Category: VMware

  • vCSA 5.1u1 Update in 7 Steps

    In a recent post I showed you how to update your hosts from 5.1 to 5.1u1, whilst it was a nice and simple exercise you mustn’t forget that you also need to update your vCenter server (or in this case appliance).

    Following the steps below you will now update your vCSA appliance from 5.1 to 5.1u1.

    1. Take a snapshot of your vCSA VM, you want to do this in case you need to roll back the update for any reason.

    2. Point your browser to https://<vcsa-ip-address>:5480 This will give you access to the vCSA administrator console.

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  • vForum London

    So I had the pleasure of attending the VMware vForum event at Wembley Stadium yesterday. One of the surprise finds at the event was the Condusiv Technologies stand down in the Solutions Exchange.

    Now I didn’t realise it but Condusiv Technologies are a company I have had experience of before, for those of you familiar with Diskeeper you will remember the name Executive Software, well at some point Executive Software rebranded themselves as Condusiv Technologies.

    For the most part Condusiv were there demonstrating their new V-locity software, the benefits of which are said to be :-

    • Increase application performance by 50%
    • Reduce latency by 50% for faster file access
    • Eliminate bottlenecks without expensive hardware
    • True "set and forget" management

    From what I saw of the demonstration I was very impressed with the potential of V-locity and I have asked Condusiv for an NFR license to do some home testing on my home lab, hopefully a license will be winging it’s way over to me soon so that I can run some tests on my various NAS devices here (both pre and post software install).

    In was good catching up with old friends from various different companies (VMware, EMC\MTI, GlobalKnowledge) as well as catching up with some of my fellow #LonVMUG’ers and I was also glad to see at least one other person wearing his CloudCreds t-shirt with pride Smile

    This was my first vForum event and I must say it was well presented with just the right amount of detail, the solutions exchange area was full of different vendors and the food\drink provided was top notch.

    Over all I was impressed and will be attending next years event as well.

    Thank you VMware.

  • vCenter Server 5.1 – Windows 2012 Now Supported

    With the release last week of vSphere 5.1 Update 1 one of the things that was announced was the ability to install vCenter Server on Windows 2012, as my recent overhaul of the HomeLab included an upgrade to Windows 2012 across the environment I had to use the vCSA instead of 2012 because vCenter used a deprecated Service that was no longer available in Windows 2012.

    Now that 5.1u1 is out and supports Windows 2012 I will be documenting the installation process using Windows 2012 as the base OS.

  • VMware Cloud Credibility

    VMware have just launched the CloudCredibility website that gives you and your team the chance to prove how good you are by awarding points for every challenge\task you complete. It’s a fairly light hearted approach to showing off you and your Teams Cloud abilities from both a technical and non-technical stand point.

    It has tasks covering social media, course attendance as well as hosting podcasts and writing books so there are lots of different things to suit everyone.

    Have a look and join in the fun Smile

  • Installing the vCSA 5.1 Appliance

    In my old lab I ran a lot of Windows 2008 R2 based infrastructure, not only was I running a fully deployed Active Directory Domain but I also had SQL 2008 R2 and SCCM 2007 but I was also running vCenter on 2008R2 as well, the main reason for this was due to the limitations that were in the original vCSA based on ESXi 5.0.

    In Home Lab 2013 I decided to upgrade not just the physical side but also the virtual and that meant looking at some of my existing infrastructure and deciding on whether to keep it or upgrade.

    Gone is the 2008 R2 based Active Directory Domain, in it’s place I am now running a 2012 Active Directory Domain Controller (no in place upgrade, I just deleted and started from scratch), that also meant that my SCCM 2007 infrastructure went (one of the technologies that I seem to get stuck with with every job so glad it’s gone really Smile), also gone is the vCenter server that was running on 2008R2, I had played around with installing it onto 2012 and whilst I managed to get it to work (you have to delete a service dependency) I wanted to ensure that all of my virtual infrastructure was actually properly supported so that meant looking at the vCSA.

    With the release of vSphere 5.1 there was obviously the additional requirements for the SSO and Inventory services to be installed prior to installing vCenter, with the vCSA 5.1 release this comes bundled up as part of the OVF and makes the installation and configuration very simple (those of you who have installed vCenter 5.1 know that SSO can be a little bit ‘temperamental’).

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  • VMware vExpert 2013 – Now extended to the 22nd April

    John Troyer (@jtroyer) just blogged the announcement that the vExpert 2013 applications are open.

    To become a vExpert you have three paths to choose from.

    Evangelist Path

    The Evangelist Path includes book authors, bloggers, tool builders, public speakers, VMTN contributors, and other IT professionals who share their knowledge and passion with others with the leverage of a personal public platform to reach many people. Employees of VMware can also apply via the Evangelist path. A VMware employee reference is recommended if your activities weren’t all in public or were in a language other than English.

