Hi, J.D.! You wrote:


First, let me insert a quick clarification. It sounds as if you took VMware training courses directly from VMware. VMware Authorized Training Centers ("VATCs") set their own policies about the details of the class experience, so I can't speak on their behalf. It's entirely possible that one VATC might be able to supply you with your book ahead of time and another not, and then VMware direct-delivered classes might also be different.

For VMware's direct-delivered training business, the cost of enabling students to preorder their books has always seemed, to us, to exceed the benefit. Anytime students are allowed to get their books before class, we must provide some way of helping students who arrive at the start of class without their books. Airlines lose luggage; briefcases are stolen; and people simply forget. The cost of equipping each class with a reasonable number of spare books of the correct version is surprisingly high.

Of course, this would not be such a big deal if, when you came to class, you could get the materials in PDF format.


Yes, that'd be great, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, business rears its ugly head.

There's plenty of training on VMware products out there; the best is from VMware and its VATCs, and then there's the rest. We at VMware object strenuously to companies that "borrow" our hard work in developing courseware for their own unauthorized courses. We've had enough experience with unscrupulous people scraping content from our paper course materials to know that, if we made our materials available in electronic copy, we'd be doing them a great favor.

All the technological countermeasures against that kind of thing -- watermarking, PDF copy protection, etc. -- have their limitations, to say the least.

Of course, somebody could argue that all training on VMware products, authorized or not, ultimately benefits VMware. I am not sure about that assertion: I've seen some bad training out there. Bad training, in my opinion, includes grossly out-of-date training. A company that scraped its content from VMware's would not know when to update it.

But maybe someday the benefit to students of searchable PDF course materials, plus the benefit to VMware of wide access to training (of whatever quality), will tip the scales. I don't know when or if that might occur.

In the meantime, we're trying to make our paper course materials more searchable: by adding different kinds of index features.

Very wise! If it were up to me, you'd pass. But it's not. So, moving right along...


Someday we will be able to let people rent a block time on a lab environment much like what they had in class. But we're not there yet, and it will take us a while.

Alternatives? Well, it depends on how much money you want to spend. One way that's cheap or free: more and more people are running ESX inside Workstation virtual machines. This is totally unsupported, and the performance is not so hot at all, but it does work. I've even done it myself, using instructions that you can find out on the intarwub. If you have a computer with Intel's Vanderpool or SVT (its AMD equivalent), you can even run VMs inside your VM. Set up a VirtualCenter server on another computer (or even in another VM), and you have yourself an environment.

(Caution: if you want to use Fusion 1.x or 1.1.x on a Mac to do this, use ESX 3.0.x, not 3.5 or 3i.)

A slightly less cheesy way to approach the problem, but more expensive: buy one or two cheap old used servers and set up a home lab. I myself have an old Proliant DL360 G3 in my closet; I bought it on eBay for a few hundred bucks, and ESX 3.5 runs fine on it. If I had another, I could even do VMotion, DRS, etc. Of course, the server noise would completely traumatize my cats.

Here's another strategy some of our customers use. Many companies buy a server every month or so. If your company buys servers at a predictable rate, you might be able to sneak in a few weeks with some servers before they go into production. Call it "burn-in." ESX is a really good memory-tester, as a matter of fact. If you have flaky RAM, ESX will find it.

OK, I am out of ideas. Good luck with the exam!