Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

Archives for 2009

VMware Studio 2.0 GA’ed

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A couple of weeks ago I wrote about VMware Studio 2.0. VMware Studio 2.0 has just officially been released.

Source:
VMware Studio 2.0 helps author, configure, deploy and customize vApps and virtual appliances. vApps support the industry standard Open Virtualization Format (OVF). vApps can be deployed on VMware vSphere 4.0 or in the cloud. vCenter Server 4.0 now supports creating and running vApps, as well as importing and exporting them in compliance with OVF 1.0 standard.

Studio 2.0 is designed to be used by ISVs, developers, IT professionals and members of the virtualization community. It is a free product and is available as a virtual appliance.

The following new features have been added:

  • Ability to create multiple-VM appliances, or vApps, to run on VMware vSphere.
  • More provisioning engines including ESX/ESXi 3.5 and 4, VMware Workstation 6.5.1, and VMware Server 2.0.
  • Build support for Windows Server 2003 and 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) virtual appliances.
  • Build support for 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES).
  • Build support new Linux distributions RHEL 5.3, CentOS 5.3, and Ubuntu 8.04.1.
  • Extensible management services allow you to customize an interface into a new tab.
  • An Eclipse™ plug-in helps you package applications and create management services.
  • Automatic dependency resolution for application packages installed on Linux-based virtual appliances.
  • Existing VM build (input-as-VM) for Linux virtual appliances.
  • DMTF standard OVF 1.0 and open virtual appliance (OVA) packaging. VMware Studio 1.0 supported OVF 0.9.
  • Eclipse usability improvements.
  • Appliance updates from CDROM.
  • Web console footer customization in the appliance VM.
  • EULA first-boot display control in the appliance VM.
  • Host name editing in the Web console of the appliance VM.
  • Security fix for VMware Studio when uploading management services. See CVE-2009-2968.

Just download it and try it out!

VMworld Golden Gate Bridge Run – 2009 – Thanks everyone

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I’ve seen many cool things this week and I’ve met a lot of cool people. But the VMworld Golden Gate Bridge Run was definitely the best thing ever. We had roughly 200 people who joined us and everyone had so much fun. The view was amazing, almost a clear blue sky.

Five weeks ago I never expected that a single tweet between @jasonboche and myself would end up in an event like this. Imagine just a couple of guys talking about running during VMworld and ending up with 200 people running the Golden Gate Bridge with multiple sponsors who committed to this on twitter. That’s not something that happens every day! Thanks Stephen Herrod, Chad Sakac, Vaughn Stewart and last but not least David Davis for sponsoring the run.

Of course thanks also goes out to my VMware colleagues Craig Williams, Scott Drummonds and Timothy Stephan for stepping up to the plate and making this happen.

If anyone made pictures during the run please share them and drop a link in the comments section of my blog.

Thanks everyone for participating! And for those who missed out, we know it was all very last minute but we already spoke about making this an annual event and not only in San Francisco also Copenhagen!

VMware

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Don’t know if anyone noticed yet, but just before I wanted to go to bed I noticed the logo on the VMware website changed. Although it seems to be a minor change it looks like more mature in my opinion.

Not only the logo changed but also the favicon, I love it:

VMware vCloud API Preview!

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Every year a day before VMworld announcements start to appear online and of course it also happened this year. VMware just released the preview version of the VMware vCloud API.

Source
The vCloud API is an interface for providing and consuming virtual resources from the cloud. It enables deploying and managing virtualized workloads in internal and external clouds. The vCloud API allows for upload and download of vApps along with their instantiation, deployment and operation.

  • RESTful with full programmatic control
  • OVF standards based
  • Platform independent
  • Pure virtual
  • Supports multi-tenancy

Version: Technology Preview (ver 0.8)

Target Platform: Platform independent

Keep in mind it is still a technology preview, alpha version of the API, but if you are building an internal or external cloud it’s definitely worth looking into. There’s a FAQ available here and there’s a forum on VMTN to be found here.

Meet the vExperts

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A couple of months ago during the VMTN podcast I shared an idea with John Troyer and Edward Haletky. I thought that it would be cool to have a demo environment at the community booth where the vExperts could show there skills. After some discussions with the VMworld Team I decided to start building a lab and John Troyer asked the vExpert/Bloggers who would be willing to spend an our of their time at the Community Booth.

The list of vExpers that signed up is immense, and I’m really glad to see that guys like Eric Siebert, Scott Herold, Steve Beaver and Scott Lowe are participating. (Amongst many others of course.) I guess the full list will be published soon and I hope all of you take some time to visit the community booth and ask the vExperts some challenging questions! I know I will so you vExperts guys better be prepared. 😉