Tuesday, February 10. 2009
VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat
Nimbus Unveils Storage System for Small and Midsize Businesses
Nimbus Data Systems announced the H-class RH100, a versatile and upgradeable unified storage system that brings enterprise scalability, data protection, and storage management features within reach for all organizations. Designed expressly for the needs of small and midsize businesses, the RH100 offers up to 60 SATA, SAS, or SSD drives, no-additional-charge snapshot, cloning, and replication software, built-in iSCSI SAN and NAS capabilities, and up to 8x greater performance at 60% lower total cost than competing solutions.
Product Highlights
- 60% lower total cost of ownership through software, hardware, power, and cooling savings
- Non-disruptive expansion to 60 SATA, SAS, and SSD drives in one tiered storage system
- All-in-one iSCSI SAN and NAS with snapshots, cloning, and replication at no additional cost
- Quad load-balanced Gigabit Ethernet ports, field-upgradeable to 10 GbE, with 4 GB of cache
- 20-minute setup and the renown ease-of-use of Nimbusā HALO storage operating system
- High-availability design with redundant controllers, power, cooling, and software images
Monday, February 9. 2009
Tolly Report Overview | Virtual Desktop Implementation: VMware View 3 Premier vs. Citrix XenDesktop Enterprise 2.1
David de la Puerta, Global Business Manager for the Tolly Group, just gave me a heads up on a report they published today that focuses on Virtual Desktop Implementation from Citrix Systems and VMware.
Testers set out to build and deploy a virtual desktop environment capable of supporting 30 to 40 users. Engineers layered the virtual desktop capabilities onto a pre-existing virtualization environment to serve as a starting point. Once virtual desktops were built, testers conducted an informal examination of application responsiveness for LAN-based VDI users when running traditional business applications, as well as when accessing high-definition multimedia. .
The goal of the test was to help prospective users of the VMware and Citrix desktop virtualization solutions better understand the process of setting up and managing the respective VDI environments. Current release offerings were used for each of the solutions.
The VMware View 3 VDI solution deployed more simply and more rapidly than Citrix XenDesktop 2.1. VMware provided more comprehensive, efficient image and storage management of virtual desktops. It provides end-users with a quality of experience on the LAN that matches or exceeds that offered by the Citrix solution.
New ESX WhiteBox Asus V3-P5G45
My prior WhiteBox suddenly didnāt start-up anymore; the guys over at Alternate did some tests and concluded; the motherboard was broken. They didnāt give me a replacement, but will send the barebone to Asus. I should expect it to return in six weeks! Yes, I definitely made some noise over there and finally got discount on the new model, the Asus V3-P5G45. I also swapped the DVD-DMA for a DVD-SATA, and placed all the other parts into the new box. I pressed the power button with crossed fingers, and the Asus V3-P5G45 works like a charm. I only had to answer some relocation questions when I tried to start the VMās. So hereās my new shopping list:
- Bare bone Asus V3-P5G45
- Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33 GHz
- Memory GeiL 8 GB DDR2-667 Kit
- StorageĀ Samsung HD501LJ 500GB Internal SATA 16MB 7200RPM Hard Drive
- Network IntelĀ® PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter
- DVD-ROM Samsung SA-D163
Sunday, February 8. 2009
New VMworld Europe session | Project: Virtual Reality Check
Speakers: Jeroen van de Kamp, CTO at Login Consultants and Ruben Spruijt, Solutions Architect at PQR.
More and more people ask advice about the hardware virtualization solutions, particularly in a Terminal Server and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure context. PQR and Login Consultants have decided to compare the various hardware virtualization platforms in relationship to the end-user performance experience using the freely available benchmarking methodology of Login Consultants, VSI. Jointly they will deliver the outcome of the investigations and benchmarks to a broader audience, as part of the joint venture āProject: Virtual Reality Check (VRC)ā. Running Terminal Server workloads on virtual hardware is generally not recommended, but recent developments give grounds to a re-evaluation of current best practices. By benchĀ¬marking these and the Virtual Desktop workloads on physical servers and various virtualization solutions, Ruben Spruijt and Jeroen van de Kamp will give you valuable and most importantly unbiased experience and insights.
Continue reading "New VMworld Europe session | Project: Virtual..." »Multi-Homed vCenter server for VMware View
The past few weeks Iāve been trying to setup a VMware View lab. Time after time I received the same error. The Connection server reported, āWaiting for agentā in the Global desktop and pool view / Desktop Sources tab. This error was caused by the DHCP server running on my internet router.
Finally, after reading the install guide I decided toĀ create a dedicated AD,DHCP and DNS server for the View desktops. VMware View has several requirements in the way Active Directory must be configured:
ā¢Ā An Active Directory integrated dynamic DNS
ā¢Ā A reverse lookup zone
ā¢Ā An integrated DHCP server
ā¢Ā All virtual desktops must be members of the domain.
ā¢Ā The VDM Connection Server must be a member of the domain.
I created an internal only switch and connected the Connection server, the VDI Desktops and the one virtual NIC of the vCenter server. The error disappeared and Iām able to log on to my virtual desktops.Ā
Lessons learned:
ā¢Ā VMware View requires Active Directory.
ā¢Ā Best practice: Assign a separate domain (or at least a separate OU) for a VDM environment.
ā¢Ā Best practice: Install your domain controller / DNS server / DHCP server inside a virtual machine.
ā¢Ā Configure DNS with a reverse lookup zone.
ā¢Ā Configure DHCP to automatically register computers and PTR records.