VMware Certified Professional 4

I was chatting with my buddy Jeremy Pries ( http://www.jeremypries.com/ ) a couple weeks ago and he told me he was studying for the VCP 4 test.  He reminded me that in order to upgrade the cert from VCP 3 to 4, you had to take the test, and pass it, by the end of December 2009.  Zoiks!  I completely spaced that one.  Problem is, if you take and pass the VCP 410 exam by the deadline, you have to take VMware's weeklong training class, again, which will sink another $3000-4000 plus a week off of productive activity.

((UPDATE:  VMware extended the deadline to Jan 31, 2010 "due to overwhelming demand".  I'm glad I didn't know that or I would have procrastinated this another month!!))

So I went and registered for the test.  This was about Tues Dec 15th.  There was maybe 2 seats left at the Pearson VUE certified testing centers in the Twin Cities, and I'd have to take the test the next day.  No go.  I've got a deep VMware background, having worked extensively with the products from ESX 1.5 to 4 since 2003, but I needed some prep time to cover the gambit on vSphere before I thought I'd be ready for this test.

2nd caveat is that VMware was offering a voucher for a free retake of the test if you took it before Dec 22nd.  You could then retake the test again for free (the first round is about $200) before the end of Dec 2009.  So I looked at the available options for testing centers on or before 12/22/09.  Twin Cities, booked.  Immediate cities in the outer ring of the metro, booked.  So I was looking at Brainerd, Alexandria or a trip to Wisconsin.  Since I live on the NW corner of the metro, I picked Alexandria, who had an opening at their tech school on none other than 12/22.  Well I had some personal business to take care of in Alexandria anyway coming up, so I booked that.  Now if I failed the test, I'd have to rebook by the end of the year, which would mean I'd have to find a testing center not already full by the rest of the procrastinators in the midwest.  So I'd be looking at upper Saskatchewan or thereabouts.  I haven't failed a certification test yet, so the better strategy was to pass.

Enter cram time.  I needed to get up to speed on all the little nuances of vSphere, especially all the features hidden in corners that I probably haven't run into in the field yet, but that the crafty exam writers would try to stick me on.  So I did some updating of the lab at my home office, scraped together the systems I had lying around and borrowed a server from my buddy Ryan Grendahl (thanks a ton Ryan) for running ESX 4.0 (you need 64 bit procs, and all I had laying around didn't cut muster).  Here's a quick view of the makeshift lab assembled for cram time:






Now that I'm working from the home office as my primary jump off point, I'm putting a lot more effort into the home lab.  I'll be moving most of this equipment into a dark & cool hole in the basement where I can dedicate a circuit to it and not have the airplane equivalent noise level in my office.

On with the story.  So I got the lab assembled, and worked through most of the install/upgrade portions of test prep as I did that.  ESX 4 is actually a supported guest OS on VMware Workstation 7 and Fusion now.  So I popped up a couple ESX hosts in VMs on my Macbook Pro just for testing the install portions.

I still needed a SAN however for testing VMotion, DRS, HA and the other advanced features of vSphere.  Coincidentally, I had a meeting with a gentlemen named Mike Stolz, VP Sales & Marketing for Stormagic later that week.  It was an introductory meeting for me to get familiar with what they are up to.  Stormagic makes iSCSI SAN software.  They've actually got a long history in the storage business, having gone through many years of evolution with different companies and products over the years.  As Mike tells it, their engineering team was part of the early founders of iSCSI technology.  They've ended up at Stormagic now, who is a startup storage software company.  They've found a niche in the virtualization market working with VMware.  VMware is becoming very attractive to the SMB space as they have conquered entry into the enterprise already.  But the enterprise price points have been too rich for SMB blood, which has created opportunity for competition to set in.  VMware has responded with free versions of software and lower priced packages.  As a complement to that strategy, Stormagic has released SvSAN, a Storage Virtual Appliance.  And it's FREE.  Of course you can pay your thousand bucks or so for an HA feature set, but the base product is free, and always will be, no catches.  It lets you take any storage you can present to a VM via ESX and turn it into an iSCSI storage array.  Full functionality for VMotion etc comes with it. Very cool.  And very handy for my lab.  I came home, downloaded the bits, and had a SAN running in about an hour.  Hats off to Stormagic for making a nice EZ button.

