Demitasse

Now that ESXi is replacing ESX classic it’s going to be really important to be able to maintain ESXi more simply than ESX classic.  One of the things that held VMware back from deploying ESXi internally was the lack of build automation.  The 4.1 release of ESXi addressed this issue and we once more have an automated build for our hosts.

Xangati burst onto the Virtualisation radar around VMWorld last year.  What does the product do and how can it help you?
My guest will be Jagan Jagannathan who is the Chief Technology Officer as Xangati so bring your best questions.

The broadcast is LIVE via TALKSHOE.com.

You can participate via web accessing http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/75046.

Title: Xangati
Start Time: Wed 16/2/2011
   9:00 PM Sydney Time
   11:00 PM Auckland Time
Duration: 45 minutes
Call ID: 75046

or click the link below

If you interested in joining the APAC Virtualization Roundtable initiative to host or guest a episode please reach out to me or Andre Leibovici.

In my continuing quest to run VMware’s advanced courses in New Zealand I am attempting to get enough students to run the Automation with PowerCLI course run in New Zealand in the next couple of months.

If you are interested in this course please let me know by email (alastair@demitasse.co.nz) or comment on this post.

If you are interested in other VMware advanced courses you can let me know or check the schedule for New Zealand.

I am please to be able to confirm that Auldhouse are now able to administer the VCAP exams in New Zealand.  The exams are available at either the Auckland or Wellington sites, both closer to me than the Pearson centre in Sydney.

Be warned that the availability of test dates is not as fee as for the VCP exam.  I wanted to book my VCAP-DCA re-sit for the end of next week but couldn’t get a place until the 17th.  In the end I’m taking the exam on Feb 22nd, wish me luck at keeping focussed on study.

This week I’m doing the instructor readiness preparation for the vSphere Manage and Design for Security course, I’m due to teach it in Auckland later this month.

One of the labs is to replace the insecure self signed certificates that both ESX and vCenter create when they are installed with certificates that are issued by a trusted Certificate Authority.  Naturally I am doing this in my lab rather than the carefully crafted VMware lab environment and so I have run in to a few little issues & thought they may be of use to others.

If you are still using vCenter 4.0 then you will need this TechNote, whereas if you are using vCenter 4.1 you will need to follow a different process, as shown in this TechNote as the process has changed.

The other trap I had was with the certificate type issued by the CA.  My windows 2008 SBS server’s default certificate type is “Administrator”, it needs to be changed to “Web Server” as shown below.

Another trap to be aware of is that the SSL keys are used to encrypt the passwords stored in the vCenter Database, so changing them means re-entering the passwords.  People often forget that this includes Guest OS Customization Specifications, any passwords used to join domains or set on local administrator accounts will need to be re-entered using the Customization Specifications Manager.

As always make sure you have a backup of your environment before you start making changes to critical infrastructure.  This is a place where running vCenter in a VM is useful, a snapshot of the vCenter VM allows a quick backout if it all turns to custard.  Do keep in mind that a snapshot is not a backup, you need one of those too.

In the Manage and Desoign for Security course we also replace ESX server certificates. A quick Google didn’t turn up the steps, but there is some discussion in this communities thread that may help.

SNIA lead the storage industry worldwide in developing and promoting standards, technologies, and educational services to empower organizations in the management of information.

Hear from local SNIA general manager Paul Talbut about SNIA in Australia, what they do and what’s planned for this year.

If you interested in joining the APAC Virtualization Roundtable initiative to host or guest a episode please reach out to me or Andre Leibovici.

The broadcast is LIVE via TALKSHOE.com.

You can participate via web accessing http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/75046.

Title: Backup & Recovery Strategies
Start Time: Wed 2/2/2011 11:00 PM NZDST (Auckland Time)
Duration (minutes): 45”
Call ID: 75046

or click the link below

If you would like to listen pasts episodes click here or download from iTunes.

