leedesmond’s blog

The E2EVC Virtualization Conference will finally happen in under 3 weeks with my break-out session abstract now published online:

“Making Lync VDI work best in your virtualization environment”

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) promotes centralized, secure and efficient management of an organization’s fleet of machines in the datacentre. From the deployment of thin to thick clients, an understanding of the what and how to effectively support Lync Server 2013/2010 within a VDI infrastructure is crucial. Troubleshooting real-time communication tips and tricks round up the discussion in this practical orientated session.

The entire team and I look forward to meeting you (again) in person in Copenhagen real soon now.

Technorati tags: Event, Training, Virtualization, Microsoft Lync Server/Client /Lync Phone Edition / Lync Mobile

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Join us for the independent E2EVC Virtualization Conference May 31 - June 2, 2013 in Scandic Sydhavnen Hotel, Copenhagen (Denmark). With a record of over 18 successful events throughout Europe to-date, this vendor-neutral 3-day conference runs over the weekend (Friday to Sunday), and covers the latest Citrix, VMware, Microsoft and other virtualization products and solutions.

Take this great opportunity to meet with industry peers, partners and system integrator from the virtualization landscape and to share know-how in a nice, relaxing atmosphere. More than 20 break-out sessions and 3 Master Classes await your participation. We look forward to meet you all in Copenhagen!

Visit www.e2evc.com/home for the conference agenda and registration information (special 1st May offer till 2013-05-03 only; more here).

#———-
SPEAKER ALERT:

I shall be speaking at a hot breakout session at this conference about Lync 2013 in a Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environment; watch this space for more to come.

#———-

This and more exciting news, tips and trick, etc. to follow here.

Technorati tags: Event, Training, Virtualization, Microsoft Lync Server/Client /Lync Phone Edition / Lync Mobile

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One of the FAQ that continues to get raised is the deployment of Lync Server 2010 on host-based or server virtualization platforms. Be it Hyper-V R2 or one of the certified partners in the Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP), almost all server workloads and roles are now supported in a virtualized production environment. The updated virtualization support policy includes the deployment of Lync Server 2010 Standard Edition and real-time traffic (modalities) like audio/video and sharing. Nevertheless, virtualization of the physical desktop or client operating system via technologies such as VDI remains unsupported. And for good (obvious) reasons.

To learn more about this important subject, check out the new white paper entitled “Server Virtualization in Microsoft Lync Server 2010” today (alternate link)!

Update (3 May 2011)
See also a related blog post “Lync (Client) 2010 Virtualization White Paper / Support Policy” on this site for running the Lync 2010 client and Lync 2010 Group Chat client in supported client virtualization environments.

Technorati tags: Microsoft Lync Server/Client

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Running Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 in a Virtualized Topology:
Best Practices and Performance Considerations (link)

This is an update of the Microsoft white paper describing the virtualization support policy for Office Communications Server 2007 R2. In a nutshell, the supported workloads remain unchanged i.e. Instant Messaging, Presence and Group Chat. The product is not designed to support virtualized real-time traffic as there is no guarantee of stable performance and scalability for production use nor consistent, acceptable user experience at this point in time.

To quote …

Enterprise Voice, Remote Call Control (RCC), Response Group Service, dial-In conferencing, audio/video conferencing, Web conferencing, and Communicator Web Access desktop sharing workloads are not supported in a virtualized Office Communications Server 2007 R2 deployment. This occurs because of several factors, including packet loss, delay, jitter, and clock skew.

Further …

Desktop virtualization is not supported. The client should be installed on physical client computers.

Depending on your strategic goals, environment and user base, this may not necessarily be of any relevance, importance or concern from a usability or (official Microsoft) supportability perspective. Obviously your mileage may vary and the risks associated with deploying a virtualized topology may be tolerable for a limited number of concurrent users running any form of time sensitive traffic.

