vAcademy

2012-01-26T16:25:00.000-08:00

Hersey's Vmware * Citrix Page

2011-10-08T07:19:00.001-07:00

Researchers create stealth virtual machine that can run alongside insecure VMs

2011-09-24T06:46:00.001-07:00

VCP 5 Study Guide

2011-09-15T11:59:00.001-07:00

Free Tools for VMware vSphere Video from VMworld 2011 Las Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

2011-09-08T11:11:00.001-07:00

Two phones, one device: Samsung to support VMware's Android virtualization push

2011-08-31T07:19:00.000-07:00

TBL Lunch & Learn - Cisco Collaboration Meets Virtualization - Virginia Beach Wednesday, September 14, 2011 from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM (ET)

How cyber crime gang stole $13 million in a day

2011-08-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

How cyber crime gang stole $13 million in a day

Set DPM and Enable it with vCenter Scheduled Task

2011-08-19T12:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a blog post I put together on setting up VMware DPM and then enabling (and disabling) it with a vCenter Scheduled Task - http://www.vhersey.com/2011/08/setting-up-dpm-and-using-vcenter-scheduled-task-to-turn-dpm-off-and-on

VMware Power Management or Distributed Power Management (DPM) powers down hosts when resources are not needed and powers the host on as the demand for resources increases. This feature has the potential to provide significant savings in power and cooling especially in a large cluster.

Have a great weekend.
Hersey - http://www.vhersey.com/

2011-07-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

Lunch and Learn - Virtualization Security @ Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

2011-07-16T08:02:00.001-07:00

What you need to know about vSphere 5's new pricing model

Everyone hates change

2011-07-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

I was concerned at first about VMware's changes in licensing but after reading the full details, I realize it’s not a big deal. The vRAM limitation only applies to Essentials and Essentials Plus licenses. Physical RAM is not limited, only the amount of RAM actually allocated to powered on VMs.

All the strum und drung about converting to HyperV is hot air. HyperV simply is not competitive at the enterprise level. Best reason to use Hyper V is that one gets to run 4 Server 2008 VMs with no additional licenses. That makes it very attractive to SMBs but HyperV has none of the enterprise class features of VMware vSphere.

Further, with vendors prepared to come out with tera-scale processors supporting hundreds of cores per processor, the removal of the CPU core limits is pretty attractive.

A two node, 4 processor system using Enterprise licenses will, by default, be entitled to 4 physical processors and 128GB of allocated virtual machine RAM which seems in line with reasonable CPU->RAM ratios (that’s 64 2GB VMs or 32 4GB VMs which is a lot to expect of two nodes with two CPUs each). So, in all, this is much ado about nothing in the end. People will complain and then they will pay. Some of the smaller shops may transition to other platforms but the midsize to enterprise customers will simply adapt.

2011-07-13T07:23:00.001-07:00

VMware vSphere 5 licensing sets virtual RAM limits

2011-07-13T07:03:00.001-07:00

Is it worth doing vSphere 4 certifications? Answer: YES!

2011-07-13T06:49:00.001-07:00

vSphere 5 takes on HP with virtual storage appliance

2011-06-30T06:49:00.001-07:00

8 Million Terabyte Storage Array!

2011-06-22T07:33:00.002-07:00

Summary of what's new in ESX 4.1 over 4.0

Summary of what's new in ESX 4.0 over 3.5

Storage I/O Control

2011-06-22T07:33:00.001-07:00

Dell DVD-Store E-Commerce Test Application for Benchmarking

2011-06-22T07:24:00.001-07:00

Tilera takes aim at Intel and AMD with 100-core chip

2011-05-20T05:11:00.001-07:00

TBL Lunch & Learn - “Windows 7 Migration and VDI” - Virginia Beach

Everything you need to know about snapshots

2011-05-10T12:35:00.001-07:00

Troubleshooing Virtual Machine snapshot problems

2011-04-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

Really Remote Data - Move Server Farms to Desert? Data Is Easier to Move Than Power, After All - from Devon

2011-04-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

VMware Forum coming to DC May 3rd - Free hands on labs!

Brown Bag Webinars

2011-03-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

Attended the Brown Bag webinar last night over at Professional VMware, very cool stuff.

http://professionalvmware.com/brownbags/

Register for the next one or watch the past ones.

Open shop talk at the end of the presentation is cool. Awesome hearing about how others are implementing virtual solutions and solving problems.

2011-03-02T05:48:00.000-08:00

State of VDI 2011 - Lunch & Presentation from PlanIT on 3-8-2011

2011-02-21T06:56:00.001-08:00

VMware Launches NEW Desktop Certification Program

2011-02-14T20:21:00.001-08:00

Juniper Introduces Virtualized Security Solution for Private and Public Clouds from Tarik

2011-02-08T06:23:00.000-08:00

VMware vSphere Security Hardening Report Check Perl Script from Hersey

2011-02-05T05:39:00.000-08:00

vSphere 4.1 Security Hardening Guide (Draft) from Tim

Super Bowl XLV - Cowboys Stadium Using VMware

2011-02-03T13:41:00.000-08:00

Great article on the technology infrastructure of Cowboys' Stadium

The old data center had more than 600 aging physical servers, which were converted to 127 virtual machines running on 16 different HP blade servers using VMware.

