May 2009 archive

May 06 2009

Certification Links

General

Navigating VMware certifications: VCP, VCDX, VCAP (SearchVMware.com)
VMware certification options: VCP, VCDX (SearchVMware.com)
VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage (VMware)
The VMware vSphere 4: What’s New Course (NT Pro.nl)
VMware vSphere 4: Install, Configure, Manage (Musings of Rodos)
VMware vSphere Certification Program (Punching Clouds)
New VMware Education Roadmap for vSphere 4 (Punching Clouds)
Professional VMware BrownBags (Professional VMware)
vChat – Episode 13 – VMware Certifications – VCP, VCAP, VCDX (VMware Videos)

VCP

VCP4 Beta Exam – Complete! (VMware Tips)
VCP vSphere 4 Practice Exam (The SLOG)
VCP4 vSphere Study Notes (The SLOG)
VCP on vSphere 4 Blueprint (VMware)
VCP4 Exam (Virtualization Evangelist)
Useful study material for VCP-410 Exam (Going Virtual)
VCP on vSphere 4 (VMware Training)
VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 4 Blueprint (VMware)
VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 4 (NT Pro.nl)

VCAP

A few notes about the new VCAP certifications (VMware Training)
vExpert David Davis: My VCAP-DCA Exam Experience (Train Signal)
VMware VCAP-DCA Exam Section 6: vSphere Troubleshooting (Train Signal)
VMware VCAP-DCA Exam Experience (Virtual VCP)
My VCAP-DCA Exam Experience (NTPro.nl)
Looking for VCAP practice questions? Here they are… (NTPro.nl)
VCAP-DCA & DCD Resources (The Saffa Geek)
VCAP-DCA Index (Sean Crookston)
VCAP-DCD Index (Sean Crookston)
Another VCAP-DCA Post (Sean Crookston)
VCAP Datacenter Administration Exam Landing Page VDCA410 (Kendrick Coleman)
VCAP DCA Study Notes (vExperienced)
VCAP-DCA Beta Experience (J.F.V.I.)
VCAP-DCA UI demo (VMware)
VCAP-DCD UI demo (VMware)
VMware VCAP-DCA Study Guide MindMap (Chris Dadswell)
VCAP-DCA4 Study Guide (vmDK)
VCAP-DCA Exam Blueprint Guide (VMTN)
VCAP-DCD Exam Blueprint Guide (VMTN)
VCAP Study Guide (VMTN)

VCDX

VMware VCDX Qualification Review (VMware)
vChat – Episode 12 – Jason Boche on the VCDX, Interviewed by David Davis (VMware Videos)
Bad News My VCDX Design Defense Experience (Vinf.net)
VCDX: VMware Certified Design Expert forum on VMTN (VMware)
Are you studying for the VCDX Enterprise Admin Exam? (Virtual Insanity)
VCDX Admin Exam Notes – Section 1.1 (Virtual Insanity)
VCDX Admin Exam Notes – Section 1.2 (Virtual Insanity)
VCDX Admin Exam Notes – Section 1.3 (Virtual Insanity)
VCDX Admin Exam Notes – Section 1.4 (Virtual Insanity)
VCDX Enterprise Exam prep material (Yellow Bricks)
VCDX Tips from VCDX 001 John Arrasjid (Yellow Bricks)
VCDX Application Form (Yellow Bricks)
VCDX Design Exam, how to prepare? (Yellow Bricks)
VCDX Defense, the blog article! (Yellow Bricks)
VCDX Defense Panels (Yellow Bricks)
On the VCDX Defense (Scott Lowe)
My VCDX Defense Experience (Virtualization Evangelist)
My VMware VCDX Defense Experience (VMware Tips)
My VCDX Defend Experience (Virtual Kenneth)
On Becoming a VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) (InformIT)
VMware VCDX Design Exam Preparation Resources (Virtual Lifestyle)
VCDX Enterprise Administration Exam (Virtualization Evangelist)
VMware Enterprise Administration Exam study guide 3.5 (Peter van den Bosch)
VMware Enterprise Administration Exam Blueprint v3.5 (VMware)
Enterprise Admin Exam (3.5): study notes (VMTN)
Another VCDX Study Guide – Part 1 Storage (VMTN)
Another VCDX Study Guide – Part 2 Networking (VMTN)
Another VCDX Study Guide – Part 6 Logging (VMTN)
Another VCDX Study Guide – Part 7 Security (VMTN)

