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VMware View 5 Video Training Now Available by @Bknudtson @Wolfbrthr

David Davis — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:34:35 +0000

VMware vExperts Brian Knudtson (@BKnudtson) and Lane Leverett (@WolfBrthr) will teach you how to get VMware View 5 up and running in this new video training course from TrainSignal called “VMware View 5 Essentials”.

They will teach you everything you need to know to get your environment up and running in just over 7 hours. You’ll learn how to install View components, manage user profiles and data, setup location-based printing, and much more. VMware View 5 Essentials covers new topics to help simplify desktop and applications management while increasing security and control. Some of what’s new includes persona management, upgrading to VMware View 5 and PCoIP optimization with a troubleshooting lesson.

You’ll learn how to:

How to install components of VMware View
Manage user profiles and data
Setup location-based printing
Virtualize applications with ThinApp

Plus, as soon as the VCA-DT5 is available, this course will be the perfect resource!

Order VMware View 5 Essentials Now

Topics include…

Lesson 1 – Getting Started with VMware View 5 Essentials Training

In this lesson, you’ll meet your instructors, and learn about what is VDI and a brief overview of the entire course.

About Brian Knudtson
About Lane Leverett
Series Purpose
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
Expected Pre–existing Knowledge
An Overview of the Course Topics
Let’s Get Started

Lesson 2 – Course Scenario

Learn about the fictional company we’ll use to place the lessons into real-world situations.

Advantage of a Course Scenario
Our Scenario

Lesson 3 – Lab Setup

This lesson will introduce you to the lab environment where our demonstrations will occur.

Advantages of a Lab
My Lab Hardware
Existing Infrastructure
Additional VMs We’ll Use
Active Directory
My Favorite Supporting Resources

Lesson 4 – View Components and Licensing

In this lesson we’ll go over the individual View components and how they fit together to form the overall View Architecture.

Management Services
View Composer
View Agent
View Client
User Experience
ThinApp
View Licensing

Lesson 5 – Installing View 5

In this lesson, we’ll go through the steps to bringing your View Infrastructure to life.

System Requirements
Active Directory Requirements
Client Devices
Installation Process

Lesson 6 – Configuring Virutal Desktops

In this lesson you’ll learn the concepts of building a streamlined base image, pooling of desktops, and how a desktop image can be partitioned into isolated components.

Best Practices for Parent VM
View Desktop Types
Configuring View Desktop Pools
Composer Linked Clones
Persistent Disk
Disposable Data Disk
Pool Sizing

Lesson 7 – Maintaining Desktop Pools

This lesson goes through the concepts of getting desktop pools started and maintaining pools and sessions.

User Entitlements
Composer Operations
Editing Pools
Managing User Sessions
Desktop Pool Management Demonstration

Lesson 8 – User Profiles and Data

In this lesson, we’ll discuss and demonstrate how we can maintain the users’ desktop environment from one View session to the next. This provides a consistent and familiar workspace for the users even when they’re not accessing the same desktop every day.

Value of the User Profile
Contents of the User Profile
Options for Managing User Profiles
View Persona Management
Managing View Persona Management
View Persona Management Settings
Persistent Disk
Disposable Disk
Folder Redirection
View Persona Management Demonstration
View Persistent Disk Demonstration
View Disposable Disk Demonstration

Lesson 9 – Printing

Dealing with printers can be difficult in any desktop environment, and View introduces some new challenges. In this lesson, we’ll cover some of the more popular ways of dealing with printers in a View environment.

Printer Mapping Options
View Location-Based Printing
Implementing View Location-Based Printing
Local Printer Redirection Demo
View Location-Based Mapping Demo
My Favorite Supporting Resources

Lesson 10 – Creating ThinApp Packages

To complete a truly dynamic and efficient Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, you will need to virtualize your business applications. In this lesson, we’ll show you the steps needed to virtualize applications using ThinApp.

