The last and final day of VMworld has arrived. This time the session started a bit later probably because of the party the day before Anyway, after a good night sleep and quick breakfast I went off to the Bella Center. Here are the sessions that I attended:

• VSP2447: Understanding Virtualized Memory Performance Management. “Have you ever wondered how VMware ESXi decides which virtual machines to reclaim memory from? Do you know the best way to tell when your host’s memory is at capacity? What about how to tell when a virtual machine is starving for memory resources and experiencing poor performance? This session will guide you through the complicated world of virtualized memory performance management, explaining the concept of entitlement, how it’s computed and how it affects memory allocation and reclamation. We will help you better understand how memory usage patterns and interactions on the ESXi Server host can affect VMware vSphere memory metrics. Finally, we will present performance data and use that to reinforce best practices around memory management to keep your datacenter running smoothly and efficiently.”
• VSP2894: Virtual Distributed Switch Best Practices. “This session will provide best practices for using distributed virtual switch and insights on how to take advantage of its features, including network I/O control, load-based teaming and new VMware vSphere 5.0 features. We will also discuss blade- and rack-server converged I/O deployments.”
• VSP1823: VMware Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler. “VMware Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler technology enables automated management of virtual disks across storage devices, thus eliminating the tedious task of managing space and I/O load across a group of storage devices. Storage DRS technology provides intelligent initial placement and dynamic load balancing by using VMware Storage vMotion to manage virtual disks between datastores. In addition, affinity and anti-affinity rules support ensures expressive business rules are respected by Storage DRS at all times. Datastore maintenance mode further increases operational efficiencies. Storage DRS extends and works with the popular VMware vSphere storage I/O control feature to provide end-to-end resource management for storage. Storage DRS is analogous to VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler, which uses VMware vMotion® for CPU and memory load balancing. This session will provide a historical background of the problem space in storage management and explain how Storage DRS solves the major operational inefficiencies. We will also provide a roadmap and solicit feedback on further improvements.”

In between the sessions I ran into the Monster VM!

And so this concludes the VMware VMworld 2011. It was an awesome event. I have attended interesting sessions, met a lot of new people and enjoyed the time I spend on the Hand-on Labs. Thanks VMware, it was awesome!

The next European VMworld will be held in Barcelona. Till then!

One more thing, don’t miss the Dutch VMUG meeting on 9 December in NBC Nieuwegein.

Cheers!

- Marek.Z

Another early start for this morning. Quick breakfast and off to Bella Center for more VMware madness! Here are the session that I attended:

• BCO1562: Site Recovery Manager 5.0 and VMware vSphere Replication. “Site Recovery Manager 5.0 combined with VMware vSphere replication introduces the ability to protect any virtual machine anywhere. In this session you will learn about the main use cases for this new technology. More importantly, you will learn about the architecture options available to you. We will look at standard site-to-site protection architecture for customers not running replicated SAN infrastructure, DR-as-a-service implementation options and finally how existing SAN based Site Recovery Manager customers can deploy the technology to protect ROBO sites where no SANs exist and expand on their existing Site Recovery Manager deployment.”
• VSP2384: Distributed Datacenters with Multiple vCenter Deployments: Best Practices. “VMware vCenter deployments are increasing in proportion to the increase in virtualized workloads. These deployments range from single datacenters to datacenters spread across a single town or across the globe. We are often asked about best practices for the various deployment scenarios. This session is intended to answer that need. We will describe vCenter internals and use that information to explain deployment best practices and discuss common performance-related issues and how to get around them. This session will help attendees make the right decisions around implementation, configuration and performance of their vCenter deployments. It should be very useful to anyone who manages a vCenter installation and wants to get more from their investment in their virtualization management platform.”
• VSP3307: Deployment Considerations for ESXi 5.0. “This session will explore all you need to know about ESXi 5.0 deployment. We will start with the use of Image Builder to create ESXi images tailored for your environment. We’ll then go over deployment options such as VUM, scripted installation, Boot from SAN, and Auto Deploy. Finally we’ll address options for post-deployment configuration, including scripted installation, Host Profiles, and vCLI and PowerCLI scripting.”
• VSP1682: VMware vSphere Clustering Q&A. “In this session Frank Denneman and Duncan Epping will answer questions about VMware vSphere™ clustering. As an audience member, you will have the chance to validate your own environment and design decisions with subject matter experts on VMware High Availability, VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) and VMware Storage DRS. Potential topics include misunderstandings around admission control policies, the impact of limits and reservations on your environment, the benefits of using resource pools, anti-affinity rules gotchas, VMware Distributed Power Management and anything regarding Storage DRS. This is your chance to ask what you’ve always wanted to know.”
• VSP3255: VMware Storage vMotion Deep Dive and Best Practices. “VMware Storage vMotion enables live migration of virtual disks across storage arrays to enable upgrade, maintenance and load balancing of storage arrays without incurring service downtime. In VMware vSphere 5.0, Storage vMotion has been redesigned from the ground up to provide predictability, guaranteed migration success and support for virtual machines with snapshots and linked-clone virtual machines. The performance improvements in this release typically bring migration times within a few percentage points of ideal. In this session we will offer a deep dive into the architectural changes in vSphere 5.0, discuss performance improvements and cover best practices.”

After the dinner with my colleagues from Valid, we went to the Altitude City for the VMware Party. This was big, really big place with entertainment, live performance, old arcade games and free drinks Here are some pictures from the show. I apologize for the poor quality…

Cheers!

- Marek.Z