VMworld 2011 has finally arrived as the expected crowd of about 20,000 arrived in Las Vegas for the event. The temperature is a broiling 110* and sunny. Today is Monday August 29, and the official start of the conference, but the vExperts had the opportunity to attend a special briefing, before the show, that focused on VMware’s vision for the future. Following the briefing, there was a couple of options for the evening from the vDodgeball game to the warm-up party. I attended the vmunderground warm-up party as a service (WuPaaS.Next) at the Nine Fine Irishmen Pub. These guys have been throwing the pre-party for the last few VMworlds and what started as a tweet-up as turned into a major event in itself. So popular, in fact, that all the tickets were gone in seconds. Big thanks to Theron Conrey, Sean Clark, Rich Brambley and Brain Knudtson for making this happen. The turkey legs they served were fabulous.
Stephen Beaver is the co-author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center and Scripting VMware Power Tools: Automating Virtual Infrastructure Administration as well as being contributing author of Mastering VMware vSphere 4 and How to Cheat at Configuring VMware ESX Server. Stephen is an IT Veteran with over 15 years experience in the industry. Stephen is a moderator on the VMware Communities Forum and was elected vExpert for 2009 and 2010. Stephen can also be seen regularly presenting on different topics at national and international virtualization conferences.
Hurricane Irene and Some Thoughts on Disaster Recovery
This week I have been paying close attention to the developments of Hurricane Irene. In the beginning, Hurricane Irene looked like she was going visit Florida on her journey to the north. Even though it looked like Florida was going to get hit by this storm, it was still early and there was time for the storm to change course. It was also time to go out and make sure my Hurricane Supply Kit at least had the basics like batteries and flashlights as well as filling up the gas tanks of the cars. I have different levels of preparedness which depends on how close the storm is and the projected path. Just like I have steps in place to be prepared for the storm, most companies that I have worked for in Florida have a storm plan in place and like myself, do not sound the real alarm until the storm is 48 – 72 hours away from a hit but start to prepare for the alarm in case it is needed.
vPilgrimage to VMworld 2011
VMworld 2011 is fast approaching and now is the still to start making final preparations for the pilgrimage to Las Vegas. The question that I see a lot, before these types of events, is what can I do to get the most out of the conference? I have been lucky enough to have been to all the VMworld Conferences since 2005 as well as one lucky trip to VMworld Europe in 2009. I am going to chime in on the some of the things that I do to get the most out of VMworld.
Automation with ESXi and vSphere 5.0
With the announcement of vSphere 5.0, VMware has kept its word on only having VMware ESXi for the physical host operating system. This is the first release of vSphere with just VMware ESXi as an option. I must admit that I was not a big fan of the concept when it was introduced as an option in the 3.x days. I had a very slick automated process in place that was one of my pride and joys at the moment and VMware ESXi was just lagging behind in functionality compared to what I was able to do with VMware ESX. My attitude started to change with the release of VMware ESX 4.1 as presented in an earlier post and now that vSphere 5.0 is announced I must admit that I think VMware has gone about this process of a cutover to ESXi quite well and the functionality that is presented in this release is quite impressive.
Countdown to Launch
Friday was the day that the last space shuttle will be launch in to space. The shuttle Atlantis is on the launch pad and ready to go. As I watched the clock countdown to zero, I found myself reflecting on the idea that this launch will be the very last space shuttle flight. I grew up in Florida and have been able to walk outside and watch the shuttles, over the years, launch into space. I have enjoyed watching the launches as well as feeling the sonic booms when the shuttle would fly overhead on the way to the runway for touchdown. For me and many others, this launch signifies the end of an era and the start of something new.
Take it to the Cloud
Everywhere you look you hear more and more about cloud computing as well as hearing one of my favorite lines from a Microsoft commercial “Let’s take it to the Cloud…”. Companies are jumping on the cloud bandwagon in quite a big way. I wanted to point out and mention some stories and services that I am using personally and having good success with.
Apple has done quite well serving up the AppStore and iTunes for the mobile devices and Apple has recently announced that it was discontinuing MobileMe and replacing the service with iCloud. It can go without saying that this has been an invaluable tool for use with my iPhone and iPad.