VMware Training and Certification

Moderately surprised...

2012-01-18T10:02:00.000Z

Many of you will know that for a long time now I've been a major contributor to the VMware community forum for Training and Certification, I'm currently "top of the table" on 5580 community points! I'm also a regular contributor and reader of the private Education areas that I get access to as a VCI that enables me to communicate with the folks at VMware about course materials and technical queries.

As of yesterday I became a VMware Communities Moderator, so now I have a Moderator badge against my forum profile to go with my vExpert badge! Moderators are elected twice a year, and whilst anyone can nominate themselves for election, I was nominated from within VMware and the existing moderators, so I was very surprised when I recieved an email inviting me to accept the role - thanks to those who nomintated an elected me :-)

Here's my profile on the community forums:
http://communities.vmware.com/people/scott28tt

Moderators are responsible for a number of different tasks on the forums, rather than copy and paste it all into this post, here's a list of the guidelines that I am now asked to follow:
http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-12287

I'm always happy to contribute to the VMware community in numerous ways, and now I have a new way of helping too!

New course - vSphere 5: Fast Track

2012-01-11T22:15:00.000Z

VMware have just released a new course for vSphere 5, and it's a big one, the Fast Track!

The list of topics covered is the largest yet of any VMware course I've come across, there are 17 course modules and 35 lab exercises covering a huge number of vSphere 5 features. Look inside the content and you'll find all of the material we cover in Install Configure Manage, a lot of the higher-level material from What's New, as well as new material not currently available in any other vSphere 5 courses.

I'm not going to copy and paste the full list of topics here, you can find those in the course datasheet, but here's the modules we cover in this course, the modules that contain material not found in Install Configure Manage are in bold:

- Course Introduction
- Introduction to Virtualization
- Create Virtual Machines
- VMware vCenter Server
- Configuring and Managing Virtual Networks
- Configuring and Managing Virtual Storage
- Virtual Machine Management
- Access and Authentication Control
- Resource Management and Monitoring
- High Availability and Fault Tolerance
- Host Scalability
- Network Scalibility
- Storage Scalability
- Data Protection
- Patch Management
- vSphere Management Assistant
- Installing VMware Components

This course is going to give you the best preparation for the VCP5 certification exam of any official vSphere 5 training available today, and you should definitely consider it instead of Install Configure Manage if VCP5 certification is a primary goal for you or your employer. The course does count towards the training requirement for VCP5.

Be prepared though, although this is still a 5-day course it will take place over extended hours - expect the days to run from 9:00am-7:00pm. If you're completely new to vSphere 5 you might find the pace and volume of material covered a challenge, consider the regular Install Configure Manage course instead.

Global Knowledge UK are running vSphere 5: Fast Track courses, there are a number of dates available now, additional dates will be added in the coming weeks.

New course - VCP5 Exam Preparation Workshop

2012-01-04T10:51:00.000Z

A project I was working on towards the end of 2011 was the Global Knowledge vSphere Exam Preparation Workshop for VCP5. It's a unique 1-day workshop that's designed to maximise your chances of getting the best score possible when you take your VCP5 exam.

I first developed a workshop for VCP4, we've run that in the UK many times over the last couple of years and given attendees a real boost in terms of focus, confidence, readiness, and knowledge.

I have some excellent connections within the Certification team at VMware, which allows me to have a good insight into how the VCP exam items are designed, and I'm now a 4-time VCP after passing the VCP5 exam myself in November 2011 so I have a very good understanding of what is required in terms of not only knowledge but exam technique as well.

We start the day by reviewing the exam format and giving lots of study and exam tips, then we go through the all-important exam blueprint, section by section, and ask you over 100 practice questions that you won't find anywhere else! The practice questions are written in the same style as those in the real exam, and try really hard to pull all the same tricks too! Each question comes with an explanation of the question and answer(s), and of course questions can be discussed with the instructor and other attendees.

I recommend attending the workshop a couple of weeks before attempting the real exam, to highlight areas that need improvement, enhance your exam-taking technique, or to provide additional focus as the "big day" gets close.

Global Knowledge offer the workshop as a 1-day instructor-led event at locations across the UK, some of the scheduled dates are delivered using Webex instead, this page will show you the dates we currently have available.

The workshop also forms part of our VMware Bundles, which are cost-effective ways of attending any required vSphere 5 training, attending the workshop, and also receiving a voucher that covers the cost of the VCP5 exam.

Are you a VCP3 who wants to gain VCP5?

2012-01-04T10:12:00.000Z

Are you a VCP3 holder who wants to gain VCP5? If so, your options today are:

1. Attend a vSphere: What's New [v5] course and pass the VCP5 exam
or
2. Attend a vSphere: Install Configure Manage [v5] course and pass the VCP5 exam

The difference between the two options is roughly £1700 (excluding VAT) in course fees, What's New is only a 2-day course whereas Install Configure Manage is a 5-day course.

But, option 1 will only remain an option until 29th February 2012! Global Knowledge are running a number of What's New courses in January and February to help those who want to update their VCP3 to take advantage of this.

The best offer we have includes our unique 1-day VCP5 exam preparation workshop and an exam voucher that pays for the VCP5 exam - the price is almost the same as the What's New course fee alone. Take a look at Bundle 2 on our VMware Bundles page.

Exam review - VCP5

2011-11-18T12:29:00.000Z

I've taken the VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 5 (VCP5) exam today, not only is it part of my requirements as a VMware Certified Instrucor (VCI) but it also makes a lot of sense for me personally to update my VCP to the latest version.

So, what's the exam like? Well I'll tell you as much as I can, and what I think is relevant to those of you preparing to take it yourselves...

The VCP5 exam is the same format as VCP4 in terms of the basic format, for those of you doing your first VCP exam, you will be faced with 85 multiple-choice questions that you have 90 minutes to answer, and a good number of the questions will require you to choose multiple answers - I'd say about 50% of the items I saw today - as always with VCP exams when that's the case you'll be told "choose two" or however many answers are required.

As a VCI I was required by VMware to take a VCI-specific version of the exam that has a higher passing score than the regular VCP exam that the majority of you will take, but the items in the VCI and VCP exams are the same. The passing score for the VCP exam is 300, the scoring system is scaled and does not represent any kind of percentage - I had to score at least 350 to pass my VCI exam and I'm glad to report that I achieved that by some margin - I never give out my exact scores to anyone, so don't ask :-)

The items themselves definitely demand a combination of two skills around the vSphere features tested on in order to answer them effectively:
- a deep knowledge of the concepts, features, requirements, and limitations
- hands-on experience

As has been reported by a good number of others who've taken the exam, there are hardly any items that you could answer just by having memorized a maximum number - I got no questions like that at all. There are items with screenshots shown as exhibits, and you will get some items that go "beyond the vSphere Client" and test you on your knowledge of some of the command-line tools and other interfaces available that an administrator would use to interact with vSphere.

I have to say that VMware are very fair in the objectives they publish in the VCP Exam Blueprint guide - I was tested on most of the objectives, but nothing that I would class as being outside those objectives. You will also get questions on technologies and concepts around the subject too, exactly as it mentions in the blueprint, without giving too much away I was asked about other VMware products, hardware components used as part of a vSphere infrastructure, and white fluffy things you find in the sky too!

I would definitely suggest you take a look at the other VCP5-related posts on my blog as part of your preparations, click the VCP5 tab towards the top for links to the key posts, including pointers to some excellent study resources.

Best of luck to anyone preparing for their VCI or VCP exam, I hope you've found this particular post and many of my other posts useful!

vExpert Spotlight

2011-11-02T12:32:00.005Z

I'm a proud man again today, I've taken my place in the vExpert Spotlight over on VMware's VMTN Blog. My friend and fellow vExpert Gregg Robertson came up with the idea of publishing a short bio of each of the vExperts, and one by one we've all had our own little chance to step into the spotlight and talk about how we got into IT, into virtualisation, and into becoming a vExpert.

Here's the link to my vExpert Spotlight profile:
http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2011/11/vexpert-spotlight-scott-vessey.html

Being a vExpert in itself is a great enough accolade, it takes a lot of time and energy to get as involved in the community as we all do, and there are many other amazing contributors too!

First UK VMware User Group - This Week!

2011-10-31T16:43:00.000Z

I'm a bit late to blog about this, but this week sees the first ever UK VMware User Group event, at the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull, just off the M42 close to Birmingham Airport.

United Kingdom VMware User Group
Thursday 3rd November 2011, 8:30am-4:30pm

This event brings together all the VMware User Groups from around the UK, there are a mixture of vendor and community sessions on the day itself plus an excellent chance to network with your peers.

Key speakers from VMware:
- Joe Baguley
- Duncan Epping
- Frank Denneman
- Cormac Hogan

As always with a VMware User Group event, attendance is free. For the full agenda, location and hotel information, follow this link:
http://www.myvmug.org/e/in/eid=106

I'll be attending the event myself, if you don't recognise me from the picture I have on this blog, I'll be wearing a light-blue Global Knowledge shirt - come over and say hi if you see me!

Studying for the VCP5 exam

2011-10-03T22:49:00.003+01:00

Even though the VCP5 exam is only 5 weeks old at the time of writing, there are some amazing resources already available to help with those preparing for the exam.

I've always been an advocate of trying to prepare yourself using the official resources that VMware make available - the exam blueprint tells you what aspects of vSphere 5 you will get tested on, the exam format, number of questions, time limit, and the scoring system. The exam blueprint makes references to the official vSphere 5 documentation, which VMware validate the exam items against, and the mock exam gives a decent indication of the exam format. The VCP community forum is an excellent way of asking VCP5-related questions and getting furter information.

VCP5 homepage
VCP5 exam blueprint
VCP5 mock exam
VCP community forum
vSphere 5 documentation

A project that I completed towards the end of 2011 was an exclusive 1-day VCP5 workshop designed to focus you on the VCP5 exam and give you the chance to attempt over 100 practice questions, complete with questions/discussions with a VCI and others preparing for the exam.

Global Knowledge VCP5 Exam Preparation Workshop

Something that VMware don't publish is an expanded exam blueprint that includes all the relevant study notes, however there are a number of sites where people have done exactly that - be careful when using these study notes in case they're not accurate in comparison to the official documentation.

Forbes Guthrie's vReference card for vSphere 5
Forbes Guthrie's vReference documentation notes for vSphere 5
Prep Guide for VCP5.0
Andre Mauro's vInfrastructure VCP5 notes

There are a number of people in the VMware community that write and publish their own practice questions, normally as part of their own preparations - it should be noted that these do not necessarily indicate the types and styles of questions you will get in the real exam, and the accuracy of these practice exams cannot be guaranteed either.

Robert Stothard's VCP5 practice questions
Simon Long's VCP5 practice exams
Paul McSharry's VCP5 practice questions

To finish, here are a couple of exam experience blog posts from people that have taken the exam themselves, including me!

My review of the VCP5 exam
Eric Sloof's VCP5 exam experience
Brian Tobia's VCP5 exam thoughts and experience

Best of luck to anyone taking their VCP5 exam, I hope the resources above will prove useful to you!

VCP5 information and preparation

2011-10-03T22:06:00.004+01:00

This page contains a collection of links to some of the key VCP5-related posts on this blog.

General information
New certification: VCP5
Studying for the VCP5 exam
Review of the VCP5 exam

Preparation
New vSphere 5 training courses
Exam preparation workshop
Free webinar on vSphere 5 training and certification

Updating to VCP5
How does a VCP3 holder update to VCP5?
Update your VCP4 to VCP5
Gaining VCP4 and VCP5

VCP4 information and preparation

2011-10-03T21:56:00.001+01:00

This post collects together a variety of VCP4-related posts from my blog since the launch of the exam back in 2009.

Core information
Studying for the VCP4 exam
Review of the VCP4 exam
Is the exam related to vSphere 4.0 or 4.1?
Gaining VCP4 and VCP5

Preparation
Building a home lab
Exam preparation workshop
Training paths for VCP4
vSphere course suitability for VCP4 exam

Updating your certification
Is it worth doing vSphere 4 certifications?
Update your VCP4 to VCP5

Number 5 is ALIVE!

