Gabbs' Random Thoughts

VMware Explore just wrapped up…
I’ll be updating the links at the bottom to content from VMware Explore.
The content was all around on-prem private cloud, data sovereignty, and of course….AI.
It’s even made its way into VCF Operations.

Accelerating Production AI Deployments
…all about accelerating the realized time to value.
VMware Blog post by Paul Turner is here.

VCF 9.1.1.0 released
There ends up being quite bit, once you start exploring each component from the BOM (Bill of Materials ….a list of all VCF components).
VCF 9.1.1.0 Release Notes are here.

VCF 9.1.1.0 – reducing resource (vCPU) requirements
William Lam has a post on how to reduce the vCPU requirements on the VMSP VMs deployed.
Essentially, reducing the number of VMs by one, saving 12 vCPUs..
This helps tremendously in lab environments…
New deploys and upgrades are covered.

VMware Workstation & VMware Fusion 26h1u1 released
Primarily security & bug fixes.
Workstation Release Notes are here
Fusion Release Notes are here

VCF in a Dark Site – get this utility!
Tommy Grot create the Airlock Depot.
Another of his creations, which I’m sure this one was created because only those who run dark sites understand the sneaker net problem.
Give it a go!

VCAP & VCDX Certifications
New VCAP exams are released!
Architect, Admin, and Support.
VMware Blog post is here.

VCDX (VMware Certified Distinguished eXpert)
Not exactly the same as the origin VCDX (VMware Certified Design eXpert)..
….still, an expert program, with a design submission, and some VCAP exam prerequisites.
Was an awesome opportunity to watch the internal process developing this cert, and to sit as a panelist for VCDX candidate evaluation.

Passkeys – the new standard for Entra
Jon Towles has a long post detailing out your options, as Microsoft Entra migrates away from SMS & Voice (as the MFA options) to Passkeys.
If you’re not very familiar with Passkeys, this is a pretty detailed post.

Nutanix Files 5.4 released
Quite a few updates, and some Azure integration.
Nutanix post is here.

Free Learning – GitHub Repo
AWS Workshops
KodeKloud
Nutanix University
Nutanix Next 2027– March 30 – April 1, Las Vegas, NV
PluralSight
vBrownBag
VMware Hands On Labs
VMware Explore 2027 – May 3-6 (M-F), Resorts World, Las Vegas
VMware Explore 2026 Sessions (William Lam’s easier to search list version)

VMware Explore Session Builder is live
Heading to VMware Explore?
Time to build out your agenda with the Session Builder!
VMware Explore Session Builder link is here.

vSphere 8.0 u3k released
Mainly CVE fixes
vCenter Release Notes are here.
ESX Release Notes are here.

vCenter 9.x Express Patches released
Mainly CVE fixes
vCenter 9.1.0.0300 Release Notes are here.
vCenter 9.0.2.0100 Release Notes are here

VCF – Fleet & Instance Ownership – who owns what?
This is probably not just that a typical vSphere Admin just has new things to be responsible for and/or manage.
You really need to take a look at the different components, and the shared responsibility of all the components.
If you are committed to running siloed IT departments, this could be challenging….unless you can take on the dreaded word, …change.
There is a lot to running your own private cloud.
Don’t let the responsibility fall on 1 person and/or team.
Blog post is here.

VVF without VCF Management Service
Yes you can, but why would you?
Get the benefits of the software you paid for by using the VCF Management Services….
BUT, if you are so inclined….
It is supported by Broadcom via the official VVF documentation

VMSP Toolkit – day 2 troubleshooting of VCF VMSP
Created by Tommy Grott, this Virtual Appliance has 1 goal:
To help you troubleshoot its VMSP (VCF Management Services).
Yes, there are lots of things that are abstracted from us, when running normally.
What do you do when it’s time to troubleshoot?
Take a look at his project here.

Lab & PoC – VIS (VCF Infrastructure Services) Appliance
By William Lam (of course it is…)
A single appliance that can help with your VCF (not production) environment.
Offline Software Depot, DNS (for your nested VCF), DHCP, SFTP Server, Container Registry, LDAP provider, OIDC provider, NTP Server, and KMS Server.
….all wrapped up in a 2 x vCPU, 4-GB RAM, 30-GB HDD.
William Lam VIS blog post is here.

vOps Central – manage 6 hypervisors at once
While not yet a viable product, the
Demo of ThinWare vOpsCentral looks promising.
In my opinion, it doesn’t really look like a true enterprise option, it does have some really good use cases.
Wonder if it will become a real product?

