The single largest burning debate in the virtualization world today is… Which is more cost effective? VMware’s or Microsoft’s virtualization solution?
Certainly Microsoft seems less expensive at first glance but VMware has recently published their new cost per application calculator.
While we should keep in mind that this is a calculator created and provided by VMware, I also see that there to take info consideration with this calculator. The “cost per appication” method of choosing a hypervisor, I feel, is very valuable. Think about it… You can’t just compare the raw cost of one hypervisor to another because each has different capabilities. You may be able to get many more VM guests on one hypervisor over another!
Recently I ran the VMware Healthcheck script again. I had seen this some time back but had forgotten how powerful and useful this free script is. There are Powershell and Perl versions of this script. So you could run the Powershell script using VMware’s PowerCLI or the Perl version with either the VI-Perl Toolkit, RCLI, or in VIMA.
With Healthcheck you can get a HTML report for:
vCenter Build/Release
License summary
Active Sessions
ESX/ESXi Build/Release
Cluster(s) Name/Statistics (Hosts,CPU and MEM availabity, HA,DRS and DPM enabled, Resource Pools, Health)
ESX/ESXi Hardware configuration (NICs/HBAs)
ESX/ESXi Hardware Health Sensor via CIM
ESX/ESXi State
ESX/ESXi Configurations (for detailed information, use detail-hosts option)
ESX/ESXi Multipathing Info (only available in host or detail-hosts option)
ESX/ESXi Datastore summary
ESX/ESXi LUN summary
ESX/ESXi Portgroup summary
ESX/ESXi Hostd logs
CDP Summary
Recent Tasks
Virtual Machine summary
VM Storage summary
VM Network summary
VM w/Snapshots
VM w/Snapshot delta age
VM w/RDMs
VM w/NPIV enabled
VM w/connected CD-ROMs
VM w/connected Floppys
To try out Healthcheck yourself, check out the following links:
Have you wanted to implement a VMware virtualization solution and have experienced someone telling you it was a BAD IDEA? I have been through this before and that was one of the reasons that compelled me to write one of my latest articles.
Application virtualization can be complex topic and implementing it can be a challenge. However, with the help of this video and VMware ThinApp, it appears that VMware’s application virtualization solution doesn’t have to be hard.
In this 9 minute video, you’ll find out how to use VMware’s ThinApp for application virtualization in just 20 minutes.
Part 1 of 2
Part 2 of 2
Special thanks to Eric Sloof and ntpro.nl for posting these videos on his blog!
VMware renamed the VI-Toolkit for Windows the VMware PowerCLI. Now, a group of VMware pro’s interesting in scripting have gotten together and created the Virtualization Ecoshell Initative (or VESI).
The Virtualization EcoShell provides several key capabilities for enhancing virtualization systems management.
Flexible and Robust User Interface Simultaneously manage multi-platform virtual environments, Microsoft applications and other Windows PowerShell supported technologies with a highly flexible, robust virtualization-tailored graphical interface.
Task Automation Reduce errors from manual processes across multiple areas of responsibility through the automation of repetitive and complex tasks inherent in virtualization infrastructures.
Administrative Reports and Maps Provide pre-defined and customizable reports as well as automated maps without hassle in HTML, XML and CSV formats, including support for Microsoft Visio.
Powerful Script Assistance Cushion and ramp up script creation by exposing, analyzing and troubleshooting script output for common Windows PowerShell commands.
On April 21, along with VMware’s vSphere launch, Cisco launched one of the best new products they have come up with in a long time - the Cisco Nexus 1000V.
With the help of my fellow judge, I personally selected the 1000V the best new technology of VMworld 2008 (after a 12 hour day of reviewing 30+ other new VMware-related applications).
The 1000V is a software switch that will replace/augment VMware’s new distributed virtual switch in the next release of ESX / vSphere. With the 1000V, you will get an IOS-like interface and IOS switch features that connect all the VMware ESX hosts in your virtual infrastructure.
Of course, the Nexus 1000V isn’t free but you can register to receive a 60 day evaluation of it at - Cisco’s Nexus Family website. (I just finished registering)
It may sound “geeky” to be excited about a new virtualization product but I am. I am just as excited as any teenage girl hoping to see the Jonas Brothers on the red carept.
During the April 21 simulcast announcement of VMware’s new ESX 4 / vSphere, I was listening intently and wishing that I was at VMware headquarters to see Paul Maritz and his band of partner CEOs in person.
Paul made the announcement that I have been waiting for over the last 6+ months. During that tme, I have beta tested ESX 4 and vSphere and seen all that it can do. I have been dying to talk about all the great new features, most of which were originally annouced at VMworld 2008.
I will be at VMworld 2009 this year and I think it will be the best VMworld yet as we will REALLY have something, not just to talk about, but to use, learn about, and push to its limits!
Stay tuned to VirtualizationAdmin.com for more vSphere articles and videos!
Also, checkout the vSphere Guide, with articles and videos, over at SearchVMware.com
One of the major features of VMware’s new vSphere is Fault Tolerance (FT). With FT, the memory and disk changes to select high priority VMs are always synchronized to another ESX host. If the primary ESX host goes down, the secondary ESX host takes over and runs the VM. Thus, FT provides HA at a much lower cost, taking less time to implement, and its compatible with any VM and and OS.
I was recently followed on Twitter by VMOPS. As I had never heard of them, I was interested in finding out who they were and what they did. I visited the VMOPS homepage and found out that they offer virtualization cloud solutions. In fact, you can use their software to start your own cloud. One of the things I found interesting was that their hypervisor will run on cheap x86 hardware. They have a good video on the VMOPS cloud solution that I found interesting.
Just a personal note- I wish that VMOPS and other cloud providers would offer free trial downloads of their cloud solution so that we could all try it out for ourselves.
I encourage you to checkout VMOPS to learn more about what they do.
This week Train Signal, the global leader in video training for IT Pros, launched their latest training course - Windows 2008 Server Enterprise Administrator. This new video is created by veteran instructor, “Coach” Culbertson and it covers Microsoft MCTS certification exam 70-647.
Of particular interest to Virtualization Admins, in video #2 of the course, “Coach” covers Hyper-V. Here is the breakdown from video 2:
You know that Virtualization is hot right now and it shows no signs of cooling off. In this video we’ll talk about when
To Virtualize or Not To Virtualize: When Hyper–V is a Good Idea, and When It’s Not
Hyper–V is a good idea, when it’s a bad idea, and when to implement Hyper–V in your network. Key Topics: * A Quick Refresher on Virtualization
* Licensing and Versions
* Candidates for Virtualization
* Your Virtualization Migration Tools
* Running sysprep and Capturing Image
* Creating New Hyper-V Machine
* Windows Setup Wizard
* Globomantics Virtualization Plan
