Eric Sloof

When Virtualization Pro‘s Hannah Drake published her blog post “VMware hereby dubs you … a vExpert!”, I was present at the VMware community lounge. Bloggers were running to their laptops and pointing at their screens. A few minutes later the first comments were placed and the “Unfollow” button at Tweedeck was hit repeatedly. The stock exchange went down and the VMworld event was cancelled. Ah, it wasn’t that bad, but she created some disturbance. After a good talk with VMware’s vExpert initiator John Troyer, she took her original article offline and placed a new post.

Will the VMware vExpert Award grow to rival the Microsoft MVP?

In a previous blog post with an admittedly light-hearted tone, I congratulated the recipients and asked for more information about the award and the process for receiving one. Reading the few available online resources on vExpert left some of my questions unanswered. (While I did reply in the comment section on the original post, we decided to remove the blog and post this entry instead, because the comment wasn’t visible enough.)

Several community members became upset, however, as the blog post was interpreted by some as a denigration of the vExpert Award or an indication that I didn’t think certain recipients deserved the award. I apologize for writing it in a way that left room for misinterpretation.

I was one of the happy few who was invited by VMware to attend the VMworld Europe 2009 in Cannes. They had a special reason to invite me. Every year I do my utmost to video blog as much as possible. This resulted in 20 new videos, which are already viewed nearly 5000 times. I had to take a rain check on some dinners I got offered. During editing, converting and uploading, it was just Wasa crackers for me. Thanks to VMware for the opportunity and of course the Flip.

On the bus to the airport with Robert Strong the Veeam Comedy Magician. Robert has been crisscrossing the world since 1985, entertaining audiences large and small, young and old, formal and casual, and everything in between! Recently voted “San Francisco’s Funniest Prop Comedian” and the “Bay Area’s Best Performer,” Robert has appeared on CBS This Morning, performed for the U.S. Congress, and taken his act to more than 30 different countries.

Robert Strong the Veeam Comedy Magician from Eric Sloof NTPRO.NL on Vimeo.

On the final day at the VMworld Europe in Cannes, Hugo and I were one of the few who are still here. As good fellow VMware vExperts do, we had dinner.  I recorded a little Flip video and also would like to congratulate Carter with his winning PowerShell session.

Dinner with Hugo Peeters, the aftermath from Eric Sloof NTPRO.NL on Vimeo.

Viktor van den Berg, Product Manager and Technical Trainer at the Xpert Training Group presented a session about the Unattended Deployment of VMware Infrastructure 3 at the VMworld Europe 2009 Cannes.

An unattended deployment of VMware infrastructure 3 reduces the time needed for installation and configuration of your VMware ESX and vCenter server(s). It also reduces the risk misconfiguration. Unattended deployment of these products will gain you a consistent configuration. At Xpert Training Group, an indepedent VMware Authorized Training Centre from The Netherlands, unattended deployments of VI-3 are used on a regular basis. In this session you will learn how to automatically deploy your ESX servers and how to connect these fresh installed ESX servers to a vCenter server. After the introduction of a step-by-step plan for unattended deployment, this session will focus on some useful scripting techniques used in a unattended deployment scenario. Expect some bash and powershell scripting in this session.

The Unattended Deployment of VMware Infrastructure 3 from Eric Sloof NTPRO.NL on Vimeo.

The VMworld Europe 2009 Vimeo Group provides a great way to swap your VMworld movies. This VMworld Vimeo Group is much the same as other Groups you can join online. Vimeo Groups are places where people of similar interests meet to exchange videos. At this Vimeo Group, you also can follow other VMworld Europe 2009 fanatics who are visiting Cannes.

http://vimeo.com/groups/vmworldeurope

I asked Peter Ghostine, DVP / CTO Quest Software, Provision Networks Division, what he thinks about the VMware vClient initiative.

As part of the VMware vClient initiative, VMware has announced a strategic partnership with Teradici to include Teradici's PC-Over-IP technology as part of VMware View.

VMware will license the Teradici PC-Over-IP display protocol and will work with Teradici to co-develop and expand PC-Over-IP.

Interview with Peter Ghostine CTO Quest Software from Eric Sloof NTPRO.NL on Vimeo.

Just after completing his unattended ESX/VC install and configure session, I had a little interview with Viktor van den Berg, he did great.I have written an article about Viktor’s session which can be found at the Dutch VMUG website.

Viktor van den Berg just after his break-out session from Eric Sloof NTPRO.NL on Vimeo.

Just lifted off :-)

VMware VMworld Europe 2009 Cloud Party from Eric Sloof NTPRO.NL on Vimeo.

I made a little video impression of the second day at the VMworld Europe 2009 in Cannes. It’s a ten minute video with a part of the keynote, the labs and some other things.

Second day video impression of the the VMworld Europe 2009 from Eric Sloof NTPRO.NL on Vimeo.