04-04-2017 @NYCVMUG Whiteboard Session Recap!

We are happy to announce that our early-April whiteboard session which was held on 4/4/2017 was another success! These informal sessions are becoming very popular for a number of reasons. 

- People love coming to VMUG meetings.
- Having others look over your project plans and helping to vet them. 
- Hearing ideas that you may not of thought of. Some cutting edge topics are being discussed at these meetings that some users have never been exposed to.
- Just geeking out and talking tech with some like-minded individuals. 
- Having an opportunity to talk to SMEs in smaller group settings. How often do you get to ask a VCDX or vExpert questions in-person? (Correct Answer: Every VMUG Meeting!)

In this session we had the presence of some special guests - Niran Even-Chen @NiranEC, Dual VCDX and part of the CTO Ambassadors program at VMware, and Brendan Peterson @petes_revenge, Network Architect from Viacom, Inc. who helped spread some networking knowledge while learning some virtualization goodness in the process.

Topics ranged with each presenter: Multi PSC/vCenter migration, Network migration, DMZ design with Cisco UCS, VLAN migration, datacenter migration and NSX integration, Security & Compliance using the TLS Configurator Tool just to name a few. We also had a mix of VMware engineers, vendor SE's, network architects and a dual-VCDX from VMware!

From left to right: Omar Torres, Azarya Shaulov, Nick Scuola (Presenting), Mike Martino, Ariel Sanchez, David Aldrich, Dmitriy Yevseyev, Donald Bacha

Brendan Peterson, Network Architect from Viacom talking about some of his recent migrations with Dual-VCDX, Niran Even-Chen looking on.

 

Niran Even-Chen and Mike Martino discussing the options for moving a customer's datacenter and then implementing NSX at the new location.

L to R: Azarya Shaulov, Niran Even-Chen and Nick Scuola

Our gracious host, Azarya Shaulov discussing his datacenter migration and VLAN configurations at both locations.

The Man, The Myth, The Legend, Ariel Sanchez at his last NYC VMUG before making the move to Pittsburgh, talking about the TLS Configurator Tool and ESXi security & compliance. He was also amazed at the Smart Board technology while discussing the VMware KB article he references.



If you want to contact any of the guys in the photos, I will leave their twitter handles here, in alphabetical order:
Ariel Sanchez @arielsanchezmor
Azarya Shaulov @az_ny
Brendan Peterson @petes_revenge
David Aldrich @mako2big
Dmitriy Yevseyev @DmitriyYevseyev
Donald Bacha @donald_bacha
Michael Martino @wildcard78
Nick Scuola @NScuola 
Niran Even-Chen @NiranEC
Omar Torres @otorres540

As always, we really appreciate every person that came to share and help the others, and again Azarya for arranging the meeting space and making everyone feel welcome! We can't thank his employer, Touro College, and his management (and all in the IITS department) enough for fostering the spirit of user groups and the vCommunity. Learn more about the Touro College and University System at www.touro.edu

We will continue doing these as time permits. Please follow the @nycvmug twitter account and attend the NYC VMware User Grouphttps://www.vmug.com/nyc meetings to keep up to date of when the next one will happen. As always, we really encourage creating a twitter account to get more involved with the vCommunity!

01-30-2017 Whiteboard session with the @nycvmug re-cap!

Our 2nd whiteboard session was a success as well! It is nothing short of amazing how just agreeing on a date and time to "talk about VMware" with no set agenda can yield interesting conversations and help everyone form ties in their local community. 

As a community, any chance we get to meet is important - when we get together, we share knowledge and help each other grow. This meeting format is great especially if you want to develop public speaking or whiteboard skills! This little time, invested once a month, will help your development as an IT professional.

In this session we had the presence of a special guest - David Aldrich, @mako2big on twitter, who works as an SE for Zerto, who the VMUG leaders met recently. David came in, not representing Zerto, but as an engineer who can help others. When we told him about this session, he was excited at the opportunity to hang out with everyone and made the commitment to show up with no other gain than meeting people. He was super cool and we hope to see him again, as well as any other vendor SE's in the area who want to get to know and help their local VMUG community.

Azarya, who was once again our gracious host, was also able to setup a live camera session - we actually had Nick Scuola attend this way! I attach some pictures of the session, which had some great conversations.

Topics ranged with each presenter: vCenter PSC/vCenter design for two sites, troubleshooting backup performance, designing backup solutions with existing hardware, and of course, we threw some ideas with Zerto too (we had to take advantage of David). Another thing that was super cool was that Azarya invited one of his network engineers to our meeting and he was able to interact with a bunch of VMware nerds :)

If you want to contact any of the guys in the photos, I leave their twitter handles here, in alphabetical order:

Anton Z @AntonZnyc
Ariel Sanchez @arielsanchezmor
Azarya Shaulov @az_ny
David Aldrich @mako2big
Michael Martino @wildcard78
Nick Scuola @NScuola 

left to right: David, Anton, Ariel in the TV taking the photo, Azarya, Michael, and 

We really appreciate every person that came to share and help the others, and again Azarya for arranging the meeting space and making everyone feel welcome! We can't thank his employer, Touro College, and his management (and all in the IITS department) enough for fostering the spirit of user groups. Learn more about the Touro College and University System at www.touro.edu

We will continue doing these as time permits. Please follow the @nycvmug twitter account and attend the NYC VMware User Grouphttps://www.vmug.com/nyc meetings to keep up to date of when the next one will happen. As always, we really encourage creating a twitter account to get more involved with the vCommunity!

