Technology

Step by Step vSphere upgradation process

Amit Tuli — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:00:59 +0000

Please go through this links for upgrading VI3 to V-sphere.

Ø 1st video It includes upgrading the virtual center, update manager, enterprise convertor
Ø 2nd video covers upgrading ESX server itself using update manager with an .iso image.
Ø 3rd video covers upgrading the Vmware-tools and Virtual machine hardware upgrade on virtual machines manually and by using vmware update manger
Ø 4th video covers v-sphere licenses

http://download3.vmware.com/vsphere/vsphere-migration-part1.html

http://download3.vmware.com/vsphere/vsphere-migration-part2.html

http://download3.vmware.com/vsphere/vsphere-migration-part3.html

http://download3.vmware.com/vsphere/vsphere-migration-part4.htm

Thanks ,

Amit

Resolution – ESX hosts unexpected disconnect from Virtual Center ( ESX 3.5 update 2 )

Amit Tuli — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:08:31 +0000

When I try to log in to my virtual center to verify my VM farm today, the virtual center show my ESX host had been disconnected from the virtual center by itself. The ESX host itself should be running in critical mode as production and had HA and DRS enable on the cluster. The 1st thing I try to verify is to ensure all my VM and the ESX host is still in production mode, and yes, all the VM is not been down and it still run as normal while it disconnected.

Here is what I did to reconfigure my ESX host and re-join it back to the HA and DRS cluster in my production farm.

Disable the HA and DRS features from the cluster, and totally remove the ESX host from the inventory on Virtual Center server. Follow by that, I SSH in to the ESX host with su -, then I path to the /etc/init.d and look for the services mgmt-VMware status command
It show the services is running. Then I issue the command services mgmt-vmware restart. This will take couple of minutes to get the service fully restarted. At the same time I had actually Remote log on to 1 of the VM to ensure no impact on the VM guest which sit on the ESX host. The result is perfectly work without any downtime on the VM guests, and should credit to the ability from VMware technology.

Once the services restarted, you can easily add host to the virtual center and reconfigure the HA and DRS cluster mode again. The ESX host is back to normal now and work perfectly as usual.

Veeam Reporter-Powerful Tool

Amit Tuli — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:49:01 +0000

REPORTING AND DOCUMENTATION
Veeam Reporter
Veeam Reporter tells you all there is to
know about your VMware Infrastructure,
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in charge of VI3, ESX Server 3 and VirtualCenter
DISCOVER DOCUMENT ANALYSE
Veeam Reporter collects information about your VMware Infrastructure
3 (VI3) environment, its components and configuration
settings. From this collection, it provides comprehensive
visual reports for analysis, documentation and decision-making
support. Designed for professional use by ESX administrators,
system integrators and datacenter managers, it is fully
integrated with VMware VirtualCenter and ESX Server.
Discover in minutes
The manual process of collecting information about your VI3
environment can take hours, and is prone to human errors.
With Veeam Reporter, discovery of entire infrastructure usually
takes from one to five minutes and requires almost no human
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If you manage a large VirtualCenter environment,
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represent in reports from the entire VirtualCenter to a datacenter,
cluster, or folder.
Analyze in Visio
Take full advantage of professional Visio reports of your VI3
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Veeam Reporter offers you a bird’s-eye view of the entire
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essential for understanding your current environment, as well
as identifying changes as your environment grows.
Document in Excel, Word and PDF
Report every detail of ESX or VirtualCenter configuration settings
in different file formats. Microsoft Visio is a great tool for
visualizing and analyzing the virtual infrastructure. Microsoft
Excel spreadsheets are good for building an inventory and allow
for quick searching of a particular detail (like finding an IP
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format that can be distributed and used in heterogeneous environments,
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NEW Storage Capacity report is essential for storage
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«During training there is inevitably always a discussion on documenting
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Discover all the details of local and shared datastores,
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Analyze and plan your storage with detailed statistics
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population on those datastores, and see what virtual
machines are running out of free space on their logical
disks.
VMotion
Plan your VMotion deployment strategy or check the
current VMotion configuration from a VM standpoint.
View potential VMotion candidate hosts and confirm
that selected VMs can be included into VMotion.
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Check the resource pools configured in your VC or ESX
Server and see the specific CPU and memory shares.
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Do the full inventory of your VMware infrastructure
in Excel, Word or PDF.
System Requirements
Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003;
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VConverter

Amit Tuli — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:44:04 +0000

C O N V E R S I O N

vConverter™

Enterprise-class P2V / V2V converter for VMware®, Microsoft®, XenServer and Virtual Iron®

The Fastest, Easiest and Most Reliable Converter on the Market

vConverter is an enterprise-class P2V and V2V converter that significantly reduces the time and effort spent
converting physical and virtual machines to VMware, Microsoft, XenServer and Virtual Iron virtual machines.
vConverter is available in two editions: Server Consolidation for one-time machine conversions and Disaster
Recovery for unlimited machine cloning. vConverter enables fast, easy and reliable conversions without
disrupting the source physical system during the conversion process. There are never any reboots, no need to
visit machines being converted, no software to install on the source and no downtime.

Quick Setup, Convenient Licensing and Migration Task Automation

No software infrastructure components (such as databases or web services) are required for the installation
of vConverter, reducing setup time to less than one minute. When converting hundreds or thousands of
machines, downstream licensing enables the simple allocation of licenses from a pool on a central machine to
wherever the conversion license is required. vConverter also automates many manually oriented migration
tasks, so along with its speed and simultaneous conversion capability, it is able to save considerable amounts
of time and overall cost for larger conversion projects.

Heterogeneous P2V and V2V

vConverter allows the user to select from multiple VM platform formats. Once the source servers have
been identified, simply point-and-click to select the destination format: VMware, Virtual Iron, XenServer
or Microsoft. vConverter enables users to convert in high-speed multiple simultaneous mode, quick
single-machine mode, or in scheduled mode for off-hour conversions.

Rapid and Reliable Conversions

A significant R&D effort and focus on conversion reliability and efficiency has resulted in the fine tuning
of read/write/transfer algorithms and the creation of several mechanisms that result in impressive speed
and conversion completion metrics as follows:

Increased throughput: Vizioncore’s streamlined File Transfer mechanism results in extremely fast
and secure data throughput.

Increased write speed: vConverter includes Vizioncore’s proprietary “vzBoost” VMware kernel

level driver which speeds up all writes to the VMFS to reduce bottlenecks.

Disk Geometry and selective conversion algorithms: The creation of a series of conversion techniques,
including advanced disk geometry and data pre-allocation algorithms, such as Hyperfill, results in
advanced intelligence and handling of the bits and bytes required for cloning.

vConverter provides extremely

rapid, easy and reliable P2V and

V2V conversions for one-time

server consolidation or ongoing

disaster recovery requirements.

T E C H N I C A L D A T A S H E E T

C O N V E R S I O N

Three Interface Options

vConverter employs an intuitive GUI interface and completely logical product management console
that permits administration by any level of user. Simply drag-and-drop the servers that you would like to
convert, finalize the settings and begin conversion. Wizards are available to guide the most novice user.
These easy-to-use options mean little training is required to perform server consolidations or

create ongoing backups for disaster recovery. Alternatively, a Command Line Interface (CLI) capability
provides a straightforward mechanism for increased control and flexibility.

Direct Conversion to VMware ESX Server

vConverter allows the capture of a live physical Microsoft Windows system and conversion directly to an
ESX Server host without additional complicated components such as boot CDs, helper virtual machines
and other components that can make server-consolidation projects more complex. R&D efforts focused
specifically for ESX Server as the target offer tremendous time savings for conversion projects.

Architecture for Direct Conversion to ESX Server

The basic architecture of vConverter consists of three components; the Application/GUI, the

Source Quiesce and Source Capture Driver (1), and the ESX Server Host Agent (2). Conversion jobs are
configured, scheduled, and started by the Application/GUI component. At job execution, the proper
details are sent to the source system, which is properly quiesced, and data is sent directly from the
source system to the target ESX Server host. Status messages are returned from the Source Capture
Driver to update the proper status information in the Application/GUI. Upon completion of the data
transfer, the ESX Server Host Agent optionally resizes the partitions and perform the necessary P2V
conversion steps. Based on the job configuration, the virtual machine is configured with the proper CPU,
Memory and Network settings, registered on the ESX Server host and is ready to run.

Minimal Impact on ESX Server Host

Leveraging agents at the ESX Server Host level needs to be handled properly to ensure that hosts
continue to function optimally. The vConverter process is extremely lightweight and provides high
degrees of speed, flexibility and usability with minimal impact to the virtual environment. The following
diagram describes events occurring using the various application components at the ESX Server level:

· xinetd – The built-in VMware Service Console method for listening for new traffic and starting server
components only when required by an external request

· vzBoost – A controllable VMkernel module developed through the VMware Community Source
program that allows vConverter to write data at very fast speeds directly through the Service Console

· sftp-over-tcp – A Vizioncore “Server” component that accelerates data transfer. This method is based
on the SFTP protocol with overhead removed, making it fast/lightweight, while at the same time, using
tried & true technology

The activities on the host occur through the multiple phases of the conversion job. After the job

is executed and the Source Server Capture Driver starts sending data to ESX Server, it is detected by the
xinetd service running on the ESX Server host. This action triggers the Vizioncore server component

particular to that job, which performs several actions. Multiple jobs can run at the same time and each
job leverages its own server component instance.

Administrators are cautious
when it comes to installing

drivers and software on their ESX
Server hosts. The vConverter

process is lightweight and does
not impact host performance.

XenServer 5 Changes the Game in Server Virtualization with Unprecedented Reliability, Openness and Ease-of-Use

Amit Tuli — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:24:20 +0000

Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS), the global leader in application delivery infrastructure, today announced Citrix® XenServer™ 5, the next generation of its groundbreaking server virtualization product line. XenServer 5 overcomes the limitations and complexity of first-generation solutions with powerful new management capabilities and unprecedented ease-of-use that make datacenters more dynamic for customers of all sizes. Today’s release comes on the heels of new data showing XenServer gaining share in the rapidly-evolving server virtualization market¹ less than one year after acquiring XenSource and the XenServer product line. XenServer is a key component of the Citrix Delivery Center™ product family, a comprehensive datacenter-to-desktop system that helps customers transform static datacenters into dynamic “delivery centers.” XenServer is also a growing force in the emerging cloud computing market and a key component of the new Citrix Cloud Center™ solution launched today (see today’s separate announcement).

“XenServer 5 is going to completely change the way a lot of people think about server virtualization,” said Lou Shipley, VP and General Manager, XenServer product group at Citrix Systems. “We are excited to see the growing momentum around XenServer as customers around the world begin to experience a more powerful, open, easy way to build dynamic datacenters.”

