Technology

Key Technology Introduced in Hyper-V

root — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:45:41 -0700

The beta release of the update to Windows Server 2008 will be of special interest to those who work with virtualization, as it unveils a key technology long-promised by Microsoft. A blog on Microsoft's TechNet Website announced earlier this week that the "R2" beta version of Windows 2008 includes significant upgrades to Hyper-V, Microsoft's proprietary hypervisor. The most crucial of these is the introduction of "Live Migration," which allows virtual machines (VMs) to be moved from one physical server to another with no downtime or loss of connectivity.

IPv6: The Future of IPTV?

root — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 06:45:37 -0700

Convergence is now here with mobile, data, voice and video all going over Internet infrastructure.

In particular the promise of TV delivered via IP is gaining momentum globally the more the Internet merges with consumer electronics, especially televisions. But plenty of challenges remain, not the least of which is the pending depletion of the IPv4 address space.

Experts predict IPv4 addresses will be exhausted as early as 2010. That's why the move is underway to the IPv6 protocol, which provides significantly more address space for devices.

What VLAN management software supports multiple vendor platforms?

root — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:45:26 -0700

Our network administration expert shows you which VLAN network management configuration and automation software supports multiple vendors and platforms, in this expert response.

Creating a Bootable ESXi USB Stick on Mac OS X

tludwig — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:45:49 -0700

I recently found myself with a decent HP DL385 G2 server with no hard drives (it used to have hard drives, but now it doesn’t…there’s a long story behind it that I won’t get into here). So, I decided I’d try creating a bootable ESXi USB flash drive to use with the server. There are lots of guides out there for creating bootable ESXi USB flash drives, but none of them were written for users, like myself, who use Mac OS X.

The Quandary Of the Cloud: Centralized Compute But Distributed Data

tludwig — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:45:39 -0700

Here's a theme I've been banging around for quite some time as it relates to virtualization, cloud computing and security. I've never really sat down and written about it, however.As we trend towards consolidating and (re)centralizing our computing platforms -- both endpoints and servers -- using virtualization and cloud computing as enablers to do so, we're also simultaneously dealing with the decentralization and distributed data sets that come with technologies such as Web2.0, mobility and exposure of APIs from cloud platforms.*

How to access the VMware ESXi hidden console

ehowton — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:45:25 -0700

Taking a look at the "hidden" VMware ESXi Server console. There are certain troubleshooting and special configuration commands that can only be accessed from this console.

Securing Virtual Machines Starts With Sound Policies

root — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:45:21 -0700

The ease and speed of deploying a virtualized environment has allowed some IT professionals to overlook security concerns that may be brewing up in the cloud.

The Networking Industry's Biggest Hope: Dynamic Infrastructure

tludwig — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:20:00 -0700

The "speeds and feeds" mantra of the networking industry is about to be replaced by a new "dynamic infrastructure" mantra; and Cisco, Infoblox, and F5 Networks are taking the lead in shaping this new vision of a more flexible, more available, and easier to manage network. New enterprise initiatives, from RFID/wireless to virtualization and even cloud computing, will require more network innovation as network infrastructure supports more fluid systems and endpoints, more complexity, and yet increasingly larger portions of business operations.read more

Domain Controller Virtualization Options

ehowton — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:45:38 -0700

One of the most frequent questions on virtualization forums that deal with server deployments is the question of how should one deploy their Active Directory domain controllers. Should they be deployed on stand-alone separate servers, should they be kept on separate physical servers, or should they be run inside virtual machines that are hosted on servers that are part of the same domain? In this article, MVP Daniel Petri will address some of these questions.

Changing vNIC Port Group Assignment in VMware with PowerShell

tludwig — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:45:11 -0700

Experienced PowerShell users won’t find this post very helpful, but less experienced PowerShell users—or even PowerShell newbies such as me—may find this handy. Today I had a need to change the port group assignment on the vNICs for a bunch of guest VMs in the lab. Rather than manually click through all these VMs just to change the port group, I decided to give PowerShell a try. Thanks to this post by Cody Bunch and this Twitter response by Hal Rottenberg, I cobbled together this PowerShell command: