Setting up an old Proliant for virtualization

I'm configuring an old DL580 G3 for virtualisation - both MS and VMWare. I blithely assumed it would have hardware virtualization, so I installed Windows Server 2008 with a view to using Hyper-V. Unfortunately I couldn't add the role.

Hyper-V cannot be installed. Server Manager has detected that the processor on this computer is not compatible with Hyper-V. To install this role, the processor must have a supported version of hardware-assisted virtualisation, and the feature must be turned on in the BIOS.

I had enabled VT ("Intel Hardware Virtualization") and XD Bit ("In-Memory Execution Prevention" in Advanced Settings) in the bios and powered down fully. (note to self: Ctrl-S followed by F9 to get to bios)

Securable, Intel Processor Identification Utility & VMWare Processor Checker all gave the thumbs down on hardware virtualisation support for the aging Xeons. Desperate for a positive answer, I almost went into the server room with vt.iso burnt onto a cd but decided I had to give it up as I had plenty enough expert opinions.

What now?

• XenServer also requires VT.
• VMWare ESX does not, but I want to use MS as well.

So I installed

• Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 - 64 bit
• VMWare Server 2.0 RC1 - unspecified, claims to support 64 bit VMs but installed to Program Files (x86) so guessing it's not

I followed Virtual PC Guy's instructions for setting up IIS, and after this Virtual Server installed with no problems.

VMWare Server had trouble with the url for opening up remote consoles. This is because the host server isn't part of the domain I'm on, so the hostname wasn't always available. This situation was easily worked around by using the ip address in the url (https://a.b.c.d:8333/ui) to login to VMWare Infrastructure Web Access.

IBM DB2 - ready for the gold watch and retirement

It's IBM DB2's 25th Anniversary this year, as discussed in this article at Intelligent Enterprise.

Page 3 is titled "A Vision Out Of Many Ideas", the author's intention being to emphasise the cross-disciplinary origins of DB2. But based on IBM's patchy track record in the database and business intelligence industry, I think it would be more accurate to drop the word "Many".

"CSC Cuts Corners"

I try to limit the quantity of regurgitated industry news that ends up in my blog, but this gave me an ABIMCL* moment. It goes to show that rebranding can be risky...

* Arch Back In My Chair Laughing

Proclarity visualisations included in AdCenter Analytics

Check out the screenshots here. Anyone who's familiar with Proclarity or PerformancePoint will recognise the Heat map (or "Tree Map" in AdCenter parlance - confusingly, Heat Map seems to refer to something else again).

I understand this particular visualisation won't be in the first release.

Since AdCenter Analytics is free, I trust this means that CALs will no longer be required to view Proclarity visualisations used in PerformancePoint solutions? (Somehow I suspect MS begs to differ on that point).

I'm pretty late to this news, and frankly it's because enterprise and soho/consumer analytics are poles apart. For what it's worth, I couldn't find anyone else out there who has commented on this either.

I considered signing up to the AdCenter Analytics beta but it looks like they'll only invite people with sites that have a bare minimum of 25000 page views a month. I have only had (google) analytics enabled for a week now, but with some optimistic extrapolation I might be racking up a mighty 500 or so...

Use Oracle install defaults if you want a crap character set

My big lesson with Oracle installations:

• Never install a starter database
• Never "next through" the default options when creating a database

This is because the default character set is usually something like WE8MSWIN1252, but a lot of apps require Unicode these days.

These default character sets are never strict subsets of Unicode character sets and consequently require a lengthy migration process to convert to something like AL32UTF8.

Instead use the Database Configuration Assistant to create your database, and make sure you select something suitable on the Character Sets tab.

I'm fully aware that best practice is to work through a 10 page checklist to tick off all the prerequisites, but sometimes life's just too short.

Out of Disk Space with VMWare Player and Virtual Disk Mount

My mounted vmdk file wouldn't accept any more contents - out of disk space. All the instructions I found for increasing the disk space required VMWare Workstation or Server.

I really really really didn't want to install these. Unfortunately I really really really had to.

I followed the instructions as per http://www.leonmeijer.nl/archive/2007/05/07/25.aspx

This type of maintenance is totally unnecessary with Virtual PC. What's worse, VMWare have made it very command-liney to do.

Enabling Shared Folders in VMWare Player

Add this to the .vmx file

sharedFolder0.present = "TRUE"
sharedFolder0.enabled = "TRUE"
sharedFolder0.readAccess = "TRUE"
sharedFolder0.writeAccess = "TRUE"
sharedFolder0.hostPath = "C:\"
sharedFolder0.guestName = "C"
sharedFolder0.expiration = "never"
sharedFolder.maxNum = "1"