Tools - 26

VMware Labs presents its latest fling XVP Manager and Converter - that helps manage non-vSphere hypervisor. VMware vCenter XVP Manager and Converter provides basic virtualization management capabilities for non-vSphere hypervisor platforms towards enabling centralized visibility and control across heterogeneous virtual infrastructures. It also simplifies and enables easy migrations of virtual machines from non-vSphere virtualization platforms to VMware vSphere.

Key Features - Management of the following Microsoft Hyper-V platforms

o Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008
o Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (64-bit) with Hyper-V role enabled
o Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2
o Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V role enabled

• Familiar vCenter Server graphical user interface for navigating through and managing non-vSphere inventory
• Ease of virtual machine migrations from non-vSphere hosts to vSphere inventory
• Compatible with VMware vCenter Server 4.0 & 4.1
• Scalable up to management of 50 non-vSphere hosts

Be one of the first one to try, rate and comment - http://labs.vmware.com/flings/xvp.

https://www.youtube.com/user/vmwarelabs

RVTools is a windows .NET 2.0 application which uses the VI SDK to display information about your virtual machines and ESX hosts. Interacting with VirtualCenter 2.5, ESX 3.5, ESX3i, ESX4i and vSphere 4 RVTools is able to list information about cpu, memory, disks, nics, cd-rom, floppy drives, snapshots, VMware tools, ESX hosts, nics, datastores, service console, VM Kernel, switches, ports and health checks. With RVTools you can disconnect the cd-rom or floppy drives from the virtual machines and RVTools is able to list the current version of the VMware Tools installed inside each virtual machine. and update them to the latest version.

http://www.robware.net/

  Pass-through authentication implemented. Allows you to use your logged on
Windows credentials to automatically logon.
  All numeric columns are now formated to make it more readable.
  On vInfo the columns Commited, Uncommited, Shared and on vSnapshot the
column size are now formated in MBs instead of bytes.
  New tabpage created with service console and VMKernel information.
  Now using vSphere Web Services SDK 4.1 which supports the new features
available in vSphere 4.1
  Export to csv file now uses Windows regional separator
  using NPOI to make it possible to write directly to xls files without the need for a
installed Excel version on the system.
  New menu function to write all information to one excel workbook with for each
tabpage a new worksheet.
  new command line options. Check the documentation!

VMware Labs presents its latest fling IOBlazer - a multi-platform storage stack micro-benchmark tool. IOBlazer started as a minimalist MS SQL Server emulator which focused solely on IO component. It has now matured into a scalable application with multi-platform support, capable of generating highly customizable workload by configuring parameters like:

• IO size and pattern
• Burstiness (number of outstanding IOs)
• Burst interarrival time
• Read versus write mix

Be one of the first one to try, rate and comment - http://labs.vmware.com/flings/ioblazer.

IOBlazer is a multi-platform storage stack micro-benchmark. IOBlazer runs on Linux, Windows and OSX and it is capable of generating a highly customizable workload. Parameters like IO size and pattern, burstiness (number of outstanding IOs), burst interarrival time, read vs. write mix, buffered vs. direct IO, etc., can be configured independently. IOBlazer is also capable of playing back VSCSI traces captured using vscsiStats. The performance metrics reported are throughput (in terms of both IOPS and bytes/s) and IO latency.

IOBlazer evolved from a minimalist MS SQL Server emulator which focused solely on the IO component of said workload. The original tool had limited capabilities as it was able to generate a very specific workload based on the MS SQL Server IO model (Asynchronous, Un-buffered, Gather/Scatter). IOBlazer has now a far more generic IO model, but two limitations still remain:

1.The alignment of memory accesses on 4 KB boundaries (i.e., a memory page)
2.The alignment of disk accesses on 512 B boundaries (i.e., a disk sector).
Both limitations are required by the gather/scatter and un-buffered IO models.

A very useful new feature is the capability to playback VSCSI traces captured on VMware ESX through the vscsiStats utility. This allows IOBlazer to generate a synthetic workload absolutely identical to the disk activity of a Virtual Machine, ensuring 100% experiment repeatability.

Veeam has launched a new program as part of a holiday present for the VMware community.
Going forward, anyone who is a VCP, vExpert, VCI or VCDX can get a 2 socket NFR license for both Veeam ONE and Veeam Backup & Replication.

The registration page is here: http://www.veeam.com/nfr/free-nfr-license

Doug Hazelman has posted a blog about it at: http://www.veeam.com/blog/happy-holidays-from-veeamnfrs-for-vcps-vcis-and-vexperts.html

Veeam Software, innovative provider of VMware data protection, disaster recovery and VMware management solutions for virtual datacenter environments, today announced that Veeam Backup & Replication™ v5 with vPower™ is now available free to all VMware vExperts, VMware Certified Professionals, and VMware Certified Instructors. Any vExpert, VCP or VCI can receive a free two-socket software license (valued at approximately $1,800) for non-production use, including training, evaluation and development.

Symantec VirtualStore is a highly scalable, clustered NAS solution for VMware virtual machine management. Based on the Veritas Storage Foundation Cluster File System from Symantec, VirtualStore solves the storage challenges of virtual infrastructures with features that provide rapid provisioning of servers and virtual desktops, and efficient cloning and boot up of virtual machines, all through VMware vCenter, their management console.

• Advanced Storage Virtualization. VirtualStore is a highly scalable, clustered NAS solution that reduces storage costs associated with virtual machine sprawl and improves the performance of virtual infrastructures with built-in acceleration for serving up VMware virtual machines.

• Space-efficient Virtual Machine Provisioning. Built-in cloning and provisioning functionality captures spaceoptimized snapshots of virtual machines for significant storage savings.

• Single Management Console. Integration with VMware vCenter provides end-to-end virtual machine management from a central location.

• Enhanced End-user Virtual Desktop Experience. Patented solution for caching virtual images addresses the challenge of multiple users booting up their virtual machines simultaneously.

http://www.symantec.com/business/virtualstore

Veeam has released The First Annual Report on VMware Data Protection. They hired an independent research firm, to survey 500 enterprises CIOs. Vanson Bourne, an independent market research organization, conducted an online survey in August 2010 of 500 CIOs from organizations across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France that employ more than 1,000 people.

FirstAnnualReportonVMwareDataProtection-SurveyResults.pdf