Quest Software

vRanger Backup & Replication 5 will be available for download January 31st, so let's see what is new:

• vReplicator integration 
   o vRanger Pro customers get replication at no additional cost
   o Shared advanced resource scheduler to minimize backup and replication window

• Linux File Level Restore 
   o Restore single files or folders

• Cataloging
   o Search files across all your savepoints, simplifies and make File Level Restore procedure much faster

• Fibre restore 
   o Restore your images over fibre
   o Faster and LAN-free

• Repository support for NFS and FTP
   o Additional protocol support to existing CIFS and SFTP

• vRanger PowerPack
   o Manage vRanger with PowerShell in PowerGUI
   o Does not require any PowerShell skills as it´s provided in the PowerPack
   o Allows you to do things not possible to do in the product

• Bugfixes

Scott Herold is happy to announce the release of the vEcoShell 1.2.6. It’s out of beta and officially has been deemed as a stable release. The list of features is quite limited, but the biggest change is multi session management which makes copying and pasting from the web and PS1 files possible. Under the hood every single script in the function library was re-written from scratch. Scott also has transferred the community homepage of The vEcoShell Initiative to Vizioncore’s vCommunity.



What's New with 1.2.6?

•Completely rewritten PowerPack to support VMware PowerCLU 4.0 Update 1 and its ability to manage connections to multiple $viServer objects.
•Ability to copy and paste code from "PowerShell Code" tab directly into standalone PS1 files (Will still need to Add-PSSnapin and Connect-VIServer for script to function).
•Ability to copy and paste code snippets from the internet and they will work without needing to add the $managedHost.connection code everywhere.

Download the latest version of vEcoShell and additional PowerPacks here.

Scott Herold about the GA: I am happy to announce that the 1.2.6 version of vEcoShell is now available on the Downloads Page. This update brings us into full compatibility with VMware PowerCLI 4.0 U1. In addition, we have decided to remove the product from beta and have provided our first stable release , which has been rigourously tested by the Vizioncore QC team. vEcoShell will remain Freeware, and continue to have a community support policy. The major difference in 1.2.6 is in how connections to multiple vCenter or ESX Servers are managed. In previous versions, vEcoShell maintained all session management and required custom code in nearly all of it's scripts to function properly. These scripts could not run externally to vEcoShell, so the PowerShell Code tab provided limited value. With the 1.2.6 release, vEcoShell now lets PowerCLI manage all connections. This means we were able to remove all custom code from our script library. Nearly every script that is in vEcoShell today can be run externally. Simply copy a code block from the "PowerShell Code"...

A few days ago, Scott Herold has released version 1.2 of the Virtualization EcoShell. This new version contains a very cool feature called “Best Practice Filters”. These filters allows you to easily perform daily checks of common faulty configuration issues like a Snapshot hunter, VMs with CROM Connected and Hosts with NIC at Half Duplex. I’ll give a demo of the Virtualization EcoShell 1.2 at the Dutch VMUG event and Scott is joining me on stage to do a sneak peak of the 1.3 version.  I couldn't wish for a better side-kick

http://thevesi.org

New in the Virtualization EcoShell 1.2 Release

•Charts Tab allowuing users to graph any information presented in the grid view using various chart formats
•Best Practices Filters allow customers to easly perform daily checks of common misconfigurations
•Custom Attribute Manager allows users to view all custom attributes and quickly modify custom attribute values against multiple entities
•Hyper-V PowerPack allowing administrators to manage indivdual Microsoft Hyper-V installations using PowerShell

David Feathergill, Chief Software Architect, Vizioncore, about the vAPI web service interface. While the vAPI web service interface acts as a facade, exposing services in the vRanger Pro 4.0 DPP platform to the outside world. The main areas that these services cover are: inventory, repositories, connections, and jobs. Developers can choose to expose functionality in their clients as they see fit. For example, an application may choose to observe events relating to jobs and display notifications about their completion and result. Another could create backup and/or restore jobs in vRanger and run them. For the administrator, we’ve created special vAPI clients, the PowerShell cmdlets.

The vAPI web service interface is developer focused, the PowerShell cmdlets are administrator focused. The set of cmdlets that we have created give the administrator open-ended access to the platform. By using these, we allow the administrator to integrate vRanger with third-party software and to create scripts automating the protection of their virtual infrastructure. The administrator’s abilities have been greatly enhanced compared to previous releases. We expose much more of our platform functionality than ever before, with 33 cmdlets covering the main functional areas of the vRanger platform.

Vizioncore's vControl is a multi-hypervisor virtual machine (VM) management tool that provides self-service provisioning, multi-VM control and task-based automation to reduce VM administration costs and improve consistency. vControl lets VM consumers build and deploy VMs for themselves, while providing administrators and datacenter managers with a single interface for task-based administration of VMs. Supporting VMware ESX/ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, and Sun Solaris Zones, and featuring out-of-the-box automation workflows, vControl offers users the power to dramatically reduce time wasted on unnecessary repetitive tasks across multiple platforms and to help reduce common administrative errors.

