VMware Workstation 8

What’s New

This release of VMware Workstation adds the following new features and support.

Installation Changes and Enhanced Keyboards

The hardware requirements to install this version of Workstation have changed. Workstation now requires a relatively modern 64-bit CPU. See Installation Requirements for details.

The keyboard filter driver is no longer installed by default. When the driver is not installed, the enhanced keyboard functionality is unavailable and you must press Ctrl-Alt-Ins instead of Ctrl-Alt-Del to send a Ctrl-Alt-Del keystroke to the guest. To use the enhanced keyboard functionality, you must perform a custom installation and select the component. If you select the component, you must reboot whenever you install or uninstall Workstation.

Virtual Hardware Improvements

This version of Workstation includes many hardware improvements. To try new hardware features, you must upgrade the hardware version of your virtual machine or create a new virtual machine that uses the latest virtual hardware version.

  • The display technology has been changed to provide a better experience for Unity users and users who have multiple monitors. These changes also allow you to add a projector to your laptop without restarting your virtual machine.
  • Virtual machines can now support up to 64GB of memory. The host system should have more than 64GB of memory to use this feature.
  • An HD Audio device is available for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2008, and Windows 2008 R2 guests. The HD Audio device is compatible with the RealTek ALC888 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio Codec.
  • USB 3.0 support is available for Linux guests running kernel version 2.6.35 or later (Ubuntu 10.10) through a new virtual xHCI USB controller. To enable this feature, add the following line to the .vmx file: usb_xhci.present = “true”. Do not enable this feature for Windows guests. Because Windows does not currently have a generic xHCI driver, this feature will not work in Windows.
  • Bluetooth devices on the host can now be shared with Windows guests. With the latest hardware version, Bluetooth devices that are paired to the host system radio are available to Windows guests and can be paired from within the guest. You should not pair Bluetooth audio devices, such as headphones, or Bluetooth input devices, such as keyboards and mice, to a guest.
  • You can now enable Virtual VT-X/EPT or AMD-V/RVI in the processor settings interface. With this feature, applications running in a guest can take advantage of these virtualization technologies. You can also run 64-bit guest operating systems inside of vSphere running inside Workstation.
New User Interface

The Workstation user interface has been updated to include new menus, toolbars, and an improved preferences screen.

  • The favorites sidebar has been replaced with a virtual machine library. Instead of identifying every virtual machine created in Workstation as a favorite, the library is a comprehensive list of all of the virtual machines that Workstation users create, open, or access.
  • A new folder summary page helps you to better manage a group of related virtual machines. Live thumbnails make it easy to see what is happening in running virtual machines.
  • The full screen toolbar has been updated so that you can do more without having to leave full screen mode. Quick switch mode is no longer needed.
What Happened to Teams?

Although at first it might appear that the teams feature has been removed, you can add team attributes to any virtual machine in this version of Workstation.

  • The team structure has been converted to a simple folder of virtual machines.
  • A new advanced settings dialog box has been added for network adapters to let you throttle the bandwidth of incoming and outgoing transmissions and simulate packet loss.
  • You can perform power operations on several virtual machines at the same time by selecting virtual machines on the folder tab and pressing the power button on the toolbar. If all of the virtual machines in a folder are in the same power state, you can select the folder to perform a power operation on all of the virtual machines in the folder.
  • You use a global Workstation preference to configure the delay between powering on virtual machines.
  • To implement LAN segments, you can use traditional VMnets or put all of the virtual machines that you want to communicate on the same custom VMnet.
Shared Virtual Machines and AutoStart

You can share virtual machines with remote users in this version of Workstation. A shared virtual machine can be accessed remotely by other instances of Workstation. Workstation moves virtual machines to the shared virtual machines folder, where the VMware Host Agent service manages them. The VMware Host Agent service is used by other VMware products, including VMware Server and vSphere, and provides additional capabilities required by professional users. An extensive permissions interface lets you control the users who can access and use shared virtual machines.

You can use the new AutoStart feature to configure shared virtual machines to start with the host system. You can also configure AutoStart for shared virtual machines on remote hosts running Workstation and ESX 4.x and later.

Remote Connections

In this version of Workstation, you are no longer constrained to working only with virtual machines that your computer has enough power to run. You can use the new Connect to Server feature to connect to remote hosts running Workstation, ESX 4.x and later, and VMware vCenter Server. After connecting to a remote host, all of the virtual machines that you have permission to access are displayed in the virtual machine library.

