virtualpatel.blogspot.com: VCDX

Showing posts with label VCDX. Show all posts

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Request to extend a chance for VCDX5

Hi,

I am taking the Liberty here to request VMware Education to extend the chance for Appearing a VCDX 5 Defense after the schedule of Oct 2015.

Now for me, there are reasons behind it which includes personal and work related that I could not prepare on time for this and now dead line is just 10 days away.

I have put lot of time individually to attain the required certifications (VCAP5-DCA and VCAP5-DCD) with the support of my Family and this is over few years of time which covers the time of a new born and a Toddler in the house. With other factors (e.g. work changes and family - main two factors for anyone in any industry) its very difficult to manage the whole planning of preparing an Application and then Defend the same, and to prepare the application alone requires lot of dedication and time, as this is just do or die situation (being optimistic but one never knows) which I wants to attempt and experience this dangerously beautiful journey. Now I am not sure how much important it is, for you to bother about my reasons, I guess not much, but still look at this situation from the other side of the Fence and try to realize the situation from a stand point of a professional, a common man, a family member, a community contributor. and a Father.

So here is my profound Request, to all the decision makers to give the VMware Community one more chance to defend after Oct 2015, which may fall into next year, as I am sure there are others in the community who are under the same condition as me and can stand with me for the above request.

Now one thing I want to make it clear here that, this will be 1st request so far of such kind, and while thinking about it a lot, I decided to echo my thoughts through this post, and its not my intent to take this in any negative way.

With all respect, I will definitely honor the decision, taken by the program authorities and will hope other would do the same. One thing I have learned that, to achieve something you need to put the effort first, so I am considering this step as an effort rather than sitting idle.

This is no way to avoid any future plan on attaining the certifications to attain VCDX, but just a simple request to give one more chance to over all VMware community enthusiasts out there, who are dedicated, focused and being professional to attain this Elite certification which has a tremendous value.

I'm leaving this post here in your capable hands to decide about this Request and urge to give a second thought before making a decision, which infact, can change so many lives (including the person/s and their family).

Update: (As of 13th May 2016)

VMware just announced today that the VCAP5 Exam Retirements are suspended and the Registration remains open for now. So now this will give chance to the candidates who wants to do the VCAP5/DCA-DCD based on vSphere 5.0/5.5 versions and also prepare for their VCDX.

Here are the exams still available to appear for.

VCAP5 Design Exams:

VMware Certified Advanced Professional 5 — Data Center Design (VCAP5-DCD)
Exam #VDCD550

VCAP Lab Exams:

So wish you all the very best !

Crossing my fingers !

Please Share and Care !!

Saturday, January 31, 2015

VCAP5-DCD cleared and now one step closer to VCDX !

Hi,

All the readers out there who has been through the journey of VCAP-DCD will know the feeling of pressing the button "End the Exam" and which gives you the one moment of shock, which runs through your whole body and every single tissue of the body is waiting for the next screen.

"Congratulations you have passed the VCAP-DCD Examination"

That screen gave me immense pleasure and for minutes,hours and now days its still giving me the same pleasure in installments :-).

Wow, what a journey. The DCD and DCA are one of the most difficult exams I have ever taken and everyone can vouch the same who has been through the journey as me.

Thank You Note

I really want to thank my friends and colleague who have helped me through this DCD Exam journey and contributed their knowledge and their invaluable time they have provided. We have formed virtual study group and exchanged ideas and prepared to tackle this challenge.

Bas Raayman - @BasRaayman

Gregg Robertson - @greggrobertson5

Marek Zdrojewski - @MarekDotZ

Bobby Stampfle - @BobbyFantast1c

Alex- Correa - @AlexCorrea305 and his friends.

Michael Webster - @vcdxnz001 is my mentor and guided me through this journey.

Exam experience:

I went to another Pearson Vue location for a change for this Exam which I gave based on version vSphere 5.1 and Bingo ! Found it lucky ! :-)

BTW this Exam is retiring today itself so no more vSphere 5.1 but going forward only 5.5 version is available at this time. So many people have asked about the same through Twitter so thought to clarify as everyone is interested in knowing the experience for 5.5 version. Hopefully someone who has passed the version 5.5 can put their experience for others.