How ThinApp Virtualizes Applications
ThinApp Requirements
ThinApp Limitations
Steps to Virtualizing with ThinApp
ThinApp Packaging Machine Best Practices
Composition of a ThinApp Project
Composition of a ThinApp Package
Advanced ThinApp Concepts
Testing Packages
Create a ThinApp Package Demonstration

Lesson 11 – ThinApp Deployment

Once your applications are virtualized with ThinApp, they still need to be delivered to the desktops. We’ll show you several ways to accomplish this in this lesson.

Execution Modes
Registering Packages
ThinReg.exe Utility
Deployment Options
Package Security
Login Script Deployment
Integration with View

Lesson 12 – Monitoring View

After all is said and done you’re going to need to know how to care and feed your new View Environment. In this section we’ll dive into the different views for gathering information about the status of the environment as well as describe and demonstrate some of the different states and status of desktops and sessions.

Event Database
System Health Dashboard
View Administrator Dashboard
Desktop States
Session Status
Monitoring Walkthroughs

Lesson 13 – Troubleshooting View

All IT systems eventually fail in some way. To help prepare you for troubleshooting View, we’ve addressed many common failure points and pulled back the covers on several parts of View so you can better understand how they work.

Common Failure Points
Connection Procedures
How Linked Clones Work
Ports Needed For View
PCoIP Performance
Log File Locations
Collecting Diagnostic Information
Troubleshoot Problem Desktops
Investigate Linked Clones

Lesson 14 – Upgrading to View 5

For environments that already have View 4.5 installed, this lesson will help guide you through the upgrade process.

Version Compatibility
Upgrade Steps
Connection Server Upgrade
Transfer Server Upgrade
Composer Upgrade
Agent Upgrade
Client Upgrade

Lesson 15 – Next Steps

In this lesson, we’ll wrap up the course by recapping what we’ve covered throughout the course and look at what additional steps you should take in furthering your VMware career.

Order VMware View 5 Essentials Today!

Video: Deploying Personalized Desktops in VMware View 5 by @BKnudtson

David Davis — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:56:34 +0000

This 5 minute sample is from the TrainSignal View 5 Essentials Training course (releasing end of January 2012). In this lesson, Brian Knudtson (@bknudtson) shows us how to deploy a personal virtual desktop for a VMware View user.

You can learn more about the full course over at TrainSignal: View 5 Essentials Video Training.

VMware View Video Training – Using Location Based Printing

David Davis — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:58:40 +0000

Launched today, our new VMware Certified Associate – Desktop (or VCA-DT) video training course covers VMware View Administration. This 8 hour course is taught by Brian Knudtson, a VCP, VCA-DT, VCAP-DCA, VCAP-DCD, and vExpert.

Below, you’ll find lesson from the course that covers how to use VMware View’s location-based printing. VMware View Location-Based Printing allows you to map printers to virtual desktops based on client properties, including device name, IP, MAC address, login credentials or group membership. In this demonstration from TrainSignal’s VMware View course, Brian will walk through the configuration options to optimize the end user experience with printing in View.

Here’s the outline from the new Train Signal VMware View Administration / VCA-DT video training course:

Lesson 1 – Getting Started with VMware View Administration Training

In this lesson, you’ll meet your instructor for the course, Brian Knudtson, and get an overview of what topics the course will cover.

About Your Instructor
An Overview of the Course

Lesson 2 – Lab Setup

Hands-on experience is crucial to solidify your knowledge of VMware View. In this lesson, you’ll learn what hardware and software components are needed to build your own lab environment in order to follow along with Brian’s demonstrations.

Advantages of a Lab
An Overview of the Course Lab

Lesson 3 – The Course Scenario

In this lesson, we will talk about the fictitious company used to provide real-world examples throughout the course, Home Royal Furniture.

The Scenario – Home Royal Furniture

Lesson 4 – View Components and Licensing

In this lesson, we will discuss the VMware View architecture and the role of each component. We will also look at the licensing options for View and ThinApp.

