A VMware VM is a set of files containing all of the necessary information about a virtualized operating system. These files include the primary configuration file (.VMX), which keeps VM settings, the centralized file for storing information about VM snapshots (.VMSD) and other. The data of the VM is contained in the .VMDK file, the VMware virtual disk format. By way of analogy with physical servers, each VMware VM can have one or more virtual disks, which mean that your VM can contain several .VMDK files or otherwise said, can contain several “hard drives”.

In the virtualization and larger IT communities; one thing we all expect is change. That’s the case with 2013 here at Veeam. 2013 was an incredible year, with so much going on; it is very easy to have missed something along the way. Let’s take a look at the year in review here at Veeam.

Before installing any software, you need to become familiar with its system requirements so you’re sure that your computer has enough resources for optimal application function. For Veeam Backup & Replication, you need to decide if it should be installed on a physical or virtual machine.

Does Veeam recommend installing on a physical or virtual machine to its customers?

It depends on the virtual environment.

VMware vMotion is a vSphere feature that allows you to move a running VMware VM from one host to another, with no significant impact on your production environment. VMware vMotion was introduced in 2003 and is now a part of almost all VMware vSphere editions, except for vSphere Essentials Kit, which is designed for small virtual environments.

There are a number of scenarios when VMware vMotion might be helpful, starting with pre-defined hardware maintenance when you need to move your VMs to another ESX(i) host for a short period of time without downtime, and to proactive migration of live VMs away from underperforming servers. If your vSphere licensing includes VMware vMotion, congratulations, you are one lucky virtualization admin! But what should you ... Read more

Working in a team with amazing, passionate and smart people is always fantastic. And working in a team with people that discover and solve real-life IT problems is even better…

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 is a free hypervisor from Microsoft that delivers all the functionality of its “big brother” Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V. The difference? It’s free (the difference is the way you license the virtual machines on the host) and it comes in the Core version. The Core version has a lot of advantages such as a smaller (attack) footprint, less patching and less resources needed but the downside is that it doesn’t have ... Read more

A couple of weeks ago I was having some conversations with colleagues about typical IT Professional annoyances. The annoyance that we discussed was the yearly maintenance cycle that many companies still do between Christmas and New Year. (Although some of us prefer to do this over the yearly summer holiday period…).

Everybody in IT world has lived it, or heard about it. The yearly maintenance schedule that can break your holidays. But in today’s world, with great technologies, we should be able to avoid this.

The great thing about having this conversations with awesome colleagues is that you can come with a solution to this (recurring) problem quite quickly.

The solution? You can read about it in this TechNet UK article: Read more

Today we announced the general availability of Veeam Backup & Replication v7 R2. This is an important release because Veeam is the first backup and disaster recovery vendor to support BOTH vSphere 5.5 and Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V hypervisors. In addition, v7 R2 also includes full support for Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows 8.1 as a VMware or Hyper-V guest, as well as support for installing Veeam Backup & Replication components on these operating systems.

vSphere 5.5

If you’re registered on our forums then you’ve most likely seen the “Word from Gostev” that’s sent out every Sunday evening. A few weeks ago Anton pointed out an important requirement with vSphere 5.5. Starting with version 5.5, the vSphere API for Data ... Read more

Windows Server 2012 has been released on 4 September 2012. This version has brought a whole new Operating System with many new features, enhancements and more. In fact, the changes are so large that many IT Pros are still struggling with learning all those new items within Windows Server.

Last year, we wrote about a free tool for backing up virtual machines (VMs) in VMware and Hyper-V environments – Veeam Backup Free Edition. Veeam recently released v7, an updated version that delivers important new features and capabilities. In this article, I’ll point out some powerful features you’ll find in the new version of Veeam Backup Free Edition.

When I wrote the Infographic, Veeam Backup & Replication v7: By the Numbers; I made a distinct effort to ensure that Backup Free Edition was well represented. In fact, I counted 12 powerful features by Backup Free Edition:

It was only last May that we proudly announced the Veeam Management Pack version 6 for VMware. The Veeam Management Pack v6 brought a lot of new and exciting features to managing and monitoring VMware in System Center. In fact, we took monitoring your VMware infrastructure to a whole new level.

The Veeam Management Pack brings deep VMware monitoring, management, forecasting and planning to Microsoft System Center, providing a unified view of physical and virtual infrastructures and applications from one console, so you can solve problems fast!

Through the Operations Manager console – your single pane of glass - the Veeam Management Pack leverages your Microsoft System Center investment to integrate VMware into application-to-metal management.

With the Veeam Management Pack you have today ... Read more