Cameron Sturdevant

[WP_IMAGE]VMware vSphere 5.0 marks a step forward for the vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS) with the addition of a SPAN monitoring port and user-definable network resource pools, and virtual-to-physical configuration of QoS using 802.1 tagging.These are all advances in virtual switch infrastructure. The next step is to make networking as easy to implement as creating a […]

VMware vSphere 5.0will release “soon” but I’ve been working with the code for several weeks. You can see my slideshow here. My eWEEK review will be published shortly. Here I want to take a bit more space to further elaborate on my experiences with the premier x86 virtualization platform. To begin, these next several blog […]

License Theres been a lot of hoopla made over how will VMware charge for vSphere licenses. Heres a look at what youre buying. Relationship Map After the in-place upgrade of two vSphere 4.1 ESX hosts to vSphere 5.0 and ESXi, here is the relationship map view of our infrastructure. Syslog vCenter 5 is more talkative […]

[WP_IMAGE]Before I describe my conversion of eWEEK Labs test infrastructure from VMware vSphere 4.1 to the yet-to-be released vSphere 5, I’ll summarize the basics of the new release. This version supports giant VMs that stamp out the vestigial resistance to running workloads in a virtualized, x86 environment. It also sets new maximums that enable the […]

The newly formed Open Data Center Alliance is using an array of usage models to weld cloud-using customers into a force that prevents vendor lock. At the same time, the group is promoting secure movement of virtual workloads from one provider to another. The organization is made up of more than 200 members including JPMorgan […]

[WP_IMAGE] I’m a little bummed that I missed the April 2011 release of the latest version of BMC Software’s Service Catalog. Refined in April was Service Catalogs ability to offer virtual infrastructure in a multi-tenant cloud environment using what is called “Service Governance.” BMC Software CTO Kia Behnia stopped in at eWEEK Labs office in […]

[WP_IMAGE] The Citrix XenServer 6 beta 2 Self Service Manager (SSM) is a virtual appliance that enables IT managers to provide a catalog of pre-defined virual machines to users. Multiple tenants can be set up in in the Self Service Manager and tenant users can handle of range of administrative deployment chores to get IT […]

[WP_IMAGE] Last week CA announced ten new or updated products as part of a”cloud choice” product release. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be taking a first look at several of the new releases and sharing my initial findings here at the eWEEK Labs blog. One of the things I’ve discovered already is that some of […]

“Project Boston,” the current beta version of Citrix’s XenServer 6, includes a host of new features that make the virtualization platform worthy of consideration in modest-size organizations. Project Boston integrates previously separate storage and virtual machine management components. The beta version, which has no announced release date, performed well in eWEEK Labs’ tests. Of particular […]

Heterogeneous Management Citrix Self Service Manager can also connect to VMware vCenter to handle provisioning across virtualization platforms. Resource Pools The virtual machines that will be used by the Self Service Manager tool are seen here from the XenCenter management client. Active vApps The virtual machine test02 is seen here being created in a Self […]

[WP_IMAGE] The virtual network overlay technology called OpenFlow is popping up more and more in my virtual world. OpenFlow is a part of the networking technology baked into XenServer 6 beta 2 “Project Boston.” I’ve just set up a meeting with Big Switch to talk about their OpenFlow. My friends at the Internet Research Group […]

[WP_IMAGE] I spent another day getting tutored on LISP at the Cisco campus yesterday. See below for a bit more on the details of my day trip. But first, as promised, here’s my Thursday update for what I’m working on this week. Pretty much everything on my list from last week got carried forward with […]