Didn't find what you were looking for? This document explains how to request a proven practice.

Proven practices are provided by the community of people involved in VIOPS - these people come from the ranks of VMware staff, the many partners of VMware, and from the customers using VMware.

If you can't find what you are looking for it doesn't mean it isn't possible, and the likelihood is that someone out there has the answer but they either haven't had time to create the document, or the reason to.

By you requesting a proven practice you are starting the birthing process! Without you requesting a proven practice, it might never be born and others like you will not find it either. Be the first to request a proven practice and be part of the team who develops it.

The Proven Practice Process

It is really simple to create a proven practice, but it involves a team of people and a number of discrete stages as depicted below.

Here are the steps explained:

Proven practices are born of:

• Discussions : Does anyone know how to....?

• Ideas : Wouldn't it be great if....

• Experience - I creatively solved this problem by....

All of the above can be discussed in the relevant VIOPS zone - for example, if you have a question about Availability, start a thread in that zone.

The important step is to take one of the above and start a proven practice. If this step is not done, then the thread wil be lost over time and so might the opportunity for that proven practice...

To start the proven practice, post a request in the right VIOPS zone or create the document yourself with some text in it to describe the idea about the proven practice and click on Submit for Approval - this will alert the zone leader to this new proven practice and they will approve and provide guidance.

If you post a request instead of creating the document, make sure that at some point you do the create document step, and not let the thread die...

WIth a document created you can develop the draft with other like-minded folks on the community. Use the Manage Collaborations section at the bottom of the document whilst in Edit Mode to add users who can edit and approve this document. For example, if you are the creator of the document and you are working with charu@vmware.com, you can add him as another Editor and also an Approver. Whlst the document is in draft mode, only you and him (and the administrators) can see the doc - it isn't public.

You can make edits to your document and keep saving it in draft mode. Only people you have allowed in Manage Collaborations (in Edit Mode) will be able to see it, edit it, and approve it (plus administrators).

You can show people your draft in progress by either saving it as a PDF and emailing it to them, or use the Email option to send it from VIOPS (where you can attach it to the email).

If this is a real proven practice, does it look like one? Does it have three sections - Metadata, How to use this document, and then the main content?

When you are ready, click Submit for Approval and the administrator will, within three days, review and either Approve or Reject your document. In either case, you will have comments as to why and what to do next.

If your document was rejected, act upon the guidance by editing your document and again Submit for Approval.

If your document was approved, now you need to promote it! Get blogs to point at it, send it to our colleagues, show the world