Eric Sloof - NTPRO.NL

Viktor van den Berg (the professional photographer) created a nice ESX 3i presentation. It’s in Dutch but  if you are not familiar with this language, you should still take a look at the really nice screenshot’s. Viktor posted the article on the Dutch Vmug.

Thomas Bishop AKA Tommy over at "Scale The Mind" created two real cool YouTube videos. On the first one he shows ESX 3i running within VMware Fusion. The second one shows the ESX 3i interactive shell.  Thomas and I are running parallel with the discovery of new ESX 3i features, we both found out how to run ESX 3i in a virtual machine and we also discovered some of the additional commands you could use during the bootstrap.  Thomas about the interactive shell : "The fact that it is possible to easily get an interactive shell with ESX 3i is going to prove to be a valuable resource in learning about the internals of it.  It looks like it is heavily dependent on a number of open source packages (no surprise there)". J Hicks joked about all the ESX 3i information and stated that we have ESX 3i running on an iPhone in no time.

When I was stumbling through the VMTN Discussion Forums I found a thread about  VMware ESX 3i Server. One little post from Olivier Crémel   over at VMware caught my attention. It’s dealing with the boot options you can use during the initial startup of ESX 3i. When you press <SHIFT> o during the bootstrap you can put in additional commands. The only command Olivier Crémel   revealed was the nousbBoot option but there must be more. Finally I opened the ESX 3i kernel in a hex editor and found  the complete list. Some of these commands have great potential.

maxPCPUS serialPort overrideSerialPortAddr baudRate
fakeNUMAnodes cpuCellSize netNumPortsets netNumGPBuffers
netMaxPCPUPktCacheSize  netPktNumSlabSizes netPktHeapMinSize
netPktHeapMaxSize storageHeapMinSize storageHeapMaxSize
passthruMem BOOTIF BOOTUUID  clockMultiplierMayVaryPerNode
memmapMaxPhysicalMemMB acpiDbgLevel nouseNUMAInfo
nompsIntRouting noforceCRS noACPI noexecutePOST 
nopageSharing nomemCheckEveryWord nohyperthreading
nologicalApicId nodumpDiag  norealNMI nologOnScreen
nonetESX2LegacyMode  nonetPktBufUseSlab nonetPanicBadDevOpen
nonetUseProc nonetUseMemcpyNt noioapic nopassthruEnabled
novga64 nosmallFontForTTY noauditMode noshell nopasswdReset
nousbBoot nouwSwap nobusSpeedMayVary noclockMultiplierMayVary
noassumeCommonBusClock noassumePerNodeBusClock 
nobusSpeedMayVaryPerNode  notimerEnableTSC notimerForceTSC
notimerEnableHPET notimerEnableACPI notimerEnableMPMC
nomemmapStressHighBitMPNs nopanicOnVmkernelAbort noconsole
noxapicAMDDetect noxapicForce nocheckCPUIDLimit novmkKeyboard
novmkTerminals nouseTSCForCPUHz nodebugBreak nologSynchronous
nofastHzEstimate buddyPhysicalMemoryDebugStruct
noclockMultiplierMayVaryPerNode
nobuddyPhysicalMemoryDebugStruct BootConfig_LogOptions
BootUser

Since my memory stick is broken I had to find out how I could carry on with exploring the new futures of ESX 3i. I was lucky; one of my fellow VMware trainers was willing enough to provide me with an image of his USB stick. What I did is use an existing virtual machine and added a one gigabyte hard disk. I downloaded Selfimage and placed the ESX 3i image on the new disk. I disconnected the disk and created a new virtual machine. I have chosen for “other Linux� with one gigabyte memory and two network adapters and connected the ready made “one gigabyte disk� as an existing disk. The last step was powering on the new VM. You see the result in the screen dump.

The ESX host is running so it’s time for the next step. The wizard shows the following message: “Your VMware ESX Server does not have any persistent storage. In order to run virtual machines, you must create at least one data store where virtual machines and other system files will be maintained�. Let’s do it. I created a PDF document (datastore.pdf) with some screen shots. Then the trouble started. The final screenshot shows an error message and I thought lets use a real server instead of a desktop. I placed the USB key in a HP Proliant DL380 G5 and it wouldn’t boot from USB. When I got back to my desktop I discovered that the USB key is totally empty and doesn’t boot anymore . Maybe someone at VMware can put a ghost image online? I received a lot of requests to share my copy and pbraren found out how to duplicate the USB key.

VMware announced that it has filed a 10-Q for the second quarter of 2007 with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).  A summary of the company’s second quarter financial information was disclosed earlier this year in the company’s S-1 registration statement.  The 10-Q, which includes detailed information for the quarter ending June 30, 2007, is available online.

