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Posts Tagged ‘fusion’

I recently received an invitation to the VMware Workstation beta program for the next version, currently code-named ‘Iron’.  I have yet to join the beta, but the invitation got me thinking about what new features I would like to see in VMware Workstation.  Once I join the beta I will not be allowed to publicly discuss the new features, so I’ll toss out some ideas now and see how many show up in future releases:

• Group Policy management of VMware Workstation installations.  I’ve spent the past four years in software development environments, and VMware Workstation has been a key component in those environments as it allows developers to create unique, portable environments for whatever it is that those crazy coders cook up next.  The problem, however, is that coders are crazy and sometimes do things in VM’s’ that are not, um, ideal.  I would love to be able to exert control over the VMware Workstation installations through Group Policy to help control the environment a bit.  Here are a few policy elements I can envision:
  • Allow certain types of network configurations, prevent others.  For example, I want to allow only host-only configurations so developers cannot use VM’s to get around security mechanisms or host lockdowns, or prevent bridged/NAT’d configurations so VM’s are less likely to be an entry point for malware.
  • Prevent inefficient  resource configurations by restricting VM’s from being configured with more than a certain percentage of the hosts memory, CPU count, etc.  I’ve seen people configure guests with the same amount of memory as the host and performance in both suffers.  Controlling this could save on help desk calls.
  • Control around disk configurations.  For example, I can picture policies that would block VMDK’s from being placed on removable media to prevent data leakage, or prevent users from creating a VMDK that would fill their local disk.
  • A policy that defines master image location and prevents VM’s not obtained from the central image repository from being started.  This would allow network admins to maintain some control over the base images on the network.  ACE capabilities probably come in here….
• Monitoring, Alerting, and Reporting of key aspects of VMware Workstations installations.  As a network manager, I want to be able to report on the VM’s that are in place on various hosts around the environment, and monitor their usage.  A report of all VM’s on a host with MAC address, host OS, IP address, and even a copy of the .vmx could be useful.
• Integration with VMware Lab Manager – Lab Manager is an awesome tool, but the SMB’s that I service are not always able to afford the resources needed to run every VM a development team can dream up, and there is plenty of horsepower on a modern workstation.  I would love to see a simple integration with Lab Manager that would allow users to be able to pull images from library or their workspace to their local workstation, and push images back to Lab Manager as necessary.
• The ability to use the host as parent, and guests VM’s as snapshots.  The physical host could be the standard image provisioned by IT and the VM’s as snapshots would allow users to customize the image or do revision testing of software without affecting the base image.
• 3D/Aero enabled within guest.  It doesn’t work in current versions, but I can see this coming along soon after watching VMware View and PC-over-IP demos of great 3D performance in VDI environments.
• Improved Unity experience.  It’s already pretty good, but can always be better.
• vShield Zones implemented in Workstation to control communication between VM’s, and of course, vShield Zones controlled through Group Policy.

That’s about all I can come up with off the top of my head.  I am not a heavy Workstation user myself, so some of my wish list may already be in the product.  I also know that some of the items on my list are in ACE, but ACE is not appropriate for all environments.  I am wondering how the continued drive to the data center and cloud, including virtual desktop technologies continuing to gain market share, may push Workstation/Fusion/Player out of the enterprise.

What features do you want to see in new versions of VMware Workstation (or Fusion)?  How can you envision Workstation integrating with other VMware products?  Leave a comment with your ideas!

We picked up a few new 17″ MacBook Pro’s at work. We’re a Microsoft shop, so Mac’s aren’t part of the basic knowledge for our IT staff, myself included. I don’t want to be the Windows guy who says “I don’t do Macs” – part of being a technologist is serving the user base where they are at with the technologies they require to do their job (but please, included me in determining your requirements and technological solutions – a Mac might be really cool, but might not fit with the organizations needs or your IT group’s ability to support your solution). Really, that’s what Web 2.0 is all about – compatible, interchangeable tools that offer customized functionality for the users’ abilities and needs. Come to think of it, that’s what VMware is all about too – the right resources in the right place at the right time, independent of underlying hardware, application/OS agnostic, able to rise above local shortcomings by pushing to the cloud….

