I’ve never put it up to my ear however, as I think it’s a bit too much, I use a hands free kit instead. I don’t really want to be seen looking like this now do I?

At the moment I’m really happy with my purchase because it means that not only do I have a new phone, I now have a phone with a big screen and cool functionality. One of the reasons I decided to go for such a hybrid is so that I can read e-books on it without squinting to see the text.

It also means that I do not have to take my iPad around with me when I travel, which means one less device to manage. So how is this related to the blog post title you may ask? Well, I wanted to take this a little further to see if I can use only my mobile phone as my primary computing device. I say primary but this little guy still needs help from his friends in the cloud. So I thought wouldn’t it be cool if I could hook up my phone to an external monitor, connect some peripherals and see what happens…

Well this is the result:

The image above shows my Galaxy Note connected to a 24″ monitor using a HDMI cable for full 1080p resolution. I’ve connected my Apple Bluetooth keyboard and Magic Mouse to it, and also installed VMware View Client for Android. It’s running a VMware View session using PCoIP over a WIFI connection to my View desktop in one of VMware’s datacentres. How awesome is that?

So why would you want to do this? Well, for one thing it’s pretty cool, the simplicity and usability is amazing and it feels quite natural. Why wouldn’t you use a small personal device such as a mobile phone as a thin client for accessing cloud resources such as a remote desktop hosted on VMware View?

It’s simple yet solves quite a few issues regarding end user access points. We’ve all seen those reports and calculators that justify thin client devices over traditional fat PCs. I’m not an EUC/VDI guy so I just typed “cost of thin client” into Google and went to http://www.2x.com/whitepapers/savings-thin-client-computing/ to take a look at the report.

A report by Bloor Research states that moving over to thin client computing could save costs of up to 70%. I’m going to be a little lazy and quote directly from the web page:

^*1 Explanation of savings on administration

These were calculated at $1000 per PC. Many research studies indicate that the amount is between $800 and $1,700 per year. Beyond day-to-day maintenance of installation of patches, software upgrades, etc, there is also the 3 year upgrade cycle which requires an administrator to move all the data and profiles to the new PC. On average this will cost $300 per PC, making for an additional cost of $50 per year (over a 6 year period). Since administration is simplified, an enterprise will require fewer IT staff to perform the same number functions. This means lower training costs and fewer salaries to pay. Bloor Research estimates that the number of helpdesk staff needed can be reduced typically by 50% and often by 75%.

^*2 Explanation of savings on client hardware

These were calculated to be $208 per PC per year. You can get an adequate thin client for $250, in contrast with the average price for a PC of about $750 – this results in a saving of $500. Since PC hardware has to be upgraded approximately every 3 years as opposed to a thin client which only needs to be replaced every 6 years, the savings increase to $1250 over a span of 6 years ($1500 spent on 2 PCs as opposed to $250 on 1 thin client device). This amount is then divided by 6 to calculate a yearly saving. If you are using existing PCs instead of thin clients, the hardware savings can still be applied because you would be extending the life span of the converted computers. Furthermore, the MTBF of a thin client device is higher and it uses far less energy.

^*3 Explanation of extra server hardware costs

These were calculated at $50 per user. Because all processing is done on the server, when using thin clients you will need to buy additional servers to act as terminal servers. On average 30 users will need a dual processor server with 4 gigs of RAM and SCSI hard disks. A brand name server should cost around $4,500 and will depreciate on average in 3 years (in reality you can use them for longer than that).

So that’s a 70% saving according to Bloor Research for just using thin clients over traditional PCs. But hang on, what about further savings? How about ditching the thin client concept altogether and allow users to use their smartphones?

With the popularity of BYOD (bring your own mobile device: expense the monthly costs for calls and line rental) programs, could be the coup de grâce for thin clients everywhere. Most smartphones nowadays are a lot more powerful than the average thin client and for the average office application and e-mail worker, a smartphone may be just the right device to use.

Some other benefits I see since using my smartphone to access my View Desktop:

• It’s my device, I look after it, I clean it, I never spill coffee on it. No one else can touch it. It’s my personal device so I sure as hell am going to take care of it. Do you ever clean your thin client or work computer?
• I can take it with me when I go to make coffee, or to the printer, or to a meeting. My office and most of my customer’s offices have WIFI everywhere, so my View session does not disconnect. And when I return to my desk, I just plug the HDMI cable back in and everything is still there. No work is lost as everything just resumes.
• I can take my device anywhere, it’s a smartphone, it’s got my e-mail, calendar, messages, contacts, Twitter and a web browser. I can use it to communicate when I’m out of the office, I can continue working when I’m out and about. And when I return to my desk or home, I can just reconnect it to an external monitor and paired input devices and my session is still there and I can continue where I left off.
• It’s secure, no-one is going to attempt to log into my session if there’s nothing to log in to! I don’t even have to ‘lock my computer’ anymore, as it’s safely secured in my jacket pocket.
• Oh and it can still make and receive calls.

Coupled with VMware Horizon Mobile http://www.vmware.com/products/mobile/overview.html, I think we are onto a sure winner. Click on the image below to watch a short video of what Horizon Mobile is all about.

Let’s just see if this little idea kicks off and makes 2012 the year of VDI… again.

Eye candy below… Comments always welcome, video guide to follow.

Note: that this method can be used for other appliances.

As you know if you downloaded vShield Manager from VMware, the file format would be in OVA format, which is not compatible with vCloud Director.

This post goes through some of the steps required to

• Convert the OVA to OVF
• Edit the OVF to remove vCloud Director unsupported features (vmw:ExtraConfig)
• Create a new manifest file with the new SHA-1 hash

What you will need

1. VMware OVF Tool available to download here http://www.vmware.com/technical-resources/virtualization-topics/virtual-appliances/ovf.
2. Notepad++ available to download here http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v5.9.8.html.
3. A SHA-1 generator available online here http://hash.online-convert.com/sha1-generator.

Converting OVA to OVF

Once you’ve downloaded the VMware-vShield-Manager-5.0.1-638924.ova file, use the VMWare OVFTool to convert it to OVF format.

Open up the command prompt and run the following, assuming that the ova file is saved in C:\Users\Hugo Phan\Downloads\

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool>ovftool.exe “c:\users\Hugo Phan\Downloads\VMware-vShield-Manager-5.0.1-638924.ova” “C:\Users\Hugo Phan\Downloads\VMware-vShield-Manager-5.0.1-638924.ovf”

The following files will then be extracted within the directory

VMware-vShield-Manager-5.0.1-638924.mf

VMware-vShield-Manager-5.0.1-638924.ovf

VMware-vShield-Manager-5.0.1-638924-disk1.vmdk

Editing the OVF file to be compatible with vCloud Director

If you now tried to use the current .ovf file to upload vShield Manager into VCD as a vApp Template, you will see the following error:

We need to remove the vmw:ExtraConfig elements from the .ovf file. To do this follow these instructions:

1. Open the VMware-vShield-Manager-5.0.1-638924.ovf file in Notepad++ or your preferred text editor that does not add carriage returns.
2. Search for the three vmw:ExtraConfig lines and remove them from the file.

   

3. Save your file and exit Notepad++.
4. Now visit http://hash.online-convert.com/sha1-generator and upload the VMware-vShield-Manager-5.0.1-638924.ovf file and click on the Calculate Hash button.

   

5. When you see the message You hash has been successfully created, copy the top lower case hex hash and open up the VMware-vShield-Manager-5.0.1-638924.mf file in Notepad++

   

6. Replace the current hash for VMware-vShield-Manager-5.0.1-638924.ovf with the new one.

   

7. Save the file.
8. Now you can successfully upload the new VMware-vShield-Manager-5.0.1-638924.ovf to vCloud Director without the error occurring.

   

Note: (You can use any vendor customized vSphere ESXi .iso file: VMware, Dell and IBM).

