This is a first ever, joint effort conglomeration of a Tweetup and vBeers targeting local Tweeps and VMUG community members from the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois areas. This is being held in a separate room of the VMworld 2011 #CXIParty (Scheduled 8:30 PM – 4:30 AM) with accommodations and (potentially) adult beverages sponsored by Nexus Information Systems of MN, Emulex and Spousetivities. Special thanks to Christopher Kusek for offering the space at his party!
Please register for this event and select tickets type “Minnesota / Wisconsin / Chicago VMUG“. There is no need to register for this event in addition to the CXIParty, registration for either will gain admission to both events.
Location: The Cosmopolitan Hotel, Las Vegas
Address: 3708 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas Map: here
Date: Monday, August 29th 2011
Time: 10:00 PM – 12:00 AM (Or until they kick us out at 4:30 AM)
Jun 11
22
WI VMware vNews – June 2011
Here is the link to a copy of the June 2011 issue of the WI VMware vNews publication. The Wisconsin VMware account team puts out this monthly newsletter to keep you up to speed on recent VMware news and plans.
The contact for getting added to the distribution list or for feedback is:
Paul Krochenski pkrochenski@vmware.com
Posted in WI VMware vNews by .
Jun 11
8
May/June 2011 VMUG Voice
The new (May/June 2011) edition of the VMUG Voice has been published. Here a quick look at what’s in this issue:
- VCP4 Exam Second Chance
- Introducing Certification Exams
- Laverick: On the VMUG Road Again
- VMUG Advantage
- White Paper: Symantec
- Case Study: Amway
- Product Watch: From ESX to ESXi
- Book Spotlight
- Chapter Spotlight: London
- VMworld 2011
- VMUG Webcasts
- VMUG Regional & Local Events
- Global Support Services
ABOUT VMUG VOICE
VMUG Voice is a VMUG-members-only bimonthly e-newsletter that keeps you informed about virtualization issues, products and upcoming events. Its easy-to-read format provides the latest news and information you need to stay tuned in to what your organization is doing to ensure you get the most for your membership. Send feedback to editor@myvmug.org.
You can view the mobile online version here.
Posted in VMUG Voice by .
We had a VMUG Advantage membership and two of Edward Haletky’s signed books to giveaway to the respondents to the post-event survey that went out following our April 28th User Conference. Thanks to all of you that completed the surveys. The winners of those drawings are:
VMUG Advantage membership: Bill Heidenreich, Mercy Health System
VMware ESX and ESXi in the Enterprise: Planning Deployment of Virtualization Servers (2nd Edition) : Lori Doherty, IBM
VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing the Virtual Environment : George Knops, City of Milwaukee – Water Works
Posted in VMUG WI-VMUG User Conference by .
Jun 11
3
Train Signal & WI-VMUG
Today I once again received some Train Signal DVD’s to giveaway at our upcoming (June 7th) WI-VMUG meeting. As I was about to add a comment to the meeting post about getting these DVD’s I decided I was overdue in putting together a post about Train Signal and their support of the Wisconsin VMware User Group as well as many other local VMUG’s that they have relationships with.
I’m not sure when or how I first got in touch with David Davis at Train Signal regarding his VMware Training DVDs and getting some donated to us for meeting giveaways. It may have been tied into a vExpert event at VMworld in 2009. Regardless, it’s been a year and a half or more. Since that time David and the crew over at Train Signal have sent me several (2-5) of their VMware related training DVD sets for pretty much every meeting as long as I remembered to let them know about the meeting. These sets list for $300-400 each so it’s been a significant dollar amount of product they have supplied us with.
For those of you not familiar with the Train Signal line of products you need to be. These training DVDs are not only packed with great content but they are very easy to follow along with. David does much of the content himself but has contributions along the way from an outstanding lineup that includes fellow vExperts Hal Rottenberg (@halr9000), Rick Scherer (@rick_vmwaretips), Sean Clark (@vseanclark) and Eric Siebert (@ericsiebert). These guys are bloggers, podcasters, authors and in general great guys who really know their stuff. If you don’t know about them, you owe it to yourself and your career to get to know them.
When you order one of these courses from Train Signal not only do you receive (usually in a day or two) a DVD set with the video course; but also MP3 audio files, PDFs of the instructor notes and instant Online Access to the course.
