VM /ETC

Archive for the ‘server 2008’ Category

The title of this post is part of a quote from David Davis’ SearchCIO article titled COMPARISON: Microsoft vs. VMware. David’s article was published back on June 4, and it’s been sitting in my drafts “screaming at me” to comment on here at VM /ETC. Now, with Hyper-V having been released and Microsoft’s marketing machine starting to cloud virtualization reality, I point my readers to David’s arguments as examples of sane and logical analysis of the two products. Here’s the entire quote my title is taken from in the context it was written:

“VMware is obviously the most experienced company when it comes to delivering a virtualisation product. The company has 10 years of virtualisation experience and a huge customer base, including 100% of the Fortune 500 companies and 92% of the Fortune 1000, totaling over 100,000 customers worldwide. VMware also holds 11 virtualisation patents, and in 2007 their revenue hit the $US1.33 billion mark.

This is in comparison to Microsoft which has a new virtualisation product, little enterprise virtualisation experience, and, to date, no Fortune 500 customers who have adopted their enterprise virtualisation product in a production environment. Ask yourself, which of these companies sounds more qualified to deliver your enterprise virtualisation solution?”

David’s article goes on to make excellent comparison points about Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft announced the release of Hyper-V today six weeks ahead of schedule. Originally expected to be released in August, news of the much anticipated virtualization platform’s general availability is all over the Internet. In an article on Yahoo News, Jim Finkle reports that Microsoft is charging $28 per server. Although technically the correct cost for the hypervisor if the Server 2008 operating system is already owned, the article, Microsoft starts selling rival to VMware programs, is a shining example of the marketing spin capable of Microsoft.

“Microsoft says it charges $28 per server for its software, dubbed Hyper-V, which was put up on its website for download on Thursday. The company previously said it would make the product available in August.

VMware said it charges $495 for the most comparable software in its product line, which is known as ESXi.”

A more realistic comparison price for the IT department deciding to implement Hyper-V can be found at Newegg.com.

Microsoft Windows Server Standard 2008 32Bit/x64 English 1pk DSP OEI DVD 1-4CPU 5 Clt w/Hyper V – OEM

$699

Microsoft has announced two new training and certification programs that align with their new virtualization products. In the news release Climbing the Ladder of Success with Microsoft Certification: New training and certification programs help IT professionals develop mastery of Microsoft technologies, Microsoft hints at the availability of the new certifications.

“… Jim Clark, senior product planner, and Per Farny, director of advanced training and certification, will be at Microsoft Tech-Ed 2008 in Orlando, Fla., this week to unveil two new training and certification programs from Microsoft Learning. Scheduled to begin later this year, the programs are designed to prime the pipeline of skilled workers and help companies maximize their technology investments.”

A general outline of how the curriculum will be be delivered is also discussed.

“The virtualization training will be delivered in a variety of virtual, distance learning, and instructor-led options that focus on the fundamentals of virtualization, the underlying principles of virtualization architecture and the specifics of Microsoft’s technology.”

In this same release Microsoft also announced Read the rest of this entry »

Many administrators today are testing Microsoft Server 2008, or even testing running Server 2008 as a guest hosted on various virtualization products. There are also plenty of projects not even related to virtualization involving testing applications and services on Microsoft’s newest server operating system. For those looking for a little more time, there is the option to extend the standard Server 2008 evaluation period. The Dugie’s Pensieve blog post Extend the Windows Server 2008 evaluation period (KB 948 472) first made me aware this was possible.

Normally, installing Server 2008 without a key gives you a 60 day evaluation period. As Dugie’s post point out, Microsoft has provided a KB article titled How to extend the Windows Server 2008 evaluation period which fully explains the use of the script and how many times you can “re arm” the evaluation.

From the KB article: Read the rest of this entry »

The Offline Virtual Machine Serving Tool appears to be Microsoft’s equivalent to VMware’s Update Manger for ESX – in some capacity. The Solution Accelerator tool schedules and automates updates of virtual machines that are not normally powered on in your virtual infrastructure. The tool powers up the VMs allowing them to receive updates such as antivirus definitions, security updates and patches. Unlike ESX 3.5′s Update Manager, the tool only manages the offline VM updates. Server 2008, Hyper-V, and running VM updates will be handled via WSUS and normal Windows Update processes.

The Executive Overview page provides some more information: Read the rest of this entry »

The VMware Guest Operating System Installation Guide is downloadable as a .pdf or available online. The document’s “About this Book” section summarizes it’s purpose as follows:

“This manual, the Guest Operating System Installation Guide, provides users of VMware® ESX Server, VMware® GSX Server, VMware® Server, VMware® ACE, VMware® Workstation, and VMware Fusion^TM information about choosing and installing guest operating systems for VMware virtual machines.”

There are sections of installation instructions for every past and present operating system that is supported. What I am posting from this document is a very helpful table that is a quick reference of what VMware products support which VM operating systems. This table has been copied from the online version of the guide.

This table makes it very easy to answer questions like:  Read the rest of this entry »

Brian Desmond’s Blog : How to Sysprep in Windows 2008 documents the new sysprep process for Server 2008. In this post, Brian explains that the current tools for Windows 2000 and 2003, using setupmgr.exe to create sysprep.inf, no longer exist.

“The first step is acquiring the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) from somewhere. You can get it from Microsoft’s website, MSDN subscriber downloads, and probably the volume licensing downloads site too I’d guess (though I haven’t checked). The ISO is available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94bb6e34-d890-4932-81a5-5b50c657de08&DisplayLang=en, and is about an 800MB install on my 2003 SP2 x86 box.

You’ll also need to copy the install.wim from your 2008 DVD sources folder to the hard drive as the tool won’t work with it if it doesn’t have write access.

The tool of choice is the Windows System Image Manager (WSIM)”

Check out Brian’s full post for screenshots and instructions of the entire 2008 sysprep process.

My thoughts after understanding this new sysprep process are now what changes to VirtualCenter will have to be made in order to include customization of Server 2008 in the deploy from template and clone VM wizards? Read the rest of this entry »