Quick pro tip for large hotel A/C systems. #vExpert

So I read somewhere that many hotels don’t actually let you set the temp above or below certain thresholds. Unless… you are a VIP. I googles for a while a found that most systems will allow you to reset your hotel room wall digital thermostat into VIP mode with the following steps:

 

  1. Hold down thee Display button. Keep it held down till the end of the proceedure.
  2. Press the Off button and release it.
  3. Press the Up button and release it.
  4. Now release the Display button.
This should put your thermostat into VIP mode and allow you to get your room temp down to a cooler temp if you like it that way. When I am in Vegas especially during the summer for shows like VMworld I can never get enough cool air around me. So far this seems to work.
 
If you find something other than these steps please let me know and I can add this to the blog page.
 

VMworld Day 2 – General Session

As the day kicks off at VMworld today here in lovely hot Las Vegas tons of people are filling the VM Village hang space area around the giant screens.

One of the most interesting quotes from Pat Gelsinger was that “Today is the slowest day in technology for the rest of your life.”  The rate of change in our lives due to technology will continue to increase and speed up.  Very true Pat!

What vSphere/ESX was for the first decades of VMware, NSX could be the same for the next decade.”

There was a long demo of the VMware Cloud on AWS and the integrated products using the “Elastic Sky Pizza Company”

News

VMware, Pivotal and Google Cloud, today unveiled Pivotal Container Service (PKS), which will enable enterprises and service providers to deliver production level  Kubernetes on VMware vSphere and Google Cloud Platform.  It will provide compatibility to Google Container Engine (GKE). This new product will be available later this year in Q4 of calendar year 2017. It will be a standalone product that will work with the Pivotal Cloud Foundry® (PCF). This was all jointly announced by Pat Gelsinger (VMware), Michael Dell (Dell/EMC of course), Rob Mee (CEO Pivotal) and Sam Ramji (Google Cloud). It was interesting the cultural differences seen on stage with the four executives.  Three had sportscoats and dress shirts/slacks on and one had a T-shirt and blue jeans.  Can anyone guess which company was the blue jeans style company?  Let me Google that for you… Yes it was the Google exec.  Now one concession to the Pivotal exec was that he was wearing tennis shoes with his slacks.

NSX, Kubernetes, vRealize Automation, Wavefront telemetry will all be in working in this environment together.

Pivotal and VMware were announced as Platinum Members of the Cloud Native Foundation (Home of the Kubernetes).

There may be additional announcements later in the day.

 

VMworld Day 1 – kickoff

So today was the day of big announcements.  Some things people already knew about and had been waiting for General Availability (GA) and some things that might have been a shock or surprise to some.

  1. VMConAWS – yes that means that organizations will be able to consume AWS services/API stacks running on VMware vSphere. Sewn together with NSX and some other magic sauce. I will have to dig into this further to see how this is provisioned, consumed, managed and what caveats there are. What will be the pros and cons with this. 
  2. VMware announced the release of AppDefense a new model to protect your apps running on virtualized and cloud environments. This will leverage virtualized infrastructure to monitor running applications and report deviations and correlations from known good states.  This was previewed last year at VMworld 2016 as Project Goldilocks. 
  3. Products also getting a new version were vRealize Network Insights, VMware Integrated Openstack, a new vSAN offering and a new product called: vSphere Scale-Out which will enhance BigData and HPC environments.
I will be digging into these new items further down the line.  
 
For me today was a pretty big day in that I took and passed my VCP-NV exam for VMware NSX.  This was a big step in getting back to the basics.  I hadn’t taken a vendor Professional level exam in almost 2 years. In fact the last exam I took was my VCAP-DCA5 exam at VMworld 2015.  I have already started on plans for the VCIX-NV. 
 
This evening I was able to have some time to celebrate and see some vendors at various parties.   Thanks to BigSwitchNetworks, Zerto, and Nutanix for their parties that I was able to attend and also a thanks to Tintri for the invitation but also apologies in that I wasn’t able to make it to your event.  See everyone online tomorrow with more breaking VMworld 2017 news.
 

