VMTN Blog

Hosts
John Troyer
Alex Maier

Guests
Neal Mueller, VMware
Anthony Kolar, VMware

Link to Audio Recording
Business Critical Applications

Virtualization News (from the VMTN Blog)
NEW - VMware vCloud Integration Manager to Help Service Providers Accelerate the Delivery of vCloud Services
Increase - 90 service provider partners in our ecosystem, who now offer services called “VMware vCloud Powered”
SlideRocket Challenges Nonprofits To 'Make An Impact' For A Chance To Win $30,000 in Donations
One on One: Paul Maritz, VMware Chief Executive - (The Bits blog of the New York Times)
Recently published a Desktop modernization toolkit - Grab your kit today. 

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Live Sessions - Broadcast live on livestream - Coming Soon!
Combine the best of live discussions, presenations and chat.

Share your ideas about what you want to hear on the Live Session - @jtroyer @vmwarecommunity

Business Critical Applications Blog

Virtualizing Business Critical Enterprise Applications - Resources and Insights

VMware Business Production Bundle - Maximize the benefits of virtualizing business critical applications by enabling fully automated disaster recovery, dynamic security & automated operations with one convenient bundle.

Download Exchange 2010 on VMware – Best Practices Guide

Microsoft Exchange Server Profile Analyzer (32 bit)

Microsoft Exchange Server Profile Analyzer (64 bit)

VMware Provides Virtualization Technology for SAP Global IT Infrastructure

vShield App, vCOps, Site Recovery Manager - important add-ons to Business Critical Apps 

Fun Note - ESXing is now a verb!

Additional Links
Virtualization for Small and Midsize Business

VMware SMB Social Media Channels

Twitter - @VMwareSMB
Facebook - VMware SMB
VMware SMB Blog

My VMware: This is your chance to join the Beta, and have your say!

Upcoming VMUG Local Meetings

2012 VMUG User Conferences - Mark Your Calendar!

Green Mountain Power - Vermont-based utility company virtualizes Oracle applications, including databases.

Hosts
John Troyer
Alex Maier

Guests
Hemant Gaidhani, VMware
Hassen Abdu, VMware
Shrikam Goplaswyami,VMware

Link to Audio Recording
vCenter Infrastructure Navigator & Chargeback

Virtualization News
VMTN Community Platform Layout - New Tabs (Google+, Linkedin, Groups, Podcasts)
The Cloud Vendor Landscape – The VMware Advantage According to the Taneja Group
Preserving Multi-Cloud Choice and Flexibility with Cloud Foundry “Open PaaS”
LonVMUG Best Community Presentation of 2011 Awards
John Troyer Google+ Virtualization Circle
Toronto VMUG User Conference - Feb 7, 2012 Join the conversation on twitter #tovmug

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VMware vCenter Infrastructure Navigator - Visualize Dependencies - enables application-aware management of infrastructure and operations to better understand the impact of change, provide more complete disaster recovery protection and minimize downtime.

Download your eval NOW - VMware vCenter Infrastructure Navigator

VMware vCenter Infrastructure Navigator Documentation

VMware Infrastructure Navigator discussion forum

VMware vCenter Infrastructure Navigator - Delivered as a virtual appliance, vCenter 5.0 is a requirement

VMware vCenter Chargeback Manager - Improve utilization of virtual infrastructure with accurate visibility into the true costs of virtualized workloads.

Download your eval NOW - VMware vCenter Chargeback Manager

VMware vCenter Chargeback discussion forum

VMware vCenter Chargeback Manager Connector For IT Business Management Suite

VMware IT Business Management Suite (ITBM) - gives you the right level of visibility into the costs, utilization and service levels of IT services, CIOs can plan, manage and optimize the cost, value, and alternatives in the emerging world of dynamic IT.

vCenter Orchestrator plugin for vCenter Chargeback Manager - coming soon!

Additional Links

VMware vCenter Infrastructure Navigator Videos

Weekly virtualization news, as featured on the Community Roundtable podcast.

On Facebook, the vCloud team has shared a cool video showing how to configure firewall settings in vCloud Express, and also an interesting article in which our CEO Paul Maritz is hinting that an elite group of providers will soon offer VMware infrastructure for hybrid enterprise clouds. You can find it all at facebook.com/vmwarevcloud

Yesterday, a new public beta for the vCenter Converter 5.0 Standalone has gone live. Come check it out on VMTN community at communities.vmware.com – once there, click on “VMware Beta Programs” in the right-hand navigation. The new Converter beta is linked from there.

