VMworld

vSphere 5.x licensing Matrix

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Ever want to compare a full list of the vSphere features to the associated licensing level?

Well now you can… Check out >> http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2001113

Here is a quick snapshot of the matrix. Enjoy!

 

This entry was posted in ESX, ESXi, Home Lab, vCenter Server, vmware, VMworld.

vSphere 5.x licensing Matrix

Posted on

 

Ever want to compare a full list of the vSphere features to the associated licensing level?

Well now you can… Check out >> http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2001113

Here is a quick snapshot of the matrix. Enjoy!

 

This entry was posted in ESX, ESXi, Home Lab, vCenter Server, vmware, VMworld.

Top Blogger Voting for 2014 is now open

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For many years now Eric Siebert has held voting for the top Virtualization Bloggers. This is no easy task, and this year he has over 300 blogs listed.

If you found any of my blog posts useful, then please, do take a few minutes out of your busy schedule and vote. Every vote really does count, and the higher you rate a blog the more weight it gets in the final tally. Ratings do make a difference, and feedback is great. As any blogger will tell you, frequently writing quality content takes a lot of time.

Please, take a few minutes out of your day and vote. I’ll be voting for bloggers myself, including MIchael Webster and Jason Boche.

Voting is now open, and will continue through 3/17/2014 >> http://vsphere-land.com/news/voting-now-open-for-the-2014-top-vmware-virtualization-blogs.html

Enjoy!

 

 

This entry was posted in ESX, ESXi, freeNAS, vmware, VMworld.

Whitepaper – Security of the VMware vSphere Hypervisor

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Folks release recently is the Security of the VMware vSphere Hypervisor.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vmw-wp-secrty-vsphr-hyprvsr-uslet-101.pdf

Enjoy!

This entry was posted in ESXi, vmware, VMworld.

VMware Hands On Lab — HOL-SDC-1305

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I decided to take the HOL-SDC-1305 lab but only module four tonight. Why only module four? Well, it’s the one all about vCenter Server Heartbeat.

If you have not taken a VMware lab I would highly recommend it as you’ll gain the proper topic knowledge and you’ll get to do some great hands on lab work at the same time.

HOL-SDC-1305 (Module 4) didn’t disappoint me, it was straight to the point, went through the key areas, and was a great overview of the product.

I wanted to see more about requirements, design, and any constraints. However these items were outside the scope of this lab so I can’t really hold it against it.

I attached a quick screen shot of the lab for your enjoyment!

 

Note – Everyone has access to the VMware Hands on Labs, and it’s FREE to all.

Start here >> https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/resources/how

HOL Labs Main Link >> http://labs.hol.vmware.com/

Enjoy!

This entry was posted in Books, ESX, ESXi, vmware, VMworld.

vExpert 2014 Submissions Now Open!

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vExpert 2014 applications are open! I’ve been part of this program since inception, it’s a great community of technical folks who enjoy spreading the word of virtualization!

Please feel free to submit and if you need some tips please post up!


Think you’re one of the best? Have you been supporting and contributing to the VMware Community? Have you excelled and completed the latest certification & accreditation training? If Yes then I would encourage you to apply for the 2014 vExpert Program! http://bit.ly/MtDKff

Each year, we bring together in the vExpert Program the people who have made some of the most important contributions to the VMware community. These are the bloggers, book authors, VMUG leaders, speakers, tool builders, community leaders and general enthusiasts. They work as IT admins and architects for VMware customers, they act as trusted advisors and implementers for VMware partners or as independent consultants, and some work for VMware itself. All of them have the passion and enthusiasm for technology and applying technology to solve problems. They have contributed to the success of us all by sharing their knowledge and expertise over their days, nights, and weekends.

vExperts who participate in the program have access to private betas, free licenses, early access briefings, exclusive events, free access to VMworld conference materials online, and other opportunities to interact with VMware product teams. They also get access to a private community and networking opportunities.

VPN (VMware Partner Network) Path
The VPN Path is for YOU, members of our partner companies, who lead with passion and by example, who are committed to continuous learning through accreditations and certifications and to making their technical knowledge and expertise available to many. This can take shape of event participation, video, IP generation, as well as public speaking engagements. A VMware employee reference is required for VPN Path candidates.

