As you may remember, we had the opportunity and pleasure of having recorded #vBrownBag sessions included as part of the agenda in the NJ-NYC VMUG UserCon last June 23, 2016. You can read all about it here.
Each presenter was told in advance that they only had 10 minutes to convey a "non marketing or sales, but technical, teach us something!" type of session. This type of presentation typically yields all manners of information nuggets which are hard earned and thus highly valued. This is one of the reasons why vBrownBag has grown so dramatically, both online and in actual conferences. You can read all about vBrownBag here, and sign up for future activities (online in several regions/ time zones, or for live conferences, such as VMworld 2016!).
One thing that I was amazed of was how few people in the NJ and NYC area knew about vBrownBag. Once you delve into the vBrownBag community you will find that there is nothing else that provides this quality of content for so little (ie, free). Even though most will agree that vBrownBag started as a VMware focused podcast, the truth is it covers whatever is hot in the infrastructure management world, since it obeys the wishes of its community. There are several podcasts dedicated to Cisco, OpenStack, Devops topics and career advice. A big focus is also on helping people study for certifications, which is rare in the sense that you can cover all the blueprint items in one hour videos for the price of a Youtube search :)
What I personally love about vBrownBag is the flexibility and the sense of community you are able to create, even if across large distances! I'm blessed to have been able to learn from, contribute, and now also be part of the production behind the scenes. VMUG and vBrownBag have the same objective in mind, which is all about the user. Remember that although vendors are allowed to present, the vast majority of videos were created by one of your peers who decided he could contribute some of his time to others.
Getting back on track - after taking the videos and attempting to insert the PPTs inside them so the slides were readable, we've uploaded them in the official vBrownBag Youtube channel and they are now available for everyone worldwide to enjoy. Thanks again to our presenters who so graciously accepted the opportunity to help others!
Speaker Twitter Talk Title (with link to video)Prabhu Barathi prabhu_b "Network Virtualization – what it is and what it isn’t"Julie Starr jmarions "Policy’s Security Groups: the key to NSX’s Service Composer"Stalin Pena stalin_pena "Microsegmentación en VMware NSX" (spanish)Anton Z IamAntonZ "Horizon View - Tips and tricks for power users"
- Prabhu Barathi is an NSX SE covering the NYC area. He's the nicest guy you've met and he's doing an excellent job of helping vSphere administrators embrace NSX. He's going to condense all that experience and present on what NSX can do for your business problems.
- Julie Starr is a firewall specialist within the VMware Network and Security. She has authored some of the firewall deep dive posts in the VMware blog. We're especially thrilled to have someone this technical go deep on one aspect of NSX and being able to record it for the world!
- Stalin Pena is a VMware customer working in NYC. He has several certifications, most impressively VCIX-NV, and is currently pursuing his VCDX-NV. We're thrilled that he will offer his session in spanish, which is a first for the UserCon, and we will be able to record it for vBrownBagLatam!
- Anton Z is also a VMware customer and a long time contributor to NYC VMUG events. He has presented three times, in each displaying the tricks and tips he uses to make surehe gets what he needs out of each version of Horizon View. In this talk he will give his best tips and tricks for the latest version.
This June 23 we're doing a new experiment in the NJ/NYC Usercon. Teaming up with vBrownBag, we have accepted four technical sessions that will be recorded and put later in the vBrownBag YouTube channel!
This is similar to the TechTalks format that is used in VMworld and other conferences. The presenter gets up on a stage and gives a 10 minute, but highly technical, talk. Real state in the UserCon is always at a premium, but working with VMUG we were able to get a space in the "Hudson Foyer" (close to where registration and food is served, which is a high traffic area).
It's time to introduce the speakers. Each one of them has helped the area before in either VMUG sessions or local Social Labs.
- Prabhu Barathi is an NSX SE covering the NYC area. He's the nicest guy you've met and he's doing an excellent job of helping vSphere administrators embrace NSX. He's going to condense all that experience and present on what NSX can do for your business problems.
- Julie Starr is a firewall specialist within the VMware Network and Security. She has authored some of the firewall deep dive posts in the VMware blog. We're especially thrilled to have someone this technical go deep on one aspect of NSX and being able to record it for the world!
- Stalin Pena is a VMware customer working in NYC. He has several certifications, most impressively VCIX-NV, and is currently pursuing his VCDX-NV. We're thrilled that he will offer his session in spanish, which is a first for the UserCon, and we will be able to record it for vBrownBagLatam!
- Anton Z is also a VMware customer and a long time contributor to NYC VMUG events. He has presented three times, in each displaying the tricks and tips he uses to make sure he gets what he needs out of each version of Horizon View. In this talk he will give his best tips and tricks for the latest version.
Here is the detail on the NJ/NYC UserCon
vBrownBag talk schedule. Please make sure to attend and take advantage of the opportunity to get questions answered and make new friends!
