Gabbs' Random Thoughts

VCF 9 CPU – Deprecation & Discontinuance
Depreciation means this is the last version of VCF for the CPU.
Discontinuance means you can not install VCF with this CPU.
Just be aware of this, as you plan your next upgrade….
Broadcom Article ID: 318697 link is here.

IBM Cloud – no new VMware Cloud offerings
“Effective 31 October 2025, IBM Cloud will no longer sell VMware on IBM Cloud offerings to customers who do not have at least one active VMware Workload running on IBM Cloud before that date.”
The Register post is here.

vDefend – Zero Trust Micro-segmentation is a just weeks
Nice post, as it covers the high-level steps over a 1-month time.
Remember, it IS an add-on to VCF (not VVF, as no NSX is included).
VMware Blog post is here.

VCF Operations – vCommunity Management Pack – continued
…added Post 3
A community created set of dashboards, views, reports, and super metrics.
…well, led by OnurYuzseven (Broadcom TAM)….
Covers how to install, as well as how to consume.
Brock Peterson’s Blog post is here.
Brock Peterson’s part 2 post is here.
Brock Peterson’s part 3 post is here.

NVMe Tiering – revisited
I keep harping on this topic.
RAM is one of the more expensive components for a server, especially as the desnisty of each DIMM goes up.
Being able to double that with a 2nd tier of memory (NVMe Memory Tiering) will be worth the effort for many workloads.
VMware Blog Post is here.

VCF 9 – configuring an offline depot
Another post that covers (step-by-step) how to build the offline depot.
Start with an Ubuntu (or other) VM, and goes into the step-by-step on how to configure everything you need.
Blog post is here.

vSphere Supervisor via Terraform
Subject is self explanatory….
Blog post is here…

Harbor – Configure your internal private registry
Didn’t realize the history here mentioned in the post….
VMware started Harbor, then gave it to the community….
Why your own private registry?
Control over what is published & how (plus avoiding limitations from other registry providers.
Anyway, this post covers standing up your own Harbor Registry.
VMware Blog post is here.

AVD (Azure Virtual Desktop – now on-prem!
Wow….never thought this would happen…..
AVD can run on your Nutanix or VMware environments.
caveat? …..full desktops only. Requires Microsoft Arc enabled servers.
VMs will function as session hosts.
Microsoft TechCommunity post is here.

Omnissa Horizon 8 on VCF – Reference Architecture
While it reads like a marketing document, it does cover the use cases, technical capabilities, and takes security into account.
The reference architecture document is linked in the post.
VMware Blog post is here.

1password – manage your .env files
I thought this was cool, as I have been using 1Password for a while now.
There are a couple of password managers that do this.
Way better management for .env files….even though this is a beta release…
1password post is here, & it walks you through this (and has a video demo too).

Microsoft AI Agents – can access your files?
Want your Windows 11 AI to skim through your files?
Awesome feature or privacy invasion? …up to you….
PCGamer post is here.

Microsoft Open Sources Zork
The text based games from the 80s? Yup!
Slashdot post is here.

AWS Workshops – free training
Just came across this.
Quite a few offerings listed….
AWS Workshops are here.

Nutanix ending SSH access
They have been mentioning this for the past year, and I’ve had discussions with folks on the topic…split 50/50 on whether this is good or bad.
Well, I believe it is good, and aligns with Nutanix’s security first approach.
Does that mean we have some work to do (updating our SSH workflows)?
Sure, but they are giving options, & there is still 6 months left to plan…
Blog Post, highlighting your options, is here.
Nutanix Statement post is here.

NKP (Nutanix Kuberenetes Platform) 2.16.1 released
Tons of improvements starting with Kubernetes 1.33 support.
Too much to just post here, the post has a long list of what’s new.
Nutanix Blog post is here.

Prism Central – Planning your backup
Part of backing up Prism Central, is planning how to backup AND recover.
Prism Central has 2 x types of backups it can perform.
Can you back it up via traditional means (VM based backup)?
Sure, but that is not a supported way to do backups (more importantly, restores).
Don’t underestimate the planning step…..
Mike Dent wrote up a great post about it.

