VMware Certification Journey – Where is yours going?

I recall a bit over a year ago I attained my first VMware certification VCP4 and definitely viewed it as a milestone. The company I was working for didn’t make a point to spend a whole lot of cash on getting people certified and I honestly was one of the few lucky ones that got to take part in the class. Then, it was the VMware fast track and I have to say, it was definitely a fun class.

This year it also seems that I am lucky yet again because VMware is offering the VCP 5 without having to take a what’s new class as of now. This will expire early next year in February. With that being said I cannot help but wonder how this would affect the current value of VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 5. Although, VMware has potentially saved other corporations, contractors, and consultants thousands of dollars in training it doesn’t mean that at the same time there could be a hit on the value of the VCP5 certification versus the VCP4. I can honestly wonder what would really prevent anyone from just downloading a dump and getting an easy breezy VCP certification for close to nil of what it used to cost?

Though I am thankful for the opportunity many may or may not make a point to really master or learn vSphere 5 before taking that test and getting the VCP5. This would result in a  lower overall value of the VCP certification, IMHO. I personally like the fact that I have to go to training, but there again many businesses cannot always put up that kind of cash.. especially some of the SMB companies out there.

I sometimes cannot help but wonder with all the cool new features if this too also helps SMB’s even further by making the transition to vSphere 5 that much easier. Cheaper training a guess came at the added cost of licensing – yeah pretty ironic right? After all they did set that limit to attain the certification by a certain date and I am sure that not all VCPs will just go study a dump per se.

As of now though you can really get a gage on what the national average is for a VCP currently in the United States:

Image courtesy of Indeed – still a good time to be a VCP

As you can see it seems to have steadied out for now but it definitely was on decline up until around the vSphere 5 announcement. Anyways, my only point was really the value of that certification and right now it still seems like a golden opportunity to upgrade this certification and not to mention that sweet little 25% discount as well offered to even make the test cheaper.

With that being said I will kind of share my goals as of now:

• VCP5 (this month)
• VCA-DT or VCP-DT (probably VCP since VCA is really not a strong value imo)
• VCAP-DCA (6 months)
• re-evaluate certifications (maybe new or old ones)
• VCAP-DCD (TBD)
• Eventually maybe VCDX (In the next two years)

Obviously it still more VMware centric, I wouldn’t even mind picking up a CCNA between the VCP 5 and VCAP-DCD just to enforce my network knowledge. Since I know work with CiscoUCS it may not be a bad idea to also look at those certifications if I do get a CCNA.

So what is your certification plan and where are you going?

***Disclaimer: The thoughts and views expressed on VirtualNoob.wordpress.com and Chad King in no way reflect the views or thoughts of his employer or any other views of a company. These are his personal opinions which are formed on his own. Also, products improve over time and some things maybe out of date. Please feel free to contact us and request an update and we will be happy to assist. Thanks!~

Brown Bag Cloud Architecture “Eco-System” Notes

So I checked out the Brown Bag over at Cody’s Site. I have to say I was very happy with the Cloud Architecture.  It definitely was a different spin to learn about the “Eco-System” and also listen to some of the questions.  Here are the notes I gathered:

• vSphere which was once the management layer is now more of an application layer
• vSphere administrators may not be vCloud
• Architecture shows best practice to have two vCenters one for the Cloud Service the other for management.
• Automation and Orchestration is more important
• Different security levels for Cloud and vSphere Management
• Scaling the cloud out brings additional complexity to traditional virtual BU/DR technologies
• Most scale-outs of the cloud involve more of use case versus meeting the vCenter maximums.
  • BU/DR requirements
  • PCI Compliance (Particular Security Use-Case)
• VCD Database is still not “officially” supported when running Oracle RAC in “Active/Active” only “Active/Standby” Configurations
• Templates are simply “powered off” VM in VCD
• Network Copy happens between Clusters (different storage)
• Cloning has always been Block-File copy between host (VAAI Helps)
• For VCD deploying vApps to the assigned tenant datastores the vApps will deploy on datastores that has the least amount of “USED” space
• VCD requires DRS – NEVER disable it
• Linked Clones do not have mis-alignment on NFS
• NFS seems to be gaining more momentum for VCD deployments

The following to me seemed to make a lot of sense.  I attempted to sort it out by what I would think is needed versus highly recommended.  Need is more of vCloud is dependent on that technology.

