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.

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

This post is more of a starting point on what ESXplot is and how to install and use. By now most of you should know that ESXplot was born out of the mind of Geoff White of VMware. Geoff is a coworker of Scott Drummonds the well known ESX performance expert.  Esxplot is a GUI application that lets you explore the data collected by esxtop in batch mode. The program takes a single command line argument which is the esxtop batch mode output file.

Why would you want to use esxplot? Well in the past your options to examine these files were to use Excel or Perfmon. Both options were very slow, sometimes taking hours to import the file before viewing. With esxplot your dump file will open within seconds usually. For more details you can read Scott’s post on version 1.0.

If you are using Windows to view your files you have 2 options. You can use the Windows binary file or run the python script. If you wish to run the python script you will need the following applications installed.
Python 2.6 or higher but not Python 3.x – Download
wxPython – Download
NumPy is also needed – Download

Once installed the application is very easy to use. First thing to do in capture some data from esxtop in batch mode using the command below. Then copy the file over to your workstation that you will run esxplot on. Open the app and the File ->Import->Dataset option from the menu to view your file. Then from the lower left section that will list your Hosts name open the tree to view all the captured values.

esxtop -b -d 2 -n 100> esxtopcapturefile.csv

You can download esxplot from here.

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

You can see the Course description, schedule and datasheet here.

Course Description: This hands-on training course explores the management of performance in a VMware vSphere™ environment. It provides the knowledge and skills necessary to make fundamental design decisions that enhance performance and to meet performance goals in an already-deployed vSphere installation. The course is based on VMware® ESX™ 4.0, ESXi 4.0, and vCenter™ Server 4.0.

Module Outline:
Module 1: Course Introduction
Module 2: Performance in a Virtualized Environment
•  Discuss the vSphere performance troubleshooting methodology
•  Discuss software and hardware virtualization techniques and their impact on performance
•  Monitor performance using vCenter Server performance charts and the ESX/ESXi resxtop command
Module 3: CPU Performance
•  Discuss the CPU scheduler and other features that have an impact on CPU performance•  Monitor key CPU performance metrics
•  Troubleshoot common CPU performance problems
Module 4: Memory Performance
•  Discuss memory reclamation techniques and memory overcommitment
•  Monitor key memory performance metrics
•  Troubleshoot common memory performance problems
Module 5: Guidelines for DRS and Resource Controls•  Discuss performance guidelines for DRS clusters, resource pools, and resource allocation settings
Module 6: Network Performance
•  Discuss the performance features of modern network adapters
•  Monitor key network performance metrics•  Troubleshoot common network performance problems
Module 7: Storage Performance
•  Discuss how storage protocols, VMware vStorage VMFS configuration, load balancing, and queuing affect performance
•  Monitor key storage performance metrics
•  Troubleshoot common storage performance problems
Module 8: Virtual Machine Performance•  Discuss guidelines for configuring a virtual machine for optimal performance
Module 9: Application Performance
•  Discuss tools and guidelines for application performance

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.

• Offers a better alternative than replacing the default user profile (which isn’t supported and doesn’t help for users that already have profiles)
• Makes a distinction between private mode (1:1) and standard mode (1:many) desktops
• Provides the actual registry keys/values for all optimizations (to ensure that all settings can be set by Group Policy or login scripts)
• Gives best practices for optimizing the user profiles (like installing UPHclean)
• Excludes configurations and steps that don’t help (like defragmenting a disk before performing a volume copy)
• Details what registry changes are included in the XenConvert Optimizer tool (so you know what all those checkboxes are doing)

Here are the differences in the support modes.
General support mode:  This means that the product is actively being tested and certified with new hardware from vendors and that it will support new Operating systems.

Extended support mode: This is kind of a keep the lights on mode. VMware will not be actively testing and certifying any new hardware for these releases. There will not be any new Operating Systems added to the compatibility unless there is great enough customer demand. And lastly they will only be issuing security patches and critical bug fixes. There will be no other development done.

The setup and design challenges with Lab Manager make ESX look easy. Sure it sits on top of ESX but the possibilities are endless for the number of configurations that you can establish within the environment. You can configure physical/virtual networks, templates, pools, workspaces and countless other items. All this and the ability to offer a self service option to users with different levels of permissions to restart VM’s and deploy or destroy VM’s.

I will be writing more blog posts on Lab Manager in the weeks to come that will go into more depth on specific features.