September 2010 archive

How to speed up the vSphere Client on Windows 7

Is your vSphere Client slow to update the screen when you run it on Windows 7? VMware just published a workaround for this in their knowledgebase which involves disabling Desktop Composition on the vSphere Client shortcut. One side effect of this though is Desktop Composition is also known as “Aero”  which gives you some of the cool visual effects in Windows 7 like translucent windows and glass borders. For me on my work PC this is no big deal, I’ll gladly take the snappier performance of the vSphere Client over the Aero effects which I don’t care for. On my home PC I’ll probably not do this though as I enjoy some of the Aero effects and can deal with the slight lag.

If you want to do this it’s pretty simple, just right-click on the vSphere Client and select Properties and then on the Compatibility tab check the Disable desktop composition box and click OK. Once you start the vSphere Client next the Aero effects will automatically be disabled and the vSphere Client will display much quicker.

vsphere-client-win7

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Top VMware blogger results

So the top VMware blogger results are in, the last vote was in January 2010, we had a total of 66 blogs and about 700 votes cast. This time there was 115 blogs on the ballot and we had about 860 votes cast from all over the world. The jump of 50 new blogs shows how incredibly passionate people are about VMware technology, seriously when is the last time you saw over 100 blogs devoted to any one product.

First let me explain how the voting process works, voters can choice their favorite 10 blogs, they then rank them in order from 1 to 10 and a value is assigned to each vote, a #1 vote is worth 10 points, #2 vote is worth 9 points and so on down to a #10 vote being worth 1 point. The points are then tabulated to determine the top 25 blogs. It’s a pretty time consuming process for me, some of it is automated but I still have to add up votes and drop them into a spreadsheet to determine the winners.

Before I go any further let me first thank Train Signal for sponsoring the voting process, I use a paid service to make sure the voting is top notch and on the level and I appreciate them helping offset my costs.

We had 4 new blogs break the top 25 and lots of re-positioning as well. I thought I would try something different this time and announce the results in a Casey Kasem style top 25 countdown on our vChat podcast along with special guest John Troyer from VMware. In the podcast we count up from 25 to 1 and say some words about each blogger in the top 25, I encourage you to check it out, we had fun doing it and recognizing the great bloggers out there.

I initially thought about prizes for the top bloggers but it was difficult to come up with them. In the end I came up with what I thought was an even better prize. I contacted Steven Herrod, VMware’s CTO, to see if he would say a few words to the bloggers that we could include in the vChat. Let me explain why I thought this would be rewarding to all the bloggers. You guys do this because you love VMware technology, you aren’t blogging to get rich. To me all it takes is one person saying thanks, and that they really appreciate what you do to make it all worthwhile. Seriously if you’ve ever gotten that email or tweet from someone I bet it makes your day. You’d be surprised at your audience, many people read your blog including Steven Herrod from VMware. I thought the best prize I could give you guys is the recognition from one of the top guys at VMware that you are appreciated and your efforts make a difference to a huge number of people. When I approached Steven about this he was quick to agree to help out which speaks volumes about what he thinks of you guys.

With so many bloggers out there its a tough scene but I seriously encourage you all to keep at it, the longer you stick with it, the more people notice and will reward you with their vote. You guys are all great, I know how hard it can be to find the time to blog but do know that your efforts are appreciated and your unselfish dedication makes a difference to a great many of people. So without further ado here’s the full results of the voting, also be sure and check out our vChat episode 8 where we talk about each blogger in the top 25.

Blog

Total PointsRankPreviousTotal Votes#1 Votes
Yellow Bricks504311601227
Virtual Geek34452250889
Scott Lowe28013343119
NTPro.nl23704436158
RTFM Education20295533311
Frank Denneman140361423212
vSphere-land13657112665
Virtualization Evangelist1235862495
Virtu-al11189102196
Gabe's Virtual World102210819512
The SLOG975111717421
Hypervizor916122014524
VMGuru.nl808131815722
TechHead785142114121
Virtual Storage Guy77115913728
vCritical683161212421
Pivot Point63817231226
VMware Tips63118132131
vReference590192211313
VM/ETC5592071312
LucD Notes54921661003
Mike D's Blog4972219954
ESX Virtualization47623321044
Nickapedia46824-803
Virtually Ghetto46125-933
The VM Guy4252615850
Arnim van Lieshout42227297016
Virtual Insanity40528456818
Hypervisor.fr39429-6814
Kendrick Coleman39430-895
By The Bell37931265519
Technodrone37332247312
View Yonder3683331862
VMPros.nl34334546112
Planet VM3203516785
Vinternals3173628783
Virtual Admin Notes31437-4818
IT 2.03093836623
My Virtual Cloud2983958548
Everyday Virtualization2914035721
Chris Wolf2864125612
VMware Training and Certification26342-592
GesalitIT25643-551
Double Cloud24644-432
2 VCPs2384538525
Run Virtual2344630540
Jase's Place2334755601
Aaron Delp Blog23248-501
The Virtualization Practice2254942475
Gerbens Blog2215040421
vNotion20251-480
Rational Survivability1995251363
Virtual Kenneth's Blog1995339400
VMware Info1965433461
Roger Lund IT Guy1945559431
Jume1885650411
Virtual Future1885737430
Professional VMware1775834521
vDestination17759-373
Peeters Online17560-450
Virtual Lef16961-361
Ken's Virtual Reality1646227390
Virtual VCP1626346410
Virtualised Reality1616448266
The Lone Sysadmin1606560361
Virtualization Security15966-400
VMwarewolf15667-420
SearchServerVirtualization Blog1556844392
Wikibon Blog15469-361
Virtual Lifestyle1537056324
TechProsaic1507152330
Information Week Blog14672-310
J.F.V.I.14673-272
Infoworld Virtualization Report14574-302
VirtualPro14275-340
VM-Aware14176-340
Musings of Rodos1397747320
Knudt Blog1387865260
Virtual Troll13779-300
Going Virtual1348064340
vFrank13481-271
VMworldz13482-350
RickaTron13183-281
VM Admin12784-290
The Lower Case W12685-232
VMwise12386-320
Virtualization Team12287-260
Malaysia VM1208861270
Daily Hypervisor1188962250
Virtual Planet11790-290
Virtualize Tips11591-290
vKnowledge.nl11492-290
Blue Gears11193-200
Virtualization Information1119457281
Elastic Vapor10895-231
Vinf.net1089653270
Andi Mann1079743191
Deinos Cloud10598-272
Virtual Hints10599-272
Lori MacVittie102100-230
The HyperAdvisor10210163232
VM Today9910241270
Virtually Speaking97103-270
Beaver's Virtual Dam9410449180
It's Just Another Layer87105-200
VM Bulletin87106-220
VM Hero85107-240
Virtualization Stuff80108-170
Cretec's Virtual Blog73109-130
A Crazy Penguin66110-120
Virtual Jay66111-150
Blue Shift Blog60112-100
Virtualization Buster59113-160
A Day In The Life55114-110
Virtualizing the D.C.44115-120