It was a new center opened in West of Toronto and 30 mins drive was not far. and went through regular security check in process and get started. No hick ups in the Exam except on time the Adobe Flash decided to stop responding and I just waited for few seconds and it came back normally and yes this was during making a 3rd Design. I almost finished 100 questions leaving 1.25 mins to spare. So thought to take a scheduled break, 1st time I took this break as this was my 4th Attempt :-). Yes I never gave up. This is a Devil exam if you ask me. Especially the content is not what you do on daily basis so you WILL find it more challenging than others who are not in the same boat as you.

So I used that extra time and started reviewing the questions again from # 1. Made some changes in my selection of the answers too while thinking over the options I have selected in MC, and D&D type questions and actually one Design Question as well. But at the end, everything was worth to get a Pass.

"A Pass is a Pass" - as they say, but getting 317 is little more to satisfy myself as just not at the Edge.

Exam Preparation/Tips and Resources

Now for the preparation, I took long time as busy with Family, personal matters, other certification exams time to time with various tracks etc. but I gave myself a break of few months between the attempts and literally spent my own time in preparing for the same. I have seen that most people don't do that (spending vacation time) to prepare for an Exam so in that regard I have to say a big "Thank You" to my wife and my family to support me through this journey and also in advance for the VCDX. With two little kids it IS difficult to study in breaks and give such tough exam, But my friends, hard work pays off. Period.

For the resources I have used all known resources which are available freely to everyone but will still list out here for the reference.

1) Official vsphere Design Workshop material - Student Guide and Lab Guide
[The courseware is more than enough for this Exam :-)]
2) Official blueprint to keep track of the subjects and reading
3) 2nd Edition vSphere Design book by Scott Lowe
4) Pluralsight videos by Scott Lowe on vSphere Design
5) Managing and Optimizing vSphere Deployments - by Harley Stagner and Sean Crookston
6) VMware vSphere Building a Virtual Datacenter - by Eric Maille and Rene-Francois Mennecier
7) VMware vSphere 5.x Datacenter Design Cookbook - by Hershey Cartwright
8) vSphere Design Best Practices - by Christopher Kusek and brian Bolander
9) Storage Implementation in vSphere 50 - by Mostafa Khalil
10) Gregg Robertson has listed most resources here for DCD so check them out.

10) There is a visio like tool used in the DCD Exam to draw the design and I found the link on Josh andrews' blog which led me to http://virtualtiers.net/ developed by the community members. I used that to practise the Design questions listed on the site and also tried creating few fictitious designs on my own and use the tool to create a design. This way you can get familiarize with the tool and the time can be minimized for placements of objects in the Exam.

Though this tool is experimental as still undergoing some improvements but its not bad at all. I really recommend to the future candidates who are preparing for 5.5 version to practice the Design items.

11) Some ex-TSEs of VMware has developed a nice Study Guide for VCAP-DCD at http://virtuallyhyper.com so dont forget to check that out. It is very intensive and well written guide covering all the blueprint subjects. You will find some other study guides links as well there.

12) No doubt apart from the reading material you should have experience working in Virtualization architecting and developing solutions and also understanding the terms and technologies to be used.

As the exam is retiring today I wish the good luck to all who are on this path to VCDX for their DCD on 55 version. Once the version 6 will be out it may change as well but time will tell the availability for 5.5 version for now.

Please share and care !!

Wish me Luck for VCDX !

Thursday, January 1, 2015

VCIX - NV Resources, Tips and Exam Experience

Hi,

Recently I had some days off at the end of the year and thought to use them properly so I booked the VCIX-NV and VCP-NV (yes in that order only :-)).

First of all, I will list out the resources which I used to prepare for VCIX-NV.

The Exam is based on NSX for vSphere version 6.0.2.

1) Blueprint for the VCIX-NV (Yes this is the Primary)

2) HOL Labs 1403,1424,1425 (Enrol few times and make sure you understand all the Tasks you are performing)

3) Official NSX for vSphere Documentation (The Documentation is based on NSX-V 6.1 version)

Read the Installation Guide and Admin Guide very carefully. Understand the overall objective for using particular NSX Feature/s.

4) VCIX Study Guide Series posts by Martijin Smit

5) There is a VMware blogs which you can find here.

