There are only a few more days until we have released the new labs for this year!  Today’s release will be focused on some of the cloud based offerings and solutions in VMware’s portfolio.  These labs include everything from hosting your own desktops in the cloud to helping Telco providers run elastic, cross-cloud services.

The first lab, HOL-1856-01-ADV – VMware Horizon Cloud – Getting Started, walks you through setting up your own desktop as a service on Horizon Cloud and helps you understand the differences between running an on-premise solution.  You will also see how to integrate Horizon Cloud with User Environment Manager and Workspace ONE

I was fascinated by the next lab, HOL-1881-01-HBD – VMware HCX – Getting Started with Cross-Cloud Mobility and includes the solution to what I believe a lot of Customers have been or will be looking for.  This lab illustrates how to move applications across data centers, whether they are in your private or public cloud.  It also includes a look at protecting your applications with site to site disaster recovery and how to design secure networks and the tools you need to move workloads to the public cloud.

If you are part of the VMware Cloud Provider Program (formerly vCloud Air Network), you will want to a look at HOL-1883-01-HBD.  This lab provides an introduction to vCloud Director and how it interacts with vSAN, vRealize Operations and vRealize Log Insight.  It also covers two new tools, Usage Meter and vCloud Availability.  Usage Meter assists Services Providers in metering usage of VMware products for monthly billing.  vCloud Availability helps customers protect their on-premise vSphere environments with replication and recovery to Public Cloud.

Would you like to run your own Hands-on Labs or are you just curious about how it all works, then you should take a look at HOL-1885-01-EMT – VMware Learning Platform – Deliver Your Own Hands-on Labs.   This is also a great lab for those that are looking for a tool to integrate with their current Learning Management System.  In the lab you will get an idea of what it takes to deliver the labs to you, our users.  The lab also shows how it can be used in an Instructor-led environment and the ability to grade a student’s work in a lab.

The last series of labs, HOL-1886, focus on VMware vCloud Network Functions Virtualization with a Getting Started and an Advanced topics lab.  VMware vCloud Network Functions Virtualization is a platform geared towards the telecommunications industry.  In the Getting Started lab, you will follow the end-to-end lifecycle of vCloud Network Functions Virtualization, along with our partners Athonet and Cloudify.  The Advanced Topics lab covers integration with VMware Integrated OpenStack and deploying Metaswitch.

Thank you for sticking with us as we are down to the last few days.  We’ll be back tomorrow with more great labs for you!

We had another record breaking year at VMworld US last week and are on our way to VMworld Europe for next week’s show, which will hopefully be just as exciting!  We debuted lots of new content and we cannot wait to share it with you.

As we prepare to get the latest labs out to you after VMworld, we want to make sure you are prepared for what’s to come. The process is what we have done in year’s past and we will start rolling out the labs after VMworld Europe.  Since VMworld Europe is a month earlier this year, that means we will be delivering the labs that much sooner to you!

As the new labs in the 2018 catalog get released, their 2017 counterparts will be placed in the HOL Archives catalog. The catalog can be found at the bottom of the list.  We will also be restructuring the catalog listings, very similar to what we are using at VMworld, to make things easier to find.  More details to come in the next post.

One thing to note is that once the 2017 labs are placed in the archive catalog, you will likely need to wait a bit longer for your lab to start and make sure the Lab Status indicates ‘Ready’ in green before proceeding with your lab.

As a reminder, in order to make room for all this great new content, we will have to retire the 2017 catalog and that will happen on December 1st, 2017.  For those of you that may be planning to use our HOL-in-a-Box service for upcoming events, make sure you keep those dates in mind and transition any events to the 2018 labs prior to that date!

Finally, to help you find the lab replacing the 2017 SKU, you can use the HOL 2017 to 2018 Lab Listing PDF.  For the most part, the 2018 SKU lined up to identical content that was in the 2017 SKU.  For example, HOL-1703-SDC-01 (NSX) has been updated and replaced with HOL-1803-01-NET.  In cases where there was no direct match, you can review the Notes column to see where the content is now or if it has been removed.

Stay tuned over the next few weeks for further updates on some of the changes we have implemented this year and to see which labs are released!

As we wind things down, I wanted to do a special release of labs created by our Partners showcasing how their solutions integrate with VMware.  This year, we had four labs created by EMC, Palo Alto, Dell and NetApp.  These Partner did a fantastic job working the same late hours our own VMware staff did creating this awesome content.

These labs focus on how their storage or networking solutions compliment NSX, Virtual SAN, Virtual Volumes, vRealize Automation, and even stretched clusters.

I believe that wraps things up!  A big thank you to our staff (VMware and Partners) that helped create this content for you.  Now on to VMworld Europe in Barcelona!

Today the Hands-on Lab team is excited to announce a new Hands-on Lab, the EVO:RAIL Challenge lab.  The lab is designed to challenge your ability to configure, deploy and scale EVO:RAIL.  This is the first of many challenge based labs to come.  These labs are not only designed to challenge your skills, but also highlight some of the most common misconfigurations and help you be prepared in real world situations.

In the EVO:RAIL Challenge lab, you will be faced with three challenges and have 60 minutes to complete them.  The first challenge is to fix the configuration of a new EVO:RAIL appliance that is preventing it from being deployed.  As a hint, be sure to review the included documentation in the lab for guidance.  The second challenge is to deploy a virtual machine and then clone it.  This is a pretty straight forward task and there is no trickery involved.  The final challenge is to scale out your existing EVO:RAIL deployment by adding an additional appliance.  The main goal of this task is get you thinking about your initial EVO:RAIL deployment and how proper planning in the design stage is key.

If this wasn’t exciting enough, you can also earn Cloud Credibility points for taking the lab.  If you aren’t familiar with Cloud Credibility, it is a game that’s lets you broaden your professional network and earn rewards and certifications.  You earn points by learning and showing your knowledge about all things cloud related.  With the points you earn, you can turn them into fantastic prizes!  For more information and to sign up for a CloudCred account, you can visit the Cloud Credibility site.

I wanted to thank Mike Laverick and Judy Snow for sharing their knowledge on EVO:RAIL and assisting with the challenges.  It gave me some wonderful insight into EVO:RAIL and this lab wouldn’t have been possible without their assistance.  Also, a thank you to Noell Grier for her coordination in making this a CloudCred task.  And lastly to all the VMware employees who devoted time in testing this.  Your insight helped make this what I believe to be a truly awesome lab!

If you are ready to accept the challenge and test your EVO:RAIL skills, the direct link to the lab is here or you can find it in the new Challenge catalog entry in the Hands-on Lab portal.

Enjoy your lab!

Everything is awesome with the release of today’s new labs!   Like Legos, we’ve pieced together a collection of Mobility, Networking, Operations and Automation labs to make a great set.

HOL-SDC-1401 – Cloud Management with vRealize Operations – The lab has been updated to include content from all aspects of the vRealize Operations Suite including vRealize Operations, vRealize Configuration Manager, vRealize Infrastructure Navigator and the NSX Management Pack.

HOL-SDC-1402 – vSphere Distributed Switch from A to Z – With lab, you will learn the basics and advanced virtual network configuration options using the vSphere Distributed Switch.

HOL-SDC-1407 – VMware Automation Solutions – If you are interested in PowerCLI, vCenter Orchestrator or Autodeploy, you will want to review this lab.  There is some great content showing you the basics of PowerCLI and how to automate Virtual SAN, both beginners and advanced usage of vCenter Orchestrator and how to automate your vSphere Host deployments using Auto Deploy.

HOL-SDC-1423 – vCloud Suite Basic Networking – This lab highlights networking in the vCloud Suite.  After learning the networking basics in the vCloud Suite, you’ll walk through VXLAN configuration and how to use Edge Services for securing your environment.

HOL-MBL-1451 – Horizon 6 with View from A to Z – This lab includes everything you need to know about Horizon 6 with View and has modules focused on Virtual SAN, optimization, troubleshooting and working with SSL certification.

