Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Virtualisation

VMware:
VMware Server installs on any existing server hardware and partitions a physical server into multiple virtual machines by abstracting processor, memory, storage and networking resources, giving you greater hardware utilization and flexibility.
A virtual machine runs operating systems and applications
just like a physical server. However, virtual machines offer
users many advantages over physical servers.

Virtual machines:
• Are hardware independent and run on any x86 physical server.
• Can access all physical host hardware resources such as CPU,
memory, disk, networking and peripherals.
• Are saved as files and can be provisioned and moved quickly.
• Are completely isolated and secure.
• Can run simultaneously and safely on the same physical server.
• Are portable, so full systems including virtual hardware, operating
systems and fully configured applications can be easily moved
from one physical server to another, even while
in operation.
• Can be built and distributed as plug-and-play virtual appliances
that contain the entire stack of virtual hardware, operating
system and fully configured software applications.

Which all OS supported:
Run Windows, Linux, Solaris and Netware operating
systems and applications on the same physical server.

Options present on VMWare Server Console:
1) Create a new VM machine
2) Open existing VM
3) Switch Host
4) Configure Host


Options:
Start VM
Edit Virtual machine settings:
Memory allocation.
Hard disc details
CD-Rom details
Ethernet: Network connection
Processors

Change VM name
Various power options,
Enable disable snapshot option
VM permissions, startup/power off options
Running a Virtual Machine with Debugging Information
Disabling Acceleration to Assist with Running Certain Software in a Virtual Machine
Disabling Memory Page Trimming
Logging Virtual Machine Progress Periodically
Hotkey option:
Preferences--à Hot Key tab.
Take Snapshot:
Menu-àSnapshot-à Take Snapshot


============================================================================
Created VM image will have following files:
============================================================================
What Files Make Up a Virtual Machine?
============================================================================
You may never need to know the file names or locations for your virtual machine files. Virtual machine file management is performed by VMware Workstation. If the behind the scenes file structure is not interesting to you, skip this section.
A virtual machine typically is stored on the host computer in a set of files, usually in a directory created by Workstation for that specific virtual machine.
The key files are listed here by extension. In these examples, is the name of your virtual machine

============================================================================
Extension

.log

Filename:
.log
or
vmware.log

Description:
This is the file that keeps a log of key VMware Workstation activity. This file can be useful in troubleshooting if you encounter problems. This file is stored in the directory that holds the configuration (.vmx) file of the virtual machine.

============================================================================
Extension
.nvram

Filename:
.nvram
or
nvram

Description:
This is the file that stores the state of the virtual machine's BIOS.

============================================================================
Extension
.vmdk

Filename:
.vmdk


Description:
This is a virtual disk file, which stores the contents of the virtual machine's hard disk drive.
A virtual disk is made up of one or more .vmdk files. If you have specified that the virtual disk should be split into 2GB chunks, the number of .vmdk files depends on the size of the virtual disk. As data is added to a virtual disk, the .vmdk files grow in size, to a maximum of 2GB each. (If you specify that all space should be allocated when you create the disk, these files start at the maximum size and do not grow.) Almost all of a .vmdk file's content is the virtual machine's data, with a small portion allotted to virtual machine overhead.
If the virtual machine is connected directly to a physical disk, rather than to a virtual disk, the .vmdk file stores information about the partitions the virtual machine is allowed to access.
Earlier VMware products used the extension .dsk for virtual disk files.

============================================================================
Filename:
-<###>.vmdk

Description:
This is a redo-log file, created automatically when a virtual machine has one or more snapshots. This file stores changes made to a virtual disk while the virtual machine is running. There may be more than one such file. The ### indicates a unique suffix added automatically by VMware Workstation to avoid duplicate file names.

============================================================================
Extension
.vmsd

Filename:
.vmsd

Description:
This is a centralized file for storing information and metadata about snapshots.

============================================================================
Extension
.vmsn

Filename:
-Snapshot.vmsn

Description:
This is the snapshot state file, which stores the running state of a virtual machine at the time you take that snapshot

FileName:
-Snapshot<###>.vmsn

Description:
This is the file which stores the state of a snapshot

============================================================================
Extension
.vmss

Filename:
.vmss

Description:
This is the suspended state file, which stores the state of a suspended virtual machine
.Some earlier VMware products used the extension .std for suspended state files

============================================================================
Extension
.vmtm

Filename:
.vmtm

Description:
This is the configuration file containing team data.

============================================================================
Extension
.vmx

Filename:
.vmx

Description:
This is the primary configuration file, which stores settings chosen in the New Virtual Machine Wizard or virtual machine settings editor. If you created the virtual machine under an earlier version of VMware Workstation on a Linux host, this file may have a .cfg extension


============================================================================
Extension
.vmxf

Filename:
.vmxf

Description:
This is a supplemental configuration file for virtual machines that are in a team. Note that the .vmxf file remains if a virtual machine is removed from the team.

There can be other files in the directory, some of which are present only while a virtual machine is running.
============================================================================

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Vista Certification for your application:



Benefits:

Improves overall application security,

Application will run properly when OS upgraded,

Run properly on diff configs and architectures.




To get it Certified do following things:

Follow UAC guidelines

sign files

sign drivers

Perform Version checking

Follow antimalware policies

Avoid loading services and drivers in safe mode.