Plain Virtualization

I was testing out and playing around with ThinApp on my View 5.0.  The great thing about View is you are able to assign ThinApp in their MSI package to the various desktop or pools. However I was curious how can I perform and upgrade when a new version is out e.g. Firefox 7.0.1 to Firefox 8.0? I decide to search around and came across this post in VMware Blog.  It not only allow me to understand how to perform an upgrade over the old MSI, it also help explained the MSIProductCode, MSIUpgradeCode and the MSIProductVersion. The upgrade code is very important especially in my example above.  It will have different MSIProductCode due to the version change however, the MSIUpgradeCode has to be the same in order for View to detect this is an upgrade and to uninstall the previous away when you place a higher version of MSIProductVersion. As the post in the blog mentioned, you can put MSIProductVersion from 1.0 to 2.0.  You can also do incremental from 1.0 to 1.1 as ...

Finally I have save this post as a draft for the longest time exactly a month and finally find some time to do this. Have gone through lots of reading of the deployment of View 5.  It almost similar with View 4.6 except for the Persona Management which I was very keen to try it out. The View Administration for View 5 is a must read to understand the Personal Management and also the VMware View Persona Management Deployment Guide . If  you are already using Roaming Profile, you can carry on using it with Persona Management turn on working together leaving the depository stick with what is already configured in your Roaming Profiles. Persona Management will supercede Roaming Profile if you assign a depository path in the group policy.  Honestly I would like ease of work and administration here and will use everything from Persona Management instead. When doing sizing, if performance is what you are looking for, even with Persona Management or with Roam...

I came across this blog posting on using the variable optimizeFor to be place in which place holder in package.ini.  Is it in [Compression] or is it in [BuildOptions]. From ThinApp 4.6.1 Manual , page 85, as refer to the comments, it clearly stated it can be placed in either place holders.  However the VMware blog itself is stating otherwise that it was an error made and it must be place in [Compression] place holder.  There was no one commenting further. On the launch of ThinApp 4.7, I refer to the ThinApp 4.7 Package.ini Parameters Package guide , on Page 48, the scenario given this time was place it in [BuildOptions] place holder. This got me very curious.  Is this a mistake brought over from 4.6.1 to 4.6.2 and to 4.7 on the document or did the this blog make a mistake? So I decide to run this on thinapp 4.7 and try it out.  The results: OptimizedFor=Memory for both [Compression] and [BuildOptions] as from the windows path I saved in. OptimizeFor...

I came across some questions by people who were like me who got confused by the new terms of VADP and VAAI or vStorage API. What are these?  How are these related.  The letters do not tell you much so I am doing a explanation here. vStorage API are API also known as application programming interface which are a set of rules or codes given out for any one including vendors or principles to use them and integrate them to produce the function which is provided from the API. In this case, the API has two components: Data Protection Array Integration Do not get confused these two function different things and are meant for different components.  The only similarities is that they allow the function that the API allows to make use of the storage subsystem to lessen the load on the hosts. Lets talk about the two. vStorage API for Data Protection (VADP) In layman terms. This is the API mainly used by backup principles to integrate this function into their software...

Once again, I have just learned about iSCSI Multipathing and tested it out in my home lab using a openfiler as my iSCSI virtual SAN and with nested ESX 4.1 and ESXi 5.0. Reason why I taken such a combination of different Hypervisor is to show how this can be done.  In vSphere 5, where ESXi 5.0, there is a GUI to perform the MPIO binding unlike in vSphere 4.x, this has to be done via the command line.  Even changing the MTU value has been made easy in vSphere 5. You can also do a load balance by changing the path selection to round robin. vSphere 5 vSphere 4 Update : After setting up the mutipath, reboot the esx host and the path would be shown correct. iSCSI binding Commands Changing a vSwitch with MTU 9000 (Optional) >esxcfg-vswitch -m 9000 vSwitch0 Add a vmknic to a port group with MTU 9000 >esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 172.16.200.91 -n 255.255.255.0 -m 9000 "Port Group" Where port group is the name of the port group. To view your ...

The below is a good comparison of Hyper-V Live Migration versus vMotion.  Wiht multiple nics supported for vMotion in vSphere 5 its no longer a constraint. Performance of vMotion comparison with Hyper-V Live Migration: Virtual Reality With the new vSphere 5, multiple nics for VMkernel use for vMotion is possible.  With up to 16 nics for 1GE links and up to 4 for 10GE links. Sadly I am unable to do a demo for this on my home lab since where on earth can I get 10GE link.  But anyway, I would like to point out certain consideration when planning for vMotion with such links. For 1 GE links, you can bundle up mutiple port groups for vMotion.  I was totally confused for this and after watching this video I got a clearer picture however my next question arised. How many port groups of vMotion can I create?  Well the answer is simple up to 16.  I was still not really clear so does it tally with the nics used? Ok here is the simple explanation if you w...