Eric Sloof

Leveraging the Content-Based Read Cache in VMware vSphere 5.1 within VMware View 5.1. The goal of this paper is to provide a thorough understanding of how the content-based read cache (CBRC) functions with vSphere 5.1, and how it is integrated in VMware View 5.1. It will also provide a detailed explanation of configuring View Storage Accelerator (also known as Host Caching) for View desktops.

VDI deployments can scale up by increasing back-end computing power and by adding storage space for desktop consolidation. Storage space preserves virtual machine images, which load to the host memory to make the desktops live. A typical performance bottleneck is the I/O request issued from a virtual machine to the underlying storage for accessing the data contents from virtual machine images. View Storage Accelerator included in VMware View 5.1 addresses the bottleneck by leveraging the CBRC feature in vSphere.

Though CBRC is a vSphere feature, it is uniquely leveraged by VMware View to provide the Host Caching capability. The CBRC feature provides a per-host RAM-based solution for View desktops. This considerably reduces the read

I/O requests that are issued to the storage layer, and also addresses boot storm snags. Studies show that View Storage accelerator helps to minimize the overall Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in VMware View deployments by providing up to 80 percent reduction in peak IOPS and up to 65 percent reduction in peak throughput. Refer to the VMware End-User Computing Blog for more details.

Technical White Paper -  View Storage Accelerator in VMware View 5.1

The Windows 8 operating system is the newest member of the Microsoft Windows family. It differs from earlier Windows releases as much for what it does not change as for what itdoes change. That is, the features that IT pros loved about Windows 7 are still there in Windows 8—just better. The same keyboard shortcuts, management tools, security features, and deployment options are available in Windows 8. But in many cases, Windows 8 improves them in intuitive and significant ways. Some examples are the ribbon in File Explorer and faster disk encryption when using BitLocker Drive Encryption. This book describes these enhancements plus many of the new features in Windows 8. 

Of course, everyone is talking about the elements of the new user interface in Windows 8: the Start screen, the modern looking Windows graphics, and so on. These are not replacementsfor the desktop, and it is not an either-or choice that you have to make. For desktop apps, the same desktop that you used in Windows 7 is still there in Windows 8. You can still pin appsto the taskbar, pin files to those apps, and so on. 

The keyboard and mouse work the same way as it did before on the desktop. But Windows 8 uses a Start screen instead of the tiny Start menu in Windows 7. The most obvious benefit is that there is more real estate available, so apps can display dynamic, live information on their Tiles (icons) to bring the latest information to you at a single glance. 

Windows 8 also introduces Windows 8 apps. These are full screen, immersive apps that provide a different experience than you might be used to with traditional desktop apps. They do not have chrome. App commands (menu items) only appear when you need them. Importantly, Windows 8 and Windows 8 apps provide a first-class touch experience, so you can swipe, flick, and use other intuitive gestures to get around 

them. 

This book describes these new and improved features. It focuses on IT pros, however, so we spend fewer pages talking about the new user interface and more talking about management, deployment, and security. This book is just an introduction—an overview. For more detailed information about any of the features and capabilities you learn about in this book, the one resource you need to know about is the Springboard Series on TechNet. The URL is simply http://www.microsoft.com/springboard

VMware Education has released a new video site with over 50 of our free instructional videos, on products including: vSphere, vCloud Director, Site Recovery Manager (SRM), vFabric, and more. Now you can grow your IT skills with free training, expertise, and insights on VMware products, all in one convenient location. 

Instructional Videos – freely accessible, these short technical videos allow VMware technical experts to provide tips and step-by-step instructions on product features, design best practices, configuring, deploying and running your virtual infrastructure.

http://vmwarelearning.com/

The vm-support tool is re-written entirely in python framework from vSphere 5.0. This allows for a plugin type framework and users can run individual modules without the need to change the tool, it gathers and triggers commands to get diagnostic data across different components of the ESXi server. 

The vm-support tool has been modified with this in mind and now addresses these components as “Groups”. Almost every component comes under this group and allows the user to run the support tool on these groups either individually or by combining multiple groups.

vm-support tool in vSphere 5.0 introduces the concept of manifest files. A manifest file is the setup or configuration file that the vm-support tool refers to run any command or gather any diagnostic log and store it in the vm-support tar bundle. A manifest file has the details of the group it belongs to, the set of actions that have to be executed and additional options like timeout value in executing a command.

By default, a set of manifest files are made available to the user during the installation of ESXi 5.0. The manifest files are available under the /etc/vmware/vm-support directory. Tags are another feature introduced in the vm-support tool in vSphere 5.0. Tags refer to a number of groups or a list of manifest files with common components and trigger commands around similar groups.

Like previous versions, the support tool also provides the user to run performance snapshots, gather information about a particular VM, and also list out the files that have been gathered by the support tool.

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