A you may already know, Tom Howarth and I have actually managed to get a session accepted for VMworld. The gist of it is: Get a bunch of storage heavyweight folks onto a stage to answer your questions about storage & virtualization. That said… We need your help.

Ask Your Questions:

We understand that not everyone will be able to make it to VMworld to ask their questions in person but still have burning questions. If that sounds like you, go ahead and post your question in the comments section of this post. Tom and I will then use the best questions to get the session started or to fill slow spots in the discussion.

Session Details

For those of you attending VMworld, here are the details for the session:

Session: TA8623
Title: Storage Super-Heavyweight Challenge

Abstract:
Panel session to discuss all things storage, paneled by some of the best known storage experts from the major vendors.

Moderators:

• Tom Howarth Owner PlanetVM.Net
• Cody Bunch Owner ProfessionalVMware.com

US Speakers:

• Adam Carter Worldwide Product Manager HP Storage Hewlett Packard
• Vaughn Stewart Virtualization Evangelist NetApp
• Chad Sakac Vice President, VMware Technology Alliance EMC Corporation
• Eric Schott Director of product management, Dell EqualLogic

Technical Level: Technical

Track: Technology and Architecture

Subtopic: Storage

Thanks in advance and look forward to seeing you at VMworld!

So I’m traveling a bit outside of my normal realm and am hanging out in South Florida for a bit. What does that mean? Well outside excellent bicycling weather and humidity, it also means local area vMUGs! Two of them in fact. Come on out and let’s talk Virt!

Details:

South Florida Area vMUG

• Date: July 28, 2010
• URL: http://info.vmware.com/forms/VMUG_REG?eventcity=9387-sofl&theme=South%20Florida

Tampa Area vMUG

• Date: Aug 2, 2010 – 11p – 3p EST
• URL: http://info.vmware.com/content/VMwareExpress_Reg?eventcity=9399-clearwater&src=VMUG
• Note: The VMware Cloud In A Truck (VMware Express) will be there Woot!

Note: If you want to meet up some time before then, drop a line in the comments or hit me up @cody_bunch on Twitter.

Today’s post is brought to us by Chris, a member of the VMware community who wields some powerful Louisianan VooDoo magic (and PowerCLI). Chris uses this to show us how to take a csv file in, and use it to attach a VM to a dVS switch as well as adding the VMXNET3 nic to the VM. Getting right on with it:

Story:

Had to bulk create a bunch of VMs. The new server standard has each production server on 2 networks, the normal production network, and an auxiliary network (for backups, updates, management, etc). The issue I ran into was that our switches were created in vSphere as virtual distributed switches (using the Cisco Nexus 1000v). The standard new-vm script wouldn’t allow you to connect the network adapter to that switch, unfortunately. Also, we preferred to use VMXNET3 NICs as opposed to the default e1000, another thing that new-vm doesn’t allow. So I wrote the following script in PowerCLI that does the following:

• Reads in a CSV file (fields: Name,Description,OS,Disk,Memory)
• Connects to the vSphere server (you specify the server and cluster to add VMs to).
• Creates a VM in the specified folder on the ESX host with the least memory utilization and the datastore with the most free space and having at least 30gb free space
• Removes the default e1000 NIC
• Adds 2 VMXNET3 NICs on temporary networks (cannot add directly to vDS)
• Connects the 2 VMXNET3 NICs to the vDS
• Powers on VM

Tried to generalize code as much as possible, works here, but this was a new rollout so there may be differences in how other people have it.

Script:

Ending

This post may not mean much to a lot of my readers, but I figure, due to the larger audience here it is worth posting.

Basically, our local vMUG is quarterly, and heavily vendor sponsored. While generally useful, I’d like to continue the techie discussion that only seems to happen afterwards. So what does this mean? It means I need some support:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/231517

Basically, if you’re from San Antonio, go there, give us your suggestions, and we’ll try to put something together.

