Recently while I was installing Horizon 6 I had issues where the installer hung reporting it could not start the composer services.
Archives for December 2014
[Quick Post] App Volumes deployment guide now available
OK I admit I am a little late to the party with this post but I feel it’s important none the less.
The Cloud Volumes acquisition was well talked about during the VMWorld 2014 keynote with a live demo also presented.
I was lucky enough to attend a deep dive session on App Volumes (the rename was announced during the session) and the solution did look rather impressive and certainly is telling about how VMware see the future of Application Delivery for desktops.
I appreciate there are other products that provide a similar solution and I am currently looking into each one as part of my role.
One advantage VMware will have is they can integrate it into the existing Horizon licensing model and it will be interesting to see where they pitch it when its announced.
For those interesting in seeing a full guide on how to deploy the technology there is now a full deployment guide located here
I am always interested in peoples experiences in deploying these kind of tool sets whether they are good or bad. Please feel free to comment and let me know.
Thanks for reading
Training Resources with a personal note
As the year draws to a close I tend to find myself reflecting on the years events.
This year has held some amazing experiences including :-
- The birth of my son – although a more than normal traumatic birth with several weeks in NICU
- The chance to see my step daughter in her first principal part on the stage
- An exciting new EUC specialist role
While you may question the relevance of the first two (other than me being immensely proud) I have found they have taught me two valuable lessons.
Watching my son develop and my step daughter improve her singing and stage presence has made me reconsider what is acceptable when it comes to training.
I have always been happy to do qualifications and have always had one in my sights. However, I would be the first to admit that at times I have lacked focus.
Given the opportunity the new year brings and the chances for training I wanted to lay out what would be appearing on my training plan and detail what are some of the resources available to me (and YOU) this year.
What is there to learn?
The short answer is lots!! However, given my new found enthusiasm I wanted to see what would be some key skills to focus on.
To that end I am glad to be able to call on the experience of Neil Mills, a recruitment specialist who has agreed to a guest spot to talk about the “Hot Skills in IT”.
Present More
I admit that this desire is part influenced by Simon Longs Pink Shirt quest.
Just before presenting I panic and worry about every little thing but afterwards I find I enjoyed the experience. A VMUG is a great experience to present at as they tend be like minded people and one that myself or Steve Lester can certainly help you with. If you are considering your first step into presenting then help is at hand through the #feedforward initiative.
The initiative is a mentoring program set up to support and encourage VMUG members to present their experiences by preparing them on a one to one basis with advice and guidance.
The most common feed back we hear from members wanting to present is “I have nothing interesting to say”. This couldn’t be further from the truth, your unique experiences, deployments, disasters (we all have them) are all valuable. If you dont believe me take a look at James Killbys recent blogs on when he cut his teeth on VMUG presenting.
Survive the network talk.
If I am honest I find networking the least enjoyable part of my role. That being said with some great encouragement from my good friend Dean Lewis and some excellent plain speaking training from Chris Bryant I intend to increase my knowledge in the networking space to be better prepared for VMware NSX.
VMware Uplift
As Neill Mills mentioned in his “Ask the Agent” at our latest VMUG, there is an opinion that a VCP just isn’t enough any more. So with that in mind 2015 will see myself and Steve Lester embarking on the VCAPs, which discipline (Design or Administration) has yet to be decided.
There are some great resources for the current VCAP-DCD and DCA over at elastic sky and The Saffa Geek, and hopefully they will be upgraded to the VCAP 6 as they become available.
To help us in this goal we are looking at creating a study group with training and whiteboard sessions which may run before our normal VMUG events, so let me know if this is of interest to you.
Public Speaking Skills
Those who know me will know I am most comfortable when the conversation is technical, or about clay pigeon shooting. The fact that I know this and still agreed to run a social event never ceases to surprise me. As Neil alludes to in his blog post, those who can present to all levels are those that excel. I can present to the different levels and engage in conversation but it certainly isn’t a skill that comes easy to me, so my intention is to become more educated in the ways of speaking and meeting discipline.
With this section I have no resource or link to give you, in fact I am hoping you can help me!
I am looking for some presenting courses, or training where I can improve my public speaking skills. If you have anything that may be of interest then please feel free to reach out to me.
The Other Thing…
Near the beginning of this longer than normal post I mentioned that my (step) children’s experiences had taught me two lessons, so what was the second?
Without sounding preachy and more of a reminder to myself it is to enjoy the little things. I have been known to not switch off and to keep on working, with numerous reminders that I do not have a particular good life work balance.
This year has taught me that not only is it beneficial to stop and enjoy your surroundings but it actually helps you be more engaged and focused in your work.
Put simply, it took my step daughters stage performance, and my sons difficult birth to remind me that to enjoy something, to do it well and do it passionately, you have to have a chance to miss it.
Thanks for reading
[Guest Blog] Hot Skills in IT – Neil Mills
In November 2014 I did an ‘Ask the Agent’ presentation at the North West VMware User’s group in Manchester.
This presentation included a section of ‘hot skills for the future’ of which I’ll focus on shortly.
Before doing that it’s important to understand the bigger themes of the IT industry and how to play its game. Here’s my thoughts:
– Like a surfer on the sea it’s important to catch the right IT skill waves & ride them efficiently before smacking head first into the sand, i.e. always keep an eye on new technology waves.
– Virtualisation & Cloud technologies are mature, proven & accepted. Yes maybe their adoption, for a whole bunch of reason’s, haven’t been as quick as the IT market would like, but they are certainly not going away.
– IT skills flourish and die very quickly in the IT jungle but note some pockets of older skills always remain in vogue & can be strangely lucrative. Always embrace change though is my major message.
– The real earners in IT land are both technical and can communicate technology to non technical people, e.g. presales/evangelical/technical types will always earn more than pure technical types. Thus technical skills gain is good but technical skills and presenting, being able to do whiteboard sessions, etc is better.
– VCP on its own is now commodity. I used to get very excited when we had 25 VCP’s on our books, then 50, then 100, then 500. Now I don’t know our current number of VCP’s. We are in a VCP plus market.
So hot IT skills for the future.
Well, the hottest ticket / role in IT infrastructure town is the ‘Cloud Solutions Architect’ – this mythical beast can do cloud and evangelise it to board/director/owner level.
Cloud Solutions Architect’s need to know everything – how physical & virtual IT infrastructure touches & affects everything, i.e. virtualisation (VMware & others), old skool & new skool Windows/Microsoft technologies, traditional & flash storage, security, networking, VDI/Application Virtualisation, cloud management tools, automation/monitoring, DevOps, Converged Infrastructure, etc.
Here are some specific technologies/themes that should help you on the way to be a ‘rock n roll’ Cloud Solutions Architect:
- AWS | Azure | vCloud Air | Google Cloud Platform
- SDDC – SDN – NSX – vCAC – vCOPs – SC2012
- Puppet
- Docker
- Openstack
I hope these comments prove interesting. Always remember though, and in the lyrics of AC/DC, ‘it’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock n roll!’
Neil Mills – MillsHill – www.millshill.co.uk
[Quick Post] Most common VMware issues
Further to the quick post yesterday I just wanted to point out another great find.
The great VMware Support Insider blog provides a monthly run down of the top 20 commonly resolved VMware support incidents. The list is ranked by the number of times the issue was resolved.
The blog can found here and includes other useful articles. Further great KB information can be found on the twitter feed @vvmwarecares and obviously the KB database here.
When I get time I will look to putting these resources into a list or maybe an OPML file.
Hope you find it useful.