Learning

In addition to a couple of recent conversations with peers, a recent comment on a post on my site lead to a bit of a conversation around home labs and setups. Rather than going back and forth via comments, I figured I would write down some thoughts as a post. If nothing else, it will be easier to share and reference going forward. WHAT SHOULD MY LAB LOOK LIKE? Perfection is the enemy of progressIt depends …. But seriously, it depends on what you are trying to learn. If you are looking to learn about Active Directory and SQL Server, it will look a lot different if you are looking to learn more about vRealize Automation, for example. ...

I recently sat and passed the VCP6-NV exam, and I figured since I spent a lot of time reading about other people’s exam experience, I would share mine as well. An important note is that there are two versions of this exam (as of this writing). The older exam is based on NSX 6 and was retired on April 30, 2017. This is noteworthy because a lot of the study material out there is based on the older exam. The general consensus online seems to be that it won’t hurt to review it, but if newer material is available, you might as well use that. ...

I recall when I first saw Mirage a few years ago. I had a hard time wrapping my head around it. It hasn’t exactly been a popular tool since, which hasn’t helped with folks understanding what it is. At the time I saw it as a bit of a software distribution tool. However, in effect, it is actually more of a backup tool that can restore various points in time to endpoints. ...

When working with VMware Horizon, you’ll find the concept of desktop pools comes up fairly often. Honestly, they aren’t overly complicated to understand. But regardless, it is important to understand what they are, what the different types are, and what options are available. TYPES OF DEKSTOP POOLS When defining a desktop pool, you’ll be able to choose from one of the following three options below. Each type of pool has limitations as to what type of VMs or machines it can use: ...

While studying for my VCP7-DTM exam, I found that there were definitely some core aspects that I had to wrap my head around. I notice that while studying if I hit a stumbling block, I really need to crack it in order to grow. With that in mind, I decided that I wanted to write about a few of those blocks that I ran into. This partially came out of me wanting to understand concepts better. The other, larger part, came from me being too lazy to write a study guide. So, let’s get this going! ...

Earlier this year I decided that I wanted to renew my VCP cert via a different track (as opposed to getting a VCAP). The reason being is that I was just looking to broaden my knowledge. I don’t do a lot of super technical work on the daily basis, so something like the VCAP might be “overkill” (for lack of a better term). It was a toss-up between the VCP-NV and VCP-DTM. In the end, DTM won out. ...