VMware Communities : Thread List - Wisconsin Area VMware User Group

12/9/09 WI-VMUG meeting

fridge — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:28:09 GMT

The next WI-VMUG meeting is being held on 12/9/09 at Promega/BTC in Madison. It is being sponsored by Compellent and Hyper9.

Agenda

8:30 Registration: Refreshments provided by our meeting sponsor Hyper9
9:00 Welcome
9:05 Hyper9 presents Take Back Time: Virtualization Best Practices – Reporting by Zahid Ghauri; Director, Systems Engineering
- Discussing virtualization best practices and technology around storage, VM sprawl, and management level reporting using VMware vSphere and Hyper9. Learn about the practical ins and outs of virtualization reporting and best practices that address the challenges related to storage (how to
  squeeze the most disk space out of your environment as possible), VM sprawl (how many VMs do you actually have and which VMs are you actually
  using?), and management reporting (who owns what and how much does it cost?)
9:50 VMware presents VMware View 4.0 by Rob Millette; VMware SE
- Discussion of what's new in VMware View 4.0.
10:30 Break
10:50 Compellent presents Compellent Storage Center: Optimizing your Virtual Server Environment with Virtualized Storage by Preston Peterson; Compellent SE
- Learn how Compellent's innovative storage virtualization technology integrates with VMware to create an efficient virtualized data center. Using Compellent and VMware in unison enables customers to improve utilization and lower overall costs with flexible server connectivity, fully automated boot from SAN, thin provisioning and cost-effective SRM Implementation.
11:45 Wrap-up: Q&A, announcements, drawings
12:15 Lunch: Our meeting sponsor Compellent provides us with lunch. This is a great opportunity for further networking with your fellow VMware users as well as today's presenters.

Directions:

5445 East Cheryl Parkway
Madison, WI 53711

Meeting Registration:

Click here to register

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

Train Signal discount for WI VMUG members

fridge — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:49:43 GMT

This code is good for 20% off ALL Train Signal products found at the Train Signal website (including all Microsoft Windows, Sharepoint, Vista, Exchange, Office 2007, Linux+, A+, Cisco, and VMware). The code expires on June 1, 2009 but can be renewed if it has been a helpful. To use the code just enter the coupon code WIVMUG at checkout.

Below are links to the 2 training packages that were given away at the April meeting:
VMware ESX Server training package
Linux Networking & Administration training package

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

Getting ready to create vSphere 4 test environment

ARamsey — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:44:56 GMT

I have been tasked to build and test a vSphere 4 infrastructure within the next 3 weeks (time-line). Hardware will not be a problem.

I am wondering if there are things I should be aware of prior to this install. Things that will make my life easier regarding caveates, best practices, esx vs esxi (Windows guy), etc.

Thank you, in advance.

Anthony

Sept. 2009 WI-VMUG meeting

fridge — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:26:01 GMT

The next WI-VMUG meeting is set for Thursday, September 24th.

This meeting is being hosted by ProHealth Care in Waukesha.

N17 W24100 Riverwood Drive, Waukesha, WI 53188
Directions: http://bit.ly/hq8hR

See comment below with parking information **********

Agenda

8:30 Registration: Refreshments provided by our meeting sponsor EMC
9:00 Welcome
9:05 VMware ThinApp Presentation: Dean Flaming, VMware ThinApp Specialist
- Product Overview (What it is)
- Technology Overview (How it works)
- Product Demonstration (Nuts-n-Bolts)
- Technology Comparison
- Q&A
10:45 Break
10:55 EMC - Purpose Built for Data Center Virtualization: Stephen Spellicy, Sr. VMware Specialist at EMC
- Demonstrating product integration between EMC and VMware.
- The importance of scalable storage, proven, highly efficient backup/DR, management and security -- all demonstrable solutions that are made for VMware in mind.
- Content from a variety of EMC sessions at VMworld.
11:50 VMworld Review: Bob Plankers from The Lone Sysadmin blog (LoneSysadmin.net) with some observations and thoughts from his trip to VMworld.
12:00 Wrap-up: Q&A, announcements, drawings
12:15 Lunch: Our meeting sponsor EMC provides us with lunch. This is a great opportunity for further networking with your fellow VMware users as well as today's presenters.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

WI VMUG LinkedIn Group

fridge — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:19:43 GMT

I just created a LinkedIn Group for people that are members of the Wisconsin Area VMware User Group. You can go here to request to join the WI VMUG LinkedIn Group .

For those of you not familar with LinkedIn, there was an article in today Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that talks about it:

LinkedIn is like MySpace for professional networkers

My LinkedIn profile is here .

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

WIVMUG.org

fridge — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:59:58 GMT

I have registered WIVMUG.org and am going to start using it for the Wisconsin VMware User Group. For now wivmug.org will redirect to the Wisconsin Area VMware User Group communities page.

Going forward I am looking into having a website created as well as setting up some email addresses for contacting the WI-VMUG.

Rod

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

WI-VMUG is on Twitter

fridge — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:39:20 GMT

I have created a WIVMUG twitter account which you can follow to get announcements related to the Wisconsin VMware User Group.

Follow it here: http://twitter.com/wivmug

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

Registering for the Wisconsin Area VMware User Group

fridge — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:55:34 GMT

I have had a few people ask me where to sign up to get email notifications for the VMUG meetings. Here is link to register for the Wisconsin Area VMware User Group:

http://info.vmware.com/forms/UserGroupSubscribe?session=Wisconsin

Once you register for the VMUG, you will get the meeting invitations sent to you.

Rod

=========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

South Central VIP Cocktail Reception - VMWorld, San Francisco

VMHA — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:51:00 GMT

http://now.eloqua.com/e/es.aspx?s=524&e=9786368&elq=b117bc3dbf7c42ebb6d3d2fdefa88dfe&OPENID=Browser

Please join VMware, iland, Cisco, and Intel for South Central VIP Cocktail Reception - VMworld, San Francisco

Misty Goeddertz

mg@iland.com

http://www.iland.com/

Follow up to Xsigo Systems "I/O Virtualization" presentation at 04.01.09 VMUG mtg

fridge — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:29:04 GMT

I have attached a pdf form of a couple of PowerPoint presentations from Xsigo Systems. The "Xsigo VMUG Preso.4.1.09" file is a copy of Cam Ford's presentation from the 4/1/09 VMUG meeting. The "Executive level slides" file is a bit less technical, more marketing version of the presentation.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

HyTrust presentation at May VMUG

fridge — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:17:46 GMT

Attached is the HyTrust presentation that Renata Budko did at the May VMUG in Madison. Here are a couple of related links that she also sent:

Anyone who would like to download the free appliance, can do so by registering to HyTrust community here:
http://www.hytrust.com/community/
Also, an abbreviated version of the demo that I presented is available in the form of a video review and can be seen here:
http://www.hytrust.com/product/reviews

There are more links related to HyTrust's security appliance in the May VMUG Meeting post.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

VDI resource

fridge — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:17:20 GMT

I am not currently using VDI but it is something that is probably in my future. It just hasn't made it to the top of the priority list yet. That being said I just found what looks to be a useful resource: VDI.com

The description from the site "VDI.com is a community forum specializing in all things VDI related - view and discuss application and remote desktop virtualization, security, mobility, cloud computing, assessment, design, user experience, RDP, ICA, connection broker, hypervisor performance comparisons, virtual computer hosted tco and more!"

