TheSaffaGeek

My ramblings about all things technical

Tag Archives: VCDX


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Safe and Legit Storage Design

In my previous posting I created a fictitious company who requires you as the VMware Architect to design them a vSphere 5.0 environment to meet all their requirements whilst keeping within their constraints and mitigating risks. Now I didn’t list the constraints or the risks as I felt this was something that is very important to learn how to define in preparation for the VCAP5-DCD and vSphere designs in real life practice.

The first portion of the design I’m hoping to create (and get everyone’s opinions,participation and comments on ) is the storage design. So below are the portions I will be trying to fill out for the Safe and Legit scenario and hopefully people also wanting to learn and participate will fill out each of the sections with their own design decisions and then we can compare and hopefully learn together/off each other.

Storage Array

Design Choice
Justification
Design Impacts

Number of LUNs and LUN sizes

Design Choice
Justification
Design Impacts

Storage load balancing and availability

Design Choice
Justification
Design Impacts

VMware vSphere VMFS or RDM

Design Choice
Justification
Design Impacts

Host zoning

Design Choice
Justification
Design Impacts

LUN Presentation

Design Choice
Justification
Design Impacts

Thick or Thin disks

Design Choice
Justification
Design Impacts

Virtual Machine I/O Priority

Design Choice
Justification
Design Impacts

Storage Profiles

Design Choice
Justification
Design Impacts

Describe and diagram the logical design

Attribute Specification
Storage Type
Number of Storage Processors
Number of Fibre Channel Switches (if any)
Number of ports per host per switch
Total number of LUNs
LUN Sizes
VMFS datastores per LUN

Describe and diagram the physical design

Array vendor and model
Type of array
VMware ESXi host multipathing policy
Min/Max speed rating of storage switch ports

Loads of bits to decide and design. I’m hoping to have my storage design decisions and what I thought were the constraints and risks for the design up by the end of the week and if not then by the latest next week Monday in my next posting. Happy designing Winking smile

Gregg


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VCAP5-DCD Design Practice

As some people may know I am currently preparing to re-take my VCAP5-DCD and I have reached the point in my preparations now where I am doing mock designs and also going through the labs from the VMware Design Workshop and so I thought I would follow the same idea and start creating a mock customer design scenario and also put down the same vein of questions I am being asked from the design workshop labs and hopefully if people are interested they can use it, write down what design choices,the justifications for these  choices and the impacts these choices create on the rest of the design and hopefully everyone will learn from this. Below is a company profile that I made up and I also used some ideas from a scenario Matt Mould one of my Xtravirt colleagues sent me as few months back:

Company Profile
•    Safe & Legit, are a global trading company – they specialise in ground defence equipment
•    13,000 physical servers across 9 sites.
o    6k  UK (3 sites)
o    2k  CN (3 sites)
o    5k  US (3 sites)
•    There are two level 4 DC’s per country (for info on DC levels see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_center
•    DC’s are linked by an MPLS cloud from BT, Verizon, Colt and NTT (contracts end Q1 2015)
•    One DC per country is privately owned and Safe & Legit want to retain the real estate, but make room to lease out sought after level 4 private suites, thus providing a new revenue stream, and hopefully make their own DC’s cost neutral in doing so. Therefore they are looking to virtualise as much of their physical estate as possible into vSphere 5.0
•    The remaining DC’s are rented from BT, Verizon and NTT (contracts end Q1 2015) . The CFO has voiced his desire to cut the cost of these rentals and would ideally like to not have to renew the contracts if possible.
•    ERP is centralised in the UK
•    Each country has locally hosted Print, Domain, UC & Messaging
•    Collaboration is centralised, again in the UK
•    Typical/normal file sharing is not permitted, all ‘matter’ is recorded and audited in Safe & Legit’s collaboration system
•    With the exception of ERP, all systems must move to a shared or distributed model. This is following a series of natural disasters in the US and China, that could have been avoided by having a DR and BC plan in place.
•    All communication end points are encrypted, but new legislation is relaxing where encryption is required. This is achievable following an ERP upgrade that separates out sensitive and non-sensitive data.
•    There are up to 5,000 3rd party users, that own a license to trade under Safe& Legit LLC, licensees are dropping as the competition develop newer, faster and cheaper ways to deliver access to their trading systems. Safe & Legit still require you to purchase expense fixed private comms to deliver their trading apps. They do not want these 3rd party users to be impacted at all during the migrations and for there to be a near zero RTO and RPO