6) Hands on. (which I didn't except the HOL as dont have the HomeLab). This is a key as you can test all kinds of scenarios possible as per the blueprint. I understand not everyone has ability and can afford the HomeLab [ like me :-( ] has to rely on alternate resources like HOL. Second problem could be the NSX bits which is again not possible to get for everyone who is trying to achieve this certification.

Now lets come at the 2nd part of the post which is about the Exam Experience at Pearson Vue.

Now as most of the people know in the community and this has be brought out earlier too by various people in the form of various blog posts which is related to the Latency issue while doing the live lab at Pearson Vue Testing center and I had similar issue few times. I called up the proctor three times where either I had the issue when the task was not finishing up after clicking OK button in the vSphere Web Client and waiting till its finished which took long time but cant do anything else until that task is over. One time I cant even click OK on the menu and then Proctor called up the Tech Support and as I watching and listening the whole conversation, no troubleshooting steps actually been performed and automatically everything came to normal. The proctor did freeze the session each time but I got only 15 mins for all the time loss which to me is not enough as I think I wasted almost 25-30 mins just in waiting. I have already addressed this internally and hopefully it will be fixed in near future.

Few Tips for the future candidates.

a) Try to setup the putty sessions to all the possible components which you need for either verifying configuration or part of troubleshooting

b) Use vSphere C# client to make changes in the configuration which I find is faster than Web Client.

c) Read the task carefully and make sure you finish all of them and using both vSphere c# and Web client together will minimize the overall time.

d) Write down the passwords and other information about the login credentials on the sheet Pearson is providing as you may need them

e) Not sure how to keep track but do mark the questions answered fully or partially on the sheet so that you can go back and check if anything needs to be finished later on.

f) Dont spend too much time on one task and now this is the advice everyone is giving whomsoever took the VCAP exams but it DOES makes difference here in VCIX as there are only 18 tasks to finish within the same amount of Time as other VCAP Exams.

Clarification on VCP-NV inheritance on passing VCIX-NV:

So many people in the community are under the impression that once anyone clears the VCIX-NV exam will automatically inherit VCP-NV which is not true as per the response I have received and it is clear in the course datasheet and other details available right now.

VCIX is not similar in that sense as VCAP. If someone passes any VCAP level exam then it is possible to inherit the VCP certification upon passing VCAP but with VCIX, it is not the case.

Logically thinking, why the person has to appear if he is capable of passing VCIX? Which to me is a valid question but still awaiting a reply on that Internally. I will update this post once I receive a response from VMware Education Services.

So I did have to admit that I postpone my success till next attempt of VCIX-NV :-)

As VCP-NV was out of the way on the very next day of VCIX attempt, hopefully I should be able to knock it down next time as not blaming anything I will have to just focus on the missed areas and also deep dive again in NSX !!

Wish me luck !

Share and care please !

Friday, October 31, 2014

How to do Partial / Full Uninstall of NSX Manager / Components

Hi,

Recently I got a question where the POC was running and then Lab Environment needs to be reset with some of the NSX component for one Cluster out of Two.

So basically we have to get rid of the configuration from 3 ESXi hosts which are part of one cluster and there are other hosts in the 2nd cluster which needs to be continue running using NSX Manager without any issue.

Now the procedure we follow is exactly the same when you have to do the Partial uninstall or Full,

You just have to make sure that you follow the steps for all the ESXi host which are part of the cluster.

1. Reversing Host Prep

You need to connect to vCenter web client and then from there you need to unprep the host and also make sure that NSX manager is still up and connected to vCenter Server.

Remove EAM Agency:

- Go to vCenter à Home à Administration à vCenter Solutions Manager à vSphere ESX Agent Manager

- Under the management tab, Click X (under Actions) to delete the solution (Agency).

- You can go under Networking and Security menu- Installation Tab and verify that the cluster is removed (if its a partial uninstall out of multi cluster environment)

Alternatively you can remove the installed VIBs from each host which was prepared for VXLAN

# esxcli software vib remove --vibname=esx-dvfilter-switch-security

# esxcli software vib remove --vibname=esx-vsip

# esxcli software vib remove --vibname=esx-vxlan

And Reboot the ESXi host/s to make the changes in effect.

Sometimes if there is any issue then you can find the Agency using the vCenter MOB. I will list out the Screen shots here in another post as its a long procedure.