Free Learning – GitHub Repo
AWS Workshops
KodeKloud
Nutanix University
Nutanix .NEXT 2026 – April 7-9, Chicago, IL
PluralSight
vBrownBag
VMware Hands On Labs
VMware Explore 2026 – August 31 – September 3, Las Vegas, NV
VMware Explore 2025 Sessions (William Lam’s easier to search list version)

VCF 9 – Principal Storage meaning changed?
Came across Broadcom Article ID 416270, Supporting all Principal Storage Options in VCF 9.
iSCSI, NFS v4.1, and NVMe over Fabrics (FC or TCP) have been know as supplemental storage, but here, they are referred to as Principal.
Either way, this shows how to use Supplemental Storage to stand up a VCF Domain (either Management or Workload).
Not sure about this nuance in Principal vs Supplemental….
VMware Blog post is here.

vSAN ESA ReadyNode Hardware Guidance
Found in the VMware Hardware Compatibility Guide, this calls out some of the details when selecting drives to use with vSAN ESA.
There is a reason for these guides…..
vSAN ESA ReadyNode Hardware Guidance link is here.

vSAN Data Protection – sample use cases
Rapid recovery, cloning, and of course, replication with/without DR.
VMware Blog post is here.

VCF 9 Memory Tiering – How to configure
Take advantage of this capability!
Double the RAM in your system via an NVMe drive!
…don’t forget that the NVMe drive must be dedicated to tiering…
Blog post is here.

VCF Operations – vCommunity Management Pack
A community created set of dashboards, views, reports, and super metrics.
…well, led by OnurYuzseven (Broadcom TAM)….
Covers how to install, as well as how to consume.
Brock Peterson’s Blog post is here.
Brock Peterson’s part 2 post is here.

VCF 9 Advanced Exams – 1st batch released
VCAPs are taking a turn in the new Broadcom Era…..
VCAPs are now considered “specialties”.
Right now, 3 VCAP exams cover:
Automation, Operations, or VKS (vSphere Kubernetes Service.
More VCAPs are coming soon….
I’m taking the VCF 9 Operations exam this week, so we’ll see how that goes…
VMware Certifications Page is here.

VCDX – now VMware Certified Distinguished Expert
Looking forward to seeing the details….
Did get a preview of things at the Broadcom Knights event at VMware Explore, but can’t share till the proper details are released officially.
VMware Blog post is here.

VCF 9.0.1 Homelab & vSAN ESA HCL
I missed this post originally, and William Lam pointed it out.
With VCF 9.0.1, you can run your Nested ESXi hosts with vSAN ESA.
Just follow this post, make some changes on the VCF Installer.
If you are going to be doing a Workload Domain….
Further down the post are the changes needed on t he SDDC-Manager.

Palo Alto & Arista Partnership
Arista’s AI for networking expertise using AVA (Autonomous Virtual Assist) with Palo Alto Networks NGFW (Next Generation Firewalls) and the Strata Network Security platform.
Arista Blog post is here.

Nutanix NKP – deploying in a Dark Site
A nice walkthrough on how to deploy in a site with no internet access.
Nutanix Dev post is here.

Nutanix Flow – building a basic VPC
An example with “No NAT” configured.
Blog post is here.

Free Learning – GitHub Repo
KodeKloud
Nutanix University
Nutanix .NEXT 2026 – April 7-9, Chicago, IL
PluralSight
vBrownBag
VMware Hands On Labs
VMware Explore 2026 – August 31 – September 3, Las Vegas, NV
VMware Explore 2025 Sessions (William Lam’s easier to search list version)

Broadcom Change to Download Token
This has been true since early September…can’t believe I missed it…
Just be aware that you have to update your Broadcom Tokens….
It has to do with the end of your subscription, so you’ll see it eventually….
As with Broadcom, a poorly worded post leaves a lot of question….
Broadcom post is here.

