New week. New Role. Great Times.

As of today I start my new position with EMC. I will be one of the Sr. vSpecialist for the southeast.

All little happy, a bit scared, and a bunch excited. Here we go.

Now I might actually have time to blog ... YAY!

Success. Passed the VCAP-DCD.

So this past Tuesday I took the VMware VCAP-DCD exam. I wanted to just share my experience as so many others have done in the past few months. I will also toss some tips out that may seem like common sense but when you focus on the goal I have found that it is possible that common sense gets "fuzzy".

So let's first talk about the exam. It was a great experience. The questions had a good mix of difficulty and persistence. Lots of good design scenario based questions.

A few items that should help:

READ. - Read every word and understand the complete scenario. Many of the questions look the same and it is easy to read a portion and miss the import of the questions.

PREPARE. - Preparation for this is not easy but if you read Scott Lowe's book on Design it helps a bunch. Then go over the blueprint and understand the concepts.

TOPICS. - There are some Diagram items that are based on the VMware design tool. It's not great but ... it works. Understand what VMware expects to see in Diagrammed scenarios. Kendrick Coleman and Sean Crooks have a bunch of great information on the DCD. There are a ton of resources on this topic so I won't recreate the wheel. But here are a list of the ones I thought helpful.

Helpful Links:
1st - vSphere Design Course was helpful on a number of fronts. Truly helping you to understand what VMware is looking for on this. Is it preparation for the test? Yes. Is it a guide that once you take the course you can hit DCD with no issues? Nope. The course is a nice guide for concepts and helps in terminology.

2nd - Blueprint. Hit up the blueprint if you want to take the test. It is a nice step by step that when coupled with the vSphere design course outlines the knowledge segments you can bone up on and know where you are weak. Linky to the blueprint is here - Click Here :) - Registration / login required. Do this as you'll need an account to request authorization to take the test with this account. If you don't want to make one you can get it here : Ver 1.5 blueprint (Download PDF).

3rd - Study Resources. I hear Train Signal has some for this. I haven't seen it but all their other stuff is usually good quality. P.S. - If anyone at Train Signal wants me to check out prep stuff for the VCAP-DCD or the VCAP-DCA please feel free to send me a copy! ;) lol.

Seans DCD page in progress - Sean's Link!
Kendrick's Experience - You can find his site here - Kenny's Link  - At the time of this writing the blog is offline to me ... don't know why. I have sent out a tweet to Kenny to see what the deal is.
Phil the virtualizer - Phil's Link!
A bunch of others out there. These are the one's that helped me out.

You might want to know you HA options. This link may help - Duncan's HA DeepDive

Also do everyone a favor and know your DRS/HA, Roles, and Advanced Troubleshooting commands.

Without a minimal knowledge of these your going to stare at the screen for way too much time. You have 113 questions and 240 minutes. The diagrams and simulations are good, with the tool it is easy to waste time here. Don't do it!! Know what you need to know and if you don't mark it for review and come back to it! I ended the test with 26 mins left and then went into review mode ... I ended the review with 1 minute and 2 seconds left. I have yet to see an experience where one of my vBrosefs :) (New Term Chappy copyrighted! lol) has had more than 3 or so minutes on the clock when they end review.

So I think that pretty much puts a wrap on it.

One thing left though someone heard that I passed the DCD and then said isn't vSphere 4 out of date? I thought about this a bunch and have the following response.

For early adopters the DCD doesn't provide specific vSphere 5 stuff, true. With all the licensing stuff going on, I hear a number of different stands on upgrading to vSphere 5. What the DCD does prove is that your underlying knowledge is indeed sound and you have some design skills.

So is it based on vSphere 4? Yes.
Does it still show that your knowledge is valid? Yes.
Because it is based on vSphere 4, does it mean that your not an architect? Nope! Since you are a person that passed the DCD you just need to understand the changes in vSphere 5 and BOOM you're good to go.

Finally if anyone vPosers (vPosers are just what they sound like, posers who think that they know vSphere better than everyone just because they are old school.) pester you about your score and you don't feel the need to share. Tell them "My Design brings all the GEAR to yard. Darn right it's better than yours. I could teach you but I'd have to charge." LOL.  [ insert "In Living Color" aww snap here! :) ]

Yeah it's like that. You know who you are! :)

Feel free to drop me a line if I should add links to this compilation! virtual chappy at gmail dot you know and no spaces.

