22 Jun 2015
By Yendis Lambert

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 6.0

VMware,
vCenter Converter supports many source physical machines, including Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Server and Linux. It also supports third-party disk images from Microsoft Hyper-V, Virtual Server and Virtual PC; Parallels Desktop; Symantec System Recovery; Norton Ghost; Acronis and StorageCraft.  Multiple simultaneous conversions enable large-scale virtualization implementations. Quiescing and snapshotting of the guest operating system on the source machine before migrating the data ensures conversion reliability. Hot cloning makes conversions non-disruptive, with no source server downtime or reboot. Sector-based copying enhances cloning and conversion speed. Support for cold cloning (conversion that requires server downtime and reboot) is available, in addition…
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20 Jun 2015
By Yendis Lambert

Deployment and Design Considerations for VMware Mirage

VMware,
This paper describes best practices for planning a VMware Mirage deployment. It addresses the primary phases of a Mirage deployment, including sizing, design, and the gathering of environmental data. System Architecture Mirage provides centralized image management for physical desktops and VMware Horizon® 6 with View virtual desktops. Mirage provides enhanced endpoint backup, recovery, updates, and hardware and operating system migration. These functions centralize endpoint content in the data center for management and protection, download images to endpoints, and optimize the transfer of data. Interactions between the data center and managed endpoints are as follows: Each endpoint has a Mirage client installed, which…
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24 Jul 2014
By Yendis

HP iLO 4 Firmware Issues

Hardware, Microsoft, VMware, , , ,
Recently there has been an issue raised with HP that in rare  instances,  on a ProLiant Gen8 series server with HP Integrated Lights-Out 4 (iLO 4) Firmware Versions 1.30, 1.32, 1.40 or 1.50, intermittent Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) events may occur. After rebooting the server, the operating system loads properly and no additional impact to system operation will occur. If this issue occurs, the operating system will indicate that an NMI has happened; however, the specific indication will vary by OS: VMware ESXi operating systems will experience a Purple Screen of Death (PSOD). Linux operating systems will display a message indicating that…
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02 Apr 2014
By Yendis

AWARDED VMWARE VEXPERT 2014 STATUS

VMware,
It’s that time of year when VMware review individuals who have demonstrated significant contributions to the community and a willingness to share their expertise with others  and award the vExpert staus. I am honoured to have been selected again for the vExpert 2014 . You can find the full VMware blog post with all 754 of us worldwide here. I look forward to continuing to participate in the community, and expand my audience reach and perhaps make it through to the vExpert 2015 awards.
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25 Feb 2014
By Yendis

RVTools 3.6 released

Tools,
This tool has helped me find inconsistencies in environments and misconfigured VMs etc on more than one occasion. What’s new for RVTools 3.6? New tabpage with cluster information New tabpage with multipath information On vInfo tabpage new fields HA Isolation response and HA restart priority On vInfo tabpage new fields Cluster affinity rule information On vInfo tabpage new fields connection state and suspend time On vInfo tabpage new field The vSphere HA protection state for a virtual machine (DAS Protection) On vInfo tabpage new field quest state. On vCPU tabpage new fields Hot Add and Hot Remove information On vCPU tabpage cpu/socket/cores…
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20 Jan 2014
By Yendis

XenDesktop Error: The hosting infrastructure could not be reached at the specified address

Citrix, VMware, , ,
When trying to create a XenDesktop group that is using ESX 4/5 as the hosting infrastructure, or you've had to reinstall VMware vCentre you may receive the following error message: "The hosting infrastructure could not be reached at the specified address." or there is no virtual desktop activity i.e. power on/off as virtual desktops are being used when viewed in vCentre recent activity The reason for this is because VMWare, vSphere, and the ESX host are configured to redirect http traffic to https by default.  Because the default certificate on ESX does not match the name of the server, it…
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27 Sep 2013
By Yendis

Netbackup 7.5 – VMware Options short explained

Symantec, , ,
For people who use Symantec Netbackup as their backup client of choice (as I do) and running a VMware environment you will find the following information useful. Here is a short information about the Option available in Netbackup for VMware. VMware Credentials in Netbackup: Click Media and Device Management > Credentials > Virtual Machine Servers. Click Actions > New > New Virtual Machine Server. On the Add Virtual Machine Server dialog, enter the name of a virtual machine server (vCenter server or ESX server). Note: The credentials for ESX or vSphere client are needed that Netbackup can create and access the virtual machine Snapshots. VMware backup…
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17 Jun 2013
By Yendis

VDI Calculator v2 with Citrix XenDesktop support

Citrix, VMware, , ,
Andre Leibovici at myvirtualcloud.net has today released the latest version of his very useful  VDI Calculator tool.  The new calculator is built on Java framework (Java 6 or later required) instead of Flash, and will run on both Windows and Mac computers. The new calculator has all the features available in the previous flash version plus new key features that will make life easier for many users. Features: Offline Support – The new version will be able to run when disconnected from the network. When connected, it will auto-update itself with the latest release. Load/Save – Now you can save and load your configurations eliminating…
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10 Jun 2013
By Yendis

Best practices for VMware Snapshots

VMware,
I have come across a number of forums and emails were people are unsure on the proper use of snapshots and on occasions using snapshots for the wrong reason.  I found a great VMware article which I think covers everything you need to know about snapshots and the correct use:- Snapshots are not backups. A snapshot file is only a change log of the original virtual disk. Therefore, do not rely on it as a direct backup process. The virtual machine is running on the most current snapshot, not the original vmdk disk files. Snapshots are not complete copies of the original…
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29 May 2013
By Yendis

Awarded VMware vExpert 2013 Status

VMware,
I only started my blog a year ago and this week I’ve completed two goals I set out to achieve.  Firstly I wanted to help as many people with posts on my blog and I’m happy to say I have just passed the 100,000 visitor count.  Secondly I have heard a lot about a group of individuals who are selected every year and awarded the title of VMware vExpert.  It’s that time of year again when VMware vExpert awards are handed out and I’m honored to have been selected as a VMware vExpert 2013.  You can find the full VMware blog post with all…
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