The VMUG is a pretty well known club. If you are just a virtualization enthusiast, a VMware fan or one of those nerdy bloggers, you all know the VMUG. Every country has it’s own instance of the VMUG and every now and then there is a gathering with all the nerds, enthusiasts and bloggers to talk nerdy to each other about virtualization for about a day.

Our friend Erik Schils from the VMUG in Belgium is organizing such an event on the first of June 2012. And guess what: it’s totally free! There are still about 30 tickets left, so hurry up! Read on how to get one.

(more…)

I often get several questions regarding how I started in IT, how I became an Enterprise Architect, how did I get where I am nowadays, what did you do in the past years and what my advice would be if someone wanted to get a job like mine. For the VMTN vExpert Spotlight I answered a few of those questions.

Want to know how I rolled into the IT business, when I got involved with VMware, why I am blogging on VMGuru.nl and was rewarded vExpert 2010, 2011 and and now recurring in 2012? Read it on today’s vExpert Spotlight on the VMware Communities VMTN Blog:

vExpert Spotlight: Edwin Weijdema

One last take away: if you see our top banner here on VMGuru.nl, you see:

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun”

When you are trying to grow in your field of work and/or your life keep this motto in your mind and you will truly excel. If you love what you do, like us, you do it with passion and commitment.

Erik has been in the vExpert Spotlight last year you can read about his story here.

Red Hat Benelux is organizing a demo day for their virtualisation solution “Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization”.

During this day they will present the latest news, present the road-map and future releases. Also on the program is a demo of RHEV and the presentation of a customer case. Their will be Red Hat experts present for any questions you might have.

The event takes place on June 26th 2012 in Den Haag – Netherlands at the Louwman Museum. The agenda for the day:

12.15 – Registration
12.45 – Welcome and introduction by Rajiv Sodhi, Country manager Benelux Red Hat
13.00 – RHEV Features and benefits: what’s  in it for me?
13.40 – Customer case
14.20 – Coffee break
15.10 – RHEV demo by Koen van Bakel, Senior Solution Architect Benelux Red Hat
15.50 – Interactive discussion and closure
16.30 – Closing drink

After the sessions you get the opportunity to view the worlds oldest private collection of automobiles which is present in the museum.

For those interested in the event can register by sending an e-mail to redhat@artdcom.com with the subject “Registratie RHEV Demo Day – 26 juni”. For questions you can also use the mail address previously mentioned.

Last Friday Trend Micro released Deep Security 8.0 Service Pack 1. 

The most significant changes in SP1 are:

• On Demand scan agent based anti-malware on Linux. Supported versions are Red Hat Linux 5, 6 (64 bit only), Suse Linux 10, 11 (32 and 64bit)
• Protecting ESX 4.1/ESXi 4.1 hosts with Deep Security 8.Deep Security can now provide protection for virtual machines running on ESX/ESXi 4.1 and 5.0. You can use the same Deep Security Virtual Appliance in combination with the proper version of the Filter Driver.
• Improved anti-malware scan exclusions.Exclusions were only possible for files. Now directories, files and file extensions are supported for the anti-malware scan, either by listing them specifically or through the use of wildcards.
• More Localization. The manager is now also available in Japanese and Simplified Chinese. The agent and notifier are also localized in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

When you have installed Deep Security 8.0 it will automatically warn you that an update is available. Since it was only released a couple of days ago there is little  information available about the update. As with all updates, test it on a small scale before deploying it to your full environment.

VMware announced today that VMware View 5.1 will be available Q2 2012. Several new features and benefits will be included, like a good security enhancement to add two-factor authentication through Radius integration. Also the whole rewritten USB implementation rocks.

VMware View 5.1 Features and Benefits:
Enhancements and new features in VMware View 5.1 include:

• RADIUS Support – Support in VMware View 5.1 for RADIUS will enable greater choice for organizations looking to deploy two-factor authentication, while maintaining compatibility with existing choices.

• VMware View Media Services Enhancements: VMware View 5.1 Local Mode will add multi-monitor support and expanded USB device compatibility, improving the user experience by enabling more peripherals to connect seamlessly into VMware View virtual desktops.

(more…)

It is time for an updated version of our build numbers database.
Besides adding the new build numbers I also ‘repaired’ some errors.

If you think you’re missing products or  build numbers, please leave a comment below. I’ll do my best to add them to the list.

For a recent customers I have been working on migrating e-mail from several completely separated e- mail infrastructures to one Office 365 environment. To achieve this the customer has chosen to use a product called MigrationWiz.

This product is offered as a web based service/cloud solution.

With MigrationWiz you setup a connection to both a source and destination. After setting up the connection(s) you can start the migration. MigrationWiz will download the data from a mailbox at the source to it’s own infrastructure and then upload it to the designated target mailbox. The picture below illustrates the process.

