VMware is betting big on desktop virtualization (actually, a lot of vendors are betting big on desktop virtualization). To give focus to desktop virtualization, VMware has appointed a CTO dedicated to desktop virtualization. The new CTO is Scott Davis. Scott has spent more than two years at VMware as Chief Data Center Architect. Prior to that, Scott was the President and CTO at Virtual Iron. Scott has a blog where he recently spelled out VMware’s Desktop Vision. Here is an excerpt from Scott’s blog:
“VMware’s vision for client or desktop computing is to use virtualization technologies to encapsulate and isolate all the aspects of the desktop. Make each aspect independently manageable, duplicate-able, recreate-able. Employee-Owned IT? Separate into different virtual machines. Lost, broken or obsolete device? Throw it away, the VM is preserved in the data center and can be redeployed at will…”
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Technorati : CTO, Desktop Virtualization, VDI, VMware
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If you are using Hyper-V in a test environment, you may have experienced difficulty testing LAN broadcasting (DHCP, PXE boot, NAP, etc.). This is due to how the virtual networks work with Hyper-V. You basically need a router. But, fortunately, you can use a Windows VM with a registry hack to get around actually running a virtual router. Chris Blankenship put together a nice article detailing more of this situation and the exact steps to alleviate this nuisance.
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Technorati : Hyper-V, Microsoft, Virtual Network
Del.icio.us : Hyper-V, Microsoft, Virtual Network
Microsoft recently updated their Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guides for Virtualization. These guides cover Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V), Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), Remote Desktop Services (formerly Terminal Services) and more. A lot of the information is updated to include Windows Server 2008 R2 features. These IPD guides offer great guidance for your virtual infrastructure.
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Technorati : Hyper-V, Microsoft, Virtualiation
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With the introduction of server virtualization, the need for large amounts of fast centralized storage has increased. Unfortunately, large amounts of fast centralized isn’t cheap. So, what are some ways to curb spending on this vital virtualization infrastructure need? George Crump attempts to answer these questions in an ongoing article series at informationweek.com. Some suggestions George states in the first article are “storage as an application” and “protocol selection”. This article is a good read for those just getting in to hardware virtualization as well as those building out your virtualization infrastructure.
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Technorati : Fiber Channel, SAN, Storage, Virtualization, iSCSI
Del.icio.us : Fiber Channel, SAN, Storage, Virtualization, iSCSI
Citrix released the beta of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V (otherwise known as the “R2″ release of Essentials for Hyper-V). This new release includes:
- Support for Windows Server 2008 R2
- Site Recovery - integrates with StorageLink technology to set up native storage remote mirroring services.
- Windows 7 Support in automated lab management
To read more about the upcoming features in Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V R2, continue reading at the source…
Technorati : Citrix, Hyper-V, Microsoft
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Citrix recently released XenApp Feature Pack 2. There is a very intriguing new feature in the released called VM Hosted Apps. VM Hosted Apps lets you host applications on centralized Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Win 7 virtual machines - thus removing compatibility issues with Terminal Server. Think of it like this - suppose you have an application that just won’t run in a multi-tenant TS environment - we’ll call this AppX. Now, also suppose you know AppX runs just fine on a single Windows XP workstation. Well, VM Hosted Apps let you install AppX on a virtualized Windows XP workstation and deliver AppX seamlessly to the end user via ICA (just like your other multi-tenant applications). The end user is non the wiser, and AppX is happy since it is running from a single instance Windows XP machine.
Keep in mind though that VM Hosted Apps isn’t just the flip of a switch. There is a lot of planning/infrastructure to support VM Hosted Apps. Stacy Scott posted a nice in-depth look at what you need to successfully implement this feature in your environment.
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Technorati : Citrix, VDI, VM Hosted Apps
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Project Virtual Reality Check released a new whitepaper titled “VRC, VSI and Clocks Reviewed.” If you haven’t heard already, Project VRC was created to determine things like:
- How does various Microsoft Windows Client OS’s scale as a virtual desktop?
- How does a VDI infrastructure scale in comparison (virtualized) Terminal Server?
- Which performance optimization on the host and guest virtualization level can be configured, and what is the impact of these settings on user density?
- With the introduction of the latest hypervisor technologies, can we now recommend running large scale TS/CTX workloads on a virtualization platform?
- How do the two usage scenarios compare, that is Microsoft Terminal Server [TS] only, versus TS plus XenApp?
- How do x86 and x64 TS platforms compare in scalability on bare metal and virtualized environments?
- What is the best way to partition (memory and vCPU) the Virtual Machines the hypervisor host, to achieve the highest possible user density?
This new whitepaper by VRC is really an intermediate whitepaper to discuss some new testing methodology. This new whitepaper discusses:
- The Login VSI Methodology;
- VSI 1.0 Optimal Performance Index;
- “Stuck” Sessions;
- Response time measurement method and clock drift;
- Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 as a reference clock;
- Login VSI 2.0;
- Reviewing Citrix XenServer and VMware vSphere 4.0
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Technorati : , VDI, VRC, Whitepaper
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Last year, VMware announced a partnership with Intel to develop a client side hypervisor platform. Brian Madden wrote an article about what was know then. Things were quiet for a while surrounding this Client Virtualization Platform (CVP) but, after VMworld 2009, more details became available. Brian has a new article out detailing the developments of VMware CVP. What it is, how it is positioned, the partnership with Intel, and availability.
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Technorati : CVP, Client Virtualization Platform, Hypervisor, VMware
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One of the major announcements during VMworld surrounding VDI was that VMware is licensing RTO Virtual Profiles. RTO Virtual Profiles “virtualizes” profiles by streaming profiles on demand, thus eliminating profile corruption and data loss as well as improving logon times. Brian Madden points out that “this is an OEM deal, meaning that RTO will maintain the codebase and will continue to sell the Virtual Profiles product on their own, but that at some point you’ll be able to buy VMware View products that include RTO’s technology. VMware has not yet announced any details as to when this might be available.”
Read the official announcement here…
Technorati : Personalization, Profile, RTO, VDI, VMware, VMware View
Del.icio.us : Personalization, Profile, RTO, VDI, VMware, VMware View
NetApp is offering a free book (not eBook) all about Hyper-V titled “Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V: Insider’s Guide to Microsoft’s Hypervisor”. All you need to do is register for free at the NetApp website. Once you register, the book will be shipped to you. Also, to give you something to read up on before your book arrives, NetApp will is delivering Chapter 9 from the book about WMI, Scripting, and Hyper-V.
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Technorati : Free Book, Hyper-V, Hypervisor, Windows Server 2008
Del.icio.us : Free Book, Hyper-V, Hypervisor, Windows Server 2008
