Tom Finnis

In this article VMware expert Tom Finnis continues his evaluation of vSphere4 with a look at the new Data Recovery feature. This adds a comprehensive disaster recovery solution to the vSphere suite, providing full and incremental Virtual Machine backups all managed via a vCenter plugin. Read on to learn more….

Tom Finnis explains how to configure the Data Recovery appliance, schedule backups and restore a virtual machine from a backup. Also covered are advanced features such as VSS integrated file level backups and data de-duplication.

Whether you’re planning on virtualizing the majority of your existing servers or just using it as part of your infrastructure, vSphere4 represents a major investment for most SME IT managers. This article is aimed at helping you plan for implementing your own vSphere4 Infrastructure, from meeting system requirements to choosing appropriate licensing options, and all options in between.

In this latest article in his series on vSphere4 Tom Finnis explains one of the less publicised new features in ESXi4 – VMDirectPath; which allows host PCI & PCIe devices to be passed through to the virtual machine.

ESXi 4.0 is the latest version of VMware’s industry leading hypervisor; allowing multiple virtual machines to be run on a single physical host. Amazingly its available completely free of charge, so in this step by step guide Tom Finnis will show you how to set up your own ESXi4 server.

VMware has recently replaced their entire Virtual Infrastructure virtualization product suite with vSphere 4. Read on to find out why all IT Admins should be considering a vSphere 4 deployment in their future.

The ASA 5500 series is the successor to Cisco’s PIX range of firewall devices, providing industry standard routing and firewall functionality with a range of models designed for teleworker right up to large datacenter scenarios. In this article Cisco expert Tom Finnis will focus on the 5505 and 5510 models aimed at branch and head office deployments, highlighting key features and capabilities.

Following on from his previous article on deploying ESxi4, Tom Finnis now shows you how to use the vSphere Client to complete the configuration of your new ESXi4 host server and then deploy your first Virtual Machine.

We’ve recently had to configure a couple of client’s SBS2008 Exchange 2007 servers to act as SMTP relays for remote users. Why not just use OWA or Outlook Anywhere? It mostly seems to be Mac users, in particular those with “MobileMe”, which insists on IMAP and SMTP to communicate with the mail server. Adding authenticated SMTP in Exchange 2003 was a pretty simple process, but the procedure in 2007 is not so obvious – read on to find out how to do that, and enable anonymous relaying too.

Although VMware Converter 4 now has Linux support there are still a number of limitations to what servers you will be able to convert. Written for Windows people, this guide by VMware Pro Tom Finnis explains how to use the Converter BootCD to convert any physical server to a virtual image, and how to resolve the problems you’re likely to encounter without needing advanced Linux skills.

Setting up a “catchall” mailbox in Exchange 2003 wasn’t easy and now you will find the method has changed completely in Exchange 2007. In this article SBS guru Tom Finnis shows you how to install a transport agent that will redirect all emails for unresolved recipients to one mailbox instead of rejecting them.

VMware ESXi 4.0 provides enhanced support for installing in “embedded” mode, so the host server does not need any physical disks installed. For vSphere Infrastructures utilizing SAN storage this allows diskless operation, reducing hardware costs and improving boot times. In this article Tom Finnis demonstrates how to do this with Hewlett Packard’s new G6 series servers using their built-in SD card slot.