The HP version comes pre-installed with all the HP CIM providers which work very well with HP servers, including the HP MicroServer. Using the HP version gives you the more details in the Hardware Status tab.

I’m going to be using a different method, recommended by Will Rodbard (thanks Will), who is a colleague of mine at VMware, you can see his comments from the previous post. In summary the steps are:

1. Find and download the following tools:

   HPUSBFW & UNETBOOTIN

2. Run the HPUSBFW tool, click on the USB drive, select ‘Fat32′ and click Format
3. Run UNETBOOTIN, select Diskimage and browse to the ESXi 5 ISO file
4. Select the USB drive you have just formatted and click OK
5. If you want to make more USB keys for more servers, then now is the time to create .IMG files using WinImage, then you can basically clone the image of the USB key to more USB keys. Or if you don’t wish to use WinImage then just perform steps 1 to 4 again.

Once completed your USB drive will boot into the ESXi 5 installer. Once booted, install the ESXi 5 Hypervisor to the USB drive (overwriting the installer). This will then leave you with the installed ESXi Hypervisor on the USB.

Note that using this method creates a brand new bootable USB key for use in a new installation of vSphere ESXi. You will have to go through the process of installing ESXi onto the USB key, or another disk or LUN on the target server. If you want a USB key that is already installed with ESXi which saves you from going through the installation wizard, you can use the other method in this post.

[Aside]

I coincidently left an older USB key in my laptop and booted. Here’s a picture of my Macbook Pro running vSphere ESXi, and it all works by the way, including networking!

When this happens, vCenter services will be impacted.

For more information about the vCSA, please see the resources listed here http://vmwire.com/vmware-vcenter-server-virtual-appliance-vcsa/.

There may be trouble ahead

This screenshot shows what happens when this is not done, the partitions for /storage/core will fill up over time and will impact the availability of vCenter Server.

Figure 1 – Local core storage full!

Configuring NFS storage on the vCSA

You can add the NFS shares for the log and core files by logging into the VMware Studio management interface of the vCSA, normally https://<vcsa>:5480.

The default username and password is root | vmware.

Click on the vCenter Server tab, and then click on Storage.

Figure 2 – Configuring NFS storage on the vCSA

Using the correct syntax for the NFS storage

The correct syntax for adding the storage is

<NFS_Server>:<NFS_Export>

So if my NFS_Server is 192.168.200.21 and my NFS_Export is /mnt/vg01/vcsa_core/vcsa_core/, I would enter the following in the box for NFS share for core files:

192.168.200.21:/mnt/vg01/vcsa_core/vcsa_core/

Make sure that the NFS export on the NFS Server is configured with a UID/GID mapping of no_root_squash. For example, use the command on the NFS server:

exportfs -vo rw,no_root_squash,sync :/mnt/vg01/vcsa_core/vcsa_core/

Once done, click on Test Settings to verify that the vCSA can successfully store files to the specified NFS shares, then click on Save Settings, then restart the vCSA.

Browsing to the NFS storage

You can also see what is created in the NFS share if you listed the contents of the core files share.

Figure 3 – Core logs

You can also see what is created in the NFS share if you listed the contents of the log files share. The screenshots below show the directory structure on the NFS server. On the vCSA the directories are mounted at /storage.

Figure 4 – All other Logs

My previous posts provide further detail around the features and benefits, feature parity with the Windows vCenter Server, how to quickly deploy the vCSA and how to configure an external Oracle database for larger deployments.

For more information about the vCSA, please see the resources listed here http://vmwire.com/vmware-vcenter-server-virtual-appliance-vcsa/.

The location of the sysprep directory on the vCSA is located in

/etc/vmware/vmware-vpx/sysprep/

To get to this location, use a SSH client like WinSCP or FileZilla. The vCSA comes pre-configured with sshd, so no further action needs to be taken here.