In Summary check the EAM mob at https://vcenter/eam/mob/ (note the trailing /). Look for the agency that correlates to the cluster that is attempting to be uninstalled for any errors or reasons it may get stuck at "Uninstalling" under the Installation Tab of Networking and Security Menu of vCenter Server Web Client.

You can try to manually delete the agency if you're sure that all uninstall steps mentioned above have been performed on the hosts.

Sometimes restart of Web client Service will clear up the Uninstalling status.

Then we have to make sure that other components which are not required (only in case of full Uninstall) then we need to take care of them as well.

1) Turn Off Firewall on the components (if any configured)

2) Delete edge appliances (if any) & NSX Manager/Controllers etc.

3) Remove dvPortGroups used for VTEPs, Logical switch port groups and left over VTEP vmkernel interfaces.

4) Reboot the ESXi host/s

2. vCenter Extension removal

- Remove the NSX extension (vShield Extension) using vCenter MOB

- Go to https://vcenter-ip/mob

- Select Content à then select ExtensionManager à

Click on the method “Unregister Extension” and enter the extension string; com.vmware.vShieldManager

3. Clean up/ Remove vSphere Web Client Files for NSX

a) For Windows Based vCenter Server

Delete the directory(s) com.vmware.vShieldManager.** from C:\Program Data\VMware\vSphere Web Client\vc-packages\vsphere-client-serenity\

Restart the vSphere Web Client service from Administrator Tools (or Run services.msc) Services à vSphere Web Client

b) If you are running VCVA linux appliance

Delete the directory(s) com.vmware.vShieldManager.** from /var/lib/vmware/vsphere-client/vc-packages/vsphere-client-serenity/

Restart vsphere-web-client by issuing `service vsphere-client restart`

4.) Deleting the NSX Manager Appliance (only in case of full Uninstall)

If you are doing the Full Uninstall then, after shutting down the NSX Manager appliance, you can right click and select "Delete from Disk"

I am in process of getting a KB published too so will update the post once it’s done.

Hope you find this information useful.

Share and Care please.

Thanks for reading.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Setting up Syslog on NSX Controller

Hi

Recently I received a request on how to configure syslog on the NSX controller during the NSX training so I looked at the API documentation and found out that this is the only supported Way to configure the syslog for NSX controllers. Official documentation will get modified reflecting the same state but in the mean time please read this post and refer the KB mentioned below.

Enabling or querying or disabling Syslog On NSX controller using NSX API

Add controller syslog exporter
Configures a syslog exporter on the specified controller node.

Request
POST https:///api/2.0/vdn/controller/{controller-id}/syslog
Request Body:

10.135.14.236
514
UDP
INFO

Query controller syslog exporter
Retrieves details about the configured syslog exporter on the specified controller node.

Request
GET https:///api/2.0/vdn/controller/{controller-id}/syslog
Response Body:

10.135.14.236
514
UDP
INFO

Delete controller syslog exporter
Deletes syslog exporter on the specified controller node.

Request
DELETE https:///api/2.0/vdn/controller/{controller-id}/syslog

Now only thing you need to make sure that you need to use the encoding method as application/xml NOT application/json.

Here is the screen shot from the NSX API Guide about using xml format.

Hope you find this useful and based on the above information I have created a KB article also which you can refer to setup syslog for NSX Manager too.

Enjoy !!

Share and care !

Monday, October 13, 2014

NSX Certification - All Tracks Available Now

Hi,

With recent announcement today by VMware Education about the VCIX-NX track for VMware NSX all the tracks are now available to become VCDX-NV for VMware VMware NSX/Network Virtualization.

You can request the authorization for the VCIX-NX on the certification page.

All other details are there as well.

VCP-NV related details are here.

VCDX-NX related details you can find here.

Blueprint for VCIX-NV

VCIX-NV recommend courses

VMware NSX for Internetworking Experts Fast Track [V6.0]

VMware NSX Install, Configure, Manage

VMware VCIX Course Datasheet

There is an advantage for having valid CCIE Data Center or CCIE Routing & Switching certification and you can verify that here.

So now go get them. Good Luck !

Share and Care please !

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Visio Stencil Links for VCDX Defence with updated Links

I'm putting here all the links from where you can download the#VMware #Visio #Stencils if you are preparing for VCDX Defense or just doing any presentations / designs.

