VMware ESXi for Free

VMware has announced that ESX i (hypervisor version of ESX) will be available for free starting the week for July 28th.

http://blogs.vmware.com/partner/2008/07/important-produ.html

For those that do not know ESX i is has the same VI3 functionality as the full ESX server version minus the service console. Wich in my opinion is long over due, the services console has done nothing but confuse ESX with some sort of Linux based operating systems. When in fact ESX is and always has been a hypervisor and the service console is just a virtual machine used to manage the hyoervisor.

ESX i did not launch with all the VI3 features (VMware HA, VCB) and that was one major reason why a lot of customers/admins did not move forward. That combined with people using the services console for things other then management, I.E. backups, third party agents ect.

But with the latest updates to ESX i you can now fully deploy it into a VI3 environment (assuming your operation process do not relay on third part agents running in the services console).

I for one am excited about this announcement, I've been working/planning the migration away for ESX server to i since it was announced last September (2007). Now with pricing on my side and the features matching that of ESX server, I have a more clear path to deploying ESX i into production.

vCharterPro - Review part 1

Been working for a while with Vizioncore on their new release of the VI3 monitoring utility. vChaterPro (new release to vCharter) is a monitoring tool for a VMware Virtual Infrastructure.

The tool has been a great help and is to a fault over detailed in the information it supplies, but once you get past the shock of being overloaded with data and start digging into and finding valuable information about your VMs you will be hooked on the interface.


For me is has become the interface that I now keep up and running all day, its replaced the VirutalCenter client on my desktop. I'm not saying it replaces VC!!! I'm saying for me an Architect that does not deploy VMs or ESX hosts, I can not not log into VC for the VM information that is valuable to me. I.E. host and VM perform ace.

The user interface at first glance is not very intuitive and you'll need to do a lot of work setting up application dashboards but when I mean work its not coding its as easy as drag and drop. But finding what your looking for can be a challenge (con of having all this information at our finger tips).

Above is a screen shot of one of my favorite screen dashboards, its an over over of the entire VirtalCenter - from here I can see alerts, CPU load, Network, disk, memory all at a high level. From here I can now dive into any direction I wish.

With vCharterPro you can drill down form Cluster all the way to VM and see any of its current or past usage. The tool also enables you to create unique dashboards based on any topic you wish.

I use the dashboard feature every time I deploy a new infrastructure for a project. First by using vCharterPro to monitor the development and QA servers I can then use those number to build a production world that I know will support the needs of the application.

1st Run

This a sample test to see how the site works with my main page http://www.virtualrw.com/. I'm figuring this is an easy way to add a good blogging utility to my site.