VM /ETC

Archive for November, 2009

The VMworld 2009 Hands on Labs (HOL) VI was not the only VMware Global Engineering Technical Operations Team (GETO) managed infrastructure at the Moscone Center in 2009. The VMware Cloud Pavilion Booth and it’s demos, some customer demos, and even the VMTN Lounge and vExpert booth (I used personally) was run from a self contained, mobile rack. That rack was/is powered by MDS Quadv Servers and Xsigo I/O Virtualization Solutions.

MDS and Xsigo were sponsors of the GestaltIT Tech Field Day, and their presentations were first on our Day 1 agenda. Although I knew VMware (big thanks are due to John Troyer for setting everything up!) would be hosting these sessions at their head quarters in Palo Alto, I did not make the connection between the companies until I arrived on site Thursday. The aforementioned VMworld 2009 mobile rack is currently running in the VMware Briefing Center and is patiently waiting to be shipped again by the GETO team to the next conference or event.

Here are some of my notes about the capabilities of the rack. I may have misunderstood some of the wiring details. Read the rest of this entry »

GestaltIT Tech Field Day is over, and the attendees and sponsors have indicated they were extremely pleased with the event. This is not to say that everything went well the whole time. In fact, if you followed along on the social media conversation then you caught some interesting tweets and replies during the brief moments that waned. However, those times were few and far between and mostly insignificant in the total experience of all who participated. The great thing was that the sponsors monitored the social conversation (Twitter) too, so any criticism was truly constructive and lead to direct questioning about how to make it better. After all, the presentations will be repeated for other engineers and customers and refining the message betters the audience reaction next time.

All that being said, I wanted to offer my thoughts on what I think could help both sides during future GestaltIT Tech Field Days (yes, it looks like there will be others!)

Watching CLI Demos Is Like Listening to the Ballgame On The Radio

I’m not saying using CLI demos, configuration, or hands on labs are bad, but watching text scroll down a screen is not exactly engaging either. If CLI commands are the method of configuring the product’s features then so be it, but Read the rest of this entry »

Take a 9 minute drive around the storage block with Marc Farley of 3PAR as he uses an analogy of mismatched socks to explain how Autonomic Storage can eliminate human error in storage provisioning for virtual servers and databases. In the beginning of the video Marc goes off on a tangent Twitter rant where you might recognize some twitternames mentioned.

It’s worth the ride!

3PAR was one of the sponsors during the GestaltIT Tech Field Day in San Jose, CA last week, and announced Autonomic Provisioning with the press release titled 3PAR Changes the Way Utility Storage is Provisioned for Virtual Server and Database Environments

Check out Marc’s StorageRap blog and all of his Steering Wheel Camera videos on YouTube. The episode where he gives fellow storage bloggers Dave Graham (EMC) and Stephen Foskett (Nirvanix) a ride to the San Francisco airport on the last day of VMworld 2009 may also be interesting to VM /ETC readers.

Day 2 – Here We Go Again!

I’m throwing in the towel on trying to live blog/journal Tech Field Day. The event is too engaging and it’s all I can do to keep up with the conversation on Twitter while actually trying to learn so much new technology and products.

As in Day 1, please check the embedded Tweetgrid after the page break to follow my real time reactions as the day goes by. You can also follow all the Tech Field Day bloggers and their tweets with the multi column, web based Tech Field Day Tweetgrid.

I have been successful uploading my photos simply because I need to keep my phone and camera charged! Here is my album so far, and I’m sure I will update it more as day 2 goes by.

Read the rest of this entry »

Day 1 – Good Morning Silicon Valley!

Today is day one of the Tech Field Day and I am about to head downstairs to the hotel lobby to meet up with the group, jump on the bus, and head to our first destination – VMware’s Briefing Center in Palo Alto.

My flight was one of the last to arrive last night, but I did get to spend some “table time” with a few attendees before calling it quits due to the early start and busy schedule Stephen Foskett has arranged for us today.

I’m not sure I will be able to actually live blog since we are changing locations frequently, but I’ll do my best to update this post as the day goes on. Think of this post as a journal that will be refreshed as often as possible.

Please also check out my embedded Tweetgrid after the page break to follow my real time reactions as the day goes by. You can also follow all the Tech Field Day bloggers and their tweets with the multi column, web based Tech Field Day Tweetgrid.

Read the rest of this entry »

As reported on vreference.com, there is a dangerous default in ESX 4. Before I expand on this potential problem I want to point out that a bug report has been files with VMware for correcting this in future releases, but for now VI admins need to be aware of the issue – If the key combination of Ctrl+Alt+Del is entered at the Service Console the ESX host will begin a shutdown which will stop all virtual machines running on the host in the process. Read the full vreference post for more details.

I tested this on an ESX 4 host running in a VMware Player VM on my notebook and captured the shutdown and reboot in this video.

DON’T HIT CTRL + ALT + DEL ON ESX 4 from Rich Brambley on Vimeo.

Fortunately, there is a manual workaround to disable this default behavior until VMware provides an update. I’ll use the instructions provided in the previously mentioned vreference.com post. Read the rest of this entry »

I received the following offer in an email this week from VKernel and I thought I would post this information for all VM /ETC readers:

” .. VKernel is now offering FREE perpetual licenses of our Capacity Modeler software until 12/31/09. VKernel Capacity Modeler is an alternative solution to the high-priced VMware vCenter CapacityIQ.

Download VKernel Capacity Modeler now and get the same function for FREE

Recognizing that VMware CapacityIQ’s capacity planning and ‘what if’ functionality is roughly equivalent to VKernel Modeler, Vkernel is offering anyone that downloads Modeler between now and December 31, 2009 free perpetual licensing for unlimited CPU sockets.

Download the FREE VKernel Capacity Modeler and get the ability to quickly plan, simulate, and validate hundreds of real–world “what if” VMware resource allocation and VM deployment scenarios. With VKernel Capacity Modeler, user can perform:

• Capacity Planning
• Interactive “What If” Modeling Scenarios
• Proactive Problem Prevention
• Predictive Capacity Impact Analysis

If you want to quickly solve more serious VMware issues, download FREE trials of our Capacity Analyzer and Optimization Pack software.”

I haven’t had the chance to use either product, but I thought VM /ETC readers could benefit from this offer.

Note the “roughly equivalent” statement above. I cannot speak to a comparison of the two products, but I still feel that any capacity analysis and modeling tool for free is worth investigating. If any readers have any experience with this solution please comment for the benefit of others.