VMware and database lifecycles

 my diatribe, VMware  2 Responses »
Jan 262012
 

My experience with VMware thus far can be equated to the life cycle of a database. From birth to end of life, a database is a complete nomad (as are VM’s). Both are constantly evolving, moving servers, and spanning across several lines of support throughout their lifecycles.

The life of a Database (DB):

• A DB template is born – chances are on a developer/user PC, or on a DEV server somewhere. • A few months later the relatively new DB gets moved to a new server as compliance regulations and higher usage require more memory and processing. • The new cluster has serious technical issues and backups are not currently in place for the DB because the planner/technical community failed to properly migrate. • Provisions are initiated and new requirements are planned  – new software is purchased to help manage, more money is needed. • Another group takes over the server your DB currently resides on, and as a result – the DB is forcibly moved to a different server backed by a completely different support organization. Requirements for hosting change,  and more money is needed.

—-=======AS compared to======—-

The life of a Virtual Machine (VM):

• A VM template is born – chances are on a developer/user PC, or on a DEV server somewhere. • A few months later relatively new DB gets moved to a new server as compliance regulations and higher usage require more memory and processing. • The new cluster has serious technical issues and backups are not currently in place for the VM because the planner/technical community failed to properly migrate. • Provisions are initiated and new requirements are planned  – new software is purchased to help manage, more money is needed. • Another group takes over the server your VM currently resides on, and as a result – the VM is forcibly moved to a different server backed by a completely different support organization. Requirements for hosting change,  and more money is needed.

Frankly it’s completely annoying to be honest.  Virtualization in its many forms is not going anywhere, and I’m not confident a viable lifecycle management plan for virtual entities is in existence. There is no “NON Vendor” comparison or aggregation of data that supports virtualization has significant cost savings over physical assets.  And unlike a production database where cost is assumed, consumers are already questioning virtualization.  And as an engineer I can’t confidently support virtualization, which makes my job difficult at times.

 Posted by admin at 3:26 pm  Tagged with: , ,

wyse prepairing your desktop

 XenApp  1 Response »
Jan 232012
 

This is quite an interesting issue. And I only recently found out Wyse devices need to have write access to a terminal services key on Server 2008 R2. Here is a breakout of the issue and how to resolve in the event you bump into the same thing and need to quickly fix.

Step by step customer process:

  1. The very first screen after the device is switched on, is the “Network Authentication” screen. This has two input textboxes for User Name and Password.
  2. There would be a pop-up at the bottom right side of the screen saying “Network connection is up. Link speed is 100HX.”
  3. On entering the credentials we get a “Network Authentication Note” dialogue box displayed with a message: “Error: Unable to connect to network. Please check setting and try again. Again? “
  4. This appears with an auto-submit countdown of 60 seconds and a cancel button.
  5. This redirects to the initial Network Authentication screen.
  6. The second time entry of the credential shows the following text on the screen. “Looking up ip address from DHCP…”
  7. Then the text changes to “Connecting to WDM Server.” And to “Checking for software update”
  8. This redirects to WDM Login Window. Here we select our respective Group from its dropdown, User Name, Password, and Domain from its dropdown.
    1. When we give our credentials here, the text updates at the space below on the window, with its progress, in the below order.
      1. Loading profile…
      2. Connecting…
      3. Connecting to session…
      4. Preparing your desktop…
  9. Then we get the Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Warning disclaimer with only an “OK” button.
  10. This displays the “CITRIX” screen.
  11. And then the Remote Desktop Connection Wizard which connects to our VDI.

How to correct issue on server:

  1. Logon to XenApp server hosting the users sessions via the thin/zero client
  2. open the registry and navigate to HKLM/Software/Citrix/MSLicensing
  3. Allow auticated users the rights to update the mslicensing key.
 Posted by admin at 4:33 pm  Tagged with: ,

i/o performance tool

 .NET, VMware  1 Response »
Jan 152012
 

As a natural skeptic of virtualization products, I often joke about it because I equate the whole virtualization movement to that of OS/2 vs Microsoft years ago.  Given the two options in the past, I fortunately as a career chose Microsoft over IBM. But now with the decision of virtualization at hand, I’m going to ahve to change things up a bit and stay on the conservative side of technology with physical hardware over virtualization.

Now that being said, virtualization can work right? Virtualization in its many forms has become very successful, both by the technical community in application and in terms of capital gains. Ive seen it do decent things for non tier 1 applications and processes.

But as a skeptic, I firmly believe ANY proposed virtualization product or solution needs to be properly vented through before any larger investment is made. Think of it, these virtualization companies are ultra slick and provide meaningful metrics and ROI models that are hard not to sell to corporate america.

What makes virtualization easy to sell? I honestly believe that as a result of cutting back on technology investments over the past 3+ years of economic turmoil, corporations are very turned on by the promises of virtualization and potential cost savings. And unfortunately as far as i’m concerned, corporations will ultimately suffer greater financial cost in the long run.

Hopefully the tools you find on this site and and the once we post on Sourceforge will help you make your own decisions about virtualization. If you are an honest engineer or developer the reason you are here is because its important to validate technology. Benchmarks in its many forms and precise and measurable testing is what we base our reports on, and if you have enough influence – so will the companies you work for.

Please add commentary either here on our site or at sourceforge. We will gladly make any requested code updates to help make your i/o testing and analysis something easier to manage. If you would like to contribute to the code or get a copy of the source, feel free to sign up. Thanks and test on! Oh and keep the data real!

 Posted by admin at 3:15 pm  Tagged with: , , ,
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