Archives

We have become familiar with the term VLANs when talking about networking. Some people cringe and worry when they hear “VLAN”, while others rejoice and relish the idea. I used to be in the camp that cringed and worried - only because I did not have some basic knowledge about VLANs. So let’s start with the basics: what is a VLAN?  …

Is nothing sacred? As the professionally paranoid, we know all too well that we cannot take anything for granted when deploying a new solution. However, one list that has long gone un-scrutinized by the typical IT professional is the published VMware Hardware Compatibility List. A fellow friend of mine in the IT space recently underwent the less than pleasant experience …

Last week, VMware announced the upcoming release of  vSphere 5. While the release contains many new exciting features, it has been clouded with noise about the new licensing. VMware has decided to move to vRAM licensing and is removing the previous maximums on the amount of RAM or the number of CPU cores (see the …

Storage Benefits NFS (Network File System) is native to UNIX and Linux file systems. Because the NFS protocol is native to UNIX and Linux, it allows the file system to be provisioned thin instead of thick, with ISCSI or fiber channel. Provisioning LUN’s or datastores thin, allows the end user to efficiently manage their NAS capacity. …

After 6 years working with VMware… they still manage to impress me. Last week I was upgrading a client’s network to a Nexus based solution. Part of the deployment included switching their entire ESX infrastructure to a FCoE based solution, utilizing the Nexus 5000 & Qlogic CNA’s. To speed up the deployment we decided to do the …