Without leaving your office, you can get access to world class experts sharing with you what they know about how to sucessfully Virtualizw your Oracle Database. This is a no-brainer. The best part cost of admission is free. If you are a vendor looking at how you can be part of this. There are sponsorship oppurtunities available. If you are interested reach out to one of the two Co-Vendor Liaison Chairs - Michael Corey, Ntirety or Charles Kim at Viscosity North America. My contact information is at the end of this Blog.

November 7 - Oracle on Oracle VM

Register Today
10:00am - 10:55am CDT      Oracle on Oracle VM - Expert Panel
11:00am - 11:50am CDT     Successfully Deploy the Infrastructure Cloud with Oracle VM
12:00pm - 12:50pm CDT    The RAC OVM Templates and the new DeployCluster tool on OVM3
1:00pm - 1:50pm CDT      The Latest on Oracle VM
2:00pm - 2:50pm CDT         Simplifying Application Deployment in Cloud Using Virtual Assemblies and EM 12c

November 8 - Oracle Databases on VMware
Register Today
10:00am - 10:55am CDT    Virtualizing Oracle
11:00am - 11:50am CDT    Oracle Virtualization Best Practices from VMware Support
12:00pm - 12:50pm CDT    Virtualization Migration Strategies
1:00pm - 1:50pm  CDT      Storage Best Practices for Oracle on VMware
2:00pm - 2:50pm CDT       Raising the Bar with Oracle on Vblock(tm) Systems

Day 1- Oracle on Oracle VM

Oracle on Oracle VM - Expert Panel
Panelists: Tariq Farooq, Honglin Su, Kai Yu, Mike Ault, Dr. Bert Scalzo
Virtualization is the foundation stone in the cloud computing era. In this session, expert panelists and speakers present, detail and elaborate on a comprehensive concepts overview, insights, recommendations, best practices, current strategies, pros and cons, relevance/role in cloud computing, prevalent/dominant paradigms and technologies and a whole lot more about virtualization as it relates to Oracle DBAs - from the perspective of Oracle on Oracle VM.

Deploy the Infrastructure Cloud with Oracle VM
Speakers: Charles Kim, Nitin Vengurlekar
Virtualization is the process of abstracting computing resources such that multiple operating system and application images can share a single physical server, bringing significant cost-of-ownership and manageability benefits. Though its Oracle VM, Oracle offers scalable, low-cost server virtualization solutions for varying workloads and applications, as well as the driving force behind consolidation. Over the past couple of years, Oracle VM has become a major challenger in the Oracle Database virtualization space. If you are considering Oracle databases on Oracle VM, you cannot afford to miss this session by Charles Kim and Nitin Vengurlekar, Managing Directors from Viscosity North America, as they share their virtualization experiences on successfully deploying Oracle VM and describe how customers can achieve lower CapEx and OpEx using Oracle VM.
Key topics covered in their presentation will be:
- OVM History and Architecture
- OVM Core Features
- OVM 3.x New Features
- Importance of Templates
- Deployment Workflow
- Steps towards Virtualization
- Challenges
- Best Practices

The RAC Oracle VM Templates and the New DeployCluster Tool on OVM3
Speaker: Saar Maoz, Consulting Software Engineer, Oracle Corporation
The popular RAC OVM templates were refreshed this summer to more optimally support OVM3. A new tool called DeployCluster allows for even faster automation then ever! End to end (including network setup) clsuter build with no Dom0 or Guest VM access. All previously released RAC tempates can be mixed and matches and full backwards compatibility is retained for OVM2 users. Come see for yourself how easy it is to deploy RAC in an OVM2 environment. Demos will be show live as time permits.

The Latest on Oracle VM
Speaker: Ronen Kofman, Director Product Management, Oracle VM, Oracle
Oracle VM has come a long way with great customer interest and analyst recognition. In addition to the application-driven architecture and design to scale, Oracle VM continues to drive integrated management into all aspects of the product. Join us in this session to get a technical deep dive of the latest features in Oracle VM and expanded management support.

Simplifying Application Deployment in Cloud Using Virtual Assemblies and EM 12c
Speaker: Kai Yu, Dell Oracle Solutions Engineering
Oracle virtual assemblies provide a great way to simplify the deployment of enterprise-class multi-tier applications and their configuration dependencies. Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder 11gR1 can create Oracle virtual assembly packages by capturing the state of an installed application topology. Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c can deploy there assemblies in the cloud resulting in fully operational application stack within minutes. This session will walk you step by step through the Oracle virtual assembly creation process. This session will also demostrate how you can use Oracle Enterprise Manager 12 Cloud Control to deploy an assembly in a self-service cloud built on a Dell platform.

Day 2- Oracle on VMware

Virtualization Oracle
Speaker: Mark Achtemichuck and Don Sullivan
The world has moved beyond wondering if critical workloads can be virtualized.  The issue of interest today is how to maximize the benefit of virtualizing challenging workloads like Oracle databases.  This session will take a detailed look at how and why Oracle runs better on vSphere than on hardware, and shows how you can analyze workloads to achieve similar results and be prepared to address typical operational issues.  Mark Achtemichuck (VCDX) is a VMware Performance Specialist, and will dive deeper into how vSphere architectural considerations are related to these key characteristics, and provide guidance on efficiently analyzing and responding to performance issues you may encounter in daily operation.  Don Sullivan is an Oracle Certified Master as well as an Oracle Tier One Specialist at VMware. 

Oracle Virtualization Best Practices for VMware Support
Speaker: Mike Matthies, VMware
This session will focus on best practices from a VMware support perspective. VMware support will show attendees how to avoid common mistakes, misunderstandings of configurations and best practices learned from the trenches.

Virtualization Migration Strategies
Speaker: George Trujillo & Charles Kim, Viscosity NA
This presentation will focus on Oracle virtualization best practices. Topics will include the Oracle Virtual Infrastructure, migration options with the same endianness, migration options for different endianness and best practices.

Storage Best Practices for Oracle on VMware
Speaker: Brad Davie, EMC
Storage is a key component of any virtualized infrastructure. The speaker will discuss storage hardware and software capabilities, and provide a comprehensive set of storage best practices designed to enhance performance, scalability and availability of Oracle databases running in a VMware environment.

Raising the Bar with Oracle on Vblock(tm) Systems
Speakers: Samir Shah, VCE and Danny Dunn, Cisco
Learn how VCE delivers a pre-engineered and validated converged infrastructure to reduce costs, speed time to value and de-risk Oracle deployments. Gain an inside perspective on harnessing the power of Vblock(tm) Systems to ensure and predictable Oracle performance, as well as enhanced operational agility and scalability for E-Business Suite R12 & RAC

Michael Corey

Founder & CEO, Ntirety

www.ntirety.com 

My Personal Twitter Account: Michael_Corey

Ntirety Corporate Twitter Account: Ntirety

Database Administration As A Service® is a registered trademark of Ntirety, Inc

I was very fortunate that the presentation I created with Jeff Szastak titled APP-BCA1516 – Virtualizing SQL 2012: Doing IT Right was also selected for VMWORLD Barcelona. Not many presentations were asked to also present in Barcelona putting Jeff and me in good company with likes of Michael Webster and Don Sullivan. If you have not seen them present, I would highly recommend both of them.

In this blog, I am going to attempt to give you my honest appraisal of VMWORLD 2012 Barcelona. My review will be from a Business Critical Applications perspective (Oracle, SQL Server, Exchange, SAP, E-Business Suite) which is what matters most to me as opposed to a general VMware perspective.

Fira Barcelona Gran Via Venue Score     

Grade: “C”

The city of Barcelona is beautiful. As a destination city in Europe, it is a wonderful place to visit. As a conference city, it has a very long way to go. When the city built the conference center known by the locals as Fira Barcelona Gran Via, they chose to put it quite a distance away from the city center. In addition, there was no shuttle service from the hotels to the venue. Given the distance the hotels were from the conference venue, I suspect it was cost prohibitive to run such a shuttle service.

I talked to some attendee who attempted to use public transportation. There was not a subway stop near the conference center. I also was told there was a very long wait for the busses that would take you to the nearest Metro station, making public transit a very unlikely option. Most attendees, myself included, used the local taxi service. The line was usually at least 30 minutes long. There was no attempt to try and group people together.  So, every day I spent around 25/30 Euros, which was pretty typical. A very expensive trip in and out.

The registration desk was right as you walked in.  You could not miss it. The conference registration lines were very reasonable and the staff very helpful.

The conference layout itself was terrible. It was very long and narrow, which made it feel very crowded. It took some getting used to. In the facility's defense, they had lots of help around to show you the way. Because it was so long and narrow, you had quite a long walk to get to the Tradeshow & Hands-on Labs portion of the event.

At European events I have attended in the past, food is usually much better than their U.S. counterparts. That was not the case here. No one was happy with the food. By conference standards, it got low marks. Problem was you had no alternatives. The conference was in the middle of nowhere and you could not walk outside for an alternative.

Speaker services were excellent. A real strength as compared to other events I have spoke at. There is a place for speakers to work, lots of support staff to help and coffee and snacks available.

Tradeshow & Hands-On Labs       

Grade: “A”

The Hands-on Labs were excellent. Just spending your time in the Hands-on Labs alone can make it worth your while to attend the event.  I did not experience this first hand, but I was told there was some issues the first days. That seems to be a recurring theme at all VMWorlds. I think they always underestimate just how popular the hands-on labs are going to be.

Here is a sample of some of the Hands-on Labs that were available:

HOL-APP-03 Enable Database as a Service (DBaaS) in Your Cloud with VMware vFabric Data Director

HOL-APP-01 Manage Your vCloud Suite Applications with VMware vFabric Application Director

HOL-INF-02 Explore vSphere 5.1 Distributed Switch (vDS) New Features

HOL-INF-05 Implement Disaster Recovery for the Cloud with VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

HOL-INF-06 Deploy and Operate Your Cloud with the VMware vCloud Suite

HOL-OPS-01 Manage Your vCloud Suite Deployment with VMware vCenter Operations Manager Enterprise

HOL-OPS-05 Explore VMware vCenter Operations Manager Enterprise New Features

The Trade Show, which is, known as Solutions Exchange, was excellent. All the major players I would expect to see were there except for Oracle.

VMworld Barcelona 2012  Technical Content

Business Critical Applications Technical Content Grade:                 “A”

Business Critical Applications Quantity of Presentation Grade:       “C”

VMware Technology Content Overall Grade:                                       “A”

The overall content concerning VMware product and features was excellent.  When it came to Business Critical Applications like an Oracle Database or a Microsoft SQL Server database I thought the technical content was excellent, but there was not enough representation.

Here is the List of Oracle Presentations that were available:

APP-BCA1333 Virtualizing Oracle RAC

APP-BCA1344 Virtualizing Oracle for Disaster Recovery with Data Guard and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager.

APP-CAP2341 Accelerate Database Virtualization with VMware vFabric Data Director

GD46 Oracle Virtualization with Jan-Willem Lammers

Here is the list of Microsoft SQL Server Presentations that were available:

APP-BCA1516 Virtualizing SQL 2012: Doing IT Right

APP-BCA1530 Virtualizing Highly Available SQL Servers

GD44 Database for Microsoft Applications with Jeff Szastak

The Technical content of these presentations were excellent. But there is just not enough quantity. A database is one of the most intensive business critical applications you will ever virtualize. To only have 3 Microsoft SQL Server presentations or 4 Oracle Presentations is not enough. VMWorld needs to get as serious about virtualizing business critical applications as VMware is.

Michael Corey

Founder & CEO, Ntirety

www.ntirety.com 

My Personal Twitter Account: Michael_Corey

Ntirety Corporate Twitter Account: Ntirety

Database Administration As A Service® is a registered trademark of Ntirety, Inc

Derek Seaman's Blog

Derek a fellow VMware vExpert took the time to write a blog about Jeff Szastak's and my presentation at VMworld 2012. He did a great job of summarizing what he heard. Here is a link to this blog article. I would also check out his many other Blogs. A lot of good information here.

Derek Seaman's Blog VMworld 2012: Virtualizing SQL Server 2012 APP-BCA1516

Michael Corey

Founder & CEO, Ntirety

www.ntirety.com 

My Personal Twitter Account: Michael_Corey

Ntirety Corporate Twitter Account: Ntirety

Database Administration As A Service® is a registered trademark of Ntirety, Inc

Free Seminar: Key Strategies & Best Practices Virtualizing Oracle

An excellent workshop is going to be delivered in Rochester, NY, New York, NY and Stamford, CT around virtualizing Oracle on VMware.

Learn Key Strategies and Best Practices around Virtualizing Oracle

Please join us to learn the secret sauce on reference architectures, best practices, storage, migration strategies as well as stories from the trenches around virtualizing Oracle on VMware.  This is a detailed technical workshop addressing core knowledge that every Oracle DBA needs to understand about virtualizing Oracle.  This is a can't miss workshop being presented by three industry recognized Oracle experts:

• Michael Corey, Founder and CEO, Ntirety – Oracle ACE and VMware vExpert, Author of Tuning Oracle, Oracle Data Warehousing, Oracle A Beginner's Guide, ...
• Charles Kim, Co-Founder Viscosity North America – Oracle ACE Director and VMware VCP, Author of Oracle Data Guard Handbook, Linux Recipes for Oracle DBAs, Oracle 11g New Features, Oracle ASM, ...
• George Trujillo, Oracle Double ACE, VCP, VMware Tier One Specialist

Register Today

Michael Corey

Founder & CEO, Ntirety

www.ntirety.com 

My Personal Twitter Account: Michael_Corey

Ntirety Corporate Twitter Account: Ntirety

Database Administration As A Service® is a registered trademark of Ntirety, Inc

VMworld 2012 – Why is this event so special

Well I am sitting in San Francisco right now trying to gather my thoughts about VMworld 2012. It has been non-stop action since I have gotten here. The Hands-On-Labs are running till 10pm at night and people are in there every night. The best Technology conference I have attended in many years.  I make that statement for quite a few reasons.

Sense of Community

There is a sense of community at the VMworld conference that just does not exist anymore at other technology events. Perhaps that could be said of the open source community, but I am not an active part of the community and would not have first hand knowledge. It reminds of the early Oracle conferences I attended going back to  Oracle Version 4 days, when we knew we were part of something special. I would go to the events and people like Bob Miner were attending the events. For those who don’t know who Bob Miner he was one of the founders of Oracle and in many ways the heart and soul of Oracle. He would be waiting in line with the rest of us thirsty for the knowledge that would be shared shortly.

As I attend VMworld I feel that same sense of being part of something special.  This is a technology that is changing the world for the better and its great to be a part of it. To use an Analogy I heard first from Don Sullivan’s at VMware.  When you use your cell phone, do you care what cell tower you are using. Do you even need to know as long as it works? Once you break the chains of the physical world you are now into a whole new world order as it pertains to technology. So this strong sense of community and being part of a technology that is changing the world, as we know is making this a very special event to be part of.

The VMworld community

Everyone I meet is approachable and ready to share information.  This strong sense of community has created a bond that has spread to everyone there. When I attend the events, I feel like I am in a room of like-minded souls.  When I attend the many talks, everyone is respectful of the other technologies that are out there.  I have not seen a talk that pitted itself against Oracles hypervisor. The speakers alwasy take the high road and just talk the facts. It reminds me of the saying “The Truth shall set you free”. They are comfortable with the fact that VMware’s technology stack and capabilities speak for themself. It refreshing, I feel like I am a technology event, not a marketing event designed to assimilate me into the proper way of thinking regardless of the facts. This honest way of thinking extends all the to the local user community known as VMUGS.

VMware – The Company

I can honestly say I like the people at VMware. I like working with them. I like collaborating with them. Everyone I met is dedicated to helping make the customer successful.  Its not the Usual what can do you for me? What have you done for me lately approach? There is a sense of collaboration I have not seen anywhere else in the technology community. I joined a conversation where Don Sullivan was talking to Michael Matthies in support. Telling Don just tell the Oracle DBA’s call us no matter what the issue. Feel free to call us before they call Oracle support. There was this strong sense of commitment to help the customer. The customer comes first. It was so refreshing.  I don’t know any other Billion-dollar company where I can say I like everyone I have interacted with.

So as I attend VMworld 2012 I think to myself I am part of a technology that is changing the world. It feels great to be part of it.

Michael Corey

Founder & CEO, Ntirety

www.ntirety.com 

My Personal Twitter Account: Michael_Corey

Ntirety Corporate Twitter Account: Ntirety

Database Administration As A Service® is a registered trademark of Ntirety, Inc

SQLSaturday #158 - NYC

The NYC SQL Saturday event #158 will be taking place on Saturday August 4th in the Microsoft NYC Office at 1290 Avenue of the Americas.  This much anticipated event features many prominent SQL Server community speakers, MVP’s and vendors, so this is a must-attend event for anyone who works with or is interested in learning more about SQL Server. 

To Quote another Blog I recently read "48 amazing sessions by some of the most respected people in the SQL Server community.  I have my ticket, hope to see you there"

More information on the event and the link to register can be found off of the SQL Saturday website located here. 

SQLSaturday Event Schedule NYC

Track    Starts    Session Title    Speaker
Track 1    08:30 AM    Kickoff / Keynote    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 1    09:00 AM    Microsoft's Big Play for Big Data    Andrew Brust
Track 1    10:15 AM    SQL Server Internals & Architecture    Kevin Kline
Track 1    11:30 AM    Lunch Break    SQLSaturday 158
Track 1    12:30 PM    SQL Azure - What is it and why do I need it?    Scott Klein
Track 1    01:45 PM    SQL Azure Scalability with Federations    Scott Klein
Track 1    03:00 PM    Designing an SSIS Framework    Andy Leonard
Track 1    04:15 PM    Loading the Cloud    Andy Leonard
Track 1    5:30 PM    Closing / Prizes    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 2    08:30 AM    Kickoff / Keynote    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 2    09:00 AM    Performance Tuning SQL Server Integration Services    Brian Knight
Track 2    10:15 AM    Data Cleansing with SSIS 2012    Brian Knight
Track 2    11:30 AM    Lunch Break    SQLSaturday 158
Track 2    12:30 PM    Building Faster SQL Servers    Brent Ozar
Track 2    01:45 PM    Real-Life SQL 2012 Availability Group Deployments    Brent Ozar
Track 2    03:00 PM    What's new in SQL Server 2012 - from A to Z    Kevin Goff
Track 2    04:15 PM    SQL Server 2012 Columnstore index    Kevin Goff
Track 2    5:30 PM    Closing / Prizes    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 3    08:30 AM    Kickoff / Keynote    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 3    09:00 AM    Programming T-SQL Enhancements in SQL Server 2012    Leonard Lobel
Track 3    10:15 AM    Introducing SQL Server Data Tools    Leonard Lobel
Track 3    11:30 AM    Lunch Break    SQLSaturday 158
Track 3    12:30 PM    Much Ado about Indexes - Tips, Tricks and Tuning..    Robert Pearl
Track 3    01:45 PM    Alright,WHY is the server REALLY running so slow!    Steve Simon
Track 3    03:00 PM    But it worked great in Dev! Perfomance for Devs    Randy Knight
Track 3    04:15 PM    What's Buried in the Plan Cache?    Christina Leo
Track 3    5:30 PM    Closing / Prizes    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 4    08:30 AM    Kickoff / Keynote    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 4    09:00 AM    Virtualizing Tier-1 SQL Server Databases On VMware    Michael Corey
Track 4    10:15 AM    Hadoop and its Ecosystem Components in Action    Andrew Brust
Track 4    11:30 AM    Lunch Break    SQLSaturday 158
Track 4    12:30 PM    Moves like Jagger - Upgrading to SQL Server 2012    Mark Broadbent
Track 4    01:45 PM    READPAST & Furious-Transactions.Locking.Isolation.    Mark Broadbent
Track 4    03:00 PM    How Not to Be a Cranky DBA    Mike Hillwig
Track 4    04:15 PM    SQL Server Dos and Don'ts: Keys to DBA Nirvana    Allan Hirt
Track 4    5:30 PM    Closing / Prizes    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 5    08:30 AM    Kickoff / Keynote    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 5    09:00 AM    Replicaton Technologies    Hilary Cotter
Track 5    10:15 AM    Temporal Fact Tables: The Road Less Traveled    Martin Schoombee
Track 5    11:30 AM    Lunch Break    SQLSaturday 158
Track 5    12:30 PM    Get-PowerShell | Get-SQLServer    SB Chatterjee
Track 5    01:45 PM    Real World Integration Services: Excel Spreadsheet    Todd McDermid
Track 5    03:00 PM    Mastering Date-Time Based Analysis in DAX    Dan Clark
Track 5    04:15 PM    Full Text Indexing Basics    John Miner
Track 5    5:30 PM    Closing / Prizes    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 6    08:30 AM    Kickoff / Keynote    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 6    09:00 AM    Without A SQLTrace - Getting To Know Extended Even    AJ Mendo
Track 6    10:15 AM    Seven SQL Agent Jobs You Should be Running    Mike Hillwig
Track 6    11:30 AM    Lunch Break    SQLSaturday 158
Track 6    12:30 PM    Introduction to Data Quality Services    Marc Jellinek
Track 6    01:45 PM    Shred SQL Server XML.    Alex Grinberg
Track 6    03:00 PM    Running SQL Server on Solid State Drives    Linchi Shea
Track 6    04:15 PM    Enriching Applications with SSAS Data Mining    Peter Myers
Track 6    5:30 PM    Closing / Prizes    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 7    08:30 AM    Kickoff / Keynote    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 7    09:00 AM    Writing Faster Stored Procedures and Functions    Andy Novick
Track 7    10:15 AM    I Got Your Back (Up)...    Mark Swofford
Track 7    11:30 AM    Lunch Break    SQLSaturday 158
Track 7    12:30 PM    Team Management Fundamentals    Kevin Kline
Track 7    01:45 PM    Advanced Charting Techniques in SSRS    Jason Thomas
Track 7    03:00 PM    Slowly changing dimensions- an integrated approach    Mark Stacey
Track 7    04:15 PM    SSAS 2012 Tabular vs. Multidimensional    William E. Pearson III
Track 7    5:30 PM    Closing / Prizes    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 8    08:30 AM    Kickoff / Keynote    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday
Track 8    09:00 AM    SQL 2012 Error Handling. Pick your Destiny    Rick Morelan
Track 8    10:15 AM    (SQL,SSIS,MDS) Adv Fuzzy Matching Roll Your Own    Ira Whiteside
Track 8    11:30 AM    Lunch Break    SQLSaturday 158
Track 8    12:30 PM    Creating a Performance Baseline for SQL Server    Ron Johnson
Track 8    01:45 PM    Surviving Your Peak Database Load    Ben DeBow
Track 8    03:00 PM    Know Backups and Know Recovery    Tim Radney
Track 8    04:15 PM    Deploying SQL Server 2012 Multi-site Clusters    Edwin Sarmiento
Track 8    5:30 PM    Closing / Prizes    SQL Saturday SQL Saturday

My Soap Box

These events are a must attend for anyone who is serious about there careers in the SQL Server Community. They feature a full day of free training taught my some of the best in the industry. I have attended a number of these over the years. They are awesome.  My own talk is being co-presented by Jeff Szastak from VMware. One of the true experts on SQL Server within VMware. 

Not only do you get some great tech talk you get to go to one of the greatest cities in the world. On top of that all the speakers are very approachable. I have made a number of good friends at these events over the years. I wish when I was active on the PASS board I had thought of this. I don’t know who did, but who ever did, it’s a truly awesome event.

If you had to pay for this training, it would be priceless. Yet the price of admission is giving up a Saturday.  A very fair tradeoff if you asked my opinion.  Look forward to seeing you there.

My presentation with Jeff Szastak will be on SQLServer and doing it right on VMware.

Michael Corey

Founder & CEO, Ntirety

www.ntirety.com 

My Personal Twitter Account: Michael_Corey

Ntirety Corporate Twitter Account: Ntirety

Database Administration As A Service® is a registered trademark of Ntirety, Inc

Excitement Builds As I Travel To VMware Partner Exchange

Well it’s Friday and I am on my way to VMware Partner Exchange. I am so excited to being heading to the VMware Partner Exchange. Did I tell you how excited I am to be heading to VMware Partner Exchange? The last time I remember being this excited was when I attended my first Oracle Conference in 1984.  Back then I felt like we were changing the database world. Well its clear to me we did. Well VMware is changing the technology field in a big way. Today its quite common to see my clients SQL Server Production Database on a VMware platform. On the Oracle front, that transition is starting is starting to happen fast.

This event is non-stop action. I am not sure I will even have time to enjoy Vegas. For those of you on this blog who don’t know me. I taught all my kids how to play craps by age 10. As I told my wife, who use to give me looks as I was doing it. Craps is a great way to have a child practice math.  I also give blackjack lesson at Ntirety. We even have sponsored some company trips to Mohegan Sun in CT.

For me to tell you I may not have time to gamble. It’s a big thing. Let me share with you my schedule so far……

Virtualizing Oracle

The Virtualizing Oracle is an all day boot camp on Sunday. The Instructors are a dream team of Oracle Expertise and VMware expertise. I know Don Sullivan will be speaking. He has been working with Oracle a very long time. Don also worked for Oracle Corporation for a number of years. He is a very thoughtful person who puts a lot of time and effort to his presentations. I expect that I will learn a lot from Don in the Boot camp. Don Sullivan is also a die hard Yankee’s fan I have come to respect. He knows more about baseball than anyone I know.  Yes I made the mistake of betting him a Steak Dinner over the Super Bowl. Needless to say I lost. I will be eating a lot of humble pie.

George Trujillo will also be presenting. George is a very interesting man who is an awesome presenter.  I recently saw him present at the recent Northeast VMUG meeting. It was held at Patriot Place in Foxboro Massachusetts the home of the New England Patriots football team. The Northeast VMUG meeting had over 1500 people attend. Does that give you a sense of how hot VMware technology is. George has worked for Oracle, MySQL and now VMware. George has so many certifications I could write book on just his credentials. He was Recently up for Oracle ACE Director but was not awarded it. I suspect working for VMware was the reason he did not get it. Given he is one of the smartest technologist I know. Given all his credentials, I am amazed Oracle did not give it to him.

Rumor Has it David Welch from the House of Brick will be speaking. David is a really knowledgeable man when it comes Oracle and VMware. As CEO of Ntirety, I am really Bias. I feel Ntirety has the best Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server expertise in the world. We have people on staff that go back to Oracle version 3. With that said, I have nothing but respect for David Welch and the people at the House of Brick. He has built an excellent team there. I am really looking forward to hearing David speak.

When you put a business critical application like Oracle on a Virtualized platform, its really important you know what you are doing. VMware has amassed some great expertise. These three people are just the tip of the iceberg.  Everyone I have met at VMware has really impressed me on the Oracle side. I am really looking forward to the bootcamp. It has to be this great a team to keep me awayfrom the tables on Sunday. I know it will be.

Virtualizing Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server Saturday Boot Camp  

Being an oracle person, I started with the Oracle boot camp first. I am told the SQL Server team is awesome at VMware. That it’s as strong as the oracle team. So I have really high expectations for Saturday.  Ntirety will have quite a few of its SQL Server DBA’s attending. We are all looking really forward to it.

Virtualizing Business Critical Applications Monday Boot Camp

On Monday I will be attending the Business Critical Applications boot camp. Just any one of these events makes it worthwhile for me to attend the conference. When I think to myself, the conference has not even started and I am getting 3 days of awesome crtical applicartion deep dives. Wow I am blown away. My understanding Robin Liong is the mastermind behind Mondays boot camp. I have worked with Robin on quite a few issues. Robin gets it, he cares and he works hard to make sure VMware is adding value to its partners.  With that said, I have very high expectation for Monday.