“Having installed the beta version of XenServer 5 we’ve found it to be a well-rounded product which has matured quickly to exceed the market’s demands,” said James Livesey, ICT technical analyst at BULL TCL who is responsible for Barnsley Metropolitan Council’s IT services. “The key for us was the position of XenServer in the broader Citrix Delivery Center product family. The licensing for server and desktop virtualization is bundled so well by Citrix that it makes sense, from both a financial and features perspective, for us to leverage XenServer as the center of our virtualization strategy.”

Powerful New Management Capabilities Add Unparalleled Reliability
Adding to the already long list of proven enterprise-class features such as live migration, resource pooling and workload provisioning, XenServer 5 adds more than 100 new virtualization management features including major new advances in high availability (HA) and disaster recovery. These new capabilities include the industry’s most advanced HA, auto-restart and failover technologies that can be seamlessly upgraded to full fault tolerance for the most mission-critical applications (see today’s separate announcement from Citrix and Marathon Technologies).

XenServer 5 also includes the industry’s most resilient distributed management architecture. This unique design stands in stark contrast to other virtualization solutions in which a single point of failure could bring down all servers across an entire datacenter. In addition, the latest edition of XenServer includes expanded support for replication and remote mirroring architectures, as well as built-in replication for virtual machine metadata information to allow bulletproof, easy and reliable virtual machine and application recovery for disaster or site failure scenarios.

Uniquely Open Architecture Simplifies Management and Improves TCO
XenServer 5 features an enhanced open architecture that makes it even easier for customers to leverage their existing investments in storage and datacenter management systems. Unlike other virtualization products that are built on closed proprietary systems, the open storage APIs in XenServer allow customers to access and control advanced functions such as snapshotting, cloning, replication, de-duplication and provisioning in their existing storage systems from vendors such as EqualLogic and NetApp directly from within the XenServer management console. This unique approach allows customers to fully leverage all the capabilities of their existing datacenter infrastructure rather than deploying and managing an entirely new set of tools and people that apply only to their virtual servers.

The new XenServer 5 management console now supports virtually every storage environment on the market, including NAS (network attached storage), DAS (direct attached storage) and SAN (storage area networks) – both fiber channel and iSCSI – as well as support for 8GB HBAs (host bus adaptors) from both QLogic and Emulex. And via its open storage API, XenServer 5 adds another storage adapter, Dell EqualLogic, to a rapidly growing list of fully integrated storage management capabilities. This unique approach dramatically simplifies datacenter management and underscores the commitment from Citrix to let the vendors who know storage best deliver the same advanced storage capabilities across all servers in the datacenter, both physical and virtual.

This same open architectural approach extends to the popular Xen® hypervisor that powers XenServer (see recent announcement: A State of Xen: Virtualization from PDAs to Super Computers). By incorporating the Xen hypervisor, XenServer 5 automatically inherits the innovation, security and validation of hundreds of leading system developers from over 50 companies, including the world’s largest server and microprocessor manufacturers.

XenServer 5 is the first server virtualization platform to be validated for both AMD and Intel 32-bit and 64-bit systems through Microsoft’s Server Virtualization Validated Program. This program enables Citrix and other software providers to test and validate their virtualization software to run Windows Server 2008 and previous versions of Windows Server. Under this program, Microsoft offers cooperative technical support to customers running Windows Server and select Microsoft server applications on validated, non-Microsoft server virtualization software, such as XenServer 5.

“Microsoft and Citrix share a common focus on developing an end-to-end computing environment that is flexible, dynamic and responsive to business change. Virtualization is at the heart of this work,” said Zane Adam, senior director of integrated virtualization at Microsoft Corp. “To help customers get there, we’re working with Citrix to standardize on a common virtualization format, develop virtual machine interoperability and portability between XenServer 5 and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, enable cooperative technical support, and use Microsoft System Center as a common management framework.”

See end of release for additional comments of support for XenServer 5 from Dell, HP and NetApp.

Radically Simple Management Provides the Antidote to Virtualization Complexity
Despite the tremendous cost savings of virtualization, industry estimates show that fewer than 15 percent of all servers are virtualized today. One reason is the growing complexity of first-generation virtualization solutions. To overcome this challenge, Citrix has taken ease-of-use to an entirely new level in XenServer 5 by including new configuration wizards, intuitive interfaces and easy point-and-click conversion of physical servers into virtual machines.

XenServer 5 also adds multiple new visibility enhancements that help administrators keep track of virtual machines as they become separated from specific hardware systems and begin to proliferate across large datacenters. These enhancements include a new Web 2.0 style tagging and searching capability which allows IT professionals to assign metadata and virtual tags to workloads, either pre-defined or customized to each organization’s needs. Once tagged, virtual machines are easily located using powerful searching and sorting capabilities based on application type, quality of service requirements, department, cost center, location, origin, owner, performance requirements, or any other important attribute.

XenServer 5 also adds new enhanced performance monitoring, reporting and alerting dashboards that make it easy for IT professionals to see both real time and historical views of virtual machines and physical host performance over long periods of time with virtually no storage or performance overhead. XenServer 5 even allows custom or third-party management solutions to access and report on this persistent performance information, further enhancing ease-of-use for customers of all sizes.

