Today we will be releasing the remainder of the Hands-on Labs that were delivered this year at VMworld.  These labs are a great mix of hyper-converged solutions, NSX management, Cloud Native Applications and Partner integration with NSX and Horizon.

Starting at the top of the list, we have labs from Palo Alto Networks and Check Point and how they integrate with NSX.  Both of these labs focus on the benefits and enhancements to NSX that both Partners bring.

We have updated the Virtual Volumes and Storage Policy Based Management lab.  It now includes lessons on working with Nimble Storage and some of the new capabilities, like array based replication of Virtual Volumes in vSphere 6.5.

The VxRail lab has also been upgraded to show some additional features, like Storage Policy Based Management and troubleshooting hard drive failures.  In addition, there are also use case lessons on upgrading and shutting down the VxRail appliance.

vRealize Network Insight has been refreshed and now includes a lesson on managing security for public clouds and in this case, focuses on AWS.  vRealize Network Insight traffic monitoring gives you visibility in to native AWS constructs like Virtual Private Clouds, Virtual Machines, Security Groups and more.  This means that you will be able to plan micro-segmentation and understand traffic patterns using data collected from your AWS instances.

Next are the Cloud Native Application labs.  The first lab, PhotonOS and Container Basics – Getting Started, is designed more for a vSphere Administrator to see how valuable containers really are.  The vSphere Integrated Containers – Getting Started lab focuses goes in to more detail on how to setup and use vSphere Integrated Containers.  It also shows addition products like Admiral for container management and Harbor as an enterprise class registry server for Docker.  We round things out with the final lab, Kubernetes – Getting Started.  The lab starts with an introduction to Kuebernetes, but it also offers a deep-dive that shows how to manipulate an application via the CLI.  The final lesson focuses on a great use case where you will deploy a multi-tier application, upgrade to a newer version and roll back the upgrade, all with zero downtime.

Last but not least on the list is an updated Horizon 7 and F5 integration lab.  The lab has been updated to show how the F5 BIG-IP solution integrated with Horizon 7, AppVolumes, and Identity Manager.

Well, that’s all we have for now and want to thank you for sticking with us this past week.  Be sure to keep checking back, as you never know what surprises may be in store!

Today is one of my favorite release days!  We are not only releasing the Challenge labs, but also the vSphere Performance Diagnostics and Benchmarking lab.

For those of you that unfamiliar with the Challenge lab series, we have worked on these labs alongside our Global Support Services team.  These are the people that provide awesome support for our products when you need it.  We gathered a list of potential pitfalls that they receive calls on most often and built scenarios around them in a lab.  It is then up to you to resolve that issue, almost a we break it, you fix it lab!  However, not all the challenge labs follow this model.  Some offer what we refer to as “Day 2” operations, meaning the product is installed, but there may be a need to build a dashboard for vRealize Operations, configure a virtual network in NSX or encrypt a virtual machine in vSAN.  These labs offer fun challenges, but also educate you on tasks you may need to perform or issues you may encounter in the future in your own environment.  With the Challenge labs, you will be prepared!

We have refreshed the challenge labs this year and have also added a new one for you all to try out!  Ever since we released the first Challenge lab for vSphere a couple of years ago, we have been asked when there would be one for NSX.  Your wish has been granted and I am happy to announce its release today!

The vSphere Performance Diagnostics and Benchmarking lab is also being released.  This is one of my favorite labs and has weathered the test of time.  It has always been a top lab since I’ve been involved in the Hands-on Labs the past 8 years and every year, it is refreshed with relevant content.  The lab still provides an overview of the basic concepts and how to troubleshoot CPU, Memory, Disk and Networking, but new this year is an overview of Weathervane, VMware’s performance benchmarking tool, right-sizing virtual machines for optimal performance and testing database performance.

There are only a few days left before we have released the entire catalog for this year.  Stay tuned, more great labs are on the way!