McAfee MOVE Antivirus joins the vShield Endpoint Family

[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0168eaf46bea970c-200wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0168eaf46bea970c-pi>

<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0168eaf44a56970c-pi>We have seen a tremendous amount of customer interest in optimizing endpoint security in VMware vSphere and VMware View environments.
<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0168eaf46bea970c-pi>As server consolidation ratios rise and as large scale virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments roll out it is important to take a fresh look at endpoint security. While the tried and true practice of installing a thick security agent per virtual machine is certainly viable, there is a lot to be gained in taking a new approach that is optimized for the virtual environment.

VMware vShield Endpoint<http://www.vmware.com/products/vshield-endpoint/overview.html> offloads antivirus and anti-malware agent processing to a dedicated secure virtual appliance delivered by VMware partners. Our offload approach dramatically increases consolidation ratios and performance by eliminating anti-virus "storms", streamlines deployment, and satisfies compliance requirements. These capabilities combined with choice of industry leading endpoint security solutions are fundamental to your journey to the cloud.

VMware is proud to announce that McAfee is now shipping the McAfee MOVE Antivirus<http://www.mcafee.com/us/products/move-anti-virus.aspx> solution that integrates with VMware vShield Endpoint. The McAfee MOVE provides powerful, comprehensive, and consistent protection, and is managed and reported by the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator platform.

With the addition of McAfee we now have four actively shipping solutions with vShield Endpoint including:

Bitdefender Security for Virtualized Environments
http://www.bitdefender.com/sve

Kaspersky Security for Virtualization
http://www.kaspersky.com/products/business/applications/security-virtualization

McAfee MOVE Antivirus
www.mcafee.com/us/products/move-anti-virus.aspx<http://www.mcafee.com/us/products/move-anti-virus.aspx>

Trend Micro Deep Security
http://www.trendmicro.com/us/enterprise/cloud-solutions/deep-security/index.html

Original Post:
http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/04/mcafee-move-antivirus-joins-the-vshield-endpoint-family.html

PMI's Agile Certified Practitioner: A cert is born

The Project Management Institute's new Agile Certified Practitioner certification might be right for you if your organization uses scrum, Lean, Kanban, and XP.


http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-manager/pmis-agile-certified-practitioner-a-cert-is-born/7745



Sent with MobileRSS for iPhone<http://itunes.apple.com/app/mobilerss-pro-google-rss-news/id325594202?mt=8>


Mike Yallits, VTSP
Client Account Manager
ESTI Consulting Services
Cell: 204 294-7773
mike.yallits@esti.ca<mailto:mike.yallits@esti.ca>

Technical Marketing Update 2012 - Week 17

Original Post: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/04/technical-marketing-update-2012-week-17.html

By Duncan Epping<https://plus.google.com/112305325305827926631?rel=author>, Principal Architect.

Technical Marketing Update 2012 - Week 17

Great white paper by Cormac Hogan on Storage Protocols. I know many of you have asked for this in the past, so I am sure you will appreciate this paper that explains the various protocols and how they interoperate with VMware. Excellent work Cormac!

* Storage Protocol Comparison (Cormac Hogan) http://bit.ly/IkXoWP

Blog posts:

* vSphere Security Hardening Report Script for vSphere 5 (William Lam) http://bit.ly/Ju91uU
* Cool tool update: RVTools 3.3 released! (Duncan Epping) bit.ly/INHvor<http://bit.ly/INHvor>
* Removing Previous Local Datastore Label for Reinstall in ESXi 5 (William Lam) http://bit.ly/IfhmSN
* Does VMware Support Shared/Switched SAS? (Cormac Hogan) bit.ly/JD50lT<http://bit.ly/JD50lT>
* What is das.maskCleanShutdownEnabled about? (Duncan Epping) http://bit.ly/JnkKKd
* Demystifying Configuration Maximums for VSS and VDS (Venky Deshpande) bit.ly/JzZ7YC<http://bit.ly/JzZ7YC>
* VAAI Thin Provisioning Block Reclaim/UNMAP In Action (Cormac Hogan) bit.ly/JpTkB2<http://bit.ly/JpTkB2>
* Aggregating datastores from multiple storage arrays into one Storage DRS datastore cluster (Frank Denneman) bit.ly/I3Bx2z<http://bit.ly/I3Bx2z>
* Preparing the hosts in Provider VDCs with PowerCLI (Alan Renouf) bit.ly/IhJ00B<http://bit.ly/IhJ00B>
* SRM 5.0.1 Upgrade with vSphere Replication (Ken Werneburg) bit.ly/I8yIgD<http://bit.ly/I8yIgD>
* Using the vSphere ESXi Image Builder CLI (Kyle Gleed) bit.ly/IhAznV<http://bit.ly/IhAznV>
* Retrieving Information from VMware VDS + Cisco Nexus 1000v (William Lam) bit.ly/Ixeaxu<http://bit.ly/Ixeaxu>

Find Lex

That's my girl, only people in the theater and she picks the back row at the end...

"it's close to the door daddy" was her logic....

iPerfectPutt: Moncton Math Professor Creates iPhone Putting Aid App

A Moncton math professor has created the ultimate putting aid app for golfers that utilizes the sensors on the iPhone to analyze your stroke. iPerfectPutt is a free download and features the following:

The free iPerfectPutt features provide the following measurements of your putting strokes:

• Swing tempo (backswing/downswing durations)
• Swing plane deviation (inside/outside)
• Clubface angle deviation (open/closed)
• Putt weight (backswing angle, clubhead speed)

iPerfectPutt also provides a free and adjustable metronome to help you practice your swing tempo.

In-app purchases will unlock more features such as the ability to save captured strokes, realtime auditory feedback on all aspects of your putting stroke, simulation of your stroke compared to a reference stroke, and comprehensive data graphs to offer feedback.

In an interview with the CBC, professor Samuel Gaudet noted his motivation to create the app was to improve his short game (like the rest of us), via his math background and use of statistical analysis, and was 1.5 years in the making.

[http://cdn.iphoneincanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/iperfectputt-243x350.jpg]<http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/?attachment_id=56548> [http://cdn.iphoneincanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/iperfectputt2-243x350.jpg] <http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/?attachment_id=56547>

In order to use the app you will require a mount on your putter, such as the iPing Cradle (available for $30 from Golf Town). For all you golf nuts, this free app might be worth a try.

[http://cdn.iphoneincanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/iPING_iPhone_2000X2000-350x350.jpg]<http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/?attachment_id=56546>

Click here to download iPerfectPutt<http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/iperfectputt/id516374063?mt=8>–it's free.

Original Post:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/iphoneincanada/~3/HCse0Xae_U0/

SRM 5.0.1 Upgrade with vSphere Replication

[http://a1.twimg.com/profile_images/1567278155/kenw]
Posted by
Ken Werneburg
Sr Tech Marketing Manager

Upgrading from 5.0 to 5.0.1 is such a very simple process that it doesn't require a lot of attention, but there's one quick caveat regarding the vSphere Replication virtual appliances that should be noted.

Because of this, I figured it would be worthwhile to walk you through a couple of different ways to make sure you VR appliances are up to date along with the latest SRM code.

As always, I follow an upgrade process like this:

A) Protected site VC first. Why? You can still do a recovery on the other site if things go sour for you for any reason! These are all in-place upgrades and should take minimal time and effort.

1) vCenter Server

2) vSphere Client

3) Web Client Server--- oh wait, nope, not for 5.0.1, there's no update. Careful you don't just blindly "next-next-next" your way through this or it'll uninstall your web client server.

4) VUM. Very important, make sure this is up to date!

B) Protected site SRM

1) In-place upgrade of SRM to 5.0.1.

[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0168ead03ad6970c-800wi] <http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0168ead03ad6970c-pi>

C) Recovery Site vCenter Server (same steps as above)

D) Recovery Site SRM Server (same steps as above)

That was easy. Now you should be back to a good state with everything protected and running. All you need to do is log into your vCenter and check that SRM is still functional.

Don't forget you'll need to update the SRM plugin as well! This upgrade requires that the vpxclient gets bounced, so do that and make sure SRM is working.

Ah but wait, SRM now has the vSphere Replication pieces if you've installed them, and we didn't upgrade those as part of the SRM server upgrade. So how do we do this? There are a couple of ways.

C) Upgrade vSphere Replication

One way is to upgrade the appliances themselves by logging into them and using the built-in update tools. The other is that we could use vSphere Update Manager.