Here’s a list of their current VMware vSphere related offerings available:
- VMware vSphere Training
- vSphere is used to virtualize your server and network infrastrucutre in an innovative, efficient and reliable way
- VMware vSphere Pro Series Training Vol. 1
- The First Volume of Our VMware vSphere Pro Series Training Course Features an Unprecedented Lineup of Instructors Including vExpert David Davis, vExpert Hal Rottenberg, and vExpert Rick Scherer.
- VMware vSphere Pro Series Training Vol. 2
- The Second Volume of Our VMware vSphere Pro Series Training Course Expands on the Precedent Set By the First Volume, With a Lineup of Instructors Including vExpert David Davis, vExpert Hal Rottenberg, vExpert Sean Clark, and vExpert Eric Siebert.
- VMware vSphere Training Package
- Our VMware vSphere Training Course and The First & Second Volumes of Our VMware vSphere Pro Series Training Courses Features an Unprecedented lineup of Instructors Including vExperts David Davis, Hal Rottenberg, Rick Scherer, Eric Siebert, and Sean Clark.
- VMware vSphere PowerCLI Training
- Our Comprehensive VMware vSphere PowerCLI Training Course Will Teach You How to Automate and Customize Your Virtual Environment, Like a vExpert. You’ll Work Hands-On to Automate ESX Configurations, Automate the Creation of Virtual Machines, Automate vSwitches & Datastores Configurations, and Much More!
- VMware vSphere Troubleshooting Training
- Learn Everything You Need to Know to Start Troubleshooting vSphere Like a vExpert
- VMware vSphere Performance Monitoring Training
- Learn how to quickly solve performance issues and optimize your virtual environment, as well as minimize downtime and reduce waste of server resources. Go beyond the basics to learn the top third party and free tools used by vExperts and pros.
If you are looking for some VMware vSphere training at a reasonable price, you can’t go wrong checking out what Train Signal has to offer. Not only that, if for some reason you aren’t satisfied they have a 90 guarantee where you can return it even if opened for a full refund. While you’re at their website check out their Microsoft, Cisco, Citrix and CompTIA courses as well.
Let me end by saying thanks to David Davis (@davidmdavis), Matt Elias (@matt_elias), Gary Eimerman (@GaryEimerman) and the rest of the crew at Train Signal (@TrainSignal) for their strong support of the Wisconsin VMware User Group and the VMUG Program as a whole. You guys and your products ROCK!
Posted in Sponsors & Presenters VMUG WI-VMUG Meetings by .
May 11
25
WI-VMUG User Conference follow-up
Last month on April 28th the Wisconsin VMware User Group held it’s 2nd annual User Conference. Now that I have caught up on some things a bit after the conference and have things in place for the June 7th meeting in Kimberly I am finally getting around to putting together this follow-up post on the event.
Let me start with some thanks and appreciation for all of those involved without whom all this would not have been possible.
- First the many outstanding sponsors who participated
- All the WI-VMUG Members who attended the event, we hope this event was a day well spent for you.
- A special thanks to Sherry, Nathan and Mike from the WI-VMUG Steering Committee for the many long hours they put into helping pull this event off.
- Keynote Speaker Edward Haletky who traveled here and spent the day with us on his own dime.
- Frances Park, Amy McDonnell, Dave Burnell and other from VMUG HQ who did a lot of the background logistical work and helped on the day of the event.
- WI-VMUG members Chris Luter and Tim Curless from WI-DCF for their great presentation.
- The WI-VMUG members who volunteered part of their day to help us out: Ian Koenig, Rob Roob, Greg Hajec and Tammy Bassuener.
- Leanne Shaw, Paul Heuring and MLT/Instructing Technologies for putting together their PowerShell lab again this year.
- Ben Sier, our VMware Liaison for his help organizing as well as filling in last minute for the Virtualization 101 breakout.
- Andi Mann, VP of Virtualization Product Marketing at CA for the signed copies of his new book: Visible Ops Private Cloud: From Virtualization to Private Cloud in 4 Practical Steps.
- Last my employer (UFS) and most importantly my family for putting up with the time I spent working on the event.
