VM /ETC

Archive for the ‘vmetc.com’ Category

The average virtualization admin, engineer, manager, and general IT person probably goes to half a dozen events a year where they receive a name badge. I’m just guessing, but at least 2/3 of those event badges are now in the form of a necklace/lanyard. Just guessing again, but I’d be willing to bet that 99% of all the lanyards get thrown away shortly after. That same average IT person probably attends 1 or 2 big events or conferences a year where they are lucky enough to receive a backpack, computer bag, or other schwag with zippers. Unfortunately, the pull tabs on the zippers more than likely will break off leaving an awkward and often painful to pull open/closed zipper head. I’ve stopped using several otherwise very functional bags just for this reason. But, while planning for a recent vacation, an idea so simple struck me that I was amazed I hadn’t thought of it already.

I did not want to take my full computer bag on the vacation. It’s an oversized bag designed for an entire file cabinet and a night’s change of clothes. One of my old backpacks was perfect for my notebook, iPad, magazines, and the various accessories my wife and I would need on the plane and while sightseeing. When I went to grab a backpack in my basement I noticed the nail of badges hanging above them.

For some reason, I can not bring myself to throw away my event badges. I can’t tell you why. I just knew I would do something with them one day. But now I have a new purpose for them, and I am quickly reducing the bulk hanging on that nail. Besides, you never would have seen a headline like “North Georgia Man Saves Family From Burning House With A Linked Lanyard Ladder”, now would you?

So if you are like me you already have what you need to repair your luggage, backpacks, and various other pull zippers around the house. Here’s my quick how to and list of tools needed:

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What was once just a fun Twitter game (OK, annoying to some) at previous VMware VMworld and Partner Exchange Conferences is now a chance to win real prizes at VMware’s Partner Exchange 2011 (PEX2011) next week in Orlando, FL. Thanks to several vendors and individuals that responded to Kelly Culwell (@kculw) and my last minute requests, if you are an attendee at PEX2011 and play PEX3WORD you can win the following prizes in the following ways:

• EMC Iomega IX2 – awarded to the best #pex3word tweet with a twit pic of Chad Sakac (@sakacc). Chad knows of this requirement to win, but he prefers the twit pic be one where he does not know it is being taken. Chad will help judge the winner. BTW, it doesn’t have to be an actual “twitpic”. Use whatever tweet photo service you want, but just follow the #pex3word game rules.
• VMware Workstation or Fusion -  awarded to the most informative or insightful #pex3word tweet. John Troyer (@jtroyer) has thrown these licenses in the pot for the game, and he will help us decide a winner for this category. Use 3 words to express your thoughts during a keynote, breakout session, lab, or just when you experience a general technological epiphany!
• Train Signal vSphere Troubleshooting DVD – awarded to the best / funniest /entertaining #pex3word conversation. David Davis (@davidmdavis) will help us decide the winner from the many series of #pex3word RTs and linked replies. Be sure to adhere to the rules of 3word tweeting! If you don’t know already, the Train Signal series of video training  is awesome training to have on your shelf or on your iPod/iPad/iPhone or smartphone, and the latest vSphere Troubleshooting DVD dives even deeper into VMware vSphere management.
• VMware vSphere Design by Forbes Guthrie, Scott Lowe, and Maish Saidel-Keesing. – awarded to the most frequent #pex3word tweeter. Scott Lowe (@scott_lowe) has agreed to ship this winner a copy when the books comes out! By frequent tweets we mean relevant and unique. Tweeting “one two three” a million times for example won’t win you anything, but Scott will ultimately help us decide this winner. No bots or scripts either. To be fair, we are only counting number of tweets between Tues and Thurs during the conference for this award. That way, those showing up early for boot camps and meetings do not have an unfair advantage.

Finally, we have several miscellaneous items such as t-shirts, umbrellas, bottle openers, etc. from Veeam and InterWorks for those #pex3word tweeters that don’t win anything above. This is not the booth swag that anyone can get at the conference, but these items were donated specifically for this game.

How to play and General Game Info

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I was inspired to try a full install of the Androidx86 OS in a VMware Workstation VM after Eric Sloof created a video of the Androidx86 LiveCD running in a vSphere VM. I’ve documented building the VM and configuring it to run in this post. I also list some navigation tips for getting around inside Androidx86. Finally check out my video of the working VM.

Since most are probably wondering I’ll mention this now, once the VM is connected to the Internet you can download a very limited selection of Apps, but I had sporadic success with the various Apps I tried. For the few that I did get to install, I wasn’t able to get all of them running. So, use an Androidx86 VM as a way to get a feel for what an Android device is like. Maybe it will help you make a decision about buying a Tablet like the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Browsing the web worked great. I do not test email.

Download, Create New VM, and Install Androidx86 from .ISO

Download the latest revision of the Androidx86 .ISO here:

http://www.androidx86.org/downloads.html

Build a new “typical” VMware Workstation VM (this should work just the same with the free VMware Player), and when you point the install wizard at the Androidx86 .iso the OS type FreeBSD is auto detected. I chose to install the operating system later as I did not want to invoke the auto download of the VMware Tools.

This choice forces you to manually specify FreeBSD from the next screen of the wizard.

I kept the default disk size of 8GB and to chose to store the virtual disk as a single file.

I customized the virtual hardware and did the following

• bumped the RAM to 512 mb. The Workstation wizard suggested 256 mb.
• deleted the floppy
• pointed the vCD/DVD at the Androidx86 .iso and made sure it was connected at power on.
• changed the vNIC to Bridged. NAT should work just fine too. (Note that additional networking changes need to be made later)

Once your ready, boot your new VM and choose to install to harddisk when prompted by the Android Installer.

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http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-12-20/

A post title like that got you attention, didn’t it?

Happy Holidays to all!

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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VIRTUMANIA Episode 26 features Patrick O’Rourke and Jeff Woolsey from Microsoft!. The following is the podcast summary:

VIRTUMANIA Podcast Episode 26 – Exploring What’s Next With Microsoft Virtualization Rich Brambley (@rbrambley) of VMETC and Rick Vanover (@rickvanover) of RickVanover.com host special guests Patrick O’Rourke (@virtualization) and Jeff Woolsey. Both Patrick and Jeff contribute posts to the Microsoft Virtualization Team Blog at blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization. This week’s episode focuses on Microsoft’s latest virtualization features with a lot of talk about the new 2010 products. Topics include managing multi-vendor hypervisor environments with System Center, the latest information about stateless applications with Server App-V, cloud computing with Azure and BPOS, tier 1 applications on Hyper-V, and finally backing up VMs, physical servers, applications and DR site fail-over with DPM. Virtumania is an 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.

VIRTUMANIA Episode 25 … finally! We put the headsets back on and recorded another episode. Sorry for the delay! The following is the podcast summary:

VIRTUMANIA Podcast Episode 25 – Better Late Than Never VMWorld 2010 Autopsy.  Marc Farley (@3parfarley) of  StorageRap.com with co host Rick Vanover (@rickvanover) of RickVanover.com are joined by special guests Jon Owings (@2vcps) of 2vcps.com and Kelly Culwell (@kculw) of VirtualInsanity.com. Unconfirmed reports describe chalk outlines on the Moscone Center floor from the bodies of exhausted vendors and attendees. Enjoy our autoposy of VMWorld 2010 from the experiences of this week’s Virtumaniacs. Get an inside perspective on the sessions, the announcements, the parties, the people, and everything else. Virtumania is an 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.