• vMotion Architecture, Performance, and Best Practices in VMware vSphere 5

  http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10202

• Understanding Memory Management in VMware vSphere 5

  http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10206

• Performance Implications of Storage I/O Control–Enabled NFS Datastores in VMware vSphere 5

  http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10207

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Performance on vSphere 5

  http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10204

• Zimbra Collaboration Server Performance on VMware vSphere 5

  http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10203

• Host Power Management in VMware vSphere 5

  http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10205

• VMware vCenter Update Manager 5.0 Performance and Best Practices

  http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10208

• What’s New in vSphere 5.0
• What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0: VMware vCenter
• What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0: Platform Whitepaper
• What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0: Performance Whitepaper
• What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0: Storage Whitepaper
• What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0: Networking Whitepaper
• What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0: Availability Whitepaper
• What’s New in VMware Data Recovery 2.0 Technical Whitepaper
• VMware vSphere Storage Appliance Technical Whitepaper
• What’s New in VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5 Technical Whitepaper
• What’s New in VMware vCloud Director 1.5 Technical Whitepaper

http://labs.vmware.com/publications

Is this all distant future? No it isn’t. For instance the paper that talks about Parda is actually what ended up as Storage I/O Control in 4.1. A couple I would recommend reading or at least that had my personal interest are:

• Decentralized deduplication in SAN Cluster File Systems
• Lithium: Virtual Machine Storage for the Cloud
• mClock: Handling Throughput Variability for Hypervisor IO Scheduling
• BASIL: Automated IO Load Balancing Across Storage Devices
• Fast Restore of Checkpointed Memory using Working Set Estimation

The CPU scheduler in VMware ESX 4 is crucial to providing good performance in a consolidated environment. Since most modern processors are equipped with multiple cores per processor, systems with tens of cores running hundreds of virtual machines are common. In such a large system, allocating CPU resource efficiently and fairly is critical. In ESX 4, there are significant changes to the ESX CPU scheduler that improve performance and scalability. This paper describes these changes and their impact. This paper also provides details of the CPU scheduling algorithms in the ESX server.

I can elaborate all I want but I need you guys to read the whitepaper to understand why vSphere is performing a lot better than VI 3.5. (I will give you a hint: “cell”.)

Another whitepaper that’s definitely worth reading is “Virtual Machine Monitor Execution Modes: in VMware vSphere 4.0“.

The monitor is a thin layer that provides virtual x86 hardware to the overlying operating system. This paper contains VMware vSphere 4.0 default monitor modes chosen for many popular guests running modern x86 CPUs. While most workloads perform well under these default settings, a user may derive performance benefits by overriding the defaults. The paper examines situations where manual monitor mode configuration may be practical and provides two ways of changing the default monitor mode of the virtual machine in vSphere.

And while you arealready taking the time off to educate yourself you might also want to read the “FT Architecture and Performance” whitepaper. Definitely worth reading!

Project Virtual Reality Check (VRC) is a joint venture of Log•in Consultants and PQR, who have researched the optimal configuration for the different available hypervisors (hardware virtualization layers). The project arises from the growing demand for a founded advice on how to virtualise Terminal Server and Virtual Desktop (VDI) workloads. Through a number of researches, Log•in Consultants and PQR show you the scaling possibilities for Terminal Server environments as well as Virtual Desktops.

Most of the talk about VRC was of course on the results. (You need to login to be able to download the pdf’s.) In short: VMware ESX beats Citrix Xenserver on VDI deployments and Citrix Xenserver beats VMware ESX on XenApp deployments. I’ve heard a lot of people argue about the fact if the used test methodology was correct and if the used optimization for ESX was necessary or not. (Mem.ShareScanGhz and Mem.AllocHighThreshold, unnecessary in my opinion.) But VRC will start testing again without the “optimization” to see if these effected the results or not.

A week after the VRC published there findings Team VROOM, VMware’s Performance Team, also published a blog article on XenApp performance. They also used ESX 3.5 and Xenserver 5. But the results they harvested from their test had a different conclusion. Of course their test methodology and tools were different from Project VRC’s so it’s hard, and in my opinion impossible, to compare them. I guess both test show that you CAN virtualize a XenApp environment with little extra overhead, that’s the most important thing to remember.

Please visit both VROOM and Project VRC and start reading these excellent articles. Both have put a lot of time in testing and writing and definitely deserve your full attention, and feedback/comments!

