MarkGabbs – Page 12 – Gabbs' Random Thoughts

Virtual Updates 2021-09-06

ESXi using SD/USB for Boot Volume
In vSphere 7.0, there have been some issues with SD/USB boot drives getting corrupted. Read from certain blogs, that the latest update 2c would resolve this.
Now, hearing that this is deprecated in future releases….
Differing opinions on whether this is good or bad.
Opinions do not matter though, as this VMware KB 85615 states:
(post has been removed)
Another peer, Christian Mohn had a post about this as well.
Well, I guess I’ll keep with the recommendations I’ve been making since 7.0 was released….transition your boot drives to SSD or NVMe is you need your ESXi hosts to run 7.x, or leave them at 6.7 till hardware refresh is possible.

VMworld 2022 – announced
VMworld has been virtual in 2020 and 2021 (for obvious reasons).
On the current main page of VMworld, under the General section….
It shows the dates for VMworld 2022 US in San Francisco.
It shows the dates for VMworld 2022 Europe Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, Spain.

Virtual Updates 2021-08-23

It’s been a bit quite this past week…
With lots of my focus on Nutanix & VMware, and their annual conferences coming up soon….news is s little bit light…
End of September and mid-October posts will be right after the conferences, so I expect that at that time, lots of interesting things to chat about…

vCenter 7.x – Integrating Identity Provider for MFA
Security has taken a more prominent place in our day to day.
Especially when running/managing an infrastructure.
Since vSphere 7.x has a few options (only a few) for MFA, WEI has been helping quite a few of our customers move towards this extra layer of AAA (Authentication, authorization, access) into vSphere environments.
Take a look at the options, and realize it is NOT as hard as it could be to do this.
Understanding 2-Factor Authentication from VMware vSphere Docs.
vCenter Server Identity Provider docs from VMware vSphere Docs.
vSphere Authentication Guide from Aug 2020
Blog post by Vladan Segeton 4sysops.com on the overall process of adding ADFS with to your vCenter Identity Provider.

Virtual Updates 2021-08-09

VMware VMworld Content Catalog is online
Get registered for VMworld 2021, and get your schedules built.
Yes, remote again this year….
Content Catalog is available here.

Nutanix .Next Content Catalog is online
Get registered for .Next 2021, and get your schedules built.
Yes, remote again this year….
Session recommendations from Angelo Luciani

CPU Pinning is NOT a guarantee to a CPU
Man, 20+ years of this conversation….
Frank Denneman has a few credentials that make him one of THE experts on this topic, and if you don’t believe me, well….his post revisiting this topic is here, and is among the simplest explanation of why this is a bad thing.

Virtual Updates 2021-07-26

VDI Design Guide Part II – released!
Currently only in paperback….
Johan van Amersfoort has released Part 2 of his amazing book, the VDI Design Guide. Just released, it’s already on the way to my house for Sumer reading list.
Johan’s page, announcing the release.
Link to the book on Amazon

Containers in the Cloud – what are your options?
came across this post, and thought I would share.
Not everyone is familiar with all the options out there, and this post covers AWS, Azure, and GCP offerings as well as hybrid options.
That being said…. orchestration of all these workloads, security, and access need something to make life easier, regardless of where the workloads run…
That is what VMware Tanzu (specifically Tanzu Mission Control) is about.

Virtual Updates 2021-07-12

iSCSI IQN change during upgrade
So Duncan Epping posted this in his blog.
He specially states that the upgrade from 7.0-update1 to 7.0-update2 is where the issue was found.
Check out his blog post if you use iSCSI!!!!

HPE acquires Zerto
In case you missed this during the days before 4th of July…
I can see this continuing to be a product folks use, even if they are not HPE customers today.
HPE Press Release is here.
Zerto Blog post is here.

Virtual Updates 2021-06-28

New VDI Design Guide Vol 2 available for free download
Johan van Amersfoort is someone I get to speak to once in a while, and is responsible for lots of cool EUC solutions, but most notably, the VDI Design Guide.
He has just completed the update to this book, and is offering it up for free download! Print versions coming in the next month or two.
Check out his post here, and follow the link to register for the download.

VMworld 2021 Registration is open
Another year of the virtual conference…
Maybe 2022 will be back in person.
This event is Oct 5 – Oct 7.
Get registered here….

Nutanix .Next 2021 Registration is open
Another year of the virtual conference…
Maybe 2022 will be back in person.
This event is Sept 20 – Sept 23.
Get registered here…

Virtual Updates 2021-06-14

ESXi & SD/USB installations
Continuing on from the post on 2021-05-31….
more info about this potential issue from Christian Mohn, and the justification for migration to internal NVMe drives for the boot drive….
I’m not one to support workarounds for production, but if you DID update to 7.x and need the workaround until your replace your boot drives, this could help.

VMworld 2021 – what content to expect
A revival of customer presentations getting priority?
Registration opens for VMworld, June 15th, 2021.
VMware Blog post is here.