vRLCM – Gabbs' Random Thoughts

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 2020-05-25

VMware VCP & VCAP – Around the World
Love this annually released infographic.
VMware Blog post is here.
VCDXs Around the world? VMware Blog post from 2018 is here.

DEMO VCF with vSphere 7 & Kubernetes
This is pretty cool.
On the StorageHub part of the VMware website, you now have a click-through demo of deploying this (on VCF workload domain).
Kinda a Hands on Lab light version…
I like this, as it can show someone how simple it is to use VCF to manage a full SDDC stack, or even one that uses NFS or FC.
Good demo tool for all. 10-15 minutes for your first review.

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 2019-09-16

VMworld – more follow up
The last update was the Monday following VMworld.
Having had some time to watch some sessions, and do some research, you’ll see that some of the below topics I’ve mentioned before, but am now able to elaborate on, or provide better details / links to follow up with.

VMUG – Boston
The Boston VMUG is 9/25 (Wednesday)
It is at the Boston Westin Hotel 425 Summer St Boston, MA 02210
(this is next to the South Boston Convention Center…same as last year)
Registration is here.
Hope to see you there!

VMUG – Virtual Event
This is about Professional Development.
This is online 9/19 (sorry for the short notice).
I did not see a single technical topic (except may “How to talk to Developers”) as this is all about you & your personal growth.
Registration is here.

vBrownBag – VMworld Tech Talks
There are now posted & live on YouTube.
Here is a link to this playlist covering 67 different topics.
Sessions range from 7-30 minutes in length.

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 2019-01-21

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

Operationalizing VMware vSAN – free book
Hopefully this is still available for you all when you read this (it was available for download still the morning I posted).
This 90 pager covers considerations for staff, process, and tools to own the vSAN solution.
Also linked on that page is NSX day 2 operations.
Get them while you can!

GitHub allows free Private Repos
As well as announcing GitHub Enterprise, which combines a few existing products.
I think the move to allow free Private Repos is move I would not have expected after Microsoft purchased GitHub, but it is appreciated (I can imagine many people don’t want their projects public by default).