Vmware training

mrbios · 10 Jul 2011 at 12:42

Currently i work in an environment where i do bits of everything, there's no specialising etc. I just do everything from the crap jobs like replacing a toner all the way through to managing our servers, vmware, storage solutions and purchasing and so on...

I've been doing this for 5 years (my total time working in IT) and i know that one day i'll have to move into a specialist role of some kind as that's where the real money is, I've decided after a great deal of thinking that i enjoy and have a great deal of interest in vmware, i've been using vmware ESXi servers for the past 3 years and i'm currently working on implementing vmotion but i don't have any official qualifications behind me.

Now i don't drive so i've been looking at the vmware online training courses but they're all hosted during american times, can someone in the UK do the online training courses even though they're run from america during american working hours?

What titles are there to be had from VMware training courses and what progression path should i look at going down?

EDIT: Just been looking through the vmware education site, i've decided i want to try and become VCDX certified by the time im 30 (is that realistic? Could i achieve it sooner given commitment to learning it all?) I'm currently 24.

m4cc45 · 10 Jul 2011 at 20:14

The main problem with VMware (well it's not a problem it's probably good practice) is that to achieve qualifications you need to do the official course. To become a VCP4 - which is a pre-req for VCDX - you need to have done the course and sat the exam.

The fasttrack course I went on was 5 days (and covers the two five days course) it was around £1500. You can easily become VCDX in six years. I'd consider waiting though to do the course as ESXi 5 is around the corner which means a new certificate. So you may as well do the VMware 5 course then the exam and then the rest of the pre-reqs. The presentation that you have to, I have no idea off but I'm guessing it's not going to be to easy - nor to hard if you know VMware inside out.

M.

mrbios · 10 Jul 2011 at 20:28

Cheers m4cc45, As far as i can tell it might be possible for me to do all the coursework and courses online and then just find a local place (the most local place to me is 23miles away....and i don't drive ¬_¬) to do the tes, am i right in thinking that?

From what i gather i have to become a VCP, then VCAP before i can do VCDX? I've not had a 'goal' as such for quite a long time, it's a nice feeling having something to aim for again.

m4cc45 · 10 Jul 2011 at 20:46

I haven't seen anything about the online learning. I know you need to do the course though - the following doesn't mention anything about online learning:

http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=12457&ui=www_cert

I'd double check the online bit. It's a five day course (I did mine in Birmingham) so it might be, if you can afford it or get work to pay for it, worth staying there for the five days in a hotel and doing it that way.

M.

TNGL · 10 Jul 2011 at 20:50

Do what you enjoy as that's what you'll be happy with

. But I believe the real money is in networking and getting qualifications such as the CCNA and CCNP.

Knubje · 13 Jul 2011 at 18:38

Tingle said:
Do what you enjoy as that's what you'll be happy with . But I believe the real money is in networking and getting qualifications such as the CCNA and CCNP.

Weird, all the networking guys where I am are on a pay grade down from the enterprise systems managers/designers. Although we might just be tight with them

The real money is in development, if you lke coding. I don't

Plus there is more to job satisfaction than money!

Bios, you could easily get qualifications within a year or two. The problem being is being sent on the course, the ones I looked at down here were around £2k for 5 day VMware training. You must have been on one of their special 2k courses to even qualify to sit the exam and get the qualification.

aspirin · 13 Jul 2011 at 21:18

vSphere 5 training has been released today along with the announcement that the product itself will be released in the next 30 - 60 days. I use QA for all our VMware training and start with VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage and then the exam to become a VCP. These are now offered as a virtual classroom http://www.qa.com/training-courses/...tall,-configure,-manage-(icm)---virtual-class
I don't know how good, bad or indifferent they are but it looks an option for those who can't drive or can't afford the accommodation. We pay QA a retainer which means that we get 60% off RRP.
BTW, the real money is as a IT design consultant. A lot of development work is now sub'ed to the Asian continent as labour is so cheap.

m4cc45 · 13 Jul 2011 at 21:47

£2500 for a virtual class? Last time I did the VCP 3.5 with QA it was £1200 for the fast track. Seems very expensive.

And if the licencing rumours are true we may have to look at another virtualisation technology as it's ridiculous (rumours around maximum memory for guests, etc.)

M.

aspirin · 13 Jul 2011 at 22:05

No one pays full RRP.
vSphere 5 information http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf
Interesting that core and physical memory limitations have been removed (yay!). A more simplistic version range should also make my life easier (apart from Foundation and Acceleration Kits.
I'm with you on the pricing but technically VMware is so far in advanced than Hyper-V (IMO) that cost becomes less important. I have yet to have anyone call and demand Hyper-V so we don't bother tooling up for it. No doubt things will change...

mrbios · 13 Jul 2011 at 23:00

That's a point, can someone explain the vmware pricing and licensing structure to me?

I don't have anything to do with physically purchasing licenses, i just tell an external company what we're doing, they go off and speak to vmware (they're a reseller) and they come back with a price.

From what i gather of other peoples impressions they (vmware) are both slow and confusing in their pricing and licensing structure. I've always found it quite odd that they license servers per CPU and not, well... per server!

EDIT: never mind, read the above vsphere5 information, i've got some idea now. Though it's still not that clear.