As you can see, the boot camps alone are tremendous. Once we realized just how good, they were we decided to send quite a few more people to the conference.

Tuesday on...

Look at this list. I have not even finished choosing yet. When we saw how jammed pack this event was going to be. At Ntirety we decided to send a lot of people here. Virtualization is just too important a technology and this event offers such rich content not to make the investment.

Hands On Labs..

Lab Hours: 


Monday  9:00am - 5:00pm


Tuesday   11:00am – 6:00pm


Wednesday   9:00am – 6:00pm


Thursday   9:00am – 2:00pm

At the last VMware conference I attended. There was a line the entire conference for the hands on labs. Everyone thought they were awesome. All my technical team that was with me, could not get enough of them.

My Advice for VMware Partner Exchange..

My advice is simple. Sign up early for the events you want to attend. Or you will get blocked out. Plan to work really hard all day. But don’t forget to play hard at night. Dont miss out on the boot camps. There is so much happening here, take in as much as you can.

I am Really looking forward to VMware Partner Exchange..

Michael Corey

Founder & CEO, Ntirety

www.ntirety.com 

My Personal Twitter Account: Michael_Corey

Ntirety Corporate Twitter Account: Ntirety

Database Administration As A Service@ is a registered trademark of Ntirety, Inc.

Dreaming of a World With A Virtualized Phone

A few months ago I was talking with a friend, and we were discussing wouldn’t not be great if you could virtualize your cell phone and combine your home phone and your work phone into a single unit. As soon as you left work, you would spin up your home phone virtual image and shut down your work phone virtual image. Or better yet run both phone virtualization images at the same time.

Better yet, when you bought a new phone, you could just migrate the virtual images over to the new phone.  You could even bring it home and do it youself

When your work phone broke, no big deal. you could just migrate the virtual images onto a new phones hypervisor.  Or migrate the virtual image onto your desktop computer for a while. Image what this could do to the price of hardware costs of a phone. When any telecom carrier virtual image could run on any other telecom carrier’s physical device. This could go a long way to driving down the cost of the physical devices.

I could image the hypervisor arguments happening all over again.  Where vendors use terms like our hypervisor is better because our phone uses Paravirtualization. Image the FUD (fear uncertainly doubt) phone vendors could bring to the marketplace. Many phone vendors remind me of bad used car salesman.

VMware and Verizon team up for mobile virtualization by Stacy Higginbotham

Well Michael Ansaldi www.Michaelansaldi.com   sent me a great article by Stacey Higginbotham at

http://gigaom.com/2011/10/18/vmware-and-verizon-team-up-for-mobile-virtualization/

The Article is titled “VMware and Verizon team up for mobile virtualization”.   The article is well worth reading. Here is a sample “VMware has signed deals with Verizon and Telefonica to offer its mobile virtualization products on phones provided by the operators. The net result of this deal is that employees who want tocombine their work phone and their personal phone will soon be able to do so with the aid of the VMware Horizon software on their phones.

As is usual when dealing with mobile operators and corporate IT, some caveats apply. So far only Android devices will work with the Horizon hypervisor with VMware unable to offer the benefits of a hypervisor-enabled virtualization on Apple’s iOS devices including the iPad and iPhone for Verizon.

Well in my office we are always debating which phone is better. The Iphone of the Andriod. This may tip the scales in the favor of the Andriod.

Michael Corey

Founder & CEO, Ntirety

www.ntirety.com 

My Personal Twitter Account: Michael_Corey

Ntirety Corporate Twitter Account: Ntirety

Database Administration As A Service@ is a registered trademark of Ntirety, Inc.

Virtualization Tip: Comparing CPU’s

When working with virtualization technology, its important at times to understand what the physical configuration of the hosts is.  Some of the WOW features of VMware require that you have CPU’s of the same class. This free utility from www.cpuid.com called “CPU-Z” makes this a very easy thing to do.

If you have any other VMWARE tips, feel free to respond to this Blog. 

If you have any other VMWARE tips, feel free to respond to this Blog. 

Michael Corey

Founder & CEO, Ntirety

www.ntirety.com 

My Personal Twitter Account: Michael_Corey

Ntirety Corporate Twitter Account: Ntirety

Database Administration As A Service@ is a registered trademark of Ntirety, Inc.

VMworld Advice For The Newbie

There are only 11 days till Vmworld 2011 starts. For the first time visitor it is very overwhelming. There is just so much to see and do. So I thought I would share with you some things I have learned. Feel free to drop me a note with anything you feel should be added to the list. Since we are a Database Administration as a Service® company, my focus will be on Mission Critical applications in a virtualized environment. Also I am very interested in partner events. So that will be my slant as I travel through this event in 11 days.

 The first Bit of advice I would give. Attend the VMworld session for new attendees. 

