Blog address change
January 12, 2013 
Sean Crookston 
I’ve migrated my blog to http://www.seancrookston.com/blog
Everything should be preserved in the move but if you notice anything missing you used to see please let me know.
Checklists
A topic that has recently been on my mind that I am interested in hearing more about is what you are all using to keep track of steps in your processes. Particularly I’m interested in your use of checklists. Whether it be for simple day-to-day processes or upgrading a complete infrastructure do you use checklists and do you have any checklists that you’ve found particularly useful?
One checklist I’ve used quite regularly is one provided by VMware for upgrading to vSphere 5. This can be found at the link here. The items in this list cover not only typical configurations but also those that are less seldom. For example, configurations that use MSCS clustering for vCenter or vCenter heartbeat configurations.
It is no coincidence this topic is of particular interest to me as I’m currently reading a book focused just on checklists called, The Checklist Manifesto. I’m only a little bit into the book but I’m quickly seeing the power that checklists can have for all kinds of processes. If you are interested in this book I will say it does focus quite heavily on examples in the medical field but examples that draw a parallel to any industry.
Managing and Optimizing VMware vSphere Deployments Book Contest
Very proud to announce that my new book co-authored with Harley Stagner has been released on VMware Press. You can get the book in either print or kindle format on amazon.com now. Thanks to all those who have purchased or will be purchasing the book.
With that said I also wanted to give away a few digital copies to readers of my blog.
To enter yourself post a reply to this blog.
If you can I also ask that you help us promote the book. Tweet, blog, or protest in front of a book store as to why they are not carrying it.
You can even use my amazon affiliate link below to help me double dip and get commissions from Amazon for the sale of my own book.
Managing and Optimizing VMware vSphere Deployments Released
Very proud to announce that my new book co-authored with Harley Stagner has been released on VMware Press. It was a lot of hard work and a long process that left me at times wondering what I got myself into. In the end it was a valuable and fulfilling experience.
A big thanks to Harley who was a great person to work with. Throughout the process we really worked well together. We also did a good job of procrastinating together at times.
You can get the book in either print or kindle format on amazon.com now. Thanks to all those who have purchased or will be purchasing the book.
VMworld Session–SMB Design
I’m part of a group of four who have created a session focusing on SMB Design for VMworld. If this is something you would like to take part in I encourage you to vote to help make this session possible.
You can vote at the link here or you may click on the image below.
Now some information I’ve stolen from Chris Wahl(wahlnetwork.com) who will also be apart of the session.Session 1223 is entitled “Design Considerations for Small and Medium Business (SMB)” and features a panel discussion with some really smart guys, many of which have contributed to the VMware community in a variety of ways. It’s a mixed group of engineers with a variety of accolates (VCDX & VCAPs, vExperts), many of which have presented on vBrownBags in the past!
- Harley Stagner, Solutions Engineer, TBL Networks, Inc
- Sean Crookston, Solutions Engineer, TBL Networks, Inc
- Bill Hill, Lead Engineer, OIA Global Logistics
- Chris Wahl, Data Center Engineer, Ahead, LLC
To add on to what Chris has already posted the idea behind this session is an interactive discussion of designs focused around small and medium businesses. The intention is for this to be a very interactive session.
New Book Coming Out VCP 5 Study Guide
For those looking to gain their VCP 5, or become more familiar with vSphere in general a new book is being released next month by fellow vExpert Brian Atkinson (Twitter @vmroyale). Brian is an experienced VMware engineer who also has made large efforts of his time in the VMware community serving as a moderator in the forums. IF you’ve spent any times in the forums asking or looking at questions you will certainly have seen his participation in there.
His book is currently available for pre-order and I would highly recommend it if pursuing the VCP 5.
From the Back Cover
Includes Real-World Scenarios, Hands-On Exercises, and Access to Exam Prep Software Featuring:
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Custom Test Engine
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Over 300 Sample Questions
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Electronic Flashcards
The Ideal Product to Prepare You for the Leading Virtualization Certification
As the demand for virtualization skills continues to grow, you need to earn the newest certification to stand out from other IT professionals. This guide gives you the tools to pass the VCP-510 exam so you can highlight your capabilities. It walks you through all of the requirements, including planning and installing ESXi, configuring vCenter Server, deploying and managing virtual machines, and much more. Inside these pages, you’ll also find:
Full coverage of all exam objectives in a systematic approach, so you can be confident you’re getting the instruction you need for the exam
Real-world scenarios that put what you’ve learned in the context of actual job roles
Challenging review questions in each chapter to prepare you for exam day
Exam Essentials, a key feature in each chapter that identifies critical areas you must become proficient in before taking the exam
A handy tear card that maps every official exam objective to the corresponding chapter in the book, so you can track your exam prep objective by objective
Sybex Exam Prep Tools
Go to www.sybex.com/go/vcp5 and download a full set of electronic test prep tools to help you thoroughly prepare for the exam. These include:
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Custom Test Engine
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Over 300 Sample Questions
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Electronic Flashcards
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Glossary of Terms in PDF
Download practice exams and chapter review questions
Reinforce your understanding with electronic flashcards
New Book : Optimizing vSphere Deployments
Over the past months I have been busy working on a book with Harley Stagner that will be released by VMware Press later this year. The book is focused on recommendations for configuring and optimizing existing and new deployments. I’ll write more about the experience of writing and other details in the future but wanted to pass out a quick couple link including a rough cut preview of the book.
Available for Pre-order
Roughcuts Available
Setting vCenter Alarms with PowerCLI
vCenter as of version 5.0 defines 54 default alarms that can be configured for notification. What vCenter does not provide however is a way to automatically configure all those alarms to be sent to a single email address without having to manually go into each alarm. The below PowerShell script however will take care of that. After configuring the vCenter server connection information and changing the email address, this script will setup emails that are triggered by any change in alarm state. This is a one time email per state change, however you could use the –repeat option to set repeat emails for certain states if desired.
Note that in the Code you will not see anything to set the Yellow—>Red state. I could not find this documented anywhere but by default it appears this will be set. Including it in the code would result in errors.
http://www.seancrookston.com/blog/set_alarms.ps1
I also managed to find someone who has written a much smaller set of code that will look for all existing alarms and set email notifications as well as another individual with a similar script for setting alarms.Check out these two posting for more details.
If you would like to know more about the various PowerCLI commands for alarms be sure to check out this VMware posting:
http://blogs.vmware.com/vipowershell/2010/12/managing-vsphere-alarms-with-powercli.html
Forcing a Kernel Dump on a vSphere Host : The Purple Screen of Death
This is nothing new however I thought I’d share on how to force a PSOD on a vSphere host in case you were not aware. I had done this a while back but was unable to retrieve the information my self when searching. Thanks to @CianoKuraz & @lamw(http://www.virtuallyghetto.com) for their help on Twitter.
Eric Sloof (http://www.ntpro.nl) documented this quite some time ago on his website here. The process is quite easy and goes as follows:
- Connect to the vSphere host via SSH.
- Type vsish
- Type set /reliability/crashMe/Panic
Alternatively you can send an NMI interrupt. This depends on your hardware and if you are interested in learning more about this check out VMware KB 1014767
Great VMware VCP 5 Resources Page
I’ll be needing to renew my VCP 5 and with some down time towards the end of the year I figured now is as good of a time as any to go through the blueprint and do some studying for the exam. Damian Karlson who previously took over the VCAP-DCA study guide for me also has a great resource page for the exam with links to a lot of great community resources. If you are also taking the xam I would highly recommend checking this page out.
