VM /ETC

Archive for the ‘news’ Category

Another 6 months have come and gone and Eric Siebert has just updated his vsphere-land.com Top 25 VMware/Virtualization Blogs. I’m proud to say that VM /ETC remains in the top 10. As of the latest voting, this blog holds the number 7 spot. In my opinion, the number of VMware and virtualization blogs seems to have sky rocketed in 2009, and every blog is an incredible, quality virtualization resource. Considering I was lazy and missed the opportunity to publish a campaign post during the recent voting period, I am truly honored to remain in the top 10. Thanks to everyone who voted for vmetc.com! I am once again inspired to “keep up the good work”.

Siebert has published a couple posts explaining the total voting results and his process of determining the ranking order. It is a lot more complex than one might think. Check out these links for more info:

• The top blog full voting results

• And the winners of the top VMware/virtualization blog are…

If you did not already know, Siebert also maintains the vLaunchpad – a web page of links to all virtualization blogs, news, and resources. Look for the vLaunchpad to be updated soon with the latest rankings as well.

In the official press release today Veeam Software Offers New Essentials Bundle, Acceleration Kits for VMware vSphere 4 Veeam mentions a new policy removing support for the use of Veeam Backup with the free version of ESXi.

“At the same time, Veeam introduced a new policy with respect to support for the free edition of VMware ESXi. “As a longtime Premier Technology Alliance Partner and supporter of VMware’s product strategy, Veeam Software takes great pride in creating innovative software products that enhance the customer value of VMware ESX, ESXi, and ESXi Free,” said Ratmir Timashev, Veeam president and CEO. “One such example is support for the free edition of VMware ESXi in Veeam Backup and Replication.

“Recently, VMware requested that Veeam discontinue support for ESXi Free in Veeam Backup and Replication in order to comply with VMware’s updated licensing policy,” Timashev continued. “In light of VMware’s request, and our close technical partnership, Veeam Backup and Replication will no longer support ESXi Free. We will still continue to offer support for ESXi Free to existing Veeam customers who purchased Backup & Replication prior to version 3.1.””

Be sure to read those two paragraphs again.

Veeam, a company that seems to have found a successful niche marketing to SMBs and remote branch office VMware deployments, has been asked to remove support of the use of one it’s popular products with free ESXi. Possibly shedding some additional light on this mystery, the press announcement mentions respect for VMware’s product strategy and Veeam’s long time status as a technology partner. There is no mention of Veeam pulling free ESXi support of the popular FastSCP file management tool.

Without any inside information about the VMware ESXi roadmap and strategy, here is a quick review of ESXi’s public timeline: Read the rest of this entry »

For some great additional coverage of VMware Partner Exchange 2009 (PE09) check out fellow vExpert Brian Knudtson’s knudt blog. He has been posting a day by day summary of his PE09 experience. I first met Brian on Monday during the VMware Partner Technical Advisory Board (PTAB) and have since had the pleasure of bumping in to him during the conference sessions and at a few tweetups. BTW, you can also follow Brian on Twitter.

Here is a listing of Brian’s posts on PE09 so far, a few quotes, and some of my own comments. Read the rest of this entry »

Although I am at Partner Exchange 2009 (PE09) in Orlando, FL this week, most of the conference content is VMware partner specific or still restricted under non disclosure agreement (NDA). So, I have not put much of an effort in posting. This will change soon, however!

In the meantime, here are some summary links and some quick thoughts about what has been discussed publicly so far at the conference.

Dave Lawrence has summarized the first 2 Keynote/General Sessions on his VMguy Blog:

• First day of keynotes at Partner Exchange
• Day 2 Keynotes at Partner Exchange

Seemingly related to the PE09 Keynotes but not confirmed (by VMware or myself), Read the rest of this entry »

As IT budgets decline, old servers called to virtualization duty is an article written by Alex Barrett and Colin Steele on SeachVirtualization.com. Other then asking some pretty good virtualization sources their opinions , I think the article does a great job explaining why the expense of buying modern hardware still makes sense even in today’s economy. Whether to buy new servers is a common decision being made today as more and more companies are conducting capacity planning studies for consolidation to virtual infrastructure analysis.

Read the entire article for several great points, but here is one quote as an example argument:

“The first thing to determine is whether installing virtualization on older hardware actually saves money. Today’s servers are equipped with quad- and six-core CPUs that can deliver much greater consolidation ratios that single- or dual-core models, he said. “VI3 [VMware Infrastructure 3] is licensed per socket, so you’re paying the same cost for older CPUs but you’re getting less bang for your buck.”

But if the budget for new hardware simply isn’t there, consider the age of a server and how much life it has left in it. When identifying a candidate for a virtualization host, identify a box that is three years or younger and has “had a relatively low runtime,” the systems administrator said.”

I’ve been reading about the amazing features found in the new Intel Nehalem processors launched last week. This next generation of single, dual, and quad core Xeon processors is a virtualization technology enhancement that almost leaves me speechless. It’s my understanding that 6 and 8 core Nehalem processors are expected by the end of 2009 as well.

Some quick features that amaze me:

• Run up to 21 VMs on a single Nehalem processor server
• One Nehalem core could replace 9 previous generation Xeon processor based servers with 20% energy reduction
• Nehalem cores not being used can power down to conserve power and energy
• When Nehalem cores power down the clock speed of other cores can be boosted

So, rather than try to put all of this in my own words, here is a summary of “bite sized” quotes from various analysts’ articles that I’ve been reading. Be sure to check out all of these links for much more information. Read the rest of this entry »

Through a new partnership with Tradepub.com, I am excited to announce free industry publication subscriptions are available for VM /ETC readers. I’ve added a “FREE Publications” navigation tab at the top of the site header for quick access. Clicking on this tab will start you with virtualization tagged content, but with over 900 different publications and documents to select from you are bound to find something relevant to your needs!