VIRTUMANIA Episode 20 was far from scripted, but some of the best known names in virtualization scripting join us for this show. The following is the podcast summary:

VIRTUMANIA Podcast Episode 20 – Powershell is Latin to Me. Rich Brambley (@rbrambley) of VMETC and Marc Farley (@3parfarley) of StorageRap.com with special guests Scott Herold (@vmguru) of vmguru.com and Hal Rottenberg (@halr9000) of halr9000.com. This week’s discussion focuses on using Powershell in virtual environments instead of a GUI, compares learning scripting to learning the verbs and nouns of a new language such as Latin, and highlights several Powershell sites and tools that every administrator should check out. Virtumania is an Infosmack Production.

Before, between, and after the important stuff we also have some fun with using bots in first person shooter games, Mohitos, and the trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Listen to the podcast with the embedded player or subscribe to get a weekly copy so you can listen when convenient.

Check out the VM /ETC VIRTUMANIA Page to listen to past episodes as well as episodes of Infosmack.

The following links offer more information on some of the topics mentioned in VIRTUMANIA Episode 20:

Microsoft’s Page on Powershell

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/powershell.aspx

Virtualization and Powershell snapins

VMware – VMware vSphere PowerCLI

Hyper-V – Enabling PowerShell on Hyper-V Server 2008 R2

Citrix – Announcing XenServer PowerShell SnapIn

RedHat – API Guide – API, Scripting and Custom Actions

Hal’s Book

Virtualization EcoShell

thevesi.org

Other Powershell Sites and Tools Mentioned

• Alan Renouf 
• LucD
• poshcode.org
• powergui
• powershell plus (combo editor and gui)
• powershell.com (free ebook)
• Microsoft TechNet scripting center
• PowerWF

Jim Poshible

http://www.twitter.com/jimposhible

The VIRTUMANIA continues with Episode 19! Rick Vanover joins Marc and I again along with very special guest Ed Haletky for an extremely important discussion about security in virtualization infrastructure. The following is the podcast summary:

VIRTUMANIA Podcast Episode 19 – Security is The Dark Side of Virtualization. Rich Brambley (@rbrambley) of VMETC and Marc Farley (@3parfarley) of 3Par and StorageRap.com with show regular Rick Vanover (@rickvanover) of RickVanover.com host Ed Haletky (@texiwill) of The Virtualization Practice Blog. This episode includes interesting discussion about unintentionally created security concerns with virtual infrastructure that arise when administrators decide to deviate from best practices in the name of convenience. The show gets into well known attacks possible on a hypervisor, and what, if anything, can be done to stop them. Virtumania is an Infosmack Production.

All virtualization administrators should pay close attention to the Blue Pill Attack discussion. it’s definitely some scary stuff!

Before, between, and after the important stuff we also have some fun with Farley Fest, The World Cup, 4th of July Vacations, and Wisconsin. Ed reveals he is a foodie like Jason Perlow in our last episode, and he makes a recommendation for Mama Reux in Austin, TX. Look out for the bad alligator jokes too.

Rick gives Ed a hard time for being a known as being too serious at times, and he proudly keeps track of how many times Haletky laughs on this show.

Listen to the podcast with the embedded player or subscribe to get a weekly copy so you can listen when convenient.

Check out the VM /ETC VIRTUMANIA Page to listen to past episodes as well as episodes of Infosmack.

The following links offer more information on some of the topics mentioned in VIRTUMANIA Episode 19:

The Blue Pill Attack

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Pill_(malware)

The name Blue Pill is a reference to the blue pill from The Matrix where one character (Morpheus) is in a virtual reality simulation talking to another character (Neo) who is unaware that they are in a virtual reality.

Morpheus says, "This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes."

A Blue Pill computing system victim is like Neo, unaware that it has been compromised.

The Blue Pill virtualization attack: Virtual machine malware

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid94_gci1220291,00.html

The Blue Pill attack itself manipulates kernel mode memory paging and the VMRUN and related SVM instructions that control the interaction between the host (hypervisor) and guest (virtual machine). This permits undetected, on-the-fly placement of the host operating system in its own secure virtual machine allowing for complete control of the system including manipulation by other malware.

