VMware

Join Kit Colbert in a walkthrough oveview of the VMware vCenter Operations Manager, a component of the vCenter Operations Management Suite. These are the new Features of VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite Editions.

New Operations Management Dashboard provides comprehensive views into health, risk and efficiency scores of your cloud infrastructure. Quickly drill down to see what’s causing current workload conditions, pinpoint potential problems in the future and identify areas with inefficient use of resources.

New Correlation of Performance and Change Events inside the guest operating system enable administrators to quickly understand and remediate performance issues arising from configuration changes.

New Compliance Checking of vSphere Hosts allow administrators to maintain a compliant infrastructure and automated the hardening of vSphere hosts with pre-built security and compliance guidelines.

New Smart Alerts provide pro-active notifications of building health, performance and capacity issues in the environment. Automated root cause analysis identifies the offending metric across all layers of the infrastructure.

New Capacity Planning, Reporting and Optimization views help administrators optimize VM density; identify areas of reclaimable waste and chronic capacity shortfalls. Configurable alerts notify of changing capacity conditions in production and non-production areas.

New Integrated Cost Metering and Reporting capabilities provide visibility into the financial value of consumed resources and enable administrators to optimize provisioned capacity for lowest cost without sacrificing performance.

New Discovery and Visualization of Application and Infrastructure Dependencies bring application-level awareness to infrastructure and operations teams to ensure service levels and disaster recovery protection for all critical application services. Application components and version numbers are named automatically and updated continuously.

The past year has been great. I’ve posted 269 articles at ntpro.nl which have been read by many visitors, got certified for both VCAP-DCA and DCD and VCP5. I’ve also received the vExpert and the VMware Certified Instructor Certificate of Achievement Award. Together with Mattias Sundling, I’ve presented well received sessions at the VMworld in Las Vegas and Copenhagen and also at the Dutch VMUG event. Besides that, I’ve recorded a lot of videos. These videos are available via ITunes and YouTube. This is a list of the 10  most popular videos. 

1.   Configure SNMP for ESX
2.   Using Private VLANs prevent VLAN exhaustion
3.   How to run Android in a VMware Virtual Machine
4.   Migrating from ESX 4.1 to ESXi 5.0
5.   How to deploy the Arista vEOS
6.   vSphere 5 Video - iSCSI User Interface
7.   VKernel Performance Analyzer
8.   The vSphere 5 Web Client
9.   vSphere 5 Video - ESXi Firewall Configuration
10. vSphere 5 Video - Storage DRS

I want to thank all of you, the readers and viewers of my articles and videos for their support and wish everyone a great 2012.

Join Arista and VMware technical leaders as they go in-depth into the new Virtual eXtensible LAN technology -VXLAN.  VXLAN delivers on the ability to execute Stateful Layer-3 vMotion's - the live migration of a workload to any server in the network, at any time, in seconds, regardless of the IP addressing topology of your infrastructure.  VXLAN overcomes the segmentation boundaries and broadcast domain constraints of 802.1q VLANs, replacing them with a more granular and scalable model for segmentation and scaling.  In this session you will learn about VXLAN, the framing format, encapsulation mechanism, how to prepare the network and infrastructure, and how to operate and troubleshoot this environment.

Please register and you will receive a confirmation email reserving your spot in this webinar! 

December 2, 2011 - 10:00am PDT

The ThinApp 4.7 release provides ThinApp integration with Horizon Application Manager, which includes the following features:

The ThinApp Setup Capture wizard includes an option to manage with Horizon Application Manager. When the checkbox is selected, ThinApp checks if the Horizon agent is installed natively on the client and is running. If the Horizon agent is found, the ThinApp package reports to the Horizon agent so that it can be controlled by Horizon Application Manager. Horizon Application Manager entitlement allows the delivery of ThinApp packaged applications to specified users and groups. The Horizon agent authorizes a ThinApp package to open, based on entitlements.

- ThinApp packages are registered by Horizon Application Manager and delivered to end points.
- The administrator can configure an Organizational URL for end points missing the Horizon agent.
- The administrator can track usage of ThinApp packages by using Horizon Application Manager monitoring and reporting.

VMware Pushes ThinApps to the Web
VMware ThinApp 4.7 Whats New
Horizonmanager.com

VMware Horizon Application Manager and ThinApp

In the ThinApp context, Horizon Application Manager provides a centralized administrative view that enables IT personnel to deploy, entitle and manage ThinApp application packages. Implementation of Horizon Application Manager is uncomplicated, and the only changes required in ThinApp is the selection of a check box in the Setup Capture Wizard. Horizon Application Manager checks the Active Directory for ThinApp packages. Currently, only EXE files from ThinApp packages can be managed through Horizon Application Manager.

