VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘opensource’

Fluid Operations, owner of the eCloudManager Project, has open sourced it’s VMFS Driver Project. The driver is actually an application that can run on Linux, Windows or any operating system that supports Java. It apparently provides read only access to VMware VMFS volumes.

The VMFS driver has been developed for use in fluid Operations’ eCloudManager Storage Edition which is described as:

“… the industry’s first solution which allows for managing CPU and storage virtualization through a single pane of glass. This solution allows high-performance applications to be rolled out on an enterprise cloud utilizing multi-vendor server virtualization and storage technologies. This first release orchestrates VMware Virtual Infrastructure as server virtualization and NetApp filer technology as storage.”

eCloudManager is in beta, but is available both as a plugin for VirtualCenter or as a web interface.

The implications of the open source availability of the VMFS driver are huge in my opinion. For example, a VMFS driver could allow the creation of a liveCD that would be able to access virtual machines on a failed ESX host. Those stranded VMs could then be transferred to another working ESX host. There are also numerous other VM backup, disk analysis, and monitoring possibilities from a non VMware server.

Here’s some more information from the fluid Operations Community Page:

“This driver enables read-only access to files and folders on partitions formatted in the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) by VMware. VMFS is a clustered file system that is used by the VMware ESX hosts to store virtual machines and virtual disk files. The VMFS driver is developed and maintained by fluid Operations and is included in upcoming releases of the eCloudManager product, where it is used to allow enhanced features like offloaded backups of virtual machines hosted on VMware ESX hosts. The VMFS driver comes with a command line interface (CLI) to mount and analyze VMFS volumes. The VMFS driver was tested on Linux and Windows based hosts, but should work on any platform that supports Java.”

The VMFS Driver Java application is available for download via it’s Google Code Project page. There is also a FAQ with the following additional information (and more – go check it out) about the VMFS driver. Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve probably already heard about VMware’s open source VDI client. VMware’s official announcement for the VMware View Open Client was released on February 4. Touted as the next step for creating a universal client to be used on any device from anywhere, VMware releasing the client as open source enables technology partners to start to fufill the vision. In VMware’s words:

“Now, VMware is providing VMware View Open Client for partners, enabling them to use VMware View source code to optimize their products to deliver rich, personalized virtual desktops to users. In addition, partners will be able to use the source code to help accelerate the development and delivery of solutions for enterprises to provision and manage thousands of virtual desktops simply, securely and at substantially lower operating costs.”

What I find most interesting is that Linux systems now have a installable VDI client. Unless I am mistaken, previously a web browser was the only way a connection to a virtual desktop could be made from Linux. Not only does this increase the functionality and features, Read the rest of this entry »

Innotek VirtualBox is a free, open-source alternative to VMware workstation. Aquired by Sun Microsystems earlier this year, VirtualBox has quickly become one of the leading developer platforms for the desktop with current features that rival even VMware’s latest version 6.5 currently in beta testing. I have used VirtualBox in the past, but because I had not used it in over almost over a year I was not aware of the latest features in the most recent releases. The feature that specifically caught my attention was the seamless window integration of Microsoft Windows virtual machines. Like VMware Workstation and Fusion’s Unity feature, VirtualBox allows Windows applications in the VM to pop out of the VM session making it available from the host operating system’s desktop.

Quoting from Sun’s announcement: Read the rest of this entry »

VMware VirtualCenter comes with built in alerting and a handful of alerts preconfigured. Unfortunately, alerting for disk space usage of either the ESX hosts or the virtual machines is not included. Administrators continue to use common physical infrastructure monitoring and reporting applications such as NetIQ and MOM for VMs, or SNMP capable programs like HP Openview or IBM Director for ESX host monitoring. A less complex and less expensive ( cost of installing and configuring agents on each VM OS ) alternative would be to tap into VirtualCenter’s central management ability to monitor, alert, and report on disk space. This post lists a few free solutions that can already use VC2.x or quickly be configured for ESX hosts and therefore save administrators time and money. Hopefully, a future feature of VC2.x will include vital disk space metrics and alerting.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leo Raikhman left me a comment, which lead me to his Leo’s Ramblings blog, which in turn, taught me about another open source monitoring tool for VI3 called Unnoc. In his post Using unnoc to monitor your ESX servers Leo explains why Unnoc is his favorite over other open source monitoring solutions:

“Let me just say that I hate complicated configurations which is why I immediately discarded cacti and nagios – the other two contenders for free ESX monitoring. Also, having used both, the complexity of their data gathering left a lot to be desired. Unnoc is simple and it works because it was designed to do a limited number of things.”

Leo’s post walks you through the installation and configuration of Unnoc on Ubuntu.

Here’s more about the tool From Unnoc.org: Read the rest of this entry »

Popular open source enterprise monitoring application Zenoss has a package for monitoring VMware ESX servers. Although I have never used Zenoss personally, I have run across several customers over the years who do. Check out Zenoss.com for more info about the application and the Zenpack package for monitoring ESX hosts.

A preconfigured Zenoss installation is available to download as a virtual appliance from the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace.

Here’s some more info from the web site: Read the rest of this entry »

From the 2x.com web site:

Desktop Virtualization with 2X ThinClientServer and VMware

Desktop virtualization takes the headache out of desktop administration by increasing security, redundancy and scalability. With 2X ThinClientServer and VMware server you can run your desktops virtually on central servers, and use the client machines to connect to the virtual machines. Stream your company’s desktops and applications just like a video!

Benefits of Virtual Desktop computing with 2X ThinClientServer and VMware

• Maintain and secure Windows desktops and builds and all connected hardware devices from one central location
• Improve support by shadowing sessions and watching the user’s actions
• Easy addition, recovery and replacement of virtual desktops
• Centralize control by allowing you to remotely shutdown or restart all devices
• Reduce costs by converting old PCs to thinclients with the latest XP or Vista
• No Terminal Services CALs required – re-use existing Windows XP license.

What do I need to achieve this?

1. 2X ThinClientServer PXES edition – Cost: Free
2. VMware Server – Cost: Free
3. An OS, either Linux/Windows – Cost: Free (If re-using same license)

I am using the ThinClientServer at home.

I have VMware Server hosting both a Winodws server and an XP desktop. ThinClientServer is running on the server and is configured to allow a group of users to be assigned an RDP session to the XP VM. I have an old pc that I boot from CD (the ThinClient .iso) to connect to the ThinClientServer VM where my login is authenticated. Then I am able to log in to the XP desktop RDP session.

The old pc I am using has a 333mz cpu and 128 mb of ram. The XP VM is using my host’s 1800+ cpu and 512 mb ram. It works great! I did not have a hard drive for this pc or otherwise I could have permanently installed the thinclient OS. It’s a great solution! All that is missing is 32 bit graphics and DirectX!

There is also commercial edition that has full support. The free edition only provides support via their forums.

Let me know if you have tried 2X ThinClientServer in a production environment.