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Archive for the ‘gestaltit’ Category

The Twitter game
Back once again.
A little challenge
For VMWorld 2010.

Started last year.
Some thought strange
At VMworld 2009
And Partner Exchange.

Here’s the rules.
Hope you play.
Use three words
Whatever you say.

Hashtags are allowed.
Apostrophes are free.
Always use tag #vmworld3word.
above = 3.

Count symbols, numbers,
as word substitutes.
punctuation doesn’t count.
emoticons I’ll excuse

RTs are encouraged
to link conversations.
Here’s an example
“RT @twittername(s): to link conversations #othertag #vmworld3word>” note various exceptions

Slang is permitted
if commonly used.
There’s lotsa grey
gotta carefully choose.

The contest begins
On WUPaaS Sunday.
Join, you must
Yoda would say

Tweet when inspired.
Not every time.
Make it fun
without the rhymes

I was told
around the Moscone
screens will display.
Honest, no bologna.

If they do
Look for mine.
Tweet your own.
try to outshine!

This little ditty
shows game intent.
Clear as mud?
Leave a comment!

I’m late posting about this so I’ll be short. Tuesday 08/10/2010 is the deadline to enter and win a free conference pass, airfare, and hotel accommodations for VMWorld 2010 in San Francisco, CA. Go to GestaltIT.com and register NOW!

Here’s some various contest info as pasted directly from the post Announcing the Gestalt IT “Get Away to VMworld” Contest!:

“Here’s the deal: Thanks to our generous sponsors (Xsigo and Symantec), we’ll pay airfare, hotel, and registration for one lucky and deserving person out there to attend VMworld San Francisco 2010! That’s right – you get to go to VMworld for free!”

“Entrants must explain how they plan to “pay it forward” if they get to go to VMworld. Will you start a blog? Write some tutorials? Contribute to a forum or online community? Present to your local VMUG? Get creative and spread the wealth of knowledge you get from the event!”

“HOW TO ENTER

Ok, so how can you enter this contest? Here are the simple steps:

1. Consider how attending VMworld would help you and the broader community
2. Fill out the contest entry form
3. Plan on stopping by the Symantec and Xsigo booths at the show and thanking them for their support
4. Consider publicizing the contest by sharing this article with friends and associates
5. Consider subscribing to Gestalt IT with RSS, by email, on Twitter, or in iTunes
6. Consider supporting DonorsChoose.org and donating your swag to school kids in need”

“You have through Tuesday, August 10 to enter. The winner will be announced on the VMware Community Roundtable Podcast, Wednesday August 11 at noon Pacific time!”

Check out the whole GestaltIT post for more details and some fine print. Good Luck and I hope to see you there!

I am in Seattle, WA for the third GestaltIT Tech Field Day (TFD). This time I am part of the presenting team for Veeam Software, and we are first up on the agenda. As with other recent events, I am using Cover It Live (CiL) to provide real time coverage and of our presentation and the reaction of the delegates (bloggers) attending. The best part about using Cover It Live is the event can be played back in the future, so check it out even if you missed it live.

I’m automatically pulling in the tweets of all involved, so I should have a good stream of both bloggers and sponsors represented here.

I’m using the following twitter lists:

• @TechFieldDay/tfd3-sponsors
• @TechFieldDay/tfd3-delegates

Look for my occasional commentary as well, but I’m not sure how much time I’ll actually have to participate. I’ll end the coverage when our time is up, which should be roughly 3 to 4 hours.

Click through the page break for the CiL widget and tune into the fun!

By the way, we are providing the first ever public demo of Veeam Backup and Replication 5.0 SureBackup!

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On Wednesday I’ll be "passing the (virtual) dutchie from coast to coast" as I fly from Georgia to Washington. Veeam will be presenting to the TFD Delegates first thing Thursday morning. During our presentation look for Veeam to be be "pulling out jives and jamboree handouts." I’ll tweet and blog what I can, but I’m sure the Delegates will provide their own "jig-saw jazz and the get-fresh flow."

As with TFD events in the past, Weds through Friday Twitter will rattle like "bottles and cans (so I advise you get ready)  and just clap your hands and just clap your hands."

Listen / watch the embedded YouTube video in order for this post to make a little more sense!

Here’s the list of all star attendees and sponsors as provided by GestaltIT.com:

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VMware engineer Michael White’s post 64 bit is almost here – are you ready? on the Uptime (VMware and Business Continuity) Blog foretells of the future 64 bit requirement of both vCenter and SRM (Site Recovery Manager). White writes:

“I wanted to remind everyone, of what I have already seen floating around the internet, but still important enough to remind.  Our next release of SRM is going to require a 64 bit OS.  This is the same as our next release of VC as it too will require a 64 bit host OS.  This change is required to support the increased capabilities of our products.  As we scale our products to match our customers needs, generally 1 – 2 years in advance of where they will need all the capabilities of a given product we have had to use a 64 bit OS.  This will show itself in increased numbers in things like more simultaneous vSphere client connections.”

