Virtualization, Cloud, Infrastructure and all that stuff in-between
My ramblings on the stuff that holds it all together
Category Archives: VMWare
VMWare Fast Track VCP Course – Lights Out Edition
Posted by on April 9, 2008
I have been on a VMWare fast track course this week to complete my VCP cert; annoyingly the VCP is one of those vendor certifications where you need to prove you’ve sat the course as well as doing the exam to qualify as a “proper” VCP.
I’ve been doing it at QA-IQ in central London, and whilst I know most of the content its good for filling in the gaps and detail for the areas where my knowledge is high-level.
Unfortunately the building lost all power 1/2 way through yesterday and we had to finish the remaining theory for the day without PC’s or projectors etc. – full credit to the instructor who didn’t break a sweat doing so, I’d probably have sworn a lot more.
When I arrived this morning they still haven’t got power back on so the day has been cancelled, waiting for a call from our account manager to work out what to do next. it’s already a compressed version of 2 training courses and my schedule is pretty tight so wonder what’s going to happen.
EDF the electricity supplier are bringing in generators – so someone must have really broken it!
VMWare Workstation 6.5 Beta Open Now
Posted by on April 2, 2008
As of 1st April (not an April fools joke!) you can register for, and download the VM Worksation 6.5 beta programme here..
Main new features are;
- Use Unity to integrate your guest apps with your host
- More Powerful VM Record and Replay
- Support for Smart Cards & Smart Card Readers
- Enhanced ACE Authoring
- Link State Propagation Networking
- Improved 3D graphics Support
I’m most looking forward to being able to use Unity… very cool, have used it on the Mac with Fusion and Parallels equivalent, maybe now I will be able to run 2 instances of full-fat Outlook 2007 side by side, plugged into different Exchange mailboxes and orgs (maybe a bit overkill – but I have my reasons!)
How to Monitor VMWare ESX Servers from Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 (SCOM)
Posted by on March 26, 2008
Useful Document for getting your Network Teams up to Speed with VMWare and it’s Virtual Networking
Posted by on March 18, 2008
Doc from Cisco Here.
More Cheap ESX Servers
Posted by on March 14, 2008
Techhead has posted a nice article on his ML110 ESX test server, nice alternative to my D530 approach, he’s got a few more disks than I have.
Some Brief but useful notes for running Citrix under VMWare
Posted by on March 13, 2008
VMWare Vulnerability during VMotion.. is it really?
Posted by on February 27, 2008
As the Hoff posts here and on VMTN here. the proposed vulnerability that you can manipulate and possibly compromise a VM during a VMotion process isn’t exactly major, it’s clever.. but – like anything if you don’t follow the best-practice recommendations then you expose yourself to these risks… same reason they recommend you lock your server room or don’t have blank passwords – this attack is akin to gaining physical access to the hardware or being able to sniff a physical switch port – in this instance, it’s “virtual” hardware.
VMWare have always recommended keeping the VMotion traffic on a separate VLAN or network.
the other vulnerability where VMTools can be compromised on is different, but again preventable.. and not enabled on server instances of VMWare.
Running Exchange 2007 on VMWare ESX Server
Posted by on February 26, 2008
Interesting article here on some stress testing VMWare have done running Exchange 2007 under virtualization on VI3.5.
It’s working.. .and working well, now – official support?
P2V Backup & Disaster Recovery
Posted by on February 20, 2008
There is a new site here (disclaimer: it does seem to be promoting a commercial service, but has some useful information that has been put into the public domain); describing some methods to roll your own P2V backup approach; I’ve not read in detail yet; but looks like Frane Borozan has solved some of the challenges I’ve encountered in the past automating the Free VMWare Convertor tool.
When I get some time I will revisit my build a better test lab series (and update it!) I hope to be able to integrate some of Frane’s ideas.
Thanks to Techhead for passing on the link; we worked together on the platform underlying the Build a better test lab series and he did a lot of work on the P2V and post-P2V automation tasks – he’s got a lot of handy scripts for doing this on an HP platform
Virtualized DR is going to be big this year; I have a long line of customers with this high on their list of priorities… Both for cross site 100% VMWare implementations and for the ability to backup/restore physical platforms to VMWare grid in a DR situation.
It just makes so much sense; no delay whilst racking & stacking recovery kit or problems restoring to different hardware etc. your admin’s can even do it from home – which can have some significant advantages in the event of a natural disaster like Katrina or floods like we had over the last couple of years in the UK
PlateSpin Forge is something we are seriously looking at as well as Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery Server Edition (who win a prize for extending the longest, most annoying product name! despite acquiring it from Veritas).
Will be an interesting year; I’m sure Sungard and all those recovery centre facilities will be moving to a grid/resource rental model rather than pure rack/floor space and retained hardware on-contract.
Virtual Centre Plug-in Repository
Posted by on February 18, 2008
Virtualization, Cloud, Infrastructure and all that stuff in-between 