In 2008 HP acquired LeftHand Networks for “only” $360 million. In relation to the acquiration of 3PAR in 2010 ($2.35 billion) this was a really cheap buy. LeftHand Networks was a pioneer in regard of IP based storage build on commodity server hardware. Their secret was SAN/iQ, a linux-based operating system, that did the magic. HP StoreVirtual is the TAFKAP (or Prince…? What’s his current name?) in the HP StorageWorks product familiy.

In addition to the benefits that VMware grants to vExperts, a couple of vendors grant also benefits to vExperts. This includes free licenses, subscriptions or other offers. This is only a loose compilation of vExperts benefits. Vendor Offer Link Solarwinds Virtualization Manager NFR http://bit.ly/1gYJtBB Veeam Backup & Replication NFR http://bit.ly/1esRaFn Pluralsight Annual Plus Subscription http://bit.ly/1esTa0o Tintri Polo Shirt http://bit.ly/1eJqgE2 Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager 1y NFR http://bit.ly/1iRVXfm Login VSI VIP program http://bit.

One strength of Juniper Junos is the config file management. The concept of different configurations is nothing special. For example Cisco uses two configuration files to reflect the current configuration in the RAM (running configuration), and the configuration used on startup (startup configuration). HP is doing the same on their networking gear. If you are new to Juniper Junos, the concept of an active configuration and a candidate config, which holds the current changes but isn’t active, maybe confuses you.

A side effect of data growth is the growth of the amount of data that must be backed up. The path of least resistance is buying more disks and/ or tapes. Another possible solution is data deplucation. With data deduplication you can’t reduce the amount of data that must be backed up, but you can reduce the amount of data that must be stored. HP StoreOnce Backup is HPs solution to address this problem.

Already in the last year I noticed, that Pluralsight was giving tech VIPs one year of free subscription for their online training. This 1y subscription has a value of $499! Yesterday I saw a tweet with the offer for this year’s tech VIPs. Congrats to the 2014 #vExperts & #MicrosoftMVPs! Did you know that you get 1 free YEAR of Pluralsight training? ==>http://t.co/5rFFs1e9Bx — Pluralsight (@pluralsight) April 3, 2014 https://twitter.com/pluralsight/status/451823968228761602

The VMware vExperts program is a annual given title from VMware to individuals who have significantly contributed to the community. It’s an award for sharing their knowledge with the community. It’s a nice way to say “Thank you” from VMware. There are three different tracks you can apply: The Evangelist Path is for bloggers, authors and other members of the community, who demonstrate their passion and knowledge. The Customer Path is for customers.

A discourse is going on in the community. I can’t say who has started the discourse, but the number of blog postings to this discourse is an indication for the interest at this topic. But what’s the topic? Homelabs A homelab is the datacenter of the poor man. Some people have the luck to use a fully populated data center for test and study purposes. Our job requires to work with the latest technology and products, so we need an environment for test- and study purposes.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) offers a broad range of OEM VMware software for their HP ProLiant server familiy (VMware Virtualization Software and Client Virtualization with VMware View and VMware ThinApp). A customer can buy HP ProLiant servers and VMware software from HP. This also includes support for hard- and software, which makes it easy in case of support. You only have to call HP and they will do the rest. As you maybe know, I work for a IT solution provider and HP partner.

The Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) is used to discover and advertise the identity and capabilities of a network component to other networking components. CDP a proprietary protocol developed by Cisco, so it’s often used on Cisco switches and routers. The Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) is a vendor-neutral discovery protocol, which is used e.g. by Hewlett-Packard. With CDP or LLDP you can easily get an overview over a network topology. You can quickly check, e.

This is more a note to myself, than really new content. Due compatibility to a lot of installed software, I use a german localized Windows 7 installation. This leads to the “problem” that VMware vSphere Client and VMware Web Client launch german localized. This annoys me. I want that my VMware vSphere (Web) Clients talks dirty to me. VMware KB article 1016403 describes the procedure to force a specific localization.