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VMware vExpert 2015 benefits

30 March 2015
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Reading Time: 10 minutes

The primary reason for becoming vExpert certainly should not be related to any possible benefits of the program. And once confirmed (for me is the sixth year in a row) you have to think more about what you can give rather to what is to be expected. But I’d be a hypocrite to deny that there are also practical advantages in being a vExpert!

Officially, VMware, according with the vExpert FAQ, say that the biggest benefit of the award is the public recognition as a VMware vExpert Award winner.

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VMware vSphere 6.0 – Upgrade or not upgrade?

27 March 2015
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Reading Time: 7 minutes

The new VMware vSphere 6.0 has so much interesting new features and scalability properties that make interesting for each new environment, but also for existing customers (with an active subscription, so that you can also upgrade your 5.x license keys).

But like each new version you have to make some consideration first and especially before starting the upgrade procedure, so be sure to start from the vSphere Upgrade Center, the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix, the VMware Compatibility Guide, but also read the following notes.

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VMware, vProducts, vSphere none

Backup products and vSphere 6.0 compatibility

26 March 2015
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Reading Time: 5 minutes

Note: there is an updated version of this post.

Some days ago I’ve wrote about why upgrade and why don’t upgrade to the new vSphere 6.0 and one of the main reason was the compatibility aspect.

Not only with hardware (most of vSphere 5.5 hardware is in HCL also for version 6.0), but mainly for the software part, especially the 3rd part software!

And the most important is your backup solutions: if maybe you can accept some risks using a new release of vSphere, you cannot accept the risk of loose your backup or use beta backup product in an environment. Backup must be, first of all, reliable! Compatibility and support are not an option in a production environment.

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My experience with VCIX-NV exam

25 March 2015
3 comments
Reading Time: 9 minutes

The Network Certified Implementation Expert (VCIX-NV) certification is something recent (introduced in October 2014) in the Network Virtualization path on the VMware NSX product. I’ve recently took the exam and I can share my consideration on it.

This exam is just like other VCAP Admins exam (and a pre-authorization is required), and consists of 18 live lab activities and a short pre-exam survey consisting of 9 questions.

The total time for this exam is 210 minutes (seems a lot, but for this exam could not be enough). Candidates who take the VCIX-NV Exam and have a home address in a country where English is not a primary language will have an additional 30 minutes added to the exam time. An additional 15 minutes is provided to complete the survey questions and agreements.

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VCIX-NV study guides

24 March 2015
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Reading Time: 4 minutes

As written in a previous post, it’s possible study for the VCP-NV exam using only on-line resources, but the same it’s not really possible for the Network Certified Implementation Expert (VCIX-NV) certification that require really a good practice with the interface and a well understand of all NSX concepts. This exam is available since October 2014.

As usual, the first source of information is the Exam Blueprint (actually in version 1.7, dated 9 December 2014) that give you a lot of information about the exam and also the environment (note that actually there isn’t a simulator or a demo or a mock).

The virtual environment consisting of a management cluster, multiple compute clusters, and related virtual machines. The lab environment is based on vSphere 5.5 and NSX for vSphere 6.0.2.

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Learning about VMware NSX without having it

23 March 2015
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Reading Time: 5 minutes

One issue about VMware NSX it that it does not exist an evaluation or a trial code in order to study and test it. This because the code is still on a Nicira web site and is much more restricted compared to other VMware code.

Also VMware partner may be not entitled to download it, unless they don’t have the NSX competency. Individual can got an access only through one of the NSX official course: I’ve take the ICM on NSX 6.0 and the access on Nicira web site was granted me at the end of the course (but note only for the NSX for vSphere, not for the NSX multi-hypervisor)…

And it’s funny (and in my opinion also stupid) because if you are already a VCP, a course is not mandatory in order to become a VCP-NV… Also for partner, in order to gain the NSX competency you need to VCP-NV (or two people that follow the course)… so it could really difficult (how can you study something that you don’t have yet?) or costly (courses are not so cheap, and actually there are, at least for the on-line courses, long waiting queues).

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VMware, vNetworking, vProducts, vSecurity

Tuning vSphere 6 for lab environment

20 March 2015
18 comments
Reading Time: 7 minutes

If you plan to build a lab for vSphere 6.0 you can use all the approches for vSphere 5.x (see also Building a vSphere 5 lab): usually using a nested environment (or three physical systems, if you have) as a common platform.

Of course, the other way to test new products it’s just use the VMware Hands on Labs that you can also “broke” or use in a different path compared to the one suggested by the guide. But having a local environment permit more flexibility and more time for testing or learning.

The big issue with vSphere 6 is that the minimim requirement are increased (at least for the ESXi) and now are become hard requirement! You cannot install the product without the right mount of resources. But after the installation you can try to tune your environment in order to free some MB of memory.

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