vROPs – Gabbs' Random Thoughts

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 2020-11-02

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 2020-08-10

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 2020-07-20

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 2020-07-06

VMUG Boston – Virtual Get Together
Trying out a new platform.
Late notice, as this even is today July 6 at 4pm (sorry).
Get registered here.

Nutanix User Groups
I’ve been NUG (Nutanix User Group) Champion for the New England chapter for a few months now.
Started with plans for an in person get together, which got squashed by Covid19
In the interim, we started doing bi-weekly (every two weeks) sessions covering the Nutanix software offerings for our group.
Having discussions with users about them presenting their solutions and such now! That’s what a User Group is all about….not just the vendor’s offerings!
Can’t wait to start hosting the in person get togethers….
Join us every other Thursday until we meet up in person, and focus on networking and having fun!

VMware KubeAcademy
Been a while since I brought this up, but VMware has some free online Kubernetes web-based courses available.
Looks like the list got larger too.
Plus it has CKA exam tips.
This requires a new login (not your MyVMware login).

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.