So there you are, you notice that your VM is running out of disk space on the C: so you take the obvious action of adding additional disk space to your VM.

OMFG WHAT THE HELL IS THIS I CAN’T EXPAND THE DRIVE BECAUSE OF A BDEDRIVE

Yea, that’s right. The stupid BDEDrive which is created as part of the MDT.   You got it solid that this is the clear reason you’re prevented from actually expanding the space on disk!   So what do you do?   Rather than lie to you as I walk through the steps, instead I’d like to refer you to this awesome blog post by Joy Banerjee who does all of the work I’d normally put into a blog post!

I know this happens enough that I wanted to share the link to that blog post because the answer is at your finger tips! 

So be sure to hit up Joy’s blog post and BOOM your problems will be solved! :) <3

http://aikitsupport.com/bde-drive-removal/

Maybe you’ve heard all the rage about the new Certification Exams from VMware at the Associate Level called the VCA! (VMware Certified Associate) and maybe you haven’t! Well, guess what, You’s gonna hear about it now! :)  So a few things regarding these new Associate level certifications…

THEY’RE FREE TO TAKE AND INCLUDE FREE TRAINING!!!

And the test is delivered via the Web – Online from where you are!

###UPDATE!### – Inline in the comments Phil Wiffen points out what I had forgotten… The code is valid until at LEAST Nov 15th, so act SOON! Also you must take the exam within 48 hours of booking it (hence it expiring in 2 days).

Yea you heard me right.  Now this won’t be free forever, but right now if you use the right formulae of success criteria (detailed inline here) you can get this for free. I’ve heard rumor this expires at the end of this year so get it done STAT! I also heard rumor it expires at the end of November, again knock it out!

You can start out by visiting the VMware Pearson Vue site located at http://www.pearsonvue.com/vmware/ which gives you a handy dandy screen like this..



Below this little list here includes a whole bunch of links you can use to go and register for Authorization and Register for Exams.  If you read a previous blog post A Must-Read before taking your next #VMware VCP or VCAP Exam!!! it included the steps of how to go about requesting authorization to take an exam.   But I’ll mention it here, you’ll need to request authorization to take the exam before you can even register for the exam, and thus schedule the exam respectively!

• Free Online Training Resources:
  • VMware Certified Associate – Data Center Virtualization
    • VMware Data Center Virtualization Fundamentals
  • VMware Certified Associate – Cloud
    • VMware Cloud Fundamentals
  • VMware Certified Associate – Workforce Mobility
    • VMware Workforce Mobility Fundamentals

This little list here not only includes a link to take you directly to the FREE training videos, but the grouping below also takes you to the individual sites for each track to Request Authorization and Register for the exams!

Simply click "Request Authorization" for an exam – and then choose the "Register for the Exam" option!





Then click "Schedule an Exam" after which you select the “Associate and Professional Level Exams” and you’ll need to login then!





If you’ve never done an Online Pearson Vue exam you should create a web account. The process whereby you requested authorization will supply you with the Candidate ID which is required to make this setup complete! I ran into the problem whereby my account was sort of messed up and tied to another account which did not let me login. As I know that VMware Education is so good at cleaning up and merging accounts…. I opt’d to create a new account on a different email alias of mine which also created ANOTHER Candidate ID, but at least it let me register then! :)

After logging in you should have the option to Register for a Pre-Approved exam!





WARNING! Unless you’re rocking your Chinese … Change it from the DEFAULT!



OMG ITS $120 YOU LIED TO ME! YOU SAID IT WAS FREEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! whoa, hold on there!



MORE LIES! YOU SAID ITS FREE NOW ITS ONLY HALF PRICE!@#!@#$@#!@#  Don’t fret yet… wait until you get to the Payment Screen..



Enter this handy dandy code “VCA13ICS” which I’ve borrowed from my dear friend Rasmus Hedlund from his blog post VMware VCA exam experience plus FREE exam voucher

Additional discount / voucher codes available at Free VMware VCA Certification Voucher! thanks to @FrankBrix ! Look below as well.

Coupon Codes:

• VCA13ICS (Expires November 15th)
• VCA13BCN (Expires end of November)
• VCA13GKN (Supposed to be good until Jan 31 2014)
• VMRT6B404C7B (Expires January 31st)



OMG OMG OMG ITS FREE FREE FREE! Yea. Get it while you can! For some reason mine said mine is only able to taken over the next 2 days which scares me into thinking OMG this won’t last… So get out there and register!

YOU DID IT! You are all set to take your VMware Exam which will mean the difference of you having the certification and NOT having the certification! Who knows, this could be the change that your life has been asking for, Excited Excited Excited!!!   But wait, It’s not that simple!

What?!?!?!

This past September our good friends at VMware have instituted an “Authorization” process, whereby you need to take some steps BEFORE you can schedule!    Or semi-specifically and verbatim…

   All VMware exams require prior VMware authorization before candidates can schedule an appointment with Pearson VUE.

Candidates can get authorized by going to vmware.com/certification.  This process can take up to 15 minutes. Once authorized, candidates can schedule their exam.

