Find out what happened at VMworld 2008 and discuss it with others. The discussion includes the vCloud, vNetwork, vClient, and vParty from the show. Consider this discussion your chance to get back together with your friends from VMworld 2008.

Also visit a rebroadcasting that was held later that night

Technical Community - Background Reading

Virtualization Frontier at VMworld.com
I Don't RTFM and Neither Should You

VMTN Day by Day Blog

http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2008/09/vmworld-monday.html
http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2008/09/tuesday-keynote.html
http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2008/09/tuesday-after-1.html
http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2008/09/wednesday-keyno.html

Chat Transcript

DELL-ScottH	Hey brick man
DELL-ScottH	:-)
depping	Hey :)
DELL-ScottH	Really liking your blog
depping	Thanks!
depping	Really enjoy doing it.
depping	Although it's been hard to find the time keeping up to date with all these new announcements
	JasonPowell joined.
DELL-ScottH	Tell me about it... and then you have to keep up on all these outlets, twitter, blogs, wiki, Web--just want to disconnect some time
DELL-ScottH	Hey Jason!
DELL-ScottH	How's the storage and project management Web site going?
JasonPowell	Howdy Scott
JasonPowell	I think the Pm Wss site is good to go. We're still trying to decide how to proceed on the Md3000i
DELL-ScottH	Did my e-mail make sense?
JasonPowell	My guys are scared to span multiple 2 TB LUNs
DELL-ScottH	Why?
JasonPowell	Yes, thanks for the e-mail.
JasonPowell	Let me ask them again
DELL-ScottH	I would think you would have better redundancy, multiple RAID5 arrays, multi-disk failures, if you stripe it. I might see how it might be a little riskier, but if just spanned
depping	Depends on the file system on the LUNs
JasonPowell	They want to know if you're talking about a software RAID to span the 2 TB LUNs
	DELL-ToddM joined.
depping	I'm also no fan of spanning
DELL-ScottH	Yes, I was referring to the native windows disk tools
DELL-ToddM	Hello everybody!
DELL-ScottH	Ok, I'm overruled
JasonPowell	So then the question is how would you recover a software RAID? That's the scary part for my guys :-)
JasonPowell	But someone also made a good point in twitter about how long it would take to run tools on volumes over 2 TB, which I didn't think about
DELL-ScottH	Buy two :-)
DELL-ScottH	Yeah, that's been the hesitation about large LUNs
JasonPowell	I'd really like to do some VM testing on the Md3ki and see how it fairs against our Ps arrays
DELL-ScottH	Todd, did you run some preliminary testing on that?
JasonPowell	We just have the 7200 SATA disks
JasonPowell	Which of course is the same drive type as our Eql arrays
DELL-ToddM	I have run some tests against both, but not to compare them
	greg.ashbaugh joined.
DELL-ScottH	Hy Greg!
greg.ashbaugh	Hey Scott
DELL-ScottH	How's the world of hairless cats?
DELL-ToddM	In general I would say that the PS series would outperform
greg.ashbaugh	Lol
JasonPowell	What's the fastest way to reset the Md3000i back to factory settings?
JasonPowell	I assume there's some Deleteallmydatanow command for it ;-)
DELL-ScottH	Sorry, on call right now about twitter strategy brb. Todd and I
JasonPowell	No problem
JasonPowell	Tell your peeps we're very impressed at you guys using Twitter and some of the help we've gotten...5 gold stars!
depping	Twitter strategy
depping	Things are getting out of hand here
DELL-ScottH	Thanks!
DELL-ScottH	Amazing that we are having a "twitter strategy" call :-)
depping	Best strategy is handing out coupons for 50% reduction!
depping	Who agrees?
