I thought I’d put some notes up of my study and any other resources that I come across, what you may find handy is who, where and how much has it cost to take this course; information that wasn’t clear until I liaised with HP.

The course is under HP Education and payment can be made by:

Credit Card, Cheque, TrainingPack, CarePack ID or the option I have opted for; “Customer Account No.”

Price ex GST% was $3000.00 which course goes over 4 days in a classroom format, lunch is provided and approx class time is 7.5-8hrs per day.

Note. VMWare Education Services makes mention of Training Credits.. more info

I am doing my course in Brisbane, QLD Australia using the company:

Venue: CTS

LEVEL 6, 288 EDWARD STREET

BRISBANE  QLD

If you plan on needing some accommodation The Treasury Brisbane Hotel is a short walk to CTS on Edward St, about 11 minutes walk (approx 800 meters)

A site I have found interesting with some good reading is Virtualised Reality here

Summary of VMWare Course: HH627S

Format: Classroom

Length: 4 Days

Overview

This hands-on training course explores installation, configuration, and management of VMware® vSphere™, which consists of VMware ESXi/ESX™ and VMware vCenter™ Server. Upon completion of this course, you can take the examination to become a VMware Certified Professional. The course is based on ESXi 4.0, ESX 4.0, and vCenter Server 4.0.
Students who complete this course may enroll in any of several more-advanced vSphere courses. See www.vmware.com/education for options.

Objectives

•  Install and configure ESX
•  Install and configure vCenter Server
•  Configure and manage ESX networking and storage using vCenter Server
•  Deploy and manage virtual machines
•  Manage user access to the VMware infrastructure
•  Increase scalability using vCenter Server
•  Monitor resource usage using vCenter Server
•  Apply patches using VMware vCenter Update Manager
•  Manage higher availability and data protection using vCenter Server

Best practices and lab exercises are interspersed throughout the course.

Who Should Attend?

System administrators, systems engineers, and operators responsible for ESXi, ESX, and/or vCenter Server

Prerequisites

System administration experience on Microsoft Windows or Linux operating systems

Outline

Module 1: Course Introduction

Module 2: Introduction to VMware Virtualization

•  Discussion of virtualization and vSphere components

Module 3: Configuring ESXi/ESX

•  Configuration of ESXi and ESX

Module 4: Installing and Using VMware vCenter Server

•  Install and configure vCenter Server, and use the VMware vSphere Client to manage vCenter Server inventory hierarchies

Module 5: Networking

•  Configuration of vNetwork standard and distributed switches, network connections, and port groups

Module 6: Storage

•  Storage management technologies

Module 7: Virtual Machines

•  Deploy virtual machines using templates, VMware vCenter Converter, Guided Consolidation
•  Modifying, managing, and migrating virtual machines

Module 8: Access Control

•  Controlling user access through roles and permissions

Module 9: Resource Monitoring

•  Workload assessment, monitoring using vCenter Server

Module 10: Scalability

•  VMware VMotion™ migrations
•  Setup of resource pools and VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler cluster

Module 11: High Availability and Data Protection

•  Setup of a VMware High Availability  cluster
•  Backup and recovery of virtual machines using VMware Data Recovery

Module 12: Configuration Management

•  Patching using vCenter Update Manager

Module 13: Installing ESX

•  Installation of ESX

For more information go to VMWare Website

At a recent conference, I said, “The remote protocol no longer matters. Both options [Citrix HDX and VMware PC-over-IP] are good enough.” While I stand behind that statement — both protocols are good enough (with caveats of course) — that doesn’t mean that the remote protocol war is over.

For years, there were only two Windows remoting protocols: Microsoft’s built-in Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Citrix’s add-on Independent Computing Architecture (ICA). Lots of others popped up here and there, some standalone and some that enhanced RDP, but really it was RDP or ICA.

Read more.. HDX versus PC-over-IP

We are still running 3 Ncomputing devices off a Dell 755 Optiplex and was a big consideration for reception areas of the school, however recently have opted to go Wyse client & VMWare View

Student success is your top priority. To reach this goal, you need to make learning more motivating, relevant, collaborative and engaging for today’s students, who each have different learning styles. Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 was designed to help you accomplish your goal.

Read more on MultiPoint server 2010

Some interesting topics brough up regarding thin clients, the Bjorg project sounds pretty cool especially for legacy machines that are starting to show their age, a great idea for possible future proofing the Rudd governments 1 to 1 concept.

What I mean by future proofing is that computers will be bought outright and over time will show their age and no longer be viable as a desktop PC because the demands of new software and wear and tear of computer parts.

I’m note sure what the goverment has in store for down the road but projects like these show some promise.

Additional topics of interest were:

• Wyse PocketCloud, an iPhone RDP & VMware View client;
• Wyse Streaming Manager;
• New P-class client devices with PC-over-IP &
• New C-class client devices

http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/tv/archive/2009/09/24/brian-madden-tv-19-vmworld-wrap-up-3-client-device-super-show.aspx

Enjoy