My Situation:
My boss wants to get a quote on VMware software licenses in order to set up a VMware teaching lab for a California community college.
The class will be a full 16 to 18 week semester (3 to 4 hours per week) covering the basics of VMware, with exams, labs, and homework. We are not planning the class to be "certificate complient" but we are looking into becomming a VMware academic partner in the future.
The Instructor (me) is familier with the principals of VSphere and will continue to train over the summer (I have installed and used workstation, esxi hypervisor, and of course vSphere client but I am in need of further training)
The Lab:
16 students will work in pairs on 8 "stations". Each station has the following setup:
1 dell Optiplex 760 (Core 2 Duo e8400 processor) 8GB Ram
2 dell Poweredge T110 (Xeon X3430) 16GB Ram (Both servers and desktop conneted via usb KVM switch)
All systems have EZDock sata docking stations (we have plenty of extra hard drives)
All systems have 2 physical giabit ethernet ports.
Gigabit switches with ports enouth for all systems.
My boss wants to purchase a QNAP TS-459 Pro with enough drives to support the system.
My Issue:
I called VMware pre-sales support. They were nice, and said that they will look into the software requirements (The person I spoke with, I think his name was "Rudy" suggested the VSphere "Essentials" kit would be a good starting point. I am not sure about this. What is in the Essentials kit. Licenses for esxi hosts? Workstation licenses? Vcenter server licenses?
I called Dell, they are a national VMware distributer and should be able to offer us academic pricing. Again, they were nice, but I am running out of time and I need to see how much this software will cost so we can plan accordingly.
Should I just purchase (per station)
One workstation license
One Vcenter server license
Any number of esxi licenses. (The two servers could each have one esxi host running and any number of vms. The desktop, I assume, could be setup with workstation, and have VM server domain controller, VM Vcenter server, VM production machines, VM sql server ect.
I am not sure, and I need some ballpark figure in order to at least start the purchas funding request.
Will it cost $2000, $5000, $10,000? Or can I just use the free trial versions of everything for the 16 to 18 weeks the class will run. We would be rebuilding all the machines every semester anyway. The students need to see how the lab is set up, and even assist in setting it up before we start the "official" vmware labs. I like to show the students the setup anyway, No telling what they will get out of it.
Thank you, Thank you, and Thank you forum members for ANY advice you may have to offer (Yes, even if it includes telling me to get more training, I asked my boss to make room for that in the budget as well).
Regards.
I think the primary thing that will drive the approriate licensing is going to be what you are looking to teach - if it is just settomg a single ESX host and building out virtual machines than the free licenses will work but if you are looking to teach more advanced features of vSphere like HA, DRS, vmotion, FT ats that will change the licensing you will need - have you given thought as what you will cover in your curriculum?
You are absoultly correct! I am struggling with the scope. This is a class that will run for at least 16 weeks, one evening a night for 3 to 4 hours.
I feel that I could cover a lot of the basics, some of the things you mentioned, in half that time. I do wonder if students at a beginning level in virtualization will be able to handle some of the more advanced topics. I have not even picked out a text yet.
What do you think?
Consider checking into the VMware IT Academy Program. http://www.vmware.com/partners/programs/vap/index.html
I am a VMware Certified Trainer and I helped set up the program at Austin Community College, in Austin TX, a few years ago.
I have taught classes through this program, and provided input into the design of their vSphere hardware configuration.
Austin Community College delivers their classes using their own Dell PowerEdge Servers and a Dell Equallogic storage array.
There are also a few providers available that you might be able to use instead of purchasing your own hardware.
The course materials are not like traditional college textbooks, but are representative of the type of technical training students can expect from their work environment. That's a good thing. Not only do you have your regular students, you also can often pick up some of the local IT pros for students wanting to further their skills. Many of the students attending the classes at ACC have new jobs or have moved up in their IT positions as a result of attending these classes after passing their VCP Exam.
Yes, some students might have a steep learning challenges for the academy courses. I can usually determine where students are
in their learning process and if they meet the course prerequisites by the first class or two. If they are close, I can provide them web links to
supplemental reading materials to help them. You will get students with a wide variety of technical expertise. Some folks attend to extend their
skills, others are of work IT professionals looking to increase their odds of getting hired with up to date and relevant IT skills.
You will need to manage student expectations from the start and what they can expect from the class.
That way they can choose stay in the class or still have time to transfer to another course offering at your college.
So far, I have not had anyone choose to go to another class, and often there is a waitlist to get into the class.
When you are a member of the VMware Academy program, the program also includes the VMware software licenses required to support your classes.
Since the program is an official VMware program, the courses meet the class attendance requirement that students need to obtain their VMware Certified Professional (VCP) credential. This adds a lot of value to the program offering at your college.
You will need a VMware Certified Professional or VCP, that will need to become a VMware Certified Trainer to deliver the course.
This might be a career path you personally may want to persue if your are interested in teaching VMware.
The program limits your course delivery time to 12 hours per week, so that you don't compete with VMware training centers.
The course length is consistent with the course length you described as wanting to implement.
I have found that It works best if your classes can meet once or twice a week, or on Saturdays for several weeks.
If you do evenings or weekends, you will pick up those professionals that want to expand their IT skillsets and
are often willing to spend their own time and money to do it.
I hope you find this infomation to be timely and useful.
Thank you for your information. I really appreciate the time you took to map out the process for me. Some of the information specifically relevant informed me that the VMware academy program looks to be the only real path that VMware is allowing "outside" schools to participate in. I understand the requirement that the person teaching the class be a certified VMware trainer. You mention that the software licensing is made available to the school. I understand that VMware works with ELMS E-academy in offering licensing. I wonder if that is the method of delivery. I found some reference to academic software for students and the E-academy was mentioned. I will have to look into that further.
The fact that VMware has certian restrictions on class meeting times makes sense. I have found out that part of the VMware business model looks to derive profit from training. I really should consider VMware a software/training enterprise. Thinking that way helps me understand why they do some of the things they do.
The situation in a community college setting here in California is probably similar to what you are used to. The few full-time instructors able to get school funding in order pursue industry certification are usually so busy it is hard to find the time. The part-timers are often not eligible to receive the funding for the training.
I can frame the class in such a way as to introduce the students to various virtualization technologies: Hyper-V from Microsoft, VSphere from VMware, and Xen from Citrix. A broad overview of virtualization, in a 16 week course would be broken up into two or three sections and that would make it possible to use the trial software for the 30 to 60 days it will operate in each case.
While the class is developing, we can look into hiring a certified VMware trainer, or training up ourselves.
Little by little I have been learning how VMware likes to operate in relation to academia and I am starting to understand.
Thank you so much for the information.