Early bird pricing for VMworld registration is ending on the 24^th of June, so the time is running out if you want to save some cash: for yourself or for your company.

There are a bunch of cool events coming up over the next week or so.

The VMware Forum is making a stop in Houston today, and continues to Frankfurt, Brussels, Chicago, Rome, Edinburgh, and Milan.

We have a ton of webinars coming up soon, on topics ranging from Transition to vSphere ESXi, to Desktop Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Virtualization in Hospitals, and Downtime Prevention. There are more webinars listed than I have time to mention here, so go have a look at webcasts.vmware.com

A full-day regional VMUG conference is coming up in Vancouver on the 21^st of June, so if you are in the area, put this on your calendars. A regional conference is more than your usual VMUG meeting. It’s frequently a full-day conference, with a full agenda and interesting speakers. John Troyer will be speaking there, so there’s your additional motivation to go.

Additionally, the following VMUGs are meeting over the next seven days: Switzerland, Hungary, Barcelona, San Antonio, Israel, and Omaha. You can find more details and registration links for all the VMUG meetings at myvmug.org by clicking on “Events.”

Weekly virtualization news, as featured on the Community Roundtable podcast.

Just in time for the summer fun we have released an updated Fusion 3.1.3.

If you haven't heard, the Fusion team in Palo Alto is looking for an intern. Go check out the Fusion page on Facebook for details.

We have been judging vExpert candidates this week, and John should be announcing the newest crop of vExperts on the VMTN blog shortly.

Also today, we welcomed the newly-elected VMTN community moderators on board. The current moderator service term runs from the 1^st of June and till the end of November this year. If you want to throw your hat in for the next term, the elections will start on the 1^st of November.

Simon Long and Simon Seagrave have just launched vbeers.org to help virtualization enthusiasts find each other—and a refreshing beer—all around the world. Check out vbeers.org to find your nearest virtualization watering hole.

Early bird pricing for VMworld registration is ending on the 24^th of June, so the time is running out if you want to save some cash.

The world of virtualization will thrill us with some cool events over the next week or so.

The VMware Forum season is in full swing, and we have more events taking place this month in Atlanta, Chile, Johannesburg, Houston, Kiev, Dublin, Warsaw, and Chicago.

Two full-day regional VMUG conferences are coming up, one in Western Pennsylvania, on the 7^th of June, and the other in Vancouver on the 21^st.

Additionally, the following VMUGs are meeting over the next seven days: Central Ohio SLED, Saskatoon, Northwest SC, Detroit, Rochester, Western PA, Wisconsin, Brisbane, and Raleigh. You can find more details and registration links for all the VMUG meetings at myvmug.org by clicking on “Events.”

Weekly virtualization news, as featured on the Community Roundtable podcast.

VMware Fusion team in Palo Alto is looking for an intern. If you want to apply, check out the Fusion page on Facebook.

As John has written on the VMTN blog, we have received an overwhelming response to the vExpert call for nominations, so we're a little backed up and our judges will need two more weeks to go through all the applications with the attention they deserve. John will be announcing the newest crop of vExperts on the blog, and on the Community forums.

On Thursday, I was at the VMware Forum in Anaheim, and recorded a bunch of video interviews with attendees and partners. I tweeted from the event, so those of you who follow me got the scoop and some pictures. I'm @VmwareCommunity on Twitter, if you don't follow me yet. 

We will be making a little YouTube video or two out of the footage we shot at this VMware Forum and the others. Keep an eye out for them in our YouTube channel.

The world of virtualization has a few exciting things in store for us over the next week or so.

The VMware Forum season is in full swing, and we have more events taking place in May and Early June in Budapest, Madrid, Atlanta, Chile, Johannesburg, Houston, Kiev, and Dublin.

The web page with details is linked straight from vmware.com – in the box that says “VMware Forum 2011” on the lower left.

We also have two webinars today about When Java EE Is Overkill: Lightweight Application Server Use Cases, and a Spanish-language one on Physical IT Infrastructure Control with vCenter Configuration Manager.

Tomorrow, we you can learn to Enhance Productivity with Collaborative Workspace from VMware and Cisco. Also a Portuguese-language version of the vCenter Configuration Manager webinar.