2011-02-03T11:25:00.001-08:00

VCP4 Exam Cram: VMware Certified Professional - Recommended by Devon

VMware Security Resource Center

2011-02-01T13:52:00.000-08:00

VMware Technical Resource Center
Security and Compliance in a Virtualized Environment
Our one-stop shop for all security related issues involving VMware products.

Public Draft of vSphere 4.1 Hardening Guide

2011-01-18T14:37:00.000-08:00

Public Draft of vSphere 4.1 Security Hardening Guide.
http://blogs.vmware.com/security/2011/01/announcing-vsphere-41-hardening-guide-public-draft-release.html

EMC Celerra VSA

2011-01-12T08:10:00.000-08:00

Looks like this should be a pretty good series on installing, configuring, and using the Celerra VSA (Virtual Storage Appliance).

http://www.techhead.co.uk/running-your-own-emc-celerra-uber-virtual-storage-appliance-vsa-in-your-vsphere-lab-part-1

Only part one is available so far...

Howto Openfiler iscsi ESX

2011-01-03T06:44:00.000-08:00

Configuring Openfiler iscsi for use with ESX

Yellow Bricks

2011-01-03T06:04:00.000-08:00

Lots of good information on esxtop, DRS and other stuff here. Several good references under the books tab.

2011-01-01T06:47:00.000-08:00

Michael sent me a link to this video/slide/talk that he says has the latest information about the VMware CLI's and API's.

iSCSI on VMware

2010-12-20T04:17:00.001-08:00

Excellent post on setting up iSCSI storage on vSphere. Includes setting up Round Robin Multipathing and configuring Jumbo Frames.

http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2009/09/a-multivendor-post-on-using-iscsi-with-vmware-vsphere.html

Chapter 2 of The Expert Guide to VMware Data Protection

2010-12-15T04:32:00.000-08:00

Chapter 2 of The Expert Guide to VMware Data Protection by Eric Siebert is now available for download.

This chapter covers backup and recovery methodologies, including traditional backup and recovery methods along with virtual environment backup methods that can be used to protect your virtual machine environment.

Download it for FREE here http://www.veeam.com/go/vmware-data-protection-disaster-recovery-expert-guide-c1/

If you missed it before Chapter 1 is also still available at the same link.

Opvisor - Cloud based VMware log analysis tool - Very Cool!

2010-12-15T04:17:00.000-08:00

Export your system logs for an ESX/ESXi server and upload them to opvisor. Opvisor then performs and analysis on the logs to identify any issues.

From the website it looks like the opvisor is currently in public beta and is expected for general release first quarter 2011. Opvisor will offer free and paid subscription options.

Could potentially save you hours of paging through system logs to find an issue.

https://opvizor.com/

vCenter as a VM

2010-11-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

Here is a paper from VMware

RVTools

2010-10-28T14:02:00.001-07:00

If you work with VMware you are probably familiar with this tool.

If you are new to virtualization or you are looking for a great tool to get a quick look at your environment (Host, VMs, Datastores, VM Tool installs, Snapshots, etc) this is it - Download RVTools Here (and it is FREE!)

What VMs currently have CDROMs connected?
What VMs do not have the latest version of tools installed?
What VMs have snapshots?
View free space on datastores and VM drives

Download RVTools Here

FREE e-Book Guide to VMWare Data Protection

2010-09-24T06:00:00.001-07:00

Veeam is giving away a Guide to VMware Data Protection e-Book by Eric Siebert

You have to register and it is being release one chapter at a time with a new chapter available every couple weeks. The first chapter, An Introduction to VMware Virtualization, is available now at http://www.veeam.com/go/vmware-data-protection-disaster-recovery-expert-guide-c1

VMWare Converter Tips

2010-09-24T05:16:00.001-07:00

Tips for doing Physical to Virtual (P2V) Conversions
http://vsphere-land.com/tips-tricks/converter-tips

This is another step that I add to the clean up after doing Win2K3 conversions
http://www.vmwareinfo.com/2008/07/speed-up-your-windows-2003-servers.html

There is some good best practice information in the VMware KB http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004588 and even a video http://blogs.vmware.com/kbtv/2010/01/best-practices-for-using-vmware-converter.html

2010-09-21T06:08:00.001-07:00

NC State, IBM Researchers Create 'Stealth' Hypervisor Security Tool

2010-09-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

VMware Is in Talks to Acquire Novell's Linux Software Unit
Blog: VMware is buying Novell
Blog: VMware – Novell SUSE Acquisition Rumors: Why it Makes Sense

2010-09-17T05:41:00.000-07:00

3d model of UCS hardware for those of us that may not be able to see it in person.

