VMwareTips and the website…

Thought I’d give all of my avid readers an update on VMwareTips and my personal life.  For those of you that attended VMworld 2009 you already know there wasn’t too many exciting announcements made.  We have VMware View 4 coming with PC over IP (PCoIP), SRM 4 with its NFS support and more hype of the vCloud and VMware Go, a tool for ESXi users to deploy and manage your systems via a web based tool. Expect some write-ups soon on View 4 and SRM 4, those are set to be released before the end of the calendar year.

As of August 2009 we’ve hit over 70,000 visits per month and over 18,000 unique visitors!  The growth of the site has been phenomenal over the past year and I have no one to thank but my readers!  I pledge to you that the next year will only be better!

Mastering VMware vSphere 4

Earlier this month Sybex published Scott Lowe’s masterpiece “Mastering VMware vSphere 4″which is available on Amazon.com. I had the honor to be the technical editor of this great book and I truly feel this is a great tool for those of you just learning VMware vSphere or simply need a quick reference tool.

VMware Certified Professional 4 (VCP4) Study Guide

I’ve been asked by McGraw-Hill to be the technical editor on an upcoming publication focused on the VCP-410 exam. This book “VMware Certified Professional 4 (VCP4) Study Guide”should be released by January 2010 and will be available on Amazon.com.  Don’t forget that the requirements for the VCP4 certification are successful passing of the VCP-410 exam and also sitting through a certified VMware training session.

VMware vSphere 4 Administration Instant Reference

In what would be the third VMware book I’ve worked on, Sybex has once again asked me to be a technical editor on Scott Lowe, Jase McCarty and Matthew Johnson’s upcoming release “VMware vSphere 4 Administration Instant Reference”.  Think of this as a smaller pocket guide of the Mastering book. Perfect for those crunch moments, or perhaps some light bathroom reading? Pre-order now on Amazon.com!

TrainSignal vSphere Training

David Davis is at it again with the next edition of their popular video based VMware training series. TrainSignal has asked me to be the Technical Editor for this product and I promise we’ll provide nothing but the best video based training available for VMware vSphere.  Also be sure to keep an eye out for the Cisco Nexus 1000V video training which I will be authoring, this will be included in the vSphere series and should be added around mid November.

I’ve saved the best for last…

Most of you already know, via Twitter, but it is official.  I am now a VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX).  I am one of a few select bunch (< 25), I couldn’t be happier to be part of this elite crew!

Posted under Good Reading

VMworld is about to get under way!  This is probably one of the busiest weeks of my year, and the preparation typically takes 1-2 weeks in itself!

I just wanted to share with you my schedule for next week, in the event you might be interested in meeting up with me and possibly getting your hands on some FREE VMwareTips.com swag! (see right).  I’ve got VMwareTips.com buttons, stickers and polo shirts (Special Thanks to VKernel).

For the open times in my schedule, I’ll most likely be browsing the VMworld Solutions Exchange, probably at the NetApp (Booth 2102) and VKernel (Booth 1832) booths. So be sure to come find me and show your support for VMwareTips but wearing a button or sticking a VMnut sticker on your laptop!

Sunday, Aug 30th
9:00pm - Arrive at Thirsty Bear for VM Underground Party

Monday, Aug 31st
7:30am - LAB12 / Scripting vSphere (Powershell/Perl) / Nob Hill C
10:00am - Head to VMware HQ for VMUG Leaders Day
5:30pm - VMworld Welcome Reception

Tuesday, Sept 1st
8:00am - General Session
10:00am - VM3433 / Technical Deep Dive: Host Profiles / Room 120
12:00pm - NetApp Mini-Theater Presentation / Booth 2102 *presenting
12:30pm - VMUG Members Lunch
2:00pm - EA3234 / Virtualizing SQL Server / Room 104 *presenting
4:00pm - TA4060 / The Path to COS-less ESX / Room 123
5:30pm - VMware SoCal VIP Reception
6:30pm - NetApp VIP Dinner Hosted by Dave Hitz
10:00pm - Private Vendor Party