Login as root | vmware

You’ll see the following folder structure within the /etc/vmware-vpx/sysprep/ directory:

1.1

2k

svr2003

svr2003-64

xp

xp-64

Note that Vista, Windows 2008 and Windows 7 are not listed, this is because sysprep is built into those operating systems and vCenter can already leverage this. Guest Operating System Customizations with the vCSA is also supported with Linux operating systems out of the box (no configuration to the vCSA is required), although sysprep is obviously not required, please see the Guest OS Customization Support Matrix for supported Linux distributions.

Follow the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide for instructions on extracting the necessary sysprep files, these files can be found in the DEPLOY.CAB file. If you’re migrating from the Windows vCenter Server to the vCSA, just copy the above directories over.

To obtain the sysprep files, you can use the installation CD/DVDs for each operating system or use the following links to download them (these links are detailed in VMware KB1005593):

Guest Operating System Customization Requirements

Guest operating system customization is supported only if a number of requirements are met.

VMware Tools Requirements

The most current version of VMware Tools must be installed on the virtual machine or template to customize the guest operating system during cloning or deployment.

Virtual Disk Requirements

The guest operating system being customized must be installed on a disk attached as SCSI node 0:0 in the virtual machine configuration.

Windows Requirements

Customization of Windows guest operating systems requires the following conditions:

• Microsoft Sysprep tools must be installed on the vCenter Server system.
• The ESXi host that the virtual machine is running on must be 3.5 or later.

Linux Requirements

Customization of Linux guest operating systems requires that Perl is installed in the Linux guest operating system.

Guest operating system customization is supported on multiple Linux distributions.

Verifying Customization Support for a Guest Operating System

To verify customization support for Windows operating systems or Linux distributions, see the Guest OS Customization Support Matrix.

Supported LDAP Services

VCD LDAP Options

A provider can configure a subscriber to use three different authentication mechanisms as highlighted by Figure 1.

Figure 1 – VCD LDAP Options

1. Do not use LDAP (also known as local authentication)

   This is the simplest authentication method, selecting this radio button when configuring a new Organization will not use any kind of LDAP service. Instead, new users will need to be configured using the VCD GUI or the VCD API, and these users will be stored within the VCD database. Some of the disadvantages when using the local authentication are:

• Groups cannot be used
• A minimum length of 6 character only
• No password complexity policies
• No password expiration policies
• No password history
• No authentication failure controls
• No integration with enterprise identity management systems

1. VCD system LDAP service

   Selecting this will force the Organization to use the same LDAP service as the LDAP service that is used by the VCD system (Provider). Although, a separate OU can be used for each Organization, this is not the ideal model to use for large cloud deployments. Some of the disadvantages when using the VCD system LDAP service are:

• Organizations must use the same LDAP service as the Provider.
• Although separate OUs can be used, Organizations may not want to have their Users and Groups managed by the Provider.
• Organizations may not want to share the same LDAP service with another Organization, even if separate OUs are used.
• No self-service of the LDAP service by each subscriber is possible unless complex access is setup for each subscriber to their respective OU.

1. Custom LDAP service

   Selecting this will allow the Organization to use its own private LDAP service. What this means is for each Organization, a completely separate and unique LDAP service can be used for that Organization, an Organization does not need to use the same service as the VCD system but can use its own LDAP service. This can be a completely separate unique Active Directory Forest for example, with no network links to any other AD Forest.

VCD System LDAP Service

Consider this following example:

I run a Public Cloud so I am a Provider of cloud services, my VCD system authenticates to a Microsoft Active Directory Forest with a domain name of HUGO.LOCAL. This allows me as a System Administrator to log into my VCD portal as a user on HUGO.LOCAL.

As the System Administrator, I first configure an LDAP service for the VCD System:

Figure 2 – VCD System LDAP

Then, a new Security Group called SG_VCD.System.Administrators is created in the HUGO.LOCAL domain, with the user HUGO.LOCAL\HPhan as a member of that group.

Figure 3 – VCD System Administrators Group

The new Security Group SG_VCD.System.Administrators is then added to the System Administrator role in VCD.

