VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop through the datacenter and to the cloud, today announced SpringSource® Hyperic™ 4.4, an award-winning solution for managing and monitoring custom applications. Through enhanced integration with VMware vCenter™ Server, Hyperic™ 4.4 now maintains a continually updated inventory of VMware vSphere™ ESX and ESXi hosts, enabling IT Administrators to more rapidly pinpoint, correct, and prevent application performance problems wherever they occur across physical, virtual, and private cloud infrastructures.

As organizations deploy an increasing proportion of their custom applications across virtual and cloud infrastructures, the dynamic nature of virtualized application resources has placed new demands on application operators needing visibility into the performance of those applications. Hyperic 4.4’s VMware vCenter Server integration enables application operators to ensure application performance despite this increased pace of change.

SpringSource Hyperic, a key element of SpringSource’s software suite, supports applications running on both physical and virtual infrastructure, providing in-depth real-time performance data on more than 75 technologies used to develop modern web applications and enabling customers to ensure that applications meet their service level commitments through reduced application downtime and improved performance.

“For some time, Hyperic has provided us with excellent visibility into the performance of our custom applications,” said Eric Schwalbe, technical advisor infrastructure integration, InterContinental Hotels Group. “By enabling us to understand performance at any point between the application and its ESX host, Hyperic 4.4 will enable us to extend this visibility across our virtualized infrastructure.”

"Without virtualization there is no cloud computing," said Rachel Chalmers, research director for infrastructure, The 451 Group. "The trouble with virtualization is that with it, datacenters become increasingly dynamic - not to say chaotic! That makes it extremely hard for the IT operations team to make sure applications are up and performing. What's needed are management tools that understand the whole software stack, from VM through OS to application payload - tools like Hyperic™."

“Hyperic™ 4.4 delivers a completely new level of integration with VMware vCenter Server designed to streamline the task of managing virtualized applications,” said Javier Soltero, CTO of Management Products for the SpringSource division of VMware. “Hyperic now provides system administrators complete, automatic visibility of virtual infrastructure resources as well as a completely new user interface built to enable analysis and correlation of every metric and event from VMware vSphere hosts up to the application.”

Hyperic 4.4’s VMware vCenter Server integration increases the effectiveness of IT operations teams in a range of critical application performance management activities that stem from the constant change inherent in virtualized datacenters, including:

Rapid Diagnosis of Virtualized Application Performance Problems: IT operations teams can now use Hyperic to rapidly pinpoint the cause of performance issues of applications running on virtualized infrastructure, by providing them with visibility into all application infrastructure layers, enabling them to determine whether the root cause of issues lies within an application, its guest operating system, or its ESX host. System administrators can easily compare performance data between an application and its corresponding virtual machine and ESX host via a new Hyperic user interface. This UI enables system administrators to reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) and increase mean time between failures (MTBF).

Automatic Maintenance of Application Infrastructure Inventory: Hyperic 4.4 automatically discovers ESX hosts, virtual machines, and guest operating systems within minutes of their launch, and presents them in a unified topology so users can see which application components are running on which ESX hosts. This eliminates reliance on chronically out-of-date configuration management databases (CMDBs). Additionally, Hyperic detects when virtual machines are moved from one ESX host to another using vMotion™, and adjusts topologies accordingly: no monitoring data is lost and there’s no need to recreate alerting workflows. This exceptional level of automation saves system administrators time and lets them manage more applications and servers than ever before.

Virtualization-Aware Alerting: Hyperic 4.4 can distinguish between when a guest operating system has shut down unintentionally, and when it has been intentionally powered down or suspended. This prevents false alarms and enables system administrators to elastically scale their application infrastructure without triggering alert storms.

Additional Virtualization Features of Hyperic:
Hyperic 4.4 continues Hyperic’s tradition of leadership in the management of applications running in virtualized environments. In 2006, Hyperic delivered the industry’s first application performance monitoring for VMware ESX and GSX, and has long provided system administrators with the following capabilities, which remain in version 4.4:

Application Virtualization Migration Assurance: For IT teams running pilot projects to virtualize custom application workloads, Hyperic enables users to definitively quantify virtualization’s impact on application performance by baselining critical performance metrics for both physical and virtual infrastructure.

Automated Problem Resolution: Hyperic can automate common responses to application problems -- such as reverting a virtual machine to a snapshot, restarting a virtual machine, and rebooting a guest operating system. These automated recovery actions help fulfill virtualization’s promise of greater operational efficiency, especially for companies with global customers who need to keep consumer-facing applications running 24/7.

