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By admin, October 21, 2010 12:38 am

To enable Copy & Paste option when using VM Remote Console in ESX 4.1:

1. Log into a vCenter Server system using the vSphere Client and power off the virtual machine.

2. Select the virtual machine, on the Summary tab click Edit Settings.

3. Navigate to Options > Advanced > General and click Configuration Parameters.

4. Click Add Row and type the following values in the Name and Value columns:

isolation.tools.copy.disable – false
isolation.tools.paste.disable – false

Comments (1)

By admin, October 20, 2010 4:39 pm

Count Down is on the way, only 6 hours left, it is probably the most anticipating problem in VMware ESX backup world in 2010!

I’ve posted a question in Veeam’s forum asking the following and gained lots of knowledge regarding How Veeam backup works over SAN as well as Equallogic stuffs.

Veeam v5 can tell EQL to take a snapshot locally first using VAAI (ie, super fast), then send that Completed snapshot to Veeam Backup server for de-dupe and compression and then finally save to local storage on the backup server.

=====================================
For example, we have three kind of backup running at 6AM daily AT THE SAME TIME.

VMs are all on Equallogic SAN VMFS volume.

1. Acronis True Image backup inside each VM. (ie, File Level, backup time is 5-10 mins per VM)
2. Veeam Backup SAN (ie, Block Level, backup time is 1-5 mins per VM)
3. Equallogic Snapshot (ie, Block Level, backup time is 1-5 seconds for the whole array)

Will this actually create any problem? I mean LOCKING problem due to concurrent access to the same volume?

But Beginning with Equallogic version 5.0, the PS Series Array Firmware supports VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) for VMware vSphere 4.1 and later. The following new ESX functions are supported:

• Harddware Assisted Locking – Provides an alternative meanns of protecting VMFS cluster file system metadata, improving the scalability of large ESX environments sharing datastores.

So this shouldn’t be a problem any more.

Any hints of recommendation?

I feel very happy now as finally VAAI can be used to greatly increase the snapshot performance and shorten the backup window, together with Veeam’s vStorage API, I am pretty sure the backup time is going to break the records shortly, I will report later after I installed B&R V5 tomorrow.

One more thing, I did try to use ASM/VE to backup and restore VM once for testing, I forgot if it’s with VAAI or not or if the FW is 4.3.7, but it’s quite slow and one thing I also don’t like is to backup snapshot onto the Same Array!

1. Array space is too expensive to place snapshot on it, at least for VM, I am ok with taking array snapshot for lun/volume only though to avoid array failure kind of disaster.

2. It’s not safe to place VM snapshot on the same array, what if the array crashes?

3. As an EQL user, everyone know that “Dirty Bit” problem (ie, once the block is written, there is no way to get it back.) In other words, it’s a great waste of deleted/empty space. Not Until EQL releases the Thin/Thick Space Reclaim feature in the coming FW5.x version, I think the technology is still not mature or ready yet to have VM snapshot to be placed on EQL volume. FYI, 3PAR is the only vendor having true Thin Space Reclaim, HDS reclaim is a “fake ” one, search google about a 3PAR guy commenting about HDS’s similar technology you will see what I mean.

4. Remember EQL use 16MB stripe? It means even there is 1K movement in block, EQL array will take the whole 16MB, so your snapshot is going to grow very very very very huge, what a waste! I really don’t understand why EQL designed their stripe size to 16MB instead of say 1MB, is it because 16MB can give you much better performance?

5. Another bad thing is even you buy a PS6500E with lots of cheap space, but you still can’t use ASM/VM to backup a VM on PS6000XV volume and place the snapshots on PS6500E, it HAS TO be the same array or pool and stay at PS6000XV, so seem there is no solution.

That’s why we finally selected Veeam B&R v5 Enterprise Edition and that’s how I arrived here and encounter all the great storage geeks!
=====================================

Some of the very useful feedbacks: 

 The EQL Snapshot is done on the EQL Hardware Level. The vmware snapshot is done at vmware level, with vaai hardware assisted but not done on the hardware level. (BUT if it is exactly that what you want DELL provides a cool tool named auto snapshot manager vmware edition, this will allow you to trigger a hardware snapshot exactly the same time a vcneter snapshot is triggered – good for volume shadow copy consistency).

The VEEAM Snapshot is done with vCenter Server or ESX/i directly using VAAI or not (dependes on your firmware and esx/i version). Don´t mix around Hardware Snapshots and hardware assisted snapshots, is is NOT the same.

