MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE

I hope you, your family, and all your loved ones have a very Merry Christmas!

FREE VEEAM BACKUP & REPLICATION V6 LICENSE

Get this hot one now for Christmas: http://snipurl.com/21b6v00

PASSED VCP 5 EXAM!!!

On November 28, 2011 I passed my VCP 5 exam after a lot of study and lab time! It was probably the most challenging certification test I have taken since the VCP 2, 3, and 4 certifications.

As for blogging it has been a crazy year with virtualization keeping me so busy I have not been able to blog very much. Sorry about that folks...have to make that my New Years Resolution to do better on that front.

I really think you need to sit down and use the products for this VCP 5 test. I would really like the test to take on characteristics more like that of the VCAP test with virtual LAB and you are asked to perform skills you should have to pass, instead of the current form.

I would like to thank the following blogs and websites for their notes and infomation:

http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com/2011/10/studying-for-vcp5-exam.html?m=1

http://www.petri.co.il/vcp5-exam.htm

http://vinfrastructure.it/en/certifications-on-virtualization/vcp/vcp5/

http://vinfrastructure.it/en/2011/10/vcp5-blueprint-with-study-notes-ita/

http://www.valcolabs.com/

http://www.vreference.com/vsphere-5-notes/

http://virtuallanger.com/vcp5/

http://vcp5.wordpress.com/

http://damiankarlson.com/2011/11/01/vmware-vcp-5-resources/

http://cosonok.blogspot.com/2011/10/vcp510-vcp-on-vsphere-5-exam-cram-notes.html

http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/

and the VMware education "What's New" Class!

MUST HAVE NEW FREE VMWARE ADMIN TOOL: UBERAlign

The tool and details: http://nickapedia.com/2011/11/03/straighten-up-with-a-new-uber-tool-presenting-uberalign/
Videos demonstrations of the tool in action:
http://vimeo.com/31555866
http://vimeo.com/31551540

Originally learned of the tool from here: http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2011/11/first-of-a-series-of-holiday-giftsuberalign.html

VMWORLD 2011 VSPHERE 5 AND POWERCLI POSTERS

Get them here: 

http://www.virtu-al.net/2011/09/05/vmware-management-with-powercli-5-0/

http://blogs.vmware.com/esxi/2011/09/vsphere-50-cli-reference-poster.html

VMworld 2011 PRESENTATION DOWNLOADS AVAILABLE

Finally, I could hardly wait for these to catch all the sessions I missed this year!

www.vmworld.com/login.jspa

VMWORLD 2011 SUNDAY:

I didn't have any travel issues due to Irene the Hurricane that went up the east coast. I got here at 9:30am Vegas time...and the Venetian had my room ready which was really awesome. After some breakfast and unpacking I headed down to registration at about 1:15pm and was surprised to see it already open and allowing a very fast registration process. Next I headed over to get in line for the opening of the Hand-On Labs. They have really done another great job this year and the crowd and Lab Crew were all showing their excitement. I did lab 16 the autodeploy which went well except their were some performance or some type of problem when installing PowerCLI which took about 15 minutes.

After my lab I needed to recharge on some food and that is when I saw this massive registration line, and a very long waiting line for the Labs.

A lab person came up and said it would be 2 hours before the next batch of those in line would be allowed in. Luckily, VMware has noticed the problems with registration and issued this statement:

"Registration is extended to 8pm tonight. We apologize for the long line. Reg also open at 6:30am Mon before sessions."

Well time to rest up and charge up all the gadgets... tomorrow will be a long and exciting day!

VSPHERE 5 IS NOW RELEASED!

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsphere/5_0

VCP 5 MOCK EXAM NOW AVAILABLE

ntpro.nl announcement: http://alturl.com/mypfi

My learn site: http://mylearn.vmware.com/quiz.cfm?item=24908&ui=www_cert

WHAT'S NEW IN VSPHERE 5 CLASS

I'm in the new "What's new in vSphere 5" class this week (2 days) required for VCP 5 certification.

The class and labs are going smoothly and I think it covers some good topics.

I was also in the vSphere 5 beta program.

One item I learned today this is cool: while doing a ssh session to ESXi troubleshooting console you can type "dcui" to get the GUI now!