Figure 4 – Import LDAP group into VCD role

Now I can log into my cloud as a System Administrator with my domain user HUGO\HPhan.

Figure 5 – System LDAP

Organization Custom LDAP Service

So pretty easy and straightforward so far right? What happens when a subscriber comes along and wants to use my cloud services? Let’s do another example.

A new organization let’s say Coke, wish to use their own LDAP service to authenticate with the VCD portal. In much the same way as how the System LDAP was configured, an Organization LDAP service is configured in similar ways.

As a System Administrator, I first configure a LDAP service for the Coke Organization, instead of using the HUGO.LOCAL LDAP service, I now direct this Organization’s LDAP service to a unique LDAP service for Coke. This can be a LDAP service hosted by me (the Provider) and managed by Coke (think co-lo), or a LDAP service managed by Coke in Coke’s datacentres (think MPLS/IPVPN):

Figure 6 – Organization LDAP

Then a new Security Group called Organization Administrators is created in the COKE.LOCAL domain, with the user COKE.LOCAL\John.Smith as a member of that group.

Figure 7 – VCD Organization Administrators Group and Members

The new Security Group Organization Administrator is then added to the Organization Administrator role in Coke’s Organization.

Figure 8 – Assign LDAP Group to VCD Role

John Smith can log into the Coke Organization as an Organization Administrator with the domain user COKE\John.Smith.

Figure 9 – LDAP User logged into VCD

So what happens when another Organization joins the party? Extending our example above, let’s say Pepsi also want to use my cloud services. In much the same way that the Coke Organization is configured to use its own LDAP service, we do the same for the Pepsi Organization – an Organization Administrator group is created in the PEPSI.LOCAL domain, and a user named Peter.Smith is a member of that group, Peter Smith can also log into Pepsi’s Organization as an Organization Administrator.

Figure 10 – Another LDAP User logged into VCD

In Summary

In summary the provider will use the System LDAP, all other (subscribers) Organizations could also use the System LDAP (either with a separate OU or not) if required, however, you can also configure each Organization to use its own LDAP Service.

• We have a Provider which uses the domain HUGO.LOCAL to authenticate the System VCD, with the Active Directory Security Group SG_VCD.System.Administrators having the System Administrator role in VCD and my account HUGO\HPhan is a member of this group.
• We have subscriber 1 with an Organization named Coke Co, and this organization uses its own LDAP service which is backed by a domain COKE.LOCAL.
• We have another subscriber, subscriber 2 with an Organization named Pepsi Co, and this organization uses its own LDAP service which is backed by a domain PEPSI.LOCAL.
• Provider – Uses HUGO.LOCAL – System LDAP
• Subscriber 1 – Uses COKE.LOCAL – Custom LDAP
• Subscriber 2 – Uses PEPSI.LOCAL – Custom LDAP
• There is no trust between the Provider LDAP or any Subscribers’ LDAP required.
• More importantly, there is no trust and no network connectivity between any of the subscriber’s LDAP systems.

Securing Custom LDAP Services

For each Organization, a single LDAP Service for that Organization will need to be configured as a Custom LDAP to authenticate to. To enable this functionality, the vCloud Director Cell must be able to connect to ALL LDAP servers over TCP 389 or 636. The VMware vCloud Security Hardening Guide gives good recommendations on how Service Providers can host Subscribers’ LDAP servers and also how to maintain connectivity to Subscribers’ LDAP servers if hosted remotely over MPLS/VPN etc.

It is therefore important that the vCD Cell is secured and network connectivity to each organization’s LDAP services are also secured. The following extract from the VMware vCloud Security Hardening Guide explains the connectivity options for subscriber’s LDAP services:

Connectivity from the VMware vCloud Director cells to the system LDAP server and any Organization LDAP servers must be enabled for the software to properly authenticate users. As recommended in this document, the system LDAP server must be located on the private management network, separated from the DMZ by a firewall. Some cloud providers and most IT organizations will run any Organization LDAP servers required, and those too would be on a private network, not the DMZ. Another option for an Organization LDAP server is to have it hosted and managed outside of the cloud provider’s environment and under the control of the Organization. In that case, it must be exposed to the VMware vCloud Director cells, potentially through the enterprise datacenter’s own DMZ (see Shared Resource Cloud Service Provider Deployment above).

