Eric Sloof

Idealstor, a developer of disk-to-disk backup solutions, announced the release of iBac VIP for VMware Virtual Center. iBac VIP for Virtual Center was created to simplify VMware backups by offering a single license that backs up every virtual machine regardless of how many ESX hosts have been implemented. Continue reading "Idealstor Releases VMware Virtual Center Backup..." »

BreakingPoint announced the BreakingPoint Application Protocol for VMware VMotion enabling Network Equipment Manufacturers (NEMs) and Service Providers to emulate VMware VMotion traffic at speeds of up to 40 Gigabits per second in their test environment. When combined with the BreakingPoint Application Protocol for NFS and SMB/CIFS, it eliminates the costs and delays of testing a VMware ESX server infrastructure and Storage Area Network (SAN).

Mike Hamilton, Director of Product Marketin:

“VMware VMotion provides enormous benefits for data centers, including high availability and performance, while enabling load balancing and resource optimization. Using BreakingPoint you can emulate this application running on TCP port 8000, the communication between the VMware ESX servers, the TCP connection with the new destination server and even the ICMP echo request to ensure the seamless transfer of the connections between the old and new server. BreakingPoint testing tools provide an unmatched level of testing realism and performance in a small footprint device, supplying people with more accurate performance and security testing results and helping them accelerate the development and deployment of their network equipment.”

More and more companies are choosing to virtualize and consolidate their server environments with VMware to achieve smaller footprints and reduced operating costs, but optimizing the virtualized environment is nearly impossible without a solid strategy in place. This complete guide to VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 (VI3) teaches readers how to plan for, implement, secure, maintain, monitor and troubleshoot a VI3 environment.

VMware VI3 Implementation and Administration By: Eric Siebert Last Updated on Safari: 2008/12/12 Publisher: Prentice Hall Pub Date: June 26, 2009 (estimated) Pages: 400

Usually, when you need to use any USB device (like scanner, flash-memory, etc) you plug it into USB port of your computer. But for all that,  what if you want to use an USB device in a virtual machine? FabulaTech has resolved this problem in a different way.
They've created “USB over Network” which allows to work with remote USB devices over a local network or Internet. All you have to do is to install the “USB over Network Server” software on the PC where USB devices are plugged in. “USB over Network Client” must be installed in the virtual machines, you want to give access to those very USB devices you've already plugged in.

That's all. Now any virtual machine which has installed the “USB over Network Client” can work with remote USB devices as if they were connected directly to his local PC.

Just select USB device you want to share and click share button. Click the image to enlarge.

Viktor van den Berg, Product Manager and Technical Trainer at the Xpert Training Group is going to present a session about the Unattended Deployment of VMware Infrastructure 3 at the VMworld Europe 2009 Cannes.

An unattended deployment of VMware infrastructure 3 reduces the time needed for installation and configuration of your VMware ESX and vCenter server(s). It also reduces the risk misconfiguration. Unattended deployment of these products will gain you a consistent configuration. At Xpert Training Group, an indepedent VMware Authorized Training Centre from The Netherlands, unattended deployments of VI-3 are used on a regular basis. In this session you will learn how to automatically deploy your ESX servers and how to connect these fresh installed ESX servers to a vCenter server. After the introduction of a step-by-step plan for unattended deployment, this session will focus on some useful scripting techniques used in a unattended deployment scenario. Expect some bash and powershell scripting in this session.

Do you wonder about virtualization? Are you seeking for the best virtualization platform for your specific environment? Project VRC shows you the way!

Project Virtual Reality Check (VRC) is a joint venture of Log•in Consultants and PQR, who have researched the optimal configuration for the different available hypervisors (hardware virtualization layers). The project arises from the growing demand for a founded advice on how to virtualise Terminal Server and Virtual Desktop (VDI) workloads. Through a number of researches, Log•in Consultants and PQR show you the scaling possibilities for Terminal Server environments as well as Virtual Desktops.

Continue reading "VMware Platform Performance Index v1.0" »

Quickly following up on Beta 1, Beta 1.5 introduces three important new features:

• In addition to VMware Infrastructure 3 and VMware Server 2, VMM now supports the management and monitoring of Citrix XenServer 1.5.
• VMM now works on ALL mobile devices via its new Lite Mode. VMM will gracefully degrade itself to a zero-Javascript version if a fully-Ajax capable browser is not detected. You can now manage and monitor VMware and Xen from your BlackBerry, Windows Mobile device, or any phone with a web browser!
• Beta 1.5 introduces a feature we are calling Accidental Touch Detection (ATD). ATD prevents users from accidentally brushing up against a power button in full mode (as opposed to the new lite mode) and shutting down a VM. ATD requires an intentional touch (measured by a depression of 500 milliseconds).

Get beta 1.5 and read more about VMM at http://lostcreations.com/vmm/.

StorMagic’s SM Series Lite with no expiration will be available in 30 days. That’s right! In 30 days, you will have the opportunity to unlock the full potential of your ESX Server with StorMagic’s SM Series Lite. After VMware users asked StorMagic to develop an easy SAN Management solution to help users like yourselves, StorMagic is ready to release a breakthrough product redefining Shared Storage. It’s time to benefit from all the features your ESX Server has to offer and let StorMagic take you there!  And the best part? The SM Series Lite has no expiration which means you enjoy the benefits of shared storage for life!

• VMware Certified
• Turn unused internal disk drives into a virtual SAN
• Integrated into VI Center
• Single step storage provisioning
• Automatically expand you environment as your business grows
• Manage your VMs, Data Storage and O/S from 1 management tool

Usually, when you need to use any USB device (like scanner, flash-memory, etc) you plug it into USB port of your computer. But for all that, the device is accessible only for the computer it is plugged into. And what if someone else needs to use the same USB device? Or if you want to use it in a virtual machine. FabulaTech has resolved this problem in a different extraordinary way. They've created USB over Network which allows to work with remote USB devices over a local network or Internet. All you have to do is to install USB over Network Server on the PC where USB devices are plugged in. USB over Network Client must be installed on the VMs you want to give access to those very USB devices you've already plugged in. That's all.

I encountered a little issue when restarting my Windows 2003 server hosting both VirtualCenter and the internal SQL 2005 Express database.  SQL wasn’t fully started before VirtualCenter tried to logon and generated the following failure.

SQL Server is not ready to accept new client connections. Wait a few minutes before trying again. If you have access to the error log, look for the informational message that indicates that SQL Server is ready before trying to connect again.

Just e few events further Virtual Center was shutting down on me.

Forcing shutdown of VMware VirtualCenter now.

I know you can set a dependency on the VirtualCenter service so it would wait until SQL was fully running and till my great surprise, my old friend Andrew Kutz already has written an article about it.
You just need to add a value to the following registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vpxd and edit the DependsOnService property  (REG_SZ_MULTI) and add the MSSQL$SQLEXP_VIM value.