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-11498

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/24068

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-13703

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-13702

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-14908

https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-12204

https://communities.vmware.com/thread/400678

Multi Vendor collection http://www.visiocafe.com/

Various Contributors

http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esx-stencils.html

http://technodrone.blogspot.com/visio-stencils-happy-holiday-to-you-all.html

http://graffletopia.com/stencils/475

http://www.vi-tips.com/2009/05/visio-stencils-for-vmware-icons-and.html

http://virtualisedreality.com/vmware-and-related-visio-stencils/

http://www.thevesi.org/downloads.jspa

http://xtravirt.com/presentation-pack

http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/phoward/

http://vmtoday.com/2012/09/new-vmware-icons-visio-stencil-download/

http://rodos.haywood.org/2009/02/vmware-diagrams-ppt-not-visio.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/prod_cat_visios.html

http://vsphere-land.com/generalvi3-links/stencil-graphic-links.html

http://www.techhead.co.uk/vmware-vsphere-powerpoint-graphics-visio-stencils

http://www.vmguru.com/index.php/articles-mainmenu-62/general-mainmenu-63/33-visio-stencils

Some View Visio Stencils by Ray Heffer

http://www.rayheffer.com/2684/visio-stencil-set-vmware-vsphere-horizon/

vCO specific Visio Stencils by Josh Townsend

http://vmtoday.com/2014/03/vcenter-orchestrator-visio-stencil/

http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/11498-6-60388/VMware-Stencil2-vSphere.zip

http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/11498-6-60389/VMware-Stencil1-vSphere.zip

http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1338
http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1406

Some Diagrams by @HanyMichael

http://www.hypervizor.com/diagrams/

NSX Visio Diagrams on VMware Blogs by Nikhil Kelshikar

VCAC 6 icon Pack by Ryan kelly

Juniper Visio stencils

Good Luck !!

Share and care !

Sunday, October 6, 2013

VCAP Design Boot Camp

Hello,

Recently John Arrasjid @VCDX001 Tweeted about doing a VCAP Design Boot camp and invited people from the Community who possess VCAP certification (in any order) to contribute to the idea.

I am one of them who was lucky to have the spot and able to add inputs and provide Feedback.
The great thing about this Boot Camp is that its covering all the VCAP level Design certification tracks viz in View (EUC), Datacenter (DCV) and vCloud (Cloud) areas. And not only that it has the resources available through VMware Education as well as from any additional External resources which helps a candidate achieving the certification depending on his/her expertise.

John has done a fantastic work after moving in to VMware Education Group and I am sure this will help people plan their paths and achieve the same with proper resources on hand. A big Congrats and Thanks to others who ever contributed to this idea and make it happen a Great Help for the VMware community.

This boot camp involves the Process, Exam Formats, Simulation Tool for each track so that candidate can be made aware of the what the Exam will look like and what kind of Questions he/she will get and by having the proper balance between the nature of the questions, resources etc. it will help one to do proper planning to go for this Cert and achieve them.

More details about the Barcelona Boot Camp you can find on the community page.

https://communities.vmware.com/thread/458743

The Boot Camp will be held on October 13th 2013 at 9.30 A.M. and will be Led by John Arrasjid, Jon Hall and Linus Bourque. All from VMware.

Attendance will be First come First Serve basis so make sure you register for it on time. One needs to send the information to mbrunstad@vmware.com before Oct 10th 2013.

Hope you find the information from this VCAP Design Boot Camp useful and spread the word.

Share and Care !!

Monday, July 15, 2013

VCDX Sponsorship - A cool idea !!

Hi VCDX Aspirants,

If you are not aware about this but recently Nutanix has offered Sponsorship to anyone who is going for VCDX or in process of attaining VCDX.

The exact criteria is described here:

"We are looking for someone who has successfully completed all of the prerequisite exam requirements for VCDX and is ready to submit a Nutanix-based design for their VCDX defense. The lucky chosen candidate will receive as much preparation support as needed and have all submission fees paid for by Nutanix. Let us help you achieve your ultimate goal of becoming a member of the exclusive VCDX community."

