Snapshot Explorer completes Dell’s Free Utility Toolbox for Virtual Machine Administrators. Detect all snapshots, including orphaned snapshots, to avoid problems with performance and capacity with this 6^th utility which got added today! Foglight for Virtualization was formerly know under the name vOPS Server Explorer from vKernel. With the latest tool Snapshot explorer you can eliminate time consuming and tedious need to track snapshots manually.

The complete Foglight for Virtualization Free Edition toolbox contains up to a total of six very helpful utilities which are handy for any Virtualization Administrator around today.

The following tools are in the toolbox:

• Snapshot Explorer detects all snapshots, including orphaned snapshots, to avoid Problems with performance and capacity
• Environment Explorer provides at-a-glance information about performance, efficiency and capacity
• vScope Explorer offers immediate identification of VMs, hosts and data stores suffering performance, capacity and efficiency issues
• SearchMyVM Explorer delivers search capabilities, similar to Google, of the virtual environment
• Storage Explorer assesses storage performance and capacity across data stores and VMs
• Change Explorer lists all changes that occur in a virtual environment, and provides associated risk impact!

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Today Veeam announced 2 more secret features of their new and improved version of Veeam Backup & Replication, version v7.0.

The ‘Back-up from storage snapshots’ and ‘Build-in WAN Acceleration’ features now complete the list of 9 new features.

The new version now contains the following new features, check it out:

• Enhanced Backup & Recovery for vCloud Director;
  
• vSphere Web Client  integration;
• Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SharePoint;
• Virtual Lab for Hyper-V;
• Native Tape Support;
• Enhanced 1-Click Restore;
• Virtual Lab for Replicas (VMware Only);
• Back-up from storage snapshots;
• Build-in WAN acceleration.

Want to know more?   (more…)

So you want to attend TechEd 2013?

In March, Veeam is giving away a free pass to TechEd 2013. All you have to do is register.

The winner will be selected on March 18, so you have two weeks left to win!

Today, VMware announced the acquisition of Virsto Software, a company which creates storage optimization software for virtual environments.

Any administrator will tell you that managing performance and data services for virtual machines can be challenging, especially in I/O-intensive environments like virtual desktops. With Virsto storage optimization software you can accelerate I/O performance for any block-based storage system and deliver data efficiency services like snapshots and clones. With these technologies it is possible to improve the performance and utilization of storage systems.

Paired with VMware vSphere, the Virsto storage hypervisor is a simple plug-in that addresses the storage problems associated with server and desktop virtualization. With Virsto enterprises can:

• Reduce VM disk footprint by 90%
• Unclog I/O bottlenecks and triple VM density
• Increase VM performance up to 10x
• Eliminate 99% of the time spent provisioning VM storage

VMware will continue to offer Virsto’s standalone virtual appliance to help accelerate storage performance and improve efficiency in VMware vSphere environments. But their main use for Virsto is to include the Virsto technology into the VMware products and improve their software defined storage solutions and therefor improving their overall software defined datacenter solution.

More information regarding the acquisition can be found here.

This week Teradici, creator of the PCoIP protocol, released a technology preview of their new product named Teradici Arch. Teradici Arch is asoftware-based solution that enables the use of the PCoIP protocol for Microsoft  RDS as an alternative to Microsoft RDP.

This should provide better user experience and access to the entire PCoIP ecosystem, PCoIP thin clients, APEX accelerator cards, etc.

Teradici has been forced to delay the release of Arch due to a scalability issue but a new tech preview will still allow enterprises to familiarize themselves with the product. The final product release is expected in Q3 2013.

This solution should be an ideal solution for enterprises with mixed environment of VMware View VDI and Microsoft RDS. I wonder how many of these mixed environments exist. The only mixed PCoIP/RDP environments I have seen in my work are View environments where both protocols are used to connect to the same View desktops to use MMR instead of PCoIP acceleration.

The PCoIP protocol is now available for use with terminal services for more performance over any network type and access to the PCoIP ecosystem of products including low maintenance, ultra-secure zero clients. Teradici Arch enables customers to:

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Trend Micro released Deep Security 8.0 Service Pack 2 on January 21, 2013.

Next to a couple of bugfixes this version supports even more Operating Systems. With this release Trend Micro Deep Security supports Windows 8 and Windows 2012 (agent) and VMware vSphere 5.1 (DSVA).

Click more for a complete list of supported operating systems.

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VKernel, now under the Dell flag, just released version 6.3 of the vOPS Server Explorer freeware suite.Next to the already present tools Environment Explorer, SearchMyVM Explorer, and vScope Explorer  they added two new utilities: Storage Explorer and Change Explorer.

Using the same analytics and advisory engine from the paid vOPS Server Standard product, all five of these utilities provide virtual administrators with a rapid assessment of the state of their environment, for free!

So what is Storage Explorer?

Storage Explorer assesses storage performance and capacity views across datastores and VMs that helps VM admins to get better visibility of their storage environment.

It has the following features:

• Identify critical datastore issues such as overcommitment, low capacity, high latency, VMFS version mismatch.
  Storage Explorer collects inventory and performance data from datastores and apply rules based on best practices to highlight if any critical conditions are found. Such examples includes overcommitment, low capacity and high latency. Other useful information includes VMFS version, storage path policy and number of VMs.
• Identify critical VM issues such as low available disk space, high latency and throughput
  Storage Explorer collects inventory and performance data from VMs and apply rules based on best practices to highlight if any critical conditions are found. Examples includes low available disk space, high latency and throughput.

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In December you may become the winner of the ultimate new year’s resolution from Veeam which includes a Veeam Dream Lab and more!

