VM /ETC

Archive for the ‘services’ Category

Yep. It’s a shameless plug for my company. Regardless, I thought it was worth letting everyone know about these promotions from Microsoft before the year ended. Go crazy and implement a new server infrastructure on VI3 with your favorite solutions provider.

The following is from an email I received. I also have created a Promos page with this info.

Have you recently purchased Microsoft Office, SQL or Windows Server? If so, keep reading as you may have some free services to claim. Read the rest of this entry »

More lab materials from VMWorld for those who can’t download themselves.

Linked to this post are the materials from “Using VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure for Hosted Computing”. This lab walks through installation, administration, creating a desktop, creating desktop pools, and finally connecting to desktops and desktop pools.

The Appendix also goes through a detailed process of getting a WinXP VM ready to become a template. Too many template VMs are created without taking the time to optimize the VM for future cloning. This process can be used to prepare any VM for becoming a template – not just for use in VDI.

Using VDI Vmworld 2007 Lab

These are my notes I used to prepare for a discussion with a client about implementing a secondary site for DR fail over. The client has already virtualized their production data center and is wanting to leverage VI for DR. The point of my discussion is that VI is too often viewed as a “silver bullet” for tough projects like back up and fail over. Yes, there are some specific areas that are easier to implement with VI, but careful consideration and planning must be executed if the overall DR plan is to be successful.

Goals and Objectives – the customer must make important decisions first !

· Recovery Time Objectives – acceptable time to start up systems and allow user access

requires server by server analysis

· Recovery Point Objectives – acceptable point in time recovery or start up at secondary site

requires application by application analysis

· Mission Critical Services

which applications & services must be available first.

Read the rest of this entry »

I received an email announcing a new release of PowerRecon from Platespin. It sounds like features have been added to the product to take it from being a capacity analysis tool to a VI monitoring and reporting tool. I will have to stop by their booth and get the scoop.

From the email:

PlateSpin is announcing the general availability of PowerRecon 3.1., and the new Virtual Infrastructure Edition.

Highlights of this release:

VIE features:- Integration with VMware Virtual Center

- Discovery and inventory of the complete physical and virtual infrastructure

- Power and Cooling Reporting

- Virtual Infrastructure Chargeback Reporting

- Virtual Machine Sprawl Reporting

- Priced per CPU

Other noteworthy feature enhancements:- Group and matrix reporting capabilities

- Scalability enhancements

- Tighter integration with the virtual infrastructure layer

- Extended platform support

A common issue error encountered after the P2V migration of a windows server is:

The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter Name of adapter. Name of adapter is hidden from the network and Dial-up Connections folder because it is not physically in the computer or is a legacy adapter that is not working. If the same address is assigned to both adapters and they become active, only one of them will use this address. This may result in incorrect system configuration. Do you want to enter a different IP address for this adapter in the list of IP addresses in the advanced dialog box?

Microsoft KB Article 269155 provides the explanation and the work arounds methods for this issue.

From the KB Article, here is an explanation of the cause of the issue and the most common resolution method. Read the rest of this entry »