•   The UK site has been chosen as the first site to be migrated but due to Safe and Legit’s work on ground defence equipment they have not authorised the running of a capacity planner collection as they don’t want their data to leave the premises but have calculated that for each site to be virtualised the environment must be able to meet the following values:

-The 6k physical servers in the UK are comprised of  2000 Linux servers and 4000 Windows servers

-On average each windows server is provisioned with 20GB boot disk (average used is 15GB) and a 50GB data disk (average used is 30GB)

– Each Linux server is configured with 60GB total storage (average used is 30GB)

– Safe and Legit expect a 10 percent annual server growth over the next three years

-Safe and Legit have a long standing vendor relationship with EMC and Cisco and so have requested the usage of their equipment due to this relationship and in house knowledge of the administration of these vendor products

-They have created the following two tables from internal analysis and monitoring:

CPU Resource Requirement
Metric Amount
Avg # of CPUs per physical server 4
Avg CPU MHz 3,400 MHz
Avg normalised CPU MHz 1,240
Avg CPU utilisation per physical system 5% (170 MHz)
Avg Peak utilisation per physical system 8% (272 MHz)
Total CPU resources req for 1k vm’s at peak 272,000 MHz
RAM Resource Requirement
Metric Amount
Avg amount of RAM per physical system 4096MB
Avg memory utilisation 30% (1228.8MB)
Avg Peak Memory Utilisation 80% ( 3276.8MB)
Total RAM required for 1k VMs at peak before memory sharing 3,276,800MB
Anticipated memory sharing benefit when virtualised 50%
Total RAM req for 1k VMs at peak with memory sharing 1,638.400MB

Business Requirements

From workshops and SME meetings the following requirements were collected

Number Requirement
R001 Virtualise the existing 6000 UK servers as virtual machines, with no degradation in performance when compared to current physical workloads
R002 To provide an infrastructure that can provide 99.7% availability or better
R003 The overall anticipated cost of ownership should be reduced after deployment
R004 Users to experience as close to zero performance impact when migrating from the physical infrastructure to the virtual infrastructure
R005 Design must maintain simplicity where possible to allow existing operations teams to manage the new environments
R006 Granular access control rights must be implemented throughout the infrastructure to ensure the highest levels of security
R007 Design should be resilient and provide the highest levels of availability where possible whilst keeping costs to a minimum
R008 The design must incorporate DR and BC practices to ensure no loss of data is achieved
R009 Management components must secured with the highest level of security
R010 Design must take into account VMware best practices for all components in the design as well as vendor best practices where applicable
R011 Any others you think I have missed from the scenario

Additional Functional Requirements (From Storage Design posting)

-5K 3rd party users will need to be able to gain access into the environment without any impact during the migration and consolidation

-Rented DC’s kit needs to be fully migrated to the privately owned datacenter before Q1 2015 to ensure the contracts don’t need to be renewed

Constraints and Risks

You tell me in the comments Smile

Constraints from Storage Design posting:

– Usage of EMC kit

– Usage of Cisco kit

– Usage of the privately owned DC’s physical infrastructure for the consolidation of all three UK DC’s.

Risks from Storage Design posting:

– The ability of ensuring near-zero downtime during the migration of workloads to the privately owned DC may be at risk due to budget constraints impacting the procurement of the required infrastructure to ensure zero downtime

Additional Questions (from Storage Design posting)

This is something I feel is really important when doing real world designs is trying to think of as many questions around a customer requirements so that you can ensure you have their requirements recorded correctly and that they aren’t vague.The additional questions and the answers to them are listed below:

Q: Is there any capability of utilising the existing storage in the privately owned UK DC?

