Plain Virtualization

There are lots of content available nowadays especially with the Broadcom acquisition of VMware, there are many on how to migrate off VMware and feature function comparison. One of the great content that is easily digestible from 2TekGuys . Below is a breakdown from the video on the features that was mentioned available on other hypervisors in comparison with VMware vSphere. I am not going to go into feature beyond mentioned in the video. Here are the list of features mentioned: Load Balancing : Moving using live migration of virtual machines (VMs) between hosts to due to contention. Backup : Support of backup from popular backup vendors or from hypervisor vendor themselves. Storage : Able to utilize external network storage/SAN or hypervisor own hyper-converged storage only. Live Migration : Ability to move VMs without any downtime between hosts. Having specialized on VMware vSphere for a long time in my career and been in a technical role from picking up VMware. I am always amazed by...

I haven't been actively looking at VMware certification upgrade or into exam writing over more than a year. My certification has been at least 2 version back last was due to developing the initial vSphere 7.0 back in 2021. VMware has since remove the so call "expiration" of certification. Since due to Broadcom acquisition, was looking at my own certification making sure it is updated and all was dated 2021 version. Which means I would need to pass one exam which is current as documented  here . If your exam is just a year before, the requirement is just to attend a recommended course instead of an exam. So if you have not updated to the current year and is just one year before, a course would make the most sense. In my case, I would not have to take an exam if I have attend a course last year and to renew this year, would be another course. The good news is, if you own both VCP or VCAP of the same track and year, you only need to take the higher (in my case, VCAP) and do ...

Have you recently visited the VMware certification site? I was asked on the eligibility of getting VCIX for network virtualization recently. Previously it would take some understanding to understand what is the requirement. However, upon navigating after the revamp, it much easier. Let assume someone have a VCP-NV which was few years ago. But has passed both VCAP-NV for design and deploy recently. He has not received his any of his VCAP certification badges. If you head over to VMware certification site , click on Network Virtualization on the left panel and choose either VCAP-Deploy or VCAP-Design. Let's assume the person has no prior certification or any Cisco certification. It a new candidate who have an old VCP-NV. Let's just click on no VCAP certifications on the left panel. You will see the below: You will need at least VCP-NV 2021 to consider a pass in your VCAP-NV design or deploy. Since he has a VCP-NV few years ago, he will not be granted his VCAP certification. He wi...

Over the course of last week, I conducted my first co-teaching for vSphere 7.0: Install, Configure and Manage course as a VMware instructor. This is a requirement for me to complete the VMware Certified Instructor. This is one of the five days course that I was made to teach. The course was also new as vSphere 7.0 curriculum was release not long ago after the product GA. I took a week to go through all the modules and getting familiar with the labs. There are a lot to prepare. Since I am new to teaching, I am preparing the unexpected. I was fortunate to have a class of 9 students. I mean real customers in the class. Though I have many years of experience, there are nitty gritty stuff which I have forgotten and didn't take much into consideration during my course of work. The modules deck is all very new and I must go read up most of it since some didn't surface many details during vSphere 7 launch but are covered much more in the course. Simple things like how vSphere HA works ...

With the release of vCenter 6.5, a built-in native High Availability (HA) feature was introduced. This has been a long-awaited feature since the end of availability  of vCenter Server Heartbeat since vCenter 5.x. With the release of VCHA, I came across many times people asking how can we implement it? There are a few articles from VMware that show some of the supported topologies. However, with the realize of vSphere 6.7 U2, the recommended vCenter Server deployment is with embedded PSC. In this case, we will just look at the topology that has an embedded PSC. This is welcoming since we have less component to handle and need not require a load balancer just to load balance PSC. Let us go through some of the common questions been asked. How many instances does VCHA deploy? With VCHA, you would have three instances of vCenter namely: vCenter Server  (Active), vCenter Server (Passive), vCenter Server (Witness). How many vCenter Server licenses do I need and which edit...

Yes, the VCAP6.5-DCV Design has been released on 7th Aug 2017.  I was fortunate to be part of the exam creation, and experience the process to understand how much effort and time is put into creating an exam, is never simple. You can find out the requirement to take this exam. Do read the exam guide to make sure you are up to the level to take this exam. The exam is targeted at an advanced level that is someone who has the experience above VCP.  I have seen many try to attempt this exam and failed right after their VCP exam.  There is a difference for a reason.  Some have attended the recommended vSphere Design Workshop and mention the exam is not covering what is covered in the workshop. Do note that this is a certification exam and it is to assess your level of expertise and not your memorize work on a particular course like what we study in schools.  In all certification exams, it is to test on your know-how and knowledge level. This year,...

Decided to fill up the missing information which was not listed in the documentation of vRealize Operations neither was it stated anywhere by anyone in any blog post that I tried to Google around. Was doing a vSphere Optimization Assessment (VOA) and wanted to advise customer on the resources required.  Other than the documentation from here or from the vR Ops Installation Guide , it does not state what was provided e.g. the different profile sizes of the vApp is suited for which type of environment other than running the deployment wizard.  This is not very helpful especially when you are doing planning and the only way to get that information is to deploy it. Upon deploying, you will get to know the disk size that vR Ops will use.   Based on documentation, was 250GB however in the wizard it shows 1.4GB for thin provisioned and 266GB for thick provisioned.  vSphere Client  vSphere Web Client There are four profile sizes of the vR Ops vA...