Tanzu – Gabbs' Random Thoughts

Virtual Updates 2020-11-16

vCenter STS Certificate Expires!!!
Please….take a minute to check on this, as it could cause issues….like the vCenter Server SSO components not working due to certificate expiration.
This VM Community post covers the topic.
Check your certificates, and renew then before they expire.
VMware KB article on how to fix on vSphere 6.5 & 6.7, if running on Windows.
VMware KB article on how to fix on vSphere 6.5, 6.7, & 7.0, if using VCSA.

VMware Modern Networks
Short notice, as this event is today!
My apologies….got this note this weekend before the post…..
Get signed up for this, and take 45 minutes to (hopefully) hear all about
Declarative, Event-Driven, self-service networks.

VMware Tools is now a Separate Product
What?
Yes, you must download VMware Tools separately now.
Still validating that it shows up in vSphere 7.x LCM (or what used to be called Update Manager) without additional steps, and it still appears to.
Just add this to your list of things to complain about when speaking with VMware going forward……
VMware Blog post is here.

Virtual Updates 2020-11-02

Continuing Education
Most of us who work in IT spend quite a bit of time learning new things.
I can’t remember a year where I haven’t been learning something new.
Wanted to put together a list of good training offerings that are out there, many are free & there are some pay for sites int he list, and keep this list going every week (it’ll be at the bottom going forward).
A Cloud Guru
CodeClouds
HashiCorp Learn
KubeAcademy
Nutanix University
PluralSight
vBrownBag
VMware Hands On Labs

Virtual Updates 2020-10-19

This post is a bit light….
Spent a lot of time reviewing vSphere 7 Update 1, and updating my documentation around it. Validating upgrades, installs, and prepping for getting vSphere with Tanzu going on a vDS.
Then ESXi on ARM was released….another source of my time drain these past 2 weeks….and I haven’t even installed it yet!

vSphere 7 Update 1 Released!!!
Now that SP1 has been released….
vSphere with Tanzu (the new naming) is now available….and you DON’T need to run VMware VCF to get it. Short VMware Blog Post here highlighting how to get the eval license key….Here is a link to the getting started docs for Tanzu.
Don’t forget that you now need to be aware of vCLS (Blog Post).
…More on the vCLS from Duncan Epping on his blog.
VMware Blog post is here.
vCenter Release Notes are here.
ESXi Release Notes are here.

ESXi on ARM – VMware Fling
Flings usually get thrown in the bottom of the page each post.
This one….this is cool.
I can now take my Raspberry Pi 4 systems, and install ESXi on them.
The use cases? Quite a few. Folks have already been making vSAN Witness hosts for their 2 node vSAN clusters.
Read up on the ESXi on ARM fling, via VirtuallyGhetto, or VMware Blog.
Get to the fling easily here.
Here is the first walkthrough install post I found.

Virtual Updates 2020-10-05

vSphere Clustering Service (vCLS)
With vSphere 7 update 1, you’ll need to be aware of this.
vCLS, in short, is 3 x VMs that manage and orchestrate DRS for you.
VMware is removing the dependency on vCenter for DRS operations.
Looks like Agent VM settings need to be revisited…..
VMware Blog post is here.

Tanzu Mission Control expanding Policy based Management
It is all about security, and policy definition nowadays.
Define your polices and apply to your workloads.
VMware Blog post is here.

VMworld Announcement Summaries
My summary is short.
Lots of announcements, but very few focused on vSphere itself.
Networking, Edge, Kubernetes, ….those were the big items this year.
SASE (Secure Access, Service Edge), if you haven’t heard it yet is called out a lot.
Here is the VMworld Announcement Summary
Here is the Media Kit link covering all announcements.
Here is a summary of EUC Announcements, by Shawn Bass.

Virtual Updates 2020-07-20

VMworld Registration & Content Catalog – now live
VMware is holding 1 event this year for VMworld.
Registration is free.
There is a paid option for a couple of perks.
The content catalog (sessions list) is now available.

vSphere with Kubernetes – for evaluation?
Sure.
William Lam, a pretty good source, lays it out for us.
His recent blog post will help a lot.
Customers want to skip the NSX-T piece, and just use Calico for the networking part of the vSphere with Kubernetes deployment.
Can’t …. (Just ask William Lam).
vSphere w/K8s requires NSX-T ….

vSphere 7 Performance Best Practices
The PDF is now available!
(since May 29th…..missed it)
VMware Blog Post is here.

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 2020-04-27

VMware finally has Remote Testing!
Well, its announced, and available since 4/20 (huh huh).
VMware Blog post here.

GitHub for Teams if now free?
Yup. GitHub post about it here.
Yes, premium features still cost money, but they cut the pricing too.
Not what I expected ….

VMware Tanzu – more releases….
So Tanzu itself is not a product.
Just like vRealize is not a product…it is a set of products with a common brand
That is Tanzu…..many products under a common brand.
Tanzu Application Services has been released.
Tanzu Build Service has been released.
Tanzu Kubernetes Grid has been released.
Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition (formerly known as VMware Enterprise PKS) 1.7 is now generally available.
Read more at VMware Tanzu site.