VMware.com:

• Deploying Microsoft Exchange in VMware Infrastructure
• 16,000 Exchange Mailboxes, 1 Server – VMware VROOM!
• Virtualization Solutions for Exchange Server 2007
• Advantages of Virutalizing Exchange 2007 with VMware® Infrastructure 3
• EMC Virtual Solution for Exchange 2007
• Migrating from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 on VMware Infrastructure 3
• HP Performance Paper: Exchange 2007 on VI3
• Dell Performance Paper: Exchange 2003 on VMware and EMC Storage
• Dell Article: Virtualizing MS Exchange Server 2007
• EqualLogic Performance Paper: Storage Solution for Exchange 2007
• Best Practices: Deploying MS Exchange on VMware
• Technical FAQ: EMC Virtual Solution for Exchange 2007
• Case Study: CA XOsoft and VMware
• Case Study: UTexas Disaster Recovery
• Deploying Exchange Server 2007 on VMware Infrastructure: A VMware Internal Case Study

VMworld.com:

• BC2824: Deploying Microsoft Clustering for Exchange and SQL Server in VI3
• BC3221: CA and VMware: A Case Study Examining an Exchange and SharePoint DR and HA Solution
• EA2263: Deploying Exchange 2007 on VMware Infrastructure 3
• EA3022 Deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox Roles on VMware Infrastructure 3
• EA3124 Achieving 80% Virtualization in Production (with SQL & Exchange)
• EA3127 Exchange 2007 on VMware: Two Real-World Success Stories
• AP03 Virtualization of Microsoft Exchange Server
• WV18 Virtualizing Exchange 2007 – The Final Frontier?
• WV19 Exchange and SQL on ESX Server

(You’ll need an account to access the VMworld material)

Cisco / EMC / VMware:

• Microsoft Exchange 2007—End-to-End Messaging Infrastructure Solution

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.

Management and Automation Products: Deployment Approaches and Considerations:
VMware Management and Automation products provide datacenter automation solutions in IT service delivery and business continuity. These products can be deployed across a shared VMware Infrastructure platform. This paper presents technical guidance and considerations when deploying these products together on a shared VI platform. [Link]

Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines:
This paper describes how timekeeping hardware works in physical machines, how typical guest operating systems use this hardware to keep time, and how VMware products virtualize the hardware. [Link]

Using VMware VDI and vmSight for Stronger and Sustainable HIPAA and PCI Compliance

For many organizations, HIPAA and PCI compliance is no longer optional. Penalties are increasingly stiff, and the ultimate cost of non-compliance – the breach of personal data – can damage organizations in multiple ways. Compliance, and validation of compliance, is not easily achieved. It is especially difficult when computing environments are widely distributed and not all computers are centrally managed.
Virtualization technologies, including virtual desktops, offer an improved means to centralize computing, management and monitoring while still providing users local access and full functionality. For organizations seeking stronger HIPAA and PCI compliance, relying on virtual desktops for access to sensitive systems provides both cost savings and increased manageability and security. With an integrated compliance monitoring and reporting system such as the vmSight virtual network intelligence
suite, virtual desktops can be used to increase compliance and reduce data breaches while also reducing IT costs.

VMware VDM 2 Load Balancing Guide

Once appropriate server-grade hardware has been selected, load balancing become an important consideration for addressing a configuration’s scalability and fault tolerance.

In general, load-balanced configurations use multiple VDM Connection Servers installed in a primary-and-replica manner, with the first server installed as the primary and subsequent servers are installed as replicas. VDM Connection Servers provide session management and handle all incoming client requests, directing them to the appropriate virtual desktop session, and VDM Security Servers provide SSL tunneling capabilities for encrypting communication between the client devices and the VDM Connection Servers.

The configuration of a load-balanced solution largely depends on the requirements of the organization for which it is being deployed. Companies that already have a load balancing solution in place may be able to utilize it for VDI since the load generated by the VDI solution is minimal. Both hardware-based load balancing appliances and inexpensive (or free) software-based load balancing products can be considered as candidate solutions.

Windows XP Deployment Guide

VMware® Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) transforms the way customers use and manage desktop operating systems. Desktop instances can be deployed rapidly in secure data centers to facilitate high availability and disaster recovery, protect the integrity of enterprise information, and remove data from local devices that are susceptible to theft or loss. Isolating each desktop instance in its own virtual machine eliminates typical application compatibility issues and improves users’ personal computing environments.

This guide offers best practices for creating Windows XP-based templates for VMware VDI-based solutions
and for preparing the same templates for use with Virtual Desktop Manager 2.

Using the Wyse V10L and S10 Thin Clients with VDM

This technical note provides a reference for configuring Wyse V10L and S10 devices for use with VDM. VDM supports the Wyse V10L and S10 Thin Client devices, running Wyse Thin OS version 5.3.0.9 or later. For detailed information about deploying and managing Wyse thin client devices, contact Wyse directly.

Wyse Thin Client devices with versions of the Wyse Thin OS earlier than 5.3.0.9 do not support HTTPS connection to a VDM Server. You must upgrade the Wyse Thin OS to version 5.3.0.9 or later to use HTTPS.

Unlike VDM Web Access or VDM Client, Wyse thin clients connect to desktop virtual machines directly using RDP and connections do not pass through a VDM Connection Server. As a result Wyse thin clients cannot be used in DMZ deployments.