I like logging into the appliances and running the update. The problem is that it presumes you have an internet connection available to the appliances, and it also assumes your proxy settings are correct, so please double check the appliance configuration in order to do this! I've done this through a proxy server and it worked like a charm for me.

For those of you who want to try it via the web interface of the appliance, it's quite straight forward. Log onto the appliance through the web interface, click on the "update" tab on the top, click on the "Check Updates" action button on the right, and if updates are available, click on the "Install Updates" action. That's it!

[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0168ead03b83970c-800wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0168ead03b83970c-pi>

[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0168ead03d0b970c-800wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0168ead03d0b970c-pi>


But this is far too manual overall, requires internet and proxy access for your appliances, and is not necessarily the most verbose about what's going on behind the scenes. Let's use VUM instead.

The great news is that VUM has built-in "VA Upgrade" baselines that include upgrading the VR component appliances to the latest available build. You can build your own baselines for the virtual appliances if you want, but in this case there's a predefined baseline that you can use.

[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016304dab1a8970d-800wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016304dab1a8970d-pi>


We can simply attach the appropriate baseline to the VR appliances, or a folder containing them, and remediate. It'll go through a bunch of actions you can follow via events in the Tasks and Events tab:

[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0168ead03e88970c-800wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0168ead03e88970c-pi>


Voila. They are now upgraded to the latest and greatest.

[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0168ead03ee7970c-800wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef0168ead03ee7970c-pi>


So I recommend doing all of this through VUM. It's quick, easy, doesn't require any manual process, and means we don't need to worry about network connectivity for the appliances to get to the outside world, so it's also more secure. You can also reuse the baseline pretty easily next time it comes time to upgrade. Lastly VUM has the great ability to do snapshots and rollbacks in case of problems, so it's nicely fixable if things go wrong!

That's it for now - basically, when upgrading SRM from now on, make sure you also remember to upgrade your vSphere Replication components, and my advice to you is to use VUM to do so.

-Ken




http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/04/srm-501-upgrade-with-vsphere-replication.html



Sent with MobileRSS for iPhone<http://itunes.apple.com/app/mobilerss-pro-google-rss-news/id325594202?mt=8>


Mike Yallits, VTSP
Client Account Manager
ESTI Consulting Services
Cell: 204 294-7773
mike.yallits@esti.ca<mailto:mike.yallits@esti.ca>

Storage Protocol Comparison (A vSphere Perspective) White Paper now available

Original Post: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/04/storage-protocol-comparison-a-vsphere-perspective-white-paper-now-available.html

A number of months ago I published a blog article which compared the different storage protocols<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/02/storage-protocol-comparison-a-vsphere-perspective.html> which are found in a vSphere environment. On the back of this posting, a number of folks reached out to me to ask if there was a PDF version of the storage comparison available. Well, now there is. You can pick it up from the VMware Technical Resource Center<http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/> which has a great repository of VMware white papers.

The Storage Protocol Comparison white paper can be download by clicking on this link<http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10276>.

Get notification of these blogs postings and more VMware Storage information by following me on Twitter: [http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef014e8a7e2282970d-800wi] <http://twitter.com/#%21/VMwareStorage> @vmwStorage<http://twitter.com/#%21/vmwstorage>

EMC Webcast: Isilon Best Practices for vSphere 5 (Part of a Series)

<http://emcfeeds.emc.com/l?s=100003s2sm4ns80vcpn&r=googlereader&he=687474702533412532462532467777772e656d632e636f6d253346434d502533445253532d6576656e7473&i=70726f78793a687474703a2f2f7777772e656d632e636f6d2f6576656e74732f323031322f71322f30352d31302d31322d6973696c6f6e2d626573742d7072616374696365732d666f722d767370686572652d352e68746d>
[http://emcfeeds.emc.com/x/img/emc_logo.gif?CMP=RSS-events]
Location : Online

Date : May 10 - 10, 2012.

Are you planning to build a vSphere infrastructure that uses EMC Isilon storage? Sign up for an inside look at the technical concepts and implementation processes that you need to know.

Register Here:
http://www.emc.com/events/2012/q2/05-10-12-isilon-best-practices-for-vsphere-5.htm?CMP=RSS-events

EMC Webcast: Accelerating IT Transformation (Part of a Series)

<http://emcfeeds.emc.com/l?s=100003s2sm4ns80vcpn&r=googlereader&he=687474702533412532462532467777772e656d632e636f6d253346434d502533445253532d6576656e7473&i=70726f78793a687474703a2f2f7777772e656d632e636f6d2f6576656e74732f323031322f71322f30352d31372d31322d616363656c65726174696e672d69742d7472616e73666f726d6174696f6e2e68746d>
[http://emcfeeds.emc.com/x/img/emc_logo.gif?CMP=RSS-events]
Location : Online

Date : May 17 - 17, 2012.

IT transformation is happening all around us, ignited by Cloud Computing and Virtualization. Learn how IT transformation impacts your business and discover the massive opportunities that exist today.

Register Here:
https://emcinformation.com/57201/REG/.ashx?reg_src=WEB
<http://emcfeeds.emc.com/l?s=100003s2sm4ns80vcpn&r=googlereader&he=68747470253341253246253246656d6366656564732e656d632e636f6d25324670253246737562736372696265253346732533443130303030337332736d346e7338307663706e253236434d502533445253532d6576656e7473&i=70726f78793a687474703a2f2f7777772e656d632e636f6d2f6576656e74732f323031322f71322f30352d31372d31322d616363656c65726174696e672d69742d7472616e73666f726d6174696f6e2e68746d><http://emcfeeds.emc.com/l?s=100003s2sm4ns80vcpn&r=googlereader&he=68747470253341253246253246656d6366656564732e656d632e636f6d25324670253246737562736372696265253346732533443130303030337332736d346e7338307663706e253236434d502533445253532d6576656e7473&i=70726f78793a687474703a2f2f7777772e656d632e636f6d2f6576656e74732f323031322f71322f30352d31372d31322d616363656c65726174696e672d69742d7472616e73666f726d6174696f6e2e68746d>

Technical Paper - Storage Protocol Comparison

Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/is1d1kAdxUQ/2035-Technical-Paper-Storage-Protocol-Comparison.html

The objective of this white paper is to provide information on storage protocols and how they interoperate with VMware vSphere and related features. Not all supported storage protocols are discussed. Some notable exceptions are ATA over Ethernet (AoE) and shared/switched SAS. However, the protocols that are included in this paper are the ones that VMware is most frequently asked to compare.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/Storage_Protocol_Comparison.pdf


VMware frequently is asked for guidance regarding the best storage protocol to use with VMware vSphere®. vSphere supports many storage protocols, with no preference given to any one over another. However, many customers still want to know how these protocols stack up against each other and to understand their respective pros and cons.This white paper looks at common storage protocols from a vSphere perspective. It is not intended to delve into performance comparisons, for the following two reasons:


* The Performance Engineering team at VMware already produces excellent storage performance white papers.
* Storage protocol performance can vary greatly, depending on the storage array vendor. It therefore does not make sense to compare iSCSI and NFS from one vendor, because another vendor might implement one of those protocols far better.

If you are interested in viewing performance comparisons of storage protocols, the "Conclusion" section of this paper includes links to several such documents.

Demystifying Configuration Maximums for VSS and VDS

Original Post: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/04/demystifying-configuration-maximums-for-vss-and-vds.html

In this blog entry, I will spend some time discussing the configuration maximums related to vSphere standard switch (VSS) and vSphere distributed switch (VDS). I always get this question, what will happen when you cross those configuration maximum limits? Especially, with the vSphere Distributed Switch configuration maximums where there are vCenter Server level limits as well as host level limits. I would like to clarify some of the things regarding these limits in this post. Here are the configuration maximums for vSPhere 5.0 as it pertains to Hosts, VSS, and VDS.

Host Maximums (These apply to both VSS and VDS):

- Total virtual network switch ports per host : 4096

- Maximum Active ports per host : 1016

VSS Maximums

- Port groups per standard switch : 256

VDS Maximums (These are all vCenter Server maximums as vCenter server controls the configuration of VDS)

- Hosts per VDS : 350

- Total distributed virtual network switch ports : 30,000

- Total number of Static Distributed Port groups : 5000

- Total number of Ephemeral Port groups : 256

After taking a look at the limits, let's focus our attention on the VSS deployments first. In such deployments you have to configure VSS on each host and in some cases there might be multiple VSSs on the same host. When you create a VSS you have an option to define the number of virtual ports on that specific virtual switch (default is 128). Next step is to create port groups. VSS only supports Ephemeral binding and allocates zero virtual ports when a port group is created. The virtual port is allocated only when a virtual machine or vmknic is connected to the port group. In this deployment by keeping the count of the number of VMs and vmknics on a host you can tell how many virtual ports are used. You can then compare the number of virtual ports with host limits.

