A way to compliment your official Microsoft course May 21, 2012
Posted by vbry21 in Microsoft Training.Tags: Hyper-V, Microsoft Virtual Academy, SCVMM 2012
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Looking for some additional resource to compliment you Microsoft Official Course
I was recently doing some training on Hyper-V R2 (10215A course) and one of my delegates asked for some training information on System Center 2012, I trawled through the MCT (Microsoft Certified Trainer) website and came to the conclusion that currently Microsoft didn’t have any classroom based Microsoft Official Course as of yet, but then I remembered that I use a nice resource that compliments the classroom based learning, and I also remembered that there was some Virtualisation courses on there.
The resource is called the Microsoft Virtual Academy and is a free resource.
http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com
There are however some beta courses running 10750 and 10751 which will go towards the new Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert in Cloud technologies. I’ve included the offerings from QA training below as I know they’ll be running, sorry but it only seems that they will be running in London, but I’ll have a word and see if we can get some running in the North as well.
Private Cloud Monitoring and Operations with System Center 2012 (Beta course 10750)
Private Cloud Configuration and Deployment with System Center 2012 (Beta course 10751)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional Data Center Administrator v5 or vCAP-DCA 5 May 20, 2012
Posted by vbry21 in VMware Training.Tags: vCAP-DCA, VMware vSphere 5
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The VMware Certified Advanced Professional – Data Center Administrator V5 (VCAP-DCA), it’s coming and so are the courses.
Today I’m heading off on a 300 mile-ish (new word I’ve just made up, it means about 300 miles or so) drive to Wokingham, “why” you may ask? “To sit on the train the trainer course for the new vSphere 5 Optimize and Scale course!”
This new course which is available as general release on 31st July 2012 is one of the recommended courses, along with the Fast Track or ICM course for the vCAP-DCA 5 certification.
So I’ll sit on the course and learn lots and lots of new stuff, which I’ll then hopefully pass onto lots of people sitting on my courses.
The link below will take you to the site with a datasheet listing all of the wonderful things covered on the course.
http://mylearn.vmware.com/descriptions/EDU_DATASHEET_vSphereOptimizeScale_V5_BETA.pdf
Now all I’ve got to do is pass the exam J
FaceTime is it a gimmick? May 19, 2012
Posted by vbry21 in General Stuff.add a comment
I was sitting in our London office feeling quite depressed that I still had another three days until I got to see my wife and kids again, then I remembered that my daughter had just gotten a new iPad, so I got onto FaceTime on my iPad and gave her a call.
Normally I would ring every night on my mobile and talk to the girls for about an hour, but that’s not the same as seeing them.
We spent about an hour talking about the events of the day, I spoke to my wife and my two daughters and when the call was finished I felt much better that I had gotten to speak to them face to face, I was still a little depressed that it’s still three days until I see them, but at least now I can see them every day (wireless permitting).
This technology will become even more important to me as over the next 26 weeks, as I’ll be away from home 14 of them. For me FaceTime is not a gimmick it is a technology I can use to stay in touch with my family, and a smile from my daughters and my wife is quite uplifting.
Backing up the configuration of your ESXi Host May 19, 2012
Posted by vbry21 in VMware blogs.add a comment
Configuration Backup of an ESXi Host
One of the things I always get asked about on my vSphere ICM courses is “why do I need to backup the configuration of my ESXi host if the entire configuration is stored in the vCenter Database?”
Well the answer is, all the configuration data isn’t stored in the vCenter database, a good example is the Standard Virtual Switches, and in this case the configuration is stored locally on the ESXi host.
We sometimes get a case where the delegate deletes the vmnic0 from the vSwitch0 and hey presto vSphere client loses connectivity, the quick fix is to reset the networking through the DCUI and then rebuild the networking through the vSphere Client (great as long as you knew how it was configured, but let’s be honest how many people document their systems).
So how about we actually back up the configuration. Well, we can.
