As virtual machines have become the default method of deploying new applications and services many organizations have found that they’re encountering the problem of “VM Sprawl” – the rapid proliferation of VMs that make management difficult. 

In this presentation, you’ll learn:

• Common causes of VM sprawl and how to address them
• Specific technical administration issues that are unique to virtual machines
• Methods of managing a VM’s “life cycle”, from initial deployment to retirement
• Ways to maintain control of data center resources while also allowing for end-user self-service
• Ways in which automation can help manage the major causes of VM sprawl

This online conference provides a wide variety of different presentations, so be sure to check out information about the Virtualization Summit and register for the event.

Here’s some brief information about this episode, titled TechNet Radio Community Corner: Virtualization with Microsoft MVP Anil Desai:

In today’s Community Corner, Sr. IT Pro Evangelist John Weston interviews Microsoft Virtualization MVP, Anil Desai to the show. Tune in as they discuss cloud computing’s impact to IT, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012, as well as the relationship between Virtualization and Private Cloud solutions.

Special thanks to Chris Caldwell and John Weston for inviting me and for a fun conversation!  For more shows and episodes of related shows, visit the TechNet Edge web site.

VMware Workstation internal monitor error

vcpu-O:NOT_IMPLEMENTED vmcore/vmm/intr/apic.c:1903

Unfortunately, it looks like VMware Workstation 7.x platform (and, reportedly, VirtualPC, though I haven’t tested it myself), does not yet support Windows 8.  Perhaps I should have realized that a lot of the undercover boot and CPU optimizations would require an architectural shift to support the required CPU commands.

Options That Should Work

Though this might not be ideal for all users, there are several options to get the Developer Preview of Windows 8 running in a virtual machine:

• Use Microsoft’s Hyper-V: If you have a Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2 installation (or the stand-alone Hyper-V Server), you should be able to spin up a new Windows 8 VM quickly and easily.  It’s not desktop virtualization, but if you have a spare machine that supports Hyper-V’s CPU requirements, you should be all set.
• Wait for the release of VMware Workstation 8.  While I haven’t yet tried it myself, there are reports of people having success with the beta of the upcoming release of VMware’s Workstation production.  A beta virtualization stack with a Developer Preview OS – How’s that for living on the edge?  It looks like the product is officially available from VMware now and you can request a VMware Workstation 8 Evaluation online (registration required).
  • Update: I downloaded a 30-day evaluation version of VMware Workstation 8, and the Windows 8 Developer Preview installed without one minor catch: Don’t use the VMware "Easy Install" option, as it’s based on the automatic install procedures for Windows 7.  Other than that, I’m up and running!
• VirtualBox apparently supports the WIndows 8 Developer Preview (again, I haven’t yet tried it myself).  The application is available for free download.  The Windows 7 Hacker site has a walkthrough titled Install Windows 8 Developer Preview on VirtualBox.

Dual-Boot / Clean Install

Of course, you could skip virtualization altogether and install Windows 8 directly on your hardware.  That would give the best overall performance and the best experience with the new Metro UI.  You could install The Windows 8 Dev Preview alongside your current OS (though you might need to repartition), or you can just pop a spare hard drive in your computer to avoid any messy boot complications.  In general, this approach has worked great for me in the past.

Another option is to Boot to VHD.  That’s a significantly more complicated process, but the blog post Installing Windows 8 on Bare Metal with VHD-Boot should help.

A Note About the Developer Preview

While we’re all itching to try the new UI and functionality in Windows 8, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.  First, this version is not yet a “beta”.  It’s an earlier release that is designed to get developers up and running.  The official build number is Build 8102 M3.  Even if you’re like me and you’re willing to live on the bleeding edge with software, you probably don’t want to install this build as your primary OS.  Furthermore, Microsoft has mentioned that several features are not included in this build (though I haven’t yet run into anything that’s a showstopper for me).

On the brighter side, this build does not require product activation.  Coupled with the easy accessibility of the download from the Windows 8 Developer Preview site, that effectively means everyone will have easy access to this preview release.  Downloads are also available for MSDN Subscribers.

