Archive for the ‘vSphere’ Category

Descubre y domina VMware vSphere 5 es el tercer libro publicado por el autor, José María González, sobre las tecnologías de la virtualización de sistemas con VMware vSphere™ 5.

Este nuevo libro pretende descubrirte todos los pasos desde la instalación y configuración, hasta la administración de las soluciones de virtualización con VMware vSphere™ 5. Tanto si eres un reconocido experto en la administración de sistemas con VMware vSphere, como si es la primera vez que te embarcas en el apasionante viaje hacia la virtualización de tu centro de datos, este libro te guiará paso a paso hacia la virtualización y optimización de tu centro de datos con VMware vSphere™ 5.

Descubre y domina VMware vSphere™ 5 es uno de los manuales de referencia sobre la virtualización de sistemas con VMware y el primer libro sobre VMware vSphere™ 5 disponible y publicado en español. Puedes usarlo para reforzar tus conocimientos, para adentrarte de lleno en el mundo de la virtualización de sistemas o para apoyarte y avanzar en la instalación de VMware vSphere™ 5 en tu empresa.

Algunas personas importantes a destacar en este libro

Me gustaría dar las gracias a Duncan Epping, Principal Architect en VMware y autor del blog Yellow-Bricks.com por tener la amabilidad de escribir el prólogo de mi libro. A Magirus, centro oficial autorizado por VMware para dar cursos oficiales, por brindarme la posibilidad de ofrecer mis servicios de formación oficial de VMware a todos sus estudiantes. Y por último, pero no por ello es menos importante, a Ángel Arias Perez, por tener la amabilidad de leer el libro para corregir erratas en tiempo récord.

José María González, es fundador y presidente de JmG Virtual Consulting, una consultora IT dedicada y especializada en el diseño, configuración, implementación y formación de soluciones de virtualización y cloud computing a empresas. Es también el creador y Editor in Chief del aclamado blog de virtualización y cloud computing en español.

Today I want to start a campaign within the VMware Community…

I would like to see VMware re-instate the “VMTN Subscription”. You might ask, what the hell is that? That would be fair enough because it was withdrawn many years ago, and never re-instated by VMware.

The VMTN Subscription (I found this link on Google which is still active posted in 2005) was similar to Microsoft MSDN or TechNet – where for relatively small yearly fee you could download the core enterprise software and run it for 1year. Right now there is whole legion of home-labbers out there that have to make do and mend with evaluations that expire after 60-days. Sadly, the VMTN Subscription program was cancelled in 2007 and never re-instated.

Now as former VMware Certified Instructor and vExpert – if I wanted NFR style licenses I can get to them. Although I would have to say throughout all my time working with VMware its been also been a struggle gaining access to software and licenses – as independent guy not affiliated to partner…. That’s mainly because an evaluation download doesn’t always give me access to ALL the software I need to do my kind of work. It’s often been a frustration, and I’ve often need to call upon my personal network to get hold of bits that seemed impossible to get through legitimate means. My concern is not so much for myself as I’m generally a well-connected dude – but for the many thousands of loyal VMware supports in their homelabs. VMware has one of the best user communities on the planet. I personally believe that without the “bottom up” support of thousands of enthusiasts who teach themselves VMware in their home labs, who then go on to recommend software to the customers, clients and businesses – VMware wouldn’t be as half as successful as it is without this legion of unpaid evangelist for their cause.

So, VMware. Bring back the VMTN Subscription or make it part of the VMUG Advantage package.

If you want to register your thoughts/views/opinions for this idea – add your +1 to this forum post here.

NetApp’s VSC has recieved a refresh primarily bring it into being compatiable with vSphere5, together with whole host of new features…

http://communities.netapp.com/community/netapp-blogs/virtualization/blog/2011/09/08/netapp-virtual-storage-console-211–now-available

There’s a review here by Luke Read of NetApp as well: http://communities.netapp.com/blogs/luke/2011/09/09/vsc-211–my-favourite-new-feature

I will probably test the new VSC in my labs next week. I’m done with the 1st round of reviews of the SRM – and next week I will have time to wipe down my lab – ready for production code of vSphere5 and SRM5…

I’m pretty much converted to these storage vendor plug-ins – and I now use the VSC from NetApp, VSI from EMC and the DIT/VE from Dell Equallogic for my most of my day to day storage tasks…

Well, at last the wait is over. vSphere5 is now available to download and evaluate from VMware.com website. I was actually expecting the bits to drop on Wednesday, that’s what my (no so) reliable sources were telling me. Who knows perhaps they were released at 23.59 on Wednesday!

I wouldn’t know – I was tucked up in bed by 10pm. I’m not one of those people who sleep in a tent outside an Apple store, if you catch my drift.

Of course I went to download vSphere5 I wasn’t able to. You see I’m neither a customer or partner, and therefore my account is NOT “activated” for customer downloads.

