VMbytes

Just wanted to thank everyone for attending and contributing to our very first VMware ESXi Quiz Show at VMworld, where teams of vExperts and VMware engineers matched expertise and battled on technical facts and trivia related to VMware ESXi and related products. We covered topics related to ESXi migration, storage, networking security and VMware products.

And after an entertaining game, the victorious team was – the vPredators!

Hands-on Labs continue to push for new records of VM’s created and labs completed. We have started handing out Fast Passes to people who have completed more than 4 labs. (photo shown)

Last year’s “labs completed” leader, Ron Davis (Landmark Healthcare), is again leading the pack of top lab takers with over 15 labs already completed, but closely followed by Natalie Lind (Landmark Healthcare) and Michael Forner (Regional Transportation District).

Here is a look at the top labs completed (as of Tues afternoon):

Here is a look at labs with most VMs created (as of Tues afternoon):

One of the most notable parts to our labs this year is the passion shared by lab attendees.  As Steve Herrod, VMware CTO, mentioned in Tuesday’s general session, it’s not always about the technology — it’s about the people.  Several lab participants are jumping into the labs at the 7am hour just to be able to share the experience with others who share the same passion.

See you at the Labs!

This year we wanted to make things even more exciting by hosting our Product and Solution Demos on our internal VMware cloud – VSEL.

Why a Demo Cloud?
The Key benefits for moving our demos to the cloud:
-  Scalable, repeatable demos allowing our world wide employees to leverage the Demos created for VMworld – (Demos are published in our Internal Catalog)
-  Lower our production costs by not having to ship servers around the world (Shipping a fully loaded kit to Copenhagen can cost up $35K)
-  Fun thing to do using our latest products!

About the Architecture
The VMworld Booth Demos are running from our internal clouds using embedded ESXi, vCloud Director 1.5, View 5.0 and vShield Edge to name a few products.

Some stats on our Demo Cloud
-  120 UCS Blades running 4 core processors each
-  ½ Petabyte VNX Storage (thanks EMC)
-  520 Virtual Machines
-  10G backend

How the Products work together….

1.  VMware View - Provides a working desktop for users. This is the entrance to vSEL environment and can be accessed from both the Corporate Network and Internet, using PCoIP protocol.

2.  VMware Cloud Director 1.5 Provides the lab environment for individual users to log into their own their own regional private cloud peer communities and work with vPods, which are vApps that leverage embedded virtualization environment consisting of vCenter, ESXi, and datacenter services needed to run an infrastructure.

3.  Embedded Virtualization - ESXi is run within a virtual machine, resulting in multiple virtual ESX Servers (vESX) running on a single physical ESXi Server (pESX). “Virtual Virtual Machines” (vVMS) are run within these vESX Servers.

vPODs: vApp within vCD combined with embedded virtualization results in a completely self contained working unit known as the “vPod”. In other words, a vPod is simply a vApp that uses embedded virtualization, vESX servers and vVMs, to create a single working “virtual virtual data center” that can be mapped to a single user.

Want to learn more?

1. Visit us at the VMware Booth: Come and see the VSEL infrastructure hard at work.
2. Attend Ford Donald’s Session: Virtual SE Lab (vSEL) Building the VMware Hybrid Cloud CIM 1436 (twitter  #cim1436) to learn all about the architecture powering the VMworld Demos and enabling VMware SEs. Great reason to wake up at 8:00 AM

Special Thanks to all the people that have made this project come to life !

~ Pablo Roesch
Group Manager Cloud Infrastructure Technical Marketing

Get ready to set records at VMworld 2011!

With 50 hours of labs this year, we challenge you to finish as many labs as possible with extended lab hours. Sign-in and browse the content catalog for a full schedule of topics.  And don’t forget to share your experiences and comments on Twitter. Visit our Sessions & Labs hashtag page for details on how to tweet about each lab or view postings from other participants.  (click photo to enlarge)

Hands-on Lab Hours

- Geographically distributed Public Cloud model
- 480 lab seats, 50 lab hours, 24,000 lab seat hours
- Targets – 18,000 to 20,000 labs completed
- Targets – 225,000 to 250,000 VMs deployed

Complete the MOST labs and be entered to win a FREE 2012 full conference pass to VMworld!

Make sure you have VMworld with you while at the conference with the official VMworld 2011 mobile application. It is a show program, breakout session schedule builder and Solutions Exchange guide for attendees of the VMworld conference. The application is synced to email stations throughout the event and is compatible with iPhone, BlackBerry, and all other smartphones.

With the mobile application, you can: - View sessions by day and track - Schedule Breakout Sessions - View Hands-on Labs - Browse exhibitor listings by name - Find your way around the expo - Create a personal agenda containing the Breakout Sessions you pre-registered for - Complete session surveys - Follow the event’s Twitter stream - Receive the latest conference news Visit www.vmworld.com/mobile on your phone to download and install the official VMworld mobile application.

