VMworld 2008- Day1:

I attended three instructor led labs today, Site Recovery Manager, Powershell scripting, and a third lab as a non-preregistered guest: VMware Life Cycle Manager. Overall I would say this was a very productive day with some very valuable hands-on experience. The SRM lab guys were very tired after being up all night due to some technical problems, which only allowed 2 out of the 4 rows of stations to be operational. But then this was the 8am first run of the Lab and there was still much learned in the session.

For me, I am wanting very little powerpoint presentation and more hands-on time. Some of the labs (SRM for example) spent over 1 hour just on the ppt stuff we all have seen before if you have been to any of your local Vmware stuff or VMUG events. This left very little time for hands-on and for the part you really want out of the labs. So my suggestinon VMware, less ppt, more using the products time..and I like a structured instructor led approach, not just read the PDF manual and follow the steps. Save that for the self-paced labs. The Life Cycle Manager got top pick for me, followed by the Powershell scripting lab, based on how the labs were run.

Well, off to the vendor Solutions Exchange Expo, probably the 2nd best reason to attend VMworld. With over 200 vendors all with solutions related to your virtual needs it is often overlooked as one of the best aspects of the show.

Hope to see you there!