A: Due to the consolidation and migration of  the other UK DC’s and the current workloads in the privately owned DC a new SAN is a better option due to the SAN being 3 years old now and so it is more cost effective to purchase a new one. Also due to the probable need for auto-tiered storage to meet the customers requirements a new SAN with these capabilities is needed

Q: Is there no way a minimal planned outage/downtime can be organised for the migration of the workloads due to the likely higher cost of equipment to ensure this near-zero downtime?

A: The customer would prefer to try keep to the near-zero downtime and so it is agreed that after the conceptual design of the storage and the remaining components in the whole design further meetings can be held to discuss a balance between cost and the desire for near-zero downtime

Q: With the leasing out of the private level 4 suites in the future will there be a requirement to manage/host other companies processes and data within this infrastructure being designed?

A: No there is currently no plan to do this due to security concerns and the number of compliancy regulations Safe and Legit need to maintain and fulfil. There is however a possibility of internal consumption and charging for usage of the DC’s resources to other departments.

Summary

So that is the company profile and my idea around it. I obviously created 90% of the above from my head so there will be additional questions around it but I think this gives a really solid amount of information for people to start thinking. I’m going to do the first posting around Storage Design for Safe and Legit quite soon and will put up what questions and component you normally have to think of but if people want to think of what they would choose prior then hopefully we can get a good discussion going around it.

As I add each section to the design I am hoping to keep updating this posting and then once complete making it all linked on a single page on my blog

Gregg


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EMEA #vBrownbag VCAP5 Presentation

Last night on the EMEA vBrownbag’s that I co-host I presented my London VMUG Presentation around the VCAP5 exams, the resources I used for them and my experiences. We had the largest turnout yet for it which is great and very promising for future sessions where hopefully the numbers will keep on growing. I have uploaded the recording to Vimeo and embedded it below. Also all the resources covered in the session and more are listed on my blog page here

EMEA vBrownbag with Gregg Robertson Covering VCAP5 Study Materials and Experiences from EMEA vBrownbag on Vimeo.

Gregg


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VCDX Spotlight: Chris Fendya

Name: Chris Fendya

Twitter Handle: @ChrisFendya

Current Employer: World Wide Technology www.wwt.com

VCDX #: 96

How did you get into using VMware?

I first started using VMware back in the GSX days when researching a way to save data center space for a global supplier to energy products I worked for. I remember hearing about this “vMotion” thing which pushed me to look into ESX. I built a small environment, staged the scenario, issued the vMotion command, and was hooked. I will never forget that moment and what followed by relaying the good news to our CIO. He promptly challenged me on what I just described to him. The demo date was set, I again built the scenario, and in a small conference room showed our CIO the power of vMotion. He just smiled and said “Continue forward and get this stuff in our data center!”. I haven’t stopped with VMware since that day and that was over eight years ago. It’s been an amazing adventure seeing VMware grow and watching the changes and impact it has made to all our lives and how we work.

What made you decide to do the VCDX?

I was challenged by an old boss to go after it a couple of years ago back when it was in its infancy. I began reading up on what all was required, the process, and reading others blog about their experience of the journey. Saying I was intimidated is an underestimate but the funny thing was I was inspired and challenged all at the same time.

How long did it take you to complete the whole VCDX journey?

My journey lasted a couple years. I did not pass my first defense. That first defense was an eye opening experience for me and drove me to go after it a second time. When I received notice I failed after my second defense, I had a range of emotions and for a long time decided the certification wasn’t for me. When VMware announced a final defense for VCDX4 at VMworld 2012, I had many within the community contact me and encourage me to give it another attempt. Had it not been for them, I don’t believe I would be writing this right now 😉

What advice would you give to people thinking of pursuing the VCDX accreditation?

Take their time! It’s not a race to get the certification. Learn all you can about every aspect of an entire solution. Where the certification is obviously centered around VMware, it will challenge you on every aspect of a design and a total solution (Networking, Storage, Compute, Business impact, etc) and how each and every one of those relate to VMware and the end design. I found I was questioned on things I never thought of during my preparation and honestly, sometimes things I didn’t know. The panel isn’t there to make you look dumb or prove that they are smarter than you. They will help you through it as much as they can, so as much as it’s about challenging you on what you know, it’s also about your thought process and how you approach a problem and work through it.

If you could do the whole VCDX journey again what would you do differently?

