Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

vmworld

VMworld session added: INF-VSP1168 Architecting a Cloud Infrastructure

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I just got informed that I have been added to the panel session “INF-VSP1168 – Architecting a Cloud Infrastructure” as a speaker. This session will be moderated by Chris Colotti and will have Aidan Dalgleish, David Hill and I as panel members. The session is currently scheduled for Monday, Aug 27, 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM. Almost 500 signed up so far! So if you want to be part of it, I would suggest signing up asap as I am guessing it will sell out!

This session will discuss the various design considerations when architecting the foundation for every solid cloud environment: vSphere 5. We will start with sizing and scaling and provide tips and deep technical facts through out the session. Different examples will be used to show the impact design considerations can have on the availability of your services.

David and I ran this session at Partner Exchange with help from Frank Denneman and Chris Colotti. We received a lot of great feedback and we are hoping it will be no different at VMworld. See you on Monday at 10:30!

VMworld 2012 – INF-VSP1504 – Ask the Expert vBloggers

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It’s that time of year again, and for the 5th year we will be running the Ask the Expert vBloggers at VMworld 2012 in San Francisco!  This is really a great session with the top bloggers answering questions live from the audience. Yes this is your one chance to see Chad Sakac, Frank Denneman, Rick Scherer, Scott Lowe and myself up on the same stage. Last year was a blast, and we had one of the best rated sessions of VMworld, I am sure it will be a blast again this year!  If you haven’t registered already, I strongly suggest you lock in your ticket to VMworld by clicking here.

Once you register, be sure to add INF-VSP1504 – Ask the Expert vBloggers to your agenda!

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VMworld Content Catalog live, here are my recommendations!

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First of all, some shameless self-promotion. Make sure to add the following to sessions to your schedule builder:

Traditionally I always do a list of sessions, when the content catalog goes live, that I recommend attending. I tried to make a top 10, and then I figured that would never work. I ended up with 3o sessions. This list is in completely random order and I am sure I missed out on a few really cool and deepdive sessions but here are the ones I recommend. Note that I tend to recommend technical sessions, if you are looking for high level overviews you probably can skip most of these. If you are like me and love to see technical deep subject matter experts… add them!

  1. INF-SEC1840 – vSphere Hardening to Achieve Regulatory Compliance: Better, Faster, Stronger with Charu Chaubal, Davi Ottenheimer, Ben Thomas and James Sullivan
  2. APP-CAP2956 – Inside the Hadoop Machine with Richard McDougall
  3. TEX2158 – Scalable Virtual Networks with VMware’ VXLAN – Customer Deployment Scenarios with T Sridhar and Ravindra Neelakant
  4. INF-SEC1282 – Automating Security and Compliance with Disaster Recovery Using VCM, vCOps, vShield, VIN and SRM with Michael Webster and Shubha Bheemarao
  5. APP-BCA1516 – Virtualizing SQL High Availability with Jeff Szastak and Michael Corey
  6. INF-BCO2155 – vCloud DR for Oxford University Computing Services – Real World Example with Aidan Dalgleish and Gary Blake
  7. INF-VSP2164 – Automation of vCloud Director Disaster Recovery with Alan Renouf and Aidan Dalgleish
  8. EUC2620 – PCoIP – Tuning, Tactics, and Tools with Chuck Hirstius, Banit Agrawal and Lawrence Spracklen
  9. INF-VSP2448 – Automating Bare Metal to the Cloud and Beyond with Alan Renouf, Jake Robinson and Eric Williams
  10. OPS-CSM1167 – Architecting for vCloud Allocation Models with Frank Denneman and Chris Colotti
  11. EUC1357 – Dispelling the Myths of Desktops as a Service (DaaS) with VMware View with Andre Leibovi and David Stafford
  12. OPS-CIM1775 – VMware vCenter Operations Customers Come Forward to “Tell Their Story” with Ben Scheerer
  13. INF-SEC1840 – vSphere Hardening to Achieve Regulatory Compliance: Better, Faster, Stronger with Charu Chaubal, David Ottenheimer, James Sullivan and Ben Thomas
  14. EUC2021 – A View of Hertz: Real World Lessons Learned Designing, Deploying and Managing View in Hertz with Graham Gordon and Simon Long
  15. INF-BCO2982 – Stretched Clusters & SRM; How and When to Choose One, the Other, or Both with Chad Sakac and Vaughn Steward
  16. INF-VSP1353 – vCenter 5.1: A Technical Deep Dive with Justin King, Ameet Jani and Ratnadeep Bhattacharjee
  17. INF-VSP1365 – Understanding VMware ESXi Security with Kyle Gleed and Yatin Patil
  18. INF-VSP1423 – esxtop for Advanced Users with Krishna Raj Raja
  19. INF-BCO1505 – vSphere Replication: Technical Walk-through with Ken Werneburg and Aleksey Pershin
  20. INF-VSP1168 – Architecting a Cloud Infrastructure with David Hill, Chris Colotti and Aidan Dalgleish
  21. INF-NET2162 – VXLAN Deep Dive with Arun Goel and Kenneth Duda
  22. EUC2005 – Troubleshooting View: Looking under the Hood with John Dodge and Matt Coppinger
  23. INF-VSP1683 – vSphere Cluster Resource Pools Best Practices with Frank Denneman and Rawlinson Riverra
  24. INF-NET2207 – vSphere Distributed Switch – Technical Deep Dive with Jason Nash
  25. INF-VSP1196 – vCloud Director Networking Deep Dive with Kamau Wanguhu
  26. INF-VSP3221 – VM Scare? Heterogeneous Virtualization’s Impact with Chris Wolf
  27. INF-VSP1475 – vSphere 5 Design Discussions with Scott Lowe and Forbes Guthrie
  28. INF-VSP3046 – Cloud Infrastructure Suite: From Management Application to Integrated Applications and Extensible Platform with Ben Verghese
  29. INF-STO1545 – Architecting Storage DRS Datastore Clusters with Frank Denneman and Valentin Hamburger
  30. OPS-CIM1564 – Troubleshooting Using vCenter Operations Manager with Kit Colbert and Praveen Kannan