Wednesday, Sept 2nd
8:00am - General Session
9:30am - LAB07 / VMware vCenter Lab Manager / Salon 1
12:00pm - NetApp Reference Roundtable / Room 270 *presenting
3:00pm - EA3347 / Analyzing Application Stack / Room 308
4:30pm - TA2525 / vSphere Networking Deep Dive / Room 120
7:00pm - VMworld Party featuring Foreigner

Thursday, Sept 3rd
10:00am - TA2262 / vSphere Enterprise Stability / Room 306 *presenting
11:30am - TA4341 / Virtual Network Performance / Room 135
1:00pm - TA2259 / Ask the Experts / Room 303 *presenting
3:00pm - TA2650 / Take PowerCLI to the Next Level / Room 304
4:30pm - TA2259 / Ask the Experts (Repeat) / Room 310 *presenting
6:00pm - Private Meeting

Friday, Sept 4th
8:00am - VCDX Defense! / Foothill D

Whew! So that’s pretty much it.  Boy, this schedule is busier than the average work week for me!  Anyways, I hope to see all of my fellow bloggers and readers at VMworld and be sure to ask me for your free swag if you see me!

Posted under VMworld

After three LONG months (and the word LONG is an understatement), I finally received the results to my VCDX Design Exam Beta!

Dear Rick,

Congratulations.  You have successfully passed the VMware Design 3 beta exam.  A formal score report will be sent to you via Pearson VUE in August.  This was the third of five components that you will need to complete in order to achieve the VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX3) Certification. Your participation in the beta exam and continued patience has been greatly appreciated.

Next Steps:

The next component to becoming a VCDX3 is to complete a Design Application.   Attached with this email is the template and format that you will need to complete and submit.

There was a lot more in the e-mail, basically there is a Design Application that needs to be submitted which consists of a comprehensive VI Architecture Design along with a $300 registration fee. Applications need to be submitted by August 14th to be guaranteed a defense pre/post VMworld.

Once your application is approved and your defense is scheduled there will be a $900 fee for the actual defense, these activities will be scheduled around industry events such as VMworld, Partner Exchange, and other Geo held meetings. Also, T&E is not covered by VMware.

Well, wish me luck :) I will be submitting my application hopefully by next week and getting scheduled post VMworld (Friday, hopefully).

Posted under Certification

Jon Hall from VMware Certification wrote a post on the VMTN Communities page the other day, which Duncan Epping made me aware of.

VMware will be providing onsite testing services at VMworld 2009. A great deal is available on the VCP exam (see my post at http://communities.vmware.com/thread/222191?tstart=0), but more importantly, the VCDX Enterprise Administration and Design Exams will be offered! You must be pre-authorized to take these exams, so if you are already in process to take the Enterprise Administration Exam, contact certification@vmware.com to inquire about the availability of the exam at VMworld. You can register at Pearson VUE for the Design Exam, but again you must already be in process and have authorization from VMware to take the exam. The link for registering with Pearson for the Design Exam is http://pearsonvue.com/vmware/vmworld/ . For the Enterprise Administration Exam only, you must contact us directly.

This reminded me that I still haven’t heard from VMware on the results of my VCDX Design Exam beta.  I was really hoping that I would receive my passing grade (hopeful huh?) and schedule the defense during VMworld.

Well, I called Tina (she’s so famous now!) at VMware and chatted about this.  She sounded hopeful that the results would be sent out by end of business tomorrow (Friday 7/24).  She also informed me that in addition to VCP and VCDX exams being available at VMworld, that VMware will also be scheduling VCDX Defense sessions during the week.  Great news!

Duncan also had this to say on his blog post,

For those who want to do the Enterprise Exam check the mock exam that has also has just been released: Enterprise Administration Mock Exam.

Dave Convery also posted about discounts for these exams, which might be a nice incentive to get you guys studying!

Posted under Certification, VMworld

This morning I wake up to find an e-mail from the VMware Certification department, inviting me to take the VCP4 Beta Exam. This is pretty exciting, yet it disappoints me because it reminds me that I still have not received my VCDX Design Exam Beta results (going on 3 months now). However, I did talk to Tina at VMware on Tuesday and she sounded hopeful that these results will be available sometime in July.

