VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘server2008’

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 »

This weeks edition is centered on the topic of quick migration versus VMware HA and VMotion. We start with a post from the Windows Virtualization Team’s blog site and then explore some responses from a couple popular blogs in the virtualization community. Finally, if you have not seen Microsoft’s Quick Migration in action then check out the video at the end of this post. Links to the full posts are provided by clicking the section titles. Enjoy!

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Earlier this week I was able to attend one of the free Heroes Happen Here events Microsoft is hosting. Although I only attended the morning IT Pro – Infrastructure sessions, the event also had sessions on SQL 2008 , Visual Studio 2008, and a Small Business Server and Essential Business Server session. All things considered it is an event worth attending if you have the time. The format was a a surprisingly minimum number of presentation slides and a lot of live demonstrations.

Here are the primary reasons I was glad I went: Read the rest of this entry »

Compared to VMware ESX Enterprise Edition, business continuity and high availability features are lacking when deploying Citrix XenServer “out of the box.” Specifically, XenServer does not have the built in equivalent to VI3′s HA feature. Also missing is a solution similar to VMware’s soon to be released Site Recovery Manager (SRM). However, Marathon Technologies and XenSource (now a division of Citrix) have worked together to develop everRun VM as a enterprise class answer to fault tolerant availability for Windows virtual machines hosted on Citrix XenServer. According to Marathon’s Director of Products, Michael Bilancieri, at a recent Atlanta “Virtualization for the Real World” event, the integrated solution will be generally available sometime in the 2008 Q2/Q3 time frame.

Quoting from the Best of VMworld (more on this award later in this post) white paper downloadable from the everRun link above:

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Looking for a visual representation of Microsoft Server 2008 and it’s various new enhancements? Go to the Microsoft.com downloads pages and download the Windows Server 2008 Component Posters. The Server 2008 poster is divided into six product scenarios. There is a virtualization scenario and a Server Core scenario.

Some info about the posters from Microsoft’s page:

These two posters, originally published in the July 2007 issue of TechNet Magazine, provide a strong visual tool to aide in the understanding of various features and components of Windows Server 2008. One poster focuses exclusively on powerful new Active Directory technologies, while the other provides a technical look at a variety of new features available in Windows Server 2008 (such as Server Core, Network Access Protection, and more).

Get the originals from the link above, or I have saved copies locally on my Files page.

Here is a screenshot of the virtualization scenario. Click the image for a larger version. Read the rest of this entry »

I am certainly not the first to talk about the differences between VMware Workstation, VMware Server and VMware Player. However, this topic of conversation continues to come up. “Why should I buy VMware Workstation when I can download Server or Player for free?” There are some key differences between the products that you should understand before you decide which is right for you. Read the rest of this entry »