System Center Guide

Sorry I haven’t been very active with blogging in the past couple of weeks but I’ve been busy getting ready for my System Center presentation the Microsoft Launch event being held tomorrow at the Tripod, Harcourt Street, in Dublin. There’s three 2-hour sessions beginning at 12PM and then repeating at 3PM and 6PM. So, if you’re an Irish reader, come on by and check out what’s coming from Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. Plus, if you pop into my session, you’ll get a sneak peek at the latest member of the System Center product family – due to go to beta very soon!

The following is an early look at the architecture of Virtual Machine Manager v2, codename v.Next. While still approaching its Q2CY08 beta release, my personal viewing of the alpha product demos are indeed impressive!

Positioned as a heterogeneous virtual machine management solution, v.Next will support Virtual Server 2005, Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and VMware ESX servers (with Xen server support in a future release).

Click the image above for a larger view.

With the consent of the Microsoft product group, I’m proud to present to you the underlying architecture of the next version of Virtual Machine Manager, which will proudly support both Virtual Server and VMWare virtual machines:

Technorati Tags: System Center,Virtual Machine Manager,VMM,SCVMM

If you want to see some exciting technology in the area of virtualisation, I would highly encourage you to attend anything you see in the upcoming months related to System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (VMM v2). I was privileged enough to view about a 10-min video of it in action today and all I can say is WOW! No, really, that’s all I can say on the matter. But, if you’re considering or have already deployed virtual servers (Microsoft or other third party solutions) it’s time to be looking for details on this exciting release!

I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Tomorrow I’ll be presenting at the Irish Computer Society on the topic of Managing the Virtual Environment. As you know, the introduction of Virtual Machine Manager into the System Center family has broadened the suite to the highly volatile realm of virtualisation. This topic will cover the following high-level areas:

• Microsoft’s Virtualisation Commitment
• Harnessing Virtualisation to Meet Dynamic Business Demands
• Effective Virtualisation: Creating the Foundation for Dynamic IT
• Business Solutions That Span Both Virtual and Physical Resources

If interested in attending, please visit the ICS website.

OK, only in Ireland would you have a PubForum 2008 event! And, of course, it didn’t take long for me to pick up on it. In fact, I’ll be co-presenting with the amazing Dave Northey on Microsoft System Center and Windows Server 2008 Virtualisation.

The event runs from May 9, through May 11. Registration is only €175 and includes an open bar on two of the nights – hence, PUB Forum.

The feedback from this cross-Europe event has been great! Previous cities have included Amsterdam, London, Paris, Munich, Nice, Brussels, and Lisbon. Running twice a year since 2003, this is the 10th such event. About half of the presenters this year are fellow Microsoft MVPs.

Click here for more details or to register.

It would appear that my prediction is holding true: 2008 is certainly becoming the year of virtualisation acquisitions. Yesterday Novell decided to have a seat at the buyer’s table by announcing their plans to complete an acquisition of PlateSpin, a leading provider of virtual machine and server consolidation software solutions.

The $205 million cash deal will be completed in Q2 of 2008.

Read more about the acquisition from the following links:

http://www.platespin.com/novell/

Novell Press Release

This topic provides links to a variety of resources that provide useful information for performing daily operations in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 (VMM). You will find links to conceptual explanations of key features, planning information, configuration information, procedures, and targeted troubleshooting.

Topics include:

• Using the VMM Administrator Console
• Using Windows PowerShell – Virtual Machine Manager command shell
• Managing hosts
• Configuring the Virtual Machine Manager library
• Creating virtual machines
• Creating templates, hardware profiles, and guest operating system profiles
• Deploying and migrating virtual machines
• Managing virtual machines
• Setting up virtual machine self-service
• Setting up reporting
• VMM administration
• Community resources

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ie/library/bb963711(en-us).aspx

I posted a while back that I thought the VMM virtual hard disk had disappeared from the VHD website. But in Rod’s post today, he found the direct download link.

If you’re not familiar with the VHD programme, it’s Microsoft’s attempt to replicate the success of Linux’s LiveCD distributions that allow you to have immediate access to the platforms/applications. In the case of Microsoft VHDs, these files are used in conjunction with Virtual PC or Virtual Server 2005 to save you the effort of building out the virtual environment for the purposes of evaluating the software. It’s a great first look, but most commonly you’ll still find yourself wanting to build from scratch yourself – that or I’m just a masochists in need of therapy. Anyhow, download to your heart’s content.

Get the VMM VHD

Get other VHDs

As the acquisitions continue, Dell has just annouced its $1.4B buyout of EqualLogic (remember my prediction?). The press release to partners stated that their “combination significantly advances Dell’s focus on helping customers and partners grow their business through IT simplification and virtualization“