Archive | Uncategorized RSS feed for this section

EUC Sessions for VMworld 2016

11 May

Folks, I have submitted couple of sessions for the VMworld 2016. If you would like to see them go on stage then please vote! I highly recommend voting on other sessions which you might be interested in

How to Vote?
Create a Account on the VMworld 2016 website – https://www.vmworld.com/registration-create!input.jspa

Search in VMworld 2016 Cataloguehttp://www.vmworld.com/uscatalog.jspa

Direct Links to my session
http://www.vmworld.com/uscatalog.jspa?search=8244
http://www.vmworld.com/uscatalog.jspa?search=8265

How VMware IT Implemented App Volumes and Said Goodbye to Traditional Application Delivery [8244]

The traditional approach to application delivery and lifecycle management within the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) can be cumbersome and time consuming. The biggest challenge with this approach, is that it impedes the organization’s ability to be agile in times of change. In this session we will discuss how to size and architect Apps Volumes to deliver applications in real-time. We will explore the various application delivery methods such as App Stacks and Writable Volumes and best practices on integrating App Volumes with Horizon View for effective virtual desktops and application delivery with VMware.

Using EVO Software Defined Data Center for Managing VMware’s Horizon’s Automated Deployment and Lifecycle [8265]

VMware Horizon is leading the way for end-user computing. The latest version of Horizon introduced cutting-edge technologies in order to reduce the customers’ total cost of ownership (TCO). Combining Horizon with EVO Software Defined Data Center (EVO SDDC) allows the customer to easily deploy the desired right-sized Horizon View domain in an hour and enables further expansion as needed. In this session we will review the Horizon View architecture, the automation process, lifecycle management and EVO SDDC compute details.

Please Vote!

Thanks in advance,
Aresh Sarkari

Installing Horizon View Composer Server 6.2.2

16 Feb

In this blog post I will be capturing the steps involved in the installation of Composer Servers. The post is mainly for people who want to have a glance at the installation steps for Horizon 6 View Composer Server 6.2.2 – Build Number: 3505505

View experts please skip this post, if you are already familiar with the steps

Installation of Horizon View Composer Server

Step 1: Click on ‘Start’ search for the ‘ODBC Data Sources (64 bit)’

View-Composer

Step 2: Click ‘System DSN’ and select “Add’

View-Composer

Step 3: Select ‘SQL Server’ and click ‘Finish’

View-Composer

Step 4: Enter the ‘Name’, ‘Description’ and SQL Server ‘FQDN’ for the Composer Database. Note: Make sure you have pre-created the Composer DB on the SQL Server.

View-Composer

Step 5: Select the ‘SQL Server authentication’ and enter the local SQL Server account ‘Login ID’ and ‘Password’

View-Composer

Step 6: Select ‘Change the default DB’ and select the Composer Database from the drop-down list

View-Composer

Step 7: Leave the default and click on ‘Finish’

View-Composer

Step 8: Click on ‘Test Data Source’ and select ‘OK’ Make sure you see ‘Tested Successfully’

View-Composer

Step 9: Click ‘Ok’

View-Composer

Step 10: Right click on the Composer Server package and select ‘Run as Administrator’

View-Composer

Step 11: Click on ‘Next’.

View-Composer

Step 12: Click on ‘I accept the terms in the license agreement’ and select ‘Next’

View-Composer

Step 13: Leave the installation in the default directory and select ‘Next

View-Composer

Step 14: Enter the details of the DSN previously created and click on ‘Next’

View-Composer

Step 15: Leave the default port and click on ‘Next’

View-Composer

Step 16: Click on ‘Install’ to begin installing Composer Server

View-Composer

Step 17: Click on ‘Finish’

View-Composer

Step 18: It will prompt you to restart the Composer Server VM. Select ‘Yes’

View-Composer

Checkout the next blog post:
Installing Horizon View Connection Server 6.2.2 (Standard Server)
Installing Horizon View Connection Server 6.2.2 (Replica Server)

Thanks,
Aresh

“DATASWIPE” Application idea for the smartphones

5 Feb

Last month I submitted an idea @ Nokia Your Wish is my Command Contest. Unfortunately my idea was not selected due to poor responses of likes on Facebook since the user was required to allow Nokia application to access his or hers Facebook profiles and my dear techie friends refrained from doing that and did not caste votes for me.