Check it out and while you are in this post, let me know if you are interested in seeing more VDI related content at future WI-VMUG meetings. It would be helpful to know if you have specific VDI related areas of interest or vendors of interest for a future meeting.

Thanks,

Rod

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

VMUG members & VMworld

fridge — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:03:14 GMT

For those of you who are attending VMworld, you should make sure to be officially registered as a VMUG member. There should be some VMUG member shirts available for you there as well as some specific VMUG activities. You will need to be registered as a VMUG member in order to get the shirt and to be invited to the activities.

Here is the link to officially register as a VMUG member: http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmug/localgroups

There will also be a VMUG booth there seperate from the VMware booth so be sure to stop by and check it out.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

Looking for the winner of Edward Haletky's book at the July WI-VMUG mtg

fridge — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:29:28 GMT

Edward would like to post your name and a blub about the WI-VMUG on his website but I unfortunately didn't keep track of who picked what items in the giveaway at the meeting.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

July 2009 WI-VMUG meeting

fridge — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:15:31 GMT

We have another great lineup for the July 28th VMUG meeting.

FalconStor is the sponsor for this meeting.

8:30 Registration: Refreshments provided by FalconStor

9:00 Welcome

9:05 VMware presents "Top VMware Best Practices": Storage and Networking best practices from VMware Support. Some of the more common VMware Support issues are also discussed.

9:55 VMware presents "How VMware Support Works": An overview of how VMware Support works and how to best work with VMware Support.

10:45 Break

11:00 FalconStor presents "Using Storage Virtualization to Simplify and Enhance VMware Disaster Recovery": The combination of server and storage virtualization pays significant dividends to VMware users. By using storage virtualization, creating disk resources to support VMware is quick and easy. It also provides a platform to implement disaster recovery services, including integration with VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM). Session attendees will learn:

How easy it is to create virtual storage resources (includes demonstration)
How virtual storage integrates with VMware SRM (includes demonstration)
How FalconStor technology can extend VMware SRM to existing storage resources, including disk systems that do not natively support VMware SRM
How the FalconStor solution supports physical-to-virtual (P2V) machine recovery and integrates it with VMware SRM
The importance of data integrity to the DR process and how to achieve it
How integrated WAN optimization dramatically reduces bandwidth costs

11:50 Wrap-up: Q&A, announcements, drawings

12:15 Lunch: Our meeting sponsor FalconStor provides us with lunch. This is a great opportunity for further networking with your fellow VMware users as well as today's presenters.

The meeting location is the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton:

Radisson Paper Valley Hotel
333 WEST COLLEGE AVENUE
APPLETON, Wisconsin 54911
Phone: 920-733- 8000

Google Map

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

Attendance @ WI-VMUG meetings

fridge — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:34:16 GMT

I made the following comment in the July 2009 WI-VMUG meeting post and thought it was worth mentioning in a seperate post:

There were 163 people registered for the meeting with 107 sigining in and a headcount of 122 people at the meeting.
The 4 WI-VMUG meetings this year have averaged 115 people in attendance. The 5 meetings before that averaged 75 people in attendance.
Thanks to everyone for attending and helping to grow our Wisconsin VMware User Group!
Please be sure to add comments to this forum and complete your post meeting surveys from VMware to help continue to improve our VMUG.

For those who are interested, I thought I would share a spreadsheet I have been using to track attendance numbers at the VMUG meetings I have done:

Total number of meetings	9
Milw meetings	3
Madison meetings	3
Fox Valley meetings	3

Meeting date	Location	Registered	Signed-in	Headcount	% Attendance
Dec-07	Grafton	111	69	69	62%
Feb-08	Madison	146	90	90	62%
May-08	Green Bay	78	65	65	83%
Aug-08	Milwaukee	89	57	68	76%
Nov-08	Madison	110	74	84	76%
Jan-09	Neenah	142	95	105	74%
Apr-09	West Bend	116	77	91	78%
May-09	Madison	215	125	144	67%
Jul-09	Appleton	163	107	122	75%
Sep-09	Waukesha	-	-	-	-
Totals		1170	759	838	72%
Average		130	84	93

Milw Total		316	203	228
Milw Avg		105	68	76	72%
Madison Total		471	289	318
Madison Avg		157	96	106	68%
Fox Valley Total		383	267	292
Fox Valley Avg		128	89	97	76%

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

Virtualization Forum 2009 - Chicago / registration now open

fridge — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:38:38 GMT

Registration is now open for the VMware Virtualization Forum in Chicago. This full day event is scheduled for Tuesday, October 13th.

At this free, full day event packed with live education tracks and demos, you'll learn how virtualization can drive down the cost of your IT infrastructure. Plus, you'll have a chance to see VMware vSphere 4, the industry's first cloud operating system and the next giant leap in virtualization.

You can find more information here.

You can register here.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

Resources for VDI / App Streaming

kghammond2009 — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:51:48 GMT

Hello,

Does anyone have some good resources (events, webinars, vendors, sites, etc) regarding how the various components of VDI / App Streaming / Citrix Desktops all integrate together? We have been looking at ThinApp, XenApp, App-V along with Citrix on thin clients and some VDI solution. We have 90% of our environment running on thin clients. The remaining 10% needs some combination of VDI and Application Streaming to move them off physical desktops.

We are trying to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the various solutions and which products will solve specific problems.

Thank You,

Kevin

VMware Workstation & Fusion discount

fridge — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:25:25 GMT

The following is from an VMware email announcing 10% discounts for VMUG members on purchases of VMware Workstation and Fusion.

Thanks to you, VMware User Groups are a great forum to learn, brainstorm and share best practices. We'd like to thank you for your ongoing enthusiasm for VMware and its products.

As a small token of appreciation, VMware is pleased to offer all VMUG members a special discount code "VMUG09" for 10% off the purchase of VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation at the VMware Store. The coupon code will be good until the end of the year (12/31/09). Please feel free to share it with all your members.

Be sure to enter "VMUG09" in the Promo Code box before you click "Secure Checkout".

VMware Store

In addition, the VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion teams provide the following resources to help your members maximize the benefits from VMware products.

*!http://campaign.vmware.com/usergroup/fusion/icon-blog35.gif!*Blogs* *
Keep up to date on the latest news, tips and tricks by subscribing to the Team Fusion and Workstation Zealot blogs.

*!http://campaign.vmware.com/usergroup/fusion/icon_faq35.gif!*FAQ<br /Questions? We have answers. Read our frequently asked questions for new users.

*!http://campaign.vmware.com/usergroup/fusion/VMWare-icon2.gif!*VMware Community Forums
Have questions that aren't answered in our tutorials or FAQs? Hop on over to our community forums and ask the gurus for help.

