Virtualization

Learn how to manage and secure virtual environments, stay current on virtualization news, and discover best practices for getting the most out of desktop and server virtualization.

Should you build and host your own server using a co-location?

Posted May 3, 2013 - 12:00 am

If you’re leasing server equipment in a hosting provider’s data center, you’re likely paying through the nose for antiquated technology. There is peace of mind that comes with that service in the form of care free hardware maintenance, but is that really enough to keep you paying for that same 4GB of RAM every month for life?
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Nebula - A turnkey private cloud brought to you by NASA

Posted April 12, 2013 - 8:00 am

What began as a NASA cloud computing project, and in partnership with Rackspace resulted in the OpenStack project, has now become a turnkey private cloud system for the enterprise. What this means is you can now buy an all-in-one solution to your organization's server needs and be up and running in no time.
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How to remotely inspect the DOM on a mobile device

Posted March 27, 2013 - 8:00 am

How often have you as a mobile web developer struggled to diagnose a style or layout issue on a particular device through trial and error? Wouldn’t it be so much easier if you could just inspect the DOM on the mobile device as you would on the desktop through Chrome or Firebug? It turns out there is a tool for that.
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RHEV upgrade saga: Creating VMs on Open vSwitch

Posted January 17, 2013 - 12:44 pm

Previously we create our network by integrating Open vSwitch into RHEL KVM. Now we need to create some virtual machines to run the workloads required.
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RHEV upgrade saga: RHEL KVM and the Open vSwitch

Posted January 14, 2013 - 9:01 am

A customer recently switched from VMware Server to KVM, but we wanted better networking, which required us to install and operate the Open vSwitch.
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vSphere upgrade saga: HP Insight Management integration

Posted January 10, 2013 - 4:33 pm

I have previously written about upgrading HPSIM and installing HP specific offline bundles within my vSphere environment. This was to increase the integration between vCenter, vCloud Director, and my physical hardware. Still, everything was not integrated well enough. Here's what I did to make this work.
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vSphere upgrade saga: Adding a D2200SB w/P4000 VSA

Posted January 9, 2013 - 6:09 pm

In order to increase the size of my virtual environment, I need to increase the size of my primary storage. The choices were to increase the capacity of disks for slower disks, add another disk tray to my SAN, or to use a virtual storage appliance (VSA) within vSphere. I chose to go the route of a VSA. Here's how I did it:
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FIFA 13 named 2012's most accessible game

Posted January 7, 2013 - 12:06 pm

AbleGamers commends EA for going above and beyond normal accessibility features in naming FIFA 13 the Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year for 2012
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vSphere upgrade saga: Veeam upgrade

Posted January 7, 2013 - 8:46 am

Upgrading to the latest Veeam Backup and Replication v6.5 went smoothly. However, I got errors on all but one of my backup jobs. A simple patch fixed that.
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Email upgrade: Replacing Axigen mail with MailScanner

Posted January 3, 2013 - 5:46 pm

I'm tired of moving spam mail to spam folders from which the system never learns. So it's time for me to try a new approach.
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vSphere upgrade saga: Upgrading the storage on your Iomega ix2-200

Posted December 26, 2012 - 8:03 am

1TB is just not enough for everything I have.
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vSphere upgrade saga: Upgrading vCenter Operations Manager

Posted December 24, 2012 - 8:34 am

With both VIN and vCops broken, I had to fix both before moving on to the next phase of my migration.
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vSphere upgrade saga: Fixing backup and other virtual appliances

Posted December 19, 2012 - 8:48 am

Ever since I upgraded vCenter Server to v5.1, my backup tool has been failing, unable to connect to vCenter. This is not unexpected as my SSL certificate for vCenter changed, and with that change comes the need to fix my backup tool. How to do this is fairly straight-forward actually.
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vSphere upgrade saga: vSphere ESXi and Host Profiles

Posted December 17, 2012 - 5:19 pm

Of all the upgrades I have done to date, this was by far the easiest. Perhaps it was practice or even VMware vSphere’s time in market, but the upgrade to vSphere ESXi 5.1 from v4.1 and v5.0 went flawlessly.
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vSphere upgrade saga: vCloud Director 5.1

Posted December 12, 2012 - 8:28 am

vCloud Director was one of the easiest upgrades but still required some VMware Knowledge Base articles to complete. As always before you do anything you need to "Read the Fine Manual". One misstep may mean starting all over again.
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vSphere upgrade saga: Upgrading to vCNS 5.1

Posted December 10, 2012 - 3:23 pm

vCNS 5.1 replaces vShield 5.1, and if you do not add new nodes during your installation, you can easily perform all upgrades without removing any components of vShield. vCNS upgrades will upgrade all components of vShield.
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vSphere upgrade saga: vCenter 5.1

Posted December 7, 2012 - 3:40 pm

Moving to vCenter 5.1 comes with quite a few caveats and requirements -- and if you make even one mistake you need to start over.
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vSphere upgrade saga: Upgrading HPSIM

Posted December 5, 2012 - 12:04 pm

Since an upgrade requires you to reboot each node of your vSphere cluster this is also the perfect time to update any firmware you may need for your systems as recommended by VMware and the hardware vendor.
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vSphere upgrade saga: Getting all the bits

Posted December 3, 2012 - 11:16 am

The VMware Enterprise Plus upgrade to vCloud Suite Standard would give me the benefits of being able to make use of vCloud as well as vCNS products in my environment. But before I started the install I had to plan the install, and this produced a long list of software to gather and download.
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vSphere upgrade saga: Fixing VMware View

Posted November 29, 2012 - 2:58 pm

I recently had an issue where my VMware View instances ceased to talk to my active directory server. As such, I thought they needed to be recomposed, but I also had to upgrade the VMs with a bunch of patches. So being the smart guy I am, I deleted the View desktop VMs and started over. That decision ended up being a disaster and it took me a week to find the root cause of all my problems.
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When to use cloud platforms vs. dedicated servers

Posted November 9, 2012 - 9:00 am

A decent dedicated server can take you well beyond an initial launch for most companies but a small cloud instance may be cheaper in the short term. Here are some Pros and Cons to each to help with the decision.
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Video

Here's the most colorful video you'll watch today

Posted October 18, 2012 - 1:41 pm

Feeling blue? Watch this colorful video about the effects of color on people and things.
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Video

Science Monday: Origin of Quantum Mechanics in under 5 minutes

Posted October 15, 2012 - 9:53 am

Start the week off right with a quick physics lesson to impress your friends and neighbors.
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Video

BBC gives Doctor Who fans an Amy/Rory postscript

Posted October 12, 2012 - 9:53 am

Bonus content that wraps up the Ponds' story even more...
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Video

Motion-copy robot can mimic painting brush strokes

Posted October 11, 2012 - 10:43 am

Robot can adjust and learn from the strokes of an artist
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