Plain Virtualization

This is definitely one of the good news that the vSphere 7.x End of General Support (EoGS) has been extended to 2nd Oct 2025 instead of the original Apr 2025. You can find this in the lifecycle website  https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productlifecycle . Yes the website is not as good as the previously lifecycle.vmware.com as the dropdown does not work and you have to search ESXi in their search field instead. This definitely is more welcoming as many customers are running short of time to upgrade to vSphere 8 and given that new hardware are often required, there is some gap in the timing. At least now Broadcom has extend the General Support. That means we have 6 months more time to quickly plan for 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 ain't aware that in the release of vSphere 7.0, support for Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA) will be deprecated. This has been published in this KB . The existing method of AD over LDAP, OpenLDAP will still works or the new feature in 7.0, AD Federated Identity (AD FS). Check out this article . To be honest, I would recommend to use AD FS if you are using a windows environment since this will prevent vSphere from talking directly to AD. Which in a way much safer and its a session based on the token method via OAUTH2 and OIDC protocol than to have user name and password been exposed. You can refer to the documentation on how to setup AD FS for vCenter Server here and also check out this TAM LAB video . With the support of AD FS, this will allow MFA to be implemented. However, this is still limited as due to the number of support on AD FS.

VMware has released a new exam, VMware Certified Specialist - vSphere with Tanzu. This is a badge exam and specific to vSphere with Tanzu which is new name for vSphere with Kubernetes. To earn the digital badge, would require you to pass not just the exam. But also, the VMware vSphere with Tanzu: Deploy and Manage [V7] course whether in classroom or on demand and in additional, passed at least VCP-DCV 2020. Check out here for more details.

Without any announcement made, the VCAP-DCV Deploy 2021 based on vSphere 7 is now available! It available for booking now. If you are interested in the VCAP-DCV Design 2021 based on vSphere 7, it is available at the same time here . If you head over to VMware VCAP-DCV Deploy  exam, you will see you are given two options based on vSphere 6.7 or vSphere 7. Not sure how long the vSphere 6.7 exam will last but at least the vSphere 7 now made available. You can refer to the exam guide here to understand what the questions are testing you on with the resources provided. I am glad to be part of the team to develop this exam. And this is not an easy effort to burn off many midnight oils for conference meeting since I am only one based out in APJ. It was a wonderful experience to have work with members in the team to develop this exam and getting our hands dirty to also test out validating the exam. All thanks to these folks and not forgetting the exam project manager,  Lourdes Soler ...

With the release of vSphere 7, there are many feature that has been announced. However, there is one feature new in vSphere 7 that wasn't heavily marketed. That is Clustered VMDK. So what is Clustered VMDK? Basically it is a VMDK shared by clustering solution on a VMFS volume. In the past, this was not possible especially in cluster requirement such as Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) or Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC). The reason that this is possible is because of the support for SCSI-3 Persistent Reservation for VMDK. With this, you can fully reduce the need of Raw Device Mapping (RDM). Of course this is not just a vSphere 7 feature. It requires the below and many is similar to a RDM LUN: Your array must support ATS, SCSI-3 PR type Write Exclusive-All Registrant (WEAR). Only supported with arrays using Fibre Channel (FC) for connectivity. Only VMFS6 datastores. Storage devices must be claimed by NMP. ESXi does not support third-party plug-ins (MPPs) in clustere...

Not going in-depth of new features but some overview so that everyone gets a quick glimpse and here is the link to VMware Blogs . Will update this article (if any) with links when it becomes available. vSphere 7.0 Overview . vCenter Server Simplified SSO Topology vCenter Server upgrade for customers with external PSC will enjoy the consolidated topology through this upgrade. embedded PSC will be the only topology moving forward. External PSC topology will be deprecated. vCenter Server Profiles ( link ) Just like how Host Profiles works. You can now compare and export the settings in JSON format as a backup or apply them to a new vCenter via REST API vCenter Multi-Homing ( link ) up to 4 vNIC where vNIC 1 is reserved for vCHA Maximum limit increased refer to  configmax.vmware.com Content Library There is a new view which you can enable. To help in managing templates, there is Check In/Out function to control versioning and revert to the previous version C...