I believe things happen for a reason so to say I would do it differently or have it happen differently…No. I obviously would’ve loved to pass on the first or even second try but not doing so had it’s own rewards 😉

Life after the VCDX?  How did your company respond?  Was it worth it?

I work for a pretty amazing company! Throughout the entire process they embraced my journey, encouraged me along the way, and in the end were extremely proud when I shared the good news. They wrote this blog article to celebrate the news which I was honored to have done.

I get the “Was it worth it” question a lot. Mostly from customers who have heard of the certification and want to know about it and my journey but also from others in the community. I always respond ABSOLUTELY! I learned an immense amount about designing solutions and myself as an individual. In addition and probably most important, I became a better Architect, Engineer, and Consultant. The people I met and interacted with throughout the entire process has been amazing… Many of those who I know will be a part of my career for a very long time!


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VCDX Spotlight: Joep Piscaer

Name Joep Piscaer

Twitter Handle http://www.twitter.com/jpiscaer

Blog URL http://www.virtuallifestyle.nl

Current Employer OGD ict-diensten

VCDX # 101

How did you get into using VMware?

I started using VMware in 2006 while I was a sysadmin at a large community college. They were just upgrading their Novell NetWare servers to Novell SLES and were testing VMware virtualization for both SLES and NetWare. I used VMware Workstation for my Novell CNE certification virtualizing NetWare and SLES to practice for the exams. Later that year, I switched to a different college, where they already had VMware infrastructure based on version 2.5 and 3.0, some blade chassis and other pretty advanced stuff, I thought. I became more interested and took on more and more responsibility of the VMware infrastructure. I quickly convinced my boss to send me to the VI ICM training course and attained VCP3.

That was the start of my VMware certification journey. I have collected all versions of VCP since v3, VCAP4- and VCAP5-DCA and –DCD, and even VCA310 and VCD310, the predecessors of VCAP (which I needed to drive 380 km for; the VCA and VCD exams were only available in Frankfurt).

What made you decide to do the VCDX?

I wanted the personal challenge. It was simply a matter of seeing if I could actually do it. On a more subtle level it was about proving to myself that the route I took towards VCDX-level experience and knowledge could pay off.
I had attended the vSphere Design Workshop, and was really interested in following the VMware way in designing an infrastructure and learning from that experience. In essence, I wanted to accelerate the process of learning a fundamentally different way of doing designs, since I had built up my own set of processes and tools over the years. I found the experience of VCDX immensely useful from that perspective, and am still working on integrating all the lessons-learned into my day-to-day work.

How long did it take you to complete the whole VCDX journey?

I’ve been considering going for VCDX since the VI3 days; but even reading through the blueprint was something I dreaded for a very long time. Seriously, I had that file on my desktop in multiple versions for over two years. So obviously, I thought I wasn’t ready yet.

From the moment I decided to actually, really, really, really go for it, it took me about a year and a half.

Somewhere in the spring of 2011, I attended a VMware PEX on Tour in the Netherlands. During the reception, I had a discussion with a couple of peers about VCDX. During the next couple of months, a VCDX study group was formed. Besides myself, Duco Jaspars, Arjan Timmerman and Marco Broeken took seat in this study group. During a preliminary meeting, we discussed methods of preparation, exchanged some study materials and drafted a rough planning. We agreed to meet every month or two to monitor progress and motivate each other.

I was given one day a week by my employer to work on VCDX and worked evenings and weekends for months.

What advice would you give to people thinking of pursuing the VCDX accreditation?

The best tip I have for anyone thinking about the VCDX certification: attend a VCDX Boot Camp.

Make sure you don’t go through the process on your own. You need your peers for review. Everyone takes a different approach and has a different angle, and you’ll need that fresh lookout on your design. Secondly, make sure you plan very conservatively. You might run into a writers-block or otherwise. The peer pressure of the study group might make the difference.

Make sure your partner and employer are on board. You’ll need their support during the whole process! Thankfully, my employer agreed to free up some time (about one day a week in the last month-and-a-half) to focus on VCDX.