Follow VMworld on:

Facebook

Twitter

Are you a Social Media influencer/follower, a VMware community member, a virtualization/cloud expert, or just a VMworld conference fan?  For all of these and all others attending or following the VMworld 2011 Conference, here is the guide you must view or download.

VMworld 2011 Social Media
“Survival Guide”

http://vmware.com/go/vmworld-socialmedia

Enough said… see you there or online!

There are some great events and locations for attendees to take advantage of at VMworld. Here are just a few of the special activities taking place, plus a location for you to lay back and relax during your time in Las Vegas.

Welcome Reception
Monday, August 29, 5:00pm - 7:30pm
Start your time at the conference with good food and good conversation. Catch up with colleagues, talk to technology partners, bump into Knowledge Experts and enjoy some down time with professionals in your field in the Solutions Exchange. Plus, don’t miss Elastic Sky in the Hang Space from 4:30pm - 5:30pm.

Hall Crawl
Tuesday, August 30, 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Enjoy a refreshing beverage while you see the latest products and services from over 250 exhibitors in the Solutions Exchange.

VMworld 2011 Party  Wednesday, August 31, 7:00pm - 11:00pm This year’s party is so big we have to hold it in 3 Locations - Hall A, Hang Space, and The Pools at Venetian and Palazzo! Start the evening in the Hang Space, enjoying a variety of great food, complimented with wine, beer and cocktails. Wander into Hall A, the rock party, complete with lighted teepees, roving entertainment, and an opening act that will set the tone for the rest of the evening. At 8:00, our special guests take the stage in what will be a sound, light and sensory experience you won’t believe. But the night isn’t over after the concert. Head up to the pools at the Venetian and Palazzo at 9:00pm where signature drinks and world-renowned DJs and VJs close out a night you won’t forget!

Hang Space
Take a break from the VMworld action for a bit in the Hang Space, just in front of the Solutions Exchange (Halls B & C). We will create a truly relaxing park, complete with trees, plants, benches and fun diversions. Play a game of volleyball, chill out with a snack on a blanket on the grass (that’s right, we said grass!), or socialize with friends. It’s like being outside without leaving the building! You will also find stations to send email, recharge your cell phones, and be as productive as you like, all in a relaxed atmosphere.

Follow VMworld on:
Facebook
Twitter

VMworld 2011 will be rocking the Twitter social streams over the next couple weeks.  If you are not on Twitter already, be sure to tune in during VMworld to observe how viral and explosive Twitter can be.  You can literally follow the entire show through tweets from attendees.

Main hashtag to use and search for is… #vmworld

View a feed of ALL VMworld mentions OR tweets from Twitter contributors

Other sponsored hashtags for VMworld:   #vMeetup   #vTweetup   #vmworld3word
Lookup additional hashtags in our listing of VMworld gatherings, tweetups & parties

New this year! Session & Lab Hashtags
All VMworld Sessions & Labs have a unique Twitter hashtag to use in tweets for conversations, Q&A, comments or observations. Search for these session hashtags individually or as a Track to follow highlights of sessions you can not attend. Please add these hashtags to your tweets to promote sessions, share comments/highlights and ask questions.

View a listing of all Session & Lab hashtags and a widget to view conversations by track
View Twitter feeds for ALL Session & Lab on one page

The VMworld Hands-On Labs (HOLs) are yet again taking a leap forward to provide a user experience greater than any other in the industry with 24,000 lab hours being made available to conference attendees during VMworld. The HOLs will be serviced by a globally distributed public cloud which stretches across our Sponsor Datacenters; Switch in Las Vegas, Terremark in Miami, and COLT in Amsterdam all powered by vSphere 5.0 and vCloud Director 1.5.

New this year - The Labs have been designed around typical customer use case and business scenarios. This will allow conference attendees to have a hands-on experience exercising workflows that relate to real-world scenarios. There will be 27 distinct labs available; two of which will have manuals available in German and Japanese along with the default English. We will also be offering three partner labs this year from Cisco, EMC and NetApp. For the full list of labs being offered please refer to the U.S. Content Catalog.

Join us and take one of the HOLs to get more in-depth knowledge into the technologies you want to learn more about; at a time that best fits with your schedule.

Hands-on Labs Hours:

Sunday, Aug. 28           2:00pm - 8:00pm
Monday, Aug. 29           7:00am - 3:00pm
Monday, Aug. 29           5:00pm - 8:00pm
Tuesday, Aug. 30          10:00am - 10:00pm
Wednesday, Aug. 31     7:00am - 7:00pm
Thursday, Sept. 1          7:00am - 4:00pm

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Twitter