VirtualPro has a Write Up on How to get into Power Shell, being a nub at Power Shell, I thought it was a good as any place to start.

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There has been a lot of chat recently around the virtualisation Twitter community about the benefits of Powershell.  A lot of people have been asking whether or not they should switch scripting languages and dive into learning Powershell. Opinion appears to be varied as a lot of people are successfully using  languages such as Perl for VMware scripting and see no need to change.

I’ve only dabbled with Powershell a little,  primarily when the VI toolkit was released as I was intrigued  as to what it could do, I wasn’t disappointed. I’ve now decided to knuckle down and attempt to learn the Powershell basics by reading the Windows Powershell scripting guide. This book primarily covers Powershell from a Microsoft perspective but the principles should stand firm for VMware Powershell scripting,  I’ll just have to dedicate some time to experimenting with the VI toolkit  a little more.

Once I’ve worked my way through the Microsoft book, I’ll be looking to purchase Hal Rottenberg’s “Managing VMware with Windows Powershell” when it’s eventually released.  Virtu-Al conducted a technical review of the book and has written a blog post detailing his thoughts on this much awaited book. Sounds like just what’s needed to progress on the VMware automation skill set.

So what evidence is there that Powershell is taking over as the scripting language of choice.  Well the following little snippets of news certainly indicate that Microsoft are putting their weight behind it and in essence basing their key platforms upon it.

• Microsofts PowerShell 2.0 included  with Windows 2008 R2
• Over 240 New cmdlets in 2008 R2 along dev tools for building your own cmdlets
• The new AD Administrative Center GUI console based on Powershell. 

So where do I start?

So Powershell is where you want to be, we’ve established that.  so where should you start? Here are a few links to get you (and me) started with Powershell.

Download the one of the following versions of Windows Powershell

Windows PowerShell V1.0 or Windows Powershell V2.0 CTP3 (this is a pre-release version)

Download the following from Toolkit from VMware

Vmware Infrastructrue Toolkit V1.0 Update 1

Check out some of these sites on how to get started with Powershell

Microsoft Getting started with Powershell guide

Microsoft Powershell V1.0 Documentation pack

MSDN – Getting started with Powershell guide

Check out some of these sites for tips on how to get started with Powershell and VMware

Virtu-Al’s getting started with the VI Toolkit blog post

Managing Vmware with Powershell FAQ document

VMware Communities VI Toolkit site

Some Scripts to give you a taster of what is possible

Eric Seiberts top 10 Powershell scripts for Virtual Infrastructure

VMWorld 2008 VI Toolkit scripting contest winners

Some handy links to help you on your Powershell quest

Hugo Peeters – A one man scripting machine

Hal Rottenberg – Techprosiac blog site

Vmware VI toolkit Blog site

Windows Powershell Blog Site

The PowerShell Twitterers list courtesy of Mind of Root

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Now, I would be fibbing to say I had read every link and tried this out.

I wanted to blog this, so when the time comes to learn Power Shell, I have it where I can find it, when I get the time to sit down and force my self to learn Power Shell.

Please read the full source to this Post

http://www.virtualpro.co.uk/2009/01/13/powershell-and-vmware-virtual-infrastructure/

Thanks to VirtualPro

CNN.com, Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States.

Here is the Video

For those that missed the event.

Thanks to CNN.

The http://www.veeam.com/forum have a post announcing the Veeam FastSCP 3.0 for ESX/ESXi Public Beta

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Veeam FastSCP 3.0 for ESX/ESXi Public Beta has been officially launched!
For download link, FAQ and known issues (constantly updated) please refer to this thread (stickied).
http://www.veeam.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1975
Please direct your feedback on this beta to the following thread
http://www.veeam.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1976, or send it to [email protected] if you prefer email.
Happy testing!
This thread will now be closed.

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I hope to try this out.

Full Post http://www.veeam.com/forum/topic.asp?whichpage=2.93333333333333&TOPIC_ID=772&#2159

John Troyer at the http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn announced a new vExpert Award.

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VMware is very proud to introduce the VMware vExpert Awards. The VMware vExpert Awards will be given to individuals who have significantly contributed to the overall community of VMware users over the past year, either online or offline. You might be contributing online to blogs, forums, wikis, or other online sites. You might be organizing VMUG meetings or otherwise getting the word out to local IT professionals. You’re helping spread the word about virtualization and making people successful in deploying this game-changing technology. We want to thank you.

Here is the nomination form. You can nominate yourself or someone else. We’re also taking nominations from people and programs within VMware, so you actually don’t even have to nominate yourself and you still could wake up one day with an award. You might want to fill out the form anyway, because we may not be aware of everything you’re doing.