The host limits are Hard limits. Hard limit means that the host will enforce the limit and you will not be allowed to create more than 4096 virtual ports or have more than 1016 active virtual ports. If you have multiple VSSs on the host this port maximum numbers don't change. You might have some VSS with more VMs connected and some with less. As long as the total number of VMs and vmknics on the VSSs are within the maximum range you are fine. Also, in my opinion there are enough virtual ports available as per the host maximums, and you should not have any problems regarding scaling your environment and achieving higher consolidation ratios.

Now let's look at the VDS deployments where there are additional limits placed by the vCenter Server. Before we dive into the limits discussion on VDS, I would like to point out one main difference between the port group configuration on VSS and the distributed port group configuration on VDS. On VSS port group there is only support for Ephemeral port binding. While on VDS distributed port group, you have an option to choose from the following three different port binding types:

1) Static binding: Assigns a distributed port when a virtual machine is connected to distributed port group

2) Dynamic binding: Assigns a distributed port when a powered on virtual machine is connected to distributed port group. This option is deprecated and won't be available in the future vSphere releases.

3) Ephemeral binding: There is no port binding with this choice. When you choose this option the behavior is similar to a standard virtual switch (VSS). The number of ports is automatically set to 0, and the port group allocates one port for each connected virtual machine, up to the maximum number of ports available on that port group.

The choice of port binding type on a distributed port group determines how the distributed virtual ports are allocated.

For example, if you choose static port binding for distributed port groups by default 128 virtual ports are allocated by vCenter Server. As you can see, this is different from the VSS deployment where no virtual ports are allocated when a port group is created. Some customers have concerns that they will run out of virtual ports as they create large number of distributed port groups OR they have to manually mange the number of virtual ports per distributed port group to overcome the limits.

To illustrate through an example, if you want to create 400 distributed port groups with default number of virtual ports then you would need 51,200 virtual ports. This number is above the vCenter server limit of 30,000 virtual ports. Even though the number of virtual ports are higher than the limit, vCenter Server will allow you to create 400 distributed port groups because vCenter server limits are Soft limits. Soft limit means that the limit is not enforced and you can create more number of distributed port group or virtual ports beyond the specified limits.

However, it is important to note that VMware has tested these maximum limits. If you go beyond those limits, things still should work but you might encounter other challenges in such big environments that are more related to manageability and performance of the management system.We are trying to simplify the workflow for customers where they don't have to manually manage the number of ports available on a distributed port group or worry about the limits. To that respect the Auto Expand feature that is available in vSphere 5.0 helps grow the number of virtual ports on a distributed port group automatically. For more details on how to configure this feature please take a look at the following blog entry by William Lam here<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/02/automating-auto-expand-configuration-for-a-dvportgroup-in-vsphere-5.html>

Finally, I just want to reiterate that the vCenter server limits are soft limits and doesn't stop you from going beyond the tested limits. And the Host limits are the one that will be enforced. Given the 1016 virtual port limits per host I am sure it provides enough capacity to grow as far as consolidation ratio goes. Would love to hear your comment on this topic. In the next post I will talk more about the Static port binding advantages and the Auto Expand capability.

VMware Forum 2012 - May 15th

Come see me present on #vCOPs at Vmware Forum on May 15th...

Register here:
http://info.vmware.com/content/7339_REG

Mike Yallits, VTSP

Cool tool update: RVTools 3.3 released!

Rob de Veij just published RVTools 3.3<http://www.robware.net/>. I know many of you are using it and I definitely suggest downloading the latest version! RVTools has been downloaded more than 100.000, so definitely worth checking out if you had not so far! Here are the changes in this release:

Version 3.3 (April, 2012)<http://www.robware.net/>

* GetWebResponse timeout value changed from 5 minutes to 10 minutes (for very big environments)
* New tabpage with HBA information
* On vDatastore tab the definition of the Provisioned MB and In Use MB columns was confusing! This is changed now.
* RVToolsSendMail accepts now multiple recipients (semicolon is used as separator)
* Folder information of VMs and Templates are now visible on vInfo tabpage
* Bugfix: data in comboboxes on filter form are now sorted
* Bugfix: Problem with api version 2.5.0 solved
* Bugfix: Improved exception handling on vCPU tab.
* Bugfix: Improved exception handling on vDatastore tab.

"Cool tool update: RVTools 3.3 released!<http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/04/24/cool-tool-update-rvtools-3-3-released/>" originally appeared on Yellow-Bricks.com<http://www.yellow-bricks.com>.

@vmwflings, 4/23/12 12:14 PM

[http://a0.twimg.com/profile_images/1859000800/Flings_Vertical_Sqare_Logo_normal.png]VMware Labs Flings (@vmwflings<https://twitter.com/vmwflings>)
4/23/12 12:14 PM<https://twitter.com/vmwflings/status/194474218644189184>
The Fling vBenchmark has been updated to 1.0.2, and includes fixed bugs and new tools: labs.vmware.com/flings/vbenchm…<http://t.co/92iz0CAU>

Technical Marketing Update 2012 - Week 16

Original Post: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/04/technical-marketing-update-2012-week-16.html

By Duncan Epping<https://plus.google.com/112305325305827926631?rel=author>, Principal Architect.

Technical Marketing Update 2012 - Week 16

Blog posts:

* Limiting stress on storage caused by HA restarts by lowering restart concurrency? (Duncan Epping) http://bit.ly/HYCF5F
* Identifying Virtual Machines Affected By SvMotion / VDS Issue (William Lam) http://bit.ly/HOg56f
* Identifying and fixing VMs Affected By SvMotion / VDS Issue (Alan Renouf) bit.ly/IUF570<http://bit.ly/IUF570>
* Scripts release for Storage vMotion / HA problem (Duncan Epping) http://bit.ly/IVLkaP
* VM Storage Profile behaviour when VASA Provider fails (Cormac Hogan) bit.ly/J9ocYh<http://bit.ly/J9ocYh>
* Disable LUN During ESXi Installation (William Lam) http://bit.ly/I2juYA
* Exiting VSA Maintenance Mode using WSCLI(Cormac Hogan) bit.ly/HSfj69<http://bit.ly/HSfj69>
* vSphere 5.0 Hardening Guide public draft available (Duncan Epping) http://bit.ly/J0Br00
* Connecting multiple DRS clusters to a single Storage DRS datastore cluster (Frank Denneman) bit.ly/HW9LZc<http://bit.ly/HW9LZc>
* 'vpxuser' Password Alert When Upgrading to ESXi 5.0 (Kyle Gleed) bit.ly/JcfVkn<http://bit.ly/JcfVkn>
* Automatically Remediating SvMotion / VDS Issue Using vCenter Alarms (William Lam) http://bit.ly/IcSWaF

Six things your IT department should stop doing today

Original Post:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-manager/six-things-your-it-department-should-stop-doing-today/7739

Six things your IT department should stop doing today

By Toni Bowers

Many IT departments started out with just one or two people who had to become jacks of all trades and get their organizations slowly up to speed with the rapidly changing face of information technology. As times have changed, the nature of the work has changed, too. Many of these IT groups of old are now much larger and handling mission critical systems that keep the business running. While there are still some of these one man shows out there, even they have to make sure that they're focusing on activities that run the business and not on items better handled by others.

As I've traveled in recent months, I've had the great opportunity to see a lot of different IT departments in action. Many that have "grown up" organically still cling to some activities that they should consider moving off to other people. In this article, I'm identifying six activities that I've seen in action in IT departments in recent months that I think should be handled by others or through different means.

Running and making cables

When I started my very first IT job back in 1994, one of the first projects I was placed on involved running category 5-state of the art at the time-cabling through K-12 schools and terminating that cable to either a patch panel or by crimping an RJ45 connector on the end. Because Cat5 was so new, it was still pretty expensive, so my organization opted to make many of our own network cables, too.

Today, this is an activity better left to people who specialize in cabling installations. The value-add to the organization for making a network cable is, most likely, negative (as in, it costs more to make than to buy when you consider time and materials) and there's no guarantee that it will work. I remember spending quite some time learning how to terminate both Cat5 and thin coax and, today, am thrilled to see organizations that bring people in that have the technical knowledge and testing tools necessary to install cabling that conforms to requirements for ever-more-sensitive networking electronics and standards.

