Where did I get this beauty? Guitar Village – they are a great bunch of people who make you welcome and are as helpful as they come. Do check them out ! Their website can be found here:  http://www.guitarvillage.co.uk/

As you can see above, they have a great selection of vintage and relics. My new bad boy is below

Who are the BCS?

BCS—The Chartered Institute for IT is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in Information Technology in the United Kingdom and internationally. Established in 1957, it was formerly (and is still legally) known as the British Computer Society.

With a worldwide membership of over 70,000 members in over 100 countries, BCS is a registered charity and was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1984. Its objectives are to promote the study and application of communications technology and computing technology and to advance knowledge of education in ICT for the benefit of professional practitioners and the general public.

BCS is a member institution of Engineering Council UK, and therefore is responsible for regulation of ICT and computer science fields within the UK. The BCS is also a member of the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS). The BCS is the only professional body in the United Kingdom with the ability to grant chartered status to IT professionals.

(as stated by Wikipedia)

What is Fellowship Status (FBCS)?

The grade of Fellowship comprises the most senior and respected professionals who have demonstrated eminence, authority and seniority in the field of IT.

(as stated by Wikipedia)

What is Chartered Status (CITP)?

As the Chartered Institute for IT, only BCS can award Chartered IT Professional status. CITP is the benchmark of IT excellence, and is a rigorously assessed, employer led qualification, recently updated according to the needs of such international IT industry leaders as IBM, Microsoft and BP.

(as stated by BCS)

High-res demo of a Capture & Build of Firefox 3.5 using ThinApp. Also a CnB of Adobe Flash Player 10 to demonstrate the abilities of AppLink.
Three systems used in this demo.
1, Clean machine for CnB – with ThinApp installed, VM for snapshot revert purposes
2, Host for source files, capture files, updates via IIS
3, Test machine, reference any architecture to prove functionality of the ThinApp’d application
Brief edit of the package.ini to use AppLink, pointer towards video 2, 3 and 4 for the AppSync feature. This functionality isn’t all that new but seems to be gaining exposure recently – so I thought why not put my own 2c out there and join the community!
Apologies for the lack of sound or commentary.

Check it out

Note: there are 4 videos, part one to part four.

Well, for those who read the Part One post, you might have noticed that we never resolved the following point.

• Change the listener port from 8080 to something else (8081)

Well, early April Fools (or I forgot to resolve this in the previous post.. you can decide )

To change the listener port from 8080 to something else (I’ll be using 8081) simply follow the process outlined below.

Launch the ‘Run SQL Command Line’ shortcut from the Oracle program group under the Start Menu, then enter the commands below.

connect

system

<your password>

exec dbms_xdb.sethttpport(8081)

Congratulations!  You have changed the port successfully. Now reboot your server!

Oracle 10g Express

Before we talk about Oracle and installing it on to the vCenter server, do yourself a favour and turn off the Windows Firewall. This is a lab, you can configure it if you want to, but to keep this simple I am going to assume that you will follow the above advice.

Ok, to start with you are going to need to grab some software from Oracle and download it to your vCenter server. Don’t panic! The registration process on Oracles website is quick and easy. Point your web browser over to Oracles Express Site. You need to download Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.1) for Windows. If you are being lazy looking, you can find it here. Don’t forget to accept the License Agreement.

You are also going to need two other items from Oracle to enable the creation of a 64bit database connection.

You need to go to this page and download following from the Version 10.2.0.5 section:

• instantclient-basic-win64-10.2.0.5.zip
• instantclient-odbc-win64-10.2.0.5.zip

Now we finally have what we need to install Oracle!

Installing Oracle 10g Express

On the vCenter server you need to run the OracleXE.exe file. The installation is pretty straightforward; make sure you perform it logged on as the local administrator.

The observant ones of you may notice something in the summary dialog box – the Port for HTTP Listener is set to 8080. This is going to conflict with the vCenter installation. You can’t change the port from 8080 during the installation, but you can do afterwards. I’ll even tell you how to do it.

Once the installation is complete, we will need to carry out a few actions

• Change the listener port from 8080 to something else (8081)
• Create a database account for the vCenter server to use
• Create the 64bit ODBC system connection

In the meantime, run the OracleXEClient.exe file and install the Oracle Express Client. Once you have, keep on reading!

Oracle 64bit ODBC

Extract the following two downloaded zip files in to a folder. You want to combine the extracted contents from both zip files in to a single folder.

• instantclient-odbc-win64-10.2.0.5.zip
• instantclient-odbc-win64-10.2.0.5.zip

You will end up with 21 files in a single folder, as below

Open a command prompt window (it must be run as administrator) and change directory to the above folder. Run the ODBC_Install.exe file.

Now we need to configure an environment variable so the system knows where two specific files are (tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora). If you have been accepting the default paths during the above installations, then the files are in the following path:

C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\10.2.0\server\NETWORK\ADMIN

Copy the sqlnet.ora and tnsnames.ora files from the above location in to the location where you extracted the two zip files. So for me, this was

C:\OracleFiles\instantclient_10_2

From Computer Properties, Advanced System Settings, Environment Variables we create a new system variable as below

Variable Name: TNS_ADMIN

Variable value: <folder path to files>

Now we are going to create a ‘database’ for vCenter and a user account for the connection in Oracle. First of all, create a folder called vpx in the following location

C:\oraclexe\oradata\vpx

From the Oracle programs group under the Start Menu, launch a SQL Command Line session

Enter the following commands:

connect

system

<your password>

CREATE TABLESPACE “VPX” DATAFILE ‘C:\oraclexe\oradata\vpx\vpx.dat’ SIZE 1000M AUTOEXTEND ON NEXT 500K;

CREATE USER vpxAdmin IDENTIFIED BY vpxadmin DEFAULT TABLESPACE vpx;

grant unlimited tablespace to vpxAdmin;

Exit

From the Oracle programs group under the Start Menu, launch the ‘Goto Database Home Page’ link. Login using system as the username and the password you provided during install. From the Administration section, select the Manage Users option.

Enter a password for the VPXADMIN user and configure the options as per the below screenshot. Click Alter User to save the changes.

Now we are finally ready to create our 64bit Oracle System DSN. From Administrative Tools, launch the ODBC Data Source Administrator Tool. From the System DSN Tab, click Add and select the Oracle 10.02.00.04 driver.

Configure the connection as follows:

Data Source Name: vCenter Server Connection

Description: vCenter Server Connection

TNS Service Name: XE

User ID: VPXADMIN

Click ‘Test Connection.’ When you are prompted enter the password you specified in the previous steps.

Assuming that the test is successful, click OK.