2011-08-30T12:36:00.000+01:00

So I take a 2-week break and VMware do some BIG things while I'm away - you'd think they would have waited, just for me...

- vSphere 5 is released
- The VCP5 exam is live
- VMWorld has begun

The final VCP5 exam blueprint has now been published, you can download it and find links to numerous other essential items at http://www.vmware.com/go/vcp

And if you want to download vSphere 5, go to http://www.vmware.com/tryvmware

I'm going to be in Copenhagen at VMWorld Europe, if you still haven't registered go to http://www.vmworld.com/community/conference/europe/

New "upgrade" path announced for VCP3 holders to gain VCP5

2011-08-30T12:15:00.000+01:00

VMware are announcing this week that there is now a third option available for a VCP3 holder to update their certification to VCP5, here's all three options:

1. Attend vSphere 4: What's New > pass VCP4 exam > pass VCP5 exam.
2. Attend vSphere 5: Install Configure Manage > pass VCP5 exam.
3. Attend vSphere 5: What's New > free vSphere 4: What's New e-learning (optional) > pass VCP5 exam.

I've updated this blog post to include the new path:
http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-does-vcp3-holder-update-to-vcp5.html

Free webinar on vSphere 5: Training and Certification

2011-08-02T16:06:00.003+01:00

I am hosting a webinar for Global Knowledge next week, vSphere 5: Training and Certification, where I will be presenting on the latest VMware training curriculum and vSphere certifications. The webinar starts at 4pm UK time on Wednesday August 10th, and you can register here.

Many of you will have seen the blog posts that I published at the time of the vSphere 5 announcement, during the webinar I will be discussing the content of those posts. The presentation should last no more than 45 minutes, with 15 minutes allocated to Q&A - but the session will go on til there's no more questions being fired at me!

We are publicising this webinar right across the EMEA region, but anyone with an interest in this topic is welcome to join the session.

UPDATE (August 30th) : Thanks to all those who joined the session live, for those that couldn't make it here's the link to the recording.

It's cheap up North, but only at Global Knowledge!

2011-08-02T15:42:00.006+01:00

Global Knowledge has been awarded access to funding that enables organizations based in Yorkshire and Humber to attend courses such as vSphere: Install Configure Manage at up to 75% discount from the list price!

We run our VMware courses at locations all over the UK, including our newest training centre in Leeds, the funding is only available for a limited time, for further information please call Rich Thomas on 0113 234 4747.

If the funding available doesn't apply to you or your organization, we still have some fantastic discounted bundles available:
http://www.globalknowledge.co.uk/whats%20new/special%20offers/vmware%20bundles.aspx

July 28th updates to exam blueprints

2011-07-28T10:30:00.001+01:00

A number of VMware certification exam blueprints have been updated to new versions.

vSphere
VCP4 v1.9.2: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-10074
VCP5 beta v1.4: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-16726

View
VCA4-DT v1.2: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-16714
VCP4-DT v1.1: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-16715

It looks like the changes in all the blueprints are minor, but as always it is advisable to use the latest blueprint available to help prepare you for the certification exams.

I'm a VCAP4-DCA :-)

2011-07-20T09:56:00.002+01:00

I was just heading deep underground to get the Waterloo & City line train last night when my Blackberry buzzed to tell me I had a new email, I waited til I was on the platform waiting for the train to come and thought I'd check to see what my email was - it was from VMware Certification thanking me for my participation in the VCAP-DCA exam, my score report was attached in a PDF...

All I had to do now was view the attachment, which due to a complete lack of signal my Blackberry couldn't open!!! Now it's only a 4 minute journey to Waterloo, but it felt like it took 20! I couldn't wait to get off the train, up the escalator, and on to the station concourse - finally the signal returned and I could open the PDF - I passed!

I'm delighted to now be a VCAP4-DCA, I posted my review of the exam recently and it was tough - it was a great relief to know that the preparation work was worth doing!

Now I've just got to wait to find out my VCAP4-DCA number...

UPDATE: I'm VCAP4-DCA number 319 :-)

Blog posts related to vSphere 5 release

2011-07-13T13:27:00.001+01:00

I've added NINE new posts to this blog related to the vSphere 5 release:

1. How does a VCP3 holder update to VCP5?
2. Is it worth doing vSphere 4 certifications?
3. New certification - VCP5
4. New vSphere 5 training courses
5. New vCloud Director 1.5 courses
6. New VMware official curriculum
7. Update your VCP4 to VCP5
8. Update your VCAP4-DCA to VCP5 and VCAP5-DCA
9. Gaining VCP4 and VCP5

Feel free to email me if you have any questions: scott.vessey@globalknowledge.co.uk

Scott.

How does a VCP3 holder update to VCP5?

2011-07-13T12:27:00.004+01:00

VMware have now launched vSphere 5, and along with it they also announced the VCP5 certification. The VCP5 exam will become available after August 29th 2011, and until February 29th 2012 those with VCP4 can update their certification to VCP5 with no mandatory vSphere 5 training requirement. That's great for those who hold VCP4, but an awful lot of VCPs only hold the VCP3 certification for VMware Infrastructure 3 as it used to be called prior to the "rename" to vSphere!

So how does a VCP3 holder update their certification to VCP5? There are two options available:

1. Update to VCP4, then to VCP5
It is still possible today for a VCP3 holder to update their certification to VCP4 by attending the vSphere 4: What's New course and then passing the VCP4 exam. Global Knowledge are still scheduling the course, and until the end of 2011 we are running a special promotion aimed at VCP3 holders. Once you've updated to VCP4, you then qualify for gaining VCP5 as above.

2. Gain VCP5 only
If you only want to gain VCP5, you can take the same path as those that are new to VMware training and certification - attend a qualifying vSphere 5 training course and pass the VCP5 exam.

UPDATE (August 30th 2011): VMware have announced a third option for VCP3s to gain their VCP5: attend the vSphere 5: What's New course, optionally do a vSphere 4: What's New e-learning, and pass the VCP5 exam.

Is it worth doing vSphere 4 certifications?

2011-07-13T10:00:00.000+01:00

Now VMware have launched vSphere 5, one of the big decisions that people have to make is whether to continue with the vSphere 4 certifications or wait for the equivalent vSphere 5 certifications to be released. I think it's a very individual choice, it depends on a number of things:

- Have you already started preparing, and if so how close are you to being ready for the exam?
- Do you think it's worth you having the vSphere 4 as well as the vSphere 5 certification?
- Have you already attended one of the vSphere 4 qualifying courses for VCP4?

The VCP5 certification has already been announced, there's more about that on my blog post here. The final exam will be available after August 29th 2011, that's only 6 weeks from now...

If you've attended a vSphere 4 course and are debating whether or not to take the VCP4 exam I'd probably suggest that you should - I would! Why? Well, at the time of writing vSphere 4 is the only version you can download and deploy, it will take time for customers to choose to deploy vSphere 5 or upgrade to vSphere 5, and one other bonus of getting VCP4 is that until February 29th 2012 VCP4 holders can also gain VCP5 certification by passing the VCP5 exam with no mandatory training required. If you choose today not to gain VCP4 you will have to attend a vSphere 5 course in order to qualify for VCP5 either before or after that February date.

If you've yet to train on vSphere 4 then you have a tougher decision to make as your decision is probably not just about what version you want to get your VCP on but also what version are you going to deploy/manage/support. vSphere 5 courses will be available within the coming weeks, more about those on this blog post.

New certfication: VCP5

2011-07-13T00:13:00.003+01:00

July 12th saw the launch of vSphere 5, the next generation virtualisation/cloud infrastructure suite from VMware. VCP is widely accepted as being the "industry standard" certification in virtualisation, and VCP5 has also been launched today!

The VMware Certification portal has already been updated with the VCP5 exam blueprint and even a VCP5 mock exam, and there is a substantial amount of information about the training requirements on the VCP5 homepage.

The final exam will be available to take after August 29th 2011, but there will also be the usual beta exam process which begins imminently - check your inbox to see if your invitation has arrived yet!

New vSphere 5 training courses

2011-07-13T00:06:00.004+01:00

July 12th saw the announcement of vSphere 5, and the Education Services team at VMware have been busy for some time developing the new vSphere curriculum. In this blog post, I'm going to share with you as much as VMware will allow me to about the new official training options for vSphere, coming later in 2011. The exact names of some of these courses are subject to change, and I'm not able to divulge the target release date of all the courses.

For those of you that have vSphere 4 skills and knowledge to VCP4-level, VMware will be launching a vSphere 5: What's New course. This course will focus purely on new features in vSphere 5, enhancements to features inherited from vSphere 4, and the upgrade process. This course will benefit those wishing to update their VCP certification from VCP4 to VCP5, in fact it will become compulsory for VCP4 holders to attend this or another vSphere 5 course after February 29th 2012.

If you don't have VCP4-level skills and knowledge, there is still a foundation-level vSphere 5: Install Configure Manage (ICM) course, it will remain as a 5-day course, be closely aligned with the up-and-coming VCP5 certification, and content-wise little changes from the vSphere 4 version of the course. There is some re-ordering of content, some new content, and some content has been "moved up" to the higher-level courses. Some of the new vSphere 5 features will be included such as the vCenter Server Appliance, the ESXi firewall, the vSphere Web Client, and the rest of the content is all being updated for vSphere 5 as you would expect.

Following on from ICM will be two new courses, ICM2 and ICM3 - they are designed to offer an intermediate and advanced-level of vSphere training, and are aligned with the VCAP5-DCA certification. ICM2 will cover advanced configuration of vSphere networking and storage, and performance management. ICM3 will cover troubleshooting and command-line administration using the vSphere Management Assistant.

VMware will also be releasing updated versions of the Automation with PowerCLI, Manage and Design for Security, and Design Workshop courses.

As mentioned in other posts on this blog, there will also be new courses available on vCloud Director 1.5 (Deploy and Manage, and Architecting the VMware Cloud), and on Site Recovery Manager 5 (Install Configure and Manage).

Global Knowledge will be offering a full schedule for all new VMware courses in the UK and beyond as soon as each course becomes available, we will update our site as soon as we can: http://www.globalknowledge.co.uk/vmware

New vCloud Director 1.5 courses

2011-07-13T00:04:00.002+01:00

In addition to the vSphere 5 launch announcement on July 12th, vCloud Director is also being updated to version 1.5, and the Education Services team at VMware are expanding the training offerings for this new version. This post gives you as much information as VMware will allow me to share at this time - the final course titles and content are subject to change, and the release dates for the courses are yet to be finalised.

For the first time we will have available a Deploy and Manage course for vCloud Director 1.5, which will help those responsible for deploying a cloud infrastructure based on vCloud Director and vSphere to put all the various pieces in place.

The design course Architecting the VMware Cloud is also being updated for the 1.5 release.

We also have a new set of vSphere 5 courses available which you'll see mentioned in other blog posts here, and a new Site Recovery Manager 5 course too!

All courses will be available in the UK and worldwide through Global Knowledge of course, we will update our site with the final course overviews and dates as soon as we can: http://www.globalknowledge.co.uk/vmware

New VMware official curriculum

2011-07-13T00:02:00.016+01:00

Following on from the July 12th launch of vSphere 5, vCloud Director 1.5 and Site Recovery Manager 5, the Education Services team at VMware have revamped the official curriculum offerings for these products. These new courses will become available in the coming months, the final course titles and content are subject to change, and I'm not permitted to divulge the expected release dates.

So, the new instructor-led official curriculum looks like this:

All the vSphere courses shown will be new or updated for vSphere 5, and the vCloud Director and Site Recovery Manager courses are new too!

