released a new whitepaper:
This Xtravirt white paper outlines VMware Virtual Infrastructure High Availability (HA), how it works, and some common troubleshooting tips.
You can grab your copy over here: http://knowledge.xtravirt.com/white-papers/esx-3x.html
Project Virtual Reality Check (VRC) is a joint venture of Log•in Consultants and PQR, who have researched the optimal configuration for the different available hypervisors (hardware virtualization layers). The project arises from the growing demand for a founded advice on how to virtualise Terminal Server and Virtual Desktop (VDI) workloads. Through a number of researches, Log•in Consultants and PQR show you the scaling possibilities for Terminal Server environments as well as Virtual Desktops.
We invite you to download our whitepapers and draw your own conclusions from the different research results. After registration you have acces to all documents. You can of course also set up your own research environment and see which environment best suits your situation.
The first whitepapers are online:
More info can be found at: http://www.projectvrc.nl/
Source: http://blog.virtualarchitect.nl/2009/01/project-vrc-has-launched/
VMware Update Manager (VUM) provides a patch management framework for VMware Virtual Infrastructure. IT administrators can use it to patch VMware ESX, Windows, and certain versions of Linux virtual machines. As data centers get bigger, performance implications become more important for patch management. This study covers the following topics:
- Benchmarking Methodology
- VUM Server Host Deployment
- Latency Overview
- Resource Consumption Matrix
- Guest Operating System Tuning
- Network Latencies
- On-Access Virus Scanning
Download de whitepaper hier: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vum_1.0_performance.pdf
Veeam schrijft het volgende:
More and more organizations are choosing VMware Infrastructure to virtualize their mission‐critical applications (Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server) to create a flexible, easily administered virtual infrastructure.
Virtual machines (VMs) and any applications they contain must be protected against failure. Typically, in the virtual world, this is done by performing an image‐level backup of the whole machine (for instance, using VMware Consolidated Backup). This method results in what is known as a crash‐consistent image. Restoring a crash‐consistent image is essentially equivalent to rebooting a server after a hard reset. For operating systems, this has not been an issue, since they can easily handle this type of activity. For database applications as well as for applications featuring replication, however, such a restore will often result in lost data, data corruption, or application failure.
To illustrate this concept, let’s review the consequences of using different VM disaster recovery methods for one of the most common mission‐critical applications: a Microsoft Active Directory domain controller (DC). Depending on the solution used, the following results will be achieved:
Download de PDF hier: VMwareandVSS-ApplicationBackupandRecovery.pdf
De jongens van XtraVirt hebben hun guide over VI in a Box bijgewerkt.
In 2007, like others in the global VMware community, Xtravirt developed a common methodology to install and run VMware ESX 3.x on VMware Workstation 6 together with a shared storage solution based upon an iSCSI software target. We called it ‘VI3 in a box’.
This allowed users and professionals in the IT community to create simple and cost effective VI3 infrastructures to test, learn about and demonstrate these environments.
Upon the release of VMware ESX 3.5 we found that this methodology did not continue to hold true. Although still possible to install ESX 3.5, when attempting to start a nested Virtual Machine on the ESX VM, the ESX VM panics, and a stop message appears.
However, with the release of VMware Workstation 6.5, build release 99530, a revised solution now exists.
This white paper documents the process to install and configure ‘VI3.5 in a box’.
Download de guide hier: ESXonWKS65beta99530.pdf
VMware® VirtualCenter uses a database to store metadata on the state of a VMware Infrastructure
environment. Performance statistics and their associated stored procedure operations constitute the largest
and the most resource‐intensive component of the VirtualCenter database. Hence the performance of your
VirtualCenter database depends upon the frequency at which you collect performance statistics and the level
of detail of the statistics you store. VirtualCenter 2.5 features a number of enhancements that are aimed at
greatly improving the performance and scalability of the performance statistics operations in the
VirtualCenter database. The purpose of this study is to present the performance results of tests we conducted
to validate these performance enhancements and to provide best practices information for configuring a
VirtualCenter database. The study also provides information for sizing the server you use to host the
VirtualCenter database based on these performance results. Although the new features in VirtualCenter 2.5
benefit users with any of the supported databases, the examples and performance data presented in this study
are specific to Microsoft SQL Server and the paper assumes that you have a working knowledge of SQL Server.This study covers the following topics:
“VirtualCenter 2.5 Database Overview” on page 2
“Performance Statistics Collection in VirtualCenter” on page 2
“Performance Statistics Database Operations and Their Effects on Performance” on page 3
“Performance Enhancement in VirtualCenter 2.5” on page 3
“Performance Tests” on page 4
“Performance Results” on page 5
“Sizing the VirtualCenter Database Server” on page 7
“Performance Best Practices” on page 8
“References” on page 9
“Appendix A: Configuring Performance Statistics Levels and Rollups with VirtualCenter” on page 10
“Appendix B: Configuring Memory Size for SQL Server” on page 11
“Appendix C: Monitoring
Je kunt de whitepaper hier downloaden: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vc_database_performance.pdf
There are numerous ways to apply a configuration or security setting onto a group of servers within a Presentation Server environment. Because policies are so unique, diverse and customizable, there is no single, correct method toward policy design. However, this document will give the key areas to consider when deciding on the appropriate approach to implementing a setting using a policy. This design consideration will look at the following types of policies and the common practices associated with them:
Citrix Presentation Server policies: These policies are defined within the management console on Presentation Server and only apply to connections using the Citrix ICA protocol but not the Microsoft RDP protocol. Presentation Server policies also allow for the configuration of Presentation Server-specific options like Session Printers and Progressive Display. The power of these policies is that they have the ability to be filtered based on users, location and even the method for launching the published applications. Many of these filters are only available within Presentation Server.
