Did VMware Just Reinvent Itself?
I was fortunate enough to speak at and attend this year's VMworld USA conference in Las Vegas last week. I caught a small announcement there that I found absolutely intriguing, and feel it could be a revolution in the world of VMware and on-premises virtualization.
Last week, they quietly announced that Amazon Relational Database Services (RDS) will soon be able to be used on your on-premises VMware environment. Very few other details were released, but the RDS web page has a signup form for preview program.
The power of the cloud is largely in the automation that it provides. Our experience has shown that most organizations have fantastic on-prem virtualization but lack the automation to provide a solid end-user self-provisioning platform. The automation in the cloud is one of the primary drivers for cloud adoption.
Did VMware Corp. just expand to become the on-premises extension of Amazon to allow corporations to gain the power of Amazon cloud automation but on their existing on-prem IT investment?
Is this the first service of many to be offered?
Microsoft Azure Stack was an absolute game changer when it launched. I love every bit of it, and we use it in a number of shops to contribute to DevOps initiatives to help IT move as fast as the business. The only downside to Azure Stack is that it must be deployed for production purposes on certified hardware, and that list is small and rather pricey. Consistent hardware is a bonus when keeping the experience constant and predictable, but most organizations are not able to leverage their current IT platform investments to deploy Azure Stack because it is not completely certified for Azure Stack. The expense of a new investment in equipment is most likely hurting adoption.
I've been thinking about this for years now. I actually thought that this would happen in a daydream over two years ago. What if the Amazon automation deployment doesn't require special hardware to run when on-prem? What if it will run on a certified and supported VMware deployment, of which there are millions of such deployments worldwide? How does this change the private cloud game?
Only time will tell. We're eagerly watching this one. I can't wait to see if anything new will be announced at Microsoft Ignite in a few weeks!
Heraflux and CRN at VMworld 2018
Heraflux is proud to have contributed to a few news releases from CRN at this year's VMworld conference in Las Vegas. David Klee was there presenting on SQL Server on VMware related topics, was interviewed by CRN for his thoughts on the current state of VMware, and contributed to the conversation around networking.
Networking has been historically fragmented,” he said. “So, if you can turn it around…lock it down better, make it more streamlined and more automated, especially around NSX, then we can be closer to a more secure environment.
Read more on this release here.
Next, the interview talked more about networking here.
Finally, David spoke about the announcements that came from this year's conference.
This was an exciting conference, and we are thrilled to work with CRN on these announcements!
VMworld 2018 USA Direct Playback Links
VMware has prepared and released the video recordings from this year's VMworld 2018 USA conference that was held in Las Vegas last week in an incredibly short time. William Lam (@lamw) has prepared the links into one consumable format at GitHub so you can watch them as you find the time. Check them out!
VMworld 2018
Heraflux is proud to continue our support of VMware's flagship conference, VMworld, in Las Vegas in 2018.
We hope to see you all at this year’s VMworld 2018 USA conference where I’m lucky enough to have been selected to present four SQL Server-themed sessions!
The first is an all-day boot camp (VAP3768WU) with Oleg Ulyanov from VMware Corp. where we take participants through a comprehensive journey of understanding how to manage, performance tuning, and business continuity planning for high performance SQL Servers on the VMware virtualization platform. It’s the Sunday before VMworld officially ramps up, and if you have infrastructure engineers attending this conference, please tell them to register for this boot camp.
Next, Thomas LaRock from SolarWinds (@sqlrockstar) and I will be presenting a session called “Performance Deep Dive for Demanding Virtual Database Servers” (VAP1425BU). We’ll be discussing advanced performance-related topics such as CPU scheduling and vNUMA, “right-sizing” for both performance and licensing, virtual disks and performance discrepancies, and general operational efficiency.
Next, Michael Corey from LicenseFortress (@michael_corey) and I will be presenting a session called “Database Virtualization (Monster VMs) with VMware vSphere: Doing IT Right” (VAP1296BU), which is an updated version of our continued track of performance-related tips and tricks. Come see us laugh our way through over a hundred slides packed full of things you can take back to your environments!
Finally, I have a solo session called “Database vDisks and You” (VMTN5520B), where I’ll talk about all of the various layers of queueing between the SQL Server database and the enterprise SAN, and how to measure and monitor these layers, plus discuss ways to performance tune each layer.
As always, it’s going to be a great show! Ping me if you want to meet up in person while at the show, and let’s geek out and talk shop! Register for this conference here, and make sure to enroll in the SQL Server on VMware boot camp!
SQL Server Content at VMworld 2018
The SQL Server content at this year's VMworld 2018 USA is phenomenal, and we want to share our recommended sessions for you to attend.
First, Oleg Ulyanov from VMware Corp. and I are presenting a full-day boot camp on running and managing high performance SQL Servers on the VMware platform (VAP3768WU) this Sunday. We will cover a plethora of topics, such as disk presentation, vCPU scheduling, vNUMA, and high availability.
