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Category Archives: VMware

VMware VCP Recertification deadline extended until May 8 , those who recertified before the extension get 65% off VCP6 migration exam

11 Mar

Recently I had to get recertified for VCP and even though I didn’t really want to …. I did so anyways as you can read in my previous blog post: VMware VCP5-DCV Delta Recertification Exam (VCP550D) available until March 10th + resources to prepare for it

Apparently there were some technical issues and VMware decided to extend the VCP recertification deadline until May 8, 2015. VMware understood this might frustrate people  who worked hard to meet the original deadline on time (before March 10th 2015), so they decided to give those people 65% off the VCP6 migration exam.

Even though I still don’t really agree with the recertification, this is a step in the good direction VMware. Keep it up.

For more information, you can read the original blog post: Short Extension For VCP Recertification Deadline (and a Reward for Those Who Met the Original Deadline)

 
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Posted by on March 11, 2015 in ICT, Learning, VMware

 

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VMware VCP5-DCV Delta Recertification Exam (VCP550D) available until March 10th + resources to prepare for it

04 Mar

Again I want to stress that I don’t agree with the way VMware is enforcing the recertification in this case as I’ve described in more detail here. Nevertheless I had to take the exam to keep my certification status, contribute to my company’s partner status and to prevent having to take another expensive course in the future to get certified. I have to admit I did learn about a couple of new things though.

But enough about that. Until March 10th it is possible to take the VCP5-DCV Delta Recertification Exam (VCP550D) that is based on new material between the vSphere 5.0/5.1 and vSphere 5.5 exams. Another benefit is that it is cheaper (90 euros) and that it can be taken online from any location.

I took the exam and passed, so I’m good for the near future. I am thinking about postponing vSphere 6.0 certification due to this re-certification policy though.

Here are the resources I used to prepare for the exam:

I know Veeam also provides VCAP5-DCA and VCP5-DCV study guides, but I haven’t used these yet.

I hope it’s useful to you. If you have any other useful resources or feedback, please leave a comment

 
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Posted by on March 4, 2015 in ICT, Learning, VMware

 

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VMware announces version 6.0 of their products (and why I hate the recertification program)

03 Feb

VMware version 6.0 products announced

Yesterday VMware announced version 6 of their products including vSphere 6, Virtual SAN 6, etc. I’ve read a bit on some of the products and to me it seems more of an evolution and less of a revolution. I’m also seeing similar concepts being introduced that Microsoft already implemented in Hyper-V. All in all I think the competition is good for the consumers. If you want to learn more about the VMware version 6.0 products, take a look at these sites:

Why I hate the recertification program

For some time now I knew that VMware would release version 6.0 of their products, but in the meanwhile I’m required to recertify before March 10th. I would’ve preferred to spend my time on version 6.0 of their products instead or on other technologies instead of being forced to focus it on version 5.5 to keep my certification status. Therefore my suggestion to VMware is to ensure that the recertification requirements take into account releases of new products. The ICT work field is already moving at an extremely fast rate and it is already hard enough to keep up without having to recertify (for multiple vendors and certifications).

 
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Posted by on February 3, 2015 in Cloud, ICT, Private cloud, Public Cloud, VMware

 

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VMware – Free VMware Certified Associate (VCA) exam vouchers for a limited time

11 Oct

Free certification information

For a limited time only, you will be able to get free VMware Certified Associate (VCA) exam vouchers and get certified by taking the exams from the comfort of your own home.

Update 06-12-2012 : Rasmus Haslund added a new method: http://www.perfectcloud.org/certification/vmware-vca-exam-experience-plus-free-exam-voucher/

Update 24-11-2013 : Rasmus Haslund provided a new code on his site : http://www.perfectcloud.org/certification/vmware-vca-exam-experience-plus-free-exam-voucher/
Give code VMRT9B503121 a try.

Update 22-11-2013 : Apparently the codes are not working anymore, see the comments. You could give code VMRT1B01791B a try.