To me these new operating system (OS) requirements mean we will see even more instances of vCenter as a VM (virtual machine). It only seems logical that a least path of resistance is to virtualize the management server in order to upgrade, especially considering all have already invested in 64 bit hardware for their hypervisors if they decided to upgrade to vSphere 4 in the first place. To go a step further, I’m willing to argue that it will be more common for an IT Department to justify the cost of additional ESX hosts, even if only dedicated for management, then it will to deploy new servers for physical instances of vCenter.

The looming transition to a console-less ESXi eventually means more management virtual appliances in the future too. Solutions which will continue to need a ESX console or similar will have to substitute their own appliance to operate with ESXi. This means even more justification for additional ESX/ESXi hosts and thus greases the decision to virtualize vCenter as well. I expect to see management clusters of ESX hosts become more common in the future than even the use of management networks today.

ESX hosts have bigger and badder hardware now than ever before allowing for higher consolidation ratios and larger applications to easily run in virtual machines, but it will be interesting to see if the vCenter as a VM best practices change over time. I personally feel that continuing to separate the database from the virtualized vCenter will continue to be a smart choice. Running a separate, and even virtualized, SQL instance ensures not only better performance of vCenter as a VM but enhances DR scenarios. In fact, those that already have the vCenter database on a remote instance will likely have a safer upgrade to the 64 bit vCenter.

The new 64 bit requirements will no doubt make for an interesting migration scenario, and I’m sure we will see some positive and negative opinions. Let me know your thoughts on a 64 bit vCenter as a VM in the future!

You’ve probably heard VMware virtualization and storage talk about VAAI (vStorage API for Array Integration. If you’ve listened to episode 4 of VIRTUMANIA or watched the recent video from the vExpert Panel session at the Carolina VMUG Summit then you’ve heard me talk about it with some of those most in the know on the topic. But what is VAAI exactly and how will it impact virtualization in the future?

Side note – I hate saying “V A A I”. IMO it’s quite a tongue twister. I have adopted saying “V double A I” because it is much easier to get out.

VAAI Introduced 2 years ago

Although it does not exist in vSphere 4.0 today, believe it or not VAAI was first introduced at VMworld 2008 when the vStorage API was announced.

VMware Unveils New vStorage Technologies to Deliver Leading Efficiency and Manageability for the Virtual Datacenter Operating System

New Capabilities Deliver Deeper Integration with Storage Partner Functionality
vStorage enables intelligent integration of storage products within the Virtual Datacenter OS through the new vStorage APIs. 

vStorage APIs deliver tight integration of advanced capabilities from storage partners with the Virtual Datacenter OS from VMware.  vStorage APIs for array integration will enable customers to leverage array-based capabilities, such as snapshots, provisioning, replication and restore, directly with individual virtual machines in conjunction with the clustering and pooling capabilities of VMware Infrastructure.  vStorage APIs for multi-pathing will provide customers the ability to integrate advanced load balancing capabilities provided by leading partners’ multi-pathing software with their virtual environment.

If you are like me you were probably so overwhelmed by the news of the VCD-OS (That’s what VMware was calling the hybrid Cloud at the time … I guess?) that you missed (or were not capable or ready to comprehend) how complete of a strategy already existed for building Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) with the vStorage API. For me, looking back 2 years later it is amazing to me it was all there – at least in concept.

Don’t confuse VADP and VAAI

VAAI is only one part of the vStorage API. VADP (vStorage API for Data Protection) is another, but the these two seem to have been easily confused lately. VADP is

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David Davis (@davidmdavis vmwarevideos.com) recorded the 2:30pm vExpert Panel session from the recent Carolina VMware User Group (VMUG) Summit 2010. The session occurred on Friday June 11, 2010 in the Charlotte Convention Center and featured the following vExperts:

@sakacc Chad Sakac

@vstewed Vaughn Stewart

@scott_lowe Scott Lowe

@mike_laverick Mike Laverick

I was lucky enough to get to moderate the discussion, and along with excellent help in the form of several questions from the VMUG crowd (my co host for the event), I am extremely pleased with the conversation that resulted. We touched on VCE vBlock architecture, Secure Multi Tenancy, vStorage API for Array Integration, FCoE, and a few other virtualization related storage topics

in the 60 minutes we were given. In fact, the end result turned out much like a live version of both the Virtumania and Infosmack podcasts.

One of my personal goals for this session was that the everyone in the audience did not have be storage gurus in order to get benefits from listening. I’m proud to say that I feel we achieved this goal, and so I am embedding Davis’ video below so more VI admins can tune in to what these guys have to say about the future of storage and virtualization!

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