Friday, March 7. 2014
VMware Virtual SAN Design and Sizing Guide
Virtual SAN enables the rapid provisioning of storage within VMware vCenter as part of virtual machine creation and deployment operations. Virtual SAN is a hybrid disk system that leverages both flash-based devices, to provide optimal performance, and magnetic disks, to provide capacity and persistent data storage.
This delivers enterprise performance and a resilient storage platform. The distributed datastore of Virtual SAN is an object-store file system that leverages the vSphere Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM) framework to deliver application-centric storage services and capabilities that are centrally managed through vSphere virtual machine storage policies. This document focuses on the definitions, sizing guidelines, and characteristics of the Virtual SAN
Wednesday, September 4. 2013
VMware Fusion 6 and Workstation 10 released and available for download
- Designed for OS X Mavericks
- Mavericks multiple display support
- Ready for Windows 8.1
- Improved Boot Camp support
- Optimized for the latest Macs
- Dictation in Windows
- Faster performance
- Support for up to 16 vCPUs, 8TB disks and 64GB of RAM
- Redesigned UI
- More granular control of resources
- Over 50 new features
VMware Workstation 10 continues VMware’s tradition of delivering innovative features that technical professionals rely on every day. With support for Windows 8.1, tablet sensors, and expiring VMs, it's the perfect tool to make your work seamless, intuitive, and more connected.
- Unity mode has been enhanced to seamlessly work with Windows 8.1 UI changes.
- Workstation 10 can now convert a Windows 8.1 physical PC to a virtual machine.
- Support for 16 vCPUs, 8 TB SATA disks and 64GB of RAM
- New Virtual SATA disk controller
- Now supporting 20 virtual networks
- USB3 streams support for faster file copying
- Improved application and Windows VM startup times
- SSD Pass through
Industry first to provide virtual tablet sensors that enable virtual machines to take advantage of the accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, and even the ambient light sensor when running on a tablet.
- Multiple monitor set-ups are easier than ever, whether you are using 2, 3, or 4.
- VMware-KVM provides a new interface for using multiple virtual machines
Keynote: VMware vCHS, Puppet, and Project Zombie
Monday, May 13. 2013
Epping leaves VMware for a new job at Nutanix
> Hi Raymon, when you're were working at VMware, you started out as a senior consultant and later switched to Technical Account Management. What's the big difference between those roles?
PSO consulting is a pure technical position, hence the number of VCDX's coming out of VMware PSO, where Technical Account Management is more focussed on account management and customer relationships. My primary focus was to guide our enterprise customers on their journey to the cloud by introducing aspects like automation, orchestration, self-services, chargeback, configuration management and virtual infrastructure management. On top of this the TAM is the logical bridge between the customer and VMware for everything related to support, product features, engineering and account management.
> Once you were working as a Technical Account Manager, you've earned a reward for your outstanding work. Isn't it hard to quit a role that really fits you?
I got this award based on two of the enterprise customers that I was responsible for where we successfully introduced our cloud vision. Our vision, as you know, is based on increasing agility by introducing simplification through automation and orchestration and that was the link for me with Nutanix. At Nutanix we introduce a radically simple solution compared to traditional data centers that easily scales and at the same time will reduce cost and complexity by introducing a "pay as you grow" model.
> Your new job at Nutanix involves a lot of pioneering since you're the first SE in the Netherlands. Do you enjoy exploring new challenges and territories?
As you know I'm always in for a challenge. When I joined VMware almost 4 years ago I came from Oracle with an Identity and Access management background, within 6 months I was VCAP-DCA + VCAP-DCD certified. So jumping into something completely different is not new to me. That said, I strongly believe in the value that we as Nutanix can bring to the market by offering rapid deployment, highly scalable architecture, enterprise-class hyper converged storage and compute capabilities and a modular scale-out approach.
> If I want to capture the philosophy behind Nutanix in one sentence and say "As many virtual machine per cubic centimetre as possible" am I on the right track?
No, unfortunately not. Nutanix provides a datacenter infrastructure which is indeed 2 to 5 times smaller in space and power but Nutanix is not only about the number of VM's per host / node / block. It's much more than that. What you could say is the following:
Nutanix offers a linear infinite scale-out architecture that enables a cost-effective and seamless growth path for organizations that need to scale their compute and storage infrastructure.
The Nutanix virtual computing platform converges all compute and storage resources into a single, integrated system. Multiple sever nodes and Nutanix blocks can be seamlessly clustered to achieve massive scale. Each Nutanix solution is delivered in easy-to-deploy 2U appliances, with virtualization software pre-installed and ready to run out of the box.
> What's, in your experience, the real wow factor when people are starting out with the solutions Nutanix is offering?
The real wow factor is a combination of how simple it is to set it up plus the ease of maintenance and at the same time delivering a next generation infrastructure for your virtual landscape. A Nutanix cluster can be setup within 30 minutes, we offer 1 intuitive user interface for management and we deliver Google-like datacenter capabilities. For more information see our video Nutanix in 2 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xORDdqOKOSA
> Last but not least, I've heard you're throwing a party in a cinema and everyone is invited, can you tell me more about it.
6th of june we are throwing a big party to introduce Nutanix to the Netherlands and everyone is invited. We are hosting the premiere of Star Trek into darkness. Star Trek is well known for it's influence on the world outside of science fiction, it was an inspiration for several technological inventions such as the cell phone. In other words it connected the future with today, the same as we are now doing at Nutanix.
Registration for this event is open: http://go.nutanix.com/Movie_Register.html and we are looking forward to seeing you there!
Monday, April 29. 2013
Frank Denneman leaves VMware for PernixData
Frank: I think storage optimisation can exists next to the initiative of network virtualization. Both are game changers in the datacenter that helps to abstract, pool and automate resources. NSX on the network layer, FVP on the storage layer. Both solutions break the traditional datacenter design and both are necessary to move the datacenter forward into the 21st century. With storage optimalisation we do not remove the need of centralized storage but it contributes to keep the datacenter footprint as small as possible. Typically a lot of spindles are necessary to offer the performance required by the application. Spindles equals footprint. By decoupling the performance capacity from the storage capacity you can return to a design model where the storage array is primarily focusing on providing storage capacity. This can slow down the need for more datacenter floorspace. By solving the storage performance and scaling problems on an infrastructure level at the server side it changes the resource demand to your existing storage arrays. This can delay your next storage acquisition and implementation project and avoid the typical changes to datacenter configuration and offered data services.
Eric: Awesome, so in your previous role, you've written and contributed to some amazing technical white papers. I'm also a big fan of your website. Can we continue to enjoy your contributions to the community in the future and what is going to be your daily work in your new role at PernixData?
Frank can be reached on twitter at @FrankDenneman. The address of his blog site is: FrankDenneman.nl
Embarking on a new adventure – Joining PernixData as Tech Evangelist
Tuesday, February 12. 2013
VMware has released the public draft of the vSphere 5.1 Hardening Guide
- 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
Public Draft (Revision A) of the vSphere 5.1 Security Hardening Guide
Friday, February 1. 2013
Featured vHero - Scott Herold
Peter van den Bosch over at Virtualizer is going to conduct a series of interviews with well known virtualization hero's. He's starting with Scott Herold who recently founded his own company. If you want to find out more about Scott and read the complete intetview go to: vHeroe’s part 1 Scott Herold.