For More Information…

In case you missed it, Microsoft’s BUILD Conference keynotes are available at the BUILD Conference Web Site.  The Day 1 Keynote covered dozens of really exciting features, presented by Steven Sinofsky and several other Microsoft Program Managers.  I’m just getting started with my testing/development, and I’ll try to post more here once I have something of value.

Update (09/19/2011)

Based on the numbers of hits to this article, I thought this would be a fairly important topic.  On the Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft has recently published a post titled, Running Windows 8 Developer Preview in a virtual environment.  It includes more details on the pros and cons of running Windows 8 using virtualization and provides the following summary:

Functional:

• Hyper-V in Windows 8 Developer Preview
• Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2
• VMware Workstation 8.0 for Windows
• VirtualBox 4.1.2 for Windows

Non-functional:

• Microsoft Virtual PC (all versions)
• Microsoft Virtual Server (all versions)
• Windows 7 XP Mode
• VMWare Workstation 7.x or older

For now, I’m happily running Windows 8 test VMs on an evaluation version of VMware Workstation 8.0 and in Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.  Next stop: Running on some fairly recent hardware.

TechNet Webcast: Talk TechNet with Keith Combs and Matt Hester – Episode 36: Virtualization with Anil Desai (Level 200)

Here’s a brief overview of the topic description:

Want to talk about Virtualization?  This is the show for you.  Anil Desai is a Microsoft Windows Server Virtualization MVP so bring your Hyper-V questions. I’m sure Anil will be happy to takes questions on some of the other products like System Center Virtual Machine manager.  Tune in and listen, call in, or send us questions on the web via Live Meeting.  Take advantage of this great opportunity to get your questions answered.

Presenters: Keith Combs, Sr. Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation, Matt Hester, Sr. IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation, and Anil Desai, Independent Consultant, Microsoft Windows Server Virtualization MVP

I look forward to answering questions from attendees!

I just received notification that I have been again granted the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award in the area of Windows Server Virtualization!  Unless my memory is failing me, this is the sixth year in which I’ve received the award.  Thanks, as always, to Microsoft and the MVP program for the award and all of its benefits!

This area of specialization includes a group of virtualization-focused that have in-depth knowledge of Hyper-V, Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) and a lot of related technologies.  Obviously, virtualization and cloud computing are popular areas of IT, so it’s especially nice to receive the award this year.

Earlier this year, I had the benefit of interacting with a wide variety of IT experts at the Microsoft MVP Summit in Redmond, WA. I try to attend this event every year, as it’s a great opportunity to network with others and to get some inside information on the future of things from Microsoft. It’s also a good excuse to make it to the Pacific Northwest.  So far, this year has presented itself for numerous opportunities to write, speak, and consult on the topic of virtualization strategies and implementations.  I hope to keep this up throughout the rest of the year.

For more details, you can visit my profile here: Anil Desai’s MVP Profile.

Storage Considerations for Virtualization

Key considerations related to successful virtualization deployments revolve around provisioning highly-reliable, cost-effective solutions to meet business and technical needs. The challenge for IT is in consolidating and optimizing infrastructures while staying within budgets. The primary concerns – including storage capacity, performance, and reliability – can drive the success or failure of virtualized deployments.

This presentation begins with recommendations for designing a storage environment based on business and technical requirements and a solid understanding of application workload requirements. Strategies for collecting storage statistics through historical and real-time performance monitoring can provide valuable insight into real requirements. Based on this data, IT departments can compare different storage approaches, including centralized network-based storage, and cloud-based options. Important features to consider include data de-duplication, thin provisioning, high-availability, clustering, and disaster recovery. Attendees will learn methods by which they can best plan for, implement, manage, and monitor storage for virtualization in their own environments.

