Deze week hebben we onze eerste Detron bloggers borrel gehouden waar we, onder het genot van een hapje en drankje, uitvoerig met elkaar hebben gesproken over de meest uiteenlopende onderwerpen rondom het schrijven, onderhouden en publiceren van blogs plus overige technische artikelen en aanverwante als whitepapers, infographic ‘s, survey ‘s, presentaties en meer.
New in AOS 5.0: Nutanix Acropolis File Services
It is hard to come up with a topic to write about when it comes to the Nutanix product portfolio. For one, there is just too much to choose from. I mean, just have a look at the list of features they introduced with the release of AOS 5.0 and it will get your head spinning. Secondly, their own documentation is just outstanding. Their product fact-sheets, website and of course Steven Poitras’s The Nutanix Bible, which contains just about everything you might want to about Nutanix and the bits and bytes involved. Never mind the endless list of community (Blog) rock stars working for or surrounding the company.
Citrix XenApp single machine setup – Cheap, fast and supported!
We all know that Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop are both well established within larger enterprises. Smaller companies however, also often rely on Citrix (using XenApp mostly) to securely deliver their applications and/or desktops to their end-users. Today I would like to focus on how to deliver XenApp hosted applications and desktops while minimizing costs and maximizing both performance and manageability. Note that this is not going to be a Microsoft RDSH vs. Citrix debate, instead I will assume that XenApp licenses are already in-place.
Citrix Machine Creation Services… What to consider!
Since this will officially be my first blog post as a Citrix CTP, I would like to start by thanking everybody for your support during the last couple of years and of course for all the congratulations and well wishes I have received since the official announcement last week. It has been a truly wonderful experience! Having said that, let’s get back on topic. This is not going to be a MCS vs. PVS kind of blog post; there are plenty of good ones out there already, instead I will assume that you already choose MCS over PVS. However, while the choice has been made you still have some doubts as to weather MCS is up to the task at hand. Throughout this post I will summarize some things to think about and questions to ask when and before implementing Citrix MCS.
Being a Nutanix (NTC) Technology Champion… What is it all about?
Being a Nutanix Technology Champion, NTC in short, is something special. Let me, throughout this post, try and provide you with some insights on what to expect once you’re ‘in’, so to speak. Although I can’t compare it to any of the other ‘programs’ out there, since this is the first time my efforts got recognized in such a way, I’m confident that they’re doing a more than decent job in keeping their community members up to speed with all that is going on within the company and everything that surrounds it.
Sh*t just got real… The Nutanix Platform Expert Program!
Last week Nutanix launched their flagship certification program, the Nutanix Platform Expert. Let me start by pointing out that the NPX program is not ‘just’ another IT certification and that it’s not to be taken lightly by any means. It is set out to become, and I quote, the most rigorous technical qualification in enterprise computing. NPX candidates are expected to have a considerable amount of IT industry (hands-on) experience and to be expert technologists, consultants, and solution architects with portfolios of work reflecting this expertise, with a strong focus on hyper-converged architectures. And no, I’m not trying to scare you. Curious? Learn more about the Nutanix Platform Expert (NPX) program they’ll gladly provide you with everything you want or need to know.
Powered by Nutanix! Check out the new Dell hyper-converged XC series!
Back in June, the 24th to be exact, Nutanix announced their global (OEM) agreement with Dell. Here’s what Nutanix had to say about it back then “This strategic Relationship Significantly Expands Access and Distribution of Nutanix Solutions with Dell’s World-Class Hardware, Services and Marketing” Today at Dell World they revealed the new Dell XC Series, Web-scale Converged Appliances equipped with Nutanix Software. The general availability date is set for next week at November the 11th.
Block vs file level storage, VMware VMFS, NTFS and some of the protocols involved.
During the past few months I have spend a considerable amount of time looking at various storage related topics. Among others I discussed Web Scale technology as part of converged and software defined architectures, with Nutanix being one of the main vendors, next I also took a, somewhat, deeper dive into the wondrous world of IOPS where I talked about some of their characteristics and ways to potentially enhance performance and the end user experience, which are still two of the main concerns when dealing with these bad boys. Throughout this article I want to take a closer look at some of the differences between block vs file level storage, the accompanying file systems, the different protocols used, potential block sizes and some of the characteristics of VMware VMFS in particular.
The ultimate IOPS cheat sheet!
Lately I’ve seen a lot of talk about IOPS, we need as many as possible and as such we are constantly on the look out for new ways to boost performance. No matter what kind of infrastructure we build, virtual or physical, or what ever products we use, in the end it all comes down to the end user experience. Topics often relate to flash like storage solutions, converged infrastructures, Citrix provisioning services, Machine Creation Services, or a combination of the above.
Installing and configuring Citrix XenDesktop on the Nutanix computing platform!
Have you checked out the ‘Citrix XenDesktop on Nutanix’ reference architecture solution design document?! No? You should! The Citrix Validated Solution (CVS) provides prescriptive guidance for these components including design, configuration and deployment settings thereby allowing customers to quickly deploy a desktop virtualization solution using Citrix XenDesktop. Validation was performed by extensive testing using Login VSI to simulate real-world workloads and determine optimal configuration for the integration of components that make up the overall solution. Everything in the solution document has been installed, configured, tested and verified by the Citrix Consulting APAC team. Can’t wait? Scroll down!