Tools - 15

VMware Labs present its latest fling, the Ruby vSphere Console - RVC is an open source project. Ruby vSphere Console (RVC) is a console UI for vSphere, built on the RbVmomi bindings to the vSphere API. RVC is a console UI for VMware ESX and vCenter. The vSphere object graph is presented as a virtual filesystem, allowing you to navigate and run commands against managed entities using familiar shell syntax.
Features:

• Tab Completion
• Marks
• Ruby Mode
• VMODL Introspection
• Multiple Connections
• Extensibility

This video will show you how to get up-and-running. You'll learn how to install the Ruby vSphere Console and how to connect to the vCenter Server. I'll also show some basic tasks like powering off and -on virtual machines.

Update: Rich Lane has released RVC 1.3.5 which fixes a bunch of bugs on Windows, including VMRC support. He has created a wiki page at https://github.com/vmware/rvc/wiki/Running-on-Windows

Arista vEOS is a virtual-machine-based or switch-integrated implementation of Arista EOS that integrates with VMware vSphere to provide the network operator visibility and configuration access to the virtual switches within the virtual server environment. In this video I'll show you how to deploy the vEOS virtual appliance.

Last Friday I attended a seminar hosted by Arista Networks and XTG in Gouda where Frederik Vos delivered a real cool demo of the vEOS virtual appliance which is available for free at Artista’s website.

http://www.aristanetworks.com/en/products/eos/veos

vEOS is a Virtual Appliance that provides an industry-standard CLI based management interface of a VMware vNetwork distributed switch (vDS). To a network administrator, vEOS provides the management interface just like a physical switch – SSH/telnet access, industry standard CLI, and integration with SNMP management tools like HP Openview for auto-discovery of VMs. Furthermore, vEOS simplifies network administration tasks such as:

• Configuration of ports groups
• Configuration of uplinks
• Monitoring virtual switches, operation and status
• Creation of distributed port profiles for consistent management across physical and virtual networks

Video - How to deploy the Arista vEOS

With vEOS, both server and network administrators can manage the virtualized cloud infrastructure in tandem, using their own unique and well understood workflows. Another key benefit of vEOS is that it automates network provisioning during VM migration: P2V, V2V and V2C. When a VM migrates from physical port to virtual or from one virtualized host to another across the network, vEOS migrates the corresponding network settings providing end-to-end consistency. While other solutions require replacing the existing internal virtual switch with vendor specific product, causing outage during the insertion, Arista’s EOS is unique in its ability to work with existing virtual switches while providing a consistent administrative experience.

VMinformer has made some significant improvements to make life easier for teams running or assuring virtual infrastructure. Going beyond just simple security configuration settings, it allows you to visualize your storage in a way that enables you to pin-point key issues quickly.  If you haven't tried VMinformer, or have not reviewed it recently you will be amazed to see what VMinformer shows you.

Check out more - http://www.vminformer.com/products/trial-edition A short video showing how you can use VMinformer a unique security assessment tool to rapidly identify the key security risks that effect your organizations VMware infrastructure.

Last year, Veeam launched the not-for-resale (NFR) promotion for VMware VCPs, VCIs and vExperts (VCAPs and VCDXs as well). This provides VMware community members 2 sockets of two popular Veeam products. This is a very successful program, but in case you haven’t heard, the VMware community can still have NFR licensing for Veeam Backup & Replication v5 and Veeam ONE.

There is only one guideline for this program:  An NFR license can only be used in non-production environment and for evaluation, demonstration and training purposes only.

These are the perfect tools for a VMware lab environment. Veeam Backup & Replication v5 is great for backup and restore capability. Plus, this offering of Veeam ONE includes three products: Veeam Monitor, Veeam Reporter and Veeam Business View which provide great visibility into the VMware environment.

Click here to apply for your licenses!

Source: http://www.veeam.com/blog/2-free-products-every-vmware-lab-must-have.html

With SugarSync, you can backup, sync, access and share all your files on-the-go, instantly and securely from any device including PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, and more. SugarSync matches the way you organize your files and folders. You can sync any file or folder from any of your computers and access those files and folders via your Personal Cloud.

