Summary 
I thought I'd put together some notes on the VMware View Transfer server as there doesn't seem to be to much information easily available on this feature of View.  Essentially it is used to Check-Out and Check-In virtual desktops, allowing them to be used in Local-mode (Offline). I want to show you in a bit more depth what happens when you Check-in, Check-out, Replicate and Rollback your virtual desktops.

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Rebalance: A desktop rebalance operation that evenly redistributes linked-clone desktops among available datastores.

When testing this, customers can often see unexpected results. This is often due to their misconception of how this function of View works. 

Why? View 4.5 looks for the datastore/s that have the highest "weighted available space". The formula that View 4.5 uses to calculate this is:

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I've seen and had many discussions around this topic when discussing VMware View desktop design, so I though I'd gather as much information as I could to help you decide. 

From the information below, I would personally recommend using the following:

• Windows XP: LSI Logic Parallel or SAS
• Windows 7: LSI Logic SAS 

The PVSCSI controller will be the controller of the future so you may also want to keep this in mind. Of course you can make your own decisions. Most of the points made are desktop focused, however most will apply outside of a View environment.

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The next Amsterdam vBeers will be held on Thursday 3rd of Feb starting at 6:30pm in ‘Herengracht Cafe’ which is placed close to Leidseplein and Dam Square. This venue serves a fine of selection of beers along with soft drinks and bar food.

What are vBeers? Read More

Drinks will not be paid for, there will not be a tab. When you buy a drink please pay for it as no one else will be paying for your drinks.

• Location: The 'Herengracht Cafe' Amsterdam
• Address:  Herengracht 435, Herengracht/Leidsestraat
• Nearest Tram Station:  Koningsplein – Lijn 1,2,5
• Time: 6:30pm
• Location: Map

More Info

I've just seen this news I feel you all need to know about this:

LG and VMware announced this morning a partnership that brings visualization to Android smartphones. The non-nerd premise is this: You've got your standard Android smartphone, with your e-mail, your apps, your phone number. And in a virtual space on the same device, you have another set of apps, corporate e-mail, another phone number — completely sandboxed from your personal stuff, unable to talk to or access its data.

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I've been hearing little teasers from Frank Denneman (One of the Authors) about this book since way back in the summer when it was first announced.  Now I finally have my hands on a copy. 

Most people would have heard of the two guys (Duncan Epping and Frank Denneman) who wrote this book and most of you will know that these guys are smart, real smart. This is something that has drawn me to read this book. Being a regular reader of their blogs I know that they are very "straight to the point" people. There will be no bullshit. Just good, complicated, technical content.

So far, I've read it on the bus, train, plane, taxi and tram. To be honest, any spare time I've had, I've picked it up and read a little. Usually, with me this wouldn't happen. I've often found many IT books to be too large/heavy. So much so, I don't carry it around with me. This book is a good size, 220 pages. It's really easy to read, it's like reading a long blog post. The language is informal, there is a little humor in there to. The chapters are short so you don't always need loads of spare time to read a section. It could even used as a Toilet Book, you could get a chapter read in a single visit. 

I like to think I know quite a bit about virtualisation, I work for VMware so I really should.  I know how to setup/configure HA and DRS and I've done it many many times. Select this setting, click a few drop-down menus and hey presto, HA and DRS does it's thing – Feet up, relax. It's the same for Reservations/Share/Limits, we all have a good idea of what they do, but do you fully understand the impact of the changes you are making? Are you making the right decisions? Read this book and you will be able to answer Yes to both of those questions.

In addition to the in-depth technical information, there are also Pro's, Con's and recommendations for various design configurations helping you to make decisions on what is best for you and your environment.

It's one of those books where you can take as much or as little as you like. If you want a better basic knowledge or HA and DRS, then this book explains everything in a very clear and easy to understand context. If you really want to know how the DRS algorithm calculates the Priority Level of a Migration Recommendation this book will also service you well.

This book is available NOW from the following:

• Amazon
• CreateSpace

The first Amsterdam vBeers will be held on Thursday 16th of December starting at 6:30pm in ‘Herengracht Cafe’ which is placed close to Leidseplein and Dam Square. This venue serves a fine of selection of beers along with soft drinks and bar food.

What are vBeers? Read More

Drinks will not be paid for, there will not be a tab. When you buy a drink please pay for it as no one else will be paying for your drinks.

• Location: The 'Herengracht Cafe' Amsterdam
• Address:  Herengracht 435, Herengracht/Leidsestraat
• Nearest Tram Station:  Koningsplein – Lijn 1,2,5
• Time: 6:30pm
• Location: Map

Here it is, the post you've all been waiting for…..Well maybe not, but it's here none the less.

What Is Operation #PinkShirt? 

Read on and all will be revealed »

The SLOG has been voted 11th in the world out of all of the virtualization blogs.

http://vsphere-land.com/news/top-vmware-blogger-results.html

Thank you to all that voted for both my Blog and all of the other Blogs out there.

Since starting at VMware I've spoken to a lot of people who've told me they have problems finding good VMware best practice documentation for HDS Storage. I was fortunate enough to attend the HDS Bloggers Day back in April, at which I met some great people and made some good contacts. I've been in touch with them and spoken to them about my colleagues views on the lack of good HDS documentation relating to vSphere and they pointed me to the following website:

http://www.hds.com/go/oneforall/thankyou.html
http://www.hds.com/solutions/applications/application-vmware.html

The site contains many PDF's and video's including:

• Advantages of Hitachi AMS2000 family in vSphere 4 Environments
  
• Implementation Guide: Deploying Hitachi NAS with vSphere
• Using vSphere with Dynamic Provisioning Software for AMS2000

So if you're using HDS Storage, it might be worth giving it a look.  

If you can't find something you need on there, contact me via the Contact page and I'll get in touch with Hitachi for you.

Update: I've managed to get another couple of links for you:

• AMS – http://www.hds.com/assets/pdf/optimizing-the-hitachi-ams-2000-family-in-vsphere-4-environments.pdf
• USPv - http://www.hds.com/assets/pdf/optimizing-the-hitachi-universal-storage-platform-family-in-vmware-environments.pdf