Virtualization

Oct 21 2009   1:20PM GMT

Microsoft IT professional resource - RunAs Radio

Posted by: Troy Tate
Microsoft, podcast, webcast, Powershell, sql, dba, Development, IIS, AD, Active Directory, education, IT education, virtual machines, Virtualization, SharePoint

I just came across an excellent resource for IT professionals working with Microsoft products. It is called RunAs Radio. There are weekly podcasts about topics of interest to those of us who support Microsoft products. The podcasts are in multiple formats such as mp3, wma & AAC (iPod). I was particularly interested in the presentations on performance management. There are several presentations on this one topic. Some sample topics include:

Clint Huffman Analyzes PerfMon Logs! Mr. Huffman is the creator of the Performance Analysis of Logs tool found at Codeplex. I have found this tool very useful in tracking down server issues to show folks “it’s not the network!”

Shane Creamer Goes Deep on Performance Monitor! This is a very interesting presentation. There is a link to the video presentation portion and another link to the various audio formats. The video presentation has a very long gap in audio at the beginning (almost 12 minutes). This is because the video portion is only capturing the presenter’s audio portion and not the commentators’. You really should download both audio and video to get the full impact of the presentation.

Steven Choy Measures Server Performance!

Other topics that might be of interest includes SQL, Active Directory, IIS, cloud (Azure), Powershell, virtualization, SharePoint, information security, and many other Microsoft-centric technologies. I have subscribed to the RSS feed so I can keep up with new presentations as they are released. If you run any Microsoft technologies, or you just want to learn about some recommended best practices, then check out this resource. There might be something here that will help you “save the day”.

Thanks for reading and let’s continue to be good network citizens!

Jun 26 2009   2:56PM GMT

Did you see this? - Microsoft Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool

Posted by: Troy Tate
Microsoft, virtual machine, Virtual machine management, solution accelerator, technology, technology management, tool, toolkit, education

Microsoft has a very large library of Solution Accelerators. These solution accelerators are meant to be detailed guides and toolkits to help organizations be successful in the planning, deployment and management of Microsoft products and technologies.

One accelerator that recently came to my attention is the Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool. According to the Microsoft website:

The increasing use of virtual machines—for purposes ranging from support of older operating system environments to power savings—has created new challenges for IT.

In particular, virtual machines may be left offline (stored in a non-operating state) for extended periods of time, which conserves resources when the server capacities of the virtual machines are not needed or frees up physical computing resources for other purposes.

However, offline machines do not automatically receive operating system, antivirus, or application updates that would keep them compliant with current IT policy. An out-of-date virtual machine may pose a risk to the IT environment. If deployed and started, the out-of-date virtual machine might be vulnerable to attack or could be capable of attacking other network resources.

Therefore, IT groups must take measures to ensure that offline virtual machines remain up-to-date and compliant. At present, these measures involve temporarily bringing the virtual machine online, applying the necessary updates, and then storing it again.

In the future, image updating solutions may be able to update virtual machines while they remain offline. Until such solutions become available, the Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool, a Solution Accelerator from Microsoft, provides a way to automate the process of updating virtual machines. This tool is now available as a free download from the Microsoft Download Center.

Business Scenarios

You can use this Solution Accelerator to help you with business scenarios such as these:

• Your IT organization is converting physical servers to virtual machines to reduce costs, including administrative overhead. How can you regularly update offline virtual machines while minimizing administrative costs?
• Your IT organization has thousands of virtual machines stored for months at a time in a number of libraries. How do you keep the virtual machines reliably up to date?

This tool can be useful to those organizations already managing virtual machines or those considering deployment. Maybe it can make your life a little easier. Why not leave some feedback if you have used or are considering this tool?

Thanks for reading and let’s continue to be good network citizens!

Dec 4 2008   6:54PM GMT

Did you see this? - IBM creates Microsoft-free linux virtual desktop

Posted by: Troy Tate
administration, hardware, IBM, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Virtualization, reporting, design, Microsoft

Many IT trade publications are reporting that IBM is launching alternative to Microsoft-centric software and the bloated hardware required by recent operating system releases.

The Virtual Linux Desktop ranges in price from $59 to $289 per user, depending on level of software and service desired, according to the report. IBM estimates that the software package could save corporate customers up to $800 per user, when compared with the cost of maintaining Microsoft’s Vista operating system, Office suite, and collaboration tools, the newspaper said.

For more information see:

Wall Street Journal -IBM Creates ‘Microsoft-Free’ Desktop: Applications for Thin Clients Would Operate From Back-Office Server

VNUNet

Silicon.com

What do you think? Can Big Blue pull it off?

Nov 11 2008   3:58PM GMT

Did you see this? - Microsoft Windows Virtualization team blog

Posted by: Troy Tate
administration, Microsoft Windows, Virtualization, Development, RSS, blogging, design, server, awareness, blog

For those of you who are fans of Microsoft Windows Virtualization, this blog from the Microsoft Windows Virtualization Products Group might be of interest to you. Keep informed and provide feedback to the team as this useful technology becomes more widespread.

Jun 17 2008   2:05PM GMT

Did you see this? - Online e-book library

Posted by: Troy Tate
administration, Networking, Storage, Security, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Database, Virtualization, Development, SQL Server, web, CIO, Mobile, DataCenter, DataManagement, IT education, WAN, LAN, Exchange, website, Performance, howto, network analysis, Metrics, research, awareness

Check out this digital online library for IT professionals. Bet you can’t read just one!

Thanks for your time. Let’s be good network citizens together & practice safe networking!

Apr 15 2008   1:00PM GMT

VMWare Player:My ears are still ringing!

Posted by: Troy Tate
Security, tools, Linux, Virtualization, vmware, troubleshooting, Performance

Wow! I didn’t know my laptop could have such loud alerts. Yesterday, I shutdown a virtual machine in VMWare’s VMPlayer application. As soon as I clicked the shutdown button in the guest OS, my laptop let out with the most amazing shriek that seems to still be ringing in my ears several hours later.

I had to actually remove power and the battery from the laptop to get the awful racket to stop. Fortunately, the machine restarted without a glitch.

I was running the Protech ONE security ISO image (this is a nice tool for security testing and education). The VMWare Player is a great tool for running an ISO image if you want to take one for a test drive. I had tried running this same ISO image in Microsoft’s VirtualPC environment but there are issues with this particular ISO and how it handles key mapping so it was just easier to change to VMWare’s Player.

However, now my ears are ringing because of the incredibly loud beeping that my machine let loose when shutting down the guest OS. My laptop speakers are always turned to the lowest level possible so I really have no clue why shutting Protech ONE down would have created such a loud event. I guess I need to see if there is a way I can shutdown this environment without waking up my nearby neighbors in the company Tax department.

Have you ever used any application that performed odd startup or shutdown activities? What did you do to overcome those issues?

Thanks for your time. Let’s be good network citizens together & practice safe networking!