On the lighter side I thought let me post this idea to my personal blog and see if there are any enthusiast to build an application which could be a solid Hit in the enterprise and consumer markets.

Challenges

There have been a lot of recent incidents in which group of data thieves spread across the country have been recovering data from old smartphones in which people think they have deleted all their data. But unfortunately these data robbers have been extracting people information and selling them to marketing\advertisement companies and adult websites with intimidating personal photos and videos.

In this modern era all smartphones have a lot of built-in storage of approx. 8-16-32 GB’s. The latest trend amongst the current generation is to change their smartphones every year. The 80% on the normal (technology challenged) end-user end up selling or exchanging phones by simply removing the SD card thinking they have all the personal data however, they forget that Smartphone has built-in 8-16-32 GB storage which might hold a lot of their other personal data. In the case of the remaining 20% extremely smart (technology champs) end-users they would perform a factory reset on the phone before selling or exchanging their phones in the market. The mindset is if you press the factory reset all the data is wiped and the phone behaves like new or out of the box.

With data privacy concerns this app will make sure the personal data is actually removed & irretrievable from the phone.

My App Idea: (AppName: DataSwipe)

My app would permanently wipe all data such as Files, Photos, Emails, Videos, Contacts, Music etc. from the phone flash storage/SD cards with a single click & even make it unrecoverable through any data recovery software. Ease of use & less complexity of the app will make it viable to consumers & enterprise markets.

Let me know, if you like this idea and point me to someone who would be interested in developing the same.

If you like this post please leave your comments down below.

Best Regards,
Aresh Sarkari

Technorati Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Windows Live Tags: Application,Last,Nokia,Wish,Command,Contest,responses,Facebook,user,caste,enthusiast,enterprise,consumer,Challenges,incidents,data,robbers,information,advertisement,photos,storage,trend,generation,technology,card,champs,users,factory,mindset,privacy,Idea,AppName,Files,Emails,Videos,Contacts,Music,cards,recovery,Ease,consumers,smartphones
WordPress Tags: Application,Last,Nokia,Wish,Command,Contest,responses,Facebook,user,caste,enthusiast,enterprise,consumer,Challenges,incidents,data,robbers,information,advertisement,photos,storage,trend,generation,technology,card,champs,users,factory,mindset,privacy,Idea,AppName,Files,Emails,Videos,Contacts,Music,cards,recovery,Ease,consumers,smartphones

Newly launched Lumia 920/820 phones running Windows Phone 8 –My thoughts straight from the Nokia NYC event

5 Sep

I finished watching the Nokia Lumia/Windows Phone 8 launch event. Two new phones hitting the market Lumia 920 and Lumia 820. My guess is the Lumia 920 will be for US/Europe region like the previous Lumia 900 and the Lumia 820 would be launched for the Asia Pacific region. Let me highlight some of the super-duper new features that Nokia has introduced in the new Lumia phones:
Lumia 820-920 on AskAresh
Super Sensitive Touch: A nice demo on the super sensitive touch showcasing the phone works with your fingers as well as with skiing gloves. Haven’t seen other touch phones that understand anything other than the finger touch or stylus.
Wireless Charging: This the coolest thing I have seen in the last couple of years. Simply put your Lumia phone on a wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors charging dock and the phone will start charging. Isn’t this super KOOL? The important question to be asked is how long does Wireless Charging take VS traditional charging.
In-built Near Field Communication (NFC): This technology has been in previous Nokia phones and finally it has landed in Lumia series too. This piece of technology will soon replace Bluetooth. The Nokia demo showcased wireless music streaming into a JBL audio speaker + Wireless charging simultaneously.
Nokia Music: This application was out from the Beta to mainstream 2-3 months back. Application provides access to free music without sign-up.
Pure View Camera: Brings the Image stabilization allowing the Lumia to absorb more light by keeping the aperture open for a longer time. The Nokia demo showcased pictures taken from a Galaxy S3 VS Lumia 920. Interesting comparison would have been against the iPhone 4S.  However,  I must say the Pure View camera quality was exceptional compared to its previous predecessors.
Lens Enhancements: Couple of new introductions as follows:

Object Remover – The Nokia demo showcased the following – Imagine taking a picture in the mall and you have people all around you while taking the picture. This feature allows you to remove all the unwanted people from the picture. It detects unwanted objects and allows you to remove them.

Image Cinematography – Suppose you are capturing a memorable moment and you want the capture to be more than an ordinary picture. This feature allows you to capture some dynamic moments such as a waving flag in the background or a special expression such as shake hand or a kiss you were giving by taking the picture. All you appear moving in the picture.

Steve Ballmer mentioned by next year same time there would be 400 million Windows 8 devices (Phones, Tablets and Laptop/Desktop) used and it will be the single most lucrative opportunity for the Windows 8 Developers.
If you like this post please leave your comments.
Best Regards,
Aresh Sarkari

New Gadget Nokia Play 360 – Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

27 Aug

I recently purchased the Nokia Play 360 wireless/wired (3.5mm jack) Bluetooth speaker which produces enough sound to fill one room.

WP_000003

Blue Color Rs. 8300/- from Nokia Concept Store in IndiraNagar, Bangalore, India

My Review:

Superb quality of sound especially on the low frequencies which is surprising for such a portable device. During my research phase, I saw a lot of videos which compared the Logitech BoomBox (Price Rs. 3900/-), Jambox (NA in India) and Bose SoundLink (Price Rs. 20,000/-). As we all know Bose is a different animal with different pricing all together. I did hear the demo of it at the Bose store but I still feel the Nokia’s low frequency is superb. As far as Battery backup is concern Nokia states 21 hours however, in real-life its 15-16 hours only.

I tested the Nokia Play 360 against the following devices Bluetooth devices: Nokia Lumia 800, iPad 2, Funbook Pro, Old Nokia Phone and Sa,sung Galaxy S2 and all devices played beautiful music

The Bluetooth range is approx. 10 meters without any walls. The Nokia Play 360 comes along with a wall mount charger, 3.5 mm male-2-male jack and a super sexy cover black cover.

WP_000002

Conclusion:
All-in-all it’s a good portable audio speaker with nice sound quality which you can carry along anywhere you wish and play music in any room without worrying where the source is located physically.

If you like this review leave your comments in the comments sections.

Best Regards,
Aresh Sarkari

Building a home lab a.k.a Monster Machine in Bangalore, India–Purpose Virtualization

27 Mar

The last time I spent Rs. 64,000/- on a laptop HP DV9830us was back in 2007 (Fry’s Store, in Texas) on which my original plan was to run virtual machine and utilize it for personal use (Gaming, movies, surfing etc.). Back in 2007, I got a very decent configuration of  Intel Duo Core 1.8 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, 512 NVidia Dedicated Graphics, Blue-ray player and hi-definition 17” screen. The whole purpose of the laptop got defeated when I returned back to India and figured out that BIOS is locked down by HP and doesn’t have the feature of Intel-VT and Intel-XD and cannot utilize the potential of this machine. (It is definitely me to blame as I got carried away in the store and made the purchase without doing research)

Recently, I started getting this feeling of building a home machine, so that I can test all the latest products from Microsoft, Citrix and Quest and learn all the new stuff along with creating a lot of useful material for myself and other techies. Though our companies would invest a lot of money in buying machine for building POC however, it always involves a lot of complexity (multiple RDP sessions just to get into the server and mother of all latency issues) in accessing and utilizing the machines Sad smile.

What do I plan to build on this Machine?