Share This:

May 06 2009

Backup & Data Recovery Links

vSphere and VMware Consolidated Backup (VMware)
Designing Backup Solutions for VMware vSphere (VMware)
A review of VMware disk-to-disk backup apps: Veeam, Vizioncore, PHD Virtual and VDR (SearchDataBackup.com)
What is Changed Block Tracking in vSphere? (Virtualization Pro)
Array-based backup advantages in a VMware virtual infrastructure (By The Bell)
VMware Backup with Avamar and vSphere (The Backup Blog)
vStorage APIs for Data Protection and Avamar 5 (Virtual Geek)
What is VMware vStorage API? (vNotion)
The Great VSS Debate (Veeam Me Up)
Changed Block Tracking? (Yellow Bricks)
Comparing the top virtual infrastructure backup tools (Part 1) (SearchVMware.com)
Veeam Backup and Replication: A review (Part 2) & Veeam Software responds (SearchVMware.com)
Vizioncore vRanger Pro 4.0 review (Part 3) & Vizioncore responds (SearchVMware.com)
PHD Virtual Techologies’ esXpress 3.6.7: A usability review & PHD Virtual responds (Part 4) (SearchVMware.com)
Test-driving VMware Data Recovery: A review (Part 5) & VMware responds (SearchVMware.com)
VM backup testing: Comparing Veeam, Vizioncore, esXpress and VMware Data Backup (Part 6) (SearchVMware.com)

Share This:

May 06 2009

ESX Links

ESX Server Architecture (VMworld 2007)
ESX Server 3.0 Tips and Tricks (VMworld 2006)
Enabling Active Directory Authentication with ESX Server
Configuring Management Agents for ESX Server 3.0.1
Adjusting ESX Server time zone
What does ESX stand for?
How to get VMware ESX virtual machine redundancy without VMware HA or vMotion
How to script one VMware ESX virtual machine for failover
Rebooting an ESX Server host
Investigating disk space on an ESX host
In-depth ESX Server Service Console Partitioning and Provisioning
Best Practices for ESX Host Partitions
Partitioning local storage on a ESX host
VMware Infrastructure 3.5 Review Guide
Using Linux shell scripts to automatically create VMware ESX 3.5 hosts
A deep dive into scripting VMware ESX host creation

Share This:

May 06 2009

Energy Savings Links

Reducing Data Center Energy Costs with Power and Cooling Savings Calculator
Virtualization – The Most Impactful Solution to Data Center Power Crisis
Virtualization: The Best Initiative for Alleviating the Power Crisis in the Data Center
PG&E Energy Efficiency Program Datasheet
Averting the IT Energy Crunch
Virtualization takes on the Data Center
VMware’s Energy Savings Green Calculator
Virtualizing Sharepoint – How about saving 74% of your power?

Share This:

May 06 2009

Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) Links

Resource Management with Vmware DRS
Effective DRS and HA in Production
DRS Performance and Best Practices
VMware HA and DRS Capacity Planning
VI3 Resource Management and DRS – Performance Use Cases (VMworld 2007)

Share This:

May 06 2009

Distributed Power Management (DPM) Links

Configuring Distributed Power Management
Does VMware DPM shorten ESX server lifespan?

