Eric Sloof

Tuesday, September 18. 2012

VMworld 2012 Session BCO2382: VMware vSphere HA Recommendations to Maximize Virtual Machine

This session will cover recommendations for using VMware vSphere High Availability (vSphere HA) to create a resilient software defined data center. We will start with an update on recent enhancements to vSphere HA. From there, we will move on to the recommendations for networking, storage, heartbeat datastores, isolation response, and admission control. Additional topics include: vSphere HA advanced settings, VM guest OS monitoring, options for protecting applications, and vSphere HA in Auto Deploy and Metro Cluster environments. The session will conclude with a sneak peak at the future of vSphere HA.

Monday, September 17. 2012

Technical White Paper - Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 5.1

Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 5.1, provides performance tips that cover the most performance-critical areas of VMware vSphere 5.1. It is not intended as a comprehensive guide for planning and configuring your deployments.

Chapter 1, “Hardware for Use with VMware vSphere,” provides guidance on selecting hardware for use with vSphere.
Chapter 2, “ESXi and Virtual Machines,” provides guidance regarding VMware ESXi software and the virtual machines that run in it.
Chapter 3, “Guest Operating Systems,” provides guidance regarding the guest operating systems running in vSphere virtual machines.
Chapter 4, “Virtual Infrastructure Management,” provides guidance regarding infrastructure management best practices.

This book is intended for system administrators who are planning a VMware vSphere 5.1 deployment and want to maximize its performance. The book assumes the reader is already familiar with VMware vSphere concepts and terminology.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/Perf_Best_Practices_vSphere5.1.pdf

Saturday, September 15. 2012

VMware vSphere Tech Preview Video - Distributed Storage

In this video we have Cormac Hogan (Senior Technical Marketing Architect at VMware) discuss and demonstrate some interesting aspects of this new feature. Cormac touches on the following:

- Scale Out Storage

- VM Storage Profile Creation

- Provisioning a VM using Storage Profiles

- vMotion

- Resilience

Note: This a Technology Preview

For additional information, check out Cormac Hogan's blog post.

Free Online Course - vCenter Operations Manager Fundamentals

This e-learning course covers how to install and configure vCenter Operations Manager as well as how to use its many robust features. The course consists of five modules:

Technical Overview of vCenter Operations Manager covers the vCenter Operations Manager 5.0 vApp architecture and resource requirements, the vCenter Operations Manager 5.0 vApp installation considerations, and introduces you to the major and minor badges.
Installing and Configuring vCenter Operations Manager discusses how to install and configure vCenter Operations Manager.
Using the Dashboards and Badges explains the main function of the major and minor badges, how to interpret the badge results, and how to configure thresholds and notifications.
Operations and Planning describes how to use the Operations tab and the Planning tab.
Working with Smart Alerts and Reports covers how to configure and use smart alerts, how heat maps are used, and how to work with reports.

After completing the course, you should be able to:

Diagram the vCenter Operations Manager 5.0 vApp Architecture.
Describe the vCenter Operations Manager 5.0 vApp resource requirements and installation considerations.
Discuss the pre-installation tasks you need to complete before you install the vCenter Operations Manager 5.0 vApp.
Identify the tasks for installing the vCenter Operations Manager 5.0 vApp.
List the initial configuration tasks.
Recognize main function of the vCenter Operations Manager 5.0 dashboard and the major and minor badges.
Discuss how to interpret the results of the vCenter Operations Manager major and minor badges.
Explain how to configure thresholds and notifications.
Demonstrate how to use the Operations tab and the Planning tab.
Identify the badges, views, and associated metrics.
Discuss how smart alerts are configured and used.
Demonstrate how to navigate the Alerts tab.
Explain how to create and schedule reports on the Reports tab.

VMware vCenter Operations Manager Fundamentals

Friday, September 14. 2012

What’s New with VMware vCloud Director 5.1 - Snapshots, Storage Profiles and the Elastic vDC

VMware vCloud Director orchestrates the provisioning of software-defned datacenter services, to deliver complete virtual datacenters for easy consumption in minutes. Software-defned datacenter services and virtual datacenters fundamentally simplify infrastructure provisioning and enable IT to move at the speed of business.

Numerous enhancements are included within vCloud Director 5.1, making it the best infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solution in the marketplace today. This document highlights some of these key enhancements and is targeted toward users who are familiar with previous vCloud Director releases.

This presentation will show you what has changed in: Snapshots, Storage Profiles and the Elastic vDC.

Technical White Paper - What’s New with VMware vCloud Director 5.1

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Entries from September 2012