**Come tweet with u
Follow @vmwarefusion and @vmw_workstation on Twitter for the latest inside scoop.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

vCenter Heartbeat followup

fridge — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:21:38 GMT

Here is a little followup information on the vCenter Heartbeat presentation given at the May VMUG meeting:

Documentation Available via VMware Public web site:

Release Notes http://www.vmware.com/support/heartbeat/doc/heartbeat_55_releasenotes.html

Quick Start Guide http://www.vmware.com/pdf/heartbeat_55_quick_start.pdf

Reference Guide http://www.vmware.com/pdf/heartbeat_55_reference_guide.pdf

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

May 2009 - WI VMUG meeting

fridge — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:19:30 GMT

We have a great lineup for the May 19th VMUG meeting. It's a jam packed agenda so I had to extend the meeting length 15 minutes longer than usual.

HyTrust is our meeting sponsor along with Vizioncore.

8:30 Registration: Refreshments provided by Vizioncore
9:00 Welcome
9:05 "Intro to Windows PowerShell and the VI Toolkit": Windows PowerShell is the new command line, scripting language, and automation framework from Microsoft. PowerShell support is growing amongst Microsoft server products and quickly becoming the common administrative denominator. Discoverability, readability, and extensibility all make PowerShell the management framework of choice. We'll take a quick tour of this new technology and see how VMware's VI Toolkit plugs right in and allows for unified management scripting. (Steve Murawski, Community Co-Director at PowerShellCommunity.Org)
9:50 Vizioncore presents "Optimize Day-To-Day Administration using Windows PowerShell and Virtualization EcoShell": Virtualization EcoShell (VESI) is a freeware desktop application for novice and expert IT administrators leveraging Windows PowerShell scripts across their multi-platform virtual environments.Find out how to optimize your day-to-day virtualization administration and effectively manage more systems in less time with this new freeware application from Vizioncore. (Scott Herold, Lead Architect - Virtualization at Quest Software)
10:35 Break
10:45 VMware presents "vCenter Server Heartbeat": Optimize availability and resiliency for vCenter in any situation. VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat delivers the maximum uptime for your virtual datacenter infrastructure, ensuring consistent operation, even when VMware vCenter Server is threatened by unplanned or planned downtime.
11:05 HyTrust presents "Control and Visibility for Virtual Infrastructure": The HyTrust Appliance delivers a single point of control for access management, audit logging, and consistent configuration for VMware ESX, ensuring operational readiness of virtual infrastructure. This enables companies to achieve a secure environment while demonstrating compliance, allowing companies to virtualize their critical production applications. (Hemma Prafullchandra, Chief Security Architect at HyTrust)
11:50 Wrap-up: Q&A, announcements, drawings
12:15 Lunch: Our meeting sponsor HyTrust provides us with lunch. This is a great opportunity for further networking with your fellow VMware users as well as today's presenters.

The meeting location is the Best Western InnTowner in Madison:

2424 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53726, Phone 608-233-8778, Fax 608-233-1325, Reservations 800-258-8321
Email: info@inntowner.com

Map & directions

Here is a link to the meeting registration page.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

Giveaway drawings for Community comments re: May VMUG

fridge — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:51:41 GMT

As mentioned at the May 19th VMUG meeting in Madison, I had kept out a couple of the training DVD's that were donated for raffle prizes to give away in a drawing for those people who posted comments related to the meeting. Here are the winners:

Tom Kustner has won a copy of Elias Khnaser's VMware Infrastructure 3: ESX 3.5 & VirtualCenter 2.5 training DVD's. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Eli Khnaser's training DVD's, make sure you visit this post for 20% off discount code.

Nathan Schuenemann has won a copy of Train Signal's Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Administrator Training DVD. If you are interested in purchasing any of the Train Signal training DVD's, make sure you visit this post for a 20% off discount code from David Davis at Train Signal.

Thanks guys for your contributions to the VMUG Community.

Rod
==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

PowerShell & VESI presentations from the May VMUG mtg (and other related resources)

fridge — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:46:01 GMT

This post contains followup information relating to Steve Murawski and Scott Herold's presentations from the May 2009 WI-VMUG meeting. Here is some background on these presentations from the agenda contained in the May 2009 WI-VMUG post:

9:05 "Intro to Windows PowerShell and the VI Toolkit": Windows PowerShell is the new command line, scripting language, and automation framework from Microsoft. PowerShell support is growing amongst Microsoft server products and quickly becoming the common administrative denominator. Discoverability, readability, and extensibility all make PowerShell the management framework of choice. We'll take a quick tour of this new technology and see how VMware's VI Toolkit plugs right in and allows for unified management scripting. (Steve Murawski, Community Co-Director at PowerShellCommunity.Org).

9:50 Vizioncore presents "Optimize Day-To-Day Administration using Windows PowerShell and Virtualization EcoShell": Virtualization EcoShell (VESI) is a freeware desktop application for novice and expert IT administrators leveraging Windows PowerShell scripts across their multi-platform virtual environments.Find out how to optimize your day-to-day virtualization administration and effectively manage more systems in less time with this new freeware application from Vizioncore. (Scott Herold, Lead Architect - Virtualization at Quest Software)

Here is a link to the recording of the Webcast: https://vmware.webex.com/vmware/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=MC&rID=32782887&rKey=1857E078AB591227
Thanks to Carter Shanklin from VMware for helping with this.

Steve Murawski's blog post about the VMUG: http://blog.usepowershell.com/2009/05/wi-vmug-presentation-with-scott-herold/

A few more links from Steve Murawski:

My Blog ( http://blog.usepowershell.com/)
Co-Host - Mind of Root ( http://www.mindofroot.com/ )
PowerShell Community ( http://powershellcommunity.org/ )
Follow me on Twitter ( http://twitter.com/stevenmurawski )
and find more PowerShell Twitterers (http://www.mindofroot.com/powershell-twitterers/)
Watch the Mind of Root Live Stream Wednesday Nights at 8:30 PM CST
( http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mind-of-root )

=========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

Discount code for Elias Khnaser's VI3: ESX 3.5 & VC 2.5 training DVDs

fridge — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:23:50 GMT

Elias Khnaser has donated some of his VMware Infrastructure 3: ESX 3.5 & VirtualCenter 2.5 training DVD's for me to give away. Besides his training DVD, Elias has made many contributions to the IT and Virutualization communites through his articles, books, training DVDs and his blog.

His Blog: Elias' Virtually Speaking

Books

Training DVDs

Elias told me about a project he is working on to help educate people may be having a hard time finding the money to get the technical education they need these days:

"Education conference: with the economy being the way it is and people losing jobs left and right and looking to switch industries etc... a group of us decided we will host technical training meetings for the community. The meetings will be free and they aim to help those trying to get ahead but can't afford training or those that are trying to switch jobs etc.. we are basically trying to give back to the community and help as much as we can using our skills. This will not be limited to VMware but will expand into Citrix XenApp, Microsoft technologies, SANs and networking."

I will be sure to post more about this Education Conference once I learn more details.

