Mike D’s Blog

This year there are a TON of labs at VMworld. Right now we’re set to offer an even 30 hands-on labs at VMworld where you can play with nearly every product VMware offers. There will be plenty of seats this year as well – over 450. We’ll also have extended hours at the labs.

The reason I’m writing this post is to let you know about the vCloud API lab that I’m the captain of. There’s been a lot of talk and activity around the first cloud API submitted to the DMTF for standardization. This lab is your chance to get your hands dirty with the API. You don’t have to be a programmer to get through the lab so everyone’s welcome.

Of course if you are a developer then there’s a lot more than just the vCloud API lab to go through. There are 4 different API labs so you can learn how to programmatically work with all of the VMware products. What’s more is we also have a technology exchange for developers running concurrently with VMworld. It’s sort of a mini-conference within a conference with sessions strictly for developers.

To find out more about VMworld or to register so you can get in the labs just go to the main VMworld website.

To find out more about the Technology Exchange for Developers see their site.

Here’s a full listing of the hands-on API labs that will be at VMworld. As you can see, we have some heavy hitters as captains of the labs.

LAB16 – VMware vCloud™ API

The VMware vCloud™ API is the key to VMware’s story around federation and ecosystem with the cloud. In this lab we will introduce you to the API and what it can do. You will use real world scenarios to explore the API and figure out when and how to consume the API with several different programming languages. If you are building a cloud then eventually you will need to know about the VMware vCloud™ API and this lab will get you ready for that. No prior programming experience is required although you will definitely benefit from general programming concept knowledge (methods, functions, etc).

Lab Captain: Mike Dipetrillo, and Mike Haines

LAB26 – VMware vSphere™ PowerCLI

This lab will provide hands on training for scripting a VMware environment. The goal is to provide all the tools needed to automate, integrate, and extend VMware vCenter™ for your environment. Attendees will use the Microsoft PowerShell based PowerCLI for scripting VMware vCenter™ and ESX. They’ll walk away from the lab with a better understanding of VMware Infrastructure, resources for using the toolkit, and a variety of scripts for performing common administrative tasks. Exercises will cover performing tasks based on VM attributes, performing actions on many VMs at a time, and exporting performance data. This lab does not require programming or scripting experience.

Lab Captain: Alton Yu

LAB27 – VMware vSphere™ Web Services SDK – C# (.Net Developers rejoice)

This lab will provide hands on training for using the C# SDK in a VMware vSphere™ environment. The goal is to provide an introduction to the key concepts in using the SDK to automate and extend VMware vSphere™ functionality. Attendees will use the SDK to connect and perform tasks against VMware vCenter™ and ESX. They’ll walk away from the lab with a better understanding of VMware vSphere™, resources for using the API for performing common administrative tasks as well as extending the product functionality. Exercises will cover performing tasks based on VM attributes, performing actions on many VMs at a time, and exporting performance data etc. This lab does require some scripting/programming experience.

Lab Captain: Alket Memushaj

LAB28 – VMware vSphere™ Web Services SDK – Java

This lab will provide hands on training for scripting a VMware environment. The goal is to provide all the tools needed to automate, integrate, and extend VMware vCenter™ for your environment. Attendees will use the Java Web Services API against VMware vCenter™ and ESX. They’ll walk away from the lab with a better understanding of VMware Infrastructure and resources for using the API while performing common administrative tasks. Exercises will cover automation based on VM attributes, bulk actions on multiple VMs, and querying performance data. This lab does not require programming or scripting experience.

Lab Captain: Gilbert Lau

Tags: VMworld

I just got notified that my session on Building the Datacenter of the Future got accepted for Virtualization Congress 2009. Originally I got asked to do a panel but logistics just didn’t work out so I’ll be doing a session instead. Just looking through the session list it looks to be a great event. I hope to see a lot of people in Vegas in May.

Building the Datacenter of the Future

Today’s datacenter has become a complex environment of open and closed systems; distributed and centralized resources; and a huge cost center and bottleneck for the business. IT needs to change and it needs to start in the datacenter. In this session we’ll talk about what the industry is doing to change the way the datacenter works and how it’s designed. The good news is you don’t have to throw everything out to get there. Come learn how to take what you have now and transform it into a highly efficient service platform for the future.

