Tuesday 31 March 2009

VCP on vSphere

VMware have yet to formally announce the details of the new VCP for the vSphere (4.0) version of VMware Infrastructure, but I do have some information about it that I can share:

1. There will definitely be a VCP for vSphere (hardly news I know!)
2. It will be available very shortly after the GA date
3. Training on vSphere will also be available shortly after GA, from Global Knowledge of course!
4. There will be training courses for those who already know VI3, those who are new to VMware, and specific courses on some of the bigger areas of the technology
5. There will be numerous paths to obtain the VCP on vSphere

On that last point, VMware will treat each individual as having one of a number of current states, and that individual's upgrade path will depend on their state. So if you're already a VCP on VI3, your path will be different from someone who isn't. If you've attended an official training course on VI3 but you never passed the exam, you will have a path to follow.

I can't tell you exactly what those paths will be, I have seen them but I'm under NDA, and I don't want to lose my VCP or VCI status! I'll publish the info as soon as I'm allowed.

Scott.

Sunday 22 March 2009

New Course - VMware View : Install, Configure, Manage

Hi,

VMware have announced the public availability of a full course on VMware View titled Install, Configure, Manage. View is version 3.0 of VMware's Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) software, the previous version was known as Virtual Desktop Manager.

There are three key elements to View, and they're all covered in the course:
1. VMware View Manager
2. VMware View Composer
3. VMware ThinApp

The new course is 3 days in length, and the full outline is available here:
http://mylearn.vmware.com/descriptions/EDU_DATASHEET_VMwareViewICM3.pdf

Global Knowledge hope to start offering this course across all European countries soon.

Scott.

Tuesday 17 March 2009

VMware Products in 2009

The software engineers at VMware must be working overtime at the minute, and will be for most of the year if you look at the products and components they've got coming out in 2009....

1. Fault Tolerance - live protection for a VM with near-instant failover:
http://www.vmware.com/products/fault-tolerance/

2. VMsafe - framework for security product vendors to develop solutions for VMware Infrastructure:
http://www.vmware.com/technology/security/vmsafe.html

3. vNetwork Distributed Switch - centralised configuration of virtual networking across multiple ESX hosts:
http://www.vmware.com/products/vnetwork-distributed-switch/

4. vShield Zones - monitor and control VM network traffic:
http://www.vmware.com/products/vshield-zones/

5. CapacityIQ - analyzer of current and future resource utilization:
http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-capacityiq/

6. Data Recovery - disk-based VM backup and restore:
http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-data-recovery/

7. ConfigControl - framework for system compliance monitoring:
http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-configcontrol/

8. Orchestrator - workflow automation:
http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-orchestrator/

9. Chargeback - cost analysis, monitoring and reporting:
http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-chargeback/

10. AppSpeed - application visibility for SLA compliance and performance issue resolution:
http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-appspeed/

Some of the above will be included with vSphere, others will be available (and possibly licensed) separetly. You'll also notice the vCenter branding on many of the above components too.

I attended sessions on some of the above at VMworld Europe, and also spoke to some of the VMware guys on their stand about them.

Scott.

Monday 16 March 2009

What's New in our Labs?

Hi,

I had some time last week to have a look at the What's New course (see older posts) in more detail, specifically the labs (the first bit of any course that I prep). As a VATC, Global Knowledge were recently sent the VMware lab setup guide by the VMware Education team, which documents how they've built their own training labs in the US.

Some VATCs hire training labs, and some (like us) host our own. It gives us a lot of freedom in terms of hardware spec and control, but we also have to interpret the VMware lab setups and translate them onto our own kit. Thankfully this process is now done, so my pal Mark Elliott can now come up with a setup and cleardown process which works for him - Mark sets up and supports our labs.

The best bit is that our hardware is compatible with ALL the new features in the vSphere product range, even the Distributed Power Management (DPM) and Fault Tolerance (FT) features! Both these features have their own hardware dependencies, and our labs tick the necessary boxes! I know that even VMware's labs are going to struggle to support FT, so for us to be able to deliver a lab on FT from Day 1 is excellent!

I've still got load of content from VMworld Europe to put up here too, so there may well be more updates later this week.

Bye for now,
Scott.

Monday 9 March 2009

YouTube

Hello,

I was filmed recently by Ryan and James (the Global Knowledge marketing boys!) for a clip for YouTube, to talk about my trip to VMworld Europe and hint that we're got the new course coming:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV89QVNQQsQ&feature=channel_page

Not only is blogging new to me, so is being on YouTube! I showed the clip to my 4 year old, telling him that "Daddy was on the computer" but I think he was expecting to see me swimming with dolphins or flying a Red Arrow! (If only he knew what Daddy did for a living)

Scott.

New Version, New Course!

Hi,

Global Knowledge announced a new course last week, around the up-and-coming release of the VMware Infrastructure products (the vSphere product family). It's a 2-day course and there's a clue as to the content in the title - "Next Generation VMware Infrastructure: What's New".

Here's our press release:
http://www.globalknowledge.co.uk/whats_new/news/next_generation_vi_platform.aspx

Here's our course page:
http://www.globalknowledge.co.uk/Default.aspx?page=461&coursecode=VMWN

I've already sat a TTT (train-the-trainer) session around the content and it looks like it will be a busy 2 days! There's lots of new features and capabilities in the products (more on that in other posts).

Cheers,
Scott.

Welcome!

Hello,

Welcome to the blog of Scott Vessey, Lead Instructor for VMware at Global Knowledge UK. There are a number of goals that I have for this blog:

1. To publish news around training and certification from VMware.
2. To publish news around VMware products, including eco-system partners.
3. Sharing information learned at events and conferences.
4. Tales from the classroom

I've personally never blogged before, but I've already got lots of potential content that I may publish here, so pop back and take a look and hopefully you'll find things of interest....

Cheers,
Scott.