Trend Micro has done it AGAIN – hitting the ground running this year – easily outpacing most of the competition in the race to win the cloud-enabled anti-malware software market.

From cloud-enabled, VDI-aware endpoint protection, to vmsafe API-based virtual machine protection through the core protection modules, Trend has a forward-looking and effective (and affordable) security solution for every cloud-savvy Data Center.

Earlier this summer, and given our track record with both messaging and security, eGroup was invited to participate in the InterScan Messaging Security Virtual Appliance (IMSVA) 8.0 Hybrid SaaS Email Security Early Adopter Program. The results were pretty fantastic!

The Trend Micro InterScan Messaging Security Virtual Appliance 8.0 “Hybrid” Solution introduces a new and more cost-effective method of protecting enterprises from incoming spam and malware and outbound information loss, by integrating “in-the-cloud” security with the customizable content control of a VMware Ready virtual appliance. So you get “defense in depth with containment” all from one single “pane of glass” management interface. Pretty fantastic – on-premise and off-premise all in one easy-to-use package!

I’ve attached a screenshot (click to enlarge) of the integrated “cloud pre-filter” console – this was easy to deploy, easy to configure, and includes intrgrated logging for both local and cloud message tracking. Very impressive.

IMSVA Hybrid SaaS Email Security reduces ~ 90% of inbound email traffic hitting your gateway, as spam, viruses and other malware are deleted with the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network “Pre-Filter” before it arrives at the network.

Enterprises retain control of their email privacy, as no email is stored in the cloud; all email queues are located on premise on the IMSVA. In addition, granular content filtering for both inbound and outbound email occurs with the IMSVA on premise. Outbound email security with optional policy based encryption is available with the Trend Micro Email Encryption Gateway with IMSVA to protect confidential, regulatory and intellectual property related content. Very, very thorough!

The real carrot (to me) is that the purpose-built IMSVA cloud Pre-Filter console is seamlessly integrated into the IMSVA console for single management, isolation queues, message tracking and reporting.

In addition to providing true Hybrid Email Security, IMSVA 8.0 introduces several new features on the VMware Ready virtual appliance. These features (listed below) provide the latest in spam and malware detection as well as detect and block phishing and spoofing attacks. Improvements have also been made to the product usability.

New Features
Email Threat Protection:
* Seamless integration of Hybrid Email Security
* Detect & block emails with embedded URLs that are associated with websites that have bad reputations through web reputation service
* Sender Authentication using industry standard DomainKeys Identified Mail
* Up-to-the-minute bot-net spam outbreaks using the IP-Hash technique
* Extended, more flexible Transport Layer Security (TLS) controls that can force the use of encryption and verify certificates

Ease-of-Use:
* Expanded End-User Quarantine (EUQ) capabilities that can report on virtually any defined quarantine decreasing administration burden in seeking false positives for non-spam related policies.
* Centralization of commonly used policy components such as keywords, expressions, notifications, address groups and others. This allows the admin to have a single place to create and change these components and the changes are immediately reflected in policies that use them.
* Migration support from previous levels of IMSVA as well as other IMSS platforms (Windows, Linux, etc.).

eGroup will likely be featured in an upcoming “beta reviewers interview” for this awesome new product – so if you’re a “home brew” customer who has traditionally used a combo approach like Postini or an MX Logic – in combination with “classic” premise security such as McAfee IronMail, Symantec Brightmail, or even a (ooooooh!) Barracuda – definitely check this one out! Revolutionary!

Enjoy!

The post “SOON TO BE RELEASED” TREND MICRO IMSVA8.0 = BEST OF ALL WORLDS! appeared first on eGroup.

1) Log in to the host console as root, or SA to root
2) Check which vSwitch the Service Console is on with the command “esxcfg-vswitch -l”
3) To set a vlan id on the service console: esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch0 -v X -p “Service Console” (replace the “X” with the VLAN ID)
4) To remove the vlan id completely, just set it to 0, like this: esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch0 -v 0 -p “Service Console”

That’s it! The change takes place immediately. No reboot is required.

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With 7 of our top VMware engineers in the room, we pulled up Partner University and plowed through the content – digesting massive amounts of new and updated information and “testing out” along the way.  What a rush!

The courses and tests consisted of:

·         vSphere 4: Architecture

·         vSphere 4: Installation

·         vNetworks

·         vStorage

·         vSphere 4: vCenter Server Management

·         vSphere 4: VM Management

As we broke for lunch, with two tests to go, the tension was running high as we all jockeyed for position.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen people eat faster. 

At the end of the day, we were proud to sit back and reflect on our accomplishment – that is the minting of 7 new vSphere 4 VMware Technical Sales Professionals – all with the “add-on” Desktop Competency (VMware View) and Business Continuity (SRM) specialties.

Now on to all of the new VCP4 content !  (Beta available June 29^th, publicly available August 1^st!)

My VCP number is 199, what’s yours?  Please comment!

The post eGROUP MINTS 7 NEW VSPHERE 4 VMWARE TECHNICAL SALES PROFESSIONALS – ALL WITH THEIR DESKTOP COMPETENCY (VMWARE VIEW) AND THEIR BUSINESS CONTINUITY (SRM) SPECIALTIES appeared first on eGroup.

However, only 6.5GB was in use – 84% free space – but hogging up a full 40GB on the production vmfs datastore! (Thanks to Jason for this)

I detached this from the inventory of our 3.5 environment, and re-attached to the inventory of our new vSphere cluster.  I could do this easily since both the 3.5 and 4.0 clusters see the same vmfs datastores!

I then executed a “migration” (fancy new Wizard for both VMotion and SVMotion) within vSphere 4 to “migrate” the virtual machine to a t-pro virtual disk device (t-pro=thin provisioned – my new “shizzle term” for it)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 Very nice!!

The post vSPHERE THIN PROVISIONING ROCKS MY HOUSE! appeared first on eGroup.

A recent survey conducted by Gabriel Consulting Group highlighted some interesting x86 server purchasing trends.  The largest market for x86 servers is still the 2-socket based servers, with almost 40% of the respondents saying they are planning on purchasing “more” or “many more” systems in the coming year.  But, the survey also reflected an increasing interest in 4-socket servers with 33% of the respondents saying they intend to purchase these systems in greater volumes.

A key driver in this trend towards larger servers is virtualization.  When it comes to virtualization, there are compelling advantages to be realized in implementing 4-socket or even 8-socket systems;

• Reduced hardware footprint. Particularly important for data centers that are space constrained and want to use fewer numbers of larger servers to consolidate both infrastructure and business application workloads.
• More cores. There is evidence that 2P servers can adequately support a large number of virtual machines running very light workloads where each virtual machine uses one or at most two virtual CPUs to get the job done.
  • However, for more demanding workloads, the more virtual CPUs you can assign to each VM (in other words, the more cores you have available) the better each workload will run. It should be noted that VMware’s recently introduced vSphere product has increased capabilities to support up to 8 virtual CPUs per VM, anticipating the continued migration of more demanding, production-level applications to virtualized environments.
  • A good example of this is seen in a paper highlighting the best practices for deploying Citrix XenApp with XenServer for HP ProLiant servers, where scalability is shown to degrade if you assign more virtual CPUs than there are physical CPU cores.
• Larger memory footprint. The amount of memory available is particularly important for resource intensive workloads that process large amounts of information or stream data to many concurrent user sessions as is the case with a virtual desktop infrastructure. AMD OpteronTM processor-based 4-socket servers like the HP Proliant DL585 G5 and the Dell PowerEdge R905 can handle up to 256GB of memory per server while the HP Proliant DL785 and Sun Fire X4600 can handle up to 512GB of memory while 2-socket servers can only provide up to 144GB of memory.
• Additional headroom for peak workloads. Often more demanding workloads like transaction-based business applications have less predictable workloads that peak with high demand. The additional cores, memory, and I/O capabilities of 4-socket servers give you this scalability edge to handle these bursts.
• Consolidation of larger numbers of applications. While theoretically possible, most IT shops are currently not running hundreds of virtual machines on a single server. But, optimal virtual machine density is still a goal of many organizations implementing virtualization today. Four-socket servers provide a reliable and highly efficient platform for consolidation particularly for data intensive or more heavily utilized workload.

No discussion on the benefits of virtualization and 4-socket servers would be complete without addressing the aspect of ROI.  There is a fantastic article recently posted by Collin MacMillan that shows Shanghai Refresh Delivers ROI in 2-months using Intel’s ROI calculations for a Nehalem server replacement that yields an ROI in eight months.  Collin also references an Intel/IDC white paper that concludes, “Systems based on 4P platforms provide better consolidation ratios and scalability than 2P platforms.”

In the end it’s all about having the right balance of resources – CPU, memory, network and storage.  As system utilization increases to 50% or more through virtualization, there is an increased demand for balanced systems with the potential for providing higher levels of CPU and memory resources.

One thing is for sure, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to virtualization.  Customers are finding more and more workloads that are suitable for virtualization due to technology improvements like you see with AMD Opteron multi-core processors with AMD-VTM technology.  So which one is going to get you to your destination, the convertible or the SUV?

The post FOUR-SOCKET SERVERS FOR REAL WORLD VIRTUALIZATION (FROM THE AMD FOLKS) appeared first on eGroup.

Read more here: http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/2009/05/350000-io-operations-per-second-one-vsphere-host-with-30-efds.html

The post VMWARE vSphere 4 AND EMC FLASH DRIVES BLOW THE DOORS OFF DISK I/O PERFORMANCE TESTS! appeared first on eGroup.

How Do I Upgrade?
Phase 1: Complete the upgrade of the VMware vCenter Server along with VMware Update Manager. VMware Converter Enterprise and VMware Guided Consolidation are two additional components that can be installed along with their respective VMware vCenter Client plug-in.

