Tag Microsoft

You’ve heard it here first! I’m not entirely sure just how founded that fact I’m proposing is, but take this into account:

Number of active MCTs: 15,251
Number of exams taken (ever) by those MCTs: 513,749
Average number of exams per MCT: 34
MCTs with 50+ exams: 2,682 (18%)
MCTs with 100+ exams: 82
Most exams taken by an MCT: 185 (OMFG!)

If you think about almost any other profession, you may find that you have a few people who are ‘interested’, but a majority of them fulfill the bare minimum in order to be successful in their field.   However in the world of Microsoft? We’re not only “interested” we’re downright passionate perhaps to the point of being almost overly obsessive ;)

Seriously! the bare requirements to be an MCT require you to have at least one MCP (So for any other profession, we’ll call that one certification or degree).  However, these masters of industry on average have 34 certifications under their belt, or in the case of one master –185!-

That’s just a major wow.  I’m not so sure we see this same kind of care taken in the Cisco space or any other industry (Imagine if Educators were this passionate, it would really convey to their students!)

I’d like to thank the Born to Learn blog for sharing this information!

So, you have to ask yourself: If I am not certified, why not?  There is no better time than the present, and no more viable reason if not to join the community of amazing MCT’s!

More information on how to become an MCT is located here.  The MCT is a accomplishment like no other!

Here is my video submission for the Microsoft MSLearning “Get on the bus” contest.
If it isn’t too apparent, while I am an evangelist and consultant by nature – I am not a video editor in its own right ;)

Here’s a consolidated list of a number of the resources I regularly put up here, so you can find them easier!

Free Training

5 Free Virtualization Training Courses for the Holidays! (HyperV)

I’m not sure how long this is going to last, so I highly encourage you to sign up, get your class registered in and taken!

This course is highly recommended and valuable!

How much does Free Microsoft Learning Cost? (Hint: Free!)

A whole series of Free E-Learning which used to cost a substantial amount of monies, but is Freeeee! Thanks Microsoft! :)

Free Books!

Sign up for the Microsoft Press Book Connection Newsletter now

Just go there, sign up and monthly you’ll receive an email which has the latest free E-books from the MS Press Team! Caveat: the books are typically only available for 5-7 days at a time – so you should act as soon as you get the emails!

More Free Training?!

Microsoft Elevates America with Social Responsibility

More Free Training at the High and Low level, in addition to some kinds of assistance for furthering education!

Microsoft Virtual Labs

Every wanted to try out a product you’ve never installed, or even downloaded.  Or you want to learn a new application, or even Programming language.  The Microsoft Virtual Labs are the perfect solution there.   They include not only immediately available applications for you to test in a real lab environment, but they also have ‘training labs’ so you can go through an educational process in order to learn the material.   The best part is, you’re not bound by the material either – So if you want to think outside the box of training you can, but if you’re not sure what to learn they provide guidance there!

We’re still waiting for the launch of more Beta Certification exams and other/more free stuff, but definitely take advantage of the resources above as they’re infinitely useful!

Psst, did you know we’re in a recession?  Yea, can you imagine that? Now is the time to take every dollar we can from every person just to snake on by, right? Err, no.

No, this is a time to band together, and raise the bar together not only as individuals but more importantly as a community.   The Technology community is a particularly strong one, where we reach out and help each other, even in cut-throat situations where we’re against each other, we want to help.

Enter the newest innovation in this from Microsoft.

This is just one in a series of Community Investment opportunities which will be announced in the market (and by announced, I mean I will search and track them down and tell you about them :))

This is particularly cool as in the “Basics” section, it has just that – the basics to get someone to be digitally literate.  Perfect for those with no current knowledge or minimal knowledge and skill-set in the digital age.  An excellent starting point.

I also particularly like this offer, for those trying to be employed or want to remain more relevant in their current positions:

I encourage you to check out all of the resources, whether you’re looking for work, currently employed or interested in pursuing a career in technology.

Truly, do yourself a favor and elevate yourself, the free parts certainly hit the right price point!:)

You ever ask the question “Wow, I wish there were a consolidated place to find everything* there is to find about NetApp and Virtualization?”

I ask that question all the time.  The following is a release of my internal notes I’d forward to people when they say “NetApp + Citrix?” “NetApp + VMware” or “NetApp + Hyper-V”

This way, both you AND I have a single place to go look and I don’t have to reinvent my wheel!

Everything you wanted to know about NetApp and Virtualization but were afraid to ask.

 NetApp Virtualization Team Blog – Great resource of information and the definitive source on updates of new documents, TR’s, etc – It is where I’ll update new links like those above from.

