Aaron Silber came across an interesting KB article that had some very impressive stats hidden in it!  This particular KB article reinforces a pretty standard Microsoft Windows  practice of removing unnecessary items from the session startup process.  Removing items such as the Java Runtime Update Engine, ICABar and Citrix Online plug-in from users’ startup can yield gains of 10 to 15 percent more users on your XenApp Servers! These tests and benchmarks were done by Citrix Labs and affirm the fact that some extra housekeeping and attention to detail during your server builds can really add up.

The KB Article mentions using msconfig to track down these unnecessary processes.  I’d recommend taking a look at Windows Sysinternal’s AutoRuns for a more complete picture of the processes running on your servers.

For the complete details, check out the rest of the article, it can be found here:  http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX124800

As published on VMwareInfo.com

While working internally on some System Center configurations, Aaron Silber sent over a quick note on what he was up to.  I personally haven’t played around with System Center or Virtual Machine Manager very much and figure I am not alone so I was glad Aaron found the time to send this over to me.  Internally we are running our critical systems on VMware and Aaron has demonstrated some of the integration possibilities of System Center by bridging the VMware world to the Microsoft World so most things, like vMotion, on the VMware side can be managed from System Center.

In his email, Aaron is quick to state that “One of the cool things about the Microsoft suite is the level of integration between the products, so as an example, VMM manages all things virtual and by connecting the Operations Manager piece, all things virtual that VMM sees, Operations Manager can now see and monitor; this extends to the VMware side of things as well. Operations Manager can be configured to report back on all sorts of issues down to a very low level and even to automatically act upon the issues it finds. As an example, I just received the following alert:

So you can see that Operations Manager is reaching out and reporting back that our VMware server has been hitting 80% utilization on enough of a regular basis to cause an alarm to go off. A basic system action would allow the system to initiate Live Migrations or vMotions of the VM’s to free up CPU on the struggling host.”

In this particular example, System Center could be configured to perform DRS like activities on the VMware infrastructure while only being licensed for regular vMotion.  Companies may begin to start debating Good vs. Good Enough.

If you would like to check out some of the features for yourself, Microsoft has released a slew of preconfigured VHDs with evaluation software that is perfect for lab testing.  Prepackaging the VHDs and making them available for download makes it super easy to begin testing these applications.

Download @ System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 VHD and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 VHD

As Published on VMwareInfo.com:

Virtual Disks.  They are single file containers that hold entire file systems within them (think of the Galaxy Marbles in Men in Black!)  Operating systems blissfully run within them without any knowledge of the outside hypervisors. Very nice from a management perspective.  Need a quick backup, just copy the file and you are good to go.  Need an exact byte by byte copy of that server’s C drive, just copy the file and you are good to go.  Very useful and tidy in their current form.

One of the more annoying things for me that has come out of the Hypervisor Wars between Microsoft, VMware and Citrix is the 2 different standards of Virtual Disk file formats.  Microsoft and Citrix have standardized on Virtual Hard Disks(VHDs) while VMware was first to release their Virtual Machine Disks (VMDKs).  In my opinion, there is no real difference between the two formats.  Operationally though, they are incompatible.  I think in most other scenarios, this might be acceptable since most users would choose a hypervisor and run with it.  Even changing between the hypervisors isn’t too difficult with the availability of various conversion tools and methods.  I take issue with the whole situation when I am using solutions that run various products concurrently which are now leveraging the different (and incompatible) formats. 

Take for example a common VDI solution leveraging Citrix Provisioning Services with Citrix XenDesktop running on top of VMware’s vSphere platform.  Citrix Provisioning leverages vDisks (VHDs) to stream an Operating System to a XenDesktop target running as a vSphere Virtual Machine (VMDK).  Everything is fine until you realize how GREAT it would be to mount that VHD directly in ESX to make some modifications to it (Update VM Tools or a NIC driver).  Can’t do it unless you go through a kludge process of converting the VHD to VMDK and then back again.  Under Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V, mounting that VHD is a simple supported process.  Even Windows 7 can now directly boot VHDs!

As I create a mental tally in my head, I am currently counting more products out there that are leveraging the VHD format than the VMDK format.  VHDs are and will continue to be an excellent way to evaluate the newest Microsoft Back Office software.

I’m definitely not advocating that VMware change it’s file format from VMDK to VHD but would love to see them begin to support VHDs natively.  It’s not enough to convert them on the fly to VMDKs since sometimes I need to bring them back to their original programs (i.e. Citrix Provisioning Services).

Come on VMware!

As published on VMwareInfo.com:

Originally Published on VMwareInfo.com:

If you are reading this post and your machine keeps shutting down every 2 hours, you might be running a Beta version of Windows 7!

