thwack Monthly Mission - August Edition

We're making things a bit more interesting this month and it's going to take a little more dedication than usual to complete (it is called a "mission" after all, right?). I've been working with you all for the past 2 years and if there's anything I've figured out, it's that we have some of the most dedicated users and when faced with a challenge, you accept. Be sure to pay attention to the rules, they'll save you this month.

August's Mission

Think you've mastered your virtual environment? Show us what you know! Complete the What's Your Virtual IQ quiz. Correctly answer all 22 questions over the course of 22 (business) days and be entered to win a Xbox 360 Limited Edition Kinect Star Wars Bundle! Points are being awarded at 100pts/question. We're also going to be putting out 1 bonus question per week which will earn you 200 points and 1 extra entry to the drawing for each bonus question correctly answered. Let me break it down a little more.

Mission Rules

Each "daily" question will open at midnight on the corresponding day and remain open until the end of the mission on August 30.
- Earn 100 points for each correctly answered "daily" question.
- All 22 questions must be answered correctly in order to receive 1 entry in the drawing for the grand prize.
Each "bonus" question will open at midnight on a randomly selected day of the week and will only be open for 24 hours.
- For each correctly answered "bonus" question, you will earn 200 points. There will be 1 bonus question per week starting the week of August 5th.
- There are 2 ways to catch when bonus questions are available. Check this blog post every day to make sure you aren't missing out (which hopefully you'll be doing anyway to answer the "daily" question) and/or follow our thwack Twitter handle for updates.
- VERY IMPORTANT - Participants who correctly answer all 22 "daily" questions will receive 1 additional entry in the drawing for each bonus question answered correctly.
As always, only your first attempt at each question will be counted.
Points/badges/entries will be added and accounted for at the end of the mission. If you have an inquiry as to your progress throughout the month, feel free to reach out to me and I'll look into the request.
The grand prize drawing will be held on September 3rd (Terms & Conditions).

So, all-in-all, you can earn up to 3,000 thwack points and put your name in the drawing up to 5 times to better your chances at winning. My advice? Make sure you're keeping tabs on when bonus questions open - that is where the time restraint lies. Daily questions will open each business day and remain open until the end of August. Simply pay close attention to the resources provided on each question to ensure you'll get it right the first time. The charts below should help keep you on track.

Good luck everyone!

Daily Questions - 100 pts/question - max 2,200 points

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
			Aug 1 - Day 1	Aug 2 - Day 2
Aug 5 - Day 3	Aug 6 - Day 4	Aug 7 - Day 5	Aug 8 - Day 6	Aug 9 - Day 7
Aug 12 - Day 8	Aug 13 - Day 9	Aug 14 - Day 10	Aug 15 - Day 11	Aug 16 - Day 12
Aug 19 - Day 13	Aug 20 - Day 14	Aug 21 - Day 15	Aug 22 - Day 16	Aug 23 - Day 17
Aug 26 - Day 18	Aug 27 - Day 19	Aug 28 - Day 20	Aug 29 - Day 21	Aug 30 - Day 22

Bonus Questions - 200pts/question - max 800 points

Bonus 1	Bonus 2	Bonus 3	Bonus 4
CLOSED	CLOSED	CLOSED	CLOSED

<center><img src="/themes/thwack/images/merch tiles/1307_SysMan_Virtual_IQ_925x200.jpg"></center>

Questions + Answers

1. What all elements of your virtualized infrastructure can you explore on Virtualization Manager’s Environment Map functionality?

(multiple answer selection – 4 answers)

VMs
Hosts
Datastores
Network devices
Clusters
Servers

Video: http://www.solarwinds.com/resources/videos/find-virtual-resource-contention-with-mapping.html

2. How is SolarWinds Virtualization Manager available for installation?

1. Virtual appliance
2. Physical appliance
3. Separate software

Online Admin Guide: http://www.solarwinds.com/documentation/vMan/docs/html/en-US/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm

3. How can you identify zombie or idle VMs using SolarWinds Virtualization Manager?

1. By finding VMs with lower CPU, Memory, Network Throughput, and Disk IOPS
2. By finding VMs with higher CPU, Memory, Network Throughput, and Disk IOPS

Video: http://www.solarwinds.com/resources/videos/how-to-identify-zombie-vms.html

4. What hypervisors does Virtualization Manager monitor?

(multiple answer selection – 2 answers)

VMware vSphere
Red Hat
Citrix XenServer
Microsoft Hyper-V

Feature page: http://www.solarwinds.com/virtualization-manager.aspx

5. How is Virtualization Manager licensed?

1. Per number of powered on VMs
2. Per number of sockets
3. Per number of OS instance

Feature Page: http://www.solarwinds.com/virtualization-manager/resources.aspx#ProductFAQ

