Improve Virtualization Management with VMware vCenter Server 4 (May 18th) (VMware)
VMware vCenter Server 4.0 installation video (vCritical)
vSphere vCenter Database and the IBM DB2 Express-C (NTPro.nl)
Video: vSphere4 Unleashed: 02 – Installing vCenter4 (Hypervizor)
Video: vSphere4 Unleashed: 03 – Licensing & Configuring vCenter (Hypervizor)
32-bit ODBC DSN for vSphere (VMwarewolf)
Memory usage in vCenter Server 4.0 (Virtualization Pro)
Importing vCenter 2.5 Customization Specifications into vCenter 4 (Vinf.net)
vCenter Server Linked Mode (NTPro.nl)
Performing a Command-Line Installation of vCenter Server (VMware)
Replacing vCenter Server Certificates (VMware)
Moving custom fields from one vCenter to another (VMware)
Upgrade VMware vCenter 2.5 to 4.0 Video (VMware Tips)
Options for VMware Virtual Center / vCenter Redundancy (Virtualization Admin)
Setting up vCenter Server in a Microsoft Cluster Service Cluster (KB Article)
vCenter Required Ports (KB Article)
Creating a 32bit DSN on a 64bit Windows machine (KB Article)
Category: vSphere Links
May 11 2009
vCenter Server Links
May 11 2009
Storage Links
General
Storage Caching Solutions (Architecting IT)
(Alternative) VM swap file locations Q&A (Frank Denneman)
A look at the ESX I/O stack (NetApp)
vSphere Storage: Features and Enhancements (Professional VMware)
Storage Changes in VMware ESX 3.5 Update 4 (Stephen Foskett)
Storage Changes in the VMware vSphere 4 Family (Stephen Foskett)
Storage Changes in VMware vSphere 5 (Stephen Foskett)
Storage Changes in VMware vSphere 5.1 (Stephen Foskett)
Everything you need to know about vSphere and data storage (Storage Magazine)
10 tips for managing storage for virtual servers and virtual desktops (Storage Magazine)
Best Practices for Designing Highly Available Storage – Host Perspective (Stretch Cloud)
Best Practices for Designing Highly Available Storage – FC SAN Perspective (Stretch Cloud)
Best Practices for Designing Highly Available Storage – iSCSI SAN Perspective (Stretch Cloud)
Best Practices for Designing Highly Available Storage – Network for iSCSI (Stretch Cloud)
Best Practices for Designing Highly Available Storage – Storage LUNs (Stretch Cloud)
Best Practices for Designing Highly Available Storage – Overall Storage System (Stretch Cloud)
Storage Landscape (Part 1) – Disruptive Technology Trends (Talking Tech with SHD)
Storage Landscape (Part 2) – Storage Architectures (Talking Tech with SHD)
Software-Defined Storage & Hyper-Converged Infrastructure; Two Sides of the Same Coin? (Talking Tech with SHD)
vSphere and 2TB LUNs – changes from VI3.x (Virtual Geek)
Data Compression, Deduplication, & Single Instance Storage (Virtual Storage Guy)
vSphere Introduces the Plug-n-Play SAN (Virtual Storage Guy)
Storage Basics – Part I: An Introduction (VM Today)
Storage Basics – Part II: IOPS (VM Today)
Storage Basics – Part III: RAID (VM Today)
Storage Basics – Part IV: Interface (VM Today)
Storage Basics – Part V: Controllers, Cache and Coalescing (VM Today)
Storage Basics – Part VI: Storage Workload Characterization (VM Today)
Storage Basics – Part VII: Storage Alignment (VM Today)
Storage Basics – Part VIII – The Difference in Consumer vs. Enterprise Class Disks and Storage Arrays (VM Today)
Storage Basics – Part IX: Alternate IOPS Formula (VM Today)
Improve Storage Efficiency and Management with VMware vSphere 4 (VMware)
What’s New in VMware vSphere 4.0 -Storage (VMware Tech Paper)
What’s New in VMware vSphere 4.1 – Storage (VMware Tech Paper)
What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0 – Storage (VMware Tech Paper)
What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.1 – Storage (VMware Tech Paper)
VMware vSphere 4: Exchange Server on NFS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel (VMware)
Advanced VMkernel Settings for Disk Storage (VMware vSphere Blog)
Ye olde Controller, Target, Device (ctd) Numbering (VMware vSphere Blog)
How much storage can I present to a Virtual Machine? (VMware vSphere Blog)
Best Practice: How to correctly remove a LUN from an ESX host (VMware vSphere Blog)
Should I defrag my Guest OS? (VMware vSphere Blog)
Misaligned VMs? (VMware vSphere Blog)
Guest OS Partition Alignment (VMware vSphere Blog)
Storage Oversubscription Technologies (Xtravirt)
Why Queue Depth matters! (Yellow Bricks)
Performance
vStorage: Troubleshooting Performance (Professional VMware)
Benchmarking Storage for VMware (Peacon)
Avoid Storage I/O Bottlenecks With vCenter and Esxtop (Petri)
Calculate IOPS in a storage array (Tech Republic)
Performance Troubleshooting VMware vSphere – Storage (Virtual Insanity)
Comparing the I/O Performance of 2 or more Virtual Machines SSD, SATA & IOmeter (Vinf.net)
Storage System Performance Analysis with Iometer (VMware)
Poor performance and high disk latency with some storage configurations (VMware KB)
vSOM: A Framework for Virtual Machine-centric Analysis of End-to-End Storage IO Operations (VMware Labs Tech Paper)
Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 5.1 (VMware Tech Paper)
Storage I/O Performance on VMware vSphere 5.1 over 16 Gigabit Fibre Channel (VMware Tech Paper)
Storage Workload Characterization and Consolidation in Virtualized Environments (VMware Tech Pub)
An Analysis of Disk Performance in VMware ESX Virtual Machines (VMware Tech Pub)
IOPs? (Yellow Bricks)
pvSCSI
More Bang for Your Buck with PVSCSI (Part 1) (Virtual Insanity)
More Bang for your Buck with PVSCSI (Part 2) (Virtual Insanity)
Boot from Paravirtualized SCSI Adapter (Xtravirt)
Configuring disks to use VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapters (VMware KB)
Raw Device Mappings (RDMs)
Physical RDM to VMDK Migration Feature (VMware vSphere Blog)
Migrating RDMs, and a question for RDM Users (VMware vSphere Blog)
Storage DRS
Storage DRS, more than I/O load-balancing only (VMware vSphere Blog)
Storage DRS Affinity & Anti-Affinity Rules (VMware vSphere Blog)
Storage DRS and Storage Array Feature Interoperability (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware vSphere Storage DRS Interoperability (VMware Tech Paper)
Storage DRS: Automated Management of Storage Devices In a Virtualized Datacenter (VMware Labs Tech Paper)
Should I use many small LUNs or a couple large LUNs for Storage DRS? (Yellow Bricks)
Storage I/O Control
Debunking Storage I/O Control Myths (VMware vSphere Blog)
Storage I/O Control Enhancements in vSphere 5.0 (VMware vSphere Blog)
Using both Storage I/O Control & Network I/O Control for NFS (VMware vSphere Blog)
Performance Implications of Storage I/O Control-Enabled NFS Datastores in VMware vSphere 5.0 (VMware Tech Paper)
Storage IO Control Technical Overview & Considerations for Deployment (VMware Tech Paper)
Storage vMotion
Answering some Storage vMotion questions (VMware vSphere Blog)
Storage vMotion of a Virtualized SQL Server Database (VMware Tech Paper)
The Design and Evolution of Live Storage Migration in VMware ESX (VMware Tech Paper)
Virtual Disk
To Zero or not to Zero, that is the question… (Defined By Software)
xExtending an EagerZeroedThick Disk (VMware vSphere Blog)
2TB VMDKs on Upgraded VMFS-3 to VMFS-5. Really? (VMware vSphere Blog)
Virtual Disk Format 5.0 (VMware Tech Paper)
VDI
VDI User Sizing Example (EMC)
Space-Efficient Sparse Virtual Disks and VMware View (My Virtual Cloud)
Clearing up Space-Efficient Virtual Disk questions (My Virtual Cloud)
Managing storage for virtual desktops (Storage Magazine)
VDI and Storage: Deep Impact (Virtuall.eu)
A closer look at the View Storage Accelerator [incl. Video] (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMFS File Locking and Its Impact in VMware View 5.1 (VMware Tech Paper)
Storage Considerations for VMware View (VMware Tech Paper)
View Storage Accelerator in VMware View 5.1 (VMware Tech Paper)
VMFS
VMFS Extents – Are they bad, or simply misunderstood? (VMware vSphere Blog)
Exactly how big can I make a single-extent VMFS-5 datastore? (VMware vSphere Blog)
Some useful vmkfstools ‘hidden’ options (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMFS Locking Uncovered (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMFS Heap Considerations (VMware vSphere Blog)
Something I didn’t known about VMFS sub-blocks (VMware vSphere Blog)
Upgraded VMFS-5: Automatic Partition Format Change (VMware vSphere Blog)
What could be writing to a VMFS when no Virtual Machines are running? (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware vStorage Virtual Machine File System – Technical Overview and Best Practices (VMware Tech Paper)
VMware vSphere VMFS-5 Upgrade Considerations (VMware Tech Paper)
vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA)
vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) Resilience – Network Outage Scenario #1: Back End (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) Resilience – Network Outage Scenario #2: Front End (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) – Introduction (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere Storage Appliance – Can I run vCenter on a VSA cluster member? (VMware vSphere Blog)
Performance of VSA in VMware Sphere 5 (VMware Tech Paper)
VMware vSphere Storage Appliance Technical Deep Dive (VMware Tech Paper)
What’s New in VMware vSphere® Storage Appliance 5.1 (VMware Tech Paper)
vSphere 5.0 Blog Series