Congratulations! You can now install vCenter Server and connect it to the Oracle Database!

Moving swiftly on..

I should probably start by telling you what I will be running this lab on! I am using a Lenovo W510 Laptop with the following specification:

• Intel Core i7 CPU (Q720 @ 1.60GHz)
• 16GB RAM
• Seagate 500GB Momentus XT Hybrid SSD/HDD SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache
• Windows 7 Ultimate Edition x64

The laptop is a pretty beefy specification, although as you will see I do keep allocated resources pretty tight. To run the virtual machines on the laptop, I am using VMware Workstation 7 (the latest patched version). Initially, I have created 3 virtual machines as follows:

• ESXi 4.1 – nickname cloudesx1
• ESXi 4.1 – nickname cloudesx2
• Windows 2008 R2 Standard x64 – nickname cloudvc1

ESXi Servers

The two ESXi servers have the configuration as show below. Additionally, the processor virtualisation engine Preferred Mode has been forced to Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI. The 40GB disks are thin provisioned.

vCenter Server

The vCenter server has its disk thin provisioned. It is running DNS as well, providing forward and reverse lookup zones for PDLAB. There isn’t much to say beyond that!

Virtual Networking

You may have noticed that I am using the VMware Workstation NAT Virtual Network. The only change that I made was to amend the IP range to something else that I would be able to remember

Software

Here is the list of additional software that I am using to build the lab

• VMware vCenter 4.1 download with all the bells and whistles
• Oracle 10g Express Edition
• vCloud Director
• VMware Chargeback 1.5
• VMware vShield

In the next post I’ll take the first steps towards getting my vCloud lab up and running… I’m pretty sure that you can all install Windows and ESXi in some VMs without me explaining that part

When a vCenter server is installed a unique ID is generated. This ID is randomly generated and is in the range of 0 to 64. The ID  gets used when generating MAC address and the UUIDS, or unique identifiers for virtual machines. You can see that if two vCenter servers had the same unique ID, a possibility exists that duplicate MAC addresses might get generated; cue packet loss, connectivity issues and your desk phone ringing a lot…

So what do we do?

Solution: If you deploy virtual machines from multiple vCenter Server systems to the same network, you must ensure that these vCenter Server systems have unique instance IDs. How can you check the ID of each vCenter server? It’s simple.. login to vCenter, and go to Administration, vCenter Server Settings. Click Runtime settings and you can see the unique ID.

Simply, do this on each vCenter server. If you have a duplicate ID, change it! Just dont forget to restart the vCenter services afterwards!

For those developing commercial offerings there have been some issues with supportability of the API and SDKs in the past.

However, VMware have now launched a bolt on to your support contracts enabling you to obtain a high level of support to make sure you development efforts are successful.

Here is what VMware has to say about it

VMware is happy to announce that the SDK Support Program is now available for direct order. The offering helps developers get vSphere solutions to market more quickly by providing them with access to VMware expert engineers.

Customers can access information at http://vmware.com/go/sdksupport.

If you have questions about the offering, please send us an e-mail.

VMware SDK Support Program FAQs:

Q:  What products will the SDK Support Program support?
A:  The following products will be supported:

Products for Administrators:

VMware vSphere PowerCLI
VMware vSphere Command Line Interface
VMware vSphere Management Assistant

Products for Software Developers:

VMware vSphere Web Services SDK
VMware vSphere SDK for Perl
VMware vSphere Guest SDK
VMware VIX API
VMware vCloud API (Future)
VMware Virtual Disk Development
VMware CIM SDK (SMASH – SMI-S)
VMware vSphere Client Plug-ins
VMware vCenter Orchestrator API (creation of custom workflows)

 More information can be found on here

The VMware vExpert Award is given to individuals who have significantly contributed to the community of VMware users over the past year. vExperts are book authors, bloggers, VMUG leaders, tool builders, and other IT professionals who share their knowledge and passion with others. These vExperts have gone above and beyond their day jobs to share their technical expertise and communicate the value of VMware and virtualization to their colleagues and community.

You can see the VMware vExpert page here. Congratulations to all of the vExpert 2010 recipients, to those at VMware that put the award together and to those who did not receive an award but provide incredible positive efforts in to the VMware community. Lets hope that everyone keeps it up!

Although my blog may sit quiet for a period of time, it is due to the fact that I am publishing material over at Xtravirt, helping out on the communities or, actually out earning some money for a change! But don’t worry, when things go quiet it doesn’t mean that there is nothing going on! There are a load of new whitepapers (free), applications (free) and utilities (yes, free!) that are in the pipeline for 2010. Watch this space!

The fixed version of Update 1 (dubbed Update 1a) fixes the aforementioned issues. Update 1a can be obtained via Update Manager and the patch download site.

The offical KB is here

11/23/2009 5:33:11 AM: Normal backup using Xtravirt Daily backup

11/23/2009 5:33:48 AM: Failed to create snapshot for XenCenterServer, error -3902 ( file access error)

11/23/2009 5:33:57 AM: Task incomplete

The issue seemed to be resolved by rebooting the VDR virtual appliance, although this brought with it, its own problems (not counting the annoyance of rebooting it every other day). Well, thank goodness VMware have got their finger out and released an updated version that resolves (to be seen and tested) the issue.

VMware VDR

The upgrade path is documented here. Basically, uninstall your existing VDR plugin from your machine, import the new OVF appliance and connect it to the backup destination (existing VMDK\CIFS share\RDM).  If you are using VDR or are looking at testing it, ensure you use the updated version. Make sure you review the release notes before getting your hands dirty. Although it does not mention the ‘fix’ that is mentioned on the forums here, other information worthy of note included:

Enhancements

The enhancements have been made for this release of Data Recovery.

• File Level Restore Functionality is Officially SupportedFile Level Restore (FLR) provides a way to access individual files within restore points for Windows virtual machines. In previous versions of Data Recovery, FLR was provided as an experimental feature. File Level Restore feature is now officially supported.

• Integrity Check Stability and Performance ImprovedThe integrity check process is faster and more stable. Note that integrity checks are computationally intensive processes and can take significant periods of time. The exact amount of time integrity checks take varies based on of the size of the deduplication store. Even with these enhancements, integrity checks that take several hours are not unexpected.

• Integrity Checks Provides Improved Progress InformationWhen an integrity check is running, a progress indicator is displayed. This progress indicator has been improved, although it does not provide the optimal level of detail.

Enhanced CIFS Shares Support

Perhaps ‘Enhanced CIFS Shares Support’ is code for ‘now works.’

VMware, do you want to tell me something ?!? Someone give me some points or take some away, quick !!