Evaluating Virtualization Approaches

The term "virtualization" can apply to a broad range of varying technologies, ranging from storage to networks to servers to applications. The primary goal of these approaches is to simplify management, increase efficiency, allow for scalability, and meet reliability requirements. With recent improvements in virtualization technology, the challenge for IT professionals is in deciding which approaches are the most relevant, given specific requirements.

The focus of this presentation is on understanding the technology behind various virtualization approaches, including presentation-, application-, session-, user state-, desktop-, and server-virtualization. The topic will begin with information on understanding business, technical, and service requirements. These details will then be used to compare a wide variety of different approaches to solving common IT problems. Attendees will receive information that will help them choose which approaches make sense in their own environments.

The two topics I’m planning to present are tentatively titled Storage Considerations for Virtualization and Evaluating Virtualization Approaches. I’ll post more details and abstracts here as the conference gets closer.

Trouble in Cloud City

Several years ago, I wrote a blog post about the virtues and benefits of online backups (see Online Backup Options).  Since then, I have recommended cloud-based storage (and, Mozy, in particular) to a rather large number of IT professionals, friends, and family.  The idea itself is compelling: Online backups have the potential of simplifying the backup process for most users, while providing secure remote storage.  But what happens when something goes wrong?  Or if you just have a technical question?

I don’t often highlight specific companies for poor customer service – it’s almost to be expected from many organizations these days – but a recent interaction I had with Mozy’s Customer Support has ended in my completely giving up on trying to resolve what should have been a very simple issue.  Without getting into the technical specifics, I have been trying to perform backups of Encrypting File System (EFS)-encrypted local files to the cloud.  From the latest information I could find, Mozy supports both local and online backups of EFS encrypted files.  That wasn’t my experience, though – I received cryptic error messages and overall backup failures.  So, I decided to contact Mozy’s Customer Support, creating a case that included my log files and a detailed description of the problem. 

A Little Rain Must Fall…

In summary: It has been over two weeks now, and after three escalations, I’m no closer to resolving the problem.  Just about every response I have sent to Mozy (along with requests for escalation) have been ignored.  In fact, a US Escalations Customer Support Manager has barely managed to feign any interest in my issue at all.  An hour-long phone call with a Level 2 Customer Support technician resulted in his disabling of several necessary services on my primary Windows 7 workstation (I had to keep records of this so I could reverse the changes myself), and poring through log files that provided little useful information.  The response to my most recent request for support has been a request for me to (again) restate the original problem (it’s thoroughly documented in their support system – I just can’t get anyone to read it).  I do plan to escalate this issue to the Director- or VP-level at Mozy as I somehow hopeful that someone at the organization will care.

Cloud Compatibility

One of the most promising aspects of cloud-based service offerings is a reduction in complexity.  Rather that relying on complicated application deployments (the story goes), we can leave all of the details to services that are provided off-site.  But what about support and compatibility issues?  What happens when two or more cloud services vendors decide that their services are incompatible?  My case with Mozy might be that type of issue, though it doesn’t seem like there’s any official documentation or support boundaries related to which products can peacefully co-exist on the same system with it and which options are supported.  And what if the vendor decides that features and functionality I require aren’t important to them?  Sure, I could run into the same problems with local applications, but workarounds are far easier to find when I control both communication endpoints.

Risk Mitigation

I understand that I’m hardly the first person to suffer from poor technical support, but this experience has made me reconsider the risks of cloud-based services in general.  I’m hardly an important customer for Mozy, but I am paying for their service and I really do rely on the sanctity of my backups.  My typical response to organizations that doubt the cloud is to first compare the reliability of their own datacenter infrastructure against that of an online service provider’s.  However, in this case, I’m completely stuck – I either need to reduce security at my file system level, discontinue the use of Mozy (and transfer 25 GB of data to a competing service), or revert to local backups.

All Eggs in One Cloud?

As the entire world moves to a greater reliance on Internet connections and online services, it becomes harder to create fall-back plans and alternatives.  It’s simply not practical or cost-effective to expect your service providers to fail you.  What’s the point in online backups if I need to have a backup plan for my online backup provider?

