vRealize Operations Manager – 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 2020-04-27

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.

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…..

Virtual Updates 2019-10-28

VMworld 2019 – Barcelona
Can’t wait to hear all the news from this next week!
With all the vRealize Suite 8 components released this past week…
I expect we can hear more about vSphere’s next release…

VMware Snapshot problems – Again!
I first came across this from a post on The Register.
Windows 2019 on vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 has quiesce issues….
This reminds me of the CBT bug from vSphere 6.0.
This VMware KB does not inspire me with confidence (recommends turning off App Quiesce OR to convert from GPT disks to MBR disks)…
I hope I’m just reading old news….

Sudo Flaw! – patch your distributions!
Found an article calling this out on thehackernews.com.
It summarizes how to use sudo without proper authorization or passwords.
It shows how to exploit it.
It states that all sudo versions prior to 1.8.28 are affected
(1.8.28 was released 10/14/2019)

Virtual Updates 2019-09-02

VMworld 2019 US
This was a great event….the most energy of many recent VMworld.
So many announcements (below) drove this.
Project Pacific, Tanzu, Kubernetes (everywhere), & security were huge.
I am so happy to have attended my 13th VMworld, and shared that experience with the WEI team, our customers, and my peers from around the world….
You’ll be hearing the: Build, Run, Manage, Connect, Protect
mantra over and over this year…..
Day 1 Recap (VMware Blog Post)
Day 2 Recap (VMware Blog Post)
Day 3 Recap (VMware Blog Post)
Day 4 Recap (VMware Blog Post)
Chris Wolf’s (VP & CTO) take on VMworld.

Tech Field Day was presenting at VMworld, and they too have uploaded a lot of their presentations.
Intro to Pacific, how Pacific was created, Pacific Architecture, Bitfusion & ML/AI, Bitfusion demo, Bitfusion & vSphere.

An amazing job, in that all the presentations are up and available for viewing. Kudos to the VMworld staff for that.
More importantly, William Lam has made it easy to find them all.
Or you can use VMware’s VMworld On-Demand Video Library to find them.

For those of us in New England, I’ll see you at the Boston VMUG 9/25.
There are 11 events scheduled right now, maybe in your town.

VMware Project Pacific
This is all about ESXi getting an architecture update for native Kubernetes support (and being able to manage via vCenter).
Kubernetes adds Harbor Registry to vSphere.
Kubernetes at an 8% speed increase over bare metal.
Looks like full SDDC support too (vSphere, vSAN, NSX) for K8s namespaces.
VMware Blog post here (which also has great links about it).
Frank Denneman chimes in here.
Cormac Hogan chimes in here.

VMware Tanzu
Above and beyond Project Pacific, Tanzu is another major announcement this year from VMworld.
Tanzu Mission Control is for managing ALL your Kubernetes (whatever cloud they happen to be running on).
VMware Blog post here.
Another VMware Blog post here.
A 1.5 minute YouTube video of Ray’s take on Tanzu and what it does.

Virtual Update 2019-04-15

VMware EMPOWER is coming
Well, VMware Empower in Atlanta is this week.
I’m sure I’ll get a peek into some NDA futures, as well as information that I can share when I update this in two weeks…..

VMware software updates!
vCenter gets to 6.7 U2
ESXi gets to 6.7 u2
vROPs gets to 7.5
vRLI gets to 4.8
vRA gets to 7.6
vRO gets to 7.6
vRB gets to 7.6
vRLCM gets to 2.1
Updates to the vSphere ROBO edition
Details below

VMware VCP-NV 2019 (Network Virtualization)
The new cert is out, and for those of you who hold an existing VCP-NV, most of you will be able to update your cert to the current rev by attending an on-demand training videos (or you can take the test).
Follow the link, and check your upgrade path.

New Intel Chips / DIMMs / 100-GbE NICs
I don’t focus on hardware much, but I saw this and it sparked some interest.
This article caught my eye.
New Intel CPUs with 56 cores each (112 if you count HT).
Optane Persistent DIMMs up to 512-GB each.
…and a 100-GbE NIC….with a heatsink? (not seen that on a NIC before).

Virtual Updates 2019-01-07

VTUG Winter Warmer 2019
I am sure people are looking forward to this event!
Thursday, January 24 2019
Gillette Stadium, 1 Patriot Place, Foxboro, MA
Register Here!B

VMware Certifications VCP-2019
VMware had announced last year that they were attempting to have VCP exams (as well as VCAP exams) released on a more predictive schedule.
Karl Childs announced that the new exams are starting to be released.
His post, and release dates are linked here.