Passed the VCP4
I recently passed my VCP4 today. It’s been a long road getting here but I’m glad it’s behind me.
I was slated to take it 12/2009 time frame, but we had 4 deaths in the family within a 4 month period!
Needless to say that delay caused me to miss the opportunity to take the test without taking training
However at some point I thought I would get the training I needed to take the VCP but this never came to pass and I remained uncertified until most recently.
Last Summer I took a job with VMware as a TAM and I got the vSphere 4 training I needed. Finally I can say I am a VCP4!
With this behind me it’s time to study for my VCP5, which needs to be completed by end of year 2011 :) or in less than 2 months!
What do I have to add for all of you taking the test?
- Read those documents, know your stuff, take the mock exams, follow the blue prints
- Notice this about the questions… There are plays on words and metrics
Example -
A VM has the following performance counters – paging reads 0 and ballooning reads 240
Or I’ve seen it as
A VM has the following performance counters – paging reads 240 and ballooning reads 0
Also, I’ve seen a bunch of play on words like changing is to isn’t – This changes the answer you choose.
So word to the wise – I believe they are doing this to counter potential VCP’s just studying questions from TestKing, Cerfityme, etc… So if you are, Good Luck – You’ll need it — Its plain and simple – Study hard = Passing the test
9 Great vSphere 5 documents everyone should read
Here are 9 Great vSphere 5 documents everyone should read! Enjoy!
- 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 Networking
- What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0 Performance
- What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0 Availability
- vSphere Storage Appliance
- What’s New in VMware Data Recovery 2.0
- What’s New in VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.0
- What’s New in VMware vCloud Director 1.5
18 of the best VMware Resolution Path KB Articles
You might be asking yourself what are a Resolution Path KB articles? Resolution path articles are product specific PDF’s that lead you to common answers.
They help you to resolve common issues visually and link you to the KB to help in resolution.
In their own words –
“Mind Maps are a visualization of our Resolution Path KB articles, which are collections of modular steps that can be used to solve tech support issues. Being modular, they can be re-used in other resolution paths. A good example is using the ping command to test network connectivity. This step is used in all kinds of troubleshooting procedures. Put a number of these steps together, and you have a method.”
Here is the URL to the articles -
http://blogs.vmware.com/kb/2011/08/index-of-resolution-path-kb-articles.html
Here’s a quick screenshot but basically expand a category, and choose a link to a KB.
icade review
For father’s day 2011 I got what every retro game junkie wants and icade.
I mean who wouldn’t want a fully functional mini arcade controller for their ipad that plays a lot Atari Arcade & 2600 classics.
The concept is simple –
Buy an ipad, buy an icade (sold here), assemble icade, download Atari’s Greatest Hits (Most of these games are 2600 based), and connect the ipad/icade via Bluetooth.
The icade’s controls are responsive when playing games. The buttons feel like the real thing and the joystick is good but it’s not arcade quality.
The ipad mounts on the icade vertically however there is a tray that allows you to place your ipad in a horizontal manner.
Most of the games play pretty well. I found Asteroid played better using the buttons only and Tempest worked best with a combo slider ipad touch screen / fire buttons on the icade.
One down side is the noise – the buttons and joystick switches make loud clicking noises when you use them, but don’t most arcade game cabinets?
Now for the biggest problem – Will dad ever get a chance to play with it? Probably not L
Test Lab – Day 6 Xsigo Redundancy testing with ESXi under load (Final Post)
Today I plan to setup the environment to simulate high disk I/O and re-run most the Xsigo tests from Day 4. My thoughts behind these tests are the Xisgo ran well under a minimal load but how would it perform when stressed.
Note: This blog post only covers how I setup testing but doesn’t have the final results. See A change of plans below for more information.
The environment layout will stay the same (4 x ESXi 4.1 hosts, each host with 10 VM’s, 2 Xsigo VP780′s and one IOMega IX12 with a 4 spindle NFS Datastore)
I’ll auto create about ~40 Windows 2003 VM’s and use PassMarks Burin Test to simulate a NFS load.
I plan to drive the IOMega to ~1Gbs of sustained NFS I/O by driving each VM’s hard disk.
While the load simulation is happening I’ll re-run the testing from Day 4, and record the results.
I do wish we could simulate a larger load however our NFS datastores are only across 4 Spindles. If we simulate a heavier load I believe it will “tank” the datastore making our testing pretty much worthless.
Preparing for the load Test.. In this step I setup my default template
I spun up a Windows 2003 server and installed the Burn in Test program.
I launched the BurnIn Test, clicked on Preferences, uncheck all, checked Disks, and entered a duty cycle of 25
Tip: BurnIn Test can be used for a wide range of load testing including CPU & Network (See below)
I saved the configuration file in the default folder.
