Stanley VSphere 5.1 ICM Class of 10/21/2013-12/11/2013

TheProf

I also just completed lab 6... they seem to be available so I don't know why they wouldn't count.

linuxabuser

You guys can relax about the labs. There is no big "CONGRATULATIONS" banner after completing one, or even all of them. If you're done, you're done. The instructors have ways of logging and and checking the progress; no need to bother them about it.

brownwrap

Has anyone been able to log in this weekend?

chanakyajupudi

I just got the material today. I mean the books !

cruwl

Anyone else having issues launching labs?

I keep getting an error when its starting up the pod. Just sent an email to the instructor hopefully its fixed soon.

Radiohead316

I had some issues a few hours ago. Waited an hour or so, then relaunched and it was ok. I also moved from Chrome to Firefox. It runs a little smoother. It's working for me now.

effekted

Guess I'll try firefox. In Chrome I ran out of time (1 hour 15 minutes) because the damn thing wouldn't save/load when doing the vCenter Appliance lab....

TheProf

If you get timeout errors, it's not an issue with the browser, but with performance of the lab due to having other people in the middle of their lab.

cruwl

Was finally able to get in now.

bigmantenor

So, regarding the labs: The "Show Lab Content" button in NETLAB is supposed to be the lab addendum. With Lab 1, the addendum covers the steps for Task 2 (Install the vSphere Client), but says nothing about Task 3 (Install the Web Client [Server]). Are we still doing Task 3 (from the lab manual) or no? I guess what I'm saying is that it seems like the lab addendum is taking the place of the lab manual ("the labs should be performed in order of the lab addenda"), which is fine, but I'm trying to clarify if that is the case.

brownwrap

I took this last term and I did not use the lab manual at all. I printed out the online instructions and followed them.

bigmantenor

Thanks for the clarification. I figured as much; when I tried to do certain tasks that weren't spelled-out in the addendum, they typically wouldn't work (probably due to the nature of doing this online as opposed to in a classroom).

phonic

Don't put too much emphasis on the labs. Use them to your advantage to gain experience. They are often broken and don't start up occasionally (you need to keep trying and eventually they start). The exercises are fairly easy, but you may run into problems getting them to work. The instructor knows this, so don't worry if you can't complete everything. It's more important to be familiar with how things are done in real world scenarios then the labs.

Jove

Are we suppose to install the vmware software on our personal computers because the only thing I see working on the oll website are the self paced lab manuals?

phonic

Jove wrote: »

Are we suppose to install the vmware software on our personal computers because the only thing I see working on the oll website are the self paced lab manuals?

For the Stanly class? No. Everything is contained within the lab environment. You use the client workstation (in the lab) to connect to the servers/vCenter through the vSphere client. You don't need to install anything other than maybe Java to get the lab connections working.

mguernsey

I was kind of hoping for a presentation that was more than just a reading of the slides with a little anecdotal information thrown in, but considering what the course cost I don't think I'll complain about it. So long as it and a passing score on the exam get me my VCP5-DCV cert then I couldn't care less.

TheProf

mguernsey wrote: »

I was kind of hoping for a presentation that was more than just a reading of the slides with a little anecdotal information thrown in, but considering what the course cost I don't think I'll complain about it. So long as it and a passing score on the exam get me my VCP5-DCV cert then I couldn't care less.

Honestly, even with the 5 day course, it can be a hit or a miss. I had a buddy take the 5 day course and he pretty much told me that the instructor only read from the book and would not answer all questions.

effekted

This class will NOT fully prepare you for the VCP exam. You'll want to do some additional labbing and studying (exam blueprint, Mastering vSphere 5 book, etc.)

stryder144

jdancer wrote: »

You may want to check Ohlone College. If you live outside of California, you'll have to pay out-of-state tuition of $218 per unit hour. It's a two-unit course.

Great resource. They also offer Citrix and EMC2 courses as part of a cloud computing set. That is awesome. Frankly, less than $500 a course doesn't seem too hard to handle, with a little planning!

Cheers

mguernsey

effekted wrote: »

This class will NOT fully prepare you for the VCP exam. You'll want to do some additional labbing and studying (exam blueprint, Mastering vSphere 5 book, etc.)

Oh, I know that, but I was sort of hoping for more than a reading of the slides. I guess I was expecting something like a college course where the professor assigns sections of reading and then really goes into detail during the subsequent discussion. If I'd paid the $2500-3500 fee for the 5-day course and this is all they did I'd be seriously pissed off, since this would appear to be nothing more than a pay-to-play surcharge by VMware.

Like I said previously, at this point, considering what I actually did pay, I'm not going to sweat things. The instructor for the class manages to cover the material and explain it without veering off from the script, so I figure he's doing it exactly like VMware wants. Good enough for me.

phonic

mguernsey wrote: »

...If I'd paid the $2500-3500 fee for the 5-day course and this is all they did I'd be seriously pissed off, since this would appear to be nothing more than a pay-to-play surcharge by VMware.

Make no mistake, that is all it is.

effekted

I guess it depends on who you go through, 2 former colleagues attended a 5 day bootcamp that guaranteed a pass (a few of us thought it sounded like they could potentially brain **** but they said they didn't), said the instructor was extremely knowledgeable and would go in depth answering any questions anyone in the class had.

I have gotten pretty frustrated at times with netlab but like you said, all things considered for the price that Stanly is charging for this course we have no room to complain.

phonic

@effekted

True. While I took the Stanly course, a co-worker of mine just took the "FastTrack" course, which is what I assume you might mean by bootcamp. I believe the pricing was even higher than the ICM course, as it was scheduled as 5x10hour days.

He was not impressed at all. He said they only did about 7/hours/day, and the teacher didn't take many questions and argued with people who brought up factual errors he presented. He took it because we needed a second VCP at my company (I told them to just use Stanly again, but they wanted to go the VMware route). He has years of practical experience and said he didn't learn a thing and most of his classmates felt the class wasn't worth it.

jdancer

Does the Stanly VMWare Netlabs save your lab progress at all? Do you have to resume your lab progress on a specific pod? Seems I am missing something basic. I having to restart from lab 1 every time I resume.

TheProf

You need to make sure that you shutdown esx1 host at the end of your last lab for the day... if you don't, some settings are not saved properly... I had the same issue.

Radiohead316

You should only have access to 1 pod anyway. Instructions say to shut down esx1, so I've been doing that and have had no issues.

Radiohead316

Well, I guess I wasn't taking my own advice. I've been forgetting to shut down esx2. Somehow this caused my vmotion port to disable vmotion traffic. Strugged for a bit on the DRS lab when nothing was migrating.

Oh well. Glad it happened, because I got to do some troubleshooting and solve a problem rather than just follow the steps.

Anyhow - shut down your hosts after the labs. lol

mguernsey

Am I missing something? I've been waiting a couple days for Modules 10-12 to open so I could finish them and the labs.

Radiohead316

They opened for me Monday morning.

cruwl

So I'm really not impressed with the videos in this course. I find them very hard to follow and very lacking in detail or depth.

I've started watching CBT Nuggets videos after I watch the course video as a backup and find them much much more informative and helpful.

Are any of you guys using anything else to supplement this course as your going through it? If so what are you using? I'm planning on taking the VCP exam as soon as I can after the course and want to make sure I get the most out of this course as I can.