And the winners of the VMware top blog are…

July 2nd, 2009

I’ve been putting together the top 10 and lately the top 20 VMware blogs based on a few factors but this time around I wanted to poll the user community to see what they thought the  top VMware blogs were. Well the people have spoken, there were about 350 votes cast, a few duplicates (I track voters IP addresses, you know who you are) and the results have been tabulated and the new top 5 is ready to be announced. I weighted the votes with a #1 vote being worth 5 points, #2 vote worth 4 points, #3 vote worth 3 points, #4 vote worth 2 points and a #5 vote worth 1 point. I was going to put together a little slideshow with the results but have been too busy so without further ado here’s the results and your new top 5:

  1. Yellow Bricks - Duncan Epping - 102 first place votes - weighted score of 991
  2. Scott Lowe’s Blog - Scott Lowe - 39 first place votes - weighted score of 707
  3. Virtual Geek - Chad Sakac - 61 first place votes - weighted score of 550
  4. NTPro - Eric Sloof - 12 first place votes - weighted score of 412
  5. RTFM Education - Mike Laverick - 5 first place votes - weighted score of 232

Congratulations to the winners! You guys work hard and produce some fabulous posts and you deserve to be on top. Rounding out the top 10 were the following blogs:

VM/ETC - Rich Brambley - 5 first place votes - weighted score of 196
Virtualization Evangelist - Jason Boche - 4 first place votes - weighted score of 190
Gabe’s Virtual World - Gabe Van Zanten - 5 first place votes - weighted score of 132
Virtualization Pro - Various - 3 first place votes - weighted score of 129
Mike D’s blog - Mike DiPetrillo - 3 first place votes - weighted score of 120

I probably won’t get around to updating the vLaunchpad until next week. I’ll be doing this again in 6 months and next time I’ll be using a better survey tool and you’ll get to choose the whole top 20. There are a great many blogs in the VMware community right now and just because you are not on the top 20 right now doesn’t made you are not worthy, just that you have a lot of competition; but bloggers come and go and it’s sometimes hard to devote time to a blog so keep up the great posts and you are sure to make the list someday.

Author: esiebert7625 Categories: News Tags: ,

What is your favorite vSphere new smaller feature?

June 25th, 2009

What is your favorite vSphere new smaller feature?

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Downloading the vMA and vSphere CLI

June 17th, 2009

I wanted to download the new vSphere virtual Management Assistant (replaced VIMA) and the vSphere CLI (replaced RCLI) to play around with them today and I spent at least 5 minutes trying to find them on VMware’s download site. The previous VI3 versions were available under the VI3 Downloads page on the Drivers & Tools tab but on the vSphere Downloads page the Drivers & Tools tab only has a network driver download listed. Eventually I figured out there were located under the Datacenter Downloads page as a separate product under the VMware SDKs & APIs Downloads page. So if you’re looking for them in the vSphere Downloads page you’re in the wrong spot as VMware has moved them to the their developer download area. You can also easily get to all the vSphere downloads from my vSphere download links page. Additionally you can quickly access all the documentation links from my vSphere documentation links page.

Author: esiebert7625 Categories: News Tags:

What is your favorite vSphere new major feature?

June 17th, 2009

What is your favorite vSphere new major feature?

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Here’s your chance to pick the top VMware blogs

June 15th, 2009

I have a hard time picking the top blogs from the many great ones that are out there. I initially started with a top 10 and recently expanded it to the top 20 as more and more blogs have started. In this post I outline my blog selection criteria for the top 20 and it’s no easy task for me to pick them and rate them in order. Well here’s the chance for you to pick the top 5 of my top 20 blog list using this new survey form that I created. You can pick from the current top 20 which you can see on my vLaunchpad,or choose other and add one that is not on the list. The survey will be open for 2 weeks, afterwords I’ll announce the results and update my vLaunchpad accordingly.  Duncan Epping from http://yellow-bricks.com has been the reigning number #1 for a while now and is a tough one to beat. So head on over to my survey and cast your vote, each position will have a weight assigned with it and they will be added up accordingly for the final results.

Author: esiebert7625 Categories: News Tags:

Is your server hardware capable of running vSphere?

June 9th, 2009

With VI3 you could run on either 32-bit or 64-bit server hardware but vSphere requires 64-bit hardware because the VMkernel and Service Console are now 64-bit. I did a tip a while ago for searchvmware.com that talks about this in detail and shows how you can test your hardware to see if the CPU supports 64-bit and has some of the other CPU features that vSphere needs for certain features. To briefly summarize that tip:

  • Long mode is required to be able to install vSphere, it will not install without it.
  • To be able to run 64-bit VM’s on vSphere either the AMD-V or Intel-VT feature is required. Without it you can still run vSphere but are limited to using 32-bit VM’s.
  • For the Fault Tolerance feature to work you need specific processors that support Lockstep technology, you can read this KB article to find out which ones have this feature.