Share This:

May 05 2009

Book Links

VMware VI3 Implementation & Administration (Eric Siebert)
RapidApp’s Quick Start guide to ESX 3.0
VMware ESX Server 2.5 Advanced Technical Design Guide (Free download)
VMware ESX Server: Advanced Technical Design Guide (Ron Oglesby, Scott Herold)
VMware Infrastructure 3: Advanced Technical Design Guide and Advanced Operations Guide (Scott Herold, Ron Oglesby, Mike Laverick)
VMware Infrastructure 3: Advanced Technical Design Guide (Free Chapter Downloads)
Mastering VMware Infrastructure 3 (Chris McCain)
VMware Infrastructure 3 For Dummies (William Lowe)
VCP Exam Cram: VMware Certified Professional (Elias Khnaser)
VMware Certified Professional Test Prep (Merle Ilgenfritz, John Ilgenfritz)
Scripting VMware: Power Tools for Automating Virtual Infrastructure Administration (Al Muller)
Managing VMware Infrastructure with Windows PowerShell (Hal Rottenberg)
Virtualization for Dummies eBookVMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (David Marshall, Stephen S. Beaver, Jason McCarty)
VMware ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers (Edward Haletky)
VMware Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment (Edward Haletky)
Mastering VMware Infrastructure (Scott Lowe)

Share This:

May 01 2009

Top 10 things you must read about VMware vSphere

  1. VMware vSphere 4 Cheat Sheet – A cheat sheet document from VMware on vSphere that outlines new features, editions, entitlements and comparison tables to other virtualization products.
  2. vSphere 4 Pricing, Packaging and Licensing Overview – A white paper from VMware that outlines the various vSphere and VMware vCenter Server editions and the latest changes to pricing, licensing, upgrade paths and Support and Subscription (SnS) entitlements.
  3. vSphere Key Features & Benefits Summary – A table that outlines all the different features in vSphere and which ones are included in the different vSphere editions.
  4. vSphere Editions Comparison – A simple comparison checklist that shows all seven editions of vSphere and which of the larger features are included in each one.
  5. vSphere Pre-requisites Checklist – A checklist from VMware that describes the requirements and pre-requisites necessary to begin planning for the upgrade of an existing VMware Infrastructure to VMware vSphere.
  6. VMware vSphere: Got 64-bit hardware? – Unlike VI3 which supports both 32-bit and 64-bit server hardware, vSphere will only support 64-bit server hardware. This article explains what 64-bit hardware is and how to tell if your servers are 64-bit capable or not.
  7. What’s New in VMware vSphere 4: Virtual Networking – A white paper from VMware that provides an overview of the new features and capabilities to virtual networking under VMware vNetwork which is the new name to describe the collection of networking technologies for optimally integrating networking and I/O functionality into vSphere.
  8. What’s New in VMware vSphere 4: Performance Enhancements – A white paper from VMware that outlines the key performance enhancements of vSphere, organized into following categories: Scalability Enhancements, CPU/Memory/Storage/Networking, Resource Management and Performance Management.
  9. What Is New in VMware vSphere 4: Storage – A white paper from VMware that provides information about the storage enhancements in vSphere including the following: Virtual Disk Thin Provisioning, Improved iSCSI Software Initiator Efficiency, New vCenter Storage Capabilities, Dynamic Expansion of VMFS Volumes, Enhanced Storage VMotion, Pluggable Storage Architecture and PV SCSI and Direct Path I/O
  10. The Path to vSphere Unleashed – A four part video series that details the transition to VMware vSphere from VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3), covering the VMware VirtualCenter management components, the VMware ESX host migration methods, the virtual machine upgrades (VMware Tools and virtual hardware) and implementing the VMware vSphere licensing.
    1. The Path to vSphere Unleashed Pt 1 – VMware VirtualCenter Management Components
    2. The Path to vSphere Unleashed Pt 2 – VMware ESX Host Migration Methods
    3. The Path to vSphere Unleashed Pt 3 – Virtual Machine Upgrades (VMware Tools and Virtual Hardware)
    4. The Path to vSphere Unleashed Pt 4 – Implementing VMware vSphere Licensing
Share This: