Installing VMware vCLI on Ubuntu Desktop
In this post I’ll walk through installing the vSphere vCLI on an Ubuntu desktop to enable remotely running esxtop, vicfg
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VITA
Some VCAP 6.5 DCV Design Exam Study Notes
A couple weeks ago I sat and passed the VCAP 6.5 Datacenter Design Exam. It was a good but tough exam. The VCAP 6.5 Design exam is a bit different from past VCAP Design Exams – there are no Visio type questions. Just multiple choice and “drag and drop” questions.
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VMware Free Self-paced eLearning
Some free elearning resources for my ITN classes (and for everyone) – here are some great free self-paced elearning for vSphere 6 and vSphere 6.5.
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Setting up the Weathervane Benchmarking Tool in the Home Lab
Standing up Weathervane in the home lab will provide hands-on for developing skills like creating a template VM, creating a guest customization specification, working with some basic Linux commands, working with an app with multiple tiers, creating a guest customization specification, cloning VMs, and monitoring performance metrics. This post provides an overview of how I set up Weathervane in my home lab, an example of the results generated from the Weathervane runs, and a look at the performance metrics I observed in lab during the Weathervane runs.
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Learning the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA)
It has been a good while since I have worked with vSphere Management Assistant (vMA). I used it fairly often when I was managing a vSphere environment. Since I am teaching the vSphere Optimize and Scale class during the winter semester I spun up the vMA in the homelab to re-introduce myself to it.
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Working with ISO Images in the vSphere Client.
Here are a couple of basic guides I put together for the VMware ITN classes at TCC. Back to basics for sure, but not everyone works with vSphere environments regularly, so this provides a guides for basic tasks – Uploading an ISO Image to a ESXi Datastore and Attaching an ISO Image on a local disk to a Virtual Machine.
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SSL Certs for View Access to TCC Labs
I have been working on a project to provide labs for the VMware IT Academy Program and the Cyber Security Program offered at Tidewater Community College. This post covers the process I followed and includes some of the resources I found helpful for replacing the default self-signed certificates with certificates signed by a CA.
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Book Review: IT Architect: Foundation in the Art of Infrastructure Design
IT Architect: Foundation in the Art of Infrastructure Design is well written and an easy read. I read it cover to cover over a couple nights. I found myself marking multiple pages to refer back to. It is packed with a great deal of useful information for both the seasoned Architect and those who are looking to gain a bit more insight on the process for creating a high quality design. The book focuses on enterprise class, but the design process can easily be (and should be) applied to any size or type of datacenter design.
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Updating VCSA to 6.0U2 using the Appliance Management UI
I just finished updating my home lab to 6.0U1b yesterday and today VMware has released 6.0 Update 2 for both vCenter and ESXi. Figured I would write up how easy it is to update the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) to Update 2 using the Appliance Management UI.
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Anatomy of a vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB)
I just finished updating my home lab ESXi host to ESXi 6.0U1b. I was just poking around after doing the update and thought it might be useful to dig into the vSphere Installation Bundle or VIB. A VIB is an installation package which containing software, updates, patches, and drivers which can be installed on ESXi hosts.
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Lab Deployment PowerCLI Script for TCC VMware ICM Class
Finished up another successful vSphere 6 Install Configure Manage class at Tidewater Community College last week. Time to re-provision the lab environments to get things ready for the next class.. This is a PowerCLI Script I put together to help automate the lab deployment for TCC VMware IT Academy classes.
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