(more…)

The word is out!  The judges have decided and we here at VMGuru.nl are very happy to conclude that Edwin, Erik and myself can call ourselves vExpert 2012 again!

This year, the process was a bit different, as VMware decided that vExperts can be appointed in three new categories:

(more…)

Since my article on ‘Storage Optimization with Atlantis‘ on April 3rd, I’ve been in contact with Atlantis and got some additional information I would like to share with you.

First of all, in the article it says the following:

Another point of interest is, does Atlantis live up to the promises made regarding the alleged savings of up to 90%? Of course these numbers are sales numbers and it’s up to 90%. But recently I heard about some Atlantis test results from renowned industry parties, which aren’t so positive as the sales number want you to believe. The first tests do show a huge decrease of read I/O but they also show an increase in write I/O. Now, I don’t want to claim that the myth is busted, further investigation and testing is required, but you should definitely try before you buy.

The issues mentioned above where discovered by our colleagues from PQR and also by the Cisco VXI team. But according to Atlantis, they have already corrected this issue.

The issue with the linked clones was caused by mis-alignment of the redo logfile because of the VMware View Composer and linked clone format.  Atlantis released anew version which is able to treat a linked clone specifically for this issue and correct misaligned writes.

According to Atlantis, the PQR team has already retested Atlantis ILIO and found good write offload as promised.

The second item I would like to share, is a concern Anne Jan raised when using Atlantis ILIO.

(more…)

NetApp and Cisco have announced an extension to their joint FlexPod solution with a package which better suits smaller companies.

The current FlexPod solution consists of a Cisco UCS server platform and a Cisco network infrastructure combined with a NetApp FAS32xx or 62xx storage solution. It’s a great solution but it is quite expensive for smaller companies running smaller workloads. The sizing was based on the US definition of enterprise and Small and Medium Business (SMB) which is too large compared to European standards.

The components which can make the FlexPod solution costly for smaller companies are the storage and network components of the solution, NetApp FAS32xx or 62xx storage and Nexus 5000 switches.

NetApp and Cisco have now addressed the first issue and added the NetApp FAS2240 to the FlexPod solution stack. In the past the NetApp FAS2000 series wasn’t suitable for FlexPod because it lacked 10Gb ethernet support which is required in a FlexPod solution. But with the introduction of the NetApp FAS2240 this limitation was dropped but that’s not enough to use the FAS2240 in a FlexPod solution. A new component must first be tested in combination with all other components and if the new component is suitable, new validated designs must be developed which include the NetApp FAS2240.

Besides that, in the past FlexPod could only be build on Cisco UCS blade servers. The new entry-level FlexPod now also includes Cisco C-series servers.

The specifications for the new entry-level FlexPod Solution are:

(more…)

Today I was working at home when the Easter bunny dropped me two packages. It turned out to be a VMware day today.

The first package was the VMware VCP5 certificate for my exam two months ago. The second package contained two VMware vExpert certificates for 2010 and 2011 and a nice laptop bag with VMware vExpert logo. Three VMware certificates on one day, it doesn’t get any better than that.

Now that the papers are in, VMGuru.nl is ‘officially’ VMware vExpert certified again

Thank you, John and Alex, for recognizing me as a vExpert for 2010 and 2011 and thanks for all your effort on the VMware vExpert program. Hopefully I can join the vExpert ranks again in 2012.

I will keep you posted.

In our quest for native PC performance in a VDI solution we are always looking for better, faster and simpler storage solutions. To improve storage performance several vendors have introduced different solutions like controller cache, SSD disks, flash memory. Last week I received an e-mail from a colleague regarding ‘Atlantis Computing Uses Diskless VDI Architecture Made Possible by the Cisco Unified Computing System‘. This got my attention, what is Atlantis and how does this storage optimization work?

The Atlantis storage optimization works at the Windows NTFS protocol layer to offload virtual desktop I/O. When the Microsoft Windows operating system and applications request I/O from storage, Atlantis intercepts and inline deduplicates the I/O stream before it reaches the storage. Up to 90% of all I/O requests are processed in RAM. This enables native PC storage performance characteristics which VDI solution require. (more…)

Yesterday the internets were humming with rumours again. Computerbuilder Dell has shown interest in buying a company in thin clients. Not long after it was confirmed that Dell and Wyse have signed a deal.

The official press release states:

“Dell has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing, to significantly extend its desktop virtualization offerings. The addition of Wyse will expand Dell’s desktop virtualization capabilities and provide new market opportunities for the full range of Dell’s enterprise solutions and services.” (more…)

Last week I had the opportunity to sneak peak a new free tool made by VKernel named SearchMyVM Explorer. The tool is added to the vOPS Server Explorer tool and brings a long awaited and asked for feature designed to cut down time and effort in finding items in you virtual environment(s). It works very easy, you can search like you are used to in Google. Select if you want to search a VM, Resource pool, Host or Cluster with lots and lots of metrics.

