Plain Virtualization

It came to me that many people ain't very aware that vSAN has intelligence that is not just because it is a normal hyper convergent infrastructure infra (HCI) software but it is tightly integrated with vSphere to provide that intelligent. Often many of us get confused in what way vSAN is so intelligent? vSAN does come with Object Component State and there are four states namely: Active Active - Stale Absent Degrade So let go through each of them to have a complete understanding. A good article that summarize can be found here . Active State This is the simplest. vSAN indicates this that the object is accessible with no errors and it is accessible to function as it is. Active - Stale This happens when an object not in sync which means has data that is not updated. For illustration purposes, assuming a FTT=1 with RAID 1 is in place, the object should have a replica. Both copies of replica should be in sync and a sequence number is written to ensure both are up to...

If you are not aware, there is a new tool announced during VMworld US 2019. That is the vSphere Assessment Tool (vSAT). To access the site, you can go here . The tool can be run on any endpoint that runs Windows, Linux and Mac. Upon login, you will see the screen below. Clicking on the Download, you will see the supported binary for the endpoint of choice. You will need to set a Passcode at the site so when you can upload it with the passcode. This passcode is to ensure the data is tie back to your account. Do note that your endpoint that runs the tool, must have access to your vSphere environment to collect the information to perform the assessment. You can add one or many vCenter to the assessment tool. Once completed, you can download the JSON file from the assessment tool and upload to the portal. You can check out the file, it does not contain sensitive data related to your environment but more of vSphere component versions. Feel free to open up and check it ou...

If you are not aware, vSphere 6.0 is coming to the end of general support on 12th Mar 2020. If you are still running 6.0 or below, it is a good time to quickly planned for an upgrade to at least version 6.5 or 6.7 since it got extended for a full 5 years from the day of release for vSphere 6.5 which is 15th Nov 2021. You can refer to the KB . Once the end of general support, what this means is, there will be no new patches to fix bugs. You will only get support based on what is recorded in KBs. Also things without any engineering effort. You will only receive technical guidance before the end of support. Here is a good article to understand the different support after End of Life of a product. Update 14th Mar 2020 Softwares release with vSphere 6.0 that are ending general support are as follows: Center Server 6.0 vCenter Update Manager 6.0 ESXi 6.0 Site Recovery Manager 6.0 and 6.1 vSAN 6.0, 6.1 and 6.2 vSphere Data Protection 6.0 and 6.1 vSphere Replication 6.0 and 6...

Yes, you read it correctly. The vExpert program for the year 2020 will be open next Monday, 25th Nov 2019 PST. This has been announced in the vExpert Twitter tweet . To recap for those who are applying. My experience FAQ to be qualified, show your contribution vExpert portal to create an account to apply and benefits list List of vExpert Pro around the world to help you Get ready your engine. Make your Mark! Closing date 10th Jan 2020. Update 26th Nov 2019 SGT The application has gone live.

Here is a summary that was announced during VMware VMworld 2019 Barcelona. As usual, the remind which was announced in VMworld 2019 US on VMware Tanzu hit the stage once again in Barcelona. Here are the summary of what was announced: VMware Workspace One delivers Day Zero Employee experience [ news ] Workspace one for Microsoft Endpoint Manager to manage the wide deployment of Windows 10 devices. [ news ] [ article ] Project Maestro, VMware Telco Cloud Orchestrator across 4G and 5G [ article ] [ news ] VMware new Security Solutions brings intrinsic security to the modern distributed enterprise [ news ] [ NSX Distributed IPS/IDS ] At the same time, vRealize Network Insight 5.1 was released with support for assessment for VMC on AWS and NSX SD-WAN. It also includes Application Day 2 operations performance by observing the degrading in traffic. Check out more details here .