Here are some links to various information that can help you better understand all this:

Author: esiebert7625 Categories: News Tags: , ,

Select VMworld sessions released for general public

June 4th, 2009

About 2 months ago, John Troyer asked me for recommendations for 10 or so of some of the VMworld 2008 & VMworld Europe 2009 sessions to be released for free to non-attendees. It was hard picking just 10 and I ended up with about 30 of the ones I thought people would enjoy the most. Well it took a while but they just announced that they are now available for free and it’s almost the exact session list that I picked out back then. So head on over to the VMworld website and check them out, there is some great content there. You do need to have a  VMworld account to view these sessions, if you don’t already have one you can get one by registering for free.

VMworld Europe 2009:
AP07 - Virtualized Oracle Database Server Performance and Best Practices
DC07 - What’s New in vCenter Server
DC14 - Overview of 2009 VMware datacenter products
DC15 - Hypervisor Competitive Differences: Beyond the Data Sheet
DC26 - vStorage - Storage integration for the VDC-OS
TA12 - Introducing VMware Converter 4.0: What’s New and Different
TA15 - Protecting your vCenter Server with Server Heartbeat
TA17 - End-to-End Disaster Recovery Approach with Automated SRM Failback
TA20 - Cisco Nexus 1000V Technical Preview

VMworld 2008:
AD2764 - Managing VMware with PowerShell
BC2215 - Top Tips for VMware Consolidated Backup
BC3141 - Understanding Options for Virtualized Disaster Recovery
EA2244 - Virtualizing SQL Server Using VMware Infrastructure
EA2263 - Deploying Exchange 2007 on VMware Infrastructure 3
EA2347 - Citrix Presentation Server Virtualization in VI3 - Best Practices
EA2538 - Using IBM WebSphere Family Products with VMware
EA2672 - VMware is the Best Platform for Java Workloads
PO1323 - Best Practices for Virtualizing Active Directory
PO1520 - Managing VMware ESXi in the Datacenter
PO2061 - VMware VirtualCenter 2.5 Database Best Practices
PO1944 - Architecting and Managing your Storage Effectively with Virtual Infrastructure
PO2218 - Everyday Usage of the RCLI
PO2841 - Virtualization - The Big Picture
TA1401 - Understanding Host and Guest Memory Usage and Other Memory Management Concepts
TA1405 - VMotion Technical Deep Dive
TA1440 - ESXtop for Advanced Users
TA2213 - VMware Infrastructure 3 Storage: iSCSI Implementation and Best Practices
TA2375 - Intepreting Performance Statistics in VI3
TA2550 - ESX Server Best Practices for Performance
TA2554 - VI Networking: Advanced Configurations and Troubleshooting
TA2668 - VMware ESX Architectural Directions
TA2920 - Overview of VMware Product Directions
TA3807 - VirtualCenter Directions
VD3261 - VDI versus Terminal Services
VI2389 - Licensing for a Virtual World
VI2940 - VMware ESXi: The Easiest Way to Get Started
VI2715 - Making the Case: Selling Virtualization When ROI isn’t Enough
LAB05 - VMware Infrastructure - Security Hardening & Best Practices (VMware VirtualCenter/ESX/ESXi)
LAB09 - Scripting VMware Infrastructure: Automating, Integrating, and Extending VI

Author: esiebert7625 Categories: News Tags: ,

Poll - Will you be upgrading your existing vSphere Enterprise licenses to Enterprise Plus?

June 4th, 2009

Will you be upgrading your existing vSphere Enterprise licenses to Enterprise Plus?

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VMware Release/Build Info

June 1st, 2009

I’ve just added a new section to this site under the vInfo tab called Release/Build Info which contains tables with the release dates/build numbers for each version of ESX, ESXi, Consolidated Backup, vCenter Server and Converter as well as links to download them and to the release notes. The tables cover ESX from 2.5 to 4.0, vCenter from 1.1 to 4.0, ESXi from 3.5 to 4.0, Consolidated Backup from 1.0 to 1.5 and Converter from 1.0 to 4.0.

Author: esiebert7625 Categories: News Tags:

Poll - What is the primary reason that you are waiting to upgrade to vSphere?

June 1st, 2009

What is the primary reason that you are waiting to upgrade to vSphere?