From the perspective of organizing and putting on the event I think things went much better the second time around. Last year was not only our first time putting one of these on but we were one of the first VMUGs to work with VMUG HQ in putting together one of these all day events so there were many things that were new to all of us.
Recap of Attendance: As you can see, our attendance numbers were pretty much the same as last year’s event.
Some other numbers: We increased the number of sponsors, breakouts and labs this year.
- Sponsors: 2010-18 / 2011-24 (sold out all our spots again this year!)
- Keynotes: 2010-3 / 2011-3
- Breakouts: 2010-12 / 2011-20
- Labs: 2010-1 / 2011-2
Congrats to Justin Gleicher from Epic who won the VMUG Advantage Membership we gave away at the conference. The introductory discount on VMUG Advantage memberships ends May 31!
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the photo collection from the day that Sherry and Nathan compiled.
While this year’s event was great, we will continue to work towards a better and hopefully larger (at least attendance wise) event for next year. We welcome all of your feedback of what you liked, what you didn’t like and what else you would like to see. If you haven’t already, please be sure to complete the post event survey that went out. Not only will this help us put together a better event next year but we will be having a drawing for another VMUG Advantage and an additional signed copy of each of Edward Haletky’s books from those who complete the survey.
– VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing the Virtual Environment
– VMware ESX and ESXi in the Enterprise: Planning Deployment of Virtualization Servers (2nd Edition)
We hope to have copies of many of the presentations available for you in the near future. Keep on eye on our website or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or our VMware Communites page for details once they are available.
There are now copies of some of the slidedecks used for the presentations available for download. They are hosted on the MyVMUG.org website.
Thanks again to all who participated and I hope to see many of you at our next meeting on June 7th in Kimberly.
Posted in WI-VMUG User Conference by .
2011 WI-VMUG User Conference T-Shirt
Here’s a link (http://links.wivmug.org/2011UC_pics) for pictures from last month’s 2011 WI-VMUG User Conference. The majority of them were taken by WI-VMUG Steering Committee members Sherry Zittel and Nathan Schuenemann.
Posted in WI-VMUG User Conference by .
Join your fellow VMware enthusiasts for a Wisconsin VMware User Group (WI-VMUG) meeting being held in Kimberly on Tuesday, June 7th.
This meeting is being co-sponsored by
Meeting Agenda
- 8:30 Registration: Refreshments provided by our meeting sponsors Virtual Instruments and Liquidware Labs.
- 9:00 Welcome
- 9:05 Virtual Instruments presents “Best Practices for Optimizing I/O Performance When You Virtualize Tier 1 Applications” by Mike Salins, Sr. Solutions Consultant
- Industry research shows that only about 35% of a typical company’s internal applications are virtualized. How can your organization get 70% or more of its applications – including the business critical ones – virtualized? How can you ensure performance and availability SLAs in a virtualized infrastructure when running applications such as your Oracle, SAP, DB2 and Exchange? During this session Virtual Instruments will highlight virtualization deployment best practices for performance sensitive, I/O-intensive applications, while improving utilization of server and storage assets.
- 10:00 VMware Team presents “Project Horizon: VMware’s Next Generation End User Computing” by Vitaly Tsipris, VMware SE
- The mobile and cloud era dictates anywhere, any device access to applications within and outside the firewall, and introduces fundamental new challenges to the traditional enterprise security and management model. VMware Project Horizon addresses these challenges by re-inventing end-user identity and application management as a cloud service, and providing an easier way for IT and users to embrace a new way to work.
- 10:40 Break
- 11:00 Liquidware Labs
- VDI Assessment and User Experience Management for next generation physical and virtual desktops.
- 11:55 Wrap-up: Q&A, announcements, drawings
- 12:15 Lunch: Our lunch is provided to courtesy of our meeting sponsors Liquidware Labs and Virtual Instruments. This is a great opportunity for further networking with your fellow VMware users as well as today’s presenters.
The meeting will be held at Liberty Hall Banquet & Conference Center.
800 Eisenhower Dr
Kimberly, WI 54136
(920) 731-0164
Registration is now open
Please note: You will need to log into the VMUG web site to register for this meeting.
If you have not already obtained your VMUG login credentials, please visit
the Username and/or Password Help page to request your username and password.
Posted in WI-VMUG Meetings by .