Recently someone asked me why are they not able to open up a converted VM using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone which was migrated from Hyper-V Gen 2 VM running on their Windows 10 machine with VMware Workstation. The error they hit was something that looks like below to Device/Credential Guard issue. Do note that this does not happen on VMware Fusion on Mac OS. You will know why later. If you follow the KB , it is meant for Workstation 12 and below workaround. What if you are running something higher? Typically this happens on Windows 10 machine and if you are on a joined domain, this is likely unable to be resolved if your Group Policy turns on Device/Credential Guard. Let's understand what is this Device/Credential Guard. What this is doing is, it is running another layer of a hypervisor, in this case, Hyper-V on your Windows 10. In such, VMware workstation is unable to run any virtual machines are your machine is already been abstracted by another virtualization eng...

This year, from the success of vWarrior last year, VMware Singapore is hosting VMware Odyssey™ at #vFORUMSG Singapore. VMware Odyssey (rebrand) was held at VMworld 2019 this year and will be in VMworld Barcelona as well. If you haven't registered for vForum 2019 Singapore, which will be on 14th Nov, Friday, head over here . This is a competition among teams to showcase your technical capabilities in our Hands-on Lab environment across the VMware portfolio of solutions and win exciting prizes! There will be 4 rounds of Odyssey (Group stage, Voyagers of Venus (VoV), Semi-Finals and Finals). Voyagers of Venus (VoV) will be the bonus round and all teams that are participating (who have a female in their team) will be able to participate in that round.  The difference is that we are only allowing the females of the team to enter the tournament area, cause we want to showcase their capabilities.  The top 3 teams from the VoV round will help their team receive ti...

I see that many have asked to use some migration tool to help in migration whether from physical or from a different platform source. One of these tools that can be used is the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone. This is not just a special tool, it is a free tool. With the end of support for vSphere 5.x and also vSphere 6.0 coming soon, I have seen many trying to use this tool to move to a new version platform such as vSphere 6.5/6.7. Where this is one solution, this tool is largely used to convert a physical machine to a virtual machine or a different virtual machine from another hypervisor to a virtual machine on vSphere. By all means, you can use the converter tool to convert VM from vSphere 5.x/6.0 to vSphere 6.5/6.7, but is there a need to add that complexity? VMs that run on vSphere is already in a similar format supported. In such, there is no need to use the converter tool to do the job. Rather you can leverage on normal backup restore, or even just remove from inventory...

If you have been following what VMware has been up to by acquiring several companies and mainly related to Cloud Native Applications solutions especially days before VMworld such as Pivotal, you will know what will likely be announced. So let's go through some of the big announcements and the respective article that was released at the same time. Day 1 VMware Tanzu . Check out the two articles here: 1 , 2 . What VMware Tanzu encompass are three areas: Build, Run and Manage. Build bring together Pivotal and Bitnami to orchestrate and package blueprints. So customers who are already on Pivotal will enjoy what they are doing today with no change. This include Heptio services which bring together Contour, Velero, and Sonobuoy. Run brings your Project Pacific , where vSphere is re-architect with Kubernetes baked in. This together with NSX and vSAN to complete the whole platform for Kubernetes. Check out the video by Kit Cobet. A technical overview of it can be found here . ...

Congrats to the new vExpert 2019 second half applicants. The result has been announced here . A total of 119 new vExpert 2019. Congrats once again to those who have been accredited vExpert. Keep your community contribution going. For those who didn't make it, don't be despair. Start building that contribution and be ready for the application next year for vExpert 2020.

One of the many documents that we always refer to for vSphere is the configuration maximum. Back in the days, I still remember VCP was tested on it. Though this document is good to refer to, there are other components such as NSX, vRealize Operations, etc. that have a certain maximum that we would search high and low for it. VMware has released a site that contains all these maximums information. Though this is not complete, this will be the single source of truth when you find that documentation might not be updated. Not only do you get to see the maximum, but you can also even compare previous versions limits. It is very easy to use, Just 1) Choose a product, 2) Select the version, 3) What type of maximum, you can choose more than one, 4) To display the limits. Now head over to try it out.