Today I Learned…
Windows OVAs can be deployed using answer files in vSphere.
Most vSphere admins are accustomed to building a VM, marking it as a Template VM, and then using a predefined answer file (Customization Specification) to have it go through Sysprep and anything else (including setting IP, hostname, and domain join).
Not sure when this became possible, it changes things when using Content Libraries. It is not possible to sync templates without ELM, which is gone now (you use vCenter Groups in VCF Operations to get the equivalent).
So, using OVAs and Answer files together provides the same functionality!
I assume this means linux distros will use CloudInit in the same way….

vSAN 9 – Global Deduplication
Been waiting for this….
ESA only, and does away with OSA’s disk group limitation for deduplication (which was per host, and then per disk group on that host).
It is available with VCF 9.0.1, but on a per request basis.
Duncan Epping’s post has info, links to podcasts where he discusses this, and a link to request this in VCF 9.0.1.
Looking forward to seeing it as part of the base product of VCF…

vSphere Memory Tiering – add RAM to ESXi host via NVMe drive
This has been around since vSphere 8.
Add an NVMe drive, and increase the size of the RAM in your ESXi host.
Relatively cheap and effective way to increase your useable RAM.
Yes, you still need RAM.
This blog post covers the how & why (it has 3 parts, all linked on this page).

VCF Operations – Identify & Clean Up Orphaned Disks
Walkthrough on how to take a report, or run it via API.
How to clean it up easily?….that depends…. 😉
Brock Peterson blog post is here.

vCenter Converter 9.0 – available now
Converter has been a great tool for many years….
Need to P2V or V2V?
What about using V2V to “clean up” a VM that has 183 snapshots starting from 5 years ago?
You can find it in the “Free Software” section of My Downloads.
Link to the download (Broadcom login required).
Link to Product Docs are here.

VCF Software Depot Structure
William Lam has posted about this often, and done it via a Synology (for us homelabbers).
If you run your software depot in Online Mode, no problem.
Once you decide for Offline Mode, additional work is required, and hosting the Software Depot needs to be done right.
Lengthy post, but it talks through all steps to get this done….
William Lam’s post is here.

VMware Holodeck 9.0.1 released
Holodeck lets you deploy VCF on a single node ESXi host (or even a cluster).
The initial 9.0 had its bugs….hopefully, they are all ironed out…
VMware Blog post is here.

F5 to Avi Load Balancer Migration
Migrations happen, and moving from F5 to Avi Load Balancer is possible.
According to the post, here is why: F5 configurations are often static and CLI-driven. Avi supports declarative APIs, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools like Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins, and CI/CD pipelines for automated deployments.
Blog post is here.

AWS Outage – Design Your Apps right then
Always amazes me when any cloud provider has an outage.
Usually, it only effects 1 datacenter location or region, so it would have been easy to architect it across regions to avoid that medium probability, high impact scenario.
First I heard was local news here.
Reuters article is here.
AWS situation report here.
….and it was DNS…..

Azure Outage
Alaska Air, Heathrow Airport, Vodafone, and more were affected.
Reuters’ post is here.

Alaska Airlines Outage
…as a result of the above noted Azure Outage….
Anyone who flies dreads this kind of news….all flights grounded.
An IT issue…..I am sure that a well architected solution could have avoided that..
Wonder what the outage cost them?
Wonder if the savings were worth the outage?
Alaska Airlines statement is here.

Free Learning – GitHub Repo
KodeKloud
Nutanix University
Nutanix .NEXT 2026 – April 7-9, Chicago, IL
PluralSight
vBrownBag
VMware Hands On Labs
VMware Explore 2026 – August 31 – September 3, Las Vegas, NV
VMware Explore 2025 Sessions (William Lam’s easier to search list version)

VCF 9 – Decipher the Release #
What does 9.0.0.0000.1234567 actually mean?
Major, minor, maintenance, express patch, hot patch, & build number.
Also covers the expected cadence for releases.
Broadcom ID# 410435 link is here.

VCF – how many instances in a VCF Fleet?
…it depends.
In short?… it’s now based on the # of objects & metrics VCF Operations is keeping track of.
VMware is working on providing sizing tools to simplify the sizing.
William Lam’s blog post is here.

vSAN Global Deduplication – where is it?
It’s coming…. VCF 9.0.1 it became available upon request.
I’ve been looking forward to this, and to see the actual impact in the lab.
VMware Blog post on vSAN Global Dedupe is here.

VCF – Data Services Manager (DBaaS)
With VCF 9, Data Services Manager is integrated with VCF Automation.
You get D PostgreSQL & MySQL (Microsoft SQL still in preview) as a Service.
Yes it is an Advanced Service (additional licensing)….but automating self-service databases consumption is becoming the norm.
Blog post is here.
Cormac Hogan on MS SQL Enhancements part 1 & part 2.

