virtualization.info Editors

With the announcement of ESX Server 3.0 and VirtualCenter 2.0 (aka Virtual Infrastructure 3.0) VMware launched a series of whitepapers to clarify technical and marketing aspects of the new offering.

Foedus parner contributed with 4 papers.

The second one of the series:

In this white paper, we will discuss the value of adding virtual infrastructure to the organization to support various staple services such as File and Printing services and DNS. Leveraging VMware ESX Server?s iSCSI support, virtual file servers reach new capabilities while keeping costs affordable at the same time.

The scalability of virtual networking support in VMware ESX Server 3.0 lends itself especially well in high-bandwidth scenarios when coupled with new processor technology from Intel. New features of ESX Server 3.0 such as clustering, consolidated backup and Distributed Availability Services mean you can ensure 100% availability of file and printing services without the complicated setup of Windows clusters or 3rd party products.

Read it here.

With the announcement of ESX Server 3.0 and VirtualCenter 2.0 (aka Virtual Infrastructure 3.0) VMware launched a series of whitepapers to clarify technical and marketing aspects of the new offering.

Foedus parner contributed with 4 papers.

The first one of the series:

The purpose of this paper is to provide advice on leveraging key features of VMware Infrastructure for deployment of infrastructure services for system administrators who are new to VMware Virtual Infrastructure. This paper is intended for system administrators who are new to VMware Infrastructure.

The recommendations are applicable to small or mid size companies. Recommendations and examples will illustrate what can be accomplished using the VMware Infrastructure platform.

Read it here.

With the announcement of ESX Server 3.0 and VirtualCenter 2.0 (aka Virtual Infrastructure 3.0) VMware launched a series of whitepapers to clarify technical and marketing aspects of the new offering.

The fifth one of the series:

This white paper provides an overview of VLAN concepts and benefits and illustrates three possible ESX Server and virtual machine VLAN configurations. It then compares the advantages and disadvantages of the three possible configurations and recommends some best practices.

The paper also includes configuration samples for both ESX Server and the external physical switches and concludes with a list of frequently asked questions.

Read it here.

With the announcement of ESX Server 3.0 and VirtualCenter 2.0 (aka Virtual Infrastructure 3.0) VMware launched a series of whitepapers to clarify technical and marketing aspects of the new offering.

The fourth one of the series:

VMware® Infrastructure 3 provides a set of distributed infrastructure services that make the entire IT environment more serviceable, available and efficient. VMware DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) dynamically allocates and balances computing capacity and virtual machine placement with resources pooled from multiple ESX Server hosts.

This white paper provides an architectural and conceptual overview of VMware DRS and describes how you can use DRS to simplify provisioning of applications, achieve higher levels of resource utilization, and better align use of IT resources with business values and priorities.

Read it here.

With the announcement of ESX Server 3.0 and VirtualCenter 2.0 (aka Virtual Infrastructure 3.0) VMware launched a series of whitepapers to clarify technical and marketing aspects of the new offering.

The third one of the series:

VMware® Infrastructure 3 delivers comprehensive virtualization, management, resource optimization, application availability and operational automation capabilities in an integrated offering. VMware HA, a new capability in VMware Infrastructure 3, helps customers improve service levels for any application by implementing cost-effective virtualization-based high-availability solutions that are both easy to use and easy to configure.

This white paper provides an architectural and conceptual overview of VMware HA and describes how you can use HA to provide high availability for any applications running in virtual machines at lower cost than would be possible with static, physical infrastructure.

Read it here.

With the announcement of ESX Server 3.0 and VirtualCenter 2.0 (aka Virtual Infrastructure 3.0) VMware launched a series of whitepapers to clarify technical and marketing aspects of the new offering.

The second one of the series:

This paper describes the architecture of VMware Infrastructure, beginning with the elements that make up its physical topology, followed by the virtual, or logical, view of VMware Infrastructure where the relationships between the virtual architectural elements and the physical world are explored.

Lastly, the architectures of two core VMware Infrastructure components are discussed in further detail.

Strongly recommended. Read it here.

With the announcement of ESX Server 3.0 and VirtualCenter 2.0 (aka Virtual Infrastructure 3.0) VMware launched a series of whitepapers to clarify technical and marketing aspects of the new offering.

The first one of the series:

VMware® Infrastructure is the industry?s first full infrastructure virtualization suite that empowers enterprises and small businesses alike to transform, manage and optimize their IT systems infrastructure through virtualization. VMware Infrastructure 3 includes:

• VMware ESX Server 3 with VMware VMFS, VMware VirtualCenter Agent, and VMware Virtual SMP
• VMware VirtualCenter 2 with VMware VMotion?, VMware HA, VMware DRS
• VMware Consolidated Backup

With the introduction of VMware Infrastructure 3, VMware is making significant changes to how these products are priced, packaged and licensed. VMware is also making several significant changes and additions to its support offerings and pricing.

This paper explains these important changes and reviews both entitlements for existing customers and upgrade paths available for new and existing customers.

Strongly recommended. Read it here.

