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I've just rebuilt the IPCopvirtual machine to include updated versions of URLFilter and ADVProxy. Original Details here: http://www.vmwarez.com/2005/12/ipcop-test-rig.html

More info on IPCopand these add-ons can be found here:
IPCop
Addons:
URLFilter
ADVProxy
Calamaris
BlockOutTraffic

You can download this vm here. (about 40mb)

Here's a list of the six install notes I took while installing VMware Server on my PC. I already had Workstation installed along with the remote console program for ESX. So the first one may not be relevant to you.

• Note 1 - System Prep - Uninstall Older VMware Apps
• Note 2 - FYI
• Note 3 - Gotta have IIS
• Notes 4 & 5 - Almost there...
• Note 6 - XP workaround is here.

These notes were taken while installing the second beta. I'll go through and update them when the product is released. For now I don't think anything is different... should work just fine.

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Join VMware and Akimbi as we explore the benefits of virtualizing and automating the test lab, specifically as it relates to the provisioning of the complex configurations required in today’s test/dev organizations.

It will also explore the relationship between Akimbi and VMware and look at these industry's leaders' perception of best practices for building and managing your automated virtual lab. See how these technologies bring IT and test/dev organizations a solution to solve these issues:

• Painfully slow configuration and deployment of test environments


• Difficulty configuring test environments to be "as close as possible to production"


• Challenges in reproducing bugs delays the delivery (or compromises the quality) of your software


• Excessive servers, networking equipment and other resources are sprawled throughout the organization - yet you always seem to need more to support all the environments required to complete testing

This webcast is a must see for any IT or engineering professional responsible for the set-up and tear down of test/dev environments.

Click Here to view it.

For some reason, this server goes crazy about once a week. I think it has something to do with the statistics software. We're looking at moving that to its own server one of these days. This software we use has about 3 or 4 different services that run and is not the easiest thing to restart. So, when it goes nuts, we just reboot the server. I think they are planning a simpler restart function for the next version. Besides that, though, I am a firm believer in rebooting servers weekly. I know that will make some of you Linux guys think I'm crazy, but that is just the way I am. I will go into more details as to my reasoning later.

If this were a physical server, it may be worth the 10 minutes or so to wait for the prompts and go through all the trouble of restarting the stats software rather than rebooting. I say 10 minutes because that's how long it seems to take a physical machine to boot... I've not timed one, so I don't have an exact number, but it goes something like this on a Dell:

• BIOS – 15 to 30 seconds or more depending on the amount of RAM
• Adaptec BIOS – 15 seconds, easy
• PERC RAID BIOS – 30 more seconds unless you have to wait for the drives to spin up.. then you're looking at a minute or so.
• Remote Management BIOS – another 30 seconds
• Boot OS

On a virtual machine, it goes like this:

• BIOS – 5 seconds
• Boot OS

I am in the habit of starting a consistent ping while waiting for a server to reboot. That way I would have an idea of about when to expect it to be operational again. At times, when rebooting physical servers, I get nervous waiting and watching the ping responses. The server room is down stairs and on the other side of the building and often I don't feel like going there just to watch it reboot – unless there are problems. Also, we don't have an IP KVM, so I can't see the console of our physical servers when they reboot – unless I go to the server room.

Enter the virtualized server: We didn't spend the $$ on an IP KVM because we have VMware's Virtual Center. The console for each virtual machine is a window on my PC.... but that's off topic. What I really want to show you is my ping window for rebooting this server:



This is Windows 2003 Server Standard running in a virtual machine on a Dell 2850 Dual Xeon 3.6Ghz running VMware ESX 2.5.2.

This is one of the things that makes me love virtualization more and more every time I experience it.

Here's a collection of tools that I use on a day-to-day basis for managing my virtual infrastructure. There are more to come, so check back often, or just subscribe to the vmwarez web feed. If you have any tools that you find useful, please leave details in a comment. I'll add them to the list. So, here it goes:

• Putty & WinSCP
  Use these for SSHing to your Virtual Machines - and also for copying files to and from ESX
• VMware's Workstation Disk Mount Utility
  "With the VMware DiskMount utility, a VMware virtual disk file can be mounted as a Windows drive letter for read/write access to the files it contains."
• LC ISO Creator
  My new favorite ISO creator
• ISO Recorder
  This is for creating ISO files to use for your virtual machines
• Ultimate-P2V - A free P2V tool.
  With this one, you can migrate your physical machine to your virtual infrastructure.
• VMware's Virtual Machine Importer
  "This utility allows you to convert a Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Virtual Server virtual machine, or Symantec LiveState Recovery image, into a VMware Workstation 4 or 5 virtual machine (the original Virtual PC virtual machine is left untouched)."
• VM Back's Virtual Floppy Drive
  Lets you create, view and edit floppy drive images for use in your virtual infrastructure.