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Category Archives: VMware

The CloudCred, HOL Great Labs Game is heading to Barcelona!

The CloudCred, Hands-On Labs Great Labs Game is packing up for Barcelona – and it’s just as big as ever!

Where is CloudCred at VMworld Europe?

You know where to find CloudCred at VMworld – in the Hands-On Labs venue! This year, we are right inside the door, so be sure to make a quick stop and say hello.

How do I play The Great Labs Game?

1. Come in. Take your labs, take your workshops, take advantage of the over 80 brand new Self-Paced Labs or (if you fancy a bit of person-to-person instruction) 30+ Expert-Led Workshops. It’s an incredibly valuable use of your time – and this year find 45 additional seats in the labs, so getting in is even easier!

2. Once you’ve finished with your labs and workshops – the FUN BEGINS. Score your CloudCred points for EVERY lab and workshop. Follow the QR code at the end of your lab or session for CloudCred points points points! And points lead to BIG PRIZES!!

What can I win?

Every day, Monday – Thursday

From the Top 10 on the CloudCred Labs World Leaderboard:

One (1) Winner scores a GoPro Hero 6 – Black!

Thursday, about 2pm

From all the Overall VMworld Labs Badge Winners:

One (1) Winner scores a DJI Spark Drone & Controller (yeah!)
One (1) Winner scores an Apple Watch Sport (yeeaaahhh!!)
And one (1) Winner scores a Beats Studio 3 Wireless Headset, Shadow Gray (goodness!)

Nice. What else?

Get a SLICE OF RASPBERRY PI!

Three (3) lucky folk every day will be selected at random to win a Raspberry Pi. Just come in a take those labs. If your body is in a seat, you could win. It’s that easy.

Code Coin – Am I able to earn any in The Great Labs Game?

Yes!

Labs attendees can earn 25 Code Coins for up to four labs taken, and 50 additional Coins by completing select CloudCred tasks. Code Coins can be spent on lattes & more in the VMTN Communities Lounge.

This is Amazing!

We think so, too – and that’s NOT ALL!

Lightning Labs – The perfect way to end your day

Want to take a Self-Paced Lab but without the time commitment of the usual lab? Come by on your way out each afternoon, and find our featured – shorter, Lightning Labs!

Lightning Labs are only available in the last two hours of labs operations daily.

Lightning Labs participants will be entered to win an Oculus Go 3D VR Headset every day! Complete a Lightning Lab – and you’re entered to WIN.

See You Soon.

Swing in to the Hands-On Labs for the CloudCred Great Labs Game! It’s always a fantastic time – because of players like you!

VMUG Virtual EUC Event & CloudCred Competition

Join the VMUG Virtual EUC Explore September Event this Thursday, September 27 – 9am – 3pm CT, designed to connect IT professionals, who use or have interest in EUC solutions, to industry experts from VMware, EUC vendors, and community members.

Plus, take advantage of the fun at CloudCredibility.com as you earn the VMUG Virtual EUC 2018 Badge and your chance at some sweet prizes!

First:
Sign up to play at CloudCredibility.com This process is incredibly easy.

Next:
Register From all verified event registrants, one will be selected at random to WIN an Amazon Echo Dot.

Then:
Complete the CloudCred event tasks to earn the VMUG Virtual EUC Badge.

Once your badge is complete – you’ll be entered to WIN this Grand Prize! Two lucky winners will receive a $50 Amazon Gift Card.

Don’t miss this VMUG virtual event to take a technical deep dive into all of the EUC products released by VMware and their partners all while connecting with the experts that will help you design, engineer and implement solutions that work.

Topics include:

Troubleshooting your Horizon 7 deployment
Moving to a Digital Workspace with Workspace ONE
JMP: The easy button for delivering & managing virtual desktops & apps
Enhanced IOS management, from on-boarding to updating management & more

Keynote Speaker: Brian Madden

So sign up now (JOIN CloudCred here) and get in the game. Pre-event tasks are live, so play today. See you there!

The CloudCred, HOL Great Labs Game – VMworld 2018

The CloudCred, Hands-On Labs Great Labs Game is heading to VMworld – and it’s bigger and better than ever!

Where is CloudCred at VMworld?

You know where to find CloudCred at VMworld – in the Hands-On Labs venue! This year, we are right inside the door, so be sure to make a quick stop and say hello.

How do I play The Great Labs Game?