That makes me curious: Who else has had a recent experience that has questioned their value in hosted services?  Was it downtime, client application issues, availability, poor customer support, or all of the above?  And how safe do you feel when your mission-critical IT infrastructure is resting on clouds?

The Microsoft Thrive web site is a free resource that is designed to help IT professionals in a variety of ways.  For example, the site includes the following goals and areas:

• Advance Your Career
• Enhance Your Technical Skills
• Align IT with Business

Some of the content is Microsoft-focused, but much of it applies to just about any area of IT specialization.

I’m honored to say that I’ve been chosen as the Thrive IT Pro of the Month (see Thrive IT Pro of the Month: Anil Desai)!  I recorded a brief (~9 minutes long) presentation that covers, among other things, some recommendations for IT pros to get ahead, how IT pros can demonstrate their value, details on technology-focused topics and even a mention of the importance of hobbies.

The entire audio presentation is available from download using the previous link.  Here’s an excerpt from the written transcript:

As an independent consultant, I’m fairly diversified in the area of IT. I’m also used to the ups and downs in the IT industry, starting from the dot-com days in the late 1990′s to today. I use a variety of different specializations to fill in the inevitable downtime between projects. So, I’m fairly fortunate in that I’ve been able to maintain my business through the recent crunch.

However, the downturn in the economy has certainly had an impact on my clients, especially in the area of prioritization. Many organizations have focused on cost-cutting and many organizations have removed or scaled-back many of their non-essential projects. Those changes can sometimes translate into lay-offs, increased work for remaining staff, and short-term changes at the expense of long-term gains.

All of this provides some serious challenges (as well as some opportunities) for IT professionals. One change is that it really puts the emphasis on IT professionals’ ability to work as a strategic part of their businesses. I’ve heard it said that people know when IT departments are doing their jobs when they don’t know that IT departments are doing their jobs. The idea here is that IT is traditionally seen as a behind-the-scenes force (or sometimes just as a cost center). Business leaders might feel that IT provides little strategic value to the overall business.

Tough economic environments bring this issue to the forefront: IT professionals must understand overall business goals and must be able to apply the right technical solutions to solve business problems. And, they need to demonstrate their value within and outside of their IT groups. For those IT pros that have been able to focus on just the technical aspects of their skillset, this is a good time to branch out into the rest of the business world.

Feel free to e-mail me if you’d like the entire transcript.  And please post here if you have any questions, comments, or recommendations for your IT peers.

Thursday, February 25, 2010
10AM PST / 1PM EST

With the new decade comes new opportunity to implement the best technologies and practices for IT.  Join this FREE live webinar to learn how to cost-effectively plan, implement and manage a 21st century data center to drive greater efficiency, security and compliance.

You’ll hear from leading experts about ways organizations are leveraging technologies such as virtualization and configuration management to build flexible, resilient, cost-efficient and high-performing data centers for 2010.

Join now to:

• Get a blueprint to plan and implement IT best practices to modernize, consolidate, and secure your technology environment
• Hear how to cost-effectively drive improved security and compliance across your IT infrastructure while staying agile and competitive
• Learn about the benefits of a combined solution for configuration assessment with configuration change auditing for improved data center operations

The presentation is arranged by Focus.com and is sponsored by TripWire.  I’ll begin the presentation with an overview of technical best practices.  Then, Barak Engel from EAmmune will provide specific information on products, technologies, and approaches you can use to achieve these goals.  We’ll wrap up by taking live questions from the audience.  The entire webcast should last under an hour.

The webcast is titled “Understanding and Managing VM Sprawl”.  An archived version is available for viewing at no cost (though registration is required).  Here’s a brief abstract of the topic:

Virtualization can help address many of IT’s biggest headaches, but it can also lead to a problem known as "VM sprawl" – the rapid proliferation of VMs without sufficient IT oversight.  The result is an environment that doesn’t meet security or administration requirements, putting applications, services, and data at risk.

