VM /ETC Go Green with Virtualization. Go UGLY Green with vmetc.com.

Australian VAC Partner Oriel has created a clever Virtualization Calculator that illustrates how virtualization is good for the planet. Based on the statistic that the average 2 cpu server produces 12.5 tons of CO2 per year, the calculator not only tells you how much money you can save in hardware and power but it also provides comparable environmental benefit examples such as planting trees, reduced car emmissions, and reduced cow emissions.

I entered 200 servers in the calculator and received the following results (click on the screen shot to see a larger image):

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The Lone Server is a funny video found on YouTube about a Windows 2003 Server that has realized his prime has passed. He ends up in a bar ordering drinks from Windows 2000 Server. The two discuss how they can no longer hang with the young and quick Server 2008 crowd. While discussing some of the Server 2008 features virtualization is mentioned and Server 2003 stands up and leans against two bar stools and proclaims “Look, I can virtualize. I am using two stools at once.” Finally, a young, hot Server 2008 walks by and Server 2003 tries to impress her by bragging about having the latest virus definitions. To Server 2003’s dismay, her reply is “Call me when you upgrade.”

Watch the video embedded here:

www.loneserver.com is a page from the Windows Server Division WebLog dedicated to The Lone Server story.

Go here to see the video on YouTube.com as well.

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I just got back from vacation and wanted to see what has been happening in Cannes at VMWorld Europe. I drove the family to Orlando, FL and “did the Disney thing” for 4 days so I was out of touch. Thanks to blogs like VMTN, NITRO.NL, and virtualization.info I was able to get relatively caught up in a single afternoon.

The first, and most logical place, to start was John Troyer’s VMTN blog. As always, John has done a great job rounding up opinion, news, reactions, and even multimedia covering the event. Scrolling almost to the bottom of the VMTN front page and working my way up walked me through Partner Day on Monday to Day 2 of the Conference on Wednesday.

And we’re off … VMWorld Europe 2008 gave me the link to the recorded keynote webcasts which I listened to in the background while I

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One of the announcements this week from VMworld Europe was that ESX 3i will begin shipping integrated in Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, HP, and IBM industry standard servers in the next 60 days. The following is a VMware VIP Partner Bulletin email I received. Check out the links to the hardware manufacturer’s individual announcements in the body of this email.

Dear Richard,

Today, February 26, 2008 at VMworld Europe, VMware announced agreements with the world’s largest systems providers—Dell, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP and IBM—to embed VMware ESX Server 3i across broad lines of servers to accelerate the proliferation of virtualization across companies ranging from small business to large enterprises. These partners are expected to commence shipping their respective industry-standard servers integrated with VMware ESX Server 3i within the next 60 days.

Last year we previewed this strategy with you when we announced the latest release of VMware Infrastructure 3 and ESX 3i. Combined, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP and IBM accounted for

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VMware’s Performance Team posted an amazing article this week on the VROOM! blog. 16,000 Exchange Mailboxes, 1 Server not only offers insights on how to configure Exchange 2007 VMs to support large numbers of mailboxes, but it shows that ESX 3.5 and ESX 3i allow applications to utilize hardware resources that exceed the vendor’s recommended maximums in a physical deployment. Although this test was able to squeeze the Exchange 2007 implementation on a single ESX host without degrading the user experience, the technical details of how it was done provides administrators a blueprint to spread the Exchange VMs across multiple ESX hosts and fully leverage ESX Enterprise features.

“We did this test because we have felt for a while that advances in processor and server technology were about to leave another widely-used and important application unable to fully utilize the hardware that vendors were offering. Microsoft has guidelines on what environment works well with Exchange, and a system with more than eight CPUs and/or 32GB of RAM is beyond the recommended maximums.

Hardware vendors are now offering commodity servers with 16 cores

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A Few Thoughts on Xen posted on blog.scottlowe.org got me thinking about the pricing differences between Citrix XenServer and VMware ESX Server. It is a general assumption that Xen Server is more affordable than ESX. I decided to figure out exactly what the products cost and how they compare to each other. I am not factoring in the cost of Sales and Support in this post because I would want that regardless of which vendor I choose.

I found Citrix XenServer list pricing from a Citrix presentation slide deck that was presented to me via a webinar several weeks ago. Click on the image to see a larger version.

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Sometimes you need to access a windows share from an ESX server. Usually this is the case when need to transfer downloaded files such as scripts and patches to ESX, or if you want to transfer files from ESX like the diagnostic package generated for VMware support. This post explains how to create a mount point on the ESX host that is mapped to a Windows share.

In a similar post titled Create a NFS share for VM ISO files with Windows 2003 Server R2 I referenced vmware-land.com’s VMware Tips for ESX. I am referencing that site again for this post. The following instructions are also taken from the tip on creating an ISO mount point that points to a Windows server. The goal of the example instructions below is to add a sub directory to the ESX /vmimages directory that stores cdrom images for VMs:

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Cost comparison: Virtual vs. Vista desktop management is a great article from Barb Goldworm published on techtarget.com explaining the costs of implementing virtual desktops and comparing those costs to upgrading existing desktops to Vista. Working through Barb’s cost model should be mandatory homework for any company trying to decide if they should use VDI or begin another PC refresh project. I am going to high-lite some points with quotes from the article and then provide my own opinion. Personally, I believe VDI is a great solution for specific application scenarios, but is probably not a good solution for replacing hundreds (or more) of users’ desktops - both from a cost angle as well as an implementation and administration angle. I am curious to hear from the community about costs associated with migrating to VDI as well.

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Looking for a visual representation of Microsoft Server 2008 and it’s various new enhancements? Go to the Microsoft.com downloads pages and download the Windows Server 2008 Component Posters. The Server 2008 poster is divided into six product scenarios. There is a virtualization scenario and a Server Core scenario.

Some info about the posters from Microsoft’s page:

These two posters, originally published in the July 2007 issue of TechNet Magazine, provide a strong visual tool to aide in the understanding of various features and components of Windows Server 2008. One poster focuses exclusively on powerful new Active Directory technologies, while the other provides a technical look at a variety of new features available in Windows Server 2008 (such as Server Core, Network Access Protection, and more).

Get the originals from the link above, or I have saved copies locally on my Files page.

Here is a screenshot of the virtualization scenario. Click the image for a larger version.

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One of the major disadvantages of VMware Converter is that you do not have the option to choose how many virtual cpus (vCPU) your new VM will have. If your source physical server has 2 CPU sockets your target VM will end up with 2 vCPUs. If your source server’s CPUs are dual core your target VM ends up with 4 vCPUs. It’s a well known best practice to minimize the number of multi processor VMs in your virtual infrastructure. So, how do you make sure servers that you p2v result in single processor VMs?

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Popular open source enterprise monitoring application Zenoss has a package for monitoring VMware ESX servers. Although I have never used Zenoss personally, I have run across several customers over the years who do. Check out Zenoss.com for more info about the application and the Zenpack package for monitoring ESX hosts.

A preconfigured Zenoss installation is available to download as a virtual appliance from the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace.

Here’s some more info from the web site:

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If your ESX servers are not connected to network storage or if you do not have enough available space on your SAN to dedicate a sub folder of a VMFS volume for ISO files, then you can use a NFS network share to centrally store these images. Creating the NFS share can be done with many server operating systems, but did you know that Windows Server 2003 R2 has native NFS?

VMware-land.com has many “how to” VMware Tips for ESX, and the following is the instructions found there for creating a Windows 2003 R2 NFS share:

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