Entries from Eric Sloof

Kirk Munro finished posting another release of the VMware Infrastructure Management PowerPack with a few more enhancements.

This release greatly improves usability through the new icons that were added (and I mean *greatly* improves…the value the icons add is huge).  It’s also the first PowerPack release that takes advantage of some really cool Visio scripts that I’ve been working on.  The Visio scripts I’m referring to were largely inspired by Alan Renouf’s vDiagram script, although the Visio script I ended up with doesn’t look anything like the original.  I’m itching to talk more about those scripts, but I want to write a blog post specifically on that topic so watch for more on this in the next few days.  For now I’ll simply point out that to use the Visio functionality, you have to download the additional VESI_Visio.zip file that was added to the VMware Infrastructure Management PowerPack document page and install it as per the instructions in that document (see the “How to enable vDiagram support” section).  Visio 2007 is required.

Revision history:

March 9, 2009 (2.1.5)
- added icons to the tree as well as the items in the grid.
- fixed a few minor defects that could occur before you connected to a host.
- added vDiagram actions to datacenter and cluster objects.

Google's Experimental Search section has added a feature that lets users enable auto-completion of search queries from their main Google pages. I’ve been a bit jealous of Duncan over at Yellow-Bricks, when you Google for his name, he pops up in the auto completion with 126.000 results, but finally I’m in. I’ve still a long way to go but I’m proud of my ranking at 23.100. ;-)

This driver enables read-only access to files and folders on partitions formatted with the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS). VMFS is a clustered file system that is used by the VMware ESX hosts to store virtual machines and virtual disk files. The VMFS driver comes with a command line interface (CLI) to mount and analyze VMFS volumes. The VMFS driver was tested on Linux and Windows based hosts, but should work on any platform that supports Java. The driver supports VMFS version 3 (VMFS3).

Volumes can now be mounted as a regular file system using a WebDAV client! The webdav command opens a VMFS volume, and serves the contents of the file system as WebDAV/HTTP. The volume can be directly mounted in most operating systems.  The WebDAV server binds on localhost (127.0.0.1) and port 50080 by default. This can be changed by optionally specifying the host IP and port to bind to. I’ve tested the driver and was able to browse the VMFS using the Internet explorer.

C:\Users\Eric Sloof\Downloads\VMFS\vmfs_r66>java -jar fvmfs.jar ssh://root:vmware@192.168.178.251/vmfs/devices/disks/vml.010000000053304d554a31335036333831333920202020202053414d53554e:5 dir /

VMware offers third‐party developers and partners the ability to extend the VMware Infrastructure Client (VI Client) with their own product‐specific menu selections, views, tabs, and toolbar icons, to provide access to external, Web‐based functionality.

These VirtualCenter Server extensions, or VC Plug‐ins, comprise the set of configuration files, URLs, icons, and Web‐server‐hosted resources that work together to display extended menu items, icons, and other user interface (UI) items in the VI Client and provide access to the external functionality.

Adding a plug‐in to the VI Client is relatively simple—the only requirement for the extended functionality is that it be available from a Web server, using a standard URL that can be accessed directly from your end‐users’ desktop machines.

I created a simple Twitter Plug-in which is available for download Twitter_plugin.xml. Just create a folder in C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Plugins and copy the Twitter_plugin.xml to that new folder. Launch your VI Client et voilá (French).

Update : I Received a tweet from @mikefoley, I got it to work.. Needed to register it. Used Powershell and it works! PowerShell registration utility for VI Client Plug-ins. 

Credits to Carter Shanklin for the XML file and the registration utility.

VMware is pleased to announce the availability of the Design Exam (beta).  I can take the exam at Pearson VUE Professional Centers in London, Frankfurt, Paris and Madrid. Only individuals who have successfully passed the Enterprise Administration Exam and have been authorized by VMware will be able to register to take this exam.  The exam is four (4) hours in length to allow time for candidates to comment on each item. My comments are invaluable in improving the overall exam.

I’ve reviewed Eric Siebert’s upcoming book. “VMware VI3 Implementation and Administration” is VMware above and beyond, a must read for every VMware believer.