Righto, back off the tangent.  So I got to work on studying, which is a not so excited process of pushing every button in the software, pouring through user guides, and reviewing materials that fellow students have prepared.  I'll keep the suspense to this not so interesting story to a minimum.  I got through the exam in Alexandria this week.  I took the test and scored a 350.  I think the most is 500 and the fail mark is 300.  So I squeaked by.  It wasn't too bad of a test, but there were plenty of questions that came out of nowhere.  The process of elimination serves you well with these types of multiple choice tests.  85 questions, 90 minutes.

Here's proof that I'm a VCP 4.  Don't mind the mugshot on the paper.  The lady doing the admin part of the test was giving me all sorts of librarian rigidness about multiple forms of ID and proof that I'm not a terrorist or criminal etc.  Then she wants my picture, so I gave her the "I'm only here because I have to be here" look.






I've got to take a moment to share some of the resources that helped me in prepping for the exam.

Here's a brief list:


A huge thanks to Simon Long for his blog.  A ton of great material there and a really nice layout that links to the available resources that correspond to the Exam Blueprint.  This is a one stop site for digging in and prepping for the test, or just learning everything you need to know about vSphere in general.

Also, the nameless person that administers vcp410.com, many thanks to you as well.  The day before the exam I perused through his site.  He's got a culmination of questions that could show up on the test that you can use for last minute cramming.  That was helpful as well.

Anyway, VCP 4 is done.  I didn't ace it, but passed nonetheless.  VMware is currently releasing much more difficult certification tracks such as the VMware Design Exam and VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX3).  Jeremy and I were talking about this and decided it's probably best to wait till they have updated the VDCX to v4 before taking it.  No use in going through the effort for ESX3 now that vSphere is where it's at.

If you haven't taken the test yet, good luck, and send Simon Long a few $$ for his hard work in putting together a super nice resource for the community.

Good Luck!

-dave

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Merry Christmas...???

I'm grateful for Christmas and the spirit of giving and gratitude it represents.  This year unfortunately there is a big damper on the season.  I awoke early today, Christmas Eve, long before the wife and kids roll out of bed so I could get a few things done prior to checking out for the holidays.  I look briefly at the news that has come in over the evening and I see that finally the crooked Senate passed their Health Care Reform bill at 7AM EST.  How demoralizing.  Here I am, a hard working capitalist, sacrificing my early morning to get some work done, only to find out that the fruits of my labor are being sold off and stolen by MY elected representatives.  Aaarrgghhh.

I'm incredulous that this could happen in America.  Those that stand for liberty and freedom have been bludgeoned and silenced for so long that finally those who've been vying to seize power over the greatest country ever known to the planet earth are doing it, and we're letting them do it.

For the record, I don't believe for a second that this health care reform bill has anything to do with helping poor people improve their lives by getting health care.  It has everything to do with shifting power to an elite group of central planners.  You see, America was founded on the principle of individual freedom, of the worth of man.  Our government was empowered by the support of every individual human being.

Every individual's vote combined together is what enabled the abstract concept of a binding government decision possible.  This form of government will not be able to continue when that government takes on a mind and soul of its own.  It is drifting far from its roots and has violated the very principles upon which the country, the constitution and the very offices in which these frauds now sit.  The HCR bill is yet another small example of a larger movement toward centralizing government, taking the power of choice, freedom, and liberty away from the individual and placing it in the hands of a select few planners.

The source of America's success has been the bottomless pool of innovation, creativity, and self discipline in which we have been able to swim for over 300 years.  The pool is filled with a magical elixir.  It gives life to ideas, it inspires men who appear common to become incredible.   We have a country founded on ideas inspired and nurtured by men who have been drunk on the elixir, liberty.  Individual liberty.

Unfortunately, the pool is polluted.  Those who claim to love the earth and fight pollution of nature's lakes and streams, are dumping a proverbial toxic waste into the single source of power that enables them to fight against it.  Liberty is all that we have.  It is all that sets the United States of America apart from the rest of the world.  And yes, we are different from other countries.  And no, we should not give up being who we are to become like other countries.  Our system worked well, and we are throwing it away.  There are a small number of power mongers who are polluting the fresh pool of liberty to drown out the source of power that the individual man uses for his sustenance.

