VM /ETC

Archive for the ‘home’ Category

You might have noticed that I haven’t been updating VM /ETC as often. In fact, my blogging has been non existent except for the occasional VIRTUMANIA posts, which I am also struggling to find time for anymore. I’m not making excuses, but the combination of the new position at Veeam, a flurry of new product releases, and my boys reaching the age where homework is no longer just coloring between the lines or cutting the dashed outline has made personal time a premium for me. It is what it is, but I recently heard a story that, in a stretched analogy kind of way, I think sums up my situation.

My channel rep for the Southeast territory used to be in the Navy. We had recently finished a day of meetings and presentations and were enjoying the MLB playoffs at a local bar near our hotel when he told me the following story. I am paraphrasing, but it went like this:

One of my rep’s shipmates had the night shift on the aircraft carrier’s flight deck. From what I understand, there are fork lift –like vehicles that are used to load and unload the weapons and cargo on the aircraft and jets. During some down time, this one seaman fell asleep sitting at the wheel of one of these vehicles. When he did, his body slumped forward on the controls causing the vehicle to roll overboard. Although the fork lift was caught in the safety net that apparently encircles the entire deck, the guy was catapulted over the net and into the water below. Since this happened mid ship, he was immediately sucked under the battleship towards the massive propellers.

Unbelievably, the guy survived unharmed! He later explained that before he knew what happened

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VMware has released a series of KB articles outlining the requirements and best practices for installing vSphere, upgrading to vSphere, and upgrading ESX 3.0 virtual machines to ESX 4.0 hardware. VMware also provides a vCenter Installation Worksheet that could be useful for documentation purposes. Links to these KB articles are provided in this post along with quick quotes and notes providing additional information on each topic. Be sure to read the KB articles for the best practice details. Read the rest of this entry »

VMware has officially started registration for VMworld 2008 in Las Vegas, NV. Go to VMworld 2008: Registration – VMware
to register now and get the early bird discount. Be sure to use your existing account at VMworld.com if you have previously attended VMworld Europe 2008 or VMworld 2007. VMware has recognized VMworld veterens in the past by giving away a special gift. I can’t confirm if this is the case this year, but if it is then using an exisiting account is definitely the way to make sure you are on the right list!

I am headed to San Diego today for VMware Partner Exchange 2008. It should be another great week of learning and networking. I am looking forward most to the hands on labs for Site Recovery Manager, ESXi, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, and Lab Manager. There is also separate technical solution tracks for beginner, intermediate, and advanced breakout sessions. The exhibit pavillion, called the VMware Experience, sounds interesting too. Quoting the event website: Read the rest of this entry »

Did you know you can modify a VI client shortcut so you can enable single sign on to Virtual Center? This is an undocumented feature that many blogs reported on in March, but most credit vinternals.com and the post VirtualCenter 2.5 Passthrough Authentication as the first to report this option.

“At last! VMware have finally added passthrough auth support in VC 2.5, although it is currently classed as experimental. This is something I have been waiting / asking about for quite some time. And even better, it’s on by default! To use it, simply add -passthroughAuth -s vchostname to the end of the shortcut used to launch the VI 2.5 client.

By default it uses the Negotiate SSPI provider, however since they have fully implemented the interface you can change that behaviour to use Kerberos by adding the following within the <vpxd> node in the vpxd.cfg file on the VC server:

<sspiProtocol>Kerberos</sspiProtocol>”

The screenshot of the VI Client shortcut was found at Pass Through Authentication with the VMware VI Client by Diary of a Bad Golfer. Click on it for a larger image.

There is also a VMware Communities thread at How to enable passthrough authentication in VMware VirtualCenter 2.5

Like all bloggers, I have accumulated a bunch of links in my drafts that are sitting there collecting dust. In an effort to clean some of those drafts out I have combined several online calculators into this post. Each of these calculators can help administrators and IT departments understand and budget for a virtualization project. Enjoy!

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VMworld 2008 will be at The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, NV September 15 – 18. You can go to the VMworld 2008 Pre-Registration page to sign up to be notified when official registration is open.

VMware is expecting more than 12,000 attendees this year!