Virtualization, Cloud, Infrastructure and all that stuff in-between
My ramblings on the stuff that holds it all together
Category Archives: Virtualization
Installing Windows 7 from a USB Flash Drive and Multi-Boot from VHD
Posted by on April 14, 2010
This is a useful tool which I haven’t come across before – Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool – it will create a bootable USB flash drive which you can use to install Windows 7 Combine this with a boot from .VHD setup and you have a very flexible multi-boot solution, it also seems to [...]
8 Node ESXi Cluster running 60 Virtual Machines – all Running from a Single 500GBP Physical Server
Posted by on February 25, 2010
I am currently presenting a follow-up to my previous vTARDIS session for the London VMware Users Group where I demonstrated a 2-node ESX cluster on cheap PC-grade hardware (ML-115g5). The goal of this build is to create a system you can use for VCP and VCDX type study without spending thousands on normal production [...]
Using the VCE/vBlock concept to aid disaster relief in situations like the Haiti Earthquake
Posted by on January 16, 2010
Seeing the tragic events of the last couple of days in Haiti played out on the news spurred me into evolving some thinking that I had been working on, the sheer scale of infrastructure destruction left by the earthquake in Haiti is making it hard to get relief distributed via road, so airlifting and [...]
Is your MS Application Supported under VMware, Hyper-V, Xen? – the DEFINITIVE Statement from Microsoft
Posted by on August 14, 2009
A colleague has just made me aware of a new tool on the Microsoft website, it is a wizard that can tell you if specific Microsoft App/OS/Architecture combinations are supported under the SVVP (Server Virtualization Validation Programme) – I previously wrote about the SVVP here, which promised to resolve many of the pains we [...]
Applying “Agile” to Infrastructure…? Virtualization is Your Friend
Posted by on April 28, 2009
I have been looking at this for a while, in the traditional model of delivering an IT solution there is an extended phase of analysis and design, which leads through to build and hand-over stages; there are various formalised methodologies for this – in general all rely on having good upfront requirements to deliver [...]
Using Virtualization to Extend The Hardware Lifecycle
Posted by on April 7, 2009
In harder economic times getting real money to spend on server refreshes is difficult. There are the arguments that new kit is more power efficient; supports higher VM/CPU core densities but the reality is that even if you can show a cost saving over time most current project budgets are at best frozen until [...]
Microsoft Virtualization User Group Meeting (UK)
Posted by on January 29, 2009
I’ll be attending this user group event this evening in London; if you’re local and interested then I believe it’s never too late to register. If you’re not local then you can view the webcast (details below) online Looks to be some interesting content, and always good to speak to customers who have done [...]
Windows Azure under the hood
Posted by on October 30, 2008
There is a an excellent video interview with Manuvir Das from the Azure team on the MSDN Channel 9 site here. The interview is quite long, but I’ve tried to summarise it for infrastructure people/architects like me as follows; Azure is an overall “OS” for the cloud, akin to VMWare and their VDC initiative [...]
Cloud Wars: VMWare vs Microsoft vs Google vs Amazon Clouds
Posted by on October 1, 2008
A short time ago in a data centre, far far away….. All the big players are setting out their cloud pitches, Microsoft are set to make some big announcements at their Professional Developer Conference at the end of October and VMWare made their VDC-OS announcements at VMWorld a couple of weeks ago, Google have [...]
Free EMC Celerra for your Home/Lab
Posted by on July 9, 2008
Virtualgeek has an interesting post here about a freely downloadable VM version of their Celerra product, including an HA version. This is an excellent idea for testing and lab setups, and a powerful tool in your VM Lab arsenal alongside other offerings like Xtravirt Virtual SAN and OpenFiler. I’ve been saying for a while [...]
