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Friday, March 8, 2013

Guest Reclaim Tool


Guest Reclaim reclaims dead space from NTFS volumes hosted on a thin provisioned SCSI disk. The tool can also reclaim space from full disks and partitions, thereby wiping off the file systems on it. As the tool deals with active data, please take all precautionary measures understanding the SCSI UNMAP framework and backing up important data.

Features

  • Reclaim space from Simple FAT/NTFS volumes
  • Works on WindowsXP to Windows7
  • Can reclaim space from flat partitions and flat disks
  • Can work in virtual as well as physical machines
Whats a Thin provisioned (TP) SCSI disks? In a thin provisioned LUN/Disk, physical storage space is allocated on demand. That is, the storage system allocates space as and when a client (example a file system/database) writes data to the storage medium. One primary goal of thin provisioning is to allow for storage overcommit. A thin provisioned disk can be a virtual disk, or a physical LUN/disk exposed from a storage array that supports TP. Virtual disks created as thin disks are exposed as TP disks, starting with virtual Hardware Version 9. 

What is Dead Space Reclamation? Deleting files frees up space on the file system volume. This freed space sticks with the LUN/Disk, until it is released and reclaimed by the underlying storage layer. Free space reclamation allows the lower level storage layer (for example a storage array, or any hypervisor) to repurpose the freed space from one client for some other storage allocation request. For example:
  • A storage array that supports thin provisioning can repurpose the reclaimed space to satisfy allocation requests for some other thin provisioned LUN within the same array.
  • A hypervisor file system can repurpose the reclaimed space from one virtual disk for satisfying allocation needs of some other virtual disk within the same data store.
GuestReclaim allows transparent reclamation of dead space from NTFS volumes.


System requirements

Thin provisioned (TP) SCSI disk
Space can be reclaimed on SCSI disks that advertise themselves as thin provisioned (TP) devices.
GuestReclaim queries the device for its TP status using standard SCSI primitives like reading the vital product data page (B0 vpd). GuestReclaim will issue SCSI Unmap commands to the underlying storage for reclaiming dead space.
Supported Operating Systems
  • Desktop: XP onwards up to Windows 7
  • Server: Until Windows 2008
Administrative Privileges
The tool needs to be executed with Administrator privileges.
Supported Filesystem NTFS only.

Download link

http://labs.vmware.com/flings/guest-reclaim

Instructions

The tool is provided as a standalone binary executable. Unzip the package, and it will contain a program. The tool needs to be executed with Administrator privileges.
Run GuestReclaim.exe from the command prompt. Use the --list option to list available thin provisioned disks on the system. If none show up, it means that the first 16 drives are not thin provisioned. Export an environment variableRECLAIM_DEBUG to see verbose output of the TP querying results.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

VMware ThinApp



What is ThinApp

VMware® ThinApp™ is an agentless application virtualization solution that decouples applications from their underlying operating systems to eliminate application conflict and streamline application delivery and management.

With ThinApp, an entire Windows application and its settings can be packaged into a single executable and deployed to many different Windows operating systems without imposing additional cost and complexity to the server or client. Application virtualization with ThinApp eliminates conflicts at the application and operating system level and minimizes costly recoding and regression testing to speed application migration to Windows 7.

ThinApp virtualizes applications by encapsulating application files and registry settings into a single ThinApp package. IT administrators can deploy, manage, and update these ThinApp packages independently from the underlying operating system (OS). The virtualized applications do not make any changes to the underlying OS and behave the same across different desktop configurations, which provide a stable, consistent end-user experience, and ease of management.



Common Use Cases To Leverage VMware ThinApp

VMware ThinApp simplifies application delivery by encapsulating applications in portable packages that can be deployed to many endpoint devices while isolating applications from each other and from the underlying operating system. Common use cases for ThinApp are:

•    Simplify Windows 7 migration—Migrate legacy applications that run on Internet Explorer 6 to 32- and 64-bit Windows 7 systems by packaging with ThinApp, to eliminate costly recoding, regression testing, and support costs.
•    Eliminate application conflicts—Isolate desktop applications from each other and from the underlying OS to avoid conflicts.
•    Reduce desktop storage costs—Add ThinApp packages to View desktops and leverage the View deployment to reduce desktop storage costs and streamline updates to endpoints.
•    Augment security policies—Deploy ThinApp packages on “locked-down” PCs and allow end users to run their favorite applications without compromising security.
•    Increase mobility for end users—Deploy, maintain, and update virtualized applications on USB sticks for ultimate portability.

Features

·         Agentless Application Virtualization
o   ThinApp requires no agent code on target devices.
o   Entire applications and their settings can be packaged into a single executable that runs independently on any endpoint, allowing multiple versions or multiple applications to run on the same device without any conflict.
o   Application packages run only in user mode, so end users have the freedom and flexibility to run their preferred applications on locked-down PCs without compromising security.