To find out more and register, head over to webcasts.vmware.com

Two full-day regional VMUG conferences are coming up next month, one in Western Pennsylvania, on the 7^th of June, and the other in Vancouver on the 21^st.

Additionally, the following VMUGs are meeting over the next seven days: Tasmania, Atlanta, East Germany, Buffalo, and Wellington. You can find more details and registration links for all the VMUG meetings at myvmug.org by clicking on “Events.”

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you had a good time ringing in 2011.

Our friends at EMC have scheduled a number of new webcasts for January, covering solutions for using EMC technology with VMware. All January webcasts will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Thursdays.

The Value of VMware Integration
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 8 am PT / 11 am ET / 16:00 GMT
Learn about the benefits of tight VMware integration, and find out how EMC's 60+ points of integration with VMware enhance the performance, scalability, security, and ease-of-management of virtual environments.

Deploying Virtual Desktop Infrastructure to Accelerate EHR Adoption
Thursday, January 13, 2011 - 8 am PT / 11 am ET / 16:00 GMT
Hear Columbia Memorial Hospital discuss how the EMC Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Solution for Healthcare helps solve the challenge of ever-increasing costs--while increasing clinical productivity, improving workflow, and securing patient information.

Automate Unified Recovery of VMware Hosts
Thursday, January 20, 2011 - 8 am PT / 11 am ET / 16:00 GMT
Learn about strategies for protecting data within a unified storage infrastructure. Discover how to define protection policies, identify protection gaps, and prove compliance, as well as instantly recover from data corruption with DVR-like rollback.

Simple, Efficient, Powerful - Optimizing Your Virtualized Applications
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 8 am PT / 11 am ET / 16:00 GMT
Find out how our unified storage solutions can help you utilize resources to efficiently and dynamically embrace virtualization, and boost your infrastructure performance--with a 20% guarantee.

The beta release of VMware Studio 2.0 and using it to create vApps was the topic of this week's podcast. Studio 1.0 came out last year; this beta moves the bar significantly. We also got into why you as a VMware admin should care about vApps - without being too hyperbolic I think it's going to be the organizing paradigm that will change how we think of applications -- from a VM level to something much higher-level and more manageable. Going back to Studio, here's the high-level description:

VMware Studio 2.0 helps configure, build, deploy, customize and maintain vApps and virtual appliances. These solution stacks can be deployed on VMware vSphere 4.0 or in the cloud and can be managed from the VMware Studio web console or from VMware vCenter Server. In this webinar, software vendors, application developers and IT administrators will get an overview of vApps and virtual appliances followed by what's new in Studio 2.0. We will walk you through the entire build process by starting with an application created in Eclipse (via the Eclipse plug-in in Studio) and demonstrating how it can be packaged as either a vApp or virtual appliance in OVF format. The process will also reveal various automated tools available, for creating a clean out-of-box experience, such as specifying exact OS requirements, building an update repository, adding custom management services and adding existing VM builds as input.

As always, listen in via the widget to the right, the mp3, or via iTunes.

More links:

• VMware Studio 2.0 beta page
• VMware Studio 2.0 webinar recorded for your on-demand viewing pleasure from our VMware Coffee Talk Series  with more details and slides
• vApp Developers Blog <-- brand new! We'll be covering vApps, OVF, Studio, and topics related to building and using virtual appliances here. They are already off to a great start -- check out the opening post complete with very nice video of the vSphere OVF deployment wizard in action; and the second post talking about working with OVF from the command line.

Non-Studio topics we discussed:

• VMworld Technology Exchange Developer Day: announcement, more details, registration is open
• Virtualization Security Podcast with Special Guests Karen Hepner and Steve Beaver from vWire, Scott Lowe and Chris Wolf.
• Dave Convery: Dear VMware: Pick a Common (SUPPORTED) Virtual Appliance OS... Please...

A few of the podcast attendees have already weighed in with their reactions - mostly about the significance of using vApps in the enterprise. I wasn't kidding when I used the word 'paradigm' above.

Stu from vinternals.com, who is known to tell it like it is, liked it, he really liked it.

Rich Brambley:  VMware Studio 2.0 and OVF Exports: Blurred Products or Outside The Box Thinking? | VM /ETC.

