Veeam Community Forums Digest April 2 - April 8,

Veeam Community Forums Digest

April 2 - April 8, 2012

links : http://longwhiteclouds.com/2012/03/29/jumbo-frames-on-vsphere-5-update-1/ 

http://effndc.wordpress.com/2011/06/03/managing-windows-2008-server-core/ 

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/03/free-esxi-hypervisor-auto-start-breaks-with-50-update-1.html

--> Thanks to GOSTEV for his very interesting (as usual :) ) newsletter about VEEAM Products and VMware...

THE WORD FROM GOSTEV

I've got a question regarding Windows Server 2008 Core from our support last week, and thought this deserves being covered in this digest. Even though System Requirements do not mention that explicitly, Veeam Backup & Replication 6.0 does fully support core OS install for both backup proxies, and backup repositories. And we do have customers using that successfully today.

Using Windows Server Core install is definitely a good practice if you choose to place some B&R components on the dedicated servers. The resource consumption of idle core VM is minimal (just 256MB of RAM), and you get enhanced security too. What's the catch? Since Server Core install does not have the graphical user interface, it is harder to manage - especially for those with no prior experience. However, the beauty is that deployment of B&R proxies and repositories is fully automated and is done directly from the management UI, so you do not even need to open the server's console. If you decide to give Windows Server Core a try, take a look at these management tools too - they make changing those generic Windows settings much easier.

A few notes regarding ESXi 5.0 Update 1, which release I have promoted in this digest a few weeks ago. First, if you use free ESXi Hypervisor, be aware that Update 1 broke VM auto start functionality, which is obviously quite important to have. So, you may want to hold off upgrading your free ESXi hosts to Update 1, as some folks already had to roll back because of that issue. Licensed ESXi hosts (Essentials and above) are not affected by this issue, however auto start will not work for licensed hosts in HA cluster either (apparently, this was never supported anyway).

Secondly, it appears that this update finally got VMXNET3 right on Windows 2008 R2, and it is faster than ever. Just please keep in mind that VMXNET3 adapter still has another interop issue with Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, which causes static IP address assignment loss upon restore and failover. I know I have covered this in an earlier digest once already, but because this keeps coming up on the forums literally every other week (primarily because it brakes SureBackup), I thought I'd better repeat. Be sure to install those Windows patches on every VM that uses VMXNET3 adapter to avoid surprises during DR situation.