Brendon Davis » Virtualization

Running Terminal Server on ESXi

brendon — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:08:19 +0000

I came across a site recently where an ingenuitive sales person had installed convinced the customer to have users logging onto a Virtual Terminal server for their MYOB and not use the SBS as a TSE. Great idea unfortunately the implementation was a little less well considered.

I won’t go into all the gory details but some of the sites I found with good tips on how to correctly configure TSE VM’s are:

http://www.stefanschuller.com/guides/guide-optimize-performance-citrix-vmware-esx.html
and
http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/gabeknuth/archive/2007/08/27/a-short-guide-to-virtualizing-presentation-and-terminal-servers-on-vmware-esx-3.aspx

Running Win08R2 w/ Hyper-V as a Desktop

brendon — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:44:46 +0000

You would think by now that Virtual PC or ‘WindowsXP Mode’ on Win7 would be able to run x64 guests. In the Microsoft world, the only way to do this is with Windows 2008 Server and the Hyper-V Role. When the hard drive in my work laptop died, I decided to install the RC of Server 08 R2 with Hyper-V. I have been running this for about two months now as my main OS and am reasonably happy with it.

There are several roles, features & options you can configure on the OS to give it the look and feel of Windows 7. But it still didn’t feel quite right. At TechEd Mark Tigwell suggested I look over this list of configurations posted on TechNet blogs for running Server 08 as a desktop OS.

The settings listed shaw up the differences but do not include instructions to permit local User (non-admin) account managing rights in Hyper-V. Instructions for that can be found here.

VMWare VConverter Recommendations

brendon — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 06:44:17 +0000

While onsite doing work for a customer in Northern Queensland I had to migrate several hosts into an ESXi 4.0 device.

The VConverter process is reasonably simple and strait forward however it just wouldn’t import a few of the machines that was planned. In the end, one of the guys from our office suggested the following steps and URL to import the host successfully.

Specify LSI logic for adapter to import (windows OS) disks as SCSI devices.

Move each partition into a separate .vmdk file.

Always un-install vConverter client from source server and reboot after each attempt.

The URL with useful commands and configuration notes is: http://vsphere-land.com/tips-tricks/converter-tips

Winframe to Metaframe to Presentation to Xen

brendon — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:48:39 +0000

Several Name iterations & a couple of acquisitions along, CITRIX has renamed it’s Presentation Server again. Now XenApp, it has been brought in line with the new Xen virtualisation suite. XenDesktop will be for your application virtualisation and XenServer for your operating system virtualisation. I can see this combination of products and CITRIX’s massive existing customer base will give it a huge leap into the virtualisation market.

I have not used XenServer yet but from what I understand it will be on par with the ESX/ Windows Virtualisation products from Microsoft and VMWare. Giving customers a lot of choice when deploying new virtual infrastructure. Scott Lowe has rescently posted a few thoughts on the new XenServer and I found both the article and comments quite interesting.

If you are in the Virtualisation industry and have not yet heard of XenServer I suggest have a read. What’s the saying, Know thy enemy…

Red & Blue Pills

brendon — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 04:27:34 +0000

“You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe.
You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” (c) The Matrix

You may hear the terms Red & Blue Pill being used lately when referring to Virtual Computing Environments. With the advent of the ‘hyper-visor’ and AMD/Intel virtualisation extensions on the processor it is becoming difficult to detect if a computer is running on virtual or physical hardware.

Blue Pill refers to running using emulated or virtual hardware.

Red Pill refers to having direct access to physical hardware.

Hyper-visor refers to a process that runs above the Operating System that controls the virtual machines access.

More specifically, Blue Pill also refers to a new breed of root-kits that exist above the operating system and are completely undetectable from the OS. Unless you need to use those virtualisation extensions on the new processors, I strongly suggest you leave them turned off.