Day 2 of VMworld 2016 was kicked off with the another General Session. The opening act was a Blues Band, which were very cool and happened to have** Sanjay Poonen** ( @spoonen ) as the piano player. Totally unexpected surprise, but what an awesome way to start a keynote! The EUC focused keynote started off with Sanjay Poonen providing an overview of the VMware Vision for Digital Transformation. In essence, the Any Device, Any Application part of the VMware One Cloud Vision which has been a focal point for the last few years.

Written by Christopher Lewis on October 21, 2016 .

VMware VMworld VMworld 2016 Barcelona

After the first day of full conferencing, it was time to head out to the vExpert party which was held at L’Eggs ( http://www.leggs.es/en) . Unfortunately, I arrived fashionably late as I had to go back to my hotel to drop off my bags, and then get across town, which meant I missed the brief appearance of Pat Gelsinger. The evening was enjoyable enough, the food (scrambled eggs, risotto and creme cataluna) and drinks kept flowing.

Written by Christopher Lewis on October 21, 2016 .

VMware VMworld VMworld 2016 Barcelona vExpert

Following on from the awesome keynote, I skipped my planned session (VMware Cloud Foundation on Public Clouds) and headed on over to (probably) the most over subscribed session of VMworld, VMware Cloud on AWS (#INF7849) with Alex Jauch ( @ajauch ) and, the one and only, Frank Denneman ( @FrankDenneman) where it was clear that Frank was finally glad to be able to talk about what he’d been working on recently!

Written by Christopher Lewis on October 20, 2016 .

VMware VMworld VMworld 2016 Barcelona

I had a fabulous 4 days at VMworld 2016 in Barcelona. I learnt a lot and not all of what was learnt emanated from the sessions. The outstanding sessions/events for me were the inaugural VMworld EMEA Hackathon (run by Alan Renouf), the two General Sessions (with Pat Gelsinger and Sanjay Poonen), and the VMware on AWS session (by **Alex Jauch **& Frank Denneman). I take away more than just the knowledge I have gained, I have learnt that the actual benefit of VMworld is not (necessarily) the sessions, but the ability to talk to the experts, meet with the fellow VMware community (#vExpert) and make new contacts in the industry.

Written by Christopher Lewis on October 19, 2016 .

VMware VMworld VMworld 2016 Barcelona

The first session of the day was A Technical Deep Dive into VMware Integrated OpenStack (MGT7751) with Pete Cruz and Santhosh Sundaraman. The session started with Pete Cruz providing an overview of what VIO was and how the VMware story fits it. Personally I have kept well clear of OpenStack in my career (and after this session it isn’t a start of a new direction). With component names like Keystone, Horizon, Nova, Neutron and Heat I started to wonder if I was being told about a new Gladiators TV show or a even a new Marvel Avengers team rather than Openstack!

Written by Christopher Lewis on October 18, 2016 .

VMware VMworld VMworld 2016 Barcelona

Monday was Partner Exchange Day and I have to admit the atmosphere was buzzing. I’m sure there is still people arriving but the halls all seem busy and the HOL section is consistently full. My day a started at 0830 with Matt Steiner ( @Steiner_Matthew ) at the Automating Infrastructure and Application Delivery with vRealize Suite (PAR3698) Session. As the title suggests, in this session Matt provided an insight into how VMware’s vRealize Suite can automate IT provisioning to provide real business benefit.

Written by Christopher Lewis on October 17, 2016 .

VMware VMworld VMworld 2016 Barcelona

This time in a fortnight I will have just landed back in the UK after my very first VMworld in Barcelona. I’m not 100% sure what to expect from the 4 full days, but hope to immerse myself in all the cool stuff VMware have to talk about. Add to that the ability to spend the evenings catching up (and networking) with other colleagues, vBloggers, vExperts and anyone who generally just wants to talk tech (over a beverage or three).

Written by Christopher Lewis on October 7, 2016 .

VMware VMworld VMworld 2016 Barcelona

If you plan to deploy the Platform Services Controller without using it with VMware vCenter, such as when deploying it for SSO for vRealize Automation 6. The options for configuring SYSLOG are not available through the GUI without the VMware vCenter Web GUI. Problem: How do you configure SYSLOG on a Platform Services Controller when its not deployed with VMware vCenter Server 6.x? Solution: Log into the Platform Services Controller as Root via SSH.

Written by Christopher Lewis on September 19, 2016 .

PSC SYSLOG VMware vSphere

So after much deliberation and many discussions I have finally booked my VMworld 2016 Barcelona ticket and I’m now registered for the event! It will be my first time at the event (and in fact only my second ever conference) even though I have worked in the IT Industry for over 15 years. I’m self-funding, so I am free to decide on which agenda I want to get the most out of my investment and therefore I am planning to make the most of the experience by attending sessions networking with my peers, completing some Hands-On Labs and maybe party or two.

Written by Christopher Lewis on September 2, 2016 .

VMware VMworld VMworld 2016

It has been a tense but satisfying couple of weeks for me. I have been waiting on three things, vExpert Announcement and the results from the VCAP6-DCV and VCAP6-CMA Design BETA exams. As you’ll get from the title of the post, I managed two out of three. So that’s vExpert 2016 as well as VMware Advanced Professional 6 - Cloud Management and Automation Design certification. I’m not disheartened about not passing the VCAP6-DCV Design exam afterall I lost one hour out of four in that BETA exam because of the fact the exam kept freezing so it would have been a miracle to have passed it.

Written by Christopher Lewis on August 26, 2016 .

VMware VCAP VCAP6-CMA vExpert VCAP6-DCV