It looks like the General Release exam will become available in August, based on the information provided in the e-mail from VMware;

Read More…

Posted under Certification

VMware’s first ever Technical Summit was held at the Hilton Towers in San Francisco, CA from May 5-7. This event was attended by over 900 employees from the Technical Services organization. The main objective of the event was technical training for the TS employees on new products/solutions and providing a forum for networking.

This three-day event had keynotes each day followed by various breakout sessions including hands-on labs. Keynotes included presenters from VMware, Cisco and Ebay. The breakout sessions were divided into tracks focusing on the competency areas defined in the TS Subject Matter Expert program - namely Infrastructure Virtualization, Business Continuity, Virtualization Management and Desktop. Additional breakout sessions covered topics on Competition, Application solutions and solutions from the partner ecosystem.

VMware awarded the First Eight VCDX in the entire World.  Duncan Epping from Yellow-Bricks.com is lucky to be VCDX-007 (how cool!).

Posted under Certification

Jon C. Hall, from VMware’s Certification department posted a comment on Erik Zandboer’s blog today with regards to the VCDX Design Exam.  If you haven’t read Erik’s post, I would strongly suggest it. His comments and concerns about the VCDX Design Exam are the consensus of the majority of the people included in the Design Exam Beta, including myself.

Anyways, back to Jon… In a comment that Duncan saw earlier today, Jon mentioned that they (VMware) are working on a Master VCP program, which will take you above and beyond the VCP - while the VCDX is mainly for Solutions Architects…..

The VCDX, as cool as it is, is specifically targeted at a solution architect level. It is not for everyone. What should be for all of you is a “next” level. This “Master VCP” certification is something that we are working very hard on being able to provide soon. It would involve being a VCP, then taking the Enterprise Administration Exam, which is part multiple choice, part practical. That exam has limited scalability at this point, and we can’t roll out this certification until we resolve that issue. Of course that is only one factor, but it is the main limiting factor at this point.

So for all of you wanted the next level of mastery, just stay tuned and we will have it for you soon…

Jon C. Hall
Technical Certification

Lucky me…another certification I need to work on! :)

Posted under Certification

I started the VCDX Design Exam at 2pm (GMT-8 04/02/09), and finished it right before 6pm. It took me the entire 4 hours to complete the exam, luckily I was able to complete all 134 questions within the allowed time. I’ve heard from some people that have taken it that they weren’t able to finish all the questions. I must admit though, when I noticed there was about 20 minutes left I rushed through the remaining questions and did not thoroughly think about my answers as well as I did previously.

Read More…

Posted under Certification

I got about 20 hours until I take the VCDX Design Exam, and you know what…I’m not that nervous.  I was lot more nervous about the Enterprise Administration Exam.  Perhaps it was the $200 discount I received on this test, or maybe I’m just confident because of everything I’ve heard about it?

From what I hear the only real thing you need for this exam is true experience. You need to know how to design a full virtual infrastructure from front to back. I’ve done so many that perhaps it is just second nature for me.  Still doesn’t hurt to study what you can though!

I’ve been reading the VCDX Design Exam Blueprint as well as some guides on VMware Partner Central;

• VMware Business Continuity Jumpstart
• VMware Plan and Design
• VMware Virtualization Assessment
• VMware Operational Readiness Accelerator Kit

Thanks to VirtualTroll.com for providing the above suggestion. I really believe this exam covers the true details of creating a robust, reliable and redundant virtual infrastructure….anyone with thorough systems architecture and virtualization experience should not have a problem with this exam…but only time will tell for me!

I will be sure to publish my thoughts on the test as soon as I complete it.  Wish me luck!

Posted under Certification

Just received an e-mail from the VCDX Certification team that the Design Exam (beta) is available for me until April 10th. As part of the beta I would be entitled to a 50% discount ($200) and I would need to send my comments and suggestions to the team after taking the exam.  I’m going to schedule it now, maybe for the week of March 23rd.  I’ll need a couple weeks to study, especially when I’m trying to edit a book, do a day job and all the other fun things life brings me.

Read More…

Posted under Certification