Entries from Eric Sloof

Monday, February 18. 2013

SX-3000GB - Gigabit Ethernet USB Device Server

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

SX-3000GB - Gigabit Ethernet USB Device Server

Friday, February 15. 2013

Video - My VMware vSphere HA Deepdive session at the London VMUG

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

Wednesday, February 13. 2013

Free e-learning course - Virtualizing Microsoft SQL Server with VMware vSphere 5

This self paced course facilitates the avoidance of the pitfalls commonly encountered when experienced VMware vSphere professionals cross the chasm of Tier-1 SQL Server virtualization.

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.

Virtualizing Microsoft SQL Server with VMware [V5.X]

Tuesday, February 12. 2013

VMware has released the public draft of the vSphere 5.1 Hardening Guide

When implementing virtualization technology, organizations must ensure that they can continue to maintain a secure environment and meet their compliance obligations. To do so, you will have to evaluate risks that might affect protected information and mitigate those risks through risk-appropriate standards, processes, and best practices.

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

Monday, February 11. 2013

Video - vSphere 5.1 Data Protection

vSphere Data Protection (VDP) is a robust, simple-to-deploy, disk-based backup and recovery solution. vSphere Data Protection is fully integrated with VMware vCenter Server and enables centralized and efficient management of backup jobs while storing backups in deduplicated destination storage.

The benefits of vSphere Data Protection are:

Provides fast and efficient data protection for all of your virtual machines, even those powered off or moved between physical hosts.
Significantly reduces disk space consumed by backup data using smart deduplication across all backups.
Reduces the cost of backing up virtual machines and minimizes the backup window using change block tracking and VMware virtual machine snapshots.
Allows for easy backups without the need for third-party agents installed in each virtual machine.
Uses a simple straight-forward installation as an integrated component within vSphere, that can be managed by a web portal.
Direct access to vSphere Data Protection configuration integrated into the standard vSphere Web Client.
Protects backups with checkpoint and rollback mechanisms.
Provides simplified recovery of Windows and Linux files with end-user initiated file level recoveries from a web-based interface.

The VMware vSphere Web Client interface is used to select, schedule, configure, and manage backups and recoveries of virtual machines. During a backup, vSphere Data Protection creates a quiesced snapshot of the virtual machine. Deduplication is automatically performed with every backup operation.

The following terms are used throughout this document in the context of backup and recovery.

A datastore is a virtual representation of a combination of underlying physical storage resources in the datacenter.
A datastore is the storage location (for example, a physical disk, a RAID, or a SAN) for virtual machine files.
Changed Block Tracking (CBT) is a VMkernel feature that keeps track of the storage blocks of virtual machines as they change over time. The VMkernel keeps track of block changes on virtual machines, which enhances the backup process for applications that have been developed to take advantage of VMware’s vStorage APIs.
VMware vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) enables backup software to perform centralized VM backups without the disruption and overhead of running backup tasks from inside each virtual machine.
Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) is a file or set of files that appears as a physical disk drive to a guest operating system. These files can be on the host machine or on a remote file system.
The vSphere Data Protection appliance is a purpose built virtual appliance for vSphere data protection.

Download VMware vSphere Data Protection 5.1

vSphere Data Protection Advanced (VDP Advanced) – Is a new standalone product sold separately from vSphere – It extends the capabilities of VDP with greater scalability and integration with business-critical applications to protect midsize vSphere environments. VDP Advanced provides fast agent-less image-level backups, as well as guest-level application-consistent protection of Microsoft® SQL Server™ and Microsoft® Exchange Server™.

Release - Veeam Backup & Replication Cloud Edition

Many companies today choose to store a copy of their data off-site to protect against such disasters as storage failure, system crash or accidental errors. One of the most popular options for offsite backup is to use a cloud storage service such as Amazon S3, Windows Azure or Google Cloud Storage.

Veeam Backup & Replication Cloud Edition lets you leverage the secure online cloud services: you can now create backup files with Veeam Backup & Replication and keep them in the cloud. In case a disaster strikes and a local backup copy is lost, you can restore your data from the cloud at any time.

Veeam Backup & Replication Cloud Edition combines all the functionality of Veeam Backup & Replication together with Veeam Cloud Backup — a new component that offers a convenient and easy way to work with the cloud storage. Veeam Cloud Backup will help you to:

Upload Veeam Backup files to the cloud
Restore Veeam Backup files from the cloud
Restore VM guest OS files directly from Veeam Backup files in the cloud

With Veeam Backup & Replication Cloud Edition, you can rest easy knowing that your backups are safe in the cloud and available 24/7.

Veeam Backup & Replication Cloud Edition supports over 15 different cloud storage service providers including: Amazon S3, Amazon Glacier, Windows Azure, Google Cloud Storage, OpenStack, Rackspace, DreamObjects and HP Cloud. You can also use the File System option to copy data to local disks, SAN and NAS.

Cool VM - Tiny Core Linux VM

Iwan Rahabok over at Red Dot has created an an OVA of a really small virtual machine, it boots in 1-2 seconds and is based on the awesome Tiny Core Linux.