Dynamic Workload Provisioning Improves Agility and Reduces Storage and Power Costs
Unlike other virtualization vendors, Citrix believes virtualization is a key enabling technology, not an end goal – a means to an end that provides fast, flexible, cost-effective delivery of applications and desktops from a central location to any user in any location. As part of that vision, XenServer 5 is the only leading virtualization product to feature dynamic workload provisioning capabilities that let administrators instantly boot and deliver hundreds of workloads from a single image with one click, even if the target servers have no locally attached disk or hypervisor. The result is an immediate reduction of up to 80 percent in the storage footprint required to run common enterprise applications² – all while simultaneously reducing the number of disk images to store, patch, and manage on each individual machine. By enabling servers to run diskless, XenServer 5 also reduces architectural complexity, lowers power and cooling requirements and improves overall datacenter agility.

Pricing and Availability
Citrix XenServer 5 is available immediately through Citrix’s worldwide network of Solutions Advisors and channel partners. XenServer 5 pricing starts at a suggested retail price of US$900 per server, regardless of how many CPUs or sockets, enabling organizations to deploy XenServer at a fraction of the cost of other leading products. This price includes the advanced XenCenter management technologies and a one-year Citrix Subscription Advantage™ membership. XenServer Express, a production-ready, single-server version of XenServer with unlimited virtual machine and memory support capabilities, is also available for free download at www.citrix.com.

A new instructor-led course to help end-users learn best practices for optimal implementation of XenServer 5 will be available in Q4. An online version of this training will be available exclusively for partners. For more information and updates, please visit the Citrix Education website at www.citrixeducation.com.

About Citrix XenServer
Citrix XenServer, a member of the Citrix Delivery Center product family, is the most powerful, open, easy way to virtualize application workloads across any number of servers in the datacenter as a flexible aggregated pool of computing resources. Unlike traditional virtualization solutions, XenServer addresses both virtual and physical servers, making the entire datacenter more dynamic. XenServer is also a key component of the Citrix Cloud Center (C3) product family, enabling cloud providers to deliver services with the best performance, security, cost savings and agility.

About Citrix
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is the global leader and the most trusted name in Application Delivery Infrastructure. More than 215,000 organizations worldwide rely on Citrix to deliver any application to users anywhere with the best performance, highest security and lowest cost. Citrix customers include 100 percent of the Fortune 100 companies and 99 percent of the Fortune Global 500, as well as hundreds of thousands of small businesses and prosumers. Citrix has approximately 8,000 partners in more than 100 countries. Annual revenue in 2007 was $1.4 billion.

For Citrix Investors
This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Those statements involve a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including risks associated with revenue growth and recognition of revenue, products, their development and distribution, product demand and pipeline, economic and competitive factors, the Company’s key strategic relationships, acquisition and related integration risks as well as other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Citrix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.

###

Citrix®, Xen®, Citrix Cloud Center™, Citrix Delivery Center™, Citrix Subscription Advantage™ and XenServer™ are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.¹ Yankee Group 2008-2009 Global Virtualization Deployment and Usage Survey
² Based on internal company testing

Supporting partner quotes for Citrix XenServer 5:
“Dell is dedicated to simplifying IT and working with partners, like Citrix, to give customers more functionality and options to help manage their virtualization environments,” said Rick Becker, vice president of Software and Solutions, Dell Product Group. “By integrating the Dell EqualLogic plug-in into the management console of XenServer 5, we’re making it easier for IT administrators to create snapshots, clones and high-performance single client images by directly controlling the storage array through XenServer.”

“Customers have come to depend on the strong combination of Citrix software running on HP ProLiant servers to reduce costs, increase efficiency and lower business risk,” said Scott Farrand, vice president, Enterprise Storage and Server Software, HP. “With Citrix, HP is reaching new virtualization customers who appreciate the ability to integrate BladeSystem and ProLiant servers with Citrix XenServer and our ProLiant Virtual Console. With XenServer 5, HP expects our joint value to increase for customers looking to further accelerate their business growth.”

“We are very excited by the new enterprise management capabilities in XenServer 5 and its solid integration with Microsoft’s Hyper-V,” said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Solutions Marketing, NetApp. “Now NetApp, Citrix and Microsoft customers can leverage the XenServer one-click integration with NetApp Data ONTAP which is designed to leverage the unique data management and data protection capabilities offered for both Citrix and Microsoft based environments.”

Storage Design for Exchange Server 2007

Amit Tuli — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:19:26 +0000

How Microsoft IT Exceeds High-Availability Targets with Large Mailboxes at Low Costs Based on New Storage Designs

More than 18 months after the first Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 deployment in the corporate messaging environment and more than 12 months after completing the full production rollout across the entire company, the Microsoft Information Technology (Microsoft IT) group is able to report significant benefits such as:

* Messaging service levels exceeding high-availability targets of 99.99 percent.
* Cost reductions in excess of $10 million per year.
* Increased mailbox quotas by up to a factor of 10.
* Consolidation of the initial Exchange Server 2007 base by nearly a factor of two.

Microsoft IT was able to achieve these results by taking full advantage of new storage features and input/output (I/O) improvements in Exchange Server 2007, the latest advancements in 64-bit processor technology, and direct-attached storage (DAS)–based storage solutions.