BIOS OF ALL VMWARE CERTIFIED DESIGN EXPERTS

http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=15652&ui=www_cert

REGISTER FOR VMWORLD GENERAL SESSION WEBCAST

http://bit.ly/o8Byh1

SRM 5 DEMO AND TECHNICAL VIDEO

Demo: http://vimeo.com/26304215

Technical Video: http://vimeo.com/26304956

VSPHERE 5 LICENSE VALIDATOR SCRIPT

http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/upgrade-center/vsphere-license-validator-script.html

VSPHERE 5 LICENSING UPDATE OFFICIAL

http://blogs.vmware.com/rethinkit/2011/08/changes-to-the-vram-licensing-model-introduced-on-july-12-2011.html

VMWARE CHANGING VSPHERE 5 LICENSING AGAIN

Source: http://alturl.com/bqm8z

The article states VMware is bumping up the vRAM entitlements:  vSphere Enterprise Plus (48 GB to 96 GB), vSphere Enterprise (32 GB to 64 GB), vSphere 5 Essentials, Essentials Plus and Standard (24 GB to 32 GB), and the free vSphere hypervisor will jump from 8 GB to 32 GB).

 See the source link for more details.

VSPHERE 5 SOLVES VMWARE VIEW BOOT STORMS

http://virtualizationreview.com/blogs/virtual-insider/2011/07/vsphere-5-top-10-view-accelerator.aspx

It appears vSphere 5 will cache the bits of the master image in memory on each ESXi host, so when vms boot they are redirected to boot from the cache bits. This will reduce of completely eliminate the boot storm issues.

VMworld 2011 Scheduler Builder is open!

http://www.vmworld.com/schedulebuilder-login.jspa

EXTENSIVE LIST OF VSPHERE 5 LINKS

http://vsphere-land.com/vsphere-links/vsphere-5-links.html

ANDROID VMWARE VIEW CLIENT RELEASED

VMware View Android Client Released today! http://snipurl.com/252k3w

Download on the Android Market.

Just a few of the awesome VMware View Client for Android features include:

• A new look and feel – The View Client for Android features the NEW blue look and feel of the VMware View clients!
• Multiple broker support – If you have more than one VMware View broker in your organization, you can can easily access your desktop from all of them via the Android client
• Desktop Shortcuts – Quickly connect with as many as four recent desktop via shortcuts
• Virtual trackpad – Control your desktop on a granular level just like you would control the mouse on a laptop
• Custom keyboard toolbar – Super easy access to all of the special keys not found on the Android default keynboard 
• Honeycomb 3.x support – Made from the ground up for the new generation of Android tablets
• Custom gestures – Invoke keyboard, scrolling, etc are as easy as ever and simple to use
• VMware View Security Server support (best experience) – No need to have VPN when you use VMware View Security Server 
• Background tasking – Switch between apps on your tablet and come right back

VRAM POWERSHELL CALC SCRIPTS

There are 2 powershell scripts available now that will look at your 4.x farms and give you an idea of VRAM needs under ESX 5. 

http://www.lucd.info/2011/07/13/query-vram/

http://www.peetersonline.nl/index.php/vmware/calculate-vsphere-5-licenses-with-powershell/

VSPHERE 5 PRODUCTS BEING ANNOUNCED TODAY

Upgrade Center: http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/upgrade-center/overview.html

Annoucement: http://www.vmware.com/cloud-infrastructure/business-critical-applications.html

NEW SPEED UP POWERCLI TIPS

Just read some really good info on speeding up POWERCLI, especially the first run of scripts in a session.

Check out this link: http://blogs.vmware.com/vipowershell/2011/06/how-to-speed-up-the-execution-of-the-first-powercli-cmdlet.html

HIGHLY SUGGESTED VMWARE HA READING

VMware HA is a little complicated in some aspects. These are three links that really help clarify some best practice to follow and suggestion. The 2nd and 3rd links have the best explanation I have seen for what values to use with setting of "Percentage of Cluster Resources" that I imagine most are

using in the real world.

Also remember there is a new book available that I would also highly suggest.

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/vmware-high-availability-deepdiv/#HA-admission-avoidingslotsizeissues

http://blog.arentcs.com/ha-admission-control-policy-based-on-percentage/

http://frankdenneman.nl/2011/01/setting-correct-percentage-of-cluster-resources-reserved/

NEW POWERSHELL BOOK

ONE of the MUST Learn talents in managing your virtual infrastructures has to be getting good with Powershell. The last several years at VMworld the Powershell sessions have been filled to the max. Well now is your chance to get a new book by some of the best VMware Powershell experts out there. 

