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.

vCenter 7.0a released
While not exactly update 1, its the first patch, ~6 week after release.
Big fix of note, is using vSphere LCM Image management AND being able to enable vSAN 7 File Services (which was not possible with GA release).
…Just waiting to have NSX-T and LCM image service interoperability now…
Release notes are here.

vSphere 7.0a released – Kubernetes Release Notes
Funny, these are called out completely separately from vSphere 7.0a
Release notes are here.

VMware vRealize Lifecycle Manager 8.1 Released
Looks like a few bug fixes.
Release Notes are here

VMware Cloud on Google Cloud
Now natively available.
VMware running on GCP.
Google News post available here.
….also supports Horizon View! post here.

VMware on AWS – 2-node cluster
Currently only in Preview….
This is another way low cost entry into this hybrid workload can be achieved.
VMware Blog post here.

vSAN Operations Guide
Just recently updated.
This direct link to the PDF covers a lot of topics.
if you run vSAN, wouldn’t hurt to review this official operations guide.

vRealize Log Insight – Index Partitions & Retention
Not that logging is sexy of fun….
But have you ever needed different retentions for different sets of logs?
Log Insight now supports this.
VMware’s Matt Bradford covers it in this VMware Blog post.

vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 – Using APD/PDL?
Duncan Epping has captured an issue with APD/PDL settings in these releases here. He even refers to a patch I have yet to see available from VMware.
If using APD/PDL, give this a read, so you don’t put yourself at risk

vSphere 7 HA – Restart Placement Changes
Duncan Epping has a nice short post about the changes to HA in vSphere 7.
DRS and HA now work together to restart VMs on appropriate hosts.

vSphere 7 DRS Score
What is the new DRS score used in DRS 2.0 workload placement?
Neils Hagoort covers that topic nicely here.
Quick, ~5 minute read.
VMware Blog post is here.

TKG 1.1 realeased
That was quick.
I’ve read somewhere that we can expect monthly updates of Tanzu (and possibly vSphere) products.
Release Notes are here.

Flings of Note
Demo Appliance for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid – run nested TKG infrastructure
VMware Linux VM Precision Time Clock Driver
VMware Machine Learning Platform – shared GPUs for ML

Windows 10 Gets Packet Capture
With the release of Windows 10 2004, pktmon.exe will be included.
(funny how Windows 10 2004 looks weird, right?)
This is a packet capture feature.
Not sure if this will be useful to folks, as most who need this functionality already have their preferred tools, but kinda cool that it’ll be there.
Found this post on this site.

Nutanix vs DellEMC PowerStore
Josh Odgers posting the first part of this comparison….
This post highlights a lot of key Nutanix points.

Nutanix Data Locality compared
Josh Odgers latest post in his comparison….
While using X-Ray tool to run simulations consistently, this one covers Data Locality. (I think this is a huge NTNX advantage).
While comparing against other products, I like how it highlights the performance and function of Nutanix AOS.

Nutanix Foundation Central
This is cool.
Nutanix has been pretty easy to stand up clusters (their Foundation tool).
Problem is, Foundation needed a VM (or a laptop) to be connected to specific networks to handle Nutanix deployments.
Now, with Foundation Central (and 5.17 Prism Central),
This blog post highlights this new feature, and some requirements.

Nutanix NCP & NCAP Practice Exams
Now available on Nutanix University.
Not only are exams 50% off right now, but training is right there in the Nutanix University site accessible from the MyNutanix Portal.

Upcoming Conferences
VMware Empower (partner only) – Virtual! 5/27
Cisco Live! – Virtual! 6/2 – 6/3
VeeamOn – Virtual! 6/17-6/18
HPE Discover – Virtual! TBD
Nutanix .NEXT – irtual! 6/29 – 7/2
Microsoft Inspire – Virtual! TBD
VMworld 2020 – Virtual! 9/28-9/31