Enable SSH Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4.1

2010-09-14T04:01:00.000-07:00

Use vCenter to enable remote SSH access to Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4.1
http://www.virtual-blog.com/?p=222

2010-09-11T05:34:00.000-07:00

Building a cheap ESX Server for self-study

Virtualization Convergence with Cisco leading the charge

2010-09-10T12:18:00.001-07:00

Cisco UCS Platform - What CIO's should know
Whitepaper from VMWare
vBlock and Journey to the cloud Blog

Here is another good resource

2010-09-10T06:19:00.000-07:00

From a good vSpecialist at EMC Thomas Twyman

2010-09-10T06:10:00.000-07:00

Virtual Networking Concepts White Paper from James

2010-09-10T06:09:00.000-07:00

VMware Thin Provisioning and Fragmentation from Hersey

VMworld 2010 Kicks Off Today

2010-08-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

VMware's VMworld 2010 starts today in San Francisco.

If you were not lucky enough to attend you can keep up with what is going on by following http://twitter.com/vmworld or by following an attendee http://twitter.com/search?q=%23VMworld

VRA (VMware Related Acronyms)

2010-08-26T16:29:00.001-07:00

Just for a bit of fun/history.

In class vpxa was mentioned and here is blog post on what it officially/unofficially (???) stands for.

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2010/07/29/vmware-related-acronyms/

VPXA is the vCenter agent. VPX was the original designation for vCenter.

2010-08-20T04:35:00.000-07:00

From Hersey: Here are a couple resources for installing ESXi on a USB stick on Windows, Mac, and *nix (Ubuntu).

2010-07-27T08:38:00.000-07:00

Achieving Compliance in a Virtualized environment

2010-06-13T04:20:00.001-07:00

Cloud Computing with Secrets, but Keeping them Safe

2010-06-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

SAP Performance on vSphere

SAP's distributed landscape proves effective in vSphere

2010-06-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

SAP Solutions on VMware vSphere - Best Practices

2010-06-12T04:45:00.001-07:00

Virtualization Security - Achieving Compliance for the Virtual Infrastructure

2010-06-10T10:18:00.000-07:00

Monitor and enforce network traffic within your virtual datacenter from James

City of Norfolk hit with code that takes out nearly 800 PC's

2010-02-18T10:05:00.000-08:00

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/021810-city-of-norfolk-hit-with.html

2010-01-21T12:43:00.000-08:00

PC On A Stick/Secure Virtual Desktop From IronKey And Lockheed Martin

2009-12-03T06:56:00.001-08:00

Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Virtual Switch Configuration Guides from Chainman

2009-12-01T05:47:00.000-08:00

For anyone looking for an alternative to ESXi check out Citrix XenServer. It has a good feature list and is also free.

http://www.darknet.org.uk/2009/11/microsoft-confirms-first-windows-7-0-day-vulnerability/

2009-11-19T21:30:00.001-08:00

http://www.darknet.org.uk/2009/11/microsoft-confirms-first-windows-7-0-day-vulnerability/

2009-11-09T08:07:00.000-08:00

Release: VMware Workstation 7.0 / Player 3.0 / ACE 2.6

I like some of the new features, esp. the AES encryption

2009-11-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

VMware, Cisco and EMC form Virtual Computing Environment coalition. Why?

2009-11-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

How to get virtualization free -- from VMware

2009-11-06T06:15:00.001-08:00

Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac arrives

"Hidden Risks of Virtualization" Webinar

2009-10-21T05:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/seminars/virtualizationrisks

2009-10-20T07:36:00.000-07:00

The Cloud Trilogy: Episode 1 & 2

LOL

2009-10-20T07:29:00.001-07:00

Whitepaper: Performance Troubleshooting for VMware vSphere 4 and ESX 4.0

2009-10-20T07:28:00.001-07:00

Book: Administering VMware Site Recovery Manager available for free

2009-10-16T13:24:00.001-07:00

Linux virtualization and PCI passthrough

In honor of last nights joke from David:

2009-10-16T11:06:00.001-07:00

Article about Hypervisors for Desktops in Virtualization Review

2009-10-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

Hypervisors: Not Just for Servers Anymore

No Emergency Patch For Latest Windows Exploit

2009-10-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

... "
It seems like the exploit is more reliable with Windows on VMware, but honestly how commonly do you see that? " ...

http://www.darknet.org.uk/2009/10/no-emergency-patch-for-latest-windows-exploit/

2009-09-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

Free ebook(s) from VMGuru:
VMware Infrastructure 3: Advanced Technical Design Guide Downloads

2009-09-24T08:40:00.000-07:00

Cloud security through control vs.ownership

2009-09-23T06:46:00.001-07:00

Introducing workspace.com, a New Cloud Platform for Technology Teams

2009-09-23T06:39:00.001-07:00

Client-side virtualization goes bare metal

2009-09-21T06:18:00.003-07:00

ESXi Lockdown Mode Explained

2009-09-21T06:18:00.001-07:00

Cost-Per-App Talk Has People Thinking