VMware ESXi Chronicles

It sure was a busy week at VMworld 2010 for the ESXi team at VMware, what with the big focus on ESXi migration.  Numerous sessions (including several by yours truly) focused on ESXi and related topics, such as vMA and scripting.  In case you missed them, and have a VMworld account, here is a (partial) list of ESXi-related sessions that you can view as soon as they are posted.

• TA9767: Why You Should Migrate to ESXi with vSphere 4.1 – we had one of our customers, Travis Goodfellow of Medtronic, on stage with us to talk about his experience with ESXi, which they’ve been running in production for quite some time now. 
• SS8222: Transitioning to ESXi – this session was more technical, and provided a survey of the differences between ESXi and ESX, focusing on aspects that affect day-to-day management.
• TA8245: ESXi Internals: Better Understanding for Better Management and Troubleshooting – one of the principal ESXi engineers, Olivier Cremel, presented a deep dive into the inner workings of ESXi.
• MA6580: Bridge the ESX/ESXi Management Gap Using the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) - Tips & Tricks Included – the presenters gave a very nice overview of vMA, including instructions and recommendations for deploying and configuring, as well as examples of how to use vMA to manage ESXi hosts.

Of course, there was more: hands-on lab exercises on ESXi management (part of the vSphere 4.1 lab) and scripting, as well as even more sessions and labs on PowerCLI (which represents a much more powerful alternative to COS scripting).  

We all had a great time meeting our customers and talking about ESXi.  Everybody I met said that, once they learned about the new features of ESXi in vSphere 4.1 (as described in an earlier blog), they felt comfortable about making the transition.  Even long-time, die-hard adherents to the classic ESX version told me that they felt ready to move on.   Plus, the fact that you can mix ESXi and ESX hosts in the same cluster, and can mix both 4.0 and 4.1 hosts in the same cluster as well, makes it possible to have a smooth transition. 

Next, it’s off to Copenhagen for VMworld Europe 2010 on October 12!