Upload to ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server

VMware OVF Tool is now integrated with Workstation so that you can upload a virtual machine from Workstation to a remote server running ESX, ESXi, or vCenter Server. After connecting to a remote server, you drag the virtual machine from the local My Computer section of the virtual machine library to the remote server. A wizard walks you through the process.

Documentation Changes

This version of Workstation includes several important documentation changes.

(NEW) Getting Started with VMware Workstation
Describes how to install and upgrade Workstation, create a typical virtual machine, and perform common virtual machine operations.

Using VMware Workstation
(previously VMware Workstation User’s Guide)
Describes how to create typical, custom, and shared virtual machines, add virtual devices, configure network connections, connect to remote servers and use remote virtual machines, upload virtual machines to remote servers, and perform all virtual machine operations.

Getting Started with VMware Player
(previously VMware Player Getting Started Guide)
Now contains complete information on installing and using Player.

Online help
Has been redesigned to provide context-sensitive help and information on performing common tasks. For complete information on using Workstation and Player, see the guides.

(NEW) Installing and Configuring VMware Tools
Contains comprehensive information on installing, upgrading, and configuring VMware Tools.

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Installation Requirements

When you install Workstation, the installer performs checks to make sure the host system has a processor that meets the following requirements. You cannot install Workstation if the host system does not meet these requirements.

  • 64-bit x86 CPU
  • LAHF/SAHF support in long mode

You can use CPU-Z or a similar utility to determine if the host system CPU is 64-bit capable. CPU-Z shows EM64T (Intel) or AMD64 (AMD) if the processor is 64-bit capable.

If you plan to install a 64-bit guest operating system in a virtual machine, the host system must have one of the following processors. Workstation will not allow you to install a 64-bit guest operating system if the host system does not have one of these processors.

  • AMD CPU that has segment-limit support in long mode.
  • Intel CPU that has VT-x support. VT-x support must be enabled in the host system BIOS. The BIOS settings that must be enabled for VT-x support vary depending on the system vendor. See VMware KB article 1003944 for information on how to determine if VT-x support is enabled.

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Known Issues

The known issues are grouped as follows:

Remote Connection and Remote Virtual Machine Issues
  • When Workstation is installed on a Linux host, VMware Workstation Server writes the core file to /usr/bin instead of to /var/core or /var/log/vmware.
  • You cannot use Workstation to create a remote virtual machine on an ESX or ESXi 4.1 host if the virtual machine name contains non-ASCII characters.
  • When you upload a virtual machine to a remote server (VM > Manage > Upload), Workstation modifies the MAC address and PCI slot number of the virtual Ethernet device in the newly created remote virtual machine. Network errors can occur in the remote virtual machine if the network settings in the guest operating system require the original network hardware configuration.
    Workaround: Change the network settings in the guest operating system in the remote virtual machine to match the new network hardware configuration.
  • VMware Workstation Server occasionally crashes on a 32-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x host.
Role and Permission Issues
  • On a Windows host, if you edit a permission, assign the Administrator role, and then immediately click Remove to delete the permission, the original permission still exists when you reopen the Permissions dialog box.
Shared Virtual Machine Issues
  • On Windows hosts, if a shared virtual machine has a floppy drive that is configured to connect at power on, and a remote user powers on the virtual machine, a dialog box appears on the host system asking whether to connect the device every time the virtual machine powers on. If you click Yes to close the dialog box on the host system after the virtual machine is completely up and running on the host system, Workstation crashes on the host system.
  • On a 32 or 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 2008 R2, or 32-bit Windows XP Professional SP3 host, if you uninstall Workstation, preserve the configuration, and then reinstall Workstation to a different path, the Shared VMs item is unavailable in the virtual machine library.
  • On a Windows host, if you create a virtual machine with a name that contains non-ASCII characters in the New Virtual Machine wizard, you cannot share the virtual machine with the Move the virtual machine option if the destination path is other than the system operating system location. The sharing process stops with the error message Failed to move VM to destination path.
    Workaround: If you want to share the virtual machine, you must use only ASCII characters in the virtual machine name when you create the virtual machine in the New Virtual Machine wizard.
Display and Input Issues
  • On an Ubuntu 11.04 host, the virtual machine icon does not appear on the system tray when you set the Show tray icon setting (Edit > Preferences > Workspace) to Always or When a virtual machine is powered on.
    Workaround: Whitelist vmware-tray as an application that can show system tray icons in Ubuntu 11.04. Alternatively, enable Notification Area (Systray) for all applications, for example:
    gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['all']"
    After you run the command, log out and log back in. The command can take several minutes to take effect.
  • On a Fedora 15 host, powering on a virtual machine that has DirectX 9 accelerated graphics enabled might fail with the error "Unable to change virtual machine power state: Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to."
    Workaround: Deselect the Accelerate 3D graphics setting (VM > Settings > Hardware > Display) to disable DirectX 9 accelerated graphics in the virtual machine.
  • When you enter Unity mode in an Ubuntu 11.04 guest, application menus do not appear for applications that were opened before entering Unity mode. Application menus do appear for applications that are opened from the Unity launch menu after entering Unity mode.
    Workaround: Disable the APPMENU (Global menu) in the Ubuntu 11.04 guest. See the Ubuntu documentation for more information.
  • After you upload a Windows XP virtual machine from the local host to a remote server, you cannot autofit the guest in full screen mode. This problem occurs because VRAM is reduced to 4 MB when the virtual machine is uploaded to the remote server.
Folder and Team Conversion Issues
  • When you select a newly created folder in the Workstation library, the toolbar power option button is dimmed and you cannot perform batch power operations on the virtual machines in the folder.
    Workaround: If you select a virtual machine in the folder, move the selection off the virtual machine (for example, click anywhere on the folder tab), and then select the folder in the library again, the toolbar power option button becomes available.
Device Issues
  • On Windows hosts, Player crashes if you click Connect or Disconnect in the Removable Devices menu before the console appears.
  • An Ubuntu 11.04 host might crash when you try to connect a USB device to a running virtual machine from the status bar icon’s context menu. This problem typically occurs after Workstation is freshly installed, the host is rebooted, and the first time the device is connected to the virtual machine.
Physical Machine Virtualization Issues
  • When simple file sharing or UAC is enabled on the physical machine, the Virtualize a Physical Machine wizard returns an "incorrect user credentials" error instead of an error message that indicates simple file sharing or UAC must be disabled before virtualizing the physical machine. See the online help or Using VMware Workstation for information on preparing a physical machine for virtualization.
  • You cannot use the Virtualize a Physical Machine wizard if the Workstation installation path contains non-ASCII characters.

