vSphere

You’re about to enter a world where creating a Virtual Machine hot-clone is done faster than powering it off. My former Capgemini colleagues, Ernst Cozijnsen and John van der Sluis recently implemented EMC PowerPath/VE, here's their story.

It took the guys in storage land a long time to deliver.... But finally it's there.... A really great kick-ass plug-in to boost your vSphere 4 storage performance through the roof.

In prior versions of ESX the Native Multi Pathing “NMP” plug-in was available for balancing the storage load over different Fiber Channel HBA’s and storage paths to your storage array(s). Beside that it’s not really “Multi Pathing” it had another major disadvantage of being able to stress your storage array in such a way it could crash.  (Yes.. we know how it works and yes… we succeeded in this). This crashing didn’t had much to do with ESX but more with how the storage arrays  handle the different request coming in from the FA port and distributing the load across the storage processors inside the box.

If commands for e.g. LUN-A come in via 2 different FA ports on the array which all  have their own storage processor, there needs to be a lot of “inter communication” between the storage CPU’s inside the box. For a normal environment this is no issue but when you start to stretch the limit this can and will cause major concerns. Therefore I have written this script.

At October 19th (week 43) and November 9th (week 46) I will deliver one of the first VMware vSphere Fast Track training courses. There are still some seats left, so I would be very glad if you can join me at this hands-on training course.

VMware vSphere: Fast Track

This intensive, extended-hours training course focuses on installing, configuring, managing, and troubleshooting VMware vSphere. It combines the content of the VMware vSphere 4: Install, Configure, Manage course with advanced tasks and skills for configuring a highly available and scalable virtual infrastructure. Upon completing this course, you can take the examination to qualify as a VMware Certified Professional.

Course Objectives

•Install and configure VMware ESX™/ESXi, vCenter™ Server, and the vSphere Management Assistant
•Configure, manage, and troubleshoot ESX/ESXi networking and storage
•Create, configure, migrate, manage, convert, and monitor virtual machines and virtual appliances
•Scale the vSphere virtual infrastructure
•Implement business continuity solutions
•Manage changes to the vSphere environment

You can use this link to register:

http://www.globalknowledge.nl/Default.aspx?page=461&coursecode=VSFT

VMware wants to know how you make your customers’ time and money count more with VMware vSphere. Here are two new programs for your small and midsized customers with fewer than 1000 employees and/or less than 100 servers before virtualization!

Tell VMware Your Story

Encourage your customers to share how you and VMware have helped their business succeed and you could win up to three passes to Partner Exchange 2010 and get a one-page joint-customer success story published on vmware.com. Just be sure to have your customers include your company name in the Partner section of the contest entry form.  In addition, your customers could win an iPod Touch for participating! Send your customers to www.vmware.com/go/tellusyourstory today.

Time to Save with VMware Video Contest

Get your customers to create a video that demonstrates why VMware is the right choice for small and midsize businesses and they could win big! Prizes include $5,000 cash, Apple MacBook Pro laptops with VMware Fusion®, 5th-generation iPod nanos, and t-shirts. Be sure to have them mention your company that helped them achieve it all!
See all the details at www.vmware.com/go/timetosave/contest.