Debunking Blue Pill myth

VI: Looking at Ms. Rutkowaska demonstration Austin Wilson, Director of the Windows Client Group at Microsoft, said the company will try to prevent such scenario in upcoming Vista operating system. What do you think can really be done at operating system level to mitigate the risk? Is this something also the Linux, BSD and Solaris communities should look at?

AL: I wouldn’t lose a bit of sleep over this particular threat. I don’t feel there is any new risk here at all.

Researchers to cure Blue Pill virtualization attacks

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/050710-researchers-to-cure-blue-pill.html

Two researchers from North Carolina State University have developed software that they say can protect virtualization hypervisors from malicious "Blue Pill" rootkit threats.

"HyperSafe enables the hypervisor self-protection from code injection attempts," said Xuxian Jiang, an assistant professor of computer science at NCSU.

Security Tools for virtualization mentioned:

• Hytrust – http://www.hytrust.com/product/overview/
• Catbird – http://www2.catbird.com/our_services/vmware.php
• Reflex Systems – http://www.reflexsystems.com/Products/VMC
• Altor Firewall – http://www.altornetworks.com
• VMware’s VMSafe and vShield Zones – http://www.vmware.com/go/vmsafe and https://www.vmware.com/products/vshield-zones/

More Info about @texiwill

Blue Gears Blog

http://www.astroarch.com/blog/

The Virtualization Practice

http://www.virtualizationpractice.com/

Virtualization Security Podcast

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/34217

Books

All on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&rh=i:stripbooks,p_27:Edward%20L.%20Haletky&field-author=Edward%20L.%20Haletky&page=1

• VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing the Virtual Environment
• VMware ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers
• New Book for 2010 – VMware ESX and ESXi in the Enterprise: Planning Deployment of Virtualization Servers (2nd Edition)

Forensics: Guidance for Virtual Environments

Posted By Texiwill on April 21, 2010

We discussed forensic from the perspective of evidence necessary for the court of law. In other words, forensically sound data acquisition prepared for forensic analysis. This is the an interesting aspect of virtualization. Some of which I have discussed before.

Out of this discussion came some fairly straight forward advice that many may find difficult to perform due entirely to the additional cost and requirements:

1. Have a Written Incident Response Policy and Procedure
2. Have a Written Data Retention Policy
3. Have a Separate ESX Cluster for purely Forensics

Virtualization & Security: Real Threats to Virtual Systems.

Hakin9: Hard Core IT Security Magazine, June 2008, pp 54-58.

The Virtualization Practice’s Edward Haletky presents

BrownBag #10 – Security Deep Dive

Secure Multi Tenancy Concerns

Safe way to Encrypt within a VM – Need for Technology

So to the hypervisor vendors, give us encrypted memory and encrypted vMotion or Live Migration. Then we can finally start to seriously implement SMT.

End to End Virtualization Security Whitepaper

produced by Edward L. Haletky of The Virtualization Practice

I am in Seattle, WA for the third GestaltIT Tech Field Day (TFD). This time I am part of the presenting team for Veeam Software, and we are first up on the agenda. As with other recent events, I am using Cover It Live (CiL) to provide real time coverage and of our presentation and the reaction of the delegates (bloggers) attending. The best part about using Cover It Live is the event can be played back in the future, so check it out even if you missed it live.

I’m automatically pulling in the tweets of all involved, so I should have a good stream of both bloggers and sponsors represented here.

I’m using the following twitter lists:

• @TechFieldDay/tfd3-sponsors
• @TechFieldDay/tfd3-delegates

Look for my occasional commentary as well, but I’m not sure how much time I’ll actually have to participate. I’ll end the coverage when our time is up, which should be roughly 3 to 4 hours.

Click through the page break for the CiL widget and tune into the fun!

By the way, we are providing the first ever public demo of Veeam Backup and Replication 5.0 SureBackup!

 

Other Tech Field Day Seattle links:

On Wednesday I’ll be "passing the (virtual) dutchie from coast to coast" as I fly from Georgia to Washington. Veeam will be presenting to the TFD Delegates first thing Thursday morning. During our presentation look for Veeam to be be "pulling out jives and jamboree handouts." I’ll tweet and blog what I can, but I’m sure the Delegates will provide their own "jig-saw jazz and the get-fresh flow."