Global Knowledge will offer these courses as and when they become available, for further information take a look at http://www.globalknowledge.co.uk/vmware

Update your VCP4 to VCP5

2011-07-12T23:58:00.005+01:00

Following the launch of vSphere 5 on July 12th, VMware have started to release information about how invididuals can update their certification to VCP5. If you're already a VCP4 holder, you can update your certification to VCP5 by passing the VCP5 exam once it becomes available.

Until February 29th 2012, VCP4 holders will not be required to attend any vSphere 5 training course in order to qualify for updating their certification, although the new vSphere 5: What's New course will be very useful in terms of preparation. Once that date has passed, attendance will become compulsory for those wanting to update their certification to VCP5.

VMware have already added a VCP5 page to their site, complete with the exam blueprint and mock exam, more about that on this blog post: New certification: VCP5

Gaining VCP4 and VCP5

2011-07-12T23:54:00.004+01:00

VCP4 has essentially been the "industry standard" virtualisation certification since it was first released back in 2009, and there are thousands of individuals who already hold the certification. I train people all the time who want to gain VCP4, but now VMware have launched vSphere 5 it won't be too long til VCP5 certification becomes available.

If you've yet to train on vSphere 4 and want to gain both VCP4 and VCP5 certifications, here's the path that you need to follow:

VMware have already added a number of VCP5-related resources to their site, more information on that can be found on this blog post: New certification: VCP5

AppSense training in the UK

2011-07-11T16:15:00.001+01:00

Global Knowledge has now started offering official AppSense training worldwide, and is the ONLY training provider in the UK that can offer both the Professional and Specialist courses.

http://www.globalknowledge.co.uk/appsense

AppSense is the leading provider of user virtualisation solutions for the enterprise, with over ten years proven track record in the virtualisation space. They make physical and virtual deployment possible by ensuring a seamless user experience across all delivery platforms. Much more than traditional profile management, user virtualisation represents a fundamental change in the way the corporate desktop is constructed, delivered and managed - encompassing the whole user-centric aspect of the desktop, including personal settings, user-centric corporate policy, as well as user applications and data.

VCAP4-DCA exam review

2011-07-08T16:01:00.003+01:00

Today was a big day for me, I finally got to take the VCAP4-DCA exam for vSphere 4 - this was the third time I had been scheduled to take the exam and this time I didn't have to re-schedule it - ahh, the joys of being a busy man! It goes without saying that I can only give out so much information on the exam, I definitely don't want to violate any non-disclosure agreement after going through 3.5 hours of work and a lot of preparation!

So, on to what I can say... It's a tough exam, fair, but tough. You get given a really wide variety of tasks to carry out, some of them relatively straightforward things that any VCP would know how to do, other tasks were very in-depth and quite complex. I used a variety of different administrative interfaces - this is not an exam that you can do with the vSphere Client alone - you WILL need to know how to use the Service Console and vSphere Management Assistant, and you WILL need to do some work in vSphere PowerCLI too.

There were a number of tasks that I was asked to carry out that are things I've never had to do before in 5 years of working in-depth with ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server, things that I've never been asked in class or in discussions with customers. I did have a good read through the VCAP-DCA exam blueprint when I came out of the exam just to make sure VMware were justified in asking me to carry out some of these tasks, and I can confirm that they WERE!! You won't get asked to do literally everything in the blueprint document, you get roughly 40 tasks to perform on the day, but the tasks in your exam will be a subset of what's in the blueprint so be prepared to do anything that's in the document.

In terms of preparation, get the blueprint, build a lab, and practice. And just when you think you're ready, practice some more!! I'm sure you're waiting for a list of what resources I used to prepare, or would recommend you take a look at - you really need to focus on troubleshooting, performance, automation and security:

Official advanced-level vSphere courses
Video-based training from TrainSignal
Study guides from people such as Ed Grigson and Sean Crookston

This is definitely a certification that sorts out the men from the boys, puts hairs on your chest, helps you to earn your stripes as a vSphere administrator, and plenty of other cliches. I'm now waiting to get my results in about 2 weeks time, best of luck to you if you're taking yours any time soon...

Global Knowledge awards

2011-07-05T11:53:00.002+01:00

Global Knowledge have been picking up a number of awards over the last few months, the one I'm the most proud of personally is the UK organization winning the VMware EMEA Education Partner of the Year - I've been there right from the start as I joined the company the day that we achieved VATC status in the UK.

But, we've also recently been given awards by both Cisco and Microsoft:
2011 Microsoft Learning Competency Marketing Acceleration Partner of the Year Award
Cisco Worldwide Learning Partner Award of Excellence for Excellence in Collaboration – Europe

We are not the kind of organization that rests on it's laurels though, we've produced a massive amount of online content to broaden our "Xtra" series from VMware into Cisco (CCNA and CCNP) and Prince2, we have a free ITIL learning portal for public sector customers, a number of new vendors joining our learning portfolio, and some very exciting developments coming in terms of delivery methods - the rest of 2011 is going to be busy!

What's a BrownBag? Find out this week!

2011-07-05T11:06:00.002+01:00

There are only a couple of things in life that I would buy and expect the contents to be given to me wrapped in a brown paper bag, and lunch isn't one of them! However, over in the US the term Brown Bag (or "brown bag seminar" according to Wikipedia) is designed to be an hour-long seminar that can be consumed by attendees whilst they also consume their lunch!

Well-known blogger Cody Bunch started his VCP BrownBag series over a year ago, extended the coverage to incorporate VCDX, and now has an impressive list of guests and topics similar to the VMware Communities Podcast! The problem for us Europeans is that we have to stay up very late if we want to join Cody's BrownBags live, so Tom Howarth of PlanetVM fame has agreed to start a BrownBag series that will run during evening hours in the UK and Europe.

So, the first European BrownBag takes place this Thursday, July 7th, and it starts at 7pm UK time. Tom has kindly asked me to be a guest speaker/presenter on the session, and we plan on discussing the current state of play with VMware certifications and curriculum.

Register for the first European BrownBag here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/389446408

Don't phone, it's just for fun!

2011-07-05T10:31:00.001+01:00

I'm still stunned at how the world of online media and social networking has changed the way in which we communicate, so from time to time I collate some statistics about my online presence - I just wanted to share some of those numbers with you:

I'd love to say I have some amazing prize for the first person to correctly identify what each of the numbers above relates to, but I don't! I'll leave this up as it is for a while, and think about posting the "answers" at some point...

Lightning DOES strike twice - I'm a vExpert again!

2011-07-04T17:17:00.001+01:00

VMware have been sending out notification emails over the last few days to those lucky enough to be designated as vExpert 2011, and on Friday I got mine! I was also the proud recipient of vExpert 2010 status, so lightning really can strike twice!

"We're pleased to designate you as a vExpert 2011 as recognition of your contributions to the VMware, virtualization, and cloud computing communities. You’ve done work above and beyond, and we’re delighted to communicate more closely, to share resources, and to offer other opportunities for greater interaction throughout the year as we continue to grow knowledge and success in the community of IT professionals. Welcome to the vExpert 2011 Program!"

It's a great honour to be selected again and sit amongst such big-hitters in the virtualization community. I know a huge amount of work goes into running the program and there are many VMware employees involved in the selection process - so a big thanks to all! There is one man who gets a mention on every blog post I've read from other vExperts, John Troyer deserves all the credit he gets for the work he does to keep the VMware community alive and kicking!

I love being part of the VMware community, it does take time out of one's business and personal life to contribute in the ways that all vExperts do, but it's definitely a case of "you get out what you put in" and I've made some great contacts who've become good friends along the way.

Well done to all the other vExperts!

London VMUG - July 14th

2011-06-24T14:42:00.001+01:00

The next London VMware User Group (VMUG) event takes place on Thursday July 14th, at the usual venue of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in London. Sponsors for this event are Arista Networks, Embotics, and Vision Solutions.

The full agenda and registration details can be found on the central VMUG site here: London VMUG

I'm glad to say that I'll be attending the event myself this time, I'm looking forward to being there and meeting up with old and new attendees.

Building a vSphere home lab for VCP/VCAP-DCA preparation

2011-06-22T15:38:00.001+01:00

From talking to many individuals who are wishing to achieve VMware certifications such as VCP or VCAP-DCA, most people have to prepare for exams in their own time. One of the important elements of both these exams, particularly the live-lab VCAP-DCA, is to use a vSphere environment to practice using the various administrative tools and interfaces in readiness for the exams.

Some people are lucky enough to have access to a lab environment at their workplace that they can "play" on, but many inviduals end up trying to build their own home lab. This can be done either be using a number of separate physical machines, or building a vSphere lab in virtual machines on products like VMware Player or Workstation, or even the free edition of ESXi.

Whether physical or virtual, generally there are four systems required:
2 x ESXi servers (ESX can be used instead)
1 x Windows server running vCenter Server, SQL Express, and the vSphere Client
1 x shared storage server running FreeNAS, OpenFiler, or similar

There are already many blog articles out there on how to build a virtual vSphere lab:
http://vinf.net/2010/02/25/8-node-esxi-cluster-running-60-virtual-machines-all-running-from-a-single-500gbp-physical-server/
http://www.vmwarevideos.com/video-my-home-vmware-vsphere-lab
http://www.techhead.co.uk/tell-us-about-your-server-lab
http://www.vm-help.com/

One of my students this week has just told me about an amazing deal for building a virtual home lab system, it's a HP ProLiant MicroServer on sale from EBuyer, with a £100 cashback offer - as of today the effective price you pay is only £137.99: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/253305

You will need to upgrade the RAM to 8GB in order to run the required virtual machines, but that's only going to cost an extra £64: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/229102

Of course, you might want to upgrade the hard disk to something like an SSD drive for better performance, but that's up to you - the 250GB built-in disk should easily be big enough to accomodate all your vSphere VMs.

Born on the 12th of July...

2011-06-22T09:53:00.000+01:00

Something BIG is happening at VMware Towers on the 12th of July - I wonder what it could be...??

Until then, all I can do is quote things that VMware say in public, so here goes:

"Please join VMware executives Paul Maritz, CEO and Steve Herrod, CTO on July 12th for the unveiling of the next major step forward in cloud infrastructure. The live webcast will be followed by additional online sessions where you can learn more about the industry’s most trusted virtualization and cloud infrastructure products and services."

So, if you fancy joining the webcast on July 12th, here's the link: VMware webcast

First UK delivery of vSphere: Advanced Fast Track training

2011-06-02T10:06:00.002+01:00

Global Knowledge will be running the first UK delivery of the new vSphere: Advanced Fast Track training course, starting on June 13th. This is an extended-hours course that covers 7 days of material in 5 days, and includes both the vSphere: Troubleshooting and vSphere: Manage for Performance courses.

I blogged about the course when the details of it were first released:
http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com/2011/02/exclusive-new-course-vsphere-advanced.html

I'm delivering this course myself, and it offers good preparation for the VCAP4-DCA live-lab certification exam - covering the majority of the objectives in the exam blueprint.

Free VMware vCloud Director webinar on June 3rd

2011-06-02T09:57:00.001+01:00

I'm hosting/presenting a webinar tomorrow titled An Introduction to building a private cloud with VMware vCloud Director. It's free to register/attend, I'll be covering the most important elements of how to utilise vCloud Director and vSphere to create your own private cloud.

Here's the registration link:
https://globalknowledgeevents.webex.com/globalknowledgeevents/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=841075472

The session starts at 13:00 UK time, and lasts for 1 hour.

VCP4-DT Exam Blueprint Published

2011-05-25T10:59:00.002+01:00

VMware have now published the all-important exam blueprint for the new VMware Certified Professional 4 - Desktop certification, you'll find the blueprint document here on the VMware community forum: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-15949

Here are the section headings in the blueprint:
Install View components
Configure the View environment
Create and configure pools
Implementation Troubleshooting
Component features and functions

This certification has two pre-requisite certifications:
VCP4
VCA4-DT

It is recommended to attend either the View: Install Configure Manage or View: Desktop Fast Track training courses in preparation for the exam, but neither course is mandatory.