While having someone come in and install cabling will cost a bit of money, consider the opportunity cost side of the equation. Is there an activity that your IT department could be doing that has a more substantial impact on the bottom line? Start doing that and stop doing this.

Creating accounts manually

First of all, this one can be hard to do, but it's so worth it in the end. How much time does your staff spend managing accounts and dealing with exceptions? Don't forget all of the ancillary tasks that come along with creating an account, such as provisioning a mailbox and creating a home directory, among other things. As you add more systems to the mix, this job becomes more and more onerous.

Here's the rub: User accounts, for the most part, can be completely driven from other systems, most notably the human resources system. Implement identity management tools that can be programmed to take the hassle out of this activity by mostly automating the process. From there, IT has only to handle exceptions and any specialty accounts that may need to be created, such as service accounts.

Servicing printers

Quick poll… how many of you hate supporting printers? If you're a typical CIO, printers are the bane of your existence. They cost a lot, they're finicky and users prize them and scream when they aren't working right.

Here's what I did.

I made it someone else's problem by moving to a managed printing service. The company selected assumed full responsibility for all of our existing equipment and provided both repair services and toner replacement. In return, we paid the company per page printed each month.

Believe it or not, we saved a lot of money. The company could get parts more quickly and easily that we could and their bulk buying capability got them toner at prices we would never have been able to touch on our own. Best of all, it freed up scarce help desk staff time to focus on other needs.

Taking a "build first" approach

There was a day when building software was the only way to get something done for the business. Of course, organizations have always performed a build vs. buy analysis, but today, with the rise of cloud services, organizations should be leaning to the "buy" side of th equation. I say "leaning" because a buy approach will not work for everyone in every situation, but it makes sense to see if your business problem has already been solved by someone else before you start coding.

Manually installing software

Microsoft will be releasing a new version of Office in the coming months. How will your organization do the upgrade? Will IT staff run around and install the upgrade from a central network location or will you push the software out using an automated software installation tool, such as the one included in System Center Configuration Manager?

As is the case with some of the other very repetitive, non-value add activities discussed in this article, routine software installation should be handled as a part of an overall imaging process coupled with a reasonably robust software distribution platform.

Resetting passwords

Statistics show that password issues are a healthy percentage of help desk calls… but in an unhealthy way! When a user has a password issue, they can't do their work and the IT staffer is taken away from what could be more important work to handle what could be a self-service task.

Self-service password reset tools can be had for really cheap these days and can be implemented, literally, in a day or two for smaller organizations. It might take a bit more time in larger organizations, but it's still not rocket science. I recently implemented self-service password reset at one of my client sites. The tool was relatively low cost and even had a way to integrate with Windows login screen so that the user could reset his password even if he was sitting in front of his PC at midnight on a Saturday.

Summary

By need, some IT groups will have to do some of these activities, but as the business starts to expect more from IT, it's time to consider shedding some routine, mundane activities.

vSphere 5.0 Hardening Guide public draft available

Original Post: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/04/18/vsphere-5-0-hardening-guide-public-draft-available/

One of the things my team is responsible for is security of the cloud infrastructure suite. They have worked really hard the last couple of months on overhauling the vSphere Hardening Guide. Today the public draft<http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-19056> was published. (Thanks Charu, Grant and Kyle!)

One of the major changes is the format of the guide. It has been poured into an Excel spreadsheet making it easier filter, sort and edit. Please take a look at the guide and if there is any feedback don't hesitate to comment on the community forum thread<http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-19056>! The final version of the document should be published mid May.

Apple approves a Bluetooth on/off toggle app for your home screen

Mikes notes: this was one of the main reasons I "jailbreak" my iPhone, it's about time Apple got on board with this type of functionality.

[http://cdn.tipb.com/images/stories//2012/04/bluetooth_toggle_hero-620x345.jpg]

Apple has approved an app called Bluetooth OnOff that simply allows you to turn your Bluetooth connection on and off from your home screen. Apple hasn't previously permitted any apps that connect and interact to stock settings until now; so this is an interesting development.

Did it take too many steps just to turn on/off bluetooth? You can now turn on/off just by launching this app. Just in a second, you can activate or deactivate Bluetooth.

The app is extremely simple to use, once installed you have an icon on your home screen. If you click on it, a screen loads with a Bluetooth toggle switch, you can then turn Bluetooth on. If Bluetooth is already turned on then loading the app will give you the option to turn it off. The best way of using the app is to go into the apps settings and turn the OnOff switch to on. This enables you to now toggle Bluetooth On / Off from your home screen with one tap of the app icon.

Shortcuts similar to this<http://www.imore.com/2011/11/24/add-settings-shortcuts-home-screen/> were very popular when iOS 5 was initially launched. You could use Safari Bookmarklets to add various on/off settings to your home screen. This type of interaction was broken by Apple with the release of iOS 5.1.

It is very interesting that this app is now available but we don't know if it is a mistake by Apple. It may be pulled at any minute or it could be a sign that Apple is prepared to allow apps that make its users life easier. Let's be honest, turning systems settings on and off should not be anywhere near as tedious as it is now.

I hope that Apple finally addresses this problem with iOS 6<http://www.imore.com/tag/ios-6/>. In the meantime let's see if this app stays in the App Store. Maybe we will start to see more approved apps that allow us to toggle Wi-Fi and other system settings too.

$0.99 – Download Now<http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=xhX*vKggN*k&subid=&offerid=146261.1&type=10&tmpid=3909&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fbluetooth-onoff.%2Fid514869898%3Fmt%3D8>

[http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif]<http://share.feedsportal.com/viral/sendEmail.cfm?lang=en&title=Apple+approves+a+Bluetooth+on%2Foff+toggle+app+for+your+home+screen&link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imore.com%2F2012%2F04%2F18%2Fapple-approves-bluetooth-onoff-toggle-app-home-screen%2F> [http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif] <http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Apple+approves+a+Bluetooth+on%2Foff+toggle+app+for+your+home+screen&link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imore.com%2F2012%2F04%2F18%2Fapple-approves-bluetooth-onoff-toggle-app-home-screen%2F>

[http://da.feedsportal.com/r/132309335063/u/49/f/616881/c/33998/s/1e7dc27b/a2.img]<http://da.feedsportal.com/r/132309335063/u/49/f/616881/c/33998/s/1e7dc27b/a2.htm>

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/Taxrp1-LDGU/story01.htm

Sent with MobileRSS for iPhone<http://itunes.apple.com/app/mobilerss-pro-google-rss-news/id325594202?mt=8>

Mike Yallits, VTSP
Client Account Manager
ESTI Consulting Services
Cell: 204 294-7773
mike.yallits@esti.ca<mailto:mike.yallits@esti.ca>

Now available in Rough Cuts - Managing and Optimizing vSphere Deployments

Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/4eHECIJpENY/2030-Now-available-in-Rough-Cuts-Managing-and-Optimizing-vSphere-Deployments.html

[http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/uploads/manage.jpg]
The Rough Cuts service from Safari Books Online gives you exclusive access to an evolving manuscript that you can read online or download as a PDF and print. A Rough Cuts book is not fully edited or completely formatted, but you'll get access to new versions as they are created.

To make the most of VMware's vSphere 5, IT professionals need knowledge, tips, and insights they'll never find in the manuals - or in any book, until now! In Managing and Optimizing vSphere Deployments, two world-class VMware experts offer start-to-finish lessons for vSphere planning, implementation, operation, management, and troubleshooting: expert insights drawn from their own unsurpassed "in-the-trenches" consulting experience.

Harley Stagner (VCDX,vExpert) and Sean Crookston (VCAP-DCA, VCAP-DCD, vExpert) focus on the most crucial techniques VMware professionals need, providing guidance optimized for the new vSphere 5, and frameworks that will support the evolution of virtual infrastructure for years to come. They present scenarios and case studies drawn from real-world data, addressing areas ranging from sizing and performance to redundancy, coverage includes:

* Smoothly integrating vSphere 5 into current environments and considerations
* Overcoming roadblocks to 100% virtualization
* Establishing a more stable infrastructure
* Choosing hardware and making optimal configuration decisions
* Automating tasks with PowerCLI, Host Profiles, and Auto Deploy
* Maximizing availability with Distributed Resource Scheduler, Networking Redundancy, and Fault Tolerance
* Efficiently managing updates, patches, and upgrades * Monitoring vSphere 5 with tools provided by VMware and its community
* Planning for growth, and much more.

http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780132947183?portal=pearsonitcertification

Get yer EMC ProSphere 1.5 HERE to learn, play, try!