That’s a webpage I’ve been looking at for some years. So at the moment I’m downloading the eval, which looks ALMOST fully functional (Update: I’m not seeing the “Depot” version of ESX5i that’s used with Auto Deploy…). That will last for 60 days. After that I don’t really know what I will do. I will probably sign up for a mailinator account, and just keep on evaluating vSphere5. I’m not really sure where I’m heading on licensing with VMware. I’m no longer a VMware Certified Instructor so I’m not on the email list for education licenses, and I don’t know how long it will take for my vExpert licenses to come through.

My task for today once ESX5i installable has downloaded is to test the GA build of the VMware Hypervisor against the Ultimate Deployment Appliance. Yes, that’s right the UDA has a new build number (Build 20) which adds support for ESX5i. But I need to validate it against the GA, before Carl and I make it publicly available. Not that I expect anyone to deploying ESX5i in anger today – except hard-core fanbios like me of course!

The other thing I’m trying to do is get a preview of chapter 1/2 of my “Hotel California” book out on RTFM. Why? Well, chapter 2 has lots of vSphere5 good stuff, and don’t want to sit on it until next year – because well, by then it will be common knowledge….

Tomorrow will see some big announcements from VMware. This the one we have all been waiting for months…

Please join VMware executives Paul Maritz, CEO and Steve Herrod, CTO for the unveiling of the next major step forward in Cloud infrastructure.  Paul & Steve’s 45 minute live webcast will be followed by additional online sessions where you can learn more about the industry’s most trusted virtualization and cloud infrastructure products and services. Join us and experience how the virtualization journey is helping transform IT and ushering in the era of Cloud Computing.

click here

Erm. What can I say without being cuffed and taken down to share a police cell with a large man called “Bubba”? Not much – but you will want to tune in…

These shots were taken by Alan Renouf with my iPhone – the pool is the famous “Turtle Pool” sadly they turtles were in the water and not consolidating themselves as usual.

[Note: For those initiated in the details of US History/Myth. The phrase "The British Are Coming" was allegedly uttered by Paul Revere - as warning that the British Military was on the way to crush those pesky revolting Yanks. Apparently, Revere never said such a thing, but like all good national myths - the story is perhaps more interesting than the historical fact. Anyway, it was also uttered by an actor in the movie "Chariots of Fire" as announcement of the "invasion" of British Film talent in the 80s. The British Movie industry suffered a similar fate as the British Military in the US... Since then I've used it ironically when ever a bunch of Brits are found together collectively in the United States...]

After finishing up at the Charlotte, NC VMUG Summit I popped across to San Francisco. I had the chance to spend the weekend with some friends of mine – both in the City (where I had a burrito the size of a baby’s arm) and out at Half Moon Bay on the coast. On Saturday I had chance to have an informal lunch with John Troyer and his significant other. That was the second time we hooked up because my British pals live in the same area as John. I also got a chance to drive up the coast in my friends new Porsche (yes, its a total mid-life crisis, but that’s what mid-life crisises were invented for weren’t they?) and see the Great Elephant Seals by the coast there.

My main reason for being is San Francisco was to visit the offices of VMware. It was by chance that fellow Brit, Alan Renouf was there too. No, Alan is not French (if he was it would be Alain I imagine!) – and he’s just moved from EMC to VMware to work on all things PowerCLI related.

I was in Palo Alto to attend my first ever “On-Site Beta Workshop” – I found the 3-day event very useful indeed. Not just for getting close access to the product development team, but also to listen to customers concerns and priorities.

Well, those chaps over in Palo Alto are at it again. A new Aye-PAD application – this time its for managing vSphere. Anyone would think that VMware had shares in Apple – or vice-versa. Sadly, this won’t put a stop to a thread on the VMTN Forums where Apple MAC users continually belly-ache about the lack of Apple Mac vSphere Client. I rather foolish made a comment on the post – which means I get endless emails about how VMware doesn’t care about its customers… Occasionally it slips into the whole Windows-Mac-Linux debate – I mean aren’t there more important things to worry about.

Anyway, I digress – for those with the might tablet of hope – you can now download the vSphere Aye-PAD Client from the Apple Store.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vmware-vsphere-client-for/

VMware has already put together a Community Forum for those looking to troubleshoot and ask questions here – http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vsphere/ipadclient

The UI of the vSphere Aye-PAD client looks like this:

Don’t expect the Aye-PAD vSphere app to have all the features and functionality of the fully blown vSphere Client for Windows. Expect to find that that the 80% of the most common vSphere Admin tasks are there such as:

• Search for vSphere hosts and virtual machines
• Monitor the performance of vSphere hosts and virtual machines
• Manage virtual machines with the ability to start, stop and suspend
• View and restore virtual machines’ snapshots
• Reboot vSphere hosts or put them into maintenance mode
• Diagnose vSphere hosts and virtual machines using built-in ping and traceroute tools

There’s a couple of requirements for the App to function. Firstly, you need an Aye-PAD (OK, I’m joking) but more importantly you need the vCMA virtual appliance from VMware. If you have ever read my vSphere4 book – I covered it there – Basically its Mobile Access appliance that in its standard form presents a web-page of vSphere that’s viewable to most smartphones. The Aye-PAD App connect through the vCMA to then connect to your vSphere environment which then populates the UI of the Aye-PAD application.