Key features of vControl include:

• Self-Service Provisioning
• Multi-VM Control
• Task Automation
• Task-Based High Availability (HA)
• Virtual Infrastructure Discovery

Continue reading "The launch of vControl" »

From April 28 to July 7, 2009, watch the video clues from the vzGirls - released every Tuesday and Thursday - and complete the entry form in its entirety. Download your official entry form here. There will be 15 winners that will each receive an iPod touch.

Chris Akerberg, President & COO, Vizioncore is pleased to introduce Vizioncorum – the official blogging site of Vizioncore. Why did Vizioncore take this step to launch this site now? As virtualization becomes more mainstream, they felt it would be very valuable to the community to voice their expertise and knowledge and make it available to both those new to virtualization and those longer-term users of the technology.

The Vizioncorum Blog Panelists are Jason Mattox, David Feathergill, Scott Herold, Thomas Bryant, Brad Wagner and the Vizioncore Sales Engineers.

http://vizioncorum.com/

Vizioncore has added ESXi support to vRanger Pro and improved the speed of the P2V engine.  In order to use vRanger Pro with ESXi hosts, you will need both vRanger 3.2.8.1 and the new VCB Plugin 3.0.0.1.

Vizioncore announced that its flagship backup and restore product for virtual machines – vRanger Pro – has been named in VMware’s VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) Partner Integration Guide. This guide will offer information on VMware Consolidated Backup integrations developed by VMware Technology Alliance Partners. The functionality described is supported by the partner Support
organization directly rather that by VMware Global Support Services.

This year’s Vizioncore Partner Reception was another memorable event with food, friends and fun.  Typically what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but about this event I want to brag to everybody that I was there. Vizioncore had reserved Tryst, one of the hottest clubs in Vegas, for the coolest cats in the world. The main room has an open air dance floor extending into a 90-foot waterfall, cascading into a secluded lagoon. While we were there, Viktor van den Berg made some photos and I’ve shot some video. Tryst. It's a word that evokes a thrilling, ultimate escape from the everyday. It's an exciting rendezvous, and there is no more fitting name for this sophisticated nightspot.

Vizioncore Partner Reception '08 from Eric Sloof on Vimeo.

Vizioncore has entered into an OEM Agreement with Dell.  Dell has been a partner of Vizioncore for more than two years.  By taking this strategic step, Dell will be able to offer Vizioncore's vRanger Pro, vReplicator, vFoglight (formerly vCharter Pro) and vConverter products directly to their customers. 

Vizioncore will be demonstrating a number of new and updated products at VMworld next month, and also offering ‘sneak previews’ of a couple of near term products. 

• Backup/Recovery with information about the re-engineered vRanger Pro 4.0
• VM Optimization and Storage Reclamation with the all new vOptimizer Pro designed for ESX in the data center
• Virtualization Performance Monitoring & Vizioncore's future chargeback capability
• P2V Server Consolidation and Disaster Recovery with vConverter 4.0
• Virtualization Workflow Automation and a new automation studio
• Heterogeneous Administration & Control and a new orchestration console

Vizioncore will be launching a training program during the month of August to cover their four main industry-leading solutions, including vCharter Pro, vRanger Pro, vReplicator and vConverter.  Courseware on these products will cover a spectrum of topics, including industry overview, customer requirements, installation, features details, troubleshooting and best practices. This training will be geared to technical professionals and will be offered only to Vizioncore Partners.

vReplicator 2.5 provides some excellent upgraded features to allow customers to leverage software-based replication and virtualization to drive their High Availability and Disaster Recovery strategies. vReplicator 2.5 offers several new major features that support these objectives, including the following:

• VSS (Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service) Support to enable quiescing of supported databases to ensure transactionally consistent image backups
• Two Types of Replication:  Differential, which allows customers to backup all the changed data since the last full back up, and Hybrid, to allow customers to schedule shorter replication intervals by backing up only the data that has changed from the last interval backup
• Replication of VMs to Multiple Destinations, which allows a company to accomplish multiple objectives for High Availability and Disaster Recovery
• Ability to Export Reports in Adobe® PDF, XML or Microsoft® Excel formats allowing data to be imported into third-party reporting tools
• Skipping VMDKs, which allows skipping of non-essential disks for faster replication passes

The result of this latest round of upgrades is that vReplicator 2.5 is now faster than ever – up to 10x speed improvements in the typical environment. The new features of vReplicator 2.5 will be outlined in detail during Vizioncore’s vReplicator Overview Webinar on July 3, 2008.