Original Post:
http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2012/04/get-yer-emc-prosphere-15-here-to-learn-play-try.html

Gang – happy to say that you can download, play and learn EMC ProSphere – no matter who you are. EMC ProSphere is a pretty killer tool – simple, scalable next-gen storage resource management.

Built from the ground up to be stronger, faster, better in every way. And, hey – deployed as a virtual appliance to boot :-)

Remember, like the virtual appliances we put out there for this sort of play/learn/try use, there is only best-effort support, and non-production environments only. It's the same code (even the same vApp deployment model) as the real deal, so if you dig it, please contact your local EMC partner!

* Original post covering ProSphere 1.5 and the design principles (and outing that the product team decided to share it with the world) ishere<http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2012/03/emc-prosphere-15-play-learn-try.html>.
* The recording of the webcast I did that was a deeper dive into the nuts and bolts (really cool use of things like Greenplum and vFabric/Spring) is here<http://www.emc.com/events/2012/q1/03-29-12-chads-choice.htm>. BTW – if you want the raw powerpoint, click on the below (some people are reporting having issues with IE8 – try another browser):

[http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd28833016765401083970b-pi]<https://vspecialist.emc.com/human.aspx?Username=Bloglink&Password=vgeekb1og&arg01=798439003&arg05=0/[DownloadAs_Filename]&arg12=downloaddirect&transaction=signon&quiet=true>

* The ProSphere public "get the bits" page is here<https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-15851>.
* The series of HOWTO videos (great job shout out to the product team) is here<https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-16194>.

Google mail experiencing outages, is Gmail down for you?

Yes it was down for me most of today....

[http://cdn.tipb.com/images/stories//2012/03/trouble_shoot_ipad_email.jpg]

Looks like Google's Gmail is having some problems this morning. While mine (a paid Google apps account) seems to working fine, a lot of you are telling us you're not getting any Gmail this morning at all, not on your iPhone, not on your iPad, and not on your Windows or Mac PC. Not good.

If you're experiencing a Gmail outage, or if you were back it's back now, let us know in our Gmail Forums<http://forums.imore.com/google-gmail-forum/233346-gmail-outage-can-you-get-you-google-mail.html#post1868346>

[http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif]<http://share.feedsportal.com/viral/sendEmail.cfm?lang=en&title=Google+mail+experiencing+outages%2C+is+Gmail+down+for+you%3F&link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imore.com%2F2012%2F04%2F17%2Fgmail-experiencing-outages%2F> [http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif] <http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Google+mail+experiencing+outages%2C+is+Gmail+down+for+you%3F&link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imore.com%2F2012%2F04%2F17%2Fgmail-experiencing-outages%2F>

[http://da.feedsportal.com/r/130996946444/u/49/f/616881/c/33998/s/1e79b3b7/a2.img]<http://da.feedsportal.com/r/130996946444/u/49/f/616881/c/33998/s/1e79b3b7/a2.htm>

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/-yRAG1K3ABA/story01.htm

Sent with MobileRSS for iPhone<http://itunes.apple.com/app/mobilerss-pro-google-rss-news/id325594202?mt=8>

Mike Yallits, VTSP
Client Account Manager
ESTI Consulting Services
Cell: 204 294-7773
mike.yallits@esti.ca<mailto:mike.yallits@esti.ca>

SMB Success Stories - Myron Steves and Company Slashes Disaster Recover Costs with VMware

Original Post: http://blogs.vmware.com/smb/2012/04/myron-steves.html

[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016304444e39970d-320wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016304444e39970d-pi>While we already have tens hundreds of thousands of SMB customers today, we're building the SMB Business Unit to deliver even greater focus on the needs of Small and Mid-Size Businesses. Our goal is simple – we want to provide solutions that drive Real Advantage for our Customers by simplifying their IT environments and making IT a competitive advantage for their business.

When I talk with customers, I am always impressed with their stories and wanted to share one with you. Myron F. Steves and Company is a Houston-based insurance wholesaler that deployed virtualization and cloud solutions from VMware to help ensure the company's 200 employees can respond to customers should disaster strike. Myron Steves serves more than 3,000 independent insurance agencies and as you can imagine, they cannot afford the risk of being incapacitated in the event of a disaster. With the virtualized architecture enabled by VMware, Myron Steves is able to fail over to backup servers within hours instead of days - server failover is now a reliable process and the company has reduced IT costs significantly.

To cut to the chase, Myron Steves eliminated $400,000 in annual costs for a 3rd-party disaster recovery service; saved $200,000 in yearly payroll costs in the IT department; reduced maintenance costs by $150,000 per year and deployed 100+ Virtual Desktops to enable employees to work from anywhere. In addition, after escaping the third-most expensive hurricane in U.S. history as Hurricane Ike hit in nearby Galveston, Texas, Myron Steves realized quickly how critical implementing a disaster recovery strategy would be to their bottom line. They needed a simpler and more reliable solution that would enable IT infrastructure to seamlessly failover in the event of a data center outage and also ensure that the company's voice-over-IP (VoIP) phones wouldn't go down with the data center. After evaluating other solutions from Citrix and Microsoft, Myron Steves chose VMware for its cost effectiveness, simplicity and reliability. Additionally, by leveraging VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager<http://bit.ly/IAcHoB>, Myron Steves automated server replication between its Houston and San Antonio offices, allowing the company to run its entire infrastructure from the San Antonio office in just a few hours compared with ten days or more using a disaster recovery vendor. Read the full story here<http://bit.ly/HOK3n1>.

Myron Steves is another example of a company that used technology to drive Real World Advantage while simplifying their IT environment, containing costs and increasing employee productivity. What's your story? I am eager to hear your stories about how and why you decided to implement VMware and how our solutions and partners helped your company deploy virtualization, business continuity and disaster recovery solutions. I am also very interested to learn where we need to improve....so please share your thoughts.

Until next time…

Brandon

Technical Marketing Update 2012 - Week 15

Original Post:

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/04/technical-marketing-update-2012-week-15.html

By Duncan Epping<https://plus.google.com/112305325305827926631?rel=author>, Principal Architect.

Technical Marketing Update 2012 - Week 15

Blog posts:

* Scripts to Extract vCloud Director Chain Length and Linked Clone Mappings (William Lam) http://bit.ly/HmoTv5
* Cluster Sizes - vSphere 5 style!? (Duncan Epping) http://bit.ly/HvhGwE
* Auditing vMotion Migrations (William Lam) http://bit.ly/HFDnsJ
* HA fails to initiate restart when a VM is being SvMotioned and on a VDS! (Duncan Epping) http://bit.ly/HJLRe6
* Storage DRS, more than I/O load-balancing only (Frank Denneman) bit.ly/HQkmD7<http://bit.ly/HQkmD7>
* Clarifying the SvMotion / VDS problem (Duncan Epping) http://bit.ly/HE3VXN
* Extracting SSL Thumbprint from ESXi (William Lam) http://bit.ly/HDtbxf

Today's blog stats

6 views today, but that was up 200% from yesterday :)

Want to simplify your IT? Virtualize it!

Original Post: http://blogs.vmware.com/smb/2012/04/want-to-simplify-your-it-virtualize-it.html

Hello, again! Hope everyone did well with their NCAA Tournament picks. Now that the hoopla of March Madness and the first quarter is behind us, it's time to get down to business and ensure a successful 2012. Last time, we looked at how virtualization can help address the challenges that small and medium-sized businesses are facing by delivering:

* Infrastructure consolidation and cost savings
* Application high-availability and business continuity
* Simplification of server resource and application management
* Security and centralized patch management
* A building block for leveraging cloud computing

Now, let's look at how easy it is to get started with virtualization in four easy steps.

Step 1. Check that your server hardware has the minimum requirements to support virtualization. Below is a list of the hardware requirements:

[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016303f50c59970d-800wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016303f50c59970d-pi>

Server

* CPU
* Minimum: Single socket, dual core
* Ideal: Dual-socket, 4 or more cores per CPU
* Memory:
* Minimum: 2GB; Ideal: 8+GB

Network

* Minimum: one NIC, plus one for management interface
* Ideal: One for mgmt. interface plus multiple NICs for VMs

Storage

* Local Storage (SATA/SAS):
* Minimum: one 80GB drive
* Ideal: 2 mirrored drives (only for ESXi Installable)
plus 4 RAID5 drives for VMs
* ESXi 4.0 Installable may be installed on 1GB+ USB 2.0 flash storage
* Shared Storage
* Leverages local storage:
* VMware vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA)
* Leverages traditional shared storage:
* NFS, iSCSI, Fibre Channel: for VM storage
* ESXi Installable requires local disk or 1 GB+ USB 2.0 flash storage for the hypervisor

Step 2. Install vSphere hypervisor. There are three ways one can choose to install vSphere hypervisor.

vSphere Hypervisor Embedded

* Installed via SD flash or USB key internal to the server
* Distributed with a new server
* No Installation -- Just Turn It On!

vSphere Hypervisor Installable

* Load Installer via CD or ISO image
* Simple 2-step procedure:

1. Accept EULA
2. Select local drive for installation

VMware Go

* Cloud-based IT management solution
* Intuitive wizard for installation and setup of vSphere Hypervisor

Step 3. Setup and configure.

