VMware Converter Usage

VMware converter is free from VMware (I think not the enterprise version). In the new released vSphere 4, it is bundled with vSphere 4. The VMware converter automate and simplify physical to virtual machine conversions as well as conversions between virtual machine formats. Here is an chart maybe useful.

I use the VMware converter in the following way:
1. physical to virtual (P2V)
When I want to convert a physical machine to a virtual machine, I need to install the converter on the physical box first, and I also need vCenter support.
2. virtual to virtual (V2V different virtual machine format)
some of my friends working on VMware workstation, but I usually work on ESX. When I need their virtual machines, I will use converter to convert from workstation virtual machine to the ESX virtual machine.
3. virtual to virtual (V2V same format, different setting)
I just do not understand why VMware does not allow me to change the virtual machine hard drive size in ESX after I have created a virtual machine. So I have to use VMware Converter to shrink to hard drive size or expand it.

VMware ESX Advance Features

I have to say, I still spend most of my time on ESX3.5 and ESX3.5i, since my old machines do not support the new released ESX4. Usually I use those ESX hosts as a standalone box to do my development. The features I used the most are snapshot, import and export OVF images, create template and clone machines. Even my ESX boxes do not have SAN, I still use vCenter to manage ESX hosts, since the template and clone are only available through vCenter. My structure actually looks like that:


All the standalone machines are managed by my vCenter, and each of those ESX host is operated by its own. The Virtual Machines can transferred from one host to another host, but we have to power off the virtual machines first.

Now I have a chance to access my friend's data center, then I can experience the new features which are listed on the VMware website.

1. VMotion:
I think all other features are based on this one more or less. VMotion enables the migration of running virtual machines from one physical server to another without
service interruption. It is obvious that my previous setting can migrate from one host to another ESX host, but the service has to be interrupted. It allows virtual
machines to move from a heavily loaded server to a lightly loaded one. The effect is a more efficient assignment of resources.


2. VMware DRS
Taking the VMotion capability one step further by adding an intelligent scheduler, VMware DRS enables the system administrator to set resource assignment policies that
reflect business needs and let VMware DRS do the calculation and automatically handle the detailed physical resource assignments. Now I am looking for the API to find out how to define the policy. If I know the API, I can define my own policy.


3. VMware HA
I probably mentioned this in previous post. VMware HA offers a simple and low cost high availability alternative to application clustering. It enables quick restart
of virtual machines on a different physical server within a Cluster automatically should the hosting server fail. The mechanism behind vmware HA, I think is: The agent keeps testing the heart beat of the machines, and make a clone of this machine periodically, but did not put it online. When the heart beat is lost, then powers up the latest cloned virtual machine, and powers off the original one.

VMware vSphere Released

ESX4, ESX4i and vSphere have been released recently to replace ESX3.5 and ESX3.5i and vCenter. The previous ESX35 kernel is similar to Linux AS4 kernel. The new ESX4 is similar to Linux AS5 kernel. I found the new virtual switches are from 1G to 10G.

The upgrade are fairly easy comparing to the upgrade from ESX2 to ESX3. However, there are still some compatible issues. For example, when I tried to use vSphere to manage the ESX35 host, some functions did not work properly. Also, I wrote some VI perl script codes in ESX35 environment, but they do not work properly in new setting.

The new ESX4 release focuses on the 64bit systems. So when I upgrade from ESX35 to ESX4 on my old machines, they are all failed.
I started testing the new release few days ago. I will some comments when I finish the testing.

ESX3i installation

ESX3i will be the main product of VMware in the future. It is high performance, and it is the building block of Virtual Infrastructure 3.Once you have ESX 3i, you can install it on any server that is supported by VMware ESX Server 3i. The installation of ESX3i is very easy.

1. burn an ISO file onto a bootable CD first.

After the black screen, it moved to the yellow screen.

Then, it comes to the welcome screen.

Pressed Enter to Install and pressed F11 to accept the license agreement.

Select the hard drive and Enter.

Next, press F11.

After the installation, Pressed Enter and rebooted the system, and manual eject the CD. Once rebooted, comes to this screen:

Then the installation process is done. now we should configure the network setting.

Which VMware product should I use? (3) VMware datacenter product, VI 3 basic

VMware Infrastructure 3 is a suite of industry-leading infrastructure datacenter virtualization software that virtualizes servers, storage and networking, allowing multiple unmodified operating systems and their applications to run independently in virtual machines while sharing physical resources. The suite delivers comprehensive virtualization, management, resource optimization, application availability and operational automation capabilities. A virtual infrastructure lets you share your physical resources of multiple machines across your entire infrastructure. A virtual machine lets you share the resources of a single physical computer across multiple virtual machines for maximum efficiency. Resources are shared across multiple virtual machines and applications.

