Manny Sidhu, Author at

My experience with the VMware Cloud on AWS – Master Services Competency Specialist Exam 2019

May 21, 2020 Manny Sidhu 0

The other day I happened to jump onto Jeffrey Kusters’ blog and saw his post about him passing this test last year. The post got me thinking. I was lucky to get some hands on experience with HCX late last year albeit not to the cloud from legacy on-prem to VCF on-prem. I also have had experience with SRM and more recently with NSX over the years during my time in the trenches. It looked like I checked off the main boxes for having the skills to get through the test. Jeffrey’s compiled links and notes came in handy, so did Manish Jha’s blog posts located here. Jeffrey’s mind map was very useful too to make it all sort of […]

NSX-T Error – Failed to uninstall the software on host. MPA not working. Host is disconnected

April 23, 2019 Manny Sidhu 14

I was starting over in my NSX-T 2.4 Datacenter Ravello lab, when I suddenly had this error show up. I reckon I was too hasty in removing something (which I don’t quite remember what) that the uninstall process would not complete and this error showed up: No amount of trying to reconfigure NSX on the host/cluster would help: CLI to the rescue. While the process to uninstall NSX-T from a host is documented in this VMware kb, it doesn’t quite tell us how to connect to a host’s NSX-T CLI. So here’s the process, elaborated a bit more than the kb article: Putty to NSX Management Cluster’s IP/DNS name Log in with the admin account Get the NSX Management Cluster’s […]

NSX-T 2.4 – Unprecedented Enhancements

February 28, 2019 Manny Sidhu 0

NSX-T 2.4 was released about 16 hours ago when VMware’s NSBU put this blog post out. Some pretty cool enhancements to NSX-T in this release have been introduced with some of the key ones being around application-centric SDN, Ansible orchestration, API consumption, data visualization and security, Day 2 and beyond operations (upgrades, troubleshooting and migration). IMO, this brings T just about at-par with V, probably surpasses it. The version isn’t GA by the looks of it, since there isn’t a download available just yet: I took about an hour and a bit to run through what’s available to learn up about this major release and here it is for your easy reading: Increased manageability: A converged appliance cluster that slices […]

Why you should attend your local VMUG User Conference

January 25, 2019 Manny Sidhu 0

The local VMUG User Conference is fast approaching (March 21, save the date!), preparation’s in full swing and the VMUG leaders are working hard to make the event a success. While I can’t tell you the agenda just yet because it’s being finalized, what’s public information is the fact people of the likes of Brian Madden, Chris Wolf and Cody de Arkland will be there to present keynotes and a session or two. That’s reason enough to be there! The event’s free too in case you didn’t know. So head on over to the registration page here for the Melbourne chapter of the conference. Now why else should you attend the conference? Learn something outside your daily job. Maybe you’ve […]

IT burnout and the urge/need to keep up

January 13, 2019 Manny Sidhu 2

Manny: After I passed my VMConAWS Management test a few days ago and posted about it on LinkedIn/Twitter, a couple of people said to me – You’re killing it mate! Another said – Way to go! Am I really killing it or killing myself? Is it really the way to go or the way to an early grave? Last year was tough for me and the family on multiple fronts. One of the bigger reasons why it was tough was that my father in law passed away. He was only 64. Died instantly after an accidental fall from an old timber ladder that splintered. As he lost his footing on the way down from the roof of his house, he […]

5V0-31.19: VMware Cloud on AWS Management Exam 2019 – Study tips and my notes

January 6, 2019 Manny Sidhu 4

This test had been in my sights for some time, moreso after Graham Barker posted about it last year. I was pretty flat out at work when he made his passing the exam post here and decided to knock it out within the first week of the new year. More importantly, I’m going to deal with VMConAWS this year at my new job, it made even more sense to skill up. So I took the test this morning and passed. I never brag, it only took me about 3 hours of study, most of which was around (and this builds upon Graham’s post): what was where within the SDDC console in VMConAWS billing and consolidation in VMConAWS interoperability and management of […]

How the VCIX-NV changed my career and life

December 4, 2018 Manny Sidhu 0

About two and a half years ago, I used to be in a VCDX prep Slack group comprising of the likes of Grant Orchard, Niraj Naidu, Anthony Spiteri, Tim Williams, Craig Waters, Jeff Wong and a few others. In those days, I was looking for a study group to join to work towards the VCDX. I happened to talk to Craig about it and he suggested I join this Slack group he was a part of. After the introductory banter by the guys already in the group, I settled in and began spending some time towards the VCDX. Back then, NSX was a relatively new thing, at least in Australia it was, and Anthony was working towards his VCIX certification. […]

Passed the AWS Cloud Practitioner test

November 29, 2018 Manny Sidhu 0

This morning I sat for and passed AWS Cloud Practitioner test. It was on a whim that I booked it yesterday realizing this was (very) low hanging fruit I could easily pocket. From the AWS certification website: What the exam is about It is really a very basic exam that will test you on things like: What service will do something your business wants What are the benefits of running something in AWS v/s on-premises What type of service will do something better for your business Mostly straightforward questions, I had 65 of them to do in 90 minutes. I got through them all in 40 minutes, didn’t review anything although I did flag 3 questions. Some tips Some questions […]