1. Power on server, which boots into hypervisor
2. Configure Admin Password
3. Modify network configuration (optional)
4. Connect via vSphere Client
* Point your browser to the configured IP Address
* Download & Install Windows-based vSphere Client
* Start vSphere Client and log into host

Step 4. Create virtual machines (VM). There are three ways VMs can be created.

[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016764e96b2a970b-800wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016764e96b2a970b-pi>

P2V (Physical to Virtual)

* Use VMware Converter
* Transfer existing physical servers into virtual machines
* Import existing VMware and 3rd party virtual images

[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016764e97eb0970b-800wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016764e97eb0970b-pi>

Create from Scratch

* Specify CPUs (1-32), Memory (1-256 GB), Disks, Network interfaces
* Load OS from ISO image (over 80 supported OSes)

[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016764e97fdb970b-800wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016764e97fdb970b-pi>

Import Virtual Appliance

* Hundreds to choose from on the Virtual Appliance Marketplace
* Download directly via vSphere Client and deploy on host

That's it! You're now on your way to simplifying your IT. By virtualizing, you can now consolidate your servers and reduce costs, implement an effective business continuity and disaster recovery solution and deliver a desktop virtualization solution. We'll cover these solutions in more detail next time. In the meantime, check out these resources to help you get started with virtualization.

Resources:

Read how the Tampa Bay Rays, a Major League Baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida, virtualized 70% of their IT infrastructure, reduced overall costs and downtime and put a disaster recovery plan in place: http://bit.ly/I1dou8 <javascript:void(0);>

vSphere Eval Download Link: http://bit.ly/HI7OgY

vSphere Eval Guide: http://bit.ly/IfItcN

VMware Hardware Compatibility Guide: http://bit.ly/HwvFCe

vSphere Quick Start Classes: http://bit.ly/IfIygm

vSphere Product Documentation: http://bit.ly/HAl1Hh <javascript:void(0);>

vCenter Operations 5 - Level 300 training

Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/n3kYmpGezok/2026-vCenter-Operations-5-Level-300-training.html

My virtualization friend Bas Vinken<http://twitter.com/#!/bvinken> pointed me to a real great vCenter Operations 5 presentation created by Iwan 'e1' Rahabok<http://Linkedin.com/in/e1ang> who's working as a VMware staff SE, Strategic Accounts in Singapore. It's available for download in PowerPoint format<http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-18592> and I really would like to advise you to read the slide notes (they're awesome). The presentation serves 2 purposes, first it provides in-depth training for those who are learning or evaluating vCenter Operations 5 and second it provides materials that vCenter Ops champion can use to share with internal colleagues (e.g. storage team, app team, etc).

vCloud networking explained in 1 slide and 52 animations

Original Post:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/XqmE2X834pU/2024-vCloud-networking-explained-in-1-slide-and-52-animations.html

In this video you will learn how a vCloud Director network is constructed. The PowerPoint presentation "vCloud networking explained in 1 slide and 52 animations" is created by fellow VCI over at Tuukka Korhonen (itvirtuoosit.fi).

Port group backed network pools require preconfigured set of port groups either on a vNetwork distributed switch or on a standard vSwitch and port groups must be available on each ESX/ESXi host in the cluster. They need to be imported into vCloud Director when creating this network pool. This network pool is used in circumstances where vCenter cannot programmatically create port groups on the fly. Other scenarios when you want to use this network pool is when do not have vNetwork Distributed switches and want to use the Standard switch or when you want to use the Nexus 1000v switches. The port groups must be isolated at the layer 2 level from all other port groups. The port groups must be physically isolated or must be isolated using VLAN tags. Failure to properly isolate the port groups can cause a disruption on the network.

Unlike other types of network pools, a network pool that is backed by port groups does not require a vNetwork distributed switch and this is the only type of network pool that works with Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual switches. A network pool is backed by vSphere network resources such as VLAN IDs, port groups, or cloud isolated networks. Network traffic on each network in a pool is isolated at layer 2 from all other networks. Each organization vDC in vCloud Director can have one network pool. Meaning each Organization vDC can only be assigned to only one network pool. Multiple organization vDCs can share the same network pool but make sure that networks in the pool are isolated. Only system administrators can create and manage network pools.

vApp networks are used for connectivity of virtual machines within a vApp. A vApp can be connected to a vApp specific network or to an organization network. A vApp network isolates the virtual machines in that vApp from everything else; in that way, it is like an internal organization network, but is only used by that vApp. You can connect vApps to organization network to allow them to communicate with other vApps in that organization. When you connect a vApp to an organization network, determine whether you want a fence or direct connection. Fenced will allow you to have identical virtual machines to connect to organization networks without worrying about IP and MAC address conflicts. You can also have additional firewall rules added to protect virtual machines in the vApp. While direct connection will allow you to directly connect the vApp to the organization network.

VMware vSphere 5 Memory Management and Monitoring diagram

Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/1l0tyXDxuG0/2023-VMware-vSphere-5-Memory-Management-and-Monitoring-diagram.html
[http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/uploads/memmory.png]<http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2017642>

The VMware vSphere 5 Memory Management and Monitoring diagram provides a comprehensive look into the ESXi memory management mechanisms and reclamation methods. This diagram also provides the relevant monitoring components in vCenter Server and the troubleshooting tools like ESXTOP. Source KB: 2017642<http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2017642> kudos to Hany Michael<http://twitter.com/#!/hany_michael>

It begins with V and ends with X. WHAT IS IT?

Original Post:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/dsAV/~3/vIZhEAY1hnc/it-begins-with-v-and-ends-with-x-what-is-it.html
[https://community.emc.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/102-9551-21-34456/v_x_promo.JPG]

Join us as EMC and other industry leaders announce an offering that dramatically simplifies deployment of private cloud. You'll get more choices, more simplicity, and more efficiency with which to quickly deploy your virtual infrastructure.

On Thursday, April 12 at 1:00 p.m. EDT/10:00 a.m. PDT, join us to find out more and participate
in a Live Q&A.
Add this event<http://bit.ly/GXmBEY> to your calendar.

EMC (VNX FAST Cache) + VMware (VMmark) = A killer result, a killer VROOM post.

Original Post: http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2012/04/emc-vnx-fast-cache-vmware-vmmark-a-killer-result-a-killer-vroom-post.html
Unless you're under a rock (or of the less geeky type :-) you know that Flash is transforming the IO business. It's orders of magnitude faster (latency, IOps), smaller (physically/power/cooling)… It's already cheaper when measured in $/IOps – by orders of magnitude.

Likewise, you know everyone in the industry is working hard to cover the use cases, adapt and innovate, and build value on top of the technology disruption.

One thing that's fun to watch is to see everyone claim everyone else sucks, or that Flash should ONLY be leveraged as a cache, or a tier, or on the server, or the array. Readers know that this is one of the things that I get a kick out of, because it's always such a silly position to try to hold. I wonder how people deal with the cognitive dissonance.

I get about 1 email a week from someone that says "vendor X" says FAST VP and FAST Cache "don't work". Sheesh. Obviously not students of the EMC Presales Manifesto<http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2012/01/this-i-believe-emc-presales-manifesto.html> ("Principle #6: be a positive force = never going negative on the other guy")

Interestingly, sometimes it DOESN'T help (IO skew is a large factor – we have tools that can help figure out fit). I've had two examples where FAST Cache WAS NOT a fit in the last 2 weeks.

Read on for details on those two examples, and the most recent public testing result about the effect of just a little bit of Flash into a mixed workload….

