Yea, I’ve been meaning to post this for many weeks, but better late than never for everyone who didn’t know about this!

I’m not sure whether this is good until Jan 22nd, or Jan 31st, it’s kind of contradicting itself… so good luck either way!

VMware “Upgrade” Promotion

PLEASE NOTE: In order to comply with VMware’s retake policy your initial VCP4 exam must be taken by January 22, 2010!

Notice: Due to overwhelming demand, existing VCP3 professionals will be able to obtain the VCP4 certification with no additional course requirement through January 31, 2010.

Dear VMware Certified Professionals,
First, let us say thank you for supporting VMware’s certification program! We appreciate our VCPs who have worked hard over the past few months to achieve our newest certification, the VCP on vSphere 4. In order to meet the December 31, 2009, deadline, many of you recently scheduled (and hopefully passed!) your exam with our testing partner. In fact, so many of you scheduled exams that some of our VCP professionals were unable to find a testing center with available seats prior to the December deadline.
In order to accommodate participants that, despite best efforts, were unable to schedule their exam prior to the deadline, VMware will continue accepting the VCP3 certification as a qualification to take the VCP4 exam without requiring attending the “What’s New” class through January 31, 2010. We fully expect that the additional four weeks will allow remaining participants ample time to find a testing center with available seating, and will NOT be extending the deadline any further, so please take advantage of this opportunity!
Regards,
The VMware Technical Certification Team

If you received an email from VMware regarding this promotion, below is how to redeem your VMware “Upgrade” exam (note: this is a two-part process):

Part I: Register for a VCP4 exam at full price using the Upgrade voucher number sent to you by email from VMware. Important: The unique voucher number needs to be entered during the registration process to establish your eligibility for a free retake exam if you fail the initial exam. This discount offer will not be available on VMware Certified Professional on vSphere™ 4 (VCP4) exams scheduled without an Upgrade voucher number.

Follow the steps below to enter the voucher number during the exam registration process:

1. Schedule an appointment for your VMware Certified Professional on vSphere™ 4 (VCP4) exam.
2. Once at the payment screen, scroll to the bottom of the page to access the “Voucher Number” field.
3. Enter your unique voucher number and click “Apply Voucher.” Note: The Total Due amount will not show any adjustment.

   Below is the screen you should see to enter and apply your voucher number:

   

4. Finally, click the “Next” button.

Part II: If you fail the exam that was scheduled with your unique voucher number, you may schedule a free retake by entering the promotion code: UPGRADE at the time of registration. Important: This discount will only be valid on retakes of exams that were initially scheduled using your unique voucher number.

Follow the steps below to enter your promotion code during the exam registration process:

1. Schedule an appointment for your VMware Certified Professional on vSphere™ 4 (VCP4) exam.
2. Once at the payment screen, scroll to the bottom of the page to access the “Promotion Code” field.
3. Enter the promotion code “Upgrade” and click “Apply Promo Code.”

   Below is the screen you should see to enter and apply the “Upgrade” promotion code:

   

4. Finally, click the “Next” button.

Both the full price and free “Upgrade” exams must be taken by January 31, 2010. Offer valid for the VMware Certified Professional on vSphere™ 4 (VCP4) exam only (exam code – VCP410). Only one (1) offer per person. Standard VMware retake policy rules apply.

I was recently on the Internets when it came about that Oracle President Charles Phillips said he he didn’t realize that customers wanted to run their Oracle products on VMware (similar to how Microsoft customers run their  line of products on both VMware and Hyper-V today)   Wow, is the first thing I’d say – normally you expect “Hey, they’re just ignoring our needs, I mean cmon… who DOESN’T want their product to be virtualized? I mean even the greatest OLTP app, I’d rather find a way to scale and virtualize it than taking up even MORE footprint on the floor with power and cooling to run yet another app on yet another physical box! (Let’s not even get into DR!)

