It’s been a little later than I’d hoped in announcing the winners of the TrainSignal ‘Best of vSphere 4.1 for vNerds’ training DVD due to being away on holiday, though I’m back now and it’s time to announce the winners. Hurray!

First of all thanks to everyone who made the effort to submit a photo, including Christian (@H0bbel) who sent through a photo and didn’t even want to enter the competition! 

Here is a selection of the photos submitted:

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

After much consideration with the judging panel being locked in a darkened room for three days I am pleased to announce the winners of the ‘Best of vSphere 4.1 for vNerds’ training DVD competition are…. <drum roll>

• Schwartz

• Aaron Fincher

Thanks again to everyone who entered and watch this space for another TechHead competition real soon!

I figured it was about time for another TechHead competition and what better way to start the first of many competitions for 2010 than with a copy of Train Signal’s VMware vSphere Pro Series Vol,. 1 training DVD up for grabs.  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)

You may already be familiar with the names of the instructors presenting this training all of whom are active in the VMware community and are VMware vExperts.

So without further ado, find out how to win your very own copy of the VMware vSphere Pro Series Vol,. 1 training DVD by watching the following short video flip with Train Signal’s resident VMware vSphere expert and instructor, David Davis who gives the competition question. 

This competition is open to all TechHead readers where-ever you are in the world.  The competition winner will be announced Monday 17th May 2010.  Email your answer:

Good Luck to all that enter! 

Exciting news for all you VMware vSphere admins and enthusiasts out there!  Train Signal, who produced the popular ‘VMware vSphere’ and ‘Hyper-V’ training videos have just released a new addition to the VMware vSphere suite of training products called ‘VMware vSphere Pro Series Vol. 1’.

As the ‘Pro’ in the name suggests this new training product offers a more in-depth look at three popular products in the vSphere suite providing almost 11 hours of video content in this first volume.  The three vSphere products are:

• VMware View & ThinApp, VMware’s Desktop & Application Virtualization solutions, authored by David Davis
• Cisco Nexus 1000V, the 3rd party add-in distributed virtual switch for vSphere, authored by Rick Scherer
• VMware PowerCLI, VMware’s implementation of Microsoft PowerShell, used to manage your vSphere infrastructure from the command-line, authored by Hal Rottenberg

The Instructors

Each of these topics are presented by a different instructor all of whom are VMware vExperts and are well respected within the VMware virtualization community.  I have had the pleasure of meeting all three of them over the past couple of years and can definitely confirm that these guys know their stuff and most importantly are effective in communicating it.   

David Davis has been the instructor on all of the previous Train Signal VMware released training videos.  I have listened and followed him in the video for over 11 hours in the previous vSphere training video and really like his clearly spoken, easy to follow presentation style.

Rick Scherer is an active member of the VMware blogging community through his blog VMware-Tips and has a wealth of knowledge around anything vSphere.  I had the opportunity to have a quick chat with him (video) at the last VMworld event over in San Francisco where he was also the moderator and participant in the ‘Ask the Experts’ panel (video).

Hal Rottenberg will likely need no introduction to all you PowerShell and PowerCLI fans out there.  He is well known in sysadmin circles for co-hosting the PowerScripting Podcast, and heading up the PowerShell Community organization.  Hal’s excellent book, “Managing VMware Infrastructure with PowerShell” (along with Alan Renouf’s site and Carter Shanklin’s VMworld sessions) greatly contributed to my knowledge of using PowerShell in a ESX environment.

So what can I expect?

As mentioned there is approximately 11 hours of video content covering all three of the topics mentioned above.  These videos are presented via an easy to navigate user interface from the DVD disks.

As well as the DVD based videos you also get provided with the following formats which help provide maximum flexibility for viewing and learning these vSphere products.

Take a look at this 17 minute long demonstration video which will give you an idea of what to expect – the actual video is much larger and clearer. 

How Much?

Compared to a traditional type training course this is a much more time and financially cost effective method of learning.  Train Signal offer a 90 day complete satisfaction guarantee on the product which should help put your mind at rest in the unlikely event that you don’t like the product.  The following is the current pricing at the time of the products release:

VMware vSphere Pro Series Vol. 1

Cost: US$297

Bundle Deal:

VMware vSphere Pro Series Vol. 1

+

VMware vSphere Training 

Cost: US$594

Free T-Shirt

For the first 100 people who purchase the VMware vSphere Pro Series Vol 1 training video will receive a rather fetching ‘vNerd’ t-shirt!