I plan to install Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition for starters then later on move to Windows 8 Server Beta using Hyper-V 3.0 or even try Windows 8 Client with Hyper-V and then create a lot of VM’s of various technologies. At all point in time my setup would have at least 6-8 VM’s running so there is going to be a lot of CPU and Memory utilization on the machine.

How about going with a OEM Manufacturer?

I thought rather than investing my time in building the ideal configuration why not buy something out of the box like a Dell or HP Workstation but to my surprise all of the OEM are super expensive nothing less than 1.75 to 2 lacs. All the OEM in the Workstation series typically have the machines starting from the price range of Rs. 85,000/- however, the moment you start adding more RAM, better processor and HDD space the prices shoots up.

My Research & Aresh’s Configuration or Plan for 2012:

My quest begins to research on building a decent performance machine. Remember, I missed this step last time during my laptop purchase Smile. I shortlisted on certain brands and products as follows:

CPU: Undoubtedly the Intel CPU came to my mind just that I am very comfortable and implemented a lot of Intel based implementations

Intel® Core™ i7-3930K Processor  (12M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz) = Rs. 33,000/-

Intel® Core™ i7-2700K Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.90 GHz)

Note: I have to purchase the CPU fan extra as it doesn’t come along with the original Intel Processor Kit. My choice for the fan is CoolMaster – X6

Motherboard: The mother of all choke-ups, bottlenecks & F****-ups if not selected by doing proper research. I shortlisted on ASUS industry leader in building robust and non-failure prone motherboards

ASUS P9X79 DELUXE – Rs. 25,000/-

Memory: Now comes the turn of buying RAM and my choice was Corsair

Vengeance® — 24GB Triple Channel DDR3 Memory Kit (CMZ24GX3M6A1600C9) = Rs. 15000/- to 18,000/-

HDD: A lot of options in this space however, being budget handicapped I selected a single HDD. I am surely aware a single HDD means a single point of failure but I have a couple of portable drives that I might use to backup and keep information. I don’t care if the HDD dies and have to rebuilt the lab Smile 

Seagate Barracuda® XT Desktop Hard Drives (2 TB) = Rs. 10,000/-

Even  if I plan to create a RAID 1 mirror my cost is going to double. Which I don’t think I can afford at this point in time.

Cabinet: Best in the class CoolMaster cabinets however, haven’t shortlisted the model yet.

S.No

Product

Price

1

Intel® Core™ i7-3930K Processor (12M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz)

33.000

2

ASUS P9X79 DELUXE

25,000

3

Vengeance® — 24GB Triple Channel DDR3 Memory Kit

18,000

4

Seagate Barracuda® XT Desktop Hard Drives (2 TB)

10,000

5

Cool Master Cabinet

7,000

6

Cool Master X6 CPU Fan

4,000

Taxes Misc. On all products

5,000

Total

1,02,000

Now, when seeing the total cost of the entire Monster Machine I was thrown flat on my face to the ground after seeing the money that is involved in building this machine. I am open to all types of charity and hope soon I can afford this machine.

Best Regards,

Aresh Sarkari

Few of my all time favorite Future Innovation Videos

19 Mar

I wanted to publish few of my all time favorite innovation videos into a single blog post. I am sure you all will love these mind blowing innovations!!!

Corning A Day made of glass 1:

Corning A Day made of glass 2:

Future of you Car Glass Windows:

Future of Microsoft Office:

Future of Electricity Bloom Box 1: (Alternate Energy)

Windows 8 Consumer Preview VS iPad 2 iOS 5

16 Mar

With the release of Windows 8 it finally brings Microsoft into the Tablet Wars and a comparison video was inevitable. My 2 cents are it would be unfair to compare a product (iPad) that has been into the market for 3 years with a new launch of Windows 8. Though, I understand all eyes would be on Microsoft to beat Apple feature by feature. Looking at the video Windows 8 looks quite promising, I hope they get the Office Suite/Applications accustom to Metro UI where there are big buttons/icons/ribbon doing a lot of work in the background rather than small icons which are difficult to press and hover around.