Phase 2: Choose from three VMware ESX migration methods. The three options are: VMware Update Manager, Host Update Utility or Clean Install of VMware ESX 4.

Phase 3: Complete the upgrade of your Virtual Machines by first upgrading VMware Tools, followed by the upgrade of the Virtual Hardware from version 4 to version 7.

Click here to access eGroup’s VMware vSphere 4 Upgrade Center and to access step-by-step migration videos

The post UPGRADING TO VMWARE VSPHERE 4 appeared first on eGroup.

PowerPath/VE will be available in June. Pricing starts at $2,100 per physical server for new PowerPath customers and $1,430 for current customers.

The post EMC POWERPATH/VE FOR VMWARE VSPHERE appeared first on eGroup.

VMware vSphere 4 is the industry’s first cloud operating system, transforming the IT infrastructure (servers, storage, networks) into a private cloud—a collection of internal clouds federated on-demand to external clouds—delivering IT infrastructure as an easily accessible service.

Combining VMware’s industry leading virtualization technology and experience, VMware vSphere delivers greater efficiency with uncompromising control, all while preserving customer choice. 

The post WHAT’S NEW WITH VMWARE VSPHERE 4 appeared first on eGroup.

Performance Implications for CPUs
CPU virtualization adds varying amounts of overhead, depending on a number of different factors. For processor-intensive applications, any CPU virtualization overhead likely translates into a reduction in overall performance.

However, VMware solutions have the ability to balance processor loads in a highly efficient manner, and VMware virtual machines can fully leverage multi- cores and multi-processor configurations, making it possible to run processor-intensive workloads such as databases and e-mail servers on virtual machines without adversely affecting application performance.

Performance Implications for Memory (RAM)
Virtualization does not decrease the amount of RAM required to run an application and its host operating system, and like any software, the virtualization layer requires its own portion of RAM. As such, memory is often a limiting factor in determining the total number of virtual machines that you can consolidate on to a single physical server.

VMware technology adds very little memory overhead offering advanced memory management mechanisms such as RAM over-commitment and transparent page sharing that automatically expand or contract the amount of RAM allocated each virtual machine as application loads increase and decrease. This capability lets you achieve a higher level of server consolidation than is possible with traditional static virtual memory.

Performance Implications for Storage
Virtual machines run complete, unmodified operating systems and as such require several gigabytes (GB) of storage space to hold all applications, documents, device drivers and other data. When multiple virtual machines are consolidated on a single physical server, they can impact I/O performance with their combined file size and simultaneous need for rapid access to stored data.

VMware solutions help to improve I/O performance through the VMware vStorage VMFS, which provides virtual machines with simultaneous access to shared data stores. Centralized storage helps reduce latency and increase throughput, and provides the foundation for unique capabilities such as live migration and consolidated backup.

Performance Implications for Networking
Networking sizing and performance considerations in a virtual infrastructure are very similar to networking considerations in physical IT environments. In most cases, network throughput of virtualized workloads is comparable to the network throughput of the physical workloads.

VMware offers an ideal platform for secure, high-speed networking between virtual machines on a single physical server, supporting network topologies that normally depend on the use of additional hardware to provide security and isolation. You can also network virtual machines across physical servers with transparency and high throughput, as each virtual machine gets its own IP address and can utilize up to four virtual network interface cards (NICs).

VMware Performance and Scalability[1]
VMware sets the standard for virtualization performance. Reviewers can find detailed performance demonstrations and competitive performance comparisons in the Performance Section of the VMware website:
http://www.vmware.com/technology/performance/index.html

The results clearly demonstrate that with VMware solutions, users can achieve high-performance throughput in a heavily virtualized environment, even as the number of total supported users and the number of virtual machines increases.

How fast can VMware go? 100,000 IOPS and more.  I/O is widely referred to as one of the most critical performance bottlenecks in virtual environments. Over the course of VMware ESX evolution, currently in its third generation, VMware has constantly improved the ability of its hypervisor to satisfy even the most I/O-intense applications.

A recent test conducted by VMware with EMC Midrange Partner Solution Engineering Team showed that a single VMware ESX host is capable of driving over 100,000 IOPS, maxing out the throughput of 500 disk drives in a SAN.

Test specs:
16 virtual machines running Windows 2003
3 EMC CLARiiON CX3-80 (500 disk, 77TB)
I/O-intensive workload (8k block size, 100% random, mixed read/write)

When do you need such throughput?
15,000 IOPS – 10 times more IOPS than the average DB
30,000 IOPS – Higher than the peak load of many databases
60,000 IOPS – Roughly 120,000 MS Exchange mailboxes
100,000 IOPS – Roughly 200,000 MS Exchange mailboxes or 85 average 4-way DBs

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[1] From VMware’s VI3 Reviewer’s Guide – http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vi3_competitive_reviewer_guide.pdf

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