Let me know what you think.

Prompted by the frustrations of trying to convince customers of the importance of fully understanding their environment before embarking on a virtualization project, this papers aim is to clear up misconceptions about the purpose and importance of this exercise.

What is Capacity Planning?

Capacity Planning will be referred to as “Workload Profiling” as this name better represents the core activity of the exercise. Workload profiling is where a software tool such as VMware Capacity Planning, PlateSpin Recon or Lanamark is installed in a customer’s existing environment and configured to systematically gather performance and inventory data over a period of time, typically several weeks. At the end of the exercise the data is analysed and a report is generated showing the usage of the environment. This data is then used as the basis for the virtualization design phase.

The key point to note is that it’s not simply about determining how much new server hardware is required to support the new virtual environment (i.e. Capacity Planning), it’s also about having the detailed information to be able to make informed design decisions during the design phase.

The Whitepaper can be read here

This post lists the Hyper-V specific fixes within the service pack.

Something a VDI project should consider carefully is application delivery – how are applications in a VDI environment deployed to users? In a base image? Virtualized?

This article by Danny Clarke from Add3 provides an insight in to Application Virtualization.

Overview

Application Virtualization is a concept which enables organisations to deploy their users’ applications quickly, easily and securely without many of the headaches, risks or costs associated with traditional techniques.

Application Virtualization technologies typically do this by isolating or ‘sandboxing’ applications into self-contained packages or ‘bubbles’ which make it possible to not only deliver different versions or configurations of previously conflicting applications but also streamline the entire application lifecycle from instigation, through deployment, support, updates/patches to retirement.

This white paper provides an overview, the components and some of the business and technical benefits of Application Virtualization

The whitepaper can be read here

The Desktop Virtualization Group is pleased to announce today’s release of Quest vWorkspace 6.2. Here are some of the exciting features and changes for this version of vWorkspace.

vWorkspace NetApp Integration

vWorkspace is now integrated with NetApp FlexClone technology. Here are some of the benefits of this integration:

• Rapid deployment of virtual desktops.
• An average of ninety percent disk utilization reduction saving valuable SAN or NAS storage (savings vary based on use case).
• Continuous desktop access due to advanced protection and fail over.
• VMware Platform support only.

Enhanced Multimonitor Support

Improvements have been made to enhance the user experience when using multiple monitors supporting a wider variety of orientations and mix/match resolutions.

Enhanced Graphic Acceleration Support

Graphics Acceleration improvements expand the applications which are accelerated, as well as improved speed and quality. Applications that use Microsoft DirectDraw are also now accelerated.

Enhanced USB Redirection

The USB Redirection feature has been enhanced with the following features:

• Improved support for audio and video USB based devices.
• Overall improved performance.
• Additional tuning and device exclusion options are included.

Web Access and Microsoft SharePoint Integration (Experimental)

vWorkspace Web Access can now be used with Microsoft SharePoint.  Please note this feature is experimental, and currently not supported by Quest Support.  It is important that the Quest vWorkspace Web Access and Microsoft Office SharePoint Integration Release Notes are reviewed before implementing this experimental feature.

Other Features

• An alternative sysprep mode has been added for provisioning virtual machines on VMware platforms for use with provisioning domain joined machines which will be joined to an AD OU. This overcomes limitations introduced since Virtual Center Update 3..

• Additional status information has been added to the vWorkspace Management Console when Desktops or Other Servers nodes are selected.

• Modifications have been made to the database verification process to allow for version upgrades without including a database upgrade.

It is important that you review the vWorkspace 6.2 documentation and release notes for further information on resolved and known issues.

The release and product documentation are available on the vWorkspace web site at http://www.vworkspace.com, as well as the Quest SupportLink web site at http://support.quest.com/.

This excellent Visio icon pack for VMware & virtualization has been re-released as a free member download. It contains over 70 unique icons together with a user guide and sample diagram templates.

It is designed for Windows Operating Systems and has been designed to run on Microsoft Visio 2003 and Microsoft Visio 2007, although also runs on Mac Omnigraffle. They are not compatible with Microsoft Visio 2000 or 2002.

Download here

This Xtravirt white paper details the process of performing a basic installation of Citrix XenServer 5.5, including XenCenter and the registration and licensing process. Although similar to XenServer 5 (http://xtravirt.com/xd10025) the fundamental difference is the registration and licensing section.

A XenServer installation consists of two separate, physical computers; one being the XenServer host and the other to run the XenCenter management application.

XenServer is a 64-bit, x86 server-class platform devoted to hosting multiple Virtual Machines (VM’s). XenCenter is a Windows based client application that runs on a remote machine and is used to manage XenServer hosts. While the XenServer machine must be dedicated to the task of hosting VM’s, XenCenter can run on any general-purpose machine, alongside other applications.

Key Concepts:

• Installation of XenServer 5.5
• Installation of XenCenter 5.5
• Registration and Licensing

A server consolidation project typically starts with an assessment of the existing physical estate, resulting in not only the identification of the most suitable virtualization candidates, but conversely, those which have greater resource demands. Often, though not exclusively, these are found to be those machines that provide an organization’s enterprise-class services, such as databases, e-mail, and ERP. While these potential bottlenecks cannot be ignored, a combination of advances in hardware technology and a creative approach to configuration of the virtualized environment can enable the virtualization of such machines. An awareness of these options and considerations will help make the subsequent virtualization of high I/O workloads a success. This white paper aims to provide options and considerations when virtualizing high I/O workloads.

The whitepaper can be found here

Oracle VM is the only certified x86 virtualization environment for organization’s enterprise products, such as Oracle Database – for information regarding the support status of Oracle products on the VMware virtualization platform, refer to the Xtravirt article “Support for Oracle Products on VMware” at http://xtravirt.com/xd10085.

This Xtravirt guide details the process of performing a basic installation of Oracle VM.

Key Concepts:

• Installation of Oracle VM Server 2.1.5
• Installation of Oracle VM Manager 2.1.5

The guide can be found here

GetVMwareDocs is a small DOS batch script that creates and maintains a local copy of all VMware’s product documentation, making it an ideal utility for consultants or administrators that require offline access to these resources, such as when at a customer site without immediate internet access.

The script downloads all the HTML pages and PDF documents referenced on the VMware Documentation pages at http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/index.html, including those for previous product versions. Where pages or documents are available in a multiple languages, these are downloaded too.

In order to control its “reach” and avoid unnecessary downloads, the script follows explicit links from this page. As a result, when the index page changes (typically each time VMware release a new product or a product update), it may require modification to include the new links, so check the Xtravirt website periodically as we will endeavour to maintain an up to date version.

