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Posts Tagged ‘vmworld2007’

Another session I attended at VMware’s Partner Exchange last week was titled ESX Log Analysis – Tech 207. I did not realize it when I signed up, but this was essentially the same session that I previously attended at VMWorld 2007 last September. I did a quick Google search on this topic to find the VMWorld slides and noticed that Scott Lowe live blogged from San Francisco while attending this very session. Then Searching on the VMWorld.com site I found that this was also a session at VMWorld Europe 2008 titled VI3 Advanced Log Analysis. You can get a copy of the .ppt used at the VMWorld Europe 2008 session on my Files Page.

There is nothing really too new about t-shooting ESX logs here, but the following are my notes from last week. On the other hand, there are some general notes directly related to ESXi logs and using Update Manager included.

I cleaned up my notes a little, but the following is still a raw outline. use These notes and the .ppt mentioned above to hopefully help educate yourself on this topic.

Read the rest of this entry »

More lab materials from VMWorld for those who can’t download themselves.

Linked to this post are the materials from “Using VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure for Hosted Computing”. This lab walks through installation, administration, creating a desktop, creating desktop pools, and finally connecting to desktops and desktop pools.

The Appendix also goes through a detailed process of getting a WinXP VM ready to become a template. Too many template VMs are created without taking the time to optimize the VM for future cloning. This process can be used to prepare any VM for becoming a template – not just for use in VDI.

Using VDI Vmworld 2007 Lab

The file attached to this post is the VMWorld 2007 “Leveraging VMware Consolidated Backup for Disaster Recovery” lab materials. I am posting this for those that did not get to go to VMWorld and do not have an ID to log on to the VMWorld site.

This .pdf illustrates the requirements for VCB as well as the step by step technical details of using the VCB framework for backing up VMs, restoring VMs, and restoring files.

VCB for DR VMworld 2007 Lab

updated 01.29.08 – You can also download this lab from my Files Page.

Unfortunately I slept late Thursday morning. Waking up at 7:30 am in Hayward, CA meant that there was no way short of a helicopter I was going to make it to San Francisco before 9. I’m pretty sure my company would not let me expense a helicopter so I decided to catch up on some email from the hotel until traffic burned off. I also had “Smash Head” from the party Weds night!

blog.scottlowe.org has some great notes on this session. Here’s my thoughts on what I missed. Read the rest of this entry »

I rented a Chevrolet HHR for week at VMWorld. I wasn’t expecting to rent a car at all so thank goodness National had cars available Sunday when I arrived at SFO.

The car was fun to drive and it had a lot of pep for a 4 cylinder engine. Although I never had more than three adults in the car, the HR had plenty of room for passengers.

It’s compact design was both a positive and a negative. I was thankful for the ability to maneuver easily in downtown traffic and park in tight spaces, but the cockpit area was cramped. I kept rubbing my leg on the center console just using the accelerator. The windshield was small and very close, and my field of view was at roof level inside the car. I felt like I had to bend down to see.

If Alcatraz is called “The Rock” then Treasure Island was “The Roll” for Wednesday’s VMWorld 2007 party.

First on stage was the Wonderbread 5. I believe this band was once a Jackson 5 tribute band that has now evolved into 5 white guys wearing afros that definitely know how to start the party!

Associatedentertainment.com describes this local San Francisco band best:

“With their tongue planted firmly in cheek, the Wonder Bread 5 posse fuses hip-hop, country-fied white-trash anthems, disco and hair metal, resulting in a high energy spectacle of fun, grooves and all the songs you love to sing…and sing loudly.”

Smash Mouth topped the evening off with all of their hits as well as some amazing Van Halen covers! The band started a multi song encore with a version of “Running with the Devil” that would have made even David Lee Roth jealous!

According to their web site Smash Mouth has a new album in stores and is also currently working on songs for an upcoming movie soundtrack. I will definitely be adding their newest CD to my collection.

Another “ton of bricks” moment happened to me when I was talking about SAN replication with NetApp yesterday in the Solutions Exchange. Using your WAN, NetApp’s products can replicate block level data between each other, or they can replicate the data from your existing SAN.

So, this means that I can buy a single NetApp product and put it at my DR site and start replicating my VI for fail-over. I don’t even need to worry about building the ESX infrastructure right away. Although, the ability to test my DR fail-over requires I have ESX servers at my secondary site.

I asked for general pricing for a small office SAN. I guestimated about 3TB of data would be needed. Although they wouldn’t give me a firm quote I was told pricing should be somewhere in the $10k – $15K range.