VMware Workstation 7.1.4

    What’s New

    Support for Windows 7 SP1

    Security Fixes

    • Workstation 7.1.4 addresses a local privilege escalation in the vmrun utility

      VMware vmrun is a utility that is used to perform various tasks on virtual machines. The vmrun utility runs on any platform with VIX libraries installed. It is installed in Workstation by default. In non-standard filesystem configurations, an attacker with the ability to place files into a predefined library path could take execution control of vmrun. This issue is present only in the version of vmrun that runs on Linux

      The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2011-1126 to this issue.

        Other Resolved Issues

        • In Workstation 7.1, the default main memory VA cache size (mainMem.vaCacheSize) for 32-bit Windows guests was reduced to accommodate 3D emulation memory requirements. However, the reduced value resulted in performance loss. For 7.1.4, the default main memory VA cache size has been be increased to 1000 MB and performance is improved.

        • Because Workstation failed to identify more than 10 USB host controllers in newer Windows guests, some USB devices did not appear in the Removable Devices menu. Now Workstation shows all USB devices in the Removable Devices menu as long as they are connected to the first identified 16 USB controllers.

        • When using the Capture Movie option, the captured video stopped playing around the 1GB mark if the video file exceeded 1GB. Now you can capture and play video files that are greater than 1GB. 

        • On Windows host systems that have more than 4GB of memory, Workstation sometimes crashed during cryptographic operations, for example, when performing disk encryption.

        • VMware Tools upgrade could be started by a non-administrator user from the VMware Tools Control Panel in a Windows guest. In this release, only administrator users can start VMware Tools upgrade from the VMware Tools Control Panel. To prevent non-administrator users from starting VMware Tools upgrade from a guest by using other applications, set isolation.tools.autoinstall.disable to TRUE in the virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file.

        • When a virtual machine running on a Windows host was used to access an Omron Industrial CP1L Programmable Logic Controller, Workstation generated an unrecoverable error.

        • When using NAT virtual networking on Windows hosts, the traceroute command did not work when used within virtual machines.

        • Workstation crashed with an access violation when a user tried to open the sidebar after closing all tabs in Quick Switch mode. 

        • The VMware Tools HGFS provider DLL caused a deadlock when making calls to the WNetAddConnection2 function from an application such as eEye Rentina in a Windows guest operating system.