As with TFD events in the past, Weds through Friday Twitter will rattle like "bottles and cans (so I advise you get ready)  and just clap your hands and just clap your hands."

Listen / watch the embedded YouTube video in order for this post to make a little more sense!

Here’s the list of all star attendees and sponsors as provided by GestaltIT.com:

TFD Seattle Delegates

	Ethan Banks	Packet Attack Packet Pushers Podcast	@ECBanks
	Jason Boche	Boche.net	@JasonBoche
	Ilja Coolen	Ilja Coolen StorageMonkeys	@iCoolen
	Rod Haywood	Musings of Rodos	@Rodos
	Kevin Houston	Blades Made Simple Corus 360	@Kevin_Houston
	Howard Marks	Network Computing Deep Storage	@DeepStorageNet
	John Obeto	Absolutely Windows	JohnObeto
	Bob Plankers	The Lone Sysadmin	@Plankers
	W. Curtis Preston	Backup Central	@WCPreston
	Derek Schauland	Technically Speaking TechRepublic	@WebJunkie
	Craig Stewart	VirtualPro Gestalt IT	@VirtualProUK

TFD Seattle Sponsors

Compellent
F5
NEC Corporation of America
Veeam Software
(Launching at Tech Field Day Seattle)

Other TFD Seattle posts

• Tech Field Day Seattle: The Links (gestaltit.com)
• 3 Questions For Field Day Sponsor, Compellent (gestaltit.com)
• Announcing Gestalt IT Tech Field Day Seattle 2010 (gestaltit.com)

Although VIRTUMANIA 18 has been out via the RSS feed for over a week, I am just finally posting about it! Sorry for the delay but I’ve been on vacation. So, if you do not already subscribe to the show via iTunes or Podbean please add us to your favorite media player or feed reader. You can even catch Virtumania as soon as it comes out on the Mobile Site.

In this episode Rick Vanover joins me again as co-host, and Jason Perlow from ZDNet is our special guest. The following is the podcast summary:

VIRTUMANIA Podcast Episode 18 – Putting The Mustard On Free Virtualization Charcuterie. Rich Brambley (@rbrambley) of VMETC  and Rick Vanover (@rickvanover) of RickVanover.com host popular technology and foodie blogger Jason Perlow (@jperlow) of Tech Broiler and Off The Broiler. In this episode we explore and compare several free virtualization solutions available today. Like selecting cuts of meat from a butcher, there is always plenty of choices. Consider this episode a delicious virtualization Charcuterie. Virtumania is an Infosmack Production.

Listen to the podcast with the embedded player or subscribe to get a weekly copy so you can listen when convenient.

Check out the VM /ETC VIRTUMANIA Page to listen to past episodes as well as episodes of Infosmack.

The following links offer more information on some of the topics mentioned in VIRTUMANIA Episode 18:

Jason Perlow – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jason Perlow is a technology columnist and Linux expert who is considered one of the top 100 technology experts on Twitter. He writes the Tech Broiler blog for ZDNet and the Off The Broiler "foodie" blog, and is an Advisory Architect for IBM. In 2007, Perlow decided to change his foodie lifestyle, a change which was chronicled by the New York Times.

Jason’s podcast: The Frugal Tech Show

http://www.frugaltechshow.com/

Virtualization Smackdown 2: Oracle VM VirtualBox 3.2 vs… VMware Workstation 7.1

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/virtualization-smackdown-2-oracle-vm-virtualbox-32-vs-vmware-workstation-71/13020?tag=mantle_skin;content

With the latest releases of the two major desktop virtualization apps released at around the same time, which one reigns supreme? We thoroughly tested both on our Linux system and observed them for performance and usability. Here’s how they fared against each other.

Invincea brings you the Windows Browser Deflector Shield, for Real.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/invincea-brings-you-the-windows-browser-deflector-shield-for-real/13164

Invincea’s Browser Protection uses virtualization technology to provide a secure and isolated Internet Explorer instance for enterprises.

