WMworld Europe 2013 – Day 3 and Recap
Sam McGeown
Last night was the VMworld party which was loads of fun, I took some pictures so I won’t write loads! Highlights include watching people fall over on the roller disco, losing to @shogan85 at street fighter (he has some skills showing a misspent youth) and a rather amusing game of spot the difference.
#vcm5477 Cloud Service Automation with NSX and vCloud Automation Center with Cargi Keeling and Phil Fleischer
This was one of the most technically cool sessions I’ve been in this week, setting how vCAC and NSX come together to deploy multi tiered applications with the networks provisioned on demand, including firewalls and routing. There’s no doubt this is a very exciting hook up, I wonder how many network teams will be happy to see it deployed. That’s going to be an uphill battle.
#vsvc1005-gd - PowerCLI Group Discussion with Alan Renouf
I was keen to attend this one just to meet Alan - I’ve done a little bit of work on vCheck over the last few months and I wanted to meet him in person. The session itself was a well structured discussion, with contributions from a lot of attendees and a well orchestrated by a very knowledgeable host in Alan who gauged the technical level of the attendees very well and moved quickly into more advanced discussions. It was really useful to hear how other people are implementing PowerCLI scripts in their environments, and also to hear of some really cool VMware Flings coming out soon - one of which will allow PowerCLI in the vSphere Web Client.
Final thoughts
These final thoughts are really advice for me to remember for next time, but might be helpful for other newbies! If you have some veteran advice, feel free to comment and I’ll update the list:
- Don’t over-book your sessions - I found 2 sessions a day was more than enough to digest - the content is meaty and it’s going to take processing. They’re all available afterwards anyway! If you’re doing it right, you’ll get just as much out of the networking, which leads me neatly to my next point.
- Network. I’m not the most outgoing of people and it doesn’t come naturally to me, but you have to just introduce yourself to people. I can’t emphasize enough how much you will get out of chatting with the really, really smart people who are your peers. If you see a big name, go say “hi!” - I’ve not met anyone yet who isn’t a really friendly, nice guy.
- Wear comfortable shoes - you’ll be walking and standing a lot! I wore my New Balance Minimus barefoot running shoes and was really comfortable - you don’t want shoes that are going to be too warm either.
- Drink loads of water - not just coffee, or coke, or any other fizzy drink they provide - drink the water too. There are several reasons for this, you will be talking a lot and the whole center is air conditioned - this dehydrates you. I found after day 1 I was losing my voice - if this happens avoid caffeine and very cold water (stick some in your bag to warm it up!)
- If you don’t *need* it, leave it at the hotel. You’re carrying your bag all day, and it’s going to be heavy!
- Have a go at the hands on labs, but remember that they’re all available after VMworld and you could well find something more productive to do.
- Consider taking an exam - especially if there’s a 75% discount as there was this year. There were also the VCA exams introduced as a pre-cursor to VCPs. I found being immersed in the VMworld environment was actually condusive to good recall as you’re immersed in it. Just don’t party the night before.
- Relax at the parties - but don’t drink too much! I know, I sound like your mum - but if you’re hanging the next day, you’re not going to get much out of it!