VMware Horizon – Gabbs' Random Thoughts

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 2020-03-30

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 2020-02-03

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.

Virtual Updates 2019-12-23

VMware Turtles
Anyone who follows VMware on any media, at some point, has probably seen a reference to the VMware Turtles.
Who are they?
Well, they are Turtles (obviously) that live in the ponds at VMware’s corporate campus in Palo Alto, CA.
This past week, VMware Blog has a post about their origins.
Nice light reading for the end of the year!

VMware Skyline Update – 12/2019
For those who don’t know about Skyline….
Free advisor for those with Production Support for vSphere.
ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED!
Already installed?
If auto-update is on, you’ll get the new features.
If not, update when you can.
VMware Blog post covers the new update.

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 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.

Virtual Update 2019-03-18

vExpert 2019
vExpert 2019 was announced just recently.
I have been a vExpert for five years.
What is vExpert? It doesn’t require a blog, but it is about someone willing to contribute the community, and share their experience with others.
Take a look at the vExpert page, see what the program is about, search the directory, or find a great catalog of bloggers

RVTool 3.11.6 released
The latest update has been posted.
Remember to Donate.
Rob de Veij spends quite a bit of time on this, and I’m sure more than once, any vSphere Admin / Architect has found this tool useful.