VMwarewolf

Free VMware Workstation Course

VMwarewolf — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:34:01 +0000

If you are new to VMware’s products, there’s a good chance that VMware Workstation will be the first product you use of theirs/ours (disclosure: I work for VMware). It was the first product I used before I came to work there.

I see today that VMware is offering a free online course to learn the ins and outs of VMware Workstation 7. Quoting their website:

With the tremendous number of new Workstation 7 customers, I am very excited to announce the availability of a free introductory, self-paced online course. The course is designed for people who are new VMware Workstation and it will quickly walk you through the steps for installing VMware Workstation, creating virtual machines, installing tools, configuring networks, and much more. To access the course, you will be prompted to create a VMware myLearn account if you do not already have one.

Click this link to get started!

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Free VMware Workstation Course

VMware Cookbook

VMwarewolf — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:22:43 +0000

Here’s another new book just out about VMware VMware ESX and ESXi. According to Amazon.com, you’ll not only learn the basics — how to pool resources from hardware servers, computer clusters, networks, and storage, and then distribute them among virtual machines — but also the stumbling blocks you’ll encounter when you monitor systems, troubleshoot problems, and deal with security.

In addition to the recipes, VMware Cookbook includes background information to help you determine your virtualization needs. You’ll come to view VMware as part of the real environment, alongside operating systems, storage, and logical and physical network components.

Follow best practices for installing VMware in your environment
Discover how to secure and monitor your network
Understand disk storage implementation and configuration
Learn resource management using the distributed resource scheduler, shares, and resource pools
Configure logical and physical networks
Learn how to clone and migrate servers
Gain valuable tips for configuration and fine-tuning

Many resources can teach you about virtualization and the basics of VMware. This book is for system administrators who are ready to go beyond an introduction.

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VMware Cookbook

VMware VI and vSphere SDK: Managing the VMware Infrastructure and vSphere

VMwarewolf — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:05:05 +0000

Companies running VMware have already achieved enormous gains through virtualization. The next wave of benefits will come when they reduce the time and effort required to run and manage VMware platforms. The VMware Infrastructure Software Development Kit (VI SDK) includes application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow developers and administrators to do just that.

Until now, there has been little documentation for the APIs. In VMware VI and vSphere SDK, software architect and author Steve Jin demystifies the entire VMware VI and new vSphere SDK and offers detailed, task-based coverage of using the APIs to manage VMware more efficiently and cost-effectively in a new book entitled VMware VI and vSphere SDK: Managing the VMware Infrastructure and vSphere.

Author Steve Jin walks readers through using the VI SDK and cloud-computing vSphere SDK to manage ESX servers, ESX clusters, and VirtualCenter servers in any environment–no matter how complex. Drawing on his extensive expertise working with VMware strategic partners and enterprise customers, he places the VI SDK in practical context, presenting realistic samples and proven best practices for building robust, effective solutions. Jin demonstrates how to manage every facet of a VMware environment, including inventory, host systems, virtual machines (VMs), snapshots, VMotion, clusters, resource pools, networking, storage, data stores, events, alarms, users, security, licenses, and scheduled tasks.

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VMware VI and vSphere SDK: Managing the VMware Infrastructure and vSphere

ESX PSODs

VMwarewolf — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:46:01 +0000

If you happen to search Google for one of the following phrases you might expect Google to return a list of official VMware Knowledgebase articles on the topic.

crash debug screen
machine crash screen
ESX Server PSOD
Purple screen crash report
Decode purple screen error

Guess what? VMware’s own document standards prevent us from using any of these phrases in the articles, and Google isn’t smart enough to know a PSOD really means a Decoding Machine Check Exception. So instead of finding the best information you really need at that moment, you get a ton of 3rd party information.

Our community forums don’t have as strict rules about terminology so I have just created this post:

ESX Server PSOD

in hopes it ranks well and directs customers to the information they need on ESX purple screens.