Elias also told me about a Compensated Industry Lead Sharing Program recently started by VSD Technologies. Here is what Elias had to say:

"My Company, VSD Technologies has also started a Lead Program http://www.vsdtechnologies.com/content.aspx?id=121 again the idea here is to help people make a little extra money, so if any of the guys in the audience know or projects or can introduce us in accounts, they can potentially earn a commission on any sales made in those accounts, this is a win win situation for both."

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

attendance at May VMUG meeting

fridge — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:09:20 GMT

For those of you who were at the meeting Tuesday; Thanks for coming to the meeting, I hope you found it worth your time. I think we had a very good meeting with some very good content as well as some great items donated for giveaways.

We had a new record attendance for VMUG meetings since I have been leading the WI-VMUG. The previous high was 105 and my count Tuesday was 144. Out of that group we had what I think was a much higher than usual number of new attendees. I have a few thoughts as to the explaination for the increase. However I would like to hear what others have to say, in particular those who where at their first VMUG meeting or had not been to one in a while.

Thanks,

Rod
==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

VMware Communities Roundtable podcasts

fridge — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:40:40 GMT

If you are not familiar with the VMware Communities Roundtable Podcasts the John Troyer puts on, you should be. In these podcasts VMware experts talk about VMware news, interesting virtualization posts, and what's happening in the VMware Communities. Many of the regular participants are people that will be familiar to you if you frequent VMware related blogs or the VMware Community Forums.

You can catch them live or recorded at TalkShoe.com here.

You can also download the recorded podcasts from the VMware Community site here.

The live podcast starts at 2:00 (Central) on Wednesday afternoons. The nice thing about the live podcast is you can take part in the live chat. There are two advantages to this:
1) You can view the chat interaction which has some valuable additional info not in the recording (also some not so valuable info).
2) You can participate in the chat and questions posted there are often discussed by the roundtable participants and/or answered by others participating in the chat.

The recorded sessions at TalkShoe do not have any notes from the chat or links mentioned in the podcast.

The post of the podcast with the recording on the VMware Community site includes some notes and most of the links mentioned in the podcast or chat. The downside of the this site however is that it often takes a week or two for the recording and notes to get posted.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

Looking for someone to host the 5/19 VMUG in Madison

fridge — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:32:59 GMT

I have plans for a VMUG meeting on 5/19 in Madison almost finalized. The main thing I still need is a volunteer to host the meeting at their facility.

Feel free to post here or send me a private message if you have a facility to offer or have questions.

Note: Vendors or partners can NOT host the meeting at their facilities.

Thanks,

Rod

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

Follow up to Cloud presenation at 4/1/09 WI VMUG mtg

fridge — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:25:01 GMT

Here is a PDF version of Michael Hubbard's "Evolving to Cloud" presentation from the 4/1/09 WI VMUG meeting. This version has been slightly modified for public posting. Let me know if you want the PowerPoint version or the original and I will get you in touch with Michael.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert - 2009

April 1st WI Area VMUG Meeting

fridge — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:52:39 GMT

The next Wisconsin Area VMware User Group meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 1st. It is being hosted by West Bend Mutual Insurance at their Prairie Conference Center. Thanks to Nate Hudson for helping to arrange this.

I am looking forward to seeing another well attended VMUG meeting as we have an agenda packed with some great content and some outstanding prizes to be given away.

Agenda
08:30am - Registration & Refreshments courtesy of Xsigo Systems

09:00am - Welcome & Introductions

09:05am - VMware presents "Evolving from VI3 to VDCOS to Cloud": VMware's flagship product, VMware Infrastructure, coupled with VMware's comprehensive roadmap of groundbreaking new products provide a virtual datacenter OS for IT environments of all sizes. An overview at the future of VMware vCloud, the only cloud solution built on the reliability and advanced technology of VMware products and its robust partnerships.

10:00am - break

10:15am - Train Signal presents "Running VMware ESX 3.5 & ESXi 3.5 Inside VMware Workstation 6.5": View a presentation from Train Signal's VMware ESX Server Training Package.

10:40am - Xsigo Systems presents "Virtual I/O in your VMware Environment": Looking for ways to cut costs and accelerate deployments? Virtual I/O may be an answer. Server virtualization can dramatically increase the cost of server input/output (I/O). Most virtualization users configure servers with anywhere from six to sixteen I/O connections per server, which not only drives up I/O costs but also may dictate the use of larger, more expensive servers. Xsigo Systems is the technology leader in I/O virtualization, a data center solution that reduces the cost and time required to deploy servers by eliminating 70% of the I/O infrastructure. With Xsigo, fewer cards, cables and switch ports means 50% less capital cost, faster deployments, and potentially smaller, less expensive servers, Attend this session to learn more about this new technology that Gartner says, "brings a lot of flexibility to the data center."

11:40am - Meeting Wrap-up: Q&A session and drawing for prizes. This is your opportunity to get or provide answers, advice, tips and suggestions in an open discussion with your peers. Be sure to bring business cards for the prize drawings.

12:00pm - Lunch provided by Xsigo Systems: Enjoy lunch compliments of our meeting sponsor Xsigo and take the opportunity for further Networking with your fellow VMware users and the various vendors in attendance.

I have attached some directions to West Bend Mutual Insurance's Prairie Conference Center. Here is a link to West Bend Mutual Insurance on Google Maps and here is a link to the directions page on their website.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert

Followup to EMC's Avamar presentation

fridge — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:45:52 GMT

Scott Waterhouse (one of EMC's BuRA TC's) at "The Backup Blog" has a post entitled "Web Demos of EMC Backup, Recovery, and Archive Products". This details a schedule of EMC weekly webex demos of Avamar and some of their other backup products.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader
VMware vExpert

Site Recovery Manager

pcb1 — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:16:18 GMT

As I see it with this tape is dead and I can help that to happen.

Paul.berndt@jenux.net

920-883-9162

How To Determine Data Commonality

ChrisBlock — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:01:31 GMT

I would be happy to offer the services of one of the 70+ EMC employees in the state of Wisconsin to help you run the EMC Commonality Assessment Tool(CAT). A number of our Customers in the Wisconsin area have been using Avamar specifically to improve the overall backups of their VMWARE environment. This tool will show you, with your own data, a description of what type of deduplication rate you will see in your environment(We have seen 300:1 deduplication), estimated reduction in your backup window, and ultimately answers the question, "What financial and operational impact would deduplication technology have in my environment." There are a number of customers in Wisconsin saving thousands of dollars per month deploying this technology by allowing them to significantly reduce the amount of tape in their environment. We are providing these assessments free of charge. Please call Chris Block at 414-319-7638 if you are interested. I can also be reached at block_chris@emc.com.

Regards,

Chris

January 2009 WI Area VMUG meeting

fridge — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:58:45 GMT

The January Wisconsin Area VMware User Group meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 20th. It is being hosted by Kimberly-Clark at their Neenah Conference Center (NCC). Thanks to Mike Nelson for helping to arrange this.

I am looking forward to seeing another well attended VMUG meeting in the Fox Valley area as we have an agenda packed with some great content.

