Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

News

Code Central

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I visit the VMTN Communities daily and recently noticed a new section called Code Central. I didn’t pay attention to it cause I thought it was a private section but apparently it is not. Nava Davuluri introduced this new section and his role within VMware recently in a blog article:

I’m Nava Davuluri, a new hire into Product Marketing. This is my third month at VMware and things are off to a great start! One of the highlight events at my job so far includes attending the new vSphere launch, where I got to see business leaders in computer technology talk about how VMware products are increasing efficiency(performance, power and hardware) control( security and service levels) and choice (hardware, OS and application architecture) for the next-generation of cloud computing. This has given me a perspective on how important these products are and also made me realize the importance of my role.

I was hired to manage the sample code arena for developers and system administrators that make up the majority of VMware developer community. My biggest goal here is to make your life easier. Yes!, by creating a community based sample code site where it will be easy to create, collect and share sample codes in one single straight forward page.

Some people have started adding scripts to this new section of the community already, take a look and contribute!

http://communities.vmware.com/community/developer/codecentral
http://blogs.vmware.com/codecentral/

vSphere, finally available…

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When ESX 3.0 was released people were excited about it but it can’t be compared to the buzz that has been created around vSphere. It’s all over the blogosphere, I think every single blog out there published articles  about vSphere weeks even months before it was released . Now the time has finally come, it’s available! Go to the download section of the VMware website to download it.

Equally important is the update documentation section. Be sure to download all the documents and start reading!

Have fun today guys, while we in the Netherlands enjoy our holiday.

Online Cloud Computing Summit

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I received the following email below and I think it might interest you. It’s a free online cloud computing summit with 10 webcasts varying from OVF to Security to Monetizing. Although not mentioned below one of the people presenting is Edward Haletky of AstroArch Consulting and of course the VMTN Community Forums and podcast.

Here’s the info I received, I’m personally especially interested in the OVF webcast:

Dear Duncan,

I have read your blog “Yellow Bricks” and would like to invite you and your readership to a free online webcast summit on “Cloud Computing,” to be held May 20th. The summit is hosted by BrightTALK™ (www.brighttalk.com), and will include 4 presentations from leading IT experts on topics including:

  • “The Open Virtualization Format (OVF): A Building Block for Cloud” — Winston Bumpus, President, DMTF
  • “Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing” — Jeff Bardin, Founding Member of Cloud Security Alliance
  • “Catalyst Preview: Cloud Computing’s Business Advantage” — Drue Reeves and Anne Thomas Manes, VPs and  Research Directors, Burton Group
  • “Monetizing the Cloud” — Ed Sullivan, CEO, Aria Systems

You can review the agenda and register for the Cloud Computing summit at: http://www.brighttalk.com/summit/cloudcomputing2

Hyper9 VMM Beta Invites

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Hyper9 gave me 15 Special Beta invites for VMM for the first 15 people that comment on this post. (Please use a valid email address!) If you comment you will get a Hyper9 t-Shirt (in exchange for VMM beta feedback), a 50% discount should you choose to purchase and have a chance of winning a mobile device in a contest in June. Who wouldn’t want that? Indeed, comment now and sign up to the Hyper9 community and download the beta here.

Monitor and Manage Your VMs on the Go

VMM offers administrators remote monitoring and support – browser-based management that works on a wide variety of mobile devices.  Developed by virtualization infrastructure expert Andrew Kutz, VMM offers:

Features

  • Monitor and manage on the go
  • Monitor multiple host and VM performance stats (CPU, Memory)
  • Understand datacenter health

Mobile

  • Monitor Host and VM Performance Statistics (CPU, Memory)
  • Control VMs and Take Action on the Go (start, stop, pause, reset, disable network)
  • Optimized for Mobile Devices (Apple iPhone, Blackberry, Google Android and Windows Mobile Devices)

Supported Hypervisors

  • VMware Server 2
  • VMware Infrastructure 3.5 Hosts (VMware ESX 3.5, ESXi 3.5, VirtualCenter 2.5)
  • Microsoft Hyper-V
  • Citrix XenServer 5

Supported Platforms

  • VMM is hosted as an Apache Tomcat Web application
  • Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X

Oracle buys Virtual Iron

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The rumor had been floating around for a while, but after Oracle acquired SUN no one really expected them to still buy Virtual Iron. But they just did…

  • Oracle has agreed to acquire Virtual Iron Software, Inc. (Virtual Iron), a provider of server virtualization management software that enables dynamic resource and capacity management in virtualized data centers.
  • The combination of Virtual Iron’s technology and Oracle VM’s scalable, high performance and highly available server virtualization product is expected to provide more comprehensive and dynamic resource management across the full software stack.
  • Customers are expected to benefit from better capacity utilization, streamlined virtual server configuration, and improved visibility and control of their enterprise software.
  • The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close this summer.
  • Until the deal closes, each company will continue to operate independently.
  • Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

They seem to amaze me every single time. I’m just wondering what will happen with the SUN virtualization solutions… Will they try to integrate it all in to one single solution? Oracle seems to be heading for the Clouds with the Virtual Iron PXE Boot Hypervisor.