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ESX PSODs

vCloud Express attracting buzz

VMwarewolf — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:23:08 +0000

Out of the many product enhancements and releases being marketed at VMworld this week comes one that is really causing a stir and buzz in the user community and that is vCloud Express.

vCloud Express is a service whereby you pay a 3rd party to host your virtual servers on the Internet. Five providers are already ready to host your cloud at very cheap rates (I heard a dollar a day). You don’t get locked in either. If you choose to later host your own internal cloud you can do that.

Look out Amazon EC2

While this service can and will directly compete with Amazon, VMware is going to be hosting the clouds themselves. They provide the API, and providers provide the infrastructure.

As cloud computing gains ground on a commercial basis, VMware seems poised to once again to have the upper hand.

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vCloud Express attracting buzz

VMware Go™: free web management for ESXi

VMwarewolf — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:01:07 +0000

Today VMware announced a new service aimed at the SMB market making it easier for these companies to adopt and move to a virtualized server environment. This new offering is called "VMware Go™" and although currently in beta is predicted to go live in Q4 2009.

“VMware Go™ is the latest innovation we’ve brought to market as part of our ongoing commitment to helping SMB customers run their applications with more agility, profitability, and resilience,” said Dan Chu, vice president, emerging products and markets at VMware. “Nearly every SMB stands to benefit tremendously from virtualization. VMware Go™ will simplify virtualization for SMBs to a few easy online steps and was designed with SMBs in mind. We want SMBs who may be sitting on the fence to realize all the benefits of virtualization without burdening their limited IT resources.”

VMware Go™ is a free web-based service that will enable SMB customers to fly through the ESXi setup process with just a few mouse clicks. The award-winning VMware ESXi is the industry’s most widely deployed hypervisor, with hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. VMware ESXi, also available for free, allows companies to reduce overhead and simplify business operations by running multiple operating systems and applications on a single server, spending less money on hardware, power and cooling, and server administration. VMware ESXi together with VMware Go is an on-ramp for companies new to virtualization, especially small businesses who may not think they have the time or budget to get started.

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VMware Go™: free web management for ESXi

SEO for the Knowledgebase

VMwarewolf — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:00:34 +0000

One of the things I am tasked with in my role role at VMware is to find ways to increase the visibility of our self-help resources on the VMware website. In particular, I am looking at optimizing our Knowledge Base so that customers searching for information on some problem they have encountered shows up near the top in Google.

It used to be that the Knowledgebase wasn’t indexed at all by Google and other search engines. There were some critical road blocks up that prevented this. We have that fixed now and much if not all of our KBs are in the index.

Do you know of any search strings you have typed into Google, only to find no KB article listed? Especially when you KNOW one exists! If so, let me know and I will fix it (or at least try).

I have years of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) under my belt as I run about a dozen other websites apart from this one. All pet projects. These skills are coming in very handy now.

Again, if you know of a particular KB article that ranks poorly I sure would like to know about it.

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SEO for the Knowledgebase

VMware Announces More than 21,000 New Customers

VMwarewolf — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:35:04 +0000

Wow.

Did you see this press release from VMware today?

In the first half of this year, VMware has added 21,000 new customers! That’s 121 every day. Not only that, but the new flagship product, vSphere 4.0 has been downloaded over 350,000 in just twelve weeks. That works out to 140 downloads every hour!

Makes me feel pretty good about working there.

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VMware Announces More than 21,000 New Customers

Crasher vSquirrel

VMwarewolf — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:30:27 +0000

Did you hear about the couple who had set the timer on their camera while posing at a lakeside in a national park in Canada?

Just as they were about to be captured on camera the cheeky squirrel popped up in the foreground and stole the show.

Well, this little varmint is making his way south down around Palo Alto I hear-

Crasher vSquirrel

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Crasher vSquirrel

VMware Jobs

VMwarewolf — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:29:42 +0000

Now that I’m in a less technical role here at VMware I am wondering which direction to take this blog. I could sell it. I could let it wither away in neglect. One of the options I was thinking about was starting a VMware job board. Everyday I see job postings from around the world coming across my desk.

