Application Protection: There’s Something Happening Here

There’s something happening here What it is ain’t exactly clear There’s a man with a gun over there Telling me I got to beware Yes, it’s blasphemy to simply change a classic like Buffalo Springfield’s “For What’s It Worth” – but I will anyway to prove my point. There’s something happening here If you haven’t [...]

ESI = EMC Storage Integrator (for Windows Environments)

In the video below, Sam talks with Giri Basava about the latest EMC Storage Integrator, a free download that makes setup for Windows hosts a breeze. You can get this plug-in at Powerlink (Support > Software Downloads and Licensing > Downloads E-I > EMC Storage Integrator) Here’s the official product description. EMC Storage Integrator (ESI) [...]

Is SQL Server 2008 on VMware ESXi 4.1 supported? Find out using Microsoft’s SVVP Wizards

For DBA’s who have concerns about the support of their SQL server environments on virtualization technologies other than Hyper-V™ and Virtual Server, Microsoft provides the Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP). This article shows the simple steps required to complete the SVVP Support Policy Wizard to check support of your configuration. Step 1 Select the Support [...]

Windows Geoclusters, Stretch-Clusters, and RecoverPoint/CE Failover

Taking a page out of Chief EMC Blogger Chuck Hollis‘ playbook, I’m attaching the graphics from entire PPT file that I thought would be important to highlight for this blog and its readers.  Some of the graphics didn’t fit to the page as well as I thought it would (I need to shrink them further). [...]

Storage and Virtualization for SQL DBA’s

I try to keep up with as many people who are interesting and important work in the field of Microsoft’s enterprise application products such as Exchange, SQL Server, and SharePoint and now and then it surprises me when someone really “gets it” in terms of their audience. Denny Cherry is one of those guys.  He [...]

Cool Infographic Poster for Hyper-V

Step 1.  Download large infographic poster here (or click on the picture). Hat tip to Techhead for sharing this one. Step 2.  Find a BAP (Big A–* Printer) This thing is 40 inches by 25 inches! Maybe send it to your local photo developer or print shop. Or maybe just download the PDF and keep [...]

Automating Perfmon with Perfcollect

[ Post by Paul Galjan ] When I started here at EMC, I was pleased to see that most of us would use actual host data (perfmon) to perform size out our storage.  We have a variety of cool tools that will analyze perfmon output and help visualize trends, size out replication bandwidth required and [...]

Large Scale Hyper-V Clusters, Cluster Enabler, and VPLEX

I talked with Partner Engineering Manager Txomin Barturen about how to get ultimate scale from Hyper-V with Cluster Shared Volumes. He also spoke about his session on multi-site Windows Clustering Configurations and EMC’s Cluster Enablers which plug directly into Microsoft’s clustering framework and well as EMC’s storage virtualization and transportation appliance, VPLEX. Recorded at Microsoft [...]

EMC’s Most Popular Microsoft SQL Server Documents

These are the most popular Microsoft SQL-focused documents that were downloaded within the past 3 months.  Simply click the link, download, and read whatever might interest you. White Paper: Implementing EMC CLARiiON CX4 with Enterprise Flash Drives for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Databases Applied Technology White Paper: EMC Tiered Storage for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 [...]

VPLEX and SharePoint Distance VMotion

Wondering how EMC’s storage federation device VPLEX might solve SharePoint DR concerns? A few of the engineers teamed up to create a reference architecture that shows you how it’s done. First, they listened to early customer feedback on what use cases might be most beneficial. What came up again and again – SharePoint (and SAP [...]

Virtual Winfrastructure – EMC and Hyper-V

I’d like to help introduce a new blogger in the house at EMC. Adrian Simays will be blogging and advocating EMC’s approach towards Microsoft’s Hyper-V. His blog, named Virtual Winfrastructure, aims to highlight the fact that EMC has a large group of people and projects dedicated to Microsoft’s Hyper-V.  We also have a lot of [...]

W2K8 R2 Hyper-V Live Migration with Exchange 2010, SQL 2008 R2, SCVMM, and EMC CLARiiON NQM

Longest title ever?  Thankfully I abbreviated SCVMM down from System Center Virtual Machine Manager.  Anyway… Microsoft has announced their launch dates for Windows 7, Windows 2008 R2, and Exchange 2010. EMC will be there to support them in many cities including Baltimore, NYC, Irvine, Raleigh, St Louis (to name a few). I was asked to [...]