View Manager
View Connection Server
View Replica Server
View Transfer Server
View Security Server
View Composer
View Agent
VMware vSphere
vShield Endpoint
View Client
Local Mode
Kiosk Mode
User Experience
ThinApp
View and ThinApp Licensing

Lesson 5 – Installing View

In this lesson, we begin with an in-depth discussion of system requirements for installing each component of the View architecture. We then work hands-on to install all of the components.

Connection Server System Requirements
Transfer Server System Requirements
Composer System, Database and Feature Requirements
Agent System and Client System Requirements
Protocol Specific Requirements
Feature Specific Requirements
Active Directory Requirements
Client Devices
Delegated Authority
Installation Process
Installing the Connection Server
Installing Composer
Configuring View Administrator
Installing the Security Server
Installing the Transfer Server
Installing the Agent on the Parent VM
Installing the Windows Client

Lesson 6 – Configuring Virtual Desktops

In this lesson, we’ll look at the processes and best practices for creating virtual desktops and pools. We’ll talk in depth about the types of desktops in View, best practices for creating the parent image and for sizing your pools, we’ll look at persistent and disposable data disks, and we’ll wrap up by walking through the creating of an automated floating pool, an automated dedicated pool and a manual dedicated pool.

Parent Image Best Practices
View Desktop Types
Configuring View Desktop Pools
Composer Linked Clones
Persistent Disk and Disposable Data Disk
Pool Sizing
Demonstration: Automated Floating Pool
Demonstration: Automated Dedicated Pool
Demonstration: Manual Dedicated Pool

Lesson 7 – Maintaining Desktop Pools

We’ll discuss and demonstrate the operations you can perform on your desktops with Composer, including refreshing, recomposing and rebalancing desktops, and show how the pool configuration impacts the result of each operation. We’ll also look at how to entitle users and groups to desktops and how to limit pool access to specific Connection Servers. Our demonstration will also include what options you can edit once your pool is created and how to manage user sessions.

User Entitlements
Composer Operations – Refresh
Composer Operations – Recompose
Composer Operations – Rebalance
Editing Pools
Managing User Sessions
Demonstration – Entitling Users
Demonstration – Refresh Operation
Demonstration – Recompose Operation
Demonstration – Editing Pools
Demonstration – Managing User Sessions

Lesson 8 – User Profiles and Data

In this lesson, we’ll talk about the components of the Windows User Profile, the benefits and caveats of using Active Directory Roaming Profiles, and alternatives to using roaming profiles. We’ll discuss best practices for maintaining user profiles and how to use persistent disk storage and folder redirection with user profiles. Our demonstration will show how to enable roaming profiles and configure persistent disks and folder redirection in a View environment.

Windows User Profiles
Active Directory Roaming Profiles
Common Issues with Roaming Profiles
Maintaining User Profiles
View Persistent Disk
Folder Redirection
Exploring Local Profile
Enabling Roaming Profile
Configuring Persistent Disks
Configuring Folder Redirection

Lesson 9 – View Local Mode

If users need access to their virtual desktop but are offline or have a poor network connection, View Local Mode allows them to continue to use their virtual desktops. With View Local Mode, users can download and execute virtual desktops using local resources. In this lesson, we’ll talk the use cases for View Local Mode, how to manage Local Mode with policies, some requirements and best practices for Local Mode and we’ll demonstrate how to configure View Local Mode, what it looks like to the end user, and how to manage local sessions.

What is Local Mode?
Local Mode Use Cases
View Transfer Server
Maintaining Local Mode Desktops
Local Mode Policies
Local Mode Settings, Requirements and Best Practices
Configuring Local Mode
End User View of Local Mode
Managing Local Sessions

Lesson 10 – View Kiosk Mode

There are many use cases for public or shared clients that serve specific functions and that maintain a desktop ready for users, such as hospital workstations, airline check-in machines and customer information stations. View Kiosk Mode is a perfect solution for these use cases, providing an unattended client that automatically logs into View and connects to a desktop, authenticates at the device-level instead of end user, and leaves additional authentication to applications. In this lesson, we’ll discuss View Kiosk Mode, best practices for using Kiosk Mode and walk through how to set it up and connect to a client.

