Entries from Eric Sloof

Volkmar Uhlig has written a nice application called VMware Serial Line Gateway. You can use this tool to debug software running in a virtual machine using the virtual COM port. The VMware Serial Line Gateway redirects the serial traffic to your host OS where you can catch the communication. First configure your virtual machine and add a COM port using the settings in the picture.







The installation of this tool is pretty simple, just put the VMwareGateway.exe on your hard disk and run it in a command prompt, you have the following options:

Commands:

/T Interactive Testmode prints connects of pipe and socket.
/V Verbose mode for testing lots of printouts.
/R Registers VMWareGateway as an NT service.
/U Unregisters the Service.
/H prints a short help.







As you can see in the picture I started it in interactive test mode, now start a telnet session in Putty and make a connection to localhost port 567. After that log on to your virtual machine and start a Hyper Terminal session connected to COM1, you can leave all the other value’s default. When you type something in the Hyper Terminal it will show up in Putty.

Run as a service

If everything works fine you can setup the gateway as a service. Simply type vmwaregateway /r and start the service with net start vmwaregateway afterwards. Now everything works like before. The service is not enabled at boot time. So if you want the service starting automatically, you have to do that by hand. (Control Panel/Services).

Ernst  Cozijnsen and John van der Sluis, two of my colleagues over at Capgemini Outsourcing are presenting at the VMWORLD EUROPE 2008 in Cannes. Their presentation is called “We practice what we preach�? and is all about the success story of implementing a Virtual Infrastructure as a Business Critical solution. By combining intimacy, industrialization and innovation Capgemini Outsourcing has set a footprint on the world of Virtual Infrastructures. Due to extensive research a new architectural vision was created for this Business Critical solution. This new architectural blueprint is based on multiple datacenter with architectural principles like pay-per-use, flexibility, scalability and standardization. With installing new and migrating existing customers this multi vendor infrastructure lead to a growth of over 1600% last year. With shared architectural building blocks a custom solution can now be realized for any environment and future challenges. Capgemini Outsourcing offers dual site and disaster recovery at a lower cost by creating a new version of on-demand scalability for new customer potential.

Imagine being able to instantly identify capacity bottlenecks on hosts, clusters and resources pools. Capacity bottlenecks, when not resolved, cause performance problems or even downtime. VKernel’s Capacity Analyzer Virtual Appliance immediately builds a list of current RAM, CPU, storage and network bottlenecks in your VMware infrastructure. It also predicts future capacity bottlenecks and alerts you when trends exceed customizable thresholds.

Today VMware launched VDM2 as a part of VMware VDI: Delivering Desktops from the Data Center. The abbreviation VDM stands for Virtual Desktop manager, the connection broker software that supports a VDI environment. I participated in the Beta and deployed VDM2 in a production environment. When Capgemini Outsourcing had obtained an outsourcing contract from office Furniture group Ahrend last September, it has taken over management of the office ICT environment and the service desk. As the senior system administrator at Ahrend I created a VDI pool with desktops. During the transition of all the hardware from the Ahrend Datacenter in Nieuwegein to the Capgemini datacenter in Amsterdam,  the Ahrend ICT colleagues could easily move to the Capgemini office without losing their old desktop. There are two things I really like about VDM2; the first one is the automatic provisioning and the second one is USB support. VDM2 really made the transition to Capgemini run a lot smoother. VMware has asked me to act as a marketing reference for this launch, so I can speak to the press and author a quote. I already created an install and configure presentation which I presented to the Dutch VMUG audience last December. When you need any further information please let me know.

  Photo taken by Viktor van den Berg

In 2002, a group of professors from three universities designed and implemented the NomadBIOS paravirtualized hypervisor, and were the first to show how a VM running a production-class operating system could be migrated between two hosts with almost imperceptible downtime, less than 100 ms. Such functionality, now commonly referred to as "Live Migration", has since become a hallmark of VM systems, and is supported in products from VMware, Citrix, Oracle, and planned in a future product announced by Microsoft. When you are interested in the background of this VMotion technique, you should really take a look at this PDF.

