Entries from Eric Sloof

VMware customers love the simplicity, performance, and integration of VMware Virtual SAN since its launch. Most customers choose to evaluate Virtual SAN before using it for production – always a good idea.


VMware has made a list of issues occasionally encountered as people go through this process. Follow this guide, and you’ll have a great evaluation.

vRealize Operations is the ultrasound of your datacenter. Without proactive monitoring tools, we can only analyze what is on the surface, which means we typically respond to IT system issues only after there is a major incident. When we have vRealize Operations, it gives us a set of tools that helps us analyze the health, risk, and efficiency of our environment. 

Using a tool like vRealize Operations can assure that you are getting the most out of your VMware vSphere investments by providing proactive insight into the operations of your datacenter. Additionally, It provides capacity planning and trending into your data center environment, and helps ensure you have the required resources to meet the business demand.

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VMware NSX-v network virtualization solution addresses current challenges with physical network infrastructure and brings flexibility, agility and scale through VXLAN-based logical networks.

Along with the ability to create on-demand logical networks using VXLAN, the NSX Edge Services Gateway helps users deploy various logical network services such as firewall, DHCP, NAT and load balancing on these networks.

This is possible due to its ability to decouple the virtual network from the physical network and then reproduce the properties and services in the virtual environment.


In brownfield environments NSX can provide programmatic connectivity via L2 bridging or L3 routing and service insertion of existing physical services such as Load-Balancers and Firewalls, so such legacy services can be integrated and consumed by NSX Logical Networks.

As described in this document, in such brownfield environments NSX functionality can be incrementally introduced to meet di‘fferent customer requirements and use-cases.

vCenter Converter supports many source physical machines, including Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Server and Linux. It also supports third-party disk images from Microsoft Hyper-V, Virtual Server and Virtual PC; Parallels Desktop; Symantec System Recovery; Norton Ghost; Acronis and StorageCraft.

• Multiple simultaneous conversions enable large-scale virtualization implementations.
• Quiescing and snapshotting of the guest operating system on the source machine before migrating the data ensures conversion reliability.
• Hot cloning makes conversions non-disruptive, with no source server downtime or reboot.
• Sector-based copying enhances cloning and conversion speed.
• Multiple simultaneous conversions enable large-scale virtualization implementations.
• Centralized management console allows users to queue up and monitor multiple simultaneous remote, as well as local, conversions.
• Easy-to-use wizards minimize the number of steps to conversion.
• Support for both local and remote cloning enables conversions in remote locations such as branch offices.

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This paper describes best practices for planning a VMware Mirage deployment. It addresses the primary phases of a Mirage deployment, including sizing, design, and the gathering of environmental data.

The intended audience includes IT administrators, design architects, and managers who are familiar with Windows data center technologies such as Active Directory, SQL, and Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

VMware Virtual SAN 6.0 provides customers and partners with a proven solution, capable of hosting virtualized Microsoft applications at a consistent performance level along with constant availability. This solution has been designed, configured, and tested to be a Proof of Concept of the capabilities and supported features with VMware Virtual SAN and business-critical applications.


This technical white paper describes how concurrent workloads of Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL deliver Tier 1 performance on VMware Virtual SAN. We also cover how to configure Exchange 2013 with Database Availability Groups (DAG), SQL Server 2014 with AlwaysOn Availability Groups (AAG) and Microsoft SharePoint 2013 on an eight-node VMware Virtual SAN cluster. 

The Rough Cuts service from Safari Books gives you exclusive access to an evolving manuscript that you can read online or download as a PDF and print. A Rough Cuts book is not fully edited or completely formatted, but you'll get access to new versions as they are created.

This is the only complete foundational guide to virtualizing Hadoop and deploying it in the cloud. The authors demystify all aspects of virtualizing Hadoop at scale, empowering DBAs, BI specialists, integrators, architects, and managers to deploy quickly and achieve outstanding performance.

Hadoop as a Service combines exceptional clarity for Hadoop newcomers with realistic examples for building deep technical skill. Drawing on their immense experience, the authors identify specific obstacles and challenges in virtualizing Hadoop, helping you avoid pitfalls, mitigate risks, and achieve superior results.

The authors focus on the baseline Apache Software Foundation Hadoop 2 distribution, while also addressing subtle differences in Cloudera and VMware/EMC's Pivotal HD. Coverage includes:

• Core Big Data and NoSQL concepts you should know before you start
• Understanding how data works and moves throughout Hadoop clusters
• Integrating Hadoop into your overall enterprise data architecture
• Mastering Linux-based best practices for virtualizing Hadoop
• Virtualizing master and data servers
• Simplifying and accelerating deployment, and more

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VMware NSX with Horizon and App Volumes enables desktop IT to realize the efficiency and savings of a single pool of users combined with role-based security and real-time app delivery.

This free eLearning course describes the key benefits of VMware User Environment Manager and how it can benefit an organization.   Students will get an overview of the installation and configuration process as well as insight into the key elements of the user interface.

At the end of this course, you should be able to:

• Explain how the UEM product works.
• Explain the features and benefits of UEM.
• Explain the installation and configuration process of UEM.
• Identify the interface elements of UEM.

Register here for the VMware User Environment Manager: Fundamentals

VMware has launched a vRealize Operations Management Pack for VSAN Beta early interest signup page. The beta program is designed to give you early access to the new vROPS management pack designed for advanced introspection of VSAN clusters.

The management pack will provide:

• Advanced analytics
• Rapid Troubleshooting
• Virtual SAN Cluster Optimization

If you would like to be notified when the vRealize Operations Management Pack for VSAN Beta is available, please fill in your information here.