Greetings and salutations to my awesome readership! Here’s a brief update with my plans for VMworld, ways to get in touch, and activities you can participate in either at the event or later via recordings and downloads.

Sessions

The vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) deep dive session has been in the top 5 rated sessions at VMworld for many years. The presenter, Jason Nash, has done a phenomenal job at providing deep, technical knowledge for the audience. This year, he wanted to relax and enjoy VMworld as an attendee, so I asked if he’d be willing to pass the torch on the VDS session but still join me up on the stage – after all, why pass up the opportunity to have an expert up on stage with me, right?

[symple_box color=”green” fade_in=”false” float=”center” text_align=”left” width=””]You can check out session NET2745 vSphere Distributed Switch: Technical Deep Dive on Wednesday, August 27th, from 11 AM to noon PST.[/symple_box]

[symple_toggle title=”NET2745 Synopsis” state=”closed”]VMware’s latest 5.5 version of the vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) provides unparalleled networking features, control mechanisms, and new ways to construct a LAN topology. In this year’s version of one of the highest rated VMworld sessions, you’ll get front row seats to a live lab deep dive on the VDS in a variety of real world use cases. Learn how to migrate your existing standard vSwitch environment to the VDS. Gain new knowledge on extended features such as Network IO Control (NIOC), Network Resource Pools, Link Aggregation with LACP, Port Mirroring, Load Based Teaming (LBT), Quality of Service (QoS) marking, Access Control Lists (ACL). Discover a variety of recommendations for design and troubleshooting connectivity and performance issues. [/symple_toggle]

I’ve also been publishing a number of posts that cover NSX, specifically my Working with NSX Series, as part of my hands on work with the product in VMware’s NSX Ninja training. I had nothing to do with the name of the program. Since we’re already working on a design together, Jason and I submitted a session on using software defined networking in the real world. This will be from the perspective of architects who work with clients on their functional requirements within the data center space.

[symple_box color=”green” fade_in=”false” float=”center” text_align=”left” width=””]You can check out session NET2747 VMware NSX: Software Defined Networking in the Real World on Monday, August 25th, from 1 PM to 2 PM PST.[/symple_box]

[symple_toggle title=”NET2747 Synopsis” state=”closed”]Software Defined Networking (SDN) offers a great deal of flexibility and agility for many organizations but often network and virtualization administrators are unclear on how it is actually implemented and leveraged. This session will take attendees through the real world use cases for SDN and what they need to know before VMware NSX is implemented in their environment. The different functions of VMware NSX will be shown. Attendees will gain a firm understanding of how to utilize the components such as distributed firewall, distributed routing, load balancers, edge services, and 3rd party security integration. Also covered in detail are the technical requirements and steps to implement the SDN framework in to the physical networking and virtualization environment along with best practices and deployment recommendations.[/symple_toggle]

Tech Field Day Extra

Tech Field Day is hosting their Extra sessions each afternoon from Monday through Wednesday. Although they’ve done similar events during VMworld in the past, this one will be more like a “regular” Tech Field Day with the camera crew and a full schedule.

I’ll be part of the Tuesday bunch, listening to presentations from SanDisk and Zerto. Catch the entire list of vendors and delegates if you can, or watch the recordings once they are posted to the TFD site afterwards! Stephen and Tom are usually quite quick in getting those out after the event is over.

Books and Signing

Earlier this year, the book that Steve Pantol and myself wrote, Networking for VMware Administrators, hit the physical and virtual shelves. I’m going to try and bring a few copies and work with folks to give away some digital codes for an ePub version.

Also, we’ll be at the VMworld book store on Wednesday, August 27th, at 1 PM to sign books – which is right after the VDS deep dive session. You can buy a copy at the store or bring a copy to be signed.

Charity Projects

Each year, I set aside a small sum of income to purchase stickers, buttons, and other swag items that are branded with the Wahl Network logo. I enjoy handing out these items at conferences – notably VMworld and VMUG User Conferences – to folks who are fans of the blog and YouTube channel. It’s often a great way to encourage shy faces to come meet and chat with me (my favorite part of any conference) and break the ice. Some folks called me silly for doing it, and that’s OK, but I enjoyed it (and that’s really all that mattered to me).

EMC World 2014 inspired me with their Waterwalk program in which they donated $5 to Charity: Water for each attendee that completed a walk with a jerry can. Although I didn’t attend the conference, it was AWESOME to see how many people picked up that 40 gallon monster and toted it across the floor.

I have a tote filled with old buttons and stickers from conferences. They don’t really have much value post-conference. So I’m making an executive decision to pivot on the typical swag bags. As such, Wahl Network has donated all $250 that would have been used to buy this year’s stickers, buttons, and other swag to the Charity: Water program. It’s a small dent in the problem but still felt good to do.

I have a small supply of swag items left over and will be handing those out until they are gone. But, this year I am not going to purchase any more. I apologize in advance to anyone who was hoping for new swag this year – and hopefully you can get your hands on some of my older stock – but I just feel this is a more positive way to contribute on behalf of the community at large.

Additionally, I’m donating 100% of my profits from book sales to the Alzheimer’s Association. You can read about that announcement here.