It’s a Girl, 5 pounds 14 Ounces, 18″, Maizie Jean Lund
W00T!!!!!!!
I am a very Proud Daddy.
I hopped on the wagon to test vSphere with the new Paravirtual SCSI driver.
I used I/O meter, with 10GB test files, one per drive. 32K 100% read.
I did a comparison of 1 LSI VDMK drive, vs 1 paravirtual VMDK drive, vs 1 RDM, vs 1 paravirtual RMD.
And then I did a comparison of 3 LSI VDMK drive, vs 3 paravirtual VMDK drive, vs 3 RDM, vs 3 paravirtual RMD.
Its been a couple weeks now since I’ve written a Mozy backup status update. We have progressed quite a ways in the backup process. I have interrupted the backups almost every evening once I get home because it was saturating my upstream connection and degrading my internet performance while I was trying to use it. So, that hasn’t helped my speed issues. But that does bring one point which Backblaze includes in their software – bandwidth throttling. That would be a nice feature to keep the client software from saturating your full upstream or downstream connection.
Beyond that, the backup is progressing nicely. I have less than 10GB of data left to be processed and uploaded. I think that we will be complete by the end of next week, if not sooner.
Since some data is now online, I am able to see the restore features of the Mozy website. As somone from Online Backup Reviews commented earlier, Mozy has added the feature of getting your data (snail) mailed to you in the event of a disaster. The rates are significantly better than Backblaze’s simliar service.
I let my Backblaze trial account lapse. I haven’t done much more with that software, but I genuinely liked the service and the yearly cost. I didn’t like the offline restore cost, though, and that kept me from subscribing. I thought those prices were very high ($99 for DVD?). I may sign up for a trial of another vendor just to see what the experience and software is like. More updates soon.
Ok, I’ll admit it. I’ve taken the VCP test and didn’t pass. (ok, not sure how many rungs I’ve just fallen on your ladder… I’m sure a few). So let me rationalize make excuses explain. I took the test last year at VMworld without studying much prior. And, I hadn’t had any hand-on experience with ESX 3.5, which was a major problem on my part. So, there’s my case. If it counts, I was just two questions from passing.
Attempt number two – I’m determined to be different this time. I’ll be retaking the test for certification on June 15 – next month – giving me a month to go over all my study materials. I am taking the 3.5 certification exam. Yes, I’m aware vSphere has arrived. That’s exactly why I’m taking this test. One, I need to take it because that’s where my experience lies and two, I need to take it while its still available.
So, any tips, sources, or suggestions for study materials and resources would be greatly appreciated. I am armed with Mike Laverik’s Virtual Infrastructure 3.5 book, my 3.0 courseware and a few study outlines from VMware.
Certifications have always been something high on my list to-do, but something I never seem to get to. I did all the research and read skimmed most of the Microsoft library in a quest for MCP and MCSE about 8 or 9 years ago. I never took a single test. About five years ago, I switched jobs and did full-time web programming for a university. I got the books and started studying for Zend PHP certification. Never took the test.
I moved back into my preferred career path about 3 years ago now (my 3 year anniversary with HTC is June 6!) and certifications became something I wanted again. I think the desire is to prove that I know what I profess to know. At the same time, I’ve met a number of certified professional who are about as dumb as dirt when it comes to the technology they are certified on, but I digress.
So, to date, I have completed just one certification exam for our corporate mail product. That was a test I took at the tail end of the training course.
I have spent two and a half years working very hard to learn VMware – the in’s and out’s of the software – and the gotchas that might bite. And so, I want to be VMware certified. During my annual review, I also submitted VMware certification as one of my annual goals. It will be included in my review for this year. So, that was motivation to finally take this test and make it happen. So, I will update you on my quest for certification.
Being a Windows administrator for the company, I feel like I should have a Microsoft certification or two. Given Microsoft’s new certification program, I am not sure what certifications I want, so that too may be something to ponder. Updates coming soon…
So, my life has been no less busy in the last 10 days, but I did catch up with my Google Reader and all the news of the day. My wife is busy finishing a project management class for her Master program, so our family has been a little stretched lately. On top of that, work has been busy, too. All these are good and productive things. But just an update since I posted about nothing – here’s the followup about my nothing-ness.
And now, a post about nothing…..
Its finally happened. I missed a day in Google Reader… I didn’t read any of my news today. I never got caught up enough at work to actually have time to take in the news. I also didn’t have time to read much of my personal email during the day. The day flew past and it was 4:22 (see my twitter feed) before I knew what happened, and I was no where near where I wanted to be as far as my task list was concerned. So, tomorrow is a day to play catch up.
I guess that’s the problem – is problem the right word? I guess that’s the delimma. By virtue of the iPhone, I’m pretty much connected except when I’m sleeping. I can get my news, I can get my email, I can get to the Internet from just about anywhere. And for me to have 600 things waiting to be read in Google Reader – that’s saying something.
I guess its also like the wireless commercials that were airing in the south (maybe nationwide) last year – all the things you can think about when you don’t have to think about minutes… I’m waiting for some mindless reboots after upgrading VMware Tools tonight and this is what I’m thinking about. I guess, I could be reading all those things in Google Reader instead of posting this, but oh well. I have one major reboot that needs to happen tonight – 2 am – <sarcasm> Yay! </sarcasm>.
And I quote CNN today – “New services promise online life after death.” No, its not fountain of youth, but it is a real issue that some have already found — what happens to your virtual you when you die? How do you securely transfer domains and virtual “real estate” that could have real value?
Obviously, someone out there thinks there is a real business opportunity for services that will allow you to pass along access to your virtual properties… See the original article at cnn.com.
Thanks to Glen for this link…
So, its been exactly a week since I started my Mozy backup. I have now progressed to completion of approximately 20GB of my data backed up. My iMac froze (yes, it does happen…) one day and I had to restart it when I got home from work, but the backup kicked off again. So, 20GB in a week isn’t that bad. But I’m impatient. I can’t help thinking how much fast this would be on Bluewave (my company’s fiber to the home product). I’d have a much faster upstream. That brings me back to my point in the last post – the biggest hurdle to online backup is upstream on home Internet connections. But, that’s where we are today. I’ll be following up later on this.