From the Get-Yerself-Certified Dept. As the year is drawing to a close, it’s my pleasure to share with you the partner training calendar for the United States, 2012. We’ll be hosting a number of classes where you can learn the nuts & bolts of the RES product line, from the ground up. The classes will primarily be run by yours truly in 2012. According to the wishes of existing and new RES partners, we’ve selected a number of US cities where technical training will take place. Mark down the dates and contact me if you want to reserve a seat. Registered participants will receive information about the venues, prerequisites and everything else, when time is approaching.Here are all locations, dates, courses and abreviations: AM=Automation Manager, WM=Workspace Manager, SO=Service Orchestration.

Here’s a bit of background info on these classes. If you’ve never sat through a RES training class, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. These classes are very heavy on practical labwork rather than the usual PowerPoint + 15 steps of boring labwork. Having trained a slew of technologies over the last 20+ years, including Citrix, RES, App-V and Packeteer, I’ve formulated a good recipe which resonates well with most participants:

• Get the basic theory of operations
• See how it’s done
• Try to build it yourself
• Possibly fail. Don’t panic! This is a good thing. See below.
• Fix the problem and learn from the experience
• Repeat on a new topic.

The failure part at first seem to worry some folks in the modern business culture which seems predominant, being spewed and enforced by clueless managers that “failure isn’t an option“. You, as an engineer or an admin, got to look at it with better eyes than that, because that’s how we learn best as Human Beings. Somehow we seem to forgotten this basic rule of human nature in the ruthless corporate world we inhabit as IT people. Pause and think back for a moment: It is likely that ever last one of us as a youngster , learned the hard way a stove is indeed hot! (well, maybe Harry didn’t ;) – All because we were unable to absorb the experience of the senior people in the household.

In a much too typical IT class, you watch the numbnut at the whiteboard yammer on for 1-2 hours, showing off his Powerpoint skills, while reading aloud from the curriculum, followed by; “So, let’s turn to Lab Excersize 23A on page 451 and take 15 minutes to complete this lab”. This is where you with 98.2% probability will see the Instructor bolting for the door to answer voicemail or go on his smokebreak. You as a participant, in the meantime get the sheer thrill of following 15-20 lab steps: Click here, now click there etc. etc…Done. My question to you at this point is – and think hard about this one:

What. Did. You. Learn ?

Did said lab exercise provide you with the opportunity for independent thought or ideas? Did it expose any weaknesses in the procedure (or god forbid, in the product!) which would help you in the field later? Did you get the chance to fail, fix and learn from the experience? If the answer is no to all of the above, you have to ask yourself if you feel properly prepared. After all, chances are that your employer is not pulling you from the field, just to enjoy the nice catering and my lame Chuck Norris jokes during class.

When dealing with potent and extremely versatile products – such as the ones RES Software produces – a different approach is needed as described above. Setting you up for potential failure during class will help you avoid making similar mistakes when in front of your customer. It’s as simple as that. Being thrown into the deep end of the pool is not a bad thing here, as long as there’s a qualified lifeguard on duty. What that translates to is that during my classes you can expect to be challenged, but at the same time fully supported.

I look forward to seeing you in class. For more information on the classes and a handy training and certification FAQ, see this article.

From the RES Tech Training Dept. Are you a new or prospective RES partner in the United States? Need to get trained in a RES product? Missed the recent invite? Then keep reading, this article is for you then!

In November, when the weather is turning cold and miserable all over the northern states, I have the pleasure of opening the doors in sunny Florida, for yet another series of RES training classes. We kick off on Wednesday, November 9-11th with a 3-day RES Automation Manager 2011 course. The following week, from November 14-18th we offer a 5-day Workspace Manager 2011 class. We’ll have everything wrapped up, so you can be back home well before the ThanksGiving week starts.

As the two flagship products of RES Software are designed to operate independently, there is no requirement to attend both classes. However, if you have not been trained in either RES product before, there is a significant advantage to learning how Workspace Manager can optionally integrate with Automation Manager.

The classes I run are BYOPC based, i.e. grab a windows laptop with 4GB or more RAM and we’ll take care of the rest. I guarantee that you will have an entertaining as well as educational experience. FYI, the classes I teach, are high-octane and straight to the point – with an absolute microscopic amount of PowerPoint. You will get as much lab time as you can handle!

For more information on the topics covered in the class, see the pages for Automation Manager and Workspace Manager. You also may want to have a look at the course descriptions and FAQ I’ve written previously here.

If this should have peaked your interest, please do feel free to reach out to yours truly before Thursday Nov. 3rd, and I’ll send you the full itinerary and all the necessary information for preparation and participation. My contact info is available here.

Looking forward to seeing you in class!

From the What-Happens-In-Vegas Dept. Microsoft Management Summit in sunny Las Vegas is coming up in March, 21st through 25th. If you’re stateside this is a must-attend event, where you will have the opportunity to learn from the experts and see what’s new in the realm of all things Microsoft. Again this year, RES Software, a Microsoft Gold Partner, is exhibiting and presenting System Center integration and VDX at MMS. Here’s a handful of great reasons why you should stop by booth #415 or one of our presentations/labs and see what’s going on…

Reason #1: See RES Software’s System Center integration

Would you like to unify the user experience across rich PCs and desktop virtualization solutions like App-V, RDS and VDI? In this demo-heavy session led by Bob Janssen, founder and CTO of RES Software, you’ll see how the RES Dynamic Desktop Studio creates a personalized and secure workspace which roams with your users regardless of device or delivery approach. Bob, who pioneered the concept of a “user workspace” over a decade ago, will unveil RES’s System Center integration, while also highlighting the company’s ongoing support for Microsoft platforms and technologies.

Bob Janssen will be joined by Jeff Fisher and Bill Corrigan – Some of you App-V (SoftGrid) old-timers may remember Bill from the original Softricity team in Boston. He is now the CMO for RES Software and will be joining us in Vegas.

Reason #2: Experience VDX in action.

One of the most important announcements late last year was the release of the stand-alone Virtual Desktop Extender or VDX, which will allow you to integrate local rich applications into a Terminal Services / VDI delivered desktop with ease. There is an in-depth article here to check out, but do consider stopping by our booth area, where we’ve got plenty of learning space. We will be happy to show you how it all works.

Reason #3: C’mon down to the lab!

In the RES Solutions Lab, we will offer you the chance to try out our products hands-on, install them and work with them at your own pace. Each day from Tuesday 22nd to Thursday 24rd during MMS, An ILL (Instructor Led Lab) will be held at 11:15am to 12:30pm in the RES Software conference room, located in Palms -C. You will find us in the Mandalay Bay convention center on the 3rd floor . The labs will be hosted by your Friendly Neighborhood Mad Scientist, Max Ranzau. The labs are based on BYOPC, meaning you bring your own laptop and run our stuff in a lab VM environment off an external harddrive. To participate you need at least 3GB RAM in your laptop. Also please bring a brain… ;-)

If you would like to participate in the lab sessions, please come see us at booth #415 during MMS or send me a mail to secure a seat. Remember: seats are very limited! Below you will find a map to our booth and a preview of it so you can easily find RES Software in the exhibition hall. Click to enlarge the pics:

PS: Actually, there’s a 4th reason to visit the RES Software booth: Come spin the wheel of fortune and win cool prizes! Grand prize is an Xbox 360.

From the Guru Bootcamp dept. During 2010 we’ve all been witness to how the product portofolio at RES has expanded. Also there’s been plenty of new functionality added to the existing products, hence the training offerings needed to be changed accordingly. RES Training recently announced changes in the training and certification courses to it’s channel. I’ve summarized some of the highlights here and added a Training FAQ section below.

Note: This article has been updated Feb 17th with links to syllabus for the new courses and additional entries in the FAQ section.

RES Automation Manager 2011

As of Jan 1st the  existing RES Automation Manager Basic course (RAMBC-300) will be supplemented with a Service Orchestration course, and split-up into three separate consecutive trainings:

• RES Automation Manager 2011 Basic Course – Task Automation RAMBC-310
• RES Automation Manager 2011 Basic Course – Resource Provisioning RAMBC-320
• RES Automation Manager 2011 Basic Course – Service Orchestration RAMBC-330

It is officially recommended that you as a RALC or RCT combine RAMBC-310 with RAMBC-320 and offer RAMBC-330 in a separate course. As a trainer I can only concur with this, as Service Orchestration is a completely new ballgame for most folks – even the seasoned Workspacer’s, as it’s not about technology, but about the business. As for duration guidelines, nothing is set in stone, however the following recomendations are currently offered:

• RAMBC-310: 2 days, combined with RAMBC-320: 3 days
• RAMBC-320: 1 day
• RAMBC-330: 3 days (Again, keep in mind this is very different from what you may know about WM and AM)

For the syllabus / topics covered in the Automation Manager RAMBC courses, please refer to this page on the corp website.

RES Workspace Manager 2011

With the release of RES Workspace Manager 2011 (formerly known as RES PowerFuse) early 2011, the RES Workspace Manager Basic Course will also be available in three separate trainings:

• RES Workspace Manager 2011 Basic Course – Composition & Personalization RWMBC-410
• RES Workspace Manager 2011 Basic Course – Advanced Administration RWMBC-420
• RES Workspace Manager 2011 Basic Course – Security & Performance RWMBC-430

Note that it is recommend to combine all three courses to archive maximum, in-depth knowledge of the product suite. The duration guidelines for the RWMBC courses are as follows:

• RWMBC-410: 2 days, combined wih RWMBC-420 and RWMBC-430: 5 days.
• RWMBC-420: 2 days
• RWMBC-430: 2 days

For the syllabus / topics covered in the Workspace Manager RWMBC courses, please refer to this page on the corp website.

Training FAQ

Several questions pop up over and over again while new ones are probably be forming right now, so let me try to address some of these in the section below. If you have additional questions that you feel that belong in this Frequently Asked Questions list, drop an email or simply comment on this post. Newest additions will be on top.

New questions

So now Workspace Manager 2011 is released, when is the exam for it coming?

While significant features additions have been made from PowerFuse 2010 to Workspace Manger 2011, it was however not sufficient to warrant a new prometric test. In other words, the 2010 exam is still good for Workspace Manager 2010. There will be a new exam for Workspace Manager 2012.

What about Automation Manager then? Will my current Wisdom certification remain valid too?

In July 2011 we should see a new Automation Manger 2011  exam.

What about VDX? Will that be a seperate course too?

No, since it’s a very simple product to work with, it does currently not warrant it’s own course. VDX will be covered in the RWMBC-410 course.

Current questions

Will there be a manual for every of the RAMBC/RWMBC courses, meaning 6 manuals?

Yes. Although the contents of the three manuals that will be available for each product are in general the same as the single manual that was available before, there will going to be 6 manuals: 3 manuals for Automation Manager including Service Orchestration, and 3 for Workspace Manager.

What are the cost of manuals?

Fair question, let me redirect you to the partners for the correct answers to that, as I’d rather stear clear of the whole pricing thing. Here are links where you can find contact information for RES Software’s RALC’s (RES Autorized Learning Centers) (RALC’s) and Distribution partners. If I can post MSRP prices later, I’ll update this posting.

Can I have the manuals as a PDF?

No. Believe it or not, we get this question all the time. The manuals are the intellectual property of RES Software. Microsoft, Citrix and VMware to name a few, won’t be too happy either if you copy their corriculum.

I want to certify as an RCP . Is course participation mandatory?

No. That’s the same deal as with Citrix, Microsoft, etc. The courses are offered, but there’s no obligation to take them. If you believe you can do the prometric tests, then by all means go for it! However I do recomend you to seriously consider the courses as you will benefit from the experience and knowledge of the trainer (which in some instances may be your’s truely).

What if I want to become a trainer myself?

The only exception to the above is if you are planning to become an RCT (RES Certified Trainer). You first have to pass the most recent of all available exams. Second, you will need to demonstrate to RES Software that you’re capable of delivering the training. For EMEA, this happens during T3 classes, which are held in Den Bosch, Netherlands. In the United states, at this time this process is  handled by yours truely. One of my responsibilities is to certify new trainers. Once I’ve seen you train and things check out to our standards, I’ll give you the blue rubberstamp of aproval and voilá; you are a RES Certified Trainer.

On a side note: If this is your first time working with RES products and you’re an experienced trainer, by all means make sure you focus on learning the products first, before you worry about how you’re going to deliver the training. This may seem a strange thing say to some, but remember that while many of our current RCT’s have field engineering background, others are dedicated trainers who do not have experience implementing RES products in the field. Therefore, make sure you understand the technology first.

I’m a RCT already or represent a RALC, can I reshape the course durations?

Yes. Now that it’s all modular, it is easy reshape the courses to the needs of your local market. For example, here in the states folks have been asking for a shorter course of say 5 days combined Automation Manager and Workspace Manager. With the new courses as offered above, there is nothing to prevent you from reshuffeling the courses to suit your needs. Here are a couple of examples of combinations you could do:

• 5 days combined with focus on Workspace Management: RWMBC410 + RWMBC420 in 3 days, followed by 2 days of RAMBC-310.

• 5 days combined with focus on Automation Management: RWMBC410 in 2 days + RAMBC310 in 2 days + RAMBC320 in one day.

Where do I find a testcenter?

Just go to the prometric testsite. Hit the Start button and the next page will offer you an option to Locate a Testsite. Here you can chose from what country (and if in US, what state) you’re in. When you go through the rest of the menus where you chose what test you want to take, the site will list the testcenters available in your area. There is a more thourough guide available here on how to register for a test.

Does RES offer vouchers for prometric training?

No. Not directly. RES Software does not sell Prometric vouchers to endusers or partners. Only RES Authorized Learning Centers can purchase these in combination with manuals.

Whay is the passing score of the tests?

The prometric tests have a minimum passing score of 420 out of 600 points. Each question in the test is however weighed differently. That means that you won’t get as many points for correctly answering an easy question as answering a difficult question correctly. Also bear in mind that due to the different

Do you know where I can find braindumps?

