Articles by Eric Gray

October 19, 2011 | 5 comments

Side-by-side tests show that VMware vMotion is over 5 times faster than Hyper-V Live Migration. Plus, vMotion is more reliable and protects application SLAs much better than Hyper-V.

October 13, 2011 | No comments

The Microsoft Cloud Power billboard on Highway 101 is obscured by a construction project. See who won last week's caption contest.

October 5, 2011 | 16 comments

Win a copy of the new VMware Workstation 8 by providing the best caption for a photo of the Microsoft Cloud Power billboard construction site.

August 26, 2011 | 29 comments

Independent tests show VMware vSphere 5 outperforms Hyper-V R2 SP1 in overall performance, resource management, and scalability.

August 22, 2011 | 1 comment

VMware vSphere 5 introduces a new license report for vRAM. Unfortunately, the report does not display properly when using the Linux-based vCenter Server Virtual Appliance until a small workaround is executed.

August 18, 2011 | 5 comments

Citrix CFO downplays XenServer during Q2 2011 earnings call, shifting focus to Microsoft Hyper-V.

August 11, 2011 | 7 comments

In a recent blog post filled with FUD and misinformation, the Microsoft virtualization team makes a surprising commitment to maintain Windows pricing.

August 9, 2011 | 1 comment

VMware vSphere 5 adds the ability to perform a scripted installation of VMware ESXi 5 to a USB flash drive or SD card. Hyper-V? Not so much.

July 31, 2011 | 15 comments

VMware ESXi 5 media can be used for interactive PXE installs without creating the image.tgz file that ESXi 4.1 required. A "prefix" directive for boot.cfg also makes it easier to organize various versions of the install media into subdirectories.

July 12, 2011 | 76 comments

VMware vSphere 5 makes it even easier to virtualize ESXi, and can now run nested 64-bit guests.

July 11, 2011 | No comments

Be sure to sign up for the major VMware event happening July 12, 2011 at 9 a.m.

June 27, 2011 | 16 comments

PXE is arguably the best way to install VMware ESXi or Linux and it also enables various Linux-based utilities. See how to configure Windows Deployment Services to coexist with a Linux PXE server.

June 16, 2011 | 5 comments

A recent article on a popular technology media outlet includes misinformed claims about Hyper-V Dynamic Memory advantages over VMware vSphere.

June 9, 2011 | 10 comments

Learn Microsoft's trick behind the claim that VMware vSphere costs as much as five times more than Hyper-V.

May 31, 2011 | 6 comments

When using the VMware vSphere Distributed Switch, ephemeral port groups offer a capability not found in the other two binding options.

May 26, 2011 | 4 comments

Network teaming provides load balancing and fault tolerance to your virtual infrastructure. VMware vSphere provides powerful, elegant solutions to meet the most demanding requirements. The Hyper-V platform continues to rely on unsupported legacy technologies.

May 24, 2011 | 6 comments

Some newcomers to virtualization don't know that VMware vSphere is the combination of VMware ESXi and vCenter Server. By launching a complete virtualization infrastructure platform, VMware can offer more advanced capabilities than the staggered Hyper-V releases from Microsoft.

April 13, 2011 | 12 comments

Latest InfoWorld comparison of all major virtualization platforms puts VMware vSphere on top!

April 7, 2011 | No comments

See the two-step process used to export a VM from the OpSource Cloud in OVF format for use with a vSphere private cloud.

April 6, 2011 | 1 comment

Learn some of the details behind the OpSource Cloud network topology and performance.

April 5, 2011 | No comments

Learn about connection options, such as SSL VPN and NAT, for workloads running on the OpSource Cloud.

April 4, 2011 | No comments

OpSource Cloud is a public IaaS cloud built on VMware vSphere 4.1. Take a look at some of the features in this multi-part series.

April 1, 2011 | 29 comments

At MMS 2011, Microsoft presented a fake demonstration of Hyper-V Dynamic Memory in a breakout session. But why?

March 14, 2011 | No comments

Join VCritical on Facebook for a chance to win a cool The North Face Yavapai Backpack.

