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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During the last weeks we’ve been busy implementing a large VMware View deployment for one customer and planning an even larger VMware View deployment for another customer. At the first site we ran into some video performance issues which we definitely want to avoid during the second project.

In our quest to solve and avoid the video performance issues we ran into a number of ways to improve the video performance in VMware View that I would like to share.

First of all, we used the information below from the VMware Architecture Planning Guide:

480p-formatted video You can play video at 480p or lower at native resolutions when the View desktop has a single virtual CPU. If the operating system is Windows 7 and you want to play the video in high-definition Flash or in full screen mode, the desktop requires a dual virtual CPU.

720p-formatted video You can play video at 720p at native resolutions if the View desktop has a dual virtual CPU. Performance might be affected if you play videos at 720p in high definition or in full screen mode.

1080p-formatted video If the View desktop has a dual virtual CPU, you can play 1080p formatted video, although the media player might need to be adjusted to a smaller window size.

3D If you plan to use 3D applications such as Windows Aero themes or Google Earth, the Windows 7 View desktop must have virtual hardware version 8 and turn on the pool setting called Windows 7 3D Rendering. Up to 2 monitors are supported, and the maximum screen resolution is 1920 x 1200. This non-hardware accelerated graphics feature enables you to run DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2.1 applications without requiring a physical graphics processing unit.

These are the settings we used to size the first solution, so we use a Windows 7 desktop image with dual vCPU, 2GB memory, a VMXNET3 adapter and hardware version 8.

This is good for playing 720p in native video resolution but when scaling to full screen this setup does not run smoothly.

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Last week I got a tip on a new book on VMware vSphere 5 I would like to share. It’s a VMware Press book which is called ‘Building a virtual Datacenter’ and it has been published in 3 different language : English, Spanish and French which is uncommon for a book on VMware.

The book provides an understandable and global view of vSphere 5, with a ton of information and advice from real world examples. It describes the necessary design choices in a way which is accessible to most readers, not only to a select group of experts.

The book has a nice buildup, the first chapters are devoted to understanding VMware vSphere 5’s functionalities and in the following chapters the links between this technology and the datacenter’s various elements are described such as servers, storage, network, backup and service continuity. In the last chapter, a case study of a migration to a virtualized environment within a large company’s datacenter is discussed, with objectives clearly defined by the corporation’s management.

This book is intended primarily for those in charge of infrastructure projects within information systems like system engineers, VMware and storage administrators, project managers, consultants, architects, sales specialists, evangelists etc.

You can find more information on Amazon.

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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Last month the VMGuru-crew has been busy to update our infrastructure to improve the reliability and performance.
Yesterday Alex fixed the last issue so you all can enjoy the new, improved, faster and more reliable VMGuru.

This way we’re ready to present you with the more news, tests, how-to’s and the latest in virtualization.

So from all of us at VMGuru, a very happy new year!

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!

Back by popular demand, the Enterprise Hypervisor feature comparison.

After the release of our latest comparison I’ve received a lot of requests to include RedHat’s RHEV to the comparison. Although I’ve never encountered it in enterprise environments, I decided to add it as a service to our readers.

I based the RedHat features on their 3.1 version which is in beta right now. This is because I’ve limited knowledge of the product and I received an updated comparison from one of our readers based on this version.

I hope you find the new Enterprise Hypervisor comparison useful and feel free to contact us when you have feedback for us to improve the list.

There are a lot of choices to be made for networking in VMware vSphere 5. We’ve got the good ol’ vSwith, vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS) and finally the Nexus 1000V from Cisco. But what is the best one?

vSwitch (vSphere standard switch)

A vSphere standard switch is a virtual switch that can be created on a single host. Port groups defined on this vSwitch will be local to the host on which the port group is created. In other words: If you have multiple hosts you have make sure that the port groups are identical across all hosts, especially when you want to use vmotion. For VMotion the port group names on the source and target host have to be the same.

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Last Thursday Cisco released version 1.0 of their new multi-UCS-domain management tool,
UCS Central and now it is generally available.