Agenda
08:30am - Registration & Refreshments courtesy of VKernel
09:00am - Welcome & Introductions
09:05am - EMC presents "Optimizing your VMware Backup Environments": Rob Schwartz, Avamar Specialist from EMC (our meeting sponsor) gives us insight into and a demo of their Avamar backup and recovery solution.
9:55am - VMUG Member Presentation: Justin Ellenbecker from Alliance Collections Agencies provides an overview of their VMware environment and talks about his VMware experiences.

10:10am - break
10:20am - VMware presents "VMware View": Our local VMware SE's give us an overview on VMware View, "the Next Generation of VDI".
10:45am - VKernel presents "Optimized Resource Utilization and Increased VM Densities": Carlo Alpuerto, Senior Systems Engineer from VKernel tells us how we can safely increase our VM densities and lower the cost per VM without affecting the performance of our existing VMware environments.
11:30am - Meeting Wrap-up: Q&A session and drawing for prizes. This is your opportunity to get or provide answers, advice, tips and suggestions in an open discussion with your peers. Be sure to bring business cards for the prize drawings.
12:00pm - Lunch provided by EMC: Enjoy lunch compliments of our meeting sponsor EMC and take the opportunity for further Networking with your fellow VMware users and the various vendors in attendance.

I have attached some directions to Kimberly-Clark's Neenah Conference Center. Here is a link to the NCC on Google Maps.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

Message was edited by: fridge - fixed agenda times

Installation of demo VMware.

cantel — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:09:58 GMT

I just downloaded the free VMware Fusion to test it. I have a .dmg file named VMware-Fusion-2.01-128865.dmg which when I click on it shows a warning dialogue box stating "not recognized". I also have a folder called FusionDemoVM.vmwarevm which contains a number of files, none of which appear to be anything I can open. I am using Leopard on a MacBook. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Virtualize! Magazine

fridge — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:56:03 GMT

At our August VMUG meeting at Direct Supply in Milwaukee we had Jenny Kaza who is the Managing Editor of Virtualize! Magazine speak briefly to tell us about their new magazine focused on virtualization. She gave a overview about the direction and content of the magazine as well as asking for article ideas and submissions.

They have now published the premier issue of Virtualize!. You can go to the NaSPA website and download the issue. Here is a list of the articles in the issue:

The A-B-Cs of Virtualizing Server Workloads
I/O Unification in Virtualized Servers: It's Not Just Throughput and Purchase Cost
Paradigm Junkies Rejoice! Predictive Failure HA is Here!
A Few Books to Guide You Through "The Hall of Mirrors"
Strategies for Building and Protecting Virtual Infrastructure
Managing Performance In Your Virtualized Data Center: What Your Virtual Server Management Tool Isn't Telling You
What You Need to Know About Virtualization Backup and Disaster Recovery

I have not yet read the magazine but am hoping to over the next week or so. If you read it I would be interested in seeing your opinions posted here.

Rod

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

Roundtable Discussion at November VMUG meeting

fridge — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:06:17 GMT

The next WI Area VMUG meeting will be in the Madison area on Tuesday November 18th. Vizioncore is sponsoring the meeting. I am finalizing the details for the meeting and one of the things I would like to do is have a Roundtable Discussion. I did this at the May meeting in Green Bay and got good feedback on it. At that meeting the panel was a mix of users, vendors and consultants. This time I would like to try and go with just users on the panel.

I am thinking 4-6 panel members and having the Roundtable start with brief introductions for each of them where they give a very short description of their background and their VMware experience / environment.

1) What are your thoughts on this idea?
2) Any volunteers to be on the panel?

Thanks,
Rod

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

do I have to buy a new mouse in order to right click.

johnbugajski — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:21:41 GMT

I am currently using the mouse and key board that came with my iMac. I can not right click with the mouse and I can not enter numbers using the numerical keys on the the far right of the key board.

EMC @ VMworld

fridge — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:08:41 GMT

Thought I would pass on an email that I received from Kate Meints (VMware Alliance Manager, Midwest at EMC) about some of EMC's participation at VMworld. Unfortunately I am not able to attend but if I was I would be sure to take in the Designing the Next-Generation Datacenter panel discussion with Chad Sakac. I had the privilege to meet Chad and have a conversation with him at EMCworld earlier this year. Not only does Chad really know his stuff, but he is one of those people who truely enjoys his job and loves to share his knowledge and opinions. Along with that he is one of my favorite Virtualization / Storage bloggers.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

============================================================================================

As some of you prepare to travel to Las Vegas for VMWorld, I wanted to make sure you were aware of our joint activities with VMware at the event. Please feel free to forward to those in your organization that are attending and stop by our booth so we can meet in person!

Kate Meints
VMware Alliance Manager, Midwest
____

*Headed to Las Vegas for VMWorld? * VMWorld is the largest virtualization industry event and draws professionals ranging from technology experts, business executives, and VMware employees and strategic IT leaders to CIOs, reporters, and analysts. Now in its fifth year, VMWorld is a must-attend event for all IT professionals looking for actionable ideas, innovative products, and best practices for virtualizing their enterprise, from the desktop to the data center.

Attend an EMC session, stop by the EMC Booth #502, sit through a presentation and talk to one of our subject matter experts. Take a chance to WIN a Toyota PRIUS!

EMC, VMware can help you make your VMware environments Virtually Perfect

EMC Session: Attend as man as you like to learn about our integration with VMware
Tuesday, September 16^th^ 3:00 - 4:00

Wednesday, September 17^th^ 11:00 - 12:00 (please feature this session as it is a Sponsorship Keynote)

Wednesday, September 17^th^ 1:30 - 2:30

Wednesday, September 17^th^ 4;30 - 5:30

Thursday, September 18^th^ 3:30 - 4:30

TBD with VMware

Thursday, September 18^th^ 11:00 - 12:00

EMC Booth #502 will be demonstrating the leading technologies and solutions to extend, accelerate and integrate:

Mission Critical Application - SAP & Oracle
Mission Critical Applications - Microsoft Exchange
Disaster Recovery and VMware Site Recovery Manager
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
Backup and De-duplication
Unified storage (IP / Multi protocol)
Data Protection and Backup for Remote Office and Branch Office
Management Suite
RSA Security
RAVE Party - EMC is a Platinum Sponsor of the Rave Party. Please enjoy an exclusive event at the TAO on Sept 17^th ^from 12:00 mid-night to 3am.

Stop by the EMC Booth #52 - Register to WIN a Toyota PRIUS

Please Read Before Installing Latest Patches

guest99 — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:37:10 GMT

Too bad we can't proactively send out an alert to our members....

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/162377?tstart=0

August VMUG meeting in Milwaukee

fridge — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:13:48 GMT

The next WI Area VMUG meeting will be held on Tuesday August 5th in Milwaukee.

This meeting is sponsored by Dell and hosted by Direct Supply.