On first use, the total volume of data downloaded will approach 650MB (as at 7 July 2009). It therefore makes sense that if you have already performed a download (even if it is incomplete or out of date) and wish to provide a colleague with the same utility, that you also provide them with your previously downloaded files. Subsequent script executions will refresh this repository, only downloading any “missing” or updated documents.

Once the repository has been built, access to it is via a local copy of the VMware documentation index page, meaning that the offline navigation process is identical to the online one. The script will automatically load the index page into a browser session, whether or not a check for updates is elected to be performed first.

You can download the tool from here

Microsoft Licensing in a Virtual Environment

Microsoft Licensing can seem complicated at the best of times – but what about in a virtualized environment?

This whitepaper aims to provide some guidance on how licensing will work in any virtualized environment.

Licensing Microsoft operating systems in a virtualized environment can often be easily misunderstood. Whilst it is the responsibility of the Microsoft customer to ensure their licensing is accurate and up to date, understanding licensing requirements, more so in a virtualized environment, can be a daunting task.

This white paper aims to provide information to aid in understanding Microsoft server licensing requirements in virtualized environments for volume license customers.

Cloud Computing Overview

I have written a few new whitepapers recently – one of which covers cloud computing, or rather, provides an introduction to the methodology behind it.

Cloud computing is the name for a method of computing where compute resource is provided over the Internet. The resource can be dynamically scaled in-line with the customers demand. The term cloud refers to the Internet and is used to simplify the idea of the underlying infrastructure. Cloud computing customers do not need to know what physical infrastructure is providing their software and services. If demand increases and more resource is required (or less demand and less resource), allocated resource can be dynamically scaled by the service provider.

The article can be found here

Apologies for the lack of posts recently; I took some time out to actually take a holiday! Dont worry, I am back now though so watch this space

Overview

VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) was VMware’s original acronym for the hosting of desktop operating systems on their virtualization platform, but it is now acknowledged as an industry-wide term that describes a solution where users access their desktops remotely. This white paper provides an overview of VDI and Connection Brokers. It explores Leostream’s broker and provides a table of some of the products features.

Key Concepts:

• Overview of VDI and Connection Brokers
• Leostream Connection Broker key features

It can be found here

Catbird’s V-Security™ is the industry’s first and only comprehensive security solution for VMware. Fully leveraging virtualization’s architectural elegance, the Catbird V-Security is the latest advancement in VMware security and offers the broadest and most cost-effective security protection for virtual networks of all sizes.

Xtravirts own Paul Buckle has taken the time to look in to the Catbird offering and has written up a nifty V-Agent Installation Guide.

Overview

The wide-ranging benefits of virtualization are hard to ignore, but as enterprises develop their confidence in the technology and extend its deployment to mission critical functions, focus needs to be drawn to one of its shortcomings. While traditional processes and methodologies typically work equally as well in a virtual environment, there is an exception when it comes to IT security.

This white paper provides information on this following key features:

• The security risks in a virtual environment
• The use of Catbird V-Security to address those risks
• Installation of the V-Agent component of Catbird V-Security

Paul Buckle, Consultant, Xtravirt Ltd

Mr Buckle from “Team Xtravirt” is back with another glossary of terms, this time on Citrix. You can find it here

Title: Glossary of Citrix Virtualization Terms

Author(s): Xtravirt (Paul Buckle)

Target Audience: Technical – All

Current Revision: 1.0 June 2009

First Published: 25 June 2009

Products: Citrix

UID: XD10092

Robert Wilson (Team Xtravirt)

Quite a few people use RDP from HP to deploy their servers, whether they are virtual hosts, or physical servers. Robert Wilson from Xtravirt has written a handy installation guide for the product.

Overview

This Xtravirt white paper aims to provide the reader with relevant information on how to perform a clean installation of the HP Rapid Deployment Pack (RDP) with screenshots of the installation process and various aspects that should be noted to allow for a successful installation. It does not cover configuration of RDP for automated server deployment.

Key Concepts:

• Installation of HP RDP including Altiris
• Prerequisites

You can find the document here

 

Considerations

P2V - Physical to Virtual Conversion

I have done quite a bit of P2V work recently, so thought this might make for an interesting whitepaper. The paper details the different P2V products on the market as well as considerations for Windows and Linux converted systems, irrespective of what P2V tool or virtual environment you are converting the system to run in. I discuss the following:

- What is P2V?
- Hypervisor and P2V Tool Compatibility (what tools with what Hypervisors covering: VI3.x, MS Hyper-V, VirtualIron, Citrix Xen Server, Oracle VM)
- Overview of P2V tools (3rd party and virtualization vendor specific)
- Pre conversion / Post converson considerations

I hope you find the whitepaper useful. You can find it here

Dear Mr Davey

Membership Number: <removed>

I am delighted to inform you that your application for Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status has been successful.  CITP is the hallmark of a true IT professional. Achieving CITP status demonstrates that you practise IT to the highest professional standards.

If you are not familiar with the BCS then please take a look

Peter Grant (Xtravirt)

Peter Grant, one of the Xtravirt Team has written a great little whitepaper on VMware’s VMotion technology and how to troubleshoot it. Be sure to check it out.

This white paper describes how to correctly configure and troubleshoot VMotion in VMware ESX Server 3.5. These principles also apply to vSphere 4.0 environments.

Key Concepts:

1. Introduction to VMotion
2. How VMotion works
3. How to correctly configure and troubleshoot VMotion

We hope you find the whitepaper useful.

Active Directory was first previewed in 1999 and first released with the Windows 2000 Server family. Upon the arrival of Windows 2003 Server, extended functionality and improvements were introduced, then again with the release of Windows 2003 Server R2. Windows 2008 Server and Windows 2008 Server R2 further refine the functionality with the service being renamed Active Directory Domain Services. Active Directory domains are fairly standard issue with small businesses and enterprise customers. Understanding how to virtualize Active Directory properly is critical to ensuring uninterrupted service during a migration as well as maintaining robust domain services post project.

This Xtravirt white paper explains the considerations when virtualizing Active Directory.

Supported and unsupported features:
This functionality has been implemented:
- creating and editing connections, saving them to and loading from a persistent storage (disk database);
- retrieving application lists from the broker;
- launching applications in RDP session;
- sharing RDP sessions for new application when there’s a session that is already running;
- project installer

This functionality has not yet been implemented:
- NAT support;
- Proxy server;
- Local devices redirection;
- Password management;
- Desktop integration;
- RDP apps autolaunch;
- custom resolution;
- sound redirect;
- keyboard redirect;
- RDP experience;

You can access the beta download by logging in with your account on the vWorkspace homepage. If you dont have an account, you can register for free!

