RVTools is a windows .NET 2.0 application which uses the VI SDK to display information about your virtual machines and ESX hosts. 
Interacting with VirtualCenter 2.5, ESX Server 3.5, ESX Server 3i, ESX Server 4i, VirtualCenter 4.0, ESX server 4.0, VirtualCenter 4.1, ESX Server 4.1, VirtualCenter 5.0, VirtualCenter Appliance or ESX Server 5 RVTools is able to list information about VMs, CPU, Memory, Disks, Partitions, Network, Floppy drives, CD drives, Snapshots, VMware tools, ESX hosts, HBAs, Nics, Switches, Ports, Distributed Switches, Distributed Ports, Service consoles, VM Kernels, Datastores and health checks. With RVTools you can disconnect the cd-rom or floppy drives from the virtual machines and RVTools is able to update the VMware Tools installed inside each virtual machine to the latest version.
What’s new in version 3.3;
- GetWebResponse timeout value changed from 5 minutes to 10 minutes (for very big environments)
- New tabpage with HBA information
- On vDatastore tab the definition of the Provisioned MB and In Use MB columns was confusing! This is changed now.
- RVToolsSendMail accepts now multiple recipients (semicolon is used as separator)
- Folder information of VMs and Templates are now visible on vInfo tabpage
- Bugfix: data in comboboxes on filter form are now sorted
- Bugfix: Problem with api version 2.5.0 solved
- Bugfix: Improved exception handling on vCPU tab.
- Bugfix: Improved exception handling on vDatastore tab.
Kudos to Rob de Veij for this awesome tool!!
You can download the RVTools 3.3 from Rob’s website at robware.net
Administering VMware Site Recovery Manager 5.0 is the complete, technical, hands-on guide to VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 5.0 installation and configuration for experienced VMware professionals.
Mike Laverick fully explains SRM 5.0’s failover/failback procedures, walks readers through configuring storage replication with hardware from several leading suppliers, and shows how to efficiently implement fast, automated, centralized disaster recovery.
Drawing on his extensive experience with SRM and vSphere, Laverick identifies common pitfalls and errors, explains why they occur, and shows exactly how to fix them. Fully up to date for SRM 5.0, this book delivers “in-the-trenches” technical knowledge you won’t find anywhere else, including expert guidance for utilizing SRM 5.0’s advanced new vSphere Replication (VR).
Coverage includes:
• Going “under the hood” with SRM 5.0 to thoroughly understand its operation
• Configuring multiple LUN/volumes with virtual machines and virtual disks
• Installing VMware SRM and configuring vSphere Replication (VR)
• Using VR to replicate VMs across locations without third-party storage array-based replication
• Using VR to replicate a single VM or groups of VMs to the Recovery Site
• Efficiently configuring protected and recovery sites
• Using Reprotect Mode to accelerate failback and enhance VM portability
• Using dependencies and priority orders to configure SRM based on your existing categories of applications and services
• Leveraging SRM 5.0’s scalability improvements to serve large-scale and/or cloud environments
• Defining custom recovery plans
• Working with alarms, export histories, and access control
• Implementing bidirectional relationships and shared site configurations
• Scripting automated site recovery
• Upgrading from SRM 4.1 to SRM 5.0
• Configuring SRM 5.0 with Dell EqualLogic Replication, EMC Celerra Replicator, EMC CLARiiON MirrorView, HP StorageWorks P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance with Remote Copy, and NetApp SnapMirror
You can pre-order the book from; Amazon, Pearson and several others…
A little time ago I had a chance to test out the Digi AnywhereUSB/14 product. With this device it is possible to provide multiple USB ports over the network to in this case a virtual machine. 
You might think it’s not that big of a deal, because there are more vendors that have products that can do the same thing.
However the Digi AnywhereUSB/14 can do something that other products can’t do, the Digi AnywhereUSB/14 is capable to provide multiple remote machines (for example virtual machines) one or more remote USB ports. Other products can provide one USB ports to a single remote machine or VM at the same time. So when you need to have multiple remote USB ports to different virtual machines, you need to have one USB device for each remote machine/VM, that’s not very cool when you need for example 10 different USB ports.
Read more…
NOTE: I work for Login Consultants, but I don’t get paid to blog about the VSI, I just want to let you know that version 3 of the VSI has been released.
So what is the VSI…?
The Login Virtual Session Indexer or in short the VSI is a test and benchmarking tool/software, which could be used to stress test environments based on Microsoft Terminal Server, Citrix and Virtual Desktop Infrastructures solutions like VMware View or Citrix XenDesktop.
The VSI will simulate user workloads and is capable to test and predict the effects of future changes like; software changes, hardware changes and a growing number of users on an environment.
With this release the Login VSI is capable to test environments up to 100.000 users workloads.
What’s new in version 3…
Read more…