Tag: VMWare

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 3.0 Released

New Features in Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 3.0
The 3.0 release of MVMC adds the ability to convert a physical computer running Windows Server 2008 or above server operating systems or Windows Vista or above client operating systems to a virtual machine running on Hyper-V host.

Standard stuff is:

  • Converts virtual disks that are attached to a VMware virtual machine to virtual hard disks (VHDs) that can be uploaded to Microsoft Azure.
  • Provides native Windows PowerShell capability that enables scripting and integration into IT automation workflows.
    Note The command-line interface (CLI) in MVMC 1.0 has been replaced by Windows PowerShell in MVMC 2.0.
  • Supports conversion and provisioning of Linux-based guest operating systems from VMware hosts to Hyper-V hosts.
  • Supports conversion of offline virtual machines.
  • Supports the new virtual hard disk format (VHDX) when converting and provisioning in Hyper-V in Windows Server® 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012.
  • Supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 5.5, VMware vSphere 5.1, and VMware vSphere 4.1 hosts Hyper-V virtual machines.
  • Supports Windows Server® 2012 R2, Windows Server® 2012, and Windows® 8 as guest operating systems that you can select for conversion.
  • Converts and deploys virtual machines from VMware hosts to Hyper-V hosts on any of the following operating systems:
  • Windows Server® 2012 R2
  • Windows Server® 2012
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
  • Converts VMware virtual machines, virtual disks, and configurations for memory, virtual processor, and other virtual computing resources from the source to Hyper-V.
  • Adds virtual network interface cards (NICs) to the converted virtual machine on Hyper-V.
  • Supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 5.5, VMware vSphere 5.0, and VMware vSphere 4.1 hosts to Hyper-V.
  • Has a wizard-driven GUI, which simplifies performing virtual machine conversions.
  • Uninstalls VMware Tools before online conversion (online only) to provide a clean way to migrate VMware-based virtual machines to Hyper-V.
    Important MVMC takes a snapshot of the virtual machine that you are converting before you uninstall VMware Tools, and then shuts down the source machine to preserve state during conversion. The virtual machine is restored to its previous state after the source disks that are attached to the virtual machine are successfully copied to the machine where the conversion process is run. At that point, the source machine in VMware can be turned on, if required.
    Important MVMC does not uninstall VMware Tools in an offline conversion. Instead, it disables VMware services, drivers, and programs only for Windows Server guest operating systems. For file conversions with Linux guest operating systems, VMware Tools are not disabled or uninstalled. We highly recommend that you manually uninstall VMware Tools when you convert an offline virtual machine.
  • Supports Windows Server and Linux guest operating system conversion. For more details, see the section “Supported Configurations for Virtual Machine Conversion” in this guide.
  • Includes Windows PowerShell capability for offline conversions of VMware-based virtual hard disks (VMDK) to a Hyper-V–based virtual hard disk file format (.vhd file).
    Note The offline disk conversion does not include driver fixes.

Download

Source

Virtualization 2.0 For Dummies

Virtualizing your servers was the first step to achieving cost savings, high availability, and greater IT efficiency. But as your business is evolving and growing, your virtualized infrastructure needs to do the same – leading to the next-generation data center running on Virtualization 2.0.
In Virtualization 2.0 For Dummies®, we will explore:

  • How Virtualization 2.0 can deliver improved visibility, optimized planning and more predictive control through capacity management and performance monitoring
  • A deep dive into virtualization beyond the server, including operations management, virtualized backup, storage, and networking
  • How to prepare your IT environment for the next steps in your virtualization journey, with advice on storage options and security
  • Technical tips, best practices, and links to in-depth resources to help you save time setting up, managing, and troubleshooting

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 2.0

    Microsoft® Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) is a Microsoft-supported, stand-alone solution for the information technology (IT) pro or solution provider who wants to convert virtual machines and disks from VMware hosts to Hyper-V® hosts and Windows Azure™.
    MVMC can be deployed with minimal dependencies. Because MVMC provides native support for Windows PowerShell®, it enables scripting and integration with data center automation workflows such as those authored and run within Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2. It can also be invoked through the Windows PowerShell® command-line interface. The solution is simple to download, install, and use. In addition to the Windows PowerShell capability, MVMC provides a wizard-driven GUI to facilitate virtual machine conversion.
    New Features in MVMC 2.0
    MVMC 2.0 release of MVMC includes the following new features:

    • Converts virtual disks that are attached to a VMware virtual machine to virtual hard disks (VHDs) that can be uploaded to Windows Azure.
    • Provides native Windows PowerShell capability that enables scripting and integration into IT automation workflows.
      Note The command-line interface (CLI) in MVMC 1.0 has been replaced by Windows PowerShell in MVMC 2.0.
    • Supports conversion and provisioning of Linux-based guest operating systems from VMware hosts to Hyper-V hosts.
    • Supports conversion of offline virtual machines.
    • Supports the new virtual hard disk format (VHDX) when converting and provisioning in Hyper-V in Windows Server® 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012.
    • Supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 5.5, VMware vSphere 5.1, and VMware vSphere 4.1 hosts Hyper-V virtual machines.
    • Supports Windows Server® 2012 R2, Windows Server® 2012, and Windows® 8 as guest operating systems that you can select for conversion.
    Standard MVMC Features
    In addition to the new features previously identified, MVMC provides the following functionality:

    • Converts and deploys virtual machines from VMware hosts to Hyper-V hosts on any of the following operating systems:
    • Windows Server® 2012 R2
    • Windows Server® 2012
    • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
    • Converts VMware virtual machines, virtual disks, and configurations for memory, virtual processor, and other virtual computing resources from the source to Hyper-V.
    • Adds virtual network interface cards (NICs) to the converted virtual machine on Hyper-V.
    • Supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 5.5, VMware vSphere 5.0, and VMware vSphere 4.1 hosts to Hyper-V.
    • Has a wizard-driven GUI, which simplifies performing virtual machine conversions.
    • Uninstalls VMware Tools before online conversion (online only) to provide a clean way to migrate VMware-based virtual machines to Hyper-V.
      Important MVMC takes a snapshot of the virtual machine that you are converting before you uninstall VMware Tools, and then shuts down the source machine to preserve state during conversion. The virtual machine is restored to its previous state after the source disks that are attached to the virtual machine are successfully copied to the machine where the conversion process is run. At that point, the source machine in VMware can be turned on, if required.
      Important MVMC does not uninstall VMware Tools in an offline conversion. Instead, it disables VMware services, drivers, and programs only for Windows Server guest operating systems. For file conversions with Linux guest operating systems, VMware Tools are not disabled or uninstalled. We highly recommend that you manually uninstall VMware Tools when you convert an offline virtual machine.
    • Supports Windows Server and Linux guest operating system conversion. For more details, see the section “Supported Configurations for Virtual Machine Conversion” in this guide.
    • Includes Windows PowerShell capability for offline conversions of VMware-based virtual hard disks (VMDK) to a Hyper-V–based virtual hard disk file format (.vhd file).
      Note The offline disk conversion does not include driver fixes.

Download

Free e-learning course – Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange 2013 on VMware vSphere 5 Fundamentals

This self paced free eLearning course illustrates why organizations need to consider virtualizing Exchange 2013 on VMware vSphere. This course focuses on Exchange design prerequisites and considerations, when virtualizing Exchange 2013.
It also describes design, sizing, and implementation guidelines and best practices, that should be followed as part of a structured design and implementation methodology.

The course consists of three modules:

  • Introduction to Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange 2013 provides an overview of the challenges that organizations typically face when deploying Microsoft Exchange 2013 on physical hardware, and how these challenges can be addressed by virtualizing Exchange on VMware vSphere. This module also describes the benefits that organizations can realize by virtualizing Exchange 2013 on the vSphere platform.
  • Designing the Virtualized Exchange Environment evaluates the prerequisites for designing an Exchange 2013 solution when deployed in a virtualized environment. This module also covers the design considerations and guidelines for designing and sizing Exchange 2013 on vSphere.
  • Implementing the Virtualized Exchange Solution covers various implementation options that should be considered when virtualizing Exchange 2013 on the vSphere platform. This module also discusses several implementation considerations that should be factored into an Exchange 2013 design. Finally, this module discusses how to monitor and test the performance of Exchange 2013 on VMware vSphere.

Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange 2013 on VMware vSphere [V5.X] Fundamentals

Thnx to Eric Sloof

VMware Workstation 10

VMware Workstation takes virtualization to the next level:

  • Support for the latest Guest OS’es like Microsoft Windows 8.1 and various Linux distributions.
  • The new hardware version 10 introduces even bigger and better Virtual Machines
    Up to 16 vCPUs
    64GB of vRAM
    8TB disks.
    vSATA support has been added
    Up to 20 networks can be defined.
    Various USB improvements (usb3 stream support, among other things)
    SSD pass through makes for better support of the underlying hardware platform.
  • New Virtual Appliances created with the Workstation team to quickly run various cloud stacks like Pivotal, Puppet Labs and Vagrant.

The team has included various smaller improvements in the product as well:

  • Better multi-monitor support for up to 4 screens
  • Unity mode has been enhanced to seamlessly work with Windows 8.1 UI changes
  • An updated version of VMware Converter has been built in and adds support for P2V’ing a Windows 8.1 machine
  • New option to display the VM console using VMware-KVM, a ‘screen-only’ window without any bells or whistles.

VMware OS Optimization Tool

The VMware OS Optimization Tool helps optimize Windows 7 desktops for use with VMware Horizon View. The optimization tool includes customizable templates to enable or disable Windows system services and features, per VMware recommendations and best practices, across multiple systems. Since most Windows system services are enabled by default, the optimization tool can be used to easily disable unnecessary services and features to improve performance.

You can perform the following actions using the VMware OS Optimization Tool:

  • Analyze
  • Optimize
  • Viewing History
  • Managing Template

Also included is the Remote OS Optimization Tool, which uses the same functionality as the Optimization Tool, but connects to a remote VMware View broker so that remote parent and template VMs can be enumerated and optimized.

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Configuring disks to use VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapters

PVSCSI adapters are high-performance storage adapters that can result in greater throughput and lower CPU utilization. PVSCSI adapters are best suited for environments, especially SAN environments, where hardware or applications drive a very high amount of I/O throughput. PVSCSI adapters are not suited for DAS environments.

This table shows the support matrix for use of Paravirtual SCSI adapters for data disks and boot disks for the various guest operating systems and ESX versions. Support shown in the table is from the listed ESX/ESXi version and later versions.

Guest operating system

Data Disk

Boot Disk

Windows Server 2012 (64 bit only)

ESXi 5.0 Update 1, ESXi 5.1

ESXi 5.0 Update 1, ESXi 5.1

Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit only)

ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 1, ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 1, ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Windows Server 2008 (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 1, ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Windows Server 2003 (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x

Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Windows Vista (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Windows XP (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Because the default type of newly hot-added SCSI adapter depends on the type of primary (boot) SCSI controller, hot-adding a PVSCSI adapter is only supported for those versions that support booting from a PVSCSI adapter.

Paravirtual SCSI adapters also have these limitations:

  • Hot add or hot remove requires a bus rescan from within the guest.
  • Disks with snapshots might not experience performance gains when used on Paravirtual SCSI adapters if memory on the ESX host is overcommitted.

Windows 7 and Windows 8 Optimization Guide for Horizon View Virtual Desktops & Antivirus Best Practices for Horizon View 5.x

VMware released two great documents!!

Windows 7 and Windows 8 Optimization Guide for Horizon View Virtual Desktops

Antivirus Best Practices for Horizon View 5.x

VMware View preview Client for Windows Store

VMWare released a preview of the VMware View Client for Windows Store. This Windows Store client will run in the tiled view of Windows RT and Windows 8.

