Author's posts
May 01 2009
Top 10 things you must read about VMware vSphere
- VMware vSphere 4 Cheat Sheet – A cheat sheet document from VMware on vSphere that outlines new features, editions, entitlements and comparison tables to other virtualization products.
- vSphere 4 Pricing, Packaging and Licensing Overview – A white paper from VMware that outlines the various vSphere and VMware vCenter Server editions and the latest changes to pricing, licensing, upgrade paths and Support and Subscription (SnS) entitlements.
- vSphere Key Features & Benefits Summary – A table that outlines all the different features in vSphere and which ones are included in the different vSphere editions.
- vSphere Editions Comparison – A simple comparison checklist that shows all seven editions of vSphere and which of the larger features are included in each one.
- vSphere Pre-requisites Checklist – A checklist from VMware that describes the requirements and pre-requisites necessary to begin planning for the upgrade of an existing VMware Infrastructure to VMware vSphere.
- VMware vSphere: Got 64-bit hardware? – Unlike VI3 which supports both 32-bit and 64-bit server hardware, vSphere will only support 64-bit server hardware. This article explains what 64-bit hardware is and how to tell if your servers are 64-bit capable or not.
- What’s New in VMware vSphere 4: Virtual Networking – A white paper from VMware that provides an overview of the new features and capabilities to virtual networking under VMware vNetwork which is the new name to describe the collection of networking technologies for optimally integrating networking and I/O functionality into vSphere.
- What’s New in VMware vSphere 4: Performance Enhancements – A white paper from VMware that outlines the key performance enhancements of vSphere, organized into following categories: Scalability Enhancements, CPU/Memory/Storage/Networking, Resource Management and Performance Management.
- What Is New in VMware vSphere 4: Storage – A white paper from VMware that provides information about the storage enhancements in vSphere including the following: Virtual Disk Thin Provisioning, Improved iSCSI Software Initiator Efficiency, New vCenter Storage Capabilities, Dynamic Expansion of VMFS Volumes, Enhanced Storage VMotion, Pluggable Storage Architecture and PV SCSI and Direct Path I/O
- The Path to vSphere Unleashed – A four part video series that details the transition to VMware vSphere from VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3), covering the VMware VirtualCenter management components, the VMware ESX host migration methods, the virtual machine upgrades (VMware Tools and virtual hardware) and implementing the VMware vSphere licensing.
- The Path to vSphere Unleashed Pt 1 – VMware VirtualCenter Management Components
- The Path to vSphere Unleashed Pt 2 – VMware ESX Host Migration Methods
- The Path to vSphere Unleashed Pt 3 – Virtual Machine Upgrades (VMware Tools and Virtual Hardware)
- The Path to vSphere Unleashed Pt 4 – Implementing VMware vSphere Licensing
Apr 06 2009
Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Links
VMware users explore disaster recover options
VMware ESX Server and Storage Architecture Best Practices for Performance, Backup, and Disaster Recovery (VMworld 2006)
Using Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning to Drive Virtualization in the Production Data Center (VMworld 2006)
An Aggressive Approach Using P2V to Address Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning (VMworld 2006)
Leveraging VMware ESX Server in Disaster Recovery Solutions (VMworld 2006)
Implementing Effective Backup Strategies For Disaster Recovery (VMworld 2006)
VMware Infrastructure 3 Capabilities for Improving Disaster Recovery (VMworld 2006)
Using Virtual Infrastructure as a High Availability Platform for Physical Production Servers (VMworld 2006)
VMware ESX Server as a Foundation for High Availability and Disaster Recovery for the Microsoft Server Platform (VMworld 2006)
Migrating Server Operations from Remote Sites to the Data Center for Disaster Recovery and Protection (VMworld 2006)
VMware Consolidated Backup for Disaster Recovery (VMworld 2006)
Innovative Approaches for High Availability and Disaster Recovery in Your VMware Infrastructure Environment (VMworld 2006)
Double-Take Replication in the VMware Environment
Disaster Recovery Virtualization
New Trends in Disaster Recovery for VMware (VMworld 2007)
Disaster Recovery Solution Architecture for VMware (VMworld 2007)
Tips and Tricks – Disaster Recovery in a Box (VMworld 2007)
Successful Disaster Recovery Testing for Virtualized DR (VMWorld 2007)
Simply Addressing the DR Needs of Virtual Infrastructures (VMworld 2007)
Using Virtualization as a Recovery Platform (VMworld 2007)
A Practical Guide to Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery with VMware Infrastructure 3
Apr 05 2009
Database Virtualization Links
SQL Server
Your SQL Server Performance Is Not VMware’s Fault
SQL Server Performance in a VMware Infrastructure 3 Environment
Exchange and SQL on ESX Server (VMworld 2007)
Best Practices for SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server and VMware Virtual Infrastructure
Oracle
Oracle licensing
Using ESX Server and VirtualCenter to Reduce Oracle Real Application Clusters Deployment Costs and Cycle Times
Installation gotchas for Oracle Linux , Oracle RAC 10gR2 and VMware ESX 3.0.1
Oracle 10g RAC On Linux Using VMware Server
Ten Reasons Why Oracle Databases Run Best on VMware
Getting started with Oracle in VMware
Virtualize your Oracle Landscape
Virtualizing Oracle (Vmworld 2007)
VMware and Oracle Core Technology – Current State (VMworld 2007)
Making Local Expertise Global (Oracle VMworld 2007)
Deployment of Oracle Peoplesoft HCM on VMware Infrastructure
VMware and Oracle Databases Software Solutions Deployment Guide
Deployment of Oracle E-Business Suite on VMware Infrastructure
Best Practices for Siebel Deployment on VMware Infrastructure
Oracle Database Scalability in VMware ESX
Why Oracle Doesn’t Like VMware
What the Oracle / VMware support statement really means…and why
Apr 05 2009
CPU Links
ESX Server 2 Best Practices Using Vmware Virtual SMP
ESX Server 3 Ready Time Observations
A Performance Comparison of Hypervisors
ESX Server CPU Scheduling (VMworld 2007)
How to be a Good Guest – AMD – (VMworld 2007)
Evaluation of ESX Server under CPU Intensive Workloads
AMD & Intel Servers Compete for Ultimate Virtuality
What to choose, Intel or AMD?
Intel, AMD, VMware and Aircrafts
Improving Guest Operating System Accounting for Descheduled Virtual Machines in ESX 3.x Systems
High CPU Utilization of Inactive Virtual Machines
Slow performance of virtual machines that use vSMP when running on an ESX Server using certain hardware
ESX scheduler support for SMP VMs: co-scheduling and more
Co-scheduling SMP VMs in VMware ESX Server
VMkernel Scheduler
Live Migration with AMD-V Extended Migration Technology
AMD-VTM Nested Paging
Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) in Converged Application Platforms
Technology Brief: Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT)
Evaluating Two- and Four-Socket Server Virtualization Platforms
VMware and CPU Virtualization Technology
Hyper-Threading on ESX Server
Performance Evaluation of AMD RVI Hardware Assist
Hardware and firmware requirements for 64bit guest operating systems
I/O Passthrough Methodologies for Mainstream Virtualization Usage
The Role of the ESX Monitor
An Introduction to 64-bit Computing and x86-64
Understanding the Microprocessor
Platforms and Tools for the AMD Athlon 64 Processor
Apr 05 2009
Converter Links
Introducing the Next Generation of P2V: Vmware Converter 3.0 (VMworld 2006)
VMware Converter Best Practices (VMworld 2007)
P2V Product Comparison
Ultimate P2V
Remove non-present devices from converted system and Microsoft KB Article
Virtualize a Linux Server with VmWare Converter 3.0.1
Linux P2V
Virtual Machine to Physical Machine Migration
Best practices for troubleshooting VMware Converter
Using VMware Converter for P2V migration (Pt. 1)
Conducting hot P2V migrations with VMware Converter (Pt. 2)
Troubleshooting failed VMware Converter P2V migrations (Pt. 3)
Performing a P2V conversion to VMware ESX Server using VMware Converter Enterprise
Converter required ports
Converter Problem Resolution Path
Apr 05 2009
Cloud Links
Cloud Computing in Plain English
Cloud Computing in Plain English PART 2 from GoGrid.com
BrightTalk: Cloud Computing
The Cloud is Kicking My Butt
What is the Cloud? A conversation
Recent Cloud Postings
EMC 2009 Strategic Forum – Paul Maritz and VMware – Part 1
EMC 2009 Strategic Forum – Paul Maritz and VMware – Part 2
Deep Dive on VMware vCloud by Orran Krieger
Apr 05 2009
Application Virtualization Links
Active Directory
Considerations when hosting Active Directory domain controller in virtual hosting environments
Virtualizing a Windows Active Directory Domain Infrastructure (VMworld 2006)
How to detect and recover from a USN rollback in Windows 2003 Server
How to detect and recover from a USN rollback in Windows 2000 Server
ESX Server-AD Integration
ESX Server Integration with Active Directory
How to use Active Directory to Identify and Track Virtual Machines
Virtualizing existing domain controllers
Resources: Virtualizing Microsoft Active Directory
Citrix
Optimizing Citrix Presentation Server on VMware ESX Server (VMworld 2006)
Citrix and VMware (VMworld 2006)
Improving Scalability for Citrix Presentation Server
Best practices for deploying Citrix on ESX
Citrix and VMware: Oil and Water?
BriForum 2006 Video: Ron Oglesby on the feasibility of running Citrix in a VM
Resources: Virtualizing Citrix / XenApp
Domino
How to size Domino and Sametime systems for full production loads on VMware ESX Server
VMware product support information for IBM Lotus Domino-based server products
High CPU usage by router and poor performance of Domino under VMware
IBM Lotus Sametime Reference Architecture in a VI3 Environment
IBM Lotus Domino and Lotus Sametime on VMware Infrastructure 3 (VMworld 2007)
Troubleshooting performance issues for a Domino server on VMware ESX
Exchange
Deploying Microsoft Exchange in VMware Infrastructure
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Performance on VMware ESX Server 3
Virtualizing Exchange 2007 – The Final Frontier? (VMworld 2007)
Exchange and SQL on ESX Server (VMworld 2007)
Proven Practice: P2V Exchange 2003
16,000 Exchange Mailboxes, 1 Server
Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Virtual Solution for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Transitioning Exchange 2003 to VMware Virtual Exchange 2007 Using EMC CLARiiON
Deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 mailbox roles on VI3 using HP ProLiant servers and HP StorageWorks
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Performance on VMware ESX Server 3
Microsoft Exchange server 2007 with VMware ESX Server 3
Virtualizing Exchange: Roundtable podcast #32
Best Practices Guide: Microsoft Exchange Solutions on VMware
Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Building a Better Platform with VMware Infrastructure 3
Secure and Consolidated 16,000 Exchange Users Solution on a VMware/EMC Environment
Deploying Exchange Server 2007 on VMware Infrastructure: A VMware Internal Case Study
Solution Brief – Availability and Recovery Options: Microsoft Exchange Solutions on VMware
Java (JVM)
Java in Virtual Machines on VMware ESX: Best Practices
ESX Runs Java Virtual Machines with Near-Native Performance
Using VMware ESX Server with IBM WebSphere Application Server
Mar 26 2009
Top 10 things you must read about VMFS & Virtual Disks
- VMware Virtual Machine File System: Technical Overview and Best Practices – A white paper from VMware that gives a technology overview of VMFS, including a discussion of features and their benefits. It also provides best practices and architectural considerations for deployment of VMFS.
- Recommendations for Aligning VMFS Partitions – A white paper from VMware that lists a summary of performance testing results, recommendations for VMware VMFS partition alignment, and the steps needed to create aligned VMware VMFS partitions.
- Advanced VMFS Configuration and Troubleshooting – A VMworld 2007 presentation (free registration required) that covers technical information on VMFS volumes, backing up metadata, SCSI reservations, partition alignment and more.
- ESX Server Raw Device Mapping – A white paper from VMware that covers what RDMs are, when to use them and when not to, how to manage RDMs and technical information on RDMs.
- Performance Characteristics of VMFS and RDM using a SAN – A white paper from VMware that covers the performance differences between using VMFS datasources for virtual disks and Raw Device Mappings. It describes an overview of the technologies, the test environment used, performance results and conclusions.
- VMware Virtual Disks – Virtual Disk Format 1.1 – A white paper from VMware that provides a high-level introduction to the layout of the files that make up a VMware virtual disk and drills down into the details of the data structures inside the virtual disk files.
- A Few Technical Threads – Part 1: RDMs – A good technical blog post from Chad Sakac of EMC that covers what features work when using RDMs and what don’t and when to use RDMs.
- A Few Technical Threads – Part 2: VMFS Resignaturing – A good technical blog post from Chad Sakac of EMC that covers why VMFS volumes get resignatured and tips to avoid resignaturing.
- Using VMware Converter to resize virtual disk files (Pt. 1) – A blog post from Tech Target that covers methods for resizing virtual disk files including use Converter, the VI Client and vmkfstools.
- Increasing virtual disk partition size using DISKPART or GpartEd (Pt. 2) – A blog post from Tech Target that covers methods for increasing the size of existing disk partitions once a virtual disk has been increased in size using Windows tools and Gnome Partition Editor.
