Eric Sloof - Entries from January 2013

Tuesday, January 22. 2013

Available on the App Store - VMware Mobile Knowledge Portal

VMware’s Mobile Knowledge Portal brings to you access to the latest and very insightful marketing and technical content created by VMware experts. You can use this handy application to watch installation videos, access helpful demos, read product whitepapers, and benefit from expert advice. We ensure that you stay updated on the latest happenings at VMware and have access to useful information.

You can stream content online or download what you like to view later. Downloaded content can be accessed even when you’re offline and away from a network. VMware will continue to introduce new versions of videos, demos and the other product documentation material available here. As soon as we release an updated version of a file you've downloaded, you will see an icon on the app notifying you of the update. You can choose to continue with your existing version without any changes in the functionality, or download the new version to ensure that you're up to date with the latest information.

VMware Mobile Knowledge Portal

Wednesday, January 16. 2013

Cool Tool - Video: Storage Explorer (Free Utility)

Storage Explorer assesses storage performance and capacity views across datastores and VMs that helps VM admins to get better visibility of their storage environment. Storage Explorer, a utility within the vOPS Server Explorer freeware suite, displays storage performance and capacity views across datastores and VMs with the following features:

Identify critical VM issues such as low available disk space, high latency and throughput.
Allows user to sort on any metric to find specific issues relevant to them.
Identify critical datastore issues such as overcommitment, low capacity, high latency, VMFS version mismatch.

vOPS Server Explorer

New Training Course - VMware vSphere: Fast Track [V5.1]

This intensive, extended-hours training course focuses on installing, configuring, and managing VMware vSphere 5.1. This course combines the content of the VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage course with advanced tasks and skills for configuring a highly available and scalable virtual infrastructure. The course is based on VMware ESXi 5.1 and VMware vCenter Server 5.1. Completion of this course satisfies the prerequisite for taking the VMware Certified Professional 5 exam.

Students who complete this course may enroll in any of several more advanced vSphere courses. This training course is targeted at experienced system administrators and system integrators willing to work hard to achieve superior vSphere skills with minimal time away from the office.The objectives are:

Configure and manage ESXi networking and storage
Create, configure, migrate, manage, and monitor virtual machines and virtual appliances
Manage user access to the VMware virtual infrastructure
Use vCenter Server to monitor resource usage
Implement VMware vSphere® High Availability and VMware vSphere® Fault Tolerance (FT)
Use host profiles to manage ESXi configuration compliance
Use vSphere distributed switches to scale networking
Use profile-driven storage and VMware vSphere Storage DRS to scale storage
Use VMware vSphere Update Manager to apply ESXi patches
Use VMware vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) to manage vSphere
Deploy ESXi, vCenter Server, and VMware vCenter Server Appliance
Use VMware vSphere ESXi Image Builder CLI to create an ESXi image
Use VMware vSphere Auto Deploy to provision ESXi hosts

VMware vSphere: Fast Track [V5.1]

Monday, January 14. 2013

Cisco UCS Platform Emulator version 2.1 is now available for download

Cisco UCS Platform Emulator is the Cisco UCS Manager application bundled into a virtual machine (VM). The VM includes software that emulates hardware communications for the Cisco Unified Computing System. The UCS Platform Emulator (UCSPE) was developed to enable the use of Cisco UCS Manager and the UCS XML API without requiring physical hardware. UCSPE significantly shortens the development cycle for applications that are based on the UCS XML API. You can create and test programs using only UCSPE installed on a laptop.

UCSPE presents a controlled environment for the following:

Emulation of large-scale environments
Changes in the hardware inventory (device discovery)
Firmware upgrade testing
Troubleshooting real UCS problems

For example, you can use Cisco UCS Platform Emulator to create and test a supported Cisco UCS configuration, or to duplicate an existing Cisco UCS environment for troubleshooting or development purposes. Cisco UCS Platform Emulator supports both DHCP and static IP. By default, Cisco UCS Platform Emulator is configured to use the local network to obtain an IP address via DHCP. If your network does not include a DHCP server, you must assign a static IP address to Cisco UCS Platform Emulator.

After the initial deployment of the OVA completes, Cisco UCS Platform Emulator displays the management IP address in the VM console. If you assign a static IP address, the IP address persists across VM reboots. You can host Cisco UCS Platform Emulator using VMplayer, VMfusion and VMware vSphere ESXi.

