VMTN Blog

The gang at BrianMadden.com is covering VMworld 2007:

Thoughts on Keynote (Adam Baum)

It's interesting that the product that enables the easy distribution of appliances is now becoming an appliance.  I have mixed feelings about appliances.  When done right, they are great.  Problem is most are not done right.  What I mean is that just because you take your software and put it in a device without any visible interfaces does not make it an appliance.  Mgmt folks tend to hear the word "appliance" and think toaster simplicity.  This is not the case.  Most modern IT appliances need regular care and feeding.  It's no longer called patching, it's now a firmware update...

New DR capabilties from morning sessions (Chris Butters)

Besides being an HA type tool, SRM is also a planning tool.  When you use this tool, prepare to do a lot of thinking.  This is a good thing since you are really developing a semi-complete DR solution.  Sort of DC in a box.  What does is take to build a DC?  You need to know all these things when using SRM. 

SRM is going to validate your replication toplogy and that replication is working.  It is going to force you to determine which of your guests are important (good for SLA mgmt), and it's going to force you to figure out how to turn things on.  This last item is important.  In a typical DC, your domain controllers, DNS, whatever may be physical.  What happens if they are gone?  If you had them in VM, you would need to make sure that they come up first.  In the world of DR and police & fire, we use something called "run books".  These tell us what to do, in what order, who needs to do it, and such in a disaster.  SRM can export its run book so you can print it out.   You can create multiple different plans (run books) based on the nature of the disaster.  Once a one book is created, it's a simple matter of clicking the play button to put everything into action.

VMworld - Enivronmentalism (Mark Mathers)

The conference is being held in the Moscone Center which has been touted as being environmentally friendly.  This is through the use of recycling and various energy conservation efforts.  ... The lunch that was provided today was in plastic containers that are recyclable and they passed out blankets where you could sit in the Yerba Buena Garden area of the plaza and have a picnic.  It was a nice change of pace from the standard conference hall banquet eating area.

Final Day One thoughts (Adam Baum)

It was comforting to know that these guys have the same problems that I do such as FUD, NIMBY, etc.  Even though they had a C level champion (Hector Ruiz), they still had difficulties in getting customer buy-in. One area that was surprising is that there is not a whole lot of communication with the chip engineering group.  I expected that the two groups would work closely together so that future chip designs would incorporate characteristics that would improve performance based on real world usage.

VMwares purchase of Dunes (Rene Vester)

After having looked at the Dunes technology i have to admit that i am very excited that vmware bought this product suite. As i am coming from the danish market(northern europe if anyone wonders). I am often challenged with the fact that many vendors target companies with x-hundreds of ESX servers, and fact its that with vmware purchasing Dunes the product might in some form be delivered in an easier digestible manner. As a another danish guys said to me.. Dunes is the one thing to have, just a shame most of the people using VMware wont be ready for the product for another couple of years. I think that made alot of sense.

I had actually expected more on VDI and virtualized desktops from this crew. But good stuff -- check it out.