They say they do it for the betterment of society, to improve life for the people.  There is no such thing as  "the people".  What there is a whole lot of individuals living together that created a group called government, to protect their basic right, liberty.  The individual created the government.  The individual loaned the government his gun and said, "Here's my gun, I'm loaning it to you so you can protect my life and property, my liberty.  Use it only for those purposes."  At first it worked well, the government protected the individual property of the man who loaned it the gun, the power to kill.  The pure intentions of the individual unfortunately have been violated, the trust of the individual to his government, which he himself empowered, has been crossed, trampled on, and disgraced.  And it has happened slowly and gradually over many decades.

Some little bugger got into the powerful government, made powerful not of itself, but on the backs of all the collective support of every hard working, productive individual in the country.  This little bugger got in there and took the very gun, loaned to it by the individual man, and pointed it back at the individual's head.  It's now being used to take property away from the individual!  What a mockery!  The very power, sourced by the individual man, is what is being used to take his power away.  And it's being done under the insidious guise of seemingly benign charitable causes such as healthcare for all and saving the environment.

The power that will provide healthcare for all, that will save the environment, and life as we know it, is the very power that is being polluted and stamped out.  The world will not cease to exist, it will move forward in some fashion.  But it will not thrive as it has over the last 300 years if we willingly give up the  source of our power.  You see, the central planners may successfully grab all of the power and succeed in taking over America.  But they'll find, that once they've finally got control over this massive ship, that they had to destroy its very engine to get there.  They'll hit the gas and find that there's nothing there.  The RPMs will peg at 10,000 but the transmission will never engage.  It cannot!  You can't steal my source of strength, my free will, my liberty, my money (which represents my freedom), and expect me to give you more, when I have nothing left.  The powerful America will be but an empty shell, a carcass with no life, a semblance of what was, but with nothing left to be.  It will produce no more good in the world for it will be as the rest of the world is, empty.

The pool is rancid my friends.  It is polluted with rancor and stank.  Lady Liberty is being raped, pillaged, and plundered.  And "we the people" are too distracted to realize it.

What a somber way to start the Christmas holiday.  This may be looked back upon as the last Christmas. At least until the individual man says, STOP, and takes their liberty back.  It's not over,but we've got a lot of work to do...

Enjoy your holidays everybody.  Give thanks for the life and liberty you have, and take it back while you still can.

-dave

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GTD Poem

I came up with this simple poem last week when in that hazy time between sleep and wake in the early AM.  As a professional procrastinator and Type A perfectionist, it helps to have this plastered on the wall in front of my desk.

Do it now
Or do it then,
Do it right
Or you'll do it again.

By Dave Payne
Dec 2009


It always takes longer to do things right in the beginning.  But over time, you sure are glad you did, because the time requirement later is minimal.

-dave

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Business wisdom from Nine Inch Nails??

In a time long past, I actually saw Trent Reznor perform live in concert.  Reznor is the lead singer and de-facto leader of NIN, which was big in my circle of friends during my high school days.  On a hot summer evening circa 1993, the fellas headed over to the old "Purple Palace" to watch a medley of Marilyn Manson, the Jim Rose Circus, and NIN.  It was a night to be forgotten to say the least.


In my now middle aged suburban lifestyle, I've toned down my tastes from NIN to artists like Jack Johnson and Brett Dennen (who if you haven't heard by the way, you should, this kid is very badness). Regardless, a link from a friend on Twitter, Ted Hoy, led me to Trent Reznor's twitter page, and from there to the NIN forum.  Seeing personal interaction from hard rock icon Trent Reznor over the web is very different from the last time I had an up and close interaction with him, as one of a mob of fans in a crowded outdated stadium outside of Phoenix, 1993.


It is enlightening is to hear his advice to up and coming musicians regarding the business side of the music industry.  I read through the post, and though I have a deficit of musical ability (dogs howl and ice melts when I sing), I got a lot out of his advice.  Sound principles often transcend industries, and in this case Reznor's advice certainly does.  Whether you're a fan of his music or not, he is obviously a phenomenal marketer. He's built a tremendous following behind the NIN brand that has lasted over 2 decades. Most of my business acquaintances probably would be repelled at NIN's version of art, but could learn a bit from its leader's advice.  Frankly, say what you want about the product, but consider the success of Trent Reznor and NIN as a business.  Can't argue that.


I'll summarize Trent Reznor's advice to the unknown struggling artist, but present it in a more general format, with my own commentaries of course:


- "Establish your goals.  What are you trying to do / accomplish?"


