VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘virtualappliance’

If you thought that because all ESX virtual machines (VM) share a virtual portgroup on a virtual switch (vSwitch) inside an ESX host you could easily sniff all VM traffic with a protocol analyzer like ethereal or wireshark, when you tried it you found out you were wrong. If I am not mistaken, ESX vSwitches are considered layer 2 devices and come with all the expected security and isolation. However, you can make some relatively simple vSwitch design and setting changes to turn a VM into a virtual sniffer and monitor all other VMs on that same host. Another option is a free virtual appliance that can allow you to use your physical monitoring tools to watch your VMs. This post explores both of these free VM sniffer alternatives.

I’m going out on a limb here reporting what I’ve learned about VM sniffers, but I figure that passing on what I know so far would be helpful to VM /ETC readers. At the very least, use the info in this post to get you pointed in the right direction. Fill me in on what I’ve missed, please! Read the rest of this entry »

Cloud Computing in Plain English is a 4:51 long video from rPath that gives a great overview of Cloud Computing and how virtualization plays a  key role enabling all size businesses to take advantage of utility computing and software as a service (SaaS). The video is lite and humorous, and does a good job comparing traditional software to a luxury car, SaaS as a leased vehicle, and then Cloud Computing as a taxi.

Watch the video to hear how virtualization is the engine of the Cloud Computing taxi, and virtual appliances are the fuel for that engine.

I first heard about the video from Benard Golden’s CIO.com article titled after the video.

rPath is self described on their web site as

“the company that is pioneering the virtual appliance approach for application distribution and management.”

rPath also provides more information about their product offerings that help enable the Cloud Computing strategy.

“rBuilder and the rPath Lifecycle Management Platform automate the creation, configuration, management and maintenance of application images for virtualized and cloud computing environments. By producing application images that are optimized for any hypervisor, rPath frees the application from the underlying hardware, and enables a better model for development, deployment and support.”