        • There was no option to disable guest time sync when a host resumes. Now you can set time.synchronize.resume.host to FALSE in the virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file to disable guest time sync when a host resumes. See VMware Knowledge Base Article 1189 for other time sync options.

        • Setting a hidden attribute on a file in a shared folder from a Windows guest on a Linux host failed with an error. This problem caused applications such as SVN checkout to fail when checking out to shared folders on Linux hosts from Windows guests

        VMware View 4.6 New Features

        VMware released VMWare View 4.6

        Updated Features:
        Security servers can now accommodate PCoIP connections – Security servers now include a PCoIP Secure Gateway component. The PCoIP Secure Gateway connection offers the following advantages:

        • The only remote desktop traffic that can enter the corporate data center is traffic on behalf of a strongly authenticated user.
        • Users can access only the desktop resources that they are authorized to access.
        • No VPN is required, as long as PCoIP is not blocked by any networking component.
        • Security servers with PCoIP support run on Windows Server 2008 R2 and take full advantage of the 64-bit architecture.

        Enhanced USB device compatibility – View 4.6 supports USB redirection for syncing and managing iPhones and iPads with View desktops. This release also includes improvements for using USB scanners, and adds to the list of USB printers that you can use with thin clients. For more information, see the list of View Client resolved issues.

        Keyboard mapping improvements – Many keyboard-related issues have been fixed. For more information, see the list of View Client resolved issues.

        New timeout setting for SSO users – With the single-sign-on (SSO) feature, after users authenticate to View Connection Server, they are automatically logged in to their View desktop operating systems. This new timeout setting allows administrators to limit the number of minutes that the SSO feature is valid for.
        For example, if an administrator sets the time limit to 10 minutes, then 10 minutes after the user authenticates to View Connection Server, the automatic login ability expires. If the user then walks away from the desktop and it becomes inactive, when the user returns, the user is prompted for login credentials. For more information, see the VMware View Administration documentation.

        VMware View 4.6 includes more than 160 bug fixes – For descriptions of selected resolved issues, see Resolved Issues.

        Support for Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 operating systems (Not Experimental of RC wrong on the VMware site)

        VDI Documentation
        VMware View 4.6 Release Notes
        VMware View Architecture Planning
        VMware View Administration
        VMware View Installation
        VMware View Upgrades
        VMware View Integration
        View4_Marketecture_05

        VMware vSphere 4.1 Released

        WHAT’S NEW:

        Installation and Deployment

        Storage

        • Boot from SAN. vSphere 4.1 enables ESXi boot from SAN (BFN). iSCSI, FCoE, and Fibre Channel boot are supported. Refer to the Hardware Compatibility Guide for the latest list of NICs and Converged Adapters that are supported with iSCSI boot. See the iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide and the Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide.
        • Hardware Acceleration with vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI). ESX can offload specific storage operations to compliant storage hardware. With storage hardware assistance, ESX performs these operations faster and consumes less CPU, memory, and storage fabric bandwidth. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.
        • Storage Performance Statistics. vSphere 4.1 offers enhanced visibility into storage throughput and latency of hosts and virtual machines, and aids in troubleshooting storage performance issues. NFS statistics are now available in vCenter Server performance charts, as well as esxtop. New VMDK and datastore statistics are included. All statistics are available through the vSphere SDK. See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.
        • Storage I/O Control. This feature provides quality-of-service capabilities for storage I/O in the form of I/O shares and limits that are enforced across all virtual machines accessing a datastore, regardless of which host they are running on. Using Storage I/O Control, vSphere administrators can ensure that the most important virtual machines get adequate I/O resources even in times of congestion. See the vSphere Resource Management Guide.
        • iSCSI Hardware Offloads. vSphere 4.1 enables 10Gb iSCSI hardware offloads (Broadcom 57711) and 1Gb iSCSI hardware offloads (Broadcom 5709). See the ESX Configuration Guide, the ESXi Configuration Guide, and the iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide.
        • NFS Performance Enhancements. Networking performance for NFS has been optimized to improve throughput and reduce CPU usage. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.