Global Knowledge launches UK Blog

2011-05-16T17:37:00.001+01:00

Whilst this blog is owned by me, created by me, and administered by me, it would be pretty difficult not to know that I work for Global Knowledge UK. The company has now launched it's own "corporate" blog - there are contributions being made from all corners of the business, so you should expect to see contributions from me at some point too!

Here's a copy of the announcement:

Global Knowledge are proud to announce the launch of our UK blog - http://blog.globalknowledge.co.uk

Your source for IT Professional Management Learning

The blog will feature latest industry developments, articles from leading industry experts, 'How To' technical guides, interviews plus much more.

The blog will focus on technical and best practice news covering Cisco, VMware, Microsoft, ITIL and Service Management, and a number of articles on general Learning and Technology news.

The blog has an open comment forum if you wish to contribute towards an article. We would also like to hear from you, if you have any questions or would like a blog post on an industry hot topic or subject area.

Free ESXi Training

2011-05-16T17:24:00.000+01:00

Most people who work with VMware vSphere products and technologies are aware of the ESX and ESXi bare-metal hypervisor options available - after all it was the 3.5 release of the software that first gave customers the choice of deploying either or both. Later this year sees the release of vSphere 5, and from that time forward we will be living in an ESX-less world - I wrote a post about this back in February 2010: ESX v ESXi

In the middle of 2010, VMware Education released a 2-day instructor-led training course complete with hands-on labs to aid customers who had vSphere deployments centred around ESX to help them start to make the move towards ESXi: vSphere: Transition to ESXi

VMware Education are now taking the ESX-less message further out to their customer base with the release of a free 4-hour self-paced elearning - essentially it's a cut-down version of the full instructor-led course above. The course has no hands-on labs, and as you would expect from elearning versus instructor-led training there's no instructor to ask questions of: vSphere: Transition to ESXi Essentials

VMUG Advantage

2011-05-12T00:33:00.001+01:00

I've been a member of the London VMware User Group (VMUG) for the last year, and VMware have now centralised all VMUG registrations for all groups worldwide under a single website: http://www.myvmug.org/

Something that I noticed on the site recently is VMUG Advantage, an opportunity to purchase a subscription that entitles you to some BIG discounts:

$100 off a VMWorld pass
20% off VMware instructor-led training
20% off VMware certification exams
$750 worth of VMware e-learning
30% discount off a VMware Fusion or Workstation license

Buy a subscription by May 31st for only $170 from the MyVMUG site here: http://www.myvmug.org/p/cm/ld/fid=10

VCA4-DT Exam Registration is now open

2011-04-19T14:44:00.001+01:00

A few days earlier than I previously expected, VMware and Pearson Vue have now opened registration for the final VCA4-DT exam. You can register here: http://www.pearsonvue.com/vmware/schedule

The cost varies from country to country, in the UK the cost is £95+VAT.

Here's a link to all the other VCA4-DT posts on my blog so far, including the link to the exam blueprint: http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com/search/label/vca-dt

London VMware User Group - May 2011

2011-04-19T11:19:00.000+01:00

The next London VMUG takes place on 12th May 2011 at the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the May event will be the first to follow a new format:

- It's now an all-day event, with a specific theme - for May it's "Your Journey to the Cloud"
- There are two separate specialist tracks in the afternoon
- You can do some hands-on labs

As always, the VMUG is free to attendees, but you MUST register in advance using the following link:
http://www.myvmug.org/e/in/eid=13

I've been to the last couple of London VMUGs and they are very good, I presented at the last event in February, and once the day is over there's free beer to be had thanks to VMware or the event sponsor.

I won't be able to make the event this time due to work commitments, but should be able to join everyone at the pub afterwards :-)

Live-online VCP exam prep workshop - April 21st

2011-04-14T12:14:00.000+01:00

The next Webex-based delivery of Global Knowledge's exclusive VCP4 Exam Preparation Workshop takes place on Thursday 21st April, starting at 9:30am BST (UK time). As per the online event run last month, I'm delivering the session myself.

Here are two other blog posts about the workshop:
http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com/2009/12/vcp4-exam-prep-workshop.html http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com/2011/01/vcp-exam-prep-workshop-new-method-new.html

Before anybody emails me and asks, we do charge for the workshop - it took a good amount of time to produce - I should know, I produced it - and obviously you have my experience with VMware certification exams that you can draw on during the session.

We already have a good number of registrations for the session next week, for more information on the session and to book your place, either email me or click here.

VCA4-DT exam blueprint and release date

2011-04-14T11:54:00.002+01:00

VMware have now published v1.0 of the exam blueprint document for their "starter" desktop certification for VMware View - VMware Certified Associate - Desktop, here's the link:

VCA4-DT exam blueprint v1.0 (login required)

The release date for the final exam has also now been confirmed (but not yet officially announced) as April 22nd 2011.

Latest VCAP4 exam blueprints - April 2011

2011-04-14T11:48:00.002+01:00

Jon Hall from VMware has published updated versions of the blueprint documents for both the advanced-level vSphere certifications, here's the all-important links:

VCAP4-DCA exam blueprint v1.9
VCAP4-DCD exam blueprint v1.6

I've had a look through both documents, and it's not obvious what's been modified, but as usual with VMware it is recommended to use the latest blueprint documents when starting to prepare for an exam.

Abseil for British Red Cross

2011-04-04T12:41:00.000+01:00

Following on from the Wokingham Half Marathon that I completed back in February, I'm doing a 140-foot abseil this Sunday for the British Red Cross - they want to buy a new ambulance, and apparently I want to hang off the side of a building on a very long rope!

I'd be really grateful if you would consider sponsoring me: http://www.justgiving.com/ScottIsMad

Thanks!

Updated VCAP4 exam blueprints

2011-03-15T12:04:00.004Z

4VMware have just released new versions of the VCAP4-DCA and VCAP4-DCD exam blueprints, and it is always recommended to use the latest blueprint documents as the basis for any study/preparation for a VMware certification exam.

MyLearn (account required)
VCAP4-DCA blueprint
VCAP4-DCD blueprint

Communities forum
VCAP4-DCA blueprint
VCAP4-DCD blueprint

As of today, the VCAP4-DCA blueprint is at v1.7, and VCAP4-DCD is at v1.5.

VCP4-DT beta exam invitations

2011-03-15T11:49:00.001Z

VMware have sent out invitiations for the VCP4-DT beta exam, check your Inbox to see if you have one!

The VCP4-DT certification will only be awarded to those who also hold VCP4 certification, and of course you must either pass this new beta exam or the final exam as and when it is released.

The foundation-level VCA4-DT exam went through it's beta process in February and will get it's final release via PearsonVUE soon. Later this year VMware will also release the exam for VCAP4-DT.

My earlier blog post on these new desktop certifications for vSphere and View is here:
http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-desktop-certification.html

And before anybody asks, I can't get you an invitation to the beta exam - your best option would be to email certification@vmware.com

New Course - VMware View: Desktop Fast Track

2011-03-04T17:23:00.000Z

Another course due for release in the next couple of months is VMware View: Desktop Fast Track, based around View and ThinApp 4.5 and 4.6. The course runs over extended hours as a 5-day event, and combines together 7 days worth of material from three individual courses:

VMware View: Install Configure Manage (4 days)
Application Virtualization with VMware ThinApp (1 day)
VMware View: Design Best Practices (2 days)

The final release date and pricing has yet to be confirmed. It looks as though the course will include a voucher for the new VMware Certified Associate 4 - Desktop (VCA4-DT) certification exam.

New Course - vSphere: Advanced Fast Track

2011-02-25T14:22:00.004Z

VMware have decided to create an advanced-level extended-hours course for vSphere 4 - vSphere: Advanced Fast Track. This course will combine together the vSphere: Troubleshooting course (4 days) with the vSphere: Manage for Performance course (3 days) into a single 5-day extended-hours course.

This new combined course will offer excellent preparation for the VCAP4-DCA exam, and will include a voucher for the exam as part of the course fee. The course is expected to be available within the next couple of months, the content is still being finalised at the moment, and pricing has yet to be determined.

This course is going to be perfect for anyone who's attended the vSphere: Install Configure Manage, vSphere: What's New, or the old vSphere: Fast Track course, and also for those who attend the new vSphere: Automation Fast Track - it gives students from any of those courses an excellent follow-on course as well as helping prepare for the VCAP4-DCA exam.

New Course - vSphere: Automation Fast Track

2011-02-25T14:06:00.003Z

Until the end of 2010, one of the courses we offered to our customers was a vSphere: Fast Track - which combined together roughly 7 days of various vSphere 4.0 courses into a single extended-hour training course.

VMware updated the core vSphere: Install Configure Manage course for the 4.1 release and grew it out to 5 days at the same time, pulling in quite a lot of material that previously formed the old Fast Track.

I can now confirm that VMware plan to release a new Automation Fast Track course, which will run as a 5-day extended-hours course. This course will combine together all the material from the current Install Configure Manage course (5 days) with the Automation with vSphere PowerCLI course (2 days) - so 7 days worth of training in 5 days.

So what else can I tell you about this new course? Well some of the details are still emerging, but I can say that the course will include a voucher for the VCP4 exam. The release date has still not been confirmed, but I would expect it to be within the next couple of months, course pricing has also yet to be set.

Coming Soon - Book Reviews!

2011-02-22T15:37:00.000Z

Like a lot of virtualisation bloggers, I've been asked plenty of times over the last couple of years if I would like to be an author or contributor to vSphere books - sometimes they're VCP study guides and sometimes they're vSphere reference books or admin guides - the problem is I don't have the time so I've always declined!

I've now started receiving reviewer copies of some vSphere-related books, and so once I've had a good read through them I'll start posting reviews here on the blog - I know other bloggers who are a lot more well-known than me who already do the same so I really appreciate being asked. All part of being a vExpert!

I've already read through one book I received recently, and I've told the publisher that I wouldn't want to tarnish their reputation "in public" by sharing my true thoughts on it with you all - so I'm in the process of doing an in-depth review of that particular book that will only be seen by the publisher so they can improve any future edition of that title - and no, I'm not telling you what it was... ;-)

If any authors or publishers out there would like to cast my eye over their wares, please get in touch with me: scott.vessey@globalknowledge.co.uk

I hope to get my first review posted in the next couple of weeks.

Half-marathon - Done!

2011-02-18T10:56:00.000Z

I blogged recently about me running my first ever half-marathon with some colleagues from Global Knowledge, for a special little girl called Evie who requires surgery in the USA - well we completed the run on Sunday 13th February! There were 10 of us who started, we all finished - I finished in a group of 5 with a time of 2:32:43 - I'm really glad I did it on a personal level as well as it being for an excellent cause.

We have raised a really large some of money from donations, and Global Knowledge agreed to double every single penny raised - this is going to make a massive difference to Evie and give her the chance to live the best life she can - I know some of the donations came from some of you who read this blog so a big thankyou to everyone who did donate!

If you haven't donated yet and wish to, it's not too late, follow this link and you can find out more about Evie too: http://www.runningforevie.co.uk

Global Knowledge also issued a press release to highlight the reason for the run: http://www.globalknowledge.co.uk/whats%20new/news/global%20knowledge%20run%20for%20evie.aspx

Next up for me are a series of 10k runs, and a 140-foot abseil down the side of a rather tall building!

Free Webinar on VMware Certifications and Career Paths

2011-02-11T16:28:00.000Z

One my colleagues within Global Knowledge, Marcel Teeuwen, is hosting a free webinar on 1st March 2011, titled Is there life after VCP? VMware Certifications and Career Paths

Here's the URL with the details and a registration link:
http://www.globalknowledge.net/whats-new/events/is-there-life-after-vcp-webina.aspx

It should be a good session - if I'm free I'll join the session too.

London VMUG - Done!

2011-02-11T13:33:00.001Z

I blogged a few weeks ago about the London VMware User Group (VMUG), I was invited to present at the most recent event yesterday, and thought I'd post a quick review.

