Yesterday Anne Jan linked me to an article on the VMware website which contained information on a free online training course. The title is Transition to ESXi Essentials. The course is dedicated to ESXi and depending on your learning style it takes about 3 hours to complete. It’s broken up in several chapters so you don’t have to do all at once.

Since VMware is moving towards ESXi, abandoning ESX with its Service Console, it’s a great time to release a course all about ESXi and how to manage it.

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I just fiddled somewhat with the ‘fling’ from the VMware site: PXE Manager. Well, if you ask me, it’s not just a ‘fling’, but it is really, really useful. It’s easy to install and easy to use.

Here’s the summary from the ‘fling’:

PXE Manager for vCenter enables ESXi host state (firmware) management and provisioning. Specifically, it allows:

• Automated provisioning of new ESXi hosts stateless and statefull (no ESX)
• ESXi host state (firmware) backup, restore, and archiving with retention
• ESXi builds repository management (stateless and statefull)

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In the past, when I had to design a virtual infrastructure, I had a limited range of server hardware to pick from. Mainly HP and Dell or an occasional IBM server.

But since the beginning of this year I can not bypass Cisco. It is still a bit strange to some people when you mention Cisco with regards to server hardware but it’s a force we can’t ignore anymore.

When Cisco released their UCS server portfolio one and a half/two years ago, nobody thought they would storm the server market as they did. Certainly with their blade server solution they have a very appealing solution which can easily compete with HP, Dell and IBM blade solutions.

Personally I love to configure a Cisco UCS blade solution because it’s so freakin’ easy. One blade enclosure, one switch type, only two management entities and only seven different blade servers. This sounds a bit like a limited solution but trust me the possibilities are endless and performance is great.

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Infoworld.com Virtualisation Shootout april 2011

Of course we all knew that already Paul Venezia posted an in depth article on Infoworld where he compares the four main server virtualization software competitors on a selection of criteria.

Now, you can nit-pick on the measurements he made or the criteria he has chosen, but in general I think it’s a solid test of up-to-date versions.

The best conclusions I can draw from his report are these:

VMware might not always be the cheapest, VMware might not always be the one with the highest speeds.. but VMware is still the one with the most diverse OS support (any x86 OS can be virtualized), the best management toolkit and the most reliable architecture.

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Every year VMware is organizes VMworld. It offers attendees informative sessions and hands-on labs, plus access to a wealth of technology partners. The U.S. edition of VMworld takes place in the The Venetian in Las Vegas from August 29th until September 1st. The European edition will take place one and a half months later from October 18th until October 20th at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark.

VMworld is all about virtualization and cloud computing. So, don’t miss your best chance to learn how to unlock its full power for your organization at VMworld 2011. You’ll find the knowledge and tools you need to realize your vision for virtualization and cloud computing within your organization—and deliver a meaningful business impact.

You can save $400 on VMworld Las Vegas if you register before June 24th or €300 on VMworld Europe if you register before July 29th.

I have been to VMworld three times now, so trust me when I say ‘It will be the best $1.600/€1.100 you will spend in 2011‘.

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