 

I am  noticing that a lot of Hardware Manufactures like Nokia, Acer, Dell, HP, Toshiba and HCL are building Tablets for Windows 8. By end of Q4 2012 markets are going to get flooded with Tablets devices and the War would be full on Smile

Best Regards,
Aresh Sarkari

Source: Josh, from The Verge

Awesome Tool to compare Hyper-V with VMware – Private Cloud Economic Tool

16 Mar

Recently, I came across this Microsoft Private Cloud Economic Tool which comes in handy when you are responding to RFP and RFI and you want to sit back and compare the solution pricing on two best virtualization platforms available in the market

Assessment Tool

Enter the value into the above mentioned fields and get a detailed comparison of Hyper-V and VMware

I am sure there is a lot of stuff available on the internet however, I am sure this tool along with the below mentioned feature comparison will come in very handy

Feature Comparison between Hyper-V 3.0, Hyper-V 2.0, vSphere 5 Standard and vSphere 5 Enterprise: http://up2v.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/full-overview-vsphere5-versus-hyper-v3-0.jpg

Best Regards,
Aresh Sarkari

Forefront Protection for Exchange 2010 (FPE) is unable to get updates from the Cloudmark Antispam Engine

21 Sep

Currently in our Exchange environment we were facing strange issues with the Forefront Protection for Exchange (FPE) on the Edge Servers

Issue Description:

Out of the 7 engines we are unable to get updates on the Cloudmark engine. (See picture)

Two event ids in the application event log as follows: (6019 and 6012)

Log Name:      Application
Source:        GetEngineFiles
Date:          9/9/2011 6:57:20 AM
Event ID:      6019
Task Category: Engine Error
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
Computer:      Description:
Microsoft Forefront Protection encountered an error while performing a scan engine update.
Scan Engine: Cloudmark

Log Name:      Application
Source:        GetEngineFiles
Date:          9/9/2011 6:57:20 AM
Event ID:      6012
Task Category: Engine Error
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
Description:
Microsoft Forefront Protection encountered an error while performing a scan engine update.
   Scan Engine: Cloudmark
   Error Code: 0x80004005
   Error Detail: Description: An error occurred while loading the scan engine.

We have already added the 4 URL’s on port 80 and 443 (cdn-microsupdates.cloudmark, lvc.cloudmark.com, pki.cloudmark.com and tracks.cloudmark.com) into our Cisco firewalls and the httpsinspection option is disable on the firewall. One strange thing we are noticing is the FPE client and Cloudmark server is resetting the connection as per the network trace

Resolution:

When running the two telnet tests, only the one to port 80 is successful. The one to port 443 fails.

telnet cdn-microupdates.cloudmark.com 80
telnet lvc.cloudmark.com 443

The connection errors you are seeing have been seen before and are due to the firewall still having a restriction to the ports. In this case, port 443 is still being block which is preventing the Micro Updates from coming through.

The networking team on our side figured out the URL were not getting resolved properly for https connections and they decided to add the IP address for all the URL’s instead of the names and problem got fixed.

lvc.cloudmark.com: 208.83.138.34

cdn-microsupdates.cloudmark.com: 93.184.215.73

pki.cloudmark.com: 208.83.136.39

crl.microsoft.com: 207.152.124.49, 205.177.95.229, 198.173.20.88

forefrontdl.microsoft.com: 198.63.194.0/24, 198.173.2.0/24, 207.109.221.0/24, 198.63.196.51, 205.234.218.11, 63.216.54.57, 69.31.106.35, 128.242.191.32, 207.152.124.91, 198.63.203.49, 205.234.225.152, 198.173.20.113, 63.236.252.201, 63.236.252.232, 69.31.102.90, 63.216.54.42, 209.18.42.152, 64.145.91.135, 64.145.91.126, 205.234.218.35

I hope this information would be useful for people troubleshooting FPE issues and will save atleast couple of days worth of troubleshooting efforts.
If you like this post please leave your comments and don’t forget to say thanks.

Best Regards,

Aresh Sarkari