Read more about the 2014 vExpert program at http://bit.ly/MtDKff

@VMwareCertifiedProfessionalVCP

This entry was posted in ESX, ESXi, vmware, VMworld.

VMworld 2013 – A Quick Rundown…

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I’ve been lucky enough to make the past 6 VMworlds and to date this year was my favorite.

Here are some quick notes that a few colleges and I put together, I hope you enjoy it!

 

 

Quick Facts about VMworld

  • 350 breakout sessions
  • 70,000+ VM deployed (also a peek at vC Operations at scale)
  • Over 23,000 attendees

 
Where to start?  The best recap is this 11-minute full coverage Demo here.  The entire video is 1.5 hours and is part of the Keynote presentation from day 2.  Both VMworld General Sessions are available online as well, as are the top 10 sessions from VMworld (hint: click the ‘play’ button on the thumbnail image).

Announcement Highlights

 
 

vCloud Suite Sphere 5.5:   

vCloud Suite provides all components for building and running a private cloud infrastructure, based on VMware vSphere, that leverages the software-defined data center architecture. This architectural approach delivers virtualized infrastructure services (compute, network, security and availability) with built-in intelligence to automate the on-demand provisioning, placement, configuration and control of applications based on defined policies.   vCloud Suite Datasheet


vCloud Suite 5.5 is composed of the following integrated products:

  • VMware vSphere®: Compute virtualization platform with policy-based automation
  • VMware vCenter™ Site Recovery Manager™: Automated disaster recovery planning, testing, and execution
  • VMware vCloud Networking and Security™: Networking and security with ecosystem integration for a virtualized compute environment.
  • VMware vCloud® Automation Center™: Self-service and policyenabled cloud service provisioning.
  • VMware vCenter™ Operations Management Suite™:integrated, proactive performance, capacity, and configuration management for dynamic cloud environments.
  • VMware vCloud Director®: Virtualized data centers with multitenancy and public cloud extensibility


-2x performance and scale improvements (including 64TB VMDK’s)

-Focus on application performance and availability with Big Data Extensions, improved App HA, vFLASH and drastic improvements to SRM including vSphere replication integration

-A whole host of other improvements further validating that the “Compute Layer” of VMware’s SDDC continues to extend its market leadership position


NSX and Network Virtualization: 
-NSX does for the network what ESX did for compute: abstract, pool, make automation much easier.  This is about agility and simplicity, and services, not the physical medium of the network.

-NSX is a bridging technology just like ESX.  It sits on top of the physical Network and doesn’t replace it… just extends and makes it better.

 
vSAN and Storage Virtualization (beta announced)
-vSAN takes the local storage in a vSphere cluster and turns it into a big pool that can be used as any other target for storage resources.

 
Hybrid Cloud Services (vCHS)
-Our long awaited and highly anticipated public cloud offering is live and available.

-Additional Data Centers in California and Virginia will be coming on-line to compliment the DC in Las Vegas.

-New service offerings such as Cloud Foundry, Desktop as a Service and DR as a Service were announced.

IT Business Management Suite

The ITBM
suite has to be one of the most exciting and least talked about component of the latest releases.  Datasheet

  • IT Financial Management
  • Business Managment for Cloud (Opportunity Cost including AWS, Azure, and vCHS)
  • IT Benchmarking
  • Service Quality Management
  • IT Business Management Suite: http://bit.ly/XXrSVk

 
 

End User Computing:

 


vFabric

 

Additional Information 

 
 

New Services and Certifications
– New Certifications are available for cloud (VCA-Cloud), data center virtualization (VCA-DCV), and network virtualization (VCA-NV), these certifications offer a new credential to validate entry-level skills VMware Certified Associate before progressing on to the VMware Certified Professional (VCP) certifications.
 