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vChat Episode 8 – Top blogger awards show

vChat episode 8 was all about the top bloggers, we count up from number 25 to number 1 based on the voting results from my top VMware blogger survey and also say a few words about each blogger. Special guest John Troyer from VMware joins us along with a message from a surprise guest. The full voting results will be published later today. Special thanks to Simon for his great editing work.

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Denver VMware Users group meeting tomorrow

If you haven’t registered yet be sure and do so if you plan on attending. We have a small change in the speaker line-up with Rob Randell from VMware and Scott Lowe from EMC swapping timeslots so the updated agenda is below. In addition we also confirmed that the VMware support guys will be down from the Broomfield HQ so we’ll have a Genuis Bar setup were you can ask them questions one on one, they will be there from 12:30pm – 2:30pm.

  • 10:00am General Session – What’s New at VMware (Amanda Blevins, VMware)
  • 10:30am General session – Elastic vSphere? Design Considerations for Building Stretched Clusters (Scott Lowe, EMC)
  • 11:15am Social Media presentation – How and Why to use social media for business (Erika Napoletano, http://redheadwriting.com)
  • 11:30am Lunch/Networking with Vendors (Brothers BBQ)
  • 12:30pm General Session – How Virtualization is changing Disaster Recovery (Doug Hazelman, Veeam)
  • 1:15pm General Session – Security of ESX and Virtual Systems (Rob Randall, VMware)
  • 2:00pm Main/Breakout room (HyTrust/Xsigo)
  • 2:40pm Main/Breakout room (Catbird/Compellent)
  • 3:20pm Closing & Door prize giveaways
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Announcing a new planet aggregator for the top 25 blogs

I’ve built my own planet aggregator called Planet vSphere-land solely for the top 25 VMware blogs on my vLaunchpad similar to Planet V12n that VMware runs for all the virtualization blogs. Currently it has the old top 25 blogs and will be updated tomorrow with the new top 25 blogs. It only displays the first 200 characters of a blog post and you have to go to the source to read the full post. The website has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to and all posts are also automatically tweeted to a special twitter account that I setup for it. It’s also running the WPTouch plugin so it will format properly for mobile phones. So enjoy, if you have any suggestions for the website be sure and let me know.

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Busting through vendor FUD for more informed IT decisions

In the highly competitive and cutthroat IT industry, every vendor fights for your business — sometimes using fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) to downplay competitors and bolster their own products. The virtualization market is no different.

Vendors may twist the facts or omit key details to look better than a competitor. In extreme cases, they deliberately spread misinformation. These dirty tactics are examples of FUD, and they’re designed to sway your opinion.

With the possibility of FUD muddling your IT decisions, how do you obtain the correct information to make informed purchases? If you thoroughly research products and ask the right questions, you can combat vendor FUD in all its forms.

Read the full article at searchvmware.com…

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My new book project

box_award

I was contacted by Veeam to do an eBook project for them entitled “The Expert Guide to VMware Data Protection” that would be about 5 chapters and at least 60 pages. This eBook  covers virtualization concepts, backup & recovery methodologies, choosing the right backup solution, disaster recovery methodologies and choosing the right disaster recovery solution. I spent a lot of time on the first chapter which is a deep dive into how virtualization works, similar to my VMworld session, I cover the details on what a hypervisor is, rings in virtualization, CPU scheduler, ESXi anatomy, virtual machine hardware, virtual machine files, virtual disks, virtualization layer and how virtual machines differ from physical servers. I kept it pretty technical and I think both beginners and experts will get something out of it. You can download chapter 1 right now, the remaining chapters will be released every few weeks. So head on over to Veeam’s website and check it out!

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All your ESX Service Consoles belong to us…

In case you needed more encouragement to move to ESXi here’s a good reason. The recent Linux vulnerability that was announced that can give attackers root access to a system effects the ESX 4.x Service Console as well as it is based off Red Hat Linux with the 2.6.28 kernel. The vulnerability affects nearly all 64-bit Linux distros but is not present in 32-bit Linux distros. Because of that the ESX 3.x Service Console is not affected by this. Apparently VMware is aware of this and a patch is in the works so be on the lookout for it and patch your systems immediately. If an attacker were to gain root access to your ESX Service Console they could easily gain access to all your VM’s as well. ESXi systems are not affected at all as they do not run a full Linux operating system and instead run a small POSIX based environment that has a smaller attack surface.

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