Technorati tags: LCS/OCS, OCS 2007, Virtualization

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The monthly Swiss IT Pro User Group event took place on Tue 7 Jul 2009 with guest speakers from Microsoft and VMware. The fully booked event (delivered in person and via Live Meeting) covering technical insights into the hot topic of virtualization was a great success - thanks to you for your enthusiastic support!

You can now log in with your free account at swissitpro.ch, download the presentation materials and check out the photo highlights using the Members Only link. Watch this space for details on the next Tue 1 Sep 2009 event with tentative topic on Unified Communications in the Practice / Powershell 2.0.

Volunteer speakers wanted - contact us with your ideas today!

Technorati tags: Community/User Group, Events

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Additional seats have been allocated for our hot Swiss IT Pro User Group event this coming Tue 7 July 2009 in Zurich. Speakers from Microsoft and VMware will deliver technical presentations on Hyper-V v2.0 and vSphere 4.0 respectively in German. Take this opportunity to meet and speak with the experts, socialize and network with your IT Pro peers and the core swissitpro.ch team.

If you are unable to personally attend, this free event will also broadcast live over Live Meeting. To receive the meeting details, simply register your first and last name with an email to info {a+} swissitpro (d0+) ch using the subject “swissitpro.ch: 7.7.09 Event Registration”. For more information, surf right over here.

Technorati tags: Community/User Group, Events

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Speakers from virtualization powerhouse VMware and Microsoft are our special guests at next month’s Swiss IT Pro User Group event. This will take place at the same place and time (from 1745 hrs CET+1) on Tue 7 Jul 2009 in Zurich. Exciting topics on the latest vSphere v4.0 and Hyper-V v2.0 features and technical discussions await you.

Come join your peers, friends, colleagues and take the chance to network with the core team of swissitpro.ch volunteers and techies from Microsoft and VMware. Surf over here for details and remember to register early to avoid disappointment!

Technorati tags: Community/User Group, Events

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The industry-leading VMware ESX 3.5 update 2 (ESX 3.5u2) hypervisor is the first hypervisor to be listed under the Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP). VMware customers with support policies in place deploying Microsoft Windows Server and applications - running on validated, non-Microsoft server virtualization software - will gain access to co-operative technical support both from Microsoft and VMware.

Outside of SVVP, customers can continue to work directly with VMware for support. This extra layer of additional protection enables VMware to rapidly escalate application issues and work directly with Microsoft engineers to expedite problem resolution.

Read more from source.

TIP: Search for my previous blog entry “Virtualizing Exchange 2007″ for additional information which also covered Microsoft support policy on virtualization.

Technorati tags: VMware, Windows Server Virtualization, Hyper-V

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Running Exchange Server 2007 SP1 on Microsoft Hyper-V or hypervisors validated under the Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) is now officially supported. In addition, licenses for virtualized Exchange can be freely moved between servers within a farm as often as necessary. Previously this was limited to a 90-day period (read more).

Consult the authoritative article on this subject entitled “Microsoft Support Policies and Recommendations for Exchange Servers in Hardware Virtualization Environments” for more information.

You should also read the updated articles covering Microsoft’s support policy on virtualization in general:

- Support policy for Microsoft software running in non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software
- Support partners for non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software
- Microsoft server software and supported virtualization environments

Technorati tags: Exchange Server, Virtualization, VMware, Windows Server Virtualization, HyperV

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Latest VMware email on ESX/ESXi 3.5 Update 2, quoted here for your info and action:

ESX/ESXi 3.5 Update 2

Dear VMware Customer,

We have re-issued the entire ESX/ESXi 3.5 Update 2 release (ISOs, upgrade tar and zip files, and patch bundles). They are available for download at http://www.vmware.com/download/.

Please note this update is only relevant to customers who did not install the impacted release of ESX 3.5 Update 2 (build number 103908) or ESXi 3.5 Update 2 (build number 103909). If you have installed either of these please visit http://www.vmware.com/landing_pages/esxexpresspatches.html and install the express patch.

Thank you,

The VMware ESX Product Team

Technorati tags: VMware, Security

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