You see it right. You hear it right. Its Cloud Automation Services that you will be seeing during this coming VMUG Singapore event on 17th Jul, Wed. You will not only get to see Cloud Assembly Service but also how it integrates with Code Stream and Service Broker which was announced late last year. Find out more here . With that together, how you can easily provision and automate process into multiple public clouds and even to your on-prem private cloud easily. How developers can leverage infrastructure as code and perform the whole process of CI/CD. But wait, this is not done just by anyone. You will be hearing from our Cloud Solution Strategist, Clement Wong . He has spoken at several events but recently invited as one of the speaker and panelist during GovTech Industry Briefing and StackX. On top of that, we will also have our fellow Senior Technical Trainer, Habeeb Mohammed sharing on PKS Enterprise. Find out how you can easily manage, deploy and operate your containers work...

A few days ago, the vExpert 2019 second half application . Now the vExpert Cloud Management and vExpert NSX subprograms are open. Please note this is based on your past year contribution on the two specific categories namely NSX and Cloud Management. This year Cloud Management is new into the subprogram. So head over here , and apply for the subprograms if you specialize in this area.

The application for VMware vExpert 2019 has now opened again! As usual, there will be two application period one at the beginning of the year and one in the mid of the year. For those who have missed the first time round, this is your last chance. For those who have not accepted into the program in the first application, this is your time to prove your worth into spending thoughts of your contributions to the application. The announcement can be found here . The application can be found  here . Before you can apply, you would need to create an account. The closing date is 12th Jul 2019. As usual, you can read about the three tracks, Evangelist, Partner and VMware Partner Network. As a v Expert Pro together with others, we assessed the applications together with the vExpert Program team. Please put some effort into the applications. Some common mistakes we see. We have seen simple one-liner application which there is no justification to grant anyone the credential...

With the release of vCenter 6.5, a built-in native High Availability (HA) feature was introduced. This has been a long-awaited feature since the end of availability  of vCenter Server Heartbeat since vCenter 5.x. With the release of VCHA, I came across many times people asking how can we implement it? There are a few articles from VMware that show some of the supported topologies. However, with the realize of vSphere 6.7 U2, the recommended vCenter Server deployment is with embedded PSC. In this case, we will just look at the topology that has an embedded PSC. This is welcoming since we have less component to handle and need not require a load balancer just to load balance PSC. Let us go through some of the common questions been asked. How many instances does VCHA deploy? With VCHA, you would have three instances of vCenter namely: vCenter Server  (Active), vCenter Server (Passive), vCenter Server (Witness). How many vCenter Server licenses do I need and which edit...

With the launch of VMware Cloud (VMC) on AWS in Singapore back in April 2019, there has been lots of talk and questions. VMUG Singapore will be having a session with VMware on VMC and they will be addressing all the questions if you have any. This will happens on 30th May, Thursday in VMware Singapore office. Wait no further if you are in town or in Singapore, head over here to register. It will be two heavyweight speakers for this session from VMware. See you guys there!

Little and was I made known that VMware has release a new certification for vSAN specialist. Over here , it has listed as vSAN Specialist 2019. Not much has changed from the look as it is an update from the first vSAN Specialist certification based on vSphere 6.5 to vSphere 6.7. For those who are keen, this is a testing center exam. Just make sure you understand the required knowledge from the Exam Guide and have deep understanding of vSAN. Good Luck!

It is been a pleasure to still be part of the list of Top vBlog. This year has nevertheless been ranked 230. The ranking doesn't matter much since everyone has their preference. To be part of the list is still an honor. If you like to check out the results of all the 267 blogs, head over here . Thank you once again to all my readers. I will still carry on to write more articles as when I have an idea and demand to clear the doubts people have.