I had a 30-minute slot and it flew by. There were plenty of questions from a wide number of people in the audience, and the session seem to be very well received - well I thought it went well anyway! I enjoyed the whole afternoon, but really felt in my element delivering my presentation.

VMware Certification - Preparing for Success

View more presentations from Scott Vessey.

The vBeers in the pub afterwards were also very enjoyable! I had some great chats with plenty of people I already know, and met a few new faces too. The next event is already booked for May 12th and I'll blog about that closer to the time.

Simply, the best!

2011-02-10T13:40:00.000Z

I'm hugely proud to be able to confirm that Global Knowledge UK have been awarded the title of Education Partner of the Year for the entire EMEA region! Here's the full list of winners: VMware EMEA Partner Network Award Winners

I joined the company back at the start of 2009, on the same day that we became a VMware Authorized Training Center (VATC) in the UK, and one of the key reasons I chose to work here was that the company were really serious about becoming a significant player in the UK market.

Since then we have seen incredible growth, outperforming the market quarter after quarter, increasing our market share as we go, and have really established ourselves during challenging times in the global economy. I started this blog and all my other online activities as part of my goal to help us grow, and that has been hugely successful both on a personal level and for the company.

I was the only VMware Certified Instructor (VCI) at the start, and I now head up a team of 5 VCIs who have an incredibly broad skill set that covers Cisco, Citrix and Microsoft technology areas in addition to VMware. We also have a talented Business Development Director who manages our relationship with VMware, and drives activities within the business to help our growth, so achieving this award really is a team effort!

We've also gone above and beyond in terms of the content we deliver as a VATC, the VMware Xtra portal that we launched in 2010 attracted interest and praise from those in the VMware Education team worldwide, as well as at a corporate level throughout Global Knowledge. Moving forward, we will continue to innovate and deliver additional value to all our customers, we want to deliver the best overall learning experience we can.

I'm also able to confirm that Global Knowledge USA have won the equivalent award for the Americas region! Here's the global winners list: VMware Partner Network Global Awards

The amazing part is that VMware only split the world into three regions, and Global Knowledge now hold this award for two out of the three regions - an amazing achievement! I've thoroughlly enjoyed the last two years with the company, 2010 was a great year for us, bring on 2011!

New Desktop Certifications

2011-02-08T17:16:00.005Z

I knew this line of certifications was going to be launched in this quarter, but they've now been officially announced, VMware have launched a new range of certifications centred around vSphere 4.x and View 4.5:

VMware Certified Associate: Desktop (VCA4-DT)
VMware Certified Professional: Desktop (VCP4-DT)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional: Desktop (VCAP4-DT)

The current state of play is that registration is open for the beta VCA4-DT exam, and the beta exam blueprint has also been published. A mock exam will also be made available.

VCA4-DT has no compulsory training or certification pre-requisites, although VMware recommend completion of the following to help with preparation for the exam:

VMware View 4.5: Fundamentals - a 4-hour self-paced e-learning course
VMware View 4.5: Install Configure Manage - a 4-day instructor-led course

VCP4-DT and VCAP4-DT will both have certification pre-requisites, for example the VCP4-DT exam will only be available for those already holding the VCP4 certification.

Here are the sections in the current version of the VCA4-DT exam blueprint:

- Monitor VMware View Environment
- Maintain pools and desktop resources
- Manage ThinApp entitlements
- Support and Troubleshooting
- End User Support
- Component features and functions

It remains to be seen if VMware will announce further specialist certifications...

UPDATE: February 11th
A quote from Yves Sandfort who took the VCA4-DT beta exam: "I even tried the Beta Exam today, a few surprises but I think should be achievable by anybody attending View ICM and ThinApp courses... Wouldn't suggest to try without..."

Fancy a free re-take for your VCP exam?

2011-02-08T15:56:00.000Z

If you've been reading my blog for a while, or have gone trawling back through any of my older posts, you'll know that Pearson Vue and VMware ran promotions in 2010 that gave students attending an official VMware course a 10% discount for the VCP exam - I've been in the Top 10 instructors worldwide for both of the previous promotions - I blogged about that recently here: http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com/2011/01/vmware-instructor-rewards-2010.html

The new promotion has just launched today, and this time Pearson Vue and VMware have changed the incentive to offer a free re-take for the VCP exam, so however you pay for your VCP exam, whether it's by card or voucher, you will be included in the promotion and it really is a "no brainer" to use the code... You might as well, just in case you need it!

Attend an official VMware course with me and I'll give you my promotion code, apply the code to your booking for your first attempt at the exam, and if you need to book a re-take (on or before 8th July 2011) it will be free of charge - simple.

VCP Exam Prep Workshop - New method, new times!

2011-01-20T18:02:00.001Z

Since December 2009, Global Knowledge have been running their own unique VCP Exam Preparation Workshop in the UK for the VCP on vSphere 4, I developed the workshop session myself with the aim of giving people the best chance they had of passing their VCP4 exam. I blogged about the workshop when we first launched it, click on the VCP Workshop tab across the top of the page and you'll be taken there - but don't go there just yet, read on...

Myself and my colleagues have delivered this session many times throughout 2010 and have helped dozens of people do themselves justice on the "big day" when taking their exam. Moving into 2011 we've decided to offer the workshop in new ways on top of the current classroom-based method:

Online delivery
We now offer the workshop as a live-online "virtual" event, so you can participate in the workshop wherever you are worldwide so long as you have a PC, a headset, and a modest internet connection.

Time of delivery
We're running a "virtual" event on ~~Thursday 10th March~~ Wednesday 16th March, this session starts at 5pm GMT - perfect if you're based in the UK or Europe and you need to attend "out of hours", and also if you're based somewhere like the US and you want to be able to participate in an event like this.

Feel free to email me directly if this might be of interest to you, blog readers from the UK should also note that the workshop also forms part of our VCP-related VMware bundles - special pricing for those attending official vSphere training with a view to gaining their VCP or VCAP certifications.

UPDATE: 28th Feb 2011
This session has now been re-arranged for Wednesday 16th March - it's not too late to get yourself booked on!

VCAP4-DCD beta results, first VCDX4s

2011-01-12T20:33:00.003Z

Twitter has gone pretty crazy in the last 24 hours with those reporting that they got their results for the VCAP4-DCD beta exam - well they did eventually! Something odd originally happened at VMware where they were emailing out the results to the wrong people but it looks like it's all been sorted out now!

Some of those that passed are VCDX3 holders, and the VCAP4-DCD is the only element needed to "upgrade" VCDX3 to VCDX4, so we now have our first batch of VCDX4s too!

Here's a collection of some of the many blog posts from those that took the VCAP4-DCD beta exam, and passed:
Justin Paul
Harley Stagner
Jason Boche
Simon Gallagher
Chris Kranz
Colin Barker
Phil Ditzel
Kanuj Behl

Congratulations to all those who've now gained VCAP4-DCD certification, as well as those who've now met the VCDX4 requirements!

VMware Instructor Rewards 2010

2011-01-11T14:43:00.000Z

Pearson Vue and VMware ran two separate Instructor Rewards programs in 2010, one in each half of the year, where all VCIs were issued with a special discount code that we could give out to students attending our official courses. Students would receive a 10% discount on the cost of their VMware exam, and we as instructors would earn rewards depending on the number of students using our code.

I blogged about this promotion before, here and here.

I'm glad to say that for the second time I was one of the instructors that had their code used the most, out of over 600 VCIs I came in 10th on the most recent promotion, and I've been rewarded with another polo shirt branded with both the VMware and Pearson Vue logos, as well as a free purchase to the value of $60 with free shipping from MindHub.

I decided to order the VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing the Virtual Environment book by Edward Haletky. Thanks to all the students who used my code, not only did you get yourself a 10% discount off your exam, but I got a polo shirt and a book for my troubles, a win for you and a win for me!

I know VMware have some more certification promotions planned for the first half of this year, I'll release all the details of those when I can - watch this space...

VCP exam - VMware needs you!

2011-01-08T22:42:00.000Z

I read an interesting post this week on the VirtualInsanity blog, asking for feedback from the community for the VCP exam for the next generation release of vSphere - presumably this will be titled vSphere 5 so I would expect that the exam and certification will most commonly be referred to as VCP5.

Thomas Mackay, who wrote the blog post in question, is one of the SME content contributors to the VCP certification exam testing and blueprint process, and is inviting comments on the post that he can feedback to his colleagues in curriculum development at VMware. I've done over 20 Microsoft certification exams in my past, as well as having done all three VCP exams, so I have some ideas of my own which I'm going to add.

You wouldn't be reading this blog unless VMware certification was of interest to you, so read the blog post for youself, and make your contribution.

VCAP4 Updates - January 2011

2011-01-08T22:26:00.002Z

Some updates related to the VCAP4 certifications from the last few weeks:

Registration for the final VCAP4-DCD exam opened in December, it's one of a number of links and resources you can find on the main VCAP4-DCD page on the VMware website.

Global Knowledge are now able to offer the VCAP4 exams at their training centres in Wokingham and Wakefield, these UK locations have now been added to the VCAP Testing Centre Locations list.

Updated versions of the VCAP4-DCA exam blueprint and VCAP4-DCD exam blueprint are now available and should be used as the primary study guides for the exams.

Gregg Robertson has continued to add new links to some really key study resources for both exams to his blog TheSaffaGeek - you'll find links back to my blog there as well as some overlap to some of the links/resources I've posted on here previously.

Running for Evie

2011-01-06T11:32:00.000Z

I'm running my first ever half-marathon on 13th February 2011 in order to raise awareness and hopefully money for a special little girl called Evie. Evie and her family are friends of my manager at Global Knowledge, and he asked some of us in the office if we'd be willing to run the Wokingham Half Marathon with him in order to raise money so that Evie can have surgery in the USA that will allow her to maximise her potential and live her life as independently as possible.

Evie was born 11 weeks premature and spent the first 6 weeks of her life in an incubator. She was diagnosed with quadriplegia cerebral palsy at 11 months old. You can learn more about Evie and the challenges she faces here: Evie's Journey

To make a donation, and find out more about who's running, follow this link: Running for Evie

Evie, her parents, and all of us at Global Knowledge appreciate your donation.

London VMware User Group - Feb 2011

2011-01-05T12:11:00.002Z

Throughout the whole of 2010 I've been trying hard to attend the quarterly meetings of the London VMware User Group, unfortunately my work schedule prevented me from joining the first three of the four events last year. I did manage to attend my first session in October 2010, and knew many other attendees from my other activities within the VMware community, as well as having trained plenty of those there too!

The group has it's own area on the VMware community forum, it's own group on LinkedIn, as well as many active Twitter users that use the official #lonvmug tag in many tweets. You'll also find many other UK-based virtualisation bloggers that also post various articles about the group.

A change in my job role for 2011 means that I will definitely be attending all the events this year, in fact I will be presenting at the next event on Thursday 10th February 2011! The title of my presentation is VMware Certification - Preparing for Success and I intend to effectively bringing some of the more popular certification posts on my blog to life.

My experience in presenting is very heavily biased towards classroom-based training, but I have hosted a number of webinars in the last couple of years, I ran some vSphere presentation/demo workshops around the UK in 2009, and did a presentation at IP Expo in 2009. I'm really looking forward to having a chance to do my stuff at this event.

There are some other great presentations lined up, being delivered by Gabrie van Zanten, Simon Long (who may or may not turn up in his infamous pink shirt), and Chris Dearden, as well as the sponsor presentation which for this event is Veeam. Well-known EMC vSpecialist Alan Renouf also runs a workshop on PowerCLI in the morning before the presentations in the afternoon. The full agenda and details of the location and how to register to attend can all be found on this post on the VMware community forum.

See you there!

VCAP-DCD beta exam experiences

2010-11-10T23:42:00.003Z

This is the week where the VCAP-DCD beta exams are being taken around the world, and I've read various items of feedback in the way of blog posts, comments on the VMware community forum, as well as numerous tweets on Twitter.