You know how people tell you you need to know your design by hard? That’s true. Very, very true. I have some references to a Microsoft Exchange Server Database Availability Group (DAG), and got asked more about Exchange than I’d expected. Just so you know: your panel might not stop asking questions outside of the VMware-box. Know your design in-and-out, out-and-in. Let peers review your design and have them write-up a list

of weak points or otherwise point out parts of your design that grabs their attention. You’ll want to dedicate extra time to those areas.

I had a blackout during one of the tougher questions on recovering from a split brain scenario and VMware HA. I just couldn’t explain the how and why, although I did know the answer and had dedicated a whole section of the testing plan to this specific area. I could only say “I don’t know, but I know I have documented this specific part in such and such document”. Tip: if you don’t know, say so. Don’t fool yourself, be honest and concentrate your effort on the next question.

I did make sure I had some fun stuff planned to take my mind off the waiting. Since the hard work was behind me, I felt I deserved some time off to horse around. I have completely re-built the home media centers (Raspberry Pi’s with XBMC with a central MySQL library database), the central media server (Microserver with Windows Server 2012), re-organized the eBook collection using Calibre (since I won a Kindle at VMworld Barcelona!) and spent lots of time with family and friends, whom I had neglected in the months prior. Tip: make sure you plan a cooling down period with lots of fun activities with friends, family and hobbies.

If you could do the whole VCDX journey again what would you do differently?

I have combined two real world designs into a single fictitious design. I wouldn’t take this path again.

I would have started either source projects or any future project with VCDX in mind. Having all the required documents alongside when you’re actually designing an environment makes all the difference. Taking each step with the VCDX blueprint in mind gives you the chance to actually align with all the requirements of the application, and is way easier than having to accommodate those application requirements post facto. I effectively did a post-mortem on two designs while integrating the two.

I felt I didn’t whiteboard enough. I had a whole list of diagrams in my head that I wanted to whiteboard, but I simply blacked out: I had a hard time coming up with that list once I stood there. I decided not to worry, and to just wing it. I should have practiced diagramming out various specific parts of the design more. I believe a study group is of immense value here: whiteboarding out parts of your design for the study group trains your muscle memory to be ready for the real deal. Tip: practice whiteboarding specific diagrams in a mock defense session.

Life after the VCDX?  How did your company respond?  Was it worth it?

Professionally, things haven’t changed a lot. I did get an insane amount of congratulations, as I made sure people knew what VCDX was all about before defending. Otherwise, I am still working on integrating everything I have learned in the VCDX process in my day-to-day work, which means adopting a couple of new ways of doing design documentation, working with the Zachman framework more often, and most of all: making sure my lessons-learned are passed on to other consultants for their benefit.

Concluding: I’m still waiting for the surprise party I’m sure my boss is going to throw me Smile.


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VCDX Spotlight: Chris Wahl

Name: Chris Wahl

Twitter Handle: @ChrisWahl

Blog URL: http://wahlnetwork.com

Current Employer: Ahead

VCDX #: 104

How did you get into using VMware?

I started with VMware workstation as a way to test application builds and work with other operating systems simultaneously. This later branched into using VI3 to experiment with the idea of splitting up servers at small businesses into single-role virtual machines. I eventually ended up deploying VI3 clusters to a large number of automotive dealerships throughout the Midwest using my standard design template. It was so cutting edge and exciting that I decided to shift my career focus from systems administration to virtualization administration and design.

What made you decide to do the VCDX?

I’m a huge certification junkie which requires I turn over every stone possible to test my skills. What’s more ultimate of a test than the VCDX? I also assumed the journey would improve my skills along the way, which held 100% true. I learned a lot about doing a robust enterprise design by examining what the VCDX program desired out of a qualified candidate.

How long did it take you to complete the whole VCDX journey?

I thought about the VCDX around the beginning of 2012 when I brought it up to my boss. I spent most of 2012 trying to find a good fit on a client design and improving my skill set to make passing realistic, such as completing the CCNP. Beyond that, I’ve been working on vSphere designs and writing a technical blog for years which I’m sure helped.

What advice would you give to people thinking of pursuing the VCDX accreditation?