Nutanix AOS & PC 7.6 released
Lots of features….
307-TB per node, yes…
2-node to 3-node scaling, yes…
Secure Access introduced
RHEL 9 for CVMs and Prism Central
Nutanix Projects gets a big facelift.
…and more…
Blog post on AOS 7.6 is here.
Blog post on Prism Central 7.6 is here.

Nutanix FNS (Flow Network Security) 7.6 released
Lots of tidbits & improvements.
I bet folks will appreciate using FQDNs vs IPs….
Blog post on FNS 7.6 is here.

NGT (Nutanix Guest Tools) 4.6 released
Blog post on NGT 4.6 is here.

Nutanix Move 6.3 released
handful of updates. But do we really need to keep WINS servers?
Blog post on Move 6.3 is here.

NDB (Nutanix DataBase) 2.11 released
A lot of improvements on the list….
Blog post on NDB 2.11 is here.

Nutanix – Security Profiles
This is new to 7.6.
I like how they chose to leave it “not set” when upgrading….(so you don’t break anything as you get to 7.6).
Standard, elevated, & strict policies available.
Blog post is here.

Nutanix – Cluster Profiles
Just what you probably inferred that means…
Setting that are captured in a Profile, and applied to clusters.
Nutanix Blog post is here.
I wish I could remember when this was introduced….

Nutanix with Cisco Unified Edge
Finally, AHV is supported on this hardware platform.
Great for Edge locations, and probably other small/mid needs.
Blog post is here.

Free Learning – GitHub Repo
AWS Workshops
KodeKloud
Nutanix University
Nutanix Next 2027– March 30 – April 1, Las Vegas, NV
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 9.1 – Skylake Support no longer requires TQ/RPQ by VMware
Now it is just supported.
Finally…..
That hardware that was still in vendor support, but not Broadcom support….
…now you get a little more time with that hardware (and it will be supported)….
Blog post is here.
VMware KB is here.

VMware Explore Content Catalog is live
Planning on heading to VMware Explore?
Always a good idea to review the Content Catalog before they open up the scheduler, to make sure you get the sessions you want in your calendar.

Can you deploy VVF, and apply VCF Licenses?
No.
Since I couldn’t find that answer specifically, did it in the lab.
Deployed a new VVF 9.1.
Tried to apply VCF licenses.
While I could give VCF Operations a VCF license, it could not be applied to my vCenter server.
So, again, the answer is no, VVF deploys require a VVF license.

Designing VCF for SAP HANA
This is a multi-part post, on designing for availability.
SAP HANA has explicit performance & availability requirements.
The post is a good walkthrough of design decisions that architects think about, the trade-0ffs of availability vs operational complexity….and what the business outcomes need to be.

vSphere 9.1 Performance Best Practices
Yea, I know….it is not VCF or VVF.
But, under either product, you still run vSphere (vCenter and ESX).
So here are the latest Performance Best Practices for vSphere 9.1.
VMware Blog post is here.

VCF Edge
Had this conversation a few times in the last week.
Folks who wanted to use VCF Edge for a small “datacenter” workload.
It’s not like the ROBO of old….
Here’s a direct link to the VCF Edge SPD (Specific Program Documentation).pdf

VCF – Starting & Stopping a cluster
It’s easy to shut down vSAN from the vCenter interface…
Unless vCenter is running on the cluster that is running vSAN….
This may seem like a big deal if it is the first time you are doing it….
It’s not so bad, and the process has been available for many years.
Now, it’s formally in the VCF documentation.
How to Shut Down a vSAN Cluster (with vCenter running in it).
How to Start Up a vSAN Cluster (that is hosting the vCenter managing it).

converting RDMs into VMDK files
Anyone who has RDMs knows what a pain it can be to deal with migrations of said RDMs.
This blog post covers some of the reasons why we might have used RDMs in the past, and for good reasons.
Years later, and technological improvements negate the old requirements which led to use of RDMs.
The Broadcom Article covers the steps/process.
Broadcom Article ID: 374087 is here….
(but something I find hilarious, is that the images in this KB article all appear to be from the old “Flash Client” html interface….meaning this process has been documented for some time).