1. Come in. Take your labs, take your workshops, take advantage of the over 80 brand new Self-Paced Labs or (if you fancy a bit of person-to-person instruction) over 50 Expert-Led Workshops. It’s an incredibly valuable use of your time – and this year find 45 additional seats in the labs, so getting in is even easier!

What can I win?

Every day, Sunday – Wednesday

From the Top 10 on the CloudCred Labs World Leaderboard:

One (1) Winner scores a GoPro Hero 6 – Black!

Thursday, about 2pm

From all the Overall VMworld Labs Badge Winners:

One (1) Winner scores a Parrot Drone & Controller (yeah!)
One (1) Winner scores an Apple Watch Sport (yeeaaahhh!!)
And one (1) Winner scores an iPhone 7+ (goodness!)

Nice. What else?

Get a SLICE OF RASPBERRY PI!

Three (3) lucky folk every day will be selected at random to win a Raspberry Pi. Just come in a take those labs. If your body is in a seat, you could win. It’s that easy.

Code Coin – Am I able to earn any in The Great Labs Game?

Yes!

This is Amazing!

We think so, too – and that’s NOT ALL!

Lightning Labs – The perfect way to end your day

Want to take a Self-Paced Lab but without the time commitment of the usual lab? Come by on your way out each afternoon, and find our featured – shorter, Lightning Labs!

Lightning Labs are only available in the last two hours of labs operations daily.

Lightning Labs participants will be entered to win an Oculus Go 3D VR Headset every day! Complete a Lightning Lab – and you’re entered to WIN.

See You Soon.

Swing in to the Hands-On Labs for the CloudCred Great Labs Game! It’s always a fantastic time – because of players like you!

Home Lab – vSphere I

The new Home Lab – vSphere I Badge is now available at CloudCredibility.com!
Get ready to roll up your sleeves!

This new badge set of tasks is one that you won’t want to miss.

The Home Labs Badge Series, beginning with vSphere I, will challenge CloudCred players to expand their own home lab knowledge and perform hands-on tasks within vSphere – not simply answer questions.

You’ll learn everything from vSphere 6.7 installation to creating integrated containers and many other features such as:

Deploying an ESXi Host;
Installing a vCenter Server;
Mounting Datastores using ISCSI Targets;
Enabling VM Encryption; and much more.

Complete the badge between Monday, August 6^th, 2018 and Wednesday, August 29^th, 2018 to win either a Raspberry Pi Starter Kit or one of two Amazon Echo Dots!

First:
You’ve got to sign up to play at CloudCredibility.com
That’s the easy part! Establishing CloudCred takes serious work.

Next:
Complete the CloudCred tasks to earn the Home Lab – vSphere I Badge!

Complete the badge by August 29^th, 2018 for a chance to win a Raspberry Pi Starter Kit or one of two Amazon Echo Dots!

Winners will be selected at random from all players completing the badge.

Everyone loves a good CloudCred challenge – especially one with great prizes, too! Head over to CloudCred and get started on the badge now!

Congratulations to VMTN Community Warrior, @continuum!

Submit a nomination for the next VMTN Community Warrior. This program will continue to recognize users who commit time and energy to engaging with peers in the VMTN community. Learn more.

Congratulations to VMware Technology Network’s newest Community Warrior, @continuum for being a beneficial contributor to our community. We are truly thankful for everything you do to help the VMTN community.

Learn a little bit more about @continuum…

Which VMware communities are you involved in?

I started with Workstation as I had no access to ESX compatible hardware until about 2008.
Later I got quite involved in the Converter forum – I even developed a LiveCD for Coldclones when VMware decided to discontinue their own version. Nowadays I rather search for recovery related posts in all forums. Even if I miss a post myself – other community members tell folks to contact me directly when they post any recovery topics.

What is the most difficult thread you’ve addressed on VMTN?

The most difficult thread I ever addressed in VMTN was the challenge to run VMware Workstation on top of a Windows LiveCD. Normally VMware Workstation requires a user-account to run on Windows but a Windows LiveCD only uses one SYSTEM account only.
So everybody I asked about this said it is impossible. One and a half year and countless hours later I finally was able to solve the problem and I could celebrate one of the happiest victories of my live. The next few years I offered a construction kit for a Windows LiveCD with VMware Workstation on my website and had lots of happy users.

What is the most rewarding thread you’ve addressed on VMTN?

The most rewarding thread I ever encountered in VMTN was the request to recover some vmdks from an unreadable VMFS-volume. That thread was in 2007 or 2008 if I remember right.
After some weeks of work I discovered an approach to recover lost vmdks after a VMFS-corruption. Later I added more work into this approach and got better and better the more cases I looked into. 3 years later I lost my boring factory job and thanks to this rare skill set I was able to find a new job for a german VMware Partner Company. Nowadays I run my own small business and offer VMware recovery support to world wide customers.

