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VMworld Hackathon Hardware/Software BOM

10.03.2017 by William Lam // 13 Comments

I know many of you have been asking about the hardware setup that we had used in this years VMworld Hackathon. I finally got a chance to document the details and you can find the complete hardware and software BOM below. For VMworld US, we had two different HW configurations, one for the primary Hackathon which was also re-used for VMworld Europe but we also had another configuration for the Hackathon Training sessions which was new this year. For VMworld Europe, we re-used the primary Hackathon hardware, but we also had the opportunity to take advantage of the new VMware Cloud on AWS offering and built a similiar configuration that teams could also remotely connect to as well. The only difference between the on-premises hardware and VMWonAWS, is the latter required users to RDP to a Windows jump host. Both options were provided and teams could select either environment to use.

Note: Internally, CDW is one of our vendors for purchasing hardware/software and that is why there are links directly to their site. However, you may find better pricing by looking online, especially Amazon which majority of the components are cheaper except for the server which you can get an exclusive vGhetto Discount at MITXPC. I have added links to both CDW/Amazon where applicable and I recommend doing research to find the best pricing if you are on a budget.

Here is a picture of the setup at VMworld US:


Here is a picture of the setup at VMworld EU:

[Read more...]

Categories // VMware Cloud on AWS, VMworld, VSAN, vSphere 6.5 Tags // Hackathon, homelab, Supermicro, VMC, VMware Cloud on AWS, vmworld

VMworld Hackathon vSphere Client Login UI Theme

09.27.2017 by William Lam // 7 Comments

For those of you who attended this years VMworld Hackathon (US/Europe), you may have noticed something different when logging into the vSphere Web/H5 Client? In case you missed it or could not attend, here is a GIF demonstrating what you would have saw:

via GIPHY

No, the VMworld Hackathon environment was not hacked 😉 but instead I had built a very special VMworld Hackathon vSphere Client Login UI Theme for the event. I was also getting tired of looking at our boring blue login screen. Customizing the vSphere Client Login UI has been possible (though not officially supported by VMware) since vSphere 6.0 which I have written about here, here and most recently here (due to vSphere 6.5 Update 1 changes). Having received a large number of requests from folks who attended the Hackathon as well as folks who had heard or saw the customization who wish to replicate this in their own environment, I have posted the instructions below.

This slick customization would not have been possible without the help from Timo Sugliani (thanks dude!) who was the one that made me aware of the two of the creatives that then gave me the idea to combine them into a vSphere Client Login UI Theme. The first is V for Vendetta image which can be found here and the second is super slick interactive Bootstrap animation which can be found here. Lastly, I added my own touch by using a Mr. Robot font from this site here which goes really well with the overall theme.

[Read more...]

Categories // Not Supported, VMworld, vSphere 6.5, vSphere Web Client Tags // Hackathon, vmworld, vsphere web client

VMworld Hackathon 2017 Highlights

09.18.2017 by William Lam // Leave a Comment

This was our second year running the Hackathon at VMworld and Alan and I could not have been more pleased with all the positive and supportive feedback that we have received. The Hackathon was definitely a highlight for us as it was for many other VMworld attendees. Having said that, the Hackathon did come in a very close #2 for us in VMworld Europe as our very own Alan Renouf took center stage with our CEO Pat Gelsinger for the Day 1 Keynote which you can watch here.

There were so many great highlights at both the US and Europe VMworld Hackathon, it was hard to just mention a few. I thought I would be nice to pull together all this content and share it back with the community, especially for those who missed out on the Hackathon this year and have now regretted not joining 😉 Do not worry, you can make up for it next year! It was also very cool to see the VMworld Hackathon influence the VMUG Community with the Pittsburg VMUG running their own "mini" Hackathon which they dubbed #PGHlittlehacks, you can read more about it here.

I also wanted to give a huge thanks to the VMware Code team, if it was not for them and their support, the Hackathon would have not been possible. Not only did we double the size of the teams by 2x for both US (7 to 15 teams) and Europe (5 to 10 teams), but we also recieved a larger budget this year for better hardware, giveaways and more activities like the Hackathon Trainings. If you are not part of VMware Code, be sure to sign up here and also be sure to give them feedback on things you like at the Hackathon as well as things we could improve on. You can reach them on Twitter @vmwarecode or Slack them https://vmwarecode.slack.com. I also wanted thank our esteemed judges here and here for taking time out of their busy VMworld schedule and spending several hours with us, we know you could have been anywhere, but you decided to hang out with us! Lastly, thanks to the VMworld TV folks for stopping by and having a chat with us.

Alan and I really appreciate all the kind words that we have received in the last few weeks and we hope to see you in next years VMworld Hackathon!

FYI - In the coming week, I will be posting more information about the Hackathon hardware BOM as well as the slick vSphere Web Client UI customization, so stay tuned.

Blogs:

  • A reflection on the VMworld Hackathon by Patrick Kremer
  • An inside look at the VMworld hackathon by Nick Korte
  • VMworld 2017 EU Day 1 (part 2) by Robert Kloosterhuis
  • Hello Hackathon VMworld EU by Pascal van de Bor
  • VMworld EU 2017 Day 1 by Wouter Kursten
  • The need for code: VMworldEU Hackathon 2017 notes–Part 1 by Lino Telera

Twitter Comments:

  • http://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://github.com/lamw/vmworldhackathon2017-story/blob/master/VMworldHackathon2017-Storify.html

Videos:

VMworld TV Interview:

Time-Lapse Video by Lars Troen:

Hackathon Team Presentations by Lars Troen:

Pictures:


             US Pictures - https://github.com/lamw/vmworld-hackathon/tree/master/2017-USA-Pictures


             Europe Pictures - https://github.com/lamw/vmworld-hackathon/tree/master/2017-BCN-Pictures

US Hackathon Training:

  • https://github.com/lamw/vmworld-hackathon#training-sessions

US/EU Hackathon Github Repos:

  • https://github.com/lamw/vmworld-hackathon/tree/master/2017-Github-Repos

Hackathon Hardware/Software BOM:

  • http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2017/10/vmworld-hackathon-hardwaresoftware-bom.html

Categories // VMworld Tags // Hackathon, vmworld

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William is Distinguished Platform Engineering Architect in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Division at Broadcom. His primary focus is helping customers and partners build, run and operate a modern Private Cloud using the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform.

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