This webcast will provide an overview of VM sprawl – its root causes and related issues, along with ways to mitigate the main issues.  Specifically, it will provide best practices for managing the entire virtual machine life cycle (from deployment to retirement) and details related to tracking VMs in the environment.  The webcast will then describe how automated virtualization management solutions can help provide all of the benefits of virtualization with minimum administrative overhead.

The content is targeted towards IT managers and higher-level IT people.  It focuses on virtualization management strategies, though there’s a good amount of technical depth.  The presentation is roughly 45 minutes in length.  I hope you find it useful, and feel free to post questions or comments here.

This Next Generation Networks virtual event will bring you up to speed on networking state of the art by discussing the technologies that are going to drive network design and implementations today and in the future. You will learn from peers, analysts, and vendors about where the technologies are today and how you can prepare for a network overhaul.
Attendee Benefits:

• Download informative research, white papers, and other resources straight to your Virtual Briefcase.
• Access insightful webcasts  featuring industry experts, Network Computing editors, and analysts.
• Interact with our guest speakers, other attendees, and exhibitors through real-time chat tools.
• Visit vendor booths and browse through products and solutions in our unique, interactive and entertaining environment.

Use the Event Registration page to sign up to attend.  In addition to the virtual conference booths, you can view a list of presentations on the Distinguished Speakers page.  I’ll be attending and will try to answer as many technical questions as possible in the Microsoft booth. 

Join renowned Microsoft technologies expert Paul Thurrott, Windows IT Pro senior technical director Michael Otey, Exchange guru Paul Robichaux, and Windows IT Pro editor in chief Jeff James for an in-depth, spin-free deep dive into the new efficiency.
In just three hours, directly from your own computer, the keynote and three technical sessions will provide you with:

• an overview of everything that Windows® 7 has to offer
• a deep-dive into enterprise-oriented features such as AppLocker, Branche Cache, DirectAccess, federated search, and BitLocker to Go
• a complete coverage of all of the new features and functionality brought by Windows® Server 2008 R2, including Hyper-V virtualization with live migration and PowerShell 2.0
• an in-depth presentation of the rich user experience, the many deployment options, and information protection and control capabilities offered by Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010
• a clear understanding of the ways Windows® 7, Windows® Server 2008 R2, and Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010 work better together

This event is presented in an interactive, real-life simulation! You will experience a lifelike visual environment, networking and interactive tools, staffed sponsor booths, and educational chats to complement each conference session.

I’ll be available to answer technical questions in the Microsoft booth during the morning sessions (from 9:30am to around noon Central time).  Feel free to stop by and ask questions or view the materials and presentations that are available online.

For more details, see the Agenda and Speaker Info pages.  Be sure to Register – it’s free, and you don’t have to leave the comfort of your home or office to attend. 

Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk – Microsoft’s Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online. Disk2vhd uses Windows’ Volume Snapshot capability, introduced in Windows XP, to create consistent point-in-time snapshots of the volumes you want to include in a conversion. You can even have Disk2vhd create the VHDs on local volumes, even ones being converted (though performance is better when the VHD is on a disk different than ones being converted).

You can download Disk2Vhd directly from the Microsoft TechNet SysInternals site (it’s only 704KB).  You can then run it directly from your file system to launch the GUI.

While it’s easy to create a VHD, it’s important to keep in mind potential issues with using this approach to “clone” an already-running machine.  Depending on your environment, you might need to consider the impacts of network addresses, MAC addresses, computer names and Security Identifiers (SIDs).  Most of this only applies if you’re using this approach to clone a non-OS hard disk.  Overall, the utility makes it really simple to perform a P2V conversion of a hard disk.

• Sessions / Presentation
• Server
• Application
• Desktop
• Network
• Storage

While these areas all differ widely from the standpoint of technical implementation, they all share the common goal of abstracting the physical implementation of a service layer from its technical components.  One case in point is the use of application virtualization on the server side.  My recent SearchServerVirtualization.com article, The benefits of application virtualization for servers and clouds provides some details on how this technology can be used to enable cloud computing.  From the article’s introduction:

Some combinations — such as peanut butter and chocolate — just go together. Similarly, with myriad virtualization options, several methods can work well together.