I hope you have enjoyed VMworld 2007. This year's event featured more than 10,800 attendees and 147 sponsors and exhibitors this year, compared to 7,000 attendees and 82 sponsors and exhibitors last year. There were also more than 250 breakout sessions and 100 hands-on labs to participate in, making VMworld 2007 the most exciting and interactive conference devoted to virtualization. But it’s not over yet. VMworld.com now extends the success of the VMworld conference to an online virtualization destination open to anyone to learn and share what they know about virtualization. VMworld.com is an independent virtualization resource available 24x7. While not a replacement for the unique face-to-face networking opportunity of the conference, you can now get access to valuable information and conference sessions, talk with vendors, get tips and tricks from other virtualization users, and hear the latest virtualization buzz every day online. Access the latest resources and information you need to make informed decisions about implementing virtualization.

Plugins extend the capabilities of VirtualCenter by adding features and functionality not present in the base product. Generally, plugins have a server component and a client component. After the server component of a plugin is registered with a VirtualCenter server, the client component is available to all VirtualCenter clients connected to that VirtualCenter server. Users can download the client component of the plugin through the VirtualCenter client plugin manager. Users can select to enable or disable plugins installed in their VirtualCenter client. Disabling a plugin does not uninstall it from the client; it merely disables the functionality of the plugin. The VirtualCenter client interface might change after a plugin is enabled. New views, tabs, menus, and menu options related to the plugin's features are added to the interface. Existing interface items are not affected. The base product and plugins can be upgraded independent of each other. To reach the plugin manager, select Plugins > Manage Plugins.

I got back from San Francisco and was unpacking my suitcase. I noticed the USB key I received when I picked up my T-Shirt and thought lets give it a try. This USB key contains a beta version of VMware ESX 3i – the next generation, thin hypervisor integrated into server hardware, providing the foundation for a virtual infrastructure. With this thin architecture, ESX Server 3i brings unprecedented levels of security, reliability and manageability to the IT infrastructure. I placed the memory stick in a Compaq EVO D50 desktop PC. After one or two minutes the kernel was loading and suddenly my VMware ESX Server 3i server was running.  I downloaded the new VI client version 2.1.0 build 54592 and installed it on my workstation. The next steps are configuring the storage and create a virtual machine. Stay tuned.

Well, it’s the last day of the VMworld 2007 in San Francisco. I collected some video footage. We start with the beautiful large wall at the entrance. You can also take a peek at the blogging tables where some very famous people are present. And a small part of the exhibition hall. But in the biggest part of this video you will see Rob Bastiaansen presenting “Linux tip and tricks� at the VMworld. Rob is a VMware certified instructor and also has a lot of other activities besides his work as a consultant and trainer. He is also a freelance journalist for a number of Dutch IT magazines.  It was a pleasure to bring my daily reports and I hope you have enjoyed them. Eric Sloof is signing off.

The professional photographer Viktor van den Berg shoot some really nice pictures today.

Mendel Rosenblum, Chief Scientist and Co-Founder, VMware, Inc. led us through some upcoming technologies like storage Vmotion, streaming VM's, hardware fault tolerance and directions for VMware products with a focus around this new world of mobility.

This night we indulged in all that San Francisco has to offer, the diverse cultures, food, neighborhoods and nightlife. We visited the VMworld 2007 Streets of San Francisco Party. We checked out each unique area and experienced the best of San Francisco’s great neighborhoods. And we didn’t miss all the local entertainment, the performers at the party all came from the San Francisco bay Area. I made a video impression and uploaded it to my YouTube page.

                                 

The professional photographer Viktor van den Berg shoot some really nice pictures today.

Bouke Groenescheij delivered his “Clustering How-To“ presentation at the VMworld 2007 event. I have never seen 250 people so enthusiastic about clustering. Bouke is a VMware certified instructor and owner of Jume, a company that delivers consultancy and training services. His presentation was dealing with Microsoft clustering in a VMware HA environment and is rated as one of the best. The Complete Clustering How-To with VMware and Microsoft Cluster Server presentation will be available on the VMware site. I made a brief video compilation and placed it on my YouTube page. The professional photographer Viktor van den Berg shoot some really nice pictures today.

This morning Mike Laverick and I sat side to side blogging live at the Wednesday keynote. We were not the only live bloggers. The others are Scott Lowe,  Bob Plankers , Bouke Groenescheij, Viktor van den Berg  and Alessandro Perilli.  The frist keynote was a bit boring and Mr. Chambers from Cisco talked like he was standing in a church . At the end of the keynotes and the discussion panel I grabbed my recording device and asked Mike Laverick from RTFM-Education a few questions. You will hear all about the keynote and when we can expect the VI 3book !!! Use this link to listen to the interview.The professional photographer Viktor van den Berg shoot some really nice pictures today.

At VMworld 2007, VMware, Inc., the virtualization leader, today announced that more than 300 academic institutions are participating in its Academic Program in which its products and resources are available free-of-charge to qualified academic institutions for research and teaching and its source code is made available to qualified academic institutions for research and publication.