New PowerShell Plug-In for Virtual Center:

A new startup company, Icomasoft, has opened up a beta program for a new plug-in for VC that will be a must have for Powershell use in ESX environments. You can apply to the beta program at this link.

Many impressive capabilities are mentioned as the source of the new here. 

New Cross-Platform Hypervisor Management tool!

Virtual administrator should keep an eye of further developments of a new management tool from a company called BlueBear. They are developing a tool called Kodiak. It will eventually manage VMware (now), Xen, and Hyper-V. 

The really interesting part is it being cross-platform, it runs on Windows, Linux, and Max OS X.

ESX 3.5 Update 2 Validated by Microsoft now for support!

It is official now per this press release:

VMware ESX is the Industry’s First Hypervisor to be Validated by Microsoft, Offers Customers Expanded Support Options for Microsoft Applications

This is great news as qustions about Microsoft support have and having to work around their support confusion have been a big issue for some in moving foward with virtualization.

Further confirmation is available at this Microsoft Team Blog link.

SearchMyVM-New Google-like Search tool for ESX Server Environments:


Got an email today from VKernel mentioning their new tool. Might be a very good new market for this as in larger environments it can be difficult locating a particual VM. From the email:

"As dynamic virtual environments continue to rapidly grow in size and scope, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find even the most basic information," said Alex Bakman, founder and CEO of VKernel. "Our SearchMyVM virtual appliance enables users to easily query and find the information they are looking for. By making it a free product, we can help IT administrators find information quicker as well as demonstrate how simple all of our virtual appliances are to use and deploy."

You can download the product from http://www.vkernel.com/downloads/SearchMyVMBeta/.

UPDATE: After loading this tool I think all ESX admins are going to find this really handy. Especially those not trying to learn the powershell stuff.

• Simple appliance import in VC 2.5 in the open OVF format
• start the appliance, answer question about DHCP or not and time sever (appliance runs Suse Linux)
• Access the appliance via browswer, add your virtual center server or ESX server
• see the examples provided or better yet the help area for even more examples

Some quick examples I did:

vm.name:vmiamlookingfor --find a particular vm

host.datastores.freespace<100gb>

vm.cdroms.object.cdroms.connected=true --vms with cd connected

VMware Joins Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program:

This is major news, so now after ESX validation, there will be official Microsoft support for their OS and applications running in VMware! More info at these links:
Link1, link2, link3, link4.

In addition, Licensing changes were announced, again being more virtual friendly (see link1).

And this news:
Microsoft now supports Exchange Server 2007 SP1 running Hyper-V or hypervisors validated under the Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP).

What's Different: Free ESXI -vs- Licensed ESXI:

Great article you will not want to miss that covers some possibly unknow differences between the versions. Good info to be aware of.

Read the original article here.

ESX 3.5 Works in VMware Workstation 6.5 beta2:

Those guys at the Xtravirt site (along with a lot of input from the VMware Community forums) have a VERY NICE document detailing how to get ESX 3.5 and virtual machines running now in the VMware Workstation 6.5 beta 2. Very valuable for study and demos.

Xtravirt was the first people to figure out how to do this before with VI 3 but the functionality broke with Workstation 6.5. VMware has decided to put the functionality back in Workstation 6.5 due to popular demand.

Get the whitepaper here.

New VMware Training Options:

VMware has opened new Online training options to make learning more flexible.

VMware's innovative Flex Online program enables you to take our flagship VMware Infrastructure 3: Install and Configure course online in a way that fits your busy schedule.

If you only have time on the weekends or before or after your workday, Flex Online is right for you. Over a span of two weeks, Flex Online gives you multiple opportunities to hear each lecture and participate in discussion. You choose among several time blocks during those two weeks in which to perform the course's lab exercises. Some options are on weekends and others are on weekdays.

You can learn more here.

Enrollment has started also for Site Recovery Manager training here.

VMWORLD 2008 Schedule Builder is LIVE!!!

Get your reservations fast before they fill up (especially the instructor led labs)!

To go the Scheduler.