Virtualized Environment Event & Log Monitoring: Hyperic’s event management features provide visibility into the log events reported for every virtual machine. Log events provide system awareness for performance data, configuration changes, and security action changes, such as when a virtual machine has been reverted to a snapshot. These events can be used to generate alerts, or simply to correlate errors reported in the VMware logs with performance and health indicators elsewhere in the environment.

Availability and Support
Hyperic 4.4 is available immediately and can be purchased August 4, 2010. Additional Hyperic 4.4 details are available at http://SpringSource.com/hyperic44.

Upcoming Hyperic Webinar
SpringSource will host a free webinar entitled “The 10 Pitfalls to Avoid When Monitoring a Virtualized Environment -- Learn How the New Hyperic 4.4 Helps You Manage the Constant Change Inherent in Virtualized Datacenters,” on Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 9 am PDT. To register, visit http://j.mp/hyperic44.

Updating an Application:

Regardless of ThinApp, with the nearly infinite number of Windows applications, there are literally just as many ways in which updates are performed upon those applications. Of all the ways application updates are accomplished, with regards to ThinApp, they can generally be boiled down into four types of updates.

1. Manually changing the application or reconfiguration of the application’s settings from within the app.
2. Copying in updates through Windows Explorer or manually entering in registry or config file modifications.
3. Run the update directly from within the application via it’s built in update feature.
4. Install a separate hotfix / update package to the application.
5. Any combination of the above.

Whichever way is chosen, these options can also be used to update a ThinApp packaged application as well.

Try It, You’ll Like It!

One of the easiest ways to ensure you get your ThinApp package updated correctly is test it in the native world. This may seem redundant on some levels, but you will gain experience with the application if you are somewhat unfamiliar with how it works and how it’s updates are applied. Additionally, this can be done on a clean Capture and Build (CnB) system – giving you the opportunity to capture the app with the upgrade separately to give you a baseline of what the updated project should be similar to.

ThinApp Project Updating – Capturing the App:

One of the first ways we can update a ThinApp project is to just capture a new one. While this isn’t traditionally seen as an actual “update”, it is definitely an option.

Additionally, one can also capture just the update – although this is not recommended as it can be a cumbersome and troublesome process. Plus, there are easier ways to achieve the same results.

ThinApp Project Updating – Manually Customizing the Project:

Another option for updating a ThinApp project is to directly modify the application’s files/registry settings within the ThinApp project. A minimally skilled application packager can easily accommodate simple modifications to a ThinApp project by simple file manipulation. As ThinApp has no need for an external editor GUI, this is easily accomplished via Windows Explorer and Notepad.

One can simply edit the files within the project just as they would on a natively installed version of the application. Simply replace the actual path with the variable path to find the files and folders you are looking for.

Virtual Registry Hive Mods - Beware!

One thing to beware of when modifying the virtual registry hive text files is to ensure the file is edited properly and spaces are left between each of the registry key sections.

ThinApp Project Updating - SBMERGE:

Aside from the above, the last way to update a ThinApp Project is to import the settings from within the Application’s Sandbox.

Remembering the sandbox to be a “Runtime Modification Storage Area”, this means if the application packager can install the update through the virtual bubble, the update is applied to the sandbox.

To do this…

1. Start with a clean sandbox – otherwise one runs the risk of contaminating the application with additional modifications or settings which might be undesirable.
   
   
2. If the application has a built in update feature, just launch the application and run the update feature. If the application update is via a separate hotfix / update, run the update.
   NOTE: The person who is the application packager may have to reconfigure the PACKAGE.INI in order to allow access to the virtual CMD or other tools to view the virtual file system and launch the hotfix / update. Typically this is a simple modification to the Entry Point for those items within PACKAGE.INI – setting the “Disabled=1” value to “Disabled=0” or remarking it out with a semicolon. This modification requires a rebiuld of the ThinApp package before applying the upate to the app sandbox and executing the sandbox merge into the project via SBMERGE.EXE. Then, once the updated sandbox is merged, resetting the “Disabled=0” value to it’s original state and rebuilding will remove access to the ThinApp via that specific Entry Point (i.e. CMD, etc.).
3. Once the update is in the app and everything has been tested to work, use SBMERGE to merge the sandbox back into the project.

Simple SBMERGE Process:

Here is my simple SBMERGE procedure which works flawlessly every time:

1. Make a copy of the original ThinApp Project WITH the BIN folder and it's contents (EXEs/Data Container).
2. Clear the SANDBOX within the %APPDATA%\THINSTALL folder.
3. Run the primary app in the project to be updated.
4. Update the app with plugins, settings, updates, modifications. Close the app.
5. Relaunch the app and test the updates exist and work.
6. Close the app.
7. Open CMD natively.
8. Change Directories (CD) into the project to be updated.
9. Type "SBMERGE APPLY"
   NOTE: If successful, the ThinApp Sandbox for this packaged app will have been removed from %APPDATA%\Thinstall.
10. Execute BUILD.BAT within the project just updated by SBMERGE.
11. Run new version of ThinApp packaged app to test updates/mods.
12. Deploy via AppSync, Side-by-Side, MSI (via ESD), etc.