I’ll outline potential Studio / OVF usage that may be “outside of the box” from the VMware software’s intended purpose. Or is it? You tell me.

vCenter / Deploy from template

The ability to export any VM as an OVF from the VI Client by itself, let alone VMware Studio, opens the door for template deployment in environments without vCenter. Build a VM to desired corporate standards and then export a copy of it to a shared network drive where it can be used as a master image for future deployments on any virtual platform that supports OVF.

With VMware Studio build a multiple VM apllication as a vApp. Configure the web server and the database for example, and before adding any data export the combination as an OVF. Deploy the vApp OVF as a master template as needed.

Sure, vCenter offers so much more automation for this process, but what about for deployment between ESX hosts that are not managed by the same vCenter or don’t share the same storage? ...

Daniel Eason: Virtually Insane?: The Virtual Glue.

By deploying turnkey Virtual Appliances with for example a new SAP ERP Landscape on 10-20 Machines in a period of say 2-3 days rather than 2-3 Machines in 10-20 days clearly shows that current long deployment processes are redced and less people need to be involved on a deployment when using Virtual Appliances alongside side orchestration and groupings such as vApp. The problem however with this is you get people protective on roles and the oldage turf war developing so it is not something that can be just implemented straight away. ...

vApps functionality in vSphere enables organisations to reduce even more manual and people process. It enables you to compile the complete application stack and configure all associated components by one single master definition. Tie this in with some VMware orchestration capability where you could say deploy via API the Database components as part of the VM build and provision the relevant Networking components and it is clear the potential is going to be huge.

For the Canadians hiding among us, happy belated Canada Day. For the USians, happy Fourth. For the rest of the world, keep on working and we'll see you next week.

We've been doing this podcast thing for a year, so happy anniversary! Since this was podcast #48, and that doesn't count the podcasts we recorded at VMworld, that means we were here every single week except for one week at American Thanksgiving and two at Christmas, and I think we can all agree that a full year of weekly podcasts lies firmly between crazy and genius, leaning towards crazy. The only way we made this possible on our budget (zero) is to (1) use a free service; (2) have zero preparation and zero post-production (although I try to remember to run the audio files through a little volume leveling); but most importantly (3) get smarter people than myself on the line every week. That last one is the key. From the beginning I wanted to pull together a panel of smart VMware experts for commentary and get them to ask questions to a smart technical guest. That setup, now with an expanded live audience of a few dozen smart chatters and callers every week, has turned this thing into a winner. I want to thank the tireless roundtable panel for making time week after week to call in and my VMware colleagues who have learned to duck into an office when they see me wandering the halls looking for guests.

Stop by every Wednesday at noon Pacific time to join in the fun -- see below for details on next week's podcast on vSphere performance.

This week we were lucky enough to have Chris Gebhardt and Vaughn Stewart from NetApp as our guests, and obviously storage was the topic -- LUN sizing, dedupe, intelligent caching, VMware View, snapshots, SSDs, and more. As always, listen via the widget on the right, the mp3, or via iTunes.

Links:

• The Virtual Storage Guy blog from Vaughn Stewart 
• The Virtualization Effect blog from Chris Gebhardt
• VMware vSphere and the vStorage API from Rick Scherer
• TR3428 - NetApp and VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 Storage (pdf)
• NetApp Rapid Cloning Utility video (YouTube)
• NetApp VMware View Integration video (Vaughn Stewart on YouTube)
• TR3705 - NetApp and VMware VDI Best Practices (pdf)
• NetApp SnapManager for VMware Infrastructure (SMVI) Demo (YouTube)
• NetApp to acquire Data Domain (press release - this dropped as we were finishing up the podcast)

Other things you'll want to listen to:

• Virtual Thoughts (blog | information) New podcast from Edward Haletky (Texiwill) and Tom Howarth. Topic: vSphere Licensing. Tuesday, May 26, 2:30pm EDT / 1930pm BST.
• VMware Communities Roundtable. Scott Drummonds on What's New In vSphere Performance. information. Wednesday, May 27, noon PDT / 3pm EDT / 2000 BST.
•  Virtualization SQL on VMware with Confidence: What You Should Know and How to Get Started (with Rick Scherer from VMwareTips.com; link takes you to free NetApp webinar registration) Thursday, May 28, 11am PDT  / 2pm Eastern / 1900 BST.
• Online Virtualization Forum from VMware. June 9 & 10, 8am-1pm PDT / 11am-4pm EDT / 1600-2100 BST
• The Hypervisor Huddle #1 "an audiocast for IT pros in the know" from the SearchVMware.com crew. Topic: vSphere Licensing,  Hyper-V R2, and Oracle-Sun. (monthly, pre-recorded)
• Virtualization Security Roundtable Podcast. Every other Thursday 11:30am PDT / 2:30pm EDT / 1930 BST
• You do know about VMware's Webcasts on Demand, right? Look for the ones labeled "Technical Track" for the good stuff.

