Virtual Updates 2020-05-11

Best Post from VMware on vSphere 7 with Kubernetes
This comes right from Kit Kolbert, VMware’s VP & CTO of the Cloud Platform Business Unit.
There have been slightly varying messages heard by my clients, and this will be the default page I send them to.
This VMware Blog post explains how Kubernetes IS built into vSphere 7, but that to leverage its full capabilities, you need NSX, and how to get there today with VMware Cloud Foundation.

Azure VMware Solutions
Run VMware infrastructure in Azure?
Looks like its coming, as it is now in Preview….
Microsoft is flexing its muscles here with Windows & SQL Server licensing benefits (can’t fault them for that one).
My big concern here though….is support.
How is Microsoft Azure support going to compete with VMware support (not that VMware support has any advocates out there)?
Here is a Microsoft blog post on this.

VMware Official (not-official) Visio Stencils updated!
Why oh why has VMware NEVER released proper Visio stencils?
I’ve been questions VMware staff for years on this one.
Good thing the community has you covered.
Graham Barker has you covered.
His latest post has the updated VMware Visio stencils based on SDDC (which are used in VVD (VMware Validated Design) documents.

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Virtual Updates 2020-02-17

VMware Licensing Change – Per CPU and Per Core
VMware is pushing out a change on how it licenses ESXi.
We are all familiar with the per CPU Socket model that has been in existence for some time (since the release of ESXi 1.x).
Well, now they are moving to per CPU with a max of 32-cores.
While that may not impact you right now, as CPU core counts go up, this will be something you have to deal with…maybe the next year or two.
What happens when you get a 36-core CPU? you will need 2 x CPU licenses to run ESXi on that.
Why don’t they just change their licensing to strictly be per core?
I don’t know…they didn’t ask me.
I truly believe if they want to start addressing cores, then just go straight core, and forget the CPU socket count. They already have figured out how much per core licensing would cost (~$118 or so, given the cost of ESXi Enterprise Plus per CPU socket licensing). Why not just do per core then?
With a mix of CPU socket and Core Count, I can see the nightmare coming….just like the vRAM Tax fiasco of the vSphere 5.0 release.
Remember that?
Having to do different designs for each solution to figure out the most cost effective way to deliver a mix of CPU and memory and determining how many hosts in each too.
I have no problem changing the licensing from CPU Socket to core, if that’s what you want to do.
I do have a problem with keep CPU Socket licensing, and limiting the number of cores to 32 per socket. Adding unnecessary design constraints to something in this manner will be a pain….again, not today, but next year & forward. If you run the new AMD chips (with 64-cores), you now have twice the expense to run ESXi on it…..
This happens on April 2, 2020.
Read the VMware News Post here.

Intel – another CPU vulnerability
Got another one to be aware of now.
Bob Plankers put out a post about these new vulnerabilities.
Nothing for us to do yet, as Intel hasn’t shipped a code-fix, but as long as you are patching your vSphere environment, you should be covered.

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Virtual Updates 2020-02-03

Microsoft LDAP Changes…cont
This is an important one, and it was first highlighted here 2 weeks ago.
The VMware Blog post highlighting this is here.
so I’ve done some of the changes recommended…

vSphere Certificates Expiry
Short version?
VMware electronically signs software release as they come out.
Software released recently have had 2 certificates….an old and a new.
The old certificate expires 12/31/2019
The new certificate expires 6/2037
This impacts your upgrade path, and given that there is still quite a bit of vSphere 6.0 out there about to be upgraded, you may hit this snag.
This means to go from vSphere 6.0 to 6.7, you may have to do a multiple-step upgrade, even though you can infer that an inlace upgrade is supported.
VMware Blog post is here.

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Virtual Updates 2020-01-06

vSphere – Where did the name come from?
Light reading to start off 2020…
We all use the term vSphere.
We know it refers to an infrastructure with vCenter & ESXi.
How did it come to be?
This VMware Blog post covers the story of then name vSphere.

Short Week of News
Well, the end of the year has been quiet.
This has got to be the shortest update ever.
At least the first story is fun….

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Virtual Updates 2019-11-25

vSphere & Intel JCC, TAA, and MCEPSC/IFU: What You Need to Know
This post is all about CPU vulnerabilities & remediation in vSphere.
This doesn’t tell you what to do, but rather provides options for what you can do. Here this from customers often enough, that these posts are worth referring back to.

VMware Project Pacific – Beta open
Can’t wait for the release?
Get in on this beta.
The announcement of the beta program states it is limited access.
It provides a link to request access.

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Virtual Updates 2019-09-30

VMware Tools 11.0 is out!
So VMware Tools has been released separately from ESXi hosts for a while now. Still, a lot of people miss out on this information.
Well, Tools 11.0 is out, & I’m getting ready to run it in the lab this first weekend.
You can find the download here.
Release Notes are here.
Grab the offline VIB add it to Update Manager, and use Update Manager to distribute to your ESXi hosts (so VMs can be updated).

VMware vROPs – The community Reference Guide
Came across this great collection for vROPs on GitHub.
Kudos to the community putting this together.
VMworld sessions, documentation, books, training, HOLs sessions, Twitter Handles……

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Virtual Updates 2019-09-16

VMworld – more follow up
The last update was the Monday following VMworld.
Having had some time to watch some sessions, and do some research, you’ll see that some of the below topics I’ve mentioned before, but am now able to elaborate on, or provide better details / links to follow up with.

VMUG – Boston
The Boston VMUG is 9/25 (Wednesday)
It is at the Boston Westin Hotel 425 Summer St Boston, MA 02210
(this is next to the South Boston Convention Center…same as last year)
Registration is here.
Hope to see you there!

VMUG – Virtual Event
This is about Professional Development.
This is online 9/19 (sorry for the short notice).
I did not see a single technical topic (except may “How to talk to Developers”) as this is all about you & your personal growth.
Registration is here.

vBrownBag – VMworld Tech Talks
There are now posted & live on YouTube.
Here is a link to this playlist covering 67 different topics.
Sessions range from 7-30 minutes in length.

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