[omitted]

Invincea has done some very interesting things with their product. They’ve licensed the run-time version of Oracle’s VM VirtualBox software (which I reviewed recently) and have created a stripped-down executable Windows XP environment in a Virtual Machine complete with Internet Explorer 7 and Adobe Acrobat Reader

Since it has been over a week, Jason has posted about being on Virtumania too.

Playing Windows Games using Virtualbox

Video Of Working Windows DirectX Games in VirtualBox 3.0.2 on Ubuntu 9.0.4

The VIRTUMANIA continues with Episode 17! Rick Vanover jumps in the co-host chair for me this episode. We are joined by special guests Ben Armstrong, Adam Fazio, and Brent Ozar. The following is the podcast summary:

VIRTUMANIA Podcast Episode 17 – Hyper-V Dynamic Memory Is Not Over Commit Hosted by Rich Brambley (@rbrambley) of VMETC with co host Rick Vanover (@rickvanover) of Rickatron.us. Guests include Ben Armstrong, Microsoft Virtualization Program Manager, (@virtualpcguy VirtualPCGuy Blog), Adam Fazio, Microsoft Consulting, (blog), and Brent Ozar (@brentO) of brentozar.com. This week’s show starts with some talk about the recent keynotes, demos, and sessions from the Microsoft TechEd 2010 conference in New Orleans, LA, but then quickly switches to an explanation of what the new Hyper-V Dynamic Memory feature really is, and more importantly, is not. Virtumania is an Infosmack Production.

Listen to the podcast with the embedded player or subscribe to get a weekly copy so you can listen when convenient.

Check out the VM /ETC VIRTUMANIA Page to listen to past episodes as well as episodes of Infosmack.

The following links offer more information on some of the topics mentioned in VIRTUMANIA Episode 17:

Microsoft TechEd US 2010

http://www.microsoft.com/events/techednorthamerica/

Virtualization Sessions

• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2010/06/07/virtualization-at-teched-us-2010.aspx

BRENT’s Session:

• Top 10 Developer Mistakes That Won’t Scale
• http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica/DAT316

BEN’s Session:

• Hyper-V and Dynamic Memory in Depth
• http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica/VIR304

App-V for Servers

• Microsoft confirms an App-V for Servers in the work (virtualization.info)
• Microsoft Server App-V won’t arrive before Q2 2011 (virtualization.info)
• Next version of System Center will support Server App-V, Opalis orchestration and service modeling (virtualization.info)
• MMS 2010 Keynote demo(s) found here: http://www.mms-2010.com/public/home.aspx
• TechEd 2010 Day 1 Keynote: http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica/Keynote01

Hyper-V Dynamic Memory

• Dynamic Memory Coming To Hyper-V (Microsoft Virtualization Team Blog)
• Hyper-V Dynamic Memory and Remote FX Demo – TechEd 2010 (technet blogs / tonyso)

Adam’s Someday Lounge

http://www.somedaylounge.com/

“Someday Lounge is community developed by five individuals with a mission to break free from the banal that define our culture. It was borne out of the need to express a crazy idea, try something different, or see something beautiful in a setting accessible to all. We depend on Artist and Audience to sustain this ambitious project to bring a diverse set of ideas on and off the stage and create a community where none existed. Together with a huge contingent of supporters, volunteers, workers, designers, Eric, Kris, Giuseppe, Mike, Adam, and Noah, Someday opened it’s doors in September 06 hosting a series of PICA T:BA 06 events.

Someday there will be a waystation and a headquarters for the cultural revolution to present its many faces to the public at large. Sit back, have a drink, and enjoy the show. Someday has arrived.”

Our weekly podcast is usually a loose and casual conversation, but VIRTUMANIA Episode 16 was definitely "off the hip". Regular co-host Marc Farley is back, Rick Vanover joins us as always, and very special guests John Troyer and Eric Siebert round out a great discussion. The following is the podcast summary:

VIRTUMANIA Podcast Episode 16 – The One About vExperts And VMWorld. Rich Brambley (@rbrambley) of VMETC and Marc Farley (@3parfarley) of StorageRap.com are joined by regular Rick Vanover (@rickvanover) of RickVanover.com. Very special guests this week are VMware’s John Troyer (@jtroyer VMTN Roundtable Podcast) and Eric Seibert (@ericsiebert) of vpshere-land.com. The conversation covers everything from VMware’s 2010 vExpert program, hyping VMworld 2010, to social media tools and preferences. Although no “stretched analogy” was used in the actual episode this week, the spontaneous recording is almost like a cafe conversation from an episode of Friends. Thanks to Greg Knieriemen (@knieriemen) of Chi Corporation for this Infosmack Production.

