VM /ETC

Archive for the ‘gestaltit’ Category

Along with others yesterday, I received email notice from VMware’s @jtroyer that I was designated a vExpert for 2010. I was thrilled to win the award in 2009, VMware’s inaugural year of the program, and I’m just as thrilled to be named again this year. But being named a vExpert is now more to me than just winning an award. It’s a virtualization community honor with a responsibility.

First, let’s be honest.

vExpert is not a certification. VCDX is the badge for the VMware technically elite. Those that have endured the study, passed the tests, and triumphed in the design defense have earned the rare status of true VMware guru. There are many VCDXs that are also vExperts, but do not confuse the two. A vExpert should always stand at attention, salute, and then listen closely when a VCDX enters the room and speaks. They are the battle proven Generals. They’ve walked the walk.

Second, let’s be real.

Not all VCDXs are vExperts today, and I would suspect that as more are certified the ratio of VCDXs that will not get recognized for community contributions will rise. That’s not a negative. Let’s call this the “Epping Curse”. For example, when you are that good you end up working for VMware and you can’t win the vExpert award. It’s a problem to have in my opinion. Then there will always be some VCDXs who do not contribute to the community at all. Nothing wrong with that either.

Third, let’s recognize the effort and the honor.

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Mike Laverick

VMware needs feedback from SRM (Site Recovery Manager) customers. The SRM product team is asking that customers take a 15 minute survey about their deployments. In return, the first 1000 to participate will receive a free PDF copy of Mike Laverick’s SRM 4.0 book, and VMware will donate $10 to charity. Laverick indicated in an email the chosen charity is UNICEF.

Here’s the VMware Communities: Survey for SRM customers – please … original post from May 27:

Hello SRM users,

The VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) product team is looking for product feedback on SRM deployments. If you have purchased SRM, we would like to hear from you. Your participation will be very valuable to us and the information you provide will be used to improve the SRM product going forward.

You can provide your feedback by completing the survey

The survey should take no longer than 15 minutes and will expire on June 10, 2010. Please note that this survey is for SRM customers only.

Upon completion of the survey, if you are among the 1st 1000 respondents, VMware will donate $10 per response to charity. You will also receive a link to download the electronic copy of Mike Laverick’s book "Administering VMware Site Recovery Manager 4.0" upon completion of the survey.

We appreciate you taking the time to provide us with your valuable feedback.

Thank you,

The VMware SRM Team

Check out Laverick’s post on this survey as well:

SRM Customer? Complete this survey, and VMware will donate $10 to UNICEF

In the “lucky” thirteenth episode of VIRTUMANIA Rick, Marc, and I engage very special guest Chris Wolf in a interesting discussion about Citrix XenServer and the recent cloud announcements from the Synergy 2010 Conference. The following is the podcast summary:

VIRTUMANIA Podcast Episode 13 – Analyzing Citrix Cloud Synergy. Rich Brambley (@rbrambley) of VMETC and Marc Farley (@3parfarley) of 3Par and StorageRap.com with guests and Rick Vanover (@rickvanover) of RickVanover.com and Gartner Virtualization Analyst Chris Wolf (@cswolf) of chriswolf.com and blogs.gartner.com/chris-wolf. Citrix Synergy 2010 wasn’t just about the the virtual desktop, and Chris Wolf joins us to discuss the server virtualization content of the recent conference in San Francisco. Citrix is definitely making strides with XenServer and their Cloud offerings, but amid all of the exciting announcements there were arguably some conference disappointments as well. We get Chris to analyze the good, the bad, and the ugly! Thanks to Greg Knieriemen (@knieriemen) of Chi Corporation for this Infosmack Production.

Listen to the podcast with the embedded player or subscribe to get a weekly copy so you can listen when convenient.

Check out the VM /ETC VIRTUMANIA Page to listen to past episodes as well as episodes of Infosmack.

The following links offer more information on some of the topics mentioned in VIRTUMANIA Episode 13:

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Tom Howarth, VMware Communities Moderator and blogger at PlanetVM.net, posted this week how he was informed by a developer of a virtualization backup vendor about a scenario involving reverting to an ESX snapshot that results in corrupted incremental backups when using vSphere’s Change Block Tracking (CBT). Howarth’s post Major issue with Change Block Tracking recounts his conversation and exploration of the problem with the developer. In summary, Howarth reported “there is a major issue with the way VMware handles the indexing of the ChangeID.”

Almost a week later and after a flurry of comments from most of the vendors leveraging CBT for virtual machine backups, VMware has published a KB article on the subject.