This new utility provides a “Google-like” search into the virtual environment and complements the existing VM health visualization utility in vOPS Server Explorer.

The new search utility, SearchMyVM Explorer, indexes an environment‘s virtual machines, hosts, clusters, resource pools, files, snapshots, VMware tools, applications, and configuration information.

(more…)

Today VMware released the new version of their View Client for the iPad. The VMware View Client for iPad is the first iPad client with support for the PCoIP for tight integration with VMware View and increased flexibility for the end-user.

This client enables end-users to connect to their VMware View desktop from an iPad with the best possible user experience on LAN or across a WAN. For full support with this new VMware View client version 1.4, VMware View 4.6.1 or later is recommended.

Other improvements are:

• Improved connection times to View server
• Improved support for external monitors
• Bug fixes

Today I got another question about several Windows VMs breaking down and generating lots of errors after a SAN switch failed. The active paths switched through a path failover. I have seen this behavior before with several customers who use SAN storage and Windows for guest operating system in the VM. I sure had to dig around in my memory which setting to switch to 60 seconds. So I thought I would make this blog post for future references.

Path failover refers to situations when the active path to a LUN is changed from one path to another, usually because of some SAN component failure along the current path. A server usually has one or two HBAs and each HBA is connected to one or two storage processors on a given SAN array. You can determine the active path, the path currently used by the server, by looking at the LUN properties.

(more…)

One of the things that has been on my to do list for a very long time was to check out the vCenter Appliance. I finally found the time to install the vCenter appliance in my own lab and fool around with it.

This post is a mix between my findings and some kind of installation instruction.

But first of all, what’s the VMware vCenter virtual appliance and what are the pro’s, cons and limitations.

The VMware vCenter virtual appliance is a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 running VMware vCenter on a internal embedded DB2 database or an external Oracle database. The appliance is available for download on the VMware website and is configured with 2 vCPUs, 8GB RAM, LSI Logic SCSI controller, VMXNET 3 network interface and the VMware Tools.

The advantages over a traditional vCenter implementations are:

• Lower TCO by eliminating Windows licenses;
• Simple and rapid deployment;
• Reduce operational costs – vCSA is easy to upgrade – deploy a new appliance, connect it to the external Oracle database or import configuration data from the previous installation.

10GbE connections are getting more common in the datacenters, even for SMB 10GbE is getting within their reach. In the storage market Dell EqualLogic lagged behind large storage vendors like NetApp in functionality and connectivity but now EqualLogic released their new products on 10GbE, solving the connectivity issue.

Both the PS6000 series for large scale implementations and the PS4000 series for the less demanding customers now have the option for 10GbE with SFP+ (fiber) or 10G Base-T (copper).

The two new models, PS6110 and PS4110, both have copper (10GBase-T) and optical (SFP+) connections. The new models can be mixed with other EqualLogic units in a group. Next to the 10Gbit connections the units have a management port for out of band management.

The PS6110 comes in six configurations with support ranging from high capacity 7,200 RPM SAS hard drives to enterprise-grade SSDs. The PS6110 Series can handle up to 72TB in a single array and 1.2 Petabytes in a single group.

In the PS6110 series is available in the following editions:

(more…)

Veeam, one of our site sponsors, gives you a change to win a free pass to this years VMworld or TechEd. No difficult questions or questionaires, just sign up to win and Veeam even helps you connect with your fellow Virtualization Lovers.

Enter now to win a full pass to VMworld 2012 or TechEd 2012 – the choice is yours!

Winners will be selected on March 26, 2012!

Last month we asked to vote for us if you appreciated our blog and apparently a lot of you did.

This year almost 1200 votes were recorded compared to 800 last year, also the total number of blogs on the list increased from 112 to 187 blogs to choose from. This makes it tougher to get in the top 25. As independent bloggers we are very proud and honored that VMGuru.nl finished 19th in Eric Siebert’s blogger contest on vSphere-land.com.  The past year has been a wild roller coaster ride. We switched jobs, met lots of new interesting and intriguing people, shared and absorbed as much knowledge as we could and had great fun doing it.

We appreciate your votes and ongoing support and want to thank all who voted for us!!!

Select the YouTube video below to watch the Special Edition 25 vChat episode where Eric Siebert, David Davis, Simon Seagrave and Special Guest, John Troyer count down the Top 25 VMware Blogs as voted by you. The fragment where VMGuru.nl is awarded 19th place is at 9:38.