Scott Lowe

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

This article discusses the virtual machine introspection (VMI) functionality introduced in XenServer 7 while illustrating the value of hypervisor-based security controls. Adrian Roberts shares a walkthrough of running Photon OS and VMware Admiral in a vCloud Air Network environment. Operating Systems/Applications.

Vmware 60

Vmware Linux Storage Load Balancer 60

Virtualized Greek

MARCH 13, 2013

I got into a spirited debate on twitter with a buddy regarding XenDesktop vs. VMware Horizon Suite. I plan on during a full comparison of View and XenDesktop. But, before I do a comparison I thought I’d share what I like and don’t like about XenDesktop. You can use the same web portal for both your applications and desktops.

Comparison 82

Comparison Virtualization Applications Vmware 82

Scott Lowe

JANUARY 6, 2018

Erik Hinderer takes a stab (based on his field experience) at estimating how long it takes to upgrade VMware NSX. This post is a bit older, but covers a challenge faced by cloud-native darling Netflix—how does one, exactly, identify which application used which IP address at a given point in time? Operating Systems/Applications.

Linux 60

Linux Vmware Comparison Network 60

Scott Lowe

JANUARY 14, 2016

Cumulus VX, if you aren’t aware, is a community-supported virtual appliance version of Cumulus Linux aimed at helping folks preview and test “full-blown” Cumulus Linux (which, of course, requires compatible hardware). Dwayne Sinclair (an NSX SE at VMware) has a write-up on what micro-segmentation is not. Operating Systems/Applications.

Vmware 60

Vmware Devops Storage Linux 60

Cloud Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

Although Shawn already possesses numerous vendor certifications from companies like VMware, Cisco and CompTIA, this “non-vendor specific” preparation, will enable him and his team to deliver the high-level training needed to implement quick hybrid cloud adoption at the demanding pace of IT.

Training 70

Training Cloud Disaster Recovery Vmware 70

Scott Lowe

JULY 21, 2016

Here’s a pair of articles ( one here and one here ) that describe the port connections required between the various components in a VMware NSX deployment. These posts are a bit slanted toware VMware vSphere environments, but very detailed, very thorough, and very useful. William Lam has a quick look at ContainerX on VMware vSphere.

Vmware 60

Vmware Linux Storage Hardware 60

Scott Lowe

FEBRUARY 1, 2019

The folks over at Cilium took a look at a recent CNI benchmark comparison and unpacked it a bit. Christopher Damerau explains how to use Ansible to manage VMware resources. Operating Systems/Applications. Virtualization. There’s some good information in their article. There’s some handy tips/ideas in here.

Network 60

Network Resources Devops Vmware 60

Scott Lowe

MARCH 8, 2016

PowerNSX is pretty cool—it’s a set of PowerShell cmdlets for administrators of VMware NSX running in vSphere environments. Tony Sangha has a nice article providing step-by-step instructions on setting up a site-to-site IPSec VPN between VMware NSX and a Cisco CSR 1000v. Operating Systems/Applications. Networking. Seen this ?

Vmware 60

Vmware Linux Intel Network 60

Scott Lowe

JULY 13, 2018

Operating Systems/Applications. This article on another reason your Docker containers may be slow was an excellent reminder that containerization is not equal to virtualization (that doesn’t make it better or worse, just different), and therefore can’t be treated the same. Virtualization. on a vSphere 6.7

Load Balancer 60

Load Balancer Virtualization Authentication Tools 60

Scott Lowe

MARCH 30, 2018

This Tech Short Take marks the end of an era (sort of); it’s the last Tech Short Take published while I’m a VMware employee (today is my last day; see here for more details). This is an older post (more than 2 years old), but as far as I can tell the concepts are still quite applicable. Tirumarai Selvan has a comparison.

Linux 60

Linux Vmware Windows Applications 60

Scott Lowe

JANUARY 14, 2016

Cumulus VX, if you aren’t aware, is a community-supported virtual appliance version of Cumulus Linux aimed at helping folks preview and test “full-blown” Cumulus Linux (which, of course, requires compatible hardware). Dwayne Sinclair (an NSX SE at VMware) has a write-up on what micro-segmentation is not. Operating Systems/Applications.

Devops 60

Devops Vmware Storage Open Source 60

Scott Lowe

MAY 25, 2017

Anthony Shaw has a good comparison of Ansible, StackStorm, and Salt (with a particular view at applicability in a networking context). John Welsh has a post on why someone might use VMware NSX. Operating Systems/Applications. Virtualization. Check out the GitHub repository. Fun read if you’re into custom builds.

Linux 60

Linux Open Source Network Vmware 60

Scott Lowe

MAY 25, 2017

Anthony Shaw has a good comparison of Ansible, StackStorm, and Salt (with a particular view at applicability in a networking context). John Welsh has a post on why someone might use VMware NSX. Operating Systems/Applications. Virtualization. Check out the GitHub repository. Fun read if you’re into custom builds.

Linux 60

Linux Open Source Network Vmware 60

Scott Lowe

MARCH 10, 2015

What’s really interesting to me is the (completely uncoordinated) alignment between Matt’s list of skills for networking pros and the list I provided to virtualization pros in a series of recent VMUG presentations (refer to slide 15, but the list is software development basics, Linux, automation/orchestration, and public cloud services).

