What better way to kick off a Friday than with a competition? David Davis from Trainsignal has kindly provided two copies of his ‘Best of vSphere 4.1 for vNerds’ training DVD to give away to a couple of lucky TechHead readers. This training DVD is over 2 hours in length and covers a range of interesting and useful VMware vSphere 4.1 related topics (for a full list see the bottom of this post). David has also just released of couple of more advanced vSphere training courses covering VMware vSphere Troubleshooting Training and VMware vSphere Performance Monitoring Training that are definitely worth taking a look at.
How to Win?
I thought we could have a bit of fun with this competition so to be in the draw to win one of these fantastic ‘Best of vSphere 4.1 for vNerds’ training DVDs all you have to do is take a photo of a piece of paper or similar saying ‘Hello TechHeads’ against a geeky (eg: a rack of servers) or scenic (eg: a recognisable landmark) backdrop. I will then have David choose his favourite two photos during an upcoming vChat webcast (competition ends: Friday 27th May 2011) and will publish the photos once a winner has been drawn.
Email your photos to competition <at> techhead <dot> co <dot> uk
This competition is open to everyone worldwide. Good Luck! 
Best of vSphere 4.1 for vNerds Training Outline
Introduction to Best of vSphere 4.1 for vNerds
- About Your Instructor
- About the Course
- About Train Signal’s vSphere Training Package
Video 1 – Overview of vSphere 4.1 New Features
- What’s New in vSphere 4.1
- Storage, Network, Availability and Management Features
- Platform Enhancements
- vSphere 4.1 Enhancements for Small and Midsize Businesses
Video 2 – New vSphere 4.1 Windows Active Directory Authentication
- Introduction to New vSphere 4.1 AD Authentication
- Steps to Configure ESX AD Authentication
Video 3 – Using Storage and Network I/O Control in vSphere 4.1
- Why You Need Storage I/O Control (SIOC)
- How SIOC Works
- SIOC Requirements
- Enabling SIOC in vSphere 4.1
- Configuring Shares and IOPS for VMs
- Monitoring the IOPS and Latency for a Datastore
Video 4 – Importing Hyper-V VMs with vSphere 4.1
- Going in the Right Direction
- What You Need to Know
- Step by Step: Importing a Hyper-V VM with vSphere Converter
Video 5 – Configuring vSphere 4.1 VM to Host DRS Affinity Rules
- Why You Need DRS Affinity Rules
- New vSphere 4.1 VM to Host DRS Affinity Rules and Groups
- Two Types of DRS Affinity Rules
- Configuring DRS Affinity Rules
Video 6 – Understanding Memory Compression in vSphere 4.1
- Compressed Memory is Not Equal to Memory
- You’re Already Using Memory Compression
- Recommended Reading: vSphere 4.1 Memory Performance Study
- Hands-on: Examining Memory Compression
Video 7 – Power Consumption Graphing and Control in vSphere 4.1
- vSphere 4.1 Power Management Improvements
- Requirements for Hardware Power Management
- Review of CPU Power Management Policies
- Configuring CPU Power Management Policies on ESX and ESXi Servers
Video 8 – New vSphere 4.1 ESXi Tech Support Mode
- About ESXi Tech Support Mode
- Configuring ESXi Tech Support Mode
Video 9 – vSphere 4.1 ESXi Lockdown Mode
- Introduction to ESXi Lockdown Mode
- Configuring ESXi Total Lockdown Mode
Video 10 – Configuring vMA as a Log Collector for ESXi Servers
- Why ESXi Servers Need a Logging Server
- Configuring vMA as an ESXi 4.1 Logging Collector
- Comparing Syslog and vMA Vi-Logger
- Configuring vMA Vi-Logger