 

That is correct, but at a very small time window, VAAI kicks in, when the snaphot is triggered, at this time VAAI kicks in with the locking mechanism. But then again, don´t mix it up with a hardware snapshot, VAAI can NOT trigger SAN-Vendor-specific hardware snapshots.

You can quite do a lot with Equallogic SAN, if you want it. There are many ways allowing you to trigger hardware snapshots if you want them triggered. So i suggest you take a look at

a) Auto Snapshot Manager VMware Edition
b) latest Host Integration Tools (H.I.T.)

 

Correct, but VEEAM/vmware-triggered snapshots, when doing backups at night, would not really grow that much because the time window for doing the backup is extremely small (when using high speed lan and cbt) – therfor me personally i have no problem with it – and even if it gets a problem: VEEAM has sophisticated mechanisms which allow you to safely break the backup operation if the snapshot grows too huge.

 

Update: Official Answer from Equallogic

Good morning, 

So, the question is does VMware’s ESX v4.1 VAAI API allow you to have one huge volume vs. the standard recommendation for more smaller volumes while still maintaining the same performance?

The answer is NO.  

Reason: The same reasons that made it a good idea before, still remain.   You are still bound by how SCSI works.  Each volume has a negotiated command tag queue depth (CTQ).  VAAI does nothing to mitigate this.   Also, until every ESX server accessing that mega volume is upgraded to ESX v4.1,  SCSI reservations will still be in effect.  So periodically, one node will lock that one volume and ALL other nodes will have to wait their turn.   Multiple volumes also allows you to be more flexible with our storage tiering capabilities.   VMFS volumes, RDMs and storage direct volumes can be moved to the most appropriate RAID member.

i.e. you could storage pools with SAS, SATA or SSD drives, then place the volumes in their appropriate pool based on I/O requirements for that VM.

So do you mean if we are running ESX version 4.1 on all ESX hosts, then we can safely to use one big volume instead of several smaller ones from now on? 

Re: 4.1. No.  The same overall  issue remains.  When all ESX servers accessing a volume are at 4.1, then one previous bottleneck of SCSI reservation and only that issue is removed.  All the other issues I mentioned still remain.   Running one mega volume will not produce the best performance and long term will be the least flexible option possible.   It would similar in concept to taking an eight lane highway down to one lane.

In order to fully remove the SCSI reservation, you need VAAI, so the combination of ESX v4.1 and array FW v5.0.2 or greater will be required.

As a side note, here’s an article which discusses how VMware uses SCSI reservations.  

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1005009

Here’s a brief snippet from the KB.

There are two main categories of operation under which VMFS makes use of SCSI reservations.

The first category is for VMFS data-store level operations. These include opening, creating, resignaturing, and expanding/extending of VMFS data-store.

The second category involves acquisition of locks. These are locks related to VMFS specific meta-data (called cluster locks) and locks related to files (including directories). Operations in the second category occur much more frequently than operations in the first category. The following are examples of VMFS operations that require locking metadata:
    * Creating a VMFS datastore
    * Expanding a VMFS datastore onto additional extents
    * Powering on a virtual machine
    * Acquiring a lock on a file
    * Creating or deleting a file
    * Creating a template
    * Deploying a virtual machine from a template
    * Creating a new virtual machine
    * Migrating a virtual machine with VMotion
    * Growing a file, for example, a Snapshot file or a thin provisioned Virtual Disk

Follow these steps to resolve/mitigate potential sources of the reservation: 

a.Try to serialize the operations of the shared LUNs, if possible, limit the number of operations on different hosts that require SCSI reservation at the same time.

b.Increase the number of LUNs and try to limit the number of ESX hosts accessing the same LUN.

c.Reduce the number snapshots as they cause a lot of SCSI reservations.

d.Do not schedule backups (VCB or console based) in parallel from the same LUN.

e.Try to reduce the number of virtual machines per LUN. See vSphere 4.0 Configuration Maximums and ESX 3.5 Configuration Maximums.

f.What targets are being used to access LUNs?

g.Check if you have the latest HBA firmware across all ESX hosts.

h.Is the ESX running the latest BIOS (avoid conflict with HBA drivers)?

i.Contact your SAN vendor for information on SP timeout values and performance settings and storage array firmware.

j.Turn off 3rd party agents (storage agents) and rpms not certified for ESX.

k.MSCS rdms (active node holds permanent reservation). For more information, see ESX servers hosting passive MSCS nodes report reservation conflicts during storage operations (1009287).

l.Ensure correct Host Mode setting on the SAN array.

m.LUNs removed from the system without rescanning can appear as locked.

n.When SPs fail to release the reservation, either the request did not come through (hardware, firmware, pathing problems) or 3rd party apps running on the service console did not send the release. Busy virtual machine operations are still holding the lock.