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 1 – VMFS-5 (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 2 – Storage vMotion (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 3 – VAAI (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 4 – Storage DRS – Initial Placement (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 5 – Storage DRS – Balance On Space Usage (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 6 – Storage DRS – Balance On I/O Metrics (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 7 – VMFS-5 & GPT (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 8 – Handling the All Paths Down (APD) condition (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 9 – Snapshot Consolidate (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 10 – VASA – vSphere Storage APIs – Storage Awareness(VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 11 – Profile Driven Storage (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 12 – iSCSI Multipathing Enhancements (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.1 Blog Series
vSphere 5.1 Storage Enhancements – Part 1: VMFS-5 (Cormac Hogan)
vSphere 5.1 Storage Enhancements – Part 2: SE Sparse Disks (Cormac Hogan)
vSphere 5.1 Storage Enhancements – Part 3: vCloud Director (Cormac Hogan)
vSphere 5.1 Storage Enhancements – Part 4: All Paths Down (APD) (Cormac Hogan)
vSphere 5.1 Storage Enhancements – Part 5: Storage Protocols (Cormac Hogan)
vSphere 5.1 Storage Enhancements – Part 6: IODM & SSD Monitoring (Cormac Hogan)
vSphere 5.1 Storage Enhancements – Part 7: Storage vMotion (Cormac Hogan)
vSphere 5.1 Storage Enhancements – Part 8: Storage I/O Control (Cormac Hogan)
vSphere 5.1 Storage Enhancements – Part 9: Storage DRS (Cormac Hogan)
vSphere 5.1 Storage Enhancements – Part 10: 5 Node MSCS Support (Cormac Hogan)
vSphere 5.5 Posts
vSphere 5.5 Storage Enhancements Part 1: 62TB VMDK (Cormac Hogan)
Hot-Extending Large VMDKs in vSphere 5.5 (Cormac Hogan)
vSphere 5.5 Storage Profiles Are Now Storage Policies (Everything Should Be Virtual)
vSphere 5.5 Jumbo VMDK Deep Dive (Long White Clouds)
vSphere 5.5 Windows Failover Clustering Support (Long White Clouds)
VMworld 2013: What’s new in vSphere 5.5: Storage (Mike Laverick)
vSphere 5.5 UNMAP Deep Dive (VMware vEvangelist)
64TB VMDKs? Yes we can. (VM Today)
VMware’s Strategy for Software-Defined Storage (VMware CTO Blog)
What’s New in vSphere 5.5 Storage (VMware vSphere Blog)
Comparing VMware VSA & VMware Virtual SAN (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMworld 2013: STO5715-S – Software-defined Storage – The Next Phase in the Evolution of Enterprise Storage (VMworld TV)
vSphere 5.5 Improvements Part 3 – Lions, Tigers, and 62TB VMDKs (Wahl Network)
vSphere 5.5 nuggets: changes to disk.terminateVMOnPDLDefault (Yellow Bricks)
vSphere 5.5 nuggets: Change Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding per device! (Yellow Bricks)
May 11 2009
Security Links
General
An Overview of VMware’s Security Programs and Practices (VMware Tech Paper)
Security Recommendations for Hypervisor Deployment (NIST)
vSphere 4.1 Hardening Guide (VMware)
vSphere 4.0 Security Hardening Guide (VMware)
Network Segmentation in Virtualized Environments (VMware)
DMZ Virtualization Using VMware vSphere 4 and the Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Switch (VMware)
Anti-Virus Practices for VMware View (VMware)
VMware Fast Path Versus Slow Path Firewalls (chrisbrenton.org)
How to steal a virtual machine and its data in 3 easy steps (SearchVMware)
Five VMware security breaches that should never happen (SearchVMware)
Five ways to maximize VMware hypervisor security (SearchVMware)
VAR concerns and considerations for handling vSphere security: FAQ (SearchSystemsChannel)
VMware releases long-awaited VMsafe security API (SearchSecurity.com)
DMZ Virtualization Using VMware vSphere 4 and the Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Switch (VMware)
Safely implementing VMsafe-aware virtual appliances in your data center (SearchVMware)
Compliance
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) Compliance and VMware (VMware)
Achieving Compliance in a Virtualized Environment (VMware)
Virtualization: Security and Compliance Considerations (Webinar) (ConfigureSoft)
How Can You Prove Your Virtualized Environment is PCI Compliant? (Webinar) (ConfigureSoft)
Best Practices for Achieving PCI Compliance in a Virtual Environment (Webinar) (ConfigureSoft)
How Virtualization Affects PCI DSS Part 1: Mapping PCI Requirements and Virtualization (McAfee)
How Virtualization Affects PCI DSS Part 2: A Review of the Top 5 Issues (McAfee)
Security Compliance in a Virtual World (RSA)
IT Audit for the Virtual Environment (SANS)
Meeting the Challenges of Virtualization Security (Trend Micro)
vShield
VShield: Breaking down the VMware security suite (SearchVMware)
Zeroing in on vShield Endpoint and Edge features (SearchVMware)
VShield Manager: Installing VMware’s virtual security appliance (SearchVMware)
Installing VMware vShield Zones for a virtual firewall (SearchVMware)
Top 10 VMware security tips for vShield users (SearchVMware)
vShield products packaging explained (with a focus on vCloud Director) (IT 2.0)
How To Wield the New vShield (Edge, App & Endpoint) (Rational Survivability)
VMware’s (New) vShield: The (Almost) Bottom Line (Rational Survivability)
