it experience

Customer wanted to quickly deploy Windows and Linux servers for Staging application tests from a service catalog.

The applications that needed to be tested involved several components which required customization at setup phase resulting in a lengthy test process.

Several teams with a mix of skills were involved in the project including teams of Database administrators and certificate administrators. Cross-team communication had to be carefully coordinated to ensure that product development stages could proceed smoothly especially when dependencies were required.

The customer requested a Proof-of-Concept using vCloud Director since at the time, the customer believed this was the best approach. However Sascha demonstrated through detailed testing, that this was not the ideal solution in the long term. The customer accepted the advice and requested an alternative approach using vRealise Automation.

vRealise Automation and vRealise Orchestration formed the ideal solution in this scenario. The solution involved the deployment of several Virtual Machines, customization including certificates and database tuning.

The new test environment consisted of Virtual Machines which were customized and baselined with vRealise for quick deployment. The Cataloged items offered instant setup of a fully working test environment for use by the Quality Assurance team.

The customer saved up to 95% of preparation time for the testing environment. The Testing team became more through improved control on the lifecycle of the testing environment resulting in further savings in server hardware, storage and networking equipment.

Cloud Consultant

vRO 6.x , vCAC/vRA 6.x

Kanton Aargau

Identification and resolution of performance issues in VCloud Director which was used for the automation of training course deployment. Additionally training of new personnel in maintaining the solution.

The existing solution suffered performance issues at a networking and storage level.

Apart from training the new personnel in VCloud Director, a by-product of the training was a new scenario for classroom training. This was subsequently integrated in VMware training for troubleshooting scenarios.

The new personnel started to perform effectively, even contributing to the new training scenario while troubleshooting the original issue. The project was effective in mentoring the personnel to provide superior level of Support for customers.

Cloud Consultant , Project Leader

vCD 5.5 , Automation

Avnet Technology Solutions GmbH

2X Software, a vendor of remote desktop delivery software based on Windows Terminal Services, required a training programme to certify global distributors in deploying the 2X solution.

The training had to be created from scratch
The 2X products worked with various Microsoft components which required fine tuning before the actual 2X solution was installed.
Training sessions were organised worldwide and not every training center had the hardware and software resources to deliver the training content.
Bandwidth in some training centers was not adequate to demonstrate the 2X solution. Hence an on-premise solution was preferred.

Initially a training lab document was planned which detailed step-by-step instructions to deploy the 2X solution. However it was deemed too close to a user manual, which delivered no benefit. It was decided to create a lab environment which is portable and could be run on laptops with medium-to-high specifications. The lab document contained detailed instructions to deploy the solution and side notes to explain why each process was needed. Finally the candidate had to sit a certification exam.
The lab environment was first built on Microsoft Active Directory 2008 but was later upgraded to Microsoft Active Directory 2012. The 2X Software also functioned as a connection broker so the lab also included virtualised instances of VSphere 5.0 and Hyper-V 2008. Updates included installing updated versions of VSphere, Hyper-V and the content in the training lab document to reflect the new features of the 2X product. The whole lab environment was highly automated and rapidly deployed.

Sascha trained over 150 candidates in Central Europe with this program. However the training was delivered by a network of global trainers over all continents bringing the total number of certified 2Xperts to over 600 by late 2014.

2X Certified Trainer

Server Based Computing , Desktop Virtualization

Interscale AG

The customer was not satisfied with the performance of vSphere used in a hosted desktops project at their organisation. Also the connection between Active Directory Domains on different sites was not functioning as expected.

The vSphere Deployment was not completed according to best practices. Various issues like hardware errors, misconfiguration, undersized hardware and poor choice of software solutions.
The design of the Active Directory domain was inconsistent. The domains functioned indipendently however they formed part of the same Active Directory Forest. This limited the functionality of the Active Directory in functions such as the exchange of user and user group information within different domains.

Many of the issues with vSphere were due to performance tuning and misconfiguration by the hardware vendors of the equipment in the customer’s data center. Sascha identified the issues through benchmarking, analysis and monitoring tools.
As for the Active Directory issues, Sascha tackled the problem by breaking it down into smaller problems. In specialised areas, Microsoft Support for Active Directory was consulted.