Virtuozzo Containers 4.0 is designed to compete against other hypervisors, such as those provided by Citrix, Microsoft and VMware. It is a type 2 hypervisor, i.e. a hosted hypervisor on an underlying operating system, and it can be installed on Microsoft Windows 2003 Server or certain editions of Linux, including RedHat.

Xtravirt vSphere Poll (as of 15th June 2009)

Over at Xtravirt, we held a poll to see how long it would be before people would adopt vSphere. I thought I would post up the result here as of today ( 15th June 2009). It is quite interesting to see that the majority of users (38% of the poll takers) have advised they will be adopting vSphere in around 6 months. This could tie in with corporate release methodology (design, test, release, commision etc) or could be due to the current problems with service compatibility (for example VMware View). I guess an interesting question to ask now, would be how many people would consider adopting on new hardware and having a mixed VI3.x/4 environment – take the benefits of vSphere on board, whilst maintaining the 3.x estate for compatibility. Anyone out there planning to do that?

KB Article

Here is the article content:

Products
VMware ESX
VMware vCenter Server

Product Versions
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x

Symptoms
* You upgraded your VirtualCenter instance to vCenter 4.x
* You upgraded ESX hosts to ESX 4.x
* Your ESX disconnect within a couple of seconds of being connected added to vCenter
* Upon reconnect, host disconnects again within 30 seconds
* ESX 3.5 hosts remain connected in VirtualCenter

Resolution
This issue occurs if you have recently upgraded to ESX 4.0 and vCenter 4.0.
This can occur if vCenter incorrectly pushed the loopback IP address to the vCenter agent configuration. This can be verified by opening the /etc/opt/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg on the ESX 4 host and checking to see if <serverIp> contains 127.0.0.1.
To resolve the issue, in vCenter:
1. Click Administration > vCenter Server Settings.
2. Click Runtime Settings.
3. Under Managed IP address, type the IP of the vCenter Server.
4. Connect the ESX host. It now remains connected.

Quest Software - Desktop Virtualisation Group

Even if VMware couldn’t get it right with VMware View at the launch of vSphere, Quest have.

The Provision Networks division are going great guns, providing support with their vWorkspace broker on vSphere right now!

vWorkspace/VAS has been tested with vSphere 4 on the following platforms and no compatibility issues were found (has been tested by people at Quest, not me or Xtravirt, and this is not actually official just yet – so watch this space for the proper anouncement).

• Provision networks Virtual Access Suite 5.10 build 161
• Quest vWorkspace 6.0 HF3
• Quest vWorkspace 6.1

None of you have any excuses now, not to use vSphere as your infrastructure platform for VDI!

Thanks go to Mr Buckle for writing another one up!

You can find the whitepaper here

This knowledge base article provides information on the esxupgrade.sh script and instructions on how to upgrade from ESX 3.x to ESX 4.0 by using this script. The esxupgrade.sh script provides a way to upgrade an ESX 3.x host that does not have network access. If the host has network access, you can use the vSphere Host Update Utility or VMware vCenter Update Manager to perform the upgrade.The esxupgrade.sh script is a self-contained upgrade application that is packaged in the esxupgrade-4.0.0-164009.zip file. Use the upgrade script with the ESX 4.0 installation DVD or ISO file to upgrade an ESX 3.x host to ESX 4.0.

This Xtravirt hot tip provides information on how to reset the Root password in VMware ESX 4.

Without the root password it is impossible to carry out certain tasks. Even logged on with a non-root account, without knowing it you won’t be able to elevate privileges and adequately manage the server.

The hot tip can be read here

Overview

Monday, June 8th Xtravirt launch a global capacity planning service. This service combines the knowledge/expertise from Xtravirt and the technology from Lanamark to make it easier for enterprises world-wide to get started with desktop and server virtualization.

VReady Assessment (Free)

Free platform-agnostic virtualization readiness assessment service for physical desktops and servers. (view a sample report of the free Assessment)

VAccelerate Desktops

Desktop virtualization planning service delivered by Xtravirt to help you analyze existing desktops and design an optimal virtual desktop infrastructure solution.

VAccelerate Servers

Server virtualization planning service delivered by Xtravirt to help you analyze existing servers and design an optimal virtual infrastructure solution.

The service can be found here

An overview of the service can be found here

“Capacity planning is an essential component for any organisation wishing to adopt virtualisation; whether it be desktop replacement or a server consolidation exercise,” states Paul Davey, CTO of Xtravirt. “We have kept the whole process as simple as possible,” continues Paul. “Collected data, consisting of performance metrics, are securely uploaded to the Xtravirt VReady Portal, where they are analyzed to produce a summary VReady Assessment Report. This can be subsequently extended and we can quickly produce a comprehensive analysis, including full what-if scenarios, solution optimization and licensing calculations. If a client wishes to use a particular brand of server, or server SKU, they can let us know and we can feed it into the design.”

“Xtravirt delivers tremendous insight and value to enterprises looking to accelerate adoption of application, desktop and server virtualization technologies,” said Mark Angelo, CEO of Lanamark. “Together Lanamark and Xtravirt offer a powerful combination of technology and expertise to help enterprises world-wide unleash the potential of virtualization from the desktop to the data center.”

Pricing is very competitive. For further information please email us
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Paul Buckle, Team Xtravirt

Mr Buckle, from Team Xtravirt has written up and published the whitepaper “How to install ESX 4.0 on Workstation 6.5.2 as a VM” on the Xtravirt website. The original ESX 3.x on Workstation was a very popular whitepaper and I am sure that this will be prove as much so. Keep your eyes peeled for some variations to this whitepaper, coming soon.

“Being able to run VMware ESX 4.0 under VMware Workstation as a VM gives users and professionals in the IT community great flexibility when it comes to learning, experimenting or even demonstrating the product. This Xtravirt white paper provides this information along with the installation instructions for this environment.”

The whitepaper can be found here

Oracle

Over at Xtravirt we have just released a new hot tip: Support for Oracle Products on VMware.

1.0 Introduction

It is a common misconception that Oracle only supports its products in an x86-based virtualized environment when deployed on its own virtualization platform, Oracle VM.The official support statement is detailed in Oracle MetaLink 249212.1 but is not publicly available on their website, only being accessible to registered customers with an Oracle support contract. However, as the document is classified as having no limitation on use or distribution, it is reproduced in section 2.1 for convenience.