ThinApp Packages are not stored in Horizon Application Manager, they remain on the network share and are downloaded to the entitled user's machine using BITS technology Each time that a user attempts to run a ThinApp virtual application, the Horizon agent verifies that there is an entitlement for the ThinApp package. If the user is entitled to use the application, the package launches. As long as the user remains entitled to use the application, the application is accessible. If an Administrator removes the entitlement, the Horizon Agent receives that change in entitlement and does not authorize subsequent launches. In addition, the Horizon Agent removes the package from the User Portal and the Horizon folder.

Assuming that a user is connected to the internet, their entitlement is verified every time that they open a virtual application. Because there are situations in which a user might not have internet access while using the application, a user's entitlement to use an application must be authenticated at least every thirty days. If authentication is not completed within this timeframe, the entitlement is withdrawn and the application cannot run. The Horizon Agent must be running on an end user's machine for a virtualized application to run.

VMware Horizon Application Manager is a hosted service that enables organizations to centrally manage the provisioning, access and usage of cloud, software-as-a-service (SaaS) and ThinApp-virtualized Windows applications. This solution enables IT departments to extend on-premises Active Directory identities to the public cloud, simplifying the security of application access. Unlike other federation solutions, Horizon Application Manager does not require an enterprise or public organization to make additional capital investments in complex and expensive hardware.

At its core, Horizon Application Manager includes an identity-as-a-service hub that securely extends a user's existing identity in systems such as Microsoft Active Directory into the cloud. This process simplifies the management of identities across multiple application types that are found in a typical enterprise. This simplification benefits both IT and users by collapsing separate identity silos into a single enterprise identity that can secure user access across private and public cloud resources.

In addition, managers have control over user access policies and are able to track user activity, via usage reports. Following installation, administrative tasks, such as user entitlement, matching Active Directory groups with applications, and so on, can be accessed through a Web portal.

End users open a single sign-on portal from which they have self-service access to the organization's application catalogue. Users can only open the applications to which they are entitled. They can easily move from application to application without having to re-enter their login credentials. Applications can be accessed across a broad
range of devices.

VMware has announced VXLAN, the Virtual Distributed Layer-2 Network IETF draft standard, of which Arista is a co-author. VXLAN is a special encapsulation mechanism that runs between virtual switches and enables virtual machines to be deployed and moved on or between any server within the network. The main benefits to the IT department in planning to support VXLAN is the ability to deploy a virtual machine on any server within the network, regardless of its IP subnet. This enables the IT department to create a scalable network architecture that supports capacity on demand and workload mobility regardless of geography and IP addressing. VXLAN requires no changes to the underlying IP addressing architecture and should require no major changes to installed infrastructure in the data center.

What is VXLAN?

Virtual eXtensible LAN is a new network encapsulation and segmentation mechanism that enables a VM to be deployed on any server, regardless of the IP subnet the physical ESX host is in. It accomplishes this by encapsulating the MAC and IP packets from the virtual NIC with a UDP header and then using IP multicast to emulate a broadcast domain. To get traffic in and out of this encapsulated 'virtual wire' the non-encapsulated traffic must go through a vShield Edge virtual machine acting as a VXLAN gateway. Performing these elegant L3-transparent migrations with L2-only storage transport technologies like FCoE is impossible.

http://www.aristanetworks.com/media/system/pdf/TechBulletins/VXLAN_Overview.pdf

I invite you to take a look at the 'Fall 2011 Arista Webinar Series' that kicks off at the end of September.  Arista will be joined by top industry partners to reveal the best practices of data centers, one vertical at a time.  Arista Tech Education - For Engineers, By Engineers.

Site Recovery Manager 5.0 provides additional features—vSphere Replication, automatic reprotection and failback, new means of handling dependencies and priorities, and a simpler user interface that you can leverage to extend your disaster recovery plan to cover even more of your business-continuity needs.

This guide provides you with step-by-step instructions on how to set up automated disaster recovery workflows using Site Recovery Manager, as well as information on other cutting-edge DR features in Site Recovery Manager. With Site Recovery Manager, you can design and implement a comprehensive disaster recovery plan for your virtual environment. After going through the evaluation exercises in this guide, you should be able to make the right choice to implement your disaster-recovery solutions in your virtual datacenter.

VMware-vCenter-Site-Recovery-Manager-Evaluation-Guide.pdf

The purpose of this guide is to support a self-guided, hands-on evaluation of SRM by IT professionals who are looking to automate their disaster recovery plans with SRM in their vSphere environment. The VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.0 Evaluation Guide is intended to provide SRM customers and evaluators a guide that walks them through the SRM workflow that must be completed to allow for the successful and automated service failover from the designated SRM protected site to the designated SRM recovery site.

