Erik Scholten is the founder of VMGuru.nl and works for Imtech ICT as a Solution Architect creating the most ingenious virtual infrastructures. He has over 14 years experience as a system engineer and consultant and now he specializes in virtualization. His current job includes selling, presenting, designing and developing virtual infrastructures for some major companies in the Netherlands.
In 2009, 2010 and 2011 VMware awarded him the vExpert award for his virtualization community efforts.
The new version of OpenStack, which will be released in Q2 of 2012, does not support Microsoft Hyper-V anymore. The developers have had enough with the buggy code.
One of the developers of OpenStack has written a patch with which the Hyper-V code and support will be removed from the cloud platform. The patch has already been approved and constitutes a part ofthe next version of OpenStack, codename Essex, which is expected to be released in Q2.
At the end of 2010 Microsoft announced that they would deliver code which would enable the use of Hyper-V in a cloud solution based on the open-source cloud platform, OpenStack. Microsoft never finished and maintained this, causing the code to be full of errors. After people in the OpenStack-forum suggested to remove the Hyper-V code, Microsoft quickly released a statement saying “Microsoft is committed to working with the community to resolve the current issues with Hyper-V and OpenStack“. However, the OpenStack developers decided not to wait until Microsoft finally fixed their code and decided to remove Hyper-V support with the new release.
OpenStack, Founded by Rackspace Hosting and NASA, is a global collaboration of developers and cloud computing technologists producing the ubiquitous open source cloud computing platform for public and private clouds. The project aims to deliver solutions for all types of clouds by being simple to implement, massively scalable, and feature rich. The technology consists of a series of interrelated projects delivering various components for a cloud infrastructure solution.
At VMworld last year Trend Micro already announced their new version Deep Security 8, but now it is finally available.
Deep Security is specifically designed for virtual environments. Its agent-less architecture addresses AV storms, minimizes operational complexity of security and allows organizations to increase VM densities and accelerate virtualization and cloud adoption. Developed in close collaboration with VMware, Deep Security 8 is the first product in its category to offer support for VMware vSphere 5.0 and VMware vShield Endpoint 2.0.
But what’s new in Trend Micro Deep Security 8?
First of all it supports vSphere 5, so customers using Deep Security can finally upgrade their vSphere 4.x environments. Second, DS8 now offers agent-less integrity monitoring for greater virtual server security without added footprint. A third great new feature is a anti-malware agent which extends protection to physical server as well as VMware View environments using local mode.
Yesterday VMware announced that it will be supporting RAID 5 and 6 with their Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA).
With the release of vSphere 5, VMware also released their VSA, a shared storage solution for the SMB market. VMware VSA uses the local storage in each ESXi server, presents it to the VSA appliance which in turn serves it back to the ESXi servers as shared storage. Each ESXi server needs to run a VSA appliance, and each will contain a replica of the other’s storage.
Until now the VMware VSA only supported RAID 10, which resulted in very low storage utilization. Running VMware VSA with mirroring between two ESXi server, meant that you could only use 25% of your actual storage capacity.
Now with the added support for RAID 5 and 6, VMware VSA offers a greater storage utilization rate.
After VMware vSphere and View, VMware vCloud Director is the next big thing to setup and customers start asking for it. But the problem is that the knowledge and available resources are limited. So for real life implementations of vCloud Director we have to rely on VMware employees to show us the ropes.
First of all, what is VMware vCloud Director. In short, VMware vCloud Director gives enterprise organizations the ability to build secure private clouds as a base for a infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solution. Coupled with VMware vSphere, vCloud Director delivers cloud computing for existing datacenters by pooling virtual infrastructure resources and delivering them to users as catalog-based services.
On December 19th VKernel released version 4.5 of its vOps management software.
vOps 4.5 addresses the increasing volume of routine virtual machine management tasks in virtualized environments. This increase is caused by the enormous growth in the number of virtual machines. Nowadays we provision many more virtual servers than we ever had physical ones because they are easier and cheaper to deploy. All of these virtual machines require management tasks for maintenance.
The next step in virtualization is automation and vOPS 4.5 also cover this with the introduction of some new capabilities, like:
New Automation Features
vOPS’ virtual machine management automation capabilities are enhanced with auto-deletion of abandoned virtual machine images, auto-merging of unused snapshots, an additional automated remediation for performance issues and auto-calculation of future resource requirements;
Automation Controls
vOPS 4.5 also adds the ability to more finely control some automation processes. For example, virtual machines can be grouped, and then these groups set with minimum and maximum resource amounts that automated right-sizing will respect.