I repeated this process and created 4 more config files driving the Disk to duty cycles of 5, 10, 50 and 100.
Writing the batch file to launch the BurnIn Test config file was simple (see below) and I created one for each duty cycle.
Tip: Before changing this VM into a template I tested my batch files to ensure all was working well.
Next I wrote a simple vSphere PowerCLI script to create the VM’s, it nothing complex but it did the trick..
I simply opened the vSphere PowerCLI prompt and pasted in the following lines…
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$server_address = “vCenter Server IP” $username = “Administrator” $password = “your password here” $template_name = “w2003Template” $datastore_name = “NFS” $customization = “W23K” $location = “LoadTest” $destination_host = “ESX Host 1 IP Address” New-VM -Name 2003VMT21 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT22 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT23 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT24 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT25 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT26 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT27 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT28 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT29 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT30 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization $destination_host = “ESX Host 2 IP Address” New-VM -Name 2003VMT31 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT32 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT33 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT34 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT35 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT36 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT37 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT38 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT39 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization New-VM -Name 2003VMT40 -Location $location -Template $template_name -Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec $customization
This pattern was repeated on the other ESX hosts until ~40 VM’s were created… |
Test Procedure…
Using the Burn In test program I will drive the utilization on the ~40 VM’s until 1Gbs of sustained NFS I/O is achieved.
I’ll use vCenter Server to ensure NFS traffic is passing through XSA and then start the tests below.
All of the ESX Hosts are attached to the IOMega via NFS, this means all traffic has to pass through the Xsigo and our network to get to the IOMega.
I used a Laptop, the ESXi console in tech support, vCenter Server mode to capture and validate the results.
Keep in mind this deployment is a SINGLE site scenario and for accuracy we allowed the environment to settle between tests.
A Change in plans.…
At this point the testing had to stop. Reason why – I put in my two weeks’ notice and had to focus on a transition plan and less on testing.
My hopes are if you’re reading this post it will give you a baseline for testing.
Small Town 4th of July
I usually just post up about technical stuff, but this was just hard to resist.
What do you call 175 x 1.75″ artillery shells? A really good time.
Yes its true we ignited 175 shells in one heck of a display. What you can’t see in this photo is the box has shells inside and out. Also, an entire gross of butterflies, several tanks, boats, frogs, and clucking chickens. < These are names fireworks not actual animals.
And my favorite, the dace of the sparklers…. My brother (on the right) and I entertain our guests…
Small towns are so much fun on the fourth!
4 Books in 4 Weeks – Book 3 How to compare Terminator 2 to VMware vSphere 4.1 HA and DRS Technical Deepdive
I got a chance over the past few weeks to complete Book 3 VMware vSphere 4.1 HA and DRS Technical Deepdive by Duncan Epping and Frank Dennerman
I’ve read a lot of the reviews about this book and I must say they say about the same thing.
- This book makes the HA/DRS VMware white paper easier to read and understand
- I learned a bit more about HA/DRS then the VMware white paper
- The book is well-organized and makes great sense.
- Buy this book and read it
I agree with all of these basic statements. However I never read the white paper, shame on me :), as I felt the cluster I administrated never really needed in-depth settings HA or DRS provided. When I changed jobs to a much larger environment I needed the advanced functions of HA/DRS and I needed to get up to speed quite quickly. I read this book, and then I went back and read the white paper. What an eye opener.
This scenario
reminded me of how I saw Terminator 2. How does T2 fit in to a book review about HA and DRS you might ask. Simple, when T2 was released I didn’t want to know anything about it, kind of like the VMware HA/DRS White paper I knew it was there but ignored it. All I wanted to know about T2 was its release date, I didn’t let anyone tell me about it, and I turned off any marketing about it. When I finally saw the movie it was awesome. What a surprise to find out that Arnie was reprogrammed for aiding and not killing, TOTAL Surprise. This book VMware vSphere 4.1 HA and DRS Technical Deepdive was my in-depth technical intro to HA/DRS, and like the way I viewed T2 it was awesome! It was nice to really learn this topic in reverse order (Book first then Whitepaper) as the book really does a great job laying it all out in an easy to follow and understand format.
As I was reading this book I noticed how physically easy it was to read. Here’s what I mean. The book and font size with large Left/Right paragraph indentations made the book easy to read visually. With most books you would have to flatten or shift the book around to reveal words hidden by the crease or binding of the book. The large paragraph indentations meant I didn’t have to shift the book around to see the words. This made it less physical to read which helped me to read it quite quickly. I noticed this when I was on airplane and the space was pretty tight. Not sure if this is by design, but just the same it made a difference for me.
Summary…
Read this book, suggest others do, buy it and buy the next version!
Up next Book 4 – Mr. Lowe and Friends, sorry to keep you waiting but your book (VMware vSphere Design) is up next!
