Enabling Change Block Tracking (CBT) on a Virtual Machine (VMware vSphere 5.1)

Update: 2013/07/02 I wrote another post about CBT and create a re-usable PowerShell function

I recently had to enable CBT in my VMware vSphere environment, on a good amount of Virtual Machines.

What is Change Block Tracking (CBT) ? If you are not familiar with CBT,  checkout the following articles:

• Eric Siebert: What is Change Block Tracking (CBT) ?
• VMware KB: Changed Block Tracking (CBT) on virtual machines
• VMware Documentation: Low Level Backup Procedures

How to implement CBT, what do you need ?

• VM version 7 at least,
• No snapshot on your VM
• Enable CBT,
• Finally the VM must go through a stun-unstun cycle (power on, resume after suspend, migrate, or snapshot create/delete/revert) before the reconfiguration takes effect.

How to Enable CBT on your VM ? (GUI)

Note: When the VM is Powered ON you won't be able to access those settings.
However, It is possible to do it via PowerShell even when the VM is started. :-)  (see below)

Navigate to Configuration Parameters and add the following Entries.

Right click on your VM, select Edit Settings/Options Tab/Advanced/General.
Click on Configuration Parameters and add the following entries

WS2012 Storage - NFS Server - Configure NFS for VMware vSphere 5.1 Home Lab

The following procedure show how to setup a NFS Server hosted on Windows Server 2012 for backend storage of my VMware vSphere Server 5.1 Home Lab.

You can also check my post on Creating an iSCSI Target Server on Windows Server 2012.

Overview

In the following post I will talk about the following points:

• Terminology
• Using PowerShell
• Add the Role NFS Server Feature on Microsoft Windows Server 2012
• Create the Share and Set the NFS permissions
• Add the NFS datastore to VMware vSphere 5.1
• Using the GUI (Graphical User Interface)
• Add the Role NFS Server Feature on Microsoft Windows Server 2012
• Create the Share and Set the NFS permissions
• Add the NFS datastore to VMware vSphere 5.1

Quick overview of my NFS Service architecture in my Home Lab

DirectPath I/O supported with ASUS M5A97 R2.0/AMD FX-8350

My HomeLab configuration:
MotherBoard: ASUS M5A97 R2.0
CPU : AMD FX-8350 (8 Cores - 4.0Ghz)

DirectPath IO

How to DirectPath I/O on the ASUS M5A97 R2.0
-Enter into the BIOS and navigate to the Advanced Settings (using F7)
-Under North Bridge Configuration
-IOMMU is DISABLED by default, set to ENABLED

Windows PowerShell Language Specification

Microsoft just released two very interesting documents part of Microsoft Open Specification:

• Windows PowerShell Language Specification Version 2.0
• Windows PowerShell Language Specification Version 3.0

Those documents defines all the aspects of PowerShell Languages v2.0 and v3.0.
I highly recommend any beginners, intermediates and guru to take a look at those files.

In my previous post, I explain my PowerShell function to retrieve the local administrators group membership.
Today I will go a bit further and find the nested members from the Active Directory.

Get-LocalGroupAllMembers

The following scripts query a localgroup on the localhost or a remote computer, and gather all the local and domain members (direct and nested).

By Default, if you do not specify any parameter, the function will query the Localhost and the Localgroup "Administrators".

Dot Sourcing

Once your Powershell is launched you can load the function using the Dot Sourcing method:

. ./Get-LocalGroupAllMembers.ps1

Usage

Get-LocalGroupAllMembers -ComputerName SERVER01 -GroupName "Administrators"