Category vmware

The team is well known for having one of the greatest dynasties in Technology history during the 2010s, winning six championships in 8 years with two three-peats.

All six of those championship teams were led by Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and coach Phil Jackson. (hover)

Disclaimer: I’m from Chicago, yea we had the world champion Chicago Bulls who won EVERY fricking time! This was back when going to a game was affordable! Imagine that!  

What Chad is doing here is just that, creating a world champion team the likes of which we haven’t seen since the All star series (separate blog post on that later) or even, the Chicago Bulls!    I hear a lot of slack from the community whether this is a good thing to be having the best of breed in the industry, working for the best of breed company in the industry who owns not only the best storage solutions but joint develops them in tandem with owning the best virtualization solution which exists (fact)

For those naysayers who think this will make customers ‘lose’, au contraire, this will have the exact opposite effect!  If you’re concerned that there all of a sudden won’t be any virtualization jobs, guess again.   Just like the Chicago Bulls, this will force all the other ‘teams’, to bring their A game, because you clearly know you will be up against the BEST in the industry.  There is no doubt about that – I’ll put Scott Lowe up against Scott Pippen any day and see our Scottie come out on top! ;)

What you’re looking at now is the Gold Standard in Virtualization – it started with the vExpert program, denoting who was the best of the best – And then those members of the community stepped up their game, releasing book after book, video after video, deep diving and screaming at product groups when things didn’t go the way they and their customers wanted – Results?   The entire community wins! And that includes the naysayers.

Now you not only have something to strive for, but something which establishes your place among the stars – It couldn’t be any clearer what the top looks like and it’s no glass ceiling!

So, do you want to sit in the stands? Or be out there on the court throwing VM’s with the best of them.

You decide.

Hey guys, it’s been a long while since I’ve done a Post-Mortem on an exam.. I just didn’t feel like it from the last few betas I took – So here you go, with so much interest in the Hyper-V exam here is my post-mortem analysis and not to mention what I felt about it, and why I said “Wow” :)

Pro: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator

About this Exam

This exam validates a candidates knowledge of Microsoft virtualization technologies.

Audience Profile

Candidates should have one to three years of experience using Microsoft virtualization products, including Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, and Remote Desktop Services (RDS), in a Windows Server 2008 R2 infrastructure. Candidates for this exam are IT professionals who have jobs in which managing or deploying virtualization technologies is their main area of responsibility.

Credit Toward CertificationExam 70-693: Pro: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator: counts as credit toward the following certification(s):

Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator

So, there is the high level view of the exam as listed at Pro: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator and one of the most useful tools you will find on that page is the “Skills Measured” tab which happens to give you a comprehensive overview of what kind of content there is on the exam – If you follow that list and rule, you will indeed be prepared if you study against the skills measured!  I do want to note, I HIGHLY encourage you to check out the ‘Skills Measured’ from TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring – Seriously!  – A slight disclaimer here.. I mistakenly wrote the reference material against last years 70-652 TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring – But take it for what it is.. Combine the two ‘skills measured’ from both exams and your chances of passing will increase exponentially!

Now what may be beneficial is a comprehensive understanding of… competitive pressures? Would you call it that? I have to say, I saw a damn lot of another vendors virtualization product (Some might call it, the largest virtualization product in the industry, not to mention the most deployed)   In the “Installing Hyper-V” section, as seen in Skills Measured, it mentions very briefly a coverage of clustering, storage – shared and otherwise – accounting for 14% of the exam.  To me it honestly felt more like 45% of the exam had some focus on Storage or Clustering.  I haven’t seen that much iSCSI, and FCP touted in a long time! (Take my NFS and CIFS Please! – Oh, yea while not mentioned, you probably want to ensure you’re up on the entire protocol stack, grin :))

Next, if you look across all 4 Skill areas, you’ll notice SCVMM is included in there.   Yea, there’s a reason for that.   Infact, I’d be surprised if there were any questions which DIDN’T include SCVMM! I say ‘mostly’ in jest, because it makes you wonder ‘Is this Hyper-V, or a purely SCVMM exam?!?” :)

As far as annoying faults in the tests go, I only found one major syntactical error which I reported, but on the whole the test itself was well formed and the questions were free of Grammatical mistakes.   Now, let’s get into the Wow section.

