This is a great package and for a limited time only!

The PHD Virtual Backup Bundle is a combination of industry leading data protection, monitoring and management solutions that makes protecting and managing VMware and Citrix XenServer virtual environments, easier and more cost effective than ever before. The PHD Virtual Backup Bundle brings together the award winning PHD Virtual Backup and Replication and a free edition of PHD Virtual Monitor, providing the technologies and capabilities needed to increase administrator productivity while mitigating the protection and management risks administrators face on a daily basis.

The PHD Virtual Backup Bundle includes the following solutions:

What’s Inside

PHD Virtual Backup Bundle includes two features rich products that help you more effectively protect and manage your VMware and XenServer virtual environments

PHD Virtual Backup and Replication – direct integration with VMware vSphere and Citrix XenServer provides the easiest, fastest and most cost effective way to implement reliable data protection and disaster recovery for your virtual environment.

PHD Virtual Monitor – easy, comprehensive monitoring and alerting for your entire virtual and physical infrastructure with both Intelligent Agent and Agent-less monitoring technology.  Consolidated enterprise dashboard, robust reporting and automated remediation without complex coding or scripting.

Bundle Details

PHD Virtual Backup and Replcation is licensed on a simple, cost effective host based model.  Each product license purchased will protect one virtual host along with all of the virtual machines running on that host.  Customers who purchase the PHD Virtual Backup Bundle during this limited time promotion will receive a FREE copy of PHD Virtual Monitor including 6 FREE Monitoring Licenses.  * Limit 1 per customer.  Free Monitoring Licenses can be used to monitor:

• Up to 3 Virtual Machines or Physical Server
• Up to 3 Physical Devices (Storage, Switches, Routers, etc.)

Easily Expand Monitoring

The FREE copy of PHD Virtual Monitor provides complete agent based monitoring for up to 6 licensed systems along with a centralized dashboard and easy, customizable reporting.  PHD Virtual Monitor can easily be extended to monitor additional physical and virtual infrastructure by purchasing additional add-on Agent or Collector licenses for virtual machines, servers, workstations or physical devices.

Take Monitoring to the Next Level With Hypervisor Plug-ins and Save 10%

Add PHD Virtual Monitor Plug-in’s for VMware vSphere or Citrix XenServer and get added insight and visibility into your virtual infrastructure.  Hypervisor plug-ins extend PHD’s Intelligent Agent monitoring with virtualization specific metrics, performance and inventory information obtained directly from vSphere and XenServer API’s.  This gives you a true end to end view of your entire virtual and physical infrastructure in a single, easy to use dashboard.

VMware supports in-place upgrades on 64-bit systems from vCenter Server 4.x to vCenter Server 5.0. You can upgrade VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 6 or later and vCenter Server 4.0.x to vCenter Server 5.0 by installing vCenter Server 5.0 on a new machine and migrating the existing database.

This upgrade method makes it possible to upgrade from a 32-bit system to a 64-bit system. Alternatively, if the VirtualCenter or vCenter Server database is on a remote machine, you can upgrade the database. vCenter Server 5.0 can manage ESX 3.5.x/ESXi 3.5.x hosts in the same cluster with ESX 4.x/ESXi 4.x hosts.

You cannot upgrade a vCenter Server 4.x instance that is running on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition to vCenter Server 5.0, because vCenter Server 5.0 does not support Windows XP Professional x64. This article provides information about upgrading to vCenter Server 5.0.

VMware KB: Upgrading to vCenter Server 5.0 best practices

vCenter Chargeback Manager is an end-to-end cost reporting solution for virtual environments that are using VMware vSphere. vCenter Chargeback Manager provides functionality to define unit costs and calculate the overall costs based on the actual usage or reservation of computing resources. This Web-based application interacts with the vCenter Server Database to retrieve usage information, calculates the cost by using the defined chargeback formulas, and generates cost and usage reports.

vCenter Chargeback Manager runs on an Apache Tomcat server instance. Users interact with vCenter Chargeback Manager through a load balancer (Apache HTTP Server). vCenter Chargeback Manager connects to the vCenter Chargeback Manager database that stores application-specific information, such as the defined chargeback hierarchies, cost models, users, roles, and so on. The application interacts with the vCenter Server using VIM APIs and with the vCenter Server database through a data collector. The data collector communicates with the vCenter Server Database using JDBC.