VMware vShield Endpoint and Trend Micro Deep Security 7.5 understanding Part 1 (GeekSilver)
VMware vShield Endpoint and Trend Micro Deep Security 7.5 understanding Part 2 (GeekSilver)
VMware vShield Endpoint and Trend Micro Deep Security 7.5 understanding Part 3 (GeekSilver)
VMware vSphere vShield 1.0 design flaw with vCenter as VM? (GeekSilver)
VMware vShield Zones – Reviewers Guide (VMware)
vShield Zones 4.1 FAQ (VMware)
Meet the Engineer: VMware vShield Product Family (YouTube video) (VMware)
vShield Zones: What it is and how it works (Pt. 1) (vShield 1.0) (SearchVMware)
Installing and Configuring vShield Zones (Pt. 2) (vShield 1.0) (SearchVMware)
Quick tips for managing vShield Zones (Pt. 3) (vShield 1.0) (SearchVMware)
Introduction to vShield Zones (vShield 1.0) (VMware)
vShield Zones featured on VMTN Community Roundtable Podcast (Talkshoe)
VMware vShield Zones (Musings of Rodos)
Why use vShield Zones? (Virtualization Pro)
May 11 2009
Performance Links
What’s New in VMware vSphere 4: Performance Enhancements (VMware)
Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 4.0 (VMware)
Virtualizing Performance-Critical Database Applications in VMware vSphere (VMware)
VMware vSphere 4 Performance with Extreme I/O Workloads (VMware)
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Performance on VMware vSphere 4 (VMware)
Performance Evaluation of VMXNET3 Virtual Network Device (VMware)
Storage System Performance Analysis with Iometer (VMware)
vStorage: Troubleshooting Performance (Professional VMware)
Troubleshooting Performance Related Problems in vSphere 4.1 Environments (VMware)
Interpreting esxtop Statistics (VMware)
IOPs? (Yellow Bricks)
vSphere Virtual Machine Performance Counters Integration into Perfmon (Boche.net)
VMware Performance Advancements and vSphere (video) (YouTube Video)
Memory Performance Counters – An Evolved Look at Memory Management (VMware vSphere Blog)
Troubleshooting Storage Performance in vSphere – Part 1 – The Basics (VMware vSphere Blog)
Troubleshooting Storage Performance in vSphere – Part 2 (VMware vSphere Blog)
Troubleshooting Storage Performance in vSphere (Part 3) – SSD Performance (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware vSphere Performance FAQ (VMware Tech Paper)
Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 4.0 (VMware Tech Paper)
Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 5.0 (VMware Tech Paper)
Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 5.1 (VMware Tech Paper)
Performance Study of Oracle RAC on VMware vSphere 5.0 (VMware Tech Paper)
Best Practices for Performance Tuning of Latency-Sensitive Workloads in vSphere VMs (VMware Tech Paper)
What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.1 – Performance (VMware Tech Paper)
VMware vSphere 5.1 vMotion Architecture, Performance and Best Practices (VMware Tech Paper)
VXLAN Performance Evaluation on VMware vSphere 5.1 (VMware Tech Paper)
Impact of Enhanced vMotion Compatibility on Application Performance (VMware Tech Paper)
Network I/O Latency in vSphere 5 (VMware Tech Paper)
A Benchmarking Case Study of Virtualized Hadoop Performance on VMware vSphere 5 (VMware Tech Paper)
VMware vCenter Server 5.1 Database Performance Improvements and Best Practices for Large-Scale Environments (VMware Tech Paper)
Application Performance Improvement with DRS (VMware VROOM! Blog)
Comparing Performance of 1vCPU Nehalem VM with 2vCPU Harpertown VM (VMware VROOM! Blog)
Performance of Exchange Server 2007 in a Fault Tolerant Virtual Machine (VMware VROOM! Blog)
May 11 2009
vSphere 4.0 Links
Download Links:
ESX
Version Release Date Build # Download Link Release Notes Link
4.0 2009/05/21 164009 Download Release Notes
ESXi
Version Release Date Build # Download Link Release Notes Link
4.0 2009/05/21 164009 Download Release Notes
vCenter Server
Version Release Date Build # Download Link Release Notes Link
4.0 2009/05/21 162902 Download Release Notes
Consolidated Backup
Version Release Date Build # Download Link Release Notes Link
1.5 Update 1 2009/05/21 150805 Download Release Notes
Data Recovery
Version Release Date Build # Download Link Release Notes Link
1.0 2009/05/21 164675 Download Release Notes
vShield Zones
Version Release Date Build # Download Link Release Notes Link
1.0 2009/05/21 R1.0G68 Download Release Notes
Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Ethernet Module
Version Release Date Build # Download Link Release Notes Link
1.0 2009/05/21 27-0.4.2 Download Release Notes
vCenter Converter Standalone
Version Release Date Build # Download Link Release Notes Link
4.0.1 2009/05/21 161434 Download Release Notes
Administrator Tools
Name Version Release Date Build # Download Link
Management Assistant (vMA) 4.0 2009/05/21 161993 Download
Command Line Interface (vSphere CLI) 4.0 2009/05/21 161974 Download
PowerCLI (PowerShell) 4.0 2009/05/21 162509 Download
Open Virtualization Format (OVF) Tool 1.0 2009/05/21 166674 Download
Utilities
Name Version Release Date Build # Download Link
SiteSurvey 1.0 2009/05/20 N/A Windows Download
SiteSurvey 1.0 2009/05/20 N/A Linux Download
CPU Identification N/A 2009/04/16 160658 Download
Feature Links
What’s New with VMware vSphere 4 (VMware)
What’s New with vSphere 4.0 (VMware)
What’s New in vSphere 4.0: Technical Overview (Technodrone)
Creating a VMware vSphere guest OS: What’s new (SearchVMware)
A Tour of VMware vSphere (SearchVmware)
VMware focuses on stability, availability and security with vSphere 4 (SearchVMware)
A random collection of whats new vSphere eye candy (Boche.net)
vSphere Memory/CPU Hotplug (hot add) (Boche.net)
vSphere Is Coming (Virtualization Pro)
New vCenter Server features in vSphere (Virtualization Pro)
Enhanced alarm reporting in VMware vCenter Server 4.0 (Virtualization Pro)
HA enhancements, exploring the next version of ESX/vCenter (Yellow Bricks)
vSphere Launch Video (RTFM Education)
Video: vSphere4 Unleashed: 05 – Hot-Add and Thin-Provisioning (HyperVizor)
General Links
VMware vSphere 4 Evaluator’s Guide (VMware)
VMware Product Renaming (VMware)
VMware vSphere Overview Video (YouTube)
Launch Event Links:
vSphere Launch Event Recorded Simulcast
VMware April 21 Announcement Press Pre-Brief
VMware vSphere 4 Launch Event – On-Site Coverage
Rick Scherer’s Pictures from the Launch Event
Sea of blue shirts picture at VMware for product launch
Paul Maritz quotes from the vSphere launch
Regional Event Photos
Launch Event Flash Movie
Launch Event Webcast (direct link)
Efficiency, Control and Choice – vSphere Launch Review
vSphere Launch Event – the horror of an insider with a video camera
Slideshow Video of Launch Event
VMware vSphere 4.0 “Chariots of Fire” Video
Photos from vSphere Launch
Photos from VMware vSphere Launch
Licensing & Pricing:
vSphere 4 Pricing, Packaging and Licensing Overview (VMware)
VMware vSphere 4 Licensing Guide (VMware)
VMware vSphere 4 Licensing Troubleshooting Guide (VMware)
VMware vSphere Licensing FAQs (VMware)
vSphere Editions Comparison (VMware)
vSphere Key Features & Benefits Summary (VMware)
vSphere 4 Essentials Editions (VMware)
vSphere – What’s New in Licensing (VMware)
vSphere Upgrade Entitlement Mapping (VMware)
vSphere Upgrade Center – Licensing (VMware)
License Server Configuration for vCenter Server 4.0 (VMware)
Licensing details from the vSphere launch event (Virtualization Pro)
VMware vSphere licensing commentary and FUD (Virtualization Pro)
The Plus in vSphere 4.0 Enterprise Plus licensing: Percolating thoughts (Virtualization Pro)
vSphere licensing & technology – Communities Roundtable podcast #44 (VMTN Blog)
vSphere Licensing Notables (Boche.net)
Breaking Down vSphere Pricing (Virtualization Review)
vSphere 4 – So What is new? (Technodrone)
vSphere Pricing Comparison (Technodrone)
License keys: Everything is about to get a whole lot better! (The VM Guy)
VMware vSphere General Availability (OZ VMs)
vSphere Pricing and Licensing (OZ VMs)
VMware vSphere 4: What’s in Enterprise Plus? (Virtual Future)
Quick Guide to vSphere License Portal (Latoga Labs)
vSphere Licensing Explained (VM Hero)
Some Basics of Microsoft Server OS Licensing on VMware vSphere (TechHead)
Smarter Microsoft licensing can reduce VMware environment costs (SearchVMware)
Comparison of product offerings for vSphere 4.0 and VMware Infrastructure 3.X (KB Article)
Licensing ESX 4.0, ESXi 4.0, and vCenter 4.0 (KB Article)
Split and Combine license keys on vSphere (KB Article)
Enabling license downgrade by disabling features (KB Article)
Downgrading vSphere 4.0 License to ESX 3.5 version (KB Article)
Comparison of product offerings for vSphere 4.0 and VMware Infrastructure 3.X (KB Article)
News Links
VMware Unveils the Industry’s First Operating System for Building the Internal Cloud—VMware vSphere 4
VMware launches vSphere 4
VMware vSphere 4 Provides ‘Always On IT’ for SMB and Branch Office IT Environments With Low Cost, High Availability Solutions
VMware vSphere 4 Sets New Records in Virtualization Performance
vSphere 4 Unveiled
VMware Announces vSphere 4 Cloud OS
VMware partners line up for vSphere launch
VMware vows to overhaul data center with ‘cloud OS’
VMware Launches vSphere
One man’s take on the vSphere launch
VMware Unveils vSphere
VMware’s version of data center flexibility leaves out Microsoft, Citrix tools
VMware unmasks next-gen hypervisor, Cloud eats ESX 4.0
vSphere 4 steps up, falls short of the cloud
VMware VSphere – Initial Comparisons with Hyper-V and Xen
VMware’s version of flexibility lacks Microsoft Hyper-V
Does VMware vSphere solve IT’s worries about the cloud?
Cheaper virtualization becoming a reality
The Real Impact of vSphere
VMware Takes on the Data Center With New Cloud Technology
VMware Slaps Enterprise and Cisco In Face, Opens Door For Competitors
VMware’s vSphere of influence
vSphere Announced. Now What For VMware Customers?
VMware announces vSphere – the foundation for the next generation data center
VMware tweaks pricing, bundles with vSphere 4 launch
VMware Launchs vSphere
What VMware vSphere 4 Really Means For Smaller Businesses
VMware Launches the V Series Mainframe
VMware announces vSphere 4.0 pricing and RTM date, investors are not impressed
Podcast Links:
VMware Product Podcasts
What’s New in VMware vSphere Part 1: Overview
What’s New in VMware vSphere Part 2: vSphere Editions
What’s New in VMware vSphere Part 3: Platform Efficiency and Performance
What’s New in VMware vSphere Part 4: Hardware and Power Efficiency
What’s New in VMware vSphere Part 5: Operational Efficiency and Network Management
What’s New in VMware vSphere Part 6: Control of Application Availability
What’s New in VMware vSphere Part 7: Control of Application Security
What’s New in VMware vSphere Part 8: Control of Application SLAs
Upgrade Links:
vSphere Upgrade Center – Advisor (VMware)
vSphere Upgrade Center – Overview (VMware)
vSphere Upgrade Center – Resources (VMware)
vSphere Pre-requisites Checklist (VMware)
vSphere 4.0 Software Compatibility Matrix (VMware)
Upgrading to VMware vSphere: Test first, deploy later (SearchVMware.com)
Various methods for upgrading to vSphere (SearchVMware.com)
vSphere Upgrade Center Blog (VMware)
The Path to vSphere Unleashed Pt 1 – VMware VirtualCenter Management Components (VMware)
The Path to vSphere Unleashed Pt 2 – VMware ESX Host Migration Methods (VMware)
The Path to vSphere Unleashed Pt 3 – Virtual Machine Upgrades (VMware Tools and Virtual Hardware) (VMware)
The Path to vSphere Unleashed Pt 4 – Implementing VMware vSphere Licensing (VMware)
How to Upgrade from VMware Infrastructure 3 to VMware vSphere 4 (VMware)
Remote in-place upgrade from ESX3.5 to vSphere (Vinf.net)
vSphere Virtual Machine Upgrade Process (Scott Lowe)
Upgrade VMware vCenter 2.5 to 4.0 Video (VMware Tips)
vSphere upgrade experience, day 1 (Virtualization Evangelist)
vSphere – Upgrade and Best Practices (Technodrone)
Adding ESX 3.5 Servers to vCenter 4.0 (Technodrone)
Understanding the Upgrade Process (Technodrone)
vCenter 4 Upgrade A Success! (Virtual-Jay)
Performing an offline upgrade from ESX 3.x to ESX 4.0 on a local ESX host (KB Article)
Upgrading to ESX 4.0 and vCenter 4.0 best practices (KB Article)
Upgrading an ESX 3.x virtual machine to ESX 4.0 (KB Article)
Upgrading ESXi 3.5 hosts with OEM server vendor’s specific components to ESXi 4.0 (KB Article)
How to create default alarms when upgrading to vSphere 4.0 (KB Article)
When you use VMware vSphere to perform an ESX host upgrade, the upgrade might fail (KB Article)
Sometimes the upgrade from ESXi 3.5 to ESXi 4.0 fails when the host is trying to reboot (KB Article)
Performing an offline upgrade from ESX 3.x to ESX 4.0 on a local ESX host (KB Article)
VMotion stops working after upgrading to vSphere 4.0 with a CPU of the host is incompatible error (KB Article)
VMotion stops working with a Licensing server is not configured error after upgrading to vSphere 4 (KB Article)
Documentation Links:
Main and Documentation sets:
Main doc link
Download the complete ESXi 4.0 Embedded and vCenter Server 4.0 Documentation Set
Download the complete ESXi 4.0 Installable and vCenter Server 4.0 Documentation Set
Download the complete ESX 4.0 and vCenter Server 4.0 Documentation Set
Individual Docs:
Documentation Roadmap
What’s New in vSphere 4.0
Configuration Maximums for VMware vSphere 4.0
VMware vSphere Compatibility Matrixes
Introduction to VMware vSphere
Getting Started with ESX
ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide
Upgrade Guide
Basic System Administration
vSphere Web Access Administrator’s Guide
ESX Configuration Guide
Resource Management Guide
Availability Guide
Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide
iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide
ESXi:
Getting Started with ESXi Installable
Getting Started with ESXi Embedded
ESXi Installable and vCenter Server Setup Guide
ESXi Embedded and vCenter Server Setup Guide
ESXi Configuration Guide
Other:
Setup for Failover Clustering and Microsoft Cluster Service
vSphere Command-Line Interface Installation and Reference Guide
License Server Configuration for vCenter Server 4.0
ESX 4 Patch Management Guide
Guest Operating System Installation Guide
Update Manager:
vCenter Update Manager Release Notes
vCenter Update Manager Administration Guide
vCenter Update Manager Sizing Estimator
Converter:
vCenter Converter Release Notes
vCenter Converter Administration Guide
Orchestrator:
VMware vCenter Orchestrator Release Notes
VMware vCenter Orchestrator Installation and Configuration Guide
VMware vCenter Orchestrator Administration Guide
VMware vCenter Orchestrator Developer’s Guide
VMware vCenter Orchestrator Example Applications
Consolidated Backup:
VMware Consolidated Backup Release Notes
Virtual Machine Backup Guide
Administration Automation:
vSphere Management Assistant Guide
vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) 4.0 Release Notes
vSphere Command-Line Interface manual
vSphere Command-Line Interface 4.0 Release Notes
vSphere SDK for Perl Installation Guide
vSphere SDK for Perl Programming Guide
vSphere SDK for Perl Release Notes
vSphere PowerCLI Installation Guide
vSphere PowerCLI Administration Guide
vSphere SDK for .NET Developer’s Guide
VMware vSphere PowerCLI 4.0 Release Notes
VMware vCenter Update Manager – PowerShell Library 1.0
vShield Zones:
vShield Zones 1.0 Release Notes
vShield Zones 1.0 FAQ
Introduction to vShield Zones
vShield Zones Quick Start Guide
vShield Zones Administration Guide
Data Recovery:
Data Recovery 1.0 Release Notes
Data Recovery Administration Guide
vCenter Server Heartbeat:
vCenter Server Heartbeat 5.5 Update 1 Release Notes
vCenter Server Heartbeat Quick Start
vCenter Server Heartbeat Reference Guide
May 11 2009
Networking Links
General
What’s New in VMware vSphere 4: Virtual Networking (VMware)
Virtual Networking Features of the VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches (VMware)
VMware vSphere vDS, VMkernel Ports, and Jumbo Frames (Scott Lowe)
vSphere Networking Enhancements and Features (OZvms)
Testing Network throughput between VMware ESX Hosts (The SLOG)
Optimizing Quality of Service for vSphere 4 Networking with Intel Ethernet 10 Gigabit Server Adapters (Dell)
TCP and UDP Ports for vCenter Server, ESX hosts, and other network components management access (KB article)
Network I/O Control
VMware Network I/O Control: Architecture, Performance and Best Practices (VMware)
NSX
Learning NVP/NSX – 15 part series (Scott Lowe)
NSX Manager – Part 1 – Deploy OVA (VCDX133)
NSX Manager – Part 2 – Upgrade to 6.1 (VCDX133)
NSX Manager – Part 3 – Configure (VCDX133)
The VMware NSX Network Virtualization Platform (VMware Tech Paper)
VMware NSX Network Virtualization Design Guide (VMware Tech Paper)
Data Center Micro-Segmentation (VMware Tech Paper)
Working With NSX – Deploying NSX Manager (Wahl Network)
Working with NSX – Assigning User Permissions (Wahl Network)
Working with NSX – Deploying NSX Controllers via GUI and API (Wahl Network)
Working with NSX – Preparing The Cluster and Hosts (Wahl Network)
Working with NSX – Configuring VXLAN and VTEPs (Wahl Network)
vSwitches
vNetwork Distributed Switch Datasheet (VMware)
VMware Roadmap Demo: vNetwork Distributed Switch (VMware video)
Migrate an Existing Virtual Adapter to a vNetwork Distributed Switch (NTPro.nl)
vNetwork Distributed Switch back-up files (NTPro.nl)
Distributed Virtual Port Groups and Distributed Virtual Uplinks (NTPro.nl)
vSphere DvSwitch caveats and best practices! (NTPro.nl)
VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch: Migration and Configuration (VMware)
Two vSwitches are better than 1, right? (Faz1)
VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch and vSphere (video)
vNetwork Distributed Switches (vDS) an overview (Virtualised Reality)
dvSwitch? (Yellow Bricks)
vSphere 4.0 vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS) – Video Demonstration + Architecture Diagram (Hypervizor)
vNetwork Distributed Switch on ESX 4.x – Concepts Overview (KB Article)
Configuring vNetwork Distributed Switch using vCenter (KB Article)
vNetwork Distributed PortGroup (dvPortGroup) configuration (KB Article)
Configuring vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS) Virtual Adapters (KB Article)
Cisco Nexus 1000V
Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Switch Product Overview (Cisco)
Cisco Nexus 1000V: Come and Get It (Cisco)
Cisco Nexus 1000V In Depth (Cisco)
DMZ Virtualization Using VMware vSphere 4 and the Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Switch (VMware)
Nexus 1000V with FCoE CNA and VMWare ESX 4.0 deployment diagram (Internetwork Expert)
10 Things to Know about the Cisco Nexus 1000V (Bobolwig)
VM Network Security with the Nexus 1000V (Faz1)
How to install an (60-day) evaluation license for Nexus 1000V (video)
Cisco Nexus 1000V and vSphere (video)
Detailed Feature Demo of Nexus 1000V (video)
Cisco Nexus 1000V installation and licensing information (KB article)
vNICs & pNICs
What vNIC? Choosing an adapter for your VM (VMware)
Which NIC is my VM using? Load Balancing Visibility with vSphere (VMware)
Which NIC is my ESXi based VM using? resxtop for ESXi and ESX (VMware)
Performance Evaluation of VMXNET3 Virtual Network Device (VMware)
May 11 2009
Hardware Links
General
VMware vSphere: Got 64-bit hardware? (SearchVMware)
Hardware Virtualization: the Nuts and Bolts (Anandtech)
ESX Monitor Modes (VMware)
Ensuring Virtualization Technology is enabled on your VMware host (KB Article)
Determining if Intel Virtualization Technology or AMD Virtualization is enabled in the BIOS without rebooting (KB Article)
CPU
The Intel processor roadmap for industry-standard servers, 11th edition (HP white paper)
The AMD processor roadmap for industry-standard servers, 7th edition (HP white paper)
AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon x86 processors in industry-standard servers (HP white paper)
Inside the Intel Sandy Bridge Microarchitecture (Hardware Secrets)
Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) Explained (Hardware Secrets)
Intel Virtualization Technology FlexMigration Enablement (Intel)
I/O
HP local I/O technology for ProLiant servers (HP white paper)
Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel)
Memory
DDR3 memory technology (HP white paper)
Memory technology evolution: an overview of system memory technologies (HP white paper)
Everything You Need To Know About DDR, DDR2 and DDR3 Memories (Hardware Secrets)
DIMMs And The Intel Nehalem Memory Architecture Connection (Deinos Cloud)
Network
Virtual Machine Device Queues (Intel)
Simplify VMware vSphere 4 Networking with Intel Ethernet 10 Gigabit Server Adapters (Intel)
Virtual Switches Demand Rethinking Connectivity for Servers (Intel)
Power
Power Regulator for ProLiant servers (HP white paper)
HP Power Capping and HP Dynamic Power Capping for ProLiant servers (HP white paper)
Everything You Need to Know About the CPU C-States Power Saving Modes (Hardware Secrets)
C-states and P-states are very different (Intel)
C-states, C-states and even more C-states (Intel)
SSD
SSDs In RAID: A Performance Scaling Analysis (Tom’s Hardware)
SSD Performance: TRIM And Firmware Updates Tested (Tom’s Hardware)
How Do SSDs Redefine Storage Performance? (Tom’s Hardware)
SSD 102: The Ins And Outs Of Solid State Storage (Tom’s Hardware)
Q&A: Tom’s Hardware And Kingston On SSD Technology (Tom’s Hardware)
What is the TRIM function for solid state disks (SSDs) and why is it important? (Windows IT Pro)
I heard solid state disks (SSDs) suffer from a decline in write performance as they’re used. Why? (Windows IT Pro)
SSD security: the worst of all worlds (ZDNet)
How do you make an SSD even faster? (ZDNet)
May 11 2009
Fault Tolerance Links
VMware Fault Tolerance Recommendations and Considerations on VMware vSphere 4 (VMware)
Protecting Mission-Critical Workloads with VMware Fault Tolerance (VMware)
VMware vSphere 4 Fault Tolerance: Architecture and Performance (VMware)
Fault Tolerance Datasheet (VMware)
Master’s guide to VMware Fault Tolerance (Virtualization Pro)
VMware Fault Tolerance: What it is and how it works (Virtualization Pro)
More details on VMwares Fault Tolerance Feature (Virtualization Pro)
New SiteSurvey utility from VMware checks for Fault Tolerance compatibility (Virtualization Pro)
VMware engineers caution IT pros: Use Fault Tolerance sparingly (SearchServerVirtualization)
FT Problem Decoder Chart (Virtualization Evangelist)
Not All FT Compatible CPUs Are Created Equal (Virtualization Evangelist)
After enabling FT on a VM – subtleties to expect (Virtualization Evangelist)
vSphere FT disk format (Musings of Rodos)
How does Fault Tolerance prevent a split brain scenario? (The VM Guy)
vSphere 4.0 Fault Tolerance (Architecture Diagram, Video and Use Cases) (HyperVizor)
Video: vSphere4 Unleashed: 04 – Fault Tolerance (HyperVizor)
List of VMware FT (Fault Tolerant) compatible CPUs (Gabes Virtual World)
Fault Tolerance Checklist (NTPro)
CPU compatibility with VMware Fault Tolerance (NTPro)
VMware Fault Tolerance at your home-lab (NTPro)
VMware Fault Tolerance, Determinism, and SMP (The Lone Sysadmin)
Disaster Recovery and vSphere 4.0 Fault Tolerance (Xtravirt)
Comparing Performance of 1vCPU Nehalem VM with 2vCPU Harpertown VM (VMware VROOM!)
Performance of Exchange Server 2007 in a Fault Tolerant Virtual Machine (VMware VROOM!)
Scheduling VMware’s FT (Professional VMware)
VMware FT (Virtualised Reality)
Demo of Fault Tolerance (video)
Meet the Engineer – VMware Fault Tolerance (video)
Fault Tolerance discussion on VMware Communities Roundtable (podcast)
Fault Tolerant VMs in VMware Infrastructure: Operation and Best Practices (VMworld 2008)
VMware Fault Tolerance Architecture and Performance (BC2961) (VMworld 2009)
VMware Fault Tolerance Real-World Use Cases (BC3369) (VMworld 2009)
VMware Fault Tolerance – Overview and Best Practices (BC3370) (VMworld 2009)
VMware Fault Tolerance – vSphere Workflows and API Considerations (BC3602) (VMworld 2009)
VMware Fault Tolerance FAQ (KB Article)
Reducing FT logging traffic for disk read intensive workloads (KB Article)
Processors and guest operating systems that support VMware Fault Tolerance (KB Article)
VMware Fault Tolerance migration transition states (KB Article)
Understanding VMware Fault Tolerance (KB Article)
The turn on Fault Tolerance option is disabled (KB Article)
