At the moment I’m working through the typo corrections for the second pressing of the SRM 5.0 book. In the main these are little corrections in the text. But occasionally, I come across something a little bit more major. You would not believe how much work goes into the review process – but even the most rigorous process – its still possible for something to slip through the net. I guess its testament to how reading something on screen is never the same as reading in the printed hard-copy format.

There will be an official errata but in the interest in turning these around rapidly I wanted to blog about them here.

I intend to main this page as find errors or mistakes. If you spot any technical errors or mistakes like this – let me know and if I think they warrant it I will include them on this page…

iSCSI Chapters and Static Discovery
There’s a couple of chapters where I cover iSCSI in EMC Celerra, Dell Equallogic and HP P4000 – where I state that the iSCSI Software Initiator does not support “static discovery” of target. Actually, if you look into the static discovery tab after using a iSCSI SRA you will see entries populated there.

page 91 – At the Protected Site – (With thanks to Michael Armstrong)
This typo was found my Michael Armstrong. In it I refer to carrying at task out on a EMC Clarrion at the Protected Site. Step 1 however, erroneously says that “in my case, this called “New_Jersey_Cluster1″. That should, of course read “New_York_Cluster1″. As a consequence the graphic (Figure 4.22) is incorrect as it shows me selecting the “New Jersey” storage group in UniSphere, when it should have the “New York” storage group selected instead.

page 209 – vSphere Replication and IP Pools
In the beta programme the set-up of VR required the use of IP Pools. This was subsequently dropped in the release candidate and the GA. This reference slipped through the net. To be clear, VR does NOT require IP Pools.

page 218 – NFS and iSCSI
In the VR chapter I have a screen grab where a VM on local storage in the Protected Site being replicated to local storage in the Recovery Site. However in the text I say that one VM is on NFS storage, and the other is on iSCSI storage. That isn’t the case. It’s not a showstopper – if you remember VR does not care what the datastore type is…

page 228 – SRM Communication on port 80
My explanation of why the SRM installer uses Port 80 in the book isn’t a bad one. But after publication I found a better explanation which I blogged about recently. It’s largely of acedemic interest this one, but in the interests of being as technically accurate this better…

page 237 – Invalid Site name mentioned
This is a cosmetic error. Throughout the book I make reference to site of New York, New Jersey and later still Washington DC. For some bizarre reason I name check “Chicago” here. That should really read “New Jersey”.

pg 265 – Recovery Plans and Connected CD-ROMs
This is not so much an error, but a failure of mine. Looking back I think I could have probably explained the source of this problem using less words! All I was trying to say was – as with VMotion, SRM can get unhappy with CD-ROMs left connected to the VM. The example I gave was where an error in a VUM update left the VMwareTools .iso connected to a VM I was trying to recover. In hindsight I think I would recommend using PowerCLI on a regular basis to check for connected CD-ROMs and then running a script to disconnect them. Sorry for getting lost in the detail!

pg 306 – How to do addy ups and take-aways…
Here there is slight miscalculation. I talk about although you might have 10 VMs that make up an application, you might decide to recovery all 10, but only power on 7 – because 7 VMs is enough to make the application meet its minimum QoS demands. Oddly, I precede to say that this will lead 2 VMs left over if one of the other 7 fail. I do, of course know that 10-7 = 3, not 2. What can I else can I say?

pg 342 – Ch-ch-changes in the Recovery Site
Bit of poor phraseology here I think. All I’m trying to say is now that we have looked at how changes in the Protected Site affect your SRM configuration, I’m going to look at changes in the Recovery Site to outline the impact there.

pg 461 – RDMs can be greater than 2TB in size…
This is a real howler. It is possible in vSphere5 to have RDMS that greater than 2TB in size. Remember you do need the right sort of RDM to allow the guest operating system to be able to use is own GPT framework – you need a pass-through RDM…

One of my readers recently contacted me about how SRM communicates to vCenter both during an install, and then afterwards once the service is up and running. The odd thing is this… During the install the communication to vCenter appears to be non-secured on TCP port 80, but after the install is on the secured port of TCP 443… In the book I conjecture that some redirection takes place, its actually a little bit more sophisticated than that…

Here’s what the offical guide says: 

Port 80 is provided as the default to use for the initial connection to the remote site. After the initial HTTP connection is made, the two sites establish an SSL connection over port 80 to use for subsequent connections.

