My attention was drawn to this website today, I hadn't seen it before so I thought I'd share it with you in case you had missed it too.

V-index is an online virtualization industry study performed by Vanson Bourne, an independent market research company. It is based on a survey of at least 500 enterprises across the US, UK, France and Germany and is designed to measure 3 parameters – virtualization rate, consolidation ratio and primary hypervisor in use.

Some interesting info on there, check it out.

I've been working a lot with Thinapp lately and one thing I keep noticing when users are creating their Thinapp's is; they are neglecting to use a clean capture machine.

Definition of a Clean Machine

So what exactly is a clean machine? A clean machine is a “vanilla” Windows OS and its essential drivers with no other software installed. This also includes updates Microsoft updates. I can't put it any simpler than that.

Why do I need a Clean Machine?

If you are a Thinapp user you'll probably understand that during the capture process you have two main phases. The Pre-Scan and Post-Scan phases. The Pre-Scan phase is run before installation of the software you are Thinapping. It scans the clean machine and makes a note of everything on it. Files, Software, Services, Registry keys etc. The Post-Scan is run after the software you are trying to Thinapp has been installed. The Post-Scan checks for any changes made to the clean machine since the information gathered by the Pre-Scan phase. These differences are then put into the Thinapp package.

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Register today and join your fellow VMware users for this full-day event including in-depth technical sessions, demonstrations and exhibits. This is a great opportunity to meet with your peers to discuss virtualization trends, best practices, and the latest technology!

Location: National Motorcycle Museum
Address: Coventry Road, Bickenhill, Solihull, West Midlands, B92 0EJ
Date: 3rd November, 2011
Time: 8am – 16:30pm

This event will feature:

• Wednesday night pre-event networking reception AKA vBeers, beginning at 7:00 p.m. at National Motorcycle Museum – hosted by Veeam Software
• Keynote with Joe Baguley – VMware Chief Cloud Technologist
• Exhibitor area with:
  • VMware partners
  • Power CLI Drop In Area
  • Expert Bar

Meeting Agenda

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I'm pretty sure all of you know I work for VMware's PSO. But did you know that for about the past year I've been specializing in VDI, specifically View? Probably not. Not a lot of people know that! I didn't know that people didn't know that, until recently at a few vBeers events I've been telling people what I've been getting up to and everyone was quite surprised. So I thought I'd share some of my experiences with you.

The two main types of engagements I've been working on are View Plan and Design and VDI Troubleshooting/Healthchecks. All of the engagements mentioned are 1000+ seat environments, all large scale and some global.

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Today see's the public release of VMware View 5. I've been fortunate enough to have been using this in Beta for a while, and I must say, I am impressed (again). Key features of this release are:

Optimized and Adaptive Experience

VMware View with PCoIP display protocol delivers high-performance desktop experience across the LAN or WAN. Built for desktop delivery, VMware View with PCoIP dynamically adjusts to network conditions to enable the most productive environment. Optimization controls enable IT administrators to customize protocol settings to adjust bandwidth use and session density by user, use case or available network conditions.

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If you are planning on implementing a View 5 environment or running PoC, I would highly recommend you have a look through the following slides. This presentation was delivered at VMWorld 2011.

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 When trying to format my local disk on my new ESXi5 host I recieved the error captured in the screenshot. The error give is: Call fails for “HostDatastoreSystem.QueryVmfsDatastore- CreateOptions” for object “ha-datastoresystem” 

I did a quick bit of Googling and I found this article which talks you through the steps required to fix this issue with ESX4.1. Part of the process uses fdisk. Fdisk is not available with ESXi5, you are forced to use partedUtil. 

I tried various commands to try and fix the problem, but most of the commands returned me the following error:

/dev # partedUtil fix /vmfs/devices/disks/t10.ATA_____VB0250EAVER_____________________________9VMTB7GC____________
Error: The primary GPT table states that the backup GPT is located beyond the end of disk. This may happen if the disk has shrunk or partition table is corrupted. Fix, by writing backup table at the end? diskPath (/dev/disks/t10.ATA_____VB0250EAVER_____________________________9VMTB7GC____________) disk->dev->length (488397168) gpt->AlternateLBA (1465191167)
Error: Can't have a partition outside the disk!
Error: Can't have a partition outside the disk!

The command you need to use to fix this problem is mklabel, for example:

/dev # partedUtil mklabel /vmfs/devices/disks/t10.ATA_____VB0250EAVER_____________________________9VMTB7GC____________ gpt

Simon Gallagher over at vinf.net has come up with the idea for a side-workshop/session at the upcoming UK VMUG in November for people that are actively following the VCDX4/5 track.

The format would be that participants get a 15-20min slot to present their design defence to a “panel” comprising of other VMUG members. including some of whom have taken (and failed) the actual defense process with a view to providing feedback and some questioning. The goal is to allow you to dry-run your presentation in-front of a friendly audience of like-minded community members before you brave it for real.

You would need to commit to come prepared with a Powerpoint version of your defence presentation, the panel won’t have seen your full design documents, and won’t be reviewing them.

To register your interest, please visit: http://vinf.net/2011/09/01/peer-to-peer-vcdx-defense-workshop-at-uk-vmug/ and register your interest on the Poll at the bottom of the page.

The SLOG is pretty much known because of the VCP4 practice exams that I have put together for people studying for the VCP4 exam. Well, now I am adding to the resources by introducing an VCP4 Practice Exam app for Android phones. It's based on the same questions found on my website, but now offers you portability to practice on the bus/train/plane or where ever you maybe.

The application is still in Beta which is why I am going to limit how many users I will send the application to. It currently has 40 questions, this will be increasing as I make updates to the application. The application is designed for Android phones, I have also been informed it works fine on Android tablets, albeit a little small on the screen. (Work will be done at some point to optimize it for both phone and tablet.)

If you are interested in receiving the Beta Exam app, please drop me an email via my Contact Me page with the Subject "VCP4 APP". Please make sure you input your correct email address, as I will be adding you to my Beta users list and this is the email address I will email the application to. In return, i'd appreciate your feedback on ways I can improve the application.

Version 4 of the app can be downloaded from the following location: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10120315/Exam_Beta_v4.apk.apk

For some screenshots of the app in action  Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I have the pleasure of being part of the latest vSoup Podcast. It was ace! I had a great laugh recording it with the guys. I spent most the time muting my microphone so you couldn't hear me laughing in the background.  

The vSoup podcast is the mind child of 3 virtualisation professionals all based in Europe. We did borrow one from the US, and we have no plans on returning him any time soon.

If you haven't heard of the podcast before, I suggest you get yourself over to the vSoup website and download their back catalogue. I especially recommend Episode #10 with special guest Stu Radnidge (@vinternals), it's a laugh a minute, literally! 

The vSoup guys are always looking for guests to appear on the podcast, so if you think this is something you'd like to do, then drop them an email or message them on Twitter, I'm sure they'd be glad to have you on…. Unless you are a Fool.