Get your vCalendar:

vCalendar is a collection of VMware virtualization facts, tips, best practices, configuration maximums, and historical events delivered to your desktop daily. vCalendar was authored by virtualization virtuoso and Senior Systems Engineer Jason Boche.

http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2009/08/19/vcalendar-launch/

VReference Card for vSphere 4:

Forbes Guthrie has done it again and built a new reference card around the vSphere product.


http://www.vreference.com/vsphere4-card/

VMworld 09: Boot Camp: Sunday Review:

Before I say more I want to thank the LAB Team and VMware for putting together this VERY special opportunity of ALL day lab like this. The task of creating the environment for a LAB session of this size is amazing and the man power that was behind trying to pull it off.

That said, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. We didn't get to start any LAB work until about 2:30 in the afternoon, and only a few teams actually were able to complete an actual upgrade. But it wasn't a total wash. We had some good powerpoint material and all got to bond and ask questions and really get some good information that will help I think overall down the road with people moving to vSphere 4.

The vSphere upgrade/migration, we were told, is about 75% strategy/25% tactical compared to the focus in past migrations being more tactical.

You have three choices, update manager upgrade, clean install, or host update utility. There is so much changed between ESX 3.5 and vSphere 4, I think a clean environment build that you migrate too is the best option. Especially with the COS (if you are going to keep it around with VMware telling you that you should be moving away from it) being a virtual machine that has to be placed properly on local VMFS or a NON-shared SAN LUN.

Again LAB team we applaud your effort and look forward to a reunion at the next VMworld on your next LAB like this (just please announce it before we get our flights arranged next time).

VMworld 09: BOOT CAMP-Sunday:

Ok, up early and the first to register at the Marriott 7am registration. Minimal material is given out (Badge and program guide), have to get the other material later at Moscone Center. But that is fine...cause we have a very FULL day on instructor LAB today from 8:30 - 6:30 pm. Going to be a long but fun day!

More later...

I will be Blogging from VMworld 2009!

This is my 4th VMworld event and I am very excited. VMware just has an awesome product line and vSphere 4 raises the bar even higher!

If your looking for some links with coverage from VMworld you can get everything right here:
http://vsphere-land.com/category/vmworld-2009

But stay tuned right here for my own little perspective on the event.
Here is my schedule...and YES that is an ALL DAY Sunday LAB event with vSphere 4 for no extra charge!

Sunday 8:30 AM-6:30 PM-VMBC1000 Bootcamp VMware vSphere 4 Upgrade Boot Camp
Monday 10:00 AM-12:00 PM LAB02 VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager - Advanced Operations
Tuesday 9:30 AM-11:00 AM BC1500 vCenter Site Recovery Manager "Up and Running" - Best Practices & Avoiding the Pitfalls
11:00 AM-12:00 PM TA4940 Navigating the Cloud: IT Management Challenges and Opportunities
1:00 PM-2:00 PM BC3086 A Practical Guide for Recovering Key Applications Using VMware Site Recovery Manager
2:30 PM-3:30 PM BC3197 High Availability - Internals and Best Practices
4:00 PM-5:30 PM TA4060 The Path to COS-less ESX: Migrating Server Operations from ESX to ESXi
6:00 PM-7:30 PM BC3301 DR Architecture Design Workshop with SRM
Wednesday 9:30 AM-11:30 AM LAB09 VMware vCenter AppSpeed
12:00 PM-1:30 PM VM1700 vApps and advanced VM templates in vSphere 4
2:30 PM-3:30 PM TA2405 Best Practices for Virtualization Security
4:30 PM-5:30 PM TA3105 Long Distance VMotion
Thursday 9:30 AM-11:00 AM TA3603 Getting The Most Out Of VMotion: EVC, Performance Tuning, and Troubleshooting
11:30 AM-12:30 PM TA2731 Tips for Planning and Upgrading to vSphere 4
1:00 PM-2:00 PM VM2408 Tech Preview: VMware vCenter ConfigControl
3:00 PM-4:00 PM TA3045 Implementing VMware vSphere 4.0 with HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology
4:00 PM-5:30 PM TA2963 ESXtop for Advanced Users

Lots of VMWorld material open to public:

All the following are now free for viewing:
VMworld Europe 2009
VMworld 2008
VMworld Europe 2008
VMworld 2007
VMworld 2006
VMworld 2005
VMworld 2004

RTFM-Free vSphere Training Videos:

My good buddy Mike, author of many VMware guides, Books, and overall my hero in virtualization, has done it again with some very nice free training videos on vSphere 4.

Check it out.

Chapter01: Part 01: Install ESX4 Classic
Chapter01: Part 02: Create a VM and Install Windows/VMware Tools
Chapter01: Part 03: Clone a VM from the Command-Line
Chapter02: Part 01: Install SQL 2005 Ready for vCenter and Update Manager
Chapter02: Part 02: Install vCenter4
Chapter02: Part 03: Licensing, Creating vCenter Objects, and Adding ESX hosts
Chapter02: Part 04: Install ESXi and Adding to vCenter
Chapter03: Part 01: Standard vSwitches
Chapter03: Part 02: Standard vSwitches Settings
Chapter03: Part 01: Distributed vSwitches
Chapter04: Part 01: Fibre-Channel SAN and VMFS
Chapter04: Part 02: VMFS Volume Grow & VMFS Extents
Chapter04: Part 03: VMware Software iSCSI Configuration
Chapter04: Part 03: NAS and NFS Storage
Chapter05: Part 01: Creating a Template amd Deploy from a Template
Chapter05: Part 02: Managing the VM
Increasing the size of virtual disks, hot-add of disks, Raw-Device Mappings (RDMs)
Setting a Static MAC Address
Enabling advanced features (Hot-add RAM/CPU,NPIV, ParaVirtualization, MMU)
Setting a boot delay
Virtualize ESX!

VMWorld 2009 Boot Camp:

I received special notice about an ALL day vSphere LAB Boot Camp opportunity and I am happy to say I made the 190 person cut-off.

More info is located here:
http://www.vmworld.com/community/conferences/2009/agenda/bootcamp;jsessionid=ACD43B4889B98045533C8EDAD0651EC5