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Virtualization FAQs

by Greg Shields

Q: After what events will a vSphere Storage DRS imbalance calculation be automatically invoked?

By Greg Shields, 02/01/2012

VMware vSphere 5's Storage DRS load balancing runs by default every eight hours and is also triggered by these events.

Q: How often is vSphere Storage DRS's imbalance calculation invoked?

By Greg Shields, 02/01/2012

By default, the I/O load-balancing algorithm used by Storage DRS is invoked every eight hours; VMware recommends against changing this default.

Q: Why are affinity rules important in vSphere Storage DRS?

By Greg Shields, 01/31/2012

Affinity rules in Storage DRS ensure VM disk files with special use cases either stay together or are always separate.

Q: Can upgrading VMFS datastores from VMFS-3 to VMFS-5 create problems?

By Greg Shields, 01/27/2012

Because of differences in partition block sizes between vSphere 4 and vSphere 5, VMware recommends creating new volumes rather than upgrading existing ones.

Q: What latency thresholds make good starting points for invoking VMware Storage DRS?

By Greg Shields, 01/25/2012

VMware Storage DRS can help load balance VM disk files; for best performance, use these guidelines for setting the I/O latency threshold.

Q: What kinds of load balancing does VMware Storage DRS support?

By Greg Shields, 01/24/2012

VMware vSphere 5's Storage DRS is designed to assist in two high-level load balancing use cases.

Q: How can VMware Player be useful for employee VPN connections?

By Greg Shields, 01/20/2012

You can use VMware Player to create a template VM that will automate VPN connections for your end users.

Q: Can you use VMware Player to resolve application incompatibility problems in Windows 7?

By Greg Shields, 01/18/2012

VMware Player's Unity feature can provide legacy applications through a VM to Windows 7.

Q: Are VMware's vSphere HA and Storage DRS supported in a mixed-version cluster?

By Greg Shields, 01/17/2012

You should ensure that all hosts in a VMware vSphere cluster are upgraded before enabling new features and functionality such as vSphere HA or Storage DRS.

Q: Where have Teams gone in VMware Workstation 8?

By Greg Shields, 01/13/2012

VMware Workstation 8 doesn't include the Teams feature but you can get shared startup and shutdown settings as well as LAN segments by grouping VMs in folders.

Q. How can I improve responsiveness in low-bandwidth conditions for a Citrix XenDesktop VM?

By Greg Shields, 12/23/2011

Citrix XenDesktop includes policy settings for graphics compression that can improve responsiveness but results in lower-quality graphics.

Q: I'm having problems PXE booting a Hyper-V VM. What am I missing?

By Greg Shields, 12/21/2011

Booting Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs) via the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) requires booting that computer from its network card, and specifically a legacy network adapter.

Q: What Citrix policies can improve poor VoIP audio in XenDesktop?

By Greg Shields, 12/20/2011

Citrix XenDesktop can send and receive audio content in a lossy format by using UDP Real-time Transport when the quality is unacceptable at the medium audio quality setting.

Q: How is Flash Redirection for Internet Explorer (IE) enabled on Citrix XenApp 6.5 or XenDesktop 5.5?

By Greg Shields, 12/16/2011

Citrix HDX MediaStream Flash Redirection enables the Citrix HDX MediaStream Flash Redirection enables the relocation of Adobe Flash content processing from the XenApp server to ...

Q: What Windows Firewall ports does Citrix XenDesktop use to communicate with its VMs?

By Greg Shields, 12/14/2011

Learn what ports and feature to enable to support Cirtrix XenDesktop services with Windows Firewall.


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