tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640395061873595522022-09-27T02:15:19.098-07:00Virtualize the Netarielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-89427760653024287832019-07-03T12:48:00.000-07:002019-07-03T13:30:30.942-07:00Getting a bit more seriously into networking<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hey everyone!</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am going to be writing more and more in this blog (which may move somewhere else than blogger). These are the 5 big areas I want to focus on:</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><ol><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Studying for the <a href="https://www.vmware.com/education-services/certification/vcap6-nv-deploy.html" target="_blank">VCAP-NV Deploy</a> exam, which I want to do ASAP. Some resources <a href="https://blogs.vmware.com/networkvirtualization/2019/01/go-beyond-your-ccie-or-vcp6-nv.html/" target="_blank">are free</a>!</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Taking advantage of my additional OpenFlow compliant <a href="https://northboundnetworks.com/" target="_blank">Northbound Networks</a> <a href="https://northboundnetworks.com/products/zodiac-gx" target="_blank">Zodiac GX</a> switches to learn more about <a href="https://www.openvswitch.org/" target="_blank">Open vSwitch</a> and SDN in general.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Run NSX-V and NSX-T in my homelab, both with vCenter and without ;)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Take advantage of the <a href="https://cloud-simple.net/2018/04/20/unboxing-of-velocloud-edge-gateway-510/" target="_blank">VeloCloud Edge 510</a> and associated software that I have access to now thanks to being part of the VMware Ambassadors of the Office of the CTO</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Indulge in OpenBSD systems for routing, firewalling and web serving. I have access to a Public IP where I will be able to create a DMZ and that way be able to put several ideas to test.</span></li></ol><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lots of learning to be done in the following months, but I just love and genuinely geek out over this stuff. Let me know if I should read your blogs, I'll be definitely doing lots of reading and compiling of links to recommend to others!</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ariel</span>arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-85101722226352845242017-03-02T14:19:00.001-08:002017-03-02T14:19:52.902-08:00A "Thank You" post - passed the VCP-NV 2V0-642! A look back<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wow, what a ride it has been.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This blog, <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2015/09/mission.html" target="_blank">from the beginning</a>, has been dedicated to helping a current VMware admin who works in DataCenter Virtualization, to get accustomed with network virtualization, and a big thing for me has been pointing out free resources and opportunities to get the equivalent certs and training that this VMware administrator had to take. So I made posts like:</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Highlight the importance of <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2015/11/how-to-start-learning-nsx-vmwares-hands.html" target="_blank">hands on labs</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Study guides and videos <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2015/11/how-to-start-learning-nsx-free-links.html" target="_blank">created by the vCommunity</a> </span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The great free ebooks created by VMware - <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2016/01/free-ebook-nsx-for-vsphere-foundation.html" target="_blank">NSX for vSphere</a> and <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2017/02/nsx-micro-segmentation-day-1-book-by.html" target="_blank">MicroSegmentation Day 1</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Certification tidbits, like current CCNA and VCP's <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2016/01/getting-vcp-nv-without-taking-required.html" target="_blank">could waive the VCP-NV course requirement and just take the exam</a> </span></li></ul><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was able to talk from this point of view, since that was exactly me! The more I learned about NSX, and the more I looked for information, the more resources I found from amazing people who give a lot back for free. </span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm also very proud to have been selected vExpertNSX in 2016. This was because I shared my enthusiasm for NSX with my <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2016/05/nyc-vmug-april-2016-presentation-how-i.html" target="_blank">VMUG</a>, <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2016/05/nsx-socialab-nyc-05-2016.html" target="_blank">participated in SocialLabs</a>, <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/arielsanchezmora/home/vmware/vbrownbag-presentations" target="_blank">vBrownBag </a>and the large <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2016/05/como-le-explicaria-nsx-un-colega-en-10.html" target="_blank">latin community</a>. There are many, many, many others that are ahead, technically, over me - this has always been the case in many things - but I decided that I would do my part in letting people know <i>this is the next big thing</i>. If anything, what I want people to feel is a sense of excitement of what's possible, that wasn't possible before!</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I decided my first big milestone would be getting the VCP6-NV certification. You may remember from <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2016/09/nsx-news-you-should-not-have-missed.html" target="_blank">this post </a>that the VCP6.2 NV beta dates coincided with <a href="https://twitter.com/ELVERs_Opinion" target="_blank">Elver Sena</a>'s book release during VMworld (where I actually met him, and got my signed copy!). Meeting Elver was super cool (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvN0xajxB7E" target="_blank">we got an interview in Spanish done</a>), and having his book, plus the accessible cost of the exam, made me take the plunge, and <b>I got the happy news today that I passed!</b> I wholeheartedly recommend getting the <a href="http://www.pearsonitcertification.com/store/vcp6-nv-official-cert-guide-exam-2v0-641-9780789754806" target="_blank">premium edition from Pearson</a>, as those 4 practice exams have lots of questions that I feel helped me a lot!</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1YpFybBRCJU/WLiX82fFGcI/AAAAAAAAcSc/KJ-IyYg-Xxsh-kUyHZ8wJS1-cvzuZLnCgCLcB/s1600/vmware-certified-professional-6-network-virtualization.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1YpFybBRCJU/WLiX82fFGcI/AAAAAAAAcSc/KJ-IyYg-Xxsh-kUyHZ8wJS1-cvzuZLnCgCLcB/s320/vmware-certified-professional-6-network-virtualization.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think there is a lot more to come for NSX, much more than what we have already seen. I highlighted it is a unique product that offers capabilities no other product can match, <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2016/01/getting-vcp-nv-without-taking-required.html" target="_blank">especially in security</a>. Likewise, it requires some skills, and busting silos inside companies. I even have some ideas for what will come in the future, when NSX will simply be able to handle all IT assets in the company, <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2016/09/opinion-nsxs-tipping-point-aka-its.html" target="_blank">starting with IPAM</a>. I know now its next step is that it will be able to handle all IT assets, being the one glue for real visibility and automation, on premises and in the cloud.