VI3 card Archive

New release – vmreference card 1.3

I’ve just finished updating my reference card.  The biggest change is that I’ve moved everything to the latest update of 3.5 as the default.

  • Updated the details to the latest Configuration Maximums PDF.
  • Updated it to include 3.5 update 3 release notes.
  • Changed the versioning to include the latest VMware release, so its more obvious how up to date (or not) your card is.
  • Some minor additions (NAS maximums) and corrections.

Many thanks to all the readers who have written in with comments.  Always welcome.

Go and grab it here: http://www.vreference.com/vi3-card

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VI3 reference card now in Spanish

Jose Maria Gonzalez from http://josemariagonzalez.es/ has translated my VI3 reference card into Spanish.  Thank you to Jose for taking the time to do this.  I’m sure this will make a lot of Spanish speaking ESX users very happy.

Why not head over to Jose’s great website and grab a copy here.

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VI3 pdf updated to version 1.2.1

Last night I updated my VI3 card with a smattering of new bits and pieces.  I made small changes to the Networking, MSCS, VMs and VirtualCenter sections.  This isn’t a big update and you’d need a keen eye to spot anything.  A big thanks to Adam White for a couple of corrections he alerted me to.

The new goodness can be downloaded now.

I have a couple of bigger bits I want to add in, but it might take a few days to collate the information.  Keep checking back for version 1.3 sometime soon ;)

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Version 1.2

I’ve just uploaded version 1.2

There over a dozen corrections, updates, and a few small additions.  Many thanks to everyone who has emailed me since the last release, particularly Simon Price and Peter Vroomen.

Shining glory

Here is version 1.1 in all its shining glory.

I’ve made several corrections (thanks everyone), added a few extra snippets and dusted it with a sprinkling of handy tips and tricks.

The biggest change is a small 3i section. I have been wanting to do this for a while, but I haven’t had a chance to play with it since its beta. There is quite lot of information around about 3i now, but I just wanted to add the sort of stuff people would actual use.

On a personal note, I have just got back from an OnTap foundations course, so I am try to pull together some good reading material for the NetApp NCDA. Maybe they’ll be a "vmreference OnTap card" soon:)

As ever, suggestions/advice/questions – get in touch

Updates

I’ve made a couple of corrections, so please go and grab the update :

  • Correction to partition types (thanks to Arne Fokkema)
  • Addition of SQL express with VC 2.5 (thanks to Peter Vroomen)
  • Added check license site
  • added PROD_VC_EXPRESS
  • Random tidying

The VI3 card is now ready for 1.0 status!

I have spent quite a bit time over the last couple of weeks trying to tidy it up and adding in some of the 3.5 stuff which might start showing up. I haven’t had a great deal of hands-on experience with 3.5 yet, and haven’t needed to plough through the VMware documentation. Please let me know if you spot anything which is out of date. Things move so quickly in this field, it is often difficult to keep up.

So what’s next? Well, I am already gathering some material to add in a short section about 3i specific stuff. Let me know if you have any useful links.

When I was playing around with the 3i beta, I was thinking about a 3i advanced guide including busybox command listings. However, in retrospect I don’t know how much this would get used. It seems VMware want to hide this aspect as much as possible, and if you have to reboot your 3i server or set it up beforehand, then I can’t imagine many people really using it in anger.

For a long time, VMware has been promising to introduce a more advanced certification. The rumblings are starting to get louder around this, so hopefully it might be available soon. If there is extra material, or courses (which I can persuade someone to send me on) over and above the DSA course, then this could certainly be the basis for a different card. It would be great to design a card more focused towards architects.

If VMware ever improve the mess that is the RCLI, then I would definitely produce a specific reference card just for this. However, it seems like such an afterthought by them. I’m afraid that they won’t develop it further, but use it to placate the CLI and Linux set. As a little shell/editor for Windows, or a nifty little dedicated VM; this could be so useful. Unfortunately, throwing down a pile of perl scripts, just don’t cut the mustard. I like Scott Lowe’s entry here: http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/01/07/underwhelmed-by-the-remote-cli/

And no, I have no great interest in MS’s powershell.

I’m hoping to get myself on a NetApp "Data ONTAP Fundamentals" course in March, so if I find that interesting enough and can get enough material together to study for the NCDA, then I might just put a card together for that. Does anyone have some good links to NCDA material, or can recommend a good book?

And lastly, I’m still interested in taking my Red Hat RHCE exam one day. I have been wanting to do this for quite some time, but I haven’t found an employer interested in Linux yet. I’m sure there are plenty RHCE reference cards already out there. I’d just love to have the opportunity to spend more time with Linux at work. Its hard studying for a fairly heavy curriculum, when I don’t get to use those skills regularly.

Oh, and I know I really need to do something about this site. I’ll need to get myself interesting in joomla, drupal, wordpress or something similar.

As always, please get in touch if you have any comments.

Happy New Year

I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven’t disappeared, I’m only busy.

I still plan to get another release out soon, and bring it up to 1.0 status. After that I have a couple more things to do. I’m going to create a "letter" version which will print out correctly on North American paper. After all I live here now, and I am stuck with these crazy paper sizes ;)
I am then going to add a new section, with the critical commands to use from the new RCLI with 3i. I’ve already run out of space, so I’m not sure where this is going to go. I will either have to shrink the font even more or create an annex page. If I shrink the font, then I fear your eyes might bleed.

Oh, and happy new year!

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Not there quite yet…

Just to give you all a bit of an update. I’m pretty busy with my move to Vancouver, but I have been plugging away on things. Desperately trying to squeeze in a few more lines in the Backup/Storage/Resources page, but things are tight. I’m not that far away from publishing 1.0, but I’m off tonight for the next few weeks on holiday, before I arrive in Vancouver. Hopefully I should publish this soon though. My apologies if I don’t reply to any emails for a few days, as I might not be anywhere near an internet connection.

Closing in

At last. Version 0.9 is online . I consider this to be pretty much "feature complete". I just need help to tell me if you think there is anything inaccurate, missing or out-of date. I will tidy up the general formatting in the meantime, but please let me know what you all think. Once I’ve released version 1.0 sometime later this week or next, I won’t update it very often. So if you think it can be improved then speak now!

I’m already thinking about what to do for the 3i guide, but I leave for Vancouver at the end of next week, so things might slow for a few weeks. Hopefully my next job will involve lots of VMware work again, so I can continue to create similar guides. Let me know if you have any advice here :)