Latest Entries »

Friday, January 27, 2012
11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Moses Cone Woman’s Hospital
Education Building – Rooms 1 & 2
801 Green Valley Road
Greensboro NC, 27408
Click here for driving directions.

Join us for the upcoming Greensboro/Triad VMUG meeting taking place on Friday, January 27, 2012.

This is a great opportunity to come together with your fellow VMware users to discuss virtualization trends, best practices, and the latest technology!

Registration is open and included as part of your VMUG member benefits. Please note, in order to register for this meeting we ask that you sign up for a complimentary VMUG membership at MyVMUG.org, if you haven’t already done so. Click login below to sign up today.

Meeting Agenda

11:00 – 11:15 a.m. Registration and Member Mixer
11:15 – 11:30 a.m. Announcements, Agenda, and Introductions
11:30 – 12:30 p.m. Brocade – Dr. Chip Copper: Introduction and Overview Ethernet fabrics

Brocade is offering a workshop around the country called Fabrics 101: Essentials of Ethernet Fabrics, now we do not have three hours for that presentation so Dr. Chip Copper is going to scale it down.  So strap on your learning caps as we get some Ethernet Fabric knowledge dropped on us!

12:40 – 1:40 p.m. VCDX – Jason Nash: The Journey to 100%: Virtualizing Tier 1 Applications

Jason Nash will provide an approach/outline for what to consider when trying to virtualize Tier 1 database and email servers.  Jason will discuss the pros and cons of making MS SQL and MS Exchange into virtual machines and how to estimate capacity to produce a predictable outcome.

1:45 – 2:00 p.m. Meeting Wrap-Up & Giveaways

We would like to say a special thank you to our meeting sponsor:  www.brocade.com

Register Today to join us for this free informative event.

Please note: You will need to log into the VMUG web site to register for this meeting. If you have not already obtained your VMUG login credentials, please visit the Username and/or Password Help page to request your username and password.

Friday, October 28, 2011
11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Moses Cone Woman’s Hospital
Education Building – Rooms 5 & 6
801 Green Valley Road
Greensboro NC, 27408
Click here for driving directions.

Join us for the upcoming Greensboro/Triad VMUG meeting taking place on Friday, October 28, 2011.

This is a great opportunity to come together with your fellow VMware users to discuss virtualization trends, best practices, and the latest technology!

Registration is open and included as part of your VMUG member benefits. Please note, in order to register for this meeting we ask that you sign up for a complimentary VMUG membership at MyVMUG.org, if you haven’t already done so. Click login below to sign up today.

Meeting Agenda

11:00 – 11:15 a.m. Registration and Member Mixer
11:15 – 11:30 a.m. Announcements, Agenda, and Introductions
11:30 – 12:30 p.m. Nimble Storage – Converged iSCSI Storage, Backup, and Disaster Recovery

Nimble Storage has a unique storage solution and technology in their CASL™ architecture so come find out what makes it unique by spending “a day day in the life of I/O on Nimble Storage”

12:40 – 1:40 p.m. VMware vSphere Security & Hardening – Overview & Tips for Securing your Virtual Environment

Jason Nash (VCDX#49 ,vExpert ) will provide an overview of security for vSphere and discuss securing your vSphere environments.  He will talk about DMZ architectures, hardening vSphere and vCenter, use cases for the components of the vShield suite, as well as some 3rd party products.

1:45 – 2:00 p.m. Meeting Wrap-Up & Giveaways

We would like to say a special thank you to our meeting sponsor: www.nimblestorage.com

 

Register Today to join us for this free informative event.

Please note: You will need to log into the VMUG web site to register for this meeting. If you have not already obtained your VMUG login credentials, please visit the Username and/or Password Help page to request your username and password.

VMworld 2011 Winners

Just wanted to give a shout out to a couple of past VMUG sponsors who took home the Tech Target gold for best of a category.  You can see the complete list here.

Category: Hardware for Virtualization

Winner: Arista Networks, Arista EOS with VM Tracer / Auto Segmentation
The VM Tracer links Arista switches to VMware’s vCenter and creates an infrastructure in which the network responds to changes in VMs, among other capabilities.

