Skyline – Gabbs' Random Thoughts

Virtual Updates 2019-11-11

Conferences…..
VMworld 2019 Europe has wrapped up this past week.
So has MS Ignite 2019.
Lots of good announcements, some of the ones I found most exciting are below…..
AWS re:Invent 2019 is coming up in a few weeks!
A Veeam online event is next week….

VMworld -Security, Project Pacific & Project Tanzu
Was able to find some pretty good summaries of these from VMworld.
(sorry that they are embedded in Twitter, but these are all short & sweet)
Tanzu Mission Control in 82 seconds
Project Pacific in 97 seconds
NSX Intelligence in 72 seconds
NSX + AppDefense + Carbon Black in 102 seconds
Workspace ONE + Carbon Black in 132 seconds
…and of course, William Lam has already posted his VMworld 2019 EU direct playback & download URLs for all VMworld sessions

vCenter / Skyline – Upgrade Checker & Validation
Skyline had a VMware Blog post on this.
VMworld Europe sessions highlighted this within vCenter.
Software Interoperability checks to be performed in vCenter /Skyline.
Upgrades processes (when you have multiple products) & sequence provided.
To me, this means less time spent int he VMware Interoperability Matrix, and less risk in performing updates / upgrades.
Can’t wait to see that feature become reality.
Even still…..we’ll have to upgrade the old way to get to a point where these checks and validations are done for us….THEN the NEXT upgrade will be easier.

vROPs – Expiring Certificates
Saw this in my inbox this week. First I’ve heard about it….
Replace expired internal certificate in vROPs 6.3 & later
Sounds like anyone who’s deployed vROPs should check this out….
Apparently, the certificates expire on 11/19/19?
Simple check and fix in the linked VMware KB article.
This could be for things deployed as late as 8.0 (possibly)?

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……

Virtual Updates 2019-06-10

Cisco Live!
Is this week in San Diego CA. Looking forward to hearing what my team learned out there….

HPE Discover
Is next week in Las Vegas NV. I know the WEI team has some insights into some of the announcements….can’t wait to talk with folks about what is currently under NDA…..

VMware Visio Stencils – Updated
At the end of May, updates were made to the Visio Stencils used in the VVD.
Funny…18 years without any stencils, and now…updates every 2 weeks?

VTUG (Virtualization Technologies User Group) – The Last Event
I have been a member of this group for many years now, and it is sad to see this group having its last event.
I am biased, of course, as I have been involved for years….
Those of us in New England are lucky…between VTUG, VMUG, and other Virtualization User Groups in the area, we have had the opportunity to have at least 12-24 events a year where we can network with peers, and continue our learning while contributing to the community.
If you have the time, the final VTUG Summer Slam is July 18, 2019.
It would be great to see this event have the sendoff it deserves…..

Virtual Update 2019-04-01

VMware EMPOWER is coming
There are 3 events (listed at the bottom of this post) scheduled for this year.
I am lucky enough to have been named a VMware EMPOWER Ambassador.
There will only be 10 x Ambassadors for each EMPOWER event.
What does this meant???
Anyone (who is a partner) can reach out to me, and chat about this event.
Unsure of whether or not to attend? Not sure if there is value? What would be the best use of my time?
Reach out to me on Twitter @MarkGabbs and we can chat.
Plus, Ambassadors can help you get $100 off registration!

PuTTY has been updated to 0.71
This tool by Simon Tatham has been a standard for many IT pros.
Lots of bug fixes are wrapped up into this release.
I also noted that there is now a PuTTY for Windows on ARM available.
A link to the download page.

VMworld – Dates for Registration, Content Catalog, and more
Any seasoned VMworld Alumni will tell you how important it is to plan your trip to VMworld, and get on the Schedule Builder as soon as possible to lock in the sessions you want to attend.
Came across a post for all the dates related to VMworld.
Early Bird Registration – May 7
Content Catalog – June 8
US Session Builder – July 16
EU Session Builder – September 25
Since this was not a VMware official site, I’d take it with a grain of salt, but the dates look good when compared to previous years timelines.