The full hot tip can be found here

Lanamark

Storage Design Module Accelerates Design of End-to-End Desktop and Server Virtualization Solutions

TORONTO – June 2, 2009 – Lanamark Inc., a global provider of analysis and design solutions for virtualizing desktops and servers and optimizing physical and virtual infrastructure, today announced availability of the Storage Design Module for Lanamark Suite. This new module enables solution providers to design the underlying storage infrastructure for both virtualized desktops and servers.

“Performance of desktop and server applications in virtual environments can be closely linked to the design quality of the underlying server and storage infrastructure,” said Paul Davey, CTO at Xtravirt, a leading virtualization solution provider in the UK. “Using the Lanamark Storage Design Module, our team of consultants now takes a data-driven approach to accurately assess existing storage requirements and design storage subsystems that increase scalability and performance of virtual desktop and server environments.”

“Storage design is not a peripheral activity that can be performed out-of-band with design of virtual infrastructure,” said Mark Angelo, CEO of Lanamark. “The Storage Design Module extends and accelerates design of desktop and server virtualization solutions. For the first time, solution providers are able to deliver assessment, planning and design services for desktops, servers and the underlying storage infrastructure using a single, integrated, services-centric software solution from Lanamark.”

You can read the whole press release here

For more information on Lanamark Capacity Assessments, drop me an email

Linked Clones, Deduplication & Thin Provisioning Technologies

Robert Wilson, a member of the Xtravirt team, has just released a whitepaper on the Xtravirt website. The paper discusses Storage Overscription Technologies.

Overview

The Storage Oversubscription landscape has 3 main areas which this Xtravirt white paper explores and provides information on each of them along with some of the benefits and disadvantages.

Key Concepts:

• Linked Clones
• Thin Provisioning
• Deduplication

You can find the article here

ESX4: USB Controller for VMs - but does it work?

Lots of people on the VMware forums complaining about the fact that they can’t get the new USB controller working properly, e.g. cannot get it to pass through a host connected USB device to a hosted VM. Well, I looked and looked at it today – could I get it working? Nope.. So I did the next best thing.. I logged a call with VMware Support!

Anyway, you can probably guess what the answer was I got back from VMware Tech Support. I will say though, that as ever, I got a thorough response from VMware and in a very timely fashion as well   If only all tech support lines would be as helpful. Anyway, I documented the conversation as a hot tip over at the Xtravirt website. I will update it as I get updates from VMware Tech Support.

Virtual Flexibility: Secure Working for a distributed workforce

In the UK, from 6 April 2009, an employees right to request flexible working in order to care for a child was extended to the ages of 16, or 18 if the child is disabled.  The subsequent natural increase in demand in flexible working, eg: working from home, is forcing companies in to a potentially difficult and misunderstood position.

With an increasing distributed work force, can UK or global companies, be sure that their data is always going to be in safe hands?

Read more here

How can you realise the best ROI unless you know what you need and where you are coming from?

For some, the cost of running a capacity planning assessment is too high and hard to justify compared to buying some extra RAM or an extra blade. Some IT directors are focused on the servers and storage they want to buy. This may be driven by an existing relationship with a vendor or a specific and attractive price point. Quite often, a finger-in-the-air approach is taken, to deciding how much compute resource and storage is required. This could end up with the project being over- or underspecified. While the benefits of virtualization are great, so is the potential for overstocking your data center. Too much kit ruins a good virtualization excersize

I am going to assume that most people that are reading this know what capacity planning is. However, I do have two questions I would like to ask:

How many of you performed a capacity planning excersize prior to a server consolidation project \ VDI project?

For those who are considering a server consolidation excersize \ VDI project , are you considering running a capacity planning assessment?

I would be interested to hear from people that have gone through one of these types of projects without \or with a capacity planning assessment being undertaken. It would be very interesting to hear if the majority believe in the benefits of a good cap plan assessment.

Feel free to email me at: paul.davey@xtravirt.com with your experiences and thoughts.

Thanks

Since the release of VC2.5 and support for custom plug-ins, I have played around a lot with adding functionality in to the VI CLient and VC. I think plug’ins are a great idea. I have written and published an article over at www.xtravirt.com, detailing how to create a plug-in from scratch with a walkthrough to get the VMware View admin webpage displayed in VirtualCenter. I hope you find it useful.

Overview

The release of VMware vCenter 2.5 brought with it the ability to use plug-ins, together with a framework which allows the creation of custom plug-ins. This is in addition to Update Manager and VMware Converter which VMware had already produced for vCenter.

This Xtravirt white paper provides an introduction to VMware plug-ins, what they are and how to create them.

Key Concepts:

• Introduction to VMware Plug-ins and what they are
• Walkthrough on creating a plugin
• What to do next

www.xtravirt.com - Virtualization Analysts and Consultants

The Xtravirt Virtualization group has opened its doors on linkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1977905).  The group is free to join and open to anyone that wishes to discuss virtualization, recieve industry news and follow what the Xtravirt Experts are up to!

A Virtualization focused group run and managed by the experts from Xtravirt. Discussions, news and information for virtualization enthusiasts incorporating all aspects of virtualization; datacenter to desktop.

Procedure
1 Run the rollback-to-esx3 command in the ESX 4.0 service console.
The rollback-to-esx3 command reconfigures the bootloader to boot into ESX 3.x and removes the ability
to boot into ESX 4.0.
You can include the optional -f (force) flag. If you omit the -f flag, you are prompted to confirm that you
want to roll back to ESX 3.x.
2 Reboot the server.
While the host is powering on, observe that the boot menu has changed to ESX 3.x.
3 After the host boots into ESX 3.x, delete the ESX 4.0 service console VMDK folder from the VMFS datastore.
The service console VMDK folder name has the following format: esxconsole-<UUID>.

As you can see the rollback process is incredibly easy – I will still hold the on to the seat of my pants if I have to do it in a production environment though

So, if you are going to rollback, this is what you need to know:

If you upgraded the virtual machine hardware, the virtual machines will not work after you perform the
ESX rollback. To avoid this situation, take a snapshot of the virtual machine before you upgrade the virtual
machine hardware. After you run the ESX rollback script, boot into ESX 3.x and revert to the snapshot.

To confirm, a snapshot to roll back VM hardware will only work if you have upgraded from version 4 virtual hardware, not version 3 virtual hardware.

When you upgrade from virtual hardware version 3 to version 7, the upgrade is irreversible, even if you take a virtual machine backup or snapshot before performing the upgrade.

When you upgrade from virtual hardware version 4 to version 7 the upgrade is reversible if you take a virtual machine backup or snapshot before performing the upgrade.