Oleg is also presenting with Divya Sethi session called Highly Available Microsoft SQL Server on VMware vSphere (VAP3687BU) and MS SQL Server on the virtual platform (MTE5027U). Both should be outstanding!
Oleg is a machine with another session called Monitoring Business-Critical Applications: Doing It Right (VAP1448BU) where he'll discuss monitoring and important KPIs for these systems.
David Morse and Todd Muirhead are presenting a session called Performance of SQL Server, Oracle, and SAP Workloads in VMware Cloud on AWS (VAP1492BU). This session should cover many of the performance topics for these systems that are near and dear to our hearts.
Next, Thomas LaRock from SolarWinds (@sqlrockstar) and I will be presenting a session called “Performance Deep Dive for Demanding Virtual Database Servers” (VAP1425BU). We’ll be discussing advanced performance-related topics such as CPU scheduling and vNUMA, “right-sizing” for both performance and licensing, virtual disks and performance discrepancies, and general operational efficiency.
Next, Michael Corey from LicenseFortress (@michael_corey) and I will be presenting a session called “Database Virtualization (Monster VMs) with VMware vSphere: Doing IT Right” (VAP1296BU), which is an updated version of the continued track of performance-related tips and tricks. Come see us laugh our way through over a hundred slides packed full of things you can take back to your environments!
Finally, I have a vBrownBag session called “Database vDisks and You” (VMTN5520U), where I’ll talk about all of the various layers of queueing between the SQL Server database and the enterprise SAN, and how to measure and monitor these layers, plus discuss ways to performance tune each layer.
Come learn more about how to manage and tune your SQL Servers at this incredible conference! We'll see you there!
SQL Server Sessions at VMworld 2018 USA
We hope to see you all at this year's VMworld 2018 USA conference where we are fortunate enough to have been selected to present four SQL Server-themed sessions!
The first is an all-day boot camp (VAP3768WU) with Oleg Ulyanov from VMware Corp. and David Klee from Heraflux where we take participants through a comprehensive journey of understanding how to manage, performance tuning, and business continuity planning for high performance SQL Servers on the VMware virtualization platform. It's the Sunday before VMworld officially ramps up, and if you have infrastructure engineers attending this conference, please tell them to register for this boot camp.
Next, Thomas LaRock from SolarWinds (@sqlrockstar) and David will be presenting a session called "Performance Deep Dive for Demanding Virtual Database Servers" (VAP1425BU). We'll be discussing advanced performance-related topics such as CPU scheduling and vNUMA, "right-sizing" for both performance and licensing, virtual disks and performance discrepancies, and general operational efficiency.
Next, Michael Corey from LicenseFortress (@michael_corey) and David will be presenting a session called "Database Virtualization (Monster VMs) with VMware vSphere: Doing IT Right" (VAP1296BU), which is an updated version of the continued track of performance-related tips and tricks. Come see us laugh our way through over a hundred slides packed full of things you can take back to your environments!
Finally, David has a solo session called "Database vDisks and You" (VMTN5520B), where he'll talk about all of the various layers of queueing between the SQL Server database and the enterprise SAN, and how to measure and monitor these layers, plus discuss ways to performance tune each layer.
As always, it's going to be a great show! Contact us if you want to meet up in person while at the show, and let's geek out and talk shop! Register for this conference here, and make sure to enroll in the SQL Server on VMware boot camp!
SQL Server on VMware Boot Camp at VMworld 2018
Heraflux is extremely proud to announce that we are presenting in conjunction with VMware Corp. an all-day boot camp for advanced SQL Server operations, performance tuning, and business continuity strategies at this year's VMworld 2018 USA in Las Vegas on Sunday, August 26th, at the Mandalay Bay conference center.
David Klee from Heraflux will be joining Oleg Ulyanov from VMware Corp. to present this all-day intensive workshop.
Workshop Abstract: Learn the essential skills necessary to run SQL Server implementations on VMware vSphere. VMware expert Oleg Ulyanov will be joined by Microsoft MVP David Klee from Heraflux to cover best practices and optimal approaches to deployment, operation, and management of SQL Server on VMware vSphere. This technical workshop delivers real-life, instructor-led, live training and incorporates the recommended design and configuration practices for architecting business-critical databases on VMware vSphere infrastructure. Subjects covered in depth will include performance, monitoring , high availability and disaster recovery with failover cluster instances or availability groups, and advanced storage architectures.
Register for this exciting workshop as part of your VMworld conference admission ASAP, as seats are filling up! SQL Server is not a trivial business-critical application to manage in a virtual environment, and come learn many real-world tips and tricks for making these databases run as fast and smooth as possible.