* In the last week of Q1 – I talked to a customer who didn't see much benefit on their CX4 with their workload. Their workload was very cache hostile, so FAST VP was a better fit. They were also a large financial, and needed tiering at very high scale, with very high availability, at very granular and with a policy that involve large amounts of moves over very small time periods – and so were looking at EMC VMAX and it's competitors. While that was a competitive situation – I'd like to thank them for picking EMC (again).
* VMware is working on some Hadoop on vSphere testing that we're supporting right now (interesting results to come soon). Hadoop is a very bandwidth gated workload, and while they have FAST Cache, and EFDs for FAST VP – that kind of workload doesn't care. Frankly the more array "brains" you put between the host and the data with that workload can detract from overall performance. So far, we're showing that our performance is as good as plain-old DAS, but maintaining the VMware shared pooled (and mobile) values you get from shared storage. May sound funny – but for these bandwidth gated workloads – local DAS controllers and spindles work well (see the "cluster architecture" Big Idea post here<http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2012/04/big-ideas-cluster-architectures.html>). For Hadoop and other workloads (SAP HANA as another example), IMO the magic of flash as a technology disruptor will apply as a part of the host memory tier rather than in the IO stack.

So – wait a second… I can imagine you asking: "Are you saying EMC FAST Cache IS useful, or that it ISN'T?"

I'm saying that for most customers, with the exception of specific workloads (the Hadoop example) – a little big of flash goes a long, long way. This applies well using both FAST Cache and FAST VP. That statement is almost ALWAYS true when you are talking about what most customers do with arrays – not run one workload, but rather a mix of workloads, and that those workloads vary over time.

Interestingly (at least to me) note that the above is the opposite of the two examples I noted (they both are examples of very specific workloads), and is the opposite of how you see most benchmark tools operating – including those sorts of tests that customers typically do themselves. In those examples, typically it's one narrow workload that ramps, hits a steady state, runs, then stops.

Are there any benchmarks which have this "mixed workload" characteristic common in more "real world" ?….

… Look at this recent (April 5th) VMware VROOOM<http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/> (the performance engineering team at VMware's always awesome blog and great team) post: http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/2012/04/exploring-fast-cache-performance-using-vmmark-211.html

VMmark is an interesting cat when it comes to benchmarks. It uses a tile-based model where each tile is composed of different VMs running different workloads. It's not a great IO benchmark (it's not designed to be) as it doesn't really stress the storage subsystem too hard relative to CPU/Mem, but it does scale up until there is a "fail". It's also not the easiest benchmark to setup and run (certainly not "quick and dirty"), but it does have that "mixed set of more real-world-ish workloads" characteristic.

So what's the effect of EMC VNX FAST Cache with VMmark?

Take a look:

[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016764b085a9970b-500wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016764b085a9970b-popup>

That's the effect of a tiny amount of FAST Cache (a mirrored pair of 2 x 100GB SSDs). Without FAST Cache, the config maxes out with 20 HDDs at 2 tiles. Going down to 11 HDDs and adding the tiny amount of FAST Cache increased performance and enabled scaling to 4 tiles. YEAH!

Like all technology – your mileage will vary – and in IO land, it's mostly based on your workload. But if anyone ever tells you that EMC FAST Cache "doesn't work", well – point them to this testing, and also to the Manifesto :-)

Technical Marketing Update 2012 - Week 14

Original Post: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/04/technical-marketing-update-2012-week-14.html

By Duncan Epping<https://plus.google.com/112305325305827926631?rel=author>, Principal Architect.

Technical Marketing Update 2012 - Week 14

Blog posts:

* Silicon Valley VMUG – April 11th (Alan Renouf) bit.ly/H8RCr6<http://bit.ly/H8RCr6>
* VMware Technical Journal, download it now! (Duncan Epping) http://bit.ly/HbJfLU
* Configuring Multiple Syslog Servers for ESXi 5 (William Lam) http://bit.ly/HdD4Th
* Fling: vBenchmark 1.0.1 just released (Duncan Epping) bit.ly/I2UvHP<http://bit.ly/I2UvHP>
* Quickly Finding Objects Using the vCloud API Query Service (William Lam) http://bit.ly/IaQLkL
* The number of vSphere HA heartbeat datastores for this host is 1 which is less than required 2 (Duncan Epping) http://bit.ly/I5pMa9
* Org vDC to vCenter Resource Pool Workflow Using vCenter Orchestrator (William Lam) goo.gl/Mq8Lf<http://goo.gl/Mq8Lf>
* Using Datastore maintenance mode for migration virtual machines to Datastore clusters (Frank Denneman) bit.ly/HtL54G<http://bit.ly/HtL54G>

Podcast:

* VMware Communities Roundtable Podcast #182 - DR of the cloud (vCD & SRM) - Duncan Epping & Chris Colotti - http://bit.ly/Hn1rk3

EMC Virtual Storage Integrator 5.2 now available

Original Post: http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2012/03/emc-virtual-storage-integrator-52-now-available.html

EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) is the free vCenter plugin provided by EMC that extends the vCenter UI to add additional EMC-specific capabilities.

We continue to invest in VSI based on what customers tell us they want….

In EMC VSI 5.1, we introduced performance reporting - one of the most recommended features - which is a simple, lightweight way of seeing the view of the VM, the ESX host and the array in vCenter.

While not as sophisticated as something like EMC ProSphere – this VSI capability means that customers who use EMC and VMware together can see vSCSIstats level info, ESXtop level info, and array level info all in one view, and that it is context-sensitive, only showing info based on the objects selected in vCenter

In EMC VSI 5.1, only VMFS data stores were supported, in 5.2 we added support for NFS datastores on EMC VNX and EMC VG gateways.

VSI can be downloaded from EMC Powerlink under Home > Support > Software Downloads and Licensing > Downloads T-Z > Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI)

You can download this demo in high-rez MOV format here<https://vspecialist.emc.com/human.aspx?Username=Bloglink&Password=vgeekb1og&arg01=793691976&arg05=0/[DownloadAs_Filename]&arg12=downloaddirect&transaction=signon&quiet=true>.

Configuring Multiple Syslog Servers for ESXi 5

Original Post: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/04/configuring-multiple-syslog-servers-for-esxi-5.html

By William Lam, Sr. Technical Marketing Engineer

There were some questions on twitter last night about the number of syslog servers that can be configured for an ESXi host and the answer depends on the version of ESXi you are running. With ESXi 4.x, you could only forward to a single syslog server, but with ESXi 5.0 you can now forward to multiple syslog servers which is great for providing redundancy when shipping your logs. In addition to supporting multiple syslog servers, with the release of ESXi 5.0, you can specify different transport protocols: UDP (default), TCP and SSL.

You can configure the syslog servers using the vSphere Client, but if you need to configure this across several hundred hosts you will probably want to automate this using one of the following methods:

* ESXCLI in the ESXi Shell<http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2003322>
* remote ESXCLI using vCLI<http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.vcli.examples.doc_50/cli_performance.12.5.html>
* remote ESXCLI using PowerCLI<http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/PowerCLI/PowerCLI501/html/Get-EsxCli.html> or just PowerCLI<http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/PowerCLI/PowerCLI501/html/Set-VMHostSysLogServer.html>
* Host Profiles<http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2003322>

Though it may not have been clear in our documentation that you can now specify multiple syslog servers in ESXi 5.0, here is a quick example on how to configure multiple syslog servers using the remote ESXCLI:

1. Enable ESXi Firewall

You will need to enable the syslog rule in the ESXi firewall (only in ESXi 5.0):

$ esxcli --server esxi1 --username root network firewall ruleset set --enabled yes --ruleset-id syslog

Note: The default syslog ruleset allows UDP/TCP 514 and TCP 1514, if you choose to use a different port you will need to update firewall ruleset.

2. Configure Syslog Servers

To specify more than one syslog server, you will need to separate them using a comma. By default, the host will use UDP protocol and port 514. However, you can specify tcp or ssl as the protocol to be used as well as the port number:

$ esxcli --server esxi1 --username root system syslog config set --loghost 10.20.182.46,tcp://10.20.182.50:514,ssl://10.20.182.52:1514

Note: You can also authenticate against vCenter Server by specifying the --vihost parameter

3. Reload Syslog Configuration

For the syslog configuration to take effect, you will need to reload the configuration:

$ esxcli --server esxi1 --username root system syslog reload

You can easily create shell script and using a "for" loop to execute the preceding 3 commands across multiple hosts. Here is a script called configSyslog.sh<http://vghetto.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/vghetto/other/configSyslog.sh?view=log> that accepts three parameters: username, file that includes list of all ESXi hosts seperated by a newline and syslog servers (same syntax as ESXCLI). You will need to edit the script and specify the password for your ESXi host before executing the script.

Disclaimer: This script is provided for informational/educational purposes only. It should be thoroughly tested before attempting to use in a production environment.