Active Director y policies: These policies are configured within Active Directory. They are applied to organizational units (folders), domains, sites, etc. within the Active Directory structure. A single Active Director y policy can consist of a computer policy and a user policy. A computer policy consists of settings that affect the physical computer and impact all users logging onto the computer while a user policy affects the user and is applied on all system s the user logs on to. Local server policies and custom policies are type s of Active Director y policies and are described as:
Local Server Policies and Settings: Local Server policies are similar to Active Directory policies, except they are managed on a server-by-server basis and configured locally on that specific server, where Active Directory policies are managed centrally and can impact hundreds or thousands of users or computers with a single application of a policy.
Custom Active Directory Policy Templates: Custom ADM templates, like the Citrix icaclient.adm template, are Active Directory or Local Server policies used to make configuration settings. They can be custom registry settings or simply standard policies re-organized as two examples. The concept of custom templates is supported, but depending on the author of the custom template, supportability by either Citrix or Microsoft might not be available. Organizations will have to verify the supportability of custom ADM templates. Also, any custom template used might already have settings configured, potentially causing issues with the environment. It is highly recommended to test custom policies in a test environment before implementing in production.
The following five areas are the basis f or the design decisions for an enterprise deployment of Presentation Server. These types of policies will be impacted by the following design areas:
Policy Type
Policy Integration
Policy Filters Policy Prioritization
Policy Precedence
Download hier de pdf: How_Policies_Impact_Presentation_Server_Environments_JS.pdf
Nadat op 3 februari de versie 1 release was uitgekomen zag ik en samen met mij nog een aantal mensen dat er nog een paar kleine foutjes in stonden. Deze heeft Forbes inmiddels gefixed.
- Correction to partition types (thanks to Arne Fokkema)
- Addition of SQL express with VC 2.5 (thanks to Peter Vroomen)
- Added check license site
- added PROD_VC_EXPRESS
- Random tidying
Download de laatste versie hier: vmreferencecard
VMware heeft wat leesvoer uitgegeven voor het weekend.
VMware® High Availability (VMware HA) monitors your virtual infrastructure for ESX Server host failures and restarts virtual machines that are interrupted by those failures on alternate hosts. Starting with ESX Server 3.5, VMware HA can also detect and handle the failures of individual virtual machines and respond appropriately based on your specifications.
With this additional functionality, called Virtual Machine Failure Monitoring, VMware HA deals with both host operating system and guest operating system failures.
Download de whitepaper hier: vi3_35_25_vmha.pdf
This document provides information about how to configure connections between different backup software products and VMware® ESX Server 3 hosts. The document explains how to open predefined firewall ports for supported backup products and how to open specific ports from a command line. If the backup product you use requires additional configuration changes to work with ESX Server 3, the document describes any specific steps you need to perform.
Download de whitepaper hier: vi3_35_25_vcb_firewalls.pdf
VMware® ESX Server 3.5 and ESX Server 3i version 3.5 enhance ESX Server native multipathing by providing experimental support for round‐robin load balancing. This technical note explains how round‐robin load balancing works and how to set it.
Download de whitepaper hier: vi3_35_25_roundrobin.pdf
N‐Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) is an ANSI T11 standard that describes how a single Fibre Channel HBA port can register with the fabric using several worldwide port names (WWPNs). This allows a fabric‐attached N‐port to claim multiple fabric addresses. Each address appears as a unique entity on the Fibre Channel fabric.
The primary source of information on configuring NPIV in a VMware Infrastructure 3 environment is the Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide, available on the VMware Web site.
This technical note provides additional details about certain specific NPIV configurations and information on diagnostic techniques that may be helpful as you configure NPIV. It also includes information to help you understand error messages that may appear as you are working with NPIV in a VMware Infrastructure environment.
Download de whitepaper hier: vi3_35_25_npiv_config.pdf
NetFlow is a general networking tool with multiple uses, including network monitoring and profiling, billing, intrusion detection and prevention, networking forensics, and SOX compliance. NetFlow sends aggregated networking flow data to a third‐party collector (an appliance or server). The collector and analyzer report on various information such as the current top flows consuming the most bandwidth in a particular virtual switch, which IP addresses are behaving irregularly, and the number of bytes a particular virtual machine has sent and received in the past 24 hours.
Download de whitepaper hier: vi3_35_25_netflow.pdf
The Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF) is a virtual machine distribution format that supports sharing virtual machines between products and organizations. The format facilitates the use of virtual appliances, which are preconfigured virtual machines that package applications with the operating system they require. Because OVF runs on multiple platforms, a virtual appliance is ready to run without significant additional configuration.
Download de whitepaper hier: ovf_tool.pdf
Well, I’ve done it again. I’ve been on the Vi3.5 Beta Programme for sometime. I’ve written two guides – one of which is available today – on ESX3i and Vi-3.5. It’s the Vi-3.5 Guide that I am releasing today. It covers all the new features in this release, and also runs through lots of the minor enhancement that collectively amount to a major improvement from the initial Vi3.0.0 release
Dowload de guide hier: http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?p=469
ICT-Freak.nl 