ITIL v3 Foundation Certification
November 14, 2008 – 12:44 pmReceived my confirmation today, I passed with 88% (35/40).
Now, on to vmware v3.5 certification! 
IT Certification
November 11, 2008 – 6:33 pmWell, I just took the ITIL v3 exam today. I think I did fairly well. I’ll get the results within a week or so. The course was relatively interesting, considering there’s nothing technical about it, but it’s a good overview of how to build and improve services. Next step: updating my VMware certification from 2.x to 3.5… I’ll try to do this before the holidays.
Lab update & picture
November 9, 2008 – 10:17 pmI’m having problems with the lab… Never seen that kind of issue before. If the Vmware Virtual Center/License server is rebooted, both ESX boxes freak out and are no longer reporting properly to VC. VC can’t see the processors and the memory available. This was a big issue because my VC was hosted on the ESX. Catch 22… So I installed VC on the Hyper-V server (ironic I know). But this means anytime I have to reboot the VC box, both ESX servers have to be restarted after…
After dealing with all this, one of my 500GB hard disks blew up in the Openfiler server. I’m looking at storage options right now… More space, more reliable and a backup solution for all this after!
Here’s the new lab!
My office is now a data center… almost…
November 7, 2008 – 12:47 pmWell I made the move. I ended up getting 2 new servers for now and making a whole lot of changes in my internal architecture…
I am now running
- 2 VMware ESX 3.5 servers (dual core 3.0ghz, 8gb ram each)
- 1 Hyper-V (Windows 2008) server
This is my “old” ESX server (quad core Q6600, 8GB RAM). I will run Virtual Center and Licensing server on this, as I’m having issues with running the VC/License server on my ESX server directly. When I reboot the VC/LS box, both ESX servers lose the VMotion license…
- 1 OpenFiler server for storage
I made the move from Datacore’s SANMelody Lite to Openfiler because SANMelody Lite has limitations and it’s cost prohibitive for me to buy the enterprise version (which still has a 2TB limit for the “introductory product” at 1000$)
So far it’s been a very painful experience. I wasted over 12 hours working on getting Openfiler to be recognized by ESX (I screwed up the config, my fault - high learning curve for me!) But so far so good.
And this morning I wake up to an ESX update released yesterday (of course, after I’m all done setting things up lol)
VMware Lab update…
October 23, 2008 – 4:42 pmTime to invest so more $ in that lab of mine… Actually, I’m looking at getting my 2nd ESX node going to I can work with enterprise features.
I am now facing several problems:
1. Running out of space for mid tower cases…
2. “Affordable” and decent looking rackmount cases are hard to come by
3. If I DO find a rackmount case I like, I can’t find a motherboard that would work in it… Since most motherboards dont work out of the box and additional interfaces are required (SATA or NICs), I have to go with a 3U or 4U case.
4. Since I have an H-Frame and not a full size cabinet, I can’t go with a deep server case, it would be too heavy (20-24″ sticking out in mid-air doesn’t sound like a good idea.
5. The motherboard I used for the original ESX server is discontinued, so I have to (ideally) get 2 new motherboards (new unit and replace the old) to have identical boxes (easier to maintain) or get something close with the same CPU (Q6600 quad core are still available).
Then I have a space issue with the SAN. SANMelody lite, although a fantastic product, is limited to 3×500GB drives. I want to setup 4×1TB in RAID5 config to double my storage space.
So my idea for my final lab is this:
2 x ESX Quad Core / 8GB RAM servers
1 x SAN box (my actual server can do the job)
1 x NAS box for data (with the 4 x 1TB RAID5 config)
This would allow my data to be stored outside of my lab environment (safer ) and allow me to have all the flexibility I need to experiment with advanced features.
If anyone has suggestions to resolve my racking problem, let me know! I read that VMware has partnered with Asus, so maybe we’ll get “cheap” supported whiteboxes. And maybe VMware will bring back VMTN so we can (as network admins/systems engineers/architects) have permanent AFFORDABLE labs.
VMworld 2008 - Points of interest
September 27, 2008 – 12:39 pmA week has passed, I had time to digest everything and put things in perspective. In the Solutions Exchange, I met a lot of people, saw a lot of new (and not so new, but new to me) products and a few exciting ones. Here are some that caught my interest:
- InstallFree (http://www.installfree.com) is a very interesting software virtualisation solution that includes the packaging itself and the deployment. It allows end users (if you want to) to package their own applications and you decide if you want to make them public or not. Cool stuff.
- Xsigo Director (http://www.xsigo.com/) allows you to virtualise I/O by centrally managing your telecom and disk I/O (iSCSI/FC) using a single adapter card in your server and a central unit to manage it all. Reduce wiring clutter and redirect I/O on the fly where you need it.
- Ericom Powerterm (http://www.ericom.com/) is a Citrix alternative for server-based computing and application publishing.
One thing I got a lot of information on is VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) using VDM and Thin Clients. The Wyse thin client was one device I really liked (http://www.wyse.com). They even make a thin client laptop, and they also have a try before you buy program. Check them out!
- ThinLaunch (http://www.thinlaunch.com/) allows you to use your existing PC and turn it into a thin client like device for your users (they don’t need to logon locally anymore). It’s fairly inexpensive and seems like a good solution to ease users into VDI.
- ThinPrint (http://www.thinprint.com/) allows you to reduce the problems inherent with server based computing and having users login from all over the place with various printers to support. It’s a client server application that basically standardises your server based print job to a unique format that is sent to your local client. The client then sends it to the printer of your choice that is installed on your workstation.
VMWorld 2008… The aftermath…
September 23, 2008 – 1:14 pmWell, I’m back from VMworld 2008. And it wasn’t what I expected. As a somewhat experienced administrator on ESX, I was expecting to get into fairly technical presentations, like learning how to fine tune certain applications for better performance (SQL, Oracle) etc… Most of the sessions were very basic or introductory to the topics they were covering. I saw a few people leaving the sessions early as well, for lack of depth on the topics covered. On my way back home, I discussed with a VMware SE and he confirmed that I shouldn’t have bothered with the sessions, and that he recommended the same to his clients, but instead talk to people at the Genius Bar and attend the Solutions Exchange.
The Solutions Exchange part of the conference was great. Talking with various vendors and manufacturers, discovering new products and solutions, helped make the trip worthwhile.
As for Las Vegas, if you’re not a gambler/night owl, stay away from there. The city has barely anything to offer daytime (I stayed an extra day to “visit”).
On a positive note, I did get to meet interesting people, see the Cirque du Soleil show “O” and enjoy a wonderful meal at “Cut”, the steakhouse @ the Palazzo.
VMworld 2008 in Las Vegas
September 12, 2008 – 9:17 amI will be attending the VMWare conference in Las Vegas next week (Sept 15-18). I am looking forward to a few of the presentations as well as meeting people who share the same interest as me. I will try and post pictures of the event and of my first Las Vegas trip
I will be staying at the Venetian hotel, and I will attend the VMware Canada Party on Tuesday night.
The end is near…
August 25, 2008 – 8:56 pmWell, that’s it. I’m selling all my PCs and moving to the OSX world. After over 20 years in the PC world, I need a change, and it’s not Microsoft who’s providing it.
Hackintosh motherboard - cheap!!
July 11, 2008 – 9:59 pmFor those interested in the setup I built, the board is on sale here:
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12200BD8483&vpn=BOXD945GCLF&manufacture=INTEL
at 48$ CAD!!!
Update: Sale is over… Thank god. I was almost pulling the trigger for another one 