Over a month ago Christian Hammond (chipx86)<http://twitter.com/chipx86> has released the first technology preview of WSX. This tool enables users to access the console of their shared virtual machines via a web browser without installing any plug-ins or web controls. This service renders an HTML5 web page that can connect to your workstation hosts or ESXi servers (requires vSphere 5.0), enumerate the available virtual machines and allow you to power them on and interact with the desktop.
The July tech preview holds many improvements:
* Improved Home Page
* Improved Server Page
* Big Honkin' Power Button
* Better Touch Input
* Mouse Wheels
* Better Retina Support
* SSL Support
* Easier Installation
* Smarter Defaults
* Performance Tweaks
* Bug Fixes
[image]<http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/uploads/wsx-3.png> [image] <http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/uploads/wsx-1.png> [image] <http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/uploads/wsx-2.png>
If you're intrested and want to give it a try, just hop over to the ChipLog websit<http://blog.chipx86.com/2012/07/24/vmware-wsx-july-tech-preview-release/>e and find out the latest news and downloads.
________________________________
Original Page: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/RjvHMxI07Dc/2096-Tool-Update-VMware-WSX-July-Tech-Preview-Release.html
Friday 27 July 2012
Site Recovery Manager survey… please help us out!
I just received an email from the the Site Recovery Manager Product Management team. They created a new survey, and I was hoping each of you who is using, or will be purchasing SRM soon, could take the time to complete it. These types of surveys are very useful for Product Management when it comes to setting priorities for new features and identify gaps etc. Thanks!
We are conducting a survey about VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) to learn more about how people use our products. The survey will help us identify where we can improve the product to meet your needs and we would really appreciate getting your feedback.
The link to the survey is below, it typically takes less than 10 minutes to complete. http://www.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?ECC8A4BDEDA6B9BAE7
by Duncan Epping
________________________________
Original Page: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/07/27/site-recovery-manager-survey-please-help-us-out/
We are conducting a survey about VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) to learn more about how people use our products. The survey will help us identify where we can improve the product to meet your needs and we would really appreciate getting your feedback.
The link to the survey is below, it typically takes less than 10 minutes to complete. http://www.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?ECC8A4BDEDA6B9BAE7
by Duncan Epping
________________________________
Original Page: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/07/27/site-recovery-manager-survey-please-help-us-out/
Tuesday 24 July 2012
VMware: VMware vSphere Blog: vSphere HA isolation response… which to use when?
A while back I wrote this article about a split brain scenario<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/05/ha-split-brain-which-vm-prevails.html> with vSphere HA. Although we have multiple techniques to mitigate these scenarios it is always better to prevent. I had already blogged about this before but I figured it wouldn't hurt to get this out again and elaborate on it a bit more.
First some basics…
What is an "Isolation Response"?
The isolation response refers to the action that vSphere HA takes when the heartbeat network is isolated. The heartbeat network is usually the management network of an ESXi host. When a host does not receive any heartbeats it will trigger the response after an X number of seconds. So when exactly? Well that depends if the host is a slave or a master. This is the timeline:
Isolation of a slave
* T0 – Isolation of the host (slave)
* T10s – Slave enters "election state"
* T25s – Slave elects itself as master
* T25s – Slave pings "isolation addresses"
* T30s – Slave declares itself isolated and "triggers" isolation response
Isolation of a master
* T0 – Isolation of the host (master)
* T0 – Master pings "isolation addresses"
* T5s – Master declares itself isolated and "triggers" isolation response
What are my options?
Today there are three options for the isolation response. The responses is what the host will do for the virtual machines running on that host when it has validated it is isolated.
1. Power off – When a network isolation occurs all VMs are powered off. It is a hard stop.
2. Shut down – When a network isolation occurs all VMs running on that host are shut down via VMware Tools. If this is not successful within 5 minutes a "power off" will be executed.
3. Leave powered on – When a network isolation occurs on the host the state of the VMs remains unchanged.
Now that we know what the options are. Which one should you use? Well this depends on your environment. Are you using iSCSI/NAS? Do you have a converged network infrastructure? We've put the most common scenarios in a table.
Likelihood that host will retain access to VM datastores Likelihood that host will retain access to VM network Recommended Isolation policy Explanation Likely Likely Leave Powered On VM is running fine so why power it off? Likely Unlikely Either Leave Powered On or Shutdown Choose shutdown to allow HA to restart VMs on hosts that are not isolated and hence are likely to have access to storage Unlikely Likely Power Off Use Power Off to avoid having two instances of the same VM on the VM network Unlikely Unlikely Leave Powered On or Power Off Leave Powered on if the VM can recover from the network/datastore outage if it is not restarted because of the isolation, and Power Off if it likely can't.
But why is it important…. Well just imagine you pick "leave powered on" and you have a converged network environment and are using iSCSI storage, chances are fairly big that when the host management network is isolated… so is the virtual machine network and the storage for your virtual machine. In that case, having the virtual machine restarted will reduce the amount of "downtime" from an "application / service" perspective.
I hope this helps making the right decision for the vSphere HA isolation response. Although it is just a small part of what vSphere HA does, it is important to understand the impact a wrong decision can have.
________________________________
Original Page: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/07/vsphere-ha-isolation-response-which-to-use-when.html
First some basics…
What is an "Isolation Response"?
