VSP1708 VCDX Defense Prep

/ Andrew Miller
Literally 20 people in the room…..got here late b/c only heard about this off of Twitter.
  • Design Role Play Scenario #1
    • Consolidation Scenario — sample info about consolidation physical to virtual but not enough.
    • I/O Scenarios
    • Asking about application scenarios is a good method.
    • Ask about peak I/O characteristics per VM
    • See Windows XP — use RDP to connect to them,
    • I’d ask about # of CPU’s, how is backup done, thin provisioning and/or dedup permissible.
    • Get more info about customers workloads and requirements.
    • Won’t be penalized for not knowing NetApp storage (or whatever storage provider)
    • Didn’t see any network stack or dependencies….good to ask about.
    • Make any assumptions explicit (like “Was a Cap Plan run?”)
  • Design Scenario #2
    • Tips
      • Troubleshooting design scenario.
      • Draw a Picture
      • Think Out loud
      • Think about where underlying fault might be.
      • Show path you used to get to the solution.
      • Panelists won’t support fishing expeditions.
        • If ask “do we have metrics?” no good.
        • Specific metric they’ll give it to you.
    • dropped packets, NIOC, cpu ready wait time.
      • good to name specific metrics when asking
    • asking about when the problem occurs
    • Don’t solve the scenario too quickly…could solve in 30 seconds and do poorly.
    • You’re measured by the systematic thought process.
    • Again….be specific…not just “storage logs” but vmkernel logs and what you want to see in the log (scsi resets)
  • What demonstrates design expertise?
    • Identifying and understanding business requirements
    • Identifying constraints and risks
    • Understanding different enterprise architecture strategies
    • Making and justifying sound decisions, understanding the impacts of your design design choices.
    • Understanding of all aspects of design, including the risks inherent to various design choices.
  • 75 minutes of presenting own design — exec summary + presentation – then panel asks questions, scenarios come after that.
  • Can recommend changes in the design scenario, if don’t know specific hardware info can ask panel to look it up online.

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