If you missed my twitter updates… well shame on you. I’ve been selected, with some others, to participate in the VCP4 beta program. I’ve scheduled my exam for the 15th. However, I’m not entirely sure what I need to cover whilst studying… That is where the study group comes in. I’m looking to host a call prior to the 15th to go over the blueprint: http://ping.fm/ijhyX

There are 8 objectives:

• Plan/Install/Upgrade
• Configure Networking
• Configure Storage
• Install & Configure vCenter Server
• Deploy vms and vApps
• Manage Compliance
• Establish Service Levels
• Troubleshooting and Alarm Management

The call will be on 7/10 at 11am CST. Drop me a line in the comments or via e-mail (listed on the about page) and I can send you the bridge details.  Please only drop a line if you are planning on attending the call and then attempting the VCP4 beta.  See you there!

This blog, thus far has been all about VI. How and what to automate, how to get yourself out of some sticky spots, and perhaps some turtles thrown in for good measure. However, it’s missing something. What is that? YOU! What is going on in your VI? Having trouble? Stuck on something? Some DBA on your nerves and you need to explain vSMP to him without talking down at him? Let’s discuss.

Simply throw your thoughts, questions, comments, confusions, and ‘other’ into the comments on this thread. From there, we’ll (Pancil and I) will pick some and write them up for you. Really, it’s that simple.

… And I’m now one of them. Whichever six of you nominated me thanks! Actually I’m quite humbled they’ve chosen me for this award amongst so many other excellent candidates. At this point I’m one of about 300 of these vExperts Globally.

Here is the post from VMware:

Congratulations and thank you to all our newly minted VMware vExperts. Email went out tonight informing around 300 hard-working bloggers, user group leaders, and virtualization evangelists of all types that they had received a VMware vExpert Award. VMware vExperts were chosen on the basis of the contributions they had made to the community of VMware and virutaliztion users in 2008.

We are not publishing a list of the awardees right now. There will be a public vExpert Directory where the award winners will be able to publish a professional profile.

This is an amazing group of people. The amount of intelligence, experience, and energy in the entire list of nominees was humbling. I’m grateful that they have such passion around this paradigm-changing technology. A big THANK YOU from everybody here at VMware to everyone who applied.

Choosing the final list was challenging, but we had a limited number of awards. There were highly qualified candidates who were either: (1) deeply experienced VMware experts, but without as much demonstrated or organized community contribution as others — we need to come up with an award for these guys! (2) great bloggers who just recently started — we hope they’ll keep it up and join us next year; and (3) early adopters with valuable contributions, but before 2008 — and I hope they’ll be able to join us next year as well.

I’m sure we forgot somebody, and I’m going to kick myself when we figure out who. I’m happy to chat with anybody about the process or what you can do to increase your chances next year. (jtroyer@vmware) The online and offline communities have just exploded this year, so there are plenty of opportunities to get involved.

I’m honored to be working with all the vExperts this year. My goal is to help them where I can, make them all more successful in their virtualization efforts, and with a little luck get them big promotions and raises. For those of us not on the vExpert list, I hope we’ll be rewarded with deeper blog posts and white papers, more informed and interesting user groups, and amazing new tools.

And, the letter from VMware:

Congratulations! On behalf of VMware, we would like to thank you for all the work you’ve done giving back to the virtualization community and sharing your expertise with others. We are pleased to present you with the VMware vExpert Award for 2009. VMware is giving this award to individuals who have contributed significantly to the community of VMware users over the past year

Again… I’m humbled, and honored to have been picked, and I hope to keep serving you.

The link over on the VMTN blog is a bit off and identifies this as #32, but I assure you, this was the VMTN podcast #33, discussing the VITK 1.5 release, and a few other things.

TalkShoe Link

Well, I’m not sure how “Extreme” it is, but over the weekend VMware’s Developer community site got a face lift.

Unlike Joan Rivers, this one actually kinda looks good afterwards:

Is there an interest out there, from you my readers, in how-to style videos? Similar to

If so, around what sort of topics?

Let me know in the comments.