Cisco UCS Platform Emulator 2.1.1aPE2.ova

UCS Emulator release notes and user guide

Sunday, January 13. 2013

New Book - Virtualization Changes Everything: Storage Strategies for VMware vSphere & Cloud Computing

Storage is a foundational component in the support of virtualization and cloud computing - and it is dynamically evolving. It is an aspect of the datacenter that is all-too-often overlooked, but without storage, there is no data, and without data, there is no cloud. Virtualization Changes Everything, by Vaughn Stewart and Mike Slisinger, examines the evolutionary influence of host virtualization and cloud computing in breaking storage deployment out of outdated silo models and into a dynamic, flexible hosting environment. Virtualization Changes Everything reviews common goals and challenges associated with providing storage service with cloud computing, and addresses each through the application of advanced storage technologies designed to scale in order to support the ever-expanding storage needs of the future. The examples within the book are pulled from real-world experience, and often involve the integration of multiple innovative technologies. If you are looking for measured guidance on high availability, efficiency, integration and performance for the storage in your cloud, then this book is for you!

Book by Vaughn Stewart and Michael Slisinger, foreword by Steve Herrod and Duncan Epping

Virtualization Changes Everything: Storage Strategies for VMware vSphere & Cloud Computing

Wednesday, January 9. 2013

VMware instructional videos freely available on vmwarelearning.com

You can grow your IT skills with free training, expertise, and insights on VMware products, all in one convenient location.

VMware has released some great instructional videos – freely accessible, these short technical videos allow VMware technical experts to provide tips and step-by-step instructions on product features, design best practices, configuring, deploying and running your virtual infrastructure.

Friday, January 4. 2013

New Training Course - VMware vSphere: Skills for Operators [V5.1]

VMware is about to release a new training course. The vSphere Skills for Operators is a two-day technical classroom training course designed to help the operators and administrators to create and manage virtual machines. This two-day lecture and lab course will help students gain the skills required to work effectively with VMware virtual machines. This course is based on VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1 and VMware vCenter Server 5.1. After completing this course, students may enroll for other advanced vSphere courses.

The overall objective of this course is to provide students a strong understanding of VMware virtual machine features in vSphere 5.1. By the end of this course, the students should be able to do the following:

Describe virtualization, virtual machines, and vSphere components.
Describe the concepts of server, network, and storage virtualization.
Deploy, configure, and manage, and virtual machines.
Use vCenter Server to monitor virtual machine resource usage.
Use VMware vSphere® vMotion® and VMware vSphere® Storage vMotion® to migrate virtual machines.
Secure virtual machines.
Troubleshoot problems with virtual machine configuration.

Operators responsible for vSphere ESXi and vCenter Server management. The datasheet can be found here: VMware vSphere: Skills for Operators [V5.1]

VMware vCenter Operations Manager - Attributes and KPI Demonstration

vCenter Operations Manager defines attributes that are critical to the performance of an object as key performance indicators (KPI). KPI are weighted more heavily in the calculations that determine the health of an object. Graphs of KPI performance appear before other metrics in several areas of the product.

In this free video from our VMware vCenter Operations Manager Implementation Training, VCDX Jason Nash demonstrates how to use attributes and key performance indicators. In addition, he demonstrates how to configure the KPI, designate a metric as a KPI, and how to assign an attribute package to an application.

VMware vCenter Operations Manager - Using Smart Alerts

VMware vCenter Operations Manager - Upgrading vCOPs

Thursday, January 3. 2013

Free eLearning course - Introducing the VMware Security Solution Fundamentals

This free eLearning course provides the background information needed to work with the products included in the VMware Security Solution. The course begins with a review of basic security methodologies and how virtualization affects security. References for follow-on reading are provided for students less familiar with these concepts. Next, the course discusses the VMware security strategy. Each product in the VMware Security Solution is introduced by discussing the limitations of traditional security controls and describing how the products in the solution address these limitations. The course concludes with a list of relevant security and compliance online resources. After this course, you should be able to:

Recognize the process and strategies that security managers use to manage risks to information and information systems
Name ways that virtualization affects security and compliance
List the top vulnerabilities applicable to virtual environments
Explain the basic strategy to protect a virtual environment
Name the main purpose of each product included in the VMware security solution
For each product in the VMware security solution, discuss how key features address the challenges of securing virtual environments with traditional security controls.
Find additional security and compliance resources posted on vmwrae.com

Introducing the VMware Security Solution Fundamentals

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