What is Kiosk Mode?
Kiosk Mode Use Cases
Setup for Kiosk Mode
Connecting the Client
Best Practices
Setting Up Kiosk Mode

Lesson 11 – Printing

Printing is a very important component of the user experience with virtual desktops. View provides several options for setting up printers in your virtual desktop environment, including location-based printing. We’ll discuss each of the options and walk through login script printer mapping and configure location-based printing for our scenario environment.

Options for Setting Up Printers
Location-Based Printing
Location-Based Printer Mapping
Login Script Printer Mapping
Configuring Location-Based Printing

Lesson 12 – Creating ThinApp Packages

ThinApp provides a layer of virtualization between the operating system and applications and isolates applications from other applications and the OS. In this lesson, we’ll look at ThinApp up close, its requirements and limitations, best practices for configuring the packaging machine, the components of a ThinApp package, and we’ll demonstrate how to create and test a ThinApp package.

How ThinApp Virtualizes Applications
ThinApp Requirements and Limitations
ThinApp Packaging Machine Best Practices
Steps to Virtualizing with ThinApp
Composition of a ThinApp Package
Advanced ThinApp Concepts
Testing Packages
Creating a ThinApp Package
Dirty Testing and Clean Testing the Package

Lesson 13 – Deploying ThinApp

In this lesson, we’ll discuss the options for registering packages, securing packages and deploying packages to clients, including Login Script deployment and ThinApp integration with View. For our demonstration, we’ll take the ThinApp package that we created in the previous lesson and deploy it to our clients.

Execution Modes
Registering Packages
Deployment Options
Package Security
Login Script Deployment
ThinApp Integration with View

Lesson 14 – Monitoring View

In this lesson, we’ll look at all the ways to monitor the performance of VMware View. We’ll configure the Event Database to store information about events occurring within the View environment, we’ll look at the information collected on View Dashboards and how to examine desktop and session status within View Administrator.

Event Database
View Dashboards
Desktop States
Session Status
Setting Up the Event Database
Monitoring Desktop Status

Lesson 15 – Troubleshooting View

We’ll start this lesson by talking about common failure points within View. We’ll dive deep into the connection procedures and how Linked Clones work in order to understand where failure may occur. We’ll also discuss the ports needed for View and some items to consider to optimize PCoIP performance. Then we’ll dive into logs and diagnostic information and look at what information View collects, where it is stored and how to generate support bundles in case you have to open a ticket with VMware.

Common Failure Points
Connection Procedures
How Linked Clones Work
Ports Needed for View
PCoIP Performance
Log File Locations
Collecting Diagnostic Information
Troubleshooting Problem Desktops
Investigating Linked Clones
View Log Files
Generating Support Bundles

Lesson 16 – Preparing for the VMware VCA4-DT Certification Exam

In this lesson, we’ll talk about the VMware View certification path, give an overview of the VCA4-DT exam, discuss the exam objectives and which lessons cover the topics of each objective. We’ll talk about some tips for taking the VCA4-DT exam and some supporting resources that will help you prepare for the exam.

VCA4-DT Overview
VCA4-DT Objectives
VCA4-DT Exam Tips
My Favorite Supporting Resources

Lesson 17 – Next Steps

This lesson will wrap up the course. We’ll talk about what we covered throughout the course, what View certifications you can pursue and supporting resources that will help solidify your View expertise.

What We Learned
VMware Desktop Certifications
My Favorite Supporting Resources
We Value Your Opinion

New VMware View Administration Video – Demo of Folder Redirection

David Davis — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 01:40:52 +0000

On July 6, 2011 Train Signal will launch a new VMware View Administration course that covers the VMware Certified Associate – Desktop (VCA-DT) certification from VMware. This course by VCA-DT, VCP, VCAP-DCA, VCAP-DCD, and vExpert Brian Knudtson is delivered in online streaming video as well as DVD format for offline learning (even on your iPad or in the car). Watch the sample from the new course, below, where Brian covers VMware View Folder Redirection.