Note: Use of SATA disks is not recommended in high I/O configuration or when the above changes do not resolve the problem while SATA disks are used. (ie, USE SAS 10K or 15K or EVEN SSD should greatly help!)

An updated review from InfoWorld about New EqualLogic firmware takes a load off VMware

Comments (1)

By admin, October 20, 2010 11:32 am

To show Glbal TCP Parameters:
netsh int tcp show global

1. How to enable and disable TCP Chimney Offload (aka TCP offload) in Windows Server 2008 R2:
netsh int tcp set global chimney=enabled
netsh int tcp set global chimney=disabled

Determine whether TCP Chimney Offload is working, type “netstat –t” the line shows “Offloaded” is with Offloaded feature enabled.

2. How to enable and disable RSS in Windows Server 2008 R2:
netsh int tcp set global rss=enabled

3. Disable TCO Autotuninglevel in Windows Server 2008 R2 for performance gain in iSCSI
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

Update Jan-24:

I simple enabled everythingand found there is no difference on Equallogic iSCSI IOMeter performance.

TCP Global Parameters
———————————————-
Receive-Side Scaling State          : enabled
Chimney Offload State               : enabled
NetDMA State                        : enabled
Direct Cache Acess (DCA)            : enabled
Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level    : normal
Add-On Congestion Control Provider  : ctcp
ECN Capability                      : enabled
RFC 1323 Timestamps                 : disabled

ECN is Explicit Congestion Notification and is enabled by default and is a little more complex as it tweaks TCP protocol when sending a SYN and is mostly used by routers and firewalls. Since the default is enabled, I’d just set it to the default and be done with it.

Comments (0)

By admin, October 19, 2010 12:08 pm

Dell has announced it’s upcoming virtual appliance “Dell Management Plug-In for VMware vCenter (aka DMPVV)”, basically, it’s an integrated OpenManage to vCenter and best of all, we can upgrade BIOS/Firmware directly from vCenter, no more downtime using USC or other method. (ie, works just like in Windows environment, in-line upgrade without shutting down ESX, of course, you need to reboot it after the upgrade is completed.)

I do hope Dell will make it a FREE PRODUCT for all its Poweredge Customers.

Why? Why NOT?

• Most of us already installed OpenManage on ESX, so we can see most of the server hardware data like temperature, warning, configure storage, etc.
• ESX also provides an extensive Hardware Health section
• Using the free Veeam Monitor 5 also can give you the above with tracking as well
• Host Profile is also available in ESX Enterprise Plus version
• Warranty Information can be found easily on-line

So why would someone pay for a nicer GUI ? Ok, you may argue that BIOS/Firmware upgrade thing, well, I don’t mind do it in USC, it’s even safer as I am upgrading BIOS/Firmware at lowest system level.

Update March 6, 2011

Installing and Configuring the Dell Managment vCenter Plugin – The Dell TechCenter

Update July 19, 2011 

Trial Version (Latest v1.0.1)

Comments (0)

By admin, October 18, 2010 1:02 pm

Best Method Learned: DO NOT TRY TO RE-SIZE or CONVERT THE SOURCE DISK TO THIN when using vCenter Converter Standalone, if you want to reduce the size of the original disk, then do this using Storage vMotion after the conversion is completed, see details below:

I HAVE RELALY BEEN THERE AND WENT THOUGH ALL THE PAIN ONCE, now I am happy after I did this intensive research on P2V using backup image.

8:20PM Start, disconnect physical server external network cables connecting to the Internet, leaving internal LAN on for VPN, so I am still able to RDP into the server.

8:36PM Take a final incremental snaphot on the physical server using True Image Server Echo (TIS9.1/TIS9/TIS8 all having some kind of wired problem during conversion, so better upgrade the TIS version on the physical server first)

8:40PM Since I’ve already copied all the previous TIS backup files to the vCenter server beforehand, so it only took me 4 mins to copy this final incremental backup file over.

