One of the challenges in getting a vmware view POC put together for me has been getting the client ready at the endpoint to ensure no impact, or residue, is left after the POC is complete. If you are lucky, you’ve got a pile of unused thin clients ready to go. In my experience, the more likely scenario is you’ve got a your existing PC infrastructure that you’re going to use.

With existing hardware, an easy solution is to use a software package like Thin Desktop from Thin Lauch, to automatically launch your client software. This works great for certain projects, but if you’re looking for a more temporary solution, or don’t want to install applications locally, you can use a live linux cd as an alternative. This allows for testing without impacting any installed applications on the local drive.

Read the rest of this entry »

Introduction

While waiting for my google wave invite like the rest of the planet today, I thought I’d walk through a Google Wave Federation Prototype Server (WFPS) build installed as a small ubuntu virtual machine. Why? Because waiting for a google wave invite isn’t nearly geeky enough.

The WFPS server is implemented as a jabber component, and should work with any xmpp/jabber-server that supports this functionality. Make sure to read through the documentation available on the project homepage. The instructions there walk through setting up WFPS against OpenFire. As I’m more familiar with ejabberd, I’ll walk through that install instead.
Read the rest of this entry »

First, let me say thank you to some of the great sponsors that pitched in this year to help. This was a crazy event, and it wouldn’t have been possible without all of your support. A loud and and resounding thanks also goes out to the Thirsty Bear and in particular to Mari Ramirez. She helped make sure all the pieces fell into place getting this off the ground.

Read the rest of this entry »

The purpose of this little exercise is to quickly get NexentaStor 2.0 up and running quickly in your lab and attached to your vSphere 4 environment. Then you can migrate your VMs from a legacy platform to your shiny new NexentaStor testbed. I’ll give my first impressions, and hopefully you’ll download, test, and draw your own conclusions.

If you’re playing along at home boys and girls now is the time to go grab an NexentaStor 2.0 Trial iso. This will let you install the enterprise NexentaStor with all the bells and whistles, for a brisk 30 day trial.

Get it here.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Sunday night before my first VMworld I had nothing planned. I didn’t know the area, and I wished there was something organized to do. For the last three VMworlds I’ve been to, Sunday night has always been about vendor dinners and vendor parties. As every small customer out there knows, not everyone makes the invite list. I was looking for a more open, community focused event to look forward too. A way to start talking with others about what they’re doing with the technology and relax after a long day of travel.

It’s Game On. Head here for your fix.