Virtualization has proven effective in addressing many of the challenges of data center management. But organizations that have invested in virtualization often encounter new and different problems. This tip discusses using application virtualization for server-based virtualization, the problems application virtualization attempts to solve and how this virtualization approach can improve virtualization administration and the management of data center resources.

The article is available for free online (registration is required).

That’s the topic of my SearchServerVirtualization.com article, Combining virtualization approaches for a data center’s ‘secret sauce’.  From the introduction to the article:

Being an IT professional is similar to being a good cook. Even if you have great ingredients, success is realized only when you combine these ingredients in the ideal way. The same holds true for virtualization — many technologies can work well together. The art is in determining which applications and services will benefit from one another.

The good news is that virtualization doesn’t come in just one flavor — administrators have numerous options from which to choose. You can combine different virtualization approaches to address some of the more difficult data center management tasks.

As long as you can handle some cooking-related puns, I hope the information provides to be useful.

It’s somewhat ironic that one of the main problems that server virtualization is designed to address, server sprawl, is often replaced with a similar problem – VM sprawl.  It’s a topic that I’ve written a lot about in the past and on this blog.  I recently revisited the topic and expanded on it in a White Paper that I wrote for Sun.  Here’s the introduction from Best Practices to Prevent and Manage Virtual Machine Sprawl:

While server consolidation using virtualization can significantly decrease costs and improve efficiency, organizations often find that they need to deal with an associated issue: the rapid proliferation of VMs with inadequate management. This article will provide best practices for addressing the issue of "VM Sprawl", including the following:

• Creating and enforcing deployment policies
• Detecting and addressing unauthorized VMs
• Managing security and compliance in virtual environments
• Managing the entire VM lifecycle and Planning for VM retirement
• Sidebar: Steps to gaining (or regaining) control of a virtual environment.

The White Paper is available for free, but registration on the Sun Web site is required.

During my recent visit to Redmond for the MVP Summit, I had a chance to meet with the groups that are responsible for creating and promoting Hyper-V, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM).  I’ll have much more to say about these products and virtualization in general in the coming weeks.  Until then, you can find more details (including upcoming presentations and a list of articles and publications) on my MVP Profile. 

A recent article written by Christina Torode, Users eye VDI but may wait for client hypervisors is now available on TechTarget’s SearchWinIT site.  I was interviewed for the article and got a change to provide some of my input.  Here’s an excerpt of some of my comments quoted in the article:

Cheaper alternatives to desktop virtualization

For independent consultant Anil Desai, VDI presents a dilemma. It promises to address security problems such as lost laptops and give IT better control over remote workforces. But he doesn’t see virtual desktop technology as the best way to solve these and other business problems.

He said there are more cost-effective ways to reduce security risks and gain control over user devices with existing technologies. There is the ability in Windows to restrict access to the USB drive or to improve manageability with remote management tools that lets IT cut physical visits to desktops and use the Remote Desktop Protocol, just as VDI uses.

Another example is the alternative of Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services for resource, hardware and management consolidation versus using VDI. Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 lets IT run a single application in a virtual environment, in turn centralizing application management, he said.

Then there’s the overall cost for a virtual desktop infrastructure versus buying desktops. "When you see how much infrastructure, power and server resources go into a VDI solution versus getting desktops that have come down so much in price, I just don’t see the justification for that kind of investment," Desai said.

Desai said he is backing the concept of a client hypervisor and is waiting to see what the big three — VMware, Microsoft and Citrix — will do in this area. "It can reduce potential application conflicts and speed up deployments on many operating system platforms," he said.

Overall, it will be interesting to see what happens here – will VDI be just another over-hyped technology that never made significant inroads into corporate IT?  Or, is this is a real technology that will start replacing full desktops?

