Application Install Guide » Tutorial http://www.application-install-guide.com Everything You Need To Know About Software. Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:46:28 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 How to Set Up a Virtualization Server http://www.application-install-guide.com/how-to-set-up-a-virtualization-server/ http://www.application-install-guide.com/how-to-set-up-a-virtualization-server/#comments Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:18:39 +0000 Sean Mize http://www.application-install-guide.com/?p=479

By using a single physical server to run many virtual servers, you can decrease operational costs and get far more bang for your buck. Te best part? you can do it cheaply and easily. It’s impossible to buy a server today that isn’t multicore, but many small-business requirements don’t call for that much horsepower. Te end result is a relatively expensive physical server that does little but consumes power and generates heat. That’s why using a multi-core server, one with 4, 6, or 12 processing cores on a single CPU to host several virtual servers makes sense, no matter what size your company is.

Virtualization Server

Choosing a Host
The key to successfully virtualizing servers in a smaller environment starts with the physical host server. Tough it will be responsible for hosting possibly dozens of virtual servers, it will require far fewer CPU resources than you may think.

Depending on the virtualization sofware (aka the hypervisor) that you use, you will likely be able to run a surprising number of virtual servers on a four or six-core CPU. Te reason for this is that generally most servers run near idle a large portion of the time. When they are tasked with work, their resources tend to be spread out among the CPU, RAM, disk, and network input/output, with only a subset of the virtual servers requiring significant CPU resources. By taking advantage of this law of averages, you can consolidate multiple physical servers onto a single host server.


That isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, however. Some servers, such as database servers, run heavier loads more consistently, and may not be suitable candidates for virtualization in a smaller infrastructure. It all depends on the hardware resources available to the host server, on the virtualization sofware features, and on the requirements of the virtual server. Fortunately, setting up and testing these requirements beforehand isn’t difficult.

In choosing the hardware, a good rule of thumb is that having more cores in the host server trumps having higher clock speeds; if your choice is between, say, a 4-core CPU running at 2.93GHz and a 6-or 12-core CPU running at 2.4GHz, you’ll be better off with the latter. The capability to spread the virtual-server load across more CPU cores typically translates into faster, more consistent performance across all the virtual machines.

Virtualization Server

Virtualization hosts can always use more RAM, so be sure to get as much as you can, and to select the fastest type available. It is relatively straightforward to oversubscribe CPU resources to allocate more virtual CPUs to the virtual servers than physically exist within the host server but it’s far more difficult to oversubscribe RAM. The more RAM you have, the more virtual machines you can run.

In smaller environments you may not have a storage area network or a network-attached storage device to hold the virtual server images, so the host server will be responsible for the task. In that case, more disks are better, within reason. For general purposes, SATA drives in a RAID 5 or RAID 6 array will suffice, although SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) drives will always provide increased performance.

Virtualization software

Virtualization Server

As for the sofware, you have some free choices. The free VMware Server runs atop Windows or Linux. It isn’t a baremetal hypervisor in that it relies on the underlying OS to provide key requirements for operation. It isn’t as fast or as fluid as other types of hypervisor, but it is usually easy to install and use. For a completely cost-free approach, consider installing Linux on the server and running the Linux version of VMware Server. Otherwise, installing a licensed copy of Windows Server 2003 or 2008 and running the Windows version of VMware Server is an alternative.

VMware also has a free, bare-metal hypervisor, VMware ESXi. It’s built on the same baseline as VMware’s larger, expensive ofierings and provides stable and responsive virtualization, but it has some constraints as to the hardware it can run on.

Microsof’s Hyper-V

Microsoft Hyper-V may be a good flt for Windows-oriented networks. Technically it isn’t free, as it requires purchasing Windows Server 2008 R2, but it has a simple interface and is well integrated into the OS. If the virtual servers that will run on the host are Windows Server 2008 as well, you may flnd the licensing attractive. Buying one copy of Windows Server 2008 R2 permits the running of up to four virtual Windows Server 2008 servers, for the price of a single license.

you’ll also flnd other options, such as Citrix’s XenServer. The free version has features that may not be in VMware’s free ofierings, such as multiserver management. XenServer isn’t as mainstream as the others, but it can be downloaded and in stalled for free, and it does not need an underlying OS or OS license.

