Dugie’s Pensieve

So you run Virtual Machines huh?  Ok, it’s time for a bit of silly fun and take the purity test  :)

Here are 7 simple questions, all you have to do is truthfully answer yes or no:

1. Have I ever run my VMs from a USB hard drive or second physical disk?
2. Have I ever defragmented the file system inside my VM?
3. Have I ever defragmented the pagefile inside my VM?
4. Have I ever defragmented the VHD file on the host?
5. Have I ever defragmented the pagefile on my host?
6. Do I have the [updated] VM Additions installed in my VM?
7. Have I ever configured anti-virus scanning to exclude VHD files on the host?

*grins sheepishly*   So come on, do tell - what did you get?  Leave comments

….Bonus points for anyone who quotes the movie/actor “Ignorance is bliss“  :)

UPDATE:  For those coming from Long’s blog, the super-deluxe list of tweaks is here http://shrinkster.com/h4e  and here http://shrinkster.com/hbm  :)

Oh Jeff, thankyou thankyou thankyou !!!  You’ve nailed it nicely:

[the] biggest performance win is to put the virtual hard disks on separate disk spindles from the operating system. The biggest performance hit in virtual machines is disk I/O. Making the VM fight with your OS and swap disk makes this issue much, much worse. Additionally, today’s USB 2.0 and firewire external hard drives run on a fast interface bus, have large buffers and spin at 7,200 rpm, as opposed to 4,200 rpm for most laptop hard drives.

Still not covinced?  Then read Jeff’s full post “The Single Most Important Virtual Machine Performance Tip” — and treat yourself to a USB caddy and fast drive for Christmas.

Today (in keeping the tradition), I’ve had to install Fedora Core 6 with the recently updated Virtual Machine Additions for Linux.  In summary it just kinda worked - a glitch with the installer insisting on using too many colours.  But it worked:

On a side note:  “KB 917437 Third-party operating systems supported with Virtual Server” was updated today, a snippet is below:

Microsoft plans on making Virtual Machine Additions for Linux guest operating systems available as a free download.

I missed this one?!  The Virtual Machine Additions for Linux were updated to version 1.1 last week on the 16/10/2006.

You can download the additions from Microsoft Connect and the following flavours are supported:

Enterprise distributions
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 (update 6)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (update 6)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9

Standard distributions
Red Hat Linux 7.3
Red Hat Linux 9.0
SuSE Linux 9.2
SuSE Linux 9.3
SuSE Linux 10.0
 

 

Anil Desai has published five “From the ground up” guides for Microsoft VirtualServer:

• Installing Virtual Server 2005
• Creating your first virtual machine
• Installing a guest operating system
• Configuring virtual networks
• Comparing Virtual Server with Virtual PC

They would convert quite nicely to a blogcast.  Anyway I’ll sit down and compare them with my own guides in the next few days:

• Install Guide for Virtual Server
• Build guide for Virtual Machines

Well it’s true.  Earlier this month I stumbled across a nifty search site Ms. Dewey.com (you should check it out, Tony Soper has a list of key words that give some cool results)

Anyway, if you refresh the page using F5, Ms Dewey will cycle through the following “Intros”, the best is last.

• Page 3, Green Peanuts
• Space flight innuendo
• [War Strategies] Pay no attention
• [Counting] Sorry, preparing Dinner
• Madam Secretary, reasons for peace
• Headphones
• [Sharpening a knife], Perfect
• She’s a beauty - Power and Control is intoxicating; What are you passionate about
   

Yup, Ms Dewey got it one - and if I’m not mistaken, I’m pretty sure she’s a 749 (the Ducati that is).

Kinda cool huh?

Well not really - I’m just really busy at the moment, hence the lack of blogging:

Items on my to blog list when things settle down:

• Mmm, Ducati - Kleefy is checking one out at the moment, check it out too
• Ms Dewey rides a ducati too - show you tomorrow
• Jeffa was up in Brisbane presenting Exchange 12 and NAP - cool
• The Next Brisbane Infrastructure Group meets Novemeber 7 - Lee is presenting Forefront
• Other stuff, cover tomorrow.

Back soon!

For a while I was struggling to find the perfect phone pda combo - then I found my KJam.

I’m in love!!  It’s perfect for sifting out my thoughts Saturday morning over coffee.

But it was this week it really won me over.  This week has been busier than usual, and I don’t think I would have survived it without my trusty KJam.  For instance this week my Kjam has let me:

• Get my time sheets up to date using Outlook - whilst waiting in the carpark,
• E-mail followup for items due during the week - waiting for train
• Take notes during the Softricity breakfast
• Take photos of the Venue I’m speaking at next week - e-mail the photos straight thru to our PR Manager
• Prioritise my tasks for the rest of the week - Waiting for customer
• Clean up my inbox - Waiting for servers to multi-reboot
• Get my time sheets up to date again - waiting in foyer for customer
• Review my slide deck for next week - waiting at shopping centre
• and so many other things to numerous to mention here

But the coolest thing this week - capture that perfect photo of Cameron eyeing of a Cappuccino:

Ok, so this is old news.  MSDN Subscriptions has a pre-built Virtual Machine for Visual Studio 2005 Team System.  (Shazam! as Davo would say). 

Anyway it may be old news, but it’s GREAT news.  I’m hoping it’s a sign of some bigger things to come for Microsoft IT Pro and Developer Communities  Sure it’s only for the Developer crowd at the moment, but who knows.  Maybe soon we’ll be able to collaborate an built awesome VMs that we can share within the confines of our MSDN or TechNet subscription — what an amazing enabler that would be

The VMware community have really got behind their Virtual Appliances, and the results are amazing — check it out.

So if the Microsoft Fairy God Mother is still listening, thankyou.  Bring on the Virtual Machine lovin’

Techvalue:  none         Lifelesson:  High

I saw a very bad thing happen today, it involved a bloke my age, on a motorcycle, in the rain –  and it could have been avoided with “Pre-emptive Learning”.  Let me quickly explain.

Brisbane has bad traffic at the moment, it happens when a major arterial is shut without warning.  Traffic is typically so bad, it take a hour to travel a few blocks.  Scooters and Motorcycles get some relief from this, but not much.  Following this reasoning, I’m seeing more people on motorbikes who would normally only ride only on the weekends.   …this is is where the bad things happen, and brings me to now.

This afternoon on the way home, I saw this guy loose power, veer his bike through traffic, off the road, and take a tumble.  He was ok [the bike survived, minus an indicator and partial ferring]. 

His problem:  Hadn’t ridden in months, ran out of fuel, couldn’t find his reserve fuel, panicked, and fell off.  A few moments to check “fuel switch is above my left knee”, and it could have all been avoided if he’d made a memory map before riding.  (I’m an associative learner, so I tend to use memory maps). 

Anyway, there is no deeper meaning to all of this.  To my fellow scooter or bike riders; new or old, I recommend reading “The Master Strategy Group“.  They have a wealth of tips and life savers.

Stay safe and upright!