Virtual-Jay: The best VMware and Virtualization information

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE

2011-12-25T07:40:00.001-05:00

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

FREE VEEAM BACKUP & REPLICATION V6 LICENSE

2011-12-20T11:59:00.001-05:00

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

PASSED VCP 5 EXAM!!!

2011-12-08T14:10:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-13T20:18:00.001-05:00

The tool and details: h ttp://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

2011-09-29T17:52:00.001-04:00

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

2011-09-23T15:33:00.001-04:00

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

www.vmworld.com/login.jspa

VMWORLD 2011 SUNDAY:

2011-08-28T21:52:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-08-25T06:30:00.001-04:00

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

VCP 5 MOCK EXAM NOW AVAILABLE

2011-08-23T12:55:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-18T15:12:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-18T13:20:00.001-04:00

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

REGISTER FOR VMWORLD GENERAL SESSION WEBCAST

2011-08-18T13:09:00.001-04:00

http://bit.ly/o8Byh1

SRM 5 DEMO AND TECHNICAL VIDEO

2011-08-18T12:39:00.001-04:00

Demo: http://vimeo.com/26304215

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

VSPHERE 5 LICENSE VALIDATOR SCRIPT

2011-08-03T22:24:00.001-04:00

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

VSPHERE 5 LICENSING UPDATE OFFICIAL

2011-08-03T17:16:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-03T13:39:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-25T09:39:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-07-19T08:11:00.001-04:00

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

EXTENSIVE LIST OF VSPHERE 5 LINKS

2011-07-16T13:40:00.001-04:00

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

ANDROID VMWARE VIEW CLIENT RELEASED

2011-07-15T18:09:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-14T16:15:00.000-04:00

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

2011-07-12T12:19:00.001-04:00

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

2011-06-30T16:45:00.001-04:00

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

2011-05-21T14:13:00.001-04:00

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

2011-05-21T13:59:00.001-04:00

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/