As an experienced VMware Certified instructor, I’m involved in delivering VMware courses on a daily basis. I know how important it is to keep your students involved in a course. When you start reading this book, I can assure you, you will read it from A to Z. In the past three years I’ve seen lots of books. Eric Siebert did a great job with this one. He was able to write up topics varying from “installing” and “advanced configuration” in a clear and understandable way and put them together in this book.

Stuart Radnidge has created a new section on his vinternals weblog. It’s called VI Toolkit Mastery and it’s a real joy to read.

:-)

This section is dedicated to VI Toolkit techniques you can use to unleash the full power of the VMware Infrastructure API. This was initially a set of 3 posts I made in February 2009. Since it would be a fucking long read from start to finish, I have retained the original post headings to break it up a bit. I imagine this page will be updated as new features come out both in PowerShell and the VI Toolkit, or as I discover new features of the incredibly powerful shell that is… errr, PowerShell.

StarWind Software announced a free version of its iSCSI Target software will be available to help companies of all sizes experience the benefits of storage virtualization. Since 2003, StarWind iSCSI Target and StarPort iSCSI Initiator have been used by thousands of companies and users.

StarWind ISCSI Target Free Version installs on any Windows-based server and converts it into a SAN. It can also support virtual environments such as VMware ESX or VMware ESXi or Microsoft Hyper-V and can even run inside an individual VM itself. The lightweight version is built on trusted, proven and mature technology of the fourth generation StarWind Server product. One of the key features of the StarWind iSCSI Target is that it supports Server Cluster environments with Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, VMware ESX and ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V and other server solutions. The manageability, quality and performance of StarWind IP SAN encourage many users to recommend StarWind to others.

Key Features of StarWind Free Version include:

• Support for Server Clusters with VMware ESX and ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V
• Unlimited number of supported concurrent iSCSI connections
• Compression, Encryption and CHAP authentication
• iSCSI RAM disk for network performance tuning
• iSCSI CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD emulation
• Ease of use and simple manageability
• Support for 4 CPUs and CPU cores

The Free Version of StarWind iSCSI Target takes only a few minutes to download and install and is very simple to configure with Windows Server Clusters.

Last week I recorded the complete Tuesday version of the Managing VMware With PowerShell session on a Flip. It took some time before I had the time to convert and upload this session to Vimeo, it’s 990 MB of data which is a tremendous job to process, but finally it’s online.

You will see Carter Shanklin, The Product Manager, Andrey Anastasov MTS and Dennis Zimmer presenting. After the VMworld Europe 2009 Carter flew right to Bulgaria where a team of brilliant programmers is working night and day to create even more command-lets. They saw the video this afternoon and were really enthusiastic about Carter’s presentation.

TA01 - Managing VMware With PowerShell  Introduction

TA01 - Managing VMware With PowerShell Part I 

TA01 - Managing VMware With PowerShell Part II 

Using ThinApp it is possible to run an application shielded on a system without the needs to install it. No files or registry entries* will be stored on the system running the virtualised application. Other applications don't even notice the application is present or even running. This allows to run different applications or the same application with a different version (like Microsoft Office) that normally would not allow such a situation. This works even if you don't have the priviliges to install an application.

Creating a virtualised application however requires extensive knowledge of the configuration files of the Thinstall application. All settings have to be made by hand (in textfiles). As this is a fault-prone operation, CIS-Group created a tool called ThinstallHelper to ease the configuration task. The ThinstallHelper application allows to configure the numerous settings using a graphical environment (GUI).

Initially the ThinstallHelper was developed for internal use only. Soon however the public need for such a solution was detected and CIS-Group decided to release is to everyone.

The following tasks can be performed using the ThinstallHelper:

• Manage your projects.
• Recently opened projects and projects in your configured project locationcan be (re-)opened with just a single click. It's also possible to create a backup of your project (zip).
• Compatible with Thinstall 3.x and ThinApp
• Some of the new introduced features (like AppLink and AppSync) will not work if it is not supported by your version.
• Configure the project settings.
• Configure the settings that influence the build process, generated output (MSI) or run behavior.
• Manage folders using a graphical representation (like isolation mode).
• Manage the registry usign a graphical representation.
• Build the project ...and generate the application(s)
• Completely FREE, Free of cost, advertisement, banners, popups, everything!