 

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As this is a preview, it does have a number of limitations:

  • The client supports RDP connections but not PCoIP yet
  • No support for smart card authentication
  • To use the onscreen keyboard on a tablet, go to Settings and select Keyboard

The Windows Store client has additional requirements for server certificate checking:

  • You cannot turn off certificate verification on the client.
  • The View Connection Server or security server must have a security certificate that the client can fully verify and it must match the host name in the View Client.
  • If you plan to use a secure tunnel connection, for instance if you will be connecting remotely, the tunnel server (View Connection Server instance or security server) must also have a security certificate that the client can verify. The host name in the View Client must match the host name in the “External URL” setting shown in the Edit View Connection Server Settings dialog box, in View Administrator. For example, the field cannot have an IP address and the certificate cannot be self-signed.
  • Alternately, the user can install a self-signed certificate into the client computer, but it must be put in the local machine store rather than the current user store. The app that end users should use is called “Manage computer certificates” (certlm.msc).

We are excited to release this Windows Store client and look forward to improving it in subsequent releases. To install the client, go to the store from your Windows 8 system and search on VMware.

The existing VMware View Client for Windows (version 5.2 or later) runs in Windows 8 desktop mode. If you are running Windows 8 (not Windows RT) VMware recommends that you use our existing VMware View Client for Windows in the Windows 8 desktop mode for maximum functionality

VMware Workstation 9.0.1

In this “maintenance” release we can see that few OS support has been added and some bug fixes has been issued as well. This release comes only after two and half months, where VMware Workstation 9 has been released.

What’s new in the Version 9.0.1 – Build Number:894247

  • Support for Ubuntu 12.10 as a host and guest.
  • Solaris 11 has been added to guest OS list

Fixes:

  • When powering on a virtual machine with Binary Translation on a SMEP-capable CPU, Workstation no longer causes the host to reset. If you run Windows 8 hosts on Ivy Bridge processors, VMware strongly recommends that you update your installation of Workstation.
  • Several security vulnerabilities have been addressed, including updating third party libraries.
  • The Workstation plug-in for Visual Studio has been updated to work with Visual Studio 2012.
  • For host systems with more than 4GB of memory, Workstation will use more of the available memory to run virtual machines.
  • The ability to mount a .vmdk file as a drive by right-clicking the file in File Explorer has been restored.
  • Streaming a virtual machines has been fixed.
  • Occasionally, certain elements in the Windows 8 user interface were incorrectly displayed. This has been fixed.
  • After disconnecting certain USB devices from a virtual machine, Workstation would prevent devices from being reconnected without restarting the virtual machine. A more comprehensive error handling code has been added to prevent this problem from occurring.
  • To improve application startup performance, the data being collected as part of the optional User Experience Improvement Program will no longer be aggregated on every launch of Workstation.
  • Remotely retrieving the IP address of an Ubuntu virtual machine with an IPv6 address assigned failed unless an IPv4 address was also assigned to the virtual machine. This no longer occures.
  • With IPv6 disabled on the host, the Linux version of Workstation is now able to share virtual machines.
  • When you import an OVA file of a virtual machine running the Datacenter version of Windows Server, the network adapter failed to be configured correctly. This is now fixed.
  • Closing Workstation in the middle of a cut and paste operation no longer causes the Workstation user interface to crash.
  • After unsharing a virtual machine configured to use client-side devices, you can now reconfigure the device settings to use local devices.
  • Easy Install on the Linux version of Workstation now recognize all compatible operating systems.
  • The VMware monitor has been updated to work with Linux kernel 3.5.
  • On the Linux version of Workstation, entering a permanent license key after using an evaluation key now removes the days remaining evaluation indicator.
  • The network adapter configuration screen now correctly preserves the Custom network settings.
  • You can now remove a Network if network settings changes are pending.
  • The Use physical drive radio button for a floppy device was disabled when connecting to a shared virtual machine or remote virtual machine a on host without a physical floppy device. This is now fixed.
  • Animated cursors are now displayed correctly in a virtual machine.

Source: VMware Workstation 9.0.1 Relese Notes Release notes

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