A few oddities I have discovered recently when working on one of my lab environments, so I thought that I would note them here for my own ends if nothing else. It is possible that a Windows Server based vCenter 5.5 (in my case) will not start after a reboot with the error message in vpxd.log reporting “Unable to create SSO facade: Invalid response code: 404 Not Found”. The quick way to fix this is to restart the VMware Secure Token Service, as per VMware KB2061412.

Ask people what their fears are and with the overwhelming majority, you’ll get to public speaking sooner rather than later. Most people would rather do almost anything else, so to go and present to a room full of technical experts and be judged by them all, when you could just sit back and listen to someone else, in blissful anonymity? Well, surely there’s no decision to be made? As a consequence, it’s no surprise that the erstwhile LonVMUG ctte.

I’ve been running a homelab for a number of years, but with the impending release of vSphere 6, my pair of old HP ML115 servers were looking a little tired. After being selected as a vExpert in 2015, I figured it was time to treat myself to some new infrastructure and also to rig up a proper network solution to underpin it all. I’d had an old Cisco 3550 (the layer 3 version) hanging around for a while waiting for this moment.

The worst kept secret in Hypervisor history was finally revealed last week, when VMware went public with the launch of vSphere 6.0 (alongside a swathe of other products) in what they are calling their biggest ever release. So big in fact that it’s taking 28 days to get through it if you read up at onecloud.vmware.com, a microsite introduced under the title “One Cloud, Any Application”. 28 days is handy in that it gives people time to digest a range of features and also write additional contributions (more on that later).

In a move that I have to say that I did not see coming (but then I think no-one did) VMUG recently announced that subscribers to their VMUG Advantage initiative would also receive EVALExperience licenses for a number of vSphere related products meaning that these products are now available for use with a 365 day license which you can renew as long as you maintain your VMUG Advantage subscription .

Well, well, well. I’m pleased to say that I have been awarded the title of VMware vExpert for 2015, my first time! You can see the full list here on the VMTN site. Congratulations to all the new and returning vExperts named this year. It’s rather humbling to gain this recognition and it really is great to see so many of the #LonVMUG folks who’ve helped me along the way be named as well.

It’s nearly time for the first #LonVMUG of 2015. As usual, a cracking line-up has been finalised for this all-day event, but for myself and 4 other delegates, this will be an extra special day, cos we get to present! Long-time LonVMUG stalwart Mike Laverick put together a #Feed4ward initiative in cahoots with Duncan Epping and Scott Lowe as an attempt to solicit more community content at VMUGs around the world by mentoring would be presenters before their big day in front of an audience.

An extra post about my favourite part of VMworld from the organised conference perspective… I thought that the TAM sessions were by far the best sessions I attended. None of them were presented by the most well known vRockstars (they were out in the normal breakout sessions, doing their thing - and from the ones I saw, doing it very well) the TAM sessions were all by the engineers and product managers who you don’t know as well, which was great.

The final day, an early start to the sessions with no keynote to overrun into the first session, so I went straight into a 9am breakout session. Session: INF2311 - vCenter Server Architecture & Deployment Deep Dive Some good tips here for the folks running (or planning to run) vCenter 5.5 specifically around the placement of vCenter components. Do not, do not, do NOT run your Inventory service on a different server to your vCenter server service!

I’m on a bit of a roll now! The ‘second’ day of VMworld Europe started with another keynote, just the same as San Fran (same general format, same general content). Fortunately for those of us wanting to blog/tweet during this, the doors that were closed yesterday were open by the time I got to the hangspace, so I was in and settled with a coffee and pain au chocolat before 9am.