Learn more and buy the book here: http://www.virtu-al.net/2011/03/06/powercli-book-preview/

Book example downloads: http://alturl.com/aw8ci

Start here for some help: http://www.powerclibook.com/powercli-book-download-scripts-functions-and-modules/

intro to Powershell modules: http://www.simple-talk.com/sysadmin/powershell/an-introduction-to-powershell-modules/

WOW WHAT A BUSY YEAR

Virtualization is HOT and I have not had much time for blogging this year! We are working on a Vmware View 4.6 implementation and tons of projects, plus the normal architectural challenges of moving forward.

Anyway...I will try to share a few goodies with you quickly....

CONSOLE MIRRORING A PCoIP SESSION

Fully credit for this discovery goes to http://www.thatsmyview.net and Vincent Wu Vicent's Blog.

But this is a very worthy find. You can find the full details at the links provided and download the

reg entry from here.

VCP CERTIFICATIONS FINALLY PAYS OFF:

As my bio states, I have been using VMware ESX for about 11 years now and passed each certification for release 2, 3 and now vSphere 4. I have been dedicated to being a VMware Virtualization Architect for almost 4 years now, meaning all I do is VMware related stuff.

Well this week, after about 4 years of pushing for a new title and promotion it happened and I received my promotion! I LOVE VMWARE and more importantly I BELIEVE and TRUST IT and the company!

Thanks VMware for your excellent products which provided me this new and exciting career!

THE QUEUES INVOLVED IN VSPHERE

Very nice reminder of all th device Queues involved in Vsphere. Original article with more details at YellowBricks.

• Guest device driver queue depth (LSI=32, PVSCSI=64)
• vHBA (Hard coded limit: LSI=128, PVSCSI=255)
• disk.schedNumOutstanding=32 (VMKernel),
• VMkernel Device Driver (FC=32, iSCSI=128, NFS=256,  local disk=32)
• Multiple SAN/Array Queues 

SPECIAL WIN7 VERSION FOR VDI

"WinTPC is a smaller foodprint, locked down version of Windows 7, which enables customers to install this windows version on existing PCs repurposing them as thin clients which can be used to access Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environments. WinTPC is comparable with Windows XP Fundamentals, which was revealed in 2005. "

More info and original reporting of this from here.

CHEAP DISASTER RECOVERY FOR VSPHERE

Very nice set of scripts and presentation from DUTCH VMUG event...homemade SRM via scripts!

http://www.gabesvirtualworld.com/cheap-disaster-recovery/

 

VDS AND VCENTER IN VM MUST READ!

Wow...this is an awesome post of something I have so far avoided. But I have started migration to VDS since all new networking enhancements will be made to VDS only.

Even if you don't use vShield I think you need to understand the potential problem here.

http://www.virtualizationpractice.com/blog/?p=9436&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=distributed-virtual-switch-failures-failing-safe

WINDOWS 7 UPDATE BREAKS VMWARE VIEW CLIENT

Ouch got hit with this problem today. Updated clients to fix the issue are located here.

KB1034262 gives more details

PREORDER: VMWARE VSPHERE DESIGN

Scott Lowe and others took the wraps off another book project today with the announcement of pre-order for the new book: VMWARE VSPHERE DESIGN.

"To our knowledge, it is the only book focused on designing VMware vSphere implementations. It is written for engineers and architects who plan, install, maintain and optimize vSphere solutions."

So what are your waiting for...get your orders in now!

VCP 4 CLOTHING STORE ONLINE

NTPRO.NIL is reporting their is a new VPC 4 Clothing Store online. Read more here:

http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/archives/1679-New-VCP4-Store-Merchandise-for-VMware-Certified-Professionals.html

NEW FREE VSPHERE TOOL

I learned about this on twitter from Kendrick Coleman. New Free tool VMVision Manager.

SERVER 2008 R2 and PROPER VIDEO DRIVER

We recently started seeing some issues with Server 2008 R2 virtual machines locking up when using the MMC for a long period of time. These were running on a vSphere 4.1 hardware version 7 virtual machines.

It appears the fix is changing the Video Driver to the VMWARE SVGA 3D WDDM driver and adjusting video RAM for the virtual machines to 32MB. See these links for more info:

http://snipurl.com/1trne1

http://snipurl.com/1trngv

VMWARE VIEW LIMITS AND PLANNING

I found this awesome planning advise for properly planning out a VMware View 4.5 environment, complete with a very nice calculator.

http://myvirtualcloud.net/?p=794

http://myvirtualcloud.net/?p=1519

Calculator: http://myvirtualcloud.net/?p=1330

THINAPP TV is ONLINE

ThinApp TV in now online with some great videos to learn from showing off Thinapp!

http://vimeo.com/channels/thinapp