Quoting from the VMware official announcement:

VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for industry-standard systems, today launched VMware Infrastructure 3, the third generation of the industry-leading infrastructure virtualization software suite that empowers enterprises and small businesses alike to optimize and manage their IT environments through virtualization.
…
VMware Infrastructure 3 builds upon the award-winning VMware ESX Server with Virtual SMP and VirtualCenter with VMotion technology used in production at tens of thousands of enterprises worldwide today and incorporates four new groundbreaking products – VMware VMFS, a next generation Distributed File System; VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS); VMware High Availability (HA); and VMware Consolidated Backup.
…
VMware Infrastructure 3 incorporates VirtualCenter, the market-leading management product for virtualized environments for more than three years. VirtualCenter can automate and simplify the operations of a virtualized data center with several new capabilities:

• VirtualCenter is designed to handle three times the number of hosts and virtual machines under management compared to previous releases.
• Topology maps and centralized configuration of ESX Server hosts bring drag-and-drop simplicity to the management of enterprise-wide virtualization environments.
• VMware DRS and VMotion technology dynamically aggregate hardware resources into logical resource pools and are designed to optimally allocate them to applications running in virtual machines. When a virtual machine experiences an increased load, VMware DRS automatically allocates additional resources by redistributing virtual machines among the physical servers.
• VMware HA is designed to eliminate single points of hardware failure by automatically relocating and restarting virtual machines. HA is designed to provide uniform high availability across the entire virtualized IT environment without the cost and complexity of failover solutions tied to either operating systems or specific applications.
• VMware Consolidated Backup simplifies data protection by offloading backup to a centralized server. Offloading backup allows ESX Server to run more virtual machines by reducing its load and enables backup to safely occur even during production hours.
• Rich security controls, comprehensive auditing capabilities and administrative roles enable a secure, auditable operations environment where responsibilities may be delegated among different groups without compromising overall security and compliance.

…

The rich capabilities of VMware Infrastructure are packaged into three editions targeted for various IT infrastructure environments:

• VMware Infrastructure Starter is an offering designed for easy adoption in small and medium businesses as well as branch and distributed locations within large companies. VMware Infrastructure Starter includes ESX Server with local or NAS storage and full management capabilities through the included VirtualCenter management agent. VMware Infrastructure Starter list price is $1000 per two processors.
• VMware Infrastructure Standard is designed for virtualizing enterprise workloads. In addition to ESX Server, it includes clustered VMFS for enterprise storage connectivity and consolidation, Virtual SMP and the VirtualCenter management agent. VMware Infrastructure Standard list price is $3750 per two processors.
• VMware Infrastructure Enterprise is designed as the core strategic IT infrastructure for the dynamic data center. It is designed to deliver significant cost savings and dramatic IT simplification through its full set of infrastructure virtualization capabilities. It includes ESX Server, VMFS, Virtual SMP, VirtualCenter Management agent, VMotion technology, DRS, HA and Consolidated Backup. VMware Infrastructure Enterprise list price is $5750 per two processors.

…

VMware Infrastructure 3 has been in beta since October, 2005 and has had more than 6,400 active participants. VMware Infrastructure 3 will be available this month.

The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap has been updated accordingly.

Summary
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 is Microsoft’s server-side virtualization product. Virtual Server has been designed to allow users a great deal of power and flexibility in hosting virtual machines in mission-critical Enterprise deployments without having to invest in additional hardware.

In this clear and concise book, Microsoft MVP Anil Desai shows how to use scripting to automate complex virtual environments. The book contains numerous scripting examples in VBScript, Visual Basic .NET and C#, and covers the automation of virtual machine creation and management. It shows software developers and network administrators how to programmatically set up virtual environments to rapidly build development and testing scenarios. The book also shows how to script entire data center virtualization environments to avoid scaling out with expensive hardware.

Advanced topics include automating Virtual Server with .NET, client-side automation with VMRC, event handling, and command-line scripts. The book also contains reference material on the Virtual Server COM API and the VMRC COM API.

This book expands on the topics covered in The Rational Guide To Managing Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 by the same author.

Technical accuracy is assured by Mike Sterling, Program Manager on the Windows Virtualization team at Microsoft.

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1 – Benefits of Virtualization
• Chapter 2 – Virtual Server Architecture & Requirements
• Chapter 3 – Automating Virtual Server with VBScript
• Chapter 4 – Automating Virtual Server with .NET
• Chapter 5 – Monitoring Virtualization Using VMI
• Chapter 6 – Managing Virtual Machines
• Chapter 7 – Managing Virtual Hard Disks
• Chapter 8 – Managing Virtual Networks
• Chapter 9 – Using Scripts, Events, and Tasks
• Chapter 10 – Automating VMRC

Abouth the Author
Anil Desai, MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA, is a Microsoft MVP in the area of “Windows – Servers”. As an independent consultant based in Austin, TX, Anil specializes in evaluating, implementing, and managing solutions based on Microsoft technologies. He has worked extensively with Microsoft’s Server products and the .NET development platform.

Anil is the author of numerous technical books focusing on the Windows Server Platform, Virtualization, Active Directory, SQL Server 2000, and IT management. He has made dozens of conference presentations at national events and is also a contributor to technical magazines.

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VMware has scheduled a misterious event for Monday 5th June, in which Diane Greene in person will lead the speech.

Nothing is known about the topic of webcast but VMware did something big, registering a new domain and a new webstreaming system. and preparing (as far as I can guess) a sort of videoclip.

It could be the publishing of statistical data of VMware Ultimate Virtual Appliance Challenge, the launch of Virtual Server 1.0, the launch of ESX Server 3.0 and VirtualCenter 2.0, or the launch of a new unexpected product.

Register here.