Today starts what will surely be a wrath of postings about VMworld Europe. For those familiar with VMTN or people that just want to hear a group of really smart people speak don’t miss this event. Duncan over at Yellow Bricks posted the official details of the VMTN Meeting the Experts event.

Okay, the dates and time have been set for the Meet the VMTN Experts session. We are still looking for an official name for the session but just write down these dates and times and be sure to be there:

Tuesday 24th – 13.00 – 14.00
Wednesday 25th – 13.00 – 14.00
Location: Community Lounge on the solution exchange

Who will be there:

Jason Boche – Boche.net + VMTN Moderator
Thomas Bryant – VMTN Moderator
Steve Beaver – thevirtualblackhole.com + VMTN Moderator
Eric Sloof – NTPro.nl + VMTN/VMUG Contributor
Scott Herold – VMGuru.com + VMTN Contributor and author of VMware ESX Server: Advanced Technical Design Guide
Wil van Antwerpen – vi-toolkit.com + VMTN Contributor
Gabrie van Zanten – gabesvirtualworld.com + VMTN Contributor
Alan Renouf – teckinfo.blogspot.com + VMTN Contributor
Tom Howarth – PlanetVM.net + VMTN Moderator
Duncan Epping – Yellow-Bricks.com + VMTN Moderator

Got this in an email today. Actually, everyone that went to VMworld last year should be getting it.

	Save the Date for VMworld 2009 Mark your calendar for the industry’s leading virtualization event – VMworld 2009, August 31 – September 3, 2009 at The Moscone Center, San Francisco. Today’s economy demands we do more with less—a key value proposition of virtualization. Attend VMworld 2009 to hear about the latest industry trends and learn how virtualization can help maximize your organization’s current and future IT investments. Sign up to be notified when registration goes live. Sincerely, The VMworld 2009 Team

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It looks like Alessandro’s Virtualization Congress 2009 is really coming together. Simon Crosby recently commented about how nice it will be to have this neutral conference. I just hope that the speakers keep it neutral. After looking at the papers that were just posted it looks like some vendors may in fact be trying to present more marketing stuff. It’s up to you to decide what gets selected by voting now.

I have submitted a few different papers – all of which I’m keeping vendor neutral. You can vote for my papers with the links below. Help push them to the top people and I’ll see you in Vegas!

• The Future of Virtualization – Is your crystal ball broken but youd still like to know the future of virtualization? Come to this session to learn what advances are being made throughout the virtualization stack. What new integrations are being worked on? What are the chip manufacturers doing? Whats in that new server you bought that can help you? Well cover the top 10 futures that you wont want to miss.
• Building the Datacenter of the Future – We’ll discuss in depth advances in datacenter design. Topics covered include physical structures, power, cooling, security, management, and infrastructure. If youre moving datacenters or building a new one then you wont want to miss this session.
• What is the Cloud and Why Do I Care? – What is cloud computing? Do you need it? What will it offer for your company? Come learn why you really do want to move to the cloud inside and outside your organization. Attendees will learn how to architect for the cloud, what type of cloud they should build, and and what the impact is on licensing and compliance. Youll also learn what the barriers to a cloud approach are.
• Power and Cooling in the Datacenter – Come learn the black art of managing and manipulating power and cooling in the datacenter. Well talk about the advances in datacenter architecture as well as hardware and software design to help manage your power and cooling needs. Should you move back to water? What about tunneled wind? New technologies can help you keep your datacenter under control.

Bob over at The Lone Sysadmin posted an interesting article recently about getting to VMworld. Bob does chargeback for VMs to the different lines of businesses in his company. He has some great tips on budgeting in the cost of VMworld to the cost of services delivered to the lines of business. Makes sense. After all, VMworld is a one stop shop for everything virtual. You’ll learn more than you ever wanted to know. You’ll meet all sorts of great individuals you can lean on in the future. You can get your hands dirty in the labs. Personally, I would take Bob’s advice and start working VMworld into your budget now. VMworld 2009 has already been announced and VMworld Europe 2009 is just around the corner.

Something new in my budget this year is explicit funding for several people to go to VMworld. Over the last few years I’ve been able to attend as part of my organization’s training budget. With budgets shrinking I want to ensure that some folks get to go in 2009, so I’m building it into my service fees.

Read more at the source (The Lone Sysadmin).