Eric Sloof

VMware View offers a personalized, device-neutral, end-user computing experience with increased security and control. It enables agile desktop solutions that quickly meet changing business needs and proactively protect against planned and unplanned downtime. This case study provides insight and information on how to increase availability and recoverability of a View infrastructure using VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) and common disaster recovery (DR) tools and methodologies.

vCenter SRM automates the failover process of the VMware View management environment to enable fast, reliable recovery and meet specific Recovery Time Objectives (RTO).The architecture described here is an active/passive design, in which the entire View infrastructure operates within one datacenter until the failover scenario is invoked. This solution does not satisfy every use case or requirement for virtual desktop disaster recovery.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Return on Investment (ROI), for example, were not evaluated during testing and implementation. However, this study does demonstrate a successfully tested DR solution for a View infrastructure that is easy to implement and support. Among the environments that can benefit from this solution are those that already include SRM and those where a virtual desktop use case has a definitive DR requirement.

Other solutions are possible for DR with VMware View, but they may be more complicated and less reliable. Although vCenter SRM is required for this specific solution, it is not a requirement for VMware View disaster recovery in general.

Link to the white paper: VMware View Infrastructure Resiliency VMware View 5 and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager

Introduction to SharePoint Virtualization discusses why VMware recommends virtualization of SharePoint. You will also learn about the need for virtualizing SharePoint and the benefits of virtualizing SharePoint on vSphere. 

Developing SharePoint Virtualization Design discusses the design prerequisites for virtualizing SharePoint. This module also discusses the key tasks in developing a SharePoint virtualization design. Moreover, this module covers general guidelines for virtualizing SharePoint.  

Implementing SharePoint on Virtual Infrastructure discusses the implementation alternatives for SharePoint virtualization. This module also covers how to implement the virtualization of SharePoint on vSphere. Finally, this module discusses how to test and monitor SharePoint performance on vSphere.


Virtualizing Microsoft SharePoint with VMware vSphere 5

The significant presence of network-attached storage (NAS) in the datacenter today has enabled many people to deploy virtualization environments with NAS-based shared storage resources. For clarity, both Network File Systems (NFS) and NAS refer to the same type of storage protocol and are used interchangeably throughout this paper. 

The capabilities of VMware vSphere on NFS are very similar to those of vSphere on block-based storage. VMware offers support for all vSphere features and functions on NFS, as it does for vSphere on block storage. Running vSphere on NFS is a viable option for many virtualization deployments, because it offers strong performance and stability when configured correctly. This paper provides an overview of the considerations and best practices for deployment of vSphere on NFS-based storage.

Best Practices for Running VMware vSphere on Network-Attached Storage (NAS)

The vCloud Architecture Toolkit (vCAT) brings together validated VMware designs, tools, and best practices for architecting, implementing, operating, and using vCloud-based Infrastructure as a Service solutions.

Developed by VMware’s own cloud architects, vCAT has already helped hundreds of VMware customers succeed with vCloud. Now, responding to many customer requests, these VMware architects and consultants have integrated all that information into a definitive printed guide, adding even more context and examples for successful planning and deployment. Distilling VMware’s immense real-world experience, they provide a de facto reference and baseline for every vCloud project and cloud computing environment.

vCloud Architecture Toolkit (vCAT) covers all this, and more:

• VMware vCloud service definitions
• Architecting, operating, and consuming VMware vCloud services
• Implementation and workflow examples
• Software tools
• Cloud bursting theory
  
  

Makyo lets you copy virtual machines and vApps from one vCenter Server to another using a wizard in the vSphere Web Client. The said copy operation from one vCenter Server to another is done by starting an OVF export operation on the source server and an import OVF operation on the target server. No intermediate files are created when you copy a virtual machine or a vApp. The fling is installed as a plugin to the vSphere Web Client. 

