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I have finally gotten around to creating some videos of PowerGUI in action when managing a VMware infrastructure.  This extends my primer on getting started with PowerShell and PowerGUI.  I have created 5 new videos that are best viewed in the following order:

1. Establishing Connections to your VMware Infrastructure using the PowerGUI Console
2. Navigate your VMware Infrastructure using the PowerGUI Console
3. Execute Links and Actions in the PowerGUI Console
4. Create and Save Filters using the PowerGUI Console
5. Using the PowerGUI Script Editor

After promising that we would start the delivery of free PDF's by the end of January, I've finally received the source files and have immediately posted the first 4 free chapters on this site.  We quickly realized that the size of the book was quite cumbersome for those that wanted to carry it around.  We've listened to you guys and will be providing the whole book for free over the coming months.  Once we have provided all chapters as individual downloads, I'll put up a few PDF files that contain Book 1, Book 2, and one that is the whole darn thing.

 

For the first time since I started working for an ISV around virtualization, one of my independent submissions has been approved for a VMworld event.  I do not know the exact time and date of my session just yet, but as the schedule is finalized, be sure to look for my session titled: Avoiding Pitfalls: The Hidden Costs of Managing your VMware Infrastructure. A summary of the presentation is below.  As with all presentations I give, I add quite a bit of real-life experience and detail into helping others avoid the mistakes I had to uncover the hard way!

Avoiding Pitfalls: The Hidden Costs of Managing your VMware Infrastructure

Server virtualization has brought significant efficiencies to IT operations, but at the cost of new challenges in monitoring the health of running virtual machines, analyzing data, alerting staff in case of a problem, and performing administrative tasks. These challenges are growing as virtualization takes an increasingly central role in IT. System administrators are investing more time and effort into ensuring the proper operation and health of VMs, yet lack tools comparable to those available for physical servers. Join Scott Herold, Lead Architect for Virtualization Solutions, at Quest Software who reveals how the growing complexity and lack of resources necessitate changing the way IT operations are commonly performed. Key takeaways include:

• Understanding server workloads and better identifying virtualization candidates
• Addressing the challenges of monitoring the virtual infrastructure
• Reduce internal fire-fighting by adopting more mature operational processes
• Prioritizing issues based on the impact to the business and on end users
• Reducing administration costs through proactive management and automation

We released another update to the PowerGUI PowerPack for VMware last night, bringing the current version to 2.1.  This new release has several key fixes included.

• Performance improvements when loading Datacenter and Cluster objects
• New Hybrid Node structure to view top level VI objects without having to navigate through each connection individually
• Fixed the links that display the ESX Host log files
• Full support for the VMware VI Toolkit v1.5
• Reintroduced VMotion link for virtual machines