The isolation response refers to the action that vSphere HA takes when the heartbeat network is isolated. The heartbeat network is usually the management network of an ESXi host. When a host does not receive any heartbeats it will trigger the response after an X number of seconds. So when exactly? Well that depends if the host is a slave or a master. This is the timeline:
Isolation of a slave
* T0 – Isolation of the host (slave)
* T10s – Slave enters "election state"
* T25s – Slave elects itself as master
* T25s – Slave pings "isolation addresses"
* T30s – Slave declares itself isolated and "triggers" isolation response
Isolation of a master
* T0 – Isolation of the host (master)
* T0 – Master pings "isolation addresses"
* T5s – Master declares itself isolated and "triggers" isolation response
What are my options?
Today there are three options for the isolation response. The responses is what the host will do for the virtual machines running on that host when it has validated it is isolated.
1. Power off – When a network isolation occurs all VMs are powered off. It is a hard stop.
2. Shut down – When a network isolation occurs all VMs running on that host are shut down via VMware Tools. If this is not successful within 5 minutes a "power off" will be executed.
3. Leave powered on – When a network isolation occurs on the host the state of the VMs remains unchanged.
Now that we know what the options are. Which one should you use? Well this depends on your environment. Are you using iSCSI/NAS? Do you have a converged network infrastructure? We've put the most common scenarios in a table.
Likelihood that host will retain access to VM datastores Likelihood that host will retain access to VM network Recommended Isolation policy Explanation Likely Likely Leave Powered On VM is running fine so why power it off? Likely Unlikely Either Leave Powered On or Shutdown Choose shutdown to allow HA to restart VMs on hosts that are not isolated and hence are likely to have access to storage Unlikely Likely Power Off Use Power Off to avoid having two instances of the same VM on the VM network Unlikely Unlikely Leave Powered On or Power Off Leave Powered on if the VM can recover from the network/datastore outage if it is not restarted because of the isolation, and Power Off if it likely can't.
But why is it important…. Well just imagine you pick "leave powered on" and you have a converged network environment and are using iSCSI storage, chances are fairly big that when the host management network is isolated… so is the virtual machine network and the storage for your virtual machine. In that case, having the virtual machine restarted will reduce the amount of "downtime" from an "application / service" perspective.
I hope this helps making the right decision for the vSphere HA isolation response. Although it is just a small part of what vSphere HA does, it is important to understand the impact a wrong decision can have.
________________________________
Original Page: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/07/vsphere-ha-isolation-response-which-to-use-when.html
Arista & VMware Present: Enabling Multi-Tenancy in the Cloud and VM Farm - Eric Sloof
Join VMware and Arista Chief Technology Officers for an in-depth engineering discussion and educational session on how to design and deploy multi-tenant infrastrucutres that enable new cloud services, greater customer isolation, and simplifies scalable network architectures.
This session will dive into technologies such as:
* VXLAN, NVGRE and STT (Stateless Tunnel Transport - an IETF Draft) discussing advantages and disadvantages of each and when to use them
* Network architectures to support scalable cloud deployments
* How to integrate network virtualization and provisioning into a common framework and service catalog
http://www.aristanetworks.com/en/vmware-july-26-webinar
This session will dive into technologies such as:
* VXLAN, NVGRE and STT (Stateless Tunnel Transport - an IETF Draft) discussing advantages and disadvantages of each and when to use them
* Network architectures to support scalable cloud deployments
* How to integrate network virtualization and provisioning into a common framework and service catalog
http://www.aristanetworks.com/en/vmware-july-26-webinar
Monday 23 July 2012
Understanding VXLAN and the value prop in just 4 minutes…
Understanding VXLAN and the value prop in just 4 minutes…<http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/07/23/understanding-vxlan-and-the-value-prop-in-just-4-minutes/>
In this video VXLAN is explained in clear understandable language in just four minutes. We need more videos like these, fast and easy to understand.
________________________________
Original Page: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/07/23/understanding-vxlan-and-the-value-prop-in-just-4-minutes/
In this video VXLAN is explained in clear understandable language in just four minutes. We need more videos like these, fast and easy to understand.
________________________________
Original Page: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/07/23/understanding-vxlan-and-the-value-prop-in-just-4-minutes/
Wednesday 18 July 2012
VMware: VMware vSphere Blog: ESXi host connected to multiple storage array - is it supported?
The primary aim of this post is to state categorically that VMware supports multiple storage arrays presenting targets and LUNs to a single ESXi host. This statement also includes arrays from multiple vendors. We run with this configuration all the time in our labs, and I know very many of our customers who also have multiple arrays presenting devices to their ESX/ESXi hosts. The issue is that we do not appear to call this out in any of our documentation, although many of our guides and KB articles allude to it.
Some caution must be shown however.
1. If you have an SATP (Storage Array Type Plugin) that is used by multiple arrays on the same ESXi host, great care must be taken if you decide to change the default PSP (pathing selection policy) for that SATP) as the change will apply to all arrays - kb.vmware.com/kb/101776<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/07/kb.vmware.com/kb/1017760>
2. Some storage arrays make recommendations on queue depth and other settings. Note that these are typically global settings, so making a change for one array will impact the queue depth to any other arrays presenting LUNs to that ESXi host - kb.vmware.com/kb/1267<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/07/kb.vmware.com/kb/1267>
3. Another recommendation I would make, and I believe this is in our training materials, is to use single-initiator-single-target zoning when zoning ESXi hosts to FC arrays. This avoids any 'fabric' related events occurring on one array from impacting any other array.
With these considerations taken into account, having multiple storage arrays attached to the same ESXi host or hosts is completely supported. I'm going to see if I can get something into our official documentation about this.
________________________________
Original Page: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/07/esxi-host-connected-to-multiple-storage-array-is-it-supported.html
Some caution must be shown however.