And the benefits are:

The chosen candidate will receive:
• A VCDX bootcamp to prepare the candidate for the VCDX defense
• The VCDX submission fees paid for by Nutanix
• Travel and lodging for the VCDX defense

Now looking at this trend, wondering tomorrow or in near future all the big players e.g. EMC, NetApp, IBM, HP etc. will come up with an offering like this, which would give a candidate a chance/motivation to include the components in their design and get benefits of such offerings.

Now this is just my assumption here but it is something which can be done and the company will get more visibility in the community by promoting the VCDX process as a whole which is Elite and Unique in itself.

People are becoming more innovative day by day so not sure what kind of other offers they may started getting from such organizations or even from their employer, which eventually boost the morale of a person to go for such valuable status being a "VCDX".

Good Luck to those who entered in this offer from Nutanix and love to see more of such offers from others in the community.

Share and care !!

Cheers !!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

VMware Certifications List with recent name change

Recently VMwrae Education Services has renamed all the available Certifications including VCDX.

Here is the full List of all the certificates except the once highlighted in Red which are coming soon.

CLOUD (vCloud Director based)

VMware Certified Professional – Cloud (VCP-Cloud)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional – Cloud Infrastructure Administration (VCAP-CIA)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional – Cloud Infrastructure Design (VCAP-CID)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional – Cloud Governance (VCAP-CG)
VMware Certified Design Expert – Cloud (VCDX-Cloud)

DATA CENTER VIRTUALIZATION(vSphere 4.x and 5.x based)

VMware Certified Professional 4 – Data Center Virtualization (VCP4-DCV)
VMware Certified Professional 5 – Data Center Virtualization (VCP5-DCV)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional 4 – Data Center Administration (VCAP4-DCA)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional 5 – Data Center Administration (VCAP5-DCA)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional 4 – Data Center Design (VCAP4-DCD)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional 5 – Data Center Design (VCAP5-DCD)
VMware Certified Design Expert 4 – Data Center Virtualization (VCDX4-DCV)
VMware Certified Design gpExpert 5 – Data Center Virtualization (VCDX5-DCV)

END USER COMPUTING (VMware View based)

VMware Certified Associate 4 – Desktop (VCA4-DT)
VMware Certified Professional 4 – Desktop (VCP4-DT)
VMware Certified Professional 5 – Desktop (VCP5-DT)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional – Desktop Design (VCAP-DTD)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional – Desktop Administration (VCAP-DTA)
VMware Certified Design Expert – Desktop (VCDX-DT)

For more information on each one visit the site here.

Care and share please.

Good Luck !!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Ultimate VCAP5-DCD / VCAP5-DCA preparation Links

I have read so many blogs out there discussing and preparing you for VCAP5-DCD. For VCAP5-DCA I did not make any preparation except doing some tasks in my home lab as I have appeared for the BETA exam and passed it.

These blogs are no doubt not to be under rated or such for those who are getting ready as they add more value of course. Now this is not some kind of judgement about which blog is good/bad but actually the nature of content which brought me to a position where I can just suggest to read them/go through while preparing for the exams. So don't go and compare one to another. All the information available through blog posts by our community members are equally important and valuable in their own stance. To add to that this is not some kind of competition where there is a winner or the 1st rank will be given, but simply the Quality of the Content which matters.

But to me one blog just came on the surface while I was looking at the content for VCAP5-DCD

http://virtuallyhyper.com/2012/08/vcap5-dcd/

This blog site is maintained by our 3 Engineers of VMware, Jarrett, Joe and Karim. I have personally work with them on numerous occasions and the stuff they have put on the blog is top notch. They have blended the information from everywhere possible to make the flow lot smoother while you are reading. The best thing is to have the links ready for further reading if one needs to dig deeper in a subject. They have also written for VCAP5-DCA so you can check that out too.

Recently @ForbesGuthrie passed his VCAP5-DCD and he mentioned in his Tweet that he used this blog for the preparation. So this is one of the use cases I would say :-) while recommending this site.

Now I have not meet him yet but know him as he was one of the writers of VMware vSphere Design 4 book which help you preparing for VCAP-DCD Version 4. Now most of the content you can definitely use for Version 5 as well as far as the design methodologies and principles are concerned.