Awesome, right?! I mean, or not. I know what you’re chanting NANNY STATE. NANNY STATE. Yea. That’s what I said when I was FIRST going to publish this back when it happened several many weeks ago… But time to cut through the chaff to get down to what matters!

Now when you’re ready to take an exam, you can visit the listed http://vmware.com/certification or respectively visit http://www.pearsonvue.com/vmware both of which will provide you relevant links like the following;

It wasn’t until the past week or two where VMware actually FIXED their links to make finding the registration portion ‘possible’, so now both links take you to the appropriate place instead of only one.  Awesome!

When you finally find what you’re looking for, you’ll be prompted to login using your myLearn account, and then you get a list of ‘Pre-Requisite” sections to fill out.    Interesting thing to note here; while running this through in my tests I was never able to get the “Continue” button to function correctly using Chrome, but it worked in Internet Explorer… Hey, whatever it takes, right? (If you experience a similar problem of the button not working, try another browser).

However, you may also notice that SOME of the tests you want to Authorize for may not be available, receiving only a “Back” button.   We’ve historically found this due to some of the following reasons;

• Your VCP not being recognized on your account
• Your class not being recognized on your account
• You took the VCP Exam and THEN took the Class, and they’re not granting you credit for it since it was done ‘after the fact’.

Irrespective of what problems you may experience, I’ve found the folks at Education to be *great* at helping out, and I have opened numerous cases (on this, and over the years for account mergers)   Just shoot a mail over to “eduoperations@vmware.com” explaining your problem and they have a 48hr SLA for response to get it resolved.   This can be a major challenge if you’re all excited to test TOMORROW and you cannot get your authorization in, so something to consider while thinking ahead!

That in essence covers the bulk of it, Pearson VUE changes due to VMware Policy LIKELY will impact you if you do not plan ahead.   So, plan ahead, get authorized and Pass Pass Pass!

Keep up the virtually good work. OMG WORST TAGLINE EVER! ;)

Well, here we are… vExpert nominations have been submitted, the data reviewed and the decisions unveiled as to whom represents the 2013 year of #vExperts and I am humbled and honored to be allowed to continue as a part of this absolutely awesome club.

To get a good feel for who are some of the members of this crazy and wild community that we’re a part of you can see the official list here;
vExpert 2013 Awardees announced

Oh and my fellow #vExperts be sure to take advantage of these folks who support our ability to continue to support the community!
Tintri free polo shirts for #vExperts with your Twitter handle on them!

2013 vExperts, come get a free one-year subscription to TrainSignal!

But enough with the lovefest for us, right?! Albeit… if you’re a new vExpert this year be sure you come say hi, introduce yourself within the community and amongst ourselves!

Some of you may ask the question, “With all this talk about vExperts, how do I become one too?!?!”
The Non-definitive guide to the VMware vExpert Program, Tips, Tricks, How to become a vExpert!

Last year I published this accord to give you a glimpse into the vExpert life, and even some tips on how to make this a reality. Well, with nominations over, and those aligned to 2013 chosen there’s no better time than the present to start fulfilling your destiny to ensure that when this time comes around again in 2014 you too will be on that list. The thing is, being a vExpert isn’t something arbitrary and it doesn’t come lightly. A lot of us eat, sleep and breathe Virtualization. Not because we’re paid to, but because it is a PART of us. It’s important to know that if you should so choose a future like this for yourself… there may be some responsibility resting upon your shoulders… That’s all I’m saying. :)

I congratulate my fellow vExperts and yes for those of you who have been asking, I WILL be attending VMworld 2013 in San Francisco this year, all of my flights have been booked to take me away from this beautiful desert warzone I’ve been spending my time in so I can enjoy my time with all of you and my family for a few weeks! And yes, this does mean there will be #CXIDinners as well! More details on that to come!

Congratulations all of you, this year just got even more interesting!

CAT OUT!

/@cxi

So this conversation came up the other day, basically, “Hey, isn’t there a way to convert Std to Ent in one command?” Some might say, “No, you must re-install of your hosts and as part of that rebuild process I will charge you 1 million dollars in Consulting! MUAHHAHAHA!” But, no. The answer is. YES YOU CAN!   And so I don’t have to go hunting to find this at some point in the future… here is all the citing evidence to refer back to ;)

Thanks to our dear friend,  Jim Millard @millardjk – It’s as easy as seen in this tweet!

     Dism /online /set-edition:ServerEnterprise /product key:<KMS key>

But to cite some additional information, in case we need to troubleshoot something or we don’t fully understand WTF that means!  These additional articles can help out as well!

• Change Windows Server from Standard to Enterprise Edition
• SQL Server 2008: Upgrading to Standard/Enterprise Edition from Evaluation Edition
• Upgrade Windows Server 2008 R2 standard to Enterprise

While this may not be the most authoritative source on the subject… if it solves for your problem, then BAM! And if not… well, we can track down those other scenarios! Unfortunately… I don’t have any Std versions to actually need to upgrade to Ent at the moment to screenshot through! But hopefully you find this useful.. eventually when I’m in that situation needing to use the cmd, I’ll look back upon this and give this a whirl! :) Enjoy!