6. What “Top-N” dashboard widgets are provided in the out-of-the-box “Adminstrator: All” dashboard?

(multiple answer selection – 4 answers)

1. Cluster CPU Utilization
2. VM Memory Ballooning
3. Cluster Memory Depletion
4. VM Network I/O
5. Host VM Capacity
6. Datastore I/O Latency

Demo: http://virtualization.demo.solarwinds.com/

7. What is the optimum VM kernel I/O Latency level measured on an ESX host?

1. 0 to 1 millisecond
2. 0 to 5 milliseconds
3. 5-10 milliseconds

Video: http://www.solarwinds.com/resources/videos/vm-host-i-o-latency-troubleshooting.html

8. What does Virtualization Manager allow you to monitor for the VMs accessing a storage array from the out-of-the-box “Storage” dashboard?

(multiple answer selection – 4 answers)

Datastore IOPS Hour
VM Memory Ballooning Latest
Datastore I/O Latency
VM Storage Consumed
Top-N Stale VMs
Cluster CPU Utilization
Datastore Low Free Space

Video: http://virtualization.demo.solarwinds.com/ (Hint: Select “Storage” from the “More Dashboards” drop down menu in the upper right)

9. How do you detect a capacity bottleneck on your virtual environment using Virtualization Manager?

(multiple answer selection – all 4 answers)

High VM CPU Ready
VM memory ballooning
High Datastore I/O latency
High disk capacity
Low Datastore Disk Capacity

Video: http://www.solarwinds.com/resources/videos/how-to-identify-vm-capacity-bottlenecks.html

10. Virtualization Manager allows you to identify what’s causing your ______ to run slow on VMs.

1. Servers
2. Hosts
3. Applications

Video: http://www.solarwinds.com/resources/videos/virtualization-manager--the-silent-savior.html

11. Which of the following is NOT one of Eric Siebert’s Top 5 Storage Enhancements from VMware & Microsoft?

1. Storage APIs and integration
2. Virtual Storage Appliances
3. Storage Command Line Functions
4. Storage load balancing
5. Storage resource controls

Blog Post: http://vsphere-land.com/news/top-5-hypervisor-new-storage-enhancement-use-cases.html

12. What do you gain by using VM capacity planning feature in Virtualization Manager?

(multiple answer selection – 3 answers)

Visibility into when the current virtual infrastructure will run out of resources
VM sprawl – idle and zombie VMs
Forecast to add new VMs onto the current infrastructure
VM storage snapshots
Examine how new resources will increase the capacity of their virtual infrastructure
VM mapping to host and cluster

Online Admin Guide: http://www.solarwinds.com/documentation/vMan/docs/html/en-US/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm

13. Which is NOT a key new capability in the new release of Virtualization Manager 6.0?

1. Integration with Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
2. Integration with Server and Application Monitor for in-context Application to Datastore visibility
3. Integration with Log and Event Manager for log-based problem determination
4. Improved monitoring of Hyper-V cluster shared volumes (CSVs)
5. GUI enhancements

Video: http://www.solarwinds.com/resources/videos/virtualization-manager-guided-tour.html

14. Within the SAM Orion Console, which is NOT a new views that Virtualization Manager provides under the “Virtualization” tab?

1. Storage
2. Sprawl
3. Map
4. Analysis
5. Dashboards

Hint: View the SAM integration demo at http://systems.demo.solarwinds.com/ under the Virtualization tab

15. In the Collection Schedules portion of the Virtualization Manager Confirguration Wizard, what are the 2 default collection schedules available in Virtualization Manager for monitoring a VMware environment?

1. Performance & Mapping
2. Configuration & Diagnosis
3. Performance & Connections
4. Performance & Configuration

Hint: view video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5NsYmJzfVc

16. What key metric does Virtualization Manager show you to address VDI performance issues during boot/logon storms?

1. VM Sprawl
2. Storage IOPS
3. Cluster Utilization

Solution Finder Page: http://www.solarwinds.com/solutions/vdi-troubleshooting.aspx

17. With Virtualization Manager 6.0’s SAM and NPM integration, which new resource or link shows the applications related to a datastore in a specific datastore view, along with their status and their associated nodes?

1. Datastore view
2. View Performance
3. Applications on this Datastore
4. Datastore to Storage Manager Target
5. View Applications

Blog: Dreams Do Come True: Virtualization Manager Integration With SAM and NPM

18. What are two GUI or Speed Improvements in the VMan V6.0 release?

1. Resize widgets
2. Enable vCenter UI integration
3. Widget URL export
4. Improved charting
5. One click widget delete

Blog: Dreams Do Come True: Virtualization Manager Integration With SAM and NPM

19. With Virtualization Manager integrated into the SAM Orion console, which view shows the overall IOPs and latency of the datastore alongside the performance of each VM?

