Eric Sloof

VMware has released the VMware View Client for iPad. With this new iPad app you’re able to logon to a VMware View desktop trough PCoIP.  Once logged on to your desktop, you can use some additional utilities which are needed or might be handy when navigating through Windows on an iPad.  The VMware View Client for iPad has a built-in magnifier with click functionality. When you place two finger next to each other, you’re able to simulate a right-click select.  By drawing a half circle around shortcuts or files, you’re selecting multiple objects which can then be deleted, moved or copied.
  
I think one of the coolest features is the virtual touchpad. It’s just like a touchpad on a physical laptop including the buttons but the difference is that it’s available as a moveable object on the iPad screen.  The VMware View Client for iPad also includes a system monitor which can be used to check the battery level, CPU usage, memory usage, the amount of network traffic, the used bandwidth and latency. Navigation within for instance Adobe’s PDF reader can be done through touching the screen but there’s also a possibility to emulate keys like page-up and page down. When turning the iPad sideways, the desktop automatically follows your view and the desktop resizes. The windows resolution is fully dynamic. Another cool feature is the VMware View Client for iPad mini app store ; - ) There’s already one available application offered by VMware View Client for iPad. It’s the ThinApp version of the FireFox web browser.  The 3 finger keyboard gesture will bring up the original iPad keyboard after touching the screen with 3 fingers at the same time. Since flash is supported by Windows you’re also able to watch flash movies on your iPad even with a latency around 80 mSec the video still looks good. The Windows Function Keys and Ctrl+Alt+Delete can be generated by bringing up an emulated Function Keyboard. Don’t worry if you’re not able to remember all the special finger moves and sigs. The VMware View Client for iPad contains an intuitive help function.

Using VMware View Client for iPad - This guide, Using VMware View Client for iPad, provides information about installing and using VMware View software on an iPad to connect to a View desktop in the datacenter. The information in this document includes system requirements and instructions for installing View Client for iPad. This document also provides tips for improving the user experience of navigating and using Windows desktop elements on an iPad.

This information is intended for administrators who need to set up a VMware View deployment that includes iPad client devices. The information is written for experienced system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology and datacenter operations.

VMware has released a great new product which is able to diagnose and analyse vSphere performance metrics. vCenter Operations Standard is for vCenter administrators who want to better understand the performance of their virtual infrastructure, and to diagnose and correct performance problems easily and quickly.

vCenter Operations Standard collects performance data from each object at every level of your virtual infrastructure, from individual virtual machines and disk drives to entire clusters and datacenters. It stores and analyses the data, and uses that analysis to provide you with real-time information about problems, or potential problems, in your enterprise. vCenter Operations Standard presents the data in graphical interface pages that display different views of your virtual infrastructure.

 vCenter Operations Standard adds several benefits to your suite of VMware tools

• vCenter Operations Standard combines key metrics into single scores for CPU, memory, disk, and contention performance.
• vCenter Operations Standard calculates the range of normal behavior for every metric and highlights abnormalities.
• With vCenter Operations Standard, you can view graphical representations of current and historical states of your entire virtual infrastructure or selected parts of it.
• vCenter Operations Standard displays information about changes in the hierarchy of your virtual infrastructure and shows how these changes affect the performance of the objects involved. For example, how moving a virtual machine from one ESX host to another ESX host affects the performance of the two ESX hosts and all other related objects.

The VMware vCloud Connector, a free plug-in that will allow all VMware vSphere administrators to immediately begin deploying and managing virtual machines (VMs) across VMware vCloud Powered cloud services from within the VMware vSphere Client. In this video I’ll show you how to configure both the vCenter server and the vCloud Director and how to upload a virtual machine to the vCloud Director.

This video is also added to my iTunes channel which can be found at Online VMware Training. It looks great on an iPad.

This video is a follow-up from "Video – Deploying the vCloud Connector"

In this video I’ll show how to deploy the vCloud Connector virtual appliance and connect it to a vCenter server instance.  vCloud Connector (vCC) allows the vSphere Administrators to use their familiar vSphere Client as a single pane-of-glass view across hybrid clouds. It’s also a great tool when you have to transfer virtual machines between multiple vCenter servers.

They can perform the following operations

• See a list of virtual machines, vApps, virtual machine templates, and vApp templates on vSphere and vCloud Director-based private and public clouds (including vCloud Datacenter Services).
  
• Copy virtual machines, vApps, virtual machine templates, and vApp templates between vSphere and vCloud Director-based private and public clouds.
  
• Perform basic operations (for example, power on/off, suspend, reset, delete) on virtual machines and vApps in vSphere and vCloud Director-based private and public clouds.
  
• Deploy vApp templates as vApps (fenced mode) in vCloud Director-based private and public clouds.
  
• Access vCloud vApp consoles
  
• Directly launch the vCloud URL

This video is also added to my iTunes channel which can be found at Online VMware Training. It looks great on an iPad.

Follow-up "Video – Using the vCloud Connector"

Next month, VMware will release three new training courses.

VMware vSphere: Automation FastTrack

This fast-paced, extended-hour training course includes the content of the VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage and VMware vSphere: Automation with vSphere PowerCLI courses. This hands-on course explores installation, configuration, and management of VMware vSphere™ using the VMware vSphere Client and VMware vSphere PowerCLI. vSphere PowerCLI automation can reduce your IT costs while improving efficiency, availability, flexibility, and manageability. The course is based on VMware ESX™/ESXi 4.1 and VMware vCenter™ Server 4.1 and includes a prepaid voucher for the VMware Certified Professional 4 examination.

VMware vSphere: Advanced FastTrack

This fast-paced, extended-hour, lab-intensive course includes the content of the VMware vSphere: Manage for Performance and VMware vSphere: Troubleshooting courses. This course provides the knowledge and skills necessary to make fundamental design decisions that enhance performance and meet performance goals in a deployed VMware vSphere™ installation. This course also provides the knowledge, skills, and abilities to achieve competence in troubleshooting the vSphere virtual infrastructure. This course includes a prepaid voucher for the VMware Certified Advanced Professional 4 – Datacenter Administrator examination.

VMware View: Desktop FastTrack

This fast-paced, extended-hour training course includes the content of the following courses: VMware View: Install, Configure, Manage Application Virtualization with VMware ThinApp VMware View: Design Best Practices This hands-on training course builds your skills in the VMware View™ suite of products: VMware View Manager, VMware View Composer, and VMware® ThinApp™. It will provide applicationsoriented administrators with the knowledge and skills to virtualize Windows applications with ThinApp and to choose the best deployment and updating processes for their environment. The course will also present a methodology for analyzing and designing a View solution for the VMware vSphere™ infrastructure. The course is based on View 4.5 and ThinApp 4.5 and 4.6. It includes a prepaid voucher for the VMware Certified Associate 4 Desktop examination.

http://www.vmware.com/education