Are you working on any projects you think the VMTN community would be interested in? (book, blog, etc)
Yes – I maintain a Linux LiveCD that I use to assist users with remote support when they run into problems with VMFS-corruption. Unfortunately major changes in ESXi 6 and later make this even trickier as before and I am trying to keep up to date with the latest changes. This LiveCD is available on my site www.vm-sickbay.com. Unfortunately I don’t have enough time to keep this site up to date. At the moment I have a lot of research to do to keep up with the latest changes in the ESXi-product.

Anyway – I still offer my support in all VMTN posts that are somehow related to my recovery skills.

How do you work with VMware day-to-day?

I offer recovery support for VMware customers. So typically I scan VMTN for any questions in my area and if required I get in contact with those users and fix their problems. Another part of my time goes into research as the VMFS-filesystem and all the related recovery topics are only poorly documented – if they are documented at all. I used to work for a german VMware partner for a couple of years – but that company was not interested in my recovery work so I decided to try my luck as a freelancer.

How can people follow/get in touch (Twitter,etc)?
Nowadays I rarely use my twitter account @sanbarrow.
But I actively monitor my skype account “sanbarrow” and answer all questions related to any recovery problems.

Thanks @continuum!

Do you see someone frequently answering questions in your favorite forums? Did someone provide support to you recently at a VMUG or over Twitter? Any community involvement counts. Head to the Community Warrior page to nominate a user, or email jenniferg@vmware.com.

It’s time to play! #CloudCred, VMUG Virtual JUNE

Everyone loves a good virtual event – especially one with great prizes, too!
So, join the upcoming VMUG Virtual JUNE Event

Thursday, June 7 – 9am – 5pm CT and compete to win at CloudCredibility.com.

First:
Sign up to play at CloudCredibility.com This process is incredibly easy.

Next:
Register From all verified event registrants, two will be selected at random to WIN an Amazon Echo Dot.

Then:
Complete the CloudCred event tasks to earn the Virtual JUNE Badge

Once your badge is complete – you’ll be entered to WIN this Grand Prize!

Don’t miss this VMUG virtual event to explore the latest in NSX management, and take a deep-dive into vCloud and vSphere. Plus, you’ll find an entire crew of VMware experts who are ready to share their knowledge & help you succeed!

Topics include:

Apple in the Enterprise Business; What’s New with vRealize Operations; Deep Dive – Security in vSphere; Introduction to Cloud-Native Technologies – what are containers and why should we care?; and many more.

Keynote Speaker: Duncan Epping

So sign up now (JOIN CloudCred here) and get in the game. Pre-event tasks are live, so play today. See you there!

Play & Win: #CloudCred vForum Online April Event

We’re at it again! Play & Win in the #CloudCred vForum Online April Event

The vForum Online April Event is right around the corner.

Join Wednesday, April 18, 2018 9-2:30pm PDT; 12-5:30 EDT and compete to win at CloudCredibility.com.

➡Sign up & Play at CloudCredibility.com

Signing up is painless!

➡ Complete the CloudCred event tasks to earn the vForum Online April Badge.

Once you’ve earned the badge – you’ll be entered to win one of these three Grand Prizes!

Beats Powerbeats2 Wireless In-ear Headphones

Beats Pro Wired Over-ear Headphones

Jawbone Big Jambox

Don’t miss this vForum Online April virtual event to find out how professionals like you are driving digital transformation and building hyper-converged IT infrastructures that

Modernize Data Centers
Integrate Public Clouds
Transform Networks and Security
& Secure Digital Workspaces

Need more reasons to attend?

Find 20 technical breakout sessions
Chat live with our experts in IT automation, public cloud integration, security across boundaries, and digital workspace deployment
Learn the new capabilities with 10 VMware Hands-On Labs

Keynote Speaker: Pat Gelsinger

So sign up now (JOIN CloudCred here) and get in the game. Pre-event tasks are live, so don’t be left behind. See you there!

Join, Play, Win: #CloudCred, VMUG Virtual March

Don’t miss the upcoming VMUG Virtual March Event

Thursday, March 29 – 9am – 3pm CST and compete to win at CloudCredibility.com.

➡Sign up & Play at CloudCredibility.com

Signing up is the easy part! Establishing CloudCred takes serious work.

➡Complete the CloudCred event tasks to earn the Virtual March Badge

Once your badge is complete – you’ll be entered to win one of these three Grand Prizes!

Roku Ultra | 4K/HDR/HD streaming player

The Rollings Stones vinyl collection –The London Years

Goose Island Beer Brewing Starter Kit

Don’t miss this VMUG virtual event to find out how the Cloud impacts your job at all levels and technologies.

Topics included:

VMware Cloud on AWS; Virtual Desktops in the Cloud; Extending your infrastructure into the Cloud; Security and the Cloud; Community Sessions, and more.

Keynote Speaker: Frank Denneman

So sign up now (JOIN CloudCred here) and get in the game. Pre-event tasks are live, so don’t be left behind. See you there!

vExpert 2018 Award Announcement

First we would like to say thank you to everyone who applied for the 2018 vExpert program. I’m pleased to announce the list of 2018 vExperts. Each of these vExperts have demonstrated significant contributions to the community and a willingness to share their expertise with others. Contributing is not always blogging or Twitter as there are many public speakers, book authors, CloudCred task writers, script writers, VMUG leaders, VMTN community moderators and internal champions among this group.

I want to personally thank everyone who applied and point out that a “vExpert” is not a technical certification or even a general measure of VMware expertise. The judges selected people who were particularly engaged with their community and who had developed a substantial personal platform of influence in those communities. If you feel like you were not selected in error, that’s entirely possible.

The judges may have overlooked or misinterpreted what you wrote in your application. Email us at vexpert@vmware.com and we can discuss your situation as well as provide feedback and guidance on what you can do to receive the award. We looked at all of the 2017 activities to determine the voting results. We will open the second half 2018 applications around May / June which will only allow for two voting periods this year.

If you were selected as a vExpert 2018, we will be conducting the on-boarding throughout the next few weeks so hold tight and expect future communication from us soon. Congratulations to all the vExperts, new and returning and we’re looking forward to working with you.

Head to the official vExpert Directory on the new vExpert App and Command + F away and find your name if you can’t wait for the welcome email. The 2018 vExpert email with access to the vExpert private community will go out shortly.

Thank You,

The VMware Social Media & Community Team

Discover VMware Technology Network: 5 Ways to Gain Points

This is the second blog in a series. See the first blog here: VMTN Global Forums

The foundation of VMware Technology Network is peer-to-peer support and engagement. Community is powered by human connection – the warm feeling of helping another person and the satisfaction of collaborating to solve a problem.

And then there’s the added bonus to participation, the cherry on top, gaining points. The happiness when your answer is marked correct and you can almost hear the points adding up. A little competition to spice things up never hurts, right?

If competition is something you thrive on, and you went to get onto the Weekly, or All-time communities leaderboard, I’m here to help. These are the 5 ways you can gain points on communities:

Correct Answer – 10 Points. Having an answer marked as correct is the most efficient way to gain points quickly. Set yourself up for success:
- Take advantage of the Browse feature to identify unanswered questions.
- Opt-in to Follow communities you are interested in so you get email notifications when new discussions are posted.
- Bookmark your favorite communities so they are always accessible
  .
Helpful Answer – 6 Points. If you know a partial answer to a question, or a resource that might shed some light, go ahead and post it. An answer doesn’t have to be perfect, a user can mark your response as helpful and you still receive points.
Reply to an Answer – 1 Point. Sometimes you will answer a question and the user will forget to mark it correct. It happens! Sometimes, you have posted a questions and are politely responding with a comment like, “thanks for posting, this was helpful.” Engagement is always rewarded. As a contributor, you will receive 1 point for taking the time to reply to a question.

Create a Document – 1 Point. Did you write a white paper, case study, or a study guide around a VMware product or solution? Post it on communities. Not only are you sharing your knowledge, helping others, and expanding your clout, you gain a point for doing so.

Create a BlogPost – 1 Point. If you don’t host a personal blog, but have something to say, post a blog to your community profile. This is low maintenance blogging, where you’ll receive views, but have very little up-keep. If you do host a blog, post an abstract and a link to your blog on communities. The community’s audience wants to read the technical content being written. Plus, every blog you post gains you a point.

While utilizing these 5 methods, keep in mind that as a community member, one must give to receive. Be sure to always mark answers correct or helpful on your queries, like other user’s status updates, and respond to questions. Visit communities to start gaining points now!

For further information on status/badge levels, gaining points, and gamification visit the Community Rewards Points System FAQ or email the VMTN Community Manager, katieb@vmware.com.