This is a recipe how to export a VirtualBox desktop out of VDI 3 to a destination Solaris VirtualBox host. It is based on Dirk’s procedure and contains some modifications to make it work for me.

1. Tell the iSCSI initiator on the destination VitualBox host to accept static iSCSI connections:

iscsiadm modify discovery --static enable



2. Find out the IQN of the iSCSI target of the desktop to export. The easiest way is to look at the desktop as it is registered on the VirtualBox host. Here you can use the command:

VBoxManage list -l vms

It will show also the IQN and the host of the connected LUN. An IQN looks like this:

iqn.1986-03.com.sun:02:c856c247-you-do-not-have-to-read-this-9318dd9d6b48



3. Mount the LUN into your destination VirtualBox host:

iscsiadm add static-config <IQN>,<IP>

The IP is the IP of the storage server – it is not its host name.

4. List the new target

iscsiadm list target -S

The last line contains the important output: OS Device Name, e.g.:

/dev/rdsk/c2t600144F04AD2FA0C0000144FEDF91800d0s2



5. Make a raw copy of the content:

dd if=/dev/rdsk/c2t600144F04AD2FA0C0000144FEDF91800d0p0 of=/var/tmp/image.out

Note, replace the s2 at the end of the raw disk name with p0. Don’t ask why. And you will have a lot of time not to ask why because the copy operation takes quite some time.

6. Convert the raw image into a VDI file:

VBoxManage convertfromraw /var/tmp/image.out /var/tmp/image.vdi --format VDI --variant Standard

Dirk’s convertdd was not available on my Solaris machine, but VBoxManage convertfromraw does the same.

Last but not least it should be mentioned that all this is obsolete for VDI 3.1. We have added a function to export a VirtualBox desktop directly from the Sun VDI administration:

Manchester – Leeds – Camberley, Surrey – London – Coventry – Edinburgh
Sun's Desktop Virtualisation Roadshow is coming to the United Kingdom.

Overview – Agenda – Dates and Registration between now and Feb 2010.

[Photo: CC by Jim Linwood]

Overview - Agenda - Register

BTW_ sorry, green hills were not available in the image stock library. But rain is almost guaranteed.

EDUCAUSE 2009 is ready to start this week in Denver /Colorado. Do not miss to check out Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure – Sun VDI –  at booth #415 (floor plan).

See also Dirk’s posting on Sun VDI for the Education Market.

Picks from the conference schedule:

• Seminar 03T - Sun Microsystems
  Tuesday 8:00am - 2:30pm (Off-Site Tour)
  
  
• Virtual Desktops: 60 Percent Cheaper, but Are They Worth It?
  Gerard Flynn, Thomas Hoover
  Wednesday 3:50pm - 4:40pm (Korbel Ballroom 4A/B)
  
  
• Deploying and Managing Desktop Virtualization for University Students and Faculty
  Jeff Cunningham
  Wednesday 4:55pm - 6:10pm (Hall F, Table 65)
  
  
• "I'm Thin and Green": Reducing the Desktop Carbon Footprint While Offering Anywhere, Anytime Computing Services
  Richard Toeniskoetter
  Thursday 8:10am - 9:00am (Korbel Ballroom 1E/F)
  
  
• It Is About Time: Getting Our Values Around Copyright Right
  Lawrence Lessig
  Thursday 9:30am - 11:00am (Wells Fargo Theater)
  
  
• Sun Microsystems, An EDUCAUSE Gold Partner - Project Wonderland and the Age of Immersive Education
  Kevin Roebuck
  Thursday 2:20pm - 3:10pm (Korbel Ballroom 3B)

A couple of slides to show the architecture and new features of Sun VDI 3.1:

// republished by Tanweer Ahmad

Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure 3.1 (VDI 3.1) is in early-access. Please check out the new version and help us to get the missing bits and pixels into the right spots.