In all of these circumstances, opening the appropriate ports through the various firewalls in the path between the cells and the LDAP server is required. By default, this port is 389/TCP for LDAP and 636/TCP for LDAPS; however, this port is customizable with most servers and in the LDAP settings in the Web UI. Also, a concern that arises when the Organization is hosting their own LDAP server is exposing it through their DMZ. It is not a service that needs to be accessible to the general public, so steps should be taken to limit access only to the VMware vCloud Director cells. One simple way to do that is to configure the LDAP server and/or the external firewall to only allow access from IP addresses that belong to the VMware vCloud Director cells as reported by the cloud provider. Other options include systems such as per-Organization site-to-site VPNs connecting those two sets of systems, hardened LDAP proxies or virtual directories, or other options, all outside the scope of this document.

Figure 11 – Multiple Custom LDAP in VCD

Note: The use of Coke and Pepsi are used as an example of multi tenancy within a public cloud and the use of the names on this blog are for information purposes only.

This post extends the series with how to configure an external Oracle database for use by the vCSA.

Why use an Oracle database?

The vCSA comes preinstalled with an embedded DB2 database which has similar use cases as the Windows vCenter Server when configured with SQL Express – intended for small deployments of 5 ESX/ESXi servers or less. The ability for the vCSA to utilise an external Oracle database allows customers to scale and manage larger vSphere infrastructures equivalent to environments with Windows vCenter Servers backed by SQL or Oracle databases.

This post shows how quickly and easily it is to use an external Oracle database instead of the embedded DB2 database. Hopefully you’ll see the benefits of how much quicker it is to configure the Oracle connectivity between the vCSA and the Oracle server vs installing the Oracle 64-bit Client onto a Window Server and configuring tnsnames.ora, followed by configuration of ODBC settings.

Configure an Oracle Database and User

1. Log into SQL*Plus session with the system account. I’m using Oracle 11g R2 x64 on Windows Server 2008.

   C:`>sqlplus sys/<password> as SYSDBA

2. Run the following SQL commands to create a vCenter Server database. Note that your directory structure may be different.

   CREATE SMALLFILE TABLESPACE “VPX” DATAFILE ‘e:/app/oracle/oradata/orcl/vpx01.dbf’ SIZE 1G AUTOEXTEND ON NEXT 10M MAXSIZE UNLIMITED LOGGING EXTENT MANAGEMENT LOCAL SEGMENT SPACE MANAGEMENT AUTO;

3. Run the following SQL command to create a vCenter Server database user with the correct permissions. I will create a new user named “VPXADMIN” with a password of “oracle”.

   CREATE USER "VPXADMIN" PROFILE "DEFAULT" IDENTIFIED BY "oracle" DEFAULT TABLESPACE "VPX" ACCOUNT UNLOCK;
   grant connect to VPXADMIN;
   grant resource to VPXADMIN;
   grant create view to VPXADMIN;
   grant create sequence to VPXADMIN; 
   grant create table to VPXADMIN; 
   grant create materialized view to VPXADMIN;
   grant execute on dbms_lock to VPXADMIN;
   grant execute on dbms_job to VPXADMIN;
   grant select on dba_tablespaces to VPXADMIN;
   grant select on dba_temp_files to VPXADMIN;
   grant select on dba_data_files to VPXADMIN;
   grant unlimited tablespace to VPXADMIN;

Configure the vCSA

1. Log into the vCSA VMware Studio management interface at https://<vcsa>:5480/
2. Navigate to the vCenter Server tab, then click on Database.
3. Select oracle as the Database Type using the drop-down menu and enter your environment information into the fields and then click on Save Settings. Note how easy that was, no messing about with installing the Oracle Client, no need to configure tnsnames.ora and no need for any ODBC configuration either.