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I think this is very interesting, as it shows a company,  ( VMware ) and major one at that, reaching out to the communities. Not only that, but rewarding those that take the time and choose to share the knowledge they have shared.

Admittedly, I do not have the time needed to do a Virutalization blog full justice, with a son under two, but I started blogging about the technology blogs I was reading, to musty pin all the information in one place. In doing so, I have gotten into a fantastic group of technology fanatics, and have learned more in the last few months than I thought possible. I want to congratulate the VMware vExperts that qualify and receive the award, now before the results. Why? Because anyone who puts in the time, and cares enough to share his or her knowledge on the subject, is more than qualified to win the nomination.

Lastly, I wanted to thank John and the VMware team for taking the time and resources they do to work with the communities, and end users.

Full Post

http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2009/01/are-you-a-vexpert-announcing-a-new-community-award.html

The VMTN Blog has a blog entry titled Exchange on VMware Infrastructure: podcast, webinar, white papers

Since we will be implementing a exchange solution under VMware in the future, this caught my eye.

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A common question that comes up with our customers is, "Can I put Microsoft Exchange 2007 on VMware Infrastructure?" And the answer is "You betcha!"

We eat our own dogfood here at VMware.* See this new-ish white paper: Deploying Exchange Server 2007 on VMware Infrastructure: A VMware Internal Case Study

Join us this Wednesday, Jan 14, for another round of the VMware Communities Roundtable podcast, where a panel of experienced VMware admins come together for a weekly session — usually informative, sometimes funny, occasionally abrasive, never scripted. We have an increasing number of live listeners and chatters from all around the world. If Rod can set the alarm to get up from Australia, and Tom can call in from his hotel room in the UK, you have no excuse for not taking a break from work, so just drop by and say hi.

What: VCR #31. Virtualizing Exchange, Domino, and RIM
When: Wednesday, noon PST, 3pm EST, 8pm GMT, and Thursday 7am in Sydney.
How: VMware Communities Roundtable on Talkshoe.

And if that piques your interest for more, join VMware experts on this webinar the next day, Jan 15: Exchange 2007 on VMware: Technical Case Study. This should be a good one. The webinar does require registration, but I can’t imagine you’re not already getting our email, and you can always opt out.

And finally, here’s a page of case studies and technical resources about VMware as the best platform for Microsoft Exchange. And yes, Microsoft Exchange 2007 on VMware is a supported configuration.

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I hope to be able to attend this up coming,  VMware Communities Roundtable.

But remember, they are also recorded, so if you miss it make sure to check it out at a later date, I even have a player on my Blog.

Thanks to VMware for the content.

Full Post http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2009/01/exchange-on-vmware-infrastructure-podcast-webinar-white-papers.html

Jason Boche, has a interesting post titled Uptime lost during VMotion

Jason walks us through this , http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2009/01/11/uptime-lost-during-vmotion/

Please check it out, below are a few blips from the post.

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That’s right.  We lose uptime during every VMotion.  Relax just a bit – I’m not talking about actual uptime/downtime availability of the guest VM in the datacenter.  I’m speaking to the uptime performance metric tracked in the VirtualCenter database.  It’s a bug that was introduced in VirtualCenter 2.0 and has remained in the code to this day in VirtualCenter 2.5.0 Update 3.

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My personal opinion is that the intended use of the Virtual Infrastructure Client is for the VMware administrator and thus should reflect virtual infrastructure information.  My preference is that the uptime statistic in VirtualCenter tracks power operations of the VM irregardless of any reboot sequences of the OS inside the VM.  In other words, uptime is not impacted by VMware Tools heartbeats or reboots inside the guest VM.  The uptime statistic should only be reset when the VM is powered off or power reset (including instances where HA has recovered a VM).

At any rate, due to the bug that uptime has in VirtualCenter 2.0 and above, it’s a fairly unreliable performance metric for any virtual infrastructure using VMotion and DRS.  Furthermore, the term itself can be misleading depending on the administrators interpretation of uptime versus what’s written in the VirtualCenter code.

I submitted a post in VMware’s Product and Feature Suggestions forum in January of 2007 recording the uptime reset on VMotion issue.  As this problem periodically bugs me, I followed up a few times.  Once in a follow up post in the thread above, and at least one time externally requesting someone from VMware take a look at it.  Admittedly I do not have an SR open.

VMware, can we get this bug fixed?  After all, if the hypervisor has become an every day commodity item leaving the management tools as the real meat and potatoes, you should make sure our management tools work properly.

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Thanks Jason for bringing this up.