1. If you have an SATP (Storage Array Type Plugin) that is used by multiple arrays on the same ESXi host, great care must be taken if you decide to change the default PSP (pathing selection policy) for that SATP) as the change will apply to all arrays - kb.vmware.com/kb/101776<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/07/kb.vmware.com/kb/1017760>
2. Some storage arrays make recommendations on queue depth and other settings. Note that these are typically global settings, so making a change for one array will impact the queue depth to any other arrays presenting LUNs to that ESXi host - kb.vmware.com/kb/1267<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/07/kb.vmware.com/kb/1267>
3. Another recommendation I would make, and I believe this is in our training materials, is to use single-initiator-single-target zoning when zoning ESXi hosts to FC arrays. This avoids any 'fabric' related events occurring on one array from impacting any other array.
With these considerations taken into account, having multiple storage arrays attached to the same ESXi host or hosts is completely supported. I'm going to see if I can get something into our official documentation about this.
________________________________
Original Page: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/07/esxi-host-connected-to-multiple-storage-array-is-it-supported.html
Tuesday 17 July 2012
VMware: VMware vSphere Blog: Running SRM Server Commands With Specific Credentials
When you run a script on the SRM server during a failover, the credentials under which the script will execute is that of the SRM service. For example, if you have left the defaults when installing SRM, the SRM service likely runs as "Local System".
In order to change this credential for your script execution, the solution has always pretty much been to change the ID of the SRM service. This has some benefits and some drawbacks. The benefit is you can create a specific account for the service and tightly control its permissions, to avoid scripts running amok and clobbering things if you forget to close a bracket in the script or something like that. The drawback is that your entire SRM service has to run as this ID which can lead to further problems in terms of authentication, privileges to execute other things, and if you do the ID wrong you can accidentally shut down your SRM service.
Alex Fontana, one of our brilliant Solutions Architects at VMware and co-author of a book on Virtualizing Microsoft Tier 1 Applications<http://www.amazon.com/Virtualizing-Microsoft-Applications-VMware-vSphere/dp/0470563605> came up with an excellent solution that avoids these pitfalls.
The solution is to run a command on the SRM server that executes a scheduled task instead of a script. The scheduled task is what then calls the script under its own credentials.
With this mechanism you can leave the credentials of the SRM service alone, and set permissions for each task that runs the script independently, giving you the freedom to run any script you want under any security context you want.
The process is to use schtasks as the command that runs on the SRM server, and have it call the task you have created with its permissions set as the userid you want.
First, create the command you want to execute as a scheduled task, within the server Server Manager under Configuration -> Task Scheduler:
* Right-click on the Task Scheduler Library and choose "Create Task"
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177436f2196970d-500wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177436f2196970d-popup>
* Set the user account you want the task to run as
* Set the "Run with highest privileges" checkmark. This will allow the command to run without requiring approval if you're using an admin level account.
* Please note, if you're using UAC make sure "User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for built-in Administrator account" is disabled, or change "User Account Control: Behavior of elevation to prompt for the administrators" to allow elevation without prompting. Or turn off UAC. :)
* Under the "Actions" of the scheduled task browse to the script you want to execute.
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177436f225d970d-500wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177436f225d970d-popup>
* Personally I deselect any of the "Conditions" and ensure the the "Settings" tab includes "Allow task to be run on demand", but the details are of course specific to your use case.
Ultimately you will end up with a task that looks something like this:
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016768942d42970b-500wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016768942d42970b-popup>
Next, you create the command to execute on the SRM server.
* At whichever step of your recovery plan you want the command to run, add the step. For example I might want to touch some log files with date stamps or whatever when a particular VM powers on, so I would add a post power on step to that VM.
* Select the type as "Command on SRM server"
* Name it appropriately
* The content will be the execution of the scheduled task which is done by calling schtasks as follows:
schtask /run /TN ""
It should look similar to the following. Make sure you put in quotes exactly what you named the task you created in the last step, otherwise the task will not be found.
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177436f24a4970d-800wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177436f24a4970d-popup>
The net result of this is that your SRM instance can run under any ID that is appropriate for your service, and you can have each script/command run with its own unique ID independently of the SRM service.
Enjoy your scripting, and many thanks to Alex Fontana for sharing his interesting work!
Posted by Ken Werneburg Tech Marketing
Twitter @vmKen
________________________________
Original Page: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/07/srm-scheduled-task-commands.html
In order to change this credential for your script execution, the solution has always pretty much been to change the ID of the SRM service. This has some benefits and some drawbacks. The benefit is you can create a specific account for the service and tightly control its permissions, to avoid scripts running amok and clobbering things if you forget to close a bracket in the script or something like that. The drawback is that your entire SRM service has to run as this ID which can lead to further problems in terms of authentication, privileges to execute other things, and if you do the ID wrong you can accidentally shut down your SRM service.
Alex Fontana, one of our brilliant Solutions Architects at VMware and co-author of a book on Virtualizing Microsoft Tier 1 Applications<http://www.amazon.com/Virtualizing-Microsoft-Applications-VMware-vSphere/dp/0470563605> came up with an excellent solution that avoids these pitfalls.
The solution is to run a command on the SRM server that executes a scheduled task instead of a script. The scheduled task is what then calls the script under its own credentials.
With this mechanism you can leave the credentials of the SRM service alone, and set permissions for each task that runs the script independently, giving you the freedom to run any script you want under any security context you want.
The process is to use schtasks as the command that runs on the SRM server, and have it call the task you have created with its permissions set as the userid you want.