Agenda
08:30am - Registration & Refreshments courtesy of Kroll Ontrack
09:00am - Welcome & Introductions
09:15am - Dell presents "Availability, Data Protection and Disaster Recovery in Virtual Environments": Our meeting sponsor gives us some insight into their solution of Dell EqualLogic storage integrated with VMware's Site Recovery Manager to automate disaster recovery (DR) management. This presentation will include a SRM demo as well as some information on Dell's ESXi offerings.
10:30am - Virtualize! Magazine: Jenny Kasza, Managing Editor of Virtualize! magazine , a new NaSPA publication coming in the summer of 2008, will discuss the focus of the magazine and ask members to consider sharing their virtualization expertise by submitting articles.
10:40am - Kroll Ontrack presents "VMware Data Recovery": Ontrack discusses VMware data loss situations, methods of preventing further data loss and Kroll Ontrack's service offerings to recover the lost, missing, or corrupt data.
11:25am - Meeting Wrap-up: Q&A session and drawing for prizes, including a BIG prize for one lucky person! This is your opportunity to get or provide answers, advice, tips and suggestions in an open discussion with your peers.
12:00pm - Lunch provided by Dell, Inc.: Enjoy lunch compliments of our meeting sponsor Dell and take the opportunity for further Networking with your fellow VMware users and the various vendors in attendance.

Location
Direct Supply Reception
6767 North Industrial Road
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53223
Directions
Link to map

Link to meeting registration page.

Hope to see you there.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

Message was edited by: fridge. Added link to meeting registration page

August '08 WI VMUG meeting feedback

UB1direct — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:23:21 GMT

Does anyone have any feedback for the August 5 VMWare User Group meeting held @ Direct Supply?

This was my first VMUG meeting, and I really enjoyed it.

I had a few suggestions for upcoming meetings:

1. At each meeting have a member give an overview of their VMWare implementation (Successes, obstacles, results) Seeing practical applications for VMWare would be beneficial for those looking to utilize it.

2. Have members prepare for the meeting by staging questions for their peers to answer. I thought this part of the session was very beneficial.

3. Are we able to have VMWare representatives give us a glimpse of upcoming technologies, updates, or best practices at each meeting. I would like to see some interaction with the actual VMWare reps.

Thanks!

Looking for someone going to VMworld '08 willing to do a recap presentation at October WI VMUG mtg.

fridge — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:09:27 GMT

As I mentioned at yesterday's WI Area VMUG meeting, I am looking for someone who is going to VMworld '08 who is interested in give a presentation about their experience at our next WI Area VMUG meeting. I am looking at having the meeting in the Madison area, probably in October.

If you are interested in doing this I will need to know by the end of August as I would like to have the agenda finalized by the beginning of September.

Thanks,

Rod

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

Looking for someone to host VMUG meeting in Milwaukee area

fridge — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:04:34 GMT

I have been trying to finalize plans for the next WI Area VMUG meeting, but I am having problems finding a venue for the meeting. Various possibilites have not worked out for one reason or another. This meeting will be in the Milwaukee area. I am targeting August 6th as a date since I had 3 sponsors / presenters as well as everyone from VMware available for that date, but the venue fell through just as I was about to finalize things.

My requirements:

room for at least 125 people
ability to have lunch there (either in-house catered or outside catered)
available Wed August 6th from 8:30 - 1:30
standard presentation capabilities (projection, sound, appropriate seating, etc..)
reasonable parking availability

This doesn't have to be your facility, if you have any ideas please let me know. I don't have a huge budget for facility rental, but we can possibly pay a small rental fee.

Also, while I prefer August 6th as I know it fits everyone's schedule, I am open to trying other dates in early - mid August if need be.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

May 2008 VMUG Presentations

fridge — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:07:55 GMT

As I get them I will post the presentations from the May 8th VMUG meeting that was held in Green Bay.

"Doing More With VMware " Presentation by Chris Ladd (NetIQ)

"VMware Lifecycle Manager " Presentation by Rob Millette (VMware)

=========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

Anybody else heading to EMC World (5/18-5/22)?

fridge — Fri, 16 May 2008 06:08:00 GMT

I am going to be at EMC World (Las Vegas) this next week and was wondering if any other WI Area VMUG members are going to be there.

There is a heavy emphasis on VMware there this year and quite a few of the sessions I am going to go to are VMware related.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

More for those of you interested in SRM (Site Recovery Manager)

fridge — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:57:05 GMT

This is for those of you who got just enough on VMware's SRM (Site Recovery Manager) from Jonathan Miller's presentation at the Green Bay VMUG meeting last week to wet your appetite.

Here are a couple of recent related posts on Chuck's Blog (EMC VP of Technology Alliances):

Nothing is finalized yet, but I think the next VMUG will be early - mid July in the Milwaukee area with Dell sponsoring it. They would be covering their SRM solution and possibly touching on their ESXi offerings as well. Stay tuned for final details in early June.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

May 2008 VMUG meeting in Green Bay

fridge — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:44:46 GMT

The next WI Area VMUG meeting will be held on Thursday, May 8th in Green Bay. This is the first meeting of what I hope will be two VMUG meetings in the Green Bay / Fox Valley area this year.

This meeting is sponsored by NetIQ and hosted by Brown County.

Agenda
08:30am - Registration & Networking
09:00am - Welcome & Introductions
09:15am - VMware: Overview of VMware Lifecycle Manager and the upcoming VMware Site Recovery Manager .
09:45am - NetIQ: Our meeting sponsor gives us some insight into their AppManager for VMware product which provides monitoring, alerting and process automation for your entire VMware virtual infrastructure.
11:00am - Brown County: Our meeting host gives an overview of their VMware environment including ESX 3.5, their Green Initiatives and cost savings. Live Storage VMotion demo.
11:20am - Virtualization Roundtable / Q&A: This is your opportunity to get answers, advice, tips and suggestions from a panel comprised of users, VMware employees, vendors and service providers.
12:00pm - Lunch provided by NetIQ: Enjoy lunch compliments of our meeting sponsor NetIQ and take the opportunity for further Networking with your fellow VMware users and the various vendors in attendance.

Location
Neville Public Museum
210 Museum Place
Green Bay, WI 54303
Phone: 920.448.4460
Link to map

As the panel for the roundtable is determined I will have a post detailing who will be on the panel and asking for a few questions in advance .

Follow this link to register for the meeting.

Hope to see you there.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

May VMUG Roundtable / Q&A details

fridge — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:54:27 GMT

I am giving something new a try at the May 8th VMUG meeting in Green Bay. The agenda description is as follows:

Virtualization Roundtable / Q&A: This is your opportunity to get answers, advice, tips and suggestions from a panel comprised of users, VMware employees and service providers.

My plan (to start with) is to put together a group of about 6 people sit on a panel and have them answer your questions. I would like to solicit some questions prior to the meeting and distribute them to the panel members who will then each be able to select a question or two to come prepared to answer. Hopefully between these questions and the questions that are presented at the meeting we will be able to come up with an interesting and informative dialog that will be a benefit to those in attendance.

As I assemble the panel I will update this post with details as to who will be on the panel and maybe present a little background information on them.