Update 19-10-2013 : Apparently Global Knowledge provides a code as well. Can be used until January 31st: http://www.globalknowledge.com/training/generic.asp?pageid=3596

Update 09-11-2013 : Eric Sloof from ntpro.nl provides a code as well. Can be used until January 31st: http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/archives/2471-Free-VMware-Certified-Associate-Certification-Extended.html

The currently available tracks which you can do for free are:

VMware Certified Associate – Datacenter Virtualization (VCA-DCV) – Exam blueprint
VMware Certified Associate – Cloud (VCA-Cloud) – Exam blueprint
VMware Certified Associate – Workforce Mobility (VCA-WM) – Exam blueprint

Free online e-learning modules are available that take about 4-5 hours to complete and that are sufficient to pass the exam. The registration process is a bit cumbersome in my opinion, but this blog post contains some instructions to help you with that.

From what I can see, this offer is valid until the end of October, but I might be wrong so it’s best to take the exams as soon as possible. I also think you’ll also be able to use the same voucher code to re-take the exam should you fail, but again I’m not really sure. Once I have more information, I will update this blog post.

Future additions

In the future a new track VMware Certified Associate – Network Virtualization (VCA-NV) will become available. It is not clear when it will arrive and if you’ll be able to use the voucher on this exam as well, but using the link you can at least have VMware notify you when it becomes available.

Usefulness

I think these free e-learnings are a good way to become familiar on a high level with VMware products, terminology and use cases. The VCA certification is proof you have this knowledge and might give you an advantage.

Being able to certify for free now can come in handy for:

  • People that are still studying.
  • People that are in between jobs.
  • People that are working in other parts of the ICT that are interested in VMware, but cannot get their employer to pay for VMware training/certification.
  • People and companies that want to stimulate certification, but also have to save costs.
  • People that are interested in virtualization and are considering doing more with it, but don’t know yet if it’s something for them.

There are of course more possible situations, but I think these are very common.

Thanks

Thanks to VMware for making this possible and Rasmus Haslund (@Haslund) for sharing the information and the voucher on his website http://www.perfectcloud.org, If you decide to use this offer, please also leave a comment at his website.

Also, as always … sharing is caring, so share this with others.

 
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Posted by on October 11, 2013 in Cloud, ICT, Learning, Private cloud, Public Cloud, VMware

 

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Home LAB Setup guide – 07 Make your lab available over the internet

04 Aug

In the first part of this LAB setup guide, I described the hardware selection process.
In the second part, I described the hypervisor selection and installation.
In the third part, I described VM guest considerations and preparations.
In the fourth part, I described Configuring Server 2012 VM as DC with DNS and DHCP using PowerShell
In the fifth part, I described easily creating (many) proper AD users with PowerShell
In the sixth part, I described creating a local PowerShell v3 Help Repository with PowerShell

In this post I will describe how you can make your lab available over the internet.

When you’ve created your home LAB, you want to be able to use it anywhere. Depending on your situation, one of these options probably best meets your needs.

Examples include the use of:

  1. Remote desktop connection to your server
    + Easy to configure (enable on server and configure NAT forwarding if appropriate)
    – On many enterprise or public networks TCP3389 is blocked by the firewall.
    – Connects only to specific server. Even though you access the rest of the network from there.
  2. VPN connection to your network
    • Using your hardware router
      + Connection to network, not just a server.
      – No dependency on Windows Server
    • Using Windows Server 2008 / 2012
      + SSTP VPN (TCP443), is generally not blocked on enterprise/public networks.
      + Connection to network, not just a server.
      – Dependency on Windows server.
      – Requires more configuration.
      – The root CA certificate for the certification authority (CA) that issued the server authentication certificate needs to be into the store Local Computer\Trusted Root Certification Authorities. For a self-signed certificate, this means that you need to have local admin permissions to add it.Note: DirectAccess is a great feature, but it requires the client to be a member of the domain. And in my case this would limit where I can connect from, therefore I don’t plan to use it. For other situations it might be a better solution though.
  3. Using 3rd party tools like logmein, teamviewer or VNC
    + Connects only to specific computer.