What do you think? Leave me a comment in the space below.

Here are just a few in the last couple of days:

Sr. VMware Engineer – Fulcrum IT – Suitland, MD http://jobcircle.com/z2934731
VMware Consultant (Job #9542) – Nashville, TN http://bit.ly/TsD1b
Network Server Administrator (VMWare/Windows) http://bit.ly/bUUSM
Sr. VMware Engineer – Fulcrum IT – Suitland, MD http://jobcircle.com/z2897674
Harvey Nash IT Jobs Linux and VMWare Consultant: Linux and VMWare Consultant is required for .. http://bit.ly/9Zyjv
Pre-sales Engineer – Philadelphia, PA () Get Sales Engineer Jobs #SalesEngineer #19019… http://tinyurl.com/lg8d38

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VMware Jobs

VMware in Social Media

VMwarewolf — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:03:50 +0000

I’ve been Social Media Specialist at VMware now for just a couple of weeks but I’m already seeing this pay off hugely for customers.

There have been some frustrations I have been able to spot in the SM space where I have jumped in, helped get the customer what he needed and helped VMware retain a customer. It is very rewarding taking some responsibility in a situation which, in the end, results in much gratitude and props from the customer in a public space.

It’s going to help us too. The best way to improve our products is to listen to those who have a problem with it.

If I can assist any of you with a support or licensing problem, you can reach me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/VMwarecares. You can direct message me too if you don’t want this discussed in a public forum.

Spread the word: VMwareCares is open for business!

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VMware in Social Media

VMware Cares

VMwarewolf — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:01:14 +0000

As I alluded to yesterday, I am changing roles here at VMware. I am thrilled to have been chosen to fill a brand new role of Social Media Specialist.

I’ll be the eyes & ears for VMware in the social networking world, assisting where I can in getting the information you need in your hands. It’s less of a technical role (I will not be working your tech support cases online!), but if I know of a self-help resource for you, I’ll send you the link.

If you’re a Twitterer, follow me: @vmwarecares

What’s a Social Media Support Specialist you ask?

Someone who will provide direct assistance in the Communities, route users to specific resources or teams as needed with the goal to deflect calls and support requests.
Listen to user conversations using social media monitoring tools and become involved following documented guidelines.
Someone who will develop and implement methods to measure success and customer satisfaction related to assisting users in the Communities.
Defines communication guidelines to help users find answers quickly, increase customer satisfaction of Global Services & Support

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VMware Cares

Index of Knowledge Base Articles

VMwarewolf — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:32:26 +0000

As I wrap up my stint on the Knowledge Base Team at VMware (I’ll tell you what I’m up to next in another post) I came across a handy index, or table of contents for the whole knowledgebase, available on one page!

Click here to see the KB Index.

Sure makes it easy to search!

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Index of Knowledge Base Articles

ESX 4 vm-support script

VMwarewolf — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:53:06 +0000

This is not official or even verified, but I have heard recently that the vm-support script for ESX 4.0 hosts doesn’t behave quite the same as what we’ve become accustomed to in the past.

In some cases, the information that would normally be in the /tmp directory of the untarred vm-support output will instead be located in:

/usr/lib/vmware/hostd/docroot/downloads

From what I’ve heard, this does not happen in all instances, and /tmp will be populated with the files that we have learned to expect from the ESX 3 family.

There is one more odd-ball to this mystery, where it is suggested that running vm-support from the COS vs from vSphere Client will result in different behavior, again, I have not verified this. It may or may not be related to where the script run is triggered, or instead by other circumstances unrelated to how the script was called.

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ESX 4 vm-support script

VMware View Client requires HTTP 1.1 to be enabled in Internet Explorer

VMwarewolf — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:32:27 +0000

An issue has been reported in the field regarding delays and slow performance when using the View Client if HTTP 1.1 has not been enabled in Internet Explorer.

This may be seen when:

Connecting to the View Connection Server
Logging in and performing authentication
Connecting to the virtual desktop

The following KB has been created to address the issue:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1011655

The View 3.1 Release Notes will also be updated to include this information.