The past year has been great. The VMGuru.nl-crew posted 105 articles and 7 videos which have and been read by many visitors. This all resulted in 1.3M webpages served, 400.000 visits, 240.000 unique visitors and 556GB of traffic.
Great numbers and steady growth over the whole year.
Here’s a list of the 5 best read article and the 3 best viewed videos of 2011.
This year has almost come to an end and what a year it has been.
During 2011 VMware released a lot of new great products like vSphere 5, View 5, Workstation 8, Fusion 4, Horizon App Manager, vFabric Data Director, etc.
We also visited some amazing events which resulted in great experiences and content. It was the second year VMworld visited Copenhagen and what an awesome VMworld it was. And at the end of the year we had a great dutch VMUG with a suprise visit of the MonsterVM.
Career wise, almost all of us started with our new employer, Imtech ICT, in 2011, bringing us new adventures and opportunities.
This all resulted in some great content which you all appreciate, according to the website statistics. We servered 1.3M webpages during almost 400.000 visits of 240.000 unique visitors, which resulted in 556GB of traffic. Great numbers with steady growth over the whole year.
We will keep up the good work and hope to see you again in 2012 to make it an even better year!
So, from all of us at VMGuru.nl, we wish you all a very happy and virtual new year!
December 9th was the day of the annual dutch VMUG event in Nieuwegein (NL). It was a great day with many interesting sessions, labs, great people to meet and of course the MonsterVM.
During the day Edwin and I had the chance to talk to Alex, Michal and Lauren from VKernel. Besides a sneak preview of vOps 4.5 we also did an interview with Alex about emerging virtualization management technologies, security resources, VMUG sessions of interest and new products featured.
Last month PHD Virtual released version 5.3 of their Backup and Replication and PHD Virtual has really stepped up their game with this new release.
There are a handful of new features and improvements but the biggest improvement is the enhanced scalability and performance.
The performance for virtual machine backup and restore operations has improved significantly because of a new optimized job processing engine and twice the number of data streams per Virtual Backup Appliance (VBA) and the ability to deploy multiple VBA’s. The Enterprise version even has the ability to enable 8 parallel data streams per VBA.
Other new features and improvements are:
Faster back-up and restore;
Offsite replication of virtual machines for disaster recovery;
Replicate without additional snapshots or system impact;
Today VMware’s partner Teradici announced a significant new releases from their PCoIP zero client and host card firmware and the PCoIP Management Console.
The following releases are now available for download on the Teradici support site (techsupport.teradici.com):
Firmware 3.5.0 for PCoIP Zero Clients and PCoIP Host Cards.
PCoIP Management Console 1.7.0
The new firmware update includes the following enhancements:
USB2.0 with VMware View sessions
Imprivata OneSign Virtual Desktop Access via proximity cards with VMware View
During the last few years we published several Enterprise Hypervisor comparisons and we got very positive comments and feedback on it. With the release of vSphere 5, XenServer 6 and a service pack for Hyper-V it was time for an update.
It very interesting to see how some of the products have improved over the years and how the three major manufacturers look at each other and copy features. But you can’t trust all manufacturers by just a simple green checkbox. Some claimed features need third party add-ons, aren’t suitable for production workloads or are only supported on a limited set of operating systems. You have to investigate further and I hope I’ve done most of that work for you with this new enterprise hypervisor comparison.
Just 15 minutes ago I heard the ‘news’ that, last Wednesday, VKernel was acquired by Quest Software.
VKernel will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary of Quest, building, selling and marketing the same performance and capacity management solutions. So, it will be business as usual for VKernel, except the new VKernel will be turbo-charged with the backing of Quest.
For the current customers, nothing changes. The same team that has built, sold, and supported your products is still here. The main difference is that VKernel now has the financial backing and support of Quest Software.
Last Wednesday, November 16th, VMware announced the availability of ThinApp 4.7 and Horizon App Manager 1.2. The combination of the two products enables cloud-based deployment of ThinApp packages with VMware Horizon Application Manager.
ThinApp 4.7 includes the following features:
The ThinApp Setup Capture wizard includes an option to manage with Horizon Application Manager. When the checkbox is selected, ThinApp checks if the Horizon agent is installed natively on the client and is running. If the Horizon agent is found, the ThinApp package reports to the Horizon agent so that it can be controlled by Horizon Application Manager.