First, create the command you want to execute as a scheduled task, within the server Server Manager under Configuration -> Task Scheduler:
* Right-click on the Task Scheduler Library and choose "Create Task"
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177436f2196970d-500wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177436f2196970d-popup>
* Set the user account you want the task to run as
* Set the "Run with highest privileges" checkmark. This will allow the command to run without requiring approval if you're using an admin level account.
* Please note, if you're using UAC make sure "User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for built-in Administrator account" is disabled, or change "User Account Control: Behavior of elevation to prompt for the administrators" to allow elevation without prompting. Or turn off UAC. :)
* Under the "Actions" of the scheduled task browse to the script you want to execute.
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177436f225d970d-500wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177436f225d970d-popup>
* Personally I deselect any of the "Conditions" and ensure the the "Settings" tab includes "Allow task to be run on demand", but the details are of course specific to your use case.
Ultimately you will end up with a task that looks something like this:
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016768942d42970b-500wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016768942d42970b-popup>
Next, you create the command to execute on the SRM server.
* At whichever step of your recovery plan you want the command to run, add the step. For example I might want to touch some log files with date stamps or whatever when a particular VM powers on, so I would add a post power on step to that VM.
* Select the type as "Command on SRM server"
* Name it appropriately
* The content will be the execution of the scheduled task which is done by calling schtasks as follows:
schtask /run /TN ""
It should look similar to the following. Make sure you put in quotes exactly what you named the task you created in the last step, otherwise the task will not be found.
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177436f24a4970d-800wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177436f24a4970d-popup>
The net result of this is that your SRM instance can run under any ID that is appropriate for your service, and you can have each script/command run with its own unique ID independently of the SRM service.
Enjoy your scripting, and many thanks to Alex Fontana for sharing his interesting work!
Posted by Ken Werneburg Tech Marketing
Twitter @vmKen
________________________________
Original Page: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/07/srm-scheduled-task-commands.html
Thursday 12 July 2012
VMware: VMware SMB Blog: VMware in the Midmarket – Gartner Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure
Recently, Gartner Inc. published the 2012 Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure, positioning VMware in the Leaders Quadrant.*
Today, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) represent one of the fastest-growing segments of our customer base, with the majority of SMBs worldwide choosing VMware as their virtualization
provider. In the last three years, we have dramatically increased the number of customers we serve in the SMB segment by introducing solutions and services aimed specifically at the needs of our SMB customers.
And we continue to innovate on behalf of our customers… Less than a year ago, we announced the general availability of VMware vSphere 5 which delivered more than 200 new features and enhancements that help simplify the lives of our customers while delivering quick and tangible value to their organizations. Server virtualization with VMware vSphere provides real world advantages including, reduced costs, increased operational efficiencies, simplified and automated IT management, and enhanced disaster recovery options. These are all the building blocks that help SMBs transform their IT infrastructure and become 'Cloud Ready'.
These advancements provide tangible business benefits to firms like Myron F. Steves and Company<http://www.vmware.com/solutions/company-size/smb/myron-steves.html?src=blog>. A Houston-based insurance wholesaler, the IT team at Myron Steves has deployed virtualization and cloud solutions from VMware to help ensure that the company's 200 employees can respond to customers should disaster strikes.
With their VMware virtualized architecture, Myron Steves is able to now reliably fail over to backup servers within hours instead of days and the company reduced IT costs significantly including:
* Eliminated $400,000 in annual costs for third-party disaster recovery service
* Saved $200,000 in yearly payroll costs in the IT department
* Reduced maintenance costs by $150,000 per year
* Deployed 100+ virtual desktops to enable employees to work from anywhere
When asked about the impact VMware has had on their business, Tim Moudry, Associate Director of IT for Myron Steves said, "With VMware vSphere and vCenter Site Recovery Manager, we know we can switch our business over to our backup datacenter anytime – and be up and running within a few hours. And it costs a fraction of what we paid for the third-party disaster recovery service we used before."
These benefits can extend to almost all SMBs IT teams. So, rest assured we are not stopping here. Innovation on behalf of our customers – small and large – is what drives us.
Do you have a story about IT transformation leading to business results for your company? Let us know. We would love to profile your story and success.
Brandon Sweeney
Vice President, Mid-Market and Small Business Customer Segment
*Gartner, Inc., Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure, Thomas J. Bittman, et al, June 11, 2012.
Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177434c0aac970d-800wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177434c0aac970d-popup>
About the Magic Quadrant
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose
________________________________
Original Page: http://blogs.vmware.com/smb/2012/07/gartner-magic-quadrant.html
Today, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) represent one of the fastest-growing segments of our customer base, with the majority of SMBs worldwide choosing VMware as their virtualization
provider. In the last three years, we have dramatically increased the number of customers we serve in the SMB segment by introducing solutions and services aimed specifically at the needs of our SMB customers.
And we continue to innovate on behalf of our customers… Less than a year ago, we announced the general availability of VMware vSphere 5 which delivered more than 200 new features and enhancements that help simplify the lives of our customers while delivering quick and tangible value to their organizations. Server virtualization with VMware vSphere provides real world advantages including, reduced costs, increased operational efficiencies, simplified and automated IT management, and enhanced disaster recovery options. These are all the building blocks that help SMBs transform their IT infrastructure and become 'Cloud Ready'.
These advancements provide tangible business benefits to firms like Myron F. Steves and Company<http://www.vmware.com/solutions/company-size/smb/myron-steves.html?src=blog>. A Houston-based insurance wholesaler, the IT team at Myron Steves has deployed virtualization and cloud solutions from VMware to help ensure that the company's 200 employees can respond to customers should disaster strikes.
