What better way to kick off a Friday than with a competition?  David Davis from Trainsignal has kindly provided two copies of his ‘Best of vSphere 4.1 for vNerds’ training DVD to give away to a couple of lucky TechHead readers.  This training DVD is over 2 hours in length and covers a range of interesting and useful VMware vSphere 4.1 related topics (for a full list see the bottom of this post).  David has also just released of couple of more advanced vSphere training courses covering  VMware vSphere Troubleshooting Training and VMware vSphere Performance Monitoring Training that are definitely worth taking a look at.

How to Win?

I thought we could have a bit of fun with this competition so to be in the draw to win one of these fantastic ‘Best of vSphere 4.1 for vNerds’ training DVDs all you have to do is take a photo of a piece of paper or similar saying ‘Hello TechHeads’ against a geeky (eg: a rack of servers) or scenic (eg: a recognisable landmark) backdrop.  I will then have David choose his favourite two photos during an upcoming vChat webcast (competition ends: Friday 27th May 2011) and will publish the photos once a winner has been drawn.

Email your photos to competition <at> techhead <dot> co <dot> uk

This competition is open to everyone worldwide.  Good Luck! 

Best of vSphere 4.1 for vNerds Training Outline

Introduction to Best of vSphere 4.1 for vNerds

• About Your Instructor
• About the Course
• About Train Signal’s vSphere Training Package

Video 1 – Overview of vSphere 4.1 New Features

• What’s New in vSphere 4.1
• Storage, Network, Availability and Management Features
• Platform Enhancements
• vSphere 4.1 Enhancements for Small and Midsize Businesses

Video 2 – New vSphere 4.1 Windows Active Directory Authentication

• Introduction to New vSphere 4.1 AD Authentication
• Steps to Configure ESX AD Authentication

Video 3 – Using Storage and Network I/O Control in vSphere 4.1

• Why You Need Storage I/O Control (SIOC)
• How SIOC Works
• SIOC Requirements
• Enabling SIOC in vSphere 4.1
• Configuring Shares and IOPS for VMs
• Monitoring the IOPS and Latency for a Datastore

Video 4 – Importing Hyper-V VMs with vSphere 4.1

• Going in the Right Direction
• What You Need to Know
• Step by Step: Importing a Hyper-V VM with vSphere Converter

Video 5 – Configuring vSphere 4.1 VM to Host DRS Affinity Rules

• Why You Need DRS Affinity Rules
• New vSphere 4.1 VM to Host DRS Affinity Rules and Groups
• Two Types of DRS Affinity Rules
• Configuring DRS Affinity Rules

Video 6 – Understanding Memory Compression in vSphere 4.1

• Compressed Memory is Not Equal to Memory
• You’re Already Using Memory Compression
• Recommended Reading: vSphere 4.1 Memory Performance Study
• Hands-on: Examining Memory Compression

Video 7 – Power Consumption Graphing and Control in vSphere 4.1

• vSphere 4.1 Power Management Improvements
• Requirements for Hardware Power Management
• Review of CPU Power Management Policies
• Configuring CPU Power Management Policies on ESX and ESXi Servers

Video 8 – New vSphere 4.1 ESXi Tech Support Mode

• About ESXi Tech Support Mode
• Configuring ESXi Tech Support Mode

Video 9 – vSphere 4.1 ESXi Lockdown Mode

• Introduction to ESXi Lockdown Mode
• Configuring ESXi Total Lockdown Mode

Video 10 – Configuring vMA as a Log Collector for ESXi Servers

• Why ESXi Servers Need a Logging Server
• Configuring vMA as an ESXi 4.1 Logging Collector
• Comparing Syslog and vMA Vi-Logger
• Configuring vMA Vi-Logger

After an overwhelming response to the TechHead Competition to win a copy of the Train Signal VMware vSphere Pro Series Vol. 1 Training DVD it’s time to announce the winner!  Apologies for the announcement being delayed by a couple of days, but I’ve had a cold caught on the plane coming back from EMC World.… though I’m back in tip-top shape now and ready to go! 

As mentioned in my previous post I have used the VMware vSphere Training training DVD by David Davis previously and can also recommend this as an excellent source for learning about VMware vSphere, whether you are studying to sit your VMware VCP exam or have a work requirement to learn more about it.  This VMware vSphere Pro Series Vol,. 1 training DVD takes things to the next level with a more deep-dive look at some of the additional products for vSphere by VMware and Cisco.  The training DVD is comprised of the three following topics:

• VMware View & ThinApp (David Davis) 
• Cisco Nexus 1000V – VMware vSphere Third-Party VDS (Rick Scherer)
• Managing VMware vSphere with Power CLI (Hal Rottenberg)

Highly Scientific Method & Random Meothod of Determining the Winner:  To determine the winner the total number of correct submissions was determined and then a random number was chosen which was matched to an email with the correct answer in the order it was received. Can’t be fairer than that. 

The Winner:  So without further ado, the winner of the Train Signal VMware vSphere Pro Series Vol. 1 Training DVD is….  (drum roll please)…

Mike Atkins

Congratulations Mike, your copy of VMware vSphere Pro Series Vol,. 1 training DVD will be on its way to you shortly.  Thanks to everyone who entered and keep a look-out for a new competition real soon!