This is a pretty simple tutorial (or so i thought), but I didn't see anything out on the interwebs, so i figured I would write one down. Gabe has a great walkthrough

The VMware View Security Server should be one of the final pieces you ever install during your VMware View implementation. I have found Paul Slager's blog an invaluable how-to resource on all installation and best practice configurations for View. He has a 10 part series install guide that will walk you through all the steps with screenshots. Nice job Paul.

Paul also has a great tutorial on installing the VMware View Security Server for a production business environment. It talks about making sure the VMs are PCoIP ready, what firewall ports need to be open, etc.

The one thing missing is how can all this be done on a home lab environment? With the help of Dynamic DNS (DDNS) and router port-forwarding, it's actually very simple.

It goes without saying that many of my readers are very familiar with Duncan Epping (yellow-bricks.com) and Frank Denneman (frankdenneman.nl). I'm also sure everyone is fully aware they have released 2 deep dive books in the past 2 years that have consistently received 5 star reviews. 11/28 is Cyber Monday in the US which means many websites are having great deals on their products. Frank and Duncan have stepped up and are now selling their books for 50% off!! Heck, even at $10, the book was a steal, now at $5, you don't have a reason to not purchase a book.

I completed reading the vSphere Deep Dive on Clustering as it relates to vSphere 5 and my mind was overloaded. It's a great book that really gets very deep on particular subjects. I would encourage anyone that is studying for their VCDX or VCAP exams that it's a must read. It's also great for any VCP'er that wants to go deeper on the subjects you work with daily.

Over the past two days I've been experimenting with Windows Guests and vCloud Director. If you didn't know, I updated my VM Advanced ISO with the correct syntax for vCloud cells so you can begin the guest customization process inside of a RHEL VM even faster. Please refer to KB 1026313 for installation.

After your vCloud cell is done being configured for sysprep, you are given a very limited Guest Customization option within vCloud and doesn't take advantage of vCenters Customization Specification Manager by being able to keep completed wizards. It's like having to re-build the wheel over and over. One thing to note, after you add a Windows VM to a vApp from catalog, the Enable Guest Customization checkbox will proceed by default if you don't take care of this before hand.

For instance, if I start creating a vApp, I go through the usual routine and I'm never prompted for any Sysprep or guest os customization work.

PHD Virtual today announced the availability of PHD Virtual Backup and Replication version 5.3. This release further extends PHD’s footprint into Citrix XenServer virtual environments.

PHD Virtual Backup and Replication version 5.3 includes the following new features and capabilities:

The flood gates have opened and the information is all starting to trickle out. First with the vSphere 5 announcement, along side the vCloud Director 1.5 announcement.

Many know that one of the big pain points for vCD 1.0 was the fact that an Oracle database has to be used. vCD 1.5 has relieved us of that constraint and now allows Microsoft SQL Server to be a target database. I'm going to show you how to correctly configure Microsoft SQL Server 2008 to be used with vCloud Director 1.5

*UPDATE 2/19/12*

READ THE COMPLETE GUIDE - How To Install VMware vCloud Director 1.5 From Beginning to End

i know it's 2 days late but I had to show you the craziness. So this isn't a virtulization or technology related post, but I wanted to show you the fun I have during Halloween.

You know how some neighborhoods go crazy with christmas lights? Well, out whole street goes nuts over halloween. If you've been following me on twitter, you would know over the past year I've been spending months building new Halloween props. It's a fun hobby I have now... We show off our yard during the whole month of October so we get to enjoy it for a while. This year it took me about 18-20 hours of total setup time for the whole front yard. It's going to take me the same amount of time to take it all down and put it away as well. Without further ado, let's just show you some pictures so you can see for yourself.

The first photo album is my yard and the second photo album is my neighborhood October 31st. We had over 3500+ trick or treaters, so you can imagine I'm still worn out. I hope everyone had a great Halloween.

Lat night I joined Damien Karlson on the professionalvmware.com brownbag session. The topic I covered was an overview of vCloud Networking Basics and then talking about the design considerations to remember when creating these networks.

This was my first design topic on vCloud and I think it went over very well. Everything from this podcast was a product of my own findings and I'm happy the way it turned out. I'm by no means a vCloud expert so I appreciate any feedback, comments, and corrections.

Thanks everyone that joined and I hope when you watch this presentation it's valuable. You can download the slide deck below (with all my speaking points in the comments section of each slide) or preview it below. You can also watch the recorded video webcast below as well.

**Update**

There will be new tools added to the presentation that weren't even seen in VEGAS! So come catch the most updated presentation!

Didn't make it to VMworld in Vegas? Bummed you won't be seeing #CIM1940 in Copenhagen? No problem! David Davis and I have been graciously invited by Xangati to do a world-wide webinar on October 26th! This webinar will be an encore presentation of #CIM1940; The Top 10 Free Tools for vSphere in 2011! This is your chance to watch one of the highest rated sessions from VMworld 2010 and to see everything that was new in 2011. If you weren't able to make it to our session in Vegas, then this is your chance to watch it and see what you missed.

If you happened to catch our session at VMworld, you would know that we don't just show 10 tools, it's probably closer to 30. We give credit where credit is due for all the members of the VMware Community that dedicate time and effort into producing all these free tools. This session appeals to every person who has an interest in vSphere. We will talk about some of the free tools that beginners and novices can use that are easy out-the-box solutions and we will discuss some of the tools that require a bit of CLI work that appeal to those experts out there. We scoured hidden corners of the web to bring you the greatest content available. So come one and all to see the "greatest webinar on earth"!

I can guarantee that you will come back armed with more knowledge than you expected because this isn't a single product pitch, heck, it's not a product pitch at all. This is a webinar focused on giving vSphere admins what they want, knowledge to overcome obstacles in every day situations.

Here are some of the responses we received from our session in Vegas at VMworld 2011:

• "Best little gems, can't wait to try them out!"
• "Even better than last year, best session for the whole week"
• "One of the best presentations I attended. Had actual usable content instead of a sales pitch."
• "One of the best sessions I attended"

We have to thank Xangati for sponsoring this WebEx because it wouldn't be possible without them. So show them some love too.