With their VMware virtualized architecture, Myron Steves is able to now reliably fail over to backup servers within hours instead of days and the company reduced IT costs significantly including:
* Eliminated $400,000 in annual costs for third-party disaster recovery service
* Saved $200,000 in yearly payroll costs in the IT department
* Reduced maintenance costs by $150,000 per year
* Deployed 100+ virtual desktops to enable employees to work from anywhere
When asked about the impact VMware has had on their business, Tim Moudry, Associate Director of IT for Myron Steves said, "With VMware vSphere and vCenter Site Recovery Manager, we know we can switch our business over to our backup datacenter anytime – and be up and running within a few hours. And it costs a fraction of what we paid for the third-party disaster recovery service we used before."
These benefits can extend to almost all SMBs IT teams. So, rest assured we are not stopping here. Innovation on behalf of our customers – small and large – is what drives us.
Do you have a story about IT transformation leading to business results for your company? Let us know. We would love to profile your story and success.
Brandon Sweeney
Vice President, Mid-Market and Small Business Customer Segment
*Gartner, Inc., Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure, Thomas J. Bittman, et al, June 11, 2012.
Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177434c0aac970d-800wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0177434c0aac970d-popup>
About the Magic Quadrant
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose
________________________________
Original Page: http://blogs.vmware.com/smb/2012/07/gartner-magic-quadrant.html
VMware Labs presents its latest fling - View Controlled Recompose Script
This script performs a Controlled Recompose of a VMware View Linked Clone Pool of Virtual Desktops. It first identifies a free desktop and recomposes it to create the first Replica Desktop. Note: If this first recompostion fails the script aborts assuming the creation of the Replica VM also failed.
After the recomposition of the first desktop, the script recomposes a specified number of additional free desktops to create a supply of recomposed systems. These desktops will be available for re-connecting users when the script next recomposes the remaining desktops in the pool, directing View to force logoff active users after the warning period specified in View Manager. An optional extra recompose can be run against the pool as the final step to provide a second attempt to recompose any desktops that may have failed.
During operation the script will abort after a specified number of timed out recompositions in a row (default 3). It will also immediately abort if it detects a View Composer error. The script can be configured to send Email Alerts to notify Administrators of both failed and successful script operations. The script runs by default in interactive mode, prompting for required settings. It can also be run in unattended mode to support scheduled, automated maintenance.
________________________________
Original Page: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/YKtwD_ZJjNc/2085-VMware-Labs-presents-its-latest-fling-View-Controlled-Recompose-Script.html
After the recomposition of the first desktop, the script recomposes a specified number of additional free desktops to create a supply of recomposed systems. These desktops will be available for re-connecting users when the script next recomposes the remaining desktops in the pool, directing View to force logoff active users after the warning period specified in View Manager. An optional extra recompose can be run against the pool as the final step to provide a second attempt to recompose any desktops that may have failed.
During operation the script will abort after a specified number of timed out recompositions in a row (default 3). It will also immediately abort if it detects a View Composer error. The script can be configured to send Email Alerts to notify Administrators of both failed and successful script operations. The script runs by default in interactive mode, prompting for required settings. It can also be run in unattended mode to support scheduled, automated maintenance.
________________________________
Original Page: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/YKtwD_ZJjNc/2085-VMware-Labs-presents-its-latest-fling-View-Controlled-Recompose-Script.html
Wednesday 11 July 2012
Free e-learning course - VMware vCenter Operations Manager Fundamentals
This e-learning course<http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrreg/courses.cfm?ui=www_edu&a=det&id_course=132265> covers how to install and configure vCenter Operations Manager as well as how to use its many robust features.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager is an automated operations management solution that provides integrated performance, capacity, and configuration management for highly virtualized and cloud infrastructure. Deep VMware vSphere integration provides the most comprehensive management of VMware environments. VMware vCenter Operations Manager is purpose-built for VMware administrators to more effectively manage the performance of their VMware environments as they move to the private cloud.
[http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/uploads/vcops.png]
The course<http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrreg/courses.cfm?ui=www_edu&a=det&id_course=132265> consists of five modules:
1. Technical Overview of vCenter Operations Manager covers the vCenter Operations Manager 5.0 vApp architecture and resource requirements, the vCenter Operations Manager 5.0 vApp installation considerations, and introduces you to the major and minor badges.
2. Installing and Configuring vCenter Operations Manager discusses how to install and configure vCenter Operations Manager.
3. Using the Dashboards and Badges explains the main function of the major and minor badges, how to interpret the badge results, and how to configure thresholds and notifications.
4. Operations and Planning describes how to use the Operations tab and the Planning tab.
5. Working with Smart Alerts and Reports covers how to configure and use smart alerts, how heat maps are used, and how to work with reports.
________________________________
Original Page: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/-mtEIaBW-QM/2084-Free-e-learning-course-VMware-vCenter-Operations-Manager-Fundamentals.html
VMware vCenter Operations Manager is an automated operations management solution that provides integrated performance, capacity, and configuration management for highly virtualized and cloud infrastructure. Deep VMware vSphere integration provides the most comprehensive management of VMware environments. VMware vCenter Operations Manager is purpose-built for VMware administrators to more effectively manage the performance of their VMware environments as they move to the private cloud.