Duncan Epping on his Yellow Bricks site has this more revealing statement:

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/08/11/srm-faq/

Why is Port 80 used in the install but port 443 later? During install of SRM port 80 is specified and you cannot type in 443, but after the install is complete than SRM talks to VC on 443, so why is 80 specified in the install? Even though SRM uses SSL when it communicates to VC, it does not use port 443. SRM establishes a TCP connection to port 80, than uses an HTTP CONNECT request to establish a tunnel to the VC servers, then does an SSL handshake with the VC over that tunneled connection. The SRM installation enforces these semantics.

Thanks to Bas Vinken for bring these two bits of information to my attention. Quite why the communcation is this done this way isn’t really explained. But I guess it is a reminder that port numbers are some what arbitary, and they follow a convention of being associated with certain services – I guess you would calll them the “well-known ports”. But at the end of the day, there’s nothing hard coded about these ports and how they are used..

Today I received my first hard copy of the new SRM 5.0 book. Certainly nice to see it in the flesh, compared to having it on my IPAD on via the Kindle App. Along side the final book was stack of F&Gs… What’s F&Gs you ask? It standard for “Folded & Gathered Sheets”.

These are like little “pamplets” each one went put together as whole becomes a completed book during the binding process.

Publishers use F&Gs to allow the author to record any corrections wanted in the second printing of the book. The author (that’s me) marks his or her changes directly on the F&Gs and then sends them back to the publisher. I’ve got to return my F&Gs by the 14th Feb at the latest. [Yes, it seems odd to have chosen Valentine's Day as the cut off point] Of course this could be all done digitally but the publishers have found this hard-copy method is the most precise way of relaying corrections.

Anyway, if you spot any errors or typos in the book please feel free to send me them to me, and I will endeavor to include those in the F&Gs. You can send me your corrections by email to mikelaverickATrtfm-edDOTcoDOTuk or tweet them to me at @mike_laverick. Just give me a sample and page number and I will take a look.

If you were at either of the VMworld events last year, you might have been lucky enough to pick up an early “rough cut” edition of my book. At the same time you should have received a voucher that would allow you to access to digital copy of the completed book. Here’s how you redeem your voucher.

1.    Go to http://www.pearsonitcertification.com/vmwoffer

2.    Complete web form, including the unique code displayed there (sticker w/ code was affixed to the coupon)
3.    Submit the form

Pearson will be processing the form submission over the coming weeks – so you will receive an email in the next week or so with instructions on how to download the ebook…

I’m pleased to say that my new book on SRM 5.0 has been released on the VMware Press. It’s one of the first books on the press which VMware has founded with the logistical help of Pearson Publishing. I started working with the very early betas of the product towards the end of last 2010, so for me this work has been really years worth of work. I originally started out with self-publishing the SRM books, and its great to finally have big company like VMware and Pearson behind the work.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the very many people who helped me along the way. No author is an island, as anyone who has written anything of length will tell you. I’d like to thank Carmel (my long suffering girlfriend) who puts up with my ramblings about virtualization – and had a huge influence in the previous books on SRM. I’d like to thank Joan Murry of Pearson for making the process so smooth, especially in the early stages. I’d like to thank the many people at VMware who helped as well (you know who you are!), a special mention goes to Lee Dilworth here in the UK who has been my primary link every since the alpha edition of SRM 1.0 shipped many years ago. I’d like to thank Jacob Jensen who manages the BC/DR group at VMware – it was his backing in 2010 who helped kick start the process.  I’d like to thank the vendors too – especially Luke Reed of NetApp, Alex Tanner of EMC and Will Urban of Dell. A special thank you goes to Dell Equallogic – who was a new vendor to the book, and helped immensely in the process of getting their kit up and running, and getting me up to speed.

