Eric Sloof - NTPRO.NL

VMware View Evaluator's Guide

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:45:28 +0200

The purpose of this document is to support a self-guided, hands-on review of VMware View 5. The content is intended to show how easily you can set up a VMware View 5 environment so you can evaluate both new and important capabilities. These capabilities include creating and managing virtualized desktops, and validating the suggested use cases.

The guide is divided into the following main sections:

1. Key New Features of VMware View 5

2. Description of VMware View Components

3. Setting Up a View Evaluation Environment

4. Evaluation Tasks

An appendix includes the evaluation tasks from the View 4.6 Evaluator’s Guide, so that you can test those features if you have not yet done so. This document assumes you have basic knowledge of VMware vSphere™ or VMware ESX™ or ESXi™, and are comfortable configuring networking and storage in a virtual environment.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/view/VMware-View-Evaluators-Guide.pdf

Database workload testing with Dell DVD Store

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:04:27 +0200

The DVD Store Version 2 (DS2) is a complete online e-commerce test application, with a backend database component, a web application layer, and driver programs. The goal in designing the database component as well as the midtier application was to utilize many advanced database features (transactions, stored procedures, triggers, referential integity) while keeping the database easy to install and understand. The DS2 workload may be used to test databases or as a stress tool for any purpose.

The distribution includes code for SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL and PostgreSQL.Included in the release are data generation programs, shell scripts to build data for 10MB, 1GB and 100 GB versions of the DVD Store, database build scripts and stored procedure, PHP web pages, and a C# driver program.

http://linux.dell.com/dvdstore

Duco Jaspars at vConsult goes live

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:31:00 +0200

Fellow vExpert Duco Jaspars finally decided to start his own VMware blog. His website can be found at blog.vconsult.nl. Duco who works as a Virtualization Consultant is a well-known figure in the virtualization community. He has helped many people with advice and guidance but he has made an art of arranging free goodies, not only for his own use but also for other virtualization friends Keep an eye out for blog.vconsult.nl - there are already some interesting articles available.

Cool Tool - Cloud Resource Meter

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Fri, 11 May 2012 08:32:37 +0200

6fusion’s Cloud Resource Meter is a VMware vApp that allows you to profile any vSphere 4.1 or 5.0 environment and evaluate the cost of running that environment in the cloud – all for free and all right from the vSphere Console. Cloud Resource Meter installs in your VMware vSphere environment in minutes and allows users to view “real time” computing consumption information at a glance for the entire system, any vSphere grouping of VMs, or for each VM in the infrastructure.

Cloud Resource Meter comes in two versions Free and Pro. When you sign up and download the application, you are automatically set up with the Free Plan. If you need more, you can choose to upgrade to the Pro Plan from within the application. Take a look at the intrudcution video here.

Free ebook - The Debian Administrator’s Handbook

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:55:45 +0200

Accessible to all, this book teaches the essentials to anyone who wants to become an effective and independent Debian GNU/Linux administrator. It covers all the topics that a competent Linux administrator should master, from the installation and the update of the system, up to the creation of packages and the compilation of the kernel, but also monitoring, backup and migration, without forgetting advanced topics like SELinux setup to secure services, automated installations, or virtualization with Xen, KVM or LXC.

Raphaël Hertzog and Roland Mas are pleased to announce that — after 5 months of work — the Debian Administrator’s Handbook is now available, both as a beautiful 495-page paperback and as an ebook (PDF, EPUB, MOBI formats).

Video - How to enable the Storage Accelerator in VMware View 5.1

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:29:52 +0200

This video discusses and demonstrates the new Storage Accelerator (Host Caching) feature that is available in the upcoming release of VMware View 5.1. It features Cormac Hogan who is a Senior Technical Marketing Architect for Storage at VMware. Follow and interact with Cormac Hogan on Twitter via the @VMwareStorage handle and keep updated with all things related to VMware Storage initiatives by subscribing to the blog at http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/storage/

New Book - VMware View 5: Building a Successful Virtual Desktop

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:11:56 +0200

Discover the powerful and cost saving new virtualization opportunities on the client side with VMware View 5! In VMware View 5: Building a Successful Virtual Desktop, leading virtualization consultant Paul O'Doherty teaches the essentials of View, bringing together critical information, deep insights, and best practices drawn from his extensive experience deploying virtual desktop technology in many of today's most demanding business environments. O'Doherty walks through every step of View, from the earliest planning phases through configuration, implementation, and management. He illuminates crucial considerations ranging from changes to end-user experience and support considerations through performance management. Readers will learn how to plan and smoothly stage virtual desktop infrastructure deployments, and avoid pitfalls associated with latency, scalability, storage, and networking. Using this book's proven techniques, virtualization professionals can achieve the full promise of virtualized desktops, dramatically improving system administration productivity while building environments that are more flexible and easier to manage.

