Change is good

A long time ago this blog was started with the idea to focus on Server Based Computing. Today, three years later, it did not get any further then two posts

Time for a change – change can be good! But what does that mean to you, as a reader/participant?

Moving forward this blog will no longer focus on a specific technology – Server Based Computing – but rather on all the IT things I am working with and feel like sharing with the world. So also expect to see posts on Active Directory, Automation Manager, Exchange, Group Policies, Lync, PowerShell, ShareFile, vCloud Director, Workspace Manager, .. and many others in the future. Oh, and once in a while I might post about IT related conferences, partnerships, service provider stuff and trainings.

Running XenServer 5 in a VM on Workstation 6.5

As I am very much interested in and working with Citrix XenApp and VMware ESX (Or should I start calling it vSphere?) I just had to try Citrix XenServer.

In the past I ran ESX in a virtual machine on VMware Workstation, so the first thing that came to my mind was: “That should work with XenServer too!”. I started Googling and rather quickly came across Arne’s blog post How To: XenEnterPrise 4 within a VM on Workstation 6. Quickly reading through it I just knew that this would work with the newer versions. Here is how!

To get things started, this is the software you will need (I ran it on my Windows Vista laptop with an Intel Centrino 2 with vPro):

• VMware Workstation 6.5
• Citrix XenServer 5.0 Update 3
• Citrix XenServer Linux Guest Support (unfortunately you cannot run Microsoft Windows guests using XenServer this way)

Next up install VMware Workstation 6.5. Luckely for me – as a VCP – VMware is offering a free VMware Workstation license. If you do not have an official license you can register for a 30-day free evaluation.

Create a new virtual machine and select “Linux 2.6.x kernel 64-bit” as guest operating system. You need to give it at least 1024 Mb memory otherwise Citrix XenServer 5.0 will not install. So far this sounds easy. Now comes the tricky part. We need to adjust the virtual processor execution mode. In earlier versions of VMware Workstation you had to manually edit the VMX (configuration) file of the virtual machine. This has changed and is now simply available from the graphical user interface:

Edit the virtual machine settings and change the processor execution mode to: Intel VT-x or AMD-V.

Now that the virtual machine configuration is out of the way, we can start the Citrix XenServer installation. Mount the Citrix XenServer .ISO installation file and power it on. The installation will complete after a few simple questions and your very own “virtual” Xen will power on.

To manage your Citrix XenServer, install XenCenter on your local system. The graphical user interface is straightforward if you are used to VMware ESX.

Now you can enjoy the true power of virtualization!

I have been playing around with my “virtual” Xen for a few weeks now and spent some time reading the freely available documentation. Maybe I will go and sit the exam A09 (Implementing Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition 5.0) which Citrix is offering for free during the Citrix iForum Benelux on June 10th

It’s about time .. so let’s go!

Hmm .. “Another IT blog”, I hear you thinking. Yes indeed and this is the very first entry to get things started.

Looking at my working experience: a major multinational company in the transportation business, a smaller software development company for the banking sector and a managed IT services provider – always working in some way or another with Microsoft, Citrix & VMware technologies and good for over 10 years of experience – I believe we can get some great posts up here and good discussions going.

Knowing that IT is a very wide subject, I’m going to focus this blog on Server Based Computing. Do I care if it is based on physical or virtual servers, XenServer or ESX, VDI or TS, ..? No!

I will share my experience with you and hope to learn from peers about their experience in the field, share ideas, draw conclusions, .. We’ll see what the future brings.

Welcome everybody!