DESKTOP
Windows 7
Windows Vista
Windows XP
Mac OSX
WEB
Internet Explorer 7.x
Internet Explorer 8.0.x
Chrome 8.0.x
Firefox 3.6.x
Safari 5.0.x
MOBILE
iPad
iPhone
BlackBerry
Windows Mobile
Android
Symbian
SugarSync Mobile Web

https://www.sugarsync.com/free/

The cornerstone of the Xangati VDI Dashboard is its performance health engine that analyzes the health of VDI in an unprecedented four microseconds. Relying on Xangati’s memory-driven architecture, the performance health of the VDI is being continuously monitored across a broad spectrum of performance metrics to the unrivaled scale of 250,000 objects (which can include desktops and clients). In contrast, other performance management architectures are database-driven and unable to keep apace of dynamic interactions to scale that are fundamental to VDI.

The output of Xangati’s performance health engine is a real-time health index that is linked to the health of every client, desktop, network link, host, VDI protocol and IT server that can impact VDI end–user experience. In real-time – as an object’s health shifts – the health index changes to reflect the urgency of the performance issue. Moreover, the performance shift will trigger a real-time alert, which is uniquely paired with a DVR-recording.

The DVR-recording will show exactly where the performance problem stems from and present contextual insights about what is driving the sub-optimal performance. For instance, a specific user community is seeing obvious delays in screen presentation due to a high latency network link. These DVR recordings capture issues that are often outside of a VDI vendor’s software framework and can be passed to the appropriate IT function, e.g. to the storage team when storage latency is at the heart of the performance issue.

http://xangati.com/vdi_dashboard/

http://d4vu5i9co7ynd.cloudfront.net/VDI_Dashboard.mov

VMworld 2010 Copenhagen - At the labs with Xangati

Continue reading "Xangati's New Release - V(D)I Dashboard" »

Just as VMware’s virtual machine technology decouples the operating system from hardware, VMware ThinApp breaks the bond between software applications and operating systems to deliver the same benefits of flexibility, portability and isolation.  ThinApp’s agentless/serverless approach enables corporate IT and ISVs to plug into existing Application Management systems to deliver untethered applications across a variety of similar OS versions (NT, XP, Vista) to enable applications to move with users as needed while complying with corporate directives.

Mightycare has released a cool free to use tool which is able to see the anatomy of a ThinApp package. With MCS-ThinView you’re able to explore the contents of a ThinApp package. It also enables you to Register, Unregister, Install or Uninstall these packages.

Features

• Information about the Package
• Register / Unregister ThinApp Package
• Install / Uninstall ThinApp Package
• Shortcut List
• Restive Virtual Registry entries
• Retrieve the virtual File system
• Retrieve the contents of the package.ini
• Retrieve the  icon
  
  ntpro.nl's MCS-ThinView photoset
  http://www.mightycare.de/downloads/mcs_thinview

VMware Labs presents its latest fling Thinapped vSphere Client. This fling uses VMware ThinApp to package vSphere Client into a single portable EXE giving you instant access to your virtual infrastructure from any computer.

Run vSphere client 4.1 in a snap. No install, just download the EXE and double-click. Place the ThinApped vSphere client on any network share and it will automatically stream to any Windows PC with no installation, agents, drivers, or specialized servers required. Carry ThinApped vSphere client and your customization on USB stick and now your vSphere client is available on the GO!

Be one of the first one to try, rate and comment - http://labs.vmware.com/flings/thinapp-vpshere.

The world of monitoring tools is changing fast - after last week’s release of VMware Operations - it’s now VKernel’s new Performance Analyzer who makes its debut. The VKernel Performance Analyzer monitors, diagnoses and resolves performance issues in virtual environments.  Performance Analyzer compliments monitoring and alarming capability in vCenter, it can not only diagnose problems but also resolve them. I’ve created a short demo video of the Performance Analyzer which is bundled in the VKernel vOperations Suite or vOPS 3.0. 

 The audio is a bit crappy because my headset isn’t working anymore. :-(