Part of the upgrade process is to upgrade the VM’s virtual hardware, but downgrading virtual hardware is not an option if you need to roll back. A lot of people back up their VM’s every night, so I wonder how many people would do the upgrade without bothering to snapshot their VM’s? Hey, if something goes wrong, I can just restore the VM from backup right? Snapshots obviously require a certain amount of storage space, often, an unknown amount, especially if the VM’s are very transactional.

You can see the Downgrade Licenses button available.

The licensing portal gives you access to a useful FAQ (see below)

VMware vSphere Licensing FAQs

How does switching VMware vSphere licensing to one processor affect my existing licenses?

The existing two-processor licenses will be upgraded to single 2 x 1 processor licenses. This would mean that if you had bought six (two-processor) licenses of VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 Enterprise, these would be entitled to 12 single processor licenses in the one processor license scheme.

What is the change in the license management in VMware vSphere?

The license management has been simplified starting with VMware vSphere 4. Each VMware vSphere host will be assigned only one license key for the entire "bundle" (e.g. VMware vSphere Enterprise) rather than a separate license for each feature. The same license key can be shared by many VMware vSphere hosts, subject to the key’s maximum CPU count.

How does the new centralized license key management ease license administration?

The new centralized license key management introduces administration of licenses as a native feature starting with VMware vCenter 4, and no separate license server is required to manage and monitor the software. VMware vCenter can be used to assign license keys to VMware vSphere (VMware ESX) hosts via a simple UI. This also enables easy monitoring of license state and compliance.

Are there any changes to VMware vCenter Server 4 licensing?

No, VMware vCenter Server continues to be licensed on a per-instance basis. One VMware vCenter Server instance is required for a complete VMware vSphere deployment.

Will the a-la-carte offerings still be available?

Most of the a-la-carte offerings, such as VMotion, Storage VMotion, High Availability, and Distributed Resource Scheduler with Dynamic Power Management, are available only as part of the vSphere editions. In order to receive new functionality (such as Fault Tolerance, VMSafe, vShield Zones, Distributed Switch, Host Profiles, Thin Provisioning, and Data Recovery) you will need to upgrade to the edition with that functionality. VMware Data Recovery is available for standalone sale in conjunction with vSphere Standard only. Please contact VMware sales for details.

How do I upgrade the existing VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 licenses to VMware vSphere 4?

As a VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 customer with an active Support and Subscription (SnS) contract, you will automatically get VMware vSphere 4 licenses at product general availability. Visit the VMware vSphere Upgrade Center for more information about upgrading to VMware vSphere 4. Use the Licensing Troubleshooting Guide if you need help determining if you SnS contract is active.

What steps should I take to ensure a smooth upgrade from VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 licenses to VMware vSphere 4?

Before installing VMware vSphere 4, please visit the VMware vSphere Upgrade Center where you will find step-by-step upgrade instructions, additional help with licensing, and information about new VMware vSphere 4 features.

What is the entitlement and upgrade process from VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 to VMware vSphere 4?

Detailed information is available at the VMware vSphere Upgrade Center.

What is the product entitlement when upgrading from VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 to VSphere 4 under valid subscription?

See Entitlement Mapping at the VMware vSphere Upgrade Center to learn how your VMware Infrastructure 3.x licenses will be mapped to VMware vSphere 4.

Will I forfeit the VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 licenses after I upgrade to VMware vSphere 4?

No, VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 licenses will not be "traded in" or deactivated. Customers will retain licenses for both versions but must not deploy licenses in excess of their entitlement.

Do I need to request VMware vSphere 4 upgrade to receive the licenses?

No, assuming your Support and Subscription (SnS) contract is current as of 22 May 2009, no action is required on your part. Vmware vSphere keys will be automatically delivered and available in the vSphere Licensing Portal. Use the Licensing Troubleshooting Guide if you need help determining if you SnS contract is active.

How can I obtain new Virtual Infrastructure 3 licenses after VMware vSphere 4 general availability?

After the VMware vSphere 4 general availability, VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 SKUs will no longer be available as part of the pricelist. You may, however, downgrade your VMware vSphere 4 licenses in the license portal. (See the downgrading instructions in the Licensing Troubleshooting Guide for assistance downgrading your licenses.)

Will I receive new VMware vSphere 4 licenses for my VMware View products?

No, VMware View 3x is not yet compatible with VMware vSphere 4. See the Software Compatibility Matrix to learn when other VMware products can be used with VMware vSphere 4.

You can continue to access your VMware View 3x licenses in the VI3 license portal.

Does the vSphere 4 upgrade affect the licenses for VMware vCenter virtualization management products?

No, the VMware vCenter virtualization management products (e.g. Site Recovery Manager, Lab Manager, etc) are not affected by this release. You can continue to access the licenses of your current vCenter virtualization management products in the VI3 License Portal. Please be sure to ascertain product compatibility before deploying any other VMware products with vSphere 4. See the Software Compatibility Matrix for more information.

Looks like we are now in business people! Once you have logged in, an email gets sent to activate your evaluation and obtain the download link to the files. There is a nice section on getting started, containing videos to make sure you get the most from your evaluation of the product.

 Above: Email from VMware

Above: Guided Evaluation – VMware provide videos to help you get the most out of your vSphere trial.

Make sure to check out www.xtravirt.com as well for all our whitepapers and hot tips around vSphere and many other virtualisation products.

This article provides a comparison of product offerings across vSphere and VMware Infrastructure.

KB1010579

This article provides you the steps to downgrade the vSphere licenses to older version like VMware Infrastructure 3.X.

Downgrading licensing KB

I have been helping a customer set up a VDI environment using Chip PC devices, the Chip PC management console and the VMware View broker. View set up as a dream, the multiple documents from Chip PC caused a bit of confusion (bit = a lot) and then.. plugged the device in and we are ready to go.

Try connecting via the Chip PC View client and we can’t get a desktop. So, in the View broker, log in to the admin page, scroll to the bottom of the page, select your View Broker and click Edit. Enable Direct connect.

There you go.. we now have connections..

We (Xtravirt) have launched a new updated website. I hope you like it; it has taken a lot of time and dedication from the whole Xtravirt team to get to where we are today. The site provides vastly improved search ability and an improved registration process (we will be distributing a monthly Xtravirt newsletter). There is even some vSphere content up there (more coming soon). We are also giving away (yes, giving away!!) the Xtravirt Presentation Pack. Here’s a little about it:

These 4 individual packs contain extensively detailed icons and imagery to illustrate any virtualisation solution.