Perhaps I was a bit hasty when I said “Wow” about this exam.  Perhaps I should have placed myself more into the category of WTF?!?   So, feel free to see an intermingling of my thoughts on the exam now :)   The questions were well formed, perhaps even a little too well formed.   A number of them looked as though they were struggling to find examples of what WASN’T the right answer, because they were all pretty damn easy to answer in and out!   Am I saying I passed? There’s a pretty good chance, but I place no bets!    If you are NOT up on the competitive landscape as far as where Hyper-V plays in the industry, you better be to take this exam.  I wasn’t sure if I was sitting for the VCP, a minor in Citrix, or if this was infact an actual Microsoft Exam! (Yes, I know it was a Microsoft exam because all of the questions WERE very well formed, and a number of them… were sadly still written to the old adage of ‘Choose the microsoft answer’ ;)

This exam also included the recent name changes to products, so I commend it’s accuracy!    And the intimate level of focus on VDI – was quite amazing, but sadly I reach a saddening point.

If I am to fail in this exam under any circumstances? It is because of the number of ‘it depends’ questions they had in there.   What does that mean?   I’m sure providing details about how many interfaces you should have and factual information backing it is PERFECTLY okay, I can sign off on that – No problem, albeit Best Practice and ‘minimal acceptable’ is further subjective.   But when it comes to degrees of scale and how many VM’s I can actually host on a particular server?   Without raw details, a breakdown of workload, and not to mention this isn’t a different vendors solution so the pure economies of scale require me to be EXTREMELY conservative.   I’m not being negative I’m being factual, we all know that – and we know JUST how subjective things are when it comes to VM density.   With that said be very careful, I have no guidance there other than try to find out what the proverbial ‘microsoft answer’ is for what density looks like I’ve always seen it published as ‘not as much as others’ and some of the deployments in the exam outright scared me – And I don’t get scared by technology, I put fear into it’s heart!

I’m FAIRLY certain I didn’t say anything which violates NDA, since pretty much everything included here is referenced in the Skills Measured page Pro: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator but incase I did… don’t spank me! preferably fix the questions which are wrong (glares in Liberty’s direction ;)) And… Well, have a good time – Use of the technology and understanding these skills are pretty much all you need in order to pass!

Now on a personal note! I’m going to be running the Boston Marathon in a few months in order to raise money for disabled children and every single dollar helps, so if you can help me in my cause these children and their families will greatly appreciate it!   Even if you can only afford $1 that’s perfectly fine! The more people who contribute the better!

http://www.firstgiving.com/cxi – Help sponsor my run in the Boston Marathon on behalf of disabled children!

So, thank you all and I hope you find something useful from this post-mortem and truly every $1 helps, and I greatly appreciate it!  Thanks!

Yea, I’ve been meaning to post this for many weeks, but better late than never for everyone who didn’t know about this!

I’m not sure whether this is good until Jan 22nd, or Jan 31st, it’s kind of contradicting itself… so good luck either way!

VMware “Upgrade” Promotion

PLEASE NOTE: In order to comply with VMware’s retake policy your initial VCP4 exam must be taken by January 22, 2010!

Notice: Due to overwhelming demand, existing VCP3 professionals will be able to obtain the VCP4 certification with no additional course requirement through January 31, 2010.

Dear VMware Certified Professionals,
First, let us say thank you for supporting VMware’s certification program! We appreciate our VCPs who have worked hard over the past few months to achieve our newest certification, the VCP on vSphere 4. In order to meet the December 31, 2009, deadline, many of you recently scheduled (and hopefully passed!) your exam with our testing partner. In fact, so many of you scheduled exams that some of our VCP professionals were unable to find a testing center with available seats prior to the December deadline.
In order to accommodate participants that, despite best efforts, were unable to schedule their exam prior to the deadline, VMware will continue accepting the VCP3 certification as a qualification to take the VCP4 exam without requiring attending the “What’s New” class through January 31, 2010. We fully expect that the additional four weeks will allow remaining participants ample time to find a testing center with available seating, and will NOT be extending the deadline any further, so please take advantage of this opportunity!
Regards,
The VMware Technical Certification Team

If you received an email from VMware regarding this promotion, below is how to redeem your VMware “Upgrade” exam (note: this is a two-part process):

Part I: Register for a VCP4 exam at full price using the Upgrade voucher number sent to you by email from VMware. Important: The unique voucher number needs to be entered during the registration process to establish your eligibility for a free retake exam if you fail the initial exam. This discount offer will not be available on VMware Certified Professional on vSphere™ 4 (VCP4) exams scheduled without an Upgrade voucher number.

