Category : Certification
Written by Christopher Lewis on September 15, 2017 .
I am working away a lot at the moment in Paris, so this week was going to be one of the only opportunities I’m going to get to take exams before Christmas (scary fact - there is only 100 days left!) . So, after a jam packed 4 days at VMworld, I decided to end my week by taking the newly released VMware Certified Advanced Professional 7 - Cloud Management and Automation Design (3V0-732) exam.
Written by Christopher Lewis on September 11, 2017 .
I previously attempted the VMware Certified Implementation Expert 6 - Network Virtualization and, unfortunately, I wasn’t successful . It was the same old story with most VCAP exams, time simple ran out.
As I am at VMworld this week it seemed rude not to take a second attempt for 1/2 price.
The exam center had a few issues, both with overbooking (it seems the PEX keynote is the ideal time for everyone to take exams!), internet issues (which meant I had time added on by pearson) and missing cursors during the exam. On the plus side, the computers and screens in the VMworld exam center are a significant magnitude better than a normal exam center.
Written by Christopher Lewis on September 7, 2017 .
Skills and Abilities
Objective 4.2 - Configure and Manage Service Composer
- Create/configure Service Composer according to a deployment plan:
- Configure Security Groups
- Configure Security Policies
- Configure Activity Monitoring for a Security Policy
- Create/edit/delete Security Tags
- Create a Security Tag
- Edit a Security Tag
- Assign a Security Tag
- Detach a Security Tag
- Delete a Security Tag
- Configure Network Introspection
- Configure Guest Introspection
Objective Prerequisites
The following prerequisites are assumed for this Objective:
Written by Christopher Lewis on September 7, 2017 .
This post is a number of posts that make up a VCAP6-NV Study guide .
In this post we will look at how to work with NSX Security Tags.
What are NSX Security Tags?
Security Tags are labels which can be associated with a Virtual Machine. Security Tags can then be used (amongst other things) to populate dynamically populate Security Groups with objects.
Adding or removing Security Tags to a VM can be done dynamically in response to various criteria such as antivirus or vulnerability scans, and intrusion prevention systems.
Written by Christopher Lewis on September 6, 2017 .
This post is a number of posts that make up a VCAP6-NV Study guide .
In this post we will look at how to generate a Self Signed SSL Certificate on an existing VMware NSX Edge Service Gateway (ESG) or NSX Edge. Once generated, the SSL certificate could be used for SSL VPN or Load Balancing.
Prerequisites
- A working deployment of VMware NSX.
- A deployed NSX Edge Services Gateway
Generate Self Signed SSL Certificate
Note: These steps assume you are not even logged into vCenter Server. Skip the first few steps if you are!
Written by Christopher Lewis on August 6, 2017 .
On Friday I took the VCAP6-NV Deploy exam. I didn’t manage to get a passing score this time, but that wont stop me from studying some more and taking it again. Given work commitments and holiday, this will probably now be at VMworld in Barcelona.
How does it compare to the other VCAP exams?
Like with all the VCAP6 Deploy exams, the exam is based on the “improved” VMware HOL interface. I personally never took the VCAP5 exams so, I have no opinion on whether it is “improved” or not. One thing is for certain, like the other VCAP6 Deployment exams, time is not your friend. In fact, for this exam, I would go so far as to say that time is you nemesis.
Written by Christopher Lewis on August 2, 2017 .
Skills and Abilities
Objective 3.3 - Configure and Manage Additional VMware NSX Edge Services
- Configure DHCP services according to a deployment plan:
- Create/edit a DHCP IP Pool
- Create/edit DHCP Static Binding
- Configure DHCP relay
- Configure DNS services
- Configure NAT services to provide access to services running on privately addressed virtual machines
Objective Prerequisites
The following prerequisites are assumed for this Objective:
- A working VMware vSphere 6.x environment.
- A working VMware NSX 6.x environment.
Objective Breakdown
Enabling DHCP
Note: These steps assume you are not even logged into vCenter Server. Skip the first few steps if you are!
Written by Christopher Lewis on August 2, 2017 .
This post is one of a number of posts created as part of the VCAP6-NV Deployment Study Guide ,
Overview
There are multiple component steps in configuring NSX Load Balancing:
- Deployment of an VMware NSX Edge Service Gateway (ESG).
- Enabling Load Balancing on the ESG.
- Creating Application Profile(s)
- (optional) Create Service Monitors
- Creating Server Pool(s).
- (optional) Create Application Rules.
- Creating Virtual Server(s).
In this example, we’re going to use the Load Balancer configuration for deploying VMware vRealize Automation following the Load Balancing Guide .
Written by Christopher Lewis on August 1, 2017 .
Dynamic Routing provides the necessary forwarding information between Layer 2 broadcast domains. There are 3 types of Dynamic Routing supported by VMware NSX OSPF, BGP and IS-IS.
In this post, as part of the VCAP6-NV Deployment Study Guide , we will be covering the configuration of BGP.
Prerequisites
The following prerequisites are assumed for this Objective:
- A working VMware vSphere 6.x environment.
- A working VMware NSX 6.x environment.
Configure a Router ID for each NSX Edge
To configure BGP, each NSX Edge must have a Router ID configured. The steps to do this is covered in HOWTO: Configure the Router ID for a VMware NSX Edge .
Written by Christopher Lewis on August 1, 2017 .
Dynamic Routing provides the necessary forwarding information between Layer 2 broadcast domains. There are 3 types of Dynamic Routing supported by VMware NSX-V: OSPF, BGP and IS-IS.
In this post, as part of the VCAP6-NV Deployment Study Guide , we will be covering the configuration of OSPF.
Prerequisites
The following prerequisites are assumed for this Objective:
- A working VMware vSphere 6.x environment.
- A working VMware NSX 6.x environment.
Configure a Router ID for each NSX Edge
To configure OSPF, each NSX Edge must have a Router ID configured. The steps to do this is covered in HOWTO: Configure the Router ID for a VMware NSX Edge .
- Operating a Private Cloud - Part 3: Creating a Pricing Card in VMware Aria Automation
- Operating a Private Cloud - Part 2: Creating a Pricing Card in VMware Aria Operations
- Operating a Private Cloud - Part 1: Understanding Pricing Cards in VMware Aria
- Zero2Hero - Using Aria Automation to Deploy Multiple Machines with Multiple Disks - Part 5
- Zero2Hero - Using Aria Automation to Deploy Multiple Machines with Multiple Disks - Part 4