Now available in Rough Cuts - The Official VCP5 Certification Guide

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:49:31 +0200

The Rough Cuts service from Safari Books Online gives you exclusive access to an evolving manuscript that you can read online or download as a PDF and print. A Rough Cuts book is not fully edited or completely formatted, but you'll get access to new versions as they are created.

This is the first and only official guide to VMware's new VCP510 (VCP 5) exam. Organized to follow VMware's newest exam blueprint, it's also designed from the ground up to be both engaging and enjoyable. Author Bill Ferguson acts like a "study buddy," encouraging virtualization professionals, anticipating their questions, and helping them gain both mastery and confidence. Throughout, he provides many illustrations, tables, figures, screenshots, and realistic sample test questions - all designed to help readers learn more, learn faster, and remember more of what they learn. Coverage includes: * Understanding how virtualization can best be integrated into today's real-world IT environments * Recognizing what to change, and what to leave alone * Planning, installing, configuring, and upgrading vCenter Server and VMware ESXi * Planning and configuring vSphere networking and storage * Deploying and Administering Virtual Machines and vApps * Establishing and Maintaining Service Levels * Performing basic troubleshooting * Monitoring vSphere implementations * Managing vCenter Server alarms * Preparing for the future of VMware virtualization.

Table of Contents:

1. Planning, Installing, Configuring and Upgrading vCenter Server and VMware ESXi

2. Planning and Configuring vSphere Networking

3. Planning and Configuring vSphere Storage

4. Deploying and Administering Virtual Machines and vApps

5. Establishing and Maintaining Service Levels

6. Performing Basic Troubleshooting

7. Monitoring a vSphere Implementation and Managing vCenter Server Alarms

http://www.pearsonitcertification.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0132965658

The VMware Reference Architecture for Stateless Virtual Desktops on Local Solid-State Storage with VMware View 5

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:26:24 +0200

This document provides the reference architecture for Stateless Virtual Desktops with VMware View 5 on local solid-state storage. A stateless desktop architecture is ideally suited for standard desktop environments where the desktop image is consistent from user to user; however with proper application design can be used in broad use cases.

VMware View 5 allows specific placement of different types of disks to be re-directed, even to local storage, the I/O requirements on shared storage can be drastically reduced.

The VMware View 5 Reference Architecture for Stateless Virtual Desktops involves high-performing, solid-state drives within a physical host to offload the majority of desktop virtualization IOPS needed, while providing a stateless desktop virtualization design for planned and unplanned downtime.

This use of local solid-state drives (SSDs) is a completely new approach to desktop virtualization storage. SSDs are critical to achieving a low per-desktop cost because they remove the need for operating system and application storage requirements on the SAN. By decentralizing these storage needs, the desktop environment for CPU and memory resources scales linearly, with extremely low latency.

The simplicity of the architecture that is enabled by View 5’s tiered storage capability allows for a new era in the evolution of desktop virtualization cost modeling.

Increasingly, organizations are turning to virtual desktop technologies to address the operational and strategic issues related to traditional corporate desktop environments. VMware View 5 provides not only a virtual desktop environment that is secure, cost effective, and easy to deploy; but now can also provide comprehensive storage flexibility.

VMware View 5 modernizes the desktop experience to deliver private cloud capabilities to users for a consistent experience across the global enterprise. This Desktop-as-a-Service model is possible with unmatched scalability in a stateless design. The challenges of traditional desktop administration, especially at scale, range from lost laptops with corporate data, security issues related to viruses or hackers, or simply ensuring IT resources can maintain a service level agreement (SLA) appropriate for specific end users. In addition to the challenges of operational management, IT must also consider the implication of broader system-wide issues such as compliance, corporate governance and business continuity strategies. This whitepaper provides full descriptions of the test environment as well as performance metrics captured during test validation.

Video - Provisioning Virtual Desktops with VMware View 5.1 and VAAI

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:55:13 +0200

Cormac Hogan: Although this feature is a Technology Preview in View 5.1, it is another cool storage feature of the release. View desktops deployed on VMware's linked clone technology consumes CPU on the ESXi hosts, and network bandwidth when they are deployed on NFS datastores.

With this new Native NFS Snapshot feature via VAAI (vSphere Storage APIs for Array Integration), customers can offload the cloning operation to the storage array, minimizing CPU usage and network bandwidth consumption. Once again this enhanced VAAI functionality was introduced in vSphere 5.0 specifically for VMware View.

This feature requires a VAAI NAS plugin from the storage array vendor. Once installed and configured, customers will be able to use a storage array vendor's own native snapshot feature for deploying View desktops. Selecting this new desktop deployment method can be done via standard work-flows in View Composer.

