Plain Virtualization

 If you have not been following, VMware has quietly release update 1 for both vSphere and vSAN close to 3 months after the major release of version 8 for both. Catch announcement of vSphere 8 Update 1 and vSAN 8 update 1 . Here I will consolidate some of the read up to do a fast catch up. vSphere 8 Update 1 What's New Major feature summary Ability to attached a cluster Configuration Profile. Similar like how Host Profile works, but this is at cluster level. You will need to remove Host Profile from existing host in order to use Configuration Profile. vSphere Lifecycle Manager no longer just support cluster level. Now it can also be used for single standalone host as long it is managed by vCenter Server. Mixed GPU profile support in a single cluster. Prior to vSphere 8 Update 1, each cluster must use the same GPU profile for host leveraging on GPU. This version allows a mixed setup of GPU profile type. Support for Supervisor services when using virtual distributed switch. You will ...

We heard much of Sovereign Cloud. This term is very new to many and many are also new to the term at the same time like myself. The word, "Sovereign" can means many things from different people just like when the term, "Hybrid Cloud" was introduced. Let take a look what Sovereign Cloud really meant and what it is meant to address and understand some of the things to look out for. Sovereignty come with many variable. It can be from hosting location, to the operational of things and also the owning of assets. One of the key sovereignty, is about data.  To start with, VMware release an article on data sovereignty. Do check it out to understand more.  In summary, data sovereignty dictates where the data will reside. Whether is it been transported to other places such as replication, and so forth. Should it stays within the land of a countries, if so, replication will be within data centers (AZs) within the counties instead of out. Though one may be able to achieve data...

VMware has release a security advisory on a vulnerability on VMware Carbon Black App Control. This comes with a CVSSv3 Range of 9.1. This allow an attacker to gain priviledge access of the operation system that Carbon Black App Control is running on. The fixed has been prompt and it readily available for download.  It is recommended to patch this up if you are using this product. Refer to  https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2023-0004.html  for more information.

With the introduction to vSphere + licensing, there are some beneficial in term of licensing which many might not notice. Announcement Reference Video White Paper In a nutshell, software companies are all moving to SaaS and subscription licensing basis. So VMware have also introduce vSphere+ to cater to the needs of customer and adapting to changes in the industry. As an architect, you will have to take consideration on what is needed often with the Bill of Material so a need to understand the licensing differences from perpetual license is often required. In the traditional perpetual licensing, it was licensed in per CPU/socket basis and each CPU only alllows up to 32 cores. ie. if you have a CPU that has e.g. 48 cores, that CPU will require two CPU licensing. In top of that, you will also have to license an instance of the number of vCenter Server needed in your environment with active Subscription and Support (SnS) to be eligible for upgrade and support call. With the new vSphere+ l...

A happy new year to everyone. Hopefully this year will be a great year for everyone. To start off my first blog article of the year, was to bring attention to vRealize Log Insight which need to be updated to fixed the latest vulnerability. Particularly two of which has a CVSSv3 rating of 9.8. Though there is no report of any security related incident due to this vulnerability, it is still highly recommend to patch up the tool before any happens. It is also great to see VMware been active on identifying and releasing the patch before any report of such incident actually happens. Do check out VMSA-2023-0001 to read more about it the two which has the 9.8 rating score.

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...