We are back for another year of APAC Virtualization Roundtable. This year we start with Simon Howe and Jerome Boutaud from Acronis. Simon is the Australia country manager, and Jerome is the Senior Solutions Engineer in Acronis Virtualisation practice and will be joining us from Boston, US. Not many know but Acronis has been actively developing backup solutions for virtualization and cloud.

Hey! This will not be a vendor podcast. It’s a free talk about backup and recovery strategies for virtualisation and cloud! Join us.

If you interested in joining the APAC Virtualization Roundtable initiative to host or guest a episode please reach out to me or Andre Leibovici.

The broadcast is LIVE via TALKSHOE.com.

You can participate via web accessing http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/75046.

Title: Backup & Recovery Strategies
Start Time: Wed 19/1/2011 11:00 PM NZDST (Auckland Time)
Duration (minutes): 45”
Call ID: 75046

or click the link below

If you would like to listen pasts episodes click here or download from iTunes.

In early December I took two days out and sat the VCAP-DCA exam in Sydney.  Two days travel was required because there is no Pearson Professional testing centre in New Zealand so I had a 2,300KM journey to my nearest testing centre.

I took the exam on December 3rd and found it to be the most taxing exam I have ever taken, a lot of fun too.  As you should know from the other coverage the exam is all live labs, lots of live labs.  Just under two weeks later I got my result: 281, which is a narrow fail.  So now I’ll be doing the exam again as I have to pass the exam so I can keep teaching the courses you might want to attend to prepare for the exam. 

So why did I fail?  One simple thing, I didn’t follow my own advise.  If you ask my students what I advise them to do before sitting any VMware exam it’s simple.  Read through the Blueprint and on every bullet point be able to say, “Yes I understand that, I can do that”. 

My excuse is time constraints, I didn’t have time to re-read course materials and complete labs so they were fresh in my mind.  I mostly read manuals while I was in transit and we all know how little we learn that way.

There are a heap of web sites with good information on the materials to study, one of the richest is Sean Crookston’s vFail another great resource in Kendrick Coleman’s page and of course there’s Cody Bunch’s BrownBag series of webinars

One of the critical parts of preparation is a lab to build things in and then tear them down.  Since the exam is live labs you need to know how to drive the tools.  If you don’t have a lab now check out TechHead’s guide or take some inspiration from the awesome vTardis to get great nesting going on.

When you’re in the exam don’t wait to complete each question before moving on to another question, that will lead to you not attempting every question.  I made a note of questions numbers that I was unsure of or needed to do more work on and came back to them after I’d attempted every other question.  You will have access to documentation inside the exam, which is closer to the real world than most exams.  Don’t expect to have every document you used to prepare, There was one missing that I thought was important.  Take a look at the recorded demo of the exam environment.

Most importantly read through the Blueprint and on every bullet point be able to say, “Yes I understand that, I can do that”. 

I’ve just been hooked up with my teaching schedule for the first few months of next year, as usual you can find it here.  Something that I  noticed was the large number of advanced courses scheduled in NZ.

January 10 vSphere Design Workshop in Auckland

January 24 vSphere Troubleshooting in Auckland

February 7 vSphere Manage for Performance in Auckland

February 21 vSphere Manage and Design for Security in Auckland

February 28 View 4.5 Install, Configure Manage in Wellington

March 21 View 4.5 Install, Configure Manage in Auckland

This is great because we have a highly developed vSphere install base in NZ, meaning we already know the basics but need more advanced training.  However there is a risk:

If you don’t book onto these courses soon they won’t happen.

So now is the time to talk to the boss about your training for next year and sign up for the courses you know will help.

I’m looking forward to a great January and February teaching some great courses, hope to see you there.

From the awesome city of Kauala Lumpur in Malaysia, Merry Christmas and best wishes to all.

The return of Veeam team members Alex Hooper and Doug Hazelman will make for an interesting time.  Their vPower products have been shipping for a while and have some very interesting uses.  Has backup become exciting?  Sure Backup and Instant VM recovery sound cool, what’s the reality?

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