Horizon Application Manager entitlement allows the delivery of ThinApp packaged applications to specified users and groups. The Horizon agent authorizes a ThinApp package to open, based on entitlements.
ThinApp packages are registered by Horizon Application Manager and delivered to end points.
The administrator can track usage of ThinApp packages by using Horizon Application Manager monitoring and reporting.
The administrator can configure an Organizational URL for end points missing the Horizon agent.
Over the years there have been a lot of outcries in the VMware Community to re-instate the VMware Technology Network (VMTN).
The VMTN started in 2005 and is much like Microsoft MSDN or TechNet, for a reduced yearly fee you could use the VMware software and run it for 1 year. Unfortunately VMware canceled the VMTN program in 2007, reportedly because they didn’t want developers to use it for competitive products.
Right now many developers and techies with home labs use evaluation versions which expire after 60-days.
So, according to VMware CTO, Steve Herrod, VMware is now considering the return of the VMware Technology Network and I think it’s a good initiative. Why?
Today VMware released a new client for the iPad and Android devices. Version 1.2 is optimized for VMware View 5, has support for iOS 5 including AirPlay and contains presentation mode for use with external displays and AirPlay.
VMware View Client for Android makes it easy to access your Windows virtual desktop from your Android with the best possible user experience on the Local Area Network or across a Wide Area Network.
It requires at least VMware View 4.6 and only has PCoIP only connectivity for excellent interactive performance.
The VMware View client for Android can be found on the Android Market.
The VMware View client for the iPad can be found in the iTunes Store.
One of the announcements I missed at VMworld Europe 2011 in Copenhagen was the announcement of VMware and Nvidia delivering 3D graphics to VMware View. VMware announced that they are in a partnership with NVIDIA to deliver high-end virtual workstations with 3D graphics support in VMware View.
We’ve have the ability to deliver 3D graphics from workstations in the datacenter for years by using physical blade workstations. But now VMware is trying to deliver true 3D performance from the datacenter by using virtual workstation in VMware View by partnering with Nvidia. Nvidia is solving that with the release of their ‘Quadro Virtual Graphics Platform’, something they announced in August 2011.
Yesterday was the last day of VMworld Europe 2011 in Copenhagen and I was wandering around at the VMware booth at the Solution Exchange. After a demo of VMware View with Unified Communications, I was introduced to Hanna Phan and according to the VMware employee, Hanna was the most famous person within VMware at the moment. Not Paul Maritz, Steve Herrod or Mauricio Carl but Hanna Phan.
The cool thing is, she only works for VMware for 3 weeks now. So how does someone become so famous, so fast?
Yesterday the was some disturbance at VMworld Europe 2011 in Copenhagen. A massive fight broke out between the one-on-one rooms and the lounge area. Research shows that it was a reckoning of the dutch vMafia. Eye witnesses told us that six to eight mobsters beat the crap out of the Monster VM and we’ve managed to get hold of some video footage showing just that.
Today I attended session VSP1682 ‘VMware vSphere clustering Q&A‘ hosted by Frank Denneman, Duncan Epping and Chris Colotti.
After a short introduction the Q&A started and below you will find my top 10 questions.
Q1. Are the old, vSphere 4, constraints in vSphere 5 still current?
Until vSphere 5 the best practice is a maximum of 8 hosts in a cluster, because of linked clones in VMware View and the primary/secondary ESX(i) hosts setup in an HA cluster. In vSphere 5, VMware changed this to a master/slave setup. When the master ESXi host goes offline a new master is elected within 15 sec. So, the cluster boundary limits VMware vSphere had in the past are gone. This is a huge advantage of vSphere 5.0.
The new version of OpenStack, which will be released in Q2 of 2012, does not support Microsoft Hyper-V anymore. The developers have had enough with the buggy code.
Today VMware’s partner Teradici announced a significant new releases from their PCoIP zero client and host card firmware and the PCoIP Management Console.
During the last few years we published several Enterprise Hypervisor comparisons and we got very positive comments and feedback on it. With the release of vSphere 5, XenServer 6 and a service pack for Hyper-V it was time for an update.
Just 15 minutes ago I heard the ‘news’ that, last Wednesday, 
Have you ever wondered how I rolled into the IT business, when I got involved with VMware, why I started VMGuru.nl and was rewarded vExpert 2009-2011?
Over the years there have been a lot of outcries in the VMware Community to re-instate the VMware Technology Network (VMTN).