[http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/uploads/vcops.png]
The course<http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrreg/courses.cfm?ui=www_edu&a=det&id_course=132265> consists of five modules:
1. Technical Overview of vCenter Operations Manager covers the vCenter Operations Manager 5.0 vApp architecture and resource requirements, the vCenter Operations Manager 5.0 vApp installation considerations, and introduces you to the major and minor badges.
2. Installing and Configuring vCenter Operations Manager discusses how to install and configure vCenter Operations Manager.
3. Using the Dashboards and Badges explains the main function of the major and minor badges, how to interpret the badge results, and how to configure thresholds and notifications.
4. Operations and Planning describes how to use the Operations tab and the Planning tab.
5. Working with Smart Alerts and Reports covers how to configure and use smart alerts, how heat maps are used, and how to work with reports.
________________________________
Original Page: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/-mtEIaBW-QM/2084-Free-e-learning-course-VMware-vCenter-Operations-Manager-Fundamentals.html
Mike Fegan on vCenter Operations Manager
The demand on today's IT department is daunting. More and more small and midsize size businesses (SMB) are using the "do more with less" philosophy. Because of this, IT Professionals are finding themselves wearing more hats than ever before. Furthermore, with a smaller IT staff it can become extremely difficult to be proactive or even track down an issue that is affecting production.
Virtualization has helped with consolidation of the server infrastructure, but now you may be faced with managing a large number of virtual machines (VMs). So, how are SMBs with a small IT staff expected to handle these new challenges?
Tool Belt With Tangible Benefits
vCenter Operations Manager has the tools to support the under-staffed IT department. Instead of tracking down log files and manually measuring metrics, vCenter Operations Manager does this all for you, allowing you to focus on deploying resources to more proactive, strategic solutions and planning. Have an application performance issue? Identify it immediately with the "Health Badge". Health is measured on a scale of 1-100, with 1 being bad and 100 being good (pretty easy, huh?). You can see from this image that the overall health of our environment is OK. It's not quite 100, so if you dig just a little deeper you can tell that this particular cluster is bound by memory.
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef01761649dbf5970c-500wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef01761649dbf5970c-pi>
Concerned about your capacity? From a single view you can quickly determine how long you can continue to run or how many new VMs you can deploy with your current hardware resources before having to add new servers. You can see in the example below that based on current usage we have more than a year before we need to add hardware resources. Additionally, with our current capacity we can add approximately 460 VMs.
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0176164ed39d970c-500wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0176164ed39d970c-pi>
Now, lets just say you're "Time Remaining" is less than a year and "Capacity Remaining" shows that you can only add 5-15 new VMs. What do you do? There's always the option of asking for budget to purchase more hardware, or you can be a hero and look into reclaiming capacity from overprovisioned VMs. As you can see below, we have a lot of reclaimable capacity! We've provisioned way more vCPUs and vRAM than we need for these VMs. With this information at your fingertips you can quickly identify ineffeciencies and increase your consolidation ratio making better use of your existing hardware infrastructure.
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef01761649e016970c-500wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef01761649e016970c-pi>
Simple Install to Boot!
vCenter Operations Manager is a snap to install. It's delivered as an .OVF template. From your vSphere client, simply choose "Deploy OVF Template"; follow the simple wizard and the analytics server starts analyzing your environment immediately.
In summary, vCenter Operations Manager is the tool that allows the smaller IT departments to "do more with less." You're virtualized. And by cost-efficiently adding breadth with this tool you can quickly identify operational issues, minimize the amount of time it takes to troubleshoot an issue, plan for the future, significantly increase your consolidation ratio, and allow your IT team to focus on more strategic projects and end-user support.
Want to learn more about vCenter Operations Manager?
* vCenter Operations Introduction Video<http://bit.ly/LcTS24>
* VMware vCenter Operations Manager Getting Started Guide<http://bit.ly/OVMSai>
________________________________
Original Page: http://blogs.vmware.com/smb/2012/07/mikefegan_vcenterops.html
Virtualization has helped with consolidation of the server infrastructure, but now you may be faced with managing a large number of virtual machines (VMs). So, how are SMBs with a small IT staff expected to handle these new challenges?
Tool Belt With Tangible Benefits
vCenter Operations Manager has the tools to support the under-staffed IT department. Instead of tracking down log files and manually measuring metrics, vCenter Operations Manager does this all for you, allowing you to focus on deploying resources to more proactive, strategic solutions and planning. Have an application performance issue? Identify it immediately with the "Health Badge". Health is measured on a scale of 1-100, with 1 being bad and 100 being good (pretty easy, huh?). You can see from this image that the overall health of our environment is OK. It's not quite 100, so if you dig just a little deeper you can tell that this particular cluster is bound by memory.
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef01761649dbf5970c-500wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef01761649dbf5970c-pi>
Concerned about your capacity? From a single view you can quickly determine how long you can continue to run or how many new VMs you can deploy with your current hardware resources before having to add new servers. You can see in the example below that based on current usage we have more than a year before we need to add hardware resources. Additionally, with our current capacity we can add approximately 460 VMs.
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0176164ed39d970c-500wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0176164ed39d970c-pi>
Now, lets just say you're "Time Remaining" is less than a year and "Capacity Remaining" shows that you can only add 5-15 new VMs. What do you do? There's always the option of asking for budget to purchase more hardware, or you can be a hero and look into reclaiming capacity from overprovisioned VMs. As you can see below, we have a lot of reclaimable capacity! We've provisioned way more vCPUs and vRAM than we need for these VMs. With this information at your fingertips you can quickly identify ineffeciencies and increase your consolidation ratio making better use of your existing hardware infrastructure.
