Plain Virtualization

I got lot of ask and question regarding the new VCIX certification from VMware. So how do I get qualified? What do I need to do? Do I need to upgrade VCP first? I am confused which VCAP to take as I have already had one? The proper way to get to VCIX certification is stated here . The scenarios for VCP certification is stated here . So in the past, passing a VCAP allows you to upgrade your VCP.  However, with the expiry program and VCP certification article above on inheritance, only the expiry of existing VCP will be extended. No inheritance of VCP when passing a VCAP of the same track. Example: Hold VCP5-DCV, passing VCAP6-DCV Design, does not upgrade VCP5-DCV to VCP6-DCV.  Only VCP5-DCV expiry period is further extended. In order to attempt VCDX of any track, you will need to attain VCIX for that track.  Below is how you can attain your VCIX using Data Center Virtualization track as a scenario. Scenarios: For one who has valid VCP5-DCV, VCAP5-DCV D...

If you are not aware do read this blog by Ken Thacker.  This is going to be for the first time, VMware Education is opening up to the public, internationally to help craft its technical certification. You get to be recognized though earning a badge like this . I was lucky to be part of one of the Exam Items Workshop for VCP6.5-DCV.  It was an eye opener and also great commitment required.  For anyone who is keen on the above let me share with you what I went through in a short summary. Exam Items Writing is a 5 days WebEx and phone call happening at night in Singapore time (for me) over 8 hours.  It starts from 9PM to 4AM my time.  It requires at least 6 people to start the process at any one time.  If anyone could not make it and need to fall out and the number in the team is less than 6, the work cannot carry on. For the first night, it was introduction and briefing how to start and we break off from the call to start writing the questions after ...

Have been a long and hectic week for me.  Doing WebEx and call over 5 hours each time in the middle of the night.  Will talk about that in a later post. Took the VCAP6-DCV Design beta exam back in 16th Feb 2016 this year.  Results was a fail for me. However received an email from VMware Certification in Nov 2016 give me some hope. Seems that the marking system has some errors that need to be check on and through this the exam score might change.  It can be better or worse.  On 20th Nov, did a check and see that my status is still a fail. Just this week, I got this! A quick check in my VMware Certification Manager, is a Pass! I am glad I passed this time round.  But the purpose of this post was not about if I managed to pass or fail. What VMware could have done, they can well, keep quiet and let those who fail to remain failing so they will attempt the full VCAP6-DCV Design exam at a full cost (Beta is discounted as more ques...

Many of the times, many of us get really confused by the different channels of communication of licensing.  In this case for VMware Horizon. The most confusing part is always Named and Concurrent user license.  In my previously article on Horizon Suite, which is the current Horizon bundle, this has not change. To keep things simple, I am going to put down the sources and wordings in case any of the sources ever get removed. From VMware Product Guide , page 56 for Horizon Enterprise: Active Connection : any connections to Powered On Desktop Virtual Machines, Terminal Services Sessions and physical computers. Concurrent Users : the total number of users accessing or using the Software at any given time to maintain an Active Connection to their desktop through an endpoint device. Named User : Your single designated employee or Third Party Agents who have been authorized by You to use the Software in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. The confusion comes wh...

Over the last few weeks of new over the announcement of VMware Cloud on AWS partnership.  This brings lots of attention to the IT market where two of the domain giant come together to make it bigger. Why is this a Win-Win?  Let's take a look. AWS With the partnership, VMware will definitely lease the data centres spaces from AWS irregardless AWS doing well or not they got another constant revenue. It make more sense to use AWS services e.g. S3 storage, etc. as your workload can be directly accessing it within AWS's Data Centre. With VMware's partnership, it adds another valid reason for AWS's customer or VMware's customers to consider AWS external services and this brings business opportunities for AWS tapping into VMware's customers base. VMware Leverage on AWS's Data Centres, VMware can now achieve more public cloud offering around the world in terms of locations. Able to leverage on AWS presence, VMware will allows customers to achieve ...

Network Virtualization (NV) and Software Defined Network (SDN) has been a hype over the last 2 years through media and lots of news publicity. The adoption for many is still new.  In fact, most customers around the world has either yet to start, or just starting, or have a setup just running not at full scale. Over the last two years, we see lots of solutions ranging from NS from VMware NSX via software to SDN from Cisco ACI via hardware.  This then also started up many new comers from companies like Nuage Networks to vArmour. Having meeting many customers from different industry and verticals the questions often been asked are like the below: why this and not that? what the different from your competitors? isn't going to SDN or NV makes visibility more complex? how secure is logical compare to physical? While some of the questions and more cannot be explained in details, from a personal point of view it often drive down to a few factors: 1) Will the company be a...

Awhile a go I wrote an article about how the different vSphere Desktop licensing is for and the entitlement. Having meeting many customer with big and small environment, projects or used cases for certain requirements.  There were some question revolving around vCenter licensing especially for the desktop related. Here is an article of the FAQ on vSphere Desktop licensing.  One of the question in this article states: Q. Do I need a separate vCenter Server for my VDI hosts?  A. Yes, like Horizon 7 deployments on vSphere 5.x, you will need a separate VMware vCenter Server® for your VDI hosts. vCenter is not included in vSphere Desktop.  Let me further explain the above.  If you are running a 3rd party VDI solution riding on vSphere Desktop licensing, vCenter is not included.  You would need to purchase vCenter Standard to manage that environment. However if you are a Horizon customer, the bundle include vCenter Desktop use to manage a vSphere Des...