It is official, or at least as official as anything can be said to be official, that I will be attending VMworld 2009. I’m not sure on flight details yet, however. Of all of the plethora of reasons to attend, I’m actually quite interested in the Golden Gate Bridge Run. Another thing that caught my
-> Continue reading Come Meet ProfessionalVMware at VMworld 2009
Today we continue along with the VCP4 Blueprint coverage (other objective 5.3 posts here and here). In this post we’ll wrap up 3.5 with some final coverage on vApps, specifically building and managing vApps in the vSphere 4 client when it is connected to vCenter server. Sound like fun? No? Trust me, it is. With
-> Continue reading Build & Manage a vApp – VCP4 Objective 5.3
First a picture of this in action: (Click the pic for full size) Wow. It’s actually a nice little overview of what is doing what on that particular host, at a given time. You can break it down by VM, and set the time range from real time on up. This is provided by the
-> Continue reading That’s New – vSphere Client Performance Overview
While playing in the “Lab” today I found a section in the vSphere client, under “Configuration” called “IPMI/iLO Settings”: Being an inquisitive fool, I clicked it and then properties: It seems this will let you get/set the IPMI or iLO settings for the server. Unfortunately my home lab does not support either.
I’m lazy. Very lazy, in fact. I’m also fairly sure that you are too. How many times a day do you connect to different vCenter servers? Do you type your password each time? If you do, for shame! Today while playing with vCenter Server for vSphere I found that the following parameters still work with
-> Continue reading Tired of Typing? vSphere Client Pass-through Auth
Another interesting bit from the VCP4 blueprint was in a line item under the “Tools” section under objective 3.5. The tool is “OVF Tool”. New on me. Perhaps new on you too. It seems that there has not been much in the way of publicity about it. A Google search lead me to the this
-> Continue reading OVF Tool – VCP4 Objective 3.5
While working through the VCP4 exam objectives I found a section on vApps. Specifically the line item around “Import/Export a Virtual Appliance”. Ignoring the rest, here is how you import and export vApps. Warning, this post is screenshot heavy. Importing There are two ways of going about this. “Deploy OVF” and “Browse VA Marketplace”. If
-> Continue reading Import/Export a vApp – VCP4 Objective 5.3
One of the great things about working in IT, is that software will always need to be updated. If it didn’t, some of us would need to find a new line of work. Just because it needs updating, does not mean we have to like it. In fact, most vendor update processes are needlessly obtuse.
-> Continue reading Spending an Afternoon with the Host Update Utility
Doesn’t that title bring back 1996. I can almost feel the texture of the hard plastic shell of the 3.5 inch disk AOL would mass mail me. Useless little things in today’s world aren’t they? Really, with USB disks, iso files and the like, when was the last time you needed one? They are still
-> Continue reading Solving the Chicken and Egg Problem With .flp
They’re here! What’s here? My summer reading, that’s what. I’ve recently received review copies of Eric Siebert’s “VMware VI3 Implementation and Administration”, Edward L. Haletky’s “VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security”, “Interconnecting Datacenters Using VPLS” from Cisco Press, and finally “VCP VMware 310” Online flash cards by John Traenkenschuh. They all appear to be great
-> Continue reading Summer Reading Pre-Reviews
After the success of the VCP4 beta study call I am thinking that a Podcast would be a good idea. The difficulty is: Would you come? What subjects would you like covered? How often? Live show? Recorded? Both? Call-in show? I figure I can answer some of these, however, as the show is for YOU
-> Continue reading ProfessionalVMware Podcast? – Would you come?
This post actually puts together two of my past posts to solve a ‘common’ problem. Common that is, if you often leave snapshots running, and do not have a method for otherwise checking on them. The situation is this: It is 3:45PM on Friday (what good issue doesn’t happen on a Friday?), you are closing
-> Continue reading Help! I Snapshotted My Datastore Into Oblivion
Rather than post several follow-ups to the same post, it is likely best to collect all of my available resources into a single page. In keeping with that, this page will contain everything I have found or have been linked to for the VMware Certified Professional 4 (VCP4) certification. General Exam Info VCP4 Exam Blueprint
-> Continue reading VCP4 Resource Page
The first, and likely most obvious change is the theme. I figure this one is a bit cleaner and more readable overall. I’m not sure what may have broken, but if there is anything ‘off’ drop me a line in the comments. The second, and less obvious of the two is that the backend has
-> Continue reading Changes: Now and Later
First: Thanks everyone for coming. I think the call went pretty well, and hopefully raised everyone’s comfort level with their upcoming exam. Second: There is apparently more than one spot you need to hit in order to get things to record. During the ‘setup’ of the conference, there is a check box to enable. Then,
-> Continue reading vSphere VCP4 Beta Follow Up
If you missed my twitter updates… well shame on you. I’ve been selected, with some others, to participate in the VCP4 beta program. I’ve scheduled my exam for the 15th. However, I’m not entirely sure what I need to cover whilst studying… That is where the study group comes in. I’m looking to host a
-> Continue reading VCP4 Beta Study Group?
Remember this? No? Well, go back and read it. I can wait. … Done? Good. The gist of the last post, was that if you cloned, or copied a Ubuntu VM from one host to another, the UUID changes. That UUID is the basis for part of the generated MAC address, which then changes, causing
-> Continue reading More MAC Address Mayhem – SLES Edition
I thought I had covered failed sVmotion in a past post, or at least some of the symptoms. Alas, I can not find the post (either I fail at Google, or they fail at indexing my content… likely the first). During a recent sVmotion fail I came across a wonderful cleanup KB from vmware.com. From
-> Continue reading Holy sVmotion Fail Batman!
Rather than post the content on both sites, I encourage you to take a gander at our sister PowerShell site for this one. On ThePowerShellTalk.com I’ve published a new script to find snapshots using PrimalForms to generate a UI. While this may not be Earth shattering news for some of you, PrimalForms makes making a
-> Continue reading OMG PrimalForms
With all of my recent ftPerl love, I’ve found that the quickest way to at least start troubleshooting it is to reconfigure the offending host for HA. This is fine if working in a small environment, or on a small number of hosts, but there are a metric ton of these hosts gone sideways all
-> Continue reading Reconfigure for HA the PowerShell Way!