by Yannick Arens | Apr 5, 2016 | SimpliVity
This is a cross post from my Metis IT blogpost, which you can find here.
Today, April 5, 2016, SimpliVity announced new capabilities of the OmniStack Data Virtualization Platform. The announcement consists of three subjects:
- OmniStack 3.5
- OmniView
- Hyper-V
Omnistack 3.5
This new version is the first major update of this year and I hope there will come more updates. The latest major release, version 3.0, was in the early second half of 2015. SimpliVity say this new version will deliver new capabilities optimized for large, mission-critical and global enterprise deployments. Besides improvements to the code, this release will add three new main capabilities to the OmniStack Data Virtualization Platform.
Stretched Clusters
The first improvement in the OmniStack software is the ability to create multi-node stretched clusters. In the current versions it is only possible to create a stretched cluster with a total of 2 nodes divided over two sites. This limit is now increased and supported by default. With a stretched cluster it will be possible to achieve a RPO of zero and a RTO of seconds.
Intelligent Workload Optimizer
The second new capability is the Intelligent Workload Optimizer. SimpliVity will use a multi-dimensional approach to balance the workload over the platform. The balancing will be based on CPU, Memory, I/O performance and Data Location. This will result in less data migrations and a greater virtual machine improvement.
REST API
And the last new capability in the OmniStack Software is the REST API. In version 3.5 it will be possible to use the REST API to manage the SimpliVity data virtualization platform. It was already possible to integrate with VMware vRealize Automation but now it will be a lot easier to integrate with third-party management portals and applications.
OmniView
OmniView Predictive Insight tool is the second part of the announcement. OmniView is a web-based tool that gives custom visualization of an entire SimpliVity deployment. It can give predictive analytics and trends within a SimpliVity environment and helps to plan future grow. The tool can also help to investigate and troubleshoot issues within the environment. OmniView will be available for Mission-Critical-level support customers and approved partners.
Hyper-V
The last part of the announcement is support for Hyper-V. The OmniStack Data Virtualization platform will be extended to this platform to give customers more choice. SimpliVity will support mixed and dedicated Hyper-V environments with the release of Windows Server 2016. Planning and timing about the availability is aligned to the release of Microsoft Windows Server 2016.
Conclusion
The announcement is a great step in the right direction and I think just-in-time. For me the most important part of the announcement is the announcement of version 3.5 and more specifically the support for stretched clusters. In more and more large European organizations stretched cluster support is a requirement nowadays and SimpliVity will now have the ability to support this. Also the REST API will help to integrate SimpliVity in an existing ecosystem of a customer.
The OmniView Predictive Insight tool will give customers insight to their SimpliVity environment and provide predictive analytics and forecasts. In the current 3.0 version it was only possible to get some statistics about the storage but now you will have a self-learning system which customers can use to improve their environment.
The Hyper-V support announcement is also a long-awaited one. Now we only have to wait till Microsoft will release Windows Server 2016 to use this feature.
by Arjan | Mar 5, 2012 | Microsoft, VMware
It’s been a couple of days since Microsoft announced it’s customer preview of it’s upcoming Windows 8. In the shades of it’s customer preview Microsoft also presented it’s new server product: Windows Server 8 beta.
As a VMware (virtualization) junkie I think you should always look at what the competition is offering. So I downloaded the Server 8 beta (Download here) and wanted to get it working within a VM in VMware Fusion on my Mac Book Pro (MBP).
I’ll do a step by step guide getting everything up and running.
First you’ll have to make sure you have the windows server 8 beta ISO on your MBP, as well as VMware Fusion (download a 30-day trial here). I will not do the Fusion install, but this is a straight forward process so you should be able to get it up and running in no time.
So let’s start with installing Windows server 8:
First of all open VMware fusion and Select the Create New VM:
In the Introduction screen press continue:
In the installation media screen select the choose a disc or disc image:
In the Choose a disc or Image window select the Windows server 8 Beta ISO and press open:
In the Choose operating System screen select Microsoft Windows as OS and Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 as Version and Press Continue:
At the Finish screen press Customize Settings:
There will be a pop-up to save the VM. Choose a VM Name (step 1) the VM location (step 2) and press Save (step 3)
In the Settings screen press Processors and Memory to give your VM extra resources:
In the Processor and Memory screen edit the settings as you wish (2 CPU and 4096 MB RAM in my case) After that press close:
Now we’ll start the Windows Server 8 Beta installation. Press the big Play button:
The Installation process starts and the first screen is the language settings. Choose your settings and press Next:
In the next screen press the Install Now button:
In the select the OS you want to install screen select the Server with a GUI option, and press the Next button:
In the which type of installation do you want screen press on Custom:
In the where do you want to install windows screen, select the right drive (if needed) and press Next:
After the installation is finished enter the administrator password (twice) and press finish:
The next screen will ask you to do a Ctrl+Alt+Del, with no del key on a MBP you have two options. Option 1 is explained in the screenshot below. The other one is to press the fn+ctrl+alt+backspace keys at once:
In the following screen enter your password and press enter:
Accept the Windows error Reporting Privacy Statement:
After this it’s time to setup Hyper-V. In the Server Manager Dashboard (startup screen) choose the local server and from the Manage drop down menu choose Add Roles and Features:
In the before you begin window check the “Skip this by default” box and press next:
In the installation type window, choose role-based or feature-based installation and click Next:
In the Server Selection Screen select your server and Click Next:
In the Server Roles screen Check the Hyper-V box:
In the Hyper-V pop-up screen check the “include management tools” box and click Add Features:
There will be another pop-up saying Hyper-V can’t be installed because a hypervisor is already installed:
To solve this problem we have to edit the vmx file, and do some additional settings. To shutdown the press Fn+Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, then press the power button and shut down:
After the VM is shutdown we need to open the VMX file. Go to the VM in the VM Library and enter the Server 8 VM’s Menu. Hold the Alt key and press “open config file in editor”:
In the VMX file add the following lines:
vhv.enable = “TRUE”
hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = “FALSE”
mce.enable = “TRUE”
Close the file and Right click the VM again and press settings:
In the setting screen press advanced:
IN the Advanced screen select “Intel VT-x with EPT” from the Preferred virtualization engine and press close:
Close all windows and restart the VM. After the restart re-open the Add Roles installation and check the Hyper-V box again:
In the Virtual Switches box check one (or more) network adapter boxes and press Next:
In the Confirmation screen Check the restart option box, confirm yes in the pop-up and click finish to install the Hyper-V role:
After the installation and restart open the hyper-V manager and create a new VM:
That’s it, you’re done! Good luck running Hyper-V within a Fusion VM. If you’ve any question, just leave a message.
