Plain Virtualization

With the announcement from VMWorld 2013, vSphere 5.5 was launched.  In case you have forgotten or need to review a summary what vSphere 4.1 and 5.0 and 5.1 has, you can refer to my previous post here and here . VMware has also release a whitepaper on the platform here .  There is also a blog post from VMware as well with a quick reference guide and a summary post here . I will not mention again what is already mentioned above in post referred to.  But I will just briefly goes through some of the things I find it worth mentioning. SSO installation and setup is now a breeze of the past.  It has been greatly improved.  I will do my best to do a video on upgrading and as well as installing for new field once I gather some time and you can see my current video on installing SSO in vSphere 5.1 to do that comparison. Web Client now support MAC OS X for virtual machine console viewing.  I needed this as I am always on a Mac. For environment that want h...

So its after the VMworld 2013 in US.  Many of us might be curious of some of the new features and solutions that was announced. Hearing them why not seeing it and know how each feature or function can or configured for technical guys like myself. So here is a gimpse of it and this have not been possible from the technical guys in VMware.  Lots of effort been put through to get this simple to understand. vSOM (vSphere with Operations Management) From setting up ESXi servers all the way to doing some advanced setting as well as the vC Ops Standard vApp.  Not forgeting vSphere replication as well. vCloud Suite 5.5 Here you will see VMware Data Protection 5.5, the new AppHA, the flash cache feature and of course not forgetting vCloud Director itself.  VSAN The Virtual SAN product.  This is what many are looking into especially for the storage guys.  This is release a Public Beta Release which means its not available for purchase or download. ...

During VMworld 2013, other than the announcement of solutions, there was also a new certification announcement.  That is a new entry certification also known as Associate which was mentioned here . For Data Center virtualization, we will have VCA_DV, for Cloud, VCA-Cloud and lastly for EUC, VCA-WM (a new term Workforce Mobility, which I think might replace the current name DT). For a start, VMware has a promotion code for a 50% discount stated here .  The advantage of having an Associate certification, allows professional to have a easy head start without any prerequisites to take their first step towards VMware certification.  The cost of the exam is roughly about USD130 (SGD160 for me).  From now to end of the year 2013, when you book the associate exam, you will automatically receive 50% discount. Some may not require to attend a course due to their scope of work but a recognition of their understanding of the technology.  With this, not only one doe...

With the recent revamped of VMware Certification site which I mentioned in my prior post , you may also see there are other enhancements in individual certification transcript. Thanks to Choon Kok who brought this up in the VMware User Group - ASEAN . By logging into the certification site , and choosing myTranscript to view all your certificates. You will then see all your certifications that you hold to date. For each certification, you will also see View and Share . View - Let's you download a PDF of your certification.  The link is the same link as the provided in the Share popup window (Weird.  Either one of this link become redundant.  I do not see the need to provide a certificate to other if they can verify you from Share). Share - Provide a link to others who need to make sure you are claimed who you are whether you hold a valid certification.  In here there are two options, one which is as above like View but the link has been cop...

If you have been doing your booking for VMware exams, you would know you can do it over at Pearson Vue website .  However if you have now try to do the same you might find yourself seeing the below page after login and unable to make any registration. VMware Education has recently revamped the way you make your exam booking.  Instead of viewing the information at VMware website and decide to schedule an exam and head to Pearsonvue, what VMware Education has done is let you do everything via VMware Certification site . Head on to VMware Certification site to choose a certification you are preparing for.  Here I am going to use VCP5-DV for example. You will find all the information for VCP5-DV including the course listing that is eligible to be certified.  At time of writing, only vSphere 5.1: Install Configure and Manager and vSphere5.1: Optimize and Scale are the only two courses (I am not here to explain how to be certified but to address the change). To...

It has been some time since my last post.  Have been really busy however I always make a point to at least do a meaningful post a month.  Since VMworld is also round the corner, there will be many updates from all other bloggers around the world. Recently was doing a Proof of Concept (POC) for Horizon Mirage and was questioned on the time to centralize an end device was too long. Here's what happen: A simple centralize of endpoint took as long as 140mins in one setup and 52mins in another which could not have been shorter since the endpoint is plain OS image about 40GB in size. Setup 1 First setup that took 140mins where the Horizon Mirage Server is a VM on a standalone ESXi server with local disk with two 500GB 7.2RPM SATA disks extended into one datastore. Setup 2 The Horizon Mirage server was installed on a physical server with 500GB 7.2RPM SATA Disks on Raid 1.  This took 52mins. Separately, my colleague did a test as well in our office network which...

Have you ever wonder or encounter when asked about network ports requirements for each and individual solutions from VMware?  Whether as a presales, an architect or even a VMware support engineer. No fear!  VMware has just release a very informative network diagram show casing all the network ports and communications in between vSphere and vCloud Director components in a diagram format which makes it easier to understand than just text based. The only catch?  This is based on the current release at the time of writing and likely it would not be updated as frequent so you might have to do your own updating whenever a new release is out. At least it's better than none and going through all the installation guides or KBs would be a killer. Now you can spend more time doing other things. Here is the KB to the network diagram.  This is based on four other KBs as listed: TCP and UDP Ports required to access vCenter Server, ESXi/ESX hosts, and other n...