As a start don’t let the title fool you this is not related only to Microsoft virtualization, but to every virtualization platform out there. Don’t let vendors mislead you as the saving can be higher on Microsoft Licenses with non Microsoft Hyper-visor like VMware where you can put more virtual machines on the same hardware box. Ok, so clearing the confusion out of the way read below to find out what I am talking about.

Being on the consulting role, I get to meet customers everyday on all levels (Administrators, Managers, CEOs,  Directors, Business). When they ask our advice on consolidating their enviornment & I bring the idea of virtualization one question I get hammared with every time ” How would paying for virtualization licensing is going to save us money?”.  Below are some of our & yours traditional answers & how a stubrn customer will reply to it:

– You will Save Space (I have a large DataCenter & Space does not matter to me at the moment)

– You will save on Hardware ( I can buy non branded cheaper 1u servers for the price of the licenses)

– You will Save on Power (My department is not billed for Power, or power is so cheap in here … ah remember I am working in the gulf region at the moment where electricity is very cheap.)… Read More

Haha finally at VMworld Europe. What an event!!!

I will keep posting new discoveries on here. The first thing that got my attention as many of you who is attending is the nice free gadgets are available at the different booths. Free is always good is not it.

Though the Free SvSAN offered at booth 59 is really worth your visit to that booth. If you are attending & have not visited Booth 59 then try to hurry before they run out which I belive will not be too long before then with the crowd at the booth.

the SvSAN they offering is yours to keep for life. I believe it will be great for testing to be able to simulate SAN using a local Harddrive & test all the advanced features of VMware. This is can be great for proof of concepts from your TP or just for your own testing. Below is another 11 reason posted on the VMworld site for visiting Booth 59 by Abhik Mitra:

1.) IT’S FREE AS LONG AS YOU PICK UP YOUR KEY, OTHERWISE IT’S $995

2.) THIS IS NOT A 30 DAY FREE TRIAL – THE SOFTWARE IS YOURS FOR LIFE!

3.) TURN INTERNAL DISK DRIVES INTO A VIRTUAL SAN

4.)… Read More

VMware has updated and made significant improvement to its VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) best practices. One of the most important changes is the possibility of backing up virtual machines using the API Microsoft VSS (Volume Shadow Services), which ensures the consistency of the file system as well as the transaction applications within the virtual machine.

During VMWorld ‘08 in Las Vegas, it was also said that VCB will evolve in the not too distant future and will be integrated as a plug-in within VirtualCenter. This would make installation, configuration and deployment of this framework backup much easier.

You can download the document here.

Thank you Jose Maria Gonzalez for your great insight into the latest news in the virtualization world.… Read More

VMware has recently published several very informative technical documents about its new virtualization workstation, VMware View.

If you want to have an architecture reference as well as a better idea how to measure the storage backend in these solutions, these documents will definitely get you on the right track.

Storage Design Options for VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Manager 3 VMware admin guide

VMware View Reference Architecture Kit (registration required)

After you read these three documents, you will be one of the few people that are familiar with the new VMware virtualization workstation.

Happy reading!

This post is based on an article in Spanish by Jose Maria Gonzalez. … Read More

As we have previously described, SCVMM integrates a centralized administration system of various virtualizors, including VMware ESX.

In this post, we’ll see just how to manage VMware ESX from SCVMM.

To do this, we need to have VMware Virtual Center in addition to VMware ESX.

The first step is to add Virtual Center to SCVMM.

To do this, we will use the Add VMware VirtualCenter Server option.

Once this step is complete, we will see the Virtual Center datacenter in our SCVMM as if it were a Host Group.

In this case, it is called Lab and it appears as Lab Datacenter.

Now we will add VMware ESX.

To do this, we will use the Add Host option.

In this wizard, we will use the Add VMware ESX Server Host (Any Location) option.

Put the appropriate credentials.

Next to the IP of the ESX Server, it is important to import the certificate with Retrieve.

Then, Add Host.

Click Next to get the summary.

And finally, Add Host.

Done!

Thanks to ponicke for providing the inspiration for this article.… Read More

The developers of VMware have released a new update for the ESX Server that eliminates three vulnerabilities from the past versions.

Among the vulnerabilities corrected is an error in the SNMPv3 application, an error that we have known about since the middle of the year. It blocks the authentication function, allowing attackers to access the server.

The update also eliminates a vulnerability related to buffer overflow in the libtiff graphics library, which allows attackers to insert arbitrary code and run it through TIFF files.

The update also removes a bug in the libxml2 library that kills the application.

You can find more detailed information about the changes to the new version on the official VMware website. You can also find links to updates for the different versions.

Thanks to edtape for providing the inspiration for this article.… Read More

The ISO of ESX 3.5 Update 3 is already available to download. I am sure that with this version, VMware made sure not to make the same mistakes again.

Among the new features are:

An increased limit from 8 to 20 vCPUs per core. While it may be of interest for some VDI environments with very low consumption, I think it’s very risky to have that many virtual machines per server.
VMDK Recovery Tool: Allows us to recover vmdks or VMFS volumes that were accidentally deleted;

Support for IBM SVC in both MRU and FIXED modes;

Support for new hardware, and

Support for Solaris 10U5, Ubuntu 8.04.1 and RHEL 4.7.

Release Notes:
http://www.vmware.com/support/vi3/doc/vi3_esx35u3_rel_notes.html

Thank you Alberto Gonzalez Martos for inspiring this article.… Read More

It often happens that the top of the class makes a big mistake. Invariably, the ones at the bottom of the class giggle and make fun of the misfortunes of others. The problem with the recent blunder by VMware is that no one is laughing. The world’s virtualization leader, whose hypervisor represents nearly 95% of the market, has effectively “forgotten” to take out a part of the code from VMware ESX Server 3.5 Update 2, which disables the product that was passed August 12. This time bomb, apparently inserted during the beta phase of the product, was not removed. As a result, thousands of servers that upgraded to the latest version of the software began to malfunction at midnight. The main problem: an inability to start new VMs on the affected servers. In the physical world, this equates to a huge amount of servers persistently refusing to start. Nothing really serious, just a catastrophic problem on the level of a datacenter… The only consolation is that VMs that have already been started will continue to operate normally until they are restarted.

Even with all of this damage, we must recognize that VMware has responded quickly and seriously. The publisher officially acknowledged its blunder on August 12 and issued the first urgent message to its clients at 11:30 p.m.… Read More

Recently, I needed help with Unix to solve a problem with a network card that was identified as “undetectable” by ESX 3.5 of an Ubuntu virtual machine. Actually, the problem was that I could not configure the network because it was not detected by the system.

First, I thought that I needed to install the VMware tools on this system but I had no clue how to do this. I assumed that it was the same method as any other virtual machine (in the toolbar, Inventory -> Virtual Machine -> Install / Upgrade VMware Tools). But, after connecting to the VMware console, I saw that VMware was started but never finished.

In the virtual machine options, I realized that an ISO was configured as part of the CD.

I connected to the console of the Ubuntu virtual machine:

As a logged-in user, I executed the order sudo su to enter as a root user.

I set up the CD-rom drive: mount /media/cdrom0.

I found a compressed file, VmWaretools-3.5.0-82663.tar.gz, that I copied and decompressed into a temporary folder:

cd /media/cdrom0

cp VmWaretools-3.5.0-82663.tar.gz /tmp/

tar -xvf VmWaretools-3.5.0-82663.tar.gz

cd vmware-tools-distrib

Then, I launched the installation: ./vmware-install.pl

For all the questions that popped up, I clicked Enter to leave all the defaults.… Read More