As we finalize the last of the labs to be released to the Hands-on Lab’s Online portal, I wanted to take a minute and acknowledge all the hard work and dedication from our Partners that went into creating these labs.   If you are not familiar with our Partner labs, they are created by VMware Partner to showcase their solutions and how they integrate with VMware.  I encourage you to take one of these labs today!

There is a lot of work involved in creating these labs and would not have been successful without the guidance of Jon Schulz (@njonschulz) and David D’Entremont (@daviddentremont).   They acted as a liaison between the Partners creating the labs and the VMware Hands-on Labs Core team.  They were instrumental in making these labs a success.

This is the complete list of Partner Labs that were released to the Hands-on Labs Online portal and are available for you to take:

HOL-PRT-1461 – Policy Based Storage Management with EMC ViPR and VMware Integrations – This lab gives hands-on experience on how EMC ViPR with VMware integrations can deliver Policy Based Storage Management which decrease steps in provisioning and managing storage.

HOL-PRT-1462 – Virtualized Data Center Security: VMware NSX and Palo Alto Networks Next Generation Virtual Firewall – In this lab, learn how to configure the Palo Alto Networks virtualized next-generation firewall VM-1000-HV with VMware NSX to protect VM to VM communications from todays advanced threats.

HOL-PRT-1463 – vCenter Operations Management Pack for Oracle Enterprise Manager – Learn how to get the most out of your data contained in Oracle Enterprise Manager using vCenter Operations Manager.

HOL-PRT-1464 – Secure your SDDC built on VMware NSX & vSphere with Symantec Data Center Security: Server – Symantec Data Center Security: Server leverages NSX Service Composer and Security Groups to automate orchestration and provisioning of security policies for virtual workloads running on vSphere.

HOL-PRT-1465 – Atlantis USX Data Services and VSAN: Software-defined Storage Infrastructure for Tier-1 Apps – Get hands-on experience with Atlantis USX: Deliver dramatically higher-performance for your production workloads, VDI, and tier 1 apps at a fraction of the capacity and cost.

HOL-PRT-1466 – Bridge the gap between Virtualization and IT Service Management – This lab walks through the usage of BMC Remedy ITSM and BMC Atrium CMDB plugins for vCenter Orchestrator.

HOL-PRT-1467 – Virtual Volume with Dell EqualLogic – In this lab, you will learn more about Virtual Volumes and how they integrate with Dell EqualLogic Storage.

HOL-PRT-1468 – Automating your cloud with vCloud Automation Center 6.0 and the Infoblox vCO IPAM Plug-in – This Lab shows you how to automate IP Address assignment and DNS registration so that this critical process does not slow the deployment of your Cloud.

HOL-PRT-1469 – Puppet Labs – Automating Your Virtual Datacenter with Puppet Enterprise – Puppet Enterprise enables IT teams to automate VM lifecycle management and scale services quickly, reliably, and efficiently.

HOL-PRT-1470 - Deploy HP Software-Defined Storage with OneView for vCenter, Troubleshoot performance with HP StoreFront Analytics for vCOps.

HOL-PRT-1471 – NetApp VSC and VASA for Clustered Data ONTAP – Policy-Based Mgmt & VVOLs Tech Preview – This lab will focus on highlighting the latest innovations for storage provisioning and management from NetApp.

HOL-PRT-1472 – Juniper Virtual Security for the Enterprise and Service Provider Environment – This lab will show you how to secure and operate a software defined datacenter with Juniper’s virtual security capabilities for your Enterprise or Service Provider environment.

If you are a Partner and have an idea for a Hands-on Lab based on your solution, you can submit that idea to the Hands-on Labs Idea Registry:

www.vmware.com/go/holidea

These ideas will parsed by our team and presented to the appropriate Business Unit as we review this year’s plan for labs.

That’s all for now and it’s time to start working on the next cycle of labs for you to enjoy!

For those of you in the United States, Happy President’s Day!  If a day off means more time for you to take Hands-on Labs, we have five new ones to try.  The set we are releasing today are based on VMware’s IT Outcomes.  The IT Outcomes labs will show you how VMware Solutions can help your organization go beyond providing just basic services and how IT can solidify their role as a strategic partner.  For a really neat infographic on how you can archive high value using IT Outcomes, take a peak here.

HOL-SDC-1405 – IT Outcomes – High Availability and Resilient Infrastructure – Learn how to reduce downtime and increase availability for your applications and services with Site Recovery Manager.

HOL-SDC-1412 – IT Outcomes Data Center Virtualization and Standardization – See how to extend the traditional benefits of vSphere and extend it further into your Software Defined Data Center using Virtual SAN and NSX for vSphere.

HOL-SDC-1413 – IT Outcomes – App and Infrastructure Deliver Automation – With vRealize Automation, you can reduce the time to delivery for applications and infrastructure using automated provisioning and policy-based governance throughout the service delivery lifecycle.

HOL-SDC-1415 – IT Outcomes – Security Controls Native to Infrastructure – Learn how several VMware technologies work together to implement policy-based network control, configuration and compliance management, and intelligent operations management.

HOL-SDC-1416 – IT Outcomes – Streamlined and Automated Data Center Operations – See how the vRealize Suite can help you manage your Business Critical Applications such as Microsoft SQL and Exchange.  You will see how to monitor and gauge the capacity and performance Business Critical Applications in the Private or Hybrid Cloud.

We’ll be back tomorrow with another new set of labs!

On today’s menu, along with Mixed Nuts, we have the vCloud Air labs along with Horizon Air and ThinApp.  Like dancing with Philip, these labs will make you feel all fuzzy, like dancing on a cloud!

HOL-HBD-1481 – vCloud Air – Jump Start for vSphere Admins – This is a great lab to bring you up to speed on how to connect your existing vSphere environment to vCloud Air.  It covers creating a VM in vCloud Air, along with administering your vCloud Air instance from within the vSphere Web Client and covers basic Networking and Security.

HOL-HBD-1482 – vCloud Air – Networking and Security – This lab offers advanced content around Networking and Security in vCloud Air.  It covers IP Address Portability between Datacenters and vCloud Air and tiering applications across both.

HOL-HBD-1483 – vCloud Air – Manage Your Cloud – If you’d like to get a better understanding on how to manage vCloud Air, this lab covers vRealize Operations, vCloud Connector and how you can utilize PowerCLI to automate resource management.

HOL-MBL-1454 - Applied ThinApp – Capture and Deploy Packages – The lab has been rebuilt and you will learn more about what’s new in ThinApp.next, how to build ThinApp packages and discover the tools available for updating and managing packages.

HOL-MBL-1456 – Horizon Air – Explore and Deploy – This lab introduces Horizon Air, VMware’s Desktop as a Service offering.  You will learn more about the offering and provision and manage your own desktops.

Check back tomorrow or as Trevor would say, you’ll vRealize you missed out on something big!

Today we have four new labs that will really get your cerebral cortex tingling.  The labs we have for you are around vSphere Performance, Atlantis USX with Virtual SAN, and NSX, both an Introduction and Advanced lab.  So until Dr. Hfuhruhurr can find a way to keep the brains of brilliant men alive in the bodies of dumb people, take a lab!  It will make you smarter!

HOL-SDC-1404 – vSphere Performance Optimization – This has always been one of the most popular labs and has content for both the beginner and the advanced vSphere Administrator.  You can learn more about the basics of vSphere Performance or delve into esxtop, or vNUMA.

HOL-PRT-1465 – Atlantis USX and VMware VSAN: Software-defined Storage for Tier-1 Applications – This lab comes from one of our Partners, Atlantis Computing.  It has been updated to show more integration with Virtual SAN, including Fast Clone and Teleport.

HOL-SDC-1403 – VMware NSX Introduction – This lab has also been one of the top labs and has been updated to the latest release of NSX.  As the title indicates, it’s a great way to get introduced to the fundamentals of logical switching and routing, distributed firewalls, and edge services gateway in NSX.

HOL-SDC-1425 – VMware NSX Advanced – Once you understand the fundamentals of NSX, why not challenge yourself with more advanced topics like DHCP Relay, Scaling out L3, L2 VPN and how NSX integrates with our Partners TrendMicro and Riverbed.

Stay tuned!  There are some exciting things in the vCloud Air tomorrow!

You are in for a real treat today as we continue to release the second set of new and updated labs!  We have two brand new labs that were created just for Partner Exchange in San Francisco and three additional ones with updated content available for you.  These were some of the top performers at Partner Exchange and now with their release to our Hands-on Labs Public Portal, they are sure to be in-famous!

HOL-SDC-1420 – VMware Integrated OpenStack and NSX – This lab has been updated with VMware Integrated OpenStack.  In this lab, you will explore managing vSphere and NSX with VIO.

HOL-SDC-1427 – VMware Software Defined Storage Solution for the Enterprise – Updated to include Virtual Volumes provider content.  It’s a great lab to learn about Storage Policy Based Management Virtual SAN and Virtual Volumes.

HOL-SDC-1429 – Virtual Volumes – With the announcement of vSphere 6 and Virtual Volumes, this lab has been updated to the latest build of vSphere 6.  It gives you a closer look at Virtual Volumes and provides content to get you more familiar with the concepts and data path workflows.

HOL-SDC-1430 – Docker Essentials for the vSphere Admin – This is a new lab first released at Partner Exchange in San Francisco last week.  It is designed to introduce Docker and DevOps in general to the vSphere Administrator.

HOL-SDC-1431 – vSphere Optimization Assessment – This is the second new lab being released and shows how vRealize Operations can be used to optimize your vSphere environment.

That’s it for today!  Until next time, adiós mis amigos!