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/05/new-storage-features-in-vmware-view-51.html

https://communities.netapp.com/community/netapp-blogs/virtualization/blog/2012/05/02/vmware-view-51-view-storage-accelerator

VMware has announced VMware View 5.1

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:33:38 +0200

VMware has announced View 5.1 - the new features and benefits are:

VMware View Storage Accelerator – VMware View Storage Accelerator (formerly known as Content Based Read Cache) optimizes storage load and improves performance by caching common image blocks when reading virtual desktop images, helping to reduce overall TCO in VMware View deployments.
VMware View Composer Array Integration (VCAI) – Offered in VMware View 5.1 as a Tech Preview, VCAI will leverage the native cloning abilities in the storage array to offload storage operations within a VMware View environment. As a result, VCAI improves provisioning speeds and management in View Composer and offers another solution for customers wanting to leverage other storage options.
VMware View Persona Management – New in VMware View 5.1, VMware View Persona Management will extend to physical desktops, enabling IT organizations to preserve user settings across all Windows devices and streamline the migration from physical to stateless virtual desktops.
VMware vCenter™ Operations for VMware View – Offered as a new add-on to VMware View, VMware vCenter Operations for VMware View will enable administrators to have broad insight into virtual desktop performance. Increased insight can empower administrators to quickly pinpoint and troubleshoot issues, optimize resource utilization and proactively address potential issues in real time.
VMware View Administrator Enhancements – New performance enhancements to the administrator user interface will deliver faster response times for large-scale desktop environments in the tens-of-thousands. With VMware View 5.1, desktop provisioning with pre-created AD accounts simplifies the process and enhances compliance policy. Administrator enhancements also include editable locations for disposable disk drives.
RADIUS Support – Support in VMware View 5.1 for RADIUS will enable greater choice for organizations looking to deploy two-factor authentication, while maintaining compatibility with existing choices.
New VMware View Clients – Users will be able to connect to their VMware View desktop from a variety of mobile and fixed endpoints with updated clients for Mac, Windows and Linux desktops, thin or zero clients and Apple iPad, Android and Amazon Kindle Fire tablets. VMware View 5.1 with PCoIP® adapts to the end users’ network connection to provide a high-quality, customized desktop experience over the LAN or WAN.
VMware View Media Services Enhancements: VMware View 5.1 Local Mode will add multi-monitor support and expanded USB device compatibility, improving the user experience by enabling more peripherals to connect seamlessly into VMware View virtual desktops.
VMware View Administrator Language Support – Globalization and localization of administrator UI provides a better experience for non-English speaking IT organizations and will enable greater adoption in additional markets. Languages will include French, German, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese.

View 5.1 will be made available in Q2 2012

vCenter Infrastructure Navigator 1.1 - What's New

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:53:19 +0200

VMware vCenter Infrastructure Navigator is an application awareness plug-in to vCenter Server, and provides continuous dependency mapping of applications. Infrastructure Navigator offers application context to the virtual infrastructure administrators to monitor and manage the virtual infrastructure inventory objects and actions. Administrators can use Infrastructure Navigator to understand the impact of change on the virtual environment in their application infrastructure. Infrastructure Navigator helps virtual infrastructure administrators perform the following tasks:

Make accurate first-level triage to help either eliminate the problem or associate the problem with the virtual infrastructure when business service users report problems.
Assess change impact. Manage and communicate virtual infrastructure issues for critical applications.
Understand the application and business impact of changes to the virtual infrastructure on applications.

Continue reading "vCenter Infrastructure Navigator 1.1 - What's New"

Technical Paper - Multipathing Configuration for Software iSCSI Using Port Binding

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:44:50 +0200

This paper provides an overview of how to enable vmknicbased software iSCSI multipathing, as well as the procedure by which to verify port binding configuration.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vmware-multipathing-configuration-software-iSCSI-port-binding.pdf

Configuring vmknic-based multipathing for the software iSCSI adapter will help vSphere users enable failover at the path level as well as balance I/O traffic between the paths.

Technical Paper - Storage Protocol Comparison

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:43:28 +0200

The objective of this white paper is to provide information on storage protocols and how they interoperate with VMware vSphere and related features. Not all supported storage protocols are discussed. Some notable exceptions are ATA over Ethernet (AoE) and shared/switched SAS. However, the protocols that are included in this paper are the ones that VMware is most frequently asked to compare.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/Storage_Protocol_Comparison.pdf

VMware frequently is asked for guidance regarding the best storage protocol to use with VMware vSphere®. vSphere supports many storage protocols, with no preference given to any one over another. However, many customers still want to know how these protocols stack up against each other and to understand their respective pros and cons.This white paper looks at common storage protocols from a vSphere perspective. It is not intended to delve into performance comparisons, for the following two reasons:

The Performance Engineering team at VMware already produces excellent storage performance white papers.
Storage protocol performance can vary greatly, depending on the storage array vendor. It therefore does not make sense to compare iSCSI and NFS from one vendor, because another vendor might implement one of those protocols far better.