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Visual proof of the benefits of virtualization

May 27th, 2009

I was going through some old photos and came across these before and after photos of our virtualization project:

These 3 HP DL385’s

After

After

And this DL585

After

After

Replaced this assorted collection of DL360’s, DL585’s, ML530’s, BL10e’s, BL20p’s and more

Before

Before

Visual proof of the benefits of virtualization

Author: esiebert7625 Categories: News Tags:

Check out the new vSphere Evaluators Guide

May 27th, 2009

This 120 page guide was just published by VMware last week and is full of great information related to vSphere. It covers all the major features in vSphere including what they are, use cases for them and how to setup and use them. Don’t let the title of the guide fool you, this guide is great mini-install/upgrade doc  and is useful for anyone using vSphere. Here’s a list of the topics covered in the guide:

  • vNetwork Standard Switch Configuration
  • iSCSI Storage Configuration
  • ESX Host Cluster Setup
  • High Availability (HA)
  • VMotion
  • Fiber Channel Storage Configuration
  • Host Profiles
  • Distributed Resource Scheduler
  • Distributed Power Management
  • Fault Tolerance
  • Storage VMotion and Thin Provisioning
  • VMware vApp
  • Update Manager
  • Linked Mode
  • vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS)
  • Private VLAN
  • Hot Add
  • Dynamic Storage Management
  • Alarms
  • Management Assistant (vMA)
  • PowerCLI
  • Basic Network Troubleshooting
  • Basic Storage Troubleshooting
  • Basic vCenter Server Troubleshooting
Author: esiebert7625 Categories: News Tags:

Poll - When will you upgrade your production environment to vSphere?

May 26th, 2009

Go to Poll Archive

When will you upgrade your production environment to vSphere?

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My book dedication

May 25th, 2009

I thought I would share the dedication page that I wrote for my book as there are many people that inspired me and helped made this book possible, here it is:

Dedication

First and foremost, I want to acknowledge some of the members of the VMTN community
who are my peers and, more important, my friends. This includes Ken Cline, whose
knowledge and experience continues to astound me; Dave Mishchenko, whose dedication
to helping others is equal to mine; Edward Haletky, who knows more about security than
anyone I know and is always happy to share his knowledge with others; Oliver Reeh, who
inspired me to start my website; Steve Beaver, whose passion for virtualization is very
infectious; Jason Boche, who is the biggest VMware geek I know; Robert Dell’Immagine,
who runs the VMTN communities; and John Troyer, who is VMware’s head blogger and
virtualization evangelist.

I also want to acknowledge a few fellow bloggers from the thriving VMware user community
who inspire me on a daily basis to help others and be the best that I can be, including
Eric Sloof from ntpro.nl, Scott Lowe from blog.scottlowe.org, Duncan Epping from
yellowbricks.com, Rich Brambley from vmetc.com, and my fellow bloggers at Tech Target.
There are many other bloggers and members of the VMTN community whom I haven’t
mentioned, but you know who you are and you are all an inspiration to me.
I also want to thank Jan Stafford from Tech Target, who got me started in writing, and
all the great editorial staff at Tech Target, including Hannah Drake, Adam Trujillo, Mark
Gallagher, Matthew McDonough, and Jo Maitland.

Finally, I want to thank my editor at Pearson, Trina MacDonald, who gave me this
opportunity and believed in my ability to write this book. Trina is a wonderful person who
helped me through the many behind-the-scenes things that go into writing a book, including
formatting, layouts, and all the other various steps it takes to write a book. In addition,
thanks to my development editor, Songlin Qiu, for correcting my many formatting mistakes.
And, a huge thank you to my technical editors, Ken Cline, Dave Mishchenko, Steve Beaver, and
George Vish, who all kept me honest, and whose great knowledge and experience helped
make this book even better.

Author: esiebert7625 Categories: News Tags: ,

My book is finally available!

May 25th, 2009

As of 5/21/2009 my book, VMware VI3 Implementation & Administration is available in both Kindle format and Paperback format. You might be wondering why you should buy it now that vSphere  is out, here’s some reasons why:

  • My book is a complete step by step walkthrough of virtualizing your environment, beginning with the assessment and planning phases all the way through the implementation and post-implementation phases like securing, backing up and troubleshooting. Alot of my book content is general in nature and applies to both VI3 & vSphere, so you can use it regardless of which version you are using.
  • vSphere has some steep hardware requirements (i.e. 64-bit only) and many companies may not be to afford to upgrade to it for quite some time. VI3 is a solid, stable release and gets the job down for thousands of VMware customers, vSphere is new and many customers will wait until it matures to upgrade to it.

