Eric Sloof

This edition features detailed coverage of new vSphere features such as Storage IO Control, Network IO Control, Load-Based Teaming, Distributed Virtual Switches, ESXi, hardware and processors, and a significantly expanded discussion of auditing and monitoring. Haletky offers new or enhanced coverage of VM Hardware, virtual networking, VMsafe, and more. All new coverage is thoroughly integrated into Haletky’s insightful discussion of the entire lifecycle: planning, installation, templates, monitoring, tuning, clustering, security, disaster recovery, and more. Haletky consistently presents the most efficient procedures, whether they use graphical tools or the command line.

 

You’ll learn how to:

•    Assess VMware datacenter and infrastructure hardware requirements
•    Understand technical, licensing, and management differences between ESX/ESXi 3.5 and 4.x
•    Plan installation for your environment and identify potential “gotchas”
•    Select, configure, utilize, and support storage cost-effectively
•    Manage key operational issues associated with virtual infrastructure
•    Adapt existing network and security infrastructure to virtualization
•    Configure ESX from host connections
•    Configure ESX Server from Virtual Centers or hosts
•    Create, modify, and manage VMs (with detailed Windows, Linux, and NetWare examples)
•    Troubleshoot VM issues with eDirectory, private labs, firewalls, and clusters
•    Utilize vSphere 4.1’s improved Dynamic Resource Load Balancing (DRLB)
•    Implement disaster recovery, business continuity, and backup
•    Plan for vApps and the future of virtualization

VMware ESX and ESXi in the Enterprise has long been the definitive single-source guide to VMware planning, deployment, and management. For today’s VMware architects, administrators, and managers, this edition will be even more valuable.

http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0137058977

Today I took my VCAP-DCA exam over at Global Knowledge in Nieuwegein. I had to complete approximately 40 assignments ranging from easy to ones I really didn’t know or had the potential to consume a lot of time. If you encounter a question you get stuck on, just write down the number and hop over to the next assignment. I  was able to complete the assignments with one hour left, but I skipped 10 questions. In the end I managed to complete 4 of those 10 when the exam ended.  The prep material I’ve used is:

• The vSphere Troubleshooting Video by David Davis
• The esxcli posts over at virtuallyGhetto by William Lam
• The Yellow-Bricks website by Duncan Epping
• The laboratory exercises from the vSphere Troubleshooting training
• The laboratory exercises from the vSphere Manage for Performance  training
• The laboratory exercises from the vSphere PowerCLI training
• The laboratory exercises from the vSphere Design for Security training
• The Datacenter Administration Exam Study Guide by Sean Crookston

You definitely need hands-on experience to pass for this exam, not only with the vSphere Client but also on the command line. In the end I think it’s a fair exam. The waiting has begun, in 10 days I’ll let you know if I passed it. I had so much fun doing the VCAP-DCA exam, I would love to do it for the second time. A few last tips: Don’t stare yourself blind on the VCAP-DCA Exam Blueprint Guide. Just create your own test environment and give yourself assignments. Don’t rely on the PDF documents which are available during the exam. You can’t answer every question by looking it up. You will run out of time while you’re scrolling through the PDF’s. Don’t drink too much before starting the exam, you don’t want to lose valuable time at the toilet. If you have a hard time memorize commands and phrases, create a cheat sheet and read it a few times a day. If you have enough training budget, follow the advanced VMware vSphere courses. They are aligned to the exam. Good luck and have fun while prepping.

Update 28/02/2011: Congratulations on passing the VMware Certified Advanced Professional vSphere4 Datacenter Administration exam! 

