Exploring Cloud Technology

Diagrams

VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 6 Fixes Data Browser Large File Upload Error; Updates JRE And Apache Tomcat; Supports Firefox; Adds New OS Customizations : " I haven’t always covered all the vCenter, VirtualCenter, and ESX/ESXi updates in the past. Several updates have been released since the last time I did. VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 6’s announcement caught my attention because of a fix to uploading files with the datastore browser. This issue has been reported in one of the longest comment threads here at VM /ETC. More on that later in this post, but I received the following email notification that VMware VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 6 was released: VMware VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 6 is Generally Available We are pleased to inform you that VMware VirtualCenter Server 2.5 Update 6 (English and localized) is generally available as of late night January 29, 2010. VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 6 provides the following improvements: Guest Operating System Customization Improvements Support for Firefox...

VMware to beef up disaster recovery offerings, support Microsoft clustering in 2010? : "VMware may beef up storage options for its disaster recovery product, Site Recovery Manager, in 2010; and we may see further development to the VMware Data Recovery appliance. Also: will we see vSphere 4.5, and will VMware support Micrsoft Cluster Server and Veritas clustering? "

ESX vs. ESXi: Which VMware hypervisor is right for you? : "ESX vs. ESXi is a big decision. The ESXi hypervisor is catching on with vSphere users and those new to virtualization, but ESX is still the VMware hypervisor of choice for many. "

The New Player on the vBlock : " VMware, EMC, Cisco, VCE, Intel, Acadia….whew! what does it all mean?! VMware, Cisco and EMC created a new marketing ploy called VCE (Virtual Compute Environment), this will provide technical innovations as well as integrated pre-sales services and support. What is the product? vBlock. Think of vBlock as the plug and play data-center solution, it will consist of Cisco UCS/Nexus/MDS, EMC Storage and VMware Virtualization all within a pre-designed and built rack solution - simply drop it in your data-center, plug it in and deploy virtual machines. This is not really any different than purchasing HP Servers, NetApp Storage and VMware licenses separately. Ultimately it is the same solution, but now with a single SKU that partners will be able to sell. I can’t say that VCE is really innovative, but it is brilliant from a business standpoint. It will allow partners to sell a single source solution quickly and easily - no longer will VARs need to bring ...

Before Host Profiles there was vicfg-cfgbackup.pl : " This last weekend I was reminded of a RCLI command that creates a backup of your ESXi Host configuration. A client had an ESXi host where the USB drive failed. The system didn’t entirely crash, it pinged so HA didn’t kick-in however hostd and vpxa weren’t responding so management from vCenter was impossible. Performing a reboot of the host proved it was a USB failure when it failed to boot. So, HA kicked in finally when the host was powered off - however the remaining hosts in their cluster did not have adequate resources to power everything back on. We needed to get this failed ESX host back online and quick! Brought in new USB stick with fresh ESXi 4.0 installed, plugged in and powered up. In the TUI configured the Management Port IP address/gateway/DNS, etc. But now what, all of the (NFS) Datastores, vSwitch configuration and advanced settings were toast…and they didn’t have Enterprise Plus. Say Hello to vicfg-cfgbac...

VMware Releases VI3 Update 5 : " Sometime yesterday ESX(i) Update 5 finally hit VMware Update Manager, about 2 days after the official announcement and release on the VMware website. This announcement includes updates for ESX, ESXi and vCenter Server. In addition to Update 5 being released there were about 20 additional updates made available for ESX(i), including 16 which were marked as critical. The following information provides highlights of some of the enhancements available in this release of VMware ESX Server, this information can be found in the VMware ESX(i) 3.5 U5 Release Notes : Enablement of Intel Xeon Processor 3400 Series – Support for the Intel Xeon processor 3400 series has been added. Support includes Enhanced VMotion capabilities. For additional information on previous processor families supported by Enhanced VMotion, see Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support (KB 1003212). Driver Update for Broadcom bnx2 Network Controller – The driver for bnx2 ...

ESX 4.0 Agent Upgrade Check Overview : "Due to a bug in the upgrade process for ESX4, (http://www.vmwareinfo.com/2009/11/alert-esx-40-to-40-update-1-can-cause.html), it is a good practice to verify if you have any 3rd party agents running in the Service Console. vCenter 4.0 update 1 has... [[More information after the jump - Visit http://www.VMwareInfo.com for the full post, links and details.]] "