Entries from Eric Sloof

vRanger Pro v4.0 is Vizioncore’s next generation industry-standard backup and restore solution with increased speed and scalability. vRanger Pro 4.0 also shrinks the storage requirements for backups by introducing incremental support.   This version will also deliver  near instantaneous restores of files, finally eradicating the reason for procuring file level agents, as well as a simplified UI, upgraded reporting capability, improved load balancing,  and platform support for ESXi. 
 
vOptimizer Pro enables the reclamation of space taken on ESX datastores by automating the periodic resizing of Windows-based virtual machines. vOptimizer also improves VM performance and reduces the footprint of Windows by enabling the periodic streamlining of the operating system via the deletion of selected files and services.  Results include reduced enterprise storage costs, more efficient VMs and a high return optimization best practice for ESX administrators.
 
vFoglight (formerly vCharter Pro)  has been renamed  in order to signal a software redesign to a console/cartridge architecture (as utilized by Quest Foglight).   vFoglight retains key features like the single pane of glass view in multiple virtualization layers or multiple VirtualCenters, diagnostic alerting and will soon offer monitoring for key strategic resource intensive applications.

New!  vAutomation Suite (Early Demonstrations)

A series of automation oriented products will be released in late 2008 and thru 2009 that will offer virtualization integration, orchestration and heterogeneous management solutions. Come see demos of:
• vWorkflow enables the creation of automated processes for leading virtualization platforms, making it possible to:
o Integrate and orchestrate existing management tools and infrastructure for greater agility and responsiveness
o Extend leading virtual server platforms with customized workflows
o Reduce manual maintenance tasks to reduce total cost of ownership
o Automate ITIL processes to improve efficiency and compliance
• vControl is an automated, orchestrated, workflow driven, virtual machine environment ‘director’ that delivers web-based virtual machine management and control, basic backup and restore, high availability (HA), and disaster recovery. Built on a highly scalable grid architecture, vControl is a heterogeneous management solution that scales to meet the needs of multi-datacenter environments.

On Monday, September 15th VMware will be jumpstarting VMworld with VMware Partner Day. Come and hear first hand, Paul Maritz, President and CEO of VMware, and Carl Eschenbach, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations for VMware, deliver their vision for the partner community. In addition, you will learn about regional updates tailored with specific information that impacts your geographical sales initiatives.

ASE continues to innovate with its recent release of version 3.5. This latest release introduces active debugger support for PowerShell scripts, several new templates for the Logon Script Builder and enhancements to the script formatting feature. The Active Debugger integrated with ASE now provides full support for both VBScript and PowerShell. When debugging, you can even hover over values for tooltips that provide details on the object as well as a hyperlink to take you to the objects' listing in the Locals window. Finding problems in scripts just got a whole lot easier with this intuitive and easy to use debugger. If you have not checked out the Logon Script Builder (LSB), now is the time. Even if you have already been using the Logon Script Builder, you will immediately PowerShell being the exception, it is necessary to rely upon a third-party control in order to render forms and interact with them using a scripting language. Admin Script Editor provides support for KiXforms, a freeware control deployed as a single DLL file which you can leverage by any language supporting COM. As PowerShell may address the .NET Framework directly, it can create native Windows forms, something ScriptForm Designer also fully supports.

You can download the PowerShell script of the example above : ase.ps1

Scott and Todd over at the Dell TechCenter will be tweeting from VMworld 2008, along with others. Follow the #vmworld tag and these users for updates from the conference.

Dell Tweeters at VMworld :

• delltechcenter - #scott and #todd - All things geek
• rayala2 - Dell Virtualization Strategist
• andrewgilman - Dell/EqualLogic Virtualization Solutions
• mgrayscale - Infra Consulting for Flexible Computing
• gregorydwhite - Dell/EMC Storage Solutions

Other Tweeters at VMworld :

• vmworld
• jtroyer
• ericni25
• davidmdavis
• tdunn08
• esloof

Imagine you work in an environment with more than 1500 virtual machines and the numbers  are still growing rapidly. When you work with a lot of resource pools, it’s an administrative burden to recalculate all your pools after you deploy some new virtual machines.  The Resource Pool Calculator scans all your pools and automatically adjust the reservation for memory and CPU.

First reports coming in from people who passed the VMware Enterprise Administration Exam.

Thank you for your interest in the VMware Certified Design Expert program. I am pleased to inform you that you have PASSED the Enterprise Administration Exam. Your score report is attached. Congratulations!!

Your next step will be to take and pass the Design Exam. We will be emailing you the registration details by September 15th. I have included the Design Exam Blueprint for you to review. If you have any questions or comments regarding the blueprint, please let us know.

This book title is due to publish during Sept. 15th, 2008 and will be launching at the VMWorld 2008 event in Las Vegas. You may pre-order this title now and you will be able to pick it up at the VMWorld Bookstore at the event. Deploying the VMware Infrastructure is an introduction to the world of VMware virtualization technology written by hands-on experts in the field. This booklet explains virtualization, enumerates its many benefits, and describes a set of real-world use cases. (Via Yellow Bricks)

Alessandro Perilli  over at virtualization.info just published the Meet the Evangelists page with the first round of influencers.

The Virtualization Congress  (http://www.virtualizationcongress.com) is the world's first vendor independent virtualization event, bringing together the industry's biggest selection of virtualization players, from the recognized leaders to the newest start-ups. The conference, to be held at London's ExCel, 14th-16th October, 2008, presents an ideal opportunity for current and prospective users of virtualization technologies to hear directly from the companies at the cutting edge of their development; at the same time, in the same place for the first time ever.

New book by David Marshall, Stephen S. Beaver and Jason McCarty. Based on actual experiences with implementing and managing large scale projects and environments, this book emphasizes the design, implementation, and management of a VMware ESX server, offering technical and consultative points of view. Providing practical guides and examples, the chapter organization focuses first on introducing a concept and background for that concept, before providing a real-world scenario on which the planning and implementation example is based. Finally, for more technical readers, the book includes advanced topics and additional resources.

Available in pre-order at Amazon.

Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people using the web, your phone, or IM. Join today to start receiving vmworld's updates. After signing up you can keep in touch with other Vmworld attendees to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

The New York Times calls Twitter "one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet." TIME Magazine says, "Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app," and Newsweek noted that "Suddenly, it seems as though all the world's a-twitter." What will you think?