If you are interested in viewing performance comparisons of storage protocols, the “Conclusion” section of this paper includes links to several such documents.

RVTools version 3.3 is now available for download

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:32:23 +0200

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 Server 3.5, ESX Server 3i, ESX Server 4i, VirtualCenter 4.0, ESX Server 4.0, VirtualCenter 4.1, ESX Server 4.1, VirtualCenter 5.0, VirtualCenter Appliance or ESX Server 5 RVTools is able to list information about VMs, CPU, Memory, Disks, Partitions, Network, Floppy drives, CD drives, Snapshots, VMware tools, ESX hosts, HBAs, Nics, Switches, Ports, Distributed Switches, Distributed Ports, Service consoles, VM Kernels, Datastores and health checks. With RVTools you can disconnect the cd-rom or floppy drives from the virtual machines and RVTools is able to update the VMware Tools installed inside each virtual machine to the latest version.

Updated in Version 3.3 (April, 2012)

GetWebResponse timeout value changed from 5 minutes to 10 minutes (for very big environments)
New tabpage with HBA information
On vDatastore tab the definition of the Provisioned MB and In Use MB columns was confusing! This is changed now.
RVToolsSendMail accepts now multiple recipients (semicolon is used as separator)
Folder information of VMs and Templates are now visible on vInfo tabpage
Bugfix: data in comboboxes on filter form are now sorted
Bugfix: Problem with api version 2.5.0 solved
Bugfix: Improved exception handling on vCPU tab.
Bugfix: Improved exception handling on vDatastore tab.

Kudos to fellow vExpert Rob de Veij - get your laters copy here http://www.robware.net

Geoff White has released the esxplot 1.5 ALPHA code

nospam@example.com (Eric Sloof) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:53:19 +0200

esxplot is a GUI application that lets you explore the data collected by esxtop in batch mode. The program takes a single command line argument which is the esxtop batch mode output file. You can also simply start esxplot without any arguments, and enter a dataset file via the File attribute of the menu bar. Esxplot loads the data in this file and presents the metrics as a hierarchical tree where the values are selectable in the left panel. In the right panel, a graph is plotted (value over time) of the selected metric, in this way, you can “browse” the contents of these somewhat unwieldy files.

Geoff White over at durganetworks has Forked esxplot 1.0, watch github for improvements in performance, stability and features. Currently the esxplot 1.5 ALPHA code is available for download.

Hi Everyone,

Eric, I want to thank you for alerting the community to the fork. The current code base has been reworked under the hood a bit to allow for actual continued development which was difficult with the original, single file version. The forked code is not packaged for the "end user", there isn't an installable package for windows or even an egg or easy install just yet.

What I would like interested parties to do for now is to follow the repository, and try it out when you hear of a feature that you think you would be interested in. I also need folks to test this out on vSphere 5. I've seen an elusive behavior with the 1.0 version where it seemed that data was being reported in a 'skewed' fashion which, if it's a bug in esxplot, it would be somewhat serious.

The problem is that I've observed it on a single vSphere 5 host, and then when I changed the state of the host, (powered off a VM) the problem disappeared. I've added extra debugging code into this fork to try and log any bad data being read in (the 1.0 version would just silently ignore it) to try and catch this. If anyone has seen this using the 1.0 version, please report it to me so we can get to the bottom of this. I need to isolate if this is a bug in esxplot or a bug in the way esxtop is writing the csv in batch mode. So the number one priority for me right now is to get to the bottom of the possible bug.

The number two priority is to fix the way the metric selection works so that it is easier to navigate and so that start-up time and response time will decrease with large data sets (> 150 MB). This work should also allow users to load larger data sets without the program becoming unresponsive. The number three priority is the WHERE clause that I've been alluding to in the past which will allow some limited visibility into the actual data when you are pruning the result set with a search query. You can read about it in the repository wiki. This is also a good time to put in feature requests. For now, you can go over to the github repository and add an issue.

I am not going to move away from wxPython for the 1.x release but I am entertaining a new GUI model for the 2.x version, what i'm currently looking at is jPlot/JQuery and/or QT5. I'm glad the program has been useful to folks over the years, my apologies for not updating it sooner, but this was not a primary job function (still isn't but a labor of necessity and love.

Cheers,

Geoff White