I would imagine we are our own worst enemy. There are a million reasons we can’t do something. Ignore all that – learn what is required for VCDX and educate yourself on the process (lots of blogs out there describe the experience), lay out the milestones needed to achieve it, and go do it. I think the hardest part is getting exposure to enterprise design. Getting others to review your design can help as everyone has had different experiences and exposures – I worked heavily with my co-workers as all of them are experts in one discipline or another. They really pushed me to be better. I also read several dozen designs that were available publically and internally to build upon my ideas and better my understanding of various technologies and tactics

If you could do the whole VCDX journey again what would you do differently?

Give myself more time to work on the VCDX deliverables. I was kind of caught off guard when I was given approval to apply for Barcelona and only had about a month to get my paperwork in order. It required a lot of late nights and all of my weekends to do it. My wife shouldered all of the copy editing work to fix my grammatical mistakes and also came up with all the graphics for my docs and presentation. This was a huge help and I would not have submitted in time without her.

Life after the VCDX? How did your company respond? Was it worth it

I’m happy to have passed, but now I’m even more motivated to help others along the way and be a mentor for the program. It was really neat to be a part of the group that broke the 100 mark and I think there are many others out there who are up to the challenge.

My company was really great about it and celebrated the achievement as an organization. I credit them, along with my team, with being vital to being a VCDX and look forward to further growing with the company. I’d say it was absolutely worth all the time and effort, even if I had not passed this first time, and I am looking forward to the next big challenge.


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VCDX Spotlight: Artur Krzywdzinski

Name: Artur Krzywdzinski

Twitter Handle: @artur_ka

Blog URL: http://vmwaremine.com

Current Employer: GlassHouse Technologies

VCDX #: 77

How did you get into using VMware?

It was beginning 2005 I saw article in internet about virtualisation using Windows Virtual PC software. After few weeks I started looking around for software which supports Novell Netware and Linux as a VM and I found VMware and VMware workstation – which I still use in my HomeLab. That’s how I started. Next step was a small implementation of VI 3.5 (2 nodes + vCenter) – this was a big deal for me at that timeJ.

What made you decide to do the VCDX?

I got my first VMware certification VCP3 in 2007 and next step was VCDX. As always my professional goal was to become an IT Architect I thought that having VCDX accreditation would help me to achieve that goal.

How long did it take you to complete the whole VCDX journey?

I started my VCDX journey when I was working at IBM (2008 – 2011 Brno, CZ). During that time I met Stephane Bourdeaud (IBM Architect), he was an account architect on one of the IBM customers which me and my team in Brno provided support on. Thanks to Stephane I started doing VMware designs for IBM customers, we spent tens of hours hanging on the phone talking about my designs. Thank you Stephane one more time.

I finish my journey in May 2012 on VCDX defence panel in Toronto.

What advice would you give to people thinking of pursuing the VCDX accreditation?

· Take your time and get experience in technology and design.

· Make sure that you started you VCDX design project at least few months before submission dead line – good design is 50% of success.

· Make sure you sent your design to peers for reviewing – is a must if you want to have your design accepted.

· Before VCDX defence panel make few mock defences with friends which know technology

· On defence itself, don’t get stressed, panellists are very friendly and very helpful.

If you could do the whole VCDX journey again what would you do differently?

From a project, preparation for defence or defence itself perspective – I would do exactly the same way as I did. Why? Cause I passed on a first attempt. What I would do differently would be before I start a VCDX project I would find a company which would be interested in heaving VCDX certified on board and sponsoring whole project J, is quite expensive accreditation especially if you have to pay for everything (defence fee, travel, hotel) yourself, as I had to.

Life after the VCDX?  How did your company respond?  Was it worth it.

Not to enthusiastic, to be honest. Nobody even noticed I got VCDX.

Was it worth it? Hard to give a straight answer, there are two aspects. First – community, VCDX accreditation is seen as very big achievement which not everybody can reach it. Second is business – unfortunately VCDX is barely recognized by IT managers, directors, head-hunters and demand for VCDX certified professionals is very, very low. But I’m still hoping it was worth it


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VCDX Spotlight: Shane White

Name: Shane White

Twitter Handle: @ausvmguy

Blog URL: none (yet)

Current Employer: Southern Cross Computer Systems

VCDX #: 95

How did you get into using VMware?

