VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘veeam’

ESXi doesn’t have a Service Console like ESX. Therefore, you can’t SSH to the server without entering unsupported mode. That process may be a hassle if all you need to do is modify VM configuration files. Of ourse, you could use the Datastore Browser from the VI/vSphere Client, but to make file edits you would have to download a file to your desktop, edit it, and then upload the changed version back to ESXi again. On the other hand, with Veeam’s free FastSCP editing files on ESXi datastores is easy.

To be clear, you can’t edit configuration files of the ESXi host itself with FastSCP, but there really should not be a need to do so. That’s one of the benefits of ESXi not having a Service Console!

Download FastSCP here. You will have to register with Veeam first, and the registration form will not accept a personal email. I’m guessing there is some kind of lead qualification strategy and support registration involved with this requirement for download, but I learned a work address is unavoidable. I tried to use my gmail address but received a message similar to “you must use a company email address.” The registration process ends with a confirmation email to be acknowledged before you can download, so making up a fake email is futile. Hey, it’s a small price to pay for a free, quality admin tool.

After you install FastSCP you’ll discover you have access to a trial period of Veeam Backup and Replication. I suggest exploring

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If comparing the v12n community to a religion makes sense, then using Sir Issac Newton’s Laws of Motion to explain Veeam Global “Scientist” Doug Hazelman’s guest post on the Windows Virtualization Team Blog shouldn’t be a stretch either. Hazelman, one of the VM /ETC Q2 UGH recipients, announced the following in the post R2 Veeam Too:

“While Veeam has continued to build some of the best software for data protection and management of VMware infrastructures, we realize that customers are now faced with more virtualization choices. By fully supporting Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware vSphere, Veeam can help you manage heterogeneous hypervisor deployments and clouds with the innovative solutions you’ve come to expect from Veeam. The management and R&D teams at Veeam have a long history of working with Microsoft going back to the Aelita days, and we’re all excited to be working with Microsoft again.”

Imagine your favorite Physics teacher or professor at the chalkboard in an UGLY GREEN lab coat explaining:

Newton’s Laws of Motion are:

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Alex Barrett’s SearchServerVirtualization.com VMware clampdown on free ESXi may prompt defection to Hyper-V article presents VMware’s reasons for making a request to Veeam to stop supporting Veeam Backup with the free ESXi versions. Quoting the interview from Barrett’s story:

“We provide certain APIs [application programming interfaces] and methods particular to the virtualization environment,” said Patrick Lin, the vice president of product management for VMware’s server business unit. By offering access to the hypervisor via a preferred set of APIs, “our intent is to provide a level playing field in the basis of backup,” he said.

But Veeam did not use VMware-approved methods to develop its product, said Parag Patel, VMware’s vice president of alliances. “We’re not exactly sure what they did, but it didn’t seem sound,” Patel said. “For us it’s a question of what’s built and how it’s built. … To be perfectly honest, we didn’t want to be associated with it because it wasn’t satisfactory.”

Perhaps more to the point, Veeam Backup is inconsistent with VMware’s vision of free ESXi deployments. “It’s meant to be a starter … walk before you run,” Patel said. “It’s not supposed to be for complex software environments.” With free ESXi, “you shouldn’t need a whole lot of other tools to make it work.” If you do, you are free to upgrade.

On the other hand, Barrett’s interview also helps confirm the idea that VMware does not wish
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In the official press release today Veeam Software Offers New Essentials Bundle, Acceleration Kits for VMware vSphere 4 Veeam mentions a new policy removing support for the use of Veeam Backup with the free version of ESXi.

“At the same time, Veeam introduced a new policy with respect to support for the free edition of VMware ESXi. “As a longtime Premier Technology Alliance Partner and supporter of VMware’s product strategy, Veeam Software takes great pride in creating innovative software products that enhance the customer value of VMware ESX, ESXi, and ESXi Free,” said Ratmir Timashev, Veeam president and CEO. “One such example is support for the free edition of VMware ESXi in Veeam Backup and Replication.

“Recently, VMware requested that Veeam discontinue support for ESXi Free in Veeam Backup and Replication in order to comply with VMware’s updated licensing policy,” Timashev continued. “In light of VMware’s request, and our close technical partnership, Veeam Backup and Replication will no longer support ESXi Free. We will still continue to offer support for ESXi Free to existing Veeam customers who purchased Backup & Replication prior to version 3.1.””

Be sure to read those two paragraphs again.

Veeam, a company that seems to have found a successful niche marketing to SMBs and remote branch office VMware deployments, has been asked to remove support of the use of one it’s popular products with free ESXi. Possibly shedding some additional light on this mystery, the press announcement mentions respect for VMware’s product strategy and Veeam’s long time status as a technology partner. There is no mention of Veeam pulling free ESXi support of the popular FastSCP file management tool.

Without any inside information about the VMware ESXi roadmap and strategy, here is a quick review of ESXi’s public timeline: Read the rest of this entry »

Veeam introduced the free Veeam Monitor 3.0 back in December as a Christmas gift for VI admins. Apparently, Veeam Monitor is the “gift that keeps on giving” now that the tool has been updated to version 4.0. The new version is vSphere ready and provides unique VMware storage monitoring, hardware monitoring, and reporting.

Check out the YouTube video featuring some of the brand new capabilities.

More information about Veeam Monitor 4.0 for VMware and instructions for downloading can be found at Veeam’s product page: New Veeam Monitor 4.0 for VMware- new standard for managing VMware environment

free Veeam tool unwrapped

The VMware administrators holiday gift from Veeam has been revealed. As promised, I received an email this morning announcing that a new free version of Veeam Monitor 3.02 is available for download. A description of the tool can be found on the products web page:

“Veeam Monitor is an easy to deploy, framework-independent VMware monitoring solution that was created expressly to help you better manage the health and performance of your VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3) environment. Veeam Monitor provides support for troubleshooting and issue resolution, as well as trend reporting and capacity planning – equipping you to proactively manage ESX / ESXi infrastructure system health and performance today and over the long term.”

The product’s Release Notes reveal the limitations of the free version:

Veeam Monitor 3.0.2 features a new free functionality mode which is automatically enabled if you install the product without a license, or if your your license expires. Veeam Monitor Free Edition has the following limitations compared to the full version:

• Performance history lookup is limited to 24 hours
• Number of alarms is limited to ten
• Performance and trend reporting is disabled
• Alarm modeling is disabled
• Guest OS process management functionality is disabled.

Veeam Monitor requires a SQL 2005 database or installs SQL 2005 Express by default. It is my understanding Read the rest of this entry »

what could it be?

The more readers handle the free VMware administrator mystery present from Veeam the more the wrapping paper is getting torn. All that present shaking and examining trying to guess what it could be has been bad for the intended surprise by the folks at Veeam, or has it? Honestly, I have no inside information, and I am just as stumped as the rest. I do have a guess I’ll share, however.

First, to see a full size image of the present with the latest rips in the wrapping go to boche.net’s post Further unwrapping of the free tool from Veeam.

As for my guess on what it could be – well, based on the fact that the latest paper rip reveals some monitoring information and that Veeam recently purchased nworks which is known for it’s system monitoring tools, Read the rest of this entry »