VMware vExpert program is an accreditation given to an individual for their past year effort in contributing to the VMware community via multiple channels. This is a yearly accreditation and the application is open twice a year. The second application opening allows those who lack contribution to have at least 6 months more to prove themselves. I was fortunate to be appointed as a vExpert Pro with other professionals, we were tasked to assess the applications for vExpert 2019 based on past year, 2018, contribution. We have to go through thousands of applications and able to see some with great work while some fall short. This article is to provide some feedback based on my observation and hopefully, those who didn't make it can start improving your contribution when the next application comes in the middle of the year. There are three tracks and I like to mention what to expect in general first and focus on each track later. General In the application form...

Recently have received few questions regarding vSphere Enterprise edition. As announced by VMware, vSphere Enterprise edition is no longer available for purchase from 30th Jun 2016. Details can be found from this KB . As this End of Availability (EOA) from vSphere 6.0, a customer who wants to upgrade to 6.5 or 6.7 or even vSphere.Next would ask how can I proceed. If you read from the KB: "Customers choosing not to upgrade their vSphere Enterprise or vSOM Enterprise licenses to Enterprise Plus and who remain active on SnS will continue to be entitled to future minor or major releases of these Enterprise editions if they are made available per the terms of their SnS agreement." As long you are on existing SnS, you are free to upgrade. So what it means, although vSphere Enterprise Edition is no longer available for purchase, there is still vSphere Enterprise edition for vSphere 6.5 and 6.7. This is not a software limitation. However, do note this is based on terms of ...

These few days there are many discussion regarding VMware Certification changes. If you are not aware here is a summary. Over the last two years, VMware Certification policy was made mandatory to renew a VCP certification once every two years to stay relevant and failure to do so, require you to re-do the whole five days course with a foundation exam and a VCP exam. With immediate effect on 4th Feb as announced here , VMware is removing this mandatory policy. So what is relevant is up to you. You can stay up to date or not, however, you will only be allowed to upgrade to a later VCP certification not more than three versions. Taking an example, if you are currently a VCP 5.0. You will be able to upgrade to VCP 2019 (which is based on either vSphere 6.5 or vSphere 6.7). This is less than three version from 5.0, 6.0, 6.5 or 6.7. Which also means if the next VCP is based on such as 7.0, then those who are still on VCP 5.0 will not be allowed to upgrade to it. VMware Education fina...

Recently VMware announced some of the new exams and naming for 2019 here . These exams have also gone live here . There is also some confusion since some of us have taken for example VCP DCV 6.5 which is now be awarded VCP DCV 2019 if you have taken it this year. For those who have earned the VCP DCV based on 6.5 last year, 2018, you will be granted VCP DCV 6.5. However, moving forward this year, for VCP DCV either based on 6.5 or 6.7, you will be granted VCP DCV 2019 on passing.

Since the release of vSphere 6.7, the VMware certification has yet to be updated and the last VCP DCV was based on 6.5. Today VCP DCV 2019 based on 6.7 is live and available for booking. Do note that there are two available VCP DCV, one based on 6.5 and one on 6.7. whichever you take, on passing you will be granted VCP DCV 2019. This is so to help easily identify when was the last time you took that exam and a reminder to renew it before 2 years expiry. For those taking the VCP DCV 2019 based on 6.7, do check out the exam guide . Credits go to the awesome team that I have worked with in Nov 2018 to have this exam coming out live. Good Luck!

The application runs during Jun and Dec each year for two applications cycle. In case you are not notified, do sign up to be notified for the application period  here . For the application for vExpert 2019 is now  open ! So if you are a current vExpert, this year you will still need to fill in the normal form. Head over to the application here . For new applicants, you will need to put up your case to be accredited vExpert for 2019. You can read up more of the requirements from my previous  post  on my experience. If you have any questions, feel free to approach any of the vExpert Pro in your country or a place near you for questions. Head over to this site for the people. Things to take note, applications will be accepted until February 8th, 2019 PDT. The vExpert 2019  results announcement will be late Feb to early March. Good Luck!