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My next milestone> I'm looking forward to more experience with NSX (vExperts have both NSX and vRealize Network Insight licenses for homelab use, while vExpertNSX's have had it for a little more time than that) and taking on the VCAP6-NV exam. I already have some great vCommunity resources lined up from <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2016/06/exam-tips-vcap6-nv-deploy-with-gabriel.html" target="_blank">Gabriel Maciel</a> and <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2016/11/awesome-community-vcap6-nv-study-guide.html" target="_blank">Clinton Prentice</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buPn55fmSdI" target="_blank">Iwan Hoogendoorn</a>. I just wish I had some real networking switches to play with, but I hear <a href="https://twitter.com/aldtd" target="_blank">Tim Davis</a>, the <a href="https://twitter.com/domdelfino/status/834925942527127552" target="_blank">official Face of #vExpertNSX</a>, may find some cheap for my homelab - and with a little work, we can make some cool blog posts!</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If anything in this blog post, I want you to Get excited about NSX, and do something about it. Go for that first cert, push for a POC or some licenses in your company, and play with it. Dive deep. I guarantee you that it is time well spent, and <a href="https://twitter.com/arielsanchezmor" target="_blank">may I hear</a> about your success soon!</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">PD, if anyone is still thinking you can't download NSX, I would like to remind you that you can; because it's the only supported upgrade of VCNS, almost all paying customers can access the bits, and this <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2016/06/nsx-623-and-some-exciting-news-for.html" target="_blank">has been the case since NSX 6.2.3</a>. The documentation is public, you can play all day in the HOLs, and everything you need to "hop on" is available. </span>arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-40135099892517745522017-02-17T08:24:00.002-08:002017-02-17T08:30:37.650-08:00NSX Micro-segmentation Day 1 book by Wade Holmes<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">VMware's <a href="https://twitter.com/wholmes" target="_blank">Wade Holmes</a> (VCDX #15) just released a NSX micro-segmentation book in time for the RSA conference. In about 70 pages he focuses on day 1 concepts and considerations. This is incredibly valuable, since the majority of companies begin their NSX journey by first adopting micro-segmentation.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The PDF book is <b>free</b>, and if you were lucky to attend the conference, you may get in in print! See the blog post and PDF link below:</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogs.vmware.com/networkvirtualization/2017/02/micro-segmentation-day-1.html#.WKceaW8rKUk"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">https://blogs.vmware.com/networkvirtualization/2017/02/micro-segmentation-day-1.html#.WKceaW8rKUk</span></a></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/nsx/vmware-nsx-microsegmentation.pdf">https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/nsx/vmware-nsx-microsegmentation.pdf</a></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will read this soon and provide a more in-depth commentary on the book; I am also planning a install series with more of a concept and mindset, and how to work with the networking/server/security teams overall.</span>arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-86004057102611524112016-11-20T15:55:00.001-08:002016-11-20T15:55:33.745-08:00VCNS to #NSX upgrade (spanish) Me and @J_Kolkes for #vBrownBag LATAMEnd of support for VCNS was announced for September 2016. One of our <a href="https://twitter.com/vBrownBagLATAM" target="_blank">vBrownBagLATAM</a> members, <a href="https://twitter.com/J_Kolkes" target="_blank">Jorge Torres</a>, was tasked with doing the upgrade to NSX and was getting conflicting information - the official docs said one thing and the actual AV product he was using was saying another thing, and he also needed to include a vSphere upgrade.<br /><br />vBrownBag is a <a href="http://vbrownbag.com/brownbags/what-is-vbrownbag/" target="_blank">community of people helping each other learn</a>. As such, we decided to do a session to review all of the documentation together and invited other experts to participate such as <a href="https://twitter.com/ELVERs_Opinion" target="_blank">Elver Sena</a>, author of the official <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2016/01/free-ebook-nsx-for-vsphere-foundation.html" target="_blank">VCP-NV book</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/stalin_pena" target="_blank">Stalin Pena</a>, VCIX-NV. The result was the following session; I led by reviewing the main documentation available, Jorge did a specific session on his product and then we opened the conversation.<br /><br />I'm happy to present this entry in this blog and introduce you to the world of <a href="http://vbrownbag.com/" target="_blank">vBrownBag</a> if you didn't know about it!<br /><br /><a href="http://vbrownbag.com/2016/11/2016-sep-15-vbrownbag-latam-upgrade-vcns-a-nsx-con-arielsanchezmora-j_kolkes-y-elvers_opinion/" target="_blank">http://vbrownbag.com/2016/11/2016-sep-15-vbrownbag-latam-upgrade-vcns-a-nsx-con-arielsanchezmora-j_kolkes-y-elvers_opinion/</a>arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-19421335694864661892016-11-02T13:54:00.000-07:002016-11-02T13:54:01.934-07:00Awesome community VCAP6-NV study guide by @clint_nz<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've been meaning to highlight the amazing work being done by Clinton Prentice, <a class="ProfileHeaderCard-screennameLink u-linkComplex js-nav" href="https://twitter.com/clint_nz" style="background: rgb(245, 248, 250); color: #8899a6; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none !important;"><span style="color: #8899a6;"><span style="background: rgb(245, 248, 250); font-size: 14px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial;">@</span></span><span class="u-linkComplex-target" style="background: rgb(245, 248, 250); color: #8899a6; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline !important;">clint_nz</span></a> , at his blog <a href="http://vzealand.com/">vzealand.com</a>. As you all probably know, the first VCIX-NV certification is being slowly replaced with deployment and design vcap6 certifications, which when combined would then become the new VCIX-NV.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Clinton is going through the <a href="https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=88781&ui=www_cert" target="_blank">VCAP6-NV Deploy</a> blueprint (<a href="http://blogs.vmware.com/education/files/2015/12/Exam_Prep_Guide_3V0-643_v1.2.pdf" target="_blank">1.2 from what I can tell</a>) doing a blog (with practical demo!) for each of the blueprint items. It's phenomenal, difficult and time consuming work, and I just want to make sure he gets the shout outs he deserves :) Definitely will be a shoe-in the next time vExpertNSX applications open!