There is a command which is available through the vCLI (command line interface), or the vMA (vSphere Management Assistant) and the command is vicfg-cfgbackup
The vicfg-cfgbackup is used to both backup and restore the ESXi configuration.
vicfg-cfgbackup <conn_options> -s location this would backup the configuration, so an example would be.
vicfg-cfgbackup –server esxi01a –username root –password password –s /tmp/esxi_backup01.txt
To restore an ESXi configuration from backup
vicfg-cfgbackup <conn_options> -l location this would restore the configuration, so an example would be.
vicfg-cfgbackup –server esxi01a –username root –password password –l /tmp/esxi_backup01.txt
The above command will then prompt for confirmation, to not prompt add –q at the end of the command.
To restore back to factory defaults type
vicfg-cfgbackup –server esxi01a –username root –password password –r
The link to the VMware documentation this article is based on is
Of course if you have Enterprise Plus license you could use the Host Profiles functionality as a configuration backup as wellJ, (my preferred method as I don’t have to do any command line)
“internal error has occurred failed to serialize response : VMware vSphere 5″ May 18, 2012
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An internal error has occurred: failed to serialize response VMware vSphere 5.0
On our VMware ICM and Fast Track courses we do a lab that gets the delegates to use the MAP view within the Storage Views Tab, within the vSphere Client.
Quite often we get the error message an “internal error has occurred failed to serialize response”
After some research, I found the document which is linked below.
http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esx-vcenter-server-50-release-notes.html
So after some reading I found the section.
“This problem affects only those ESXi hosts that have been added to vCenter Server without any previous software FCoE configuration. After you enable software FCoE adapters on these hosts, attempts to display Storage Maps in the vSphere Client fail. The following error message appears: An internal error has occurred: Failed to serialize response.”
“Workaround: Configure software FCoE on the ESXi host first, and then add the host to vCenter Server.”
Now we don’t use software FCoE, but we do use software iSCSI, so I think it must relate to software iSCSI.
The fix for the delegates is to remove the host from vCenter and then re-add host and this always fixes the issue (a bit extreme, but it works), the issue will come with distributed virtual switches and templates. The host will need to be removed from the distributed virtual switches and then re-added and the templates will need to be re-added to the inventory.
To re-add template, locate the storage containing the template, find the .VMTX file and then right-click and add to inventory.
The files that make a VMware Virtual Machine May 16, 2012
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In a previous article I put forward the opinion that a Virtual Machine is just a load of files, but what are those files?
A configuration file .VMX
The configuration file if we had a look inside it would list quite a bit of information related to the virtual hardware and associations to the other files that go to make a Virtual machine, some examples of the information contained include, the MAC address for the virtual NICs, the amount of RAM associated with the VM and the serial/parallel port information and other hardware information.
Swap Files .VSWP
The swap files only exist when the VM is powered up and is only used when a host exhausts all of its allocated memory. By default the size of the file is equal in size to the amount odf memory assigned to the VM.
BIOS File .NVRAM
This is a file which is similar to the bios chip associated with a physical server or PC, This file allows us to press the F2 at VM boot and alter the hardware configuration, such as boot order of the virtual devices.
LOG files .LOG
These files contain information related logging and can be useful for troubleshooting, you may see multiple log files, but the current file is always called vmware.log
Virtual Disk Files .VMDK
A VM may have multiple .VMDK files, we’ll have the .VMDK (the disk descriptor file), a –FLAT.VMDK (where the data goes), a –DELTA.VMDK (associated with snapshots) and a –RDM.VMDK (associated with pass though disk, or a Raw Device Mapping.
Suspend State File .VMSS
Think of this of the equivalent of sticking your laptop into hibernation, when we suspend a VM the memory contents is saved to this file.
Snapshot Data File .VMSD
This file maintains information about all the snapshots that belong to the virtual machine.
Snapshot Memory State File .VMSN
This file contains the memory state of the VM at the time the snapshot was taken and will be the size of the VMs RAM, so if a VM has 8GB of RAM then the file will be 8GB.
