Certifications

Creating #VMConAWS #NSX-T Firewall Rules and Segments with #PowerCLI

June 6, 2022 Bilal Ahmed 0

Well hello there. I had a customer that was wanting to do some work using scripting to create NSX-T segments and DFW rules in VMConAWS, for their PROD SDDC and for their new VCDR SDDC. Over the years I have seen a lot of people think that copying the VM data and being able to recover is the hard part when that can be the easiest part. Things like VCDR are designed to get your copies of the VMs up and running, but what about the networking and firewall rules you need to ensure communication works and is still secure? So, this ended up being a discussion on the various ways to create rules on both SDDCS and this led […]

HCX and SDWAN with VMC on AWS #HCX #VMConAWS #SDWAN

August 30, 2021 Bilal Ahmed 0

So as of HCX 4.2, it is now supported to have HCX use SD-WANs. The exact requirements are listed here: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-HCX/4.2/hcx-user-guide/GUID-8128EB85-4E3F-4E0C-A32C-4F9B15DACC6D.html I managed to catch up with my buddy @gabe_rosas who I the TPM for HCX, as I had a couple of customers that were curious about this new addition. Based on my discussion with him I thought id make a blog post about it! There was a blanket lack of support for HCX VPN in underlay, as it is essentially a VPN and then HCX creates its own VPN tunnels. Now there is support but you must be careful you are on the correct version and meet all the underlay requirements. So, the fact that it is supported brings […]

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 VMware Certifications changed my life

December 30, 2018 Graeme Vermeulen 1

Manny’s latest post really hit home for me, so I thought I would write one describing how VMware certification changed my life too!  I remember standing in New York at the end of 2013 looking at a poster in the subway, thinking “man, that’s the future”. It was a VMware poster, and although I had worked with VMware all that year (and a little bit in 2012), that’s when it really hit me. I was in the US for a 6-week project, delivering thousands of desktops (with the help of good ol’ SCCM) for a FTSE 100 company. With me, a fellow consultant and a project manager. It was one of the best projects of my life – despite being […]

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 […]

Cisco CyberOps CCNA #CyberOps #CCNA #Security #CyberSecurity

October 25, 2018 Bilal Ahmed 0

So now that I have completed and passed this new CCNA. I thought I would write up a blog post about the whole process. Over the last couple of years, Cisco was giving away free online scholarships for this new certification they were releasing. They provided you with the online materials and gave you a voucher to sit each exam twice for free once you had completed all the relevant online coursework. I had postponed it multiple times due to various other things (VCDX/Linux training etc). This was the final run, if I didn’t do it now there was no opportunity to do it again, so I thought why not I have nothing to lose and a lot to gain! […]

Security 101 Series – Volume 1

September 5, 2018 Don Ward 0

Hello again my old friends! Since my last post https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/career-20-don-ward/ I’ve been keeping my head down below the parapet as I’ve focused all of my efforts on all things security including Cyber. I’ve also been given an ear bending (aka nagging) from my fellow blog founders (Graeme cough cough) to put out more (giggedy – I mean blogs) so it’s time to surface once again. Standard caveats apply to this post in that these are my opinions at the time of writing, subject to change and do not necessarily reflect the same opinions of my current or past employers. Since joining my new organisation Atos as a principal Cyber Security Solutions Architect, the learning curve has been massive and the […]