1. IOPs view
2. VM performance view
3. Datastore details view
4. Dashboard view

Video: SolarWinds Virtualization Manager and Server & Application Manager Integration

Demo: http://virtualization.demo.solarwinds.com/

20. Which is NOT one of Eric Siebert’s Top 5 Tips for monitoring applications in a Virtual Environment

1. Understand application and virtualization dependencies
2. Pay attention to the user experience
3. Leverage open source OS & application heartbeat monitoring
4. Monitor all the layers
5. Use the right tool for the job

Blog Post: http://vsphere-land.com/news/top-5-tips-for-monitoring-applications-in-a-virtual-environment.html

21. What are the common Storage I/O bottleneck causes?

(multiple answer selection – 3 answers)

VM sprawl
Workload variations
VM memory swap
Improper configurations
Poorly designed storage architectures
Stale VMs

White Paper: http://solarwinds-marketing.s3.amazonaws.com/solarwinds/whitepapers/VM_Whitepaper_Bottlenecks.pdf

22. Which of the following dashboards does Virtualization Manager not have?

1. VMware
2. Hyper-V
3. VM Sprawl
4. Capacity Planning
5. Showback
6. Storage
7. All of the above
8. None of the above

Demo: http://virtualization.demo.solarwinds.

Find more posts tagged with

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Comments

jpike

Great idea! Excited to test my Virtual IQ! Thanks for putting this together!

danielleh

Glad to hear you're up to the challenge!

_stump

Stop making me have fun when I'm trying to learn!

802jr

I agree, but fo rme is "Stop making me have fun while I am trying to work!"

_stump

Oh yeah, that too!

jswiss8608

Very awesome and fun contest!! I am excited! Thank you and SolarWinds!

shuth

Uhhh... not entirely sure this has activated properly.

I've tried the link in a few browsers and the same thing. Although I am curious about what would happen if I submitted with just my thwack name...

On a side note, I receive the thwack weekly update email at 9am local time (AEST +10). The update this morning mentioned the bonus question was now available but it didn't activate until around midnight US central (3pm AEST). Locale and timezone is set to Australia in thwack.

Enjoying the questions though! I'll have to find the time to go through the rest of the VM videos.

svindler

Same thing for me, and now I missed my chance of 200 points, as I tried just entering my username to see if the question would show up.

RandyBrown

Same thing for me. No answers to choose.

familyofcrowes

Same for me, but I think it is due to the fact that the bonus questions are only open for 24 hours.... we must be too late...

RandyBrown

But the question wasn't available yesterday when I checked.

danielleh

Thanks for the heads up. There was a glitch which has now been remedied.

Get your answers in now! I'll leave this open until Friday @ 8am CDT to accommodate for the time it wasn't available this morning.

danielleh

You're not too late - it's open!

familyofcrowes

When I go back to the question it states I have already answered the question..... dummy me typed in my name and clicked ok just in case it was supposed to be blank.... DOH!

danielleh

Hi Steven - You may see some overlap in our digests due to the drastic time difference. Just keep in mind, anything with a time stamp will always be in CDT. Apologies for any confusion.

danielleh

I'll fix...

shuth

Hi Danielle - I figured that might be the case. Thanks

danielleh

Try the link now.

familyofcrowes

Like my son would say, "your full of awesome sauce!"

Thanks Danielle!!

svindler

I can confirm that whatever did, fixed my problem. Thank you

bsciencefiction.tv

When do points get added. Each week or the end of the contest?

danielleh

At the end of the contest. However, if requested, I can provide a personal progress report.

bsciencefiction.tv

just curious

felix101

Danielle, today i was checking to make sure I had answered questions for previous days, and all the questions appeared unanswered. Is my data saved? Can you check? Thanks.

cahunt

Yes I am curious.... as I answered some Q's and i think i clicked on at least 1 again today which i was able to answer again... I had my answer choices, but am seeing the opposite where i did them, but when i go back there is no 'You have already answered this' type message. Please let me know where I am at with the points?

And what's the spread? ha

danielleh

I'll look into this and get back to you .

danielleh

The answer choices may appear differently because the answers are randomized on some questions. Also, the quizzes are restricted by IP address. Therefore, if you took the quiz on a different IP the first time, it would let you answer the question again. I'll look at all of your responses and get back to you.

danielleh

- I can confirm you are 6/6 and 1/1 for the bonus. You had submitted twice for Day 4 but your first response was correct.

adatole

This makes me feel SO MUCH better! I really thought my obsessive focus on points was reaching a point where medical intervention would be necessary. At least I know i'm not the only inmate in this asylum!

danielleh

- are you making sure to hit the "submit" button after you select your answers? Perhaps you entered something other than "felix101" in the thwack username field? I don't see any responses from you.

Bonus Question 1.png