VMware and NetApp

• TR3428 – NetApp and VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 Storage Best Practices
• TR3562 – Best Practices for VMware ESX Server 3.0 Backup on NetApp
• TR3606 – HIGH AVAILABILITY AND DISASTER RECOVERY FOR VMWARE USING NETAPP SNAPMIRROR AND METROCLUSTER
• TR3646 – RAPID DEPLOYMENT OF ORACLE® DATABASE 11G USING VMWARE® INFRASTRUCTURE AND NETAPP FLEXCLONE®
• TR3671 – VMware Site Recovery Manager in a NetApp Environment
• TR3675 – Fast and Easy SnapManager SharePoint Server 2007 Deployments Using VMware Virtualization and NetApp Storage
• TR3683 – Microsoft Exchange 2007 on VMware Infrastructure 3 and NetApp iSCSI Storage
• TR3697 – Multiprotocol Performance Test of VMware® ESX 3.5 on NetApp Storage Systems
• TR3704 – NetApp SAN Solutions for VMware
• TR3705 – NetApp and VMware VDI Best Practices
• TR3724 – VMware VDI on NetApp Storage Systems 1,000-seat Deployment Guide Using NFS
• TR3725 – VMware VDI on NetApp Storage Systems 4,000-seat Deployment Guide Using NFS
• TR3734 – SAP on Windows and Microsoft SQL Server with NetApp Storage and VMware
• TR3737 – SnapManager 1.0 for Virtual Infrastructure Best Practices
• TR3770 – 2,000-Seat VMware View on NetApp Deployment Guide Using NFS – A Scalable Solution Architecture on a Cisco Nexus Infrastructure

Microsoft and NetApp

• TR3701 – NetApp and Microsoft Virtualization: Making Integrated Server and Storage Virtualization a Reality
• TR3702 – NetApp and Microsoft Virtualization Storage Best Practices
• TR3733 – Microsoft Hyper-V on NetApp Deployment Guide

Citrix and NetApp

• TR3694 – NetApp and Citrix XenServer 4.1- Building a Virtual Infrastructure from Server to Storage
• TR3711 – Citrix XenDesktop 2.0 with NetApp Storage – Pilot Deployment Overview
• TR3731 – NetApp Virtualization Solutions for Citrix XenApp Environments
• TR3732 – Citrix XenServer V5.0 and NetApp Storage Best Practices
• TR3748 – NetApp and Citrix VDI Best Practices
• TR3755 – Verification Test with MetroCluster in a Xen Environment

Oracle and NetApp

• TR3712 – Oracle VM and NetApp Storage – Best Practices Guide

And some definite –must- reads!

• TR3505 – NetApp Deduplication for FAS Deployment and Implementation Guide
• TR3747 – Best Practices for File System Alignment in Virtual Environments
• VDI infrastructure considerations: Choices that dramatically influence user experience and cost outcomes (VMWorld)
• Capacity Savings and Storage Utilization Guarantees: What’s Included, and Are They Worth Considering?
• Total Cost Comparison: IT Decision-Maker Perspectives on EMC®, HP® and NetApp™ Storage Solutions in Enterprise VMware Environments
• NetApp Storage Efficiency Calculator

NetApp 50% Virtualization Guarantee* (Effective until December 31, 2009)

• FAQ – 50% Virtualization Guarantee* Program
• WP7053 – The 50% Virtualization Guarantee* Program Technical Guide

Top Must Read Knowledge Base Articles (Virt-KB!)

• Recommended Settings for VMware ESXi 3.5 Update 2\Update 3 when connected to NetApp Storage Systems
• VMware LUN Alignment in ESX 3.x
• VMware ESX Guest OS I/O Timeout Settings for NetApp Storage Systems
• VMFS volume resignaturing in a NetApp environment
• SnapDrive licensing for VMware servers with multiple virtual systems on them
• Adding more than 8 NFS datastores on a VMware ESX host (As seen in TR3428)
• VMWare ESX Virtual Machine Storage troubleshooting
• Virtual machines that are accessed through NFS datastores appear to be inaccessible
• Flexclones: VMware volumes and LUNs
• Disk Alignment on Linux with NetApp LUNs for VMware

NetApp Virtualization and Twitter!

Yes! I was able to track down the folks at NetApp who are on Twitter, so follow them here!

• @chrisgeb (Chris Gebhardt)
• @Abhinav_Joshi (Abhinav Joshi)
• @bgracely (Brian Gracely)
• @VirtuallyNetApp (Jack Mcleod)
• @Vaughn_Stewart (Vaughn Stewart)

NetApp Virtualization and YouTube!

• NetAppTV (Customer Success Stories and other cool videos)
• NetAppTube (Demos from VMWorld and more!)
• NTriantos (SMVI, VDI, OSSV and more!) 

NetApp Tools for Virtualization!

• VMware ESX Host Utilities 5.0R1 (Includes MBRScan)
• MBRAlign (To align VMDK’s)
• Rapid Cloning Utility (ToolChest)
• SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure 1.01

And last but not least!

 Vaughn Stewart – Virtual Storage Evangelist and all around great VM Guy!

So, hopefully these resources will be useful to you, I know they’re pretty useful for me and I reference them often.   Definitely read the Must Reads, regardless of Virt Solution!