        Network

        Availability

        • Windows Failover Clustering with VMware HA. Clustered Virtual Machines that utilize Windows Failover Clustering/Microsoft Cluster Service are now fully supported in conjunction with VMware HA. See Setup for Failover Clustering and Microsoft Cluster Service.
        • VMware HA Scalability Improvements. VMware HA has the same limits for virtual machines per host, hosts per cluster, and virtual machines per cluster as vSphere. See Configuration Maximums for VMware vSphere 4.1 for details about the limitations for this release.
        • VMware HA Healthcheck and Operational Status. The VMware HA dashboard in the vSphere Client provides a new detailed window called Cluster Operational Status. This window displays more information about the current VMware HA operational status, including the specific status and errors for each host in the VMware HA cluster. See the vSphere Availability Guide.
        • VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) Enhancements. vSphere 4.1 introduces an FT-specific versioning-control mechanism that allows the Primary and Secondary VMs to run on FT-compatible hosts at different but compatible patch levels. vSphere 4.1 differentiates between events that are logged for a Primary VM and those that are logged for its Secondary VM, and reports why a host might not support FT. In addition, you can disable VMware HA when FT-enabled virtual machines are deployed in a cluster, allowing for cluster maintenance operations without turning off FT. See the vSphere Availability Guide.
        • DRS Interoperability for VMware HA and Fault Tolerance (FT). FT-enabled virtual machines can take advantage of DRS functionality for load balancing and initial placement. In addition, VMware HA and DRS are tightly integrated, which allows VMware HA to restart virtual machines in more situations. See the vSphere Availability Guide.
        • Enhanced Network Logging Performance. Fault Tolerance (FT) network logging performance allows improved throughput and reduced CPU usage. In addition, you can use vmxnet3 vNICs in FT-enabled virtual machines. See the vSphere Availability Guide.
        • Concurrent VMware Data Recovery Sessions. vSphere 4.1 provides the ability to concurrently manage multiple VMware Data Recovery appliances. See the VMware Data Recovery Administration Guide.
        • vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) Enhancements. VADP now offers VSS quiescing support for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 servers. This enables application-consistent backup and restore operations for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 applications.

        Management

        • vCLI Enhancements. vCLI adds options for SCSI, VAAI, network, and virtual machine control, including the ability to terminate an unresponsive virtual machine. In addition, vSphere 4.1 provides controls that allow you to log vCLI activity. See the vSphere Command-Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide and the vSphere Command-Line Interface Reference.
        • Lockdown Mode Enhancements. VMware ESXi 4.1 lockdown mode allows the administrator to tightly restrict access to the ESXi Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) and Tech Support Mode (TSM). When lockdown mode is enabled, DCUI access is restricted to the root user, while access to Tech Support Mode is completely disabled for all users. With lockdown mode enabled, access to the host for management or monitoring using CIM is possible only through vCenter Server. Direct access to the host using the vSphere Client is not permitted. See the ESXi Configuration Guide.
        • Access Virtual Machine Serial Ports Over the Network. You can redirect virtual machine serial ports over a standard network link in vSphere 4.1. This enables solutions such as third-party virtual serial port concentrators for virtual machine serial console management or monitoring. See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide.
        • vCenter Converter Hyper-V Import. vCenter Converter allows users to point to a Hyper-V machine. Converter displays the virtual machines running on the Hyper-V system, and users can select a powered-off virtual machine to import to a VMware destination. See the vCenter Converter Installation and Administration Guide.
        • Enhancements to Host Profiles. You can use Host Profiles to roll out administrator password changes in vSphere 4.1. Enhancements also include improved Cisco Nexus 1000V support and PCI device ordering configuration. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.
        • Unattended Authentication in vSphere Management Assistant (vMA). vMA 4.1 offers improved authentication capability, including integration with Active Directory and commands to configure the connection. See VMware vSphere Management Assistant.
        • Updated Deployment Environment in vSphere Management Assistant (vMA). The updated deployment environment in vMA 4.1 is fully compatible with vMA 4.0. A significant change is the transition from RHEL to CentOS. See VMware vSphere Management Assistant.
        • vCenter Orchestrator 64-bit Support. vCenter Orchestrator 4.1 provides a client and server for 64-bit installations, with an optional 32-bit client. The performance of the Orchestrator server on 64-bit installations is greatly enhanced, as compared to running the server on a 32-bit machine. See the vCenter Orchestrator Installation and Configuration Guide.
        • Improved Support for Handling Recalled Patches in vCenter Update Manager. Update Manager 4.1 immediately sends critical notifications about recalled ESX and related patches. In addition, Update Manager prevents you from installing a recalled patch that you might have already downloaded. This feature also helps you identify hosts where recalled patches might already be installed. See the vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.
        • License Reporting Manager. The License Reporting Manager provides a centralized interface for all license keys for vSphere 4.1 products in a virtual IT infrastructure and their respective usage. You can view and generate reports on license keys and usage for different time periods with the License Reporting Manager. A historical record of the utilization per license key is maintained in the vCenter Server database. See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.
        • Power Management Improvements. ESX 4.1 takes advantage of deep sleep states to further reduce power consumption during idle periods. The vSphere Client has a simple user interface that allows you to choose one of four host power management policies. In addition, you can view the history of host power consumption and power cap information on the vSphere Client Performance tab on newer platforms with integrated power meters. See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.

