VM /ETC

Archive for February, 2009

This is just a quick announcement that full posts are now available from the VM /ETC RSS feed. I was only publishing a summary of the posts before now.

Now you can read my content without ever leaving your favorite feed reader. Enjoy!

VMware has just released the latest version of it’s free, stand alone physical to virtual (P2V) migration tool, vCenter Converter 4. I’ve been using this version for customer P2V migrations since it was publicly available as a Beta, and I have been extremely impressed. With several features not available in any previous release (including the Enterprise version included as a plugin of vCenter 2.5), I strongly recommend VI admins download a copy of vCenter Converter 4 Standalone.

Check out the new features listed in the Release Notes:

The VMware vCenter Converter Standalone release adds several new features including:

• Physical to virtual machine conversion support for Linux (RHEL, SUSE and Ubuntu) as source
• Physical to virtual machine conversion support for Windows Server 2008 as source
• Hot cloning improvements to clone any incremental changes to physical machine during the P2V conversion process
• Support for converting new third-party image formats including Parallels Desktop virtual machines, newer versions of Symantec, Acronis, and StorageCraft
• Workflow automation enhancements to include automatic source shutdown, automatic start-up of the destination virtual machine as well as shutting down one or more services at the source and starting up selected services at the destination
• Target disk selection and the ability to specify how the volumes are laid out in the new destination virtual machine
• Destination virtual machine configuration, including CPU, memory, and disk controller type

Let em re-emphasize some of the features that I find to be “game changers” for a free P2V migration product. Read the rest of this entry »

Note: this is a syndicated post from the VMworldUnderground.com site. I will be cross posting my blog posts here in the f. You can see my original post here.

It’s hard to believe VMworld Europe is a couple of weeks away. It seems we were all in Las Vegas for VMword 2008 just a short while ago. I’m glad to see the VMworld Underground getting started back up again, and I look forward to the podcasts. Great idea Sean!

Over at vmetc.com I have created a VMworld Page that is collecting blog posts with “vmworldeurope2009″ as a tag, collecting tweets with “vmworld”, and running some Google web gadets that display local information about Cannes, France.

I’ll probably tweek the page a little more between now and when VMworld Europe starts, but I’m counting on that page along with content from VMworld Underground to help me stay informed on what goes on in France. With several people revealing they have recieved flip camerasfrom VMware this week I need to add feeds from youtube, flickr, picasa, and other media sites as well.

Check out the VM /ETC VMworld Page and let me know if you have any other ideas of what else I could add to it to make it better.

You’ve probably already heard about VMware’s open source VDI client. VMware’s official announcement for the VMware View Open Client was released on February 4. Touted as the next step for creating a universal client to be used on any device from anywhere, VMware releasing the client as open source enables technology partners to start to fufill the vision. In VMware’s words:

“Now, VMware is providing VMware View Open Client for partners, enabling them to use VMware View source code to optimize their products to deliver rich, personalized virtual desktops to users. In addition, partners will be able to use the source code to help accelerate the development and delivery of solutions for enterprises to provision and manage thousands of virtual desktops simply, securely and at substantially lower operating costs.”

What I find most interesting is that Linux systems now have a installable VDI client. Unless I am mistaken, previously a web browser was the only way a connection to a virtual desktop could be made from Linux. Not only does this increase the functionality and features, Read the rest of this entry »

David Davis recently published The top 10 free VMware tools of 2008 on searchvmware.techtarget.com. I’ve previously blogged about several of the utilities on his list, but David also lists a few that I have not had a chance to explore. I’m listing the 10 tools and their links here for VM /ETC readers, but read David’s post for descriptions of each and some honorable mention selections as well. Also check the end of this post for the previous VM /ETC coverage of these same tools.

David’s Top 10 Free VMware Tools of 2008

1. VMware Infrastructure Management Assistant (VIMA).
2. Storage VMotion plug-in.
3. Solarwinds VM Monitor.
4. Trilead VM Explorer (VMX)
5. TripWire ConfigCheck and ConfigureSoft Compliance Checker.
6. RV Tools.
7. ESX Manager from ESXGuide.
8. SearchMyVM.
9. VMware ESXi Server.
10. Veeam Monitor Free Edition.

Previous VM /ETC Coverage

Read the rest of this entry »

From a Microsoft Server 2008 system you can use the Hyper-V Tools MMC to create and manage virtual machines (VM) on Hyper-V hosts. In this post I demonstrate the steps to create a VM on a Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta host. The environment used for creating this post consists of:

• Server 2008 64 bit running Hyper-V Tools
  • The server is also a Domain Controller
• Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta
  • Joined to the Domain
• Both servers are VMs running on VMware Server 2.0

I do not want to mislead anyone. The Hyper-V VM inside the VMware Server VM will not run in my environment. I do show the process of loading the virtual CD and starting the VM along with the error message that is generated.

However, you are able to explore all the configuration options of Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 and the new VM. This may or may not be of value to you, but this post provides a visual how to demonstration that shows the simple process of creating a Hyper-V VM. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve previously posted about being frustrated configuring Hyper-V Server 2008 for remote administration in a Workgroup. This time I am setting up Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta joined to an Active Directory (AD) Domain. The steps in this post begin after the Hyper-V Server has been installed, networking has been configured, and the server has already joined the AD Domain. I am not using System Center Virtual Machine Manager, but instead the Hyper-V Tools that come with a complete install of Server 2008.

Joining an AD Domain definitely makes remote access with the Hyper-V Tools MMC a snap. Granted, John Howard’s HVRemote tool appears to have made the Hyper-V Server in a Workgroup configuration much easier since the last time I tried too.

Some notes about my environment:

• 2008 Active Directory Forest containing the following servers
  • Server 2008 to run Hyper-V Tools is also my Domain Controller.
    • Server 2008 64 bit edition
  • Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta
    
• Both servers are VMs running on VMware Server 2.0
  

The rest of this post is the configuration steps in table format with screen shots Read the rest of this entry »