Gabbs' Random Thoughts – Page 6 – Finding a Way To Fill The Web

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.

Virtual Updates 2022-10-03

vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 – End of General Support
Why do I keep posting this?
I do not want anyone to be surprised….
Don’t forget that vSphere 6 is phasing out, and that most people should be moving to vSphere 7.
Customer buying new hardware, & asking for ESXi 6.5 installs are being met with surprises, as the hardware doesn’t support ESXi 6.5…..forcing the upgrade path.
So far, vSphere 7.0.3 Update 3f (July release) seems to be very stable.
vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 End Of General Support ends October 15, 2022
This only leaves 1.5 weeks to get to vSphere 7.
….& vSphere 8 was just recently announced & should be available next week…
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 release date – October 11 ??
VMware Blog post is here (short & sweet)….pulled the moment I linked to it…..
…did they release the post a few days early?….
Already booked a few days to read the documentation, & inject the content into the WEI vSphere Workshops!!!
Will take an extra few days to validate our upgrade documentation, as well as the new deploy documentation. We’ll be able to teach probably 2 weeks afterwards, barring any major issues.
….meaning all things I’ve discovered (below) might not make GA, but we’ll see.

Virtual Updates 2022-09-19

vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 – End of General Support
Why do I keep posting this?
I do not want anyone to be surprised….
Don’t forget that vSphere 6 is phasing out, and that most people should be moving to vSphere 7.
Customer buying new hardware, & asking for ESXi 6.5 installs are being met with surprises, as the hardware doesn’t support ESXi 6.5…..forcing the upgrade path.
So far, vSphere 7.0.3 Update 3f (July release) seems to be very stable.
vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 End Of General Support ends October 15, 2022
This only leaves 4 weeks to get to vSphere 7.
….and vSphere 8 was just announced…
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 to deprecate older CPUs.
Which Intel & AMD will not be supported with vSphere 8?
Please check your hardware, and plan accordingly to keep those systems running the supported versions of ESXi.
William Lam’s post on this is here.
Also covers some of the requirements for vCenter & ESXi 8.

Virtual Updates 2022-09-05

vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 – End of General Support
Why do I keep posting this?
I do not want anyone to be surprised….
Don’t forget that vSphere 6 is phasing out, and that most people should be moving to vSphere 7.
Customer buying new hardware, & asking for ESXi 6.5 installs are being met with surprises, as the hardware doesn’t support ESXi 6.5…..forcing the upgrade path.
So far, vSphere 7.0.3 Update 3f (July release) seems to be very stable.
vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 End Of General Support ends October 15, 2022
This only leaves 6 weeks to get to vSphere 7.
….and vSphere 8 was just announced…
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!

VMware Explore 2022
…
You can now visit the VMware Explore landing page, and get access to all the content (with a VMware login)….keynotes, sessions,
As of 9/2, 410 out of 458 sessions have been posted online.
William Lam has already published his GitHub page making searching a bit easier.
vBrownbag has all the VMTN Community Talks on its YouTube Channel.