Enter for a free chance to win – and WIN BIG:

• TWO HP ProLiant ML 310e G8 Servers
• NETGEAR ReadyNAS storage system with 4 SSDs drives
• HP V1410-16G Ethernet switch
• TechNet Plus subscription for 1 year
• Online course, books and test from
  VMware Education Services or Microsoft Learning
• …and a MICROSOFT SURFACE!

Last week Scense released their latest version of their workspace management product Scense 8. In their latest release they have been working towards giving ICT management more control over workspaces that aren’t connected to the corporate network on regular basis.

One of the biggest changes they have made is moving away from the DCOM-protocol and start using the HTTP-protocol. This is now possible because Scense is now supporting Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) which enables them to run on Internet Information Services (IIS). Running on IIS will give the product more scalability and use of other protocols (see image below). With the use of the HTTP-protocol, Scense is now able to offer its services over the internet including application distribution.

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Recently CommVault has launched Simpana IntelliSnap Recovery Manager, a standalone software product for automating application-aware snapshot management and recovery of various storage arrays and physical and virtual servers.

Just like Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5 this solution responds to the increasing use of hardware snapshots to restore business critical applications and virtual server environments.

Simpana IntelliSnap Recovery Manager provides a interface for the management and protection of applications from a single console. The software has built-in intelligence for the fast recovery of individual files, messages and objects. IntelliSnap Recovery Manager minimizes downtime and increases productivity with consistent application data recovery.

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Last month Veeam released version 6.5 of their Veeam Backup & Replication product.

Now they have a great opportunity that you won’t want to miss! Veeam offers you a FREE 2-socket NFR license for Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5 for all vExperts, VCPs, VCIs, MVPs, MCPs and MCTS-es.

If you’re a VMware vExpert, VMware Certified Professional (VCP) or VMware Certified Instructor (VCI), get your NFR here.

If you are an MVP, MCP or MCTS, click here to get your free license.

For a recap of all the new 6.5 features, take a look at the Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5 webcast .

Last week Veeam made their newest version of Backup & Replication v6.5 available. Veeam published their latest version as having the “WOW-factor”. Let’s have a look at the new features and see if it really has the WOW-factor.

First: Veeam Backup & replication 6.5 now fully supports VMware vSphere 5.1 and Windows 2012 Hyper-V. With the support of those two platforms they are the first to be doing so.

Second: Even though Backup & replication uses no agents it is now able to restore e-mails, calendars or contacts from a user’s Exchange mailbox without restoring a entire mailbox first. With the explorer capabilities you can simply browse through your backups, select a user’s mailbox and select the item that you want to recover.

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During VMworld 2012 in San Fransisco Trend Micro announced the next version of their hypervisor based security product. They announced a lot of new and cool features and improvements which are probably gonna make into the final product.

I just got a demo at the Trend Micro booth here at VMworld in Barcelona and it look very promising.

(Please remember that the product is not released yet. Things may change before it is generally available.)

vSphere and Cloud support
Deep Security 9 supports vSphere 5.1 and vCloud Networking and Security 5.1. Next to the support for vSphere 5.1 there is also support and integration for vCloud Director and Amazon cloud services.

De-cluttering of the interface

Storage and server teams have historically had difficulty working together and often end up “finger-pointing” to each other. Today vKernel/Quest released the new vFoglight Storage 2.0 which can perform end-to-end performance monitoring across the entire data path from application to disk. Many issues originate in storage, vFoglight Storage 2.0 can connect the server data to the storage array to determine what is causing the issue.

VMware announced a move towards tighter integration into EMC storage arrays for data collection at EMCWorld 2012. vFoglight Storage 2.0 currently delivers “out-of-the-box” support for multiple storage vendors already, fulfilling on VMware’s “vision”.

The new vFoglight Storage 2.0 introduces features and integration that enables application to disk performance monitoring. This will allow server and storage teams to literally work on the same page to troubleshoot, manage and plan for VM performance.

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This week StarWind Software announced that they were named as a finalist in the “Storage Software Product of the Year” category at the 2012 Storage, Virtualization, and Cloud Computing (SVC) Awards. These highly prestigious awards recognize the products, projects, and services as well as honor companies and teams operating in the cloud, virtualization, and storage fields.

StarWind was nominated for its highly available storage software, StarWind iSCSI SAN & NAS, which Sander reviewed last month.

“We’re pleased and honored to be selected as a finalist in the 2012 Storage, Virtualization, and Cloud Computing Awards,” said Artem Berman, Chief Executive Officer of StarWind Software. “We strive to deliver a high performance, reliable, and cost-effective storage solution that guarantees ultimate data protection, which is why this reward is a testament to StarWind’s achievements and commitment to innovation in the storage software field.”

The winners of the SCV Awards 2012 will be announced on November 22, 2012 at the Pullman St. Pancras (previously Novotel) in London.

Take a second to check out all of the categories and nominations and take your time to vote.

If you haven’t been able to convince you employer, wife or yourself to go to Barcelona and attend VMworld Europe 2012, this is your chance.

Veeam is giving away a free pass to VMworld 2012 in Barcelona which, as you know, will take place October 09-11. Just register yourself on the Veeam website and win a free pass to THE virtualization event of the year. See you in Barca!

The new cloud computing landscape requires greater innovation, performance and confidence to push system and software delivery to the next level. That technology was on display at VMworld San Francisco.

Today Veeam hosts a live webinar showing you the highlights from VMworld San Francisco 2012, including:

• What’s new from VMware.
• What’s new from Veeam.
• What’s Next.

Today we where handed a VMworld blanket for the lunch picnic. A lot of people including me where tormented to get the blanket in its original shape again. Unfolding is easy, but how to fold it? After being told by another dutch guy what the trick is to get the blanket in its original shape, we decided to do a little instruction cartoon for it. This is how you fold it: