Once again, we had another record breaking year at VMworld US.  We have a bit more time this year between VMworld US and VMworld Europe and thought we could fill that time by releasing the new labs!

As we prepare to get the latest labs out to you, 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 this week.  With VMworld Europe in November this year, we wanted to get these out sooner rather than later so you all could enjoy all the great new content!

As the new labs in the 2019 catalog get released, their 2018 counterparts will be placed in the HOL Archives catalog. The catalog can be found at the bottom of the list.  The catalog titles have stayed the same, with one exception.  The Horizon, Horizon Cloud and Workspace ONE content is moving from the Application and Desktop Virtualization to the Virtualized Workspace Services.

One thing to note is that once the 2018 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 2018 catalog.  As we release the 2019 labs, if the 2018 version is pretty much identical content, we will be retiring those labs immediately.  The exception is if the manual has been localized in other languages, we will keep the 2018 lab in the HOL Archives catalog until we have a localized version for the new 2019 manual.  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 2019 labs prior to that date!

Finally, to help you find the lab replacing the 2018 SKU, you can use the HOL 2018 to 2019 Lab Listing PDF.  For the most part, the 2019 SKU lined up to identical content that was in the 2018 SKU.  For example, HOL-1803-SDC-01 (NSX) has been updated and replaced with HOL-1903-01-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 couple weeks as we work to get this new content out to you!

Hi folks,

We are excited about announcing our first ever Global Raffle Contest – A FREE Trip to VMworld 2018! The contest starts April 18th and ends May 24th. We will be announcing the winner here on our Blog so please stay tuned.

What is the catch?

Nothing. We are running this raffle contest to show our appreciation to our global Hands-on Labs users. We also think it would be nice to have an extra set of hands helping us during VMworld (just kidding not required but happy to give the winner our special Hands-on Labs behind the scenes Super VIP Tour)

Be sure to take any of qualifying freshly minted Hands-on Labs and more info.

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions:

What will VMware pay for?

VMware will pay for your Airfare, Hotel, Conference Pass and Airfare up to $5,000 USD. You are responsible to follow your organizations and local laws, taxes, visa, passport and all other travel requirements. Please be sure to read the Terms and Conditions and be sure to obey your local contest laws.

What if I am already attending VMworld can I transfer the prize to my friend or colleague?

Yes. You will have 3 business days to declare the new winner and the new winner will need to be approved by VMware.

Will VMware pay for additional travel expenses?

VMware will cover Airfare, Hotel and a Full Conference Pass (up to $5K USD)

Is the contest for VMworld US and VMworld EMEA ?

Yes you pick your destination but as long as the cost is under $5K USD.

As we return from a record breaking VMworld Europe in Barcelona, I wanted to take a minute to talk about some of the new catalogs you will be seeing in the Hands-on Lab Online Portal in the coming weeks as we start to release the new labs.

This year we have over 80 new labs in the 2017 Hands-on Labs Catalog and based on feedback we received from you, our users, we still needed a better way to break up the content in the catalog listings to make things easier to find.  For example, we have 44 labs in the Software Defined Data Center catalog.  Searching through that catalog and trying to find the bit of content you are looking for can be a daunting task!  For those that are not familiar with what the catalog structure looks like today, here is how we have things laid out.

We have four main catalogs, SDDC, Hybrid Cloud, Mobility and Challenge.  There is a fifth catalog, Focus Labs, we populate with the latest and most popular labs.  You can start to see the difficulty in finding 80+ labs in only four very generic catalogs.

We tested the new catalog listings at VMworld and from the feedback we received from attendees, it made finding labs around specific products or features much easier.  So here are the new catalogs and what contents you may expect to find in them:

I also wanted to share a couple of additional tips that may come in handy.  The first is the search feature.  You can use the search box to find a lab by SKU (i.e. HOL-1810-01-SDC) or by product or keyword.  Be sure to click the ‘ALL LABS’ link first, so your search will be across all the catalogs.

In this example, after clicking on the ALL LABS link, I searched for ‘firewall’.  This will bring up any labs that include the term ‘firewall’ in the lab title, description or module listing.  This can also be used to search for product names, like NSX or a lab SKU.

If you have taken a lab and would like to find other labs that are based on the same product, you can use the ‘Lab Details’ section.

In the Products section, you will see the major products featured in the lab.  Click on the product you are interested in and you will be shown all the other labs that include that product.  By clicking on vRealize Log Insight, I’m given this listing of labs:

When you find a lab that interests you, just click on the link and you will be brought right to the lab details page for the lab, where you can enroll to take the lab.

That’s all for now, but stay tuned for updates!  The new labs will be here before you know it!