> Quick Overview
> Preliminary Documentation
> Announcement and Download

Quelle: www.hamburgs-stadtteile.de

Am Freitag 11.9. laden Silpion IT Solutions und der 13. Stock zur Sommerparty ein. Beginn 12 Uhr Mittags! bis Open-End.

• Event bei Xing
• Alternativ über den 13. Stock

Ach ja, Sun VDI wird auch gezeigt.  cu _Matthias.

Get ready for the World Usability Day 2009. Although there is some time left until Nov-12, the CfP for the event in Hamburg is out (submission deadline is July-31). What I really like this year is the attempt to have a variety of session formats and the common theme of sustainability. As Bill Buxton said in his wonderful closing keynote at CHI08, there is no contradiction between design and green. Now I should count the Watts that Sun VDI is saving with the current paradigm shift from PCs to desktop virtualization.

> Call for Participation

Here are some more impressions from Sun VDI 3 at JavaOne. <via the singing fat bloke>

This is big – more than 20.000 personal virtual machines are waiting for the attendees of JavaOne and CommunityOne at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

 

See also VDI 3 @ JavaOne on Dirk's blog and the background story on the desktop virtualization wiki.

Each and every of my endeavors starts with an index page. A title, a logo, some ideas, related info, more stuff added over time, a log, and sooner than later the thing becomes a substantial project. This approach worked out fine for me for almost 1 1/2 decades now. First in the GoLive team in the late 1990s, where we developed a WYSIWYG web editor. Then the intranet for StarOffice' user experience team. And today I am still using GoLive to create and write on web pages for my projects.

All this is along the lines of the original vision of Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau to create a read/write web. Some time has passed, and their vision never came true. At least not in a way that could be called elegant or straight forward. Instead we see a cyber-landscape of wikis, blogs, microblogs and other social software that empower "users" to "generate content." Wrong perspective _BTW.

For the VDI project I've changed my habits a little. I set up a blog internal to Sun and start with a blog entry, a tag, some ideas, related info, more stuff added over time, and sooner than later the thing becomes a substantial project. The advantages are the same as in the early web zero-dot-nine days. I do not have to spend extra effort in communication, while colleagues can see what is happening and can provide feedback.

Here is a screenshot of my internal blog at Sun:

Tags are assigned to all entries, and the resulting tag cloud provides quick navigation for the blog. Concept diagrams, design sketches, and even photos from whiteboard scribblings are stored and shared on the blog. Other content like wiki pages are linked, as well as classical intranet pages for stuff that does not easily fit here.

I am not blogging. I say it again, I am not blogging. I just use the internal blog as a low key content management system; and that approach has proven to be useful for me and the team I work with.

>> VDI UX Story: Part 1: Concept Workshops | Part 2: User Research || To be continued...

Some time ago I attended the User Research Friday in San Francisco. For short, research is a very important early step of user experience design work. You need to know and understand the world of the users. Otherwise don't expect to design and develop a system that is of any use to them. Usability might be good, but it does not matter if it's not useful at all... [Well, I do not dive deeper into this discussion, otherwise I have to become philosophic.]

For Sun VDI 3 we conducted a few customer meetings that turned out to be very important to gain an understanding of the context of desktop virtualization. Note that this are not focus groups, or scripted Q&A sessions. They are open informal discussions on the current situations on site. I remember the system administrators of a scientific research lab with several visiting PhD students a year. Each of them needed a PC...  Another one was admin at an online store selling lots of toys in the Christmas season. Their call center is staffed with many 'agents'. During change of shifts it is really the critical point to keep queues short on the phone lines.

All this leads to certain questions on our side, e.g. How is a user assigned to a virtual machine? Does it belong to her personally? Or is it reused when the next employee logs in? How long does it take to recycle a virtual machine? What are the general pool policies?  etc.
In order to come up with reasonable answers it is important that you listen to your users. But do not simply build what they say. They are experts in their domain. You are the system designer and have to create a system that fits the context(s), solves a problem, and is easy (enough) to use. Hence - the goal is to build what the user needs.

>> VDI UX Story: Part 1: Concept Workshops || Part 3: Power of the Web