Archive for November, 2010

Note: I would like to credit community forum member (and fellow vExpert) WoodyZ for this solution – he answered my VMware Communities Post here

I thought I would write this experience up as this its second or third time in my first year of using VMware Fusion. Basically, what can happen is in Unity mode the icons become “generic”

Although you can’t tell – one of the these icons is the vSphere4 client and the other is the Windows version of Firefox (Yes, I know there’s a mac version, and use that as well. I need the Windows one for a vendor specific plug-in that only works on Firefox for Windows).

It’s not really clear what causes this – but there’s some kind of icon cache that gets balls-ed up. You can delete this icon cache, and then everything will be right as rain again. Here’s how:

1. Shutdown your Fusion VMs (Don’t suspend, do a graceful shutdown)
2. Shutdown Fusion
3. In Finder, browse to \Documents\Virtual Machines\
4. Right-click your virtual machine “package” and select “Show Package” contents
   
5. Delete the “Applications” and “appListCache” folders.
6. Close all the Finder windows.
7. Power on your VM
8. Login to your VM and enter Unity mode
9. When you click at the offending icons, they will be refreshed and return to something recognizable

This weeks vendorwag I’m chatting to Burke Azbill of the vCO (VMware vCenter Orchestrator) Team. In case you don’t know the vCO Team have launched a brand new blog – in effort to galvanize the VMware Community to use vCO, and in ease the way into using it.

Burke Azbill is an IT professional with 15 years of experience in tech-support, network administration, web development, programming, and automation. He holds certifications from Microsoft, Novell, Citrix, Linux Professional Institute, VMware, and ITIL foundations. He is the founder of www.vcoteam.info and a member of the Cloud Orchestration Services team in VMware’s PSO. As a member of the Dunes staff, he joined VMware as part of the Dunes acquisition at Vmworld 2007.

If you want to visit their site its here – It’s jam-packed with some great getting started videos!

If you want to follow the vCO Team on the little birdy  below!

I learned TWO really big thing about vCO whilst we did our vendorwag.

Firstly, I had always assumed that vCO was read-only to ALL customers, and you need a special license to make it customizable. I was SO wrong. I clearly needed my ears emptied of wax or my brain wasn’t engaged. It turns out in the lower SKU’s vCO is indeed a read-only environment, but for customers who are on the Std/Adv/Ent/Ent+ SKUs vCO is bundled with vCenter fully functional at no additional charge… DOH!

Secondly, did you know Onyx from VMware outputs JavaScript as well as PowerCLI code. In case you don’t know – Onyx is a free utility from VMware that acts like a “macro-recorder” intercepting your clicks through the vSphere client into raw PowerCLI code. Since 2.0 it also outputs in JavaScript as well – which means you need not learn JavaScript to necessarily get started with vCO. ACE!

This weeks vendorwag introduces a brand new format. Previous vendorwags have just been split-screen videos recorded via Skype of me interviewing the vendor. After giving this some thought it seems rather stupid to have a vendor present without them being able to show/explain/answer questions – with the product at hand. So as part of an experiment I’ve been seeing if I could get both the product and the two-heads in one video. It’s a bit crude at the moment to be honest, and will get more polished as time goes on… But this first one will give you an idea of the direction I hope to go in future.

As ever if you want the MP3 version of the chinwag it’s here – but to be honest it’s much easier to subscribe to the MP3 podcast via iTunes which means the podcast will be download when ever I do them. Alternatively, if you would prefer the videos on your iPAD/iPOD/iPhone – you subscribe to the video version of the Chinwags there (beware they are big!). If you don’t use iTunes, here’s the generic RSS Feed link

Anyway, because the resolution of the recording is too big to embedded into the webpage to stop you going squinty eyed – when you click the graphic below it should launch in separate window…The podcast version will rendered to fit the screen of your device (ipod/iphone/ipad). If you find the video too large to fit your screen you can download it here, and play it locally – that way your local player will render it relative to your screen…

Well, its been sometime since a Mike’s music. That’s because I haven’t really been inspired by much in the last couple of episodes – until the other week when I heard this fantastic Irish band (well, they seem a pollygot of Irish and English folk musicians!). So this is one for all my Irish chums out there – chin-up guys – we might all be going up the swanny in boat without paddle steered by Captain IMF… But there will always be music and pint at the pub!

Turn this up loud!

Well, I have some great great news. The great 2010 VMworld Swagbag has just got a major new boost.