HOL-MBL-1453 – VMware Workspace Portal – Explore and Deploy – This lab gives you the opportunity to explore the Workspace Portal with modules covering ThinApp and SaaS integration, working with SSL certificates and Kerberos SSO, creating a HA cluster and upgrading from v1.8.2 to v2.1.

Stay with us as we finish up the release of the labs.   Tomorrow we will have some great Partner created content!

When you see the group of labs we have for you today, you will vRealize you’re in heaven, My Blue Heaven!  Three of the labs have been updated to the latest release of the vRealize Suite of products.  The Big Data Extensions and VMware Development Tools and SDKs labs have been updated to include new content.

HOL-SDC-1406 – vCloud Suite 101 – Perfect for anyone wanting an introduction to the vCloud Suite, this lab has been updated to include the latest vRealize Operations and Automation releases.

HOL-SDC-1409 – vSphere Big Data Extensions – Interested in learning more about Big Data and how vSphere can deploy highly available Hadoop clusters in minutes?  See all of that and more in this lab.

HOL-SDC-1421 – Brokering IT Services and Applications with vCloud Automation Center – This is another lab that has been a crowd pleaser and has been updated to include the latest versions of vRealize Automation, ApSync, vRealize Business, and NSX.  Once you’ve gotten the basics of vRealize Automation down with HOL-SDC-1406, this is the perfect lab to gain more in-depth knowledge on vRealize Automation. #module8!

HOL-SDC-1422 – VMware Development Tools and SDKs – This is an introductory lab that will get you up and running building cloud infrastructure solutions with VMware’s development tools and SDKs.  The developer tools and libraries in this lab have been updated to the latest version.

HOL-SDC-1426 – Log Insight in the Real World! –  In this lab you will see how Log Insight can be used to troubleshoot common issues.  It has been updated to the latest release of vRealize Operations and vRealize Insight.

Happy Friday the 13^th everyone and be sure to check in next week for the next round of releases!

After an exciting Partner Exchange in San Francisco last week, we are pleased to announce the labs utilized for the event will be released over the next two weeks to the public Hands-on Labs portal.  There is not only refreshed content coming, but also a couple of labs that will make a first time appearance!

Today, we have released four new labs, two of which showcase announcements VMware made last week around vSphere 6 and Virtual SAN 6.  Find your special purpose and take one today!

• HOL-SDC-1408 – The Introduction to Virtual SAN 101 lab has been renamed to What’s New with Virtual SAN 6.  This lab is now backed by vSphere 6 and highlights some of the new features in Virtual SAN 6.
• HOL-SDC-1410 – The previous Introduction to Virtualization 101 has been renamed to What’s New with vSphere 6.  This lab is also backed by vSphere 6 and highlights some of the new features.
• HOL-SDC-1428 – The VMware EVO:RAIL Introduction lab has been rewritten and includes additional content around Auto Discovery, Software Updates and Node Replacement.
• HOL-MBL-1452 – The Horizon 6 with View – Use Cases lab has been updated to include a guided tour of AppVolumes.

As a reminder, if you are just interested in reviewing the lab manual, you can view the HTML version of the manual or download a copy of it in PDF format from our Document site.

That’s it for today, but be sure to follow us on twitter (@VMwareHOL) or check back here over the next two weeks as the news labs are released!

Partner Exchange 2015 Attendees,

You will be able to earn extra Sales Rewards Points by taking End User Computing Hands-on Labs during VMware Partner Exchange 2015. The process is simple – just come in to the Hands-on Labs in Moscone West during Partner Exchange and take any lab from the End User Computing Hands-on Lab catalog for your free points. Your points will be added up and credited to your profile after the event.

• VTSP-DV (v6) + Hands on Labs (HOL v6) = 500 sales rewards points.

• Exclusive rewards for accredited VMware Partner Sales and Technical Professionals

The VMware Sales Rewards program rewards accredited sales and technical partner reps for completing sales and training activities.The more you sell and train, the more you earn! To learn more visit www.vmware.com/go/salesrewards/video