After completing the course, you should be able to: 

• Discuss the common deployments of vShield Edge
• Install vShield Edge
• Deploy vShield Edge using VLAN isolation
• Deploy vShield Edge using Port Group Isolation
• Configure vShield Edge services: DHCP, NAT, Web Load Balancer, firewall, and site-to-site VPN
• Perform vShield Edge management tasks

Network your USB devices over Gigabit Ethernet! With the SX-3000GB, silex technology is introducing the next generation of USB device servers. Network your USB devices with even more data throughput and higher compatibility. 2 USB ports are available. Using a USB hub up to 15 simultaneous USB connections are possible. It turns your USB devices into network resources. When a USB device is connected through the USB Device Server, it can be used by any network user as though it were locally connected.

Printing, scanning, faxing, storage (NTFS and FAT), listening to music, synchronising iPhone with iTunes, securing software with USB dongles – all functions become available over the network. The integration of USB devices into virtual environments - VMWare, Citrix, Hyper-V etc. - is also supported.

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows 8/7/Vista/XP, Server 2008/2003, Mac OS X v.10.3-10.8
• Device Interfaces: 2x USB 2.0 Hi-Speed, one with a 4 times the current supply provided by a conventional USB port (up to 2000 mA)
• Using an optional USB hub, a max. of 15 USB connections are possible
• Network Interfaces: 10/100/1000 Mbps (auto-detect)
• USB Device Server and Print Server in one device
• Compatible with the current printer protocols IPP (Internet Printing Protocol), LPR (Line Printer Remote protocol), RAW and GDI (Graphics Device Interface)
• Particular security due to IP address filter
• 250 MHz CPU, 4 MB Flash, 32 MB DDR-RAM
• Compatible with NTFS and FAT formatted memory

This session was recorded at the London VMUG, it consists of two modules. The first module will point out what happens when people are configuring a VMware vSphere cluster with HA without specifying a slot size.  The second module will show what happens when a host becomes isolated in an VMware vSphere HA cluster and where the heartbeats are used for.

This session was recorded at the London VMUG Thursday January 24th. If you want a copy of the original PPT there's a download link available in the next article: London is the Place for Me

The course consists of five modules:

• Introduction to SQL Server Database Virtualization discusses virtualization trends. This module also covers vSphere performance transparency, customer perceptions, and common objections to virtualization of Microsoft SQL Server. 
  
  

• Physical Stack Fundamentals discusses Microsoft SQL Server licensing concepts. This module also covers reference architecture of SQL Server database on vSphere. In addition, the module discusses several storage, vSphere host sizing, and networking considerations.
  
  

• Virtual Machine Layer Fundamentals discusses how to configure guest Windows OS. This module also discusses various storage presentation options and compares their pros and cons. Finally, this module discusses how to optimally install SQL Server instance.
  
  

• SQL Server Database on vSphere Prototype Project discusses project management and team dynamics of the prototype project. This module also details techniques for baselining performance and discusses considerations for selection of a viable workload candidate for virtualization prototye. Finally, this module covers the process by which an organization validates the prototype's performance.
  
  

• Beyond the Prototype Implementation discusses two disaster recovery architectures - one with SQL database mirroring and one without SQL database mirroring. This module compares single-instance SQL Server on VMware with MFC-on-vSphere. This module also discusses the logical reference architecture for MFC. This module covers vSphere's security advantages compared to native hardware. Finally, this module reviews some prominent opportunities to apply tooling to optimize every qualitative, operational, and financial aspect of the preproduction lifecycle.
  
  

The draft version of the vSphere 5.1 Hardening Guide provides guidance on how to securely deploy VMware vSphere 5.1 in a production environment. The focus is on initial configuration of the virtualization infrastructure layer, which covers the following:

• The virtualization hosts 
• Configuration of the virtual machine container (NOT hardening of the guest operating system (OS) or any applications running within)
• Configuration of the virtual networking infrastructure, including the management and storage networks as well as the virtual switch (but NOT security of the virtual machine’s network)
• VMware vCenter Server, its database and client components

Please provide your feedback in the comments field here.

Public Draft (Revision A) of the vSphere 5.1 Security Hardening Guide