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can see all his posts by accessing his tag directly:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="https://vzealand.com/category/vcap6-nv-study-guide/"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">https://vzealand.com/category/vcap6-nv-study-guide/</span></a><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As far as I know, this is the only public study guide on this new certification so far - not to take away from previous VCIX-NV study guides such as Iwan's <a href="http://www.vcix-nv.com/vcix-nv-study-guide/">http://www.vcix-nv.com/vcix-nv-study-guide/</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-84505810575738898172016-10-12T09:49:00.003-07:002016-10-12T09:51:45.656-07:00VMware NSX Youtube channel<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I figured I hadn't showcased the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS5Usoqpad7swl-0qzlD4ww" target="_blank">VMware NSX Youtube channel</a>. There's great videos in there that you can't find anywhere else, as well as in the main VMware channel. Pay attention also to their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/vmwarensx/playlists" target="_blank">playlists</a>, as they have great compilations that include videos that are not particularly on their channel, but complement - such as the OpenvSwitch videos with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ben+pfaff" target="_blank">Ben Pfaff</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I leave you with this very fun "Introduction to NSX" video - can't believe this one is 3 years old!</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PciyGPCykLI/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PciyGPCykLI?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><br />arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-65751839540304251332016-09-13T23:20:00.002-07:002016-09-13T23:20:28.394-07:00Opinion - NSX's tipping point, aka, it's first "vMotion"<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I study for my VCP6-NV (6.2) beta exam and I read Elver's excellent book, my thoughts wander off to the VMworld 2016 vExpert party and Pat Gelsinger explaining that he thought NSX hadn't reached it's big "oh wow!" moment yet - like when you showed someone a vSphere vMotion for the first time.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The more I've thought about what would make that happen for me, I realize that I believe that NSX should <i><b>control </b></i>IPAM in an organization. Hear me out.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">IPAM - IP address management - is a perennial challenge in organizations. Any request for a new server is waiting on three things - approval, assigning specifics and delivery. Where it comes to assigning specifics, IPAM is a function that is either shared between network and sysadmin teams, or is owned by the networking team, with an enterprise solution deployed in the best cases, or an excel in a share in the worst cases. This is one of those things that I know very few organizations handle in exactly the same way today.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lots of cloudy org's use DHCP instead of static IPAM to avoid this time-consuming step - why waste time on IP address assignment, when it's just a number. However, the majority of enterprises are still managing static IP assignment and probably won't move to this DHCP model (for many valid, and traditional, reasons).</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NSX has a phenomenal capability that most other networking products don't have: it has native and absolute connections to each server's OS thanks to VMware tools. That means that NSX could in theory always 1) know all the real IP address of a server 2) change the IP addresses as needed 3) confirm that IP addresses are available using ARP as well</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I bolded the word <i style="font-weight: bold;">control</i> in my statement above. I visualize an NSX-integrated IPAM solution where administrators <i>never again</i> <i>have to set a static IP on a server</i>. Once the VM is turned on and a nic is assigned, I envision NSX ensures the IP address on that VM and corrects/sets if it finds it to be non-compliant.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When your IP address management is tied to a solution that has the level of interaction that NSX has, talking about VLANs and IP addresses could become a thing of the past. This means you can gain the advantages of DHCP (just don't worry about assigning the IP addresses) while still having static addresses in your environment. It's a win-win scenario - no one can change an IP if it's not validated in the IPAM, and no one assigns an existing IP (or wrong IP address details, think of all the other things like DNS server information) that they shouldn't.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This, co-incidentally, also makes changing things like the default gateway IP on a whole subnet of servers a breeze. Try to do that today in a 100% automated, "this will just work" manner, without spending a lot of planning, testing and resources!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other side of the IPAM coin - another <b>big </b>thing - that NSX should potentially do is help, or fully control, DNS after an IP address change. Remember, NSX sees every packet out there. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If we just let it help (to appease MS AD for example) DNS, then I see it going like this. S</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ync operations after a change, in it's default settings, can take a while, due to several things. NSX could inspect the packets and since it knows the authoritative information thanks to it controlling IPAM, could even help DNS information to spread quickly, by doing things such as dropping outdated replies from DNS servers and prioritizing replies from updated ones.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If we let it fully control, then DNS sync operations become a thing of the past - with the level of effort that we push a change to each host's vib, the DNS information in the network is automagically updated. Wouldn't that be a sight! Would it be called Distributed DNS?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In essence, what I'm proposing is to let NSX take care of traditional "building block" services that a typical network needs. Why stand up DNS servers when each host can participate in a distributed and updated mesh that just provides that service? Why assign IP addresses when you have an underlying control plane that sees all traffic and can do it for you, in a much more reliable fashion than you could? This idea does not conflict the NSX designs of today, where we manage the network's IP addresses in a control plane, and the actual workloads are in a different plane.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm sure there are many more services that are crucial in today's TCP/IP world that could potentially be integrated - network virtualization is simply that big of a deal. TCP/IP got to where it is today because of it's robust survivability, but as many vendors with optimizations have shown us, there is both a functional and operational overhead that can be tweaked. That world is changing - w<i>e don't have to wait because of unknowns - with NSX, <b>we know</b>!</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We can start abstracting more and more from the details and simplify. We already see this in the firewall rule making capabilities of NSX today, and I think the tipping point for NSX will be when the workload IP details will be a "worry of the past" - IP addressing and name resoution "just work".</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't agree? Would love to hear your comments below, or through <a href="https://twitter.com/arielsanchezmor" target="_blank">twitter</a>!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ariel</span>arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-27597955997558900752016-09-12T00:07:00.002-07:002016-09-12T00:55:26.023-07:00NSX news you should not have missed (September 2016)<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a very quick recap of some major events which have happened within the last few months regarding NSX:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1) The first major licensing change for NSX was announced back in May 2016. If you are buying NSX today, you should read KB <a href="https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2145269" target="_blank">2145269</a> . The typical customer that starts with micro-segmentation needs at least the Advanced tier, while customers upgrading from VCNS (which is no longer under support on September 19, 2016) can use the cheapest version of the product. This <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/04/vmware_hikes_nsx_price_adds_cheaper_versions/" target="_blank">post</a> by the register is a nice summary.