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef01761649e016970c-500wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef01761649e016970c-pi>
Simple Install to Boot!
vCenter Operations Manager is a snap to install. It's delivered as an .OVF template. From your vSphere client, simply choose "Deploy OVF Template"; follow the simple wizard and the analytics server starts analyzing your environment immediately.
In summary, vCenter Operations Manager is the tool that allows the smaller IT departments to "do more with less." You're virtualized. And by cost-efficiently adding breadth with this tool you can quickly identify operational issues, minimize the amount of time it takes to troubleshoot an issue, plan for the future, significantly increase your consolidation ratio, and allow your IT team to focus on more strategic projects and end-user support.
Want to learn more about vCenter Operations Manager?
* vCenter Operations Introduction Video<http://bit.ly/LcTS24>
* VMware vCenter Operations Manager Getting Started Guide<http://bit.ly/OVMSai>
________________________________
Original Page: http://blogs.vmware.com/smb/2012/07/mikefegan_vcenterops.html
Saturday 7 July 2012
RTFM Education » Blog Archive » Windows XP, IDE and vSphere5
One of the more slight irritating things about running Windows XP on vSphere is the default around what virtual disk controller type to use. By default if you create a clean/new instance of Windows XP is that it will default to using a IDE controller. If you these "Typical" wizard when creating a VM you don't even see this – as the option to select the controller is hidden… If you use the "Custom" option you will see the default is IDE. This happens despite being asked to select a SCSI controller type in previous dialog boxes. So watch out for Mr Next, Next, Next and looking out your office windows when hitting the [ENTER] key…
[http://www.mikelaverick.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Screen-Shot-2012-03-22-at-12.44.17.png]<http://www.mikelaverick.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Screen-Shot-2012-03-22-at-12.44.17.png>
Note: Many thanks to Brian Dewar<https://twitter.com/#!/BrianDewar> for helping on the screen grab front, and double-checking this against vSphere4 (which I no longer run) and vSphere5 which I do.
The trouble is I don't feel IDE is a good choice in a production environment for two reasons. Firstly, you cannot increase the size of IDE virtual disk from anywhere within the GUI (That's true if the VM is created in vSphere4, and then gets moved into a vSphere5 environment). I know this from hard experience. Back in the day when there was no such thing as thin-provisioned disk, and I lacked large amounts of physical disk space – I got in the habit of making my VMDK's quite small. Also before VAAI capabilities were introduced it helped with the cloning process. So you guessed it my Windows XP SP2 VM had insufficent disk space to take SP3 (which is a requirement for the View Agent in View 5.1).
Secondly, performance is sub-par when you use IDE disks inside Windows XP. With the use of Windows XP in a VDI environment – and storage performance one of the major scalability issues. This was brought to my attention by some testing<http://www.vmdamentals.com/?p=1060> done by Erik Zandboer<https://twitter.com/#!/erikzandboer> on his vmdamentals.com<http://www.vmdamentals.com/?p=1060> website. It took me back to the days when this debate used come-up on my courses – and I used to always recommend using LSILogic consistently for all systems (including Windows 2000 which actually defaults to BusLogic incidentally).
VMware has a KB article<http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1016192> (KB1016192) which outlines some of the limitations surrounding IDE, and guide on converting an IDE drive to SCSI. Personally, I just ended up blatting my IDE Windows XP and starting again from scratch – as it wasn't a complicated build – just base install used for doing "Captures & Builds" for ThinApps.
So why did VMware introduce this IDE option when blows so much. Well, I guess one of the problems folks had with virtualizing Windows XP back in the ESX 2.x days was the fact that Windows XP didn't have either the BusLogic or the LSILogic drivers built-in to the XP media. Folks like me had to hunt down the drivers from LSI Logics site, get them into a floppy disk file and then using F6 during the boot from the Windows XP CD to provide them during the install routine.
So this is whole story was a trip down memory lane to 2003 when we had to do this crazy kind of stuff just get an OS loaded – on twitter I called this "jumping into my TARDIS'. I'm figuring that this is why VMware changed the default of Windows XP in later versions of vSphere. Personally, I think this is a bad decision. They should have stuck with the less friendly approach – after all its one off PITA, compared potentially creating hundreds of Windows XP instances for a VDI project on IDE.
I had an amusing discussion with Erik Zandboer who put me on to the performance issue with IDE. We were joking about how we would explain this to customers. He came up with:
Q. Can we use IDE?
A. Don't
Q. Can you elaborate?
A. Yes… Don't Ever?
My take was this:
First rule of IDE, never use IDE
Second Rule of IDE, NEVER use IDE
Third Rule of IDE, NEVER USE IDE….
Of course, all this is rather moot really. WindowsXP is a dead isn't? At least in a VDI context. Aren't we all meant to be using "Surface" devices by Tuesday of next week? Erm, I think not…
________________________________
Original Page: http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/2012/07/06/windows-xp-ide-and-vsphere5/
[http://www.mikelaverick.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Screen-Shot-2012-03-22-at-12.44.17.png]<http://www.mikelaverick.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Screen-Shot-2012-03-22-at-12.44.17.png>
Note: Many thanks to Brian Dewar<https://twitter.com/#!/BrianDewar> for helping on the screen grab front, and double-checking this against vSphere4 (which I no longer run) and vSphere5 which I do.
