I'm New to the list as well and I am actually lucky enough to be the administrator of 2 seperate vSphere clusters. One a 12 host cluster running about 500 VMs for virtual desktops and another 3 server cluster running 60 Server based VMs for production and testing. We are currently running the latest version of vSphere (4.1) and are backing it with an EMC array for shared fiber channel storage.
Just a quick note on the upgrade and not having an enterprise plus license (or distributed Virtual Switch). You can quickly provision a new host with a script. I currently have one that adds all of our network config and sets up all the port groups, there are over 20 of them, and vSwitches, 4 per host. All you do is tell it what server to run on and it does the rest. Let me know if you would like to have a copy of this script. T.C. Grissom On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 12:50 PM, BRIAN DICHTER <brian.dich...@d214.org>wrote: > That is interesting. We had actually purchased vSphere Enterprise licenses > which was just around the time that VI3 was "discontinued" but downgraded > the licenses to deploy VI3 so we're legal to upgrade and run vSphere. > Unfortunately at the time, I knew more about VI3 than I did vSphere (which > is why we deployed VI3) and didn't think Enterprise Plus would be a big deal > over Enterprise especially since we were starting small with only a handful > of hosts. So, we don't have the distributed switch feature. Upgrading will > require a rebuild of each box (the easy part) and a reconfiguration of each > virtual switch (the more work part). > > On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 12:33 PM, Joshua Halls <j...@joshhalls.com> wrote: > >> >> http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/buy/small_business_editions_comparison.html >> >> If you are looking to move up to vsphere you might want to look into >> this. For some of our environments this will be sufficient (3 servers). It >> supports High Availability and they recently added vMotion to the one that >> runs around $3000. >> >> On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 11:59 AM, Ekhoff, Andrew >> <aekh...@sags.k12.il.us>wrote: >> >>> VCP4 exam isn't bad. It's very similar to the VCP3 test. The main >>> differences are maximums of ESX4 vs ESX3, memory, vswitches, etc.. The VCP4 >>> test includes some of the newer vmware products too. When I took the test I >>> was still consulting so I was knee deep in it everyday. I used Test Kings >>> to supplement my hands on experience. The next iteration of the VCP I'm >>> probably going to have to explore some other study methods. One book I have >>> found helpful, not for the test but general design and administration, is >>> VMware Infrastructure 3: Advanced Technical Design Guide and Advanced >>> Operations Guide. I was hoping they would have a new one for vSphere 4 but >>> I haven't seen it yet. There are a lot of study materials on VMWare's >>> website also. >>> >>> Good luck with the upgrade to vSphere, I've done a few of those too. >>> ________________________________________ >>> From: tech-geeks-boun...@tech-geeks.org [ >>> tech-geeks-boun...@tech-geeks.org] On Behalf Of BRIAN DICHTER [ >>> brian.dich...@d214.org] >>> Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 11:37 AM >>> To: Tech-Geeks Mailing List >>> Subject: Re: [tech-geeks] ESXi "Expert" needed >>> >>> Hey Andrew, I think I'll call you for advice! I'm going to schedule it >>> after I finish our upgrade to vSphere. How was the VCP4 exam for you? >>> >>> On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 10:47 AM, Ekhoff, Andrew <aekh...@sags.k12.il.us >>> <mailto:aekh...@sags.k12.il.us>> wrote: >>> Feel free to contact me also. My experience with VMware is: >>> >>> 3 years with a consulting firm, heavy vmware work. >>> Started with ESX2 up till current. >>> I've configured HA clusters, DRS, Vmotion. >>> iSCSI, NFS, replication configurations on NetApp and EMC sans. >>> I currently hold VCP3 and VCP4 certs >>> >>> In the last 3 years I have over 30 ESX configurations anywhere from >>> single ESXi servers to 5+ ESX hosts with SAN storage. >>> >>> _______________________________ >>> >>> -- >>> Brian Dichter >>> District Technology Systems Supervisor >>> Township High School District 214 >>> 2121 Goebbert Road >>> Arlington Heights, IL 60005 >>> brian.dich...@d214.org<mailto:brian.dich...@d214.org><mailto: >>> brian.dich...@d214.org<mailto:brian.dich...@d214.org>> >>> 847.718.6565 office >>> 224.688.1863 mobile >>> 847.718.7673 fax >>> >>> "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." >>> -- Carl Sagan >>> >>> | Subscription info at http://www.tech-geeks.org | >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Brian Dichter >>> District Technology Systems Supervisor >>> Township High School District 214 >>> 2121 Goebbert Road >>> Arlington Heights, IL 60005 >>> brian.dich...@d214.org<mailto:brian.dich...@d214.org> >>> 847.718.6565 office >>> 224.688.1863 mobile >>> 847.718.7673 fax >>> >>> "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." >>> -- Carl Sagan >>> >>> | Subscription info at http://www.tech-geeks.org | >>> >> >> >> | Subscription info at http://www.tech-geeks.org | >> > > > > -- > Brian Dichter > District Technology Systems Supervisor > Township High School District 214 > 2121 Goebbert Road > Arlington Heights, IL 60005 > brian.dich...@d214.org > 847.718.6565 office > 224.688.1863 mobile > 847.718.7673 fax > > "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." > -- Carl Sagan > > > | Subscription info at http://www.tech-geeks.org | > -- Thomas Grissom
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