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Reading Time: < 1 minuteI’ve written about my experience with the VCP5-DT exam but I’ve not started (and neither planned) to realize a blueprint with study notes like the one about VCP5.
But actually there are some recent works that could cover this exam:
Reading Time: 3 minutesFor people that need to make practice for the VCAP-DCA exam (and the beta of VCAP5-DCA will start soon) a good lab environment is mandatory. But it could also be useful for other reasons, like demo environment.
There are several options to build one, but most used solutions are using nested hosts on one physical system with:
Actually both solution could be good, but Workstation could not scale too much, expecially if you work with a notebook. For whitebox configurations there are several site (I just suggest this post: Home vLab: my new WhiteBox). But you can also consider a good server (latest are really quite and powerful).
But what about the virtual environment of the virtual hosts and the virtual storage?
Some days ago I’ve seen an interesting project called vSphere 5 Auto Lab that is is a quick and easy way to build a vSphere environment for testing and learning using a single desktop or laptop PC and VMware Workstation, Fusion or ESXi. The whole lab runs in VMs on that one PC, even ESXi runs in a VM and can then run it’s own VMs.
The Autolab download contains a set of shell VMs and a lot of automation. Once built the lab contains two ESXi servers, a Windows Active Directory Domain controller, a Windows Virtual Center, a FreeNAS storage appliance and a FreeSCO Router to link it to the outside world.
Is really interesting how the VM are configured (there are one version for ESXi and one for Workstation) and also how are deployed.
The hardware requirements for the lab are moderate. Hopefully you won’t need to buy a new computer, although you may need to do some upgrades. If you can dedicate a computer to the role then the lab runs extremely well under ESXi.
| Hardware | Minimum | Great Choice | Used to build the lab (laptop bought in 2009) |
| CPU | Dual Core, 64Bit | Quad Core, i7 | Core2 Duo |
| RAM | 8GB | How much can you afford? | 8GB |
| Hard Disk | 60GB free space | 120GB SSD free space | Second SATA hard disk, Laptop OS on small SSD |
| Operating System | 64 Bit | ESXi 5.0 | Windows 7 64Bit |
| Virtualization Software | VMware Player (untested) | ESXi 5.0 | VMware Workstation 8.0.2 |
If you use an ESXi host you can use two unique feature:
In Workstation you have a unique feature that permit to make a linked clone from a VM snapshot (to be host there is also in vSphere but is not directly usable from the GUI… for example it is used in VMware View or vCloud Director). In this way you can reduce the footprint of similar VMs and also reduce number of different blocks that you must access (this make possible run the environment on a SSD or just use better the cache).
Reading Time: < 1 minuteAlthough is not yet on the official certification page, there was a post in the VMware Community with the official path for VCDX5 upgrade: VMware Certification Announces Upgrade Path from VCDX4 to VCDX5.
Current VCDX4 holders in good standing will be able to upgrade their certification to VCDX5 by successfully passing the VMware Certified Advanced Professional 5- Datacenter Design (VDCD510) exam. The VCAP5-DCD exam release date will be announced in May. Release of the VCAP5-DCD final exam blueprint will occur at that time.
VCDX4-holders in good standing who have completed the VCAP5-DCD Beta Exam and achieved a passing score have satisfied the requirements for VCDX5 and are thus certified.
No info yet about the full path, but probably will be the same of the VCDX4… for this reason will probably be announce only then the VCAP5-DCA beta will be finished (actually has not yet started).
In the previous post we have discuss on how convert from VHD (used for example in Microsoft Hyper-V) to VMDK format (used in VMware products). Now let’s see how to convert from the other side.
There are several tools to make this V2V operation:
As you probably already know a VM is incapsulated with a set of files that define VM properties and objects. Some of those files are the virtual disks files and each vendor use its own format: VMware use the VMDK and Microsoft & Citrix use the VHD format. Note that there could be more sub-types (for example for the VMDK files, but we will explain in future posts). To convert between different format you can use some kind of converter to perform a virtual to virtual (V2V) task.
VMware, Inc. today unveiled VMware View™ 5.1 and an updated portfolio of end-user computing solutions designed to empower a more agile, productive and connected enterprise (the product is expected to be available in Q2 2012 ).
There are several interesting news in this new release, and actually seems that not all are yet listed (maybe some feature in the beta will be not released yet).
But more interesting is the new set of products designed to be used with View:
For more information see:
If you want to “play” with Windows 8 Consumer Preview or “Windows Server 8” Beta, then there are several installation options.
This the common solution, but mean the needs of a blank partition, or space to build a new partition, or the possibility to erase your disk. If you choose a dual boot configuration, of course, the bootloader must be modified to add the new entry. Physical installation permit to test most of the features and can give better performance (for example you cannot realize how fast is the boot procedure in an installation on a virtual machine).
Common solution, but that may limit some functions. As already written, for ESXi you need the 5.0 U1 version or a 5.0 version with some patches. For Workstation the 8 version could be fine. It’s a “clean” solution for your system and for test more systems, but is not the best solution for performance.
This is a new option in Windows 8 (but to be honest is really similar at the procedure to install Hyper-V Server on a USB or flash support). It’s a “clean” solution and also quite portable (but system in-dependency is not guarantee after the first boot). You can use a USB stick (or flash card) or an hard disk. But at least 16 GB (or 20 GB in the 64 bit editio) are needed… so an USB hard disk could be better (also for performance aspects). The procedure is not so simple (and actually is not integrated with the installation procedure).
For more infomation see:
This option it’s quite strange (and was introduced with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2). It’s an installation on a virtual disk but it runs in the physical environment (so with native performance and native hardware). It’s quite interesting because you do not need new partitions or un-allocated space, just a free space (40 GB could be fine) to build your system disk in a VHD file (you can create it before, for Windows 7) or during the installation. Again this option is not available during the standard installation process, but it’s quite simple (and you do not need other tools). The bootloader will be modified for the new entry, because you will have a dual boot environment.
For more infomation see:
The simplest option, but you need to burn it to a DVD, unless you are using boot from LAN o or virtual environment or some hardware management tools).
For Windows Server 8 (Windows Server 2012) you can download a VHD file to run it on a Hyper-V enviroment without the need to install.
You your system does not have a DVD reader, you can start the installation from a USB device (hard disk or USB stick or flash).
For more infomation see:
For more infomation see:
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