VTUG Winter Warmer 2019
I am sure people are looking forward to this event!
Thursday, January 24 2019
Gillette Stadium, 1 Patriot Place, Foxboro, MA
Register Here!B
VMware vSAN Cluster Design – Large vs. Small Clusters
The team at WEI doesn’t just have this conversation around vSAN, but with all of the vSphere clusters that we build.
This VMware Docs page is dedicated to providing the options around sizing decisions for a vSAN cluster, discussing performance, scale, fault domains, and why there is no one right answer for everyone.
AWS reInvent
Finding it hard to find the specific reInvent session for replay?
Found someone who made it easy to search through the entirety.
Its a bit of an overwhelming list, but using Control+F is much easier this way.
VMware vSAN 6.7 U1 Deep Dive
Another great book by Cormac Hogan & Duncan Epping.
I leaned about it on 12/12, and I love that they are offering the eBook for 2.99 if you already have purchased the paper version (its 9.99 for the eBook itself).
PowerCLI 11.1.0 released
now adds some SRM support for MacOS and Linux.
Also adds support for SRM 8.1.
The full change log is here…
Don’t forget to run Update-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI
VMware Desired State Configuration Resource
What? Well, this is an open-source tool to apply standard configuration management through the PowerShell DSC (Desired State Configuration) and PowerCLI.
This first iteration focuses on a handful of items (NTP, DNS, SATP Claim Rules, Event/task aging, and TPS settings).
While reading through it, you can easily see Kyle Ruddy‘s name all over this one.
A recommended read for anyone managing a vSphere environment.
vSphere Tags in PowerCLI
While you could get some vSphere Tags functions in PowerCLI, the community built a better module (this Kyle Ruddy guy is busy!).
PowerCLI – 10 networking commands
TechRepublic has a post showing 10 commands for networking in Powershell. I even picked one up, so take a peek for yourself.
VMware NSX 6.4.4
This release adds some functionality to the vSphere HTML Client: Logical Switches, Edge Appliance Management, Edge Services (DHCP, NAT), Edge Certificates, Edge Grouping Objects.
It also supports vSphere 6.0, 6.5, and 6.7.
Here’s the release notes on this update.
VMware NSX-T 2.3.1 released
Can’t have one without the other. NSX-T gets an update along NSX-V.
The Release notes are located here.
vRealize Network Insight 4.0 released
Scaling increases, ACI underlay, AWS support, and a few other items of note.
The release notes are located here.
VMware NSX Service Mesh
Build on Istio‘s foundation, NSX Service Mesh will focus on visibility, control, and security for the services, data & users at the API level.
It will be an extension of the NSX-T DataCenter, and is applied directly to containers in through the CNI (Container Network Interface).
Kubernets, or Cloud Foundry? No problem.
Betas for Cloud PKS start in early 2019.
Here is the announcement.
VMware Horizon View 7.7
Another big release for View.
Monitoring of UAG 3.4 from the Horizon Administrator.
The Help Desk Tool can kill a process on an RDS host for specific users.
HTML5 interface can now manage Linked-Clones, Manual Pools, and Persistent Disks for Linked-Clones.
Cloud Pod – a single vCenter can serve multiple pods? (going to have to weigh the options on this feature….)
and of course….vSphere 6.7 Update 1 support.
Here’s the release notes on this update.
VMware UEM (User Environment Manager) 9.6
With this release, Windows 10 1809 and Windows Server 2019 are supported.
Better enhanced folder redirection, and allowing you to specify the subfolders each redirected folder moves to.
A new Environment Variable %UEMProfileArchive% helps out those who script.
New printing support (choose ThinPrint or Printer Redirection).
Here’s What’s New Overview on YouTube.
Here’s the release notes on this update.
VMware App Volumes 2.15
And rounding out the EUC stack…
A new option to use vCenter instead of individual ESXi hosts for the App Volumes configuration.
A Profile Only Template for Writeable Volumes
App Volumes on VMware on AWS
Microsoft OneDrive for Business Support
Box Drive Integration
Here’s the What’s New Overview on YouTube.
Here’s the release notes on this update.
Workspace ONE – Windows 10 Remote Log Collection
Need to remotely collect logs, and would rather collect all this proactively so a user doesn’t have to send you logs?
All configurable in UEM (Unified Endpoint Management) in Workspace ONE.
A walkthrough video can show you in 5 minutes HOW this would be done.
VMware Cloud Foundation 3.5 released
VCF, or VMware Cloud Foundation, is the bundling of vSphere, vSAN, NSX, vRealize Components to deliver the SDDC.
SDDC Manager & vRealize Lifecycle Manager cover the deployment and lifecycle of the solution.
Here’s the release notes on this update.
Nutanix Xi Beam
Want to see the costs of on-prem, AWS, and Azure?
Want to compare, contrast, or optimize?
I’m curious about the 1 click optimization though….
Free Trials (14 days) are available here right from Nutanix!
Nutanix Xi Epoch
Want to generate live application maps?
How about monitoring Service Level Objectives rather than metrics?
And do you want it for a multi-cloud environment?
Free Trials (14-days) are available here right from Nutanix!
Windows Sandbox
This is pretty cool (and validates that ThinApp is a good technology).
Short version …. Installing/testing an App?
Do it in the Windows 10 Sandbox, and once you close the app, ALL TRACES are gone from your Windows desktop.
You need to be running Windows 18305 (insider build), and you’ll find it in add/remove features.
I’m sure it is going to make its way into normal builds pretty soon
Veeam Tidbits
Rhys Hammond spent quite a bit of time on this list.
Everything from best practices, to sizing calculators, to registry entries used by Veeam.
I recommend checking this out if Veeam is in your toolbox…..
NTP Time Machines
…2 things break every environment.
DNS and NTP.
So many times you uncover that the root of your problem was something basic.
Well, this is focused on NTP.
Looking to have a box in your office that runs a Stratum 1 Server?
Here is just one vendor offering these up, Time Machines Corp.
Most of us pool.ntp.org or nist.gov for our time sync needs, but there is always a case where you would need to account for lack of internet connectivity….
Upcoming Conferences
VTUG Winter Warmer – Foxboro, MA 1/24
VMware Empower (for Partners only) – Atlanta, GA 4/15-4/19
Nutanix .NEXT – Anaheim, CA 5/7-5/9
Red Hat Summit – Boston, MA 5/7-5/9
VMworld 2019 US – San Francisco, CA 8/26-8/29
VMworld 2019 EMEA –