Yes ;-)

Do you have any statistics on the passing rates?

I’m not sure that Prometric provides this statistic directly, so from what I understand from the friendly folks in Training, the passing rate is between 90-95% on the first run on Workspace Manager, and around 80-85% on Automation Manager. This may come as a suprise to some – the Automation Manager test is definatly more tough than Workspace Manager. If I get an update on said numbers I’ll update this article.

How do I submit feedback on education related topics?

RES Education can be contacted on education@ressoftware.com.

I have feedback on your prometric tests. Will you use it?

Yes. One of the core values of RES Software is that we listen to customer feedback. That’s how we grow our software. When it comes to Prometric tests we would also like to hear from you if something doesn’t work. However please don’t expect us to make any changes until the next major release of our tests. Maintaining and making changes to a Prometric test program is very expensive. Honestly, you would not believe how expensive this is. Even adding graphics to illustrate a question can double an already 5-figure pricetag.

Will upgrade/delta courses be offered?

Update Jan 1st 2010: I passed this question along to Training HQ: Currently there is no plan to offer 2011 upgrade courses as the demand for courses such as RPFUC-100 has been very low. Seems most people prefer to take the full course. Besides that, there is less conceptual change from 2010 to 2011, than originally from 2008 to 2010 as we changed the console completely back then. So with that in mind, we do not anticipate a large demand for upgrade courses as things are today.

I can’t travel. Can I sit into a course via phone/webex?

While some RALC’s may offer pure remote courses, I would personally never recomend mixing a live class with remote participants. The primary reason is that you would simply not get enough out being trained this way. It also requires a tremendous effort on behalf of the trainer to balance the needs of the local/remote participants.

From the Training and Certification Dept. As RES Software rapidly escalates their activities in the United States, the first in a regular scheduled series of technical product training classes for new partners, are rolling off the block next month. As soon as the training schedule goes public I’ll post it here. If you want to attend these classes, you need to hurry as seats are filling up fast! The training sessions will cover the brand-spankin’-new Workspace Manager and the Automation Manager, and be duely warned :-)  it’s yours truely, Mr. RESguru running the show!

The classes will be held at the training facilities of Arrow ECS in Englewood, Colorado

November 2nd-5th: RES Workspace Manager. November 9th-11: RES Automation Manager

The November 2nd training is the full 4-day administrative course,  which will prepare you for certification in RES Workspace Manager administration. The following week, we will run the 3-day certification course for RES Automation Manager. Unlike other some vendors, RES Software has maintained a Thompson-Prometric certification programme for the last half decade. To learn more about the tests and search for a testcenter near you, go here.

Just between you, me and the gatepost: If you’ve never attended a class of mine, I will personally guarantee that you’re in for a treat. I strive to keep training entertaining as well as very educational.  The pace is steady high-bandwidth, though without being breakneck. There will be open discussions, real-world scenarios, plenty of labtime, lots of Q&A, and an absolute minumum of PowerPoint! I think you get my point on the right.. :)

I only maintain one rule in my clasroom, being:  Please Interrupt! I state this in all seriousness at the beginning of every class: If you have a question about our products, don’t hold it back – hit me with it and I will aim to answer your question on the spot. That’s my pledge to you. Besides installing the product and getting hands-on experience, some of the topics being covered in the Workspace Manager course are:

• What is a dynamic desktop
• Architechture of the RES Workspace Manager
• Desktop Transformation
• Configuration of the user workspace
• Analyzing the user workspace
• Zero Profile Technology
• Security Management
• Performance Management
• Virtual Desktop Extender
• Thirdparty integration (Citrix, TS, App-V, SNMP, etc)
• Muliple directory services
• Stealthmode deployment
• Usage tracking
• …and more!

The Automation Manager course will teach you everything you need to know to harness the power of one of the most advanced, yet lightweight automation frameworks on the market for task automatization in windows environments. Along with a complete product installation from the bottom up with plenty of hands-on, some of the topics we will cover are:

• Core concepts and components: Agents, Engines and Teams
• Job concepts: Modules, Projects and Runbooks
• Walkthrough of the available tasks and queries
• Using parameters in Automation manager
• Conditional execution of tasks
• Query evaluators
• Using Automation Manager to clean up your AD.
• Integration with RES Workspace Manager
• …and more!

Although there is no obligation to take both classes back to back, I will recommend you to consider it, in order to get the full picture on how workspace and automation management work together. At the end of the class I am confident you will leave feeling ready to take on your IT challenges with the new skills I will teach you. If the above has peaked your interest, please contact Noelle Blockson at RES Software USA for pricing and seating availability. Send her a mail here. Rembember, seats are very limited.

Seeya in class!

Here’s a list of PowerFuse related Youtube videos, which has been uploaded over some time. Great work guys!