Major Down Time :). Sorry about that.

So near the end of December the partner I work for, got in the vSphere 5 beta program and began working with it. I was insanely hyped about some of the new features that were introduced in this version. Not everything that I saw at that time made it into the final release that happened when I was at Cisco Live. Although enough did get in that I was very impressed.

SRM 5 is mad sweet. (Host based 4T{cheap}W) ;)
vSphere 5 is sweet and so is the VSA.

I will be posting a bit more in the near future but I need to pass the VCAP-DCD first. I take that on the 2nd of August. Once I have that down I should have some more time to handle some blogging.

Also in case you didn't know I hooked up a twitter account - @virtualchappy .

As Katy Perry would say "You just got ignite the light and let is shine. You gotta just own the night." corny I know but in all honesty that did it and I think that things are going to take off in the next couple of weeks.

AVG Free update kill your PC?

Yeah me too :).

I have liked AVG Free as a way to protect my personal stuff for a while now. But last night I was informed by the latest edition of the client that I needed to reboot due to an update.

So I was putting that off until today. But alas, when I did do a reboot my PC was stuck in a reboot loop due to a BSOD related to a AVG component. Reboot happens when trying to go into Safe Mode as well.

How do you fix this?

Well I don't know about what you personally would do. But here is what I did to restore my system.

 Instead of trying safe mode let it try and launch start-up repair.

It won't be able to fix it. When that is done you click "finish" and then the Advanced Options link.

From there choose the command line option.

Then go to the root of your OS drive usually C:\. Once there cd to program files (x86)\AVG, then rd AVG10 /s. answer y and then proceed. That will forcefully remove ALL AVG files and you can then restart your PC.

How to build a team. - Part 1 -

In my recent adventures, many people have asked me how I would build a team. Due to the current marketplace trend in moving fast in trying to create a Data Center practice this has become more and more common.

Some of the questions that I would ask if I was going to build a team are below:

So how would you properly build a team that was geared to thrive instead of just survive?

How do you plan to keep talent?

How can IT leaders avoid boring talent?

To that end the below points can assist anyone trying to build any team. Especially the human aspects of making that team be cohesive, well respected, intelligent and bonded together like concrete.

Goals and Mind-share -

For this team Goals and Mind-share must be aligned. Team members must understand the import of the team direction and goals. Team members might not always agree with the route taken to achieve the goals but, when the team understands the goals and direction a team member can usually forgive a perceived error in the chosen route.

Allowing team members to gain mind-share is important. As a leader of that team you must be ready to listen and hear them at the same time. More times than not your team will surprise you with the levelheadedness and intelligence they can bring to bear on a specific matter. Make sure that everyone knows who everyone else is, in a team like this there isn't really a spot for EGO. Make that known and deflate the need for EGO and some amazing things will happen. As a team builder/IT leader you need to keep that going.

One key need in being able to build a team that you can do this with is finding the "SPARK", or the X-factor, or passion. Whatever you call it that is the key to keep this team burning hot with talent.

Group Mentality -

Make sure that the team and you as a leader foster the attitude that the group is more important than the one. Once that is complete make sure that you and the team show the following chain: Client is more important than the group, Group is more important than one person, and as a team member I can help make that impact on the group and client positive. I as a team member can indeed contribute.

--That is it for now more tomorrow--

West Michigan VMUG, and recap! Great Stuff!

It's about time.

So originally the West Michigan vmware User's Group started with John Peck (from Herman Miller) and Joe Harnish (I think Joe is with Metro now). For reasons I am not privy to the VMUG had died off in the last 14 months or so. Finally it has been revived. Russ Shearer (Meijer), Gary Coburn (Vmware SE), and some other good guys that I have not yet had the chance to meet have got it back up and going. Thursday was the first official meeting.

The agenda was the normal User Group Flow. (Sponsor, Vendor, Customer)

Sponsor presentation on the "cloud". **

**(Just so that everyone knows, I want to be perfectly clear. Virtualization is NOT the cloud. Virtualization is a cloud enabling technology. The presenter mis-stated that Virtualization IS the cloud. That is not correct. According to the NIST definition the cloud is a model for delivering resources that have specific service models and rapid "low-touch" provisioning. So, while Virtualization is a big help to the could, it is not in itself the cloud. I think that the presenter knew that and just mis-spoke.)

vmware VDI stuff.

