Rob Golding

Seeing as I’m getting into virtualization more and more recently, I decided to give the new beta of VMware Server 2.0 a go. I have a virtual machine for testing purposes on my desktop machine (a Dell Dimension 9200, E6600, 2GB RAM) – so this should prove a perfect test bed for the software.

I have a particular personal interest in VMware. The server that so many of my posts have been about as of late runs VMware - it and a couple of virtual machines provide me with my email, directory, file servers and websites. Because of this, I’m quite excited about the next release of VMware – and hopefully the transition won’t be too difficult.

Starting with the interface, which is the first noticeable difference one the installation is completed – there is nothing that has been kept from version 1 – a complete overhaul. It’s now based totally in the browser – on port 8222 (8333 for https) – using its own installation of Tomcat to be precise. This brought back bad memories of managing Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 on a client’s system – but once I started using the new interface, I began to like it more and more. It’s definitely an improvement over Microsoft’s attempt, and with the browser plug-in for Virtual Machine Remote Control (VMRC), it provides all the functionality of the previous console and more; even in firefox!

I can definitely say that the performance of VMware itself has improved in the new version, although I am running it on a Vista installation. The only real reason for this noticeable change is that the previous release would hang for a number of seconds when a virtual machine was started or stopped in Vista. It feels as though this is an issue that has been addressed in the beta, and so hopefully performance overall will have had the same attention.

Just a few shots of the new UI, first we have the login screen for the web-based management interface. My desktop is joined to the domain at my house, and the only account I could use to login was the builtin domain administrator account. Strange.

Next, the summary screen which shows some info about the host machine, which will be nice on a production server as it details the RAM usage. This will be something I look forward to using on my main server Zeus:

Finally, a shot of the only VM I have on this machine. In this case the VM is stopped, and it shows the hardware configured for the machine, and the 1×2.338GHz CPU looks promising - I could assign another!

That’s all I have on this for now, but if I find any more interesting stuff I’ll be sure to post an update. If you’re interested you can grab a copy from here: http://www.vmware.com/beta/server/.

OK, so seeing as the last post is about worrying errors reported by the RAID controller on my main server, Zeus, I’ve decided to do something about the heat that caused the errors in the first place.

The drive caddy in Zeus holds 4 drives, but they are far too close together, so I’ve spread them out somewhat, and added another fan, although it took some pursuation to get it in (by pursuation I mean using tinsnips to cut a hole in the front of the server). This is proving to work really well, now I just need to figure out how to get another exhaust fan in there somewhere.

Also, I have recabled the switch with colour-coded Cat5. We have red cables for the internet VLAN, yellow for the perimeter VLAN, and blue for the internal network. This has also been a good time to start wiring for gigabit, so I’ve ran the first cable to my desktop from the switch. All I need now is a few gigabic NICs and I’ll be all set.

Update: I’ve got some pictures up now. We have zeus with its new ghetto fan mod at the front, blowing nice cool air over a terabyte worth of data in the first two. Then the new switch and the lovely neat wiring job in the last one. On a side note, I’m really happy with the switch, it’s proving worth the cost after all. Looks pretty good as well sitting in the cabinet :). Now, if only I could get round to painting the inside of that server cupboard. It’s shameful!

Error occurred on Primary Master device on adapter 0. Primary Master - CDB 2a 00 01 58 aa 5d 00 00 01 00.

This is what I was greeted with in my inbox, as I started the day yesterday. It looks like at some time around 4am, the primary drive on my main server, Zeus, had been having a few problems to say the least. The drive gave about a hundred of the above errors, and then dropped off the RAID1 array. I opened up the case to see what was going on, and it would seem that heat was the killer, if anything. I shutdown the server, moved the drives around a bit to allow for better airflow, stuck an extra fan in, and booted it back up. The drive came back to life, and is rebuilding as I type this.

I am now, however, looking at a new SATA controller and 2×80GB Western Digital drives. Hopefully these will run cooler, faster, and allow for better airflow than their IDE counterparts.