Pre-VMworld Day 2 – PEX Breakouts

Partner Exchange is all about enabling the VMware Partner ecosystem.  Since some of the things during this period are under embargo until released tomorrow (8/28/2017) My focus has been EUC and NSX and thus this will be my schedule today:

  • NSX Assessment-led Selling
  • NSX Advanced Security
  • Business Growth Keynote – Embracing Digital Transformation
  • Business Growth Keynote – The Future of Cyber Security

Depending on the content in each of these sessions I may opt out and head over to the Hands On Labs (HOL) here at VMworld.  During my lab time I am focused on NSX.

Pre-VMworld Day 1 – PEX Bootcamps – NSX LiveFire Bootcamp – notes

Deep dive on VMware NSX and implementation best practices.

Security considerations – Cluster design – Distributed Firewall rules

Important to remember to create an exclusion for your vCenter and External Platform controller from the Distributed Firewall rulesets being deployed if you have default rules or you may “accidentally” disable access to your vCenter and it’s communication to/from the NSX Mgmt platform.

Policy Policy Policy – This simplifies your network security.

Leverage vCenter objects and especially Security Groups to abstract workloads. This will allow for more dynamic policies and are setup as static memberships or dynamic memberships. Of course by definiton dynamic groups are much more flexible.

Security tags are stored in the NSX Mgr database separately from vCenter tags. These are defined as part of service composer blueprints.

This LiveFire training focused on NSX-v and not NSX-t.

Please excuse any typos as I was typing this on my iPad.

2017 VMware vExpert and vExpert NSX 2017

Just got confirmation of current status on my vExpert for NSX 2017.  I was in the first group of VMware vExpert NSX back in August 2016.  I had applied for the current 2017 vExpert NSX but somehow my name was overlooked.  Thanks to @vCommunityGuy Corey Romero fixing this oversight I am back in among a great group of people who love NSX and how it will radically change the way you do network.

vExpert 2012-2017

vExpert NSX 2016/2016

@Spousetivities #VMworld – Why it’s important

Ok so let me get this started.  I like conferences.  I am an extrovert and love talking to people.  But… I don’t like being gone for long periods of time without my wife.  So back in 2010 I think I heard about @Spousetivities and how there were sponsored events and activities for my wife to go do while I am “networking” at VMworld.  This was an awesome thing.  We have been in both San Francisco and Las Vegas for VMworld and there are times and places that may not always be the safest.

While she can take care of herself I do worry about other people and worry about her finding things to do that she will like.  Crystal Lowe definitely came up with a solution to a problem that no one realized was there.  In the true meaning of Entrepreneur she found a need and went about filling it.  I am glad that Jill can hang out with all the @Spousetivities bunch each year and get to do some amazing activities.  If you haven’t brought your spouse or significant other along to a conference because they feel like it will be boring to be inside at a hotel or resort all day then go take a look at Spousetivities.com.  There also amazing sponsors who can get your other half into parties with you in the evenings.

I really liked the shirt that Jill came back with a couple of years ago.  She was definitely the #vCutie!!

I would like to thank the following sponsors and people involved for @Spousetivities #vmworld 2017:

@rhipecloud Rhipe Cloud

@TVPStrategy vPractice – TVPStrategy

@veeam https://www.veeam.com/

@myVMUG https://www.vmug.com/ Join this for the VMUG Advantage and get access to licenses for your VMware Home Lab.

@VMWareNSX VMWare Network Virtualization Blog

@datrium https://www.datrium.com/

@actualtechmedia http://www.actualtechmedia.com/

 

Getting ready for VMworld and Partner Exchange 2017

Working to clean up my blog and update things to help me live blog/tweet during VMworld 2017.  Looking forward to a bunch of announcements and seeing tons of tweeps/vExperts/VCDX folks and others.  It’s always great to catch up and talk shop with other aficionados.

