For my last post of the month, I’ll take this chance to do a little bragging on ourselves…
VirtualizationAdmin.com has made it big! We are listed on the Top Virtualization Sites on the Internet, over at Virtualization.AllTop.com (where else?)
Here is our badge to prove it!
Check us VirtualizationAdmin.com and all the other Top Virtualization sites at
I saw a unique VMware Admin tip this week… Tom Finnis over at help4it.co.uk published step by step instructions on how to create a desktop shortcut to connect to a VMware ESX console.
Now connecting to an VM Console from a desktop shortcut isn’t unique if you are using VMware Server or VMware Workstation. However, if you are using VMware ESX, surprisingly, this feature IS NOT available in the VI Client.
With this tip, you can use the VMware Server console to connect to ESX Server VM guests using a desktop shortcut. Get the step by step instructions at:
How do you get a Virtual Machine (VM) from Microsoft Virtual Server and into Hyper-V? Well, if you were thinking that you could just copy it, sorry, but that won’t work. While you can do this with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) that solution isn’t free and many of us don’t have it available.
The easiest way to get a VM from Virtual Server to Hyper-V is to use VMC2HV, or VMC to Hyper-V Import Tool. This free tool allows you to easily move a VM from Virtual Server to Hyper-V. Not only does it convert the format but it allows you to modify the VM in the process of doing it.
To learn all about this tool, see it in action, and get the link to download it, read the Petri Knowledgebase article:
Import Virtual Machines from Virtual Server to Hyper-V with VMC2HV
In my latest post, you will learn how to use a free tool for assessing VMware ESX Server security. TripWire’s ConfigCheck will scan your ESX hosts and give you a large report, showing where you are insecure and what you can do to remediate. For the full article, please read:
Assessing VMware ESX server security with TripWire ConfigCheck
Have you tried CompareMyVM.com? With this free beta service, you can find out if your VM is sized right, compared to other VMware Admins and their Infrastructure - from around the world!
On this site, you can anonymously contribute the sizing and resource allocation of your VMs to the community as well as compare the sizing of your VMs to others.
For example, say that you have an Oracle 10g database server and you want to virtualize it. What should you allocate the VM in terms of CPU, RAM, and other resources? Why not see what other VMware Admins are allocating to their Oracle 10g VMs? With CompareMyVM.com you can do it. Here are 3 other admins that contributed the allocations for their Oracle 10g servers:
You, and all the other VMware Admins, can vote on VM configurations.
And, by the way, I am just using Oracle as an example. There about 50 types of VMs that can be compared including domain controllers, Citrix servers, IIS Servers, and many more.
My friend Eric Siebert over at Virtualization Pro recently made a great post entitled VMware Videos. In this post he lists out some great places to find videos related to VMware. Some of the places listed in his post which I had not heard of were:
Of course, my favorite mention was for my personal website VMware Videos .com! Also, one miss on the list, in my opinion, was my VMware ESX video training course.
For more information see Eric’s Virtualization Pro post on VMware Videos.
Do you use Twitter to socialize with people interested in virtualization? Do you use it to get up to the second breaking news on virtualization? If not, its time to start!
Twitter is huge! Its the fastest way to get to know other virtualization admins, best way to get your questions answers, best way to connect to the right people, and quickest way to get up to the second breaking news on virtualization.
Here are some of the Virtualization related “Tweeples” (Twitter People as they are called), that you should follow:
But don’t stop there! Virtual-Al has assembed a list of some of the most knowledgeable virtualization pro’s who are active on Twitter at his website. Even better, he has created a PowerShell script with a download file to allow you to download them and add them quickly and easily! View the article, script, and dowload at- Virtual-Al: Virtual Twits
VMware announced their new vExpert Award this month. This isn’t a certification but an award that you earn through your contribution to the to the VMware community.
As many other blog posters have posted this “news”, I want to offer my unique perspective on this award:
Don’t know who to nominate? Feel free to put my name in the hat 
I took advantage of the Veeam Holiday Gift Promotion and tried out their new free version of Veeam Monitor. It offers many more features than some of the other free VMware applications and I can tell that the commercial offers much more.
To see what Veeam Monitor can do for you, please read my full article- The benefits of VMware ESX performance monitoring with Veeam Monitor free edition
Here is a sample from my 17 hour VMware ESX Server video training course. In this 7 minute video, I demonstrate how to clone a VMware ESX Guest virtual machine.
The full course includes much higher quality videos and iPhone, iPod, and MP3 versions of the course that you can watch on the go!
Discuss all your Virtualization issues with thousands of other experts. Click here to join!
