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Virtual Appliance: UDA 2.0 Beta


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These are the new features in UDA 2.0:

 
  • ESX4 Support
    Thanks to Mike Laverick!
  • Solaris Sparc Support
    Thanks to Bevan Brown and his team for sending in the solaris sparc details.
  • Based on Centos 5.3
    The UDA is now based on an enterprise ready Linux distribution.
  • First Boot Wizard
    Turn on the appliance and it will run a wizard that lets you configure the UDA before it tries to access the network.
  • Improved User Interface
    Well, that’s personal of course, just check it out and let me know what you think!
  • Operating System Flavors
    You can now add as many operating system flavors as you want. Many people on the forums asked about how to get e.g. Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional on the UDA at the same time. It was possible by changing/remounting the ISO files and some manual fiddling, but now you can add as many as you like.
  • Subtemplates
    You can now specify a list of variables and values and use them all within the same template. You will not have to add a new template for every new system anymore. (You’ll need documentation to use this, but that is not ready yet 🙂
  • PXE password
    If you are using the UDA in an environment where you do not want all users to have access to the templates using PXE boot, you can use a menu password.
  • Mounting 256 ISO files
    On the forums we’ve seen people having troube with a ‘no free loop devices’ error. This was caused by the UDA not having enough reservations for mounting ISO’s. You can now mount up to 256 iso files at the same time.
  • Add VMware Tools from the web-interface
    Tell the UDA where your linux.iso file is containing the vmware tools and it will install them for you.
  • Manual Configuration
    Lots of people were creating their own additions for bootable floppies over PXE. Good stuff that would break when the UDA regenerated the boot menu. Now you can manage your manual configuration from within the web-interface (and they will stay on the menu :-).
  • Easily extend diskspace
    Extend the space for the local storage or the UDA system volume by adding as many virtual disks as you like. Use the webinterface to activate the new disks
  • Use the CDROM station(s) in the UDA virtual machine
    You can now add a cdrom drive to the UDA virtual machine and it will detect it.

    • More info and the latest version can be found here: http://www.ultimatedeployment.org/uda20beta.html

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    Virtual Appliance: EDA 0.87


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    Herco van Brug heeft een nieuwe versie van EDA uitgebracht. In versie 0.87 zijn de volgende punten gefixed / toegevoegd:

    New in 0.87:
    – editing the order of the scriptparts
    – bulk creation and deletion of ESX hostnames/ip
    – an fs.php page that allows for small remote updates
    – ESXi support fixed again

    Voor de mensen die niet weten wat EDA is, hier een quote:

    ESX Deployment Appliance (EDA) is a small and easy to use appliance that makes deploying ESX servers a breeze. It has a very intuitive web-interface that can configure and deploy dozens of ESX servers in minutes. It has a script-builder that will allow any admin to create %post-scripts that will do most anything one needs to get the ESX hosts up and running! Even if deploying with RDP/Altiris or the UDA, this script-builder can help setting those up very quickly.

    To set it up, just attach a ESX3 iso to it. It will automatically mount it and with one click, import the PXE bootfiles and strip the HBA drivers to do a save install while SAN LUNs are attached!

    It also shares files with samba which makes getting files to the ESX host during installation very easy. the scriptbuilder will insert the correct scriptpieces to read files from the DL share (this is a readonly share). to put files on the EDA, go to the DL$ share (with the dollarsign) as root user.

    This appliance is still in beta stage because there’s a todo list. But it’s fully functional and has been tested to work at least on HP DL380’s, BL460, BL480 and Dell 2950 servers.

    Ik gebruik EDA sinds 0.71 en het werkt echt super. Het kost je misschien wat tijd om de %post scripts aan te maken en te testen maar als dat eenmaal op orde is, installeer je de ESX servers wel op een consistente manier. Herco keep up to good work!

    Meer info en de download vind je hier: http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/1216

    afokkema Storage, VMware, Workstation

    EMC: Celerra Virtual Appliance and VI3


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    De virtualgeek is bezig met een howto serie over het configureren van de Celerra Virtual Appliance. Deze appliance kun je impoprteren binnen VMware Workstation of ESX server. Hoe dit in zijn werk gaat lees je in de volgende posts:

    In de toekomst gaat EMC meer Virtual Appliances aanbieden van haar overige producten. Let wel op deze  appliances zijn alleen bedoeld voor test en studie doeleinden.

    VMware heeft ook een document uitgegeven. De pdf kun je hier vinden: VMware_VI3_and_EMC_Celerra_IP.pdf

    afokkema vCenter, Virtualization, VMware

    VMware: vCenter Administrator Portal


    Duncan posted a news item about the vCenter Administrator Portal Server over here: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/ and here http://blogs.vmware.com/.

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    What can you expect at this moment:

    • Single sign-on to multiple vCenter Servers
    • Monitor events and alarms across multiple vCenter Servers
    • Search and track inventory across multiple vCenter Servers
    • Launch VI Client in context to manage vCenter Servers
    • Search for virtual machines across multiple vCenter Servers
    • Launch virtual machine consoles
    • Utilizes permissions setup in vCenter Servers
    • Unified view for: vCenter Servers, Datacenters, Clusters, Hosts, Virtual Machines
    • Access summary view of inventory objects, rolled up across vCenter Servers, for comparison and monitoring purposes

     

    You can download your copy here: http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/vcadminportal