The SLOG is pretty much known because of the VCP4 practice exams that I have put together for people studying for the VCP4 exam. Well, now I am adding to the resources by introducing an VCP4 Practice Exam app for Android phones. It's based on the same questions found on my website, but now offers you portability to practice on the bus/train/plane or where ever you maybe.
The application is still in Beta which is why I am going to limit how many users I will send the application to. It currently has 40 questions, this will be increasing as I make updates to the application. The application is designed for Android phones, I have also been informed it works fine on Android tablets, albeit a little small on the screen. (Work will be done at some point to optimize it for both phone and tablet.)
If you are interested in receiving the Beta Exam app, please drop me an email via my Contact Me page with the Subject "VCP4 APP". Please make sure you input your correct email address, as I will be adding you to my Beta users list and this is the email address I will email the application to. In return, i'd appreciate your feedback on ways I can improve the application.
Version 4 of the app can be downloaded from the following location: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10120315/Exam_Beta_v4.apk.apk
For some screenshots of the app in action Read the rest of this entry »
Last week I have the pleasure of being part of the latest vSoup Podcast. It was ace! I had a great laugh recording it with the guys. I spent most the time muting my microphone so you couldn't hear me laughing in the background.
The vSoup podcast is the mind child of 3 virtualisation professionals all based in Europe. We did borrow one from the US, and we have no plans on returning him any time soon.
If you haven't heard of the podcast before, I suggest you get yourself over to the vSoup website and download their back catalogue. I especially recommend Episode #10 with special guest Stu Radnidge (@vinternals), it's a laugh a minute, literally!
The vSoup guys are always looking for guests to appear on the podcast, so if you think this is something you'd like to do, then drop them an email or message them on Twitter, I'm sure they'd be glad to have you on…. Unless you are a Fool.
I was reading a discussion on an internal mailing list today about the differences between Thin and Zero desktop clients for VDI. I thought I would summaries the discussion and share it with you as it certainly helped to get it clear in my mind.
Zero Client
- A Zero client is a special purpose / built client that uses a SoC or FPGA.
- It is upgraded using a firmware image. (Think of it like your WiFi router.)
- They all have software and they all run an OS.
- The Teradici zero client for example runs a RTOS ( Real Time OS ) called Thread-X
Thin Client
- A Thin Client is a device that has a stripped down custom OS, customized Linux OS or OEMed Windows Embedded OS.
- The image is typically larger than a firmware payload and in some cases a little more difficult to distribute depending on the management tools.
- Some will argue they need to be managed / patched more and in some way that is true.
An example of a Thin Client would be like VDI Blaster where you have a tiny OS installed on a PC which has only one function and that's to get you to your virtual desktop.
In Summary
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This morning I work up to an email from the VMware certifications team, informing me of my VCAP4-DCA result. I am happy to say, I passed! I was a little shocked, as when I left the exam room I felt sure I had failed. I had spent to long on some tasks and didn't give myself enough time on others.
It was a lot tougher than I expected, mostly due to the time constraints. You really need to know your way around vSphere with the client and putty.
Some recommendations for people taking the VCAP4-DCA
- Attend the VMware vSphere troubleshooting course (A must!)
- If you don't have a lab, get the training DVD's from TrainSignal. They are brilliant at showing you have to complete specific tasks within vSphere, which is much needed for the exam. (Thanks to Trainsignal, for the instant access via their WebPortal)
- Make use of the brilliant blogger resource available out there. Websites like vexperienced.co.uk, seancrookston.com, kendrickcoleman.com. Checkout Gregg Robertson's great VCAP-DCA & DCD resources page for loads more.
Tips
- Don't take too long on each task, if you don't know it, move on. You can always go back to it. (Be aware, some tasks might require actions from earlier tasks).
- Learn commands that will help you. e.g get-help (PowerCLI), esxcli -h etc . It's difficult to remember all syntax's, so just remember where to find them.
- Don't drink too much energy drink before entering the room. You won't want to waste time going to the toilet. Although you might find that the last 10 mins are very uncomfortable if you decide to skip that toilet visit!!! (Talking from experience)
Next step for me is the VCAP4-DCD. I think I might find this one more difficult. I have not done as much design work as I'd like as I've always been more of a (vSphere) client monkey.
I'm sure most of you have heard of vBeers by now. if you haven't, where have you been? You can read more about it here
Simon Seagrave and I been putting this together the new vbeers.org website over the past 6 months, inbetween our busy schedules. It still needs a few tweeks, but we think it's ready to be launched to the world.
The idea of the vBeer.org website is to give vBeers go'ers a common place to check for the next or nearest events. Organizers can be given a user account to the website to allow them to publish the details of their vBeers events. Please contact us if you would like an account. Each post will also be tweeted to twitter via the vBeers.org twitter account @vBeers_org.
As I mentioned earlier, it's still a work in progress. If you think you have any good ideas that might help the website, please feel free to contact either myself or Simon.
If any of you have any photos from previous vBeers, we'd love to get a copy of them so we can display them on the website.
We'd also be grateful to those bloggers out there to give this new website a mention to help get the word out.
Simon and Simon
Summary
I thought I'd put together some notes on the VMware View Transfer server as there doesn't seem to be to much information easily available on this feature of View. Essentially it is used to Check-Out and Check-In virtual desktops, allowing them to be used in Local-mode (Offline). I want to show you in a bit more depth what happens when you Check-in, Check-out, Replicate and Rollback your virtual desktops.
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Rebalance: A desktop rebalance operation that evenly redistributes linked-clone desktops among available datastores.
When testing this, customers can often see unexpected results. This is often due to their misconception of how this function of View works.
Why? View 4.5 looks for the datastore/s that have the highest "weighted available space". The formula that View 4.5 uses to calculate this is:
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I've seen and had many discussions around this topic when discussing VMware View desktop design, so I though I'd gather as much information as I could to help you decide.
From the information below, I would personally recommend using the following:
- Windows XP: LSI Logic Parallel or SAS
- Windows 7: LSI Logic SAS
The PVSCSI controller will be the controller of the future so you may also want to keep this in mind. Of course you can make your own decisions. Most of the points made are desktop focused, however most will apply outside of a View environment.
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I've just seen this news I feel you all need to know about this:
LG and VMware announced this morning a partnership that brings visualization to Android smartphones. The non-nerd premise is this: You've got your standard Android smartphone, with your e-mail, your apps, your phone number. And in a virtual space on the same device, you have another set of apps, corporate e-mail, another phone number — completely sandboxed from your personal stuff, unable to talk to or access its data.
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Minhaj116: 
2 VCP's and a Truck
