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VMworld 2009 Booth Talk – Vizioncore’s Free P2V/V2V, VM Management, and VMDK Alignment Utilities

September 7th, 2009 |

Author: Rich Brambley

At the VMworld 2009 Vizioncore booth I discovered 3 new free tools from Vizioncore that all VI administrators, no matter which popular hypervisor platform you use, should know about. vConverter SC, vControl Multi-Hypervisor Management, and vOptimizer WasteFinder offer unique features that accomplish and automate common virtual environment administrative tasks. These products include tools for P2V and V2V migrations between multiple vendor platforms, a web based multi hypervisor management server, and virtual disk optimization through VMDK alignment and wasted storage scanning.

Vizioncore is banking on creating wider interest and adoption of its full product suite in the virtualization market, but for now administrators definitely come out the winners with these great tools at no cost. The free products mentioned in this post (as well as all of Vizioncore’s software) can be downloaded here.

I’ve summarized these utilities in the rest of this post.

vConverter SC – 4.2

I have to admit, a version of vConverter offered for free has caught my attention. Very rarely would I recommend the licensing investment of using an alternative to the free stand alone or the bundled enterprise version of VMware’s Converter. Looks like Vizioncore has realized as much and has made a smart decision to get consultants and admins to start using their migration tool. I know I’ll be trying out vConverter SC on the next migration project.

Here is some of the reasons why from the vConverter SC web page:

“Vizioncore’s vConverter is enterprise-class software that significantly reduces the time, cost and effort required to convert physical and virtual machines to VMware^®, Microsoft^®, or XenServer™. vConverter is suitable for all types and sizes of server consolidation initiatives where several or even thousands of physical servers need to be virtualized.

Server Consolidation Strengths

vConverter is able to migrate more servers per conversion window than any other conversion method or technology, dramatically reducing risk, cost and time from start to finish. This is achieved via the automation of many pre and post migration tasks, and accelerated conversion times. Superior disk and network I/O algorithms ensure the fastest possible conversions.

Conversion Flexibility and Usability

An intuitive GUI allows administrators to convert single or multiple servers simultaneously within just a few seconds of setup. Conversion jobs can also be scheduled for non-peak times to ensure as little disruption as possible.

And Much More…

vConverter provides a wide variety of additional conversion capabilities including automated target machine clean up and configuration, custom script execution, cold machine cloning, and multiple destination support. vConverter provides the most robust and easy to use solution available for P2V and V2V conversions today. And it just got better – because you can now use it for unlimited conversion initiatives for free!”

vControl Multi-Hypervisor Management – 1.6.5

Vizioncore vControl is a multi vendor virtual infrastructure management server that not only provides remote virtual machine control, but also enables self service provisioning and virtual machine business continuity capabilities. Although I have not had the opportunity to use vControl yet, the product seems to provide many vCenter functions without VMware’s management server in the environment.

With a browser based management interface available from either > Firefox v2 or IE 6/7 it would appear that many VI administrative tasks can be easily automated from any desktop operating system.

Video demonstrations, manuals, documentation, and a download link can be found from Vizioncore’s vControl page.

Some quick notes on vControl

Works with
- VMware ESX/ESXi
- Microsoft Hyper-V
- Citrix XenSerer
- Sun Solaris Zones
Key Product Features

vOptimizer WasteFinder – 2.2

Wastefinder is a utility that can analyze a virtual storage and determine if various optimizations can be made to improve health and performance. It providea reporting for cost justification to purchase Vizioncore’s full Optimizer Pro which can then automate the ongoing remediation of storage improvements. Best of all, Wastefinder actually performs 2 optimizations: vmdk alignment and automated disk “right sizing” to resolve VM free space issues.

Until now, NetApp’s ESX Host Utilities provided the only virtual disk alignment tool I was aware of at no cost, but you did have to be a NetApp customer to use the MBRAlign script bundled with that package.

More info on the product from the Wasterfinder web page:

“Wasted Storage Scan

vOptimizer WasteFinder scans through vCenter Server/ESX Hosts and individual VMs looking for and then adding up over-allocated VM storage throughout data centers. Optionally, the Wasted Storage Scan can identify all VMs not in proper 64K partition alignment.

Space and Alignment Summary Report

This powerful report displays total used and over allocated VM storage discovered by the Wasted Storage Scan. vOptimizer WasteFinder then presents a total storage savings estimate based on user entered values including storage cost and desired free space. The Space and Alignment Summary Report is invaluable in gauging costs of wasted storage and which VMs should be 64K partition aligned to boost performance.

Space Optimization

vOptimizer WasteFinder freeware also provides two free (2) storage optimizations. This automated procedure will right-size VMs that are running out of space or are excessively large and also perform 64K partition alignment.”