• High availability of certain components – applications.
  • vShield Manager > FT enabled (Fault Tolerance)
  • vCenter Server > Heartbeat (More critical because VCD uses vCenter)

• Components Needed to use in the Cloud Architecture (VMware Specific)
  • vCenter (one for management and the other for cloud)
  • vShield Manager
  • vChargeback

• Components Highly Recommended:
  • vCloud Service Manager
  • vCenter Update Manager
  • vCloud Connector
  • vCenter Orchestrator

• Future Products that will be vCloud ready:
  NOTE: Due to the different API’s in each Product, VMware is playing catch up on getting some of these products “vCloud Ready”
  • vCenter Ops
  • Infrastructure Viewer

• Skill and Knowledge increase is also needed:
  • vSphere / ESX
  • Deeper Storage Skills
  • Deeper Networking & Firewall Skills
  • Scripting (PowerCLI)
  • Workflow / Automation
  • Capacity Planning

Note: Prior it was ESX, vCenter and some scripting
it is also more about Infrastructure Management now

Cell Network Considerations:

• Network Design of Interfaces:
  • HTTP/Console Proxy (Front-End end-user aka Portal)
  • OS Management
  • Database (Oracle or MS-SQL)
  • NFS (Transfer Service Storage L2 Network with Jumbo Frames)
  • vSphere (L2 Network with Jumbo Frames)

Note: This is not referenced in the architecture but just recommendations. These may require static or additional routes. Traditionally this has been 2 interfaces. Use VLANS if possible. The NFS and vSphere are mostly for the cloning process or Import/Export processes of VCD. This would allow the cloud to be even more scalable and efficient.

Feel Free to comment! For more information visit:
http://professionalvmware.com/2011/11/brownbag-follow-up-vcloud-architecture/

***Disclaimer: The thoughts and views expressed on VirtualNoob.wordpress.com and Chad King in no way reflect the views or thoughts of his employer or any other views of a company. These are his personal opinions which are formed on his own. Also, products improve over time and some things maybe out of date. Please feel free to contact us and request an update and we will be happy to assist. Thanks!~

vCenter Orchestrator Resources and Links

I wanted to only post some resources for VMware vCenter Orchestrator so here they are. I also hear through the grapevine a PowerShell plug-in is coming the best part is that vCloud is also getting the PowerCLI cmdlets as well! Cheers!

vCenter Orchestrator Links and Other Sources:

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/orchestrator_pubs.html
http://professionalvmware.com/vcenter-orchestrator/
http://www.vcoteam.info/
http://www.vcoportal.de/
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/vco_va_420/dHRAYnRoamViZHAlZA > VCO Appliance

Appliance Download and Automated Installation:
Appliance
Installation – Cody Bunch
Installation 2 – VCO Team
Automated Installation – Lamw

Documentation Download:
Orchestrator Compiled Docs (Admin guides and more)

Other Stuff:
Monitoring SNMP for Ticket Alerting “Use-Case” Plug-In
http://blogs.vmware.com/orchestrator/2011/09/snmp-plug-in-integration-with-vcenter.html
CIM Hardware (Yes, full hardware reporting and automation now..)
http://labs.vmware.com/flings/cim-plugin
Web Based UI Plug-in for VCO:
http://www.vcoportal.de/2011/10/welcome-back-perspectives/
Plug In List (Official)
http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vcenter-orchestrator/plugins.html
contains:
vCenter Server
vCloud Director
vCenter Update Manager
CiscoUCS Manager (this is the management application)
MS AD (Microsoft Active Directory)
HTTP-REST (This is also what VCD uses)
SOAP
AMQP protocol/MQ
SNMP

Companies with vCenter orchestrator plug-ins:
RadWare: (Automating Load balancing and auto provisioning of more web servers when load gets high)
http://www.radware.com/Solutions/Enterprise/Virtualization/vDirect.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=4rkV3ebQens&vq=medium
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=6X-J6llsuho&vq=medium
Uptime: (More monitoring)
http://support.uptimesoftware.com/orchestrator.php

***Disclaimer: The thoughts and views expressed on VirtualNoob.wordpress.com  and Chad King in no way reflect the views or thoughts of his employer or any other views of a company. These are his personal opinions which are formed on his own. Also, products improve over time and some things maybe out of date. Please feel free to contact us and request an update and we will be happy to assist. Thanks!~

VMware vSphere Management Tools

All I can say is “Whew!”. I am definitely looking forward to this.

So I am hoping to test some new products.

Criteria:

1. What free tools the vendor offers?
2. Capacity Management
3. Reporting (Access and Automation)
4. Monitoring
5. Other Features
6. Overall Cost (Licensing Model)

Tools:
(NOTE: The order is not specific to favorites or a product being the best. Also noted are the free tool they offer)

1. vKernel – vScope
2. Veeam One – Monitoring and Reporting)
3. VMTurbo – Community edition
4. Solarwinds – VM Monitor

Again, if you may know of any other products drop me a line and I see if we can add them to the list. There will be a review, rating, and follow up after testing and working with the products.

***Disclaimer: The thoughts and views expressed on VirtualNoob.wordpress.com and Chad King in no way reflect the views or thoughts of his employer or any other views of a company. These are his personal opinions which are formed on his own. Also, products improve over time and some things maybe out of date. Please feel free to contact us and request an update and we will be happy to assist. Thanks!~

vSphere VCP 510 Study Guide – Prepping up! (VCP5 resources Updated!)

UPDATED: ( Check out my VCP 5 Experience!  )
Recently heard some things around the rumor mill that the VMware test has recently been changed/updated in December.  I am still getting a lot of feedback that it covers a lot of the things that haven’t changed between vSphere 4 and 5 while at the same time addressing some of the newer features.  The previous one seemed to have more to do with vSphere 4.1.  Again this is just what I hear on random threads and so forth.  I have also updated my resources page and will be working on an offline guide here soon.

