I am in Seattle, WA for the third GestaltIT Tech Field Day (TFD). This time I am part of the presenting team for Veeam Software, and we are first up on the agenda. As with other recent events, I am using Cover It Live (CiL) to provide real time coverage and of our presentation and the reaction of the delegates (bloggers) attending. The best part about using Cover It Live is the event can be played back in the future, so check it out even if you missed it live.

You’ve probably heard VMware virtualization and storage talk about VAAI (vStorage API for Array Integration. If you’ve listened to episode 4 of VIRTUMANIA or watched the recent video from the vExpert Panel session at the Carolina VMUG Summit then you’ve heard me talk about it with some of those most in the know on the topic. But what is VAAI exactly and how will it impact virtualization in the future?

The new operating system (OS) requirements mean we will see even more instances of vCenter as a VM (virtual machine).

VMware needs feedback from SRM (Site Recovery Manager) customers. The SRM product team is asking that customers take a 15 minute survey about their deployments. In return, the first 1000 to participate will receive a free PDF copy of Mike Laverick’s SRM 4.0 book, and VMware will donate $10 to charity. Laverick indicated in an email the chosen charity is UNICEF.

In contrast to their previously expected bare metal client hypervisor, is VMware now focused on enhancing the VMware View Client Local Mode? I’m basing this assumption on the blog post VMware View: Real BYOC and View Client which was published apparently in response to Citrix’s announcement of the XenClient availability earlier this week at the Synergy 2010 conference.

A scenario involving reverting to an ESX snapshot can result in corrupted incremental backups when using vSphere’s Change Block Tracking (CBT). In summary, “there is a major issue with the way VMware handles the indexing of the ChangeID.”

VMware announced this week that nominations for 2010 vExpert are being accepted until April 30, 2010. Be sure to vote for your favorite “bloggers, book authors, VMUG leaders, event organizers, speakers, tool builders, forum leaders, and others who share their virtualization expertise” by filling out the official application found at the new vExpert 2010 Landing site.

Over the past few years I’ve been asked to troubleshoot and explain why cloning a virtual machine (VM) from a master template would take a longer time than expected more than once.

A recent announcement from Likewise Software hints that future versions of VMware vSphere may make it easier for companies to manage ESX hosts using Active Directory (AD) credentials. vCenter, which runs on a Windows Server operating system, is commonly added to an AD domain already, but special configurations are necessary to authenticate ESX host access with domain credentials today.

The virtualization community, my employer, and every Virtualization Service Provider I know is neck deep in virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). Already important because of Windows 7 migrations, the announcements last week from Microsoft and Citrix seemed to have raised the intensity of an existing white hot spotlight on VDI.