Since I want to be able to connect from within enterprise environments as well, I chose to use SSTP VPN in Windows Server 2012. The basic steps you have to perform, include:

  1. On the server, you have to install and configure the VPN service.
  2. On the server or your own PKI, you would want create and install a machine certificate. You can create a Certificate Signing Request and request a 3rd party public certificate. Alternatively you can create a certificate using your own Certificate Authority, or you could create a self-signed certificate, For creating the self-signed certificate you can use the great PluralSight SelCert tool.
  3. On the client, you have to make sure the created certificate will be trusted. This means you have to add the certificate to local system\trusted root certificate authority if you’re using a self-signed certificate, which requires local administrator permissions on the client.
  4. On the client, you have to set-up the VPN connection to the server. Preferably you want to connect by DNS name. For your home lab you can also utilize dynamic DNS services like by example no-ip.com or alternative solutions.

For some more information, you can also take a look at this:

 
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Posted by on August 4, 2013 in Automation, Cloud, ICT, Microsoft, Powershell, Private cloud, Tutorials, VMware, Windows 2012

 

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VMware – PowerShell script to get (storage)vmotion history

03 Jul

Even though I’ve always liked VMWare vSphere, I thought the events and informational messages weren’t always as helpful as they could be.

One of the common things I want to know are the vmotions and storage vmotions that have taken place. Luc Dekens has created a great script that shows the (s)vmotions that have taken place including details about them.

Be sure to take a look at his website for the PowerShell / PowerCLI script including a detailed explanation:
http://www.lucd.info/2013/03/31/get-the-vmotionsvmotion-history/

 
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Posted by on July 3, 2013 in Automation, ICT, Microsoft, Powershell, VMware

 

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VMware – Free ebook of “VMware vSphere 5 Clustering Technical Deepdive 5.0” and “VMware vSphere 4.1 HA and DRS technical deepdive” today and tomorrow only

05 Jun

Duncan Epping is offering his books vSphere Clustering Deepdive 4.0 and 5.0 for free, but only today and tomorrow.

For more info take a look at his great blog:
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2013/05/28/free-kindle-copy-of-vsphere-5-0-clustering-deepdive/

 
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Posted by on June 5, 2013 in Cloud, Data center, ICT, Learning, Private cloud, VMware

 

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VMware – Free VMware instructional videos

21 Feb

Not every company or person is able to afford training. Luckily however, more and more companies are providing free learning materials.

VMware has recently updated its instructional videos that can be found at : http://vmwarelearning.com/

 
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Posted by on February 21, 2013 in ICT, Learning, VMware

 

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Microsoft – Virtualization for VMware Professionals Jump Start recordings and Q&A now available on MVA

15 Feb

The videos of the “Virtualization for VMware Professionals Jump Start” have been posted to the Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA):
https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/tracks/microsoft-virtualization-for-vmware-professionals

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend this session live, but thanks to MVA I can still view the recordings when it is convenient for me.

 
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Posted by on February 15, 2013 in Cloud, ICT, Learning, Microsoft, Private cloud, Public Cloud, VMware, Windows, Windows 2012

 

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VMware – The VMware virtualcenter server service terminated with service specific error code 2

03 Feb

A friend of mine who is still a student has been building his own VMware lab environment for some time now. Yesterday he contacted me that he couldn’t get the “VMware VirtualCenter Server service” to start anymore.

The log showed: EventID 7021 “The VMware VirtualCenter Server service terminated with service-specific error 2 (0×2).”

A quick google search however showed that many things could be causing this error. Because it was a lab environment, I wanted to upgrade the virtual center to the latest version. Before doing so, I took a look at the VMware blog post covering the latest update 5.1.0B. In the readme it said:

“SSO service dependency on MS SQL
When SSO is installed with local Microsoft SQL Server, the services must start in a specific order.
SSO must start after SQL Server starts. If SSO starts before SQL Server starts, restart the SSO
server after SQL server starts.”

Doing so resolved the issue. To prevent the issue from re-occurring, I made the SSO service dependent on the SQL service.

I don’t understand why this is not part of the automated installation process though 😦

 

 
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Posted by on February 3, 2013 in Cloud, ICT, Microsoft, Private cloud, Public Cloud, VMware, Windows, Windows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows 2012

 

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