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2) NSX 6.2.3 was <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/09/vmware_pulls_buggy_nsx_release_from_distribution/" target="_blank">recalled </a>as it had problems (KB <a href="https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2146227" target="_blank">2146227</a> and KB <a href="https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2146293" target="_blank">2146293</a> are two examples) that caused downtime. <a href="http://blogs.vmware.com/kb/2016/08/vmware-nsx-vsphere-6-2-4-now-available.html" target="_blank">6.2.4 was released</a> shortly after to correct this, and customers were advised to skip 6.2.3. This link is great to keep up to date with any NSX KBs and issues: <a href="http://blogs.vmware.com/kb/nsx">http://blogs.vmware.com/kb/nsx</a></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3) VCP-NV Exam news : the first version of the VCP-NV exam, <span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">VCPN610,</span> was retired on November 30, 2015. The current version is called VCP6-NV <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">and its code is </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">2V0-641. This is based on NSX v6.0. A new version of the exam, 2V0-642 which is based on NSX 6.2, is now in Beta (go to mylearn.vmware.com, head to the Pearson site using the new single sign on, and check under the Beta category). At a cost of only $50, it's worth taking, even if the timeline makes this more of a "practice run" than a serious study target. </span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">4) The official study guide for the VCP6-NV 2V0-641 was officially released August 17. This book was written by <a href="https://twitter.com/ELVERs_Opinion" target="_blank">Elver Sena Sosa</a>, who I had the pleasure to meet in VMworld (more on that in another post). I bought my copy and had him sign it :)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Right now you can get it a discount using this post-VMworld promotion: </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://www.pearsonitcertification.com/promotions/vmware-press-138356">http://www.pearsonitcertification.com/promotions/vmware-press-138356</a></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">If the promotion expires, you can also get it from my Amazon affiliate link below and you would automagically send me a very small cut of the sale price :)</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span> <iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=arielsanche0b-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=0789754800&asins=0789754800&linkId=0a992aa3df92f53fc3d3c4c7df0107a2&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe> <span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span>arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-21734841153237860712016-09-12T00:07:00.000-07:002016-09-12T00:07:01.263-07:00vExpert NSX!<div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last August 17 the vExpert NSX program was announced to the world. </span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2016/08/vexpert-nsx-2016-award-announcement.html">http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2016/08/vexpert-nsx-2016-award-announcement.html</a></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"vExpert NSX" is a sub-program within VMware's vExpert program - only current vExperts were allowed to apply. As a believer in the trans-formative power of NSX and network virtualization in general, and thanks to the VMUG/vBrownBag contributions and posts in this blog, my application was accepted and I am very proud to have been awarded this designation.</span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I believe I have a particular background which helps me in helping others for this topic:</span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr"></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have a networking education background (took up to CCNP3 in my college years) of which I never had the opportunity to actually work in a dedicated fashion (ie, I was never a network engineer, the closest was a Network Control Center engineer which did give me access to routers and firewalls, but it was not my responsibility to design and do changes)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I enjoy networking in general. Currently I am a fan of the OpenvSwitch work that is entwined with cloud computing and OpenStack and is also related to NSX, and I've always had an admiration for the OpenBSD project, their pf firewall and their network implementations</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My day to day role is a dedicated VMware engineer serving a large enterprise environment - and I'm busy! So my posts won't be fluff :)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I speak both English and Spanish fluently and enjoy making connections in the vCommunity</span></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Taking these things into consideration - things I'd already covered somewhat in the <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2015/09/mission.html" target="_blank">mission </a>for this blog - I gladly accept the vExpert NSX award and further commit to help others in learning and adopting NSX and related technologies. I will blog in both English and Spanish as the content becomes available, with a focus on not repeating what is widely available but highlighting relevant news that should not be missed, covering certification exams, and taking you along on my journey.</span></div><br /><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As always feel free to reach out on <a href="https://twitter.com/arielsanchezmor" target="_blank">twitter </a>and let me know if I can help!</span></div>arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-12501167054335827692016-06-17T15:43:00.000-07:002016-06-17T15:57:18.941-07:00NSX 6.2.3 and some exciting news for current customers with access to vShield<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">NSX 6.2.3 was released June 9. It's really an important release, although not a major one. I think a lot of the features are being added in response to actual customers hitting deployment limitations that no one had bothered to finish implementing. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can check the full release </span><a href="http://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/nsx/6.2.3/releasenotes_nsx_vsphere_623.html" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">here</a><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some of the more important updates were:</span><br /><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Change in the VXLAN UDP port from 8472 to 4789</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hardware VTEP</span></li><li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px;">Lots of UI & management enhancements</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Log Insight for NSX now available</span></li></ul><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, there is one big consequence that ended being quite the nice surprise.</span><br /><br /><strong style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px;">Change in default license & evaluation key distribution</strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px;">: default license upon install is "NSX for vShield Endpoint", which enables use of NSX for deploying and managing vShield Endpoint for anti-virus offload capability only. Evaluation license keys can be requested through VMware sales.