Here's a list of the key feedback I've come across so far:
VMware community forum post
Chris Dearden's blog post
Jason Boche's blog post
Jeffrey Wolfanger's blog post
Dave Convery's blog post
Rick Scherer's blog post

Remember that all the above links refer to the beta exam - the final exam should be released in the next 6 weeks or so, once the feedback and responses given during the beta process has been collated and analyzed.

Update on November 11th:
Additional blog posts added above

VMware training - virtually...

2010-11-02T23:29:00.000Z

I blogged a little while ago about Global Knowledge starting to offer the vSphere: Install Configure Manage course as an instructor-led, online event - ironically for training on VMware products we describe this as "virtual learning".

We've now broadened our schedule to include a wider set of VMware courses, as well as a selection of Cisco, ITIL and Prince2 courses - you can find the latest schedule here.

We also have a special promotion running on all virtual learning events - Buy 1 Get 1 Free - more details can be found on the schedule page at the link above.

Fancy a free iPad in time for Christmas?

2010-11-02T16:43:00.000Z

Everybody knows that the must-have gadget of 2010 is the amazing Apple iPad - I've been an iPod Touch user for about a year now, and I'd absolutely love an iPad - almost every competition in the Solutions Exchange at VMworld Europe had an iPad as a prize!

Would you like an iPad too? How's about if it was free? Interested?

Global Knowledge UK are running a promotion that allows you to get yourself a free iPad in time for Christmas! Think of the possibilities:

- Sell it on ebay and keep the money
- Swap it for Take That tickets
- Give it to a loved one to show you care
- Or, best of all, keep it all for yourself!

There are some T's & C's associated with the promotion, take a look at this Global Knowledge iPad Promotion page to find out more.

Global Knowledge offer new UK-based VCAP-DCA testing centres

2010-11-02T15:05:00.001Z

The live-lab VCAP-DCA exam has been available for a couple of weeks now, VMware have worked with Pearson VUE to try and offer the exam at many testing centres globally. Most of the current testing centres offering the VCAP-DCA exam as run directly by Pearson themselves, in the UK the only centre where the exam has been available is in Holborn, London.

Something that Global Knowledge have been discussing with VMware is offering the exam at other testing centres in the UK, and around Europe, and I'm glad to be able to announce that three Global Knowledge UK training centres will be able to offer the VCAP-DCA exam:

Global Knowledge London
Global Knowledge Wokingham
Global Knowledge Wakefield

I've also learned that by mid-November, all VCAP-DCA exam bookings will be made directly via Pearson, rather than having to be arranged through VMware.

VCAP exams user interface demos

2010-10-29T11:54:00.002+01:00

VMware have just released Flash demos of the exam environment used for the VCAP4-DCA and VCAP4-DCD exams - I spoke with Jon Hall at VMworld Europe a couple of weeks ago and he told me then they were almost ready to be published - Jon narrates the demos himself.

You'll find the VCAP4-DCA demo in the VCAP4-DCA Resources section on the main VCAP4-DCA page, and in case you want to watch the demo straight away here's the direct link.

The VCAP-DCD page has an idential layout, so again check under the VCAP4-DCD Resources section on the VCAP4-DCD page, here's the direct link.

VCAP4-DCD beta exam

2010-10-22T13:51:00.001+01:00

Emails have been going out in the last day or so inviting people to register for the VCAP4-DCD exam - passing this exam brings the VCAP4-DCD certification, lets you work towards VCDX4, and is also the exam that the current VCDX3 holders need to pass to gain VCDX4 status.

The beta period is short, November 8th-12th, and slots are filling incredibly quickly - I know of one guy in the UK who has had to schedule his in Amsterdam...

VMware are only offering the beta exam through the same testing centres as those currently enabled for the VCAP4-DCA exam - I've been assured by numerous people at VMware that the final VCAP4-DCD exam will be available at all testing centres.

If you want to try and register for the beta exam, send an email asap to certification@vmware.com and include your VCP ID.

IP Expo - Exclusive training discounts

2010-10-19T15:33:00.000+01:00

Following on from VMworld Europe 2010, the vendor/partner circus comes back to London for IP Expo 2010, the event runs on Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st October, and Global Knowledge will be there...

Global Knowledge will be at booth 947 in the VMware Partner Zone, and are offering all attendees an exclusive discount on training courses and exams across multiple vendors (VMware, Cisco, Microsoft, Citrix) - pop by the stand, say "hi" to my colleagues and collect your discount flyer!

I wish I could be there myself, it was a great event last year - my "day job" prevents me from attending this year.

The first batch of VCAP4-DCA holders are here!

2010-10-15T13:51:00.007+01:00

There's been a few messages flying around on Twitter in the last day from people reporting that they've received the results of their VCAP4-DCA beta exam, so the world has it's first VCAP4-DCAs!

Those that I've heard of so far:
Jason Boche
William Lam
Chris Dearden
Duncan Epping
Rick Boyett
Kanuj Behl
Hal Rottenburg
Rick Scherer
Mark Gabryjelski
JF Richard
David Convery
Bill Griffith

I'll keep the above list updated if I hear of any others. I met quite a few people at VMworld this week who have their exams scheduled in the coming weeks, and I'm going to book mine soon.

Congratulations to all VCAP4-DCAs!

List last updated on October 17th 2010

VMworld Europe 2010 - Day 3

2010-10-15T13:14:00.001+01:00

OK, so I'm not in Copenhagen any more, but I still wanted to write something about what I got up to on the final day of VMworld Europe 2010...

My last day in Copenhagen started a little late, but that might be related to enjoying myself at the VMworld Party and in the bars I went to afterwards with friends... (you know who you are!)

I attended an excellent session delivered by Chad Sakac from EMC and Vaughn Stewart from NetApp - Best Practices to Increase Availability and Throughput for VMware - even though their organizations compete it's clear that they have a common interest, and the banter between them helped to make this one of the best breakout session of any VMworld or TSX I've attended before.

I also spent time in the Solutions Exchange area, talking specifically with some of the Education Services team at VMware, my friend Jane Rimmer who was there with Centrix Software, and collecting a few freebies for my kids, then it was time to head to the airport and home...

I've had a different experience at each of the four VMware events I've now attended, it really is an event that you can get whatever you want from - whether it's networking, hands-on labs, attending some of the larger breakout sessions, or participating in a group discussion or even a one-to-one.

Thanks to all those involved in making it happen, and a shout out to all those I met up with - see you next year!

VMworld Europe 2010 - Day 2

2010-10-13T16:47:00.000+01:00

Well, this will be a short blog post...

I've not been to the Bella Center today, I've been at a hotel with a dozen other VCIs attending a VCI Mentor Workshop. I've held Mentor status with VMware for a couple of years now, but attending this new Workshop means I will retain my status from January 2011.

Being a Mentor means I understand the technical and delivery standards expected of a VCI, so I am able to sign off prospective VCIs against those standards. The Workshop was straightforward, the framework used by VMware is similar to that used by the Institute of IT Training in the UK - and I've been a qualified IITT Assessor for about 6 months now.

It's VMworld party night tonight, I'm heading out for dinner soon with my Global Knowledge colleagues, then we'll be heading to the Forum in Copenhagen to the party - it's a party for Abba fans as Bjorn Again are the headline band. I'm looking forward to a good night, then it's back to the Bella Center tomorrow morning for Day 3 and the journey home...

VMworld Europe 2010 - Day 1

2010-10-12T22:28:00.000+01:00

So today was the first "proper" day of VMworld Europe 2010, and the first thing that struck me was how much work went into the Solutions Exchange area between 5pm on Monday and 10:30am on Tuesday - when the VCI day was over the area looked far from being ready and yet this morning everything was setup and ready - a lot of hard work goes on behind the scenes to make that happen.

After chatting to Chris Skinner from VMware on the Metro on the way to the Bella Center, I spent the first hour "walking the floor" of the Solutions Exchange area with Linda Smith - the Business Development Director for virtualization at Global Knowledge UK. We caught up with people from VMware, Quest, and Veeam amongst others, then we split up and headed off to breakout sessions.

The first session I attended was Virtual Machines Outperforming Physical Machines with the always-impressive Scott Drummonds and Dave Korsunsky, where Scott highlighted the impressive volume of performance improvements from ESX 2.5 through to the vSphere 4. Dave and Scott then presented how those enhancements had enabled various workloads to run better in virtual machines rather than be run in the traditional physical manner. Some of the gain was related to scalability issues that are directly related to the applications themselves and other gains were realised by the VMkernel being able to take advantage of the latest hardware technologies. The session emphasised the importance of finding "the sweet spot" for each application in terms of sizing the virtual machine - and Scott highlighted that in most cases these days a 2-way or 4-way VM gave the best scalbility and performance of most virtualized workloads.

I attended my first "group discussion" session later in the afternoon, Storage with Chad Sakac, where Chad led an interactive Q&A and discussion session on storage protocols, filesystems, best practices, challenges, as well as trying to gather feedback on how VMware and storage vendors could support their customers better. Chad also discussed some potential future enhancements to vSphere that could allow some of today's limitations to be removed or circumnavigated.

I really enjoyed both sessions - I deliberately chose them based on the subject as well as the presenters and wasn't disappointed!

I also spent a little time today in the Bloggers Lounge, behind the Solutions Exchange area, where I chatted to Vladan Seget, Alex Mittell, Mike Laverick, and Simon Long to name just a few...

Whilst most people were attending the Welcome Reception in the Solutions Exchange area, I attended the CTO Reception for the current batch of vExperts - the VMware CTO is none other than Steve Herrod, and Steve brought many principal VMware staff and engineers with him. I spent my time chatting with other vExperts, and also got to meet John Troyer for the first time - John works incredibly hard with social media, the VMware community forums, the VMTN blog and podcast, as well as managing the vExpert program.

Once we had finally left the Bella Center for the day, Linda and I ate a really tasty meal, then headed back to our hotel to re-charge our batteries, ready for another busy day tomorrow!

VMworld Europe 2010 - Day 0

2010-10-11T23:21:00.001+01:00

I arrived in Copenhagen late on Sunday afternoon, headed straight to the Bella Center on the free shuttle bus, and completed the registration process for VMworld - I love the bag! My phone wasn't working straight away, so thanks to a guy I met on the bus I managed to phone a friend of mine (Rakesh - a freelance VCI from the UK) and met up with him. We got the excellent metro into the central area, then headed to my hotel where we also met with Marcel - a colleague of mine from GK in the Netherlands. After a couple of drinks in the hotel, we eventually found somewhere to eat dinner and grab a couple more beers.

I've spent today at a VCI day, arranged by my friends Andy Cary and Undeleeb Din - it was a packed day, with presenters from the VMware Education team as well as product managers and consultants, the agenda ran like this:

- Introduction and VCI benefits
- Education update
- Certification update
- VCI program and portal update
- VCDX session with current VCDX holders
- vCloud Director Q&A
- View 4.5 Q&A

After dinner this evening, we headed to the Customs House for the VMUG event - it was busy in there when we first arrived and I met a lot of people who I've chatted with via email or online before - Kendrick Coleman, David Davis, Gregg Robertson, Vladan Seget - as well as catching up with some older friends from the virtualization world.

On to the main event, starting tomorrow morning...

Global Knowledge UK launches in Bristol

2010-10-05T16:14:00.000+01:00

Just in case I haven't mentioned it before, I work for Global Knowledge in the UK as their Lead Instructor for VMware ;-)

We already have a number of training centres around the UK, and have now launched a training schedule for various vendors (including VMware of course) with a partner in Bristol.

Follow these links to our schedule for Bristol, as well as a location map and directions.

We currently have two dates for the vSphere: Install Configure Manage course:
- November 8th-12th 2010
- February 21st-25th 2011

VCAP and VCDX updates

2010-10-05T13:58:00.004+01:00

If you're a regular reader of the blog, you'll know already that registration for the VCAP4-DCA exam for vSphere 4 is now open. The VCAP4-DCA exam forms part of the up-and-coming VCDX4 certification, and is a chance for VCP4 holders to "raise the bar" in terms of their VMware certifications.

