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Multi Hypervisor Approach... today, is it really worth it? |
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Written by Kendrick Coleman
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Thursday, 04 April 2013 09:09 |
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There was a discussion happening on twitter yesterday by Douglas A Brown (if you don't know him, you should. He's one of the very few professional bloggers out there. He founded www.dabacc.com) and David Davis that was around multiple hypervisors in the datacenter.
David Davis had a twitter poll going that asks "How do you feel about multi-hypervisor in the datacenter?". Unfortunately there were only 16 entries, but the results were split down the middle. Douglas chimed in with a respectable opinion:
@douglasabrown: "@davidmdavis multi-hypervisor datacenters are the future no matter if we like it or not..."
This sparked an interest in my head and i hope it sparks one in yours as well.
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Read more... [Multi Hypervisor Approach... today, is it really worth it?]
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New Book: VMware vSphere Design - vCloud Design by Kendrick Coleman |
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Written by Kendrick Coleman
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Tuesday, 19 March 2013 11:45 |
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In the background over the past few months I have been working with the great minds of Scott Lowe and Forbes Guthrie. Scott and Forbes were both authors for the original VMware vSphere design book. Times progressed and a follow up revision needed to happen. Scott and Forbes were already hard at work with the 2nd Edition when they thought, maybe we should incorporate a chapter on vCloud Director design. I am thankful that these two reached out to me.
I have never written anything that was ever published and it was a very humbling experience. The team over at Sybex/Wiley did a tremendous job and we can't forget the technical reviewer Jason Boche that keeps the BS levels to a minimum :).
I only did a single chapter in the book, and in my opinion, it's a doozy of a chapter. If my calculations are correct, there are 52 pages of goodness all about vCloud. The book itself is over 400+ pages! My vCloud Director chapter will cover the following topics:
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Read more... [New Book: VMware vSphere Design - vCloud Design by Kendrick Coleman]
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VCE Vblock Visio Stencils |
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Written by Kendrick Coleman
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Friday, 22 February 2013 12:15 |
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Edit 2/22/2013
VCE Vblock Visio Stencils version 2 is out! Get it below!
Simon Long got in touch with me because he wanted a Vblock Visio stencil he could use for a diagram he was creating. Of course, nothing like that existed until now. I created a few Vblock stencils that you can use in Microsoft Visio. These stencils can be used by partners for presentations to show they are Vblock Qualified or by parent companies to show validated diagrams such as a Cisco Virtualized Multi-Tenant Data Center Solution.
Here is the download link. The .vss is located in the .zip. VCEVblockStencils.zip <- OLD VERSION
Download version 2 in the .vss is located in the zip file -> VCE Vblock Visio Stecils version 2
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Last Updated on Friday, 22 February 2013 13:14 |
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Read more... [VCE Vblock Visio Stencils]
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Western Digital Red for vSphere Home Lab & NAS |
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Written by Kendrick Coleman
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Saturday, 16 February 2013 18:39 |
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EDIT **2/17/13**
These lines of drives do terrible at I/O performance. Instead, they are better suited for application or media streaming
Benchmark Results: Streaming Reads/Writes, 4 KB Random Reads/Writes
I ran into this little gem after seeing a SlickDeal. I had never heard of it before, but Western Digital has come out with a new line of desktop 3.5" form drives called their "Red" line. This Red line is unlike their Black, Blue and Green. Western Digial has been seeing an uptick of people using 3.5" drives in NAS appications for home use. It's grea to see Western Digital come out with a new line of drives because I believe these are perfect for vSphere Home Lab use. I always preferred the Black line of drives because unlike the Green and Blue, there is no power saving functionality. The Green and Blue line of drives can end up corrupting data because if the drives aren't in use, then they can be put to sleep by the built-in firmware.
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Last Updated on Monday, 18 February 2013 10:02 |
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Read more... [Western Digital Red for vSphere Home Lab & NAS]
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How To Install vCloud Automation Center (vCAC) 5.1 In The Lab |
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Written by Kendrick Coleman
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Friday, 22 March 2013 17:45 |
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Yet again, time for another spoon feeding tutorial.
I'm getting started with vCAC and I found it quite the task to get a GUI Next Next Next type of installation to install correctly. There is already a great article by Randy over at killercouds, VMware vCAC 5.1 Install Process – Overview, but it needs a "beginner's" touch. We will reference it as we go along. This tutorial is going to be for lab purposes ONLY. I am installing everything on a single server, utilizing an existing SQL server, and not implementing anything SSL/HTTPS based. For any production installation, please follow https://www.vmware.com/pdf/vcac-51-installation-guide.pdf
Step 1. Start off with a clean Windows 2008 R2 VM. Download vCAC-51-Installation.zip and vCAC-51-Extensibility.zip, un-pack the archives to your desktop. Also download vCAC_PrereqSetup.ps1 from http://killerclouds.com/?p=203 and place it on the desktop. And download your XML license file and place it on your desktop.
