Tuesday, June 16. 2009
Powershell in a Nutshell at 8th VMUG.be meeting on June 19th
The official VMware vSphere training guides have arrived!
I just received the official VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V4] training guides. If you're upgrading from VMware Infrastructure 3, VMware vSphere: What's New covers new features and how to perform the upgrade. If VMware vSphere is your first virtualization experience, VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage covers all the skills you need to get started.
Objectives
ā¢Ā Install and configure ESX
ā¢Ā Install and configure vCenter Server
ā¢Ā Configure and manage ESX networking and storage using vCenter Server
ā¢Ā Deploy and manage virtual machines
ā¢Ā Manage user access to the VMware infrastructure
ā¢Ā Increase scalability using vCenter Server
ā¢Ā Monitor resource usage using vCenter Server ā¢Ā Apply patches using VMware vCenter Update Manager
ā¢Ā Manage higher availability and data protection using vCenter Server
If you living in the Netherlands, you might want to attend one of the first VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage courses and Join me at the vSphere ICM training in Nieuwegein.
Monday, June 15. 2009
VMware vCenter Operational Dashboard

@cshanklin: Did anyone know about vCenter Ops Dashboard? https://yourvcip/vod/index.html just found out about it myself.
VMworld 2009 Content Catalog Released
The VMWorld 2009 Content Catalog has been released for public viewing, covering VMworld 2009 session and lab titles, abstracts and speaker bios.
https://vmworld2009.wingateweb.com/scheduler/public.jsp
When you take a quick look at the agenda, youāll see VMware introduced an extra day, and day one has become developer day :-)
Sunday, June 14. 2009
ESX Deployment Appliance v0.9 is released
Herco van Brug has releasedĀ EDA version 0.9 which is ESX4 and ESX4i compatible. You can get your copy here : http://virtuall.eu/downloads
EDA is an appliance dedicated to deploying ESX servers fast and easy. It has a scriptbuilder to quickly create %post-scripts.
Friday, June 12. 2009
The free StorMagic SvSAN can leverage 2 Terabytes
There is a lot going on in the server virtualization market these days. HP announced the new virtualization bundles that incorporate a Storage Virtual Appliance from LeftHand (acquired by HP). At VMWorld last fall, VMware started to promote the concept of Storage Virtual Appliances and presentations on vSphere 4.0 include Storage Virtual Appliances as an area of interest for VMware.
Why is there so much noise about it?
First of all, you need shared storage in order to take full advantage of the enhanced features of VMware. VMotion isnāt compelling if youāre able to move the application, but the datastore becomes unavailable. HP has already demonstrated that by incorporating a Storage Virtual Appliance they can offer bundles at prices that are attractive for SMB and branch office customers while providing access to VMotion and DRS at the same time.
Why is this important?
SMB customers and branch offices have had to go without the high availability and ease of management features they get with VMotion and DRS, because of the cost of the external shared storage. With a Storage Virtual Appliance, the cost of the shared storage is a fraction of the cost of a traditional SAN or NAS.
Whatās still missing?
Itās still too complicated. Most of the virtual appliances have tried addressed the issue of leveraging the serverās resources, but havenāt addressed the complexity issue. Many are using them as a means to either demonstrate core functionality or to move customers into an external SAN.
Dry Run āManaging VMware vSphere 4 with The Virtualization EcoShellā
At the end of the VMware Fast-track course I delivered this week, I did a Dry Run āManaging VMware vSphere 4 with The Virtualization EcoShellā which I will present next week at the Belgium User Group event. If you didnāt sign up yet and youāre interested in this free event you can register here. Maybe we can meet up and enjoy one of those Palm beers. All the content will be delivered in English.
Wednesday, June 10. 2009
Pick Your Top Five VMware Blogs!
Around a year ago Eric Siebert over at vSphere-Land started with the "Top 10 blogs that VMware administrators must read". The NTPRO.NL website ended up at the 6th place. In November 2008 NTPRO.NL went up two places and was staying at the 4th place. Eric expanded the top 10 into a top 20 recently, NTPRO.NL went up one place and is staying at the 3th place. If youāre a frequent visitor of my blog take the survey and cast your vote. Maybe you can encourage your friends and colleagues to do likewise.The results will be published on 6/30/09.
Tuesday, June 9. 2009
David Bieneman and Tyler Rohrer are building the VDI On-Ramp
Liquidware Labs announced the availability of Stratusphere(TM) 4.2, a software solution delivering focused visibility into network, user, application, and desktop activity dramatically reducing the technical and financial risks associated with migrating to VDI."Our irrefutable method of measuring Network User Application Response Time (nuART(TM)) is extremely relevant in gauging potential VDI candidates and user experience," said David Bieneman CEO of Liquidware Labs. "Stratusphere further excels by combining these metrics to create a VDI Fit(TM) and VDI UX(TM) rating identifying good, fair and poor candidates for VDI and providing a measurement to gauge and keep user experience at a constant."
vWire goes live
