Tips

Tips

Selecting storage and hardware for VMware environments

• Maximizing VMware storage efficiency

  Virtual machine disk format (VMDK) files can make shared storage in virtual environments expensive. Thin provisioning, virtual snapshots, and data deduplication and compression of VMDKs increases storage efficiency and reduces overall data center ...  Continue Reading

• Using VMware ThinApp with desktop virtualization to reduce TCO and increase ROI

  Given its costly reputation, VMware Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) draws skepticism. But ThinApp decouples applications from an OS, potentially enabling shops to realize greater ROI.  Continue Reading

• VMware ESX NetApp storage deduplication enhancements

  Although NetApp's deduplication feature for VMware environments requires no out-of-the-box configuration, optimizing it for VMware environments can enhance space savings.  Continue Reading

• Virtual servers gain from NFS, virtual NAS clusters

  Growing virtual environments can benefit from Network File System and network-attached storage: Because NFS eliminates LUN micromanagement, and NAS clusters help manage variable I/O, growing environments can scale without sacrificing performance.  Continue Reading

• VMotion network and storage connectivity issues solved

  Using VMotion without attention to storage and network connectivity can create infrastructural management issues. One solution to simplify matters is infrastructure virtualization.  Continue Reading

• Two methods for accessing VMware ESX data stores

  VMware ESX data stores can provide quick access to ISO images, FLP files and more. Learn two different ways of accessing and managing the ESX data stores with this tip.  Continue Reading

• Storage options for virtual machines: Raw device mappings, VMFS

  Virtual Machine File System is VMware's preferred storage option for virtual machines, but raw device mapping provides similar performance and can be a better choice depending on the specific storage configuration.  Continue Reading

• Avoiding storage array snapshot pitfalls in a VMware environment

  Storage array snapshots created from a VMware platform can be useless if you aren't aware of a few pitfalls that interfere with array snapshot consistency.  Continue Reading

• Managing storage in an ESX Server environment

  Storage VMotion is changing how storage is managed in virtual environments. Find out why and get helpful storage-related links to tips about managing SAN connections and an iSCSI work around among others.  Continue Reading

• Add a GUI to Storage VMotion; watch for disk defragmentation

  Storage VMotion (SVMotion) is a new feature in ESX 3.5 that allows VMware administrators to migrate VMDKs between guest OSes. This tip explains how to add a GUI and offers one caveat.  Continue Reading

• Get remote data centers for virtual environments without SAN replication

  Learn how to use VMware Storage VMotion and the VI Perl Toolkit to set up and manage fully-functional remote data centers (RDCs) without SAN replication.  Continue Reading

• VMware and storage: Troubleshooting SAN configurations

  Rick Vanover's guide to troubleshooting SAN configurations in VMware gives pointers on documentation and more.  Continue Reading

• Server selection and VMware: Physical boxes or virtual machines?

  Find out whether or not a company should jump straight into VI3 or start with VMware Server, and how virtual servers change physical server requirements.  Continue Reading

• Services, networking and RAID: VMware Server on Linux series

  Part two of Andrew Kutz's VMware on Linux series covers VMware Services, executables, physical host servers, RAID and networking.  Continue Reading

• VMware Server how-to: Clean up snapshot files to free disk space

  Frustrated with how much space your virtual machines demand? Read this tip by Andrew Kutz and learn how to recover some virtual hard disk space.  Continue Reading