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VMware View Client requires HTTP 1.1 to be enabled in Internet Explorer

ESX Patches

VMwarewolf — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:36:47 +0000

A new bunch of patches for ESX 3.5 and 3.0.x were posted this week from VMware. If you’re still in the old Virtual Infrastructure 3 world, you might want to look in to the latest patches as they contain security and critical updates.

Patch Download and Installation

See the VMware Update Manager Administration Guide for instructions on using Update Manager to download and install patches to automatically update ESX Server 3.5 hosts.

To update ESX Server 3.5 hosts when not using Update Manager, download the most recent patch bundle from http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/vi3_patches_35.html and install the bundle using esxupdate from the command line of the host. For more information, see the ESX Server 3 Patch Management Guide.

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ESX Patches

VMotion stops working in vSphere

VMwarewolf — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:07:27 +0000

A couple of ahem… hiccups have popped up for some users of VMotion after upgrading to vSphere.

The Knowledge base team has been ultra-fast in responding to these, and two new KBs have appeared:

VMotion stops working after upgrading to vSphere 4.0 (1011294)

and

VMotion stops working after upgrading to vSphere 4 with a Licensing server is not configured error (1011296)

If you notice any issues with VMotion with vSphere, be sure to check those two articles out.

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VMotion stops working in vSphere

Announcing the Release of vSphere 4

VMwarewolf — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:34:35 +0000

Today’s the day you’ve all been waiting for, the release of our brand new product, vSphere 4.

If you already have a VMware account as a customer or partner you can download vSphere (ESX 4, ESXi 4, vCenter Server 4, and all of the add ons) here.

For everyone else:

Get guided evaluation of VMware vSphere with access to product demos and evaluation guides.

Try it free for 60 days

Equally important is the update documentation section.

We’ve created easy self-service answers to our customers’ most common questions to reduce SR volume.

Over 250 vSphere KB articles are available online.
vSphere Upgrade Center answers questions on upgrading from VI3 to vSphere 4.
The Licensing Wizard is online and ready to address common licensing issues.
The vSphere Support Center points customers to key documentation, getting-started guides, webcasts and KB articles.

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Announcing the Release of vSphere 4

32-bit ODBC DSN for vSphere

VMwarewolf — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:51:36 +0000

When you get around to installing vSphere, if on a 64-bit Windows host in x86 compatibility mode, a 32-bit DSN is required for the database connection.

If a DSN has been set up through Start > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC) the vSphere installer won’t be able to use this DSN.

The 64-bit ODBC Administrator tool can be invoked from Control Panel to manage user DSNs and system DSNs that are used by 64-bit processes, but for 32-bit datasources, the 32-bit ODBC Administrator tool is used for Windows on Windows 64 (WOW64) processes.

To set up a 32-bit DSN launch the 32-bit version of the Data Source Administrator. It is located at:
%systemdrive%\Windows\SysWoW64\Odbcad32.exe

The vSphere installer will then be able to detect the DSN and continue the installation.

Please see Microsoft KB article http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/942976/en-us for more information.

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32-bit ODBC DSN for vSphere

VMwarewolf

Free VMware Workstation Course

VMware Cookbook

VMware VI and vSphere SDK: Managing the VMware Infrastructure and vSphere

ESX PSODs

ESX Server PSOD

vCloud Express attracting buzz

Look out Amazon EC2

VMware Go™: free web management for ESXi

SEO for the Knowledgebase

VMware Announces More than 21,000 New Customers

Crasher vSquirrel

VMware Jobs

VMware in Social Media

VMware Cares

Index of Knowledge Base Articles

ESX 4 vm-support script

VMware View Client requires HTTP 1.1 to be enabled in Internet Explorer

ESX Patches

Patch Download and Installation

VMotion stops working in vSphere

Announcing the Release of vSphere 4

More Resolution Path KB articles

32-bit ODBC DSN for vSphere