Tech-Tap

I’ll Be Speaking at a TechTarget Event on April 10th in Philadelphia

Dave Convery — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:59:20 +0000

Join me on April 10th at an event sponsored by TechTarget and my employer, CDW. I will be speaking about best practices for selecting a converged infrastructure. A free half day seminar sponsored by CDW and produced by TechTarget custom media …

Cloud Security Alliance – DelVal Chapter Meeting March 19th

Dave Convery — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:45:22 +0000

Tomorrow evening, March 19th, 2012, I will be speaking at the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Cloud Security Alliance. I will be talking about the vShield line and how it changes the way we think about security. The meeting will …

My VMware VCAP5-DCD BETA Exam Experience

Dave Convery — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:27:53 +0000

I received an invitation to take the VCAP5-DCD BETA Exam a couple of weeks ago and took the exam at Partner Exchange. Like Jason Boche’s experience, the exam consisted of 131 questions and I was given 225 Minutes to complete. The experience …

Figuring the Cost of Yer Winders VMs

Dave Convery — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:30:36 +0000

I’ve been meaning to write this post since May 2010! Never got around to it but I am starting to see and hear about it again. The costs of Windows Server systems become important if you are renewing licenses or …

Using the Free vSphere Hypervisor? VMware Wants to Hear from You.

Dave Convery — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:54:49 +0000

Interesting that I stumbled on this right after I posted a How-To for the free vSphere Hypervisor. Mike Adams over at VMware wants to know if you are using the free vSphere Hypervisor. If so, he would like you to …

How-To: License the Free VMware vSphere Hypervisor

Dave Convery — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 11:58:53 +0000

One of the things that some of the Microsoft Hyper-V users tout is that Hyper-V is free. Sometimes, like in smaller offices or branch locations, it may even make sense to use Hyper-V where there are four or less VMs on …

vCloud Trick – Joining a Domain and Specifying a Machine OU

Dave Convery — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:48:42 +0000

This is one of those situations where I really start to hate computers! I was working with vCloud Director with a goal of having a winders VM run through guest customization, change the name, get a fixed IP from the …

Big vCloud Director Security Gotchas That I Have Found

Dave Convery — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:25:15 +0000

This post includes an important security “gotcha” that I recently uncovered with vCloud Director 1.5 running on vSphere 5. If you are using vCloud Director, you should check your settings. The BIG Security Issue I scanned the vCloud Security Hardening …

PAVMUG Session – Optimal Designs for vSphere 5 Licensing

Dave Convery — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:14:45 +0000

The PAVMUG session on Sept 22nd, 2011 that seemed to have the second most active audience was the session where I discussed vSphere 5 licensing and some of the design considerations. There were several good questions that I would like …

PAVMUG Session – Virtualizing Business Critical Apps

Dave Convery — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:18:38 +0000

For the September 2011 PAVMUG all day meeting, I participated in four sessions. To me, the session with the most audience participation was about virtualizing business critical applications. My session really dug deep into Microsoft Exchange but also covered some …

Welcome!

admin — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:39:59 +0000

Welcome to Tech-Tap, where we adjust things with a ball peen hammer. Thanks for checking us out! If you have ever wanted to give something a “technical tap” with a ball peen hammer, then you have come to the right …

Maybe VMware Needs a Quality Oversight Department…

Dave Convery — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 02:03:08 +0000

I was doing some research for session I am presenting at an upcoming PAVMUG session about vSphere remote management when I came across an apology by one of the PowerGUI guys. Essentially, he was apologizing for something that VMware changed …

ESX is Going Away – How to Migrate to ESXi

Dave Convery — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:34:19 +0000

If you didn’t know it yet, VMware announced a while back that future releases of VMware will not include the “traditional” ESX Server. From their site:“VMware vSphere 4.1 and its subsequent update and patch releases are the last releases to …

My VMware VCAP4-DCD BETA Exam Experience

Dave Convery — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 20:35:15 +0000

Yesterday, I took the VCAP4-DCD beta exam (VDCD410), like many others have done this week. There is a thread started already in the communities forum. Just like previous beta exams with VMware, I had to take the exam at a …

A Few Gotchas With vSphere 4.1! Updated

Dave Convery — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 23:42:43 +0000

Since everyone else in the world is heralding the release of vSphere 4.1, I figured I would post some bad news. The stuff you may want to know BEFORE you jump into upgrading to vSphere 4.1. Before I start, I …

My VCAP-DCA Exam Experience

Dave Convery — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:35:15 +0000

In case you have been living under a rock and haven’t heard, VMware is getting ready to release a new set of advanced certification exams that will take you along the path to become a VMware Certified Design Expert on …

vShield Zones – Some Serious Gotchas

Dave Convery — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:49:38 +0000

OK..I’ll admit it: I am spoiled by the capabilities of vSphere. What other platform lets you schedule system updates that will occur unattended and without outages of the applications being used? I don’t mean the winders patches, they require a …

Creating an Automated ESXi Installer

Dave Convery — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:02:10 +0000

Back in the summer, I saw Stu’s Post about automating the installation of ESXi. I was reminded again by Duncan’s Post. Then, I found myself in a situation when a customer bought 160 blades for VMware ESXi. With this many …

We'll Miss You VI:OPS of Yore

Dave Convery — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:46:59 +0000

VI:OPS is was a VMware Forum that dedicates dedicated itself to providing information related to operations surrounding a VMware Infrastructure. The “Proven Practice” documents are were submitted and reviewed by moderators before they are published. The published documents allow for …

Setting Up VCB for any Backup Software – Revisited

Dave Convery — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:31:17 +0000

Since VI:OPS seems to have died and the content was gobbled up and reindexed my the main VMware communities site (They miss you Stevie!), I am posting my VCB proven practice here. It is dated, since its last version covered …