In this podcast, virtualization expert Anil Desai talks with WhatIs.com’s Alex Howard about Microsoft’s Hyper-V, a new virtualization platform from the Redmond-based software giant. Listen to this podcast and learn:

• Exactly what Hyper-V is, how it works, how it fits in with other virtualization products and how you can use it.
• The advantages and limitations of Hyper-V, its system requirements and an overview of the installation process.
• How to create virtual machines (VMs) and use Hyper-V’s integrated features to address VM sprawl.

The podcast was sponsored by Dell and is available for free (registration is required).

Virtualization expert Anil Desai discusses the capacity planning and management demands created by virtualizing production-level applications, creating virtual infrastructures and server platforms, such as blade servers.

There are new challenges posed by virtualizing on a mix of blades or high-density servers and x86 in the same environment. Desai warns of the common mistakes made in capacity planning as virtualization usage is increased and offers ways to avoid them. Finally, he taps his own experiences with capacity planning and reveals best practices he uses everyday.

You can download the webcast for free (registration is required).

Free virtualization e-learning collection

Take Microsoft E-Learning Collection 6333: Exploring Microsoft Virtualization Technologies for free! Collection 6333 includes the following:

• Clinic 5935: Introducing Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008
• Clinic 6334: Exploring Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008
• Clinic 6335: Exploring Microsoft Application Virtualization
• Clinic 6336: Exploring Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008

Click on the links for the entire Collection, or for individual courses to add them to your e-Learning Library.  You’ll need to login with a Windows Live ID to activate the content.

Personally, I’ve used dozens of e-Learning courses (mostly free ones, I’ll admit) to learn the technical details that aren’t always readily available on the product marketing web sites.  Most courses are fairly in-depth (including code samples where appropriate), but there are usually some rough edges that seem to be remnants from beta versions of the courses.  Overall, though, I think they’re an excellent resources.  And, all of the courses listed above are available for the convenient and affordable price of free.

Virtualization has brought next-generation network-attached storage (NAS) beyond the limitations of the old NAS architectures. View this webcast with virtualization expert Anil Desai to learn more about this evolution and get tips on best fit scenarios and deployment techniques.

Deciding the best place for NAS implementation is very hard in the complicated world of the new data center. In this webcast, Anil Desai describes the right NAS scenarios, right choices and the right deployment options for your infrastructure.

The Webcast is available for free, but registration with TechTarget’s Bitpipe.com is required.

The implementation of new technology often comes with new challenges. While a pessimist might point out that many IT departments and the businesses that they support are resistant to changes, there’s an opposing view: Often, new technology such as virtualization can provide a compelling reason to address organization-wide operational and management issues. The major challenge faced by most IT teams is the constant struggle to meet business requirements while staying within budget. Overall, the goal is for technology investments to remain aligned with business initiatives. Virtualization is attractive for just these reasons: It provides unprecedented flexibility and agility to data center resources.

Despite its technical benefits and the ability to lower operational costs, many IT managers have found that they are unable to keep pace with the needs of the users they support. In some cases, cost overruns lead to budget constraints which, in turn, can slow business growth. Personnel and expertise are limited, and it often seems that no matter how well-planned the infrastructure is, there’s some portion of the environment that fails to meet requirements.

Returning to an optimistic view, virtualization provides an excellent opportunity for organizations to implement methods to address these issues. This chapter focuses on the topics of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and charge-backs – two methods of improving coordination, communications, and priorities within a business. As in previous chapters, the goal is to maximize the benefits of virtualization while minimizing costs and related management overhead.

You can download chapters from this eBook for free (registration required) from the Embotics Knowledge Center.

We techies tend to look forward to new technology with good reason. In most cases, new products and services improve upon old technology. But migration in production environments can be slow. So what about existing technology? A good case in point is Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 (MSVS). MSVS is available for free and is a perfectly viable option for many environments. In this tip, I’ll look at when, where and why you might want to use MSVS rather than its newer replacement, Hyper-V.

You can read the entire article for free: See Microsoft Virtual Server still viable management option.