Revisiting PDL vs APD
A setting most of us don’t think about in a vSphere Cluster’s HA settings.
I believe it was in vSphere 8 that these options are on by default, but what do they do and what are the options available?
This is a longer post, but it revisits the details of these settings in vSphere Cluster’s HA options.

AI Tokens – metrics, consumption, and cost explained
Someone asked, so I did what anyone would do….asked an AI.
Grok provided answer is here.

Island Enterprise Browser – designing for failure
Whether or not you use an enterprise browser, the design partition of this is what caught my attention.
Using 3 hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, and GCP) to run your backend SaaS, so that you avoid any one hyperscaler outage from effecting your services was a design choice.
This is the conversation architects have….what is important to the business, and how to achieve it.
Island Blog post is here.

Free Learning – GitHub Repo
AWS Workshops
KodeKloud
Nutanix University
Nutanix Next 2027– March 30 – April 1, Las Vegas, NV
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
Heading to VMware Explore?
The Content Catalog just released, so its time to review, and mark your favorites (which will make it much easier when it comes time to build your schedule).

VCF 9.1 – express patch 2 released
2 patches in the 6 weeks since 9.1 was released.
Keeping up with security vulnerabilities….
Release Notes are here.

VCF 9.1 – Real-Time Metrics
With VCF 9.1, a new component became available…Real-Time Metrics.
What is it?
Well, VCF Operations has been able to gather metrics from its collectors at
5-minute intervals (can be configured down to 1-minute).
With Real-Time Metrics, you can collect data down to 2-second intervals (for a subset of all available metrics)
Lengthy post, but it has a lot of examples.
Brock Peterson’s Blog Post on this is here.

Planning / Sizing Tool for VCF 9.1
Came across this VCF 9.1 Planning & Preparations Workbook online.
Very easy to use.
I figure it is important to plan before you start clicking, and this definitely makes it a bit easier to plan quickly.
Just not how many vCPUs you allocate right off the bat to rollout (most) of the components that exist for VCF’s Management Domain….you are at ~1.3 vCPU oversubscription right away.
Make sure you plan to get some new hardware to run those workloads!
(my post from February 2026 was about 9.0, but the logic still applies)

VCF 9.0 vs VCF 9.1 NSX Network Architectures
Stateless or stateful network services?
Which led to Centralized (preferred) or Distributed designs.
That used to be a make it or break it decision in VCF (and Tanzu).
Now, with VCF 9.1, the transition is fully visible, in that Distributed designs are getting 1st class capabilities of Centralized Designs.
I just expect that at some point, Centralized designs will go away, as Distributed will bring all the Stateful Services expected via Distributed.
Great Blog Post is here.

VKS on VCF – Top Questions
A good post covering some of the details of using VKS.
VMware Blog post is here.

vSphere Configuration Profiles – comparing to Host Profiles
Since vSphere 7, Image Based Management (Cluster Images) have existed.
Since vSphere 8, Configuration Profiles have existed….to fill a need.
Image Based Management can not use Host Profiles (and Host Profiles is deprecated).
How do you approach Configuration Profiles to get a similar (and easier) equivalent to Host Profiles?
VMware Blog post is here.

VMware Memory Tiering & Large Memory Pages
Wordy title, I know.
Great article though, as it reinforces the 1:1, 2:1, 4:1 ratios of overcommitting RAM based on the workload and the expected performance….
All while telling the story of how the technical details work….
VMware Blog post is here.

Running VCF 9.1.0 in the lab?
Might want this tidbit that allows for nested ESX hosts to upgrade to 9.0.1.0100.
William Lam, of course, has a blog post on this…..

Running VCF 9.1.0 for many people in your lab?
Want to give many people Nested VCF?
Use VPCs, and VyOS routers…..
Here’s how to build it in VCF Automation.
Tomas Fojta has you covered with his blog post here.

NKP – using AD Authentication – overview and gotcha
A case sensitivity issue in the UserPrincipalName
Blog Post is here.

Nutanix Approval Policies – require 3 x admins to approve deletes
Using your Nutanix “Protection Policies” to have snapshots of your VMs on a schedule?
Most of us are, for replication purposes, or even for local recovery (or remote recovery) of our VMs.
Nice benefit here….if you get ransomwared, ….deleting snapshots is one of the things that usually happens.
Prevent it, by requiring 3 x different administrators to approve that action.
Blog post is here.