One day I was researching for some specific issue and then found about the www.thefoglite.com. This is another Top recommendation for VCAP5-DCA by Ethan Rowe (@rowe_ethan)

http://thefoglite.com/vcap-dca5-objective/

Now at the same time I don't want to miss a chance to give the credits to @JoshCoen (Blogpost) and @jaslanger (Blogpost) for their respective contributions for VCAP5-DCA.

Hopefully this will help you in preparing for both VCAPs along with other resources out there which may includes various blog sites, videos, online sessions etc. etc.

My 2c.

Good Luck to all going for VCDX !!!!!

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

VMware Training and Credits

Here is the summary where you can associate the VMware Training and how many training credits that course has.

Its easy to interpret the credits into the training you can attend for the courses offered by VMware Education as of today.

If you have any question and you can visit the Education and Certification site.

http://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/www/

Enjoy learning.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

VCAP-DCD - Objective 2.1 and 2.2 on Logical Design

Objective 2.1 –Map Business Requirements to the Logical Design

Knowledge

· List the fundamental components of the vSphere4 environment.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_intro_vs.pdf#page=8

· List the fundamentals of the VMware virtualization architecture.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_intro_vs.pdf#page=12

· List the phase of logical design.

· List the detailed steps that go into the makeup of a logical design.

Skills and Abilities

· Define a logical design.

· Apply the detailed steps that go into the makeup of a logical design to a particular customer environment.

· Distinguish between a logical and physical design.

· Given a situation, translate given business requirements and the current state of a customer environment into a logical design.

Tools

· Introduction to VMware vSphere

· What’s New in VMware vSphere 4.1

· VMware vSphere Evaluator’s Guide

The logical design includes the relationships between all major infrastructure components, while considering:

• The conceptual design

• Constraints and risks

The logical design is useful for understanding and evaluating the design of the infrastructure.

• Does it meet the goals and requirements, while staying within the constraints?

The logical design does not include physical details:

• For example, vendor models, host names, IP addresses, and port connections

The logical design is based on the information documented in the conceptual design and considers all constraints and risks. Where there are risks, they should be communicated to the organization along with a recommended action, so that a decision can be made and the design can move forward.

Use the logical design to create the physical design.

A physical design includes specific vendor and implementation details:

• Vendor models, host names, IP addresses, port connections, LUN sizes, number of CPUs, and other specific physical details

In the end, a good design:

• Involves the organization’s key stakeholders and SMEs

• Balances business goals and requirements with technical considerations and best practices

• Has documented rationales and considerations

• Includes enough detail to be unambiguous

• Is not unnecessarily complex

• Is repeatable

At the beginning of any design project you need to develop a high level vision for the project. This high-level vision includes the project

scope, goals, requirements, assumptions, and constraints.

The conceptual design focuses on achieving the organization’s business goals and requirements.

The logical design includes the relationships between all major infrastructure components and is useful for understanding and evaluating the design of the infrastructure.

A physical design includes specific vendor and implementation details.

Design criteria should include usability, manageability, security, and cost.

Educate key stakeholders and SMEs about vSphere and virtualization so that they can provide valuable input during the design project.

Designing is a balancing act between technical best practices and the organization’s goals, requirements, and constraints.

Objective 2.2 – Map Service Dependencies

Knowledge

· Identify basic service dependencies for infrastructure and application services.

Skills and Abilities

· Analyze service dependencies to determine requirements for the logical design of a multi site environment.

· Identify the upstream/downstream service dependencies.

· Having navigated logical components and their interdependencies, make decisions based upon all service relationships.

Tools

· Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines

· Virtualizing a Windows Active Directory Domain Infrastructure

· Datacenter Operational Excellence Through Automated Application Discovery & Dependency Mapping

· Product Documentation

Depending on the project, the optional installation and configuration document might include only high-level steps for implementing the design. On the other hand, the document might include step-by- step procedures for implementing the design. The level of detail typically depends on the cost of the project and whether the design is product-oriented or solution-oriented. A solution-oriented project typically includes more details specific to an organization’s needs.

In either case, these documents can refer to online VMware documentation for detailed step-by-step instructions as necessary. Assume that the reader is familiar with basic vSphere operation.

At a minimum, these documents should include the products listed above.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

All Free Courses offered by VMware Education !!