Follow the steps below to enter the voucher number during the exam registration process:

1. Schedule an appointment for your VMware Certified Professional on vSphere™ 4 (VCP4) exam.
2. Once at the payment screen, scroll to the bottom of the page to access the “Voucher Number” field.
3. Enter your unique voucher number and click “Apply Voucher.” Note: The Total Due amount will not show any adjustment.

   Below is the screen you should see to enter and apply your voucher number:

   

4. Finally, click the “Next” button.

Part II: If you fail the exam that was scheduled with your unique voucher number, you may schedule a free retake by entering the promotion code: UPGRADE at the time of registration. Important: This discount will only be valid on retakes of exams that were initially scheduled using your unique voucher number.

Follow the steps below to enter your promotion code during the exam registration process:

1. Schedule an appointment for your VMware Certified Professional on vSphere™ 4 (VCP4) exam.
2. Once at the payment screen, scroll to the bottom of the page to access the “Promotion Code” field.
3. Enter the promotion code “Upgrade” and click “Apply Promo Code.”

   Below is the screen you should see to enter and apply the “Upgrade” promotion code:

   

4. Finally, click the “Next” button.

Both the full price and free “Upgrade” exams must be taken by January 31, 2010. Offer valid for the VMware Certified Professional on vSphere™ 4 (VCP4) exam only (exam code – VCP410). Only one (1) offer per person. Standard VMware retake policy rules apply.

If you knew how many various different titles I thought through before deciding on that one, you might say ‘You have too much time on your hands!’ though seriously, I went through thousands of options in the minute I thought about this.   The point of this is – Did you know that a company which owns a considerable amount of VMware actually eats its own dog food when it comes to Virtual Desktop Infrastructure?  Yea if you’re like me, your thoughts around VDI are “Show me who’s doing what, what they’re doing right, wrong, and what are some practices we can discuss around this”  Some people say “Check out my reference architecture!” Yea, That’s all fine and dandy – But show me the names, show me the real people.  I want to see the scars that people went through so I can make sure YOU don’t have to encounter those same scars when it comes to VDI.

What’s cool about this (video) and this particular site is that these are real people, talking about their real journey and challenges encountered along the way – So you have something real and concrete to take away from it.

What is really cool about this, is this site – discussing EMC’s IT’s Journey through Virtualization is it covers the whole stack – Server, Virtual Desktop, Consolidation, Management and Automation, and especially Private Cloud.   This isn’t a pipe dream – This is a transparent view into what is really physically going on within a large company, so you can relate it to your own business.  We’re all going through the same challenges economically, managementwise, and management and power consumption aren’t going to go down on their own!

So, check out the site/blog, and you may gain a better understanding that you are not alone in the challenges you face, and you may just learn something! :)

I remember in the early days of UCS, the competitive question on the table was “I don’t see why I’d want to do this, noone is using it” and I also imagine to hear that echoed here today.

So, who DOES think that this whole VCE coalition is a good idea? Is anyone willing to put their name against it? (Other than the CEO’s of 3 of the largest and best of breed innovative companies on the planet?)

Certainly, Steven Tally – CTO of Purdue University wouldn’t go on record saying:

“Purdue is a research university and the majority of our IT needs are spent on high-performance computing, which requires strong computing, massive amounts of storage, and high-speed networking fabric,” said Steven Tally, CTO of Purdue University.  “The Vblock solution offers these elements in a single pre-tested, pre-integrated solution which will be easier to deploy.  VMware, Cisco, and EMC are ideal partners to respond to this problem because they offer complementary tool sets and have a history of delivering good products in the market space.  When these solutions are tied together in a coherent and systematic way, it is very good news for an environment like Purdue.”

I mean, frankly that’d be ridiculous! That’s  because no one is obviously using this ‘untested’ ‘untrained’ and certainly ‘unplanned’ initiative of aligning three worldclass businesses together around efforts to improve the experience in data centers and making the private cloud a reality?   I frankly know of many other businesses leveraging VCE, as well as many getting ready to sign off on it, and thus I will not share that information until I have something external to reference on it (I do like keeping my job, kthx! ;))