With the introduction of the VCAP4-DCA and VCAP4-DCD certifications, VMware are retiring the various components of the VCDX3 certification for VI3:

- Registration for the Enterprise Administration exam for VI3 are now closed
- Registration for the Design exam for VI3 are closed too
- Those who have already passed both the exams above for VI3 can still submit a defence to achieve VCDX3, but the design must be submitted by November 22nd 2010
- The design defence element of VCDX3 will only be available at a couple more VMware partner events, the final event being Partner Exchange in Florida in February 2011

VMware also stated previously that those that had completed elements of the VCDX3 certification would receive discounts on the equivalent exams for vSphere 4, to allow them to "upgrade" their certification. As I have previously passed the Enterprise Administration exam for VI3, and I have my VCP4, I now have a 50% discount voucher for me to use against the VCAP4-DCA exam. An equivalent voucher will be sent out to those eligible for a discount on the VCAP4-DCD exam once that exam has been released.

The VCDX4 defence application will be made available in November 2010, which suggests to me that the VCAP4-DCD exam will launch next month too - we shall see...

Another excellent VCAP4-DCA study resource

2010-09-29T14:50:00.002+01:00

Whilst the new VCAP4-DCA exam is 100% live labs, so hands-on practice and experience are a really key part of any preparation for the exam, there are already a number of key study resources available.

I have various other blog posts on VCAP4-DCA already, with links to the key official and unofficial resources such as the exam blueprint and some experiences of those who took the beta version of the exam.

Sean Crookston over at vFAIL.NET has been busy collecting together information about most of the elements covered in the VCAP-DCA exam into a set of posts on his site, so here is his VCAP4-DCA Index.

Update: October 15th 2010
The vFAIL.NET Study Guide is now complete, and will be available soon as a downloadable PDF

vSphere-land "Top 25" VMware blogs

2010-09-28T11:57:00.000+01:00

I blogged recently about the vSphere-land "Top 25" VMware blogs, voting was open for a couple of weeks and Eric Seibert who runs the site had my blog in the list of those you could vote for - and I'm proud and humbled to say that whilst I didn't make the Top 25 (I never thought for a minute that I would), I did make the Top 50!

Here's the full results: http://vsphere-land.com/news/top-vmware-blogger-results.html

Personally, I voted for 10 of the blogs in my "blog roll" down the right-hand side of this very page - if I could have voted for all of them I would have. This blog gained a respectable 263 points, and is listed 42 in the list - Duncan Epping's Yellow Bricks was the clear winner of the poll - I direct an awful lot of my students at Duncan's posts on HA and DRS, and he got my vote too. I shall be meeting Duncan at VMworld in a couple of weeks too, as well as many other bloggers from the list.

One interesting article that I read in relation to the Top 25 was published this morning by Tom Howarth over at PlanetVM - a very different perspective on the Top 25 - http://planetvm.net/blog/?p=1713

Thanks to all those who voted for this blog, I really appreciate it :-)

Free "What's New in vSphere 4.1" e-learning

2010-09-27T17:42:00.001+01:00

The vSphere: Install Configure Manage course was recently updated for the vSphere 4.1 release, see the course outline and my earlier blog post on that. Other vSphere courses such as the Troubleshooting and Manage for Performance courses were designed around the vSphere 4.0 release, and have yet to be updated.

VMware have created an e-learning course titled What's New in vSphere 4.1, and sell it as part of their All-Access subscription - it is also made available to VMware partners.

The part of this that's of interest to me in particular is that VMware have also now decided to make the e-learning available at no charge to those students who attend any one of the following instructor-led courses:

vSphere: What's New
vSphere: Troubleshooting
vSphere: Manage for Performance

If you have completed any of the above courses since July 28th, VMware will email you a token (a free voucher) that can be used against the e-learning course. The token has to be used within 90 days of being issued, and the course subscription then lasts for 365 days.

The course includes an overview of new 4.1 features including:

- ESXi enhancements/changes
- Support for Active Directory authentication
- vCLI enhancements
- vCenter Server enhancement/changes
- Host Profiles enhancements
- Increased cluster maximums
- New DRS affinitiy rules
- vMotion enhancements vSphere 4.1 installation and upgrade options
- An introduction to storage I/O controll and VAAI
- An introduction to Network I/O control
- Information about ESX/ESXi memory compression

Update - September 29th 2010
I can confirm that only the courses highlighted above qualify for this offer. Those attending the vSphere: Fast Track course could have attended the new vSphere: Install Configure Manage course which is already based on 4.1.

50% VCAP4 exam discount

2010-09-27T17:17:00.001+01:00

VMware are currently running a promotion around the exams for the VCAP4-DCA and VCAP4-DCD certifications - a 50% discount voucher to anyone who attends one of the recommended training courses.

It's not compulsory to attend any training courses to take a VCAP4 exam, you do have to be VCP4-certified (which does have training requirements) but you can then self-study in terms of preparation for the VCAP4 exams.

There are recommended courses for each of the two certifications, and if you review the exam blueprint documents for either of the certifications (VCAP4-DCA blueprint, VCAP4-DCD blueprint) you will see the strength of the relationship between these courses and the exams:

VCAP-DCA
vSphere: Troubleshooting
vSphere: Manage for Performance
vSphere: Automation with PowerCLI
vSphere: Manage and Design for Security

VCAP-DCD
vSphere: Design Workshop

Attend any of the above instructor-led courses between now and November 30th and the week after your course VMware will email you the 50% discount voucher. For further information, follow the link to the VMware Education Services page and click the Learn More icon under VMware Training and Advanced Certification - here's the direct link too.

VMworld Europe 2010 - See you in Copenhagen

2010-09-22T10:46:00.000+01:00

I'm sure most of you will be aware that VMware's annual conference is titled VMworld, and each year they run an event in the US and one in Europe - I'm a regular attendee of the Europe event, and will be in Copenhagen next month along with however many other thousands of people decide to go!

I'll be joined there by a number of key colleagues from Global Knowledge around the EMEA region, and have a fairly hectic schedule already:

Sunday October 10th
Fly in from London

Monday October 11th
VCI day - Various roadmap sessions with VMware Education, and some Q&A sessions with VMware experts

Tuesday October 12th
Main conference

Wednesday October 13th
VCI Mentor Workshop - A chance to refresh my Mentor status as a VCI, so I can continue to sign off new VCIs

Thursday October 14th
Main conference
Fly back to London

I love going to VMworld - I've got plenty of people that I'll be seeing while I'm there and will no doubt bump into many other ex-students and ex-colleagues there too - if you've not been before and this will be your first time take advantage of all the different activities there:

Breakout sessions
Hands-on labs
Solutions exchange
Parties!

I'll try and do some blogging while I'm there too about what I've seen and who I've seen, and generally sharing my experiences of the event. I will be spending my days wearing a Global Knowledge shirt, well they are paying for me to go, so look out for me and come and say "Hi" if you see me :-)

Certification Updates - September 16th 2010

2010-09-16T23:20:00.001+01:00

Lots of small pieces of certification news to cover in this post:

VCAP4-DCA exam
Registration is now open as of September 13th, as I revealed recently - register here
I registered on Monday, and have already had a follow-up email from the Certification team
VMware have published a list of the testing centres where the VCAP4-DCA exam can be taken - here's the list

VCP4 study sites
Forbes Guthrie has updated his excellent vSphere reference card for the 4.1 release - download it from here
Simon Long has been updating his VCP4 study notes and practice questions for 4.1, the study notes are work in progress but then he has just started a job at VMware so I'll let him off - access The SLOG

VCP4 exam prep workshop
I've now completed an overhaul of the unique VCP4 exam prep workshop that Global Knowledge run in the UK, mainly by updating and enhancing the practice questions we go through on the day - click here for details on the workshop

VCP4 books
There are now a number of VCP4 study books on the market, I'm hoping to be able to review each of them here soon:
VMware Certified Professional vSphere 4 Study Guide by Robert Schmidt
VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 4 Study Guide by Brian Perry, Chris Huss, Jeantet Fields
VCP4 Exam Cram by Elias Khnaser

Phew, lots of new things to take a look at there!

vSphere-land Top 25 Blogs

2010-09-14T12:23:00.002+01:00

Eric Siebert's vSphere-land site is one that is well-known within the virtualization community as a place to gain access to masses of information related to all things vSphere and VMware, and his vLaunchPad has an excellent list of links to other blogs and sites.

Eric was kind enough to add this little blog of mine under the "News and Info Websites" section a while ago, and on a regular basis he opens up the voting for the much-coveted "Top 25 Blogs" - voting has just opened again for that list.

http://vsphere-land.com/news/voting-now-open-for-the-top-25-vmware-virtualization-blogs.html

I'll be casting my votes for the blogs I have in my "Key Blogs" section on the right of this very page... Of course, if you wish to vote for my blog that's entirely up to you... ;-)

Good luck everyone :-)

Exclusive: VCAP4-DCA exam release date

2010-09-01T23:13:00.002+01:00

Here's a little piece of exclusive information, and one that a lot of people have been asking about for a few weeks now...

VMware will make the final VCAP4-DCA exam available from September 13th 2010.

So, grab the blueprint, get yourself prepared, not long to wait now...

UPDATE - September 13th
Exactly as I'd learned, registration for the VCAP4-DCA is now open, via this link.

Save travel costs on UK-based ICM 4.1 courses

2010-08-21T23:56:00.000+01:00

Global Knowledge UK have now created a schedule for live-online delivery of the new 5-day vSphere: Install Configure Manage course, these events will be run from the UK and as such will take place during typical UK working hours.

The live-online course is instructor-led, just like a regular classroom-based course, and those attending still get the same discussion and question opportunities with their peers and the instructor as they would if they attended in person. This course also still meets the training requirement of the VCP4 certification.

The key benefit of attending a course using this method of delivery is the savings that can be made in terms of travel and associated expense costs, in addition we have decided to create our own events of this kind to appeal to those based around Europe and Africa who may find the live-online offerings from VMware unsuitable due the time of the day that VMware run their events.

If you have any other questions or concerns about live-online delivery, please feel free to send me an email.

Can't decide whether to attend the new ICM course or the Fast Track?

2010-08-21T23:39:00.000+01:00

Ever since I blogged about the new 5-day vSphere: Install Configure Manage course I've received emails from people asking about whether they should attend that course or the 5-day extended-hours vSphere: Fast Track course.

The new ICM course, available from August 23rd, has been updated for the vSphere 4.1 release - there is mention of those 4.1 features that are relevant to the course objectives, the software used in the labs is the 4.1 version, and VMware have also switched the host version used from ESX to ESXi in line with their recommendation that customers transition away from ESX and deploy ESXi. The new ICM course also contains material and labs that were not present in the now-retired 4-day ICM 4.0 course, this content has been brought in from the Fast Track, and was highlighted in my previous blog post on the new ICM 4.1. The new ICM material also brings the course content much closer to the objectives covered in the VCP4 exam blueprint, in comparison to the ICM 4.0 course.

The Fast Track course in it's current form will retire at the end of 2010, and has not been and will not be updated for the 4.1 release. Fast Track still contains some material and labs which do not form part of the new 4.1 ICM course, specifically around the vSphere CLI and how it can be used to administer host-level networking and storage.

If you're debating which of the courses to take, I would definitely suggest to consider the new ICM 4.1 course due to the points I make above.

VCAP4-DCD exam blueprint now available

2010-08-21T23:06:00.002+01:00

The exam blueprint for the VCAP4-DCD exam has now been published, although it is not available yet via the main VCAP4-DCD page

Here's the link to the blueprint document:
http://mylearn.vmware.com/register.cfm?course=76644

The exam has yet to enter beta, so the blueprint still has some final details missing related to the number of items and the required passing score, but at least those wanting to take the exam can begin their preparation.