Firstly, fellow vExpert David Davis has kindly stepped forward and offered his VMworld 2010 Bag to be added to the great vLottery/vDraw. David of TrainSignal/vChat fame realized just like me he had unneeded VMworld bag from attending both VMworld San Francisco, and VMworld Copenhagen. So David has filled his bag with swag – so we now have a 1st and 2nd VMworld Swagbag to give away. This is the run down on David’s bag:

• VMworld 2010 backpack
• Trainsignal video package valued at $800
• 2 VMworld water bottles
• Powercli sticker, buttons, and poster
• Akorri tshirt
• VMworld tshirt
• EMC tshirt
• VMware lic plate frame
• Quest wireless mouse with usb fob to connect it
• NComputing L300 ThinClient like the one Eric Sloof shows in this video

You can learn more about what’s in David’s bag from his video – and David has post about his bag too – which is located here –

http://www.vmwarevideos.com/vmworld-2010-vlottery-swagbag-raffle-mike-laverick

My other good new is that my new collocation provider

has generously sponsored some runner up prizes in the form of shirts. Node4 sponsor a motorcycle racing team here in the UK called MotorPoint Yahama, and they have 20 racing shirts to give away.

Finally, at this months Northern UK V.M.U.G Microsoft handed me a prize to be included in the swagbag. It includes a wireless mini-optical mouse, 4port high speed USB 2.0 hub, 18-in-1 Memory Card Reader, Bluetooth Dongle and USB Adapter Kit. Thank you Microsoft

The CHINWAG is BACK!

[You might notice some background noise on the recording - that's my friends the "builders" who have been making my life a misery the entire year!]

Yes, after a break of a couple of weeks the chinwag is back. I had so many vendorwags I had to let a couple out of the bag to balance the whole lot out.

If you follow my blog you might know that I’ve been doing a couple of competitions – mainly to offload some of the vendorSwag that sometimes comes my way – anyway, Craig Water’s won a competition a couple of weeks (is that months?) ago… and as we chatted via email our discussion turned towards VMware SRM and DR generally. In the end I thought I would be a great idea to have Criag on the “show”.  Anyway, this is a bit of background on Criag:

Craig Waters of AUSTRALIA. Criag is a Virtualisation Architect and Data Centre specialist with over 15 years experience in IT, a self-employed IT consultant providing solutions utilizing VMware virtualisation with storage and networking infrastructure technologies.  He recently became the chairman of the Melbourne VMUG, and is looking forward to meeting other IT Professionals and sharing my IT knowledge and experience. He’s keen to contribute to the future development of SRM after having designed and implemented the product for his current customer (55 VMs, 6 ESX hosts 4Prod & 2DR, 2 x CX4-240?s with MirrorView/S all going over a 1Gbps microwave link <would you believe>!!!).

If you want to follow Craig on Twitter is ID is @cswaters1, and the next Melbourne VMUG is on the 9th of December, 2010

As ever if you want the MP3 version of the chinwag it’s here – but to be honest it’s much easier to subscribe to the MP3 podcast via iTunes which means the podcast will be download when ever I do them. Alternatively, if you would prefer the videos on your iPAD/iPOD/iPhone – you subscribe to the video version of the Chinwags there (beware they are big!). If you don’t use iTunes, here’s the generic RSS Feed link

Here’s the list of question and topics we talked about

Q.  Do you need a high level of virtualization to adopt VMware Site Recovery Manager? Is there a %-point of virtualization that’s a trigger for adopting VMware SRM, or is it really about the applications/services within the VM?

Q. What level expertise do you need to implement SRM, and what business process do you need to go through to successfully deploy SRM? If storage is critical, how do you go about carving up your storage?

Q. Question for Mike… What made you use a virtual appliance for the first SRM 1.0 book?

Q. Does SRM work for the failover of an individual VM, and what does the business need to know about SRM capabilities? Do customers want this level of granularity and what would be needed to deliver this…?

Q. What is like to upgrade from SRM 1.0 to 4.1 – as there is no direct upgrade path.

Q. What are some of the UI issues with Recovery Plans?

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Over on TechTarget I’ve written an article (in two parts) about VMware and the Cloud. It’s a kind of nod to the fact for years folks used to have “Virtualization is a journey not a destination”, which I’ve noticed many folks now have “Cloud is journey not a destination”. I start of with an overview of how VMware began that journey, and an assessment on well placed they are to arrive at the destination.

From VMware Virtualization to the VMware Cloud (Part 1)

VMware Management software for the Cloud: A Square Peg in a Round Hole (Part 2)

I’ve written a two-part article on how to get VMware’s vCloud Director up and running in your “man cave”. For those who uninitiated that is not a medical term – but a phrase we use here in the UK to describe the man’s small office or hide away filled with bits and bobs, batteries, half-mended computers. In modern terms the “man cave” has replace the garden shed – as place for a gentleman of leisure to retire to from the hurley-burley of “her indoors” and kids killing each other on who has the next turn on the Wii.

Anyway, inside many a IT mans “cave” is his vSphere home lab. So in this series I show you how to setup vCloud Director using free bits of software that doesn’t expire after 60 days. Sadly, with the untimely demise of the “VMTM Subscription” the only software that does expire is VMware’s own vCD. But heck, that’s what mailinator email accounts were created for!!!

Special thanks to Duncan Eppying – who’s article on Yellow-Bricks got me over the “hump” which was Oracle Express!

Part One and Part Two are already available which cover getting Oracle Express Linux up and running, and the configuration of the Orcale XD database. Part 3 will be all about the vCD install itself including handling those pesky self-generated certificates!

Update: Here’s the 4th and final part of my series on how to get up and running with vCloud Director

This week it was my pleasure and delight to present a vNews to the Northern UK User Group. I had a very well attended session and my slides provoked a lot of excellent feedback from my group – lesson learned? Small groups give more discussion, then you need less (or more compacted slides). OR in other words I ran out of time!!! Expect this months vNews to appear shortly on RTFM – exactly the same stuff I presented in Leeds – only without the bits at the end done at warp speed!

The North UK VMUG is run as mini-VMworld. With a mini-solutions exchange and break out session (no “keynote” or “closing address” to speak of yet – but that might come with time. The whole thing was held in a Park Plaza cheek-by-jowl to Leeds mainline train station – which I think helped with people coming in from the surrounding areas…

This was my session and group…

Tom Howarth was there (rather fantastic slides Tom! :-p), and in his chats with the Microsoft guys he managed to wangle a freebie!

Veeam were there with their SureBackup Presentation, and very colourful shirts and mustaches!

Some general photos from the VMUGs own photographer – how very slick of them!

Part1: The Big Move

Last week I moved to a new collocation. It’s part of the process of me ramping up to write the next VMware Site Recovery Manager book. Anyway, I wanted to share my experience with you – and just talk about what its like to use a collocation. I’ve gone through the process a number of times and I thought folks might benefit from my experience. For the last couple of months my “enterprise” equipment has been on the floor of my partners music room. I left my old collocation in March of this year for a number of reasons. Firstly, they were no good. Secondly, the cost incurred in running a collocation were a small fortune. I figured I could save myself a lot of money by moving out and running a home lab instead – until such time I would need a collocation again. The bottom line is I could not run nearly 42U worth equipment at home. The noise, power and cooling requirements make it extremely difficult.

(more…)

MINOR ANNOUNCEMENT:

Before I introduce the vendorwag – just a quick note. For reasons beyond my control, I have a LOT more “vendorwags” than I have “chinwags”. Things are getting a bit silly because in some cases a recording is done with a vendor, and then it can take up 8 weeks before they get aired – simply because I have THAT many in the can. So for the next couple of weeks I’m going to be doing TWO vendorwags a week – and no chinwags – until I clear this backlog…

In this week’s Vendorwag, Steve Paravola, Product Marketing Manager of Quest Software discusses Quest’s vOptimizer Pro software and how it can assist customers to:

• Identifying total amount and value of over-allocated VM storage
• Reclaim wasted VM storage for use by other applications
• Automate the resizing of VMs — either larger or smaller
• Prevent VM outages due to storage shortages
• Improve VM I/O performance by up to 15% through 64K partition block alignment

Here’s a quick summary of Steve’s background:

* 30+ years in IT
* MVS and CICS System Programmer
* DB2 for z/OS Certified Instructor / Consultant / Support Engineer (SE)
* Director of ERP/CRM Research for PLATINUM technology
* 18+ years high-tech marketing and sales experience
* Product Marketing Manager for vOptimizer Pro and vFoglight Storage
* Visited hundreds of customers to discuss IT operations and strategies

As ever if you want the MP3 version of the chinwag it’s here – but to be honest it’s much easier to subscribe to the MP3 podcast via iTunes which means the podcast will be download when ever I do them. Alternatively, if you would prefer the videos on your iPAD/iPOD/iPhone – you subscribe to the video version of the Chinwags there (beware they are big!). If you don’t use iTunes, here’s the generic RSS Feed link

Podcast Video Play Now | Play in Popup | Download