VMware GA Announcements…
There are so many good announcements, but they are broken up into quite a few sections.
If all you want is the news release summarizing everything….here you go.
Project Pacific – now becoming vSphere 7
Want to see the replay of the 3/10 announcements….
Here it is.
Frank Denneman did an amazing post this week on how Kubernetes workloads will be placed on a VMware Cluster, how DRS works with this, and how the workflow of the workload being deployed.
A great read.
A different post on The Medium goes into the technical overview.
Reading both of these articles will set you up for a much better understanding of what bringing Project Pacific to vSphere is about.
And remember…VMs can be defined too with Project Pacific…
I prefer this mind-map found on VMware’s site, which has all the new features laid out, and links to videos about those features.
VMware Tanzu
Tanzu was announced at VMworld as the Multi-Cloud Multi-Cluster Kubernetes management and deployment tool.
There is a couple of VMware HOL on this….
HOL-2032-01-CNA – VMware Tanzu Mission Control
HOL-2032-91-CNA – VMware Tanzu Mission Control Simulation
Recommend you give it a go…2 hours well invested.
A few videos I cam across that cover some of its uses….
IAM (Identity & Access Management) Control with Tanzu Mission Control
Container Registry Management with Tanzu Mission Control
Integrating AWS accounts with Tanzu Mission Control
You can see where Tanzu is going…..
VMware vSphere 7
Getting excited to be running Kubernetes on vSphere 7 right away?
You will need to have VCF (VMware Cloud Foundation) in order to do this right now (not sure if this will change).
Don’t have VCF? Not to worry. WEI can help you there. Just ask us.
VMware Blog post is here.
Another VMware Blog Post covers what’s new in vSphere 7 Storage.
FINALLY!!!! VMDKs can replace RDMs for shared storage clusters!!!!
VMware vCenter – noteworthy items!
vCenter Lifecycle Manager – I talked about this before, but this will be so great AFTER you get to 7.0. Then, any further upgrades….HCL compatibility, interoperability matrix, vendor firmware & drivers…all checked for you before you do ANY upgrade. TIME SAVER!
VM Template Versioning – requires you to use the Content Library, but allows you to have 1 template, with many points in time (think of a snapshot tree without the snapshots), and you can deploy from any of those points in time.
DRS 2.0 – can’t wait to see this work, and see what the real impact is.
Duncan Epping has a nice writeup & video on one part of this topic…scalable shares. PLEASE READ / WATCH THIS. <4 minutes total to understand the implications of this!
Certificate Management – looks simplified, but till I take it for a spin…no idea.
VMware vSAN 7
File services and Kubernetes cloud native app support (through VCF only).
Better stretched cluster support, better capacity reporting in UI, large devices, and NVMe hot plug!
VMware Blog post here.
VMware vRLI (vRealize Log Insight) 8.1
With this new release, there is better integration with vROPs, Kubernetes support, URL sharing of dashboards, and variable retention of different log file types.
This will be a welcome update.
VMware Blog post here.
VMware vROPs (vRealize Operations Manager) 8.1
Improved costing (via CloudHealth), Kubernetes integrations (quite a few), full NSX-T integrations, lots more public cloud provider integrations, and more….
VMware Blog post here.
VMware vRA (vRealize Automation) 8.1
Of course, it supports vSphere 7.
Kubernetes integration, NST-T day 2 operational support, Code Stream pipelines as Catalog Items, approval policies, and native PowerShell script support.
VMware Blog post here.
VMware vRLCM (vRealize Lifecycle Manager) 8.1
GitHub integrations, certificate management improvements, VCF / SDDC Manager improvements, and updates to multi-tenancy.
VMware Blog Post here.
VCF (VMware Cloud Foundation) 4
This product releases May 1.
VMware has a heavy focus on this stack (which is vSphere, NSX, and vSAN).
You don’t need all 3 products to get started with VCF though….
VCF 4 is the first place you’ll be able to enable Tanzu and Kubernetes
Hardware LCM (for Dell & HPE current servers).
NSX-T is now the standard for this (I guess you can still do NSX-V for workload domains…)
VMware Blog post here.
Delivering Kubernetes at Scale with VCF4 post.
VMware SRM (& vSphere Replication) 8.3
I was expecting a lackluster, bug fix update.
With vVols (note the case of this) support, automatic new VM protection, seamless disk resizing (for vSphere replication), I was wrong.
VMware Blog post on it here.
HPE & VMware vVols & VMware SRM
vVols has been around for a while.
Initially it was missing many little features, like the ability to replicate.
HPE 3Par and Nimble have supported vVols for a while.
Now HPE adds SRM support for vVols datastore.
Why VMware supports Let’s Encrypt
Certificate management can be tough.
Let’s Encrypt started in 2012 to offer up free SSL certs to folks from a trusted CA (Certificate Authority).
As an open-source CA, that is free, AND automated….they need financial support.
VMware is one of the many companies that supports Let’s Encrypt.
A VMware Blog Post goes into why VMware support this organization.
VMware Calendar – VCDX Boot Camps and Defenses for 2020
Even if you don’t plan on going for your VCDX, these boot camps are great to attend.
Online calendar is here.
ESX vs ESXi – a short history lesson
I go into this during workshops, because not everyone has been around playing with ESX(i) for 12+ years.
Mellissa Palmer goes into this in a recent blog post.
Great read if you have never explored the differences of ESX vs ESXi.
VMware NSX-T – Full Install Blog Post Series
Varun Vermani wrote a 20-Post series around NSX-T.
While he notes you may not need to read any documentation, I might beg to differ on that one point….
Reviewing this, it looks like he really captures the whole deploy process.
He even gave a lot of effort into initial deployment and migration.
This will not be a quick read……
Nutanix Node Failure – how its handled
Josh Odgers is continuing his 9-week streak of good content.
In this post, you’ll read about the way Nutanix recognizes failures, rebuilds, and how scaling up (adding more members to a cluster) helps your recovery in the event of component or node failures.
Nutanix Storage Upgrade
Josh’s continuing set of posts….
In this post, You’ll read the way you can hand upgrading your HCI solution.
FreeNAS & TrueNAS – becoming one codebase
Homelab enthusiasts rejoice!
FreeNAS will be aligned with TrueNAS (as far as its code), and still be available to the community for free.
Name will change, but it will still be available.
This post covers it here.
Upcoming Conferences
Aruba Atmosphere – Cancelled Now Virtual Only! 3/22-3/27
Google Cloud Next – Cancelled Now Virtual Only! 4/6-4/8
VMware Empower (partner only) – Cancelled Now Virtual Only! TBD
Red Hat Summit – Cancelled Now Virtual Only! 4/27-4/29
VeeamOn – Las Vegas, NV 5/4 – 5/6
Dell Technologies World 2020 – Cancelled Now Virtual Only! 5/4-5/7
Cisco Live! – Las Vegas, NV 5/31 – 6/4
HPE Discover – Las Vegas, NV 6/23-6/25
Nutanix .NEXT – Chicago, IL 6/29 – 7/2
Microsoft Inspire – Las Vegas, NV 7/19-7/23
VMworld 2020 – San Francisco, CA 8/30-9/3
VMworld 2020 – Barcelona 11/9-11/2