With that said though, Charles Phillips needs to hear from you – the customer : Do you want to run Oracle on VMware? Let him know! – The contact information sniped from another location (which I’ll cite inline as well :))

Re: Need a favor – Oracle

You are not going to believe this. Some VMware folks met with Charles Phillips, the president or CEO of Oracle and he said no customers had ever mentioned to him that they wanted Oracle to support their products on VMware. Or modify the licensing scheme. He offered if anyone knew of customers who did want better or more support for Oracle on VMware, or virtualization friendly licensing, to email him directly. His email is Charles.phillips@oracle.com and he really needs to hear that customers run Oracle on VMware, and better support / licensing would be nice!

So, I’d like to send special thanks to Oracle Storage Guy, Duncan Yellow Bricks, Chad SaKac – and I’m sure others may have discussed this already!

Oracle on VMware – it’s time for us to speak up or shut up!

Oracle feels that not many people want to run their apps in a virtual environment!

Charles Phillips Asks for Customer Input on VMware

I feel it bears repeating – Let Charles know how you feel about Oracle on VMware! I’m always a fan of using my existing virtualization investment to run my next app on, instead of having to invest in yet ANOTHER point solution to run one of my existing apps (which is where it looks like they’ve been trying to go with their Xen, Iron and other investments ;))

You know who you are, you’re the Xen-o-phile who backs Citrix to the utmost degree.   You are committed not only to the solution but taking things to the next level.  Certification.

Well, I’ll be the first to tell you – the value of certification is what you get out of them, and that’s often compounded by what you PUT into it.   But you can’t get value until you understand what lay before you.  Citrix has a number of tracks and strategies to address this with the Administrator (CCA), Engineer (CCEE) and Architect (CCIA) roles.

Administrator (Falls into two tracks, Enterprise and Platinum)

As you can see, the Enterprise exam is a good start in your path to being a Citrix Xen Master, and then it builds upon that with skills of the Platinum track to becoming an Engineer.

Engineer

As you can see there is an extended amount of effort and testing required in order to be seen as a Citrix Engineer, only to be rivaled by stepping up to the Architect level!

Architect

With the tracks above, and your own desire to make yourself more credible, tangible and experienced – You should be set to be your own personal Admin, Engineer or Architect of the future of Virtualization!   There are many paths to pursue in the realm of Virtualization and they all tend to overlap one way or another which will bode infinitely useful when it comes to your experience.

Good luck out there, Get trained, Get Certified and Get Virtual!

What? Seriously?! Is everyone giving away free trips to VMWorld? Well, no. This is not a free “Trip!” this is a free “Ticket!”, thus entrance into VMWorld forgoing the $2000 fee for entry!

(Or you could win a free 8GB iPod Touch… :))

Please take the survey – click here
The goal of this survey is to better understand which applications (commercial or in-house developed) you use or develop to manage the VMware vSphere Platform. We need your feedback as it will help us understand which 3rd party vendors or tools VMware needs to focus on.
This survey should take approximately 22 minutes to complete.
We will be awarding great prizes to lucky winners.
Grand Prize – 1 Full Conference Pass to VMworld San Francisco 2009
First Prize is – 1 iPod Touch 8GB
Winners will be chosen in a random drawing
Please review the contest rules, terms, and conditions below.

Contest Information and Rules
o Survey Starts: June 17, 2009 11:59 PM PST
o Closes: Monday August 3rd, 2009 10:00 PM CST
o Winners will be announced on the Developer Center Blog: Friday August 7th 2009
o VMware employees are excluded from entering
o One entry per person
o Raffle participants must fully complete survey
o Winners will be chosen at random by VMware
o You must provide a valid corporate email address – no personal email addresses please
o This contest is for VMware customers, there is no purchase necessary to participate
o Terms and Conditions

Oh, and go here which has all the original details!

VMware vSphere & VI 3.x Management Survey – Cool prizes 1- VMworld Pass, 1- iPod 8 GB Touch

Come on down June 2nd to the Chicago Microsoft Office to learn how to not only cut costs by virtualizing your datacenter but by learning so much more, and my good friend Ray LaMarca who will be presenting at the AON Center in Chicago on June 2nd!

The rest of the locations I’m sure will be an absolute blast, but considering I live in Chicago and personally know Ray, I think you should step up and take the morning to attend, learn, and perhaps win!   Do go sign up, the registration is handled through APC’s site, so don’t be surprised! :)