Virtualization and IT Musings - ShawnTooley.Com

I will be speaking at Commonwealth of PA Intergovernmental Technology Conference on April 2, 2012 (Second Day) on Desktop Virtualization.  If you are affiliated with Commonwealth of PA Intergovernmental Technology and are in Harrisburg, PA that day--would love to see you there.  Here is a short snippet for audience attendees:

ITC works closely with top government officials, educational communities, and industry leaders to insure that the ITC East Conference reflects cutting edge technology solutions. Our next conference will feature not only an exhibit floor but additionally over thirty IT educational sessions all approved by the ITC Advisory Board.

I am scheduled to speak in Room D from 10:15-11:00.  The session is titled Desktop Virtualization.

VMware released ESXi 5.0 Update 1 Patch on 3/15/2012.

Detailed information regarding resolved and known issues and enhancements can be found in the ESXi 5.0 Update 1 Release Notes.

VMware ESXi 5.0 Update 1 Patch is available for download at
http://www.vmware.com/patch/download/.

Apple has released iOS 5.1 this past week.  I downloaded and installed from the my iPhone 4--the download was 167MB and took about 20 minutes to install.  I have noticed that I have got better battery performance and better quicker response with LogMeIn.  The best way to apply the update is to go into the Settings-->General-->Software Update to begin the update on the phone.  You can read about the update here, but the improvements and bug fixes include:

• Japanese language support for Siri (availability may be limited during initial rollout)
• Photos can now be deleted from Photo Stream
• Camera shortcut now always visible on Lock Screen for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (4th generation)
• Camera face detection now highlights all detected faces
• Redesigned Camera app for iPad
• Genius Mixes and Genius playlists for iTunes Match subscribers
• Audio for TV shows and movies on iPad optimized to sound louder and clearer
• Podcast controls for playback speed and a 30 second rewind for iPad
• Updated AT&T network indicator
• Addresses bugs affecting battery life
• Fixes an issue that occasionally caused audio to drop for outgoing calls

One of the toughest jobs working with VMware View 5 is troubleshooting.  Andre Leibovici (@andreleibovici) has developed an awesome tool over at his website http://mindfluxinc.net.  The PCoIP Log Viewer provides capabilities to visualize and analyze PCoIP performance metrics collected from PCoIP server log files and real-time WMI counters.  This is all done in real time and makes latency determination a breeze.  The graphics it produces are amazing and all in real time.  Below are two screenshots of the tool:

Features include:

• Parsing and graphical display of PCoIP performance metrics from PCoIP server log files (View 4.x, 5.0)
• Agentless, real-time display of PCoIP WMI counters (View 5.0)
• Ability to store WMI sessions for later review
• WMI-Rewind™  for DVR-like capability to move forward and back through time while viewing (or reviewing) a WMI session
• Tabbed interface to display multiple concurrent WMI sessions and/or log files
• Drag-and-Drop display of multiple (parsed) log files for easy/rapid opening when troubleshooting
• Export of saved WMI sessions to XLSX format for custom analysis and graphing

To see a demonstration of the PCoIP Log Viewer, see the video below:

As you can see, this is a very powerful tool!  To learn more about the PCoIP Log Viewer and download this free utility, visit MindFluxInc at this link!

Also, Andre is staying busy at VMware.  With the luckiest of us already using View 5.1 Beta--he has begun posting changes to PCoIP Log Viewer to accommodate View 5.1 Beta.  Andre also has some other cool tools on his site that are worth checking out.  Definitely, check out PCoIP Configuration Utility.

Hope everyone is well...

Just wanted to update everyone to what has been going on currently.  I am still working with IBM as a Senior Virtualization Cloud Architect and Subject Matter Expert in VMware, Citrix and Microsoft practice.  Also, I am working as a Technical Reviewer for a forth coming VMware View 5 book that promises to be an awesome View 5 reference guide for architects.

Recently, I have decided to start posting to my blog daily with news and updates for Virtualization.  Writing and community is important to me in the industry--and my blog will server as my primary outlet.

Of course, you can access my blog through traditional ways, as you do now, but I have also decided to publish it through Amazon Kindle Blogs for person's who prefer their Kindle to read articles (as I do).  You can link to my blog to your Kindle here.

Thanks for following the blog and if you have any topics or ideas--please forward them to me.

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...