Iomega StorCenter ix4-200d NAS and iSCSI Storage Array

I hear stories all the time about people who became celebrities and how often people from their past come out of the woodwork to pester them. That’s how I feel about Iomega! They have come FAR beyond those annoying zip drives that I’d dismissed in my head and are delivering the most advanced storage arrays [...]

The Hyper-V Blue Screen Video Drama

Act 1.  The Posting VMware employee posts a video of a bluescreen in a Hyper-V VM which takes down the whole physical box. It was available here. Act 2.  The Revolt The VM community rises up and demand facts.  Read comments here. Microsoft gives some facts. Video largely discredited as FUD without much detail. Scott [...]

How to Build an Efficient Application Infrastructure through Virtualization

I couldn’t figure out how to embed this into my blog, but this is a great, short video which shows how EMC is working with Microsoft to virtualize applications like Exchange, SQL, and SharePoint.  It’s only ten minutes long and showcases one of EMC’s great technologists, Brian Martin, as he speaks with Microsoft’s Jim Schwartz.

Windows Server 2008 Foundation

The low end of Windows 7 – Starter Edition – has already been discussed quite a bit across the blogosphere, and its big brother is a bit jealous.  Like the future desktop version, Windows Server 2008 Foundation is intended to go lower (in price and functionality) than prior releases of the operating system.  Get em [...]

Virtualizing Microsoft Applications – Seminar Series

As you probably know, server virtualization helps you reduce costs on servers, power, cooling, and management and opens up some new options for backup, HA, DR, and adds a new level of flexibility. Since Microsoft now supports Exchange, SQL, and SharePoint virtualized environments – whether it be on Hyper-V or VMware through their Server Virtualization [...]

EMC DMX w/VP as Storage Utility for MSIT SQL

If you are wondering how SQL might work in a virtual environment, consider the following paper from Microsoft. Green IT in Practice: SQL Server Consolidation in Microsoft IT To sum it up, SQL has been thought (incorrectly) to be one of the few databases that are best kept on physical, but here Microsoft IT has [...]

New Whitepaper on Windows 2008 R2 and Hyper-V Live Migration

Windows Server 2008 R2 & Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 – Hyper-V Live Migration Overview & Architecture can be downloaded from here:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fdd083c6-3fc7-470b-8569-7e6a19fb0fdf&DisplayLang=en. Description: One of the most highly anticipated new features in Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper-V™ is live migration. This document describes the live migration feature of Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper-V™ in [...]

Windows 2008 R2 Beta Testers: Free Licenses of Sanbolic Melio FS

Sanbolic offers an interesting proposition for Windows 2008 Server/Hyper-V users today: replace NTFS with Melio FS.  Melio FS is similar to VMFS in that it is a clustered filesystem allowing for multiple servers/VMs to access a shared LUN at the same time. Sanbolic is aware of the upcoming Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV’s) feature in Windows [...]

Demo: Hyper-V Live Migration using EMC SRDF/Cluster Enabler

How EMC’s SRDF/CE provides Live Migration and Disaster Recovery protection of Hyper-V virtual machines between Symmetrix storage arrays in a non-disruptive manner, including bidirectional failover and failback across geographically dispersed clusters.  Peter Griffin would describe this functionality as frickin sweet!

Transitioning from Exchange 2003 Physical to Exchange 2007 Virtual

More than ever before, I think now is a great time to make the move to a virtualized environment for Exchange 2007. Really, there are no major downsides anymore.

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta Released

Like a stealth bomber flying too low to be detectable by radar, Microsoft’s Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 was just put into public beta status .  Because of all the hoopla over Windows 7 this piece of very interesting beta software was very much overlooked. This edition adds: Support for VMotion-like “Live Migration” Support for Failover [...]

Updates to VMware ESX and Microsoft’s SVVP Program

SVVP stands for Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP). The program was put together to allow third-party hypervisors to host and virtualize Microsoft licensed products. It also means that any customer will be supported by Microsoft when running software such as Exchange, SQL, or SharePoint products on a validated hypervisor. News just in from Mike D [...]

PowerVDI gets an update

The VMware affinity team within EMC is heavily promoting a tool called PowerVDI, written by Dan Baskette with maintenance and updates added by folks like Jeff Purcell and Chad Sakac. It leverages the SAN network to speed up the creation of virtualized desktop environments which are becoming more and more popular in companies I speak [...]