MarkGabbs – Gabbs' Random Thoughts

Virtual Updates 2023-01-23

ESXi TPM Encryption Recovery Keys – Backup via PowerCLI
Deploying ESXi 7.x or 8.x hosts that have TPM 2.0 devices?
MIGHT want to take a look at this PowerCLI script to backup those keys…
Grab that script, and give it a go (be sure to add an Export-CSV command to the end of it).
Post by Steven Bright is here.

ESXi Server Hardening
Security is coming to the forefront of most designs nowadays.
The official Securing ESXi Hosts (vSphere 8.0 Docs) is a short 462 page read, as of the December 2022 update.
While many things are called out in the vSphere Hardening Guide, never hurts to view the documentation along with it (and grab a PDF copy for a point in time reference) to document your decisions.

Virtual Updates 2023-01-09

VMware End of Support – this year’s countdown
While the official Product Lifecycle Matrix (vmware.com) is still here,
I love when others post it with a countdown on it.
vCenter 7 has 814 days left of support (April 2 2025).
Horizon 7 in April this year
SRM 8.5 in April this year.
vRA 8.8.1 in June this year.
Lots of other software listed here….
Time to plan your updates for this year, team!

VMware Explore 2023 US
Las Vegas, NV
Venetian Hotel
Aug 21-24
Here’s the link.

Virtual Updates 2022-12-26

vSphere 7 End of support
Didn’t we just have this conversation about vSphere 6?
Just doing some digging, and found that vSphere 7 end of support date is:
April 2, 2025.
2 years, 3 months folks!

VMware Explore (VMworld) no longer in San Francisco
Well, I am sure a lot of people will be happy this will no longer be in SFO.
Las Vegas is the probable location, which means Mandalay Bay is also probable.
Found this BizJournals article noting this.

Virtual Updates 2022-12-12

Broadcom Open Letter to VMUG Community
4 page press release, 2 pages which are disclaimers.
Still, Broadcom pledges that the VMUG community created by VMware Users will be important to them after the acquisition finishes…
Direct link to the PDF is here.

Not sure about DPUs (SmartNICs)?
This short article is well written, and it keeps it simple.
What impact does a DPU have on your vSphere infrastructure?
Note the reduction in CPU utilization comments…
Remember, DPUs need vSphere 8….
Plus, there is an NVIDIA lab linked here.

Virtual Updates 2022-11-28

So, I took a week off from doing updates, so yes, 2022-11-14 is missing.
Was a busy few weeks….

VMware Explore Europe 2022
There were a lot of similar announcements to VMware Explore US.
There were some additional announcements.
Found a nice summary blog post here….not a short read.

Virtual Updates 2022-10-31

vSphere 8 – HCL is limited to newer servers
Danny Alvarez posted something this past week regarding his findings on what server vendor hardware is supported for vSphere 8.
His list covers a majority of my VMware customers….
and he calls out that the following models are supported for vSphere 8:
Cisco -M5
Dell – Gen14
HPE – Gen10
Nutanix – G7
Check out the VMware HCL for servers here, and plan accordingly!!!!
….and remember…you vCenter can be 8.x, and your ESXi hosts can be 7.x.

Virtual Updates 2022-10-17

vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 – End of General Support
It’s the last time I’m posting this….
vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 End Of General Support ended October 15, 2022
We are all at vSphere 7, right?
….& vSphere 8 was just recently announced & should be available next week…
can upgrade from 6.7 or 7.0….
VMware End of Support pages are here.
Don’t forget that SD cards are no longer recommended by VMware!
That means you need SSD or NVMe for boot drives now!

vSphere 8 Released!
Cool. on schedule, October 11, 2022.
Done all the documentation around upgrades from vSphere 7.0 & vSphere 6.7 (the only supported upgrades).
Done all the documentation around new deployments & upgrades (all went well with multiple upgrades and new deployments).
Looking good.
Still need all the other upstream/downstream dependencies in line before doing any of my prod environments.
Can manage ESXi 6.7, 7.0, and 8.0 hosts.
Now…off to read the 3,585 pages of documentation for vSphere 8.0.
vSphere 8.0 Release Notes are here.
vSAN 8.0 Release Notes are here.
vSphere with Tanzu 8.0 Release notes are here.