VMware Explore 2023 – US wrap-up
Thought this year felt like years of old…
The Expo was quite weak though, and the box lunches were terrible (again)…
But the sessions, the networking with people, and learning/validating what we do in our datacenters (or how WEI helps others in their datacenters) was invaluable, and a major reason I attend these conferences.
VMware Private AI (partnering with NVIDIA for on-prem or Public Cloud providers)
NSX+
vSAN Max
New Tanzu features/offerings
Keynotes are watchable via the links below.
VMware Blog – VMware Explore 2023 US recap
VMware Blog – Day 1 recap
VMware Blog – Day 2 recap
VMware Blog – Day 3 recap
VMware Blog – Day 4 recap
VMware News regarding NVIDIA Generative AI.
…and for those of us who overplan…
VMware Explore 2024 will be in Aug 26-29 at the Venetian again.
Where are the world’s VCDXs?
This blog by Michael Voigt (a VCDX himself) presents this data in a variety of ways.
My big takeaway? It shows how few VCDXs are at resellers/partners (vs VMware & other OEM type companies).
Broadcom update on VMware acquisition
Broadcom news update on the acquisition…
vBrownbag VMware Explore 2023 – YouTube Playlist
This is a collection of every session of the VMTN Community Theater.
A quick link to my session…
vSphere Cluster Design – why it matters more than ever.
VMware Explore Breakout Sessions – Now Online
Gotta say, that was fast.
Here is the direct link to the list of sessions
(must be logged in with your myVMware account).
vSphere 8.0 Update 2 – Announced
ESXi lifecycle management – to address managing many ESXi host and maintaining them via vSphere+.
A new, “Cloud Linked Mode” to manage all your VMware deploying, and keep inventory & tagging consistent across vCenters/vSphere.
vCenter Upgrades – reduced outage window ….can be down to ~5 minutes using new approach, old approach is still available.
AI, GPU, vGPU, and DPU enhancements
An updated VMware Registry Service for our K8s workloads
VMware Blog post is here.
vSAN 8.0 Update 2 – Announced
Performance improvements put to 30%?….I wanna see that!
Ability to “tag” the VMkernel used on the Witness VM for “witness” traffic!!!
Witness VMs can now support up to 500 VMs (though ESA only)!
vSAN I/O Trip Analyzer has more insight into stretched clusters.
VMware vSAN product page is here.
VMware Blog post is here (also has some vSAN MAX content).
VMware vSAN Tech Zone landing page is here.
….and performance improvements in vSAN ESA 8.0 U2….
vSAN ESA – not just for datacenters anymore
With some of the new offerings of AF-0 nodes…
ROBO / Edge vSAN ESA clusters just became a reality!
VMware Blog post is here.
vSAN Max
OK, ….I don’t get the name, but whatever.
Disaggregation (or dHCI) sounds….familiar?
In short, you can build a 24 node vSphere Cluster that is a group of
“Storage Only Nodes” that run vSAN, & present the storage to other clusters,
up to 8.6 Petabytes (PB) of capacity, & up to 3.4 million IOPS.
hmmmm…..sounds like a SAN to me…..but I do get the use case.
Licensing is different, as it is capacity based.
Wonder if in the future, I can add “Storage Only Nodes” to existing vSAN clusters?…..
VMware Blog Post is here.
VMware vSAN Max Tech Zone Landing page is here.
VMware NSX (and NSX+)
Any cloud (including on-prem)….consistent policy & management.
Why NSX+?
Policy Management, Intelligence, NDR, ALB, and HCX ….as a Service!
Self Service in Multi-Tenancy.
NSX VPCs? now possible.
A 6.5 minute YouTube video of the session at VMware Explore 2023.
App Volumes – Apps Everywhere
Coming soon, App Volumes for persistent desktops!
Apps on demand for VMware Cloud Next-Gen.
Apps on demand for Azure Virtual Desktop RemoteApp streaming.
Apps on demand for AWS AppStream 2.0.
VMware Blog post is here.
Cloud Infrastructure Map
Discovered this Cloud Infrastructure Map while searching out different Regions available from different public cloud providers.
It does what it says.
VMware ESXi host CPU Power Policies
I’ve always been a fan of “High Performance” on the ESXi settings.
This requires the BIOS to be set to “High Performance” or “OS Controlled”
This 7.5 minute YouTube video gets into the details, as well as the PowerCLI options to configure this setting.
PowerCLI – Horizon Agent deploy
Even if you don’t use Horizon, the script is short and sweet.
Examples of file copies, remote execution, & error checking.
PowerCLI – vSAN OSA & ESA – Managing Disks
This VMware Blog post provides a few examples of how to manage disk groups (OSA) and Storage Pool Disks (ESA).
Intel GSD/Downfall CVE – PowerCLI script to identify
This short PowerCLI script will let you identify Intel CPUs that need an update to remediate this CVE, Virten.net blog post & script link here.
Hosting provider loses all customer data…including backups
Just a reminder that any cloud service (or hosting provider) should never be the only source of you backups….YOUR data is critical!….take steps to protect it!!!
They did have backups running, but ransomware is vicious….
Short story on bleeping computer is here.
Nutanix Move – it handles a lot of VMs…
Nutanix Move is software from Nutanix that can move VMs between ESXi, Hyper-V, AHV, EC2, and Azure VM (some limitations may apply).
Never would have thought to see how much it is used….
…and yes….it is simple to use.
Nutanix Blog post is here.
Continuing Education – a list of resources that come with references
(of people who have used those sites & are happy with the results).
HashiCorp Learn
Kode Kloud
KubeAcademy
Nutanix University
PluralSight
Udemy
vBrownBag
VMware Customer Connect Learning
VMware Hands On Labs
VMware Explore 2023 Sessions (William Lam’s easier to search list version)
VMware Explore VMTN Sessions (vBrownBag)
VCDX Mentoring Series