This is the most simple of advice, that is presented in every self help format imaginable, but so often not followed.  Nothing you do matters until you've decided where you want to go.  (Think Cheshire Cat/Alice in Wonderland).  But once you've decided where you're going, and have a little tenacity and self discipline...look out.  "The world will step aside for the man that knows where he's going." 
-Unknown


- Be realistic, if you want to be U2, then you need U2 level product/marketing/promotion.  For the rest of you, you'll need to get scrappy.  Don't expect to be U2 on a Sunday choir budget though.


Wow, how many startup businesses could use a little dose of reality here.  Having started a couple of businesses, I know how easy it is to let the proverbial eyes put more on the plate than the stomach can handle.  I'll be the last person to discourage someone's ambition, because I believe in ambitious world changing goals.  BUT, do a reality check once in a while.  Deciding that it's time for google, facebook, or American Express to step aside for your new business is a BHAG if I've ever heard one, but be ready to have world class products, marketing, leadership, capital (and 349 others) to help you realize the dream.


-  "Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters."


OK, so you probably don't sell records, but the corollary here is that the world isn't just changing, it has changed, forever.  I haven't purchased a CD in nearly 18 decades.  I don't even buy from iTunes.  I pay $50 a year (happily) to Pandora to play me a radio station customized to my likes w/out commercials.  That's a far cry from the old days of carrying around a cd sleeve of your precious collection of music that at least once in your life gets stolen right out of your truck...(bad memory).


Point is, it's not just the music industry that has changed.  The world of abstract intellectual property, from music and art to ideas and concepts, has been flipped upside down.  The internet makes it so easy to exchange information and so fast to distribute that traditional models of selling this content just aren't working.  Trent Reznor's point of view is fantastic, Stop whining about it, accept it, and adapt.  If you have to give your music away, do it, but get something in exchange, like the email address of everyone you give it to.  Then figure out what else you can CREATE of VALUE that people will pay for.  The kind of thing that they can't get from a torrent site, like a hand made autographed album.  The focus is on continually creating content, being intelligent, thinking and doing something about it.  Build a tribe around your brand.


- "If you don't know anything about new media or how people communicate these days, none of this will work. The role of an independent musician these days requires a mastery of first hand use of these tools. If you don't get it - find someone who does to do this for you. If you are waiting around for the phone to ring or that A & R guy to show up at your gig - good luck, you're going to be waiting a while."


There are a couple of points here Reznor makes I really like:

[1] Learn about new media, meaning facebook, twitter, blogs, community portals, etc.  2 way dialogues with your tribe, whomever they are.
[2]  You need to put some real work into this.  "The role of an independent [ANYBODY] these days requires a mastery of first hand use of these tools."
Mastery is a strong word.  As a kid I mastered the Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Brothers.  I mastered social politics in high school hallways.  I mastered a native knowledge of Portguese as a missionary in Brazil.  I mastered virtualization knowledge as I built the Xcedex professional services practice.  What do all of these skills have in common?  WORK, and lots of time.  Mastery doesn't have to mean Michaelangelo skills in art or Algore level skills in global deception, but it does mean you need to put in enough effort to be the master of that particular domain.  You need to know everything about it, the micro level details and macro level principles.  It needs to become part of you, and actually will as you internalize the knowledge of the domain.

I think that's what Trent Reznor means with mastering today's new media.  DISCLAIMER:  I'm not claiming any level of expertise here, in fact this post is part of my own development process of mastery of new media.  It's a lot of work!

Lastly, an observation about the article as a whole:

Reznor freely offers a summary of advice based on a career of successful experience.  I stumbled on the nuggets of wisdom and benefitted, for free.  That's what he's talking about.  He says, "Be interesting.  Be real...NEVER CHASE TRENDS."  Net net?  Be you, not someone else, some imaginary permutation of what you think others want/expect you to be.  And work hard at being Interesting.  How?  Use that mound of flesh between your skull bones for something besides texting and you'll discover a world of interesting things to wrap your head around.  Need some help?  Hang out with interesting people.  Where?  Well most likely not at your house, but they are out there, invite CS Lewis over for a discussion about life, bring Dennis Prager home to meet your alter ego, and listen to him, or ask Ayn Rand how to solve today's economic and societal problems, or call your Grandpa up and ask him to tell you about his life, then shut your mouth and listen to the wisdom that spills out, or check your certainty of conventional wisdom with gems from Steven Levitt or Po Bronson.

Who would have thunk so much wisdom could have been gleaned from a hard hitting metal headed screaming lunatic?  Maybe the stereotypes are not so accurate after all...