Personally I am trying to pack lighter this year and be more selective in the Expo Hall floor swag that I get.  There is so much I often end up with that gets pitched when I get home.  How do you feel about the things you get at booths and at parties?  One of the things I really want at parties is some real food.  Something that is not a finger food that leaves me still hungry and does not have enough capacity to absorb alcohol.

DellWorld 2015 Press Release – Hybrid Cloud integration

 

Dell Introduces Industry-First Hybrid Cloud System with Bold Payment Structure to Simplify and Minimize Risks of Cloud Adoption

  • Dell and Microsoft partner to simplify and accelerate customers’ journey to hybrid cloud
  • New hybrid cloud solution unveiled today in keynote discussion between Michael Dell and Satya Nadella
  • New Dell Hybrid Cloud System for Microsoft, featuring the Azure-consistent Microsoft Cloud Platform System Standard, radically simplifies customer cloud experience, control and automates maintenance 
  • Dell’s unique Cloud Flex Pay is a compelling, flexible payment solution that transforms CapEx to OpEx, and allows customers to gain experience with usage levels before committing
  • Dell’s differentiated cloud solutions deliver customer value on a variety of workloads wherever they are on their cloud journey

 

Dell Hybrid Cloud Dell today announced the expansion of its cloud portfolio with a new hybrid cloud solution, featuring technology jointly developed with Microsoft, designed to break down the barriers customers experience on their path to cloud. Additionally, Dell also is offering an industry-unique payment solution to help customers simplify and minimize risks associated with cloud adoption. 

According to a recent Dell worldwide poll of IT decision makers (ITDM)[1], 9 in 10 say a hybrid cloud strategy is important to achieve a Future-Ready Enterprise. And, the recently unveiled Dell Global Technology Adoption Index (GTAI 2015) revealed that 55 percent of organizations globally indicated use of more than one type of cloud. The GTAI 2015 also cites cost and security as the biggest barriers to adopting and implementing cloud, and complexity is the barrier most often associated with hybrid cloud.  

 

“The challenges most customers face on their cloud journey are clear. They tell us it’s too complex, the cost-risk is too high, and control isn’t transparent,” said Jim Ganthier, vice president and general manager of engineered solutions and cloud at Dell. “When you couple Microsoft’s unique Azure consistency from public to private cloud and Dell Cloud Manager integrated with the Dell Hybrid Cloud System for Microsoft, customers now have unparalleled cloud governance and control. With our new Cloud Flex Pay program, cost-risk is all but eliminated. These Dell innovations demonstrate we’re the only company today to provide the full range of cloud infrastructure, software, services and payment solutions to help customers unlock the promise of hybrid cloud.”

Dell Hybrid Cloud System for Microsoft Rapidly Deploys in Less Than Three Hours
Extending the success of Dell’s exclusive collaboration with Microsoft on its Cloud Platform System Premium, Dell has announced the availability of the Dell Hybrid Cloud System for Microsoft, which is built around the new Microsoft Cloud Platform System Standard, highlighted today in a Dell World keynote discussion between Michael Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. This new system is designed to break through the hybrid cloud adoption barriers of complexity, cost and control. 

The Dell Hybrid Cloud System for Microsoft is the industry’s first integrated, modular hybrid cloud solution. This new system delivers simplified, automated deployment and maintenance capabilities; a unique payment solution to reduce customer investment risk; and unparalleled hybrid cloud governance, control, and policy-based automation for Microsoft Azure and other cloud environments. 

“Customers want to simplify and accelerate their journey to the cloud, and today Microsoft and Dell are extending their collaboration to remove many of the traditional barriers to hybrid cloud,” said Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise, Microsoft. “With CPS Standard, which is at the heart of the Dell Hybrid Cloud System for Microsoft, we’ve worked together to deliver a solution that goes beyond other integrated systems on the market today, by providing Azure-consistent hybrid cloud services and a fast time to value to help customers enable their hybrid cloud strategy.” 

