Nutanix – Gabbs' Random Thoughts

Virtual Updates 2020-12-14

WEI offers COVID-19 Screening & Management Solution
I work for WEI, so I have a bias.
Love working at this company, how it takes care of its employees, its community involvement, and how it looks out for its customers.
…and then, how WEI develops solutions when none exist.
Check out the COVID-19 Screening & Management solution announcement.

VMware Horizon View Licensing Change
Right out of the linked post….
“…by transitioning Horizon to subscription licensing and announcing the end of availability of new perpetual Horizon licenses, effective May 6th, 2021.”
Perpetual license support available until 2025.
Time to revisit your Horizon licensing….
VMware EUC Blog post is here.

Virtual Updates 2020-11-30

VMware vExpert applications are open!!!
Already a vExpert? Looking to become one for the first time?
(if you are not confident and want some assistance, there ARE a group of vExperts with vExpert PRO willing to help you through the process.
All must go through the application process,
which is currently open until January 9, 2021.
vExpert Blog Post is here.

AWS re:Invent – Starts today for 3 weeks
AWS re:Invent is THIS week, online, and free.
Starting today, 2020-11-30, and running till 2020-12-18,
this event is now a 3-week long online event.
Pretty different schedule versus the one week in Vegas it has been.
Want to attend?
Register for AWS re:Invent here.

VMware Vulnerabilities – Critical
Affects ESXi, VM Workstation, & Fusion (so not vCenter?)
VMware Advisory Post 2020-0026 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 2020-05-25

VMware VCP & VCAP – Around the World
Love this annually released infographic.
VMware Blog post is here.
VCDXs Around the world? VMware Blog post from 2018 is here.

DEMO VCF with vSphere 7 & Kubernetes
This is pretty cool.
On the StorageHub part of the VMware website, you now have a click-through demo of deploying this (on VCF workload domain).
Kinda a Hands on Lab light version…
I like this, as it can show someone how simple it is to use VCF to manage a full SDDC stack, or even one that uses NFS or FC.
Good demo tool for all. 10-15 minutes for your first review.

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.

Virtual Updates 2020-03-30

VMware Wavefront – Covid-19 Dashboard
The power of VMware Wavefront put to good use in this time.
Check out the 3 x dashboards created in Wavefront monitoring Covid-19 stats.
Just remember, Wavefront can model just about anything you want.

vSphere 7 – vSphere Lifecycle Manager
Been waiting for this feature….
Imagine Update Manager not only applying patches, but also, firmware, drivers, BIOS, and other updates to your hosts?
Well, that’s vSphere Lifecycle Manager.
Desired state, compliance validation, auto-remediation (if you want it).
No more reading the Compatibly Guide (well, during updates and upgrades…still need to use that guide to select hardware.
This VMware Blog post highlights it, though it was written for vSAN….

Virtual Updates 2020-03-16

VMware GA Announcements…
There are so many good announcements, but they are broken up into quite a few sections.
If all you want is the news release summarizing everything….here you go.

Project Pacific – now becoming vSphere 7
Want to see the replay of the 3/10 announcements….
Here it is.
Frank Denneman did an amazing post this week on how Kubernetes workloads will be placed on a VMware Cluster, how DRS works with this, and how the workflow of the workload being deployed.
A great read.
A different post on The Medium goes into the technical overview.
Reading both of these articles will set you up for a much better understanding of what bringing Project Pacific to vSphere is about.
And remember…VMs can be defined too with Project Pacific…
I prefer this mind-map found on VMware’s site, which has all the new features laid out, and links to videos about those features.

VMware Tanzu
Tanzu was announced at VMworld as the Multi-Cloud Multi-Cluster Kubernetes management and deployment tool.
There is a couple of VMware HOL on this….
HOL-2032-01-CNA – VMware Tanzu Mission Control
HOL-2032-91-CNA – VMware Tanzu Mission Control Simulation
Recommend you give it a go…2 hours well invested.
A few videos I cam across that cover some of its uses….
IAM (Identity & Access Management) Control with Tanzu Mission Control
Container Registry Management with Tanzu Mission Control
Integrating AWS accounts with Tanzu Mission Control
You can see where Tanzu is going…..