Confidence was restored in the hosted desktops project. The users could visibly see the benefit from improved desktop performance after the project was completed. The defective hardware in the data center was not only replaced but upgraded to higher specifications at an attractive price. This is a text book example of how a crisis was turned into an opportunity.

Active Directory Consultant , vSphere Consultant

vSphere vCenter 5.x , VMware Virtualization

ZG Raiffeisen eG

Training organisation requested the implementation of a Physical to Virtual Migration for delivery of automated course content

Remote control software for teachers was not intended to work in virtual environments
Internal IT staff lacked the inhouse expertise to build a solution for virtual environments

The client wanted to remove the physical desktops in the classrooms and to automate course lab environment.

The solution was developed over two iterations. Apart from migrating physical servers to virtual servers, the first iteration also involved a migration of VMware vSphere 5.0 to 5.1. The preparations were complete and hence we could proceed with VMware View 5.0 Design & Implementation. PCoIP based Client Integration was achieved and the desktops could then be removed from the classrooms.

Second iteration involved a migration from Microsoft Active Directory 2008 to 2012 with a re-Design of Microsoft AD & VMware View Pools. VMware View 5.0 was updated to Horizon View 5.2. Customisation of different baselines for course labs was achieved through the implementation of Liquidware Labs Profile Management.

The client immediately saved costs in deploying and maintaining over 120 physical machines in the classrooms. The organisation was more agile through the ability in rapdily creating and deploying automated course content. The changes in the Active Directory environment resulted in reduced administration costs, optimisation of resources and improved security.

Active Directory Consultant , vSphere Consultant , Desktop Consultant , Project Leader

Horizon View 5.x , Automation

Migros Klubschule Basel

Customer requested a solution to automate the deployment of VMware classroom training environment

Manual preparation of the classroom training environment was a time consuming process which needed to be done every Friday evening. At any point, tens of training programs were scheduled for the following week where each training program required the necessary preparation so it is ready to be used by the students. Training programs varied in content and each training program required a customized setup involving as many as a hundred Virtual Machine instances.

The customer was presented with a library of VMware PowerCLI functions that are assembled in a task list to create a separate workflow for each course deployment.

Sascha designed a flexible workflow engine that accepted a text file as input and in turn the engine produced a new course deployment using automated delivery. The solution also enabled quick deployment of new courses involving minor modifications to the input text file, rather than creating a separate workflow engine for each course.

The workflow engine made possible the automation of a manual task which traditionally is prone to human error, time consuming, resource intensive and inefficient. The customer estimated time savings of up to 70% in deploying classroom training environments.

Software Developer

Automation , VMware Virtualization

To consolidate 6 different Active Directory sites into 1 Active Directory forest.

The organisation consisted of 6 sites in different countries. Each site was managed by the local Systems Administrator. The Distributed architecture meant it was difficult to maintain users and permissions, lacked a centralized audit trail and hardware resources could not be shared. Applications could not be deployed on a company wide basis hindering knowledge sharing. Users resorted to optical media and traditional post methods to share sensitive data.

Some of the Systems Administrators were resisting this project due to fear of losing control of the allocated site. Company politics also meant the project suffered more setbacks until a favorable solution for all stakeholders could be worked out.

Initially a Proof-of-Concept was created to demonstrate the design. The data containing original users was taken from the production environment and the migration was then simulated. The Administrators based in the European offices were brought into the Head Office and were given training to perform their assigned task during the migration. Sascha was the designated Project Leader who coordinated and executed the migration in a sequential manner.

At all stages of the migration, from Proof-of-Concept to final iteration, the technical documentation for each site was also updated. Even after the migration was completed successfully, the administrators continued to receive mentoring sessions by Sascha in order to maintain the integrity of the newly formed Microsoft Active Directory site.

The Head Office of the organisation gained immediate control of all sites since administration was now centralized. Newly created monitoring checks were effective in maintaining the integrity of the new Active Directory Forest and for auditing user permissions.

The organisation was now more agile in deploying applications to all sites thus  fostering better user collaboration and information sharing.

The mentoring sessions triggered new standard procedures in maintaining user accounts and permissions using one common standard for all the sites in the organisation.

Active Directory Consultant , Project Leader , Microsoft Certified Trainer

Microsoft Active Directory Migration , Microsoft Exchange Server , Microsoft Active Directory Design

Multi-Contact AG