JasonPowell	Lol
greg.ashbaugh	How about some twitter give aways?
greg.ashbaugh	Although I like coupons too
depping	That's what I'm talking about Greg! Free is even better
greg.ashbaugh	=)
greg.ashbaugh	Mention free, and they'll get a lot of followers
depping	I'm Dutch, so it's either gotta be cheap or free
depping	So just to give you an idea what I'm looking for, three servers (ESX(i) compatible), with 4 GB memory, dual-core is fine.
	lifeflakes joined.
DELL-ScottH	Hello lifeflakes
lifeflakes	Hey Scott and Todd
lifeflakes	Another 20 minutes to go before the official time is it?
DELL-ScottH	Yeah, on a call about twitter right now. Official chat starts in 20
depping	10
depping	So 10 past
DELL-ScottH	Yeah 9.755676
depping	Then there's enough time to get some drinks
	jake joined.
DELL-ScottH	Hello jake
jake	Howdy
depping	So any of you guys tried out the T105 with ESXi by the way?
depping	It's pretty cheap for a test server.
lifeflakes	Yes
DELL-ScottH	Doesn't fit in our racks :-)
lifeflakes	But the memory and CPU accommodation is very limited on that server
depping	Well, I don't have a rack at home :)
depping	Well if 4 GB fits, that's more than enough
lifeflakes	You could use the VMware workstation instead
depping	I've got workstation running with ESX, VC, etc.
lifeflakes	I guess they would do wonders with Precision workstations
depping	But it's hard to set up SRM on a 2 GB laptop
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depping	So I need at least two servers
depping	Or workstations.
lifeflakes	The one I’m really keen on is the M905, It seems to be the state of the art
depping	HP has got the Ml150,which is pretty cheap
lifeflakes	Yes, the T100 is of the same specs
	XU-James joined.
DELL-ScottH	Whew, we just solved world hunger on that call :-)
DELL-ScottH	Hello James
XU-James	Hello
DELL-ScottH	We're just hanging out cussing and discussing before the official chat starts in a few minutes
DELL-ScottH	We've determined that everyone wants free stuff
XU-James	Of course we do
DELL-ScottH	And that Depping is happy because we are talking VMware and not Hyper-v today
DELL-ScottH	:-)
depping	Yihaaaa
DELL-ScottH	Is that a Texas accent in our honor?
lifeflakes	They are catching up
depping	Texas?
depping	Hehehe not really
depping	Not even close.
DELL-ScottH	Todd and I actually had dinner with MS one night at VMworld....interesting; maybe we'll get into that today
XU-James	I saw in one of the chats someone there at Dell was working with the Banner application
XU-James	Dave Jaffe, I think
DELL-ScottH	Yup, Dave used to be on this team
DELL-ScottH	He's doing Banner
XU-James	I tried to send him a message through the message board but have not heard back
DELL-ToddM	Yep - Dave is the banner guy
DELL-ScottH	Better to send him an e-mail
DELL-ScottH	Don't think he checks back here too often
XU-James	Does he have a number or Dell e-mail addy?
DELL-ToddM	Standard Dell e-mail format: first_last@dell.com
DELL-ScottH	Underscore
	brennels joined.
XU-James	Dave or David?
DELL-ScottH	Hey brace!
DELL-ScottH	Dave
XU-James	Cool, thx
DELL-ToddM	Hey Brace
brennels	Hey guys how are you? Recovered from VMworld parties yet?
DELL-ScottH	Barely
DELL-ScottH	Todd, ready to kick it off?
DELL-ToddM	It is about 3 isn’t it?
depping	It's 22:02 :)
DELL-ToddM	Welcome to today's chat on VMworld 2008
	rbell joined.
DELL-ScottH	Hello rbell
DELL-ScottH	Fyi...you can use "action" "recent room history" to catch up on the chat
DELL-ToddM	We are going to provide a little bit of background about VMworld and then give everybody a chance to talk about the conference
DELL-ToddM	There were some pretty big announcements from VMware including some forward-looking stuff with enabling things for the cloud, or vCloud
rbell	hello, Scott & Todd
	Angie joined.
DELL-ScottH	Hello Angie
Angie	Hi Scott!
