At the beginning of this month, VMware announced a new resource center to help users with the vSphere 6.5 upgrade. They call it “vSphere Central” and we call it cool-new-free toys to play with! VMware is providing all this content to help users better understand what vSphere is, what it can do, and how to upgrade from version 5.5 or 6.
The first tool to be released is called the “vSphere 6.5 Topology and Upgrade Planning Tool.”
This tool is “focused on the most common upgrade paths and deployments of vCenter Server 6.5.” So far, the UX is simple and easy to use. It kind of feels like pick-your-own-adventure with less chance of ending up stuck in some cave. Once you reach the end, the content can then be sent to your email, your boss’s email, and/or your celebrity crush’s email for reference.
While this is the first tool in the vSphere Central, VMWorld kicks-off next week. We are expecting more tools to be announced or hinted at. (Insider tip, we found out that you can access some of the courses from VMWorld 2016 on-demand here.) With over 398 courses dedicated to vSphere during VMWorld 2017, it’s safe to say that this is a hot topic around the globe. We sat down with our resident VMware expert, Vince Rightley, to discuss the current climate of vSphere courses and certifications.
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Transcript of video:
Hi, Vince Rightley of StormWind Studios. As you can see, I’m actually in the corporate office. I spent the week out here. It was great seeing everybody. A couple of things as I was walking around, I got lots of questions about what’s going on with the new vSphere 6.5 class. Then another one was on certification, and I wanted to talk a little bit about those two things.
Let’s talk about the first thing, certification. Everybody wants to talk about certification. VMware for the first time actually introduced a dot revision, so there is a VCP 6.5 that was announced at the beginning of April, which is new. I’ve been VCP all the way back to Version 3, and there’s never been a dot 5 or an incremental VCP. This is something new for VMware that they’re doing.
What are the requirements? There are still two exams required to get your VCP, be it a Version 6 or a 6.5. The two exams are the Foundation exam, and this is where it gets a little bit interesting. You can take either the vSphere 6 Foundation exam, or you can take the 6.5 Foundation exam for either certification. When you get to the Professional exam, that second elective exam, you must take either the 6 or the 6.5, depending upon which certification you’re actually trying to get.
As far as the requirements for a course, you are still required to sit for an authorized VMware class, either the vSphere ICM 6, or you can sit for the vSphere ICM 6.5 class. Depending upon which certification you want to get, you will need to sit for the appropriate class. We offer both of those classes at this particular time.
Let’s talk about the differences between the 6 and the 6.5 class. The 6.5 class is actually laid out the best of any class that I’ve actually taught from VMware, all the way, again, back to the 3.x days. It’s laid out in a fashion where you actually do the installation of ESXi, so if you’ve not seen that process, as well as installing and configuring the vCenter Server Appliance, the new photon-based appliance to manage your infrastructure. Then we go through, and we do the storage, and we’ll talk about networking, so it does flow how you would actually build it from the ground up. Then if you’ve already got your environment laid out, and you just want to talk about managing, that’s the second half of the class is where we’re going to be talking managing, or prioritizing workloads, and how do we do all of that.
The 6.5 class does offer some instruction, and we introduce some of the new features that are part of 6.5. There is no vSphere client. The old, thick C-Sharp client in 6.5, so we’ve got some new clients that we’re going to be dealing with. We introduce those, you get a chance to use those, as well as some of the new functionality within DRS and HA. We describe that, as well.
Some new features, as far as which one should I take, as far as I’m running a 6 in my environment. Should I really take a 6.5 class? It’s similar content. The 6.5 class is actually laid out better, from a flow perspective, and it does have some of the new features that you will probably be implementing at a later time. Either one, but I would personally, from a flow perspective and getting to know the product itself, I’d probably look at the 6.5 class.
Again, I want to thank everybody for the great week, and if you have any questions, please feel free to let me know. Have a great day.
