IT Blog and Musings

For those of you looking at the new Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet, Citrix is actively looking for feedback below or at their Synergy event in Barcelona next month, on whether you plan on using it to help them drive additional Receiver development for the device.

Funny cartoon sent to me by my Project Manager!

Future IBMer at the Beach!

Got an early preview of VMware vSphere 5 Friday.  A lot of cool new features and surprises--unfortunately, I can't discuss in detail due to NDA.

I will post more as it becomes publicly available...

Very cool browser toolbar that keeps you clicks away from your favorite Citrix Virtualization Resources!  Give it a try here...

Just wanted to let everyone know that Citrix Released XenDesktop 5 Service Pack 1 on 5/13/2011.

The two main features added include:

• Provisioning Services XenDesktop Setup Wizard
• Migration Tool for XenDesktop 5 (the main feature is the availability to add Catalogs to XenDesktop 4 Desktop Groups)

Other improvements include:

• Licensing enhancements. Version 11.9 of the License Server supports user/device licensing, manages license checkout information, and provides information that enables you to check out the least number of licenses. For further details, including any changes to system requirements, see Licensing Your Product. You can use Desktop Studio to track and manage license usage and license models, and also to access the License Administration Console; for further details see Managing Licensing.
• Support for XenServer 5.6 Service Pack 2. This includes support for IntelliCache. For further details see Using IntelliCache with XenDesktop.
• Blade power management. Support is provided for third party plug-ins for blade servers. You can add machines to an Existing catalog by using the Import List option to specify a .csv file in which machines are specified by unique ID instead of by name. The set of power management options available in Desktop Studio is based on the capabilities reported by the plug-in.
• Support for Microsoft SCVMM R2 Service Pack 1 and Hyper-V 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.
• Support for VMware VSphere 4.1 Update 1.
• Fixes for the XenDesktop 5 issues listed at http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX124164.

Working in data centers with Blade Centers and Cisco switches--you almost always will be dealing with some type of fiber connection.  Honestly, I always need to go back and refer to some chart defining fiber cable types--so I thought I would post a quick guide to fiber types and pictures of the numerous connectors.  Click on the connection picture or name for more information.  I hope you find this useful:

     

                                      TOSLINK Connecter                                       FC Connector

     

                                     MIC (FDDI) Connector                         LC Connector (Duplex Version)

     

                                      LuxCis Connector                                      MT-RJ Connector

     

                                       SC Connector (Duplex Version)                     ST Connector

Found this really cool Microsoft Excel worksheet that uses Microsoft PowerShell along with VMware PowerCLI (group of Microsoft PowerShell cmdlet's provided by VMware) written by Carter Shanklin of VMware.  This worksheet along with PowerShell allows you to prepopulate a spreadsheet with ESXi hosts then join them to a vSphere datacenter.  Very time saving when working with server blades.  Check out the video below for a demonstration.

Attaching lots of VMware ESX hosts to VMware VirtualCenter. from Carter Shanklin on Vimeo.

From the VMware View Blog on March 9, 2011:

Today we keep the excitement coming with the launch of the View Client for iPad.  This release is one small step for VMware and one giant leap for personal devices in the enterprise.  Now all of us iPad aficionados can use our iPads to access our desktops and get an awesome user experience without giving IT a heart attack about security.  It's the best of both worlds.

Our focus with this release is really around simplicity and we set out to make sure that the user experience from the iPad is seamless.  This means that access is a snap and interaction with the desktop is easy and efficient.

The iPad client is fully supported over WiFi or 3G connections and with PCoIP at the core you'll be sure to get a great user experience.  Tight integration with View 4.6 means that logging into your View desktop from the iPad is easy and reconnection to the desktop is also simple with the ability to select from a list of previously connected desktops.

iPad users will feel right at home interacting with their View desktop using the gestures we've implemented making it easy to do things like click, select, drag and invoke the soft keyboard.  We've also included support for Bluetooth or dock connected keyboards for those prefer to type on a physical keyboard.  In addition to keyboards we've also added support for the iPad VGA connector which will let you connect your View desktop to an external monitor or projector.  If you wanted to, you could realistically go iPad full time!

This release is just the start of our support for the iPad and you'll be seeing a lot more from us in the months to come as we continue to make improvements and add capabilities.

The new VMware View Client for iPad is available for free in the Apple App Store.

I love vintage shirts and hats...  Was just looking at the E-Logo site for IBM employees and found this shirt!  This is pretty awesome!  It is crazy that we are 100 years old this year--no other technology company has those bragging rights!  The people here are awesome and the most talented I have ever meet!