Archive for the ‘Workstation’ Category

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 That would be fair enough because it was withdrawn many years ago, and never re-instated by VMware.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.

This is just small except of a demo of a VM running on a Nokia Mobile phone…

VMworld Europe - 2009: Episode9: Video of VM on a mobile phone Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

David Davis, my fellow blogger and judge at this years ServerSearchVirtualization.com Awards has some interesting videos about running ESX inside a VMware Workstation instance.

Video link-

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned changes in M$ licensing which affects virtualisation:

Here it is:

“Unlimited Virtualization Rights

Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition licenses now include unlimited virtualization rights, meaning customers can run an unlimited number of virtualized instances of Windows Server on processors licensed with Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition without having to purchase additional licenses. The use rights also allow the choice of running Windows Server 2003 R2 (or previous version) Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Datacenter Edition as the host operating system and in the virtual instances. In addition to Windows Server and Microsoft Virtual Server, the use rights apply to any virtualization technology or host operating system, although they may need to be acquired, licensed and supported separately from third-parties.

The unlimited virtualization rights significantly simplify the licensing of Windows Server for large-scale virtualization, and make it more affordable to consolidate on the Windows Server Platform.”
Link:

Click Here

Mark Russinovich of sysinternals (recently aquired by Micro$oft) has released a new version of the sdelete tool. The new version of sdelete has a new switch which can be used to zero-out redudent/deleted files from a virtual disk prior to being exported for backup or transfer to another VMware vPlatform

Link:

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/SDelete.html

VMware Virtual Machine Importer  
This is a Windows installer and documentation for the VMware Virtual Machine Importer. This utility allows you to convert a Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Virtual Server virtual machine into a VMware Workstation 4 or 5 virtual machine (the original Virtual PC virtual machine is left untouched). Quite why you would use MS Virtual PC/Server is another matter!

VMware Movie Decoder
This is a Windows installer for the movie decoder. This utility is required to play movies recorded using VMware Workstation 5. However, Workstation 5 is not required to play the movie 

http://www.vmware.com/download/vmimporter.html
http://www.vmware.com/download/moviedecoder.html