Mobile Virtualization Updates Needed

The mobile device hypervisor segment will be an interesting beast. I'm curious if we will be getting any substantive updates to the space in the next month or so. VMworld has only two sessions that focus on this emerging market, DV2461 and DV4381. These two sessions are marked as beginner level, but one includes a demo of VMware's Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP) as was performed in Cannes earlier this year. This is the will be the manifestation of a VMware acquisition last year; check this good piece from Keith Ward for some background on where VMware wants this segment to go.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 08/11/20093 comments

Server Virtualization Race Underway. Do You Care?

From a virtualization perspective, the Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 release to manufacturing is not a big deal to me. Make no mistake -- I am quite happy with the Windows 7 beta, and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be a great server operating system.

Hyper-V and the collective virtualization offering, however, don't really get me too excited for server consolidation. I find that other virtualization categories are of interest with Microsoft's offering, namely application and desktop virtualization. In the server space, Hyper-V R2 has been literally "hyped" a lot, almost as much as VMware's vSphere if I had to quantify it. The race is on and that is good.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 08/07/200910 comments

Running ESXTOP Locally on ESXi

At some point, most VMware administrators have had to enter ESXTOP to perform some level of troubleshooting. ESXi allows the use of ESXTOP, though it looks slightly different than the ESX counterpart.

For ESXi 4 installations, the hardest part of running ESXTOP is simply getting to it. Check out my May column for accessing the ESXi prompt to get started.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 08/06/20094 comments

XenServer Remote Management with Xsconsole

Administering a virtualized infrastructure is a tactful dance of tools that allow you to get what you need done in a quick and efficient manner. For Citrix XenServer, one way to do that is with the xsconsole interface. The XenCenter client is great for most day-to-day tasks, and xsconsole can be used to configure the hypervisor from a console to the server.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 08/05/20092 comments

vSphere Consolidation Ratio Point -- vSwitch Ports

With vSphere and VI3, VMware virtualization environments can hit some very lofty consolidation ratios. Consolidation ratios of 30, 40 or 50 or more VMs per host are not at all out of reach today with host RAM of 128 GB or more and über quick processors. Guest operating system inventory makes a big difference as well. Consolidation ratios are aided by similar guest operating systems that will take advantage of the transparent page sharing technology and as-needed RAM provisioning to the guests.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 08/03/20096 comments

Practice Point For Virtual Console Usage

Gone are the days of do more with less; we all are pressed to do everything it seems now. To help me manage this craziness in my virtualization practice, I install console connection limits for VMware environments.

It may seem silly for an administrator to limit console connections, but let me explain this practice. With a virtualized infrastructure, we can administer everything from one workstation. While I love this, having many consoles open means I will forget something and introduce risk. The risks include a wild mouse click on a VM console, inadvertently hitting a power button or resetting tasks or other situations that can result from unnecessary access to a usually privileged session.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 07/24/20090 comments

XenServer Storage Note for NetApp, EqualLogic Devices

Like many other virtualization administrators, I frequently have to keep up on the big players in the virtualization space. With Citrix's release of XenServer 5.5, a new option exists for many in the enterprise-class virtualization. Citrix's offering for free type-1 hypervisor-based server virtualization is the best offering from the big three players. This offering has been strong through the years, but I came across one note that should be passed along regarding storage for free XenServer implementations.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 07/20/20097 comments

XenServer iSCSI Qualified Name Configuration

Citrix XenServer 5.5 has gained a lot of viability recently for enterprise installations with the support and management features that are now available with the new version. Like any virtualization implementation, storage is among the most critical planning points. Citrix XenServer 5.5's storage configuration has a few characteristics, compared to other virtualization platforms, that we should highlight. One of those is the iSCSI qualified name (iqn), which is used in configuring iSCSI storage of all types. XenServer's iSCSI support creates an iqn on the management network during installation (see Fig. 1).

Posted by Rick Vanover on 07/16/20098 comments

VMware vCenter Server Minor Update Released

On July 10, VMware announced the release of VMware vCenter Server 2.5 Update 5. This update has one corrected issue for firewall communications between the ESX hosts and the vCenter server. There also is one new feature for HA enabled clusters. VMware HA is one of those features that I hate, love and then hate again due to some rough patches with the feature in the second and third Updates.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 07/14/20092 comments

VMworld 2009 Right Around The Corner

Next month (yes, next month!) the big show starts. I am very excited for VMworld 2009 in San Francisco. Last month saw quite the drama regarding VMware's provisioning and it got people talking, but the furor has quieted down for now. Truth is, this is going to be VMware's show and the center of the virtualization world will be in San Francisco.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 07/09/20092 comments

Sun xVM VirtualBox 3 Released

As you may know by now, I am a big-time VirtualBox fan. Version 3 has been released, which is a large update for the platform. The updated functionality includes:

• Up to 32 vCPUs per guest (Rockstar).
• Experimental graphics support for Direct3D 8 and 9.
• Support for OpenGL 2.
• Toolbar for use in seamless and full-screen modes.

Posted on 07/06/20092 comments

Religious Issue No. 9: NFS, iSCSI or Fibre Channel

As an administrator, one of the best things I can do is always compare what I am doing to what someone else is doing. This allows me to broaden my perspective and have answers for virtually every scenario that can arise in administering a virtual infrastructure. In the course of reading a quality blog post by Scott Lowe, I found myself with a blog post of my own for the same topic.

Posted by Rick Vanover on 07/06/20096 comments