That was almost me about 3 weeks ago.  I got this notification from my system tray followed up by an official email from Microsoft (** on the bottom) letting me know that my beta version of Windows 7 (that I had been running gleefully for about 7 months) was about to EXPIRE.  Oh and yeah, beginning March 1st, the machine would shut down every 2 hours!  Nice!  To further complicate matters, there is no LEGIT way of upgrading from a Beta copy to a Released version of Windows 7.  It is recommended to wipe the machine and start from scratch.  Although there were some hacks to upgrade the Beta version, I took the opportunity to wipe the machine and go from a 32 bit Beta straight to 64 Bit Production!

I personally am always nervous to wipe my laptop and start from scratch in fear of screwing up my productivity.  As a consultant, I use my laptop as my primary machine and use it everyday.  I have tons of little tweaks and programs that I never remember until I need them.  Here are three solid practices I used this time around for a successful wipe and rebuild.

1) I P2V’d my laptop to an external USB drive. This worked out great for me.  I had a 320 GB passport USB drive that was fully capable of storing my 250GB Laptop image.  After P2Ving the machine, I wiped the laptop, installed the new OS and immediately installed VMware Workstation.  With the base OS and Workstation running, I was able to fire up my P2V’d Laptop Virtual Machine directly from the USB drive and copy things from the VM to the REAL laptop.  This also gave me an opportunity to ‘remember’ how I had everything set up and what programs I had installed.  A great reference for me to use while rebuilding the machine.

2) I bookmarked all the cool utilities/programs/tweaks I found using Delicious.com. Although I started this practice a little too late, I had been bookmarking all the neat things I installed on my laptop with Delicious with the tag of REBUILD.  The idea behind this one is clear.  After rebuilding my machine, sign into Delicious and begin downloading all the programs again.

3) I never used the Windows Settings Transfer Wizard. Rather than having all the junk from my old build dragged into my new build, I leveraged the P2V’d image.  For many applications, I took the defaults for the installations and then just overwrote the Program Files Application directory with it’s equivalent from the Virtual Machine.  This worked great for many applications that I had done a lot of customizations on.  Firefox is a perfect example.  All the Add-ons and tweaks are stored in the file structure so after the initial install and copy, the application was back exactly the way I wanted it.

So after a couple of days of reinstalling programs, copying down documents, and changing things around, I am now 100% back to my 80% productive self. 64 Bit no less!

On a side note, I don’t really notice much difference between my old 32bit version of Win7 and my new 64Bit Win7 – Even with the FULL 4GB RAM now.

** Here is the Microsoft Email I received prior to my upgrade.

It’s time to upgrade from the Windows 7 Release Candidate

While most people who tested Windows 7 have now moved to the final version, some are still running the Release Candidate. If you haven’t moved yet, it’s time to replace the RC.
Starting on March 1, 2010 your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Your work will not be saved during the shutdown.

The Windows 7 RC will fully expire on June 1, 2010. Your PC running the Windows 7 RC will continue shutting down every two hours and your files won’t be saved during shutdown. In addition, your wallpaper will change to a solid black background with a persistent message on your desktop. You’ll also get periodic notifications that Windows isn’t genuine. That means your PC may no longer be able to obtain optional updates or downloads requiring genuine Windows validation.

To avoid interruption, please reinstall a prior version of Windows or move to Windows 7. In either case, you’ll need to do a custom (clean) install to replace the RC. As with any clean installation, you’ll need to back up your data then reinstall your applications and restore the data. For more details about replacing the RC, see the Knowledge Base article KB 971767. For more information, visit the Window 7 Forum.

Thanks again for helping us test Windows 7.

One of the new features of Windows 7 / Windows 2008 R2 is DirectAccess.  The promise of DirectAccess is the ability for corporate laptops and machines to connect to the corporate LAN seamlessly without the need for a VPN. (Or rather, DirectAccess will be your VPN).  The machine will be connected whenever it is connected to internet access.  All of your internal resources will be available to the client machine whenever it has internet access.  Marcos Velez summarized some of the requirements and challenges clients may face when looking to implement the new Windows DirectAccess feature.

… as with everything that is too good to be true, the requirements [for DirectAccess] are enormous.  I will try to summarize some of those right now:

1. DirectAccess requires Windows 2008 R2
2. DirectAccess requires IPv6
3. DirectAccess clients need a client certificate in order to be able to connect to the network
4. DirectAccess requires deploying a DirectAccess server
5. DirectAccess STILL requires users to log in, but
6. DirectAccess client laptops (or computers) are ALWAYS connected to the corporate network (even before the user has logged on)

By the way, DirectAccess is a very cool idea, and it really is worth considering, but the list of pre-requisites is long.  Daunting, even.  DirectAccess requires a large investment (of time and money) by clients into technologies that they might not be able (or willing) to undertake at this time.  That is a discussion that needs to be taken up with the client, of course.