Continue for more info:
Mastering VMware vSphere 4
VMware vSphere 4 Administration Instant Reference
VMware ESX Server: Advanced Technical Design Guide
WIN SVR 2008 HYPER V RESOURCE KIT

]]> http://www.application-install-guide.com/how-to-set-up-a-virtualization-server/feed/ 0 Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-21 http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-21/ http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-21/#comments Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:00:00 +0000 Sean Mize http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-21/ ]]> http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-21/feed/ 1 Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-14 http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-14/ http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-14/#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:00:00 +0000 Sean Mize http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-14/ ]]> http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-14/feed/ 1 Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-07 http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-07/ http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-07/#comments Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:00:00 +0000 Sean Mize http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-07/ ]]> http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-07/feed/ 0 Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-31 http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-31/ http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-31/#comments Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:00:00 +0000 Sean Mize http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-31/ ]]> http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-31/feed/ 0 Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-24 http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-24/ http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-24/#comments Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:00:00 +0000 Sean Mize http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-24/ ]]> http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-24/feed/ 0 Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-17 http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-17/ http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-17/#comments Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:00:00 +0000 Sean Mize http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-17/ ]]> http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-17/feed/ 0 Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-10 http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-10/ http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-10/#comments Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:00:00 +0000 Sean Mize http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-10/ ]]> http://www.application-install-guide.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-10/feed/ 1 Top Web Development Mistakes http://www.application-install-guide.com/top-web-development-mistakes/ http://www.application-install-guide.com/top-web-development-mistakes/#comments Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:52:36 +0000 Sean Mize http://www.application-install-guide.com/top-web-development-mistakes/

The face of most businesses today isn’t the CEO or the founder or a spokesperson; it’s the company Web site. Given that, one would think that businesses would spend a lot of time and effort putting their best face forward, but that often isn’t the case. Many company Web sites, and the Web applications offered to customers, are riddled with bugs, flaws and outright errors that can make a top-flight business look like a cheap amateur. Here, I’ve compiled a list of the worst mistakes being made by Web developers today. Don’t let this happen to you.

Too Many Click
This is great that someone is at your site, and he’s ready to make a purchase. Here he goes: One click, two clicks, three clicks and just one more! And he’s gone. Maybe if he could have gotten to where he wanted to go right away, you would have made a sale.

Hide Behind Graphics
It’s great that new Web technologies make it possible to add lots of cool new navigation and interaction techniques. But don’t hide access to important features and content behind an unintuitive graphic or icon

Overly Graphics Intensive
Filling your site with Web content that contains massive image files and graphics will put off everyone but those with the fastest possible Internet connections.

Just Plain HTML Link
Scripting languages make it possible to do lots of cool things in Web design. But don’t use it when an HTML link will work just fine and more reliably.


Flashy Flashy
Animation is great when it comes to Saturday morning cartoons. On the Web, too many animations, Flashy graphics, spinning graphs and windows popping in your face is sort of like a sign saying, “Stay away.”

Simple Text Do Just Fine
Here’s a great idea for the budding Web site and application developer there’s this technology that makes it possible to display information to visitors and users. It’s called text! And, unlike images and animations, text will always show up.

Color Your Site
Whoa! I love the way the orange text looks on that purple background. Dude, that financial firm is just going to love this site design. Or not. Unless you’re designing for a jam band or some other client that likes wild colors, stick to color combos that are pleasing to everyone.

Easy Navigation
Users of your Web site shouldn’t need a trail guide. Make navigation clean and simple, and your company’s content will be easy to find.

Set Table for One
Tables are great! They provide so much flexibility when laying out Web content. But often, Web developers design them so they look nice at only one specific resolution and on only one specific browser. At other resolutions, yuck!

Get Sloppy With Text
“Wilcom too my grate neww web apliccatiun.” The greatest coding skills won’t help if your Web content is full of misspellings and poor grammar.

Put Up A Velvet Rope
Browser-specific Web sites and applications are so five years ago. And, on that same note, making your content available only to those who register is like telling people to get lost.

Take The Web Out of Web Site
You want your site to be content-rich, but it should be filled with content that people can actually view with a browser. The occasional link to a PDF or Word document is OK, but don’t go overboard.

Overcrowd Your Site
When someone says, “It was like finding a needle in a haystack,” it’s not a compliment. On the Web, too, many links and other components can make it hard for visitors to find the content they want.

]]> http://www.application-install-guide.com/top-web-development-mistakes/feed/ 0 Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 http://www.application-install-guide.com/microsoft-virtual-pc-2007/ http://www.application-install-guide.com/microsoft-virtual-pc-2007/#comments Fri, 22 Jun 2007 23:08:16 +0000 Sean Mize http://www.application-install-guide.com/microsoft-virtual-pc-2007/

Your legacy applications won’t work under Windows Vista? Run it under an older operating system you’ve loaded into Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (VPC 07). The utility may not be quite as full-featured as VMware Workstation, but it has one big advantage, because it’s free!

VPC 07 runs under Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate, plus XP Professional and Tablet Edition, but not Vista Home or XP Home. You can install nearly any PC-compatible OS inside its virtual machines, though. I got DOS 6.22, Red Hat Linux, Windows 95, Windows 98, and two instances of XP working. The virtual machines can all read the system’s CD and DVD drives and can take turns using the floppy disk drive. But for USB support, you need a competitor: VMware or Parallels Workstation.

Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac 7.0

VPC can save and restore a VM’s state but has nothing like VMware’s multiple snapshots. It does have an equivalent to VMware’s “linked clone” feature, and wizards ease the creation of VMs and disks. All told, I found VPC 07 intuitive and stocked with everything casual users need to manage programs that don’t like Vista.

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