Finally, I’d like to thank my readers. Honestly, I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think it would be read. It means so much to me when folks email or stop me at events to say thanks. As an author you can spend many lonely hours at your desk, never really sure if you stuff is actually hitting the mark or helping. So it means so much when those emails or thanks yous come through.

You can buy the book either digitally or as hard-copy from many sources. The book actually started “shipping” from the printers to the retailers on schedule on the 28th Dec. It does however take time for the retailers to update their various websites to change the status from “In stock from…” or “Pre-order…”. With digital editions such as the version for the Kindle, it is available to purchase and download immediately.

Pearson.com

Amazon.com

Barnes & Noble

Waterstones (UK)

WH Smiths (UK)

Blackwells (UK)

As for me – well I’m working on the completion of another book co-authored with Barry Coombs (UK vExpert), about View 5.0/ThinApp4.7. That will be a “community” based project that will be self-published, with all monies raised going to UNICEF. We’re currently in the early “reviewing” stage at the moment, but we hope to have it available by the end of March (if not sooner). After that? Well, I think I will be dividing my time equally between creating videos and writing book based on my “Hotel California” idea. That’s a biggy. I don’t expect it to be finished until the end of this year, beginning of next.

Today I want to start a campaign within the VMware Community…

I would like to see VMware re-instate the “VMTN Subscription”. You might ask, what the hell is that? That would be fair enough because it was withdrawn many years ago, and never re-instated by VMware.

The VMTN Subscription (I found this link on Google which is still active posted in 2005) was similar to Microsoft MSDN or TechNet – where for relatively small yearly fee you could download the core enterprise software and run it for 1year. Right now there is whole legion of home-labbers out there that have to make do and mend with evaluations that expire after 60-days. Sadly, the VMTN Subscription program was cancelled in 2007 and never re-instated.

Now as former VMware Certified Instructor and vExpert – if I wanted NFR style licenses I can get to them. Although I would have to say throughout all my time working with VMware its been also been a struggle gaining access to software and licenses – as independent guy not affiliated to partner…. That’s mainly because an evaluation download doesn’t always give me access to ALL the software I need to do my kind of work. It’s often been a frustration, and I’ve often need to call upon my personal network to get hold of bits that seemed impossible to get through legitimate means. My concern is not so much for myself as I’m generally a well-connected dude – but for the many thousands of loyal VMware supports in their homelabs. VMware has one of the best user communities on the planet. I personally believe that without the “bottom up” support of thousands of enthusiasts who teach themselves VMware in their home labs, who then go on to recommend software to the customers, clients and businesses – VMware wouldn’t be as half as successful as it is without this legion of unpaid evangelist for their cause.

So, VMware. Bring back the VMTN Subscription or make it part of the VMUG Advantage package.

If you want to register your thoughts/views/opinions for this idea – add your +1 to this forum post here.

Introduction:

As you might know SRM 5.0 introduces support for “vSphere Replication” (VR) – where virtual appliances are deployed to assist in the replication of VMs from the Protected Site to the Recovery Site. What you might not know – is whilst this works perfectly for recoveries where the VM moves from one site (say SiteA: New York) to another (say SiteB: New Jersey) – there is no automated method of failback. That is to say, moving the VM back from the Recovery Site (SiteB: New Jersey) to Protected Site (SiteA: New York).

SRM 5.0 does introduce a new “automated failback” feature – its a combination of running a “reprotect” process to invert the “normal” path of replication – and then running a Recovery Plan to move the VMs back. Sadly, that “reprotect” and failback process didn’t make it into the first release of VR. That means a more “manual” process has be undertaken to a.) prepare for the failback and b.) return SRM and VR back to a state that it was in before the failover took place. For an experienced SRM Administrator (sic) this isn’t too much of chore or difficult – but if you are new to SRM, and intend to use VR – then it could be a bit of challenge. That’s what this article is all about.