So in response to all these opinions I think I have found a solid list to help.  I am also working on a documentation source that could be available offline for others to study as we don’t always have internet access.  These are a bunch of PDF’s from both websites and VMware alike.  If this is a problem I could remove it later. (Click here to get what I have for now)

** Check out my VMware vSphere Lab Series Here! **

vSphere 5 Helpful Study Links:
http://vcp5.wordpress.com/
http://cosonok.blogspot.com/search/label/vSphere5
http://vinfrastructure.it/en/certifications-on-virtualization/vcp/vcp5/
http://damiankarlson.com/category/vcp-5/
http://damiankarlson.com/2011/11/01/vmware-vcp-5-resources/
http://virtuallanger.com/vcp5/
http://blog.mwpreston.net/vcp-5/
http://www.vreference.com/vsphere-5-notes/
http://www.vreference.com/vsphere-5-card/

Blueprint related for VCP5
http://damiankarlson.com/2011/07/13/vcp5-vs-vcp4-comparing-exam-blueprints/
http://virtuallanger.com/vcp5/
VMware Blue Print Download

Test Quizzes:
http://www.kalenarndt.com/vcp-510-quiz/
http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/vcp5-practice-exams/

vSphere 5 Links for Everything:
http://vsphere-land.com/vsphere-links/vsphere-5-links.html

VCP5 Videos:
http://www.trainsignal.com/VMware-vSphere-5-Training.aspx
http://cbtnuggets.com/it-training-videos/series/vmwr_vcp5
http://professionalvmware.com/brownbags/

Networking:
vsphere-5-new-networking-features-enhanced-nioc
vSphere 5 New Networking Features – Introduction
vSphere 5 New Networking Features – NetFlow
vSphere 5 New Networking Features – Port Mirroring

Storage Related Studying:
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 1 – VMFS-5
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 2 – Storage vMotion
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 3 – VAAI
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 4 – Storage DRS – Initial Placement
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 5 – Storage DRS – Balance On Space Usage
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 6 – Storage DRS – Balance On I/O Metrics
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 7 – VMFS-5 & GPT
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 8 – Handling the All Paths Down (APD) condition
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 9 – Snapshot Consolidate
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 10 – VASA – vSphere Storage APIs – Storage AwarenessvSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 11 – Profile Driven Storage
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 12 – iSCSI Multipathing Enhancements

What’s New Documentation
What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0 Platform
What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0 Storage
What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0 Performance
What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0 Networking
What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0 Availability

If you want the complete documentation for vSphere 5 resources to keep offline you can download it from here.
If you want to check out my resource page for downloading other files check it out here.

***Disclaimer: The thoughts and views expressed on VirtualNoob.wordpress.com and Chad King in no way reflect the views or thoughts of his employer or any other views of a company. These are his personal opinions which are formed on his own. Also, products improve over time and some things maybe out of date. Please feel free to contact us and request an update and we will be happy to assist. Thanks!~

vSphere 5 Documentation Download and More

So I decided to waste some time the other day for while I was prepping for my VCP 5. I went ahead and compiled some PDF’s and some pretty awersome Blogs (Converted to PDF) so that way I could have an offline resource to study. I know me as a blogger I could really care less about someone using my blog to help them study and I am sure anyone in the community would really have a problem, after all that is what community is all about.

HOWEVER! If anyone would like NOT to have their blog in this awesome resource download then please let me know and I will quickly remove it.

ON A SEPERATE NOTE! If anyone would LIKE TOO have their blog noted here and would like to have a particular area to be placed in let me know as well.

Just note, that this is mostly related to getting the documentation quickly and efficiently when you need it. I use it in my drop box of course and have it sync with several systems. This makes it even more handy.

This is currently what I have: (Note: You can go to the VMware site and download the admin guides all in one zip file however, you want be able to download them in this way. I have made a zip folder for each category as specific as I can)
API and SDK Programming
CLI (vCLI and PowerCLI Includes Posters)
Other vSphere Documentation
Site Recovery Manager 5 (SRM)
VMware Storage Appliance (VSA)
VMware Update Manager (VUM)
vCenter Orchestrator (vCO)
VMware Data Recovery 2 (VDR)
VMware vCloud Director (VCD)
vSphere 5 What’s New Documentation
vSphere 5 Best Practices Documentation
vSphere 5 Networking
vSphere 5 Storage
vSphere and ESXi 5 – Admin Guides
vSphere HA-DRS Clustering Info
vSphere Management Adminstrator -vMA
Other Documentation

You can get the entire download HERE! 

***Disclaimer: The thoughts and views expressed on VirtualNoob.wordpress.org  and Chad King in no way reflect the views or thoughts of his employer or any other views of a company. These are his personal opinions which are formed on his own. Also, products improve over time and some things maybe out of date. Please feel free to contact us and request an update and we will be happy to assist. Thanks!~