        Platform Enhancements

        • Performance and Scalability Improvements. vSphere 4.1 includes numerous enhancements that increase performance and scalability.
          • vCenter Server 4.1 can support three times more virtual machines and hosts per system, as well as more concurrent instances of the vSphere Client and a larger number of virtual machines per cluster than vCenter Server 4.0. The scalability limits of Linked Mode, vMotion, and vNetwork Distributed Switch have also increased.
          • New optimizations have been implemented for AMD-V and Intel VT-x architectures, while memory utilization efficiency has been improved still further using Memory Compression. Storage enhancements have led to significant performance improvements in NFS environments. VDI operations, virtual machine provisioning and power operations, and vMotion have enhanced performance as well.

          See Configuration Maximums for VMware vSphere 4.1.

        • Reduced Overhead Memory. vSphere 4.1 reduces the amount of overhead memory required, especially when running large virtual machines on systems with CPUs that provide hardware MMU support (AMD RVI or Intel EPT).
        • DRS Virtual Machine Host Affinity Rules. DRS provides the ability to set constraints that restrict placement of a virtual machine to a subset of hosts in a cluster. This feature is useful for enforcing host-based ISV licensing models, as well as keeping sets of virtual machines on different racks or blade systems for availability reasons. See the vSphere Resource Management Guide.
        • Memory Compression. Compressed memory is a new level of the memory hierarchy, between RAM and disk. Slower than memory, but much faster than disk, compressed memory improves the performance of virtual machines when memory is under contention, because less virtual memory is swapped to disk. See the vSphere Resource Management Guide.
        • vMotion Enhancements. In vSphere 4.1, vMotion enhancements significantly reduce the overall time for host evacuations, with support for more simultaneous virtual machine migrations and faster individual virtual machine migrations. The result is a performance improvement of up to 8x for an individual virtual machine migration, and support for four to eight simultaneous vMotion migrations per host, depending on the vMotion network adapter (1GbE or 10GbE respectively). See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.
        • ESX/ESXi Active Directory Integration. Integration with Microsoft Active Directory allows seamless user authentication for ESX/ESXi. You can maintain users and groups in Active Directory for centralized user management and you can assign privileges to users or groups on ESX/ESXi hosts. In vSphere 4.1, integration with Active Directory allows you to roll out permission rules to hosts by using Host Profiles. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.
        • Configuring USB Device Passthrough from an ESX/ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine. You can configure a virtual machine to use USB devices that are connected to an ESX/ESXi host where the virtual machine is running. The connection is maintained even if you migrate the virtual machine using vMotion. See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide.
        • Improvements in Enhanced vMotion Compatibility. vSphere 4.1 includes an AMD Opteron Gen. 3 (no 3DNow!™) EVC mode that prepares clusters for vMotion compatibility with future AMD processors. EVC also provides numerous usability improvements, including the display of EVC modes for virtual machines, more timely error detection, better error messages, and the reduced need to restart virtual machines. See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.

        Partner Ecosystem

        • vCenter Update Manager Support for Provisioning, Patching, and Upgrading EMC’s ESX PowerPath Module. vCenter Update Manager can provision, patch, and upgrade third-party modules that you can install on ESX, such as EMC’s PowerPath multipathing software. Using the capability of Update Manager to set policies using the Baseline construct and the comprehensive Compliance Dashboard, you can simplify provisioning, patching, and upgrade of the PowerPath module at scale. See the vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.
        • User-configurable Number of Virtual CPUs per Virtual Socket. You can configure virtual machines to have multiple virtual CPUs reside in a single virtual socket, with each virtual CPU appearing to the guest operating system as a single core. Previously, virtual machines were restricted to having only one virtual CPU per virtual socket. See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide.
        • Expanded List of Supported Processors. The list of supported processors has been expanded for ESX 4.1. To determine which processors are compatible with this release, use the Hardware Compatibility Guide. Among the supported processors is the Intel Xeon 7500 Series processor, code-named Nehalem-EX (up to 8 sockets).

        You can download VMware vSphere 4.1 HERE

        Recovering USB Stick that is encrypted with Bitlocker

        1
        WWWOooeeeps I forgot my password for my USB stick .

        What we do next: I forgot my Password
         2 3

        Click on More Information: Hey I found a recovery key
        4
        Then you go to Active Directory Users And Computers
        image image

        Next Enter the the recovery key
        5 

        YES: My data is readably
         6

        Last Step: Changing your password 
         7

        BitLocker to Go & Save the Recovery key in Active Directory

        Before you start wit Bitlocker to Go your domain controllers must be 2008 R2. You must upgrade your Schema.

        After done that I made a group policy named Bitlocker to Go.
        You can find the Bitlocker Policy under: Computer Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates: Policy Definitions | Windows Components | BitLocker Drive Encryption | Removable Data Drives.

        I enabled the following policies:

        Choose How BitLocker Removable Drives Can Be Recovered

        image

        At first you must select the Allow Data Recovery Agent option. This option should be selected by default, but since this option is what makes the entire key recovery process possible, it is important to verify that the option is enabled.

        Next, you will enable the Omit Recovery Option From The BitLocker Setup Wizard option. This prevents users from saving or printing their own copies of the recovery key.

        Next, you will have to select the Save BitLocker Recovery Information to AD DS for Removable Data Drives. This is the option that actually saves the BitLocker recovery keys to the Active Directory.

        Finally, you should select the Do Not Enable BitLocker Until Recovery Information Is Stored To AD DS For Removable Data Drives option. This option forces Windows to confirm that the recovery has been written to the Active Directory before BitLocker is allowed to encrypt the drive. That way, you do not have to worry about a power failure wiping out the recovery key half way through the encryption process.

        Windows XP SP2 & SP3 can only read the bitlocker usb stick.

        Windows 2008 R2, Hyper V2, Exchange 2010, MDT Video’s

        Op Edge van Microsoft Technet staan een heleboel mooie Video’s gemaakt door Microsoft.

        Heb er maar even een mooie verzameling van gemaakt.

        Zoals normaal je heb je geen “tijd” om alles te lezen of je moet geen leven hebben

        Als je iets zit wat je leukt wat er bij zit vindt doe je voordeel er mee.

        Windows Server 2008 R2: Remote Desktop Services – The Series (P1)
        Windows Server 2008 R2: Remote Desktop Services – The Series (P2)
        Windows Server 2008 R2- Remote Desktop Services – The Series (P3)
        Windows Server 2008 R2- Remote Desktop Services – The Series (P4)
        Windows Server 2008 R2- Remote Desktop Services – The Series (P5)

        Part 1 Master Your Environment with System Center Configuration Manager 2007
        Part 2 Master Your Environment with System Center Configuration Manager 2007
        Part 3 Master Your Environment with System Center Configuration Manager 2007
        Part 4 Master Your Environment with System Center Configuration Manager 2007

        Hyper-V R2- Failover & Live Migration
        Hyper-V R2- Making Highly Available VMs
        Hyper-V R2- Making Highly Available VMs
        Hyper-V R2- Dynamic Storage
        Hyper-V R2- USB over Network with Fabulatech
        Hyper-V R2- Introducing Cluster Shared Volumes
        Hyper-V R2- Building a Hyper-V R2 Cluster
        Hyper-V R2- Initial Installation & Configuration

        Demo 1 – Hyper-V Live Migration
        Demo 2 – Boot From VHD
        Demo 3 – Windows PowerShell 2.0 Remoting
        Demo 4 – Active Directory Enhancements

        Microsoft Deployment Toolkit – building install media for Windows 7
        Windows XP Migration to Windows 7 RC using MDT Beta 1 – Part 1- The OS Install
        Windows XP Migration to Windows 7 RC using MDT 2010 Beta 1 – Part 2- How To Build It…

        Open Source Software (OSS) on Windows Server 2008

        Exchange 2010 Demo: Read and Reply State
        Exchange 2010 Demo: Conversation View
        Exchange 2010 Demo: Move Conversation
        Exchange 2010 Demo: Nickname Cache
        Exchange 2010 Demo: UM Card

        Interview with Kristian Andaker on Transitions to Exchange Server 2010
        Interview with Kristian Andaker on Exchange 2010 OWA
        Interview with Matt Gossage on Exchange Server 2010 and Storage
        Interview with Scott Schnoll on Exchange 2010 High Availability
        Interview with Scott Schnoll on Backup Strategy in Exchange 2010
        Interview with Becky Benfield on Exchange 2010 Site Resiliency at Tech Ed 2009

        Waarom zijn dagen zo kort!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        Nvidia Gaming Systeem met Nvidia Chipset = werkend ESX Whitebox

        Enige tijd geleden was ik ik opzoek naar ESX whitebox waar ik ESX op kon draaien.