To view the entire course outline and sign up to get an alert when the course is available (on 7/6/11), visit the Train Signal VMware View Administration course homepage.

My new VMware vSphere video training course is released!

David Davis — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:37:23 +0000

After the success of my VMware ESX Server video training course from Train Signal, 3 months ago I started on a new project to create the best VMware vSphere video training course possible. After many hours of working with vSphere and sifting through VMware documentation to explore the new vSphere features and functionality, I am proud to say that my new vSphere course is ready and available to be ordered!

The course is nearly 18 hours long and is currently distributed on 3 DVDs that are shipped to your office or home. On that DVD, besides the high quality AVI version, the course will also be included in WMV, MP3, and iPod/iPhone formats. In fact, I had even more videos that wouldn’t fit on those DVDs and we will soon be making those available to be viewed, streaming, over the Internet!

In this course I cover topics these:

VCP and VCDX Certifications
Introduction to Virtualization
Virtualization Product Compared
VMware ESXi Free Edition for the SMB
VMware vSphere 4 and ESX Essentials
vSphere Management Options
Installing the vSphere Client
Navigating vSphere using the vSphere Client
Running VMware ESX 4 in Workstation
Installing VMware ESX 4
Installing VMware ESXi 4
Installing VMware vCenter 4
vCenter 4 – Configuring your new virtual infrastructure
Creating and Modifying Virtual Guest Machines
Installing and Configuring VMware Tools
Adding Virtual Machine Hardware with vSphere Hot Plug
Using vSphere Host Profiles
Administering VMware ESX Server Security
Introduction to and Installing VMware Data Recovery (VDR)
Backup and Restore with VMware Data Recovery (VDR)
Virtual Storage 101 and Storage Terminology
Configuring vSphere Storage
Creating a Free iSCSI SAN with OpenFiler
vSphere Virtual Networking
Using the vSphere Distributed Virtual Switch (dvswitch)
Understanding and Using Tasks, Events, and Alarms
Performance Optimization in VMware vSphere
Upgrading from VMware ESX 3.x and Virtual Infrastructure to vSphere 4
Moving Virtual Machines with VMotion
Moving Virtual Storage with SVMotion
Load Balancing with Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)
Implementing High Availability with VMware HA (VMHA)
Super High Availability with VMware Fault Tolerance (FT)

Checkout a free demo of the course and learn more at….

Train Signal.com – VMware vSphere video training course

What do you get with Train Signal’s VMware ESX computer training course?

David Davis — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:49:13 +0000

There are a lot of ways to learn VMware ESX & Virtual Infrastructure – books, classroom, video, or just trial and error. In my opinion, video training is one of the best options because you can learn at your own pace, its cost effective, you can review it as often as you want, you can learn on the go (with iPod/iPhone/MP3 training), and its the most fun!

If you aren’t familiar with Train Signal, they are the global leader in computer training for IT Professionals. Their VMware training course covers not only ESX/ESXi 3.5 but also the entire Virtual Infrastructure Suite.

Learn what Train Signal’s VMware ESX video training offers you in this new video:

Click here to watch a sample video or to order your very own VMware ESX Server training course!

David releases updated VMware ESX Server 3.5 video training course!

David Davis — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:35:55 +0000

I recently completed my updated VMware ESX Server 3.5 video training course. For over a year now, my ESX 3.0 training course has been a “best seller”, helping thousands of IT Pro’s learn VMware ESX & VMware’s Virtual Infrastructure Suite. In the new course, I have updated videos on how to use VMware’s latest features. The videos include- Update Manager, Storage VMotion (SVMotion), and how to run ESX 3.5 inside VMware Workstation. The latest video offers all my video training (over 20 videos and 17+ hours) in Windows Media format AND in MP3 and iPod formats so that you can watch/listen to the VMware ESX training “on the go”. To view a free demo of my training course, please visit Train Signal.com – VMware ESX 3.5 Video Training.