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What this means is huge. If you had vShield in your organization, the upgrade path is NSX. Since you had access to vShield before, you get access to NSX now.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Note: vShield isn't a high requirement. vShield Endpoint is part of Essentials Plus and up. Most enterprise vSphere customers will now see the NSX 6.2.3 download available if they look for the vSphere binaries, even if they choose version v5.5 (that is still the minimum, but please install the latest for your labs)</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-orCAlP025lc/V2SAIWR43sI/AAAAAAAAZhc/Mix6TKqUXTQfNCpoydGqv8pwmvZOXylrgCLcB/s1600/VMware%2BNSX%2Bnow%2Bavailable%2Bfor%2Bdownload.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-orCAlP025lc/V2SAIWR43sI/AAAAAAAAZhc/Mix6TKqUXTQfNCpoydGqv8pwmvZOXylrgCLcB/s400/VMware%2BNSX%2Bnow%2Bavailable%2Bfor%2Bdownload.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With this, the "floodgates" have opened and much more people have access to the NSX bits. You still need a real license to play with all the features, but at least the NSX OVA is in your hands and you can start deploying it and learning.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One can expect to see more NSX content out there, and also, I would think a lot of content and community presentations for people upgrading from vShield to this new NSX level.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think VMware has released this at a good time and hopefully soon I'll add my grain of salt and help everyone that came from being a vSphere admin in learning NSX.</span>arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-9713668509789500432016-06-09T21:21:00.001-07:002016-06-09T21:26:55.636-07:00Exam Tips - VCAP6-NV Deploy with Gabriel Maciel @gmaciel_ca<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/gmaciel_ca" target="_blank">Gabriel Maciel</a> is one of the smartest NSX engineers that VMware has and part of a "Dream Team" of Latin American NSX experts such as <a href="https://twitter.com/ELVERs_Opinion" target="_blank">Elver Sena</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/elnemesisdivina" target="_blank">Raymundo Escobar</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/stalin_pena" target="_blank">Stalin Pena</a>. Particularly for the VCAP6-NV Deploy, you will notice Gabriel is <a href="https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=88781&ui=www_cert" target="_blank">one of the exam contributors</a> so heed any advice he gives out (without breaking NDA of course!).</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today he presented "Section 7 - Perform Advanced VMware NSX Troubleshooting" in the LATAM chapter of <a href="http://professionalvmware.com/" target="_blank">@vBrownBag</a>. Once the video is live I'll embed it into this post. The presentation is in Spanish but the advice is Universal :D</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here are some of the tips covered for the exam in this session in written form:</span><br /><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">HOL 1625 has everything you need to study for this topic</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The documentation is your best friend: </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">https://pubs.vmware.com/NSX-62/index.jsp</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Apart from the Troubleshooting Guide </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">mentioned</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> in the blueprint</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, make sure to also study the <b>Command Line Interface Reference</b> manual! CLI is very important for both the exam and real life.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Learn how to check Manager and Cluster Health through GUI</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Take advantage of Central commands that show information for the whole NSX deployment (new </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in 6.2)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Learn how to check common controller issues, such as lack of space, a wrong deployment network, or an exhausted IP pool!</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don't erase a failed controller unless 1) your other two have majority 2) you've already opened a case with GSS and uploaded logs 3) all other options are exhausted. There is normally a bigger problem that is manifested as a problem in the controller, so that needs to be fixed <i>first</i>.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Very important to understand the limits that transport zones represent. Make sure the correct clusters are members. This ties in with cross-vCenter NSX in Section 6.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Take advantage of the GUI troubleshooting tools to check for Flows and Logs, but be comfortable with the CLI options as well. Most networking guys will be happy that there is a CLI option to check all firewall rules applied to an interface or load balancer details.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For Section 7.3 search for "service" in the CLI Reference and learn and practice the commands in the mentioned HOL.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Gabriel keeps a document with all his frequently used commands - he graciously shared it with us for all vBrownBag listeners. You can download this document </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0f3j2qpiltMdHVSd3B3bFAtZlFUbnNsbEVLdzJvZUE1OF8w/view?usp=sharing" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span></li></ul><br /><br />arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-44273680288465638542016-05-20T11:24:00.000-07:002016-05-20T11:37:02.109-07:00NSX Socialab NYC 05-2016<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This was a cool session. I was able to see <a href="https://twitter.com/prabhu_b" target="_blank">Prabhu Barathi</a> and Mike Fortuna (sorry, no twitter, please remind him about that) again after seeing them in the <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2016/05/nyc-vmug-april-2016-presentation-how-i.html" target="_blank">last VMUG</a> and meet other VMware administrators who were eager to learn about NSX. I also got to meet Julie Starr, who is a firewall specialist inside the NSX team (I put some of her <a href="https://twitter.com/arielsanchezmor/status/733716770352160768" target="_blank">blog posts</a> here).</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The dynamics consisted of VMware employees giving you a more technical presentation than you would get at a VMUG, with people testing out the homelabs, and basically answering every question that came up. This is actually very important, because the people that showed up (over 100 signed up, we had three simultaneous classes on this date) have different backgrounds: from CCIE or firewall specialists with no VMware experience, to students that are just learning about VMware. The work of teaching and explaining about NSX is quite difficult since it encompasses so many skills until you get the "aha" moment.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The website that features the Hands On Labs is <a href="http://web.hol.vmware.com/socialabs">web.hol.vmware.com/socialabs</a> . You can create an account and possibly also have these HOLs count for cloudcredibility.com (this is a great list of all the NSX tasks <a href="https://www.cloudcredibility.com/nsx/tasks/list">https://www.cloudcredibility.com/nsx/tasks/list</a> ).</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some excellent tips for the labs:</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1) Increase the Hands on Labs VM resolution. By default it's not set to the maximum!</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lqr1ohmm9i8/Vz8Z2n8Te7I/AAAAAAAAYVU/HP0rBnBUHe4shSAlHAZd2KDp8mTAEatqwCLcB/s1600/HOL%2BVM%2Bresolution.