SP5, and the VMM and SMP are ver.2.0.2, so no sign of 2.1 yet. The 90 day as I see it it's a broken promise...

[Kevin Everts_1]

At this point, I'm considering not using VMM anymore. If HP can't update thier software in a timely manner, why support them? I'm looking at installing 4 more ESX servers in the next 12 months and I don't know if I can justify spending the money to buy copies of VMM for it. I'll probably use Virtual Center instead.

[Paul M. Ford]

I agree. We have ordered and installed additional BL25p servers and at the moment they are sitting idle with no O/S. I REALLY do not want to install ESX 2.5.3 and turn around and upgrade production systems to ESX 3 within weeks. However, after checking the HP website every day and not seeing any good news, I am left without a choice.

[MC1903]

"90 day as I see it it's a broken promise". Indeed Cristian - as I see it, all HP can deliver ontime is broken promises...

This has dragged on for too long and is becoming a joke!!!

It would be good if David Claypool or someone from ProLiant Essentials Software Marketing could make comment...

Soon I will start recommending my customers purchase VI3 without PEVMS or go direct to VMware...

Martin

[Kevin Everts_1]

You'd think they would at least change the web page so that it doesn't say it will be released within 90 days of ESX 3 release.

[Kevin Everts_1]

Well, I found this on HP's VMware Q&A page.

Q2. What versions of VMware virtualization software are supported by PEVMS?
A2. ProLiant Essentials Virtualization Management Software (PEVMS) will not support VMware Infrastructure 3 products until the release of the ProLiant Essentials Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) version 2.1 in late November, 2006. The current VMM 2.0 product will continue to support VMware ESX 2 products.


Looks like we now have another 2 months to wait.

[Paul M. Ford]

Kevin,

Thanks for the update! Its better that what I have been seeing on the SIM web page.

Now I have a bunch of ESX 2.5.3 servers to set up (and upgrade at a later time).

[AndySmith2]

Well, let me open myself up for abuse by introducing myself as the new product manager for VMM :-) I apologize for not posting to this forum earlier, as well as for the job I have done communicating the delay of VMM 2.1. The changes in ESX 3 were more significant than anticipated, and in order to release a quality product, we made the decision to delay. In our defense, I don't know of many tools that supported ESX 3 on day one. IBM's VMM product still does not support ESX 3 as well. But I do understand your frustration that we set an initial date, and then did not meet that. VMM 2.1 will be available for download on November 22, and we feel confident in that date. This inludes support for ESX 3.0 and 3.0.1. If you are willing to wait, VMM 2.1 allows you to "move" VM's from ESX 2.5 to 3.0, where many other migration tools charge you for a migration. Thanks for your patience, and again, my apologies.

[MC1903]

Hi Andy...

You are a brave man for posting - you get kudos points for coming clean...

I hope that your development team doesnt let you down, now you have given us a date... If that happens you may well get abused..!

I wish you had posted this sooner... I just advised that a largish (50 x 2-CPU Enterprise licenses) VI3 order get switched from HP VI3 with PEVMS to VMware direct with their P2V...

I look forward to downloading VMM 2.1 on November 22nd - its in my diary to check..!

All the best and thanks for the info/update...

Martin

[MC1903]

Andy...

I also meant to add, that it is worth asking the forum mods to add the HP logo to your forum profile (like David Claypools)...

After all, any one can say that they are a HP employee...

Cheers

Martin

[Ed_178]

I just have a few questions about the up comming version of VMM.

1) Will it allow you to resize a drive during a P2V migration?

2) Will it allow "hot" migrations (without having to reboot the server) for P2V?

Both of these options are supported in a competitors product and we are highly interested in having those features applied to VMM (seeing that we already purchased several VMM license).

Thanks you.

[pal_pal]

Yes we support resizing the drive during migrations. But resizing can be done only on NTFS partitions.

"Hot" backups during migrations is not supported in the 2.1 release of VMM. The SMP agent will automatically reboot the machine to perform the migration.

[Ed_178]

Thanks for your response. Glad to hear your added support for partition resizing during migrations (that will be a HUGE help). Now I have a few more questions and hope someone at HP might have the answers too;

1) Currently when I migrate a machine using P2V , once the migration is complete I always have to go into the VM setting and select vmxnet and the proper vlan. I also have to redo the TCP/IP settings under windows. Will this be fixed in the new release?

2) Another annoyance is the fact that i have to manually uninstall all the HP PSP tools that are no longer needed once the servers have been virtualized. Will there be a tool/script to do this once the P2V process is complete?

3) The wizard for the P2V process only has the option to reboot the original server once completed, will there be an option to shutdown the server when done?

4) Currently if a P2V migration fails the file created on the vmfs partition is not deleted (even though it is incomplete). Has this been resolved?

5) Can we can an option to automatically install VM tools on a windows box upon a completed migration?

Ok thats all my questions for now, thanks in advance for your answers.

[pal_pal]

1) Currently when I migrate a machine using P2V , once the migration is complete I always have to go into the VM setting and select vmxnet and the proper vlan. I also have to redo the TCP/IP settings under windows. Will this be fixed in the new release?

-The network needs to be configured manually after the migration is completed.

2) Another annoyance is the fact that i have to manually uninstall all the HP PSP tools that are no longer needed once the servers have been virtualized. Will there be a tool/script to do this once the P2V process is complete?

-No. PSP does not get uninstalled. But this does not affect the normal functioning of the VM.

3) The wizard for the P2V process only has the option to reboot the original server once completed, will there be an option to shutdown the server when done?


4) Currently if a P2V migration fails the file created on the vmfs partition is not deleted (even though it is incomplete). Has this been resolved?

-These two questions, please let me check up and get back to you.

5) Can we can an option to automatically install VM tools on a windows box upon a completed migration?

No. VM Tools also need to be installed after the migration is complete.

[Paul M. Ford]

Okay, do we really have to remind HP of what is suppose to happen today???

I was at the VMWORLD conference and did not get a warm fuzzy from the staff when I asked about VMM 2.1. Didn't get asked to leave or anything but they turned their attention to potential customers and ignored the already irritated one.

To quote from an earlier post:
Waiting
Waiting
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