TNGL · 13 Jul 2011 at 23:27

Knubje said:
Weird, all the networking guys where I am are on a pay grade down from the enterprise systems managers/designers. Although we might just be tight with them

A valid point you have. I think it all depends on who you're working for, where you're working and what area of networking you're working in.

mrbios · 14 Jul 2011 at 08:35

Can someone tell me if i'm on the right lines here (still trying to get an understanding of the vmware licensing structure)...

vCenter - One off cost for the license, followed by a yearly support renewel cost

Hosts - 1 off cost per CPU license, cost depending on what level of cpu license you want (enterprise, standard, foundation etc. ?) and a yearly support license PER cpu?

Does that sound correct? So for example if we had 7 servers all with 2 CPUs and vCenter standard the yearly costs to keep it all up to date requires us to pay 15 x Subscription/Support costs?

Please correct me if i'm wrong

(hopefully i'm wrong else that's £2k-3k per year in support costs, maybe more >_<)

NiCkNaMe · 14 Jul 2011 at 10:05

Been a while since I looked at VMware licensing, however I'd review the release of version 5 for important licensing changes (providing you'd be going for v5...)

http://feeds.brianmadden.com/~r/bri...ity-with-the-vsphere-5-licensing-changes.aspx

Skidilliplop · 14 Jul 2011 at 10:47

Tingle said:
Do what you enjoy as that's what you'll be happy with . But I believe the real money is in networking and getting qualifications such as the CCNA and CCNP.

Coming from someone in that skill group, no it's not. you can make a quick buck if you do contract work for installs but that work comes in ebbs and flows. Actually making a sustainable living from it is tough and involves traversing the country constantly. Permanent postings for network engineers don't tend to pay that well. Not at that level anyway. CCIEs get decent money on permanent posts.

Best bet is to have a CCNP AND something else that fits well with it. Like a VMware cert or a SAN storage cert, as there's often quite advanced networking involved in building proper resilient Virtual environments.

aspirin · 14 Jul 2011 at 13:36

mrbios said:
Can someone tell me if i'm on the right lines here (still trying to get an understanding of the vmware licensing structure)...

vCenter - One off cost for the license, followed by a yearly support renewel cost

Hosts - 1 off cost per CPU license, cost depending on what level of cpu license you want (enterprise, standard, foundation etc. ?) and a yearly support license PER cpu?

Does that sound correct? So for example if we had 7 servers all with 2 CPUs and vCenter standard the yearly costs to keep it all up to date requires us to pay 15 x Subscription/Support costs?

Please correct me if i'm wrong (hopefully i'm wrong else that's £2k-3k per year in support costs, maybe more >_<)

Your assumptions are correct. Basic support renewal for Standard for 1 x CPU PA is £212.25 and vCentre is £798.08.
The best and most cost effective way in licencing VMware is using Acceleration Kits which give you vCentre + 6 CPU for a bundled price. HP have their own part codes but similar product offering but to tend to be a bit cheaper (but you have to use HP hardware).

m4cc45 · 14 Jul 2011 at 14:23

The licencing above is soon going to be incorrect as it will be based on consumed memory. All of the different licences give you a different amount of memory (i.e. enterprise plus gives you 48GB memory). So if you want your VM's to usee 100GB memory you'll need 3 licences.

M.

mrbios · 14 Jul 2011 at 16:02

m4cc45 said:
The licencing above is soon going to be incorrect as it will be based on consumed memory. All of the different licences give you a different amount of memory (i.e. enterprise plus gives you 48GB memory). So if you want your VM's to usee 100GB memory you'll need 3 licences.

M.

They list in their licensing information, from what i understood, it's still limited by 1 license to one CPU but with a vRAM limitation, have i got that correct?

aspirin said:
Your assumptions are correct. Basic support renewal for Standard for 1 x CPU PA is £212.25 and vCentre is £798.08.
The best and most cost effective way in licencing VMware is using Acceleration Kits which give you vCentre + 6 CPU for a bundled price. HP have their own part codes but similar product offering but to tend to be a bit cheaper (but you have to use HP hardware).

I'll have to look into this then, we're 100% proliant servers so that's an option that may benefit us.

aspirin · 14 Jul 2011 at 16:13

mrbios said:
They list in their licensing information, from what i understood, it's still limited by 1 license to one CPU but with a vRAM limitation, have i got that correct?

I'll have to look into this then, we're 100% proliant servers so that's an option that may benefit us.

What are your requirements - I'll give you the part numbers....

mrbios · 14 Jul 2011 at 17:02

aspirin said:
What are your requirements - I'll give you the part numbers....

4 x 2CPU Hosts
3 x 1 CPU Hosts
1 x vCenter Standard

All the CPU licenses are standard edition licenses, is that the information you're after?

Next year the 3 1 x CPU Hosts will be consolidated into one 2 CPU host.

aspirin · 14 Jul 2011 at 17:23

mrbios said:
4 x 2CPU Hosts
3 x 1 CPU Hosts
1 x vCenter Standard

All the CPU licenses are standard edition licenses, is that the information you're after?

Next year the 3 1 x CPU Hosts will be consolidated into one 2 CPU host.

VMware vCenter Server Standard 1 year 9x5 Support E-LTU TD416AAE (£3,777.00) x 1

VMware vSphere Standard for 1 Processor 1 year 9x5 Support E-LTU TD411AAE (£801.00) x 11

Includes ESXi/ESX Server 4.x, vMotion, vCenter Agents, VUM and High Availability. Supports max 6 cores/CPU.