-dave
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Presentations I did for CDCC Conference 2009

My friends at TechTarget gave me the great honor of being the main speaker at the Confronting Datacenter Constraints seminar series this year. We traveled to several cities around the US throughout the year including Houston & Dallas TX and Philadelphia PA. Beth Nicholson and Abbey Weintraub from TechTarget coordinated all of the events.

They always hold their events at the Westin Hotel. If you're ever event planning, these hotels are the absolute best. They are over the top with  customer service, their facilities are fantastic and their rooms are the best I've stayed in. It's the only hotel I can remember staying in, and I've stayed in hundreds, where it felt like sleeping in my own bed. Can't say enough about their customer service, any time we needed anything extra for the seminars, they were all over it instantly. Equally helpful for taking care of their guests.

Since I think we're done with this years presentations, I'm posting the content here for people to check it out.  Abbey just let me know that we'll be doing an updated series of seminars in 2010.  We're looking at Washington DC and San Francisco in Q2'10, Atlanta in Q3'10, and New York City in Q4'10.  I don't know why we don't share the love and go to Hawaii in January.  Would be nice while the temps here in Minneapolis are sub zero...

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Future Proofing Your Server And Systems Infrastructure
View more presentations from Dave Payne.

Best Practices For Data Center Hardware Utilization
View more presentations from Dave Payne.

-dave

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Virtualization 101 video series I did for TechTarget, Dell & VMware

I recently was asked by TechTarget to do a 5 part video series about Server Virtualization. The premise is to cover the basic concepts around server virtualization, what it is, why one would be interested, what the benefits are, and a shallow dive into what some of the major uses are for the technology. I crafted the content for these videos and worked with the very professional team at TechTarget to produce them.

Jody Benyunes did the video work for this production. He is a fantastic videographer and an incredibly interesting person.

Although the sponsor for the videos is Dell & VMware, they did not have editorial oversight on the videos. I created the content on my own and really aimed for an agnostic point of view. That is, agnostic with respect to vendors, I suppose my point of view is biased to my own point of view, therefore it's not agnostic at all. Regardless, my agenda isn't to sell products, it's to educate.

This should be a useful overview for someone that needs a quick intro to virtualization. Also it is good for someone that has already started virtualizing and needs some ideas on where to go next. See part 3 for 10 ideas on where to go next with your virtualization project.

Below you'll find each session has a link to the video and a podcast of just the audio. When you push play you'll need to fill out a little survey so someone can sell you some Dell servers or something. They gotta pay my big wages somehow!

Here's my challenge, anyone who can tell me which video has the joke about deep fried chocolate dipped twinkies will be my guest at the next Minnesota Big Get Together where I will treat you* to the one and only deep fried chocolate dipped twinkie.

*airfare not included
___________
[1]
Title: Server Virtualization 101 Part 1 Server Virtualization Overview

Title: Podcast: Server Virtualization 101 Part 1 Server Virtualization Overview

[2]
Title: Server Virtualization 101: Part 2 Moving from Test to Production

Title: Podcast: Server Virtualization 101: Part 2 Moving from Test to Production

[3]
Title: Server Virtualization 101: Part 3 The Many Applications of Virtualization

Title: Podcast: Server Virtualization 101: Part 3 The Many Applications of Virtualization

[4]
Title: Server Virtualization 101: Part 4 High Availability

Title: Podcast: Virtualization 101: Part 4 High Availability

[5]
Title: Server Virtualization 101: Part 5 Disaster Recovery

Title: Podcast: Server Virtualization 101: Part 5 Disaster Recovery
_______

-dave

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About Me, Dave Payne

I am Dave Payne and this is my place on the web.  If you're here, it's probably because you know me or want to know more about me.

If you're interested in my personal life, then give me a call and I'll tell you all about it, or visit me @ Dave Payne's Facebook Profile

If you're interested in my professional life, see View David Payne's profile on LinkedIn for an overview.

I live in the IT infrastructure world as a technologist and entrepreneur.  I use technology to solve business problems so people can do what they do (or should do) best...think.

A quote from some early computer thinker (NOT Einstein) helps visualize my mission:
"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination."

~Unknown

My mission is to bring these two worlds together so people can be more "brilliant", "incredibly faster".

I'm currently working on various technology projects and am happy to entertain ideas about others.

My company is called Payne, Inc.
Contact: 877-PAYNE01 or 877-729-6301





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