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="395" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lqr1ohmm9i8/Vz8Z2n8Te7I/AAAAAAAAYVU/HP0rBnBUHe4shSAlHAZd2KDp8mTAEatqwCLcB/s400/HOL%2BVM%2Bresolution.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2) Use the "More Options" on the Manual and select Split Screen</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TH_pL8RlzeE/Vz8ZkqHdm9I/AAAAAAAAYVQ/1MSqtKyW9Gci_OYZUAMqTWoKsEKark6YwCLcB/s1600/tip%2Bfor%2Bthe%2Bmanual.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TH_pL8RlzeE/Vz8ZkqHdm9I/AAAAAAAAYVQ/1MSqtKyW9Gci_OYZUAMqTWoKsEKark6YwCLcB/s640/tip%2Bfor%2Bthe%2Bmanual.png" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tell it to send the manual link to your e-mail. This is a special link that gives you the manual in full screen (without the whole HOL)</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NUc9tSr8Opg/Vz8abCfltdI/AAAAAAAAYVc/zFenc5vAHjs9Z6xkRZyZzxyF7BcbbWYbwCLcB/s1600/HOL%2Bmanual%2Blink.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NUc9tSr8Opg/Vz8abCfltdI/AAAAAAAAYVc/zFenc5vAHjs9Z6xkRZyZzxyF7BcbbWYbwCLcB/s400/HOL%2Bmanual%2Blink.png" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3) HOL documentation in PDF and HTML format is also available at <a href="http://docs.hol.vmware.com/" target="_blank">docs.hol.vmware.com</a></span><br /><br /><br />arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-77790323654252264802016-05-17T14:23:00.002-07:002016-05-17T14:23:34.214-07:00Como le explicaria NSX a un colega en 10 minutos<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I just came back from manning the Q&A interface on the Mission VMUG event. I was able to translate my VMUG presentation into Spanish and join other 5 friends . I'm switching to Spanish now</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hola amigos de Latinoamérica! Fue un honor participar en las sesiones de comunidad de este evento. Fue muy divertido ponernos de acuerdo entre todos para asegurarnos q esta oportunidad de presentar en un evento global de VMUG en espanol! </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Grabe dos sesiones "<a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/50002704/2016-05-06%20Como%20le%20explicaria%20NSX%20a%20un%20colega%20en%2010%20minutos%20-%20asm%20-%20VMUG%20Mission%20Virtual%20Event.pptx" target="_blank">Como le explicaria NSX a un colega en 10 minutos</a>" y "¡<a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/50002704/2016-05-06%20Entra%20en%20la%20comunidad%20virtual%20-%20asm%20-%20VMUG%20Mission%20Virtual%20Event.pptx" target="_blank">Entra en la comunidad virtual!</a>". Aqui dejo las presentaciones para que puedan aprovechar los links :)</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Aqui están los twitter handles de todos los presentadores en Espanol:</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a class="twitter-atreply pretty-link js-nav" data-mentioned-user-id="753618253" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/virtualizecr" style="background: rgb(245, 248, 250); color: #0084b4; line-height: 18px; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;">@<span style="text-decoration: underline;">virtualizecr</span></a><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #292f33; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a class="twitter-atreply pretty-link js-nav" data-mentioned-user-id="22158595" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/arielsanchezmor" style="background: rgb(245, 248, 250); color: #0084b4; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;">@arielsanchezmor</a><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #292f33; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a class="twitter-atreply pretty-link js-nav" data-mentioned-user-id="39793431" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/DavidMirror" style="background: rgb(245, 248, 250); color: #0084b4; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;">@DavidMirror</a><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #292f33; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a class="twitter-atreply pretty-link js-nav" data-mentioned-user-id="15062840" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/kylemurley" style="background: rgb(245, 248, 250); color: #0084b4; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;">@kylemurley</a><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #292f33; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a class="twitter-atreply pretty-link js-nav" data-mentioned-user-id="50014543" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/stalin_pena" style="background: rgb(245, 248, 250); color: #0084b4; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;">@stalin_pena</a><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #292f33; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a class="twitter-atreply pretty-link js-nav" data-mentioned-user-id="193364421" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/pipoe2h" style="background: rgb(245, 248, 250); color: #0084b4; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;">@pipoe2h</a></span></span>arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-40810162159702232362016-05-03T01:01:00.000-07:002016-05-03T01:01:02.398-07:00NYC VMUG April 2016 presentation "How I would explain NSX to a friend in 10 minutes"<span style="background-color: white; color: #616161; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">I did a small presentation on "How I would explain NSX to a friend in 10 minutes" because I found out that explaining NSX to a fellow VMware administrator was not something that could be done in a few sentences. I would add a bit more today - for example, I'd like to add the convenience of having the VM's networks defined virtually and not needing to trunk a new vlan into the hosts whenever you need to create a new subnet. </span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #616161; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #616161; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">It was a great "tee up" to </span><span style="color: #616161; font-family: Open Sans;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">VMware's <a href="https://twitter.com/prabhu_b" target="_blank">@prabhu_b</a> and Michael Fortuna who gave an excellent (and more in depth) session .</span></span><br /><span style="color: #616161; font-family: Open Sans;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #616161; font-family: Open Sans;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">The full ppt is available <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9oys3uoxu2aqkl3/AAC5yv3VtH9LnJyNp3HrWZfIa/2016-04-07%20Basic%20Concepts%20of%20NV%20and%20NSX%20-%20asm%20-%20NYC%20VMUG.pptx?dl=0" target="_blank">here</a> and hopefully I will get a video of it soon. </span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #616161; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #616161; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">My friend </span><a href="https://twitter.com/stalin_pena" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: rgb(204, 51, 255) !important; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@stalin_pena</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #616161; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> snagged a pic for me (you can see <a href="https://twitter.com/greglaub" target="_blank">@GregLaub</a> next to me)</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #616161; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> and we </span><a href="https://twitter.com/nycvmug/status/718077239385071617" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: rgb(204, 51, 255) !important; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">sent it out the @nycvmug handle</a><span style="color: #616161; font-family: Open Sans;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> as well :D</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #616161; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-K_7TCwmeGDQ/VyhZshTbElI/AAAAAAAAYPk/aPB7TeaW3SMZAPrGI5B-yO8ph0S4PNQ_wCLcB/s1600/nyc%2Bvmug%2Bpic%2Bapril%2B2016.