VMworld Wrap up
http://blogs.vmware.com/vcloud/2013/08/vmworld-2013-day-1-wrap-up.html
http://blogs.vmware.com/vcloud/2013/08/vmworld-2013-day-2-wrap-up.html
http://blogs.vmware.com/tam/2013/08/vmworld-2013-day-one-recap.html
 
Press Releases
VMware Unveils Next-Generation Products and Services to Further Enable the Software-Defined Data Center
VMware Delivers vCloud(R) Hybrid Service(TM)
VMware and Pivotal Expand Strategic Partnership
VMware Cloud Management Helps Drive Adoption of Software-Defined Data Center Architecture
 
Get all of the news at VMworld TV

This entry was posted in ESX, ESXi, vmware, VMworld.

vCenter Server datastores for heartbeats

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I recently did some exploring on my home lab around datastore heatbeats and came up with the following notes around how to determine which ones are active, how to change the defaults, and why vCenter Server might now choose a datastore.

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-availability-guide.pdf

Page 16

vCenter Server selects a preferred set of datastores for heartbeating. This selection is made to maximize the

number of hosts that have access to a heartbeating datastore and minimize the likelihood that the datastores

are backed by the same storage array or NFS server. To replace a selected datastore, use the Cluster Settings

dialog box of the vSphere Client to specify the heartbeating datastores. The Datastore Heartbeating tab lets

you specify alternative datastores. Only datastores mounted by at least two hosts are available. You can also

see which datastores vSphere HA has selected for use by viewing the Heartbeat Datastores tab of the HA

Cluster Status dialog box.


Only use these settings if you want to override the default vCenter Server Choice

Here is an article around why it might not choose a Datastore…

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp#com.vmware.vsphere.troubleshooting.doc_50/GUID-333C3315-A862-470E-8DA9-6FE45C8C8E38.html?resultof=%2522%2568%2565%2561%2572%2574%2562%2565%2561%2574%2569%256e%2567%2522%2520%2522%2568%2565%2561%2572%2574%2562%2565%2561%2574%2522%2520

User-Preferred Datastore is Not Chosen

vCenter Server might not choose a datastore that you specify as a preference for vSphere HA storage heartbeating.

Problem

You can specify the datastores preferred for storage heartbeating, and based on this preference, vCenter Server determines the final set of datastores to use. However, vCenter Server might not choose the datastores that you specify.

Cause

This problem can occur in the following cases:

■ The specified number of datastores is more than is required. vCenter Server chooses the optimal number of required datastores out of the stated user preference and ignores the rest.

■ A specified datastore is not optimal for host accessibility and storage backing redundancy. More specifically, the datastore might not be chosen if it is accessible to only a small set of hosts in the cluster. A datastore also might not be chosen if it is on the same LUN or the same NFS server as datastores that vCenter Server has already chosen.

■ A specified datastore is inaccessible because of storage failures, for example, storage array all paths down or permanent device loss.

■ If the cluster contains a network partition, or if a host is unreachable or isolated, the host continues to use the existing heartbeat datastores even if the user preferences change.

Solution

Verify that all the hosts in the cluster are reachable and have the vSphere HA agent running.

Also, ensure that the specified datastores are accessible to most, if not all, hosts in the cluster and that the datastores are on different LUNs or NFS servers.

This entry was posted in ESXi, SAN, vmware, VMworld.

Unauthorized vmexplorer Customer / Reference guide for VMworld 2013

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I’ve attended every VMworld since 2008 and over the years I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked by attendees how to find their way around or when does something open or close.

This year *BING* it hit me and I took some time to put together a customer guide combining all the good information around – Registration, HOL, Meals, Shuttle, etc…

Of course I would recommend you use the official VMworld websites, apps, etc. but if you want a simple an easy way to find information then this may work for you too.

Click on the PIC below to download the ‘Unauthorized vmexplorer guide’!

This entry was posted in vmware, VMworld.

Meet Trevor –VMware Hands-on Lab

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Check out this great video around how VMware Hands-on Labs can enable you to do more with VMware products.

It really goes over the finer points on how customers can logon to HOL, check out our products/technologies, and then deliver them into your environment.

BTW — Great job Doug Baer, oops… I mean Trevor J

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk9716huKG4

This entry was posted in ESXi, vmware, VMworld.