As published on VMwareInfo.com:

Most companies now have plans to investigate and use the latest form of virtual desktop in the very near future.  There are many POC’s (proof of concepts) going on as we speak and many more are planned. Citrix, Microsoft, VMware and others are all vying for a piece of this large market potential.

Let’s consider the following situation for a company: 8,000 users, 1,200 servers. Virtualizing the 1,2000 servers in the datacenter  saves money, power, is easier to manage etc. So with a consolidation ratio of 20:1 (to make the math simple) we would then have to manage only 60 servers as opposed to 1,200.

On the other hand, if the plan were to take ALL 8,000 users and virtualize their desktops into the datacenter, even with double the consolidation ratio of 40:1, this would mean managing another 200 servers. Add to this the additional expensive datacenter storage, power, electricity, real estate, etc. “plus” still having to work with end user devices. While the hosted vdi solution does work in many cases, a complimentary solution is on the horizon.

So what’s a company to do? Stay Physical with Virtual.

We would suggest that companies begin to deploy the virtual desktop on a server hypervisor to gain experience, conduct their POC and understand the end user experience first hand. However, once the desktop hypervisor is available and tested for scalability and reliability, and with the use of provisioning technology,  a company can begin to deploy their provisioned and secure virtual desktops  throughout the organization by using existing PC’s or instituting BYOP (bring your own PC) with the proper PC configuration.

The BYOP model, with a client hypervisor (e.g. XenClient from Citrix – available Q1 2010) allows IT to provision a secure corporate desktop to an end user’s device, while at the same let the end user have complete control and freedom to conduct his personal business on the same desktop.

It‘s a great time to be in the thick of things and as always “If It’s Virtually Possible, We Do it!!

by Myron Bari – November30, 2009 (mbari@ipm.com)

For the past several quarters when my colleagues meet with CIO’s and their team, they are confronted with the statement “I don’t have any money!”.

Upon further analysis that statement usually means that the client does not have any money for CAPEX (capital expenditures).

However, all companies spend considerable dollars every year on OPEX (operating expenses).

OPEX normally includes maintenance for current hardware & software, staff compensation, utilities, rent, courier services, supplies (tapes,paper etc.)

IPM has  found considerable opportunity to lower OPEX for clients by investing in new technologies. Comparing the status quo cash flows  to the new solution cash flows, adding in a NPV (net present value) and ROI calculation usually results in an an opportunity for the CIO (with or without IPM) to present a legitimate and reasonable proposal to a client’s CFO in his/her language.

This methodology assists us to focus on insuring that a project has a realistic benefit for the client. Summarizing this analysis in a simple to understand spreadsheet allows for valuable discussion and partnership.

It‘s a great time to be in the thick of things and as always “If It’s Virtually Possible, We Do it!!

by Myron Bari – November 8, 2009 (mbari@ipm.com)

So from the last article,“I Stream”, “You Stream”, Let’s all Stream!!, we assume that your organization has 100 applications that need to be accessed by many users from their desktop and you are in charge of  designing the next desktop architecture (hosted,  server-based, physical desktop) or any combination of the above. We already streamed 85 applications since they were ”streamable”. It would seem that you would now have to “install” all of the remaining 15 applications on the base image.

But what happens if  out of the 15 remaining applications, 8 are used by all of the end users and the other 7 are used by only a handful of end users?

From a design standpoint, you would like to have as few applications on your base image (only install 8 to the base image) since these applications are used by most of your end users. For example – Microsoft Office suite, Adobe Acrobat, etc.

How can you keep your base image from being cluttered  with these other 7 applications and still provide access to them for those end users who need them? To the rescue Citrix has recently announced  XenApp FR2, a technology we can use for these 7 applications.

• VM hosted apps – this technology enables customers to host and deliver applications from centralized virtual machines running desktop operating systems for the fastest rollout of apps and 100% app compatibility.

So now your base desktop image remains lean and agile!!

Agile because the 85 applications are now,  in most cases, platform independent.Since we packaged the applications on XP, the same package can most likely be used to stream the application on Windows 7.

It‘s a great time to be in the thick of things and as always “If It’s Virtually Possible, We Do it!!

by Myron Bari – October 12, 2009 (mbari@ipm.com)

You’re probably thinking – Are we talking about ice cream or technology?  Well we all know that ice cream, even low fat, will not make you lean. Especially Ben & Jerry’s  cherry garcia . As Jerry Seinfeld mentioned on one of his shows – he kept eating these fat free cookies and ice cream and his pants did not fit anymore.

But in the world of IT,the more you “Stream”, the leaner your desktop becomes. So some of IPM’s clients are now Screaming for Streaming!!