vCenter Chargeback Manager 2.0 new features include:

• Automatic Report Scheduler
• Different methods to charge thin and thick provisioned virtual machines
• Cost variance and cost optimization
• “Showback” Reporting
• The ability to difine fixed costs based on virtual machine state
• Tier-based storage costing
• Support for raw device mapping
• Complete support for vSphere 5.0 and vCloud Director 1.5
• Partial support for IPv6
• VM Instance Cost support for all hierarchies in vCenter Chargeback Manager
• Support for burstable billing or 95th percentile billing for the external network traffic in vCloud Director
• Support for overage charging for org vDCs in the Allocation Pool model of vCloud Director
• New cost models and billing policies for vCloud Director

VMware has released version 4.1 (a minor update of 4.0) of Apple Mac: Fusion, their desktop virtualization platform.

This version now supports running Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard as guest OS additional to running the already supported OS X Lion, OS X Lion Server, Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server and Mac OS X Leopard Server.

New features and improvements:

• Smart Full Screen, providing full screen mode
• Automatic Virtual Machine power on
• Improved animations
• Fast screen re-sizing and improved startup time
• Improved Mac OS X Lion guest OS support
• Improved graphics performance

VMware also stated in a blog post that the support for running Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard will be removed in a future update for Fusion

PHD Virtual today announced the immediate availability of the new PHD Virtual Backup and Replication version 5.3. The new release further extends PHD’s award winning Virtual Backup Appliance (VBA) Architecture with integrated virtual machine replication and significantly enhanced performance, delivering the easiest, fastest and most cost effective solution for protecting VMware and Citrix XenServer virtual environments.

PHD Virtual Backup and Replication version 5.3 includes the following new features and capabilities:

• Enhanced Performance and Scalability – PHD Virtual Backup and Replication raises the bar for virtual machine backup and restore performance with a new optimized IO engine for more efficient backup and restore processing and the ability to support twice the number of concurrent data streams per VBA
• Virtual Machine Replication – Replicating virtual machines has never been easier, more flexible or more efficient. Intelligent Data Replication ensures efficient data transfer leveraging CBT, deduplication and compression. Virtual Machines are replicated directly from existing backups and replicated VM’s can be verified using a built-in test mode.
• Enhanced DR Flexibility – Getting your backup data offsite and restoring your virtual environment from backups in case of a DR event is faster and easier than ever before. Mass Restore enables restoration of multiple virtual machines from a single restore job. Open Export enables export of virtual machine backups to standard OVF providing easier and faster backup and restore from tape or other log term storage devices.

“This new release takes backup, recovery and replication performance to a new level while providing the valuable combination of unparalleled ease of use and seamless scalability that PHD Virtual is known for,” said Paul Throldahl, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, PHD Virtual Technologies. “With the new features and enhancements in the 5.3 release, customers now have a better way to protect their virtual environments that is faster, easier and more cost effective than any other solution on the market.”

PHD Virtual Backup and Replication version 5.3 is available immediately. Existing customers with an active maintenance agreement are eligible for a free upgrade to version 5.3. For more information you can go to http://www.phdvirtual.com/phd-backup-replication.

This video is a full 40 minute recording of a webinar overview of PHD Virtual’s monitoring solution for VMware vSphere environments.

You can find out more information on PHD Virtual Monitor at: http://www.phdvirtual.com/monitor

PHD Virtual Technologies today announced the immediate availability of PHD Virtual Monitor for VMware, extending its portfolio of end-to-end monitoring solutions designed for virtualization environments.  PHD Virtual Monitor provides cost effective, easy to use, end-to-end monitoring of the entire VMware and Citrix XenServer infrastructure including virtual, physical, application, network and storage resources. PHD Virtual provides heterogeneous support today for VMware, XenServer and Hyper-V environments and plans to extend its monitoring product portfolio to support Citrix XenDesktop® and XenApp™ and VMware View in the near future.