        Mijn huidige server met daarop Windows 2008 met VMware Server kreeg ik met vSphere 4 een paars scherm en een berg foutmeldingen.

        Na zoeken bleek dit moederbord niet ondersteund te worden. Bale 🙁

        Op zoek naar wat anders…

        Vandaag was ik weer opzoek naar een ESX whitebox aangezien ik niet verwachte dat mijn gaming systeem niet vSphere compatibel is aangezien het moederbord uitgerust is met een Nvidia chipset en ik tevens naar een HP ML110 aan het kijken was .

        Vandaag maar eens mijn USB vSphere ESXi USB Stick in mij gaming systeem gestopt.

        Eens even kijken wat het doet, want je weet het maar nooit…

        En wat blijkt alles werkt 😀

        De twee nvidia nics + nvraid (raid 5) opstelling wordt zonder problemen herkend Cooolll!!!!

        Specs:

        Intel Q6600
        Asus P5NT WS (Nvidia Chipset)
        4 GB Geheugen (Nu duimen dat 8GB werkt) (8GB onder windows blue screen 🙁 )
        3 x 250GB 7200RPM (Raid 5)
        DVD Brander
        8800GTS als videokaart beetje overkill maar wel Cool 😀

        Het wordt nu even geheugen bestellen en hopen dat alles draaid.

        Me is happy 😀

        Hoe een bootable vSphere ESXI 4 USB stick maken

        vmware image

        ESX 4i vereist minimaal 2048 MB aan geheugen.

        Je hebt 2 tooltjes nodig om een vSphere ESXI 4.0 USB stick te maken.
        Je kunt het ook met WinImage doen zie de handleidingen HIER & HIER

        Maar op een of andere  manier krijg ik onder Windows 7 & Windows 7 een error met geen melding dus moet het maar op een andere manier. Zie de afbeelding hieronder.
        image

        Oplossing (WERKT NIET OP WINDOWS 7 COMPUTER)

        1. 7-Zip(Free), DD (Gratis)

        2. Download the ESXi ISO (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-4.0.0-164009.x86_64.iso)

        3. Open de ISO met 7-Zip

        4. Open “image.tgz” met 7-Zip

        5. Ga naar  “\image.tgz.temptar\usr\lib\vmware\installer\VMware-VMvisor-big-164009-x86_64.dd.bz2\”

        image

        6. Extract “VMware-VMvisor-big-164009-x86_64.dd” & kopieer deze naar de map D:\DD

        7. Pak dd-0.5.zip uit naar d:\dd\

        8. Run –> CMD

        9. Ga naar D:\DD

        10 Typ het volgende dd –list enter

        Je krijgt nu een lijst te zien met alle harddisk apparaten die in je computer zit
        dd1

        11. Zoek hier je USB stick op. Het is iets in de trend van \\?\Device\HarddiskVolume6

        12. Type dan het volgende dd bs=1M if=VMware-VMvisor-big-164009-x86_64.dd of=\\?\Device\HarddiskVolume6 vervang het laatste stukje door je USB Stick…

        13. Je hebt nu als het goed is een USB stick met daarop vSphere ESXi 4.0

        dd2 

        Veel plezier met je VMWare vSphere USB Stick 😀

        Handige Tool IntelliAdmin Network Administrator

        – Valideer-installatie van 2009 Zomertijd Patch (Nieuw-Zeeland en Australië nu inbegrepen).
        – Pushen 2009 Zomertijd patch voor Windows NT, 2000, XP en 2003 machines
        – Uischakelen USB Drives
        – Uitschakelen cd-rom-stations
        – Uitschakelen Floppy-drives
        – Voorkom dat de automatische installatie van IE 7
        – Voorkom dat de automatische installatie van Internet Explorer 8
        – Reboot-Machines
        – Remote Uitschakelen Machines
        – Logoff-Machines
        – Zet de VNC-wachtwoord van remote machines
        – Hou machines automatisch herstarten wanneer de automatische updates hebt voltooid
        – Services Stoppen 
        – Services Starten
        – Schakel-diensten
        – Serviceses aanpassen op handmatig op automatisch zetten. 
        – Vanaf afstand Remote Desktop aan te zetten.

        Download

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