Month: May 2016

Passed VCAP5-DCD!!! v5.5 Exam Experience/Review

May 5, 2016 Bilal Ahmed 0

I took VCAP5-DCD 5.5 and passed with a 334!!! I have to say both VCAP exams are the only 2 I have ever done where I have had no idea whether I was in with a shot of passing once I clicked the finish button! I want to thank everyone in the Google+ DCD group, as seriously without the group and the experiences of everyone in it, I don’t think I would have passed . It is a tough exam, I have found design a tough thing to do, there are so many what ifs and it depends. I have spent long periods of time very confused…but they say confusion comes before understanding… …..and that is true! My journey to the DCD […]

Desired State Configuration and VMware Orchestrator

May 4, 2016 Kim Bottu 0

This blog post is a follow up on : Creating servers and keeping basic configuration consistent and compliant. I will add more text in the coming week. Because vRealize Orchestrator is very easily accessible for everyone using the vSphere WebClient I think that vRealize Orchestrator is an excellent tool to create servers with great consistency. However what is lacking in vRealize Orchestrator is the ability to keep a consistent configuration in the Guest OS itself. I belief that Desired State Configuration is a great tool to accomplish the consistency in the Guest OS and rather than speaking about the advantages of vRealize Orchestrator vs DSC I would say DSC is the ideal partner in crime for vRealize Orchestrator! Please take note […]

vRealize Orchestrator Server Creation Workflow

May 4, 2016 Kim Bottu 0

This post is a follow-up on the following posts: Desired State Configuration and VMware Orchestrator Creating servers and keeping basic configuration consistent and compliant. There is still some work to be done on this workflow, but it gives you a nice idea what is possible and yes the workflow works perfectly! To keep this post from getting very long I will assume you know how to install vRealize Orchestrator. If you do not, I will create a post later about how to install and configure vRealize Orchestrator. In my own environment I have chosen not to use the embedded vRealize Orchestrator that comes with vCenter but to use the appliance. This prevents resource contention and in the case of complete […]

Creating servers and keeping basic configuration consistent and compliant

May 4, 2016 Kim Bottu 0

I am a strong believer that whatever you develop should be, if possible, easily usable by any administrator with sufficient access rights. Hence, maybe not everyone will be involved thinking about better ways of deploying servers and services (in this case), but I do think that everyone with sufficient rights should be able to use whatever automation developers create and should be able to apply those automation rules easily to any server. I believe in innovation and sharing innovation with colleagues. So here is something I am testing in DEV something that is not hard to maintain once it has been setup and where parameters and servers can easily be changed by everyone with of course the necessary access rights. Creating servers with […]

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vSphere Design Workshop v5.5 Review

May 2, 2016 Bilal Ahmed 0

So after doing all that studying, I thought it was time to delve deeper into the design side of things! Coming with very little design knowledge, I decided to take the official design course. I did a lot of research and read a lot of reviews with regards to the course, as I would be paying for it myself. Point to note every course I have ever been on……I HAVE PAID FOR MYSELF. All the studying has been in my own time, the best any company has done for me is pay for my exam. So when people tell me they don’t have the time, or cant afford it, I call bullshit! It takes sacrifice, all this effort I have put […]

Is the VCDX worth it?

May 2, 2016 Graeme Vermeulen 0

I’m a bit of a certification junkie. I love setting goals to get certifications, booking them… and eventually getting that piece of paper that says I know what I’m doing! I do at times ask myself – “is this really worth all the effort?” I hope that if you ask yourself the same question, this post will help. We go to school for ~12 years, learning about subjects that have very little practical application in the real world. We learn important things like spelling, writing – but do we ever learn how to put together a professional email? In fact, we don’t even learn this in University (unless business administration is one of your majors of course). We learn how […]

NSX 6.2 + vSphere 6+ SRM

May 1, 2016 Kim Bottu 0

Since NSX has replaced vShield in the VCAP6-DCV DESIGN exam, we have to know the topology of how NSX integrates with vSphere. Hany Michael has done all the hard work and has placed the diagrams online. You can find them here. Michael hosts the full Quality picture on his site as a PDF. Please click the linkand generate some traffic on his site! NetSkyX-NSX62-vRA70-SRM60-vS60-ReferanceArchitecture-W14.pdf http://www.networkskyx.com/ http://www.networkskyx.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/NetSkyX-NSX62-vRA70-SRM60-vS60-ReferanceArchitecture-W14.pdf http://www.networkskyx.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/NetSkyX-NSX62-vRA70-SRM60-vS60-ReferanceArchitecture-W14.pdf