9:04PM Use vCenter Converter Standalone to import TIS backup files and converted into Equallogic SAN volume (which is Thin-Provisioned), it’s so fast, 120GB in about 24 mins (about 83MB/s over 1Gbps). If you are going to do Re-size or Make it Thin at this stage, the conversion process is going to take at least 3-4 times longer and still failed at the end even you are able to boot the VM (You will either face login failure with correct password or some service will NEVER START for un-known reasons), so my suggest would be just KEEP THE SOURCE AS THICK (aka flat) and do all the THIN later, keep reading please.

10:08PM Finished re-configuring VM, disabled all the unnecessary services, uninstall all no need software and drivers (luckily I still have that physical running side by side in the above for comparison just in case some configuration need to be made), finally the VM is running on Version 7, with VMXet3 driver and using Para-virtualized for Disk Controller (this really boost the performance by at least 3 to 5 times, booting the same W2K3 physical server required 7 mins before, using normal SCSI Parallel is about 4 mins, using Para-virtualized is about 30 seconds!!! Wow!!! Of course, I am not sure if it’s to do with ESX4.1 and EQL FW5.0.2 supports Storage Hardware Acceleration and MEM. Everything is just so much faster than before. However you still have this WASTED big 120GB THICK disk that’s converted form a RAID-5 (36GBx5) Physical Server.

10:20PM Now is where the magic happens. I then did a Storage vMotion (ie, migrate the datastore) to the real VMFS volume where it should be (it was on a temp VMFS just for conversion), AND NOW YOU CAN USE THIN-PROVIIONING, guess how long does it take for Equallogic PS6000XV to do that? Yes, total 12 mins to migrate that 120GB thick and converted to thin (about 30GB)! Amazing! Again, I am pretty sure it’s something to do with ESX4.1 and EQL FW5.0.2 supports Storage Hardware Acceleration and MEM, that VAAI storage hardware acceleration thing is really kicking in!

So the whole thing took about 2 hours, seemed easy right? However I didn’t tell you I’ve spent the whole week about 30 hours to do many trial and errors with different conversion method things like use TIS Echo to convert the TIBs into VMDK (WASTE OF TIME, DON’T TRY IT), Boot TIS rescure media and then directly restore the image into VMDK (waste of time), re-size or thin the source disk and then found out I can no longer login and even I can login, some important services just never start. What about real-time conversation, FORGET IT! It will take FOREVER (so slow) and you will encounter even more problems then using a backup image.

So to put things into summary, here is what you need to do if you have True Image Server or other backup files for P2V conversion. 

1. Use vCenter Converter Standalone and simple import the TIB files, do not make it thin and do not re-size it. This proved to be the FASTEST conversion speed. (about 85-95MB/s over a 1Gbps COS link)
2. Then use Storage vMotion to do the actual Thin-Provisioning, if you have VAAI storage hardware acceleration, it will really help in this stage. You will see under esxtop iSCSI network traffic is really low, but IOPS is really high, so you know VAAI is working hard on the array itself and ESX Host CPU is almost nothing during the Storage vMotion as ESX Host no longer required if VAAI or SAN OFFLOAD is being used.
3. Make sure you use Echo version of True Image Server to ensure the most compatible or safe conversion for your VM. TIS9.1/TIS9/TIS8 just created too many unknown problems

 * One more thing, DO NOT TRY TO CONVERT TWO VM at the same time if the TIS backup images are on the same local harddisk partition, it’s just too much for your server and somehow vCenter Converter will lock TIS files of one VM, so when you try to convert the 2^nd VM, the size will somehow misleading (ie, it’s actually 30GB used, but it will show 120GB fully used, I think it’s related to vCenter Converter can only lock one TIB file at the same time. If you try to force converting the 2^nd VM, strange thing DO HAPPEN, so just take your time, have a cup of coffee of tea, sit back and relax.)

Comments (0)

By admin, October 16, 2010 10:49 pm

2007年Maserati終于推出了其新一代的超級跑車Granturismo﹐漂亮的外型深深地滲透著意大利的浪漫﹐不用說﹐肯定又是Pininfarina設計師的另一傑作﹗

我真的很喜歡Maserati Granturismo的真車﹐指的是外型和它好聽的V8引擎聲音(法拉利F430也是用同一款引擎﹐當然是升級版)﹐諾大的鬼面罩殺氣騰騰的極具氣勢﹐像大白鯊要把獵物吞噬掉似的。微微翹起的尾巴配合那流線型的車身﹐真的是剛剛合適﹐多一分少一分都會遠離完美兩字。就是這個微微翹起的性感側面令我想起了我極之喜歡的法拉利F355﹐它們的設計實在有異曲同工之妙﹐可能大家都是出自大師Pininfarina的手筆吧﹗

雖然MONDO的做工真的很馬虎﹐但還是一直很想收Granturismo﹐MONDO出品的三個顏色裡﹐唯獨黑色最吸引﹐珍珠白和銀色油漆都不太好看。之前打算從國外拍賣網站訂購﹐但車費再加運費實在太不合理了﹐所以遲遲沒付諸于行動。

好了﹐還是那句﹐皇天不負有心人﹐這次竟然給我在本地的拍賣網站用極合理的價錢購得﹐而且是全新的﹐實在太高興了﹗

1/18 Mondo Maserati Granturismo Black

Comments (5)

By admin, October 16, 2010 10:03 am

I am having the following problem on our Virtual Center, if you know how to solve this, please kindly let me know, many many thanks in advance!

EventID 1000[VpxdLdap] Failed to search OU=Instances container.  This may indicate a problem with LDAP permissions for the account running VirtualCenter, or that the schema is not compatible with this version of VirtualCenter.

The error occur on the clock and every 15 mins after the clock (ie, 9am, then 9:15am, then 10am, then 10:15am)

It only happens when
1. Running vSphere Client and leave it on (1-3 times a day)
2. Occur 24 times a day if we have vSphere Client on as well as Veeam Monitor on, seem Veeam Monitor is competing with vSphere Client for pulling resources, so that’s why the error occurs more often.

Then vCenter server alarm section will periodically produce alerts saying vCenter Health Status is in YELLOW due to LDAP server cannot be contacted because I am not joining an AD Domain, this sounds ridiculous.

Btw, the vCenter server DID NOT JOIN A DOMAIN, only using the same server’s Workgroup, I know it’s not right or the best way according to vCenter setup guide, but I really want to keep it simple. (ie, do not want to have another physical server just for AD), I really wish VMware will release a patch for vCenter that allow us to select Domain or Workgroup model during installation or even better allow us to change the option on the fly.

I suspect it’s a client pulling problem and/or the client can’t search through AD/LDAP, so it reports such error?

It’s just a warning error, nothing really affecting operation, so I think I can safely ignore it, but do appreciate if someone came across and solved this strange problem.

Update:

From vCenter Error Log:

[2010-10-24 04:19:24.791 05976 error 'App'] [LDAP Client] Failed to poll search: 0×0 (The call completed successfully.)
[2010-10-24 04:19:24.791 05976 warning 'App'] [LDAP Client] Reinitializing search -1 (ou=Licenses,ou=Licensing,dc=virtualcenter,dc=vmware,dc=int)
[2010-10-24 04:19:24.791 05976 error 'App'] [LDAP Client] Failed to perform asynchronous search for base DN = ou=Licenses,ou=Licensing,dc=virtualcenter,dc=vmware,dc=int: 0×51 (Cannot contact the LDAP server.)

[2010-10-24 08:11:56,116 Timer-4  INFO  com.vmware.vim.jointool.util.ldaphealth.LdapHealthMonitor] Encountered an error when checking domain trust health : error code: $@, result: 1717
From vCenter Health Check:

Ldap domain trust change monitor – Warning – encountered an an error when checking domain trust health: error code: 1717

Solution:

From VMware Communities:

The message “Encountered an eror when checking domain trust health: error code 1717″ is simply an informational message in Virtual Center. The “vCenter Service Status plugin for Virtual Center 4″ runs some LDAP checks including checking for the possibility to perform domain trust lookups. When it cannot perform this domain trust lookup then it will show this message.

This message is simply an informational message and should have no major impact on the running of the Virtual Center Server. The only ways to stop this message from appearing would be joining vCenter Server to a AD Domain. Btw, you CANNOT install AD Domain Controller on the same machine with vCenter, it will not work. Because vCenter 4.1 will install an instance of ADAM (Active Directory Application Mode). It uses this when you use vCenter Linked Mode and ADAM will conflict with its’ own AD services if the server is also a Domain Controller.