The talk was lively in this week's podcast. It was an open topic week and we covered a lot of ground. The highlights were a discussion of performance monitoring featuring Thomas Bryant and Doug Hazelman as well a call from Scott Lowe and Steve Beaver from the Virtualization Congress. As always, listen in via the widget to the right, the mp3, or via iTunes.

Next week, May 13, join special guest Paul Manning for a discussion of What's New in VMware vSphere 4: Storage. We meet every Wednesday at noon Pacific.

Upcoming events:

• May 7 Virtualization Security Roundtable Podcast on VMsafe  
• May 8 What's new with vSphere Web Services SDK Deep Dive The first monthly VMware Coffee Talk Live Webinars is in two parts: part one was this mornng but you can still catch part two on Friday. Recordings are available after the life webcast.
• May 14 UK VMUG London
• May 18 First unofficial online VMUG - topics in VESI & vSphere - Alan Renouf
• May 19 VMUG Madison Wisconsin - note, this will be webcast! 

New books:

• Managing VMware Infrastructure with Windows PowerShell by Hal Rottenberg
• VMware vSphereTM and Virtual Infrastructure Security by Edward Haletky
• VMware VI3 Implementation & Administration (Kindle version) by Eric Siebert

Links for your linky pleasure:

• The Blue Ocean of Performance Monitoring by Thomas Bryant
• VMware vSphere and the vStorage API by Rick Scherer
• So, what does vStorage really mean? by Chad Sakac
• Thin on Thin? Where should you do Thin Provisioning – vSphere 4.0 or Array-Level? by Chad Sakac
• Hoffacino  - this explains so much about what goes on here: @Beaker
• The Marriage of Figaro: Complexity and Insecurity of the Cloud aka The Frogs Who Desired a King Chris Hoff's Virtualization Congress presentation as liveblogged by Scott Lowe
• Virtualization Congress
• Will we be forced to pay more? Part 1 & Part 2 by Maish Saidel-Keening (expect a bit more context and commentary from VMware on this topic soon)
• Hyper-V Live Migration for free, tough cookie for VMware by Gabrie van Zanten
• Video on Hyper-V Crashes by Scott Drummonds

Have a great week!

This was a big week! We launched VMware vSphere, so there was little else we could discuss on this week's VMware Community Roundtable Podcast. On the first half, we covered licensing, and then on the second half we covered technology topics, with a special focus on vSphere networking. As usual, listen via the widget on the right, the mp3, or via iTunes

Links

• vSphere overview
• vSphere Launch Event webcast
• vSphere Upgrade Center (this will answer most of your questions)
• vSphere Upgrade Community (this is where you can ask any remaining questions)

• VMware Launches vSphere and Time to upgrade (with video) Mike DiPetrillo
• VMware announces vSphere 4 Cloud OS (Greg Lato)
• vSphere Linkage (Duncan Epping)
• vSphere Links (Eric Siebert)
• vSphere pricing (pdf)
• vSphere Essentials Datasheet (pdf)

• VMware Networking Blog
• iSCSI multipathing with esxcli (Duncan Epping)
• What's New in vSphere 4 Networking (pdf)
• What's New in vSphere 4 Storage (pdf)
• Sneak Peek at vShere 4 I/O Goodness and World Records (Chad Sakac)
• The Great vSwitch Debate: Part 6 (Ken Cline)
• Simplify Network Administration with vNetwork Enhancements in VMware vSphere 4 (May 4 Webcast)
• VMware vSphere Health Check Script

For next week's podcast (always Wednesday at noon PDT / 3pm EDT) we'll discuss the white paper Storage Considerations for VMware View with the author, Fred Schimscheimer.  Your homework assignment is to read the paper and come wtih questions.