Passed the VCP510 exam – VCP5-DV Qualified!
I'm very pleased to say that as of 21st December, I passed my VCP510 exam and am now VCP5 qualified! It's something that I've wanted to do for a long time (since VCP3) but have never been able to get funding for the required course. My current employer sent me on the vSphere 5 Fast Track course earlier this year, so I was all set to take the exam.
My exam experience was somewhat marred by a very poor first attempt which I narrowly failed. The exam I sat had dozens of spelling and grammatical mistakes, inaccuracies and other problems and I spent far too long commenting on those than concentrating on the questions. Fortunately I was eventually able to speak with VMware Education and they issued me with an exam voucher (they will also be releasing a new version of the exam soon, which I'm assured will resolve these problems). My second attempt was a lot better and I smashed the 300 point pass mark by 128 points, which went some way to restoring confidence in my own knowledge of the subject!
I'm now looking forward to studying for the VCAP-DCA and DCD exams with a view to completing them in 2013...
VCP5 – vSphere 5 Configuration Maximums Quiz in PowerShell
I've been learning my vSphere 5 config maximums before my upcoming VCP5 exam, so in a supreme effort of procrastination I thought I'd write a PowerShell quiz script: here it is!
Save the QuizMe.ps1 file into a folder and then place one or more text file in the same folder containing a comma delimited set of questions and answers. Then run QuizMe.ps1!
Installing and Configuring OTRS 3.0.9 on Windows Server 2008 R2
OTRS is an exceptionally flexible ITIL compliant ticketing/helpdesk solution, which runs beautifully on almost any LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl (yes, I know it’s PHP really;-)) server, but what happens when you work in a Windows-only environment? OTRS does have a Windows installer, but it is somewhat clunky and requires almost as much work to configure as manually installing. Installing as components allows you to upgrade portions of the system and have more granular control over the setup.
I’ve recently installed OTRS on a Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) server, including experimenting with various combinations of IIS/Apache, MSSQL2008/MySQL, ActiveState Perl 32-bit/64-bit, different configurations and setups - these are my findings:
- IIS7, MSSQL (64), ActiveState Perl (64) – to make use of the native IIS7 webserver and 64-bit Perl. The server does run but performs abysmally, and you have to force IIS to run a 32-bit application pool to get Perl to work.
- Apache2.2 (32), MSSQL (64) and ActiveState Perl (32) – again OTRS will run but performance is grim
- Apache2.2 (64 unofficial binaries), MySQL (64) and ActiveState Perl (64) – this seemed the most promising approach but without a 64-bit version of mod_perl the performance was worse than the final combo
- Apache2.2 (32), MySQL (64) and ActiveState Perl (32) – this performed the best, and although there are slow portions (SysConfig) the general user experience was good.
None of these combinations came close to the performance of OTRS running on a native Linux server, my 64-bit Ubuntu server absolutely flew, with less processor and RAM than the Windows box. In short, if you have the skills, use the Linux option. Yes, yes I do feel a little dirty now, sorry Mr Gates.
So, the final setup I have opted for is:
- A Virtual Machine running Windows Server 2008, 2GB RAM and 2 vCPUs at 3.2Ghz
- MySQL Server 5.5, 64-bit
- Apache 2.2, 32-bit
- ActiveState Perl, 32-bit
A work/learn balance
As with all things IT the pace of technology change is relentless and we are constantly and rightly told that change is good and that being able to evolve and move with the times is an important skill and ability.
However I am often left wondering how we can maintain a balance. I have all to often seen IT professionals falling into the trap chasing the latest and greatest and rushing to try to implement or learn new emerging technologies without much thought to what they already have.
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