Here is a sample execution:
[http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016764a3c2d4970b-500wi]<http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef016764a3c2d4970b-pi>

Get notification of new blog postings and more by following VMware Automation on Twitter: [https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/jfcRcFaZ6S2i6S2NRZRqFve7F4gbyD8CSt5dhkZnpegb9b0j3tkB6VzgA0sS6SMZTl4AwLS4ykxurw1WmOyyixIYQepsqCw4U8TWWUQi3SpZEqamKeo] @VMWAutomation<http://twitter.com/vmwautomation>

Fling: vBenchmark 1.0.1 just released

Original Post: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/04/04/fling-vbenchmark-1-0-1-just-released<http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/04/04/fling-vbenchmark-1-0-1-just-released/>

An update to the recently released fling vBenchmark<http://labs.vmware.com/flings/vbenchmark> was just posted. This update includes some fixes and a feature request which was heard often… Here is what's new/fixed with 1.0.1:

* Added a checkbox to include or exclude vCenter license keys when submitting the data to the community repository
* The application now listens on port 443 (https), requests to port 80 will be automatically redirected to 443
* The appliance will now prompt you to change the root password at first logon
* Fixed bugs that prevented some customers from proceeding to the dashboard when they have ESX 3.x hosts in their cluster or are using vCenter credentials that did not have access to the full inventory
* vBenchmark application log is now written to the VM serial port. If you are using the VMX package, the serial port output will be redirected to a file named vBenchmark.log in the virtual machine folder. If you are importing an OVA or OVF, you need to manually add a serial port device and specify a filename.

Make sure to download the latest version of vBenchmark<http://labs.vmware.com/flings/vbenchmark> and try it out! If you don't have a clue what it does, check out my introduction post here…<http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/02/29/cool-tool-vbenchmark-fling/>

VMware Technical Journal, download it now!

Original Post: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/04/03/vmware-technical-journal-download-it-now/

I've read this several times by now, so I figured I would share it with you. Hopefully most of you will already be aware though at this point as several people blogged and tweeted about it.

The VMware Technical Journal<http://labs.vmware.com/publications/vmware-technical-journal> is a new publication for the company. We are looking forward to producing future journal issues at regular intervals to highlight the R&D efforts taking place in several different areas of engineering. Our current issue includes papers related to distributed resource management, user experience monitoring, and statistics collection frameworks for virtualized environments, along with several other topics. In future issues we will highlight other areas of VMware R&D, including Cloud Application Platform and End User Computing, and research collaborations with academic partners.

All of the papers included in the tech journal can also be downloaded separately through the following links:

* VisorFS: A Special-purpose File System for Efficient Handling of System Images<http://labs.vmware.com/publications/cremel-vmtj-spring2012> (Olivier Cremel)
* A Software-based Approach to Testing VMware® vSphere® VMkernel Public APIs<http://labs.vmware.com/publications/xue-vmtj-spring2012>(Lan Xue, Sreevathsa Sathyanarayana, James Truong, Sriram Sankaran, Ramesh Pallapotu, Thorbjoern Donbaek, Eric Lorimer)
* Providing Efficient and Seamless Desktop Services in Ubiquitous Computing Environments<http://labs.vmware.com/publications/zhang-vmtj-spring2012>(Lizhu Zhang, Wenlong Shao, Jim Grandy)
* Comprehensive User Experience Monitoring<http://labs.vmware.com/publications/spracklen-vmtj-spring2012>(Lawrence Spracklen, Banit Agrawal, Rishi Bidarkar, Hari Sivaraman)
* StatsFeeder: An Extensible Statistics Collection Framework for Virtualized Environments<http://labs.vmware.com/publications/ravi-vmtj-spring2012>(Vijayaraghavan Soundararajan, Balaji Parimi, Jon Cook)
* VMware Distributed Resource Management: Design, Implementation, and Lessons Learned<http://labs.vmware.com/publications/gulati-vmtj-spring2012>(Ajay Gulati, Anne Holler, Minwen Ji, Ganesha Shanmuganathan, Carl Waldspurger, Xiaoyun Zhu)
* Identity, Access Control, and VMware Horizon<http://labs.vmware.com/publications/pugh-vmtj-spring2012>(Will Pugh, Kyle Austin)
* VMworld 2011 Hands-On Labs: Implementation and Workflow<http://labs.vmware.com/publications/zimman-vmtj-spring2012>(Adam Zimman, Clair Roberts, Mornay Van Der Walt)

Worth reading believe me!

I've already put in the request to make these available as both mobi/epub.

Two year old boy rescued from a well thanks to the iPhone’s amazing camera

Original Post:

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/AYFmnFlEAZc/story01.htm

[http://cdn.tipb.com/images/stories//2012/04/Toddler-Rescue-620x339.jpg]<http://cdn.tipb.com/images/stories//2012/04/Toddler-Rescue.jpg>

A two year old boy has been rescued after falling down a narrow well thanks to an iPhone<http://www.imore.com/iphone-4s/> and some quick thinking rescue workers. The boy was playing with some friends when he fell down a 40 feet deep well, became stuck, and needed emergency assistance to get out.

The incident happened in Yunnan Province near Mengzi City, China. Local villagers tried in vain to get the boy out of the well while they waited for rescue teams to arrive. Once the fire-fighters arrived an hour later, they fed oxygen down the narrow shaft to enable the boy to breathe. They tried to lower a harness down the well but as it was an adult harness the boy kept slipping out of it and proved too dangerous to use.

In a move of brilliance, one fire-fighter attached his iPhone to a rope with the video camera enabled and lowered it down the well. The video was then played back and this let the rescue team to see exactly how the boy was positioned in the shaft and guide rope into the correct position and complete the rescue.

The boy escaped with only minor bruising; so was extremely lucky that the recuse team had such great vision and of course an iPhone. As they say, all's well that ends well…….

Source: App Advice<http://appadvice.com/appnn/2012/04/must-see-dramatic-rescue-of-a-young-child-aided-by-an-iphone>

Video - vSphere Storage Profiles

Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/zZO6zYuj21M/2016-Video-vSphere-Storage-Profiles.html

In this video, we'll be exploring how to use Storage Profiles. Storage Profiles enable the creation of data stores that provide varying levels of service. You can categorize data stores based on system-defined user-defined levels of service.

Video - vSphere Hot & Cold Migration and Storage DRS

Original Post:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/lbkMmdLK49A/2018-Video-vSphere-Hot-Cold-Migration-and-Storage-DRS.html

In this video, we'll be exploring how to use Storage DRS. A datastore cluster is a collection of datastores that are grouped together. Typically, the reason why you'd create a datastore cluster is in order to enable storage DRS on that cluster.

Video - vSphere Migration with vMotion

Original Post:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ntpronl/~3/_7XueDoZIAw/2017-Video-vSphere-Migration-with-vMotion.html

In this video, we're going to investigate how to migrate virtual machines using vMotion migration. vMotion migration allows you to move a virtual machine that's powered on from one host to another.

Technical Marketing Update 2012 - Week 13

Original Post: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/04/technical-marketing-update-2012-week-13.html

By Duncan Epping<https://plus.google.com/112305325305827926631?rel=author>, Principal Architect.

Technical Marketing Update 2012 - Week 13

A short update this time, most members of the Technical Marketing group were in Palo Alto last week. I am certain though we will have a lot more posts upcoming week because of that!

Blog posts:

* VASA, Profile Driven Storage & RDMs - Heads Up (Cormac Hogan) bit.ly/GTj76h<http://bit.ly/GTj76h>
* Slight change in "restart" behavior for HA with vSphere 5.0 Update 1 (Duncan Epping) http://bit.ly/H9Ag7w
* Automating the creation of vCD Provider VDCs (Alan Renouf) http://bit.ly/HdLpqy
* Free ESXi Hypervisor - Auto Start Breaks with 5.0 Update 1 (Kyle Gleed) http://bit.ly/GT2Gbn
* Debunking Storage I/O Control Myths (Cormac Hogan) bit.ly/HnSxyH<http://bit.ly/HnSxyH>
* Creating Custom Metadata using the vCloud API (William Lam) http://bit.ly/HwR4J6
* Update: VMware vCloud Director DR paper available in Kindle / iBooks format! (Duncan Epping) bit.ly/H43ILJ<http://bit.ly/H43ILJ>
* NFS and the vCD Appliance (Tom Stephens) bit.ly/Hx6I4v<http://bit.ly/Hx6I4v>
* How to Create Bootable ESXi 5 ISO & Specifying Kernel Boot Options (William Lam) http://bit.ly/Htbjck