The Dell Hybrid Cloud System for Microsoft provides customers with:

  • On-premises private cloud, with consistent Azure public cloud access in less than three hours, and minimized downtime with unified system updates that are non-disruptive, fully automated, dependency-aware and smart-sequenced. 
  • The ability to build and provision workload templates and flexibly deploy business services and governance models of multiple cloud environments from one management construct, via out-of-the-box integration with Dell Cloud Manager (DCM)
  • Unified, simplified private-with-public cloud management and consumption control across Windows Azure Pack (WAP), Azure and other cloud services.

The Dell Hybrid Cloud System for Microsoft is built around CPS Standard, which combines optimized Dell modular infrastructure with pre-configured Microsoft CPS software, including Microsoft’s proven software stack and Azure Services for back-up, site recovery and operational insights. Additional services from Dell include ProSupport and Managed Cloud Services.

Dell Creates Differentiated Payment Solution for Hybrid Cloud System for Microsoft 
Dell today added Dell Cloud Flex Pay to its portfolio of Scale Ready Payment Solutions, which Dell uniquely designed to accelerate customer adoption of cloud solutions wherever they are on their cloud journey. 

The Dell Cloud Flex Pay program provides customers with an industry-first option to deploy the Dell Hybrid Cloud System for Microsoft in a flexible, cost-effective way. Dell is making this payment solution available for the Dell Hybrid Cloud System for Microsoft so customers can experience the benefits of hybrid cloud without making a long-term commitment. This cost-risk relief helps customers experience hybrid cloud usage levels before committing to the purchase. 

For example, an IT decision maker may be challenged in predicting test and development usage levels. Issues such as underuse and unanticipated demand can increase investment risk, lead to services gaps and not maximize capital budgets. Cloud Flex Pay eliminates these risks, gaps and inefficiencies, enabling the IT decision makers to gain practical experience, greater certainty in planning, and make sound future cloud solution investments.

At the end of the initial six-month term, customers have several options available, including the ability to extend the evaluation period, continue to use the solution, return it or take ownership of it.

Dell Cloud Solutions Momentum and Investment
Dell’s investment and innovation in cloud solution development supports varied enterprise data center workloads, applications and operating systems, addressing new customer demands and industry trends that allow customers to find value in cloud wherever they are on their cloud journey. Dell this week unveiled new products and milestones to its cloud solutions portfolio:

  • New Dell Administrator for Office 365 enables secure, effective control of Office 365, SharePoint and OneDrive for business through a consolidated, intuitive console that empowers IT administrators to better manage, report on, and utilize existing collaboration platforms to improve ROI of the Microsoft stack across the business. IT Admins can extend their management to on-premises deployments making this the perfect adaptable platform for any deployment type. 
  • New Dell Foglight for Virtualization 8.3 gives organizations the power to manage performance from the virtual and physical server layer and optimize to increase the performance of private cloud environments running on Dell servers, all from a single-pane-of-glass view. New Dell OpenManage Essentials integration with patented analytics now found in Foglight for Virtualization allow customers to visually correlate virtual workloads down to the server environment in real-time, as well as historical views to detect performance issues before they impact the business. 
  • Dell has been chosen by Markit, a leading global financial information services company, to power and support its new platform, Know Your Third Party (KY3P). 
  • The Dell Cloud Clinical Archive is the industry’s largest cloud-based, vendor-neutral clinical archive, and now manages more than 10 billion images and 100 million medical studies. Dell’s understanding of the current demands on IT, as well as future demands around breakthroughs in healthcare such as genomics, has prompted customers to move their imaging systems to the Dell Cloud Clinical Archive. 
  • Dell’s fully-managed cloud solution for medical practices and providers has helped lower costs, manage complex healthcare IT systems, address security requirements and handle staffing challenges for hundreds of physicians. During the past four years, Dell has doubled its physician business from 21,000 users to 43,000 users and from 8.6 million to 16.7 million logins.