Monthly Archives: October 2013

Data Centre Migration Strategies – Part 1 – Overview

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After a recent twitter discussion, I felt a Data Centre migration strategies would be a good blog series to help people understand what the options are, along with the Pros and Cons of each strategy.

This guide is not intended to be a step by step on how to set-up each of these solutions, but a guide to assist you making the best decision for your environment when considering a data centre migration.

So what’s are some of the options when migrating virtual machines from one data centre to another?

1. Lift and Shift

Summary: Shut-down your environment and Physically relocate all the required equipment to the new location.

2. VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

Summary: Using SRM with either Storage Replication Adapters (SRAs) or vSphere Replication (VR) to perform both test and planned migration/s between the data centres.

3. vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC)

Summary: Using an existing vMSC or by setting up a new vMSC for the migration, vMotion virtual machines between the sites.

4. Stretched vSphere Cluster / Storage vMotion

Summary: Present your storage at one or both sites to ESXi hosts at one or both sites and use vMotion and Storage vMotion to move workloads between sites.

5. Backup & Restore

Summary: Take a full backup of your virtual machines, transport the backup data to a new data centre (physically or by data replication) and restore the backup onto the new environment.

6. Vendor Specific Solutions

Summary: There are countless vendor specific solutions which range from Storage layer, to Application layer and everything in between.

7. Data Replication and re-register VMs into vCenter (or ESXi) inventory

Summary: The poor man’s SRM solution. Setup data replication at the storage layer and manually or via scripts re-register VMs into the inventory of vCenter or ESXi for sites with no vCenter.

Each of the above topics will be discussed in detail over the coming weeks so stay tuned, and if you work for a vendor with a specific solution you would like featured please leave a comment and I will get back to you.

VMware Certified Associate – Data Center Virtualization , Cloud and Workforce Mobility

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Recently VMware has launched 3 new certifications aimed at the foundation layer to demonstrate your fundamental understanding of VMware technology in three key areas, being Datacenter Virtualization, Cloud and Workforce Mobility.

The good news is, these exams can be registered for, and taken online, and if your willing to sit the exams before the end of October 2013 Jan 2014, you can use the below voucher to sit all 3 exams for 50% off!

50% off Voucher

1. VCA13GKN

If the voucher does not work for any reason unfortunately there is nothing I can do to assist.

VMware Certified Associate – VCAC510 – Cloud (VCA-Cloud)

The self-paced e-learning class can be found here and taken for free.

VMware Certified Associate – VCAD510 – Data Center Virtualization (VCA-DCV)

The self-paced e-learning class can be found here and taken for free.

VMware Certified Associate – VCAW510 – Workforce Mobility (VCA-WM)

The self-paced e-learning class can be found here and taken for free.

Coming soon there will also be the VMware Certified Associate – Network Virtualization (VCA-NV) for those folk who are focusing on the emerging network virtualization path with NSX (formally Nicira).

So you have nothing to loose, study the free self-paced e-learning classes, register for the exams and sit them at 50% off, in the comfort of your own home.

I sat and passed all three exams yesterday and I must congratulate VMware Education as I feel they have added a entry level certification for those people either starting in virtualization, non VMware partners (customers) who cannot access the VMware Sales Professional (VSP) or VMware Technical Sales Professional (VTSP) tracks, or for people who do not intend going down the technical certification path of VMware Certified Professional (VCP) , VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) or VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX).

I guess for me the exams were pretty easy, but I have had many years experience including administration, implementation and architecture, so the exams are not really designed for people who have already completed, VCP or higher, but the exam questions tests general product knowledge which shows the test taker understands what VMware product helps solve what problem which is a important.

For anyone considering going down the VCP track, VCA is a great starting point and will help build your confidence to tackle the harder VCP (and beyond) exams.

Related Articles

1. My VCDX Journey  

2. The VCDX Application Process

3. My VCAP-DTD (Design Design) Experience

VCAtrifecta

 

Example Architectural Decision Competition by VMware Press & Josh Odgers

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VMwarePressLogo

Welcome to the Example Architectural Decision Competition!

VMware Press is conjunction with JoshOdgers.com (CloudXC) wish to announced this competition to find the most innovative and creative virtualization related architectural decisions to real world problems.

All submissions will be posted in this special section of JoshOdgers.com (CloudXC) with the goal to encourage everyone to share their experiences for the benefit of the Virtualization community.

All suitable example architectural decisions submitted to this competition will remain featured on this blog following the competition with credit being given to the author.

The competition will initially run for the next six (6) weeks and depending on the popularity of the competition it may be extended.

The Winner will be announced Fortnightly and will receive a printed copy of the VMware Press title of their choice.

The runner up will receive a voucher for a VMware Press eBook.

You can see the range of books VMware Press offer here.

If any other vendors wish to contribute prizes to this competition please add a comment to this page or contact me via Twitter (@josh_odgers).

The format of all example architectural decisions submissions must be as follows. Any submission without details for the following categories will be ineligible.

Problem Statement

Describe the problem statement or goal of the situation the design decision relates too

Assumptions

1. Assumption 1
2. Assumption 2
3. Assumption 3

Constraints

1. Constraint 1
2. Constraint 2
3. Constraint 3

Motivation

1. Motivation 1
2. Motivation 2

Architectural Decision

Details of Architectural Decision

Alternatives

1. Alternative 1
2.  Alternative 2
3.  Alternative 3

Justification

1. Justification 1
2. Justification 2
3. Justification 3
4. Justification 4
5. Justification 5

Implications

1. Implication 1
2. Implication 2

Example Architectural Decisions can be submitted via the following form.

Note: Limit of 3 submissions per person, per fortnight.

Winners will be announced on this blog and via Twitter on the following dates

October 17th
October 31st
November 14th

Good Luck!

COMPETITION ENDED.