VMware - 10

The Iomega StorCenter ix4-200d NAS Server offers content sharing with advanced security and data protection in an easy-to-use product ideal for small offices, remote or distributed businesses or power-user home networks. You can also use it as an NFS or iSCSI datastore. The ix4 is on VMware's HCL, so it's supported.

• Easy file sharing, data backup and print serving from any networked Windows® PC, Mac or Linux workstation.
• RAID Support: RAID 5 and RAID 10 - all with automatic RAID rebuild. JBOD mode also available.
• Network File Protocols Supported: CIFS/SMB/Rally (Microsoft), NFS (Linux/UNIX), AFP/Bonjour (Apple), FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, SNMP.
• Dual Gigabit Ethernet connectivity with Jumbo frame support and high performance embedded architecture.
• iSCSI taget provides block-level access for the most efficient storage utilization, especially for database and email application performance. It can be used in parallel with file-level storage access via CIFS/NFS.

The Workstation Product Team is happy to announce the availability of the Workstation 7.0, ACE 2.6 and Player 3.0 Release Candidates! They are looking forward to reviewing the feedback that you post in the forums.

Try out these New Features:

• Aero support for Windows 7 and Vista Guests!
• Windows 7 support (as a Host and Guest OS)
• OpenGL and Shader Model 3.0 support for Windows guests
• Create guests with Multi-core or 4-way CPUs and up to 32GB of Memory
• Download VMware vSphere 4 and install ESX as a guest OS to try out the latest features.
• Dynamically Download the latest VMware Tools package only when you need it.
• Print from your VM without installing printer drivers. Virtual Printing courtesy of our friends at ThinPrint.
• Automatically create snapshots on scheduled intervals with AutoProtect.
• Secure your Virtual Machines with 256-bit encryption.
• Remote Replay Debugging and other advanced development features
• ALSA Sound support on Linux hosts enables multiple VMs to play "music" concurrently.
• Instantly pause a VM to free up system resources or dedicate horsepower to other running VMs.
• The Virtual Network Editor user interface has been redesigned for Windows users.

The Release Candidate can be downloaded from:
http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/workstation

I’m delivering an instructor led VMware Sales Professional 4 training. You can still sign up for next Friday. If you’re a VMware Partner, you should check if your company has completed  all of the requirements necessary to remain at the Professional level in the VMware Partner Network.

VMware Partner Network - Compliance Check

De VMware VSP Certificeringsessie bereidt u voor op het officiële VMware VSP examen. Aan het einde van de training heeft u de mogelijkheid om u direct te certificeren. Met deze certificering behaalt u het Sales Professional Partnership van VMware en kunt u gebruik maken van de volgende voordelen:

- Beter positioneren/ verkopen van het VMware assortiment
- Officiële partnerstatus van VMware
- Wederverkoop van VMware licenties
- Free of Charge licenties ten behoeve van eigen gebruik

Agenda:

09:00 uur - Ontvangst en registratie
09:30 uur - Virtualization
10:30 uur - Corporate Overview
11:00 uur - Products Overview
11:30 uur - Pauze
12:00 uur - Solutions Overview
12:30 uur - Infrastructure Optimalization
13:00 uur - Lunch
14:00 uur - Delivering the VMware Message
14:45 uur - VSP Certification (Exam)
16:00 uur - Einde

This afternoon one of my students pointed me to the website of Data Robotics. They are offering the DroboPro which is a really cool, intelligent, but most of all cheap iSCSI server offering 8 disk bays.
Don’t confuse the DroboPro with a sad scene from Dumbo. DroboPro has been certified for use with VMware and is the first business class storage array that manages itself. Engineered to be both simple and scalable.

Grow your storage in line with your data capacity needs with minimal effort. To add capacity, simply insert a new hard disk or replace your smallest disk with a larger one, even when all eight-disk bays are full. Unlike traditional RAID systems, the BeyondRAID technology found in DroboPro enables you to mix n’ match capacities, disk brands and speeds. This allows for continuous expansion as disk capacities grow. With DroboPro expansion is automatic, instantaneous and access to data is always maintained.

If you’re looking for 8 TB of iSCSI storage for under for under € 2000 ? -> Drobo Pro 8 TB

VMware community member and fellow VCI, David O'Connor (w1nter -> you can follow this guy on Twitter now) is working on some great study resources for the VMware Enterprise exam, he just uploaded another part of the VCDX Study Guide.

Part 7: Security

He has already published:

Part 1: Storage
Part 2: Networking

If you’re a VMware Partner, you should check if your company has completed  all of the requirements necessary to remain at the Professional level in the VMware Partner Network.

Recently VMware introduced new benefits to best support your organization with a go-to market business model that is right for you. As a Professional partner in the Solution Provider program, your organization has access to sales & marketing tools, education through Partner University, presence on Partner Locator, not-for-resale licenses, select internal use licenses, and much more in order to best support your VMware business needs.

In the coming weeks I’ll deliver a series of VMware Sales Professional (VSP) and VMware Technical Sales Professional (VTSP) boot camps. This gives you the change to get completely certified in just three days.  If you’re interested you know how to reach me.

VMware is pleased to announce the availability of the Design Exam. You can take the exam at Pearson VUE Professional Centers worldwide.  Only individuals who have successfully passed the Enterprise Administration Exam and have been authorized by VMware will be able to register to take this exam. 

Testing Program: VMware Advanced
Exam: VCD310: VMware Design Exam
Price: EUR 365.00

Start Date: 21 Sep 2009
End Date: 31 Dec 2009

Oracle wants to know if you are running your critical apps on Oracle in a Virtual environment.  Tod Nielsen the COO of VMware has met with Oracle President Charles Phillips in July. Charles appreciated Tod providing a list of over 500 VMware customers asking for Oracle to support their apps running on VMware. Charles did say this is a challenge for him as he has not personally received this request from customers, and until he does, cannot see making this a priority for his team. So the bottom line is that Charles doesn’t feel that many people run critical apps on Oracle in a Virtual environment

Charles is interested in hearing from you  on the matter. So if you’re running Oracle in a virtual machine, I encourage you to contact Charles directly. This will provide him the direct feedback he seeks in order to better understand the demand and assess the great opportunity for Oracle to leverage the VMware platform to differentiate against Oracle’s main competitors.

This evening I had my first Tweet Up ever; it’s not actually a real Tweet Up, because I’ve met fellow vExpert Stuart (vinternals.com) before at the VMworld 2009 in Cannes where we attended the most secret “Virtualization PowerShell community Night” ever. But first let me explain the term Tweet Up; it’s a real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service. While Stu and his wife are traveling trough Germany, I’m delivering a VMware Fast-Track training course in Munich, our tweets crossed and we had a meeting at Stu’s hotel - Le Méridien. I didn’t go unprepared, because I wanted to know everything about the “vSphere 4.0 Quick Start Guide”, since Stu is one of the authors he finally agreed to do a little interview.