12-12-16 whiteboard session with the @nycvmug - recap!

Our first NYC VMUG whiteboard session was a success! We had a great group come in with various expertise levels - some like Niran even drove in from New Jersey! 

We managed to get some pics. I think I win the funny face award. You can only be in awe of the talent in the room, with everyone coming to share technical knowledge, meet new friends and have a good time!

In alphabetical order:

Anton Z (multi-VCAP, vExpert) @AntonZnyc

Ariel Sanchez (multi-VCAP, vExpert, VMUG leader) @arielsanchezmor

Azarya Shaulov, in green long sleeve shirt (VCAP, vExpert, host) @az_ny

Ganshyam Daga (virtualization consultant) @gdaga12

Michael Martino, next to whiteboard with collared shirt (multi-VCAP, vExpert, VMUG Leader) @wildcard78

Nick Scuola, in the middle (VCAP, vExpert hopeful) @NScuola

Niran Even-Chen (Double VCDX, vExpert, VMware employee) @NiranEC

Prabhu Barathi (VMware employee, SE for NSX) @prabhu_b

Extra pics:

We really appreciate every person that came to share and help the others, and especially Azarya for arranging the meeting space and making everyone feel welcome! We can't thank his employer, Touro College, and his management (and all in the IITS department) enough for fostering the spirit of user groups. Learn more about the Touro College and University System at www.touro.edu

We will continue doing these as time permits. Please follow the @nycvmug twitter account and attend the NYC VMware User Group meetings to keep up to date of when the next one will happen. As always, we really encourage creating a twitter account to get more involved with the vCommunity!

December whiteboard session with the @nycvmug

Hi everyone,

We're happy to confirm the details for our first "NYC VMUG whiteboard session". This is not a traditional VMUG meeting with a sponsor; it's really just a small room with two whiteboards and a TV to connect the laptop, where fellow VMware users can come and discuss ideas, projects, or whatever suits their fancy. 

Some of you will remember we announced this at our October VMUG meeting:

"VMware User Group Whiteboard Meetings

Azarya has asked for permission to use rooms from work for smaller, non-sponsored whiteboard sessions in an informal setting. These are great for those studying for their VCP, VCAP and VCDX certifications, those who want to talk their VMware designs with peers, and to get more involved in the community and look for general help. They will be announced via the @nycvmug twitter handle - since they aren't sponsored there's really no requirement so we will try to have them monthly or every two weeks."

If you come, you will learn something, and meet someone, so it's a great opportunity. We have asked several of the VMUG members who have advanced certifications like VCP and VCAP to assist, in case there are people studying for the certifications who would like any tips or clarifications.

Here are the details:

• Monday December 12, 2016 , 6pm
• 500 7th Ave - very close to Times Square, so transportation should not be an issue
• 10 people max - have to register with @arielsanchezmor @az_ny or @nycvmug to be added to security list before 4pm on the day of the event

Once you register you will get the building security instructions. This event is free, but there is no sponsor. This means a couple of things; 

• there is no set agenda, we don't know at what time we will be finished, it will depend on your level of interest in the current conversation. You are free to leave if you got what you wanted
• you can count that we will look for a burger/beer afterwards, but since we're each paying for our own stuff, don't expect a big party, just some guys that got together in a bar to keep talking!

Really look forward to seeing you there and making these a normal occurrence. The power of community is amazing, and all you have to do is show up and participate. Make new friends, get a question answered, help someone else!

Please remember this is a technical event for VMware users and administrators to "geek out", not a networking or recruiting type of meeting. If there is any question please reach out to @arielsanchezmor @az_ny or @nycvmug :)

Twitter handles from the NJ/NYC area

Twitter is a great platform to rapidly connect with others that shame the same interest. One of the best features is that followers is not the same as friends. Anybody can be a follower, and very few people impose restrictions on others from following them.

I find it works very well for VMware enthusiasts since it's encouraged by the company itself and there are very well established hashtags. Some of the coolest vCommunity efforts have happened thanks to twitter's worldwide reach with simple hastags like #vExpert, #VCP, #VCDX and #vBrownBag.

So without further ado, here are twitter handles of VMware users (everything from customers to partners and VMware employees) that are in the area and maintain a personal and public twitter presence. Please reach out to the official @nycvmug handle if you want anything corrected in this post or you don't want to be listed for whatever reason.

Alex Lopez   @iVirtuAlex
Ankit Mehrotra   @vAnkit17
Anton Z   @iamantonz
Ariel Sanchez   @arielsanchezmor   English, Spanish
Azarya Shaulov   @az_ny
Ben Liebowitz   @ben_liebowitz
Carlos Castellanos @XLinkTech
Elmer Valdez   @_elvaldez
George Varghese   @PianoBiju
Greg Laub   @GregLaub
Ivan ??   @mlgSilver
Janak Panchal   @janak0611
JM Lucier @JMLucien
Jorvin Martinez   @jorvinmartinez
Jose Restrepo   @Jose_RestrepoNY
Matt Liebowitz   @mattliebowitz
Melissa Palmer   @vmiss33
Michael Martino   @wildcard78
Michael Valdes   @valdesnyc
Michael Wilson   @m1kew1lson
Nick Scuola   @NScuola
Niran Even-Chen   @NiranEC
Omar   @vMOmar1
Pawel Czopowik   @PolishPaul
Pete Walker   @vPeteWalker
Prabhu Barathi   @prabhu_b
Stalin Pena   @stalin_pena