Steve Pelletier with Logicalis: Steve is a Technical Consultant with Logicalis specializing in server and storage virtualization. He has been consulting since 1991 and working with VMware since the initial versions of workstation. Steve became a VCP in the ESX 1.X days (3 digit VCP number) and was a presenter at VMworld 2007 on building scalability and redundancy into multi-site VMware networks.
Bill Crahen with Inacom Information Systems: Bill is the Practice Director of Data Center Technologies at Inacom where he has been consulting and managing for 12 years. He has been working with storage systems and VMware from the beginning when VMware Workstation was introduced and became an early VCP when ESX 2 was released. Bill presented on best practices at VM World 2007.
Jeff Trunk with Fortinet: Jeff is the Wisconsin SE for Fortinet and he has been working in the Enterprise IT Industry for 10 plus years. Fortinet has a technology alliance with VMware and is one of the original security vendors to announce plans to use the VMware VMsafe APIs .
Sherry Zittel with Johnsonville : Sherry is a Network Administrator with Johnsonville. They have been using VMware for 4 plus years and have a three host VI3 (3.01) cluster with approximately 60 guests. The guest operating systems include Netware, Linus and various versions of Windows. SAP is among the applications running on these guests. Johnsonville also has a remote location with a single VI3 v3.5 host.
Mark Holmes with EMC Corp : Mark is an Advisory Technical Consultant for EMC working in the Green Bay area.

You can either post your questions here, email them to me (WI.VMUG at GabrielWorld dot com) or send me a private message. If you send me an email or private message, you can post here mentioning that you did so as I will award points to the first 3 questions that I receive.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

February 2008 WI VMUG Meeting

fridge — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:11:02 GMT

+ Please join us for the upcoming Wisconsin Area VMware User Group meeting on February 20 from 8:30-1:00.+

Gather together with an innovative group of VMware users at Promega Corporation to network, share ideas and learn how to get the most out of your VMware solutions.

This is a great opportunity to meet with your Wisconsin Area based peers to discuss virtualization trends, best practices and the latest technology.

Agenda
08:30am - Registration
09:00am - Virtual Desktop Manager 2.0 (VMware)
10:00am - A Real-World, Large Scale VDI Implementation (Customer Success Story)
10:30am - EMC and VMware: Leveraging the best storage access protocol for your VMware deployment lifecycle" (EMC)
12:00pm - Lunch and VMUG member networking provided by EMCLocation:

Location:

Promega Corporation
5445 East Cheryl Parkway
BioPharmaceutical Technology Center
Madison, WI 53711

The Promega BTC is located south of the Beltline Highway (12/18) off of Fish Hatchery Road.

Click here for an online map.

Click here and register today to join us for this informative event. Space is limited, so respond as soon as possible to reserve your seat.

Hope to see you there.

Rod

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

VMware Winter 2008 Webinar Series

fridge — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:27:53 GMT

I thought I would post this information for anyone who isn't on the VMware Team's mailing list:

VMware Winter 2008 Webinar Series - Begins January 15, 2008
Enroll today to reserve your spot and to view a complete schedule of events!

From introductory sessions to advanced demonstrations, VMware Winter 2008 Webinar Series covers all your virtualization needs. Each session lasts approximately one hour and includes live Q&A sessions. Here's a selection of what's coming up:

January 15, 2008 - Basics to Virtualization
February 5, 2008 - Upgrading to VI3 and Utilizing Disaster Recovery Solutions for Core Infrastructures
March 5, 2008 - VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Creates Secure, Reliable and Cost-Efficient PC Management
March 13, 2008 - VMware ACE 2 Enterprise Edition Online Product Demonstration
Register for the VMware Webinar Series today.

View the full schedule here.

See you online,
The VMware Team

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

VMUG meeting locations

fridge — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:22:41 GMT

Our last meeting (in June) was at my workplace. Since I just started this position and am very busy between now and our next meeting I am leaning towards hosting the next meeting here again. This will probably be in early December.

After that I think it it would be fair to all to try and move the meeting locations around the state a bit. I don't know for a fact, but I would guess that the Milwaukee and Madison areas have a large percentage of the members of the WI Area VMUG. However I think a meeting in the Fox Valley area or over in the western part of the state would be good to do as well.

The purpose of this thread is twofold:

1) To get a feel for what the community wants for geographic spread on meetings.

2) To solicit volunteers to host a meeting.

Points to the first people to respond with serious answers.

Thanks for your participation in your WI Area VMUG.

Rod Gabriel

WI Area VMUG Leader

In search of user presentations

fridge — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:40:45 GMT

Would you like to share a current or past virtualization project at an upcoming Wisconsin Area VMware User Group meeting?

Several people have mentioned to me that they would like to see "customer success" or "stories from the trenches" type presentations from our fellow VMware users. I also see great value in this type of thing being included in the agenda and would like to regularly include such presentations. However, in order to do so I need volunteers from the community.

The topic is your choice, it does not need to be related to anything else being presented at the meeting. Also the length of presentation (within reason) is up to you as well.

If you are at all interested you can either post a reply here, send me a private message to my VMware Community user or email me at wi.vmug@gabrielworld.com.

Remember it is our user group and the more we put into it the we get out of it.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

VMUG meeting topics and format

fridge — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:28:36 GMT

The purpose of this thread is to solicit your input for topics you would like covered at our meetings as well as any suggestions you have for the format of the meetings.

Points to the first people to respond with serious answers.

Thanks for your participation in your WI Area VMUG.

Rod Gabriel

WI Area VMUG Leader

Feedback on 12/6/07 VMUG meeting

fridge — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:13:49 GMT

Anybody have any feedback on the VMUG meeting that was held today (12/6/07)?

I am looking for your thoughts on content, facilities, location, format, time of day, length of meeting and presentations, etc.... Pretty much any thoughts you have on the meeting. All constructive criticism is welcome.

A special thanks for LeftHand Networks ( Scott Wilson & Steve Ahlgrim) who sponsored our meeting as well as our other two presenters: Rob Millette (VMware) and Scott Herold (Invirtus).

Thanks to everyone for attending and participating.

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

VMware TCO / ROI tool

fridge — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:22:42 GMT

VMware has recently released version 2.0 of their TCO / ROI Calculator Tool. This version covers server consolidation, Virtual Lab Automation and VDI scenarios. It has some nice reporting features.

I thought it would be helpful to point this out to some of you who were at the meeting and mentioned that you were just looking into VMware and were not current users. Also for those of you looking to justify expanding your VMware Product usage.

You can find the tool here .

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

WI VMUG Q4-07 Meeting

fridge — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:24:48 GMT

The meeting has been finalized. It will be held on Thursday 12/6.

The Agenda includes:

VMware ESX 3.5 update, Rob Millette, VMware Sr. Systems Engineer
LeftHand Networks (Meeting Sponsor)

* Virtual SAN Appliance
* SAN/iQ DemO

Guest Optimization, Scott Herold (VP Product Engineering @ Invirtus & Co-Author of the VMware Advanced Technical Design Guide series of books )

Link to meeting registration

==========================
Rod Gabriel
Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

WI VMUG update - 10/05/07

fridge — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:12:26 GMT

Earlier this week I accepted the position of Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader.