The IPAD 2 is available in Europe from the 25th March. Rumors are already circulating that there will be heavy delays caused by excessive demand. When the first IPAD was released they delayed the world-wide launch in order to first deal with a backlog in the US. I’m not sure if that will happen this time around  – there may be some existing IPAD users who happy with the G1, and will carry on using it until it breaks (which is what I would I do if I had IPAD 1).  But there should be plenty of folks like me who decided the functionality of IPAD 1 made it a non-starter, and decided to wait for the IPAD 2…

Just a few short weeks ago Dell launch their Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter. I was fortunate recently to be given a guided tour of it’s capabilities, and to discuss with Dell their future plans. I was even lucky enough to be offered remote access to pre-configured environment – that was handy because I don’t run Dell servers in my lab environment, although I recently took on loan two Dell Equallogic’s arrays as part of my ramping up ready to write the next thrilling installment on VMware’s Site Recovery Manager. For now it’s a bit make do and mend with a couple of antiquated HP Proliants that went out of warranty some years ago!  So it certainly was very useful to have one-to-one session with the guys from Dell – because there’s nothing like seeing the technology in action as opposed to steam of endless PowerPoints!

Before I get into features and functionality, lets talk about price and terminology. That’s usually the last thing on my agenda – but I feel there might be chance to clear up a misconception. When in the VMware community we use the word “plug-in” we very often think of some teeny-tiny piece of software that extends the functionality of vCenter by adding a little option here and there. Often these teeny-tiny bits of software are free, and written by enthusiasts trying to make a name for them selves in the vCommunity.  When vendors write these sort of plug-ins often times they are treated like “Easter Eggs” compared to the main course, and a way of ticking the box that says “We integrate with VMware”.

When tweeted I was just about go on the call with Dell, one of my followers tweeted back “Ask them why it isn’t free!” So I was forewarned to raise this on the call, but as the session went on I began to realize how the term “plug-in” is somewhat out of place in this case. The Dell Management Plug-in is so much more than just some teeny-tiny plug-in, and so long as Dell remain committed to it as strategy then I can see how in the long-term vCenter will be the central point from which you manage your VMware, and your Dell assets. It’s precisely this direction that Dell are espousing, so there’s more to this management lark then adding a “connect via RDP” to the VM menu in vCenter.

(more…)

UPDATE: My fellow vExpert and Blogger, David Davis – managed to capture some video of the User Awards, together with an interview with the overall winner. Check it out here

On day two of VMworld. I stayed in bed. Yes, I’d been partying hard on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday -  and so when Wednesday morning broke – I found myself supine. But I was still productive – I managed to get some blogpost done from the comfort of my room – before getting my proverbial together to help present the Best of VMworld Europe – TechTarget USER Awards. My co-presenter was Jo Maitland from TechTarget…

Both me and Jo had these crazy mics on which were used throughout the event. Every time I had mine on, I felt an irresistible urge to promote my exercise video, and try out my Madonna impression. Fortunately, no video footage exists of me making a berk of myself!

The very last picture shows Simon Gallagher (best in show) stepping up to win his award – a brand new iPAD…

In San Francisco I helped judge the catagories for vendor awards – but in my heart of hearts I was really looking forward to the User Awards – sponsored by VMware – the intention is to recognize exceptional work by customers in the field. It’s the kind of users/customers/community stuff that floats my boat. Vendors are for ever getting recognition for the work, but this was  a real opportunity to reward outstanding efforts by the virtualization community.

Myself and Tom Howarth – judged the Private Cloud, Virtual Desktop and Home/Remote Office categories, whereas Gabrie Van Zanten and David Davis – judged the Server Virtualization and BC/DR categories. Simon Gallagher won the “Best in Show”…. and not unsurprisingly Simon is really stoked that he won, and his post has been updated to explain in detail how he built the vTardis….

It always makes me smile when I hear that phrase – I’m sure Simon has a healthy coat, strong teeth and healthy bones!

You can hear me and Gabrie discussing the judging process, and what says about the current state of virtulization in a audio podcast recorded just before the event

Here’s an article that gives an overview of the results (there was 80 submission in total)

As VMworld Copenhagen drew to a close – Big John Troyer from the VMTN Communities had me and Simon VMworld-TV to discuss the awards generally, and Simon’s vTardis in particular…

In case you haven’t heard of vTardis yet. Its single box with ESX on it – in turn running 6 “nested” ESX hosts (ESX running inside a virtual machine), and Simon has had upto 60 VMs run on this system. It includes shared storage (OpenFiler as a VM), and firewall (Vyatta), and supports a VLAN configuration to boot! Simon’s vTardis a pun on the popular BBC TV series “Dr Who” where the Dr’s timetravelling machine is larger on the inside, than on the outside. In the same way, Simon gets more servers running side the box, than there are physical servers. Not to rest on his laurels – Simon has been busy improving and upgrading the original vTardis – to include support for VMware’s vCloud Director. Originally vTardis stood for “Trolley Attached Random Datacentre of Inexpensive Servers” (as it was attached to trolley to make it portable), but as time as gone by Simon keeps on dreaming up other names I think its currently ”

Watch live video from VMworld 2010 Live on Justin.tv