One key strategy that accounts for more than $5 million in annual cost savings involved eliminating the need for backups to tape by relying on new high-availability features in Exchange Server 2007 such as cluster continuous replication (CCR) as the first level of protection, and Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 as the second level of protection. Microsoft IT is not required to keep data on tape for archiving or other purposes. Moreover, according to an internal study conducted in 2006, Microsoft IT realized a 74 percent reduction of storage costs per gigabyte by replacing Storage Area Network (SAN) technology with DAS technology in the Mailbox server design. CCR enabled Microsoft IT to switch from SAN to DAS, which improved Microsoft IT’s ability to support employee productivity by means of large mailboxes with quotas between 500 megabytes (MB) and 2 gigabytes (GB).

Microsoft IT pursued another key strategy that focused on driving down total cost of ownership (TCO) through server consolidation. Microsoft IT has already reduced the initial Mailbox server base in the corporate messaging environment by more than 45 percent, from 62 servers (124 cluster nodes) to 34 Mailbox servers (68 cluster nodes), and consolidation efforts continue. Before and after consolidation, Microsoft employees enjoy large mailbox capacities, fast server response times, and messaging services that exceed the required high-availability level of 99.99 percent and frequently reach 99.999 percent with no extra effort.

Exchange Server 2007 enables Microsoft IT to not only lower storage costs and increase mailbox quotas, but also decrease storage complexities, regain full control over all aspects of the Mailbox server design (including the storage subsystem), eliminate maintenance overhead, and increase high availability of Mailbox servers. All storage-related issues that Microsoft IT encountered since the initial production rollout of Exchange Server 2007 were recoverable without the need for backups. There have been no critical storage-related incidents affecting Mailbox server availability across the entire corporate messaging environment for more than 18 months.

The purpose of this white paper is to share Microsoft IT knowledge, experiences, and recommendations related to the architecture and design of Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox servers. This paper is not intended to serve as a procedural guide. Although many organizations have similar requirements, each enterprise environment also has unique requirements, making it necessary to adapt the information discussed in this paper.

This white paper assumes that readers are IT architects and technical decision makers who are already familiar with Windows Server® 2003, the Active Directory® directory service, and Exchange Server. Specifically, knowledge about SAN and DAS technologies, server clustering, and the high-availability features of Exchange Server 2007 is helpful. Detailed product information is available in the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Technical Library at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124558.aspx.

For More details

http://technet.microsoft.com/hi-in/library/cc500980(en-us).aspx

Note: For security reasons, the sample names of forests, domains, organizations, and other internal resources mentioned in this paper do not represent real resource names used within Microsoft and are for illustration purposes only.

Cisco and VMware Accelerate Innovation in Data Center Virtualization

Amit Tuli — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:05:46 +0000

Companies Deliver Joint Solutions to Incorporate Cisco Virtual Networking Capabilities into VMware Infrastructure and Improve Performance of Virtual Desktops Across Wide-Area Networks

LAS VEGAS– VMworld – Sept. 16, 2008 – Industry leaders in virtualization Cisco and VMware® today announced that they are collaborating to deliver joint data center solutions designed to improve the scalability and operational control of virtual environments. The Cisco Nexus® 1000V distributed virtual software switch is expected to be an integrated option in VMware Infrastructure. Cisco and VMware will also combine their expertise in networking and virtualization to introduce a new set of multidisciplinary professional services and reseller certification training in support of customers’ data center virtualization strategies. In parallel, Cisco and VMware are collaborating on integrating VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions with Cisco® Application Delivery Networking solutions to improve the performance of virtual desktops delivered across wide-area networks (WANs).

The Cisco Nexus 1000V distributed virtual software switch will simplify the operations of both physical and virtual networking infrastructures to help server, virtualization and networking administration managers accelerate data center virtualization. The Nexus 1000V will extend Cisco’s security, policy enforcement, automated provisioning and diagnostics features into dynamic VMware environments that will be able to scale to thousands of live virtual machines. In this highly agile environment, the new Cisco Virtual Network Link (VN-Link) technology on the Nexus 1000V will integrate with VMware’s vNetwork Distributed Switch framework to create a logical network infrastructure that will provide full visibility, control and consistency of the network. The solution will help network, virtualization and server teams to gain efficiency in virtual environments and obtain accurate, real-time data for stronger collaboration in troubleshooting.

“We are embracing server virtualization to help us save energy for cooling and to increase the efficiency of our data center space and resources. MIT has a variety of computing needs that require a consistent IT management model throughout our data center,” said Theresa Regan, director of operations and infrastructure services for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “What is cool about Cisco working together with VMware is that the service, security and operational ease of management policies in Cisco networking will be assignable across each virtual machine in VMware Infrastructure. This kind of innovation will help drive more use of virtualization in our campus.”

“With today’s announcement, VMware and Cisco have taken a significant step forward in enabling our customers to take advantage of an end-to-end virtual data center architecture to simplify how they deliver IT services to their clients,” said Brian Byun, vice president of global partners and solutions for VMware. “We’re excited to announce the Cisco Nexus 1000V and VMware Infrastructure integration, as this is a key building block in our strategy to partner with industry leaders to deliver to customers the deep federated management of physical and virtual server, network and storage infrastructure required in a fully virtualized data center.”

The Cisco Nexus 1000V distributed virtual switch, with Cisco’s VN-Link virtual-machine-aware network and storage services, will complement VMware Infrastructure, which is in use by more than 120,000 customers. Through this integrated virtual solution, information technology (IT) managers will be able to set and enforce connection policies for each virtual machine across a data center. Now the same policy-based configuration and operation of network services traditionally available in Cisco physical hardware switches will be easily applied to each virtual machine. These virtual capabilities will enable IT managers to more easily manage virtual machines as they migrate them across physical servers during routine hardware maintenance or to balance server workloads for optimized application performance and availability.