Each pack contains:

• A PDF with all of the icons indexed for quick reference
• A Microsoft Powerpoint document with all the icons in a format to create stunning presentations in Powerpoint, Word and more.
• A Microsoft Visio Stencil with true vector based versions of the icons, and can be scaled to any degree without image degredation

Packs are categorised into Presentation and Engineering versions.  The presentation images consist of high quality contemporary gloss icons, whereas the Engineering versions have been modified to remove the higher presentation detail, so where plain technical documentation is a must, these fit perfectly.

In total, there are over 350 icons to choose from.

Pack Descriptions

1. XGP: General Presentation
2. XGE: General Engineering
3. XVP: VMware Presentation

XVE: VMware Engineering

IMDB has scored it poor, but I’m enjoying it.. – IMDB Rating

Anyway, they picked a nice car to use

Anyway, here was the original post taken from vCriticals website (great site by the way Eric, please ”Keep it up” !!) and a response from Matt McSpirit, the Microsoft champion for Hyper-V here in the UK. Lets remember that this is opinion from both sides of the fence. Lets all play nice hey?

The current snapshot abilities (not to be mixed with VCB) are very similar in the 2 platforms.  As soon as you create a snapshot, a differencing disk (in the Hyper-V world) and a delta vmdk (in the ESX world), are created, and as you continue to snapshot, the disks get daisy chained together and so on.

 Neither VMware or Hyper-V snapshots are for production in the sense that you’d use them in place of a backup technology – they are indeed very useful to test say, an app installation, or a patch upgrade, and yes, on the Hyper-V side, if you want to roll all those differencing snapshots back into the original, you need to delete them (which equates to a merge), shut the VM down, and wait until they are merged in.  I’ve seen documentation on VMware’s side that suggests you shouldn’t VMotion a VM with snapshots unless you commit them all first, and the committing of a VMDK snapshot can take a long time too, just like it can on Hyper-V.

 I’ve found a fair few nightmare stories with large ESX snapshots, like this one: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/73553 where people have waited 2 days for it to merge in.  It seems that the process is faster if you do offline the VM.  It’s obviously also quicker if you keep your snapshots small.  You wouldn’t really want to revert back an Exchange, SQL, Oracle server etc, so I see snapshots really suitable for patching/updates/minor app installs etc, and those snapshots should be quite small, so when you do delete them, and shut down the VM, the merge is pretty quick and seeing as this is more testing than production, the fact that the VM is off for a short time isn’t such an issue.

 So, in essence, I do agree with the article; Snapshots aren’t for production, and if VMware can merge a snapshot(s) whilst the VM is running, then that’s 1-0, but if, as I’ve seen on numerous blog posts, the process sometimes hangs at 95% for ages, rendering that VM unusable from a management/migration/interaction point of view, then neither solution is ideal for production and should be used purely in a test/dev type scenario or for less mission critical applications.

HP VSA

The great thing about the VSA is the flexibility. Local disks (Raid sets) can be used as well as non shared DAS storage. The 10TB update allows you to present up to 5 virtual hard disks to the VSA (for example, 1 internal RAID set and 4 DAS sets) which in turn can be presented as iscsi LUNs. Multiple VSAs can be used with data being written across all of the VSA nodes, providing great resilience and protection from entire node failures.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/storage/software/vsa/index.html

• Integration with Microsoft SCVMM
• Do-not-install vWorkspace client (U3) (see www.u3.com)
• Web Interface configuration wizard
• Web Interface – option to disable help (address security concerns)
• Updated MMR server-side code
• 64bit (x64) installer for Broker, and SSL Gateway

 The product can be downloaded from www.vworkspace.com . The product is a simple point and click upgrade for existing customers.

Having watched the video’s and read the blurb I have started to dive in to the real technical detail. I will write  a whitepaper on the product and host it over at xtravirt.com, but I will post snippets up here first as I go.

So far, it looks good. I like the idea of the product and on the surface it looks like it has been well thoughout and designed. At last – a good HA product to protect vCenter.

Watch this space. more information coming soon.

• Looks like work is going on with an x64 bit version of vWorkspace 6.1
• There appears to be some work going on to get a U3 version of the App Portal client working Most excellent by the way.. if you dont know what U3 is where have you been? ( http://www.u3.com/ )
• There is an alpha version of a MAC based App Portal client
• Some beta work is going on with the Linux client (I don’t know what)

Exciting? I would say so… Quest with vWorkspace seem to be taking over the market!

What is interesting is that using the tool you are given the option to specify additional VMware products that you currently use. In return it tells you the compatibility of the product with vSphere and if it is not compatibile, then it gives you the ETA for the release that will be. It looks at the moment that if you are avid fan of the VMware product set, then you might have some issues adopting vSphere, at least until the second half of this year.

vSphere Upgrade Advisor: Compatibility Issues?

Considering the noise surrounding DR and VDI, is the lack of compatibility between vSphere and SRM\View going to cause VMware a slow adoption rate? With incompatibility like this, I wonder if trainers will see much call for updated skills at the launch date, consultants with updated skills for vSphere design and implementation; and will all the vSphere book writers see dissapointing sales?

Below is the complete current list from the Software Compatibility List published by VMware.

vSphere Compatibility Matrix

vSphere Editions Conparison Chart

I’m going to go out on a limb, and say I guess Advanced onwards will be the popular purchases for people then..

So far, the product has gone from strength to strength (rebranded as vWorkspace earlier this year) and it was great to see a dedicated team working hard at VMworld Europe this year on the booth. Anyway, further excitement can now be felt, as today, an announcement has been made detailing a finalised deal between Microsoft and Quest. So, it would appear that the Microsoft sales force wont just be banging the Xen Desktop product anymore.

The deal seems to be one where the vWorkspace product will be oem’d for Quest have become a strategic partner with Microsoft so it will fit in with their overall offering (Hyper-v, App-v and System Center). Smart move Microsoft..Now customers will have a choice between Quesy or Citrix (previously Citrix were the only strategic partner for VDI)

You can read the Quest Software press release here

http://vworkspace.com/news/2009/04272009_Microsoft.aspx

I couldn’t see a release on the Microsoft site, so if you find it post it as a comment

I have edited this post as I should have mentioned – vWorkspace is the product of choice in Parallels VDI installations as well – http://www.parallels.com/uk/solutions/vdi/ – Is vWorkspace taking over the world?!??!??

****Updated – Many thanks to Patrick Rouse from Quest software for correcting me on the relationship. Thanks Patrick!!***

The aim of this blog is to bring you my thoughts and snippets of information that are better suited to a blog site, as opposed to being documented at the Xtravirt website (www.xtravirt.com).

Please check back often and feel free to leave comments or email me directly at Paul.Davey@Xtravirt.com

Best Regards,

Paul Davey