Time Speaker Twitter Talk Title
1:10 - 1:20pm Prabhu Barathi prabhu_b "Network Virtualization – what it is and what it isn’t"
1:25 - 1:35pm Julie Starr jmarions "Policy’s Security Groups: the key to NSX’s Service Composer"
1:40 - 1:50pm Stalin Pena stalin_pena "Microsegmentación en VMware NSX" (spanish)
2:45 - 2:55pm Anton Z IamAntonZ "Horizon View - Tips and tricks for power users"
The biggest VMUG event all year for the New Jersey and New York City region takes place this June 23! Our User Convention (UserCon) is the highest attended event all year, and with good reason. It's in a beautiful venue overlooking the Manhattan skyline with excellent presentations, lots of updates from the many vendors that come into town anxious to get your attention, joined with good food and even greater company.
You can check this event's details here
https://www.vmug.com/nynjvmug
Please take a moment to register if you haven't done so. This way you can also get a calendar reminder into your work email, and very importantly, plan to take the day off work, since it's a full day event that starts early morning, has breakfast and lunch, and finishes late in the afternoon.
We're very excited to announce the prizes that all attendees will be able to participate for. It's always fun to figure out what our users could be interested in. This year we have given options for both new and seasoned VMware enthusiasts and general IT people. I'm listing them in order of price and quantity:
Every attendee
Will get a small token of appreciation that we hope all of you will find useful.
The first 20 or so attendees
Will get a highly anticipated print book - the official VCP6-DCV Study Guide which just recently came out! This is a very popular option so make sure you arrive by 8am to be one of the first to arrive, and take advantage of more time with fellow colleagues.
Three separate SSD winners
Will get one 500GB Samsung 850 EVO SATA SSD! Whether for your desktop, laptop or homelab, replacing a mechanical drive or smaller SSD for a bigger one is always good, and these are probably the best ones out on the market today. Anybody in IT can appreciate this gift. This gift will be mailed directly to the home of the winners.
Three separate VMUG Advantage winners
Will get one code for a free VMUG Advantage subscription. VMUG Advantage has many benefits, but the perennial favorites are the discounts for training/VMworld/certification exams and having year-long homelab licenses. If you are just beginning your VMware journey, this is the push you need. At a possible $2000+ of savings, these are normally a steal at $200, but you can get one for free at this event!
Now come the big three
Inspired by the awesome work @lamw and others have been doing with the Intel NUCs, and realizing that the typical homelab bill of materials is a bit pricey, we've chosen three configurations that will let homelab users of all levels to tinker and geek out. In case you don't win and are looking into building your own, we've left all the component details here as well. Hopefully this is the start of a VMware/NUC community in the area that meets and shares tips in the VMUG presentations!
The NUCs are great platforms to jumpstart your homelab and to learn VSAN, while having a high WAF (wife approval factor) since they feature low noise and electricity consumption. Many people hook them up to TVs and figure out how to make them dual boot systems so they can act as Media Center PCs when not running VMware labs.
All of these will be mailed directly to the winner, so don't worry about walking through public transportation with hundreds of dollars worth of hardware. You just worry about participating in the Usercon :)
One lucky winner gets a "One-node Hybrid VSAN"
An excellent option for running a nested lab or be expanded with similar nodes, perfect for VMware VSAN! It includes:
- 6th gen i3 NUC maxed out with 32GB RAM and an extra GB NIC through USB adapter!
- 256GB SSD (m.2) and 1TB SATA Hybrid HD (2.5”) - it may be hybrid VSAN, but these are top notch disks!
- VMUG Advantage subscription included so you can push it to the limit as soon as it boots!
The component details for this prize are here.
One lucky winner gets a "One-node All-Flash VSAN"
An excellent option for running a high performance nested lab or be expanded with similar nodes, perfect for VMware VSAN! It includes:
- 6th gen i5 NUC maxed out with 32GB RAM and an extra GB NIC through USB adapter
- 256GB NVMe SSD (m.2) and 1TB SATA SSD (2.5”) - top quality drives!
- VMUG Advantage subscription included so you can push it to the limit as soon as it boots!
The component details for this prize are here.
And finally,
One very lucky winner gets the big home lab, "Two NUCs and a Synology"
What nested? You want to run ESXi on bare metal, and that requires dedicated hardware and some solid shared storage. With this kit, you can run DRS and HA tonight, while enjoying excellent upgrade options if you want to play with VSAN in the future.
- Two 6th gen i3 NUCs, each maxed out with 32GB RAM, each with an extra NIC
- Synology DS1515+ with 4x3TB 5400rpm drives (one slot open for future SSD or extra drive!)
- VMUG Advantage subscription included so you can push it to the limit as soon as it boots!
The component details for this prize are here.
In total around 30 people will walk out of the Usercon with even more motivation to achieve more and be better in their VMware journey. We hope to see you there, and hope that you enjoy these giveaways!
As always, please leave a comment with anything we can improve. We definitely want all the input we can get!