VxRail – now with VCF
VxRail was specifically excluded from VCF 9.
With VCF 9.1, there is a single VCF release that supports VxRail.
They are now treated as vSAN Ready Nodes.
To me, it sounds like VxRail.next is the HSM for VxRail nodes.
Blog post is here.

VCF Operations – Build Custom Alarms
This example uses VMs affected by an HA restart (failed host).
Nice and simple walk through.
Blog post is here.

Workstation & Fusion – new versioning
Now aligned with calendar years….
So, you will see 25H2 as the version (25 Calendar year, H2 is 2nd half of year).
VMware Blog post is here.

Windows 11 VDI Image for Omnissa
Never hurts to share information more than once….
Need to build a proper Windows 11 image, with Office, and optimizations ready to go?
How to deal with vTPM as you build, and then later, as you deploy.
Stephen Wagner’s post is here.
Yes, it has a 1-hour video covering the process.
That means there are lots of details to get right….

F5 breach exposes Big-IP Source Code
Never think you are impervious to being hacked…
HackerNews post is here.

Notepad++ – time to get patched
We all should be patching anyway, but sometimes it gets missed.
Just get your Notepad++ installs updated…
Blog post is here.

Nutanix AHV – Now supporting Cisco UCM
Cisco UCM (Unified Communications Manager) is now supported on AHV!
Availability of this is coming early 2026.
I’ll be interested in what magic exists for the integration of Cisco Intersight with Nutanix Prism….
Cisco Blog post is here.

Nutanix Database Services (NDB) 2.9 release
This is a great tool for orchestrating the lifecycle of database servers, and the ongoing operations (deploy, patch, clone for dev/test/qa).
Think policy driven approach to databases in production, freeing up your DBAs time.
Nutanix’s Magnus Andersson’s post is here.

Nutanix Files – Synchronous Data Protection
Introduced in Files 5.2, you can achieve a zero (0) RPO across clusters.
Yes, consider bandwidth & latency, as with any synchronous solution.
Blog post is here.

Nutanix X-Ray 6.2 released
Great stress testing tool.
This version requires a net-new deploy…just be aware….
Nutanix Blog post is here.

Free Learning – GitHub Repo
KodeKloud
Nutanix University
Nutanix .NEXT 2026 – April 7-9, Chicago, IL
PluralSight
vBrownBag
VMware Hands On Labs
VMware Explore 2026 – August 31 – September 3, Las Vegas, NV
VMware Explore 2025 Sessions (William Lam’s easier to search list version)

VMware Products going EOL in 2025
While this is available via Broadcom….
Graham Barker blog post is here.
vSphere 7 – October 2, 2025

VFC-9 deployed via Terraform
Sure, why not…. IaC.
I get that deploying VCF Installer is not difficult.
Neither is its configuration….
Nor the configuration of ESXi hosts.
Nor the actual deploy.
Capturing it and deploying it via IaC tools….excellent.
Blog post is here.

VCF – Connected vs Dark Site
While most of my labs are “connected”, they get the benefit of easy patch & binary downloads, as well as a streamlined licensing process.
How do you do licensing if you are in a dark site?
William Lam’s latest post covers licensing a dark site.
Even if you are not configuring a dark site, nice to know what is happening for you in a “connected” site, and a good reference read for exam takers.

VCF Operations – converting properties into Super Metrics
A great set of instructions, using explicit example of an ESXi host power state.
Blog post is here.

Proxmox Datacenter Manager beta released
While I don’t use Proxmox, I pay attention to it.
Datacenter Manager sounds like it is analogous to vCenter or Prism Central.
Proxmox Datacenter Manager link is here.

Nutanix FNS (Flow Network Security) 5.0.1 released
Cisco ACI Integration!
Nutanix Blog post is here.

Nutanix Move 6.0 – now with NSX security policy migration
Just released, Move 6.0 add a bunch of fixes, plus new capabilities.
Migrating from NSX to FNS (Flow Network Security) just got easier!
Nutanix Blog post is here.
Live Demo/HOL (via browser) is here.

NKP (Nutanix Kubernetes Platform) 2.16 released
Kubernetes version 1.33 support, among other things…
Nutanix Blog post is here.

Nutanix Cluster Profiles
Found this in Prism Central 7.1.0.6.
Feels very much like Host Profiles in vSphere, but its more along the lines of a its namesake, Cluster Profile.
I can easily see how this could help standardize many Nutanix Clusters being managed via Prism Central.
A blog post showing it is here.

Nutanix AHV & vTPMs
vTPM questions came up a lot in the past 2 weeks….
Just a couple of ways to implement it, and Nutanix’s CLI guide.
vTPM for FortiOS link here.
vTPM for Windows 11 link here (don’t forget the AD GPOs).
Nutanix vTPM documentation is here.

Free Learning – GitHub Repo
KodeKloud
Nutanix University
Nutanix .NEXT 2026 – April 7-9, Chicago, IL
PluralSight
vBrownBag
VMware Hands On Labs
VMware Explore 2026 – August 31 – September 3, Las Vegas, NV
VMware Explore 2025 Sessions (William Lam’s easier to search list version)

VMware Explore recap
What a whirlwind….fewer attendees than its peak, but still a ton to learn.
The Broadcom Knights program looks to be pretty good, and I’d be WEI has 5 Broadcom Knights next year….
VMware Explore 2026 is already announced in Las Vegas (see below).
Hok Tan post on Why VCF 9.0 Changes Everything.
Paul Turner post on The Next Datacenter Chapter.
Broadcom News post on VMware Private AI Services becoming part of VCF 9.
Broadcom News post on how Security & Cyber Resilience works with VCF 9.

VCF 9 – now includes Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA
VMware Blog post is here.

Broadcom & Canonical partnership – VCF Ubuntu support
“Broadcom has delivered VCF as the industry’s first unified private cloud platform for modern private clouds. Canonical is the trusted leader in open source innovation and the publisher of Ubuntu, the number one Cloud OS…”
Broadcom News post is here.

VCF 9 – Principal Storage vs Supplemental Storage
The short version of this?….
Principal storage is what you need in place to build a Domain (Management or Workload) in VCF 9.
vSAN (of course), VMFS via FC, and NFS v3 are Principal Storage.
Supplemental Storage is additional storage types that can be added once the Domain (Management or Workload) is up and running (or it can be used if you import an existing environment.
iSCSI, VMFS via NVMe-oF, and NFS v4.1
Cormac Hogan’s post is here.

VCF Operations – Service Discovery
A short overview of Service Discovery in VCF 9.
Brock Peterson blog post is here.

vDefend – blocking SMB v1 Example Use Case
Again, you can tweak a lot here….that means you need to bring some requirements to the table, but let’s start with this example use case.
I like how it is a conversation with someone learning the “how to”….
Blog post is here.

VMware Explore – New Hands On Labs Available
All the HOL’s introduced at VMware Explore are now publicly available.
VMware HOL is here.

VMware Explore – Sessions Replays
William Lam’s post on the topic.
Link to list at the end of this post.

NVIDIA vGPU 19 – what’s new?
A nice breakdown of MIG (Multi-Instance GPU), Time Slicing within a MIG,
3-GB B-series profile, & Win 11 with VBS.
Blog post is here.

Veeam 13 released
Lots of updates, and…..a Linux OVA!
Release Notes for Backup & Recovery here.
Release Notes for Veeam ONE here.
Veeam Press Release is here.

Nutanix Intelligent Virtual Assistant
NIVA (Nutanix Intelligent Virtual Assistant….
“NIVA will facilitate tasks and provide recommendations with greater precision and contextual awareness”
Will NIVA change the way admins interact with their environment?
Nutanix Blog post is here.

Nutanix networking with NC2 on AWS
Run out of IPs before?…yup, same issue, and one way to avoid it.
Nutanix Blog post is here.

Nutanix MST Live Demo
Nutanix’s MST (Multcloud Snapshot Technology)
A great demo (web-based, anytime you want to try it) for AWS is available.
Get access to it here.

Free Learning – GitHub Repo
KodeKloud
Nutanix University
Nutanix .NEXT 2026 – April 7-9, Chicago, IL
PluralSight
vBrownBag
VMware Hands On Labs
VMware Explore 2026 – August 31 – September 3, Las Vegas, NV
VMware Explore 2025 Sessions (William Lam’s easier to search list version)

VMware Explore 2025
VMWorld to me, but I’ll let that slide.
See you folks there next week!
Don’t forget to download the VMware Explore App.
VMware Post highlighting the week’s agenda here.

VCF 9 Architecture Poster
A nice 8.5″ x 11″ PDF.
Wish it was formatted for a much larger printout…..
VMware Blog post (that links to the PDF Poster) is here.

vSphere 9 Best Practices
Recently released.
While there is no more “vSphere” license you can acquire, vSphere 9 still makes up the foundation of VCF or VVF licenses, so yea…technically vSphere is still that combination of vCenter and ESXi hosts.
Broadcom vSphere 9 Best Practices PDF.

AWS EVS (Elastic VMware Service)
Sounds like the old VMware on AWS offering, before Broadcom….
…with a few twists (improvements?)
License portability.
Runs natively in your AWS VPC (vs the way VMware on AWS did it).
currently, it is on VCF 5.2.1….waiting on VCF 9 support here….
AWS GA post is here.
AWS Intro post is here.

VCF Operations – Capacity Management Walkthrough
Learning to use VCF Operations (vROPs, Aria Ops) for capacity management?
This post gives some example of how, as well as links to dive deeper into the topic.
VMware Blog post is here.

VCF 9 – VPC’s subnet access models
Thinking of getting started with VPCs in VCF 9?
Covers the 3 x VPC Modes: Private-VPC, Private-Transit-Gateway, & Public
VMware Blog post is here.

Configuring VKS (vSphere Kubernetes Service)
hmmm….one more name change, and I’m out….
CLI deployment, but a GUI offering now (minimal).
This is something I need to do….
William Lam’s post is here.

VCP Update – 5 new exams
VCF Administrator
VCF Architect
VCF Support
VVF Administrator
VVF Support
Blog post is here, and breaks it down simply.

vCenter MOB – now disabled by default
Became aware of this, trying to remove a plug-in.
Found Broadcom Article ID# 401669 to solve it.

Renaming VM folders/files in vSAN Datastore
This brings me back to the old days (before Storage vMotion renaming).
William Lam covers a topic I’ve long since forgotten….
When was the last time YOU used a vmkfstools command?

Proxmox 9.0 released
While I don’t consider this enterprise ready, folks have been using this in the homelab when Broadcom killed (and then revived) the free ESXi standalone licenses.
I’ll have to take a look at the 9.0 release, but I’ll hedge my bets that my opinion will not change.
Blog Post is here.
Proxmox page is here.

Windows 11 25h2 – adds a remove bloatware button
Finally….but it’s not a button, but a GPO.
…and its only for Microsoft apps, not 3rd parties.
That was always something I did when getting a new Windows PC.
Betanews post is here.

Palo Alto acquires CyberArk
$25 billion, with a 2026 close date.
IT Brew post is here.

AOL ending its Dial Up Internet service
I didn’t know it was still available….
It was launched in 1991, so..,,quite a few years.
PC Gamer post is here.

Nutanix – Omnissa support is finally here!
A friend of mine, Mike Dent, shares his excitement (which mirrors mine).
Both of us are waiting for full blown availability to all customers.
Omnissa Blog post is here.

Nutanix CE (Community Edition)
I’ve done this in the past, running on ESXi 8.x.
Need to verify this still works in VCF/VVF 9.0, so it is on my list….
Jeroen Tielen walkthrough post is here.

NUS (Nutanix Unified Storage) – 5.2 with AHV Metro
Been waiting for this….the AHV Metro, I mean.
Little bit of a lengthy read (5-10 minutes) if you want the techie details.
Summary read is 2 minutes.
Nutanix Blog post is here.

Nutanix VirtIO 1.2.5 released
Been a while since VirtIO got an update.
Direct link to the download (and readme) is here.

Free Learning – GitHub Repo
KodeKloud
Nutanix University
Nutanix .NEXT 2026 – April 7-9, Chicago, IL
PluralSight
vBrownBag
VMware Explore 2025 – Aug 25-28, Las Vegas
VMware Hands On Labs
VMware Explore 2024 Sessions (William Lam’s easier to search list version)