    Customer Path

    The Customer Path is for leaders from VMware customer organizations. They have been internal champions in their organizations, or worked with VMware to build success stories, act as customer references, given public interviews, spoken at conferences, or were VMUG leaders. A VMware employee reference is recommended if your activities weren’t all in public.

    VPN (VMware Partner Network) Path

    The VPN Path is for employees of our partner companies who lead with passion and by example, who are committed to continuous learning through accreditations and certifications and to making their technical knowledge and expertise available to many. This can take shape of event participation, video, IP generation, as well as public speaking engagements. A VMware employee reference is required for VPN Path candidates.

    To apply to become a vExpert click here

  • 360GSP VCP 5 – DV ICM Course

    I recently had the experience of going back to 360GSP to undertake my VCP 5 training. I had used them previously for my VCP 4 training and was more than impressed the first time around.

    So first things first, there have been some changes to the way that 360GSP run their VMware courses, previously they ran the VCP 4 training over 3 weekends, this time around however the VCP 5 ICM (Install Config and Manage) course is being run over 4 week ends, that’s 8 days of training where as if you go through most training providers they only do it in 5 days.

    For those of you who don’t know, the VCP tests more than what’s covered in just the ICM course, it’s expected that students will also use extra material to cover the shortfall in knowledge to pass the VCP5 exam, so by using the extra days study to cover extra material 360GSP are hopefully providing the extra boost to their students to help them a little further along with their study prep for the exam.

    Another thing that’s changed since my ICM 4 course was the class size, the new courses now have 16 students in the class (actually 17 in my class as one of their students who was booked on the course in the new year had to get bumped onto this course due to a change in circumstances), with 17 students on the class there was an initial shortfall in environments but the instructor came to the rescue with another ESXi test environment before the start of lab 2.

    One thing that was clear to me on this course is that the level of students ability on this course is much higher than I have seen on previous courses (not just with 360GSP but also other providers), it’s actually refreshing talking to other like minded people who actually know what the product does and how to use it.

    During my time on the course I also managed to have a long conversation with the owner of 360GSP (Sher) and it was refreshing to see someone with such passion for his company and staff, it’s obvious that 360GSP are wanting to expand on their training offerings but are being somewhat held back by a lack of more decent instructors (there are only so many days a man can work).

    The weekends we structured in such a way that course content was covered in a logical way and we weren’t left between subjects, this also allowed for a good mix of study and discussions between all of the candidates, it was really good to sit down during lunch and have a chat with Systems Designers, Architects and Engineers, the students are a mix of levels but all have a really good grasp on the various different aspects of the course.

    It’s obvious that VMware have dropped various subjects from the curriculum, unfortunately these subjects aren’t the type that, in my opinion, should be left out (for example DVS, Host Profiles, DPM) and it was the same with 360GSP, Dai took the time to take us through the lessons from the ICM 4.1 class so that the class had a better understanding of the missing subjects to aid us in the studying for the VCP5 DV exam.

    I have been very impressed with the level of instruction from Dai (who really should find the time to do his VCAP exams Smile) and the makeup of the students this time made for some very interesting class led discussions.
    This has been one of the best classroom based training courses I have attended for a while, sure the 400miles of driving every weekend (£100 of fuel ) is still taking it’s toll (not just on me but the car as well which I don’t like putting extraneous mileage on) but the guys on the course and the course itself were worth every minute.
    10/10 to 360GSP for the class and instructor and 11/10 to the students who made up the class and made it really enjoyable.

  • VMware vSphere Client Download URL’s

    Please fine a list of all vSphere client download urls. the urls all refer back to the original VMware website rather than being hosted by me.

    I will update the URLs when more clients are made available.

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  • VMware Announce the VCAP-DTD Certification Track

    VMware have just announced the availability of the VCAP-DTD exam track. This track is aimed at Desktop Design and focuses on VMware View \ ThinApp and ESXi.

    The pre-requisites are :-

    VMW-VCP5-DT-101

    VMware suggest doing the following courses although they are not a requirement :-

    VMware View- Install, Configure, Manage [V5.0]

    VMware View- Install, Configure, Manage [V5.1]

    Application Virtualization with VMware ThinApp

    VMware View- Design Best Practices [V5.0]]

    More information can be found over on the VMware MyLearn Site

  • VMware vSphere 4.1 HA and DRS – Free Kindle Download

    Duncan and Frank have announced the availability of the Kindle edition of the vSphere 4.1 HA and DRS book for free, if you missed it the first time around please take the time to download it now.

    vSphere 4.1 HA and DRS Kindle Book