·         Fast, Flexible Application Packaging
o   Package an application once and deploy it to desktops or servers (physical or virtual, 32- or 64-bit)running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Server 2008.
o   Upgrade existing ThinApp executables to incorporate new ThinApp runtime features quickly and easily without the need for associated project files.
·         Fast, Flexible Application Delivery

o   Automatically apply updates over the web to applications on unmanaged PCs and devices.
o   Deploy, maintain, and update applications on USB storage drives and thin client terminals.
o   Virtualize legacy applications that are supported on Windows 7 to 32- and 64-bit Windows 7 systems.

·         Seamless Integration with Existing Infrastructure
o   Zero-footprint architecture
o   ThinApp creates standard MSI and EXE packages that can be delivered through existing application deployment tools from Microsoft, BMC, HP, CA, Novell, Symantec, LANDesk, and others.
o   Support for Active Directory authentication—Add and remove ThinApp users from active Directory groups, and prevent unauthorized users from executing ThinApp packages.

Pricing* (may vary)

Description
Cost
Qty
Totals
VMware ThinApp 4.6 Suite + Production (24x7 for Severity 1 issues) 3 Year Support
$8,300.00
1
$8,300.00
VMware ThinApp 4.x Client License 100 Pack + Production (24x7 for Severity 1 issues) 3 Year Support
$3,154.00
3
$9,462.00
VMware ThinApp 4.x Client License 100 Pack + Basic (12x5) 3 Year Support
$2,953.36
3
$8,860.08

Note about Horizon Application Manager

VMware has announced the end of availability (“EOA”) of VMware ThinApp Client and Suite, effective on December 31st, 2013.  No further orders for VMware ThinApp will be accepted after this date.  ThinApp Customers with an active Support and Subscription contract will continue to receive support and maintenance through the end of support life as specified in the product lifecycle policies. ThinApp capabilities will still be available in VMware Horizon View, VMware Horizon Mirage, VMware Horizon Workspace, and VMware Horizon Suite. Read the FAQs for more information.
Horizon Application Manager is an enterprise-level, cloud-based application catalog and reporting mechanism that provides secure, managed user access to SaaS applications, federated web applications, and ThinApp virtualized Windows applications, all with a single secure sign-on. VMware Horizon provides a new management platform for entitling, deploying, and monitoring ThinApp packages.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Difference between vSphere Replication and Array based replication in SRM 5.0



Difference between vSphere Replication and Array based replication in SRM 5.0

vSphere replication advantages:-
1.      No requirement for enterprise array based replication at both sites.
2.      Replication between heterogeneous storage, whatever that storage vendor or protocol might be at each site (so long as it’s supported on the HCL).
3.      Replication of local or direct attached storage is possible in VR whereas in Array based replication, the data to be replicated must reside on SAN.
4.      It allows per VM replication.
5.      It’s included in the cost of SRM licensing. No extra VMware or array based replication licenses are needed.

vSphere replication disadvantages:-
1.      Re-Protect and Automated Failback is only supported with array-replicated virtual machines. Virtual machines configured with vSphere Replication cannot be failed back automatically to the original site using existing recovery plans. This feature is available in SRM 5.1.
2.      Cannot replicate powered off virtual machines. Therefore it cannot replicate templates as well. VM would be replicated once they are powered on.
3.      Cannot replicate FT VMs. Note that array based replication can be used to protect FT VMs but once recovered they are no longer FT enabled.
4.      vSphere Replication cannot be used in conjunction with physical raw disk mapping (RDM).
5.      VR has file level consistency only (no application consistency). However, in SRM 5.1, it does offer some type of application consistency.
6.      Asynchronous replication is not supported by VR. Array based replication will replicate a VMware based snapshot hierarchy to the destination site while leaving them intact. VR can replicate VMs with snapshots but they will be consolidated at the destination site.  This is again based on the principle that only changes are replicated to the destination site.
7.      Cannot replicate vApp consistency groups.
8.      With vSphere Replication, RPO is 15 min or higher.
9.      VR does not work with virtual disks opened in “multi-writer mode” which is how MSCS VMs are configured.
10.   Losing a vSphere host means that the vRA and the current replication state of a VM or VMs is also lost.  In the event of HA failover, a full-sync must be performed for these VMs once they are powered on at the new host (and vRA).
11.   In band VR requires additional open TCP ports:
a.      31031 for initial replication
b.      44046 for ongoing replication
12.   VR requires vSphere 5 hosts at both the protected and recovery sites while array based replication follows only general SRM 5.0 minimum requirements of vCenter 5.0 and hosts which can be 3.5, 4.x, and/or 5.0.
13.   Cannot replicate linked clone trees (Lab Manager, vCD, View, etc.)

Other points to consider:-
  • Network address translation (NAT) is not supported with SRM: When configuring vSphere Replication, you must configure the vSphere Replication Server (VR server) with an IP address that is visible to both the protected vSphere Replication Management Server (VRM Server) and the recovery VRM Server. 
  • Neither array-based replication nor vSphere Replication support using Storage DRS: Storage vMotion of a replicated virtual machine results in a full sync, where both the primary and the recovery side disks are read and hashed, and these hashes are exchanged over the wire which can result in heavy I/O, and this can cause latency on the datastore.