Eric Sloof

As of the release date for VMware ESX 3.5 Update 1, Microsoft Clustering Service (MSCS) is supported with VMware ESX 3.5 and VMware ESXi 3.5. The Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) has been updated to state: MSCS is supported with VMware ESX 3.5 with both 32-bit and 64-bit VMs running Windows 2003. Please check the Hardware Compatibility List for updates weekly for Storage Arrays certified for MSCS.

At the 5th of June the Dutch VMUG and NetApp will deliver a (Dutch) event. You can sign in at the Dutch VMUG website and attend this sponsored NetApp event. It  provides an opportunity for Dutch VMUG members  to connect with other industry peers to learn about the latest developments and best practices in the data protection within an ESX environment and best practices in the Storage Industry. Here’s the agenda.

- 16:00-16:30 Welkom/Ontvangst
- 16:30-16:40 Ontvangst namens VMUG (Viktorious)
- 16:40-18:00 Technische presentatie NetApp incl. Demo (Tim Waldron)
- 18:00-18:30 Pauze incl. pizza en versnaperingen :)
- 18:30-19:00 Vervolg presentatie / Q&A (Tim Waldron)

Partner Exchange is right around the corner and this year in its expanded format to 2 ½ days there is a lot to experience. Experience first hand everything from 18 Sales tracks, 30 Technical Labs, New SolutionTrack Express and meet one on one with the Experts at the new Experts Bar. Attend this VMlive to see what you will be missing if you miss this year’s VMWare Partner Exchange!

The VI Toolkit for .NET is a .NET library that is patterned after the VI Perl Toolkit. It makes connecting to VI, finding a VM, and getting its properties a snap! The toolkit is written in C# 2.0, but can be used by any language capable of loading .NET 2.0 assemblies. One of the reasons that the VI Toolkit for .NET is so powerful is because it is the first .NET application to make use of the recent .NET port of the Apache Commons CLI library for parsing command line options and their arguments. We know it is the first, because we ported CLI! Administrators and developers who like the ability to quickly create scripts with the VI Perl Toolkit but appreciate the depth of .NET will love the VI Toolkit for .NET.

Pablo over at VMware just wanted to let us know that they have just published a document to help you get started when using the VI Toolkit for Windows. This document contains frequently asked questions about managing VMware with PowerShell. This document is a wiki page, so if you have contributions or corrections, feel free to make them by editing the document directly.

Be part of THE event that defines the virtualization industry. Don’t miss the only conference where you can get information about virtualization best practices, participate in hands on labs and network with thousands of your peers to gain the knowledge you need to implement virtual infrastructure. VMworld is the largest annual industry conference on virtualization, attended by IT professionals and executives, technology providers, industry experts, researchers, press and analysts from around the world. VMworld 2008 in its fifth year, is expected to draw more than 12.000 attendees. Don’t miss the only industry conference dedicated to virtualization. It will take place September 16-18 in Las Vegas.

VMware has just published: Upgrading to ESX 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5 Best Practices. This document provides valuable steps which may be useful when upgrading to ESX 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5.  VMwarewolf is re-printing it here because he wants to emphasize a few of the point in bold.

The vimsh command documented by Xtravirt has now been updated to include the recently uncovered vmware-vim-cmd. This command replaces the need to enter the vimsh interactive shell, increasing performance and simplifying its use. vimsh is a highly useful API which can be used to report, configure and tweak many aspects of ESX server. This version has been fully re-written for ESX 3.5 and has been simplified in many areas. It also contains over 35 working examples.

VMware has removed the option to run ESX 3.5 on Workstation 6.5 but there is some light at the horizon. Jim Mattson  over at VMware didn’t make a promise but the final version of Workstation 6.5 might include support for ESX 3.5, in the beta I’m using at the moment it didn’t work tough.

The code to support this mode of execution no longer exists. However, as kma said earlier, "please stay tuned." No promises, but Workstation 6.5 is not fully cooked yet, and something may yet appear that suits your needs.

Brugh posted a nice "VA" on the Virtual Appliance Marketplace. EDA is an appliance dedicated to deploying ESX servers fast and easy. It has a scriptbuilder to quickly create %postscripts.

ESX Deployment Appliance (EDA) is a small and easy to use appliance that makes deploying ESX servers a breeze. It has a very intuitive web-interface that can configure and deploy dozens of ESX servers in minutes. It has a script-builder that will allow any admin to create %post-scripts that will do most anything one needs to get the ESX hosts up and running! Even if deploying with RDP/Altiris or the UDA, this script-builder can help setting those up very quickly.

To set it up, just attach a ESX3 iso to it. It will automatically mount it and with one click, import the PXE bootfiles and strip the HBA drivers to do a save install while SAN LUNs are attached!

This appliance is still in beta stage because there's a todo list. But it's fully functional and has been tested to work at least on HP DL380's, BL460, BL480 and Dell 2950 servers.