DELL-ToddM	The opening keynote by Paul Maritz was his first as VMware CEO, and I think that he really laid out a vision for the next few years of where VMware wants to go
	Tim_Broom joined.
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DELL-ScottH	Hello Tim and Ryan!
DELL-ToddM	The rest of the conference was really about the details--specific announcements with vCloud, vNetwork, vStorage, vCenter (I think you get the idea here)
DELL-ScottH	Use "action" "recent room history" to catch up
	rradunz joined.
DELL-ToddM	So, who wants to go first? What did you think was the biggest/best thing that happened at the conference?
brennels	I missed the Paul Maritz keynote but was interested in many of the API's they were talking about. Did anyone catch a demo?
	Sean joined.
DELL-ScottH	I was able to attend a lab that covered vCenter and actually did the vfaulttolerance--pretty cool
depping	I think the main message was the integration of all the new and acquired products in to vCenter
DELL-ScottH	The vappspeed was one of the most impressive demos on the center stage
DELL-ToddM	Welcome Sean, we are just getting starting on discussion around VMworld
brennels	I sat in on a BOF around Cloud, which was kind of disappointing as it seems no one really knows what it will be
DELL-ToddM	I agree that the vappspeed demo was very impressive
Sean	Thanks, Todd
brennels	It does appear that VMware is really moving everyone to integrate with the vCenter versus running on the VM
DELL-ScottH	Actually, Duncan (depping), has a good blog post on the vCloud: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2008/09/26/vmware-cloud-strategy/
DELL-ToddM	I heard from lots of people who didn't really think the BOF sessions worked very well.
brennels	What is vappspeed?
DELL-ToddM	vappspeed was known as Beehive
DELL-ScottH	Maps out applications all the way through in real time
DELL-ToddM	It can monitor application performance inside of VMs and across a set of VMs
DELL-ScottH	You see exactly where the bottlenecks are
DELL-ScottH	Impressive
brennels	Oh ok; I did see some of that, which was impressive
depping	Well, I was also impressed by vStorage, real multi-pathing!
DELL-ToddM	Here is link to the keynote with the vappspeed demo: http://www.vmware.com/go/vmworld2008-webcast
DELL-ScottH	The local Austin Vmug had an EMC person talking about that as well; do you know if that will work across all vendors’ storage?
depping	Yes, it's an API; all vendors can hook in
depping	EMC is the first working on this.
depping	http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2008/09/so-what-does-vs.html
depping	That's a nice blog about vStorage
DELL-ToddM	So, EMC is going to have Powerpath for vStorage, and that will be installed or become a part of ESX?
depping	I think it will be an add-on, but no clue yet how they will be doing this with ESXi
Tim_Broom	I don't want to move off topic; let me know if I am, and I’ll locate another site for info/help. If I am looking to implement the Virtual Environment for Desktop and Servers, not Enterprise, is there anything that you saw at the conference that would change your mind of going from VMware to Citrix or vise versa?
DELL-ScottH	There was a session by Brian Madden (http://www.brianmadden.com), that I heard was excellent, but didn't get a chance to attend. It was all about VDI, Citrix, RDP.. let me find the session number
depping	I would indeed go to Brian's Web site and check his forum.
depping	There are some great independent and objective writers there that can help you out
Tim_Broom	I will, thanks!
DELL-ScottH	I can't find the session number, but send him an e-mail, tell him you are looking for it
Tim_Broom	I found it, thanks
DELL-ToddM	Overall I thought that VMware put much more focus on desktop virtualization technologies
DELL-ToddM	I think that they called it vClient
DELL-ToddM	Just a guess
depping	Great guess
DELL-ScottH	I'm kind of excited about that aspect of it. I've been ready to put terminals in every room of my house for the last decade
DELL-ToddM	The idea of being able to take your VM with you, on your laptop or USB key is great
DELL-ScottH	But of course aren't we (IT geeks) usually about 10 years ahead
DELL-ToddM	And then be able to sync up later is also good
DELL-ToddM	The details of how you do this remotely or with the cloud seemed undefined as of yet
depping	I love the teradici and Wyse announcements...a better protocol for video was really needed
depping	Remotely?
