Tuesday, February 9. 2010
VMware vForum 2010: Video
VMware vForum 2010: Photos - Interviews
Today I attended the VMware Virtualization Forum event in Nijkerk. Itās a free, interactive full day event where you could learn about virtual infrastructure from experts and industry analysts. Iāve met some good old friends and had a lot of fun. Iāve made some pictures and recorded a 15 minute video so you can get an impression of this great day. Viktor van den Berg over at the Dutch VMUG also created a real video extravaganza.
Gabrie van Zanten about EMC's Avamar
Gabrie van Zanten about EMC's Avamar - EMC Avamar backup and recovery solutions utilize patented global data deduplication technology to identify redundant data at the source, minimizing backup data before it is sent over the LAN/WAN. With Avamar, you can achieve new levels of data reduction and enable fast, secure backup for your VMware environments, remote offices, LAN/NAS servers, and desktop/laptop systems. In the process, youāll reduce backup time, growth of secondary storage, and network utilization. Iāve recorded an interview with Gabrie ->
Continue reading "Gabrie van Zanten about EMC's Avamar" »Monday, February 8. 2010
VMware vSphere Pro Series Training Volume 1
TrainSignal has released a new VMware video training product, the VMware vSphere Pro Series Training VolumeĀ I. This course is taught by three vExperts VCPs and it covers three distinct hot-topics in virtualization.
VMware View & ThinApp, VMware's Desktop & Application Virtualization solutions, authored by David Davis.
VMware PowerCLI, VMware's implementation of Microsoft PowerShell, used to manage your vSphere infrastructure from the command-line, authored by Hal Rottenberg.
Cisco Nexus 1000V, the 3rd party add-in distributed virtual switch for vSphere, authored by Rick Scherer.
Hereās What You Get When You Order VMware vSphere Pro Series Training Vol. 1:
20 Videos (10 hrs: 39mins: 50secs) will be provided in High-Quality AVI and WMV format. In other words, you get perfect quality and replication of your instructorsā screens. An easy-to-use table of contents allows you to navigate to key areas you wish to focus on.
20 iPod video files to watch Train Signal on the go! A popular request amongst our students who wish to study while they commute (i.e. train, plane, bus). These 320x240 M4V files are compressed versions of the original course, and play on any iPod that supports video. Also great for reviewing and refreshing your mind "on the job."
20 MP3 audio files to listen to Train Signal anytime, anywhere. Some of our students have requested this option. Now, you can listen in the car or while working out. Our MP3 files can be burnt to a CD or copied to a portable device.
Instructor Notes - These PDF documents, which can be printed out, contain the slides used by the instructors throughout the videos. These documents allow the user a quick easy reference to the instructorsā notes on the slides, and provides a place to make additional notes.
Sunday, February 7. 2010
Building the SDK .NET Samples Using Visual Studio 2008
One of the first things I did after I signed-up for the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) was downloading Visual Studio 2008. Iāve installed Visual Studio 2008 in a newly created Windows 2008 virtual machine and copied the vSphere Web Service SDK to the root of this VM.
Before you can start with building the Samples (C:\Web Service SDK\SDK\samples\DotNet) you have to generate the stubs, Paul Davey over at Xtravirt has created a real good work around for Visual Studio 2008.
ā¢Ā Open the visual studio command prompt.
ā¢ Enter the following: set VSINSTALLDIR="C:\All My Apps\Microsoft Visual Studio 9"
ā¢Ā Copy the two WSDL files that you want to use (either 2.5 or 2.0) to the \SDK\samples\DotNet folder
ā¢Ā In the visual studio command prompt, change directory to the \SDK\samples\DotNet folder
ā¢Ā Enter the following command: genvimstubs.cmd .\
If you donāt want to hassle with building your own (VimService2005.dll) and (VimService2005.XmlSerializers.dll) or youāre a bit lazy, thereās an alternative. You can install Xtravirtās RDP plug-in and copy the two dll files from the program files directory (C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Plugins\XtravirtRDP) to the Samples DotNet directory (C:\Web Service SDK\SDK\samples\DotNet). Now you can start build the C# (.NET) samples using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.
ā¢Ā Start Visual Studio 2008
ā¢Ā Go to the menu option File ā Open ā Project/Solution
ā¢Ā Navigate to the C:\Web Service SDK\SDK\samples\DotNet\cs\ Samples2005.sln file.
Youāre now about to start the Visual Studio Conversion Wizard because the Samples2005.sln was created in a previous version of Visual Studio. It must be converted to the format used by Visual Studio 2008. Click <Next> to proceed.
After the conversion go to the menu option Project/ Add Reference, click the Browse tab and locate the (VimService2005.dll) and (VimService2005.XmlSerializers.dll) files.
Check out the label of the namespace, if namespace name is not 'Vim25Api' you have to do a quick Find and Replace from the edit menu. For instance, replace āVim25Apiā with āVimApiā.
Go to your Solution Explorer and locate the SimpleClient2005, this is a simple standalone client whose purpose is to demonstrate the process for Logging into the Webservice, and get Container contents starting at the root Folder available in the ServiceInstanceContent.Ā Right click it and choose for the Build option. After the build is complete open a command prompt and navigate to the newly build executable.Ā Execute te following command:
C:\Web Service SDK\SDK\samples\DotNet\cs\SimpleClient\bin\Debug>SimpleClient.exe "https://192.168.178.250/sdk" "administrator" "vmware"
A list with all your virtual machine will scroll over the screen. Iāve created some screen dumps of te whole process, have fun and donāt forget to sign upĀ VMware's Script-O-Mania contest.
Saturday, February 6. 2010
How to migrate the vCenter database to Microsoft SQL Server 2008
The purpose of the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard is to copy data from a source to a destination. The wizard can also create a destination database and destination tables for you. However, if you have to copy multiple databases or tables, or other kinds of database objects, you should use the Copy Database Wizard instead.
Iāve created a little Jing movie which demos the migration from a local SQL express database to a central Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Continue reading "How to migrate the vCenter database to..." »