In 2007, I started playing with Workstation. In the 2nd half of that year, I completed a training program I had been on for a while. I had seen ESX 2.5 installed but didn’t know a lot about it. When I asked my employer what the options were for continued training and/or specialisation and virtualisation was an option, I elected to go down this road. I got my VCP3 in October of that year and had the opportunity to do nothing but VMware onsite for the next 3 years or so with one of our clients.

What made you decide to do the VCDX?

I have always liked a challenge. With the exposure and skills I obtained onsite, and the satisfaction I got from working with VMware technologies, I decided that attempting VCDX would be enjoyable, definitely challenging, but not unachievable.

How long did it take you to complete the whole VCDX journey?

If you count from the time I decided to go for it, just under 2 years. Due to my commitments onsite, I couldn’t spend large blocks of time on my design. I achieved both VCAP4 exams in Nov 2010 (4 days apart!). I started working up the design in late November 2010 and had my 1st defence attempt in Singapore in November 2011, which was unsuccessful. The feedback received from this defense and from a 2nd unsuccessful defense in Toronto in May 2012 was applied to a revised submission aimed for defense at VMworld in San Francisco in August 2012. On the 3rd attempt, I was successful!

What advice would you give to people thinking of pursuing the VCDX accreditation?

I found it particularly valuable to have had practical experience working with a real environment. While a home lab is very useful as well, a real environment will encounter real design decisions and configuration issues that may not arise in a home environment.

Consider carefully the kind of design you are planning on submitting. My design was a totally fictitious one. My success shows that you can defend a fictitious design, but it is likely to be harder than if a real design is used.

Either way, read the blueprint and make sure you address ALL the criteria and that you know, not only what your design decisions are, but also understand why that choice was the most appropriate in your situation. This means having a good grasp on the business requirements that have a bearing on those decisions.

Don’t get discouraged if your 1st (or subsequent) attempts are unsuccessful. View it as an opportunity to improve. Achieving VCDX has been described as a journey, and the entire journey can be beneficial and bring satisfaction if you let it.

If you could do the whole VCDX journey again what would you do differently?

I’d read the blueprint more closely and more often! Apart from that, I wouldn’t do anything else differently. I enjoyed the whole experience and found the whole process immensely educational.

Life after the VCDX?  How did your company respond?  Was it worth it?

SCCS was definitely pleased with the successful defense.

As for me, the sense of satisfaction of achieving something significant is immense. The increased confidence when facing a situation is also noticeable.

Was it worth it? Absolutely. Even if I had decided not to reattempt, the process of developing the design, all the researching, and preparing for the defense and developing the presentation was of great benefit.


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VCDX Spotlight: Sachin Bhowan

Name: Sachin Bhowan

Twitter Handle: @sbhowan

Current Employer: VMXperts

VCDX #: 38

How did you get into using VMware?

My first use of VMware was back in 2004 when we were investigating bare metal recoveries for Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) and were experimenting with WinPE and GSX. I was looking for a way to standardize the recovery hardware platform for recovery as at the time there was no bare metal recovery option for TSM. It was after that then I started exploring and testing the ESX platform for server workloads and with the onset of Version 3, as the cliché goes….rest became history!

What made you decide to do the VCDX?

An interesting question in that there are two reasons for this; the main reason was for the challenge to prove to myself that the solutions I was actively “preaching” and delivering on were on par and on the right track. The second reason was simply being at the right place at the right time as we were having a meeting with our VMware Partner Manager and our CEO was complaining about the lack of elitism within the VMware certification portfolio and then they announced the VCDX program. I was then “volunteered” to make this happen!

How long did it take you to complete the whole VCDX journey?

I started this journey in September 2008 and tried to track and get as much information as possible, however being in the geo that I was, the most helpful information I got was from the active blogs run by Duncan Epping, Rick Scherer, VCDX001, and twitter tips, as exam information and details were only given out after successful registrations. The process was also impacted by the fact that I had to take all my exams in Europe or the US as there was no authorized testing centre in South Africa at that time. Therefore I had to wait for exams to open as well as align them with the major VMware events to reduce costs. This also forced me to be prepared at very short notice when I was given the availability of the exams! That said I completed my defence in February 2010 giving a total time of about 18 months.

