Add New VMware vSphere Server to Existing 4 Server Cluster
Closed     Case # 10029     Affiliated Job:  New Trier Township District 2031
Opened:  Tuesday, April 6, 2010     Closed:  Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Total Hit Count:  33189     Last Hit:  Thursday, December 5, 2024 11:03:02 PM
Unique Hit Count:  9806     Last Unique Hit:  Thursday, December 5, 2024 11:03:02 PM
Case Type(s):  Server, Network, Vendor Support
Case Notes(s):  All cases are posted for review purposes only. Any implementations should be performed at your own risk.

Project:
An identical Poweredge R710 server was acquired to add into our existing VMware vCenter cluster of already 4 servers supporting 50 guest sessions. The process, best practices, useful commands and settings used on our existing 4 systems are below in the action item. These were mostly acquired through the consulting agency used over the summer to build our current 4 server VMware vCenter cluster of servers.

As part of this process I pulled down the more recent firmware and drivers to use with the new build and also upgrade our existing systems. The firmware from Dell is bin files that automate the install; however, the driver updates to VMware are a little more complex. Both types have some examples below.

One of the hiccups I had previously seen when I rebuilt our 3rd server was with the QLogic controller. It suddenly would not load the qla2xxx driver. Through some research online, it seems if at first you do not succeed, perform the command again. In this case I am referring to the "esxcfg-module -s ql2xmaxqdepth=64 qla2xxx" - also make very sure to type this command correctly - as any mistakes can cause the driver to stop loading successfully at boot. some troubleshooting commands are included in case the driver stops loading off of a sudden like it did for me twice now.

We received the vSphere v4 U2 beta today (4/7) as part of a solution to Case #10002. This is supposed to address our problem with the Broadcom NIC ports failing after excessive network utilization. Since this issue was acknowledged as a known issue, Dell loaned us 4 Intel add-in 4 port cards to use until this release was available; however, at this point we plan to wait until the official release of the U2 scheduled for June 2010.

Action(s) Performed:
Total Action(s): 1
Action # Recorded Date Type Hit(s) User Expand Details
10112 4/7/2010 8:10:27 PM Server 4170 contact@danieljchu.com The below are procedures followed to add a recent server into an already ex  More ...

Outcome:
After completing these procedures, the new server will become available to the cluster with the existing 4 servers. These procedures also were followed in rebuilding server 3 after Dell delivered a replacement system to us in trying to troubleshoot the Broadcom network port problems. The only difference is removing the host from vCenter and then adding the host back.

Assign VLAN IDs if on a trunked switch port. Otherwise you can leave this field empty.



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