New-V Session

Is this your first VMworld, or are you looking for an overview of what to expect during the event? Then don’t miss the special New-V session taking place Monday, August 29 from 8:00am-9:00am. Simply add it to your schedule and meet with your peers while hearing from the VMworld team on what not to miss and how to navigate VMworld 2011. 

So on Monday, Get Up early and attend the event.

Hands-On Labs

There are lots of Hands-on Labs at the event. I counted over 40 different hands-on labs. Here are some of the hands-on labs available...

Monitor and Improve the Performance of Applications in Your Cloud Infrastructure

The Lab Participant engages in a scenario that uses VMware’s next generation Application Performance Management product vFabric AppInsight. The scenario positions the Participant as an Application owner deploying applications on hybrid clouds and dynamic virtual environments. Through the real-world example, the Participant will recognize the value add of vFabric AppInsight and learn how to improve the Application’s service levels (Availability, Performance), time to market and cost.

Reducing Unplanned Downtime in Your Virtual Environment

This Lab engages the participant in solving the problems of Business continuity for applications and management infrastructure. The participant uses vCenter and other vSphere offerings to bring protection to Tier 1 applications at various levels of recovery.

Improve Troubleshooting and Performance Tuning for Your Virtual Environment

This Lab provides Participants with a primer on troubleshooting and configuration using vCenter features; Performance Metric Dashboard Screens, Alarms, and Advance Chart Options. The Participant will be presented with scenarios that require the resolution of Memory, Storage, Networking and CPU issues; focusing on our latest basic feature sets.

Core Platform - Performance & Scalability: Storage Optimizations

The Participant is submerged in a real-world scenario where the use of new vSphere features to optimize the storage performance of VMs provides a tailored solution The Participant will use VMware Orchestrator, Storage I/O control, Storage DRS and Profile-Driven Storage to build solutions for the situations presented.

The Labs last one hour typically. They are very popular at the event.  They als offer certifiication Quickstarts. If you are planning on getting certified, there are a no-brainer. 

Certification Quickstarts

Here is a sample of certification quickstarts...

VMware Certification Quickstarts: VCP5

VMworld has several activities planned to help you prepare for the VMware Advanced Certifications as well as the newly released VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 5 (VCP5). Along with free education, there will be special 50% off discounts available to VMworld attendees, free prep materials, give-aways and more. Attend one of the Certification Quickstarts or stop by the Certification Lounge (Room 305) or the VMware booth to learn everything you need to know about VMware Education and Certification and receive your special exam discounts.

Get The Mobile Application

This will give you real time access to your schedule. So if you see something you want to attend, you can add it to you schedule immediately. 

Use the VMworld mobile application to check and modify your personal schedule, browse session information, search exhibitors and speakers, complete session surveys, and receive the latest conference news. The application is synced to email stations throughout the venues and is compatible with iPhone, BlackBerry, and all other smartphones. Visit www.vmworld.com/mobile on your phone for the mobile application. 

Join the VMUG while you are at the Conference

Joining the VMUG is a no brainer. The VMUG stands for VMware Users Group. Attending local meetings will really help you fully realize your VMware investment. The VMware advantage program is one of the best kept secrets. Funny part its no secret. Through VMware Advantage you will gets access to lots of special discounts, etc.

Join VMUG in the Solution Exchange, Booth #865

It’s a great opportunity to: 

·     Network with your follow VMUG members
·     Meet the VMUG Board and local VMUG leaders
·     Learn more about member benefits 

Check out our countdown on Twitter, and see what member activities we have in store by following the hashtag #VMUG.

Purchase Your VMUG Advantage at a Discount 

VMUG Advantage is a member-only benefit that provides customers with discounts on VMware training, certification and Workstation and Fusion licensing. VMUG is offering a special pricing, savings up to 15%, for VMworld registrants. Sign up for VMUG Advantage today using one of the codes below: 

• Individual package: $170 USD – Code: VMworld1
• Corporate package with 2 users: $165 USD per user – Code: VMworld2
• Corporate package with 3+ users: $160 USD per user – Code: VMworld3

WAKE UP VERY IMPORTANT

Dont miss this....

Along with free education, there will be special 50% off discounts available to VMworld attendees, free prep materials, give-aways and more. Attend one of the Certification Quickstarts or stop by the Certification Lounge (Room 305) or the VMware booth to learn everything you need to know about VMware Education and Certification and receive your special exam discounts.

Very Important to Sign Up Early For Events

If you dont register for an event, you wont get in. So sign up as realy as possible. This is just the tip of the iceberg as you can see. Look forward to seeing you there in 11 days.

Michael Corey

Founder & CEO, Ntirety

www.ntirety.com 

My Personal Twitter Account: Michael_Corey

Ntirety Corporate Twitter Account: Ntirety

Database Administration As A Service@ is a registered trademark of Ntirety, Inc.