Assume that your organization has 100 applications that need to be accessed by many users from their desktop and you are in charge of  designing the next desktop architecture (hosted,  server-based, physical desktop) or any combination of the above.

Guiding Principle  > Stream if at  all possible!!

But of course you ask why? Streaming most of the applications enables you to install the  minimal  number of  applications  on your base image, so that the “installed” image is as lean as possible. At the same time your image achieves agility to dynamically add/remove/upgrade the other applications without changing the base image.

1. As an example, let’s assume that your organization has 100 applications, 85 of which are “streamable”. Voila, we now have agility for these 85 applications.

What do we do with the other 15 applications that can not be streamed?  One would assume that these 15 must be installed on the base image. You could do that or maybe there is a way to only install the ones that are used by everyone and not the ones that are infrequently used. My thoughts will follow next week. 

In the meantime let me know what flavor ice cream do you like best.

It‘s a great time to be in the thick of things and as always “If It’s Virtually Possible, We Do it!!

by Myron Bari – September 30, 2009 (mbari@ipm.com)

Being back two weeks from attending this year’s ILTA (International Legal Technology Association), I am still absorbing the wealth of knowledge I gained during the conference. I am very glad that I took the time to attend!!

There were lots of attendees, close to 1,000,  and a constant buzz – it was definitely an IT “legal industry event”.

The theme resonating throughout the conference was Deliver More with Less($)

I spent significant time attending the Executive sessions in order to better  understand the current thoughts of  C-Level executives and how they deal with their business challenges. What keeps them up at night? How do they deliver the best end-user experience in a cost effective manner without sacrificing QOS.

Several executive presentations that will stick in my mind for a long time are the messages delivered by Peter Lesser, Gene Viscelli & Anthony DeCerce, as well as, the one delivered by Lorey Hoffman, Paul Wittekind and Lance Rea. When referring to engaging with a partner, the comment, “I bet my job” , resonated in everyone’s ear. This comment depicted to me the the “out of box” thinking of such individuals. They discussed “innovation” vs. “invention” and the trust that they place in the companies they partner with to deliver outstanding QOS. The ability to reduce operational costs by 60%, while saving their firm $1.5 million, was just one of the few great milestones accomplished by these seasoned “innovators”.

Another key presentation focused on Virtual Technologies — one that is certainly dear to everyone,  whether they are part of the legal community or not. Technologies from Citrix/VMware/Microsoft  was on everyone’s agenda and strategic plan. The challenge is how to deliver to the end user the best possible experience to his or her end device (desktops, laptops, PDA’s, thin clients etc.) The presentations discussed the new Citrix’s XenDesktop, VMview and Microsoft AppV.  A few case studies discussed investment, business requirements and end goals. No discussion of a preference between the technologies was truly drilled down..

ILTA organized their sessions into competencies for the legal community: Executive, Business, Technology, Accounting. It was a pleasure being able to navigate through the different sessions as one focused on a certain trend or topic of interest. I gained the most out of attending the executive sessions which gave me a clear understanding of the message being transferred by C-Level Management.  Individuals at firms who’s purpose is to seek the advice and direction of their Trusted Advisors as well as peers and colleagues to come up with innovative ways to  better enhance their “end-users experience”.

I spent time looking at many technology (hardware/software) companies but focused on meeting with the legal applications software companies. From a strategy standpoint, I believe that it is incumbent upon Professional Services Organizations who focus in the legal community,  and are proud when it comes to making legal applications “fly” in their environments leveraging emerging technologies, (Citrix, EMC, Microsoft, RSA, VMware, etc.) that should partner with the companies all law firms use and rely on for their day to day business. It will enable both (PSO’s & the legal application vendors) to strengthen their focused by aligning and be familiar with each other’s strengths and use each other’s name when asked for a referral of “who do you recommend is the best for”.

A common term I overheard was BYOP (bring your own PC). I can have two, or more, environments on my PC – personal version where what I do is my business, all my traffic goes out to the internet – and a “secure & managed” corporate version which lets me run my corporate applications by just clicking an icon. At which point, I’m no longer tied or “chained” to a corporate policy as to what they believe is the best for me but let me be the judge of that as long as my personal and business lives don’t overlap.

The buzz I kept hearing everyone I spoke to is how to manage their desktop strategy and the compelling event now is the coming of Win7. How will I migrate my end users to Win7 ?, solve lots of the current issues with the current physical desktop model and “delight” the end user experience? I am confident that Jacques BenSimon’s, IPM’s CTO, forthcoming article, It’s A Jungle Out There, will help many clients crystallize and begin to document their customized desktop strategy and then “vigorously” test the new technology in a Pre-Production environment.

I’m grateful for been involved in the legal community and look forward to an exciting 2010!

by Avi Deutsch – September 11, 2009 (adeutsch@ipm.com)