Plain Virtualization

If you are not following the end of availability of the old vCenter Converter Standalone tool which only suppose up to vSphere 6.7. The new vCenter Converter Standalone is now available! At the point of writing this, the version release is 6.3.0. You can download it here . This release will support to destination vSphere 6.7U3 and 7.0.x. Many were facing issue to have a free tool to convert into vSphere 7 and now you have it.

With the release of vSphere 8 in October, 2022. Many would have asked how do you provide security configuration. Do note this is no longer named "hardening guide" since it is a configuration guide which need to be reviewed by individual organization and see if it deem fit for your requirements. The time have come and the security guide can be found here . Do note that this is an initial availability release. There might be more updates to it based on feedback, etc. so do check back for any updates. This time round, there are new PowerCLI commands that standardize on formatting. Also setting provided that can be modified for the virtual appliance such as vCenter Server. However, do handle with care else any wrong configuration can results in losing your support. Lastly, to reiterate, this is a guide and not an apply all setting runbook. You will have to review the requirements in terms of security requirements in your organization and apply those that are applicable. Do note a...

For those who are not aware, the vExpert program application submission is opening soon on 13th December 2022. The new application system today allows one to apply and edit whatever and whenever they want and submit their application when the the submission period is open. All information will be saved in the system for your application. This is really great as you can record any activity as and when you have completed them or come to mind. This year the vExpert 2023 will closed on 13th Jan, 2023. Start filling up your community contributions  here . If you do not have an account just register one. To find out more of the application criteria and the program, check out this article . If you ain't ready, no worries, you can still submit during the second half application period somewhere in middle of the years in 2023. Regardless, you can always access the system and start updating your contributions anytime and submit when you are ready during the submission period.  Be mindfu...

With VMware Explore in US, vSphere 8 and vSAN 8 are both announced. However, do note that not to get confused announcement is on the release but it's not generally available. So you cannot download them till generally available. The general available date is to be 28th Oct as stated with all the announcement for all the new infrastructure offering here . vSphere 8 To give you a technical overview of vSphere 8, do check out this site . In vSphere 8, the biggest feature that was release is the support for Distributed Services Engine also known as Data Processing Unit (DPU) or SmartNICs as a hardware or as Project Monterey which was announced 2 years ago. With the initial release, only NSX services will be offloaded to the DPU. The plan was to have vSAN and ESXIO to be part of the DPU. Which then will be able to provide NSX and vSAN services to not just vSphere environment but also to all x86 servers running Windows and Linux. To find out more, try it out on HOL . Also with this relea...

Have you recently visited the VMware certification site? I was asked on the eligibility of getting VCIX for network virtualization recently. Previously it would take some understanding to understand what is the requirement. However, upon navigating after the revamp, it much easier. Let assume someone have a VCP-NV which was few years ago. But has passed both VCAP-NV for design and deploy recently. He has not received his any of his VCAP certification badges. If you head over to VMware certification site , click on Network Virtualization on the left panel and choose either VCAP-Deploy or VCAP-Design. Let's assume the person has no prior certification or any Cisco certification. It a new candidate who have an old VCP-NV. Let's just click on no VCAP certifications on the left panel. You will see the below: You will need at least VCP-NV 2021 to consider a pass in your VCAP-NV design or deploy. Since he has a VCP-NV few years ago, he will not be granted his VCAP certification. He wi...

VMware User Group (VMUG) Singapore is honoured to start the first Special Interest Group (SIG) on Cloud Native Architecture . If you are based in Singapore, do join us on this very first event launch around the world in Singapore. Check out the event details and register for the event here . Date : 30 June 2022 06:30 PM - 09:00 PM Venue : LifeLong Learning Institute Event Hall 2-2 11 Eunos Road 8 Singapore 408601, Singapore NA SG See you there!

If you have not follow, here is an article published today at the same time of release of VMSA-2022-0014 which contain a rating for CVSSv3 between 7.8 to 9.8. This impact the use of Workspace One Access on its own in Workspace One or together with other products such as vRA, VCF, and vRSLCM. It is recommended and advised to patch this immediately.

If you are running VMware Identity Manager (vIDM) which comes from Workspace One known as Workspace One Access or in vRealize Automation (vRA), this is something you need to take note and action right now. The security advisories with a CVSSv3 rating of more than 9 is been release and it is best to update to the fixed version. Since this is used for SSO access and all many users will be leveraging this, to avoid serious impact it is best to apply the fixed at soonest. Refer to VMSA-2022-001 .

If you happen to be learning how hyper-converge works and in this case, how VMware vSAN works, this is the post for you. Thanks to my team member, Kok Cheng Aw who shared this link . It is located under the TechZone section, Learn and Evaluate . If you choose under vSAN Demonstrations , you will locate the Infographic which is a bunch of animation that illustrate every single scenario on how vSAN works, how failure scenario happens, etc. This is really cool. In the past, we were to use heavy powerpoint animation to view such things (provided someone creates it). Now if all the information in TechZone and the Infographic at hand, you are now equip to take The VMware Specialist - vSAN certification. Wish I have that in the past, that makes life way easier to study and understand the technology. Hope this helps.

VMware just release a security advisory,  VMSA-2022-0008 on VMware Carbon Black App Control with a rating for CVSSv3 of 9.1. This addresses two CVE, CVE-2022-22951 and CVE-2022-22952. Both CVEs are addressed via the release patch. As always, do apply them soonest.

Two security advisories was sent out on Tuesday 15th Feb. One affecting mainly virtualization platform such as ESXi, Workstation, Fusion and Cloud Foundation. While the other impacts NSX-V and Cloud Foundation that contain NSX-V. Both advisories contains vulnerabilities that has a CVSSv3 score of  more than 8. Except for one that is in the first advisory at time of writing. Check back to the advisories for the updated fix once available. The good news is all fixes are now available except pending for Cloud Foundation for CVE-2022-22945. Below is the security advisories which contain the respective CVE. VMSA-2022-0004 Use-after-free vulnerability in XHCI USB controller (CVE-2021-22040) - 8.4 Double-fetch vulnerability in UHCI USB controller (CVE-2021-22041) - 8.4 ESXi settingsd unauthorized access vulnerability (CVE-2021-22042) - 8.2 ESXi settingsd TOCTOU vulnerability (CVE-2021-22043) - 8.2 ESXi slow HTTP POST denial of service vulnerability (CVE-2021-22050) - 5.3 VMSA-2022-00...

The first round of application for vExpert 2022 has been announced . Congrats to all existing vExpert 2022.  For those who were vExpert 2021, you will notice, there is an one off extension to be granted vExpert 2022. I believe this is due to the COVID situation where contribution has been reduced. Do keep your community contribution going this year so as to renew for next year. To find out the list of vExpert, check out the vExpert directory .

For users who have been using Nvidia GPU for machine learning processing and huge data processing, many a times, you like to know how is the GPU card been utilize and if its is sufficient.  If you are running VMware platform you will be in luck. vRealize Operations (vROps) has just the management pack from Nvidia can help you on that. If you are using GPU on your VM and you are not using Nvidia GRID (aka Nvidia AI Enterprise - NAIE) technology but using a passthrough, you might want to explore of Nvidia GRID can meet your requirement. Only certain application required the entire GPU card that is when you use passthrough. However, if that is not the case, you might have over provision your card and might be wasting resource that can be use by other. To give you a quick explanation, Nvidia GRID was the technology that is introduced by Nvidia and supported by VMware vSphere to slice your GPU just like how you do it on CPU with partnership between the two companies. With GPU sharing, y...