VMUG UK - Stop Being A Mine Sweeper

2. Who is Chris Wahl?
•VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) #104
▫Data Center and Network Virtualization
•Tech, Lab, Certs, Reviews, Videos
▫WahlNetwork.com
•CCNA Data Center & vCloud Courses
▫Pluralsight.com
•Virtualization User Podcast as a Service
▫VUPaaS.com

3. Networking for VMware Administrators
Paperback, Kindle, eBook, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, Klingon*
100% of my profits go to Alzheimer’s Association

4. Social Media

5. The dilemma

6. MineSweeper (mīn′swēp′ər) n.
A person who employs a manual process to execute a common operation in a repetitious manner

7. Mine Sweeper
Next
Next
Next
Finish
Repeat

9. New VoIP initiative

10. Just take this CD, and …

11. My reaction

12. Sorcery!

13. The Perception
•Abstract
•Pool
•Automate?
•Play minesweeper
▫(or eat sandwich)

14. Apps
Hosts
LUNs

15. Why did we put up with this?
•Closed, proprietary systems
•Lack of (affordable) social coding
•Data graveyards
•Firefighting!
•Lack of SDK / APIs
•The 80 / 20 rule

16. Skynet is coming
Let’s just hope Schwarzenegger is around

17. Innovation is driving massive disruption

18. And then there’s this guy

19. One vendor’s quote to me
“We are not shipping a single feature out the door unless it has a well documented API to accompany it”

20. But it’s not about …
Being fully software defined
Being “the best”
Being a programmer
Being into eating sandwiches (optional)

21. Also, I really hated programming

22. Also, I really hated programming :(

23. The call to action
Time to pick your poison!

24. Wide variety of choices
•The power of “P”
▫PowerShell (version 3+)
▫PowerCLI (version 5.8)
▫Python (version 2.7.8)
avoid version 3.x.x
▫Puppet (open source)
•Many others!
▫Ansible, Chef, SaltStack, Jenkins
▫vCenter Orchestrator is a hidden gem

25. The 10,000 hour rule
•Do I believe this?
▫Arbitrary?
▫Practice certainly helps
•Regardless…
▫Start now!
▫Learn
▫Improve
▫Share
▫Grow

26. Noticeable trends
•App/Dev teams are …
▫Coding around infrastructure
▫Building distributed applications
▫Demanding responsive feedback loops
▫Able to get this from off-prem sources
•Infrastructure teams …
▫Must adapt to these needs
▫Must add value to the SDLC

27. “I don’t need this stuff at my work”
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Series 4
Series 5
Series 6

28. “I don’t need this stuff at my work”
- Novell Admins
(when asked about Active Directory)

29. Resources for learning
Get more skills to pay the bills

30. PowerShell
•“Monad Shell”
•.NET Framework
•Primarily a Windows tool
•Desired State Config (DSC)
•Version 3 or better
▫I prefer version 4

31. PowerCLI
•VMware focused cmdlets
•Great for workflows
•Spectacular community

32. Python
•Very human friendly
•Object-oriented
•Package management
▫(PIP)

33. COBOL

34. Puppet (open source)
•Configuration Management
•Declarative language
•Abstraction from Ruby

35. vCenter Orchestrator
•GUI-like framework
•Little code required
•Plug and play
•“Free”
•Check out vcoportal.de by Jörg Lew
▫(superb resource!)

36. Codecademy

37. Codecademy (and others)
Experts build training modules
Modules available for free
Beginners learn from modules
Beginners become experts

38. The power of social code
How it has impacted my life

39. A GitHub example

40. A GitHub example

41. A GitHub example

42. Thank you for a great session!
For more goodies, check out these resources:
Visit WahlNetwork.com for Deep Dives, Home Lab Tips, Reviews, and More!
Check out “Networking for VMware Administrators” by VMware Press
Over 25 hours of my video training content is on Pluralsight.com
Nearly 100 free HD videos on the WahlNetwork YouTube Channel