PHD Virtual Monitor is unique and different from other monitoring solutions that typically rely on either agent only or hypervisor only methods of monitoring, which can create “blind spots” in the IT infrastructure.  PHD Virtual Monitor eliminates monitoring “blind spots”, providing complete, centralized end-to-end visibility of VMware and XenServer environments through:

• Virtual Infrastructure Integration – Direct API integration with vSphere and XenServer provides detailed metrics and monitoring of the entire virtualization infrastructure.
• Intelligent Agent Technology – A single, integrated, light weight agent provides two key capabilities.  First, it captures deep diagnostic information from within virtual machines, including installed applications, that is not available through hypervisor monitoring.  Second, it enables detailed monitoring of all physical servers, workstations and installed applications.
• Physical and Virtual Monitoring – Provides true end to end monitoring of not only virtual resources but the physical systems, resources and devices that impact the overall performance of the virtual environment.
• vCenter and XenCenter Integration – Direct integration with vCenter and XenCenter consoles provides single pane of glass monitoring with a consolidated enterprise dashboard.
• Pre-configured Watches and Reporting – Includes over 130 pre-configured watch rules, out of the box reporting, along with easy to use templates for customizing watches and reports.

“IT professionals face a significant challenge today managing hybrid physical and virtual environments,” said Thomas Charlton, chairman and CEO, PHD Virtual Technologies.  “Legacy solutions designed for physical environments are difficult to deploy and expensive, while newer products designed specifically for monitoring virtual environments, don’t provide monitoring of physical elements in the IT infrastructure, creating monitoring “blind spots” and gaps.  PHD Virtual Monitor provides a single, comprehensive solution that removes these dangerous gaps in monitoring completeness, enabling IT professionals to monitor the health of their entire infrastructure while reducing cost and complexity.”

Availability

PHD Virtual Monitor for VMware and PHD Virtual Monitor for Citrix XenServer are available immediately.

This video has been doing the rounds today and is the first video in a vSphere 5 Video Series being creating by Rick Scherer from vmwaretips.com.

This video showcases the basics to getting vSphere 5.0 installed, configured and operating with a bare-metal installation of ESXi 5.0 in less than 5 minutes.

VMware Player is the easiest way to run multiple operating systems at the same time on your PC. With its user-friendly interface, VMware Player makes it effortless for anyone to try out Windows 7, Chrome OS or the latest Linux releases, or create isolated virtual machines to safely test new software and surf the Web. VMware Player can also be used to run a virtual copy of an old PC so that you can recycle the old machines you have under your desk or stored in the closet.

Installation Changes and Enhanced Keyboards

The hardware requirements to install this version of Workstation have changed. Workstation now requires a relatively modern 64-bit CPU. See Installation Requirements for details.

Virtual Hardware Improvements

This version of Workstation includes many hardware improvements. To try new hardware features, you must upgrade the hardware version of your virtual machine or create a new virtual machine that uses the latest virtual hardware version.

•   The display technology has been changed to provide a better experience for Unity users and users who have multiple monitors. These changes also allow you to add a projector to your laptop without restarting your virtual machine.

•   Virtual machines can now support up to 64GB of memory. The host system should have more than 64GB of memory to use this feature.

•   An HD Audio device is available for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2008, and Windows 2008 R2 guests. The HD Audio device is compatible with the RealTek ALC888 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio Codec.

•   USB 3.0 support is available for Linux guests running kernel version 2.6.35 or later (Ubuntu 10.10) through a new virtual xHCI USB controller. To enable this feature, add the following line to the .vmx file: usb_xhci.present = “true”. Do not enable this feature for Windows guests. Because Windows does not currently have a generic xHCI driver, this feature will not work in Windows.

•   Bluetooth devices on the host can now be shared with Windows guests. With the latest hardware version, Bluetooth devices that are paired to the host system radio are available to Windows guests and can be paired from within the guest. You should not pair Bluetooth audio devices, such as headphones, or Bluetooth input devices, such as keyboards and mice, to a guest.

VMware Player 4.0 now available for download here!

This is anothor one of Eric Sloof’s great video shorts. This one shows you how to configure your vSphere 5 network in order to use multiple network adapters for vMotion.

More information about vMotion Architecture, Performance, and Best Practices in VMware vSphere 5 can be found here.