Template File .VMTX
If the VM is a template it will have a .VMTX file instead of the .VMX file.
Few!!!!! Loads of files but all are really essential.
What is a virtual machine May 15, 2012
Posted by vbry21 in General Stuff.add a comment
What is a Virtual Machine?
The definition that I give people on the VMware ICM course is as follows.
“From the user’s perspective, a virtual machine is a software platform that, like a physical computer, runs an operating system and applications.”
Great but what do we virtualise, do we virtualise the hardware, the operating system or the applications.
This is my opinion, I consider a virtual machine to be the virtualised hardware; I then take that virtual machine and then install the operating system and applications into that virtual machine as if it was a physical computer.
So VMware Virtual machines have multiple files and I consider that the .VMX file is the virtual machine as the file defines the configuration of the hardware.
In a Hyper-V VM the equivalent file is the .VMC
In both cases I’ll agree with the definition that a Virtual Machine is just a bunch of files.
Free Exams from Microsoft (but there’s a catch) May 14, 2012
Posted by vbry21 in Microsoft Training.add a comment
Free Exams “hooray”, however as with everything there’s a catch.
“To help you move to the cloud, Microsoft is offering a limited time* “Two for One” exam offer. When you purchase and take a qualifying exam at full price between April 11, 2012 and June 30, 2012, you will be emailed a voucher valid for the next version exam of your chosen technology path, at no additional cost. Your voucher for the second qualifying exam will be emailed to you when the new exams release and will expire 90 days after the new Certification in your technology path becomes available.”
This is good for me as one of the technology paths is the one that I teach, and that’s virtualisation.
So, take a look at the link and good luck with the exams.
https://www.bsf01.com/creatives/prometric/Microsoft_TwoForOne/TwoForOne_Home.aspx
What’s a Cloud (VMware Definition), and where can I learn all about it May 13, 2012
Posted by vbry21 in VMware Training.add a comment
What is Cloud Computing?
I discovered this on the vCloud Director Course from VMware.
Define Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing is a method and approach to computing that leverages the efficient pooling of on-demand, self-managed virtual infrastructure consumed as a service.
Private Cloud, this is an infrastructure operated solely for an organisation, usually this would be contained within the firewall
Public Cloud, this is a deployment that is accessible over the internet for general consumption.
Hybrid Cloud, is a composition of multiple interoperable clouds, enabling data and application portability.
We hear so much about the cloud, but let’s face it there’s no one definition, the above definition is one I learned from VMware. I’m sure everyone has their own definition. My daughters definition of a cloud is a white and fluffy thing that floats in the sky.
The course I mentioned above however teaches how to configure VMware’s vCloud Director 1.5 product.
The course teaches Installing, Configuring and managing the product, click the link below to get the course outline.
http://mylearn.vmware.com/descriptions/EDU_DATASHEET_vSphereInstallConfigureManage_V5.pdf
MCSA and MCSE welcome back May 12, 2012
Posted by vbry21 in Microsoft Training.add a comment
In my younger days I qualified as an MCSE in Windows NT4, back in those days an MCSE stood for Microsoft Certified Engineer, I then got one in Windows 2000 and then Windows 2003.
I also certified as an MCSA in Windows 2000, back in those days an MCSA stood for Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator, I then got one in Windows 2003.
Then Windows 2008 came out and everything changed, I passed some exams and became a MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist), so was this the same as an MCSA in 2008, I assumed so.
I then passed some more exams and became an MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional), so was this the same as an MCSE, again I assumed so.
But then a few weeks ago I got an email from Microsoft telling me I had become an MCSA in 2008, so MCSA now stands for Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate and appears to be the equivalent of the MCITP.
To get this certification I had passed the exams stated on the following link
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-windows-server-MCSA.aspx
So we now also have the MCSE which now stands for Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert, now based of the exams I’ve passed I will only need one more (exam 246), but the course is still beta so let’s not worry. See the link below for details.
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/mcse.aspx
Cheers
Bry
White and Fluffy (All things virtual) 