Virtualization Infrastructure dramatically improves the efficiency and availability of resources and applications, and gets the flexibility you need to build and sustain your competitive advantage while reducing infrastructure costs. Internal resources are underutilized under the old “one server, one application” model. VMware Infrastructure delivers resources, applications—even servers—when and where they’re needed. The customers typically save on the overall IT costs by consolidating their resource pools and delivering highly available machines to users. The Virtualization Infrastructure will reduce capital costs by requiring less hardware and lowering operational costs while increasing your server usability, ensure the enterprise applications perform with the highest availability and performance, build up business continuity through improved disaster recovery solutions and deliver high availability throughout the datacenter, and improve desktop management with faster deployment of desktops and fewer support calls due to application conflicts.

The basic VI 3 can set up in the following. As my personal experience, it is good enough for the everyday usage of a small organization.

ESX(ESXi): In this infrastructure, each physical machine installs an ESX (ESXi) bare metal product. The ESX(ESXi) takes the responsibilities of managing the whole physical machines and supports multiple virtual machines. In the VMware virtual concept, each virtual machine is a file, so in the ESX, the file system is VMFS. Virtual SMP enables you to have a single virtual machine use up to four physical processors simultaneously.

VMware vCenter is the management server in the VMware Infrastructure. vCenter intelligently optimizes resources, ensures high availability to all applications in virtual machines and makes your IT environment more responsive with virtualization-based distributed services such as VMware DRS, VMware High Availability (HA), VMware Consolidated Backup and VMware VMotion. Here are examples of the vCenter benefit:

Storage: In order to enable the advance functions in vCenter, SAN storage is required. All the virtual machines will share the same storages; even each physical machine has its own local storage. The virtual machines are independent.

Which VMware product should I use? (2) VMware desktop product.

There are three kinds of VMware products we can choose:
Customer Desktop Technology
Technical Desktop Technology
Enterprise Desktop Technology

1. Customer Desktop Technology
It is for the single user who wants to run software which is developed for different OSes on a single physical machine, and no needs to develop the software. Usually, we will only deploy one virtual machine in a single physical machine, because of the capability of customer desktop technology. In order to achieve this objective, the user will install VMware customer desktop product on existing OS, then import the OS required by the software to run the applications. For example, easily run Windows’ applications on your Mac, including high end games and other graphic applications, with VMware Fusion. Run Windows and Linux applications on Windows or Linux PCs with the free VMware Player.

2. Technical Desktop Technology
It is for the developers to reduce development time and reduce the QA and support costs. Consolidate multiple development and test workstations onto a single physical system by running multiple virtual machines. In order to achieve these goals, the developers have to install the technical desktop product on existing OS, then create multiple virtual machines. For example, one virtual machine for QA, one virtual machine for development, and one virtual machine for performance testing. VMware Workstation is a kind of technical desktop product, we can record and replay virtual machine activity to capture, diagnose, and resolve non-deterministic bugs and race conditions. On the development machine, if we mess up on one stage, we can easily go back to the last safe stage by using snapshot function and avoid the huge effort of roll back.

3. Enterprise Desktop Technology
This technology is used by the enterprises who have a lot of branches in different locations. Organizations use enterprise desktop technology to manage and support the needs of their extended, global workforce while strengthening security and control over corporate resources and sensitive information. VMware View (formerly VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)) lets organizations streamline desktop management & control, reduce operating costs and deliver complete desktop environments with greater application compatibility. VMware View is based on the Virtual Infrastructure 3, and it provides customerlized desktops to remote workers and is managed in local service center. Using VI3 in this way enables an IT organization to run multiple, unique, isolated virtual desktops on one physical server. These virtual desktops are made up of a single-user copy of OS as well as typical PC applications, and they present to the user an environment that looks, feels, and operates exactly like a standalone PC. Users access these virtual desktops through local devices such as thin clients, diskless PCs, or even regular PCs that are located on an individual user’s desk. Because these virtual desktops are actually running within the tightly managed and more easily controlled environment of the datacenter, they bring together many of the advantages of the centralized and decentralized computing models.

which VMware product should I use? (1) VMware products

Now I will talk a little bit about the VMware products. The customers need to select products according to their special requirements. It is not cheap to buy the whole package. We have to use our money wisely.

The VMware once provided its products in three categories: Desktop products, datacenter products and management products. In the new release, the management products have been merged into the datacenter products category since most management products users will use these products in the datacenter. The desktop products include: VMware Fusion, VMware ThinkApp, VMware ACE, VMware Workstation, VMware MVP(not available now), VMware Player and VMware View. The datacenter product include: VMware Infrastructure 3, VMware vCenter Server, VMware ESX(ESXi), VMware Server, VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager, VMware vCenter Lab Manager, VMware Capacity Planner, VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager, VMware vCenter Stage Manger, VMware vCenter AppSpeed, and VMware vCenter Converter. Some other VMware products are also provided to the customers, but not as part of product line, such as VMware VMark for the performance, and VIMA, VMware RCLI and VMware Perl Tool kit for the development.