I’ve been working hard on creating the supplementary page that I discussed and asked for feedback here. I’ve been concentrating on the areas which are mentioned in the VCP4 blueprints, but are not covered in the card at the moment. These are core parts of vSphere, but a probably not as important as the ones on the current card.
This is very much a beta version, and there is still plenty to do. However, as a lot of people are studying for their VCP before the December 31st deadline (myself included), I though it might be useful to everyone to get it out there as soon as I could. As an unfinished beta, I’m looking for any sort of feedback you have. Let me know below if you spot anything missing or incorrect.
So far the new sections are:
- Compliance (Host profiles, esxupdate & Update Manager)
- vCenter Converter
- Backups (vDR & VCB)
- Guided Consolidation
- CLI & vMA – not finished yet
- Orchestrator – not finished yet
Hope you find it useful.
Thanks mate! Will come in handy as I am one of those studying as well 🙂
Wait, what’s the VCP Dec 31st deadline about???
If you are a VCP3, you need to sit your VCP4 exam by 31st Dec or you will be required to sit another qualifying class (e.g. install and configure).
From here: http://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/certification/
# If you are currently a VCP3
* Take and pass the VCP4 exam. This option will only be available until December 31, 2009. The What’s New class is strongly recommended. Beginning in 2010, VCP3s must attend the VMware vSphere 4: What’s New class in order to upgrade.
@forbes
Okay thanks for the clarification. I’m new to VMware and I took the vSphere Install and Configure class in June. I’ve taken the VCP4 exam once but failed and I plan to take it again this month. I was worried that I had to take the VCP4 exam within a certain timeframe after taking the vSphere class.
I’m assuming that I should be fine.
Matt
@Matt
Yeah, its just for existing VCPs or those who had taken a VI3 course. There shouldn’t any restriction on you. Take your time.
BTW, you might want to check out my post here:
http://www.vreference.com/2009/11/07/vmware-exam-resources/
for some pointers when you come to study again.
Best of luck,
Forbes.
Thanks for the info! I have printed off your original double-sided card. It’s very helpful!!!
Matt
Will this be updated soon too?
Yeah, well spotted 🙂 Since this version went out, I finished the Orchestrator section and added a section for esxtop and vscsciStats. I thought the esxtop one was useful enough on its own, so made the little esxtop precis.
Then I started work on a VMware View section, which became so large, that I decided to split that off into a separate one page card. I’ve also done the reading for the ThinApp section and created the notes for those two together (http://www.vreference.com/2010/04/16/free-desktop-virtualization-thinappview-notes-now-available/). So I have switched my focus to finishing a separate card just for View and ThinApp – I think its probably going to be double sided now 🙂
Once that is done, then I’ll get back to this supplement. There are still several small products that I think I can fit into this one. As ever, its just a case of finding the time and hoping the products don’t get superseded before I get it finished.
Forbes,
Have you done any documentation regarding the correct things to monitor in a production environment? I’m specifically looking for anything that would be either capacity or proactive-fault-detection items. There are a wealth of items to look at, but which ones are important and how should the threshholds be set to ensure success? Thanks.
Carter
Hi Carter,
Good question. The short answer is – no I haven’t. You could certainly write a book’s worth about the subject if you wanted the long version 🙂
There is a whole industry of 3rd party vendors that specialize in this sort of thing if you are willing to buy an off the shelf solution. VMware themselves has more than one tool just for these issues.
However if you wanted something cheaper, or more specific to your environment you could create vCenter alarms. Or use powershell/vMA scripts to gather stats (there are a few great communtity ones available).
As for what items you should monitor – that really depends on your own setup. Think about the particular things that would hurt the most, where you are lacking redundancy or where performance is most critical. You would certainly want basic ones for each general area (storage, networking, ESX(i), server hardware, …). Think first about checking for failures, then performance degredation, then capacity tracking. For failures you probably want some sort of automatic alerting (like emails or ticket creation). Performance and capacity issues might be better dealt with something like a daily report.