VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘vdi’

I received notice that NetApp will be hosting an on-line community event focused on VDI this week. This post is just a quick attempt to encourage all VM /ETC readers to check it out. From what I have seen so far NetApp is providing access to VDI tools, documents, and support that would normally only be available through a NetApp NOW account available only to customers and partners.

It looks like NetApp may be experimenting with establishing a public community similar to VMware’s VMTN Communities or VMworld.com, and I am excited to see it!

The rest of this post is a copy of the email invitation I received explaining the event. Read the rest of this entry »

As expected, several news releases from VMware can be found this morning to coincide with the first day of the VMworld Europe 2009 Conference under way in Cannes, France. The initial reports I have seen of Paul Maritz’s opening Keynote session (mostly via live blogs and Twitter) indicate that most, if not all, of the content in these press releases was presented to the thousands of VMworld Europe attendees. I plan to watch the recorded Keynote when it becomes available on Vmworld.com.

Here is my early take on what has been announced.

• VMware has confirmed that the VDC-OS initiative will ship in 2009 and foster the adoption of internal, private cloud infrastructure. VMware envisions this shift in infrastructure to include the desktop with technologies that provide the vClient initiative. I am hoping to hear a clearer message about the VDC-OS / vSphere / ESX naming of initiatives / technology layers / products, but news provided today does not seem to offer any additional clarity.
• VMware has a bare metal desktop hypervisor and it’s name is CVP. Working with VMware View, CVP will allow users to work offline and be managed centrally by VDI administrators.
• VMware and Neverfail have developed a high availability solution for VirtualCenter (VC) in the form of an active / passive host based cluster named VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat. This solution appears to be primarily designed for VC to fail over to a standby server on the LAN, but apparently a WAN configuration is also available. Previously, virtual administrators would have to rely on MSCS Clustering solutions to provide high availability for physical instances of VC.
• The introduction of VMware vShield Zones in ESX Clusters will allow for a more efficient mix of virtual machines without compromising security. VI design in the past has presented challenges when considering how to isolate VMs in the DMZ from VMs in production for example, and this has lead to the creation of additional ESX hosts and Clusters to insure isolation and prevent system compromise. Now with the vShield Zones virtual appliance, different security policies can be created and enforced even as guests migrate between ESX hosts thus allowing the consolidation of ESX hosts and VMs.
• Fujitsu Siemens Computers and VMware have announced Flexframe for SAP which allows companies to virtualize SAP. Flexframe is a solution that provides guaranteed resources for the best end user experience under dynamically changing conditions.

In the rest of this post I am providing a link to all the announcements along with some key quotes from each press release. For full details read the original announcements in their entirety. 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 »

On 12.02.08 VMware announced the general availability of their latest version of VDI products and moved a step closer to fulfilling it’s vClient initiative discussed at VMworld 2008 in Las Vegas earlier this year. The new VMware View 3 is comprised of a suite of products that will work together to deliver virtual desktop infrastructure that expands beyond VMware’s current VDM 2.1 features and promises to provide VDI access from anywhere and from any device. There has already been a lot written about VMware View and about what VMware’s product offering now means for VDI today and it’s expected impact in 2009. Brian Madden provided some great insight on what pieces are strategic in terms of competition and what pieces are still futuristic. His 60 second overview post and his VDI to Apple Newton comparison are definitely must reads. You should definitely view Keith Ward’s VIEW on VMware View over at Virtualization Review. (Sorry, I get a kick out of that sentence ) However, my perspective on VMware View 3.0 is from the implementation angle, and specifically the Linked Clones feature and designing around the promise of significant storage reduction.

The following quote from VMware’s official announcement explains Read the rest of this entry »

Look for a new VMware KB article in the near future for this VMware VDM error.

I helped implement a VDI solution for a customer that ended up revealing an issue with VMware Desktop Manager (VDM) 2.1 and the resource pools of an ESX Cluster. The explanation of the problem to me was that the VDI desktops auto-deployed via persistent VDM pools were out of sync with the ESX resource pools they were members of, and therefore new VDI desktops could not be cloned by VDM. That’s a little confusing I know, so I’ll try to explain it better by providing the sequence of implementation steps that resulted in the issue.

Here’s how it happened. Read the rest of this entry »

For my project, 5 TB of raw disk space on a NetApp FAS3020 resulted in roughly 2.5 TB of usable NFS volumes. Sacrificing half the storage as overhead (for both ESX and NetApp) might seem like a big hit to take at first, but when you consider what you are able to do in the remaining useable space it can change your opinion. In my recent experience, after combining the features of Flexclones, VirtualCenter (VC) templates, deduplication, and NFS the remaining 2.5 TB enabled a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) storage solution for over 80 virtual machines (VMs). Your results may vary, but the concepts discussed in this post provide for a scalable and flexible design.

Although this post discusses NetApp, I imagine any NFS filer with similar features could be used in this same fashion. I’m curious for feedback on not only this solution, but the pros and cons of other vendor’s features in a similar scenario.

Here’s a logical diagram illustrating a NFS volume strategy followed by some high level details of each volume. Read the rest of this entry »

The virtualization blogisphere exploded yesterday with the news of VMware’s plans to bring virtualization to mobile phones with the announcement of the new VMware Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP). Regular readers of VM /ETC will know I am a fan of the idea of the handheld evolving into a device that can consolidate everything from the wallet to the laptop, so I wanted to add my two cents, not only about VMware’s MVP, but about what this can mean for businesses, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and you and me.

First, here’s some information from the official VMware news article about MVP.

“What is VMware MVP?
VMware MVP is a thin layer of software that will be embedded on a mobile phone that decouples the applications and data from the underlying hardware. It will be optimized to run efficiently on low-power-consuming and memory-constrained mobile phones. The MVP is planned to enable handset vendors to bring phones to market faster and make them easier to manage.”

It should be clear that MVP diversifies VMware’s customer base with a brand new market. MVP is a product for handset manufactures. It doesn’t appear to me that I will ever have to install MVP personally, and I doubt I will have to learn how to P2V a desktop to a Blackberry, for example. In the future, when I buy a new handset MVP will already be on the device.  Alex Barrett expands on this in his post VMware MVP does not equal Windows XP on your phone.

Thinking about why VMware would aquire Trango and develop this product is where it gets interesting, Read the rest of this entry »