Plain Virtualization

We heard much of Sovereign Cloud. This term is very new to many and many are also new to the term at the same time like myself. The word, "Sovereign" can means many things from different people just like when the term, "Hybrid Cloud" was introduced. Let take a look what Sovereign Cloud really meant and what it is meant to address and understand some of the things to look out for. Sovereignty come with many variable. It can be from hosting location, to the operational of things and also the owning of assets. One of the key sovereignty, is about data.  To start with, VMware release an article on data sovereignty. Do check it out to understand more.  In summary, data sovereignty dictates where the data will reside. Whether is it been transported to other places such as replication, and so forth. Should it stays within the land of a countries, if so, replication will be within data centers (AZs) within the counties instead of out. Though one may be able to achieve data...

If you are not aware when vSphere 7.0 Update 1 was release, there is one improvement made to Cross vCenter Migration. For those who didn't follow, in the past, Cross vCenter Migration can only be done between vCenter Servers within the same SSO domain. This created a limitation especially when one company merge or acquire another, they are unable to move the workloads but have to resort to the traditional methods either from backup and restore, etc. With vSphere 7.0 Update 1, vCenter Server 7.0 Update 1 improve this function. There is no longer a requirement of having both the vCenter Servers to be part of the same SSO domain. This resolve lots of use cases out there in the field. This feature came as a Fling and eventually made it to be part of the official product. However, there are some things need to be clear on the requirements. You need to make sure the vSphere edition needs to be at least Enterprise Plus. For Standard and the old Enterprise edition (if you didn't upgra...

VMware has announced a proper migration/upgrade path many of us might be still wondering after VMware announced the version 6 certification roadmap awhile ago.  All these currently do not require a class. VCP6 I read through a few times to make out how the migrates works.  Before we start with the example, let's understand some of the acronyms for the track. VCP-DCV = Data Center Virtualization VCP-DTA = Desktop & Mobility (formerly VCP-DT = Desktop) VCP-CMA = Cloud Management & Automation (formerly VCP-Cloud = Cloud) VCP-NV = Network Virtualization For existing VCP5-DCV, you can upgrade this without a class via a VCP6-DCV Delta exam (this is yet to release) similar to VCP5.5-DCV Delta exam. For new users trying to get certified, you will be taking the VCP6-DCV inclusive of a class as usual. Since there are already new some version 6 exams: VCP6-DT and VCP6-Cloud, already released (Check here ).  These certification will be automatic upgrade to V...

With the new year of 2015, VMware education also did some amendments to their certification roadmap to adapt to the industry requirements.  However there isn't a big change but one major one I see is the VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) has been renamed to VMware Certified Implementation Expert (VCIX).  You can view more details here .  The roadmap diagram is as below: You can also find the more updated charts for version 5 and version 6 here . In fact I was seeing this coming since under Network Virtualization track it has already started with VCIX. Although VCIX6-NV started with only an administration exam, I believe all tracks will contain both design and administration exam as mentioned under VCIX section. The other change would be under the Cloud Management & Automation track where there are two different VMware Certified Associate (VCA) but only one VMware Certified Professional (VCP) track.  This will be focused on VMware vRealize A...

The vSphere 5.0 migration white paper and the tools are here to help our existing customers migrate to vSphere 5.0 or ESXi from their existing deployments. DB checker tool: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2004286 Upgrade center http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/upgrade-center/upgrade.html Upgrade guide to ESXi 5.0 http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMware-vSphere-50-Upgrade-Best-Practices-Technical-White-Paper.pdf Upgrade checklist to ESXi 5.0 http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMware-vSphere-50-Upgrade-Checklists.pdf Thanks to Akhilesh Dhawan from VMware for sharing this.

Many have asked me whether if a cluster can be mixed with different versions of ESX/ESXi servers.  The answer is yes even down to ESX/ESXi 3.5, however for version 3.5, you would need to cater the legacy license server.  Please refer to the documentation here . Here is a demo of a setup I did with ESX 4.1 and ESXi 5.0 in the same cluster with HA and DRS enabled managed using a vCenter 5.0. Please note that upgrading VMware Tools to the latest version will still be supported on lower version of ESX/ESXi servers as it only update the OS drivers.  However, upgrading the virtual hardware will only allow it to be supported on the latest ESXi server. In such, that in consideration when doing your migration and upgrading of your vSphere environment and perform the virtual hardware upgrade last if possible unless you have enough resources to cater for your HA. Update 19th Apr 2013 Refresh the video as first half has missing audio.