Alberto Farronato reports: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server For VMware Now Available To Many More VMware vSphere Customers - I am very happy to share some very exciting news for VMware vSphere customers: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware - VMware’s OEMed version of Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) - is now available for free to customers with qualifying VMware vSphere licenses regardless of when these licenses were purchased.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for VMware is an enterprise Linux operating system based on the industry proven Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server that VMware offers to qualified VMware vSphere™ customers, together with subscription to patches and updates, at no cost. Customers can also streamline their support experience by purchasing technical support directly delivered by VMware Global Support Services.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware is a highly reliable, interoperable and manageable server operating system built to power mission-critical workloads in virtual environments and optimized to run on VMware vSphere. With this affordable application foundation, companies can cost-effectively deliver core business services, enable secure networks, simplify heterogeneous infrastructure, and maximize efficiency and value. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware carries the same independent software vendor (ISV) application certifications of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-SLES-GettingStartedGuide-EN.pdf

VMware has announced a new free product which enables you to move and control your virtual machines and vApps in the cloud. The vCloud Connector will be available for download in Q1 2011.

VMware announced it has reached a milestone in delivering the enterprise hybrid cloud with the availability of VMware vCloud Datacenter services from BlueLock and Colt and beta services available from Verizon. VMware also introduced VMware vCloud Connector, a free plug-in that will allow all VMware vSphere administrators to immediately begin deploying and managing virtual machines (VMs) across VMware vCloud Powered cloud services from within the VMware vSphere Client. 

http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vcdc-feb2011.html

ESX/ESXi includes an SNMP agent embedded in hostd that can both send traps and receive polling requests. such as GET requests. This agent is referred to as the embedded SNMP agent. By default, the embedded SNMP agent is disabled. To enable it, you must configure it using the vSphere CLI command vicfg-snmp. In this video I'll show you how to enable the SNMP agent.

This video is also added to my iTunes channel which can be found at Online VMware Training. It looks great on an iPad.

VMware offers world-class Desktop certifications designed to validate and recognize individuals with the technical capabilities and real-world experience needed to increase efficiency, reliability, and availability when delivering desktops from the datacenter as a managed service.

The VMware Certified Associate 4 – Desktop (VCA4-DT) is the first step toward gaining expertise in desktop virtualization and earning the respect and recognition that comes with being VMware Certified. The exam is designed for Desktop System Administrators who seek to demonstrate their ability to manage, monitor and troubleshoot desktop deployments and VMware View components, as well as their knowledge of adjacent, complementary technologies to VMware solutions.

http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=19733&ui=www_cert via William Lam

In this video I'll show you how to manipulate the slot size in a VMware vSphere HA cluster. You can set advanced attributes that affect the behaviour of your VMware HA The cluster.The das.slotMemInMB advanced value defines the maximum bound on the memory slot size. If this option is used, the slot size is the smaller of this value or the maximum memory reservation plus memory overhead of any powered-on virtual machine in the cluster.

This video is also added to my iTunes channel which can be found at Online VMware Training. It looks absolutely awesome on an iPad.

This paper provides best practice guidelines for deploying SAP® software solutions on VMware
vSphere 4. These guidelines only provide general recommendations and do not target any specific size or type of SAP solution implementation.

VMware has created separate best practice documents for the individual areas of storage, networking and performance. (See the Resources section for a list of these publications.) SAP also has created a variety of technical notes, published in the SAP Marketplace, for more information about virtualizing SAP solutions on VMware virtual infrastructure. Reference numbers of these notes are identified in this document, and you can refer to these additional technical notes in conjunction with the information provided here.

http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10086

 
VMware vSphere is the industry’s most widely deployed virtualization solution. The current release VMware vSphere 4 is considered the most robust and sophisticated virtualization product. This book is the only one of its kind to clearly and concisely show you how to create a vSphere 4 implementation so that it is tailored to meet a company’s needs and resources. Expert authors share with you the factors that influence and shape the design of a vSphere 4 implementation. You will learn how to make the right design decisions for your company.

Explores the newest release of VMware vSphere, the industry’s most widely deployed virtualization solution Details the overall design process, server hardware, network layout, security, storage infrastructure, application ownership, and more Reviews everything you need to know in order to make the right decisions for using VMware vSphere 4 to meet your company’s needs Shows you step by step how to use tools such as VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat, VMware vCenter Server Role Based Access Controls, CapacityIQ, vKernel, and more Packed with real-world examples, VMware vSphere 4 Design shows you just how the design for your company should ideally look—and how you can achieve that goal.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0470922028

http://www.vmworld.com/index.jspa via StevenVirtual