VMworld 2012 here I come

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I just got the news that two of my VMworld sessions have been accepted. I wanted to share with you which ones so you can keep track (if you want):

  • BCO1159 – Architecting and Operating a vSphere Metro Storage Cluster by Lee Dilworth and Duncan Epping
    In this session Lee Dilworth and Duncan Epping will discuss the design and operational considerations for vSphere Metro Storage Clusters environments, also commonly referred to as stretched cluster environments. Best practices around implementation and design will be shared. Various failure scenarios which can occur in a stretched storage environment are discussed in-depth including how vSphere 5.x responds to these failures. We will cover the implication on your vSphere HA, DRS and Storage DRS configuration and provide recommendations how to increase availability and simplify operations!
  • VSP1504 – Ask the Expert vBloggers with Rick Scherer, Frank Denneman, Chad Sakac, Scott Lowe and Duncan Epping
    Back by high demand, the Ask the Expert vBloggers panel session. Show up and ask any question you like to a panel consisting out of know community members! This was one of the best voted sessions last year and with people like Frank, Rick, Scott and Chad sitting next to me I know it is going to be awesome again. Lets just hope Rick brings his buzzer again so he can buzz Chad when he starts preaching again 🙂

In a couple of weeks when all sessions are listed I will also create a nice “Top 20 – VMworld Sessions” article again, but for now I want to thank everyone who voted and am hoping to see all of you at VMworld.

Win a free VMworld ticket by sharing your vC Ops story update…

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A few weeks back I wrote a blog entry on a “Cool Contest: Tell your vC Ops Story”, and since then we have had some really great submissions but of course we can always use more. As a member of the judging panel I thought I’d share a few thoughts on those who may be interested in entering, but may be hesitant for other reasons.

  1. “What if my story is not good enough”? Don’t let this deter you from entering, you’d be surprised at how success stories can actually seem routine in your own day to day, but in the grander scheme of things prove invaluable to others that may not have the same insight as you.
  2. “I want the ticket to VMworld, but I am not a seasoned presenter”, This is your opportunity to shine!  That is why the panelists (me included) and the VMware team will both help you both prepare (slideware, visuals and dry runs) and present side by side with you – making the experience all the more enjoyable and fruitful!

There is also a good blog on the VMware blog site that provides more guidance on how to enter and advice to what the judges will be looking for.  One last piece of advice, do not put off your entry any longer – the contest runs until July 11th, and the anticipated “mad rush” at the end will only lump your entry with those trying to make the deadline, so just enter now!