Writing

About a month ago, I blogged about trying TextMate as my text editor of choice. After almost a month, I’ve gone ahead and purchased a license for TextMate and I’m sticking with it.

I’m still convinced that I’m not even scratching the surface of this application’s functionality, but I like the way TextMate works. I have a few minor UI quibbles (I’d rather see a HUD-style overlay instead of the yellow “tool tip” look for word count, for example), but overall I’m happy with the application.

If there any readers out there who use TextMate primarily for technical writing and not development, I’d love to hear your feedback, including suggestions for additional bundles or plug-ins that you find helpful.

For those that are interested, I’ve started bookmarking all my own published articles. They’re viewable on Delicious.com with the tag “Articles”, and you can also subscribe to the RSS feed for that tag as well. I was having a hard time keeping track of all the URLs where my articles had been published, so I thought I’d just go ahead and bookmark them so I had them for future reference.

I hadn’t really considered that doing this would also help me judge the popularity and/or usefulness of the article, as measured by the number of other people who also have it bookmarked. Of course, it also doesn’t hurt that this makes it easier for other people to find them as well. (Hey, you can’t blame me too much for wanting to promote my own work!)

SearchServerVirtualization.com has published an article I wrote on the emerging field of I/O virtualization and the potential benefits to a server virtualization environment:

I/O virtualization is a new form of virtualization that is justifiably gaining attention in the data center. It’s one of several virtualization offshoots — such as service virtualization or facilities virtualization — spawned by the meteoric rise of server virtualization. But what is I/O virtualization, exactly? And what benefits can it bring to the data center?

Read the full article for all the details!

It turns out that a couple more articles of mine have been published by SearchServerVirtualization.com, a sister site to SearchVMware.com where some of my other articles were also published.

These articles kind of snuck past me; I usually pick up on the publication of one of my articles pretty quickly but I somehow missed these two:

Networking problems the next virtualization hurdle?

Server hardware virtualization, such as that provided by VMware with VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3), by Citrix with XenServer, or by Microsoft with Microsoft Virtual Server (and eventually Hyper-V), can make a tremendous difference in data center design.

Networking is certainly one area where the effects of virtualization are being felt.

How virtualization impacts IT staff, security and change management

There is little doubt that virtualization can offer tangible benefits, such as finally making it possible to do more with less. But adopting server virtualization technology isn’t all roses for an IT organization. In this tip, I spell out why server virtualization creates three specific challenges: breaking down IT department fiefdoms; possible increases in security vulnerabilities; and greater complexity in change management.

Feedback on the articles is welcome; I always try to be open to anything that may improve my abilities as a writer or that will help me better serve my readers.

My final article in the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) series at SearchVMware.com has been published!

From the article, “Networks, host OSes strained by VMware VDI deployments”:

Deploying Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) on VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3) can have a considerable impact on your network design and hosted operating system (OS) instances.

The article goes on to discuss specific ways in which the network and the guest operating systems have to be architected in a VDI deployment. I hope you find the information useful!

For some good information on using HP VirtualConnect with VMware ESX Server, go check out this article just published by SearchVMware.com:

While the idea of server profiles can be useful in VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3) environments, Virtual Connect’s ability to integrate with VLAN tagging configurations is perhaps more applicable to ESX Server deployments on c-Class blades. In this article, we’ll take a look at how VirtualConnect integrates with ESX Server with regards to networking configurations.

Of course, I’m a bit partial to this particular author (wink, wink), but it is a good article nevertheless.

Feel free to hit me up with any corrections, comments, or thoughts.  And be sure to go read my article, so TechTarget will keep asking me to write for them!

The fine folks over at SearchVMware.com have published another of my VDI articles, this one focusing on the connection broker’s integration into Active Directory:

The broker’s integration with a back-end directory service can play a significant role in many of the decisions regarding how a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment is deployed in VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3). In this tip, we’ll examine the integration between the connection broker and a commonly-used back-end directory service, Microsoft Active Directory.

Please go read the full article!

SearchVMware.com has published my latest VDI article, a closer look at the integration of the connection broker with VirtualCenter:

n my last article on virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), I discussed the three main components of a VDI solution: the virtualization servers and supporting infrastructure, the hosted operating system (OS) instances, and the connection broker. In this article, I’d like to take a more detailed look at the connection broker and some of the functionality that brokers provide in a VDI deployment.

A few more VDI-centric articles are in the works, so stay tuned here and to SearchVMware.com.  Thanks for reading!

SearchVMware.com has published another article of mine, this one on the various VLAN configurations within VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3), the differences between each of them, and when each configuration may be appropriate.

Here’s the obligatory teaser excerpt from the article:

When VMware gurus talk about the use of virtual LANs (VLANs) with VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3), they are usually referring to the use of VLAN trunks. There are, however, three other types of VLAN configurations VI3 uses: virtual switch tagging (VST), external switch tagging (EST) and virtual guest tagging (VGT).
 
This tip is your guide to VST, EST and VGT, covering what they are and when to use them.

Read the full article here.

Between this latest VLAN article, an earlier VLAN article published on SearchVMware.com, a VLAN article published here on my site, and the latest discussion of the use of the native VLAN, I’m trying to make sure everyone has the information they need to understand and use VLANs in their VI3 implementation.  If there are other networking-related articles you’d like to see, please shoot me an e-mail and let me know, or post your ideas/suggestions in the comments below.  Thanks!

Another VDI article I wrote has been published by SearchVMware.com:

In my last article on virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), I discussed the three main components of a VDI solution: the virtualization servers and supporting infrastructure, the hosted operating system (OS) instances, and the connection broker. In this article, I’d like to take a more detailed look at the connection broker and some of the functionality that brokers provide in a VDI deployment.

Go check out the full article!