VMworld 2017 Recap
Heraflux was proud to participate in both VMworld USA and EMEA over the last month, and our enterprise SQL Server content stole the show!
Our VMworld USA experience was simply amazing.
First, David Klee from Heraflux, along with Deji Akomolafe from VMware Corp. presented an all-day boot camp the Saturday before VMworld on SQL Server virtualization, where we presented an incredible amount of tips and tricks on SQL Server-on-VMware performance, availability, and scalability topics.
Both of our general session presentations made the VMworld USA best-of-the-day list for Tuesday, August 29th! They are now available for you to watch and learn from out on YouTube.
Monster VMs (Database Virtualization) with vSphere 6.5: Doing IT Right [VIRT1309BU] with Michael Corey
Performance Tuning and Monitoring for Virtualized Database Servers [VIRT1430BU] with Thomas LaRock
Our panel session with Argenis Fernandez from Pure Storage, Thomas LaRock from Solarwinds, Allan Hirt from SQLHA, and Niran Even-chen from VMware Corp. was also a smash hit.
Thanks Argenis for the great photo!
Special thanks goes to Don Sullivan from VMware Corp. for championing the enterprise database content at these conferences!
Heraflux also announced a partnership with SIOS Corporation for an upcoming add-on for the SIOS iQ product for advanced SQL Server state collection into the iQ machine-learning platform to boost the advanced performance anomaly detection into the application layer in a virtual environment. Stay tuned for more details regarding this exciting development!
David Klee and Sergey Razin, PhD., from SIOS Corporation demonstrating the SQL Server enhancements in SIOS iQ
David Klee and Jon Shields at the SIOS booth in the exhibition hall
David also presented with Argenis Fernandez from Pure Storage in the Pure booth in the exhibition hall on SQL Server storage benchmarking fallacies.
Heraflux also met with our good friends at Rubrik to discuss the impressive state of their SQL Server-integrated backup platform, who won both the VMworld 2017 Best of Show and Gold awards for their incredible platform.
Argenis Fernandez of Pure Storage, David Klee of Heraflux, Biswaroop Palit from Rubrik
Argenis and David also presented in the Intel booth on modern CPU architectures and VMware vNUMA for enterprise SQL Server workloads.
As you can see, our VMworld USA conference was quite the show.
Just one week later, Heraflux participated in VMworld EMEA in Barcelona, Spain.
Just like in Las Vegas, all of our SQL Server content made the featured videos list! They are now available for you to watch and learn from out on the VMworld EMEA featured videos list.
Monster VMs (Database Virtualization) with vSphere 6.5: Doing IT Right [VIRT1309BU] with Michael Corey
Performance Tuning and Monitoring for Virtualized Database Servers [VIRT1430BU] with Thomas LaRock
David also presented a session for the vBrownBag TechTalks series called vNUMA and You.
We even held an impromptu SQL Server architect open Q&A in the VMvillage to help folks successfully improve their SQL Server virtualization experience.
The announcements from VMware at both of these shows were a bit mixed, in our opinion. The announcement of the general availability for VMware Cloud on Amazon AWS is an interesting shift in strategy. Pivotal Container Service shows VMware's commitment to containers and workload portability, which to us is a sign of the direction of VMware Corp. On-premises virtualization is generally seen as the new beige at this point, and the unified direction of VMware, based on the messaging from these shows, demonstrates that VMware is shifting to attempt to be the conduit between the various platforms for on-prem virtualization and public cloud providers. The jury is still out on how well the industry will adopt and embrace this shift, but we at Heraflux are quite interested to know your thoughts!
We'll see you at the next one!
VMworld EMEA 2017
At VMworld 2017, VMware's premier education and training destination for cloud infrastructure and digital workspace technology professionals, you’ll choose from hundreds of sessions on today’s hottest topics. Learn new skills, hear expert insights and gain the tools to drive business innovation and success.
Q&A Session with SQL Server on VMware Experts at VMworld EMEA
Greetings everyone! We had so many people stay after our SQL Server on VMware sessions at VMworld USA to ask great questions, I thought I'd extend an offer to everyone at the European show coming up in a week! Let's talk SQL Server! We are going to crash the VMvillage hang space on Tuesday, September 12 at 3pm local time to hold an open-ended SQL Server on VMware Q&A session. This unscripted and unofficial session is for you, has no official agenda, and marketing is strictly off-limits.
Our illustrious experts include:
Michael Corey, Founder - Corey and Associates |
Thomas LaRock, Head Geek - Solarwinds |
 Argenis Fernandez, Principal Architect - Pure Storage |
 Niran Even Chen, Double VCDX, VMware Corp. |
... and me! |
|
Mark your calendars, and bring your questions, specific challenges, or discussion points, and let's do this! Anything goes - performance, availability, setup and configuration, conflicts between best practices for SQL Server and VMware, anything!