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-K_7TCwmeGDQ/VyhZshTbElI/AAAAAAAAYPk/aPB7TeaW3SMZAPrGI5B-yO8ph0S4PNQ_wCLcB/s640/nyc%2Bvmug%2Bpic%2Bapril%2B2016.png" width="524" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #616161; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #616161; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span>arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-37832309287789013232016-04-12T16:00:00.002-07:002016-04-12T16:00:40.985-07:00Why network virtualization changes the security game<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I recently gave a VMUG presentation - the concept was doing an introduction to NSX to a friend. One of the slides highlights that the context from which you can manage changes from being what the network sees to what the VMware admin sees - which is quite a lot more.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I found this video by the great Martin Casado and I think it's a perfect short snippet of this idea and thought to share here.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Rq71zTMjCcA/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rq71zTMjCcA?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></span></div><br />arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-14976445330507913342016-01-29T11:29:00.003-08:002016-01-29T11:29:42.184-08:00Getting VCP-NV without taking the required class through the CCNA/CCNP program<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Please check out this blog entry from VMware Education and Certification</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="http://blogs.vmware.com/education/2015/12/extending-the-cisco-certification-credit-for-network-virtualization-certification.html"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://blogs.vmware.com/education/2015/12/extending-the-cisco-certification-credit-for-network-virtualization-certification.html</span></a><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You still have to take the VCP-NV exam but if you have an active CCNA/CCNP you don't need to go to the required class to achieve the certification. There is now no time limit on this path. This is significantly cheaper :)</span>arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-62624266228718899062016-01-28T14:04:00.000-08:002016-01-29T11:29:55.103-08:00Free eBook - NSX for vSphere - A Foundation of the SDDC<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Earlier this month the following <i>very smart</i> guys (I put their twitter links so you can follow them) released a free ebook for learning and implementing NSX</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/stretchcloud">Prasenjit Sarkar</a> and his blog <a href="http://stretch-cloud.info/">http://stretch-cloud.info</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/michaelahaines">Michael Haines</a> (same blog as Prasenjit)</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/roie9876">Roie Ben Haim</a> and his blog <a href="http://www.routetocloud.com/">http://www.routetocloud.com</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/vConsultant">Anuj Modi</a> and his blog <a href="https://anujmodi.wordpress.com/">https://anujmodi.wordpress.com</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/ajit_lucky">Ajit Sharma</a> and his blog <a href="https://nsxsummit.wordpress.com/">https://nsxsummit.wordpress.com</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The book is totally DIY - they just made a PDF with no publisher, no copyright - grab this knowledge source and learn. You have to admire them because co-authoring a book is never easy and it's more than 200 pages.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've seen two links to the book - I leave them both in case one doesn't work in the future</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0dVBCSx0VDNX1ZfT1hRdHRlanM/view"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0dVBCSx0VDNX1ZfT1hRdHRlanM/view</span></a><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/j8dqleioiup60os/NSX%20for%20vSphere%20-%20A%20Foundation%20of%20the%20SDDC.pdf?dl=0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">https://www.dropbox.com/s/j8dqleioiup60os/NSX%20for%20vSphere%20-%20A%20Foundation%20of%20the%20SDDC.pdf?dl=0</span></a><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm going to start reading - you should too :D</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don't forget to also check for the release of the official VCP-NV book coming soon from</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/ELVERs_Opinion">Elver Sena Sosa</a> - blogs at <a href="http://blog.senasosa.com/">http://blog.senasosa.com</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I leave my affilitate link (if you buy it through here I get a cut) to amazon:</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=arielsanchezm-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=0789754800&asins=0789754800&linkId=KEA2QVKHF56RYXAF&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe> arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-67133797235315322592015-11-18T10:31:00.001-08:002016-01-29T11:30:21.418-08:00How to start learning NSX? Free links and CloudCred tasks<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another short post but it has a lot of good information :)</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The obvious way of learning NSX is to go to a VMware class. But there are several <i>other </i>ways of learning the theory of NSX, to go deeper and in parallel with the practice you can do in the Hands on Labs from my <a href="http://virtualizethenet.com/2015/11/how-to-start-learning-nsx-vmwares-hands.html">previous blog post</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the best ways to learn NSX is to check and read about the <a href="https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=64297&ui=www_cert">VCP6-NV certification</a>. Hopefully the link will work but if it gets outdated, google it. Three data sources I want to highlight that are available right now:</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1) Read the blueprint in the exam link as this is what VMware thinks a certified professional should be comfortable with</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2) Check blog posts from people who have prepared and studied for the certification. I particularly liked Richard Dowling's posts here <a href="https://richdowling.wordpress.com/vcp-nv/">https://richdowling.wordpress.com/vcp-nv/</a> and Fabian Lenz has a great collection of links here <a href="http://vlenzker.net/2015/11/lets-learn-vmware-nsx/">http://vlenzker.net/2015/11/lets-learn-vmware-nsx/</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3) vBrownBag videos for VCP6-NV. You can find them here, in both english and spanish (I collaborated on a couple :) ) <a href="http://professionalvmware.com/?s=vcp-nv">http://professionalvmware.com/?s=vcp-nv</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I also want to highlight 3 resources that are in progress or will come soon</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1) CloudCred is a game-type site focused on VMware and Cloud technologies. I highly recommend playing it, but in particular for the VCP6-NV exam, there are short tasks meant to teach you concepts. For a limited time, these tasks have bonus points as well:</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.cloudcredibility.com/tasks/list?badge_id=58">https://www.cloudcredibility.com/tasks/list?badge_id=58</a></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2) Iwan Hoogendoorn, a CCIEx6 (!) has created <a href="http://vcix-nv.com/">vcix-nv.com</a>, an awesome video tutorial site focused on the VCIX-NV certification. He has access to the installers, deployed it in his home lab, and is now creating and sharing a video for each VCIX-NV exam objective. Follow him in <a href="https://twitter.com/i1wan">twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcE9U_Gf0MhGpsDIhneMyDg">YouTube</a> </span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3) The official VCP6-NV book will be released in Q1 2016. Below is my amazon affiliate link for it (means if you buy from this link, i get a very slight cut).