I’ve been prompted to write this because I know that my upcoming SRM book will have a very long chapter on failover/failback but it is very much from slanted from the position of array-based replication – and there’s very little if any detail on how this process pans out when your using SRM with VR. This article is intended to plug that gap for my readers who buy the book. It’s shame that this didn’t make it into the book, but that is publishing deadlines for you. As it is, this likely to change over the lifetime of SRM 5.0 – and this article will be  darn easier to maintain and update…

For sometime I’ve been using the scenario of fictitious company called “Corp.com” which has two sites New York and New Jersey in my books. New York is meant to be the production or Protected Site during normal business operations, and New Jersey is an ancillary location to Corp.com – and is used for many purposes – in this case as the Recovery Site in SRM.

(more…)

I’m pleased to announce that my a limited pre-publication or “rough cut” of my SRM 5.0 book will be available to purchase at VMworld in a hard copy format. You will need to be quick on your feet as there are only 200 copies of the book available. I understand a 30% discount will apply… and that anyone buying the book will qualify for a free digital download of the final work when it eventually GA’s.

I’m so pleased about this – as I think this a bit of scoup for me. Readers will know that RTFM generally has the most detailed coverage of new technologies from VMware on the “day-of-the-download”. Generally those works are free or at a very reasonable cost. I think this is the first time I’ve had something out before the actual GA of the product itself (that’s because I would normally have to respect beta NDAs). This time around the tie up with the VMware Press has allowed something I previously wouldn’t been able to do.

The other thing to mention is that there is a number of gatherings to mark the event. So you catch me at the vMeetUp at the Bloggers Lounge at VMworld between 10-11 on Monday. There will lots of luminaries from the VMware Community there as well.

I will be doing a book signing event on Wednesday, 1.00-1.30pm. So grab a copy of the book when you can, and get me to sign it at the book signing. Remember every book signed by me doubles its value on Ebay :-p

You can see preview chapters of the books in the VMware Press here:

Also there is a sweepstake that VMware Press is running to win a 3-book library of the three inaugural books that have been written for the VMware Press launch.

I don’t know why it took me so long to get round to doing this – but I’ve got a copy of the old SRM 4.0 Book (which is free – donations to Unicef are requested)… on to the iPAD… I’ve recently been looking at using my iPAD as ebook reader.

To read my book on your iPAD you will need the iBooks App from the Apple AppStore…

And you will have to add the .EPUB file to your iToons library to get sunk to the AyePad..

I used Calibre to do the covert from PDF to .EPUB format. It’s not perfect (which says more about how I formatted the original manuscript!) but its readable.

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/downloads/SRM4.0-Guide-v1.4-English-eBook – Mike Laverick.epub

Today I got news from my publisher (VMware Press aka Pearson Press), that a “rough cut” of my book on SRM 5.0 is now available on Safari for subscribers. The rough cut was one of the 1st drafts of the book based on the Beta2 of the product – that was back when VMware were using the product name “host-based replication” for what is now called “vSphere Replication”.

The link is here: http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780132842280?portal=informit

In case you don’t know – previous SRM books were sold directly by me for profit or in the case of SRM 4.0 for charity. This is the first time I’ve written about SRM through an official publisher. It’s one of the first books to be printed through the newly founded VMware Press, which really pleases me. We should have digital copies of the book available at VMworld, and one purchasing a digital copy of the rough cut will qualify for a free digital copy once the final book is released.

Quite when that will be is unclear to even me, but I’m thinking that end of Oct/Nov is likely, depends on how the review process goes and how many substantial changes I see between the release candidate I have, and the final cut. At the moment I’m still is the first big round of reviews – or which they will be three rounds in total. As you might expect the 1st round of reviews is a biggy, because that’s the first time anyone has seen the manuscript. The 2/3rd round of review work is more a polishing up phase.