Here is the Table of Contents for my book, it guides you through the many phases of implementing VMware VI3 in your environment:

  1. Assessing your Current Environment
  2. Planning your Virtual Environment
  3. Building your Virtual Environment
  4. Configuring your Virtual Environment
  5. Securing your Virtual Environment
  6. Populating your Virtual Environment
  7. Monitoring your Virtual Environment
  8. Maintaining your Virtual Environment
  9. Backing Up your Virtual Environment
  10. Troubleshooting your Virtual Environment
  11. Advanced Topics

Writing this book was quite a lot of work, I learned much from it because there were some areas because there was some areas that I was forced to learn more about so I could become stronger in them and write about them. I’ve just started on my second book which is focused on vSphere and will be a different format than this book and is geared towards being an invaluable companion to every administrator. So until then I think you will enjoy this book and should learn more about VMware virtualization no matter if you are new to it or have been using it for a while. Here’s some quote’s from others that have read my book:

“With this book, Eric has created a roadmap through the intricacies of VMware Infrastructure 3. From initial requirements gathering to advanced configuration topics, the logical progression of the chapters allows the reader to jump in at whatever point makes the most sense in their own environment. Beginners and veterans alike will find themselves using it as both a guide and a reference.”
– Mark Chandler, Infrastructure Engineer Principal, VMware Certified Professional and vExpert 2009

“Through his work at Boston Market, his involvement as a community moderator on the VMTN forums, his management of his own vmware-land.com website, and his active blogging, Eric Siebert has established himself as an expert in the field of virtualization. In this book, he shares his knowledge of VMware virtualization in a manner that will benefit the novice and the expert alike.
– Ken Cline, Technical Director, Virtualization, Wells Landers

“Eric’s book takes the new VMware administrator by the hand and slaps the seasoned administrator upside the head. He does a great job of covering everything from capacity planning to infrastructure monitoring, all the while explaining the pros and cons that only an experienced virtualization implementer could provide.”
– Rich Brambley, Virtualization Consultant, Owner and sole contributor of http://vmetc.com Blog

“This is another great chance to learn about VMware Virtualization techniques from a well informed seasoned professional. This book is great for someone who is starting out with a VMware infrastructure as well as a seasoned professional looking to reinforce pre-existing knowledge.”
– Stephen Beaver, Virtualization Evangelist, Tripwire

“I have read hundreds of articles by Eric Siebert and always wished that I could have it in a single book. That wish has finally come true. In Eric’s VMware VI Implementation and Administration book, he covers VI up and down, inside and out, like only Eric can. It’s the ultimate VMware VI manual.”
– David Davis, VCP, vExpert - Author of the VMware ESX Video Training Course from www.TrainSignal.com

VMware VI3 Implementation and Administration educates even the most experienced VI administrator and should be part of every (virtual) toolkit!”
– Duncan Epping, Senior Consultant, VMware and virtualization blogger Yellow-Bricks.com

“This book is a very well written, comprehensive field guide that does a fantastic job of taking the reader across the entire lifecycle of a virtualization deployment - walking through the background information, the planning stages and then the actual implementation itself - and it then wraps things up nicely by providing the help and the knowledge necessary to properly maintain and troubleshoot the virtual environment once it goes live. The advantage of reading a book like this from an author who is a subject matter expert and who obviously has years of hands-on experience with the technology is that you can quickly and easily identify the problem areas and technology gaps before you have to experience them first hand; and you can avoid those common pitfalls and gotcha’s that others have had to go through in their own journey.”
– David Marshall, Owner, VMBlog.com

“As an experienced VMware Certified instructor, I’m involved in delivering VMware courses on a daily basis. I know how important it is to keep your students involved in a course. When you start reading this book, I can assure you, you will read it from A to Z. In the past three years I’ve seen lots of books. Eric Siebert did a great job with this one. He was able to write up topics varying from “installing” and “advanced configuration” in a clear and understandable way and put them together in this book. VMware above and beyond a must read for every VMware believer.”
– Eric Sloof, NTPRO.NL

“VMware VI3: Implementation and Administration is a practical and informative guide on how to get started building a VMware Virtual Infrastructure. Eric Siebert has done a wonderful job explaining in a step-by-step approach (including screen shots) on how to accomplish administrative task on the latest VMware virtualization software. This book will be a handy guide for beginning VMware administrators to implement VMware best practices to avoid problems and enhance performance and security of their virtual machines.”
– George Vish, Senior Education Consultant, Senior Education Consultant

Author: esiebert7625 Categories: News Tags: ,