Here is a quick update of where things are at the moment with the WI Area VMUG:

This forum has not been very active recently and I am hoping it will become more active in the future. At the very least I will try to keep you informed as to what is going on with the WI Area VMUG.

Our last meeting was back on June 7th. I am working on the details for our next meeting. Currently I am targeting the first week of December. Details will be posted in this forum as soon as they are finalized.

Going forward I would like to have quarterly meetings and am hoping to set a reoccurring schedule (ie.. 2nd Wednesday of each quarter, etc...).

I encourage and welcome your input for meeting topics, schedules, locations, etc... I am also starting threads for your input on meeting topics, schedules and locations.

Please feel free to contact me by posting in the "Wisconsin Area VMware User Group" forum or by private message.

Rod Gabriel

Wisconsin Area VMUG Leader

VMUG meeting schedule

fridge — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:37:45 GMT

This thread is to solicit your feedback on the schedule for our future meetings.

I am targeting the first week or so of December for our next meeting. After that I would like to have quarterly meetings.

I think it would be ideal to set a reoccurring schedule such as the 2nd Wednesday of every quarter, etc... Let me know your feelings on this, both for a set schedule and your preferred day.

I have been told by VMware that in general people prefer to have these meetings in the morning. That is what I think we will go with for the first meeting. However I am certainly open to the opinion of the majority of the community going forward.

In the past we have usually had someone sponser either breakfast or lunch with meetings. Let me know if your preference on this as well, ie.. breakfast before a morning meeting, lunch after a morning meeting, etc...

Points to the first people to respond with serious answers.

Thanks for your participation in your WI Area VMUG.

Rod Gabriel

WI Area VMUG Leader

Is this group active?

bzant — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 04:24:00 GMT

Is the Madison WI group active, and when is the next local meeting?

Registration for COVUG Tech Days is now open! It's worth the drive!!!

JerryCollins — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:01:01 GMT

The Central Ohio VMware Users Group is hosting their second regional event. We have roughly 40 vendors coming from all over talking about all kinds of topics. There will also be even more technical breakout sessions throughout the day.

The list of topics that will be engaged in over the two day event is long but you can see most of the list here at the general information site.

http://65.189.158.30

Not only is this event going to have a 10 thousand square ft vendor floor with all kinds of hands on stuff and demos, but there will be presentations going on all day and breakout sessions.

View the list of topics and see what all is going on.

Sign up quick to ensure you can attend and get the handout bag full of goodies from the vendors.

The vendors are silly with big give-aways. I cant even mention them here.

P.S. This is being held at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, OH and rooms are very cheap. Its about 1 hour and 55 minutes from Columbus Ohio. Bring the family as there are plenty of things to do.

Go here to register: http://info.vmware.com/content/UGReg-MultiSession?session=UserGroup-CentralOhio

COVUG Summer Tech Days

JerryCollins — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 19:56:21 GMT

The Central Oho VMware Users Group has its summer version of the highly successful Tech Days event coming up. This event will be July 19th and 20th at the extremely popular KalahariResorts.com location next to the even more popular Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio.

Not only are there currently 40 vendors lined up to present and talk about all different kinds of technologies surrounding virtualization but they are also ready to fill the huge vendor floor with all kinds of booths and information.

You may think it amazing that there will be a Luau the evening of the 19th open to all attendees, a game room filled with large screen TVs with game consoles, and that overnight rooms will be available for a large portion of the attendees who are first to register for only $100 (give or take $10). However you will be astonished to find out that the event itself is free.

The Central Ohio VMware Users Group is working diligently to bring all this together. We expect registration to be opened some time in the middle of June and the invites will come from VMware.

We are looking for some people to help lead informal discussions on different technical topics. It is our objective to have a good range of technical information available and these discussion forums will be a part of that.

For Questions, Comments, suggestions or other please contact:

Jerry.Collins@covug.org
Or
Whitney.Tapp@covug.org

Stay tuned for more info as the event comes together.

Next meeting?

gregcmcse — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 16:49:31 GMT

Hey folks, any idea when and where the next meeting is going to be?

New VMware install question

craigjeske — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 16:00:08 GMT

I am heading a VMware Esx installation sometime in the next 3-6 months (depending on financial approval timelines) and I have been approved for training. My question for the group here in WI is if there is anyone who offers training besides VMware itself? Also, how valuable is the training and would it be best to get training before the software? Or should I get the software and work with it a small amount prior to training?

Missed the Jun meeteing

iankoenig — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 17:51:13 GMT

Oh man. I missed the June meeting. How was it?

Topics for upcoming Meetings

iankoenig — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 14:50:42 GMT

What would be some topics we would like to see at some of the User Group meetings?

Highly technical?
Process orientated?
Scripting?

Anything is open for discussion.

Questions and Answers

iankoenig — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 17:37:33 GMT

What questions or topics would you like to have discussed in the next User Group meeting?

Anything is game. We are looking for what would you like to see next time.

Thank you to everyone who attended!

geo — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 20:08:36 GMT

Thanks for coming to the first Wisconsin Users group last Friday. What a turnout! After the formal meeting was over I was pleasantly surprised to see so many members sharing tips and tricks and even an impromptu whiteboard session.

Thanks to Carlo and Alex of Dean Health for getting this users group going, without them, it could have never happened and I think all of you can appreciate how much time they put into making it valuable, the dual projectors was a great help to understand everything that was going on during their demonstrations. Thanks also to Inacom for breakfast and Berbee for lunch.

I have attached one of the two pdfs that I talked about on memory utilization, the other is over 6 Mb, so I'll let you download it directly, you can find it at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/mui_vmkusage2.pdf , this is the document which explains the differences between the mui and vmkusage and virtual center resource numbers.

If you have any suggestions for future users' group topics, please feel free to email them to Carlo or myself, Carlos email address is carlo.bonura@deancare.com , mine is gpradel@vmware.com . There have been requests to share the email list of the group between members, please give Carlo and myself your feedback as well since we want to protect your privacy but offer the most communication between yourselves as possible.

If you would like an eval of any of our products, please contact Ted OMalley directly and hell facilitate that in a quick manner or you can go through your VMWare Reseller.

Finally, we had a few offers to host in June, one was in Milwaukee, the other in Green Bay and the third was from our good friends at Organic Valley at the western edge of the state. Please feel free to contact me after you talk with your organizations so we can put a date on the calendar and get started planning the next event.

I have included the contact info for the Wisconsin VMWare team below for your records.

On behalf of VMWare, thanks again for spending your Friday morning with us and a huge note of thanks to Carlo and Alex.

George A. Pradel
Systems Engineer, Wisconsin

VMWare

gpradel@vmware.com

(630) 281.4132 (office/Cell)

Ted O'Malley
VMware, Inc.
Corporate Account Manager
tomalley@vmware.com
Cell - 773-870-2298

Blaine Welker
Inside Sales Representative
bwelker@vmware.com
(650)-812-8257