From ESX 4.1 vCenter Installation Guide:

The system that you use for your vCenter Server installation must belong to a domain rather than a
workgroup. If assigned to a workgroup, the vCenter Server system is not able to discover all domains and
systems available on the network when using such features as vCenter Guided Consolidation Service. To
determine whether the system belongs to a workgroup or a domain, right-click My Computer and click
Properties and the Computer Name tab. The Computer Name tab displays either a Workgroup label or
a Domain label.

Seemed there is no workaround for running vCenter on standalone Workgroup, but why would I use an extra physical machine for the sole purpose of running an AD Domain Controller? It’s TOTALLY AGAINST VIRTUALIZATION and it’s not Green at all, most of all if I have a small enviornment with less than 5 ESX Host, why would I bother to setup a AD?

My own solution would be disable vCenter Health Check alarm or just simply remove the part saying Health Check changed to Yellow should be fine.

Finally, some people may install vCenter on Windows Server 2008 R2 and encounter the following problem, according to VMware KB1025668.

Installing vCenter Server 4.1 on a Windows 2008 R2 system fails

Symptoms
•Cannot install vCenter Server 4.1 on a Windows 2008 R2 system
•Installing vCenter Server 4.1 on a Windows 2008 R2 system fails
•You see on of these errors:

◦The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed in the jointool-0.log
◦Setup cannot create vCenter Server directory Services Instance
Resolution
This issue may occur if the Active Directory in your environment is hosted by a Windows 2000 domain controller (THAT’S OLD!!!). This issue occurs because vCenter Server 4.1 is unable to retrieve the security identifier (SID) for an account.
�
To resolve this issue, you must apply a Microsoft hotfix. For more information and to download the hotfix, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 976494.
�
Note: You must reboot the system before installing vCenter Server again.

Comments (0)

By admin, October 15, 2010 11:33 am

Just found a great article for ESX Storage Best Practices from Cisco, definitely worth reading for understanding how storage really works in VMware vSphere

At the end, it also mentioned the future: VAAI, well the paper was written in 2009 and one year after, we are already using it in our Equallogic SAN.

There is even a section called “Day After Tomorrow”, future technologies like vMotion between Datacenters, DRS and DPM for storage, etc.

Comments (0)

By admin, October 14, 2010 3:24 pm

談起法拉利的代表作﹐288 GTO, F40, F50, ENZO它們四個肯定是名列前茅﹗

288 GTO, F40, F50, ENZO四個在超跑界響當當的名字﹐它們代表了紅色的激情﹑意大利式的浪漫和無數人嚮往的羨慕眼光。

終于等到了這期英國Classic & Sports Car雜誌今年的重頭炮﹕FASTEST EVER FERRARIS 288 GTO, F40, F50, ENZO﹐這期絕對是一本值得收藏的刊物。

Comments (0)

By admin, October 14, 2010 12:21 pm

In the past few years, there have been numerous time I’ve seriously considered buying a smart phone like HTC, iPhone, but the technology wasn’t really ready yet by then.

However things changed with the raise of HSPDA and particular the launch of iPhone 4 early this year.

It’s time to CHANGE finally!

Today I’ve got an iPhone for me finaly…technically speaking, it’s not for me, but actually it’s for her. Compared many plans from different service providers in Hong Kong, finally located SmartTone mainly due to it’s network coverage and reliability and HK$398 unlimited plan is the best to go for a 32GB version. It took about 1 week to order and the customer service is excellent!

In additional, SmartTone embedded something called X-Power which allows you to view flash movie on Youtube and many other web sites that’s definitely a PLUS, as for normal users they really have no idea how to “JailBreak”.

For me, a network guy, I found the most useful tool is WYSE PocketCloud which provides the best RDP mouse control ability among its category and I am going to manage the whole data center through a little device like iPhone 4, wow…that’s awesome really! Basically this is ONE AND ONLY reason I surrender to iPhone, nothing else really.

Probably I will try Dropbox later which allows me to synchronize MP3/documents between my desktop and iPhone, but putting sensitive information on their server will be a big concern for many.

Finally, the 3G roaming service is still very disappointing, NO UNLMITED usage when I go to other countries even SmartTone/3/One2Free provides things called HK$168 daily UNLMITED PLAN with HIDDEN clauses that you can ONLY use email and browse web pages, and anything else like RDP/VPN/FTP/SKYPE will cost you HK$0.01/KB, so it’s absolutely USELESS when traveling aboard, only Wi-Fi works, but again why do I need to buy an iPhone without using 3G then? It’s like driving a HK$3M Ferrari on country road only and you are not allow to drive on highway.