VCAP4-DCA and VCP4 exam blueprint links

2010-08-10T16:37:00.002+01:00

Well-known virtualization blogger Kendrick Coleman has published a version of the VCAP4-DCA exam blueprint in the form of a set of links to the key technologies and documents covered in the exam. It's the most comprehensive VCAP4-DCA guide I've seen so far, couple it with my recent blog post of beta exam review links and you've got an excellent set of resources.

Here' the link to Kendrick's VCAP4-DCA page:
http://kendrickcoleman.com/index.php?/Tech-Blog/vcap-datacenter-administration-exam-landing-page-vdca410.html

Simon Long did the same thing a while back for the VCP4 exam, and has been updating the links on his page to point to the documentation for vSphere 4.1. Simon has also started working on a VCAP4-DCA page similar to Kendrick's, the links will follow once Simon has caught his breath from starting a new job at VMware...

Here's the link for Simon's VCP and VCAP4-DCA pages:
http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/vcp-vsphere-upgrade-study-notes/
http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/vcap4-dca-study-notes/

It's back - 10% discount off any VMware exam!

2010-07-23T14:44:00.002+01:00

Pearson Vue have just sent me a new 10% discount code, applicable to any VMware exam taken between now and December 15th 2010. I can give the code to any student who I train between now and then on any official VMware course.

The discount code can be used against any VMware exam, so not just the VCP4 exam, but also the VCAP4-DCA and VCAP4-DCD exams when they are released soon. The code can also be used multiple times, so if you are following the VCAP4-DCA and you still need to do your VCP4 first, you can use the code when booking each of the exams.

Note that the discount code only applies to exam bookings made directly with Pearson Vue.

VCP and VCAP4-DCA blueprints updated

2010-07-22T21:55:00.001+01:00

VMware have now updated the exam blueprint documents for both the VCP and VCAP4-DCA exams to refer to the latest documents for vSphere 4.1.

Here's the links:
VCP on vSphere 4 Exam Blueprint
VCAP4-DCA Exam Blueprint

Jon Hall from VMware has also confirmed what I posted earlier this week about the effect of the 4.1 vSphere release on the VCP4 exam - read his post on the VMware community forum here.

Handy URLs to VMware certification and education pages

2010-07-21T23:55:00.001+01:00

I'm going through the process of updating my VCP4 exam prep workshop to reflect the vSphere 4.1 release, and stumbled across something very useful - shortcut links to the various certification pages on the VMware website.

So instead of saving this in your browser favourites:
http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=12457&ui=www

You can just enter this URL in your browser:
http://www.vmware.com/go/vcp

There are also other shortcuts that might come in handy too:
http://www.vmware.com/go/vcap
http://www.vmware.com/go/vcdx

You can also get a simple redirection to the general Certification area by going to:
http://www.vmware.com/certification

And if it's training you're looking for:
http://www.vmware.com/education
or of course:
http://www.globalknowledge.co.uk/vmware ;-)

vSphere Training - What's Next?

2010-07-19T21:32:00.000+01:00

Have you done one of the following foundation-level vSphere courses, or have equivalent skills and knowledge?
What's New
Install Configure Manage
Fast Track

Whilst the above course teach you a huge amount about vSphere and the various infrastructure elements that it integrates with, those courses only scratch the surface of numerous topics and often leave those who attend the courses wanting more...

There are now a number of advanced-level courses available, designed to follow-on from the courses above and help people get much more in-depth skills and knowledge in certain key areas.

vSphere: Manage for Performance - read more about it here
vSphere: Troubleshooting
vSphere: Design Workshop
vSphere: Manage and Design for Security (coming soon)
vSphere: Automation (coming soon)

The advanced-level courses will also help you prepare for the new VCAP certifications too. Global Knowledge UK offer the full range of official vSphere course, delivered around the UK. Feel free to get in touch if you want to know more about any VMware training course, or certification program.

New group on LinkedIn

2010-07-14T17:13:00.004+01:00

I've been using LinkedIn for quite a while now, and have built up a decent number of connections from all over the world, I'm a member of quite a few groups on there too such as the VCI, VCP and new VCAP groups.

I'm not sure why I've done this today in particular, but I decided to create my own group, titled VMware Training and Certification - can you see what I've done with the name there? ;-)

The idea is to take the blog out to somewhere new, you'll already find me on both Twitter and Facebook so it seemed logical to use LinkedIn as another place to pass information out to my connections and open up a new way to interact further with those who have an interest in VMware certification and training courses.

I'm fairly open in terms of membership of the group, I have invited a number of my LinkedIn connections today and I'm glad to see some of them have already joined. See you there!

Update - July 19th
Wow, the group already has over 100 members - thanks to all those who've joined! I've added a couple of new discussions too - take a look and contribute...

Changes to VCP exam due to vSphere 4.1 release

2010-07-13T13:40:00.006+01:00

VMware have now released vSphere 4.1, and one of the first questions I was asked was "Will the VCP and VCAP4-DCA exams now be based on 4.0 or 4.1?" - so here's what I've found out so far...

VMware continually reviews the impact of major and minor releases to ensure that all content on the exam is consistent with the latest release of the software. They may also test on components included in these update releases if the components fall within already stated exam objectives, as they appear on the current version of the exam blueprint.

If significant new features exist in a release that are not covered by current objectives and these features are identified as being critical to a VCP’s job role, a new version of the exam blueprint would be released containing the new objectives and the exam would be updated to test on these objectives.

So, if you're preparing for your VCP4 exam it would be recommended to study from the latest 4.1 documentation, and download the latest exam blueprint.

With reference to the VCAP4-DCA, the lab environment is currently based on vSphere 4.0. Periodically, VMware would update the lab environment, and when they do they would revise the exam blueprint and potentially the exam, depending as with the VCP on whether there are new objectives relevant to the VCAP4-DCA job role that would need to be tested on in the exam. Until that time, the VCAP4-DCA will remain using a lab environment based on vSphere 4.0.

Update - July 22nd
Jon Hall from VMware has created a thread on the VMware commmunity forum for the VCP, and also posted the latest exam blueprint document:
How new versions of vSphere affect the VCP exam
VCP on vSphere 4 Exam Blueprint Guide

Update - August 1st
Quote from Jon Hall at VMware:
"As we go forward and everyone is studying using 4.1 materials, we are likely to include 4.1 based questions when we need to revise or replace questions, as long as the topic is one already addressed on the blueprint. We still will not cover topics (like storage IOCTRL) that are not on the blueprint."

vSphere 4.1 is released

2010-07-13T09:26:00.005+01:00

Well after a fair bit of hype online over the last few days (ie. somebody out there violating the VMware NDA they signed), VMware have now released the 4.1 version of vSphere. The binaries are available for download too, so we can all now get our hands on the latest versions of ESX, ESXi, and the various vCenter components.

Apparently there are over 150 new features, I'm sure the release notes will offer a good amount of detail on those, here's a link to the new What's New in VMware vSphere 4.1 page.

I've been on the private beta for 4.1 for some time now, so I've been aware of many of these new features for a while. With my new vExpert status, I was lucky enough to join an exclusive webcast last week, to give myself and the other vExperts a chance to get a more formal head start in learning more about some of the new features.

A few facts about vSphere 4.1:
VMotion will now be known as vMotion, and Storage VMotion will now be known as Storage vMotion
ESXi free is now known as vSphere Hypervisor
The paid license versions of ESX/ESXi are now defined as Hypervisor architectures
New license bundles for Essentials and Essentials Plus, the latter to include vMotion for the first time
ESX will be deprecated in 2011, when vSphere 5 will be released
vCenter Server 4.1 is only available as a 64-bit application, giving significantly greater scalbility

Here's some notes about the most significant features/changes in vSphere 4.1:

ESXi
ESXi is now defined as best practice for deployment over ESX
ESXi now supports scripted installation, boot from SAN, and easier CLI options for troubleshooting

Network I/O Control
Set per port group or port, only available on the vNetwork Distributed Switch
Designed for 10GigE, where a host is likely to only have 2 NICs in total
New version of the Cisco Nexus 1000v has a "fair wait queuing" feature

Load-based NIC teaming
New configuration option to complement existing teaming choices

Storage I/O Control
Prioritized use of storage, across hosts, set per VM
Kicks in once latency is over 35ms
FC/iSCSI only for now, support for NFS is coming

Storage performance reporting
More granular, and new NFS measurements

Array integration API
Allows cloning and migration functions to be carried out directly at the storage layer
API-based operations are between 5 and 20 times quicker than non-API
EMC, HP, Dell, NetApp, HDS are initial partners for the API

Memory compression
Designed for over-commit situations, 1000x faster than swap
Makes memory over-commit more viable as an option

DRS host affinity
Group of VMs set to run against set of defined hosts
Hard rules, never breached by DRS
Preferential rules, DRS attempts to maintain defined rules

HA diagnostics and healthcheck
GUI improvements on host/cluster status
HA/DRS have better integration on VM placement
Application API, making it possible for HA to detect application-level problems inside a VM
HA/DRS cluster sizes aligned better

vMotion speed and scale
4 concurrent migrations with 1GigE, 8 concurrent with 10GigE
Migrations 5x faster than 4.0 with 10GigE
Enhanced vMotion Compatibility enhancements

Active Directory integration (host-level)
vSphere Client options to configure ESX/ESXi to authenticate against Active Directory

More VMs, more hosts
3000 VMs per cluster
1000 hosts per vCenter
10000 VMs per vCenter

I can also confirm that the new 5-day vSphere: Install Configure Manage course will be based on the 4.1 vSphere release.

So what is a VATC?

2010-07-06T16:45:00.004+01:00

As you probably know by now, I work for Global Knowledge in the UK as their Lead Instructor for VMware, Global Knowledge are a VMware Authorized Training Center (VATC) in many countries around Europe, the Middle East, Africa, as well as in North America.

VATCs are VMware training partners, they are appointed by VMware on a country-by-country basis to offer VMware-certified training programs. The VATC model was first launched in Europe and has now spread to every continent worldwide, VMware manage the VATCs in each country to make sure we are delivering training to the high standards they demand.

As a VATC, we run the official courses developed internally by VMware themselves, using equipment that has to conform to certain standards, and courses run by VATCs are delivered by VMware Certified Instructors (VCIs) such as myself - all VCIs must meet a minimum standard of technical and delivery capabilities as defined by VMware.

In the EMEA region, Global Knowledge have VATC status in 11 countries. Here they are, along with links that go to their respective landing pages for VMware training:

Spain = Formación VMware
France = Formation VMware
Germany = VMware Schulung
Belgium = VMware Training
Netherlands = VMware Training
Denmark = VMware Træning
Norway = VMware opplæring
United Kingdom = VMware Training
Egypt = VMware Training
United Arab Emirates = VMware Training
Saudi Arabia = VMware Training

Global Knowledge also have VATC status in North America, in both the US and Canada:

United States = VMware Training
Canada = VMware Training

New 5-day Install Configure Manage course for vSphere 4

2010-07-05T16:10:00.002+01:00

The vSphere: Install Configure Manage (ICM) course was released in the middle of 2009, and is by far the most popular official course on vSphere 4 - those attending the course qualify for the VCP4 certification, and the content covers all the foundation-level skills and knowledge needed to deploy and administer a vSphere 4 environment.

Towards the end of August 2010, VMware will be releasing an updated version of the ICM course, and for the first time it will be a 5-day training event. This will give us the opportunity to cover additional material in the lecture and lab sessions, giving you a more well-rounded experience during the course and helping you further in preparation for the VCP4 exam.

The new content in the 5-day ICM will be:

vCenter Linked Mode
Host Profiles
Distributed Power Management
Deeper content on High Availability
Fault Tolerance

As well as the addition of the new material, VMware have also overhauled and restructured a lot of the content that was previously in the 4-day ICM course. Most of the new material is derived from the content of the current vSphere: Fast Track (FT) course, the 5-day extended-hours FT course will still be available, and will still cover some additional lecture and lab material not found in the new 5-day ICM.

Update on July 13th:
I can confirm that this course will be based on the new 4.1 release of vSphere.