Can you add an ESXi 5.1 host to vCenter 5.0 update 2?

I tried to add a ESXi 5.1 host to the vCenter 5.0 update 2 and I was not successful giving the below error.

Below is the compatibility list.

So ESXi 5.1 is not officially supported and not compatible with vCenter 5.0 update 2.

The initial steps towards the VMware's Vision "Software Defined Data Center" hints emerging

There are some blog posts and official blog posts are emerging these days giving us hints that VMware is getting ready to keep the next steps towards the vision of "Software Defined Datacenter". It's worth reading those to keep ahead of the technology that VMware is trying to aim at.

So it seems VMware has worked along with the latestly acquired Nicira team to bring about the Network virtualization to the next level...

Following are some of the blogposts that I came across...

http://www.cloudmantic.com/vmware-launches-nsx-based-upon-nicira/?goback=%2Egde_51214_member_223211795

http://blogs.vmware.com/console/2013/03/vmware-nsx-network-virtualization.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/14/vmware_nsx_nicira_nerwork_virtualization/

http://www.networkcomputing.com/data-center/vmwares-network-virtualization-plans-cry/240150736

vSphere vMSC (Metro Storage) Cluster with HP Left Hand Storage

Last week I had the opportunity to design a vMSC cluster with HP Lefthand storage for one of the customer.

I will post some resources in the series.

This post will focus on the design aspects of the solution

·         3 dedicated IP networks will be configured:

o   Storage network

o   VM network

o   vMotion network

·         As per the best practices Round Trip Time (RTT) latencies on storage network between sites should not exceed 2 ms RTT.

·         Storage network must support a minimum of 1Gbps throughput between sites.

·         Network connectivity between the Failover Manager (FOM) and the storage nodes should be at least 100mbps and RTT should not exceed 50ms RTT.

·         ESXi hosts in both data centers must have a private network on the same IP subnet and broadcast domains.

·         Any IP’s used on vm must be accessible from both sites.

·         Sites should be connected through a redundant storage network consisting of two physical links.

·         The VMware data stores for the vm’s running in the ESXi Cluster are provisioned on Network RAID 10 volumes.

·         The maximum nodes are supported on the HA cluster is 32 and should not exceed the number.

·         VMware vSphere Enterprise license needs to be used to gain from the Metro vMotion feature.