Step 2. Download and install .NET 4.5 Framework.
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Last Updated on Monday, 25 March 2013 14:48 |
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Read more... [How To Install vCloud Automation Center (vCAC) 5.1 In The Lab]
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VCE Vblock 100 Specs and Pictures |
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Written by Kendrick Coleman
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Thursday, 21 February 2013 11:01 |
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Today, VCE Announced alot of cool things around Vblock 100, 200, 300, 700, SAP Systems, and VCE Vision OS. To read all about it, please see my other blog post VCE Mega Launch Technical Details for 2/21 Product Announcements. It will have all the information you need.
This blog post is going to be for the eye candy for Vblock 100 BX I saw out in the wild.
For the Vblock 100. here's the speeds and feeds:
Vblock 100 Release
The Vblock 100 is a solution for Small to Mid-sized data centers and Enterprise Distributed remote locations. With pre-defined fixed configurations, the Vblock System 100 can be shipped to your location in approximately 30 days of order—and fully operational in as little as two more.
So what's in the Vblock 100?
There are two models of the Vblock 100. BX and DX. The BX is a half-height 24RU cabinet while the DX is the standard 42RU cabinet.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 21 February 2013 14:28 |
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Read more... [VCE Vblock 100 Specs and Pictures]
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VCE Mega Launch Technical Details for 2/21 Product Announcements |
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Written by Kendrick Coleman
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Thursday, 21 February 2013 09:00 |
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On Thursday February 21st, VCE announced their mega-launch. There is a bunch of cool releases that have been announced. I'm going to cover a few certain topics:
- What VCE set out to do, and our value over reference architecture
- Vblock 100 Release
- Vblock 200 Release
- Vblock 300 & 700 Refreshes
- Specialized Vblock Systems for SAP HANA
- VCE's new Vision Intelligent Operations software
What VCE set out to do, and our value over reference architecture
VCE is now in it's third generation of Vblock products. I have been here since the beginning and seen the products change over the past 3 years. It's been an amazing roller coaster of fun and it's even better to start seeing the market shift. VCE now has some actual competitors that try to do what it is we do. Heck, even Gartner came out with a new category that clearly defines Fabric-Based infrastructure and guess what you don't see in there? VSPEX and FlexPod. Finally, everyone is starting to see that those two compete with one another, not Vblock. Even more so, customers are starting to realize that there is a new evolution in data center operations. It's no longer about building out infrastructure, instead it's about moving to a cloud infrastructure where orchestration plays a key role and monitoring the overall operations is more important. That means you need to quit focusing on hardware and start thinking much higher in the stack. Customers turn to VCE because of our success track record of having over 1000+ Vblocks in the field, the effort our QA teams spend on testing out versions of software and firmware so you don't have to, the speed to market VCE delivers, having over 1200+ employees world-wide that only focus on Vblock (find another company that strong that focuses on converged infrastructure), and a world-class support organization that assists in life cycle support. If you don't know much about VCE and the value we bring, please read my previous post The VCE Certification Matrix - Ensuring Integration, and reach out to me to learn more. VCE is going to sky rocket this year with these new announcements, so get ready to see a Vblock in a datacenter near you.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 21 February 2013 14:10 |
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Read more... [VCE Mega Launch Technical Details for 2/21 Product Announcements]
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A List of FREE VMware vSphere Tools |
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Written by Kendrick Coleman
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Wednesday, 20 February 2013 11:52 |
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Why?
I wanted to create a list of free tools that you can use with vSphere. Not just 30-day trial tools, but actually *free* tools. I will be testing out all these applications in the next 2 months in preparation for a Top 5 or 10 blog and presentation at the Kentuckiana Virtualization Users Group meeting May21st
**UPDATE** 9/8/2011 - Top 10 Free VMware vSphere Tools and Utilities for 2011
The Top 10 Free vSphere ESX Tools and Utilities post has been released. (2010 Article)
Let me know if I missed something because I would like to add it. kendrickcoleman [at] gmail [dot] com or @KendrickColeman on twitter.
If you want to dive into performance, take a look at VM Advanced ISO. Free Tools for Advanced Tasks
Utilities & Programs
Veeam Monitor Free Edition - VMware monitoring solution designed to meet the day-to-day needs of VMware administrators who need real-time performance monitoring and alerting.
Veeam Business View - an add-on that works with other Veeam products to provide business categorization for your VMware vSphere environment.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 20 February 2013 12:52 |
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Read more... [A List of FREE VMware vSphere Tools]
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