   

4. Wait for around 5 minutes for the vCSA to create the database schema.
5. Now it’s safe to start the vCenter services, navigate to the Status tab and click on Start vCenter.

   

6. You can then start using vCenter when the Service Status reports as Running.

Cleaning up the Oracle configuration

After you’ve tested that everything is working, you can revoke the following privileges using SQL*Plus again.

revoke select on dba_tablespaces from VPXADMIN;

revoke select on dba_temp_files from VPXADMIN;

revoke select on dba_data_files from VPXADMIN;

Total configuration time ~approx 10 minutes.

References

vSphere Installation and Setup Guide

For information regarding the VCDX certification path, please see the VCDX page on VMware.com.

First a quick thanks to all those that helped in true Oscar style, namely Steve Byrne my manager at VMware for supporting my journey, my colleagues at VMware for your help with the mock panels, you were awesome – @simonlong_, @repping, @ady189, @baecke & John Pollard. A shout out to @frankdenneman for the motivational support and advice.

Fail to plan? Then plan to fail, preparation is key, so this was how I planned my journey in 5 easy steps.

Step 1 – Gain support from your employer and family

This is critical as the certification path is not an easy one, there is a minimum of one course to attend (vSphere ICM), three exams (VCP, VCAP-DCA, VCAP-DCD) and fees for the VCDX submission and defence. Not to mention the expenses of travelling to the defences themselves. It’s also good to agree time to study, work on your defence materials as well as any time you need to actually attend the defence. Remember that taking time out to study and prepare would mean your company would take the hit on your productivity. So having a mutual agreement benefits all.

Support from your family is also a must as it will be a huge investment in your time.

Step 2 – Set clear objectives

Sit down with your manager and discuss clear objectives that are SMART. Agree on what your objectives are, and plan to achieve them. An example:

Step 3 – Keep a track of your progress

Remember to keep a track of your progress, if you pass the exams, share the news with your team, it keeps you motivated. If you fail, then your timeline objectives may need tweaking. Keep your manager in the loop with progress, as ultimately, funding needs to come from somewhere for your fees and expenses right?

Step 4 – Work on your VCDX materials and then submit

Read the VCDX requirements and register your intention to pursue the VCDX on myLearn and make sure that you meet all the requirements before sending in your submission. Make sure to get some colleagues to review your documents first.

If everything goes well, your submission may well be accepted by VMware and you’re invited to defend.

Step 5 – Prepare for your defence

At this stage you should have been invited to defend. This is the most critical stage of the process, all the work that you’ve done so far has ultimately come down to this. So no pressure.

There are many ways to prepare, but here’s how I made myself ready for the defence.

1. Request peer reviews from your colleagues and virtualisation friends. Ask them to review all of your documents and materials again, especially the design.

2. Run Webex sessions with your peers to go over your 15 minute VCDX presentation. Record this, it will help you review your performance, note the duration and your tone of voice, did you project well?

3. Conduct a mock defence session with your peers. Invite them to ask as many questions that they could think of, even the obvious ones. Record this as well, note your performance, how you responded to the questions, tone of voice, setup a BS counter. Too much BS means that you don’t know your design well enough and you’ll be at risk when it comes to your real defence. Just remember to be – clear – concise – calculated.

4. Practice white boarding, you will have at least one whiteboard at your defence and it’s your most powerful tool, so learn to use it like it’s second nature.

5. Know your design inside out, not just the technical aspects. If you can justify the technical design decisions back to the business and technical requirements and constraints then you’re on the right track.

6. If you feel that you’re not ready or you can’t make it to your defence, you can postpone it to the next defence dates without submitting your application again. I was initially scheduled to defend in Singapore but could not travel so defended in Frankfurt instead.

Well that’s my advice, I hope this information is useful and that it helps more people being able to attain the VCDX certification. Who knows I might see you on the other side of the table in 12 month’s time.