This was previously documented here on the ThinApp Blogs.

To learn more click here

VMware, Inc.  announced the worldwide availability of VMware Fusion 3.1 -- the best way to run Windows on the Mac -- as a free update to all VMware Fusion 3 users.

"We're excited to deliver the fastest and most reliable Windows on Mac experience available with VMware Fusion 3.1," said Pat Lee, director, personal desktop products VMware. "While we continued to deliver rock-solid reliability and ease of use with VMware Fusion 3, customers asked for even better graphics performance and more speed for their Windows applications. With VMware Fusion 3.1, we incorporated their feedback to deliver significant performance gains without disrupting the reliability they've come to expect from VMware." With more than 20 new features, key highlights of VMware Fusion 3.1 include: Faster: With faster application launching, more seamless scrolling, quicker resume from suspend, and better overall disk performance, VMware Fusion 3.1 delivers 35% better end-to-end performance compared to its predecessor, VMware Fusion 3.0.

Better 3D Graphics Performance: Greatly improved Windows Aero performance and OpenGL 2.1 support for Windows Vista and Windows 7 delivers up to 5X better 3D graphics performance. VMware Fusion 3.1 is also supported and recommended by Autodesk for AutoCAD 2011.

Switch to Mac with Ease: The fastest and least expensive way to bring a customer's entire PC to a Mac, VMware Fusion 3.1 includes all of the software tools needed to migrate over a standard Ethernet cable, FireWire cable or even wireless network -- saving customers from purchasing special cables that will only be used once.

USB EasyConnect: Makes it easier than ever to assign a USB device to a virtual machine or a Mac and remembers preferred choice.

Unity: Exclusive support for Mac OS X Snow Leopard's Dock Exposé makes it even more seamless to use Windows apps like Mac apps.

Support for Larger Virtual Machines: With added support for 8-way SMP and an increased virtual hard disk size from 950 GB to 2TB, advanced users get more power and punch out of the Mac Pro and Xserve from Apple.

"VMware Fusion 3.1 has made my Windows PC obsolete. With VMware Fusion 3.1, it's faster to start and use Windows on my MacBook Pro than it is to use my physical PC," said Tony Arnold, Founder of The Cocoabots. "The great leap in graphics performance makes Windows Aero sing, allowing me to play games I could never play before on my MacBook Pro." Availability and Pricing: VMware Fusion 3 users can automatically download the free update to VMware Fusion 3.1 via the built-in software update feature. Users who wish to upgrade from previous versions of VMware Fusion may do so online at vmware.com/fusion for $39.99 (USD). For new users, VMware Fusion is available at vmware.com/fusion, the Apple Online Store® (apple.com), Apple retail stores, Amazon.com, and other authorized resellers. The suggested retail price of $79.99 (USD) includes all of the software needed to switch from a PC to a Mac.

About VMware: VMware delivers solutions for business infrastructure virtualization that enable IT organizations to energize businesses of all sizes. With the industry leading virtualization platform -- VMware vSphere? -- customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, improve agility, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2009 revenues of $2 billion, more than 170,000 customers and 25,000 partners, VMware is the leader in virtualization which consistently ranks as a top priority among CIOs. VMware is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

VMware and VMware Fusion are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. The use of the word "partner" or "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

VMware has released an updated version of their ThinApp software.

Here is a quick overview of what's new in ThinApp 4.5:

The 4.5 release adds the following features to improve usability, performance, and updates:

• Support for Windows Server 2008 R2, 32-bit Windows 7, and 64-bit Windows 7 operating systems.
• ThinApp version updates to incorporate the latest features or support enhancements without rebuilding packages. The relink.exe utility updates existing packages.
• Compression of MSI packages that uses the MSICompressionType parameter to improve the ThinApp SDK performance.
• Reduced memory consumption and page file usage to improve startup performance. The OptimizeFor parameter works with the CompressionType parameter to customize memory performance and startup time.
• Anonymous collection of statistics to expand the support for applications. You can use the Setup Capture wizard or the QualityReportingEnabled parameter to help VMware build support for applications and help you migrate more native applications to a virtual environment.
• Loading of DLL files as virtual DLL files without using API functions. The ForcedVirtualLoadPaths parameter loads external system DLL files that depend on DLL files inside the package.
• Product interface updates to improve usability and link to video and documentation information. German and Japanese versions of the ThinApp User's Guide are available.

Click here to download VMware ThinApp 4.5