brennels	Actually, I heard the first best practical use of VDI for disaster recovery.
depping	Remotely = Ace incorporated into VDI, I guess
depping	I haven't seen it yet, but that's what I expect
DELL-ToddM	Remotely: Not in the office on a LAN
brennels	Think about having copies or images of all your workstations at your DR facility that can be spun up and accessed through terminal server if your primary site is wiped out
brennels	I think the NEC keynote presented this solution for one of their customers
DELL-ToddM	It is a very good scenario for DR; how do you keep the DR site images synced?
brennels	Pick something, EqualLogic, Double-take.
DELL-ToddM	What - no magic pixie dust?
brennels	The images may not be in synch 100%, but at least available with all applications ready to go. And since your servers are likely already at the DR, it kind of makes sense. So what does this mean for tape?
depping	Why sync?
depping	Just deploy VDI and recreate your VDI VMs
DELL-ScottH	I think there is always a need for tape, or backup. How do you restore the CEO’s deleted e-mail?
depping	This will save you on bandwidth
brennels	May not need to synch for the desktops
brennels	You restore your CEO's e-mail? :)
DELL-ToddM	I agree that it doesn't need to be 100% synced. I was just wondering if there were any solutions that were specific to this environment, that might have sync policy that could be set based on groups or something
DELL-ToddM	It's really the user data: docs, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. that have to be synced I guess
depping	SRM
brennels	Sure, why not; could be a good fit for an iSCSI boot solution too
DELL-ToddM	Speaking of iSCSI, we had the new EqualLogic iSCSI array in the Dell booth
depping	But what about a cross-platform Virtual Center! And VC as an appliance!
DELL-ToddM	It was code named sumo--official name is PS5500e--up to 48 TB in one array
brennels	Nice segue! The SRM lab I sat in was good, but I would have liked to see the under the covers at the LUN snap procedures. Anyone know if that is complicated to configure?
depping	Well that depends on the SAN you're using
DELL-ToddM	I didn't think that cross-platform virtual center was really that big of a deal; I haven't heard anybody complain about Windows only
DELL-ToddM	I'm sure that the Linux guys would disagree :)
DELL-ScottH	And the Mac boys :-)
depping	Well for a lot it is
depping	But I like the fact that VC will be an appliance
greg.ashbaugh	If VC was on Linux, our Linux group would try to steal the VMware responsibilities from us. (I'm in our Win/VMware team)
DELL-ToddM	The ability to access vCenter from my phone would be nice (they showed iPhone, but I'm hoping for BlackBerry as well)
DELL-ScottH	And then I'm sure they would try to move everything to Xen
greg.ashbaugh	Maybe a winmo app too
DELL-ScottH	I vote iPhone
brennels	That would be cool and probably not far off
greg.ashbaugh	When iPhone is Sprint or Verizon, I'll vote iPhone too :)
DELL-ScottH	Move to Europe; you get lots of choices then :-)
DELL-ToddM	At VMworld 2007 I presented a session on running Exchange 2007 on ESX--big controversy about it not being supported
DELL-ScottH	We do have some pics on our site from the show: http://www.delltechcenter.com/album/46895/vmworld+2008
DELL-ScottH	Anyone else have photos from the show on a site?
DELL-ToddM	At this year's VMworld I attended several sessions on the same topic, and it was of course not an issue
DELL-ScottH	Look at the difference a year makes
depping	And what about the Distributed vSwitch and host profiles? That will make maintaining and installing a lot easier than ever before
DELL-ToddM	Due to support from MS through SVVP
DELL-ScottH	Yeah, I also got to set up a distributed switch in the lab; very easy, nice to not have to worry about the Vlans
greg.ashbaugh	depping: I played with those in one of the labs, pretty cool.