To be fair, I was issued a Mac at a previous company, but didn’t care much for it as the programs I had to run for my job were Windows based. I ran VMware Fusion, but it could only take me so far – funny things start to happen when you are in a VM, RDC’ing to a client server, opening the VI client and console’ing to a VM. Shortcut keys behave strangely, and one can only create so many alternate key mappings before going insane. It wasn’t the right tool for me and my job, but Macs do serve some purposes very well – graphic design and iPhone app development in my current case.

I didn’t have a requirement to do much customization the new Mac’s, but they did have to allow users to authenticate to the current Microsoft Windows Active Directory Domain. I hit a few snags as I went through the process, including making domain users local administrators and allowing domain users to log in to the Mac while off-line. Here is what I came up with for a final process in my environment – adjust according to your needs:

1.) Configure OS X to talk to the Active Directory

• Using Spotlight (LeftCommand+Space), open the ‘Directory Utility’
• Switch to the Services tab
• Tick the box next to Active Directory plug-in (Note: You may have to click the lock icon to make configuration changes).
• Highlight the Active Directory plug-in and click the Configure icon (pencil icon).
• Enter an Active Directory Domain, using the FQDN (example: mydomain.local)
• Enter a Computer ID.  This ID will be used to create a computer object in the AD.
• Expand Advanced Options:
  • On the User Experience Tab:
    • Check the box for ‘Create mobile account at login’.
    • Uncheck the box for ‘Require confirmation before creating a mobile account’.
    • Choose the ‘Use UNC path from Active Directory to derive network home location’ if your AD is set to map a user’s home location to a UNC and/or DFS path; if not, you may want to uncheck this option.
  • On the Administrative tab:
    • Check the box for ‘Allow Administration By:” and then Add the Active Directory ‘domain admins’ and ‘enterprise admins’ group
    • Check the box for ‘Allow Authentication from any domain in the forest’ if appropriate for your environment
• Click the Bind button and enter credentials for an account with permissions to join the domain on the Active Directory domain you are joining.  Note: The computer account may appear in the default AD ‘Computers’ container even if the redircmp utility was used on the domain to change the default Organizational Unit (OU) of new computers joining the domain.
• Click OK.
• Verify that the Active Directory Domain that you configured correctly appears with a green dot on the ‘Directory Servers’ tab of the Directory Utility.
• Close the Directory Utility.

2.) Configure basic login options

• Open the Accounts tool from Apple | System Preferences | Accounts
• Click Login Options (Note: you may have to click the lock icon to allow changes to be made).
• Configure the Login Options settings as follows:
  • Automatic Login: Disabled
  • Display login windows as: Name and Password
  • Check the box for Allow network users to login to this computer.
    • Click the Options button and configure all network users (i.e. – all Domain users) or only select users to have login permissions.
  • Configure other options as desired.
• Log out of the local Admin account

3.) Log in using a domain user account (with permissions to login to the server (see above) while connected to the network) using the AD user.name and password

• The first login may take several minutes to complete as a local account is being created.
• Open the Accounts tool from Apple | System Preferences | Accounts
• Highlight the logged-in user’s account.
  • Check the box for ‘Allow user to administer this computer’ as appropriate
  • Verify that the ‘Settings’ button for Mobile Account is grayed out – this means that an offline account has been created for the user.

4.) Test the config by removing network connectivity (disable AirPort and/or pull the network cable) and log in as the user you just configured.

5.) Buy VMware Fusion so you can run Windows on your Mac when all the stuff you were used to just ain’t there anymore 

While setting up a new 17″ MacBook Pro today I found that an update to VMware Fusion has been released. The update, version 2.0.5, has a release date of June 23. According to the release notes, the update includes:

• Support for Mac OS X Server guest operating systems on Macs with Intel Xeon 5500 and 3500 Series processors (based on Nehalem micro-architecture)
• Provides experimental support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server as a guest operating system (32-bit only)
• Provides experimental support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard as a host operating system (32-bit only)
• Supports Ubuntu 9.04 as a guest operating system, including features such as VMware Tools pre-built modules and Easy Install
• Reduces CPU usage when a virtual machine is idle under VMware Fusion
• Contains fixes for more than 80 bugs

Download a trial version or update your purchased copy here: http://vmware.com/download/fusion/.