What advice would you give to people thinking of pursuing the VCDX accreditation?

My advice is to be passionate about what you are doing and if you feel that doing the research and working out the solution interdependencies and limitations is mundane and tedious then this might not be the right track for you. Working towards the VCDX in my experience involved a lot of patience, dedication, passion and not to mention discipline as this is a method for working studiously and diligently on an everyday basis because not all solution requirements are the same. It also means investing a lot of your time over and above of your daily responsibilities and duties (work and family included); so commit for the long haul.

If you could do the whole VCDX journey again what would you do differently?

I do not think I would change much aside from the fact that with exams now available locally it would have meant a shorter timespan to get the accreditation.

Life after the VCDX?  How did your company respond?  Was it worth it?

Life for me has pretty much been the same since I achieved the VCDX accreditation and simply so because I chose for it to be that way as there were some tempting offers and I opted out for personal reasons. However I am now responsible for heading up a new business called VMXperts, that is a subsidiary of my former company Aptronics. (You can guess what platform this company’s focus will be). As for the response from my company everyone was simply elated and it also went well that I was the very first person in Africa to achieve this. This made their investment in the VCDX program a worthy one!


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VCDX Spotlight: Wade Holmes

Name: Wade Holmes

Twitter Handle: @wholmes

Blog URL: www.vwade.com

Current Employer: VMware

VCDX #: 15

How did you get into using VMware?

The year was 2004. I was an IT Specialist working in the IBM’s Business Continuity and Resiliency Services, and became aware of customers utilizing VMware for backup and recovery of their datacetners. I went to my manager at the time and told him about this trend, and that I was interested in becoming a VMware SME for IBM BCRS. I started working with ESX 2.0 and VirtualCenter 1.0, attended VMware training, and in 2005 became a VMware Certified Professional. During this time I spearheaded the creation and rollout of IBM BCRS’s first VMware based warm-site disaster recovery offering across the US, reducing the RTO of numerous fortune 500 clients. And so began the journey towards VMware excellence!

What made you decide to do the VCDX?

It was early 2008, and the VCDX certification was announced. The rigor of the requirements immediately attracted me to pursuing the certification. I knew this was a certification that could help further my career as an IT professional.

How long did it take you to complete the whole VCDX journey?

I completed the VCDX the summer of 2009, after taking the beta exam and defending during the first publically available defense. Below was the path I took before defending.

VCP on VI3
Enterprise Exam (beta)
Design Exam (beta)

I had no idea what to expect when coming to defend, and was extremely nervous. I spent countless hours preparing, reviewing my design, making sure I knew the in’s and out, and could justify every granular detail I documented. Luckily, that was exactly the approach necessary for me to be successful. I can’t describe how happy I was when I got a phone call that I passed and was a VCDX! (yes, back then I was actually contacted by phone to be informed I passed). In becoming VCDX #15, I was the first non-VMware employee worldwide to achieve the certification (as I worked for a partner at the time).

What advice would you give to people thinking of pursuing the VCDX accreditation? Dive in hear first to master your craft. Understand not just the what, but more importantly the why of architecture and design. Use the plethora of resources available to you online to become familiar with the format. Sign up for a VCDX Bootcamp to help prepare.

If you could do the whole VCDX journey again what would you do differently? Nothing except more sleep the night before the defense (if you can sleep).

Life after the VCDX?  How did your company respond?  Was it worth it

I believe I have a unique perspective on the VCDX program, having completed the VCDX program in 2009 as the first non-VMware VCDX worldwide, and then joining VMware and participating in the ongoing development of the program as a panelist. As an outsider looking in, the VCDX program was a goal that drove me to work on my craft, and become a better architect.

Since joining VMware, my participation in the VCDX program has only helped to hone my skills as a virtualization and cloud architect. It has forced me to sharpen my understanding of enterprise architecture principals, principals that aid me greatly in my day-to-day role dealing with virtualization and cloud solutions. I will be forever grateful to the VCDX program in providing a vehicle that forced me to push myself, and aiding me to take my career to another level.