March 11, 2011 | No comments

VMware vSphere Resource Pools are a proven means to reliably share infrastructure. Hyper-V requires administrators to manage CPU reservations and limits on an individual VM basis.

March 7, 2011 | No comments

Use Tech Support Mode on VMware ESXi to find, start, and obtain guest OS IP address information from a virtual machine -- without using the vSphere Client on Windows.

February 24, 2011 | 10 comments

A couple of VMware vSphere features can help ensure your virtual infrastructure starts up well after a significant datacenter power event.

February 19, 2011 | 68 comments

The recently-updated VCP4 Exam Cram book can help ensure you are ready to take the VMware Certified Professional test and the publisher is giving away 10 copies to VCritical readers!

February 16, 2011 | Permalink

There is an opening at VMware for a top-notch virtualization technologist to be part of the Competitive Lab! Interested?

February 8, 2011 | 5 comments

SLES for VMware is an OEM version of Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. VMware recently expanded the entitlement to this well-supported Linux distribution to nearly all vSphere customers.

February 6, 2011 | 9 comments

After enabling Tech Support Mode on ESXi 4.1, a Configuration Issues warning is displayed in the vSphere Client. Find out how to quickly get rid of the message without a host reboot.

January 31, 2011 | Permalink

See an update on current happenings from four VCritical sponsors that are focused on virtualization management.

January 24, 2011 | 3 comments

What would it be like to see Steve Ballmer's MacBook Pro, where he uses Evernote to devise his latest Microsoft executive transition plans.

January 18, 2011 | 1 comment

See a [hilarious] video where experts from Neovise unbox the industry's first "cloud in a box"

January 17, 2011 | 1 comment

Last week VCritical hosted the vComeback Contest which received scores of responses. Now find out who the winners are!

January 10, 2011 | 84 comments

Your pithy response to Microsoft's latest cloud billboard could win you a copy of Maximum vSphere in the first-ever vComeback Contest!

December 30, 2010 | 4 comments

As we come to the end of 2010, take a look back at some of the top articles on VCritical.

December 20, 2010 | 13 comments

Hyper-V Dynamic Memory is coming in SP1, but workarounds may be needed to install applications.

November 23, 2010 | 3 comments

In this article I show you how to become your own Certificate Authority (CA) and write a simple script that automatically deploys a signed SSL certificate to an HP iLO controller.

November 8, 2010 | 4 comments

The new Microsoft private cloud "Virtual Machine Manager Self Server Portal 2" takes a major step backward, reverting to the "one VM per LUN" limitation when scripting LUN creation.

October 27, 2010 | 5 comments

Director of Microsoft Virtualization says vSphere hybrid clouds remind him of ancient fax machines, overlooking reality of current IaaS landscape.

October 21, 2010 | 2 comments

Microsoft claims that Linux guests running on Hyper-V are fully supported -- find out what really happens when a customer tries to get help with a SLES VM.

October 19, 2010 | 17 comments

Gartner says Hyper-V not meeting expectations even in midmarket, VMware doing pretty well.

October 12, 2010 | 3 comments

After cloning a Linux VM in vSphere, the network interface may be named eth1 instead of eth0. Learn how to change it in a snap.

September 16, 2010 | 7 comments

VMware Operating System Specific Packages (OSPs) are an alternative to the VMware Tools bundled with vSphere. Pre-built packages are available for SLES for VMware (SLES 11 SP1) and easy to install.

September 10, 2010 | 10 comments

SLES for VMware is an enterprise-class Linux distribution suitable for any production workload and available for free to qualifying vSphere customers.

August 30, 2010 | 7 comments

A new feature in vSphere 4.1 allows administrators to easily perform a cold conversion (V2V) of a Hyper-V virtual machine.

August 26, 2010 | No comments

Maximum vSphere is Eric Siebert's newest book and a must-have for any vSphere administrator.

August 18, 2010 | 1 comment

Session TA8188 at VMworld 2010 will cover VMware vSphere competitive advantages over other platforms. No mention of successful multi-hypervisor strategies for your enterprise, however.

August 13, 2010 | 13 comments

PowerCLI makes it easy to automate vSphere tasks such as registering dormant VMs. It is also easy to create a hosts file for resolving guest IP addresses when DNS is not available.