Storage VMotion video demonstration from Dell Tech Center

David Davis — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:32:04 +0000

The guys over at DellTechCenter continue to crank out some great content covering both VMware and other vendors’ virtualization solutions. In the video below, Todd Muirhead demonstrated VMware Storage VMotion in action.

Train Signal to announce updated VMware ESX 3.5 training course for VMworld 2008 in September

David Davis — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:26:09 +0000

Train Signal VMware ESX Server Video Training Course

This just in – Train Signal Computer Training – the global leader in computer training for IT Pros – will announce an updated VMware ESX Server 3.5 training course available just in time for VMworld 2008 (middle of September). The new course will offer updated videos covering the latest and greatest features of VMware ESX Server 3.5 and the updated Virtual Infrastructure Suite.

This 15+ hour ESX Server training course is the best way to learn ESX Server because you can learn at your own pace and learn at for about 10% the cost of classroom training.

To learn more about the ESX Server video training course, visit www.TrainSignal.com

Tarry Singh interviews David Davis, VMware video training author, VCP, and owner of VMwareVideos.com

David Davis — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:59:27 +0000

If you went to VMWorld Europe 2008 or if you read news from the show, you probably heard about or watched a video from Virtualization Evangelist, Tarry Singh. If you aren’t familiar with him, Tarry runs an excellent virtualization website called Virtualization for Everyone.

Recently, interviewed David Davis, a VCP, author of Train Signal’s VMware Server & VMware ESX Server video training products, and owner of VMwareVideos.com.

I hope you will take a moment to check out Tarry’s interview with David Davis and see what Tarry’s website has to offer.

How to download VMware’s free VMware Server training

David Davis — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:11:34 +0000

Thank you for visiting VMwareVideos.com! VMware no longer recommends that you use VMware Server. Instead, VMware recommends you use Free ESXi. Because of this, their VMware Server training is no longer available.

What I recommend to you instead is one of these two options:

If you have questions about virtualization training, feel free to ask me on my Contact page.

Thanks!

-David Davis

VMware Server & Workstation Training Videos Released!

David Davis — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:00:37 +0000

I am excited to say that my VMware Server & Workstation video training course is officially available! After creating the popular Microsoft Virtualization video series, I moved on to VMware virtualization. Because VMware has the lion share of the virtualization market, I believe that this new video will be even more popular than the Microsoft video!

To create this video training, I spent 3 months researching VMware Workstation & Server. I made every effort cover the VMware products from all aspects including designing, installing, creating virtual machines, virtual networks, storage, backups, and performance tuning. Once we covered Server & Workstation, we moved on to our VMware ESX Server overview and our bonus video, VMware ACE.

Checkout the Best VMware ESX Server & Virtual Infrastructure Training at….

David Davis — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:18:33 +0000

I am excited to say that my VMware ESX Server video training course is officially available! After creating the popular Microsoft Virtualization and VMware Server & Workstation video series, I have just finished VMware ESX Server. ESX Server is VMware’s Enterprise grade, high-end virtualization product and it is in use by so many companies today.

To create this video training, I spent 3 months researching VMware ESX Server and the Virtual Infrastructure Suite. I made every effort cover the VMware ESX Server applications from all aspects including designing, installing, creating virtual machines, virtual networks, SAN storage, VCB backups, and performance tuning. Our VMware ESX Server Training is your complete video guide to mastering VMware ESX Server and
Virtual Infrastructure. You get:

– 15+ Hours of instructor led Video training covering VMware ESX Server that you can watch over and over again.
– Master VMware ESX Server and save yourself time and your company money!
– Coverage includes VMware ESX Server configuration, VMware Virtual Infrastructure, VMware

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A DEMO OF THIS VIDEO!