Vmware 60

Vmware Linux Hardware Software Development 60

Scott Lowe

MARCH 23, 2017

Gabriele Gerbino has a nice write-up about Cisco’s efforts with APIs ; his article includes a brief description of YANG data models and a comparison of working with network devices via SSH or via API. Operating Systems/Applications. Virtualization. This is great news, and something VMware needed to do. and vSphere.

Open Source 60

Open Source Storage Vmware Network 60

Scott Lowe

APRIL 24, 2015

This article by Russell Bryant is a great overview and update of the work going on with Open Virtual Network (OVN). This is kind of cool, and (in my humble opinion) a sign of changing times: Juniper has Vagrant boxes as well as a Vagrant plugin for working with vSRX (virtual firewall) VMs (via this article from Matt Oswalt).

Vmware 60

Vmware Storage Firewall Network 60

Scott Lowe

AUGUST 16, 2017

Anthony Shaw has a good comparison of Ansible, StackStorm, and Salt (with a particular view at applicability in a networking context). John Welsh has a post on why someone might use VMware NSX. Operating Systems/Applications. Virtualization. Check out the GitHub repository.

Open Source 60

Open Source Network Linux Engineering 60

Scott Lowe

APRIL 30, 2015

PaaS helps manage all the various “things” that are necessary to deploy an application, thus again making it easier to consume applications (and therefore enabling applications/technology to enable more). They increase efficiency by making more effective use of utilizing resources to run applications/workloads/services.

Cloud 60

Cloud Web Services Devops Linux 60

Scott Lowe

NOVEMBER 9, 2018

Fellow VMware alum Steve Flanders has a write-up on running Kubernetes locally (on a Mac). Steven Acreman shares a brief, high-level comparison of the major Kubernetes ingress solutions. Operating Systems/Applications. Virtualization. Dušan Šušic has a write-up on using Traefik as a Kubernetes ingress controller.

Load Balancer 60

Load Balancer Operating Systems Intel Hardware 60

Scott Lowe

AUGUST 26, 2017

Operating Systems/Applications. Need a comparison of CloudFormation versus Terraform? Virtualization. Next week is VMworld in Las Vegas, NV, and I’ll be there live-blogging the keynotes (no sessions though, unfortunately—VMware employees generally can’t get into sessions). Nothing this time around.

Hardware 60

Hardware Devops Network Vmware 60

Scott Lowe

AUGUST 26, 2014

Ben Fathi, CTO of VMware, takes the stage to start the keynote, and goes through a recap of yesterday’s announcements: EVO and EVO:RAIL, vCloud Air rebranding and the availability of new services, VMware Integrated OpenStack (VIO), and new product versions (vCloud Suite 5.8, betas of vSphere and VSAN).

Vmware 65

Vmware Architecture Applications Storage 65

Scott Lowe

APRIL 2, 2021

Given the prevalence of VMware’s ESXi hypervisor, I suppose it was only a matter of time before the bad guys really started targeting it in a major way. This time, they’re exploiting a weakness that VMware can’t patch: people. Operating Systems/Applications. Virtualization. Aye aye, Popeye!

Vmware 60

Vmware Firewall Storage Comparison 60

Scott Lowe

JUNE 11, 2014

Anthony Burke’s series on VMware NSX continues with part 5. He makes comparisons among server virtualization, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and SDN, and feels that in order for SDN to really hit this market it needs to be “not a user-facing feature, but rather a means to an end” (his words). Networking.

Vmware 60

Vmware Storage Network Virtualization 60

Scott Lowe

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Bruce Davie and Martin Casado (with Nicira, now part of VMware) have written a post comparing the VXLAN and STT tunneling protocols. Operating Systems/Applications. This VMware blog post helps explain the link between Puppet and vFabric Application Director, and why organizations may want to use both. Virtualization.

Vmware 109

Vmware Virtualization Storage Hardware 109

Scott Lowe

MARCH 5, 2013

Ben Cherian, Chief Strategy Officer for Midokura, helps make a case for network virtualization. Note: Midokura makes a network virtualization solution.) If you’re wondering about network virtualization and why there is a focus on it, this post might help shed some light. Operating Systems/Applications. million IOPS.

Virtualization 102

Virtualization Storage Vmware Network 102

Scott Lowe

OCTOBER 22, 2015

Here’s hoping I’ve managed to find something of value and interest to you in this latest collection of links and articles from around the web on networking, storage, virtualization, security, and other data center-related technologies. Juan Manuel Rey has a write-up on how easy it is to upgrade VIO (VMware Integrated OpenStack).

Vmware 60

Vmware Virtualization Guidelines Network 60

Fountainhead

MAY 18, 2012

Insights into Data Center Infrastructure, Virtualization, and Cloud Computing. Other more sophisticated IT finance tools then allocate those costs to projects and/or organizations across the enterprise, and some even integrate that data into other finance applications (See this Blog by Paulo Prazeres on the topic). Fountainhead.

Financial 173

Financial Survey Budget Data Center 173