UCS Central is a product that enables IT administrators to manage multiple UCS domains that are managed through individual UCS Managers from a single location through a single interface. UCS Central works closely with UCS Manager and provides consolidated management functionality for multi-UCS-installations. It uses a policy management framework similar to UCS Manager but provides a broader scope of these policies across multiple UCS domains.

In addition, it also provides consolidation of data such as hardware and firmware inventory, faults, ID pools. The product is deployed as a virtual machine that works with the multiple UCS managers. UCS Central manages thousands of physical blade and rack servers that are integrated with UCS fabric interconnects distributed across multiple UCS domains. UCS Central provides a intuitive web based GUI and an accompanying CLI for user access . It also provides an XML API similar to the one found in UCS Manager to provide automation and integration capabilities with higher level systems management tools.

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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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VMGuru used to run on an “ESXi only” install with no extra management. It’s a single server in a data center in Amsterdam, so there never was a need for a vCenter Server. When the VMware Octopus Beta started in which we participated, the deployment of the Octopus appliance required a vCenter server. So, instead of installing a full blown SQL server, a Windows server  etc., we decided to use the vCenter appliance.

With the introduction of ESX 5.1, a new vCenter also was introduced. The functions in the new vCenter Server Appliance have improved much so an upgrade is the way to go. Now when I tried this in my home lab, it went south big time and I ended up throwing everything away and starting over with a brand new vCenter install. For our server in Amsterdam I decided to do the upgrade again to show that it can be done properly. Now, VMware has a how to procedure in their knowledge base, but it’s very compressed and skips a few small steps, so we decided to write it out including screenshots to make it more accessible to all the folks out there who like to upgrade their vCenter Appliance but don’t know how.

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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 the last patch cycle VMware made VMware View 5.1 and vSphere 5.1 compatible with each other.
For VMware vSphere 5.1 to support View 5.1 you need to do download a patch for ESXi 5.1 or an up to date ESXi 5.1 ISO image.

To download the ISO:

• Navigate to the vSphere Download Center.
• Click View Download for the VMware ESXi 5.1.0 Installable for your version of ESXi.
• On the Product Downloads tab, download VMware-VMvisor-Installer-201210001-838463.x86_64.iso.

To download the patch, download ESXi510-201210001 from the Patch Download Center.

Just like with all the other updates: Before you update, make sure all the other components are compatible as well. For example back-up solutions and anti-malware are not always compatible with the most recent versions. Check the documentation before you do the upgrade.

Last week Nimble Storage announced a new reference architecture with Cisco Systems and VMware for 1.000 simultaneous VDI users, requiring only 3U of rack space, for $43 for storage per desktop. A pre-configured, fully-integrated system – built around the reference architecture, which consists of a Nimble CS220G-X2 array, Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) B-Series Blade server platform, and VMware View 5.1 – enables customers to rapidly provision VDI, realize significant savings over deployment of physical desktops, and achieve high levels of security and central manageability.

Highlights

• Fully validated and tested Nimble Storage, Cisco and VMware reference architecture that eliminates the complexities of configuring compute, networking and storage;
• Nimble Storage conducted load stress tests, including tests for boot storms and software patches, that optimize the system configuration;
• Optimized desktop storage density: $43 per desktop for 1,000 users in 3U of rack space;
• The architecture was tested with a moderate profile steady-state workload;
• Modular product architecture provides easy scalability and support.

Architecture

• Cisco UCS B-Series Blade server platform including six UCS B230 M2 blades, each with dual-socketed 10-core Intel CPU and 256GB RAM;
• Dual, redundant 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections between the Nimble Storage array and Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect;
• Windows 7 Enterprise virtual desktops with 1.5GB vRAM and one vCPU per desktop;
• One Nimble Storage CS220G-X2 array with twelve 1TB hard disk drives and four 160GB flash SSDs;
• VMware View 5.1 with VMware vSphere.

Last Friday we moved to a new co-locating party. We experienced too much drop out in performance, connectivity or even power in the datacenter of our previous hoster. Therefore we decided to move to a first class hosting party, TransIP.

As far as we can tell, our web server is loading faster all over the world. But as you might imagine, we can’t check that everywhere for real. So let us know how you experience our website’s performance. Has it improved for you? Drop us a tweet via @vmguru_nl!