I just read a good post on installing Tivoli on the Service Console.

http://lonesysadmin.net/2006/09/27/tivoli-storage-manager-on-esx-server-30/

VMware has announced that they will be presenting their new VMmark software aimed at helping benchmark the performance of VMs.

You can read a whitepaper on it here:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmmark_intro.pdf

There’s also an interesting article about this on VMware’s Corporate Blog:

http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/blog/console/2006/09/#benchmarking

EMC has released updated versions some of their storage guide for using EMC storage and ESX.

Here are the links:

VMware ESX Server Usint EMC Symmetrix Storage Systems

http://www.emc.com/techlib/pdf/300-003-507_a01_elccnt_0.pdf

9/14/2006 - CLARiiON Integration with VMWare ESX Server

http://www.emc.com/techlib/pdf/H1416_emc_clariion_integration_vmware_wp_ldf.pdf

VMware recently released a whitepaper regarding the installation of 3rd party applications in the Service Console. As a general rule, VMware advises people to avoid installing applications in the Servcie Console. However, there are some exceptions to this. This whitepaper covers this.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx_3p_scvcons.pdf

At the top of Alessandro Perilli’s http://virtualization.info/ is a link to a “Virtualization Roadmap” page: http://www.virtualization.info/2006/04/virtualization-industry-roadmap.html

This article includes a timeline image that maps out where virtualization has been, where it’s at, and where it’s going. It’s also multi-vendor! This way you can see what everyone is doing.

Bravo Alessandro!

Now that the Evolution of Disaster Recovery roadshow is over, it’s time to start releasing the podcast. Because each seminar was just over 3 hours, we are releasing it in 4 parts.

This week, we have part 4.

Part 1 - The state of data proctection. This includes a discussion around, backups, backup to disk, virtual tape libraries, CDP, archiving, and more.

Part 2 - Edge to core data consolidation. Here we talk about using Cisco WAAS products to consolidate our data in a centralized location. This simplifies the management of our infrastructure, and makes preparing for DR much easier.

Part 3 - Leveraging Server Virtualization for Business Restart. Now that we understand how to protect out data, and have it in a centralized location we need to figure out how to make this data usable. Virtualization enables us to do this.

Part 4 - This section is a blending questions from each of the 9 cities we presented in.

A copy of the presentation can be found here if you’d like to follow along.

 Evolution of Disaster Recovery - Part4 [14:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

My wife and I went with some friends to watch the As and Angels play yesterday. I was the lone Angels fan in the group ans yes, I was brave enough to enter Oakland with an Angels jersey and hat on. I figured I’d be a sitting target. Instead, we were in the “Angels section”. All around us were Angels fans. I just got lucky I guess. Needless to say, we had a great time. The Angels even won, 6 - 2.

Then today, the won again, 7 - 1. Not to shabby.

Odds are, the A’s are going to win the division. They are 6 games ahead of us. There’s still a shot, but I’m not holding my breath.

After being on the the road for 8 weeks I’m looking to a much needed break in my travel schedule. Now, for those eight weeks I did get to go home on the weekends, but being away from home that much has left me mentally drained.

Now, if my flight from San Diego doesn’t get delayed any more….

Even I forgot one of Microsoft’s old plays… change the game.

When everyone is looking at one thing, make them look at something else and tell them that it’s better. Bring on the FUD!

http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/breakingnews.jhtml?articleId=192700266

One of the biggest advantages of VMware is that is combats server sprawl. However, in many environments a new problem is created, VM sprawl.

People find it so easy and inexpensive to create VM’s that they don’t think twice about creating new VMs. Next thing they know, they need to expand their environment.

Funny we should mention this, here’s a great article about it:

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid94_gci1209313,00.html?asrc=SS_CLA_303465&psrc=CLT_94