Archive for March, 2009

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Hyper9 as new advertiser to RTFM. To celebrate this here’s another here’s Chapter 4 from my SRM book…

Remember you can still buy the book in EMEA at much reduced cost via the VMworld EMEA store (whilst stocks last) – alternatively, if you prefer to buy the SRM book in the US it is still available on LULU.com. 

Work is coming along well with vSphere4 book. My hope is that by the end of the month – I should have working copy I can distribute to my VMTN reviewers and internally to VMware. The plan is to still have an “authors” edition out on LULU on the day of the GA – with a hope of having the final “cut” so to speak ready for VMworld in San Francisco. I’m in discussion with McGraw-Hill about potentially publishing the book via them – so that could change…

Download Chapter 4

One of my favourite people to watch on the forums is Smoggy. Smoggy is actually Lee Dilworth is a VMware employee who works out of Frimley, UK. More specifically, Lee works within the SRM Team in EMEA – and managed to snatch sometime with him at Canne as took me through the NDA/RoadMap for SRM. Lee is a bit of touch stone for me in sense that he often crops on the SRM Forums which I have an RSS feed on. I read every single SRM post/thread – and work out if I can help or learn something. That’s where Smoggy comes in – because he has some real gems and some real insights into the real world of DR and Availability.

So what prompted this post – well, I would love to see Lee have a blog. But for the moment I will content myself to spying on his missives!  This one was my favourite this week on the SRM Forum. If your using SRM or planning on doing so – come and join the fun!

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1206772

This is one I missed out on based on time differences and crossed email. But VMware this week released a cost-per-application calucator. It basically works out something we should have really had a while ago – a way of pricing the cost of each VM based on consolidation ratios. Of course, the calculator proves that VMware cost less than all other virtualization vendors – NOW THERE’S SUPRISE!

Of course we all know this is true – but the trouble is – which cost do measure. The purchase prices that we are raising the purchase order – or much more sophisticated one where the measure is how much we get out of that software. Two different types of calculator. Weill guess by tommorow – there will be a Microsoft calculator that goes the other way – unless…. it already exists.

http://www.vmware.com/technology/whyvmware/calculator/

Another little technical preview was quietly released during VMworld Canne 2009. And to be honest I was suprised it didn’t create more of ripple than it did. This week I filled in a survey on the Beta/RC programme for vSphere4 about the importance to me (or rather VMware customers) of this. For me its is very significant and very important. Firstly, I want vCenter to be in Linux so it can be download like any other virtual appliance – decoupling it from its MS roots is the first step in that process. Secondly, it will encourge VMware customers to virtualize vCenter which is something I’ve been recommending for years and years. I’m often shocked by the number of customers who persist in running vCenter on physical. I was shocked by the numbers of people who run on physical – 60%, and there were plenty of hands up at the London VMware User Group last week that reflected this level. If you run on physical, vCenter will be limited with what VMware can do for you – you’ll be lumbered with this vCenter Heartbeat Service (aka NeverFail). My attitude is – if VMs are good enough for your end-users why aren’t they good enough for you. Thirdly, I would like to see VMware abandon its commitment to Oracle/SQL and single point-of-failure backend. I would love to see some kind of open-source LDAP based multiple-master model for vCenter – just like we have with Active Directory – a truely “federated” vCenter structure.

All this adds up to a vService or vApps – that can be imported into some kind of “master” ESX host – using the VMware .OVF standard. Then I will no longer after walk people through its setup and installation. Of course, the secret agenda behind this for me – is seeing the “mangement” of VMware becoming “free” but licensed for datacenter features like VMotion, SVmotion, DRS/DPM/FT/HA and SRM/View/Orchestrator. It will be long time coming – I don’t think we will get this – unless we all fill in those surveys and download the tech preview!!!

http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/vcserver_linux

VMware quitely release a beta tech preview – VMware vCenter Mobole Access – the topic of being manage stuff from your Blackberry, Iphone and Windows Mobile phone/PDA seems to be a hot topic at the moment. Of course there are vendors who specilise in this and interface with not just VMware but countless others too – and wonder who they could be. In the meantime he’s the link to the Preview – not sure if you will see this or if you have to apply

http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/vcmobileaccess

From David Marshall’s blog – AMD announce they can VMotion stuff around different generations of AMD proc – meanwhile SUN smash the record for VMMark. Anyway, the new six-core AMD processor is called Istanbul. That made me think of the song “Istanbul, not Constampanople” which I first heard covered by “They Might be giants”

http://vmblog.com/archive/2009/03/24/amd-demonstrates-live-migration-between-three-amd-opteron-processor-generations-with-industry-leading-virtualization-capabilities.aspx

Mike DePetrillo has a close up on his blog the new VMware Mobole Virtualization Platform. The whole thing runs on a Nokia – which apparently is PDA not a phone…

http://www.mikedipetrillo.com/mikedvirtualization/2009/02/mobile-phone-virtualization-with-vmware-demo.html

I was joking with a pal of mine – about how long it would be before I could VMotion a VM from one PDA to another – and would I need a gigabit backbone. But seriously this all about delivering the cloud (yeah, I know roll your eyes, and sigh). For me this cloud business is about trying to deliver the application to any user, anywhere on any device – hey didn’t Citrix have that as buzz word once?

Speaking of silly things – a student of mine has a gigabit laser link between two line of sites – and was asking me if he would be able to use it for VMotion. I wasn’t sure – but I couldn’t help doing my Dr Evil impression…. VMotion with a L-A-S-E-R…..

VMware has updated the old VDM 2.0 course to be up-to-date with with the new VMware View3 course.

http://mylearn.vmware.com/descriptions/EDU_DATASHEET_VMwareViewICM3.pdf

The new course has had the Microsoft component reduced sigificantly – and now the emphasis is firmly on VMware Technologies. The course is now just 3-days long rather than the older course which was 4-days long – and covers new technlogies like Composer/Linked-Clones and virtual printing.

Well, not if you already redudent. This blog post from David Marshall – lifts the lid on that endless obsession – will new technology mean my company wouldn’t need me anymore. Well, relax – deep breaths – even if we do get this cloud – they will still need you to reboot it when goes wrong. Because remember vendors are always promising us a world where all you need is bunch of chimps clicking “Next” – but it never seems to pan out that way does it. Remember the fear was there with virtualization too… Anyway, David has a rather humourous take on the whole anxiety

http://vmblog.com/archive/2009/03/18/will-cloud-computing-do-away-with-it-pros.aspx

Well, that got your attention – that was a typo by me – not terradactyl but Teradici which technology partner ship between VMware & Teradici to develop a PCoIP protcol. That’s PC over IP. In other words a real solution to the problem of rich graphics, flash, youtube.com with virtual desktops – or Citrix MetaFrame/Presentation/XenApp [delete as appriopriate].

Personally, my next project after completing the vSphere4 book is probably two things – get ready to teach the ESX4/vCenter4 product ready fro when it released. Having writen nearly 600 pages on vSphere4 that should be relatively striaght forward. My other idea is to write a book on VMware View – but I want this book to based on the vCenter4 platform. Technologies like Teradici would be one more extra thing to add into the soup. I guess I have to get myself on the Beta Programme for it sometime… Oh, I forgot my other project if it pans out it some kind of CBT for VMware… That’s well into the end of this year – because nothing can be done with that until vSphere goes GA… Anyway, what prompted this blog posts are various “sighting” of Teradici at Canne in Feb…

http://www.chriswolf.com/?p=239

http://www.chriswolf.com/?p=239

http://www.teradici.com/blog/?p=31 

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080916005673&newsLang=en