Listen to the podcast with the embedded player or subscribe to get a weekly copy so you can listen when convenient.

Check out the VM /ETC VIRTUMANIA Page to listen to past episodes as well as episodes of Infosmack.

The following links offer more information on some of the topics mentioned in VIRTUMANIA Episode 16:

vExpert 2010

VMware vExpert Landing

http://www.vmware.com/communities/vexpert/

“The VMware vExpert Award is given to individuals who have significantly contributed to the community of VMware users over the past year. vExperts are book authors, bloggers, VMUG leaders, tool builders, and other IT professionals who share their knowledge and passion with others. These vExperts have gone above and beyond their day jobs to share their technical expertise and communicate the value of VMware and virtualization to their colleagues and community.”

Frequently Asked Questions about VMware vExpert

http://www.vmware.com/communities/vexpert/faq.html

Tools for keeping up with the V12N community

• Eric’s vLaunchpad
  • http://thevpad.com/
• Eric’s Twitter Lists
  • http://twitter.com/ericsiebert/top-100-vmware-people
  • http://twitter.com/ericsiebert/top-25-bloggers
• Planet v12n blog aggregator
  • http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/planet/v12n/
• Feedly
  • http://www.feedly.com/home#my

Looking Forward To VMWorld 2010

VMTN Roundtable Podcast #99 – All about VMworld 2010 with Richard Garsthagen

VMWorld 2010 Content Catalog

https://vmworld2010.wingateweb.com/scheduler/catalog/catalog.jsp

VMware engineer Michael White’s post 64 bit is almost here – are you ready? on the Uptime (VMware and Business Continuity) Blog foretells of the future 64 bit requirement of both vCenter and SRM (Site Recovery Manager). White writes:

“I wanted to remind everyone, of what I have already seen floating around the internet, but still important enough to remind.  Our next release of SRM is going to require a 64 bit OS.  This is the same as our next release of VC as it too will require a 64 bit host OS.  This change is required to support the increased capabilities of our products.  As we scale our products to match our customers needs, generally 1 – 2 years in advance of where they will need all the capabilities of a given product we have had to use a 64 bit OS.  This will show itself in increased numbers in things like more simultaneous vSphere client connections.”

To me these new operating system (OS) requirements mean we will see even more instances of vCenter as a VM (virtual machine). It only seems logical that a least path of resistance is to virtualize the management server in order to upgrade, especially considering all have already invested in 64 bit hardware for their hypervisors if they decided to upgrade to vSphere 4 in the first place. To go a step further, I’m willing to argue that it will be more common for an IT Department to justify the cost of additional ESX hosts, even if only dedicated for management, then it will to deploy new servers for physical instances of vCenter.

The looming transition to a console-less ESXi eventually means more management virtual appliances in the future too. Solutions which will continue to need a ESX console or similar will have to substitute their own appliance to operate with ESXi. This means even more justification for additional ESX/ESXi hosts and thus greases the decision to virtualize vCenter as well. I expect to see management clusters of ESX hosts become more common in the future than even the use of management networks today.

ESX hosts have bigger and badder hardware now than ever before allowing for higher consolidation ratios and larger applications to easily run in virtual machines, but it will be interesting to see if the vCenter as a VM best practices change over time. I personally feel that continuing to separate the database from the virtualized vCenter will continue to be a smart choice. Running a separate, and even virtualized, SQL instance ensures not only better performance of vCenter as a VM but enhances DR scenarios. In fact, those that already have the vCenter database on a remote instance will likely have a safer upgrade to the 64 bit vCenter.

The new 64 bit requirements will no doubt make for an interesting migration scenario, and I’m sure we will see some positive and negative opinions. Let me know your thoughts on a 64 bit vCenter as a VM in the future!