VMTN Blog

The conference has ended, and everybody is traveling home. Before we get to the wrap-up commentary, here's what's already been posted by attendees and analysts about VMworld:

Adam Baum: My life in Day Two

My first session of the day was on the topic of VM in gov't and education.  The big takeway on this one is collaboration.  The panel members' project were very successful because they collaborated with other gov't (or educational) entities.  A great example is DR.  Two counties got together to act as each other's DR site.  Vm is a great enabler of this since the hardware outlay is small compared to the cost of a full data center.  There is a sessions about two univerisities doing exactly this. One is on the East coast, the other on the West.

Each of the panel members discussed how VM came to be used in their organization and it's benefits to them.  I am guessing that these reasons and benefits are just universal truths.  What does that mean? Think about VM selling/maerketing points: Consolidation, efficient utilization of resources, less real estate needed, etc.  We all listened and now we have VM.  I'm sure there are a few companies out there who are running vm just so that they can say they are running it, but I doubt there are very many.

Rene Vester: ESX Server 3I

From speaking to the engineers at the VMware booth it seems obvious that is new approach is most of all an attempt to once again deliver something that Microsoft, XenSource and the others cannot. From what i have learned the development of the products will continue and we are not going towards Embedded ESX only in the near future. It appears there are several reasons for this:

- ESX 3I has no service console, so no third party solutions using the service console will work with 3I.
- ESX 3I will only be supported by a limited number of hardware vendors and few models(atleast for now).

Rene Vester: Looking back over VMworld 2007

VDI for me seems to be where the battle is going to be the next year. There seems to be alot of VDI brokers available, most of them with different attention and which way it is going to go is sure to be an exciting battle. I think it is gonna be hard to have this many brokers being mainstream, so for the benefit of bringing VDI to the customers i hope a few good brokers will get ahead and make a product that covers the needs to the most customers.

Tony Asaro: VMworld - It's a Big Virtual World After All

Sung to the tune of - It's a Small World After All

It's a virtual world that is growing
Because the value is clear
VMware is on top
Their competition is nowhere near
VMware is ablaze
We are truly amazed
It's a big virtual world after all

Brian Madden: VMware OnDemand streaming technology will challenge Citrix’s Ardence platform

Details are very light at this point, but during one of the keynotes at VMworld this past week, VMware presented a feature called “VMware OnDemand” streaming technology. This technology will allow a VM player to prefetch disk blocks from a disk image file across a network, allowing the VM to boot from that disk image before the image is 100% copied to the player machine.

This is VERY similar—at least in concept—to Citrix’s Ardence OS streaming technology. This can be huge in the virtualized desktop / VDI environment since it means that a user could start using a local desktop VM without having to wait for a multi-gigabyte disk image file to copy to their client device.

Dave Hitz: VMware’s Founder Helped To Inspire WAFL

In the early days of NetApp, when we first started developing our WAFL file system, we drew inspiration from three main file systems: FFS, Episode and LFS ...

The graduate student who actually designed and implemented LFS was Mendel Rosenblum. It took me quite a few years to figure out that this guy whose work I admired 15 years ago was the same guy who started VMware. Imagine my surprise!

Given that a VMware founder helped inspire WAFL, it seems there’s a sort of poetic justice that so many VMware customers use it for their data.

Dave Hitz: Why Run VMware Over NAS?

At VMWorld yesterday, I was surprised how excited customers are about using NFS to access VMDKs, even for virtual machines hosting Windows. (A VMDK is a VMware Virtual Disk, and it holds the boot image for its virtual machine.)

Since a VMDK is a virtual disk, I had assumed that block-based protocols like iSCSI and Fibre Channel would make more sense than NAS, so I asked several customers why they prefer NFS.

The answer is simple: Managing .vmdk files is much easier than managing LUNs. If you have 20 or 30 virtual machines, then VMFS is great for consolidating the VMDKs into a single LUN. But NAS is much easier and more scalable if you have hundreds or thousands of virtual machines.

Pete Lindstrom:  VMworld 2007 - Best Virtual Security Product

Here it is, fresh from the VMworld exhibit hall:

An antivirus scanner built into the hypervisor. Created by Georgia Tech student Mukil Kesavan.

Okay, this isn't really a product yet. It was created by a VMware intern and exhibited in the academic poster area. In any case, I thought it best demonstrated the potential for practical security benefits in a virtualized environment.

Pete Lindstrom: VMworld 2007 Observation

I have been at VMworld this week (because Hoff said so) and I have a simple observation: it is really strange hearing network companies talk about systems management and systems companies talking about networking.

Virtualization is shuffling the deck even more than that.

Sal Capizzi: Storage Is a Key Aspect of Server Virtualization

These announcement examples illustrate the ongoing trend of tighter integration between server and storage virtualization. Without a doubt, more of these types of announcements will follow – not only for VMware, but for other server virtualization implementations as well. From a technical standpoint, there are certainly differences in implementations of virtualization for servers and for storage. However, from an end user or IT administrator perspective, the expectations are not set in terms of server or storage virtualization, but rather in such terms as cost savings, simplified monitoring, management, and automation. Virtualization is not a product per se, but actually a means to an end. Virtualization simplifies other tasks. Rather than speak of server, storage, and I/O virtualization, the discussion will eventually center on such areas as consolidation, data migration, security, and disaster recovery.

James Rogers: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad VMworld!

How much virtualization can a person take? After 72 hours of VMworld, I'm starting to unravel. The last three days have been a blur of keynotes, press conferences, briefings, and press room sandwiches surely made out of cardboard. (The food here in the press center was "virtualized.")

Scott Lowe: (just the latest -- make sure to catch all of Scott's items)

• VMworld 2007 Top Support Issues Session
• VMworld 2007 VCB Solutions Session
• VMworld 2007 IP-Based Storage Sessions
• VMworld 2007 Day 3 Keynote Liveblog
• VMworld 2007 Session on Advanced Diagnostics Log Analysis
• Enhanced VMotion Announcement
• VMworld 2007 Session on ESX Patch Management

Mike Laverick: (Check out Mike's quite detailed notes and predictions on Storage VMotion, and again, just go and check out everything)

• VMworld 2007: General Session with Mendel Rosenblum

Thomas Bishop:

• VMWorld 2007 Session: Technology Preview - Virtual Hardware Platform
• VMWorld 2007 Session: Integrating Lab Manager into Intuit's Infrastructure
• VMWorld 2007 Session: IT Service Management - A Technical Overview
• VMWorld 2007 Session: Product Overview - VDM (Virtual Desktop Manager)
• VMWorld 2007 Session: ESX CPU Scheduling
• VMWorld 2007 Session: Optimizing Storage for Virtual Desktops
• VMWorld 2007 Session: Product Overview - VDM (Virtual Desktop Manager) Part 2
• VMWorld 2007 Session: Building Virtual Infrastructure with NAS
• VMWorld 2007 Session: Scaling Virtual Infrastructure for Larger Workloads
• VMWorld 2007 Session: Technology Preview - Ease of Deployment with Next Generation Virtualization Architecture
• VMWorld 2007 Session: Technology Preview - Scalable Image Management
• VMWorld 2007 Session: ESX Storage Performance - A Scalability Study