The trouble is I don't feel IDE is a good choice in a production environment for two reasons. Firstly, you cannot increase the size of IDE virtual disk from anywhere within the GUI (That's true if the VM is created in vSphere4, and then gets moved into a vSphere5 environment). I know this from hard experience. Back in the day when there was no such thing as thin-provisioned disk, and I lacked large amounts of physical disk space – I got in the habit of making my VMDK's quite small. Also before VAAI capabilities were introduced it helped with the cloning process. So you guessed it my Windows XP SP2 VM had insufficent disk space to take SP3 (which is a requirement for the View Agent in View 5.1).
Secondly, performance is sub-par when you use IDE disks inside Windows XP. With the use of Windows XP in a VDI environment – and storage performance one of the major scalability issues. This was brought to my attention by some testing<http://www.vmdamentals.com/?p=1060> done by Erik Zandboer<https://twitter.com/#!/erikzandboer> on his vmdamentals.com<http://www.vmdamentals.com/?p=1060> website. It took me back to the days when this debate used come-up on my courses – and I used to always recommend using LSILogic consistently for all systems (including Windows 2000 which actually defaults to BusLogic incidentally).
VMware has a KB article<http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1016192> (KB1016192) which outlines some of the limitations surrounding IDE, and guide on converting an IDE drive to SCSI. Personally, I just ended up blatting my IDE Windows XP and starting again from scratch – as it wasn't a complicated build – just base install used for doing "Captures & Builds" for ThinApps.
So why did VMware introduce this IDE option when blows so much. Well, I guess one of the problems folks had with virtualizing Windows XP back in the ESX 2.x days was the fact that Windows XP didn't have either the BusLogic or the LSILogic drivers built-in to the XP media. Folks like me had to hunt down the drivers from LSI Logics site, get them into a floppy disk file and then using F6 during the boot from the Windows XP CD to provide them during the install routine.
So this is whole story was a trip down memory lane to 2003 when we had to do this crazy kind of stuff just get an OS loaded – on twitter I called this "jumping into my TARDIS'. I'm figuring that this is why VMware changed the default of Windows XP in later versions of vSphere. Personally, I think this is a bad decision. They should have stuck with the less friendly approach – after all its one off PITA, compared potentially creating hundreds of Windows XP instances for a VDI project on IDE.
I had an amusing discussion with Erik Zandboer who put me on to the performance issue with IDE. We were joking about how we would explain this to customers. He came up with:
Q. Can we use IDE?
A. Don't
Q. Can you elaborate?
A. Yes… Don't Ever?
My take was this:
First rule of IDE, never use IDE
Second Rule of IDE, NEVER use IDE
Third Rule of IDE, NEVER USE IDE….
Of course, all this is rather moot really. WindowsXP is a dead isn't? At least in a VDI context. Aren't we all meant to be using "Surface" devices by Tuesday of next week? Erm, I think not…
________________________________
Original Page: http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/2012/07/06/windows-xp-ide-and-vsphere5/
Wednesday 4 July 2012
Raspberry Pi Thin Client for VMware View 5 - Eric Sloof
The Raspberry Pi is a 25$ credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It's a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. Now the VMware View Client 5.0 is working on RaspberryPi, SSL security options is ok also auth via RSA. PCoIP protocol seem not working at the moment, just the RDP.
Original Page: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/zt8cnQLHcEg/2081-Raspberry-Pi-Thin-Client-for-VMware-View-5.html
Original Page: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/zt8cnQLHcEg/2081-Raspberry-Pi-Thin-Client-for-VMware-View-5.html
Monday 2 July 2012
VMware Labs presents its latest fling - Guest Reclaim
Guest Reclaim reclaims dead space from NTFS volumes hosted on a thin provisioned SCSI disk. The tool can also reclaim space from full disks and partitions, thereby wiping off the file systems on it. As the tool deals with active data, please take all precautionary measures understanding the SCSI UNMAP framework and backing up important data.
Features
* Reclaim space from Simple FAT/NTFS volumes
* Works on WindowsXP to Windows7
* Can reclaim space from flat partitions and flat disks
* Can work in virtual as well as physical machines
What is Dead Space Reclamation ?
Deleting files frees up space on the file system volume. This freed space sticks with the LUN/Disk, until it is released and reclaimed by the underlying storage layer. Free space reclamation allows the lower level storage layer (for example a storage array, or any hypervisor) to repurpose the freed space for some other storage allocation request.
For example:
* A storage array that supports thin provisioning can repurpose the reclaimed space to satisfy allocation requests for some other thin provisioned LUN within the same array.
* A hypervisor file system can repurpose the reclaimed freed space from one virtual disk for satisfyingallocation needs of some other virtual disk within the same data store.
* GuestReclaim allows transparent reclamation of dead space from NTFS volumes.
http://labs.vmware.com/flings/guest-reclaim
Features
* Reclaim space from Simple FAT/NTFS volumes
* Works on WindowsXP to Windows7
* Can reclaim space from flat partitions and flat disks
* Can work in virtual as well as physical machines
What is Dead Space Reclamation ?
Deleting files frees up space on the file system volume. This freed space sticks with the LUN/Disk, until it is released and reclaimed by the underlying storage layer. Free space reclamation allows the lower level storage layer (for example a storage array, or any hypervisor) to repurpose the freed space for some other storage allocation request.
For example:
* A storage array that supports thin provisioning can repurpose the reclaimed space to satisfy allocation requests for some other thin provisioned LUN within the same array.
* A hypervisor file system can repurpose the reclaimed freed space from one virtual disk for satisfyingallocation needs of some other virtual disk within the same data store.
* GuestReclaim allows transparent reclamation of dead space from NTFS volumes.
http://labs.vmware.com/flings/guest-reclaim
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