VMware Flings – Gabbs' Random Thoughts

Virtual Updates 2021-02-08

Win a seat on SpaceX Dragon All Civilian flight!
Want to go to space, but missed out on being an astronaut? Me too.
SpaceX has partnered with others to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The mission is funded by Jared Isaacman, the founder and CEO of Shift4.
How to get a ticket in this lottery? Full details at Inspiration4.
Where I learned about it.

VMware announces Conference Dates for 2021
Not just VMworld, but also
CloudLIVE: May 12-13, 2021
VMware Carbon Black Connect: June 3, 2021
SpringOne: September 1-2, 2021
VMworld: October 5-7, 2021
VMworld China: November 2021
VMworld Japan: November 2021
For details on each of the above….check out the VMware News post.

Virtual Updates 2021-01-25

ESXi – the importance of patching & upgrading
Ransomware?….on a VMware Datastore?
This Reddit post covers a Ransomware attack that encrypted all files on VMware Datastore…..
PLEASE patch and upgrade your vSphere environments, and have some level of access controls around the management network…..

VMware Management & Adobe Flash
Did you come across an app that you didn’t upgrade by end of 2020?
Adobe Flash is now ‘disabled’ on many browsers.
How to fix it?
This post covers that topic, and links to the appropriate VMware KBs on this topic.

Virtual Updates 2020-08-24

vRealize / vCloud Suite – 50% off upgrades
Not yet running vROPs and vRealize Log Insight?
This might be a cost effective way to get them.
VMware Blog post is here.

VMware Workstation 16 & Fusion 12 announced
While not available just yet, these new versions now have…
… a free version!
Free for Personal use only, license required for Commercial use.
Paid for license? now you are licensed for 3 devices!
(you can mix & match Workstation and Fusion)
Lots of new features…like Kind support out of the box.
I’d expect we see these in September….
VMware Blog post is here.

Virtual Updates 2020-08-10

Run Kubernetes for Free – the open source way
Why post this here, when I’m all for the commercial offerings to provide a Kubernetes platform for the enterprise?
Because this 40-minute video from VMware Code goes into all the different tools and packages required to do this the open source way.
Yes, it starts with the why of Kubernetes, but it gets good quick.
….and at around the 30 minute mark, they start to focus on the Tanzu products.
After watching this, I’ll easily take the commercial offerings, and save the time in managing all the different pieces through their lifecycles and dependencies.

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

vSphere 7 DRS – Load Balancing Performance
Now available!
Noticed this post from Frank Denneman
Here is a direct link to the paper.

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 2020-03-02

Not a lot of updates this week.
VMware updates will be plenty in the next update, after the 3/10 announcement coming from VMware….

Nutanix Global Tech Summit 2020
Just got back from a week in Las Vegas for this event.
I consider myself lucky to have gone to this event, as only a handful of Partners get the invite to attend.
Passed the NCSX (Nutanix Certified Sales eXpert) in person defense.
Never thought I would stress over a sales exam….
Then all the learning and sharing. What a great week.
Really gets me excited to see the upcoming things this year will bring.
(will share as I can, when I can)

Virtual Updates 2019-12-09

HPE SAS SSD Drive Failure Imminent!
This sounds bad.
Taken right from the linked document….
Bulletin: HPE SAS Solid State Drives – Critical Firmware Upgrade Required for Certain HPE SAS Solid State Drive Models to Prevent Drive Failure at 32,768 Hours

VMware Project Pacific
I keep posting on this, but I’m just trying to stay on top of it…
Cormac Hogan did a great writeup that takes 5-10 minutes to read & comprehend the solution.
Of course, William Lam tweeted about a few VMworld sessions (2 of which were new to me) that are worth watching. You will need a VMworld account to get access to these.
HBI1452BE – Supervisor Cluster
HBI4500BE – Guest Cluster
HBI4501BE – Native Pods