Use this in your lab environment, I wouldn’t recommend doing this in production environments.

In previous versions of vSphere ESXi, it was relatively straight forward to create a bootable USB key which already contained the ESXi hypervizor.  This was done by extracting the files from the ISO and then using ‘dd’ to image the directory structure to the USB stick.  With vSphere ESXi 5 however, this technique is no longer possible.  There is a workaround however.  ESXi is installed and configured in two steps, the installation is done to a disk with a vanilla installation of ESXi without configuration.  The server is then rebooted and the configuration of ESXi continues with the creation of the management network vmk0 or vmk1 (depending on your setup), hostname, DNS etc.

For this to work, we do not perform the second part, which is the configuration, but take an image of the USB key directly after the installation of the vanilla installation of ESXi without configuration.  This enables us to image this vanilla installation onto as many USB sticks, i.e., servers as we like without clashes in virtual MAC addresses and the like.

What you will need: VMware Workstation, 1 USB stick, the ESXi Installable ISO file VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.0.0-469512.x86_64.iso, WinImage.

Quick steps

1. Create a new ESX virtual machine in VMware Workstation with CD-ROM drive, USB adapter, 2Gb RAM and 2vCPUs.
2. Mount the ESXi Installable ISO file to the CD Drive.
3. Insert the USB stick to your workstation (the same one that runs VMware Workstation).
4. Boot the VM and connect the USB stick to the VM.
5. Install ESXi as normal, making sure that you install onto the USB stick, when installation is complete, disconnect the USB stick from the VM and do not reboot the VM, just turn it off.  You no longer need this VM.
6. With the USB stick still connected to your workstation, open up Winimage.
7. Go to Disk | Creating Virtual Hard Disk image from physical drive and select the USB stick that you installed ESXi on.
8. Select a location where to save your image and change the file type to Image file (*.ima).
9. WinImage will now make a backup on your newly installed USB stick.

Creating vSphere 5 ESXi embedded bootable USB sticks

1. Now that you have an ESXi image, you can use this to build lots of USB sticks which are ready for ESXi deployment.
2. Insert a new USB stick into a spare USB port.
3. Launch WinImage and navigate to Disk | Restore Virtual Hard Disk image on physical drive.
4. Select the USB stick and click on OK.
5. Navigate to the image file that you created previously.  WinImage will now restore the backed up image to your new USB stick.
6. Repeat as necessary.

Configure ESXi

Once the stick is ready, just insert into a spare USB port on your server and ESXi will boot into the configuration screen ready for you to configure management network details.

You may need to log onto the local console once ESXi has finished booting and launch the ‘Restore Network Settings’.  This will reset the vmk0 or vmk1 (depending on your setup) interface.

A few readers have asked what works with the vCSA and what does not.

The vCSA supports all vCenter features – DRS, SDRS, HA, Host Profiles, dvSwitches, etc.

Secondary architecture features like supported DB, View Composer are not yet at feature parity with the Windows vCenter Server.

Not supported yet:

• Microsoft SQL as the database for vCenter – requires stable ODBC driver for Linux that can scale.
• vCenter Server Linked Mode – requires ADAM.
• vCenter Server Heartbeat – requires Windows.
• IPv6.
• Single sign-on using Windows session credentials.
• VMware View Composer (Linked Clones) – installed on Windows vCenter Server only.
• vSphere Storage Appliance – VSA Manager & VSA Cluster Server installed on Windows vCenter Server.
• VIX Plugin for vCenter Orchestrator – VMware Tools API only works with Windows vCenter Server.

Other VMware products that work with the vCSA:

• vCenter Operations.
• vCenter Orchestrator.
• vCenter CapacityIQ.
• SRM5.
• VMware View 5 (no Linked Clones).
• Auto Deploy.
• vCenter Update Manager.
• vMA.
• vSphere Client.
• vSphere Web Client.
• VMware vCloud Director.
• PowerCLI.
• vSphere Client for iPad & vCMA.

If I find anything else, I’ll update the article.