Free Learning – GitHub Repo
AWS Workshops
KodeKloud
Nutanix University
Nutanix Next 2027– March 30 – April 1, Las Vegas, NV
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 Registration is open
Are you planning on going too?
VMware Blog post … Guide to Las Vegas is here.
VMware Explore Registration link is here.

VCF 9.0.1 Patch 1
Three weeks after release…
Express Release Notes are here.

VCF Upgrade from 9.0.2 to 9.1.0
If you’ve deployed VCF 9.0.x….you are probably planning your 9.1 upgrade.
You would think that you start in your current VCF Operations 9.0.x interface.
Well, immediately you have to step outside that interface to the /admin page, and perform the Operations upgrade via a PAK file (the way its always been done).
Then you can move on to the other components…..
Great set of notes on this can be found….
AngrySysops.com blog post is here.
Yes, its a long post….
(aren’t you glad you have 30 continuous IPs free in the VM network now?)

vCenter ELM vs vCenter Linking in VCF 9.x
vCenter ELM (Enhanced Linked Mode) is deprecated in 9.x.
You should undo any ELM before moving to 9.x.
How do you get that capability back?…vCenter Linking.
But there are differences….
VMware Blog post is here, and covers those nuances.

VCF 9.1 in a box – GitHub repo
built by William Lam.
Great place to get an idea of what you need to do a HomeLab setup…
Yes, you’ll have some editing to do….
But a great way to get started!

Shutting Down the VCF Services Runtime Cluster
new to VCF 9.1….you’ll see your vcf-management-services VM Folder.
How do you gracefully shut down these VMs?
Broadcom Article ID: 440874 takes you through the steps required.
Haven’t HAD to do this yet, but ran through it, just to see.

vSphere 8.0 Update 3J released
…don’t forget…. End of Support is October 2027 (16 months away)
There is a lot in the Release Notes….one thing that stands out….
…it calls out dealing with expired Microsoft Secure Boot VMs
“…Secure Boot capability for Windows guests, expires in October 2026…”
Broadcom Article ID: 423893 Secure Boot Cert Expired & Update Failures in VMs
Release Notes for vCenter 8.0 u3j
Release Notes for ESX 8.0 u3j

Secure Boot for Windows Servers (and VMs)
“Secure Boot won’t ‘turn off’ in 2026. Most systems will keep booting, but devices that don’t transition from the 2011 trust anchors to the 2023 certificate set can lose the ability to receive future boot-level security updates…”
Jon Towles post on this is here, on how to use Intone to fix.
Mikael Nystrom post is here, with some PowerShell snippets you can use.

Ran out of IPs in your VCF Management Network?
I always get flak when oversizing a Management Network.
“…it is a waste of IPs…”
Well, I always recommend oversizing it (usually a dedicated /24).
Here’s a scenario when VCF 9.0 Management Network was undersized, and now with VCF 9.1, you need quite a few more IPs to get things rolled out….
Angry Sysops Blog Post is here.

vMotion – first thoughts from 2010
Nostalgia….remembering the first time you saw vMotion.
Today…it’s taken for granted.
When we saw it for the first time, it was like magic.
Duncan Eppings repost is here.

My Dream Desktop
Derek Seaman posted a great desktop setup back in 2023….
He took it another step further….
Want an ergonomic, techie, and great sounding desktop setup?
He covers all the bases (just remember, audiophiles will still want a subwoofer).
Derek Seaman’s 2026 setup link is here.

Boot Disk Utility
Forgot you password to your VM?
Want to do a defrag (yea, you’re old)?
check out Hiren’s BootCD PE
Thank’s Mike Foley!

Proxmox Datacenter Manager 1.1 available
For Proxmox, Datacenter Manager is analogous to vCenter.
In the same breath….Proxmox VE 9.2 is also available
(VE is what you install on the hardware itself…think ESX).
Looks like it is maturing….
Proxmox Press Release is here.

Free Learning – GitHub Repo
AWS Workshops
KodeKloud
Nutanix University
Nutanix Next 2027– March 30 – April 1, Las Vegas, NV
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 9.1 announced!
Feels like a totally new release….
vCenter 8.03 as a Workload Domain?
vSAN replication from any (VMFS, NFS, vSAN)?
Global Deduplication (within a vSAN ESA cluster)?
Native S3 (via Automation)?
Broadcom News post from 5/5/2026 is here.
Looks like the documentation area is getting a facelift too…
Tommy Grot’s take on it on Virtual Bytes…
…and Tommy’s VCF Upgrade Path Advisor Tool
VCF 9.0 documentation was 8304 pages….
VCF 9.1 documentation is now at 9,445 pages…
What’s New in 9.1 documentation.
VMware Blog post on What’s New in VCF 9.1

Planning your migration to vSphere/VVF/VCF 9.1?
Found out about the VCF 9.1 Upgrade Planning Tool
…via William Lam’s post.
Still needs a bit of polish, but its a great start!

VCF 9.x – Skylake & Cascade Lake Support path
Now supported, but requires Technical Qualification.
It feels backwards to me, as the work is all on our part, not on VMware & the hardware vendors…..BUT, at least it is now there….
Blog post capturing what you need to do is here.

vSAN 9.1 – what’s new
Duncan Epping’s post goes into it.
Cyber Recovery in an on-prem clean room
Global Dedupe & compression
Auto-Raid (let vSAN configure your Storage Policies), on by default for all clusters!
Peter Koehler’s post on Auto-Raid is here.
VMware Blog Post on Native S3 Object Storage in vSAN 9.1
VMware Blog post on vSAN (ESA) 9.1 Protection & Recovery

VCF 9.1 and AI
Its a multi-part blog series….
VMware Blog post is here.

OVF Tool 5.1 released
I’m surprised it didn’t get a new version of 9.1.
Release Notes are here.
Download link is here (no login required!).

Build a VCF Offline Depot
…and want to make it simple to build, … & take advantage of a proven config
Tommy Grot has a post & script that has you covered.

vCenter VM – finally…a VMX upgrade
Since 5.5, VMware’s vCenter VM has been running at vmx-10.
That means it has been missing out on any benefits of new VM features/capabilites since 2013 (5.5’s release year).
Now, it is up to VMX-17 (vSphere 7 compatibility).
While not current, that’s in a way better position than in the past.
…now for all the other pieces of VCF to do the same….
Looks like you have to use the “reduced downtime upgrade method”, or that you can shut down the VM and do it manually.
VMware Blog post is here.

Free Learning – GitHub Repo
AWS Workshops
KodeKloud
Nutanix University
Nutanix Next 2027– March 30 – April 1, Las Vegas, NV
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 – registration is open
Heading to VMware Explore 2026?
Registration is now open.
See you there August 31 – September 3, The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV

Memory Tiering in vSphere 9 – why aren’t you doing it?
With the cost of RAM making us all shudder….
Yes, I’ve gone on and on about NVMe Memory tiering (in vSphere 8 and VCF 9)
…and there is currently a part 7 to this
Now, VMware has the new page dedicated to it.
There is no way you should be buying new hardware without exploiting this capability….RAM is just too expensive….
VMware Memory Tiering Resource Hub Blog Post is here.
Danny Alvarez has posted my thoughts perfectly….
Performance vs Density…..
What are you designing for?

HPE no longer offering VMware ISO with Vendor Add-Ons
They are just publishing add-ons (as always).
So…how do you get an HPE custom ESX ISO? (read the next entry)
HPE Support doc is here.

Create ESX ISO with Vendor Add-Ons in vCenter / PowerCLI
Looking for a customer vendor ESXi installation ISO?
Build you own, in vCenter, and export to ISO!
“To use the vLCM UI, you need to create a dummy vSphere cluster, enable vLCM, and compose a new image with the desired components. Then, you can export the image as an iso file from the vLCM UI.“
Broadcom documentation on how to use vCenter UI for this.
Broadcom documentation on how to use PowerCLI for this.

McGraw Hill get breached
Another 14 million users’ info exposed.
Is security in your sights?
Bleeping Computer post is here.

Nutanix AOS – Persistent Metadata changes
Most of us don’t always read the technical details that are under the covers.
The change in the way metadata is being transitioned is completely abstracted from us, but here is what is going on behind the scenes.
But the benefit to us? Reduced CPU cycles.
Nutanix Dev post is here

Free Learning – GitHub Repo
AWS Workshops
KodeKloud
Nutanix University
Nutanix Next 2027– March 30 – April 1, Las Vegas, NV
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)