Varrow Blogs

Ethernet has been around a long time and served us very well.  It has stood the test of time better than any other option.  But, the industry as a whole is at a crossroads where consolidating storage and data networking is becoming a primary goal.  Can Ethernet evolve and be the preferred choice in the [...]

In my opinion the resources outlined in the Advanced Concepts Guide are often overlooked by most Citrix engineers and not leveraged as much as they should be.  While the base documentation for XenApp, i.e. admin and install guides, provide enough information to get an environment built and configured they typically don’t assist with designs or [...]

I am a collector of (mostly) useless IT tips and tricks.  On the EMC Celerra that we have in our lab, we had a number of CIFS shares and there were a few files that for some reason we couldn’t delete using the normal means.  Somehow the files were locked.  I was on the phone with [...]

The below is from Brian Madden’s blog.
Citrix will be releasing Feature Pack 1 for XenDesktop 3 at Citrix Synergy in two weeks.
Here is a list of new features.

Multimedia redirection for Flash (or HDX MediaStream or whatever it’s called now). This just means that the remote host will send the raw flash content to the endpoint [...]

When using the Citrix Advanced Access Control (AAC) software with the Citrix Access Gateway the Secure Access Client must be installed with some additional command line arguments. The Secure Access Client must be downloaded and insalled with these command line arguments.
CitrixSAClient.exe -Q -D https://cag.company.com -i
After installing there will be a shortcut on the desktop that [...]

WOW. What can I honestly say that hasn’t been broadcast, simulcast, blogged, tweeted  or captured in moving picture. Not much is right.
Its overwhelming to say the least, but like most of us virt-heads I can say undeniably that I am proud to be a VMware partner and proud to be apart of this moment in [...]

To start off I will say that ILIO is the coolest and most promising new technology that I have seen in quite some time.  I probably haven’t been this excited about something since I first saw Ardence (Provisioning Server) a few years ago.  For anyone who hasn’t heard about this game changing technology please visit [...]

Intro
Today VMware announced the rollout of its newest product, vSphere 4, which will be the successor to ESX 3.5.  Via webcast the launch was broadcast live.  Once we got past the 45 minutes with the CEO’s of Cisco, VMware, HP and Intel all holding hands, singing kumbaya and professing their love for each other’s companies [...]

The following how-to is from this VMware KB  —  http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1010048
Before you begin
Before you perform the steps in this article, ensure that you have applied these prerequisite patches:
Note: Ensure to choose the patch for the product you are running.

VMware ESX 3.5 Patch ESX350-200811401-SG
VMware ESXi 3.5 Patch ESXe350-200811401-T-BG

The steps in this article require these components:

Windows PowerShell 1.0. This version of [...]

Here at Varrow we work hard at helping clients understand the best practices and recommendations in order for them to get the most out of their infrastructure.  To us, Corporate IT Staff want to Simplify Operations, Go Faster, Go Green (not just save the environment but also save money) and Have Peace of Mind.  These [...]

Citrix has released a new hotfix rollup pack for XenApp 5/Presentation Server 4.5 for Windows 2003.
Before you install this latest rollup pack make sure you read through this article http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX119069
One of the most important prerequisites is to update your Citrix Licensing server to 11.6 https://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1688507&productId=186%20target=
If you have not yet installed hotfix rollup pack 3 then [...]

It’s about time that consolidated I/O started getting mainstream attention.  Should you be interested?  Well, that depends (Hey, that’s my favorite answer to a question!).  Let’s talk a little bit about why you may want to look deeper in to the current offerings to help simplify your fabric management.
Consolidated I/O takes your separate fabrics, such [...]

In case you missed it, Patch 3 for SRM U1 was released on 4-15-2009. The following problems were corrected so make note. Download from here.

a problem that prevents protected virtual machines from following recommended Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) settings when recovering to more than one DRS cluster.
a problem observed at sites that support [...]

Saw this nugget on the VMware forums that I had just excepted. But I should have guessed if anyone had the answer it was the acclaimed Mike Laverick. When failing over within SRM the replicated LUNs get renamed to snap-xxxxxxx-NAME. To modify this nature the following needs to be reconfigured. Original thread is here. Enjoy!
Locate [...]

This isn’t going to be a deeply technical post, but it’s something I run in to a lot.  Most IT organizations don’t know what it costs them to operate their data centers.  It’s really not their fault.  Usually they never see the power bill for the facility.  The only time they put much thought in [...]