Joining GlassHouse Technologies!

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I'm happy to announce that I have joined the team at GlassHouse Technologies as a Senior Virtualization Consultant. With this role, I will be tasked with helping manage virtualization projects, with a main focus on Citrix Technologies.

My main focus will be on expanding our XenDesktop / Virtual Desktop offerings, and will leverage all of our corporate expertise on Datacenter Management, Virtualization, Storage and Security.

Citrix closes the gap with VMWare -- XenServer 5.6 Beta, Part 1

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Most of the complaints I've heard in regards to XenServer vs. VMWare is the fact that XenServer does not allow an overcommitment of memory.  If you have a host server with 16 GB of RAM, you can only allocate up to 16 GB of RAM for the guests (yes, I know, technically less since Xen requires some resources... but you get the point).

Personally, I'm not a fan of over-allocating memory.  I actually like that with XenServer, I do not have to worry about it.  I've seen too many VMWare farms suffer because of assigning too much memory then having to constantly swap resources.  I think if you engineer the solution correctly, and size your servers properly, memory allocation should be kept in check.

However, seeing this as a fault when comparing virtualization host platforms, Citrix has released the latest Beta of XenServer 5.6.  One of the new features IS allowing your to over-allocate memory... they call it Dynamic Memory Control.  I have to admit, it is pretty cool and very easy to use.  The XenCenter display makes it VERY intuitive... all the better to see WHERE your resources are allocated, especially when squeezing memory.

 
To read more technical details, see my full article at: http://www.thegenerationv.com/2010/04/xenserver-56-preview-part-1-dynamic.html

Louisville Citrix Users Group -- Next Meeting 4-8-2010

The next meeting for LCUG has been announced...

PVS Discussion, networking, pizza and refreshments... what more could you want?

SEE YOU THERE!
What: Provisioning Server Discussion and Trilogy Case Study
When: Thursday, April 8, 2010 6:00 PM
Where: Peak 10, 752 Barrett Avenue, Louisville, KY 40204


Learn more at: http://www.meetup.com/citrixlouisville/

Direct Booting a VHD in XenServer

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I've run across several instances where I needed to direct boot a VHD in XenServer.  One example was migrating from Hyper-V to XenServer.  Another was updating the network stack, XenTools, and PVS Tools on existing vDisks.  Regardless, the following is the three-step process I took...

Recovering from XenServer Root Drive Full -- Oppsie!

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I was trying to import a VHD straight into XenServer the other day. I was moving a VM from HyperV to XenServer 5.5, so instead of starting from scratch, I thought I would simply copy the VHD from HyperV to XS using WinSCP. Following the directions from Trevor Mansell's Citrix Blog

All went well until my XenServer died on me...