23. January 2009 by Tony.

One interesting note for the virualization junkies out there.  Windows 7 supports boot from .VHD file WITHOUT the need for a hypervisor.  This is huge step in client side virtualization and management.  Eventually,  You’ll be able to use a tool like Citrix’s Provision Server to PXE boot your workstation(this part you can do now) and provide an offline version for laptops.  This one .VHD image could be used to run Windows 7 on:

·         Raw Hardware on the Client

·         Type 1 Hypervisor on the Client

·         Type 2 Hypervisor on the Client

·         Streamed to the Raw Hardware/Hypervisor on the client

·         Raw Hardware delivered Remotely

·         Type 1 Hypervisor delivered Remotely

·         Type 2 Hypervisor delivered Remotely

·         Streamed to the Raw Hardware/Hypervisor delivered Remotely

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14. January 2009 by Tony.

from Raj’s Blog

A Few months ago we did a bakeoff between Vmware VDI and Citrix Xendesktop solution.
Few things that are worth a mention for differences between these:
1. Citrix ICA protocol for remote desktop connectivity is better with multimedia apps than RDP 5.x.
2. Both RDP and ICA are bandwidth hogs, ICA might be slightly better over low latency link. Average bandwidth usage over WAN without any policing/acceleration technology was 300kbps with both ICA and RDP.
3. Citrix Presentation server has a great option of saving the disk space for multiple cloned desktops and also upgrading/patching only one master image and refreshing all desktops from it.
4. Citrix Access gateway for secure connectivity from outside seems like a separate purchase.(didn’t test it)

We didn’t go ahead with the whole project at that time.
Now Vmware has announced availability for VMware view that addresses point # 1,3 and 4 above. We are currently doing a bake off of vmware view and I will soon post how it went.

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6. January 2009 by Tony.

Now you can get a 417 page book - Understanding Microsoft
Virtualization by Mitch Tullock free from Microsoft Press.

By Mitch Tulloch (author)

1. Microsoft’s Virtualization Solution
2. Server Virtualization—Hyper-V
3. Managing Virtualization—VMM 2008
4. Application Virtualization—App-V
5. Presentation Virtualization—Terminal Services
6. Desktop Virtualization—MED-V and VDI
7. User State Virtualization
8. Building a Virtualization Infrastructure

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17. December 2008 by Tony.

VMware lately published a whole bunch of must read technical papers:

Storage Design Options for VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Companies planning to deploy VDI face decisions about the use of both local and shared storage,
and in the case of shared storage solutions, choosing between differing technologies available in
today’s market. Selecting the appropriate storage model is important for both performance and costs reasons. Certain solutions require less overhead than others, as do different implementations of the same technology. Costs can vary greatly depending on which storage options are chosen. Fortunately organizations can leverage a myriad of best practices to help drive these costs down, while improving performance. This paper provides information on technical concepts related to storage implementations in a VMware ® Virtual Desktop Infrastructure ( VDI) environment.

VMware View Reference Architecture Kit

This reference architecture kit is comprised of four distinct papers written by VMware and our supporting partners to serve as a guide to assist in the early phases of planning, design and deployment of VMware View based solutions. The building block approach uses common components to minimize support costs and deployment risks during the planning of VMware View based deployments.

SQL Server Workload Consolidation

Database workloads are very diverse. While most database servers are lightly loaded, larger database workloads can be resource-intensive, exhibiting high I/O rates or consuming large amounts of memory. With improvements in virtualization technology and hardware, even servers running large database workloads run well in virtual machines. Servers running Microsoft’s SQL Server, among the top database server platforms in the industry today, are no exception.

Using IP Multi Cast with VMware

IP multicast is a popular protocol implemented in many applications for simultaneously and efficiently delivering information to multiple destinations. Multicast sources send single copies of information over the network and let the network take responsibility for replicating and forwarding the information to multiple recipients.

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24. September 2008 by Tony.

 Microsoft was present in a booth on the VMworld show floor, Microsoft claimed it had been largely shut out of presentations and other in-person marketing opportunities at VMworld . So it sent flunkies out to hand out as many as 4,000 cards and US$1 casino chips to VMworld conference attendees touting Microsoft’s virtualization solution and a web site called VMwareCostsWayTooMuch.com

More HERE

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