Now a days lot of companies have their various certifications in the market to compete others in the same area and VMware also has few new certifications released recently which includes VCAP5-DCD, VCP5-DT etc. for the Datacenter and Desktop streams.

Few others are in BETA stages such as VCAP5-DCA and VCP-IaaS right now and will become publicly available in future. The BETA Period is over by now for both exams so whomsoever willing to appear have to wait till it generally available.

The following list includes almost all the courses offered Free of Cost (self-paced) by VMware and the areas starts from vSphere Fundamentals, View, vShiled, vCenter Operations Manager, vCenter Chargeback, Site Recovery Manager, Virtualizing Tier 1 Databases such as SQL and Oracle and not limited to that but also included courses for the TC Server, GemFire, Groovy Grails, SpringSource, Hyperic (Companies acquired by VMware) etc. etc.

I have tried finding all the Free courses offered by VMware Education and if you find any course for which there is a cost involved then pleaes leave the feedback so that I can update the list accordingly.

These courses are very good for the person who never knew what vMware vSphere is or what ESX/ESXi server is. These courses are covering the starter level areas covering desktop products such as Workstation, Fusion, Lab manager, vSphere upto all at the advanced level areas such as vShiled, Tier 1 Database virtualization, View Design, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery etc. etc.

These courses are worth if one is preparing for any entry level certification like VCP to an advanced certification such as VCAP-DCD or VCAP-DCA for various tracks such as vSphere, View or IaaS (new upcoming first vCloud Certification).

vSphere 5.x and 4.1, SRM, DR/BC,Chargeback, Capacity IQ, AppSpeed,

• VMware vSphere What's New in 5.1

http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/courses.cfm?ui=www_edu&a=det&id_course=149391

vCloud, vShield, vCenter Chargeback, Configuration Manager

Learn about the basics of OSGi and how it provides a modular, dynamic environment for your applications
Learn how Spring Dynamic Modules allows to you to apply the familiar Spring programming model to your OSGi-based applications
Learn how the SpringSource dm Server enables you to build Enterprise Java applications that can benefit from OSGi’s features on the server-side
Learn about OSGi and Spring-DM best practices
Learn about options and best practices for applying modularization to your own applications

Metaprogramming With Groovy

http://www.springsource.com/training/free-online-video-metaprogramming-groovy
Key learning points:

Metaprogramming Techniques With Groovy
Metaprogramming Hooks
ExpandoMetaClass
Intercept, Cache and Invoke

Core Spring

http://www.springsource.com/training/class?classID=136220
Course Objectives covers

Use the Spring Framework to develop Java applications
Use dependency injection to set up and configure applications
Test Spring-based applications
Set up Spring configuration using XML, annotations, and Java configuration
Use Hibernate and JDBC with Spring to access relational databases
Use Spring support for transactions
Use aspect-oriented programming (AOP) to add behavior to objects
Develop a basic Web application with Spring MVC
Use Spring Security to secure Web applications
Use Spring with RMI, HttpInvoker, and JMS for remote communication
Add management with the JMX API

Enterprise Integration with Spring Training

http://www.springsource.com/training/class?classID=136215

You will learn:

How to design and implement asynchronous, event-driven, message-oriented systems with Spring JMS
How to use Spring Integration to implement Hohpe and Woolf's Enterprise Integration Patterns
How to cut through hype and understand 'buzzword' topics including SOA, ESB, and REST from first principles
How to design for concurrency using the latest from Spring and java.util.concurrent
How to optimize performance across integration boundaries

Rich Web Applications with Spring Training

http://www.springsource.com/training/class?classID=136217
You will learn:

Learn to create professional Ajax user interfaces with Spring JavaScript
Learn to design and implement stateful application transactions with Spring Web Flow 2
Learn to secure web applications effectively with Spring Security 2
Learn to get the most out of Ajax toolkits such as the Dojo Toolkit in your application
Learn to integrate JSF into your application with Spring Faces

I hope you will find these courses useful for your own study purpose and also to educate a person who is new to VMware virtualization. If you see any other courses which is not in the list above then please notify me or leave a feedback on the post and I will update the post.

For all the certification requirements and other necessary courses required for the ceritfications do visit the certification site http://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/certification/ and the training site http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrreg/index.cfm?ui=www_edu&redirect=off.

Good luck and enjoy the ride of VMware Virtualization !!

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