This was a pretty short (30 minute) session on possible futures of vMotion, which focused on vmotion between datacenters and the cloud. To be clear, these features are not in vSphere 5.5, and may never see the light of day. But maybe in vSphere 6.0 or beyond we will see...
Twitter: #NET5716; Bruce Davie, VMware This was by far the best session of the day. While my background is not in networking, even I got excited about what software defined networking can do for an enterprise. The session was also a fire hose of NSX advanced details, and the standby...
Twitter:#VSVC4605 This session was a fire hose of the top vSphere 5.5 features. There's a lot that's new in this release, and they've addressed many of the vSphere 5.1 SSO headaches. So if you skipped vSphere 5.1 (like I did) for production environments, then get ready for the vSphere 5.5...
Twitter: #STO4907. Aboubacar Diare (HP), Abid Saeed (VMware) This session discussed how storage reclamation for block works in vSphere 5.0 thought vSphere 5.5. vSphere 5.5 has major improvements in how freed storage space is reclaimed. While not totally automated, it's much more efficient and easier to kick off the reclamation...
NOTE: I've started my vSphere 5.5 Install series. This is a complete How-To guide for installing, configuring, and securing your vCenter 5.5 installation. Check it out here. The information in this post has been incorporated into that series.  --- Twitter: #VSVC5690. This session covered the recommended vCenter 4.x and 5.x...
This is my first technical session of VMworld 2013, VSVC5280. It covered new vSphere 5.5 DRS features, explained why DRS may not always "perfectly" balance your cluster. vSphere 5.5 has a lot of new storage features, and DRS has been enhanced to be aware of VSAN and vFlash technologies. As...
Today officially kicks off VMworld 2013 in San Francisco. First up is the general session, and celebrates the 10th annual VMworld. I'm live blogging and tweeting (@vDerekS), so these are notes I could jot down during the event. VMware made a number of exciting announcements including GA of vSphere 5.1,...
I'm pleased to announce that today I passed the VMware Certificated Advanced Professional - Datacenter Design (VCAP5-DCD) exam! I wish I could write a long post with all kinds of good reference material and links to study guides. But I can't....why? Given my recent schedule I decided to take a...
One of the most critical aspects to securing your VMware vSphere environment is replacing the self-signed certificates with trusted certificates. VSS Labs is releasing a new product, called vCert Manager, which will vastly improve the SSL certificate management experience for VMware customers. Over the years I've written several articles detailing...
Hot off the press DISA has released the VMware vSphere 5 STIG, which includes vCenter, ESXi and VM components. For those of you familiar with U.S. Government IT systems, you've probably heard of the DISA STIGs. STIGs are Security Technical Implementation Guides, which set the baseline for a variety of operating systems, network...