VirtualizationAdmin.com Monthly Newsletter of December 2009 Sponsored by: 2X

Welcome to the VirtualizationAdmin.com newsletter by David Davis, vExpert, VCP, CCIE. Each month we will bring you interesting and helpful information on the world of Virtualization. We want to know what all *you* are interested in hearing about. Please send your suggestions for future newsletter content to: ddavis@VirtualizationAdmin.com

1. Virtualization 2009: Year in Review

Thank you for reading issue #19 of our VirtualizationAdmin.com newsletter! Last month, we covered VMware's latest product offerings - Workstation 7, Fusion 3, and vSphere Update 1.

This month, let us review some of the exciting things that happened in the world of virtualization during 2009 and make some predictions as to what we have to look forward to in 2010!

2009 Review...

Here are the highlights of what happened in the world of virtualization in 2009:

• January: Microsoft released Windows 2008 R2 *beta* with new features which include; Live Migration, TCP offload, and more
• February: VMworld Europe 2009 gave us hints at what the next release (not yet named vSphere 4) would look like. Features of the next release would include Fault Tolerance, vNetwork Distributed Switch, and Data Recovery
• April: VMware officially announced vSphere 4 as the industry's "first cloud operating system"
• May: binaries for vSphere 4, Cisco Nexus 1000-V, vCenter Orchestrator, vShield Zones, and Data Recovery are released. VMware announces new vSphere 4 certification - VCP4
• June: VirtualizationAdmin's website turns 1 year old
• July: Microsoft launches its Azure Cloud Computing offering
• August: VMware acquires Spring Source and my vSphere 4 video training course is released!
• September: VMworld 2009, VMware announces vCloud Express and VMware GO. Microsoft releases Windows Server 2008 R2 with new virtualization
• November: VMware releases Workstation 7, View 3, and vSphere 4 Update 1 are released. Also, VMware announced the release of VMware View 4 and ThinApp 4
• December: so far, Amazon has announced that they will provide an auction-based marketplace to sell cloud capacity (the first of its kind)

2010 Predictions...

2009 was a very exciting year for the world of virtualization. So what could 2010 possibly offer? Here are some of my predictions...

• VMware will launch a new major release of vSphere, vSphere 5. It will offer integration with the vCloud API to connect internal and external clouds. Additionally, it will offer some integration with Spring Source.
• Microsoft will offer a new release of Windows Server 2008, dubbed R3, with additional virtualization features in an attempt to bring it closer to VMware.
• Microsoft will offer its centralized virtualization management system, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), for free.
• Like Amazon has done, VMware will launch (or partner with someone to launch) their own Cloud Computing marketplace where cloud computing resources will be bought and sold.

Keep updated with the latest virtualization news in 2010 to see if I am right about any of these predictions!

Note to my readers: Besides reading our newsletter, I encourage you to stay up to date on the latest in Virtualization news by subscribing to the VirtualizationAdmin.com RSS Feed so make sure you have the VirtualizationAdmin.com RSS feeds configured in your RSS reader. 

As always, if you have Virtualization questions, ideas for articles, or issues to cover in the newsletter, please feel free to write to me at ddavis@VirtualizationAdmin.com

Thank you,
David Davis, VCP, CCIE

2. Train Signal VMware vSphere Video Training

3. VirtualizationAdmin.com Articles of Interest

• VIDEO: Hyper-V Virtual Disk Overview 
• 10 Reasons why VMware ESXi 4 is perfect for the SMB 
  
• VMware VMSafe - Voted VirtualizationAdmin.com Readers? Choice Award Winner - Security
• Second Level Address Translation Benefits in Hyper-V R2 
  
• VIDEO: What is VMware vCloud Express? 
  

4. KB Articles of the Month

• Installing a patch on ESX 4.0 with EMC Power Path installed prevents the rpowermt utility from disco... (1016421)
• On a Windows XP Professional 32-bit guest, the e1000 NIC driver is not automatically available even ... (1016456)
• Unable to run esxupdate update command after removing a bulletin that has hostd VIB (1016402)
• How System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) can be used to make backups of virtual machines 
• Microsoft Server Virtualization with Hyper-V and System Center 
• Using Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager to perform P2V Wizard 
  

5. Virtualization Admin Tip of the Month

Want to add new production servers or even a lab server to run VMware's Fault Tolerance (FT)? If so, you need to be very careful when you select your hardware. While FT is compatible with various models of servers, the CPU type and family is critical. Also, as you are going to run FT between at least two servers, it is very likely that those servers need to have the same CPU type. You also need to know that every guest operating system is supported when using Fault Tolerance. For example, you can't mix AMD and Intel servers nor can you mix Intel CPUs from the 3500/5500 family with servers from other families.

For specific information on the CPU types, CPU families, and guest operating systems that are compatible with FT, visit VMware's KB article 1008027 - Processors and Guest Operating Systems that Support VMware Fault Tolerance.

6. Helpful Links

• VMworld 2010
• VMware's Planet V12n Virtualization Blog Aggregator
• VMwareVideos.com - videos only related to VMware
• VMware Free Virtualization Webcasts
• Petri IT Knowledgebase - Virtualization Articles
• Virtual PC Guy's Weblog covering Hyper-V Virtualization
• Scott Lowe's Virtualization, Storage, and Server Blog
• Microsoft Virtualization Team Blog

7. Ask David Davis, VCP, vExpert

Question

What books or other self-study resources do you recommend to read for the VMware VCP4 exam?

Answer

Besides my vSphere 4 video training course, there are many new books covering vSphere 4 that can help you to prepare for the new VCP4 certification shorts. Here are many of the options available today.

• Mastering vSphere 4 by Scott Lowe
• VMware vSphere 4 Administration Instant Reference by Scott Lowe, Jase McCarty. and Matthew Johnson
• VMware vSphere 4 Implementation by Mike Laverick
• VCP VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410 by Brian Perry, Chris Huss, and Jeantet Fields

And for information on the new VCP4, checkout this VMware communities post with a lot of great info.