VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘beta’

Monitor and Manage VMs on the Go with Virtualization Mobile Manager (VMM) now available in beta from Hyper9. VMM Sound familiar? That’s because Andrew Kutz previously released VMM on his lostcreations.com web site before he joined the Hyper9 team and became responsible for H9Labs. However, this latest version has broadened it’s support to include not only VMware ESX and ESXi, but also VMware Server, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Citrix XenServer 5. If I am not mistaken, that makes VMM the first multi vendor virtualization management tool in existence (mobile phone or otherwise) that can administer and monitor guests on all the major platforms.

The VMM beta is now available to the entire virtualization universe at the link above, but Hyper9 has a special offer for VM /ETC readers that comes with some exclusive perks:

• automatic entry to win a mobile device in a contest starting in June
• a limited edition Hyper9 t-shirt (in exchange for some VMM feedback)
• 50% discount should you choose to purchase

Be one of the first 15 readers to comment on this post to take advantage of this invitation. Be sure to use a valid email address so that Hyper9 can contact you about the beta download, your shirt, and more.

What is VMM? Hyper9 describes the product and it’s features as follows: Read the rest of this entry »

Image via Wikipedia

With all the recent talk about the software from Rove and VMware that provides mobile device access to managing VMware Infrastructure, administrators now need to consider how they will actually connect mobile phones to vCenter and ESX hosts behind the firewall. Fortunately, a thread from the VMware vCenter Mobile Access Technology Preview Community sheds some insight on how VMware actually tested the vCenter Mobile Access virtual appliance (vCMA) with several different mobile devices.

From The official “how will I connect to this thing” thread: Read the rest of this entry »

VMware announced an upcoming technology preview will be available in April for vCenter Mobile Access (vCMA). Srinivas Krishnamurti, Director of Product Management and Market Development for VMware, provided a guest post on the VMTN Blog with news about new project. Introducing VMware vCenter Mobile Access describes vCMA as a virtual appliance that will allow admins to monitor and manage their VMware virtual infrastructure from a mobile phone with what appears to be most of the same functionality available from the VI Client.

Here’s some details from Srinivas’ post about vCMA:

“Did you ever get paged when you are in a meeting about some virtual machine that needed to be restarted?  Or, did you ever get an alert when you are at your kid’s soccer game or at the movies that a particular server is overloaded?  Actually, imagine any scenario where you need to actively manage your datacenter but you are nowhere close to a PC.  Wouldn’t it be nice to act on the notification from your mobile phone?  After all, we are now a generation that doesn’t leave home without a mobile phone…

Introducing VMware vCenter Mobile Access (vCMA).  vCMA allows you to monitor and manage VMware Infrastructure from your mobile phone with an interface that is optimized for such devices. Specifically, it allows you to:

• Search for virtual machines in your data center
• Migrate virtual machines from one host to another using vMotion
• Execute recovery plans using VMware Site Recovery Manager
• Access Scheduled Tasks, Alarms and Events
• And much more…”

This YouTube video shows off the vCMA on a Blackberry. Read the rest of this entry »

Duncan over at Yellow-Bricks.com just a posted about a technology preview of the new VMware vCenter 2.5 for Linux available for beta testing. The virtual appliance can be downloaded from the VMTN forums in both .zip and .ovf format.

This early edition is for beta testing only, and VMware strongly suggests not to use this edition in a production environment. There is also a vCenter on Linux install guide .pdf available for download.

I’m looking forward to my current download completing so I can explore vCenter on Linux. I will not be able to post anything immediately as verbiage from the download page clearly states this technical preview is “highly confidential”.

Hopefully this is the start of some exciting new product announcements and features to coincide with the opening day of VMworld Europe 2009 tomorrow!

Not too long ago I published a visual how to guide for installing Windows 7 Beta on VMware Workstation 6.5. In this post I am illustrating how to install Windows 7 in a VirtualBox 2.1 virtual machine hosted on a 32 bit Ubuntu 8.10 desktop. Once again the installation is straightforward, but I’ve taken the time to record screen shots of the process. Judging by the traffic from the first post, the topic of running Windows 7 in a VM has been very popular, so now this post provides a Linux open source alternative to the previous Windows Vista VMware Workstation post. Like before I’ve added some basic notes along with my impressions during the process.

There’s nothing really too complicated or tricky, but nonetheless use this guide to get an idea how simple the VirtualBox Windows 7 installation process really is. Read the rest of this entry »

updated 01.23.09 – The beta registration period has ended. Thanks to all the readers that signed up!

VM /ETC readers have one last opportunity to get an advanced look at the Hyper9 browser based virtual infrastructure management tool before it is released to the public. According to the Beta newsletter I received, the product launch is scheduled for sometime in February. The newsletter also mentioned additional product functionality, savings for beta testers, and changes to the Hyper9 Community web pages.

Once again I am providing an automated form for interested readers to sign up for a copy. Filling out the form with a valid email address will result in an auto reply containing additional instructions about the program and a link to register. The beta registration form will only be available until midnight January 22.

updated 01.17.08 – I have moved the sign up form to it’s own page. Please click here to fill in the form.

I also discovered that the auto reply was not working properly for all the form entries that have been collected. I manually forwarded all the applicants directly to Hyper9, so if you submitted your information but never received an email reply I have been informed that Hyper9 will now be following up with you.

For more information and screen shots of this awesome VI management tool check out my previous post First look at Hyper9 beta for VM /ETC readers. or check out these additonal Hyper9 links:

• Community
• Hyper9 How-To Videos
• Hyper9.com

Along with the recent Server 2008 R2 Beta release, Microsoft has announced the public beta availability of their free, stand alone Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 server virtualization platform. Along with several other improvements, a most noticeable feature is the inclusion of both Live Migration, the live transfer of a guest between hosts, and Quick Migration, a clustered -like live fail over of a guest between hosts. I have not found a definitive announcement that the latest version will remain free like the previously released version, but I would have to assume this is the case.

If this is so, I am now waiting for the announcement from VMware that the free version of ESXi will provide free VMotion, and at a minimum, the High Availability (HA) feature. VMware, what will be your counter?

updated 01.13.08 – after thinking about it a little more after my rush to publish this post, both Microsoft Hyper-V Server and VMware ESXi require management to enable the Live Migration / VMotion features. So, assuming both products require a licensed version of their management server (SCVMM / VMM on another Server 2008 host vs VMware vCenter), what may be a more realistic announcement for VMware would be to allow ESXi hosts to have free vCenter agents allowing ESXi hosts to join a already licensed ESX Cluster.

I applaud Microsoft for this move as it should be a significant catalyst for a wider, more enthusiastic deployment of their hypervisor. I can only wonder if VMware saw this coming, and hopefully has a quick response, if not immediately, but for at least by VMworld Europe 2009.

The following are several links with more information about this announcement including sources such as Microsoft’s download page for Hyper-V Server 2008 as well as other Microsoft virtualization blogisphere posts. Read the rest of this entry »