Virtual News – Page 22 – Gabbs' Random Thoughts

Virtual Update 2018-11-12

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!

vSphere Platinum
I already have Enterprise Plus licensing, so why would I need this?
The inclusion of AppDefense.
AppDefense focuses on whitelisting applications “normal” behavior, and helps keep a good focus on the internal security practices.

Plus, there are some cost savings….
You can get a 50% discount on the upgrade to Platinum
You can get up to 65% discount on vROPs upgrades
You can get $10,000 VMware on AWS credits.
Let me know if you need to review the details of this in detail.

…and to coincide with this, the vCloud Suite (which includes vRealize Suite and vSphere Enterprise Plus) now has a Platinum offering as well!

Virtual Update 2018-10-29

VMware vSphere 6.7 Update 1 RELEASED!
So many of us have been looking forward to this release.
The full release notes are here.
A fully functional HTML5 client.
Simplified vCenter HA (not the VMware cluster HA)
Easier ways to add multiple hosts to clusters
Easier ways to configure vSAN (not that it was hard before)
Here are a few of my favorite highlights…

vCenter / ESXi Monitor Tab –> Health
This works with the VMware CEIP program.
I mentioned in my last post that CEIP recommendations will be changed to Recommended, but it is up to you. I think that this new Health section will be absolutely worth it!

GUI Certificate Management for 6.7 Update 1
This has been here since version 6.7 was released, I just happened to find it now.
Anyone like using the CLI Cert Tool? Didn’t think so.
This appears to be a full replacement for that, in the VAMI GUI.

VCSA Converge Tool.
Want to point move your vCenter from one SSO domain to another?
Finally able to do that!
Have an external PSC that is no longer needed?
Since 6.7, embedded PSC allows for linked mode.
In 6.0 & 6.5, if you wanted linked mode, your PSC needed to be external.
You’ll find this on the 6.7 U1 vCenter ISO, here:
/VCSA-Converge-CLI/

…and my favorite: A Dark Theme!

here is a list of documentation around the 6.7 Update 1 release
vCenter Release Notes
ESXi Release Notes
vSAN Release Notes

Virtual Update 2018-10-15

VMware Hands On Labs Updated
Looks like a lot of the labs that were available at VMworld have made it to the HOL offered up all year.
vSphere 6.7, Wavefront, vSAN 6.7, VMware Pivotal Container Service & Kubernetes, Machine Learning, NFV, etc

VMware CloudHealth acquisition completed
This past week, VMware finalized the acquisition of CloudHealth, a Boston based firm.
CloudHealth is a Cloud Management Platform (CMP)They focus on automating cloud governance, consumption and costs.
Sounds like it has a direct overlap with some of the vRealize Suite (vRA, vRB, and vROPs).
Might this be a new CMP for us to learn?

vSphere With Operations Management – END OF AVAILABILITY
So VMware announced on 10/8/18 that vSOM is no longer available to customers on February 1, 2019. What happens to customers who HAVE been licensed for vSOM?
After 10/15/18, existing vSOM Enterprise Plus licenses will be split into VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus, and vROPs Standard.
This will result in higher Support & Services cost at the next renewal.

AFTER 2/1/2019, your only two options to acquire vROPs are purchasing vROPs standalone, or in the vRealize/vCloud Suite. Good news,….they are offering discounts on the upgrades.
vSphere Platinum Promotion
vROPs Promotion

ONLY for vSOM customers (as far as I know), vSphere Enterprise Plus can be upgraded to vSphere Platinum.
Platinum includes VMware AppDefense (security policy to secure applications, infrastructure, data & access). This is being offered at 50% off, and comes with $10,000 credits to use on VMware on AWS (if you are upgrading 5 or more licenses), which is enough to run 4 nodes for a few weeks.

ONLY for vSOM customers, vROPs can be upgraded to either vROPs Advanced or vRealize Suite at a 50% discount.

The third option is if you wish to upgrade vSphere Enterprise Plus AND vROPs (as described above), you would receive 50% off for vSphere Platinum and 65% off the vROPs upgrade of your choice.

Many of our customers have vSphere Enterprise Plus with Operations Management (vSOM), so WEI will be busy making sure that this conversation is had with all customers who do have this choice to make.

Virtual Update 2018-10-01

Finding TCP/IP Ports used in VMware
Not sure where I ran across thisIts a simple and effective site

VMware VMX-14 default change
Apparently, I might have been building template VMs incorrectly in vSphere 6.7, depending on use case….So I changed my process to configure a new Template VM from a BIOS to EFI setting for its Boot Options —> Firmware.This Firmware setting is the new default when building a VMX-14 based VMI did this for my Windows 2016 servers to be able to use VBS (Virtualization Based Security).Turns out, certain cloud providers can’t handle EFI…which means those VMs might not be capable of being moved to a public cloud….

Is this a problem with VMware or the Public Cloud providers (that have this issue)? In my case, I’ll stay with the VMX-14 defaults as I build my template VMs for on-premises use.

Virtual Update 2018-09-17

VMware Tools Recall & Resolution
VMware Tools 10.3.0 recalled, as it can PSOD your ESXi hosts.
Someone didn’t test this out …. At all….
This has to do with VMXNET3 drivers, which should be used for all your VMware VMs Updated on 9/12/18 is VMware Tools 10.3.2

VMware Boston VMUG UserCon
This is October 17 in Boston from 8-5Lots of great sessions.
Let your friends know.
Hands-on training, NSX introduction.
See full agenda here

Virtual Update 2018-09-03

After VMworld, this is a bit longer than normally expected, but hey….after VMworld, it SHOULD be a bit longer than normal….

Virtual Update 2018-08-20

VMworld 2018
Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay, August 26-29Its coming quickly. If you know of anyone going, PLEASE…let me know. Want to make sure that we include our customers in anything WEI does in Las Vegas.

VMware vSphere 5.5 End of General Support
September 19, 2018 is coming, and many of our customers are engaged in projects getting their infrastructures up to date.It was a good five (5) year run on this version of vSphere, but all good things must come to an end.VMware has been repeatedly stating this over the past 7 months, and here is another reference back to a February post, with links and FAQs around the topic.