Category: New Technology

Winner: Veeam Software, Veeam Backup & Replication v6
Version 6 of Veeam’s popular tool provides image-based data protection that companies need for traditional file-based backups. It impressed the judges because it takes virtual data protection further.

 

Congratulations!

VMworld2011

I wanted to let those of you who are going to VMworld 2011 know about some events/booth locations/announcements being made by sponsors and partners.

First up (since they responded first) – Veeam (Team Green) is showing off version 6 of their Backup/Replication tool but follow the link at the end for the entire VMworld activities ($6K giveaway) – Link

Next we have Quest Software (Server Virtualization/Management) who has about three or four ways to win some money and several sessions they would like you to attend – Link for details. For a listing of recent product announcements go here.

Of course the VMUG organization will be there and would like for you to see them and save some money on your VMUG Advantage subscription – Go here for details.  You must be registered with myvmug.org to see the page.

Arista Networks (VMworld Labs sponsor) will be showcasing a key new data center networking technology developed jointly with VMware, drop by booth #1328 for details.

 

That is all for now – more to come if sponsors/partners get back to me.

DMZ and me

I was at a client with the host in the DMZ and I needed to transfer files to a VM to enable SSL (zip of SSL key files) but the server was running Windows 2008 R2 and since it was in a DMZ it was pretty locked down.  No transfer via download from a trusted web server, or a secure file sharing site, or even from the clients own inside LAN.  So what does the vSphere client console support – client CD/DVD (ISO’s and physical devices), but how to share a local folder as a CD/DVD drive?  Freeware to the answer –> SoftwareFolder2Iso – http://www.trustfm.net/divx/SoftwareFolder2Iso.php which takes a folder and spits out an ISO file.  Did not play with it a whole lot but for my need it was perfect.  Yes I know I could have burned a disk of the files or used a R/W disk and shared that but this tool is better and I do not have to worry about safely destroying the physical media.

I have added a page to the site for “Tools” –> http://triadvmug.com/tools/ so let me know of your must haves!

triadvmug@gmail.com

vSphere 5 Licensing Tool

I was on a call for VMUG leaders with a VMware executive for the express purpose of discussing the vSphere 5 licensing issue and what could be done better next time.  One of the things I suggested was that “the script” should have been available before the announcement so that instead of management down screaming about the increase in cost, it could be IT talking up (with knowledge) that the revisions would/would not be an issue.  The second was that “the script” was not something that everyone could/would run.  Ideally a plug-in to vCenter would have been the best way to go but short of that some “application” to run.  Turned out that they already had a Windows application built and released when we were on the call.  So here is a link to the tool/app and here is a link to the VMware vSphere 5 License Entitlements page.

Do you want to be a sponsor?

So you want to sponsoring a VMUG meeting for this chapter and/or additional chapters.  The VMUG organization wants you to register and be included in the “local” sponsor database.  It is the hope that by compiling a listing of interested sponsors that the local VMUG leaders will have a single place to go to if they need to seek a sponsor.  This open registration seems like a great idea to generate larger listing which, having reviewed the past sponsor listings, was a problem.

You can register here or –>http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GFHLK8F

Thanks as always for your support

First I would like to thank Mark Berly for giving us an overview on Arista Networks product line, the EOS operating system that powers their products, and the VM Tracer component which links the physical switch to the distributed virtual switch and vCenter for an adaptive infrastructure.  For more information about Mark or Arista please follow the links below.

You can follow Arista Networks on LinkedIn or Facebook

You can follow Mark on LinkedIn

And the podcast that I mentioned is Packet Pushers – Episode 45

As to the Packet Pushers podcast in general I would highly suggest you subscribe if you have any interest in networking technologies! – packetpushers.net

Next up is Matt Portnoy of VMware for rolling up his sleeves (literally) and digging into the licensing issues around vSphere 5 and vRam. View full article »

Friday, July 29, 2011
11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Moses Cone Woman’s Hospital
Education Building – Rooms 5 & 6
801 Green Valley Road
Greensboro NC, 27408
Click here for driving directions.

Join us for the upcoming Greensboro/Triad VMUG meeting taking place on Friday, July 29, 2011. View full article »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 83 other followers