VMware Knowledge Base adds some new features

Posted by Brian on Mar 15, 2010 in VMware | View Comments

The web team at VMware added a few new features to the KB area. You will now have the options to add to your Google buzz or tweet feeds with the standard social buttons found on most sites. My favorite new feature would be the ability to search by KB article ID number. Other new features include the ability to subscribe to the articles RSS feed for future updates. Probably the most important new feature is the link to request new product features. I know these are not Earth shaking features but they are nice options. See the new release from VMware here.

VMware Workstation 7.1 Beta is available for download

Posted by Brian on Mar 15, 2010 in VMware, Workstation | View Comments

The brilliant Workstation team over at VMware continues to push ahead. They have made version 7.1 available for Beta testing and can be downloaded here. The new release offers updated Open GL support, 8 Way SMP and several other new features and a truck load of minor improvements. See a list of new features below.

OpenGL 2.1 support for Windows 7 and Vista guests: The addition of hardware accelerated OpenGL 2.1 support to the WDDM driver enables many more graphics applications to run inside of your virtual machines.

Improved graphics performance: Significant enhancements have been made to the VMware WDDM driver that have produced benchmark results that are up to 80% faster. The updated driver also produces smoother video playback and addresses many reported rendering issues. Of course games run better as well!

8-way SMP support plus virtual disks up to 2TB in size: The virtual hardware continues to become more powerful to meet the needs of Workstation customers who are running server class applications.

OVF 1.0 support: Including the OVF Tool with this release enables users to easily import or export virtual machines and vApps and move them to vSphere or up into the cloud.

Direct Launch: Blur the distinction between running native and virtual applications by launching an application installed in a virtual machine directly from the start menu or taskbar of the host system.

Automatic software updates: These VMware applications can now detect when a new version is released and are able to update at the click of a button.

Fedora 12 virtual machines: We are excited about finally offering support for running one of the most popular Linux distributions on the planet!

Citrix Receiver for Apple Mac has arrived

Posted by Brian on Mar 11, 2010 in Citrix, XenApp, XenDesktop | View Comments

You may not even know what Citrix Receiver for the Mac will do for you. But if you do then you are probably pretty happy today. So if you have a Bring your own computer program with Mac users or you would just like a more seamless process to run Windows apps on your Mac. Then this new receiver from Citrix will be worth testing.

So what does Citrix Receiver for Mac do? Well along with Citrix XenApp and Dazzle, you will be able to search for and run all of your favorite Windows apps as if they were locally installed on your Mac. You will be able to select your apps with Dazzle (kind of a iTunes looking enterprise app store), you can then launch your apps from the Applications folder. You can even drag those windows apps to the doc and run them from there.

Guide to choosing raid type on VMware ESX for beginners

Posted by Brian on Mar 9, 2010 in VMware | View Comments

For newer admins or those without a storage background, this is a common question that I hear often. What type of RAID should I use for my data stores to host Virtual Machines. This is not meant to be a high level storage best practice document. I’m just covering some basic details that should help new admins and SMB customers.

First thing you need to do is do some research on what type of servers you will be Virtualizing and what their IO needs might be. The main reasons for choosing different RAID levels will be performance and redundancy. Most people tend to lean towards RAID 5 which provides good performance with a high level of redundancy. See the chart below for some more details. You can also review some details from VMware here.

Summary of the different RAID types

VCP Studyin’ and on to the next book

Posted by mike on Mar 7, 2010 in VMware | View Comments

Welp I finished up the two books I set out to read initially today.  I’m moving on to the last VI3 book I’ve got, then it’s on to the Vsphere books.  I’ve also got a copy of the Train Signal Vsphere dvds to peruse, which sounds like they are quite good.  I’m going to, for good luck, eat a burger at Boston Blackie’s on the Monday evening I get in to Chicago.  It’s on the walk from the train station to the la quinta where I am staying.  I hear great things about such tasty bovine delicacies.

Countdown to Vsphere VCP class: 20 days

Posted by mike on Mar 3, 2010 in VMware | View Comments

I’m scheduled for my class at the Microtek facility in Chicago for a March 23rd – 26th class.  I’m taking the train down as parking is 36 bucks a day, ouch!  I’ve been working on preparing for the class by reading 4 books (mostly because I had them already).  The first two are these (oldies but goodies):

Now, I know, I am taking the Vsphere class, but I’ve got the quick start guide that I’ll be devouring shortly.  In these posts, I’ll also talk about the lab environment I have built in the spare room in my apartment (which warms up a cozy 8 degrees when the servers are on).  Plus I’ll be sure to document my experience with the class and my (fingers crossed) eventual success at the certification test.  Then I need to get a job with a larger VM implementation

- Mike

Setup a HP MSA 2312sa SAN for use with ESX 4 cluster

Posted by Brian on Mar 1, 2010 in VMware, vSphere | View Comments

Well today I finally got to break the seal on our new HP MSA 2312sa Storage. Its a lower end SAN configuration that uses SAS drives and controllers. It is supported in vSphere and ESX 3.5 Update 3 and up. The MSA line of storage is the lower end offering from HP and cost was a big reason why the client choose this configuration.

The MSA 2312sa was configured with 4 chassis’s and has redundant controllers. We also have dual port SAS HBA’s in the ESX hosts. Each of the chassis can hold 20 disks, which are available in 450 gb up to 1 tb each at the moment. The 2 tb disks are expect by summer of 2010. The MSA offers a variety of RAID options and the ability to tie a hot spare disk to a specific vDisk or operate as a global spare for all vDisks.

The setup and management of the MSA series is done from a web based console. The console looks a lot like the server iLo screens but on steriods. You can create you vDisks and then cut them into LUN/Volumes that you can then present to your hosts. The console offers both list views and picture options. The picture option shows you what the front or back of the configuration would look like including which lights would be lit at the time.

So far I am pretty impressed on the ease of use for a lower end piece of storage gear. I will write a new blog post on how well it performs once I start loading on some VM’s.