A really good customer presentation on VDI 101 basics. (Less slides brosef. Less slides.) ;)

Spectrum did a great job on both the documentation and presentation of the journey from current to future state. vBlock insights and configuration models that lend themselves to the workload that spectrum runs was neat to see. Knowing where Spectrum sees the benefits and issues with the vblock approach is cool. I really thought that it was great that Mark West knew that vBlock is not a panacea but a solution pathway. Mark really illustrated well why certain standards would be taken care of in First, Second, and Third steps. Understanding the financial, business process, along with the workflow issues that this solution will solve really cemented again what we must do as IT professionals. By using business acumen and understanding the requirements involved not only can IT become less of a "vacuum", but IT can be a better contributor to the success of the business.

All things considered it was a good start.

Things that need to happen. More interaction, bigger attendance, and topics people will get excited about.

VMware if you are reading this ... invite some of the bloggers in the industry! Chad, Vaughn, Duncan, Mike, Frank .... any of these guys.

Final bit of Advice? ... If you are in the West Michigan Area . . . BE AT THE NEXT VMUG!!!!

See you all there next time.

3.0 ... then 3.1 ... now v3.2 :).

Nick has fixed a couple more things in the Celerra VSA.

Pick them up over at Re-Roll for Initiative :) .

Looking at one of Cisco's newer acquisitions Tidal and getting back into Exchange with SP1 roll-up 1 coming out for Exchange 2010 Here.


Chappy.

Celerra VSA v3.1

If you have ever used Nick Weaver's Uber VSA for EMC Celerra, you might think that this is a great way to get your own personal Celerra to start playing around with. You know what I would agree with you :). Nick released  version 3 a little while ago ... I had some issues with adding disks to the OVA and then I check his blog today and guess what. Nick found the issue and fixed it. Also there was an SRM bug that was fixed. The 'discoverluns' command seems to have had an issue with iSCSI replicated sessions.

Grab it over here at NICK's blog.

This version also includes DART 6 with Unisphere ... cool stuff.

Long time :).

So updates have been sparse at best!!

I'll be working on fixing that in the next few weeks. Things have changed for me as far as the job and a bunch of other stuff.

I just took the nerd test V2 ....






Awesome!!! I <3 my geekdom.

VCAP-DCD and vSphere4 training.

I got a pleasant email today from my company asking me to schedule my vSphere4 : Design workshop and to prep for my VCAP-DCD.

Since the test hasn't been released just yet (expected soon). I will have to take it probably in Sept. Either way I will let you know what both the training and the test is like.

Talk to you guys soon.

Not aware ESX was going the way of the dodo?

Check out Phil's Mental leftovers HERE.

VMware has been trying to make the move to COSless for a bit now. As Phil points out VMware made it official.

Interesting stuff for sure.

vSphere 4.1 ... You know.

vSphere 4.1 is out and in the wild now.

No need to regurgitate the new features. When I get it up in the lab I'll let you guys know.

RTFM ...

If you came here from RTFM or if you think I am mad at Mike L. Please be assured that I was not trying to berate him. Mike is an AWESOME guy and I have used RTFM and it has pulled me out of jams a couple of times. So I am appreciative of his contributions to the VMware community.

tldr ; Mike is a good dude. I will not send ninjas to his house. If that's not clear enough ... sorry :).

More vLAB stuff.

So it has been slow going for the moment due to some personal challenges that I have had. So it is my fault and my fault only for not following up as fast or pushing this harder.

Darryl and I have been working over the weekend to make sure that we have a working web presence that can handle the outward facing collaboration and stuff.

This vLAB would be free for people to use and since one of the goals is to encourage community involvement, we are working on a points-based system that rewards individuals for contribution of both content and solutions for real world scenarios.

Another exciting feature is that vThought would provide high-quality "no-cost" consulting to clients provided that the clients donate to the vLAB in order for us to keep this moving forward.

I have finished some of the last DNS changes and we should be live here in the next 24 hours.

Community Virtualization Lab and stuff.

I know that this idea is in beta for some folks right now. But I would like to see this happen since I know not everyone can afford a nice hardware set for a LAB.

Below is a snippet from my Linkedin discussion post.


Would any of you fellow VCP'ers be interested in a community Lab that is managed by certified VCPs that is provided at no cost?

This lab would be partially funded by clients obtaining VMware, Storage, and general IT advice at no charge to them. The "payment" would be a contribution to the vLAB. It could be storage/servers/network etc. Please let me know your thoughts. I am in the process of setting up the website for it.

www.vthoughtinc.com <- If you are UBAR with HTML and/or Flash let me know if you can help with the page since I am junk at it :).

At this time the gear I am planning for installation into the lab is below:

Newer Stuff:
2TB iSCSI RAID array on the vSphere 4 HCL. (Qnap 839-pro)
Whitebox Dual opteron dual-core with Ultra 320 SCSI local storage.
3Com 5500G - EI 48 port gigabit switch
ASA 5505

Older stuff:  :[ older single core XEON's MEH...
Dell Poweredge 2850 - Dual proc 6GB Ram and
IBM x442 - 32GB ... Quad Xeon Box

Want to donate or assist in the project? Let me know here by commenting.

I will get a page and an email set for the community vLab stuff soon.

A Note to management when dealing with High-End talent or the "SPARK".

Ok. A little background on this.

First, I have always been a big proponent of the upper layers of management being able to recognize talent and retain it by giving both the challenge and reward programs. Many SPARKs want and need the challenge of complex work to be happy with the occupation that they perform. Also there is a need to reward SPARKs for the work that they perform.

Example:

If a SPARK works over 35 hours in 2 days and provides a solution to a client under budget and on-time or close to on-time. What do you do? Do you say "thanks" and then give the SPARK the "wink" and and a pat on the back? If so you probably just lost one of your best employees!

WHY? I said "thanks". Then I gave the person a small gift. Isn't that enough?

Probably no!

That SPARK that delivered that Item to the customer in good time and working massive hours isn't interested in a $25 Barnes-and-Noble gift card. Come on this person just made you look like ATLAS to your customer. As a manager or owner you are going to retain that customer and the relationship just got stronger. As an owner yeah this person put a ton of hours in ... but as an owner you didn't have to draw the project out and your overall profit is higher. Any SPARK worth their respective salt knows what they did, how it impacts the client, and how the benefits are gained by owners and managers. Most SPARKs want a piece of that action. The challenge was to perform the work and provide the value. The reward should be input into the business model and how people are treated in order to properly retain and benefit them.

So many times I hear that when a SPARK (or very talented and intelligent person) leaves an organization the owners and managers do some of the MOST STUPID and IDIOTIC things to that person. It's insane.

I have one thing to say on it : LOSE GRACEFULLY!!!! It's nuts to think that you can maintain SPARKs forever! SPARKS need new challenges and rewards to continue to thrive and grow. So many "old-style" thinkers get so little of what motivates people and SPARKs it's crazy. These same "old-school" thinkers believe that grinding someone into the ground and smashing them when they leave gets you something.

The only thing that you get is a BAD name! A VERY BAD name!

Involve a SPARK in planning, in business direction, and in the rewards you give them. If as a manager/owner you pulled a SPARK in and said that you wanted some help on determining what to reward them with you'll get a BIG answer ... possibly one that is WAY more than your planned spend. Don't be afraid tell them the limitation and then give them a path to get the reward. Just don't make the path impossible.

Either way this is too long already. Let me know if you have any questions. Let's have an open discussion about management! :) Then we can let them read it and see if they get it yet.

PIECE!

vSphere 4 Update 2.

This has been released and it fixes some nice items.

It also makes sticky the pervasive NMP RR IOPs = 1 setting if you are using that at the moment. So that means the setting will stay persistent between ESX Host reboots. Which is nice so that you don't have to remember.

You can grab vSphere 4 Update 2 Here : LINKZORED

Also please be aware that there is a issue with the .NET patch (KB908773) which could cause some issues if you are running any Sphere Client prior to vSphere 4 Update 1.

Here is a link to the KB Article : ZOMG Fix my Client :)

VM Teleportation. (Beam me up Scotty for VM's)

Take a look at what Chad Sakac introduced ....

Cool stuff for sure.

BEAM ME UP!

vSphere 4.1 features.

Some of the new features for vsphere 4.1.

*Note ... iSCSI Boot from SAN.

Expect to see more iSCSI SANs :) !!!

Linky - AWESOME : )

May the 4th Be With You!

May the 4th be with you!