“Integrating the Cisco end-to-end data center networking capabilities into the VMware platform is a way for our customers to enjoy the Cisco networking, security, and storage services they have benefited from in our networking hardware,” said Soni Jiandani, vice president of the Marketing, Server Access and Virtualization business unit for Cisco. “Also, with our expertise in assessment, planning and network design, we will be able to help our customers set up the right policies to gain the benefits of networking virtualization across their business.”

Cisco and VMware also jointly offer virtualization consulting services to help customers create and deploy server, network and storage virtualization solutions across their data center that reduce costs by provisioning new applications quickly and more safely, while maintaining high levels of application performance. The Cisco and VMware Virtualization Assessment Service and Cisco and VMware Planning and Design Service identify and close gaps in customers’ server, storage and network infrastructures to provide virtualized consolidated end-to-end architecture.

Cisco and VMware intend to work with alliance partners and customers to provide leadership in the use of virtualization technology for business advantage, and to scale this knowledge through industry-leading education and certification programs.

“Network virtualization is a key component of next-generation data centers. With a focus on virtualization of services and assets across the network, Cisco will evolve its education and certification programs for the data center,” said Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, general manager of Learning@Cisco. “Cisco is working with VMware to develop training, education and career certifications for customers and resellers that align with architecture changes and new roles such as data center architect, data center builder, and data center technical operations professional.”

In addition both Cisco and VMware will be proposing to the IEEE standards body a new protocol called Network Interface Virtualization, which will enable VN-Link technology to be delivered in high-performance hardware based solutions.

High-Performance Delivery of Virtual Desktops
Cisco and VMware are collaborating to accelerate the use of desktop virtualization by improving the performance of end users’ virtual desktops across the WAN, enabling centralized and distributed printing for remote users, and enhancing backup and recovery automation. Cisco’s Application Delivery Networking portfolio optimizes application availability, performance and security over the WAN. When it is combined with VMware VDI, customers are able to deploy a solution that provides an optimized remote desktop experience. Cisco and VMware collaborated on testing certain use cases to improve the experience of remote end users accessing virtual desktops. As published in the jointly developed whitepaper, the VDI architecture tested by Cisco and VMware illustrates up to a 65 percent improvement over native multi-user remote desktop protocol (RDP) in file and application access when using Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) and Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE) to optimize WAN protocols, with VMware VDI and Virtual Desktop Manager and backend infrastructure. Cisco and VMware are continuing to expand this architecture to optimize the remote-user experience and increase the adoption of virtual desktops.
Availability
The Cisco Nexus 1000V distributed virtual software switch with VN-Link capabilities supported in a VMware Infrastructure environment is expected to be generally available to customers in the first half of 2009. Cisco Wide Area Application Services and Application Control Engine for VDI are available now.

About Cisco
Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

About VMware
VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the data center. Customers of all sizes rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2007 revenues of $1.3 billion, more than 120,000 customers and nearly 18,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is majority-owned by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) and on the web at www.VMware.com.

Technorati Tags: Cisco, VMware, Virtualization, Data Center, Data Center Switches, Virtual Switches, Application Delivery Networks, Cisco WAAS, Cisco Nexus 1000, VDI, Site Recovery Manager

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Cisco, the Cisco logo, and Cisco Systems, are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.

The information on this press release is intended to outline our general product direction and should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The information on this press release is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion.

VMware Workstation 6.5 Gives Technical Professionals Richer Multimedia Support, Improved Security and Revolutionary Debugging Tools

Amit Tuli — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:38:03 +0000

Major Update to Award-Winning Desktop Virtualization Product for Windows and Linux Gives Users Seamless Desktop Integration with Unity, DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 2 3D Graphics and Groundbreaking Debugging with Virtual Machine (VM) Record Replay

PALO ALTO, Calif., September 29, 2008– VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, today announced the general availability of VMware Workstation 6.5, further raising the bar as the leading virtualization product for professionals who develop, test, deploy and support software. VMware Workstation, the most award-winning desktop virtualization product, has revolutionary new features, including the ability to seamlessly toggle between windows on different virtual machines, support for Direct X 3D graphics and groundbreaking debugging tools with Virtual Machine (VM) Record Replay.

Introduced more than nine years ago, VMware Workstation accelerates software development and testing, provides rapid provisioning and resetting of multi-tier environments, enables pre-production testing of new desktop and server applications in secure, easy to manage virtual machines and allows users to run any application on their preferred operating system.

“VMware Workstation 6.5 lets users do things they would never be able to do without it, like debugging complex multi-tier applications while running productivity applications all on a single computer,” said Jeff Jennings, vice president of desktop products and solutions, at VMware. “With the enhancements in VMware Workstation 6.5, we continue to raise the bar for desktop virtualization by giving technical professionals a simpler, richer and more secure user experience that’s also mobile with new Pocket ACE support. Workstation is a must-have product and the only choice for serious technical desktop virtualization users.”

With the industry’s most advanced and proven feature set as well as broadest support for x86 operating systems including Windows, Linux, NetWare, Solaris x86 and FreeBSD, VMware Workstation continues to be the “gold standard” virtualization product for technical professionals.

New features in VMware Workstation 6.5 include:

Seamless desktop experience with “Unity” — Run applications in virtual machines alongside applications on your normal desktop. The desktop of the virtual machine disappears and applications appear as a normal window in the rest of their environment. Color coding of Unity application windows makes it easy to run multiple versions of the same application across different virtual machines.
Support for DirectX 3D graphics — VMware Workstation was the first desktop virtualization product to support 3D graphics and VMware Workstation 6.5 takes it to the next level with support for DirectX 9.0c with Shader Model 2 3D graphics.
Simplify creating Windows and Linux virtual machines with Easy Install – VMware Workstation 6.5 enables users to save time and simplify Windows and Linux guest operating system installation. Just answer a few simple questions and the Easy Install feature will perform an unattended installation of the guest operating system and VMware Tools in a single step.
VM record and replay for groundbreaking debugging — VMware Workstation 6.5 lets users record a VM’s entire programmatic execution—every CPU instructions, every memory page, and every disk write—over time and then replay the recording to reproduce the exact behavior and state of the virtual machine to help analyze and debug hard-to-reproduce software defects until they are fixed.
Create ACE encrypted virtual machines — VMware Workstation 6.5 users now benefit from the included ACE authoring capabilities. Encrypt important virtual machines and run them with the included VMware Player for improved data security, or create personal Pocket ACE virtual machines to take virtual desktop environments on the road with a USB thumb-drive.

Pricing and Availability
VMware Workstation 6.5 is now available as a free, downloadable update for all VMware Workstation 6 customers from: www.vmware.com/products/ws/.

VMware Workstation 6.5 for both Windows and Linux host operating systems has a list price of $189 and is now available for electronic download at www.vmware.com/products/ws/. The product can also be purchased through VMware’s network of resellers and distributors.

About VMware
VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter. Customers of all sizes rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2007 revenues of $1.3 billion, more than 120,000 customers and nearly 18,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is majority-owned by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) and on the web at www.vmware.com.

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VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 updated

Amit Tuli — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:35:46 +0000

The Debian project is pleased to announce the third update of its stable distribution Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 (codename etch). This update mainly adds corrections for security problems to the stable release, along with a few adjustment to serious problems.

Please note that this update does not constitute a new version of Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 but only updates some of the packages included. There is no need to throw away 4.0 CDs or DVDs but only to update against ftp.debian.org after an installation, in order to incorporate those late changes.

Those who frequently install updates from security.debian.org won’t have to update many packages and most updates from security.debian.org are included in this update.

New CD and DVD images containing updated packages and the regular installation media accompanied with the package archive respectively will be available soon at the regular locations.

Upgrading to this revision online is usually done by pointing the aptitude (or apt) package tool (see the sources.list(5) manual page) to one of Debian’s many FTP or HTTP mirrors. A comprehensive list of mirrors is available at:

http://www.debian.org/mirror/list

Debian-Installer Update

The installer has been updated to use and support the updated kernels included in this release. This change causes old netboot and floppy images to stop working; updated versions are available from the regular locations.

This update also includes stability improvements and added support for SGI O2 machines with 300MHz RM5200SC (Nevada) CPUs that were announced with the second update, but were not actually included.

Important changes

Updated versions of the bcm43xx-fwcutter package will be distributed via volatile.debian.org. The package itself will be removed from etch with the next update.

Flashplugin-nonfree has been removed (see below), as this is closed source and we don’t get security support for it. For security reasons, we recommend to immediately remove any version of flashplugin-nonfree and any remaining files of the Adobe Flash Player. Tested updates will be made available via backports.org.

Miscellaneous Bugfixes

This stable update adds several binary updates for various architectures to packages whose version was not synchronised across all architectures. It also adds a few important corrections to the following packages:

Package	Reason
apache	Fix of several vulnerabilities
apache2	Fix of several vulnerabilities
apache2-mpm-itk	Rebuild for apache2 rebuilds
bos	Remove non-free content
clamav	Remove non-free (and undistributable) unrar-code
cpio	Fix malformed creation of ustar archives
denyhosts	Fix improper parsing of ssh logfiles
ircproxy	Fix denial of service
glibc	Fix sunrpc memory leak
gpsd	Fix problem with leap years
ipmitool	Bring architectures back in sync
kdebase	Add support for latest flash plugin
kdelibs	Add support for latest flash plugin
kdeutils	Prevent unauthorised access when hibernated
libchipcard2	Add missing dependency
linux-2.6	Fix several bugs
loop-aes	Updated linux-2.6 kernel
madwifi	Fix possible denial of service
net-snmp	Fix broken snmpbulkwalk
ngircd	Fix possible denial of service
sing	Fix privilege escalation
sun-java5	Fix remote program execution
unrar-nonfree	Fix arbitrary code execution
viewcvs	Fix cvs parsing
xorg-server	Fix inline assembler for processors without cpuid

These packages are updated to support the newer kernels:

Security Updates

This revision adds the following security updates to the stable release. The Security Team has already released an advisory for each of these updates:

Advisory ID	Package	Correction(s)
DSA-1405	zope-cmfplone	Arbitrary code execution
DSA-1437	cupsys	Several vulnerabilities
DSA-1438	tar	Several vulnerabilities
DSA-1439	typo3-src	SQL injection
DSA-1440	inotify-tools	Arbitrary code execution
DSA-1441	peercast	Arbitrary code execution
DSA-1442	libsndfile	Arbitrary code execution
DSA-1443	tcpreen	Denial of service
DSA-1444	php5	Several vulnerabilities
DSA-1445	maradns	Denial of service
DSA-1446	wireshark	Denial of service
DSA-1447	tomcat5.5	Several vulnerabilities
DSA-1448	eggdrop	Arbitrary code execution
DSA-1449	loop-aes-utils	Programming error
DSA-1450	util-linux	Programming error
DSA-1451	mysql-dfsg-5.0	Several vulnerabilities
DSA-1452	wzdftpd	Denial of service
DSA-1453	tomcat5	Several vulnerabilities
DSA-1454	freetype	Arbitrary code execution
DSA-1455	libarchive	Several problems
DSA-1456	fail2ban	Denial of service
DSA-1457	dovecot	Information disclosure
DSA-1458	openafs	Denial of service
DSA-1459	gforge	SQL injection
DSA-1460	postgresql-8.1	Several vulnerabilities
DSA-1461	libxml2	Denial of service
DSA-1462	hplip	Privilege escalation
DSA-1463	postgresql-7.4	Several vulnerabilities
DSA-1464	syslog-ng	Denial of service
DSA-1465	apt-listchanges	Arbitrary code execution
DSA-1466	xorg	Several vulnerabilities
DSA-1468	tomcat5.5	Several vulnerabilities
DSA-1469	flac	Arbitrary code execution
DSA-1470	horde3	Denial of service
DSA-1471	libvorbis	Several vulnerabilities
DSA-1472	xine-lib	Arbitrary code execution
DSA-1473	scponly	Arbitrary code execution
DSA-1474	exiv2	Arbitrary code execution
DSA-1475	gforge	Cross site scripting
DSA-1476	pulseaudio	Privilege escalation
DSA-1477	yarssr	Arbitrary shell command execution
DSA-1478	mysql-dfsg-5.0	Several vulnerabilities
DSA-1479	fai-kernels	Several vulnerabilities
DSA-1479	linux-2.6	Several vulnerabilities
DSA-1483	net-snmp	Denial of service
DSA-1484	xulrunner	Several vulnerabilities

A complete list of all accepted and rejected packages together with rationale is on the preparation page for this revision:

http://release.debian.org/stable/4.0/4.0r3/

URLs

The complete lists of packages that have changed with this release:

http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/etch/ChangeLog

The current stable distribution:

http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/

Proposed updates to the stable distribution:

http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/proposed-updates/

Stable distribution information (release notes, errata, etc.):

http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/

Security announcements and information:

http://security.debian.org/

About Debian

The Debian Project is an association of Free Software developers who volunteer their time and effort in order to produce the completely free operating systems Debian GNU/Linux.

VMware- Vmware Infrastructure 3 Release Notes for Update 2

Amit Tuli — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 12:02:44 +0000

Note: An issue has been discovered by many VMware customers and partners with ESX Update 2 (build number 103908) and ESXi 3.5 Update 2 (build number 103909) where Virtual Machines fail to power on or VMotion successfully. This problem began to occur on August 12, 2008 for customers that had upgraded to ESX 3.5 Update 2. The problem is caused by a beta release product expiration that was mistakenly left enabled for the release build. New installations of build number 110268 of ESX Server 3.5 Update 2 will not experience this issue. For more information, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006716

Highlights of some of the enhancements available in VMware Infrastructure 3:

Note: Not all combinations of VirtualCenter and ESX Server versions are supported and not all of these highlighted features are available unless you are using VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 2 with ESX Server 3.5 Update 2. See the ESX Server, VirtualCenter, and Virtual Infrastructure Client Compatibility Matrixes for more information on compatibility.

Features
Windows Server 2008 support – Windows Server 2008 (Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter editions) is supported as a guest operating system. With VMware memory overcommit technology and the reliability of ESX Server, you can maximize virtual machine density with this new guest operating system to achieve the highest ROI. Guest operating system customizations and Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) are not supported with Windows Server 2008.
Enhanced VMotion Compatibility – Simplifies VMotion compatibility issues across CPU generations. Enhanced VMotion compatibility (EVC) automatically configure server CPUs with Intel FlexMigration or AMD-V Extended Migration technologies to be compatible with older servers. After EVC is enabled for a cluster in the VirtualCenter inventory, all hosts in that cluster are configured to ensure CPU compatibility for VMotion. VirtualCenter does not permit the addition of hosts that cannot be automatically configured to be compatible with those already in the EVC cluster.

Storage VMotion – Storage VMotion from an FC/iSCSI datastore to another FC/iSCSI datastore. This support is also extended on ESX Server/ESX Server 3i 3.5 Update 1.
VSS quiescing support – When creating quiesced snapshot of Windows Server 2003 guests, both filesystem and application quiescing are supported. With Windows Server 2008 guests, only filesystem quiescing is supported. For more information, see the Virtual Machine Backup Guide and the VMware Consolidated Backup 1.5 Release Notes.
Hot Virtual Extend Support – The ability to extend a virtual disk while virtual machines are running is provided. Hot extend is supported for vmfs flat virtual disks that do no have snapshots opened in persistent mode.
192 vCPUs per Host – VMware now supports increasing the maximum number of vCPUs per host to 192 given that the maximum number of Virtual Machines per host is no more than 170 and that no more than three virtual floppy devices or virtual CDROM devices are configured on the host at any given time. This support is also extended on ESX Server 3.5 Update 1.