</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=arielsanchezm-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=0789754800&asins=0789754800&linkId=VKY33UE2767K5KFE&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe></div>arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-36232187892380057332015-11-10T00:40:00.002-08:002016-01-29T11:30:38.667-08:00How to start learning NSX? VMware's Hands On Labs<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a very short post but I want to start pointing people in the right direction.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You may or may not know that testing VMware server virtualization is a fairly easy affair. Sign up for an account at <a href="http://my.vmware.com/">my.vmware.com</a>, request a product trial for vSphere, and once you locate the downloads, you could be burning your first ESxi ISO and using it to boot almost any home computer. Likewise, you can get the installer for VMware workstation very easily and within a time limit, discover all you want from the product with no limitations.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">VMware's NSX is not offered this way. There is a big reason why: there are several layers that need to be in place before you can run NSX, and being fair, you have to be fairly comfortable with ESXi <i>and</i> networking to be able to grasp the concepts needed to understand what NSX does. </span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For your typical VCP or VCAP (VMware certified individuals) this sounds like a bother, but this is actually a good thing. NSX is a very broad-encompassing product that is useful for not just server administrators, but network and ITSEC professionals as well. Thus, reserving the actual installers is a protection from complexity - the installers are actually only available if you undergo a formal trial with VMware and they assist you in the validation and installation of your test.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, how can anyone see and test or learn about NSX on their own? VMware has a site dedicated to Hands On Labs that has several NSX sessions. This is not a click-click simulation - this is a <b>real lab</b>, dedicated to you, that even has step by step explanations and tasks you must complete before moving to the next step. This is essentially <b>free training </b>- no need to setup your own lab, VMware provides one over the network!</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The link for the "VMware NSX Introduction" hands on lab:</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/catalogs/lab/2125">http://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/catalogs/lab/2125</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The lab is also not particularly restricted. You can tinker around and if you somehow make it stop working, you can end it and start over. This is quite the free service that VMware offers and their recommended path to start learning about NSX.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As a bonus, if you are totally unfamiliar with VMware's products, this is now their introductory lab for virtualization, "Virtualization 101: vSphere with Operations Management 6"</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/catalogs/lab/2085">http://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/catalogs/lab/2085</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As you can tell from the links, VMware offers most of their portfolio through the Hands On Labs, and is continually adding more. You can't beat this much free training.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">More posts coming soon, starting with the theory behind network virtualization. See you soon!</span>arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864039506187359552.post-85445315022607538682015-09-02T13:29:00.001-07:002016-01-29T11:30:57.032-08:00Mission<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I always like stating a mission for my blogs. It helps keep the content focused.</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I currently work as a VMware server administrator. My focus for the last 3 or 4 years has been learning and using VMware vSphere, focused on virtualizing server workloads.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I attended VMworld 2014 when NSX had been officially released and adopted by customers. I was curious about what virtualizing the network could mean (even just the concept!). Later that year, thanks to vBrownBag and following people on twitter, I started learning a bit more.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">NSX has become a product in the VMware portfolio that is widely offered. My company was offered to do a proof of concept and I was enrolled in a "NSX exploration class", where I was able to learn more about the product.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is now VMworld 2015 and I was recently named a vExpert. In the vExpert reception Chris McCain challenged bloggers to create a blog that educates about NSX. This blog was inspired by that challenge, but it also serves a personal purpose.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By the time I graduated college I had taken CCNA 1-4 and CCNP1-3. I honestly thought that my professional career would be in networking. One of the things I regret about that time is I never took the time to take the CCNA exam when I had everything fresh!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have a networking background, but no network engineering experience. My actual work life has been a journey through the network operations center, end user support administration and lately systems engineering. The networking background has, of course, helped a lot, but experiencing more areas of IT has definitely improved my understanding of IT as a whole and also of what a good network engineer looks like.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Network virtualization for me offers a whole new way of thinking. I've learned a little of the flexibility and capabilities that virtualizing the network provides, and have found it revolutionary - I want to start learning it and hopefully begin using this new technology as I continue my career.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With all of this information, let's state this blog's mission:</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> This blog takes you on my journey of exploration and discovery (ha... did you see what I did there?) of what virtualizing the network means; how do you learn about it, how do you practice what you learn, and how it is applied in the real world. </span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Posts can vary widely: most will be technical or educational, with a focus on how can the normal internet user embrace this new technology, but others will explore the business or implementation challenges and how they can be overcome. </span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I know this will be a fun journey, and I thank you for looking at my posts and following along. Please don't hesitate to contact me on twitter if you have any suggestions :)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ariel Sanchez, <a href="https://twitter.com/arielsanchezmor">@arielsanchezmor</a></span></div>arielsanchezmorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07147909608724257379noreply@blogger.com0