TL;DR Yesterday morning (Monday 25th) I took the VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) 6.5 - Data Center Virtualization (DCV) Design Exam (3V0-624) at my local approved Pearson Vue Exam Centre. I’m disappointed with the score but I managed a pass. What this pass does mean, is that I also get the shiny new VMware Certified Implementation Expert 6.5 – Data Center Virtualization (VCIX-DCV) digital badge!
Exam Preparation
I have been putting this exam off for the last 12 months due to various reasons. That meant, apart from a few hours the day before, I did little or no real study for this exam. In fact I tried to move the exam on Sunday (for the 6th time) but was too late to do so. This meant I had no choice, I could either become a #**NoShow **or just take it. I have never purposefully been a #NoShow, so I decided to suck it up and just take it. The benefit being that I was using one of the free exam vouchers I had from VMware following some issues with other VCAP exams in 2018. So I wasn’t going to be out of pocket.
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 26, 2019.
#WreckingCrewReunited
Today I was lucky enough to be able to present to a capacity crowd at the North East VMUG . There was an #EPIC line up that included the #WreckingCrewReunited Duncan Epping , Frank Denneman and Rawlinson Rivera #NoPressure. Presenting other community sessions along with me were Gareth Edwards (on Terraform) and Jorge del la Cruz (on Monitoring vSphere with opensource tools). We also heard from Kev Johnson around upgrading to vSphere 6.7.
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 7, 2019.
Reflecting on 2018…
Family
The highest of highs this year was the arrival of son 2.0 in May. The little one was 2 weeks early but arrived (relatively) safe and sound!
Health
Anyone who follows me on social media channels will probably know the end of 2017 and the start of 2018 wasn’t very good for me health-wise. This continued into 2018 with the side effects of #sepsis have stuck around a lot longer than I expected. Recurring chest infections and multiple courses of antibiotics have taken their toll and I have had a continual cough that doesn’t seem to want to go. I have recently, however, been given the all clear from the Doctors and I’m ready to get back.
Written by Christopher Lewis on January 1, 2019.
In the beginning there was Code..
Like the previous 2 years, the first thing in my calendar, once I had registered and it was available on the Schedule Builder for VMworld Europe. was the VMware {Code} #Hackathon.
This year was a little different because the organising team (which didn’t seem to include Alan Renouf or William Lam), used HackerEarth to organise the event.
The Venue & Food
This year, the** #Hackathon **organisers took us to a new venue. I personally really liked the venue for the previous 2 years, Valkiria Hub Space , but I must say the new venue, Esferic , more than delivered!
Written by Christopher Lewis on December 15, 2018.
TL;DR - I’m going to be joining VMware as a Senior Cloud Management Specialist Systems Engineer in February 2019. #BeyondExcited
From humble beginnings…
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Lao Tzu
My IT career started whilst still studying for my final year at University working for a major UK retail bank. I was happy there but not really fulfilled. Within 5 years I was TUPE’d into a large Service Provider. On day one, I remember the team being told by our new boss that we shouldn’t get any “grand ideas” about moving around the company because our skill-sets were not transferable outside the bank. That comment was taken with a pinch of salt and within a year, I got promoted from a** Lead Technical Specialist** to become a** Solutions Architect** (jumping 2 grades in the process). Six months later I was on a different account and I never looked back.
Written by Christopher Lewis on December 11, 2018.
At this years VMworld Europe Hackathon, I was a part of Team #PowerVKE, founding members:
- Chris Porter ( @uprightvinyl ) (Team Leader)
- Christopher Lewis ( @thecloudxpert )
- Dave Simpson ( @bfd_diplomacy )
- Stephen Hackers ( @StephenHackers )
- Tony Cota ( @VMXBandit )
- Colin Westwater ( @cwestwater )
- Dominik Zorgnotti ( @DominikZ )
Team PowerVKE (Image courtesy of @StephenHackers)
Written by Christopher Lewis on November 27, 2018.
Barcelona Hackathon PKS PowerVKE VMware VMworld VMworld 2018
VMworld 2018 started quickly for me. After taking the 10:20 BA Flight from Heathrow I landed at ~13:30 local time. I had just enough time to drop the bags at the hotel before heading to the #vRetreat. We were being hosted by Patrick Redknap and sponsored by Cohesity .
#vRetreat
This was my first experience of the #vRetreat concept and I wasn’t disappointed. The session was given by Cohesity’s charismatic CTO - Global Field, Rawlinson Rivera ( @punchingclouds ) who talked both about their current portfolio and Vision.
Written by Christopher Lewis on November 8, 2018.
Barcelona Cohesity VMware VMworld VMworld 2018 VMworld2018 vRetreat
#vRockstar
For me, this event marks the official #vCommunity start of “VMworld week” in Barcelona. This was my third year at the pre-VMworld party, vRockstar. As usual, the event was oversubscribed and sold out in record time weeks in advance. With another change in location this year, the event was held at the Obama English Pub/Grill ( https://obamabcn.com/ ). The venue was nice albeit a little smaller than the previous venues, the staff were nice and the food was awesome (once it had arrived). There were, however, times it did feel a little claustrophobic (mainly because of the amount of people trying to get to the bar…).
Written by Christopher Lewis on November 7, 2018.
This year I was lucky enough to be given a #vExpert blogger pass to the VMworld 2018 Europe event in Barcelona. This will be my third year in a row!
#AchievementUnlocked #vExpert #Blogger #VMworld2018 pic.twitter.com/4ry8Mog0yj
— Christopher Lewis (@thecloudxpert) November 5, 2018
Posts
Here is a list of all my planned posts of the event:
Keep checking back for this and more content!
Written by Christopher Lewis on November 7, 2018.
Just a short one for this post.
Read all about my views on VMware Cloud on AWS (VMConAWS) in this new article .
TL:DR Version
VMConAWS is an #awesome joint proposition from VMware and AWS but like with most Public Cloud Platforms/Services, it isn’t without its barriers to adoption. However, we have to remember that the service is in initial availability so therefore it is expected that the service may have some limitations and options that are not available right now.
Written by Christopher Lewis on October 17, 2018.
- Operating a Private Cloud - Part 3: Creating a Pricing Card in VMware Aria Automation
- Operating a Private Cloud - Part 2: Creating a Pricing Card in VMware Aria Operations
- Operating a Private Cloud - Part 1: Understanding Pricing Cards in VMware Aria
- Zero2Hero - Using Aria Automation to Deploy Multiple Machines with Multiple Disks - Part 5
- Zero2Hero - Using Aria Automation to Deploy Multiple Machines with Multiple Disks - Part 4