Iwan: What I did is only...

Install it to a disk so you don't need the ISO.
Create a VM with 48 MB of vRAM. It only needs 41 MB actually.
Keep the vDisk at 1 GB just in case you need to add more things. Because of thin provisioning, only 40 MB is used.
Package it into OVA format

www.tinycorelinux.net

Saturday, February 9. 2013

Latest Fling from VMware Labs - SilverLining – A vCloud Director 5.1 SDK for JavaScript

SilverLining is a VMware Fling that implements a simplified user experience to the cloud. The simplified workflows and interactions allow end users easily find virtualized applications and add them into their personal workspace. The Fling includes both a JavaScript SDK (vcloud-js-sdk) and a reference implementation (silverlining) to exercise the SDK. The implementation is created in HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript and can be used as an example of how to create a custom UI that talks to VMware vCloud Director (vCD).

The JavaScript SDK communicates with vCD 5.1 through the vCD API. A limited number of API calls are supported in this release. For a reference to the complete vCD API see http://www.vmware.com/go/vcloudapi for more information.

Once authenticated, the SDK will automatically fetch information about the vApps, Templates and VMs available to the user and store this information in an internal model. The SDK provides methods to work with the data in this model.

Using this model, the SDK can update the data independently of any UI display logic that needs to retrieve data from it. This is especially useful if there is any network lag or temporary disconnect since this data model acts as a cache. Any operations in the UI logic are not interrupted, unless there is a specific reason to communicate with the Cloud Director server, such as a power operation on a vApp.

This Fling includes the following features:

A flexible vCloud Director 5.1 SDK for JavaScript implemented using vCloud API
A reference implementation with a responsive UI done in HTML5, CSS and JavaScript
Use of metadata feature to enhance the UI with custom attributes on templates and vApps
Supports local storage in HTML5 to support offline mode
Notifications system to support long running operations
Separation of form and content of the backend processes from UI updates
Easy install script

SilverLining – A vCloud Director 5.1 SDK for JavaScript

Project SilverLining: A vCloud Director 5.1 SDK for Javascript

Thursday, February 7. 2013

NAKIVO Rewards VMware Professionals with NFR Licenses for VM Backup and Replication

Nakivo Backup & Replication is a high-performance WAN Backup and Replication solution that meets demanding performance and scalability requirements of dynamic virtualized environments without sacrificing simplicity and efficiency. Designed to address the challenges of VM Backup and Replication for data center and cloud environments, its performance is equally adept at replicating VMs with live applications, groups of VMs supporting a cloud service, and transaction-intensive virtualized set of workloads.

And its fast VMware infrastructure discovery, advanced VM protection features, and extensive reporting capabilities, deliver one of the highest levels of performance, reliability, and ease of use available in the VM Backup and Replication market today.

NAKIVO, has announced today that NAKIVO Backup & Replication is now available free of charge to all VMware vExperts, VMware Certified Professionals (VCPs), VMware Certified Instructors (VCIs), and VMUG members.

Current VMware vExperts, VCPs, VCIs, and VMUG members can get a two-socket NFR license of NAKIVO Backup & Replication v2. The NFR license keys are available for non-production use only, including educational, lab testing, evaluation, training, and demonstration purposes. NFR licenses are available here.

Wednesday, February 6. 2013

Software-Defined Data Center Roadshow

The strategy of VMware, for the coming years is built on the Software-Defined Data Center. A Software-Defined Data Center is a unified data center platform that provides automation, flexibility, and efficiency to transform the way you deliver IT.

Compute, storage, networking, security, and availability services are pooled, aggregated, and delivered as software, and managed by intelligent, policy-driven software. Self-service, policy-based provisioning, automated infrastructure, and application and business management complete the picture.

The result is a data center optimized for the cloud era, providing business agility, the excellent SLAs for all applications, simpler operations, and lower costs.

Join VMware together with IBM in our Benelux Software-Defined Data Center Roadshow. VMware will provide you top-level speakers from both companies to share the vision and give you an in-depth technical insight.

VMware and IBM are pleased to invite you to this free event.

09.00 - 09.30 Registration

09.30 - 09.45 Welcome

09.45 - 10.30 Keynote VMware: Software-Defined Datacenter

10.30 - 11.15 Keynote IBM: Converged Systems: beyond NextGen DC’s

11.15 - 11.30 Break and split into parallel sessions

11.30 - 12.15 Parallel track 1 or meet the expert

12.15 - 13.00 Lunch

13.00 - 13.45 Parallel track 2 or meet the expert

14.00 - 14.45 Parallel track 3 or meet the expert

15.00 - 15.45 Parallel track 4 or meet the expert

16.00 - 16.45 Parallel track 5 or meet the expert

16.45 - 17.30 Networking drink

Where and when:

5th March: IBM Forum, Amsterdam
7th March: IBM Forum, Brussels
8th March: Luxemburg

Register here

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