vSphere 4 supports the OVF 1.0 format and this is how new vApps are imported into your virtual infrastructure. One of the cool things about the OVF 1.0 format is that you can deploy a new appliance without ever having to configure it (or you can configure it at deployment time). Either way, you don’t have to go in once it is installed and configure the networking, etc on it.

Watch this video to see what I mean-

Of course, this is the burning question that everyone wants answered. My humble opinion is that vSphere is going to cost less on a per-application basis. You can checkout the the VMware Cost per Application calculator to calculate this for yourself.

For an in-depth analysis of how cost calculators like this work (or don’t work) checkout virtualboy’s post Investigating the VMware cost-per-application calculator.

And then, there is Bridget’s post over at SearchServerVirtualization.com - Hyper-V vs. VMware: which is cheaper? that analyzes this some more…

In fact, you can even watch a video from VMwareTV on how to use the Cost per application calculator! Here is is for your viewing pleasure…

The guys over at XtraVirt.com announced a new free tool to help you monitor and manage VMware vCenter Alarms. You install this tool on your PC and you can monitor your vCenter alarms without having to install or run the vSphere / VI Client.

You can download vAlarm from XtraVirt here (free registration is required).

Recently, I received an email from vKernel, promoting a new free product that they are offering so I checked out their website. I usually think of vKernel just for their chargeback appliance but now they offer so many more virtualization software applications. Today, on their products webpage, they offer 4 free trials and 2 free products. Here is their lineup-

1. VKernel Capacity Analyzer
2. VKernel Optimization Pac
3. VKernel Chargeback
4. VKernel Modeler
5. FREE VKernel SearchMyVM
6. FREE SnapshotMyVM

You can download them all at the vKernel Products webpage, below.

One of their latest offerings is the Business Optimization Pack. It includes:

• Wastefinder – quickly finds where resource capacity (CPU, memory, and storage) are being wasted in the virtual infrastructure. By identifying zombie VMs, expired snapshots, and other wasteful consumers, users can reclaim expensive capacity to optimize virtual environments and achieve a better, faster ROI.

• VM Rightsizer – a simple tool for tuning your VMs with the right amount of resources (CPU, memory, and storage) to drive maximum VM densities without impacting performance. Rightsizer is unique in its ability to make recommendations and automatically implement changes to find improperly allocated resources and optimally configure VMs.

• Inventory – automatically collects important information about all VMs in the virtual infrastructure and creates a detailed inventory report showing VM name, created by and when, resource allocations, and much more. The inventory is continually updated to match the dynamic environment and is searchable by different criteria to quickly find specific information.

You can try out the Business Optimization Pack here.

Many of you out there are like me and you used the SVMotion GUI plug-in from Andrew Kutz. It became the only must-have plugin that every VMware admin downloaded.

During VMworld 2009, Andrew announced a new project he has been working on called the OVM^2 Initiative - or Open Source Virtualization Management and Monitoring Initiative.

Here is Andrew’s Press Release so that you can learn more…

I am incredibly excited to announce the Open Virtualization Management and Monitoring (OVM^2) Initiative by Hyper9. OVM^2 represents a free and open source software stack designed to level the playing field of virtualization management by enabling developers to concern themselves with one API, not many. Today OVM^2 supports the following virtualization platforms:

- VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3)
- VMware vSphere 4
- Microsoft Hyper-V
- Citrix XenServer 5.x

Support for Amazon EC2 and KVM is coming soon. OVM^2 is composed of several components developed by Hyper9, all available to the general public for the first time with the release of this e-mail:

- Vangaea - A server that provides a RESTful API as well as single sign-on access to the world’s leading hypervisors. With REST, virtualization is now open to the world of Web 2.0 and its languages, such as Ruby, PHP, Python, etc.

- UVAPI - A Java library, the Universal Virtualization API (UVAPI) provides a single API and object model for working with many different virtualization SDKs.

- JWbem - The Java Web-Based Enterprise Management (JWbem) project allows Java developers to remotely manage Windows servers, including Hyper-V with a Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) implementation in pure Java.

- Hyper9-Common - A utility library that provides common support and useful bean serialization techniques for the various listed modules.

OVM^2 represents a step in a unifying direction for a section of IT still plagued by disparity. Despite the existence of OVF and CIM, virtualization remains a very daunting technology for developers. We hope to help even the playing field a bit

For more information on OVM^2, as well as a demonstration of the power and simplicity of Vangaea, be sure to check out my blog at http://bit.ly/O1wxC .

–
-a

There is a newly updated version of VMware View - dubbed version 3.1.2 (reminds me of Novell Netware 3.12). Of course, View was previously known as VDM and VMware VDI - but now it’s just “View”.

Honestly, there isn’t a lot to offer in View 3.1.2 over the previous version unless you were affected by one of the bugs. You can read the release notes for View 3.1.2 here. And, you can download the new VMware View 3.1.2 here.

To upgrade View, you should follow the VMware View Upgrade Guide here.

In my opinion, the most awesome souvenir to bring home from VMworld was the vCalendar. This is a printed daily tear-off calendar with a virtualization tip of the day on every page. The calendar was written by virtualization guru and fellow vExpert, Jason Boche (@jasonboche on Twitter). I picked up a free copy at the Veeam booth and then bought another copy at the VMworld bookstore.

You can order your own copy at the PrintedOwl vCalendar webpage!

Also, you can add your own widget to iGoogle or to your own blog page, like I did over at my other blog, VMware Videos. To get the widget, just visit the PrintedOwl vCalendar widget page.

While at VMworld, I opted to take the discounted VCP4 certification exam. You see, I have to pass this exam before December 31, 2009 or I have to take a VMware class all over again. At a cost of about $3000 having to retake a VMware education class is not something I wanted to do. Still, with all the preparation getting to VMorld and the rush to complete my Train Signal vSphere video training course, I admit that I wasn’t prepared to take the VCP4.

Luckily, the exam was very fair and I did pass the test! I am proud to be a VCP4 on my first attempt!

This blog post is the first chance that I have had to detail my experience taking the VCP4, fellow vExpert Jason Boche (@jasonboche on Twitter) made a great post about his experience with lots of detail. Checkout Jason’s post VCP4 post for more info the VCP4!

I was recently interviewed by InfoWorld author and Microsoft guru J. Peter Bruzzese (aka @JPBruzzese on Twitter) about vSphere. The hypervisor battle is a hot topic and I tried to cut through some of the marketing fluff to provide the “real deal” on the difference between Hyper-V and vSphere.

I hope you will checkout the interview at:

The hypervisor wars: Is vSphere compelling for Microsoft admins?