VMware KB: Reverting to a pre-existing snapshot under specific conditions can cause incremental backups based on CBT (Changed Block Tracking) to become inconsistent

The KB Article describes the exact scenario that causes the problem:

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In contrast to their previously expected bare metal client hypervisor, is VMware now focused on enhancing the VMware View Client Local Mode? I’m basing this assumption on the blog post VMware View: Real BYOC and View Client which was published apparently in response to Citrix’s announcement of the XenClient availability earlier this week at the Synergy 2010 conference.

As I understand Local Mode, VMware View will be able to coordinate the offload of intensive desktops operations such as graphics to the hardware of a user’s notebook, thin client, or PC. Since the VMware View Client is installed as an application on the operating system of the end user’s system, this seems to be a better technical fit with VMware’s expertise in type 2 hypervisor products, or hosted virtualization, such as VMware Workstation, Server, Player, and Fusion. This focus in development also seems more aligned with the Teradici partnership enabling the software based PCoIP protocol.

Combined with the promise of offline synchronization, where changes to the local copy of the VM will be replicated to the master copy in the data center, VMware View Local Mode would definitely make VMware View instantly compatible with the widest selection of hardware possible. This in turn creates the least path of resistance for the VMware VDI solution to provide remote and mobile access to a corporate virtual machine even when users are abroad.

Developing a bare metal client hypervisor has obviously been a bigger than expected challenge for both Citrix and VMware judging by the delays in release experienced by both companies so far. As more and more corporations consider the concept of BYOC (allowing employees to bring your own computer), VMware now seems to be backing out of the hardware platform support arena and falling back to what they do best. Although I believe a smart decision has been made here, there will no doubt be some public “crow to eat” in Palo Alto.

Be sure to read the entire VMware View Blog post linked above, but the rest of this post is the VMware Desktop Team’s own words about View Client Local Mode:

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Are you confused from trying to figure out what exactly The Cloud is? Have you given up trying to determine if you want your software, platform, or infrastructure delivered as a service? Do you even care if a cloud is private, public, or hybrid any more? When you reach that point, maybe it’s time to frag some frustration away in a death match?! Better yet, what if that frag fest can be joined from a web browser, saves all of your settings on the internet, and provides the same experience from any computer whether running Windows or Linux? From both IE and Firefox? Let’s call this kind of (arguably) cloud offering FPSaaS – First Person Shooter As A Service. 

Believe it or not, it exists already and it’s free. ID Software has created the Quake 3 based game site QuakeLive.com.

After creating an account, installing a browser plug in, and a quick download of some local content needed for game play you are ready to participate. Various game data such as maps are updated when you join matches. You can practice against Bots or unleash your wrath on combatants around the world. Choose from Free For All, Capture The Flag, Clan Arena, and several other modes of play. QuakeLive keeps track of your stats so you can see how well (or poorly in my case) you battle.

What else is there to say? Go check it out. Look me up when you do. I play as VMETC_01.

Maybe we should start a VIRTUMANIA night once a week? Leave a comment if you are interested.

In VIRTUMANIA episode 10 Theron Conrey and Simon Wardley join Marc and me for closer look at the open source Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. The following is the podcast summary:

VIRTUMANIA Podcast Episode 10 – Rooters, Hummers, and the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud Hosted by Rich Brambley (@rbrambley) of VMETC and Marc Farley (@3parfarley) of 3Par and StorageRap.com. Theron Conrey (@theronconrey http://www.conrey.org / vmunderground.com) joins us as we explore Ubuntu’s Enterprise Cloud with Simon Wardley (@swardley blog.gardeviance.org) of Canonical.  Simon explains how hypervisors are quickly becoming commodities, discusses his OSCON presentation on Why The Cloud Really Matters, reveals how Ubuntu’s partnership with Eucalyptus provides an open source alternative for IaaS, and compares Ubuntu’s cloud to the implementation and features of other popular commercial cloud infrastructures. Thanks to Greg Knieriemen (@knieriemen) for this Infosmack Production.

Off topic conversation this week includes a call to action for more steering wheel camera videos and how to order half of a lobster in Denmark!

Listen to the podcast with the embedded player or subscribe to get a weekly copy so you can listen when convenient.

Check out the VM /ETC VIRTUMANIA Page to listen to past episodes as well as episodes of Infosmack.

The following links offer more information on some of the topics, blog posts, and products mentioned in VIRTUMANIA Episode 10:

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