Want to manage a Hyper-V server remotely? Perhaps you want to manage your Hyper-V servers from your desktop PC…

To do this, you need to install Microsoft’s Hyper-V remote MMC. You can find all the instructions to download this MMC and get it installed at:

TechNet - Install and Configure Hyper-V Tools for Remote Administrators

In 2009, VMware published a lot of knowledgebase (KB) articles. However, there were 10 that stood out and were the most popular of 2009. Those 10 are:

vSphere-Land.com has performed their annual survey and named the Top Virtualization Blogs of 2009.

For the complete list, visit vSphere-Land.com or click on the graphic below.

And yes, I hope to make the list next year

Have you watched VMware TV? Well, no, it’s not a real TV channel but it is a channel on YouTube where VMware has posted a lot of great videos. There are videos covering VMware View, Cloud Computing, Fusion, technical vSphere videos, and VMworld. You can see them all at VMwareTV

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I created short new 5 minute video that details the hardware used for my VMware vSphere home lab. Click on the video graphic below to bring up the page with the video, then click play:

Unlike so many other companies, Hyper9 of Austin Texas (my home state) had an awesome 2009! Why?

• Record quarterly profits in the 4th quarter
• Named one of the 10 virtualization vendors to watch in 2010
• New Products - Virtual Environment Optimization Suite and Virtualization Mobile Manager
• Other accolades such as being named to Gartner’s Cool vendor in IT Operations and Virtualization for 2009

Besdies these achievements, I think that you will find the guys at Hyper9 great to work with.

Here is their latest press release:

Hyper9 Named One of 10 Virtualization Vendors to Watch in 2010

AUSTIN, Texas – Jan. 20, 2010 – Despite a tough economy and increased competition
in the virtualization market, Hyper9, Inc. today announced the close of a banner year in
2009, capped off by a fourth quarter that was the company’s strongest quarter to-date.
Demonstrating positive momentum across all areas of the business, Hyper9 won
numerous industry accolades in 2009, most recently landing on CIO.com’s third-annual
list of intriguing innovators in virtualization management, 10 Virtualization Vendors to
Watch in 2010.

“Virtualization is no longer a buzzword that people just talk about,” said Bill Kennedy,
CEO of Hyper9. “In 2009, more enterprises embraced virtualization as an effective way
to optimize IT operations. As organizations continue to face the challenge of doing more
with less, virtualization will play a strategic role in enhancing the performance and agility
of key business initiatives.”
Hyper9 attributes its success to several key factors, including new product innovation, an
expanded customer base across numerous industries, strategic partnerships and
industry accolades. Recent accomplishments include:
Sales – 4Q09 was the company’s largest quarter to-date, with bookings fourtimes
larger than the previous quarter. New contracts came from both private and
public sectors across multiple verticals, including travel, sports and
entertainment, consumer goods and technology. Key customer wins included:
HomeAway, the National Football League, Major League Baseball and Whole
Foods, among others.
Product Innovation – Product innovation continued with the launch of Hyper9’s
Virtual Environment Optimization Suite, a second-generation virtualization
management solution that provides enhanced business insights to address the
growing demands of virtualized applications. The company also unveiled an
open-sourced version of its Virtualization Mobile Manager.
Strategic Partnerships – Alliances with key services providers extended
Hyper9’s reach in Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom, while providing
expanded integration and service capabilities for customers. New partners
include: IGI, INX, IVOXY Consulting LLC, Softchoice, Righttrac and DNM.
Industry Accolades – Several industry analyst firms published reports
highlighting Hyper9’s virtualization innovation, including Gartner’s Cool Vendor in
IT Operations and Virtualization and Taneja Group’s whitepaper, Business-
Driven Virtualization: Optimizing Insight and Operational Efficiency in the
Dynamic Datacenter. Additionally, the company kicked off 2010 being named
One of Ten Virtualization Vendors to Watch in 2010 by CIO.com, and being listed
as a featured vendor in Gartner’s report Virtualization is Bringing Together
Configuration and Performance Management.
Virtualization has quickly evolved into a strategic enabling technology now widely
deployed at all levels of the IT stack – from servers and desktops to networks, storage
and applications. Hyper9’s flagship product, Virtual Environment Optimization Suite,
helps organizations virtualize more resources, faster, to meet today’s sophisticated
business requirements.
About Hyper9, Inc.
Hyper9 is a privately-held company backed by Venrock, Matrix Partners, Silverton
Partners and Maples Investments. Based in Austin, Texas, the company was founded in
2007 by enterprise systems management experts and virtualization visionaries. Since
then, Hyper9 has collaborated with virtualization administrators as well as systems and
virtualization management experts to develop a new breed of virtualization management
products that leverages Internet technologies like search, collaboration and social
networking. The end result is a product that helps administrators discover, organize and
make use of information in their virtual environment, yet is as easy to use as a consumer
application. For more information about Hyper9, visit www.hyper9.com.
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You may have heard a few terms thrown around in the news lately. Terms like “vBlock” and VCE. So what do these mean and why should you care about them? I’ll answer both.

VCE = the VMware, Cisco, EMC (VCE) Coalition is a partnership between these 3 companies to work together to promote and accelerate the movement to cloud computing and fully virtualized environments.The VCE acronym has also been interpreted as “virtualization changes everything”. The vBlock is the building block offered by VCE to help companies make this move to virtualization easier and faster (discussed below). You should care about VCE because, with the resources they are devoting to this, their solutions may be in your datacenter just around the corner.

vBlock - EMC defined the vBlock as “a pre-architected and pre-qualified environment for virtualization at scale: storage, fabric, compute, hypervisor, management and security.” I think of it more as a “datacenter in a box” with all the pieces being from VMware, Cisco, and EMC. The vBlock is shipped to you and all ready to virtualize your infrastructure. Here is what it might look like:

And, here is a video about vBlocks…

What are the new performance enhancements in vSphere 4 ? Learn from VMware’s performance architects first hand in this video…

Initially, VMware had said that the deadline to upgrade your VCP3 certification to a VCP4 (covering vSphere 4) was December 31, 2009. Fortunately, for many VCPs, that deadline has been extended to January 31, 2010. And, even better, VMware is now offering a “second shot program” where you can take the VCP4 test again, for free, if you fail.

You wouldn’t think that you would hear about VMware certifications on a NetApp blog but the NetApp for Microsoft Environments blog recently post about this as well as how my vSphere 4 video training course was an excellent option to help you learn what you need to know for the upgrade exam.

Read the full blog post at: NetApp Blog - VCP 4 Upgrade Deadline Extended!

Also, visit the VMware VCP Education portal for more information on the VCP4.

This month, VMware Go went from beta to live (GA) status with a press release and updated website. With VMware Go, those who are new to virtualization can download VMware’s free ESXi virtualization hypervisor, configure it, burn it to a DVD, provision new virtual machines with P2V or appliance download, then perform basic management and configuration of the server and VMs.

Essentially, Go walks you thought the entire process of server consolidation in small enviornments. It does this by leading you through a step by step process with tabs numbered 1, 2, 3, and so on.

I was quoted in VMware’s press release related to Go and in a SearchServerVirtualization.com article - VMware Go ESXi goes live.

VMware was nice enough to embed my video cover Go on the official VMware Go website. I have included a link to it below so that you can check it out…