Virtualfuture.info

A lot of dutch bloggers already mentioned that the Dutch VMUG event is on December 12th and that there is still room for a couple of attendees (600 max). So if you haven’t already registered, please do now, it is well worth it.

The agenda looks pretty good with sessions about VDI, Powershell, storage, disaster recovery and a lot more. Besides the agenda, this event is also about networking and discussion on virtualization. Expect a coverage on virtualfuture.info. We will also try to capture some video-footage.

Bloggers on the scene:
- Aleks: virtualistic.nl
- Arne: ict-freak.nl
- Bouke: jume.nl
- Duncan: Yellow-Bricks.com
- Eric: NTPRO.NL
- Gabrie: GabesVirtualWorld.com
- Joep: virtuallifestyle.nl
- Sven, Matthijs, Johan: virtualfuture.info

Yesterday David Marshall revealed that the rumors that where already spreading around VMworld in Vegas, are true: VMware has acquired Blue Lane Technologies.

Blue Lane might be known by it’s recently lost Marketing VP Greg Ness but especially by the products ServerShield and VirtualShield. One of the reasons VMware adopted Blue Lane, according to David is:

That Blue Lane’s deep understanding of application protocols allows them to focus on network security from the physical datacenter perimeter, which has become increasingly porous, towards the ‘application perimeter’ - which consists of application-centric security policies based on the logical zoning and partitioning of applications and services rather than machine boundaries.

This might seem like a logical/useful acquisition, but is it? David looks at the matter more closer and raises a couple of very interesting questions. Read the whole story here.

Yesterday VMware released version 3.5u3 of their flagship product ESX, several new features are appealing for me. In previous 3.5 versions it was not possible to tarball upgrade to those versions; gladly VMware corrected this and with the u3 version it’s possible. To do this follow the procedure in the Upgrade Guide pages 76 for ESX2 hosts and 77 for ESX3 hosts.

This u3 version incorporates a number of other features Read the rest of this entry »

I stumbled on a nice post on TechStrategyPartners from George Gilbert and Juergen Urbanski. It gives a clear view on which areas VMware will be putting their money on and why. It’s a pretty large piece of reading material and I had a couple of “duh” moments but the core of what they’re telling comes down to this:

We’ve all seen the light concerning server consolidation, it’s (becoming) commodity. So what, at this moment, are the areas where the money is ? According to the authors (VMware stakeholders), VMware has defined 3 waves they are setting out to ride the next period : Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft released the resource kit tool for App-V. The Resource kit is a selection of tools that can be used to help you manage your App-V 4.5 estate. So if you are using App-V, you might need these tools: 

• Application Virtualization Application Listing Tool
• Application Virtualization Cache Configuration Tool
• Application Virtualization Client Log Parser Utility
• Application Virtualization SFT Parser Tool
• Application Virtualization Dynamic Suite Composition Tool

Yesterday the new version of the RUNBook automation application RES Wisdom has been released! Why am I so happy with this release? It has some cool features for provisioning Virtual Machines, mailboxes, and users!

What features RES Wisdom already had and what new features have been added is shown in the picture below.

I’m looking forward to play with the new version and test it’s new features especially the new Virtual Machine and snapshot features.

Citrix now provides a single place to look for application and 3rd party product compatibility. Beyond the featured Citrix Ready products Citrix is now leveraging the power of the community including; customers, resellers, partners, consultants and Citrite’s to identify all 3rd party products known to work with all Citrix products.

Read the rest of this entry »

Veeam, known of their freeware FastSCP program to copy files to ESX servers, has released the third version of their Veeam Reporter Enterprise.

This is part of the mail I received from Veeam:

The beta is over … the first reporting solution specifically designed for documentation and change management in large VMware Infrastructure 3 environments is now generally available.

Read the rest of this entry »

EverRun VM 4.0.2 is shipped to day, which provides compatibility with XenServer 5.0. The Marathon corporate website has also been updated for customers downloading 30-day evaluations and single host trial edition evaluations.

The Xen HA feature that is available with XenServer 5.0 has not been integrated into 4.0.2. If Xen HA is enabled before or after everRun VM 4.0.2 is installed, it will automatically be disabled. everRun VM 4.1 is due to release on December 3rd and it will fully integrate and support Xen HA. Users who require both Xen HA and everRun VM have two options. They can deploy 4.0.2 now for fault tolerant VMs and upgrade to everRun VM 4.1 in December for Xen HA support. Or they can delay deployment until December 3rd when everRun VM 4.1 will be available.

As this everRun VM release is not providing new features other than compatibility with XenServer 5.0, upgrades from existing everRun VM 4.0.x releases are not supported. New deployments should be performed using everRun VM 4.0.2. Existing deployments must wait until December 3 to upgrade to XenServer 5.0 and everRun VM 4.1 to take advantage of the many new features in that everRun release.

Most people who read our blog know something about virtualization so probably know what VMWare ESX and VMWare ESXi are. But Alessandro Perilli pointed the following KB article from VMWare out to me and I find it pretty usefull because it really clearly sums up the differences between the full ESX and the free ESXi product.

Check out the comparison here.