The SLOG - SimonLong/Blog

VMware VCAP4-DSA Available From 13th September 2010

Simon Long — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:14:33 +0000

Scott Vessey has just announced on his VMTraining Blog that the new VCAP4-DSA Exam will be available as of the 13th September.

I've been waiting for this for a while as I missed the opportunity to site the Beta exam. So, I'm off to grab the latest copy of the Exam Blueprint to start preparing.

Good Luck!

Related posts:

VMware MVP – Coming Soon?

Simon Long — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:06:06 +0000

Remember this?

Watching this brought back the excitement I felt after the VMware MVP presentation that VMware made back at VMWorld 2008. Since then it's all been quiet…..Until now.

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VMworld 2010 – San Francisco vBeers

Simon Long — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:08:08 +0000

VMworld San Francisco is looming and there have already been some great events announced such as VMUnderground’s WuPaaS on Sunday evening(for more details see here) and the Official VMworld Tweetup (details here) on Monday.

With VMworld kicking off on a Monday this year many folk will be rolling into town over the weekend so what better time to arrange a nice social get together on the Saturday night before the main event’s festivities begin.

Based on this Simon Seagrave and myself put our heads together and thought that a vBeers sounded like a jolly good idea, so if you’re in San Francisco on the Saturday night and would like to come and meet fellow virtualizationgeeks enthusiasts then make a note in your diary and come along. All welcome and the more the merrier!

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vBeers: August 5th 2010

Simon Long — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:47:45 +0000

Hi guys, just a quick post to remind you that the next vBeers will be help this Thursday, August 5th. The last vBeers was great fun, I met a lot of new people so I'm hoping there will be more new faces again this time. This time I must remember to eat something!!

When & Where

The London vBeers is held on the first Thursday of every month starting at 6pm in ‘The Cittie of Yorke’ pub which is placed centrally to both London’s West End and The City. This venue serves a fine of selection of English beers along with soft drinks and bar snacks.

Location: The ‘Cittie of Yorke’, London
Address: 22 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6BS
Nearest Tube: Chancery Lane
Time: 6:00pm
Ye Olde Map: MAP

What are vBeers?

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VCP Changes Post vSphere 4.1

Simon Long — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:31:31 +0000

VMware have just released their latest version of vSphere, version 4.1. There are a lot of new features and changes, all of which can be found here: What’s New in vSphere 4.1

So, what does that mean for you if you're about to start studying for the VCP exam? Well I've heard from an "unofficial" source that the VCP will always be related to the current software version. I'm waiting on official confirmation of this from VMware, but Scott Vessey is very seldom wrong and his Blog is where I found this information.

So from now on, I'd recommend using the latest vSphere 4.1 Documentation as part of your VCP Studies and the latest version of the VCP Exam Blueprint which you can download from here

Update: If VMware decide that there are features in vSphere 4.1 that would be benifical for a VCP to know, then they will release a new Exam Blueprint with the relevant changes in. I of course will let you know if this happens and I will also do my best to change my online blueprint links page to suit.

Related posts:

VCP vSphere 4 Practice Exam

vBeers: July 1st 2010

Simon Long — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:15:09 +0000

Hi guys, just a quick post to remind you that the next vBeers will be help this Thursday, July 1st.

When & Where

Location: The ‘Cittie of Yorke’, London
Address: 22 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6BS
Nearest Tube: Chancery Lane
Time: 6:00pm
Ye Olde Map: MAP

What are vBeers?

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I Must Have Done Something Right In A Previous Life

Simon Long — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:29:34 +0000

What an amazing past two weeks it's been…….

vExpert

About two weeks ago I received an email from John Troyer from VMware notifying me that I have been awarded the vExpert award. This was one of my targets for the year, so I have to say that I am very happy to recieve this award. For those of you who don't know what the vExpert award is, here is a little quote from the vExpert landing page.

The VMware vExpert Award is given to individuals who have significantly contributed to the community of VMware users over the past year. vExperts are book authors, bloggers, VMUG leaders, tool builders, and other IT professionals who share their knowledge and passion with others.

It's quite an honor when you see the list of others who have also been the vExpert title. For a comprehesive list have a look at Armin Van Lieshout's vExpert Directory.

Hitachi Data Systems, Blogger Day

I had the pleasure of spending most of last week over in California attending the Hitachi Data Systems Bloggers Day. This was another great experience. I caught up with some old friends and have made some great new friends. I'm not going to go into too much depth about my visit as I plan to write a post which will give you a little more detail into what I got up to at HDS.

As you can see, things have been pretty good for me. But it doesn't stop there, I'm pleased to tell you all, I have landed my dream job!!!

NEW JOB!!!

In August 2010 I will be joining VMware as a Senior Consultant. I CANNOT wait! I will be working in a team consisting of some of best Virtualisation Consultants in the world, Including Frank Denneman, Hany Michael, Kenneth Van Ditmarsch. This for me is the icing on the cake. This is a job I have wanted since I first started working with ESX 3 back in 2007.

Related posts:

Hitachi Data Systems’ Bloggers Day #HDSday

Simon Long — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:16:24 +0000

It's 6am here in San Jose, as you can tell I have a little jetlag. If you regularly follow me on Twitter, you'll probably know that I am over here in the US for the Hitachi Data Systems' Bloggers day which takes place tomorrow and Wednesday.

I'll be joined today by a small list of other bloggers, some of wish I've met before at the Gestalt IT Tech Field Days. So I'm really looking forward to catching up with them and meeting the other guys who I have only chatted to on twitter. Here is a list of the attendees for you to follow.

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VMware ESXi 4 Log Files

Simon Long — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:05:24 +0000

Like most VI Admins, I've been using VMware ESXi quite a lot more lately and I'm slowly coming across things that are different to how they are in ESX. Log files being one of these differences.

With the absence of the Service Console, ESXi presents a slightly different architecture. If you haven't yet read The Architecture of VMware ESXi, I would recommend having a good read through.

Differences between ESX and ESXi logs

Here is the common log file structure in ESX (Source)

/var/log/vmware/hostd.log – ESX Service Log
var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log – vSphere Client Agent Logs
/var/log/vmware/aam – VMware HA Logs
/var/logvmkernel – VMKernel Messages
/var/log/vmkwarning – VMKernel Warnings
/var/log/messages – Service Console Log

Here is the common log file structure in ESXi

/var/log/vmware/hostd.log – ESXi Service Log
var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log – vCenter Agent Logs
/var/log/messages – Syslog Log (Combines vmkernel & hostd)

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Using vMA As Your ESXi Syslog Server

Simon Long — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:18:13 +0000

This is something I did a while ago, but it came to my attention that people didn't; a) Know that it's recommended to use a syslog server with ESXi b) You could use an application built in to vMA called vilogger.

Although it is stated in The Architecture of VMware ESXi…..

Because the in-memory file system does not persist when the power is shut down, log files do not survive a reboot. ESXi has the ability to configure a remote syslog server, enabling you to save all log information on an external system.

…..it is not a well known fact. So that is partly the reason for writing the post. The other reason is to introduce you to vilogger, which is part of the vMA. Of course you can use which ever syslog server you wish, if you plan to use your own, be sure to checkout Managing VMware ESXi page #68 to view the configuration steps.

I'm not going to take you through the steps of installing vMA, nor am I going to tell you all about what the vMA (vSphere Manage Assistant) does. If you want to read more about that please find the relevant links in the Sources section at the bottom of the page. But I am going to take you through the steps I took to use vMA as my ESXi syslog server.

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