DELL-ToddM	The distributed switch is going to make things much better. Looking forward to getting that feature
depping	I really like the host profiles--great way to keep your environment consistent
brennels	Thanks for the links guys, have a great week and see you next Tuesday
DELL-ScottH	Thanks for stopping by Brace
DELL-ToddM	Hey, did anybody get the free casino chip that MSFT was handing out?
DELL-ScottH	Yeah, I turned mine into $3800
depping	:)
DELL-ToddM	You wish
DELL-ScottH	Day dreaming again
DELL-ToddM	I actually think that is an interesting aspect of VMworld, that competitors come and are a part of the conference
DELL-ToddM	It's mostly VMware, but they do allow MSFT and Citrix to have their space
DELL-ToddM	In talking with some of the guys at the Microsoft booth they admit that VMware has technical advantages with their products
depping	Would be strange if they wouldn't admit :)
DELL-ToddM	But they are trying to catch up as fast as they can :)
DELL-ToddM	VMware seems to be doing a good job of innovating with things like Fault Tolerant VMs, distributed switches, enhanced APIs
depping	Well, if they will have Live Migration in 2010, I wonder when they will have stuff like DRs, FT, dswitches, Storage Vmotion, etc.
DELL-ScottH	I think the fault-tolerant (needs better name) stuff is going to put people on their heads. No requirements for HA, just works--too cool
depping	Well, it will cost you resources, so I would only use it for VMs that require it
DELL-ToddM	I think that VMware is going to have clear advantage in the mid- to high-end virtualization deployments
DELL-ToddM	The new servers that we are coming out with have plenty of resources. The new 6-core Intel processors are great
DELL-ToddM	Of course, there are other non-server resources: storage, bandwidth
DELL-ToddM	Tonight we are going to have a second chat session on this same topic to give all of the late night guys a chance
DELL-ToddM	At 10 pm Central time; we will have our first "late night" chat
DELL-ScottH	My Mt. Dew is chillin' in the fridge!
DELL-ToddM	For depping it will be the first "early morning" chat
DELL-ScottH	And then Teamfortress 2 after?
rbell	Are the late night chats every Tuesday?
depping	That will be a bit too early
greg.ashbaugh	Has anyone played Spore? Is it worth it?
depping	Spore, it sounds and looks cool.
DELL-ScottH	Trying them out for the first time; if goes well, then a staple maybe
depping	But I can hardly find the time to check out stuff like that.
DELL-ScottH	Yeah, I got it. Mine is out of the water and on land
DELL-ScottH	Yeah, time sink
DELL-ToddM	This is the first one; do you have a suggestion for another day/time?
rbell	Not I, glad to hear that there are time options
DELL-ScottH	What zone are you in?
rbell	CDT
DELL-ToddM	It's really depping’s fault. He always makes the chat and it is very late for him
DELL-ToddM	So we thought that there might be some people like that in other time zones as well
DELL-ScottH	I don't think there is anyone else like depping :-)
DELL-ToddM	One last thing for me--I thought that the party was very fun
depping	Let's hope not :)
DELL-ToddM	I've never been around a race track at 105 mph before
greg.ashbaugh	I thought the lunches were really good.
DELL-ToddM	I'm just surprised that the lawyers let them do it
DELL-ScottH	Greg, here's my spore on the land: http://twitpic.com/atd6
greg.ashbaugh	Cool picture
DELL-ToddM	I thought that all of the meals were pretty good, except for the very greasy egg Mcmuffin things at breakfast
DELL-ScottH	Yeah, greasy has to go
depping	Gotta go guys, enjoy the chat
DELL-ScottH	Later
DELL-ToddM	Yep, I gotta log off as well.
rradunz	Bye guys
depping	And if anyone wants to check out Bluebears Kodiak, e-mail me
DELL-ToddM	Feel free to post questions about VMworld either here or on vmworld.com
greg.ashbaugh	Thanks guys. See ya on twitter
DELL-ScottH	Later greg