A Background on vSphere Essentials

January 29, 2013 Raj Tolani Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

In every VMware class I teach, whether it’s the basic ICM (Install Configure, Manage) or it’s the more involved FastTrack, a lot of students run into basic confusion on planning or the lingo. Consequently, I decided to cover these topics in this series of posts.
Background on Physical Machines

The terminology seems to be the first cause for confusion. Remember, before we went to virtualization, we used to buy expensive servers from IBM, HP, Dell or other hardware vendors and then install our operating systems (Oss). The operating system was either something from Microsoft or some flavor of Linux. Then on top of that OS, we installed our application, for example, installing Windows 2008 on top of your Dell Server and then putting something like Microsoft Exchange or SQL on top of that.

What Is the Correct ESXi 5.1 Upgrade Process?

January 22, 2013 Bill Ferguson Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

Going by the book, the upgrade process is precisely defined and should be followed in a specified order and manner whenever possible. In real life, other options and challenges always exist that might come into play in your organization. If you want to upgrade to vSphere 5.1 with the least possible headaches, you should perform the following steps in their precise order:

Upgrading to ESXi 5.1: Single Sign On and Configuration

January 15, 2013 Bill Ferguson Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

In addition to hardware and performance considerations, there are other significant changes that will affect your upgrade and your use of vSphere 5.1, especially if you have more than one vCenter. There is a new Single Sign On service that increases security and control by allowing the software components to communicate with each other through a secure token mechanism. Depending on the size and complexity of your installation, there may also be a changed setting for the vCenter Server Administrator(s) of your organization.

Should You Upgrade to ESXi 5.1?

January 8, 2013 Bill Ferguson Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

If you are upgrading to ESXi 5.1, there are some important facts that you should consider first. Upgrading involves many stages and processes that must be performed in a specific order. Many of these processes are one-way and do not provide a “back button.” If you do not use care and consideration in your upgrade plan, you could possibly lose important data and configuration, and potentially even lose contact with your servers. Understanding how to upgrade properly will ensure that you endure as little downtime as possible on each of your vSphere components.

Should You Upgrade to ESXi 5.1?

January 8, 2013 Bill Ferguson Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business