VMware Workstation 8 provides a seamless way to access all of the virtual machines you need, regardless of where they are running.   Connect to Server enables remote connections to virtual machines running on VMware Workstation, VMware vSphere, and VMware vCenter.  Now you can work with local and server hosted virtual machines side by side within the same interface.  You are no longer constrained by the power of your PC to run multiple virtual machines at the same time.In this video you will see how easy you can add another instance of Workstation 8 but also the vCenter server to your inventory.


After you connect to a remote server, the remote host and remote virtual machines appear in the library. If the remote server is running vCenter Server, datacenters and folders appear in the library. To interact with a remote host, you select it in the library. The tasks that you can perform on a remote host appear on the tab for the remote host. For example, you might be able to restart, shut down, or suspend the remote host and create virtual machines.

To interact with a remote virtual machine, you select it in the library. You interact with remote virtual machines in the same way that you interact with local virtual machines, but some features and devices are not supported. Features that you cannot use with remote virtual machines include Unity mode, shared folders, AutoProtect snapshots, drag-and-drop, and copy and paste. Your permissions determine the actions that you can perform on remote hosts and remote virtual machines. When a feature is not supported, or when you do not have permission to use it, the associated menu item is unavailable.

• Remote Connections - VMware Workstation 8 provides a seamless way to establish remote connections to hosts running in Workstation, VMware vSphere, and VMware vCenter™.
• "Share" VMs - New in Workstation 8, users can share VMs so they can be accessed by teammates providing a quick way to test applications in a more production-like environment. 
• Upload to vSphere - Workstation 8 enables users to drag and drop a VM from a user's desktop to VMware vSphere. This feature allows users to deploy a complete application environment from a PC to a server for further testing, demoing, and analysis. 
• New User Interface - The VMware Workstation 8 user interface has been revamped with simplified menus, live thumbnails, improved preferences screens, and a new virtual machine library with enhanced searching. Users can now search and access a large library of virtual machines that can reside on your desktop, a server, or on another PC running VMware Workstation. 
• Improved Virtual Machine Capabilities - With support for HD audio with 7.1 surround sound, USB 3 and Bluetooth devices, Workstation 8 delivers new levels of virtual machine performance. In addition, improvements to virtual SMP, 3D graphics performance and new support for 64-GB RAM allows users to run the most demanding applications in a virtual machine. 

VMware has filed an intresting IETF internet draft.This document describes Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network (VXLAN), which is used to address the need for overlay networks within virtualized data centers accommodating multiple tenants. The scheme and the related protocols can be used in cloud service provider and enterprise data center networks.

VXLAN: A Framework for Overlaying Virtualized Layer 2 Networks over Layer 3 Networks.

http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-mahalingam-dutt-dcops-vxlan-00

Raising the Bar, Part V

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Time: 9:00 AM (PT) | 12:00 PM (ET) | 18:00 Amsterdam 

Please join VMware executives Paul Maritz, CEO and Steve Herrod, CTO for the unveiling of the next major step forward in Cloud infrastructure. Paul & Steve’s 45 minute live webcast will be followed by additional online sessions where you can learn more about the industry’s most trusted virtualization and cloud infrastructure products and services. Join VMware and experience how the virtualization journey is helping transform IT and ushering in the era of Cloud Computing.

To register, please go to: http://bit.ly/ihnk4P

VMware Compatibility Guide 2.0 Preview is now available, including the enhanced user interface and navigation with additional features and enhancements.

Rick Blythe over at VMwarewolf reports:

VMware has rolled out a new and improved compatibility web page. It is hoped this makes it easy to find compatible systems, I/O devices, storage and guest operating systems.   The 2.0 guide offers an enhanced look & feel, improved performance and new program information. The final preview is available now at this link.

http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/search.php

Simon Long and Simon Seagrave have launched a new website today. The website is called vBeers and was created to provide an opportunity for virtualization enthusiasts and professionals to meet and enjoy discussing all things virtualization and anything else in the world of tech.



Simon Long:

vBeers was created as a non-commercial event and is intended as something for the virtualization community by the community.  Despite the reference to beer in the name vBeers isn’t about just drinking beer but in fact encompasses all beverages alcoholic or non-alcoholic, it really doesn’t matter as the focus of vBeers is all about the socializing, meeting others and having a good conversation or two in a pleasant social setting.

vBeers meet ups are in no way intended to be exclusive to a particular virtualization hypervisor vendor and as such is open to everyone, so whether you are a VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer user/fan or none of the above it really doesn’t matter as “it’s all about the virtualization”.



vBeers.org is the place where vGeeks arrange their own worldwide vBeers meet-ups.