Mastering VMware Infrastructure 3 offers a strong design component followed by an in-depth look at the day-to-day tasks that make virtualization a key technology for any enterprise. Having access to a massive server infrastructure, the authors are able to provide real-world examples and best practices that apply to the integral parts of the virtual administrator's professional life. Topics include creating and managing virtual networks, creating and managing storage devices, migrating and importing virtual machines, managing and monitoring resource access, and protecting data.

This guide covers Mike Laverick's experiences of upgrading from VirtualCenter 2.0.2 to 2.5  and various methods of upgrading from ESX 3.0.2 to ESX 3.5. He upgraded the hardware setup he used for writing the long awaiting VMware Infrastructure 3: Advanced Technical Design Guide. The photo is taken by Viktor van den Berg at the TSX in Nice April 2007. Mike concludes with :

The ESX upgrade part is relatively easy – given that the upgrade process can modify your configuration (as in my SSH example) and that moving a VM off an ESX host is simple. I think I would still prefer to wipe my ESX hosts and do a clean install – adding them back into VirtualCenter. This is not without consequences. It means losing some of that precious performance data collected over a number of weeks or months.

The Most Complete, Practical, Solutions-Focused Guide to Running ESX Server 3. VMware ESX Server in the Enterprise is the definitive, real-world guide to planning, deploying, and managing today’s leading virtual infrastructure platform in mission-critical environments. Drawing on his extensive experience consulting on large-scale ESX Server implementations, Edward L. Haletky brings together an unprecedented collection of tips, best practices, and field-tested solutions. More than any other author, he illuminates the real issues, tradeoffs, and pitfalls associated with ESX Server–and shows how to make the most of it in your unique environment. Haletky covers the entire lifecycle: planning, installation, system monitoring, tuning, clustering, security, disaster recovery, and much more. Throughout, he supports his recommendations with examples from real-world deployments. He also provides detailed checklists for handling crucial issues such as caching, networking, storage, and hardware selection. Many of his techniques and practices apply to all current virtualization platforms, not just ESX Server. This book will be an indispensable resource for every network architect, administrator, and IT professional who works with virtual servers. ESX Server newcomers will find the soup-to-nuts introduction they desperately need; experienced users will find an unparalleled source of field-tested answers and solutions.

VMware had $1.33 billion in revenue during 2007, an 88% increase from the year before. But the virtualization software vendor, which reported its latest financial results on Monday, didn't meet Wall Street's fourth-quarter expectations, and its stock price was hit hard in after-hours trading. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company also toned down its business outlook for this year, forecasting a 50% increase in revenue for 2008 as a whole. VMware officials cited several reasons for the reduced growth rate, including the increasing size of the company's revenue base, which makes it harder to sustain a meteoric rise in sales. But they also acknowledged that there is more competition in the virtualization market, even if it was something of a backhanded compliment to rival vendors. For instance, Mark Peek, VMware's chief financial officer, said during a conference call about the results that there is "an increasing number of competing companies marketing their intent to introduce virtualization products." Read the full story at the source.

John Troyer recently has posted a new article on his weblog "VMware connected". It’s about the new virtualization section on reddit, a source for what's new and popular on the web -- personalized for you. Reddit wants to democratize the traditional model by giving editorial control to the people who use the site, not those who run it. Your votes train a filter, so let reddit know what you liked and disliked, because you'll begin to be recommended links filtered to your tastes. All of the content on reddit is from users who are rewarded for good submissions (and punished for bad ones) by their peers; you decide what appears on your front page and which submissions rise to fame or fall into obscurity. John Troyer will try to keep dropping links, but feel free to submit your own links -- good articles, articles from your blog, etc. Obviously, since John works for VMware, his links will be VMware-centric, but he’s interested in any virtualization, so feel free to contribute.






















Eric Sloof is conducting an interview with John Troyer at the VMworld 2007,
The photo is taken by Viktor van den berg.