Posts

VMSA-2024-0006 USB and Out-of-bounds write vulnerability

VMware has release important patches based on the advisory affecting all the hypervisor including ESXi and desktop hypervisor i.e. Workstation and Fusion which contain vulnerabilities that has a CVSSv3 of 7.1-9.3. Most of the listed are all USB related. Most of this might nto affect ESXi since most do not use USB controller on them but more towards the desktop hypervisors. Patches are released fro ESXi 7 and 8 and Workstation 17 and Fusion 13. And since this is a critical severity, VMware has release patches for out of support ESXi 6.5U3v and 6.7U3u for customers on extended support. This also include VCF 3.x that happens to run such version of ESXi.  I hope everyone should have upgraded as a best practice to at least ESXi 7 to avoid such issue where you are not on support and yet running critical workload. If you are still on ESXi 6.5U3v and ESXi 6.7U3u, I would assume you have extended support to tie you through. Do note that if you manage to get the patches from other source withou

Congrats to all VMware by Broadcom vExpert 2024

A big congratulation to all the vExpert accredited for year 2024 that is  announced ! This year we have a total of 1226 vExperts and you can find them here . Those who didn't make it or miss the application, fear not. The 2nd application period will be in Jun 2024. You will have time to make up if you are missing some activities to proof your worth. I am fortunate enough to be part of list. Also as a vExpert Pro helping with the application was not easy.  Having been assessing the applications with many other Pros, here are some of the do's and don'ts when applying: Don't be lazy and submit your past application details as it is. Assessment for vExpert for the year look at your past contribution to the VMware community over the last 6-12 months. If you are just submitting as it is, your activities will be unlikely be recent at all. Provide evidence of your contribution. Do not just state them. It will be impossible to verify what you say. If it is a blog please provide

End of free vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 7.x and 8.x)

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With the announcement of the end of perpetual license for VMware products moving forward, there are also other changes especially in regards to the free ESXi. As per KB on 12th Feb 2024 states, the free ESXi or free vSphere hypervisor is no longer made available. This came as a surprise to me. In fact, many of our home lab and evangelist are using the free hypervisor to learn VMware solution. With this gone, this will definitely affect the fan base and results in many to use alternative. Didn't expected this to come. But understandable that Broadcom might want to stop those who are leveraging on free hypervisor for commercial use. Which I know of some who does. I would rather they change the EULA and make it fully personal license, which mean Broadcom can actually use legal action if found anyone using it for commercial reason.  But sadly, this got to happen. At least the free ESXi has a good run.

End of VMware Perpetual License is not the End of vSphere

VMware has been trying to transit to subscription licensing for a long time which what all other software companies have already done. With Broadcom acquisition, the perpetual licensing availability is no longer available as announced  here and a KB on this. There is a good blog article that just got release to show where each product packaging is replaced with. There are just some things I like to highlight. vCenter Server is no longer available as it is no longer selling as a standalone product but it comes free as part of the new subscription licensing. Another item, vCloud Director, which will only be available to Cloud Service Provider (CSP) and not to end user which this article is addressing to. Many might say that why is VMware by Broadcom removing the perpetual licensing. Let's take a moment, it has been a long overdue move that just got accelerated. In fact, if not all, software companies such as Microsoft, Citrix, etc. are all on subscriptions and VMware has been one

Sizing VMware VCF VVF vSphere License

With the new SKU release in simplifying customer purchase, there are certain guideline in place in purchasing the different license SKU.  To help architects from partners and also end user, I have created this simple calculator for ease of sizing the license needed. Do note this is accurate at time of publishing and there might be changes. Here is the link to VMware License Calculator. Feel free to leave me any comments below. Update 13th Feb 2024 The minimum requirement for vSAN Add-on has been removed. There is no longer a 8TiB per CPU requirement as updated on KB .

New VMware Software Licensing Resources

After the acquisition of VMware by Broadcom, there has been announcement on simplifying the way VMware software licensing will work. That was a very bold step to really help customers. There maybe lots of comments over it, but if you have never been into an architecture discussion and having to also coming out a licensing strategy, you might not appreciate this change. In additional, in totality, customer will find that the cost might just be much affordable than before. Contact your VMware Account Manager to find out more. So let's go back to the present. Existing customer who might have renewal ending and would definitely need to know how much license they would need to procure. The well known William Lam, definitely not leaving VM Admin challenges. He has created a PowerCLI script to help customer pull out those needed information to help existing brownfield customers forward.  Next to help understand what are the new criteria needed to purchase the new license, this is a kb

VMware by Broadcom, A New Chapter Forward

With Broadcom acquisition of VMware completing in 22nd Nov, there have been lots of assumption made by many sources what will become of the business direction. Here are some of the updates that are publicly announced if you have not catch up on the news. To start with, VMware is now known as VMware by Broadcom and all originally VMware software will remain to be branded under VMware. The first announcement 27th November, Carbon Black is  now  an autonomous unit within Broadcom. In my opinion this is good news. I have seen not much integration on Carbon Black ever since acquired by VMware so with that move, it allows Carbon Black to innovate and do what they do best in Cyber security landscape. Next from the acquisition completion, there are many speculation on after the acquisition what will end up of End User Computing? With the  announcement  on 8th December, The End User Computing (EUC) division will be a diverse business. With that understanding, EUC division will operate on their