Virtual News – Page 15 – Gabbs' Random Thoughts

Virtual Updates 2020-09-07

Such a quiet two weeks.
Given I focus a lot on VMware & Nutanix, and the conferences coming up…no surprise there. I expect that to change as these conferences get held this month.

Nutanix .NEXT is this week!
Nutanix .NEXT registration is also free!
Jump in, and spend Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday of this week.
(Thursday is Partner Exchange, meaning for Partners of Nutanix)

VMworld is 3 weeks away!!!
….and it is free as well!
(there is a Premier Pass, which gets you access to a few additional talks).
Get registered here.

Make SURE you have reserved a host for HA
Duncan Epping covers a topic that is important.
Ever had a vSphere HA event (losing a host) effect VM performance?
Probably your own fault.
You never changed this value to 0%
Sounds backwards, but watch this 1 minute video on how to guarantee the performance your cluster was designed for.

Virtual Updates 2020-08-24

vRealize / vCloud Suite – 50% off upgrades
Not yet running vROPs and vRealize Log Insight?
This might be a cost effective way to get them.
VMware Blog post is here.

VMware Workstation 16 & Fusion 12 announced
While not available just yet, these new versions now have…
… a free version!
Free for Personal use only, license required for Commercial use.
Paid for license? now you are licensed for 3 devices!
(you can mix & match Workstation and Fusion)
Lots of new features…like Kind support out of the box.
I’d expect we see these in September….
VMware Blog post is here.

Virtual Updates 2020-08-10

Run Kubernetes for Free – the open source way
Why post this here, when I’m all for the commercial offerings to provide a Kubernetes platform for the enterprise?
Because this 40-minute video from VMware Code goes into all the different tools and packages required to do this the open source way.
Yes, it starts with the why of Kubernetes, but it gets good quick.
….and at around the 30 minute mark, they start to focus on the Tanzu products.
After watching this, I’ll easily take the commercial offerings, and save the time in managing all the different pieces through their lifecycles and dependencies.

vSphere 7 Performance Best Practices
The PDF is now available!
(since May 29th…..missed it)
VMware Blog Post is here.

vSphere 7 DRS – Load Balancing Performance
Now available!
Noticed this post from Frank Denneman
Here is a direct link to the paper.

Virtual Updates 2020-07-20

VMworld Registration & Content Catalog – now live
VMware is holding 1 event this year for VMworld.
Registration is free.
There is a paid option for a couple of perks.
The content catalog (sessions list) is now available.

vSphere with Kubernetes – for evaluation?
Sure.
William Lam, a pretty good source, lays it out for us.
His recent blog post will help a lot.
Customers want to skip the NSX-T piece, and just use Calico for the networking part of the vSphere with Kubernetes deployment.
Can’t …. (Just ask William Lam).
vSphere w/K8s requires NSX-T ….

vSphere 7 Performance Best Practices
The PDF is now available!
(since May 29th…..missed it)
VMware Blog Post is here.

Virtual Updates 2020-07-06

VMUG Boston – Virtual Get Together
Trying out a new platform.
Late notice, as this even is today July 6 at 4pm (sorry).
Get registered here.

Nutanix User Groups
I’ve been NUG (Nutanix User Group) Champion for the New England chapter for a few months now.
Started with plans for an in person get together, which got squashed by Covid19
In the interim, we started doing bi-weekly (every two weeks) sessions covering the Nutanix software offerings for our group.
Having discussions with users about them presenting their solutions and such now! That’s what a User Group is all about….not just the vendor’s offerings!
Can’t wait to start hosting the in person get togethers….
Join us every other Thursday until we meet up in person, and focus on networking and having fun!

VMware KubeAcademy
Been a while since I brought this up, but VMware has some free online Kubernetes web-based courses available.
Looks like the list got larger too.
Plus it has CKA exam tips.
This requires a new login (not your MyVMware login).

Virtual Updates 2020-06-22

VMworld 2020 Virtual – Registration Now Live
Given that I have been to every VMworld since 2007….this is a bit of a change.
Now this event is Virtual
Now this event is FREE TO ALL WHO REGISTER!!!!
Registration opens June 23, 2020.
It will not be the same as being there, but it is now accessible to all!

Nutanix Has free NCP Exam Offer
Essentially….you can take this exam for free till 9/20/2020.
And since you can do it from home, no need to travel.
I’ll just post to the Twitter site that has the code here.

Virtual Updates 2020-06-08

vSphere 6.7 End of Support date extended
People were unsure why VMware had vSphere 6.5 and 6.7 with the same end of support date in November 2021.
Well, now vSphere 6.7 has an end of support date of October 15, 2022.
VMware Blog post is here.

vSphere 7 – Kubernetes Pods Explained
I like Mike Foley’s ability to explain nearly anything.
His focus on security over the past years has been awesome.
Now he’s explaining how vSphere Pods work on vSphere 7.
A quick read, and you understand it.
Do you need to know the details of how to run apps in containers?
No (helps, but not required), but as a vSphere Amin (or IaaS provider now), you need to get a good understanding of what you’ll be running.