vSphere 6.7 – Gabbs' Random Thoughts

Virtual Updates 2020-06-08

vSphere 6.7 End of Support date extended
People were unsure why VMware had vSphere 6.5 and 6.7 with the same end of support date in November 2021.
Well, now vSphere 6.7 has an end of support date of October 15, 2022.
VMware Blog post is here.

vSphere 7 – Kubernetes Pods Explained
I like Mike Foley’s ability to explain nearly anything.
His focus on security over the past years has been awesome.
Now he’s explaining how vSphere Pods work on vSphere 7.
A quick read, and you understand it.
Do you need to know the details of how to run apps in containers?
No (helps, but not required), but as a vSphere Amin (or IaaS provider now), you need to get a good understanding of what you’ll be running.

Virtual Updates 2020-01-06

vSphere – Where did the name come from?
Light reading to start off 2020…
We all use the term vSphere.
We know it refers to an infrastructure with vCenter & ESXi.
How did it come to be?
This VMware Blog post covers the story of then name vSphere.

Short Week of News
Well, the end of the year has been quiet.
This has got to be the shortest update ever.
At least the first story is fun….

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 2019-12-09

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

Virtual Update 2019-04-29

VMware EMPOWER review
This was a great event.
Meeting my peers from around the world.
Validating that the company I work for, WEI, is focusing on the right things for our customers from the VMware point of view, as well as what my peers are doing.
The NDA insights received on many things, products and vision….
Working with the leadership at VMware during the event.
Working with the VMware Education team at the event.
I really wish that all customers could see what the partners do during this VMware EMPOWER event, and how much effort goes into it.
Yes, it is a “Partner-Only” version of VMworld, but what the partners get from this event benefits our customers so much. Our recommendations to our customers, our designs, implementations, and other choices we offer to customers is heavily influenced from these types of events.
Other than the networking with peers, the best benefit of this event for us partners, is that the REAL experts are right there for us to engage with.
I wish this was an event all partners could attend every 3 months……

Conferences Coming Up
This week is DellEMC World.
Next week is both Nutanix Next & RedHat Summit
Should be quite a bit of news from those events in the next two weeks….

Virtual Update 2018-11-26

…and with AWS reInvent going on this week, I’ll be looking forward to some interesting announcements and updates…..

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!

Boston VMUG
A meeting in December! Cool (hahahaha).
OK, so get registered here.
Dec 13, 2018 from 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM, and is the final 2018 event for the Boston VMUG.

vSphere 6.7 Update 1
I have been playing with this release for over a month now, and it has treated me pretty well (minus the fact that during the first month, my Veeam based backups didn’t work without a modification to the registry).
I’ve been playing with VMware View, vSAN, vROPs, SRM, and some additional 3rd party products, all with great success.
The HTML5 is fully featured, and I have yet to find anything to complain about in its functionality.

Virtual Update 2018-10-29

VMware vSphere 6.7 Update 1 RELEASED!
So many of us have been looking forward to this release.
The full release notes are here.
A fully functional HTML5 client.
Simplified vCenter HA (not the VMware cluster HA)
Easier ways to add multiple hosts to clusters
Easier ways to configure vSAN (not that it was hard before)
Here are a few of my favorite highlights…

vCenter / ESXi Monitor Tab –> Health
This works with the VMware CEIP program.
I mentioned in my last post that CEIP recommendations will be changed to Recommended, but it is up to you. I think that this new Health section will be absolutely worth it!

GUI Certificate Management for 6.7 Update 1
This has been here since version 6.7 was released, I just happened to find it now.
Anyone like using the CLI Cert Tool? Didn’t think so.
This appears to be a full replacement for that, in the VAMI GUI.

VCSA Converge Tool.
Want to point move your vCenter from one SSO domain to another?
Finally able to do that!
Have an external PSC that is no longer needed?
Since 6.7, embedded PSC allows for linked mode.
In 6.0 